Dancing Fox Inn XIII- Luck Costs Extra

[Deathkeeper]

Mist holds himself back from sighing or otherwise showing his displeasure.
Goddesses. They never want to just explain what they’re talking about.
”Okay sure, why not? If the pay is good I’ll play for you. Doesn’t make any sense though.” he grumbles.

[Recaiden]

"Oh, sure. Would you prefer coins, or something more interesting? A lucky star? Good weather?" Mei asks, not suggesting actual rates yet.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist gives a long, drawn out hmmmm....
”Well I suppose a goddess like you could grant quite a powerful boon. Can you actually make Stars that make you lucky? I don’t really know what your limits are.”

[Recaiden]

"Yes, yes of course I can. We'll go with that then." Mei nods.
"Not like I can just go telling you what my limits are, silly."

[Deathkeeper]

”Well, Okay. If it really works. And stars last a long time. It can help my kids and theirs when I’m gone.” He nods. ”All right, you’re on. Um. We’re not going now are we? You’re uh...” Drunk. The word is “drunk.”

[Recaiden]

"Oh, you have kids? Congratulations!"
Mei flutters her wings and, all of a sudden, returns to her human disguise.
"No, no. I'll come get you...tomorrow."

[Deathkeeper]

That makes Mist flinch all right.
”No, but my wife wants them. I don’t know how long I’ll hold out.” but that’s an issue not for the goddess to have her hand in.

[Recaiden]

Mei winces; put her foot in her mouth there, huh?
"Oh, uhm, I mean, I'll need another drink."
Best stick to business for the moment.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist raises an eyebrow but pours her a drink anyway.
”I hope you’re going to be able to fly home after all of these.And pay for them.”

[Recaiden]

After taking a gulp, Mei waves a finger at Mist who is, she thinks, being most unfair to her with those words.
"I have a...a ride to fly me. And...and here."
She rummages in her pockets and then places a plump golden idol on the bartop. Its grimacing face and twelve hands mark it as representing He Who Watched The Gate In the Peaks Of Fire. It belongs in a museum. But it's a lot of precious metal either way.
"Money."

[Deathkeeper]

Mist takes the idol, shocked, and puts it on his shelf. He’ll give it a respectful place in his room or something until he figures out what to do with it. Last time he was given a mysterious idol it cursed him to look like it. So he should probably make sure he’s respectful.
”Thanks.”

[Recaiden]

The idol is completely nonmagical and doesn't care whether it is respected.

Mei staggers out of the Inn and over to her ship.
Luckily for everyone she's not going to be at the controls.

---

Bright and early the next day, Mei shows up in her human guise.
"Ready?"

[Deathkeeper]

Mist will be at his place in the morning, having already arranged for his father to take his shift in his place. He’s been trying not to think about how his adventuring gear doesn’t fit him quite as well as it used to.
”Yup. You haven’t told me where we’re actually going, though.”

[Recaiden]

"We're going to the domain of the Sultana of Truth, which is just a medium-length flight away. It's in space." Mei explains with a grin.
Surely Mist doesn't need to know in any more detail than that.

[Deathkeeper]

Well that certainly causes some distress.
"A S-Sultana? Am I dressed enough? Do I need to get my circlet or anything?" he asks, looking down at his much more practical over regal black coat and pants.

[Recaiden]

"Well, you're not going to meet her in person. Plus, with the whole 'truth' thing, dressing up too much wouldn't work. Just dress well enough to impress her attendants if you like."
Mei looks back and peers at Mist.
"Maybe a sash? Or a bow-tie?"

[Deathkeeper]

Mist makes a face and vanishes up the stairs before returning with a small metal circlet on his forehead. It's nothing particularly precious but it does make him look a little fancier.
"All right, as ready as I'll ever be I guess. What kind of music are you expecting me to play anyway?" he asks.

[Recaiden]

But what kind of face?!

"Hmm, you do look much more regal now, don't you?"
Mei smiles at Mist's silly fancy crown.
"What are your best songs? Ideally it'll be something fairly tuneless."
She leads the way outside, where her ship, pretending to be an old horse-drawn-carriage, is tied to a post.

[Deathkeeper]

”Tuneless? A song has a tune by default! That’s kind of the point. You don’t want me to just play white noise do you?” Mists asks, much to confused to question the obviously normal carriage.

[Recaiden]

"Of course not. Just be bold! Don't let conventional ideas about 'what is music' hold you back!"

The passenger hatch pops open. Hmm. Bigger on the inside, isn't it? And not really carriage-shaped at all. And all this gleaming electrum is certainly an unusual interior decorating choice.

[Deathkeeper]

”I’ll just wing it I guess.” Mist says, trying not to show how exasperating this is.

So this is the ship she mentioned? He wonders if the controls are person sized or dragon sized.

[Recaiden]

"You'll know if you're doing it right, don't worry."

Mei slithers in through the main hatch, becoming a dragon, but rather smaller than she was the night before. She taps a claw to an orb in the center panel, and there's a rush of wind and a feeling of vertigo and dizziness that sweeps over them both.
The ship throws off its disguise, spreads its shining wings, and zooms up into the sky!

[Deathkeeper]

Mist very nearly falls over. He’s definitely not used to flying.
”You could have waited until I found a seat.” he grumbles, and looks to find one now that he can.

[Recaiden]

Besides the pilot's bench, this room, with its broad windows o view the sky they're flying through, has a pair of beanbag chairs, one on each side.
That hardly seems safe.
"Oh, sorry, sorry. I forgot you only have two legs."

In just a moment, they've left the Dancing Fox well behind.

[Deathkeeper]

An unspecified but likely not long amount of time after leaving, Mist and Rhin return to the inn, the fox immediately collapsing into the cushiest booth in the place. They are, perhaps, a bit worse for wear for their ideal.
”Well, we made it. I feel like it probably hasn’t been as long as it feels.”

[Recaiden]

Mei shrinks down and flops across the opposite, slightly-less-cushy booth.
"I need another drink, I think."

"Oh, but first, look out the window! For your star! I did some tricks with time so you wouldn't have to wait years for it to show up here, so...why not a few extra days, right?" That's not really a question.
Just over the treeline, a dark spot of the sky suddenly brightens up with a twinkling golden light.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist stands up to get a drink for her when his attention is drawn to the window. He just sort of...stares. Between the window and Rhin.
”Wait. So. You have. Like. Time magic. And you made a star just...while flying around. You don’t have to...fly to the spot and do anything? You just...made a magic star remotely?”
It’s hard to wrap his head around that level of power being in someone who gets drunk and was inconvenienced by a bunch of blathering cultists with bats and ropes.

[Recaiden]

"Don't be silly. Making a star is a ton of work! I had to instantiate in another star system, jamm over to where it was going to be made - and without its gravity to attach to, so it took forever - make a libraryful of measurements. Then I had to set up the materializing gates, shape it while it was forming, set its planetary nebula into just the right motion - not to mention all the matter sorting and arranging to tune it correctly...it's a long, complicated process!"
Mei lifts up her head and laughs.
"But I didn't have to do it today, because 'time magic'."
"Time travel was really locked down on my home planet, on account of a big chrono-breaking disaster that happened before I was even born, much less got these powers. But in most universes I can be anywhen I have a contract."

[Deathkeeper]

”Well. Um.
It’s very nice.”

All of that is way over Mist’s head so his best course of action seems to be getting her that drink. So he does.
”So you said it’s lucky?” he asks, setting the green-filled glass on the table.

[Recaiden]

"Of course it is." She's going to have made it herself, you know. It would certainly be of the highest quality.

Mei slithers upright (more or less) to take a sip from her glass.
"That's right. One degree of luck as long as its light reaches the world. So clouds and daytime are fine, but if it passes behind the moon, that's an unlucky night. For you and your descendants, although without adjustment that only lasts about twenty generations."
She smiles a bit, expecting to dizzy him a bit with the large stretches of time.

"You'd better give it a name. So you can thank your lucky stars properly."