milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Max is curled up in a booth, sipping coffee and flipping idly through a book. This is not unusual. The skirt and sweater she is wearing are. Everyone needs a bit of a change sometimes.

Come bother the X5. She won't bite.

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" . . . gods?"

Nynaeve looks, not skeptical, but stunned. For a moment, at least.

"I see. And your feelings on the matter?"

"About the gods, or about the door's tendancy to kidnap people?"

It'd be a valid question either way, really.

Nynaeve opens her mouth, pauses, and snaps it shut again.

There is silence.

"Both, I think."

"The idea of walking amongst gods has always unnerved me a little. Especially since you can't always pick them out from the other patrons, if they're inclined to be subtle."

A moment's pause.

"As for the other, it can be good for some people, sometimes. But at the same time, I think holding people against their will, unless it's absolutely necessary, is fundamentally wrong."

"I--well I certainly hope I haven't met any yet."

She snorts and shakes her head sharply.

"As for the last, I quite agree with you. The trouble is with 'necessary'. Sometimes it's very difficult to tell."

"Don't worry, most of them don't bother with subtlety..." This clearly bewilders her, a little.

"Yes. It is."

Nynaeve's sigh also manages to be sharp.

"It's almost a relief to get better at discernment with age."

She nods firmly.

"Subtlety in creatures with power is . . . worrisome."

"I suppose it might be. But knowing that half of them will cheerfully nuke you if you say the wrong thing isn't all that comforting, either."

"Nuke?"

Hello new terminology.

She smiles a bit apologetically. "Slang developed from a sort of weapons technology in my world. Means obliterate, effectively."

Nynaeve pales.

She makes a decent effort at rallying, though.

"Ah. Wisest to be wary, then. I will remember."

Max smiles sympathetically. She'd been tempted to hole up in her room for a week after finding out that gods were real here, and what they could do.

"Generally a good idea..."

Nynaeve laughs.

It doesn't last long, not at all, but it's there.

"I have often found it so. Which is one among many causes of irritation."

"It does get a bit wearing, after a while," Max agrees.

"Can you leave?"

Nynaeve hesitates a bit before asking this question.

"I--I cannot quite imagine it, myself. Being trapped here, I mean."

Not being trapped in general. That, unfortunately, has happened before.

Max nods slightly. "Now. I couldn't, when I first arrived here."

It's never easy. A prison, no matter how comfortable it might be, always becomes unbearable after a time.

Nynaeve's expression tightens.

"I am sorry for that. Capture is never pleasant."

"Ah, well, considering the situation..." She traces an old watermark on the table with her fingertips, staring off into space for a moment. "I was dying, at the time. Dead, actually, if you want to be technically correct, though only for a few minutes. And unconscious for a long time afterwords. When I was able to leave, I awakened."

She smiles faintly. "I hated being trapped at the time, but afterwards, I was grateful for having been here."

Nynaeve looks startled.

"They Heal death, here? I--had not expected that."

"No. Well, not that I know of." She smiles faintly. "In my world, there are ways of reviving someone who is technically dead, so long as they weren't too badly damaged, and haven't been dead for very long."

Nynaeve when speaking of healing is like unto a dog with a bone.

"How difficult are they to replicate?"

"Well, the more advanced techniques require the proper equipment - you'd either need to have a similar level of technology to my world, or find a way to achieve the same effects using another source." She grins slightly. "The simpler techniques are...well, simple. Which also makes them less useful in more extreme cases, of course."

"Hmm. Another source? Would saidar count, I wonder?"

That sounds a lot less like a question than it might otherwise be.

She smiles, just a fraction.

"Simple has its place, after all. There are times when herbs and poultices are more useful than straight Healing."

Max has no idea. In fact, she has no idea what saidar is. So she says nothing on that.

"Oh, I'm not knocking simple. It's generally a good starting point, even if you are going to go complicated."

"Wise."

She might mutter 'I could wish others were so adaptable'.

Bloody Aes Sedai.

"You might be amazed at how many people have trouble grasping that."

There is a faint pause.

"Is--would the infirmary be a good place to learn such techniques?"