That... that is why perhaps I ask you especially. I have... I have been afraid so long, and it is... it has made me this way. But it... it tires me, to be so... so fearful of my own voice, my own presence.
[ There are many reasons for it, but does it matter? Here she is, regardless. ]
Not only that no one else seems to take me seriously, but that I cannot seem to take myself so. How is that you... you stare others so frankly in the eye, and say as you mean so plainly?
The way it was explained to me once is that holding onto a great deal of power is not unlike attempting to capture lightning in a bottle. It's challenging, and it requires significant effort, and even the slightest mistake can be costly. But you have to attempt it with confidence, because uncertainty is the fastest way to hurt yourself or worse.
[ funny, she thinks, that she's equipping this metaphor now; somewhere, she can almost picture tissaia nodding approvingly. ]
Some of it comes with time. I've had more of it than others might guess by looking at me.
They are, yes. From what I understood of what Sweeney showed me, he is some... five or six thousand years old? It is not my lands so I do not strictly understand how they mark that time, but he would be ancient, even to my understanding. John, from what Ianthe has told me, is as old as that, if not more so? Though I know them to be quite different in some key ways...
[ PAUSE.
She had not considered Yennefer, before, but - well she is incredibly powerful, and even if all her plans had gone terribly before... she had not given up? ]
Tell me, Lady Yennefer, have you ever worked to transfer power from one being into another?
Different sources of power, at the very least. Though I only have more familiarity with one of them. The other is little known to me beyond simply "god."
In my sphere, yes. I've used my power to strengthen another's, but chaos in and of itself is about taking a source from one thing and channeling it into another, all while maintaining a level of balance.
Most do not, I suspect. He understates it, I think because of how he has changed so much, he never even told me anything at all to begin with. Have you felt how he... he pulls, on the senses? That... rawness at times? Open. It feels like... like a grass field, after spring rain.
He is no lesser Spirit, as he often says, nor mortal born, turned to greater power to let him live so long.
When he was made those six thousand years ago, when in this place... earth? That they call it? When mankind was young, just beginning. He was a God, a King of them, in fact. He was the Sun, the Hills, the wheat and it's harvest and all manner of Golden things, as well as Gold itself.
There is a great deal more, of course, but that is simplest, and most of what his memory recalls after so long.
But since then, his people have forgotten him, he has been whittled away, and those gifts lost to him.
[ it's more to take in β more than what yennefer herself has an understanding of, to be sure, but that only means she sits in quiet contemplation as gilia speaks, letting the other woman's words sink in.
still, she can't ignore their impact β or what they bring to mind, especially given her own entanglements with him. that power that had drawn on her from the beginning, even amidst the confusing memories that gave them a family, the ones that were revealed to have been a cruel product of the void.
she's not convinced that it would be as simple as letting her interfere with his power, but that doesn't mean she won't ask more questions. ]
The gifts you speak of... are they here, in this realm? Simply unavailable for him to repossess? Or are they unique to his world alone?
I am unsure. Some I think might have been... tied to the land he was from, and now being gone from it...
[ She wets her lips slowly. ]
Others I have noticed... he can take a wound, and then be well of it, only a but a day later. [ A hum. ] Certainly his strength... and I've noticed he is very quick and clever with his hands to fine skills, even when I know men of his height often find them tedious.
... It made me think that... that some of it is still there, but that it has become... dormant. Either by time and by seperation. It greaves him, much, though he does not say it like that. I cannot imagine it, to be once something so strong, and laid so low by things so beyond yourself.
Depending on its origins, some of it... may be irretrievable, from where we are. Especially while none of us is easily able to return to our respective spheres.
[ and it seems important for her to stress that point, so that gilia doesn't get her hopes up about the possibility of success. ]
And whatever skills we have that make us more equipped to discover a way home β [ like yennefer's own portals, for instance. ] β may have been intentionally blocked. It could be that the same holds true for the full breadth of power Sweeney would naturally possess. That this place, which is keeping many of our abilities in check, has had a similar effect on him.
It's possible, then, that this is where chaos may be able to accomplish the rest.
[ so much of her power is derived from transference, from drawing on what can be accessed through the elements and then utilizing it for a certain purpose, all while maintaining that balance. ]
But I wouldn't know for certain if I could succeed without connecting with the power myself.
I asked Doctor Strange and Lady Maximoff as well, I believe that between my raw... power, and your transference and their.... ability to manipulate reality and anchoring it - we might have the best chance of success.
[ Even if this is dangerous, and if this is reckless and - ]
I know it is dangerous. Especially here, with the land so.... so sick.
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[ There are many reasons for it, but does it matter? Here she is, regardless. ]
Not only that no one else seems to take me seriously, but that I cannot seem to take myself so. How is that you... you stare others so frankly in the eye, and say as you mean so plainly?
[ How does she do that? ]
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[ funny, she thinks, that she's equipping this metaphor now; somewhere, she can almost picture tissaia nodding approvingly. ]
Some of it comes with time. I've had more of it than others might guess by looking at me.
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[ She rubs at her brow with thought, thinking it over, what that might be. ]
How old are you, should that not be too bold of me to ask?
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I'll admit, I stopped counting after the eighth decade or so. It all runs together a bit beyond that.
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But Spirits, yes, who might not be so grand as my families patron, but they have lived many centuries, some as old as the hills, even.
They say much the same. That it becomes not so important to count one decade or another.
Oh, and Sweeney, of course.
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[ PAUSE.
She had not considered Yennefer, before, but - well she is incredibly powerful, and even if all her plans had gone terribly before... she had not given up? ]
Tell me, Lady Yennefer, have you ever worked to transfer power from one being into another?
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In my sphere, yes. I've used my power to strengthen another's, but chaos in and of itself is about taking a source from one thing and channeling it into another, all while maintaining a level of balance.
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Or would the conduit need to be always present for that?
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Would you be willing to try it? To do tests, first, at least.
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... Sweeney. Specifically, that he is not as he should be. Much... much has been taken from him.
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it changes things. namely, her willingness to even so much as attempt it. ]
Where is it now? What he lacks?
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Has he told you what he is - what he truly is?
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He is no lesser Spirit, as he often says, nor mortal born, turned to greater power to let him live so long.
When he was made those six thousand years ago, when in this place... earth? That they call it? When mankind was young, just beginning. He was a God, a King of them, in fact. He was the Sun, the Hills, the wheat and it's harvest and all manner of Golden things, as well as Gold itself.
There is a great deal more, of course, but that is simplest, and most of what his memory recalls after so long.
But since then, his people have forgotten him, he has been whittled away, and those gifts lost to him.
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still, she can't ignore their impact β or what they bring to mind, especially given her own entanglements with him. that power that had drawn on her from the beginning, even amidst the confusing memories that gave them a family, the ones that were revealed to have been a cruel product of the void.
she's not convinced that it would be as simple as letting her interfere with his power, but that doesn't mean she won't ask more questions. ]
The gifts you speak of... are they here, in this realm? Simply unavailable for him to repossess? Or are they unique to his world alone?
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[ She wets her lips slowly. ]
Others I have noticed... he can take a wound, and then be well of it, only a but a day later. [ A hum. ] Certainly his strength... and I've noticed he is very quick and clever with his hands to fine skills, even when I know men of his height often find them tedious.
... It made me think that... that some of it is still there, but that it has become... dormant. Either by time and by seperation. It greaves him, much, though he does not say it like that. I cannot imagine it, to be once something so strong, and laid so low by things so beyond yourself.
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[ and it seems important for her to stress that point, so that gilia doesn't get her hopes up about the possibility of success. ]
And whatever skills we have that make us more equipped to discover a way home β [ like yennefer's own portals, for instance. ] β may have been intentionally blocked. It could be that the same holds true for the full breadth of power Sweeney would naturally possess. That this place, which is keeping many of our abilities in check, has had a similar effect on him.
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[ Probably a good thing, proooobably. ]
He is tied to nature, there is that especially - and that is where I think... I think I might be able to help.
But I could not do it myself, I can draw forth the power, my holy-father, is amongst other things, a force of creation, of life itself,
Only... to gift and mould it to another... is not something I can do myself.
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[ so much of her power is derived from transference, from drawing on what can be accessed through the elements and then utilizing it for a certain purpose, all while maintaining that balance. ]
But I wouldn't know for certain if I could succeed without connecting with the power myself.
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[ Even if this is dangerous, and if this is reckless and - ]
I know it is dangerous. Especially here, with the land so.... so sick.
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