Consider (Thought 1)
“Did you enjoy your meal, princess?”
Sylvia said teasingly, the smirk on her face making it clear that she had noticed Mary's continued mixed feelings about breastfeeding.
“Burp.” ‘Only perverts and weirdos would enjoy this. I don’t like it. I don’t!’
Mary replied with a scathing glare.
Sylvia chuckled at the adorable attempt at intimidation, more amused than ever at her princess’s clear dismay.
“You’re going to have to live with it. The benefits are too great to ignore; we’ve already discussed this, haven’t we?”
Mary’s glare lessened at the reminder; her mana reserves had benefitted from Sylvia's mana-laden milk again, but that didn’t make it any better in her opinion.
“Well, what would you like to do? Perhaps learning some more magic?”
Sylvia asked expectantly.
Mary adopted a look of consideration as she thought about her next moves, but at the back of her mind an idea had been festering, one that she wanted privacy to pursue.
“Wa!” ‘Go away for a while.’
She exclaimed, essentially flopping to one side in a vague gesture toward the door.
Sylvia lifted her eyebrows.
“You want to go outdoors?”
Sylvia asked in surprise, clearly having expected her princess to want to learn more magic.
Mary shook her head as furiously as she could and exclaimed again.
“Nu!” ‘Of course not.’
Sylvia pursed her mouth in response, an intentional indication that she was trying to understand what Mary wanted to convey.
After a few moments of consideration, she hesitatingly asked.
“You want me to leave?”
“Mm!” ‘You got it.’
Mary nodded as firmly as her neck was able.
“Well, if you’re sure.”
Said Sylvia bemused.
“Wa!” ‘I need time to think.’
Mary exclaimed in frustration, again attempting to wave her arms in the general direction of the door.
"Alright, princess, you win. Give me a call if you need something.”
Sylvia replied before leaving the room, a degree of genuine hesitation apparent in her steps.
With the distraction of Sylvia gone for now, Mary takes a moment to take stock of her situation, something that she had not really been able to do since learning about the basics of her new world or her place in it.
Mary had been reborn into another world, a magical one. The experience should have been something amazing and exciting, but Mary thought bitterly that the cliché was quickly subverted by the harsh reality of human enchantment. A new grim reality almost immediately crushed what should have been a life of magic and luxury.
A grim reality that Mary had been shown almost immediately after she had been brought into the world.
Briefly, Mary allows herself to remember the glimpse of the living corpse that had been her birth mother.
Above all else, she needed to escape that fate, no matter what it might cost.
‘Step one isfinding a way to talk to Sylvia; she has information that I need to even begin to plan my way out of this.’
Mary thinks to herself firmly.
'But even in the best case, that’s years in the future. Assuming human babies with powerful magic develop roughly on the same timescales as on Earth, even basic muscle control is a good two years away.’
Even one year was far too slow for her needs; there was no telling how much time she might have before this sword of Damocles cuts her throat.
Mary had to begin planning right away and make significant strides toward her freedom, or someone would take it from her.
She grimaced as she considered all of the things she needed to know. Not only does she need to know about magic, the very tool that would enslave and perhaps save her. But she also needed to know about the status of this new world.
Why had she been reincarnated at all?
She needed to know more about Midgard, the kingdom she had been born in, and her future as its princess. Of course, in many ways, she didn’t have a future as a princess, but rather her future was as a slave masquerading as one, mostly for the sick amusement of others.
Mary thought about the all too vivid memory of her nightmare for a moment.
‘But when should I expect to wake up with a mage hovering over me, casting the spells necessary to enslave me? How long and what amount of leeway do I have before my enemies will force my mother’s fate onto me?’
It was, Mary reflected, a difficult but important question to answer. The prince consort would expect her to be enchanted at the earliest convenience; that was clear enough based on what she had learnt.
‘But when is that? When does it become safe or practical to enslave someone?’
She had tried her best but ultimately could not get an answer; as perceptive as Sylvia had proven to be, even she had limits when Mary could only babble and wave at her.
‘I need to be able to talk to Sylvia; it’s my number one priority.’
Mary thinks to herself again before considering how she could do that without physically growing up and gaining the right muscle control to talk.
‘On Earth, Alexander could use implants and virtual reality to talk to people, even over massive distances.’
She reminds herself, carefully considering memories of her previous life.
‘But in this world called Terra, the necessary infrastructure isn’t there; there are no massive server farms, no endless fibre wire connections, and no satellites. The technology, as far as I can tell, simply isn’t there for radio, let alone a virtual chatroom.’
Did that mean that Alexander's experience wasn’t useful? And worse.
‘Even if the technology and infrastructure were present, implants can damage the development of young minds.’
Mary paused at that thought, turning it around in her head.
‘Physically, I am a baby. Would I be damaged by having implants too young?’
It was a thought worth considering. Brain implants had to be treated carefully lest the brain grow around them, rendering them inaccessible.
Such things could also cause physical damage to the brain.
‘But I don’t have access to implants. Would having adult-level thoughts or using some sort of mind magic cause similar damage to the development of my young brain, or would it not matter?’
Mary considers the implications for a moment longer before dismissing the worry.
‘It doesn’t really matter, does it? I have an adult mind, so if that could cause damage to my physically young brain, then it’s completely unavoidable.’
‘In the worst case, I could face a fate like my mother's, becoming a prisoner in my own body. Put like that it’s much easier; there is no reason to fear some nebulous potential damage to my mind or body, so long as the consequences of securing my freedom are less than enslavement, then any amount of physical damage is permissible.’
She concludes, firming her resolve to remain free no matter the cost.
‘Then, I need some means of telepathy, some type of communication; it doesn’t even need to be long-range. If I can talk to Sylvia, I can get the information I need.’
But why had Sylvia not suggested telepathy herself?
Telepathy, the ability to communicate over distance with your mind alone, is a big staple of any magical setting, be it a novel, movie or game.
Mary could not believe that previous otherworlders had not created magic like telepathy; it's simply too useful and common in fantasy settings for her predecessors to have not at least tried to create such magic.
‘Considering many of the previous otherworlders were apparently nerds, there’s no chance at all that they didn’t at least think of something like a chatroom.’
Maybe they had failed? Mind-to-mind interfaces were complicated and delicate things; even on Earth, such things were relatively recent.
Did that mean that telepathy hadn’t been done before?
Maybe it was impossible to do with magic?
If only Mary could talk to Sylvia, she’d be able to know the answer.
‘Or maybe Sylvia just doesn’t know how to do telepathy. As powerful as she seems to be, she obviously has limits.’
Mary nods at that thought.
Descendant of an otherworlder, a so-called hero, she might have been, but Sylvia was ultimately as human as everyone else, even if she had been heavily enhanced by the magic of this world.
Perhaps only specific types of mages usually learn telepathy? But why would that be the case, considering how useful long-distance communication could be? On Earth, radios as communicators became almost ubiquitous as soon as they were practical.
Surely, even if it was restricted to paired items, some sort of telepathy enchantment should be incredibly valuable.
Mary shakes her head. She could think about these sorts of things later; for now she should concentrate.
‘Then how do I go about creating telepathy magic? What runes would I need for something like that.’
Mary hums as she considers her options.
‘Perhaps I can just go directly for a “telepathy” rune? That should be a firm enough concept to work, at least in my mind; I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work.’
Could it really be that easy?
If it was that easy then, why didn’t Sylvia talk about it?
Maybe telepathy as a concept cannot be easily attached to runes? Would she have to aim for something else?
‘Would it be smarter to aim for a more general type of rune like "thought"? Something like that would open additional options other than just telepathy.’
Mary gummed at her lips as she thought of that possibility.
‘A telepathy rune might allow me to talk to Sylvia, but a thought rune could open up magical virtual reality. That would be an incredibly powerful tool.’
Mary grimaces as she thinks again of her nightmare.
‘If I could use a thought rune to control or direct my dreams like Alexander did, then I wouldn’t have that nightmare again.’
She thinks to herself convincingly.
Mary blinks as another possibility dawns on her.
‘Could I develop magic while I dream? If I could develop runes while asleep, that would help tremendously. Or maybe that would require some sort of “dream” rune?’
As Mary thinks of the raw utility of a thought rune, she thinks of one more possible use for a thought rune, guided by Alexander's experiences.
‘Time compression. A “thought” rune might be able to speed up or slow down my perception of time. Hardware issues, both biological and mechanical, largely restricted time compression on Earth. Would magic and magical biology have the same issues?’
Mary nods at that. Hadn’t Alexander experienced a full eight-hour time compression? And hadn’t the doctor suggested that even greater compression was possible?
That was possible due to the augmented biology of modern Earth, but could magic open similar possibilities?
‘And could I use all of this to more fully ignore being an almost immobile lump of meat?’
Mary nods again at her conclusions.
‘I hate wasting time, but I should try to create a “telepathy” rune first. Once I have a basic means of talking to Sylvia, I can immediately head towards creating a magical virtual reality; the utility… and familiarity are too great to ignore.’
With her course of action set, Mary immediately turns her focus inwards; it was time to put Sylvia's lessons on rune creation to the test with a concept that is much more complicated and useful than fire.