//------------------------------//
// Night 44, fragment three: For walls to be lurked 
// Story: A mare and her dog 
// by cammera 
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Souls are, from a utilitarian point of view, rubber-like surfaces.

First, after being hit they eventually return to their correct shape. The fact that the time needed may go far beyond a normal lifetime is another mater altogether.

Second, things -emotions, ideas, memories- bounce off them. Normally these are too weak and only bounce back a few fractions of a second, but some especially strong ones can go back a few hours, even days, and be useful bits of premonition.

-Radagast's compendium of soulcraftery, introduction.




-º-




Nanda turned in her bed, and then again, and again, and again.

She grunted in frustration -Another sleepless night, another tired morning- at what had been going on for decades now.

Sometimes, she wished she had accepted that one demon's deal of not needing to sleep in exchange for a mysterious favor in the future, and even considered drawing the correct circle to resummon it. This night, she sighed and jumped from the baroque bed to the baroque carpet, walked to the baroque window, opened it, and took a look at the city from the baroque balcony.

"Insomnia?" she was asked after a few minutes of it.

Nanda nodded weakly, yawning.

"I could use an hypersomniac spell. I am pretty sure you know those, too"

"Yes, but-" she yawned "You don't really rest with those" she spared a glance upward, where Twilight sat in the wall against conventional gravity, her eyes closed and shining faintly "Scrying at your friend?"

"Yeah"

"Ah. Did you know her magic is a freakshow?" she asked casually.

"That's... a private matter. One that I'd appreciate you never mentioning to anyone else"

Nanda made a gesture of zipping her mouth, then grunted affirmatively when she remembered the closed eyes.

"And is it related to you?"

"It is related to private things"

"Ah" she nodded "The princess' private things, or Twilight's private things?"

"Mine and the girls'. And I'd like you to stop the questioning me after I got you a nice hotel room" she grunted.

There was a moment of silence.

"Have I ever told you why I hate immortals, kid?" asked Nanda.

"There is a good chance that both of us are immortal," Nanda grunted in distaste at the idea "But how is that relevant now?"

"I didn't mean you, its just me being-" Nanda yawned "that. This city always makes me think of mortality. We still feel echoes of whoever made it"

""We" arcanists, immortals, or soulcrafters?"

"Necromancers" corrected Nanda automatically "Whoever did it had very... very blurry souls, practically escaping from their bodies. Maybe that's what killed 'em"

"Being so big and having a wild metabolism sounds more probable"

"Or both"

-eft-

"Did you say something?" she asked Twilight.

"No, but your magic did spike a bit"

She was grunting in response when an idea occurred to her, "Oh damn it"

"What?"

"Premonition. Hate the things. Half the time they aren't for my me"

"You mean the tree-worlds theory kind of premonitions? sounds unlikely"

"Not in the mood, kid. Haven't had a good premonition in sixty years, always some killing threat" she said with more annoyance than anything else.

There was a moment of silence.

"And is it?" asked Twilight cautiously.

"I only got a flutter, can't say yet" she yawned "If it is important I'll tell you"

"Tha- oh. They got there, I'll have to keep a tighter eye on them"

"And I'll go back to try to sleep. You keep creeping in the walls" she entered the baroque room again and, not holding any hopes, threw herself to the baroque bed.