Sworded Affair

Emma didn't get far on her search for a surprise. Part of that was intentional, as she didn't want to go too far away, lest she miss dinner over a mere hunch. Wandering aimlessly past rows of tents, she saw plenty of servants of the move, transporting everything from caviar already loaded onto silver spoons, to more conventional supplies like pallets of beer and toilet paper. Far more scarce were the actual attendees of the festival, most of which were probably still sleeping off the previous night of entertainment, never mind that it was already the afternoon.

[If anything, it's a return to form for the noble classes. Rising and setting with the Sun only mattered for labourers in the fields or industry, who needed the light to guide their day. Most of the elite either earned passive income through land or other services, allowing them the luxury of a far more flexible schedule. Revels until sunrise followed by sleeping the day away were hardly uncommon; they could afford the candles and lamps.]

"Guess we struck out on the random encounter table," Emma eventually conceded, after a good half an hour of doing concentric circles around the family tent, getting nothing but curious glances from the staff for her trouble. "Can't be lucky every time."

In practicable fashion, it was only when she arrived back where she began that the surprise presented itself.

"Please tell me I didn't walk past that on the way out."

[Don't worry, that's new. Well, maybe worry about the parcel, but your spatial awareness is fine.]

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The parcel in question was a masterclass of the mundane; a misshapen mass wrapped in packing paper and what looked like an entire tube of brown tape. It was the kind of parcel delivered by the dozen in a better age, containing anything from clothes to pharmaceuticals. Not long ago, Emma would have brought it inside and opened it up without a care in the world. One apocalypse later, she was a lot more suspicious of its contents; while she couldn't entirely rule it out, Emma was reasonably certain that the likes of Royal Mail, UPS and FedEx were no longer in operation.

"Someone is messing with us," Emma concluded, taking on her true form as she spoke.

The Monitor Lizard popped into existence next to her, following her gaze onto the parcel in turn.

"Open that up, away from our tent please."

Emma got a confused look from her summon, but it didn't hesitate to obey despite that, grabbing the parcel and heading off the beaten path in search of solitude.

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"That should be far enough."

The lack of activity played in their favour, as the Monitor Lizard found a small clearing some fifty feet away, nestled beneath a tall tree whose branches fell just low enough to make walking inconvenient, and thus discouraged people from approaching. Actually opening the parcel took a moment's thought, given the lack of tools on hand, but her summon persisted, eventually resorting to cutting through sheets of tape with his claw. Eventually the packaging fell away, leaving a grey crystal ball in hand, the latter glowing faintly with ambient magic. The Monitor Lizard poked it with a claw, and the orb exploded. Solid glass turned to smoke, expanding to surround her summon before freezing in place, the resulting mass still spherical but substantially larger than before. Notably, everything within the expanded sphere froze in place, seemingly cut off from the outside world.

[Localised Time Stop initiated. Duration (1 week)]

"So that's the game," Emma grumbled. "If we opened that up unprepared, that's the rest of the festival gone. Any idea who wanted to prank us?"

[Hm. This one wasn't aimed at you, for once. There are people who aren't too fond of Noah, and would prefer to keep him at arms length from the magical world. They wouldn't dare do anything permanently harmful, since that carries the risk of retaliation in kind, but a bit of mean-spirited hazing isn't beyond them.]

"Wonderful."

[Null Zone (Toggle: ON)]

Bringing her anti-magic online, it only took Emma a few moments to get within range of her trapped summon; the moment Null Zone came into contact with stopped time, the entire bubble vanished in a loud hiss. That included the Monitor Lizard, which vanished immediately, though a quick glance at her status page assured Emma that it would be back after the usual cooldown.

[An unusual interaction with summoning magic. An ordinary person would have been released unharmed, albeit with a side dish of motion sickness.]

"How did Dad even manage to offend whoever did this? He's barely left Oxford, besides the few times we've dragged him along to one thing or the other."

[In this case, his mere existence is enough to offend. He's hardly unique in that either; I wouldn't be surprised if similar 'gifts' were going out to most of the first-time attendees. You're high profile enough to have been left off of the list, after last night's display, only to catch strays from Noah despite that. Ironic.]

"So that's how it is," Emma nodded sagely as she headed back to the family tent. "Why does this remind me of the cliques back in school?"@@novelbin@@

[If you think this is bad, wait until you see the Parliament. Politics is one of those fields that never evolves beyond the kindergarten level, despite thousands of years of supposed refinement. It just goes to show that we all have a common ancestor if we go back far enough; the eponymous monkey flinging faeces, so to speak. Anyway, having dealt with this first attempt, you're unlikely to see another, for today at least.]

"Do you think whoever did it will show up later this week? I've got a few candles they might enjoy."

[I'll be sure to let you know if he makes an appearance.]

Satisfied with the promise of vengeance, Emma headed back inside, putting the matter on the back burner for the time being. Dinner was more important, anyway.