A floating island roughly the size of a large American city, Leviniarel is a temperate place with only one small town. It is dominated by evergreen forests and lakes except for the southern edge, which is volcanic and largely unstable. A cathedral is the largest, most prominent piece of architecture here.

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"Minna... that must be you. Are you alright?" A man of medium height and wiry build, with a sweet sort of smile set upon his baby-face. Dressed primarily in green, silks and satin with high-quality leather for his boots, he has all the appearance of a travelling prince-type.  The room around them looks like a storeroom of some sort. Sacks of grain, flour, and rice abound, along with a wine rack and a plethora of spice bottles. The smell is nice and earthy.

Minna had ended up off-balance, literally...she has to re-situate her cane fast, but she's fairly good at that, to keep from falling. The only thing that throws her off is the unaccustomed weight of her prosthetic on her back. She blinks a couple of times as her eyes adjust to the brighter light, still standing a bit awkwardly. "Ehm...I think so. That was...disorienting." It takes her a few moments to realize that someone had spoken. "And yes, I'm a Minna." She smiles at the man, admittedly shyly and feeling self-conscious about her more plain clothes, when her eyes adjust to see him.

"Good. That saves me from having to send another candle." The fellow extends his hand, which is rough and strong, the hand of a working man. "I am Dream. Dreamscaper Aramuse, but call me my full name only at the risk of not getting my attention. If you're not too disoriented, we can get on with the tour."

"I'm okay." Minna nods. She takes his hand lightly, smiling slightly, trying to erase the sense of loss that had been in her eyes before. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"No it isn't," Dream smiles back. "Don't be afraid to say what you feel. I know that you are confused, lonely... tell me so. Now, if you'll follow me, I will take you to the altar bridge first." He turns with a flourish, and heads outside, across a long, packed earth road passing between an astoundingly broad swath of lush gardens and leading into the center of a sparkling lake. The sky above is uniform gray, and spitting snow, even though the temperature is a pleasantly warm one.

Minna isn't sure what to say to that. Starts to smile...then thinks the better of flashing that lie still again, and just follows along quietly at her lopsided pace, trying to keep up. She squints when they get outside, startled at the admittedly overcast light...oh, yeah. Daytime. Another thing she needs to get used to again.

Dream leads her to the tiles of the bridge, ivory and jewels set upon a riveted metalloid structure. In the center of the bridge there is a circle of dirty stone, a poor contrast to the rest of the architecture.

Upon a pedestal there, sits a book bound in silk. Its pages are velvet, its writing liquid silver... the very sort of impossible things one would associate with the divine.

"This book is the Gram Abomus. It contains our laws, our rights, our past... everything you need to know as an emerging goddess." Dream looks to her. "Just for the record, 'god' and 'goddess' are terms we use only because they are convenient. Leviniarel is home to beings of tremendous power, longevity, and implicit grace, great enough that some might see us as divine. So... nice and neat epithets."

Minna had been examining the book--examining, not touching--with a good deal of characteristic interest when the 'power, longevity,' and, especially, the 'implicit grace' part comes out. She glances down to her cane, then up to Dream, lips twitching towards an amused smile. Not there, but towards it. "And then, the visitors."

Dream lays his hand upon the book's cover, tilting his head over. "What do you know of frogs, Minna?"

"Um...more than probably constitutes a normal hobby." She isn't sure where the question had come from, and the perplexity is clear on her ever-transparent countenance.

"Do you like them?" His fingertips dance upon the cover for a moment. He's stringing her along, and it is plain as day. "I do. Amazing creatures, sleek and efficient."

Minna nods a bit, although she'd dearly love to know where he's going with this. It's something between amusing and maddening how much he seems to be enjoying playing with her head. She nods. "Certainly. I like animals in general, but...they're amphibian representatives I chose to study back in undergraduate school, when I was still studying biology."

She blinks slowly. Something clicks. Frogs? Right after mentioning her leg? Prosthetic no longer fits. Too small, not too big, so it can't be swelling, and she hasn't lost a significant amount of weight. "Wait..." blinks again. Glances to her leg. He can not be serious.

A little smile comes across his lips. "I am as serious as a heart attack, Minna. Frogs, you see, start their lives without legs, and gradually change into a stronger, better, and entirely different organism. Still a frog, only no longer a tadpole." Shrugs. "Alright, I could have used any animal, but frog, and leg, struck me as poignant."

"Well, sure, especially since they regenerate damaged limbs..." her eyes pass over her leg again. "So that's why my prosthetic doesn't fit? And...this is going to sound silly, but are you...hearing my thoughts?"

"No. I can read your face." Dream taps the cover again. "Much easier to read than this, and on the whole, much more pleasant. And I can only guess about your prosthetic, but it is probable. Minna, before you open this book," the 'god' moves his hand away, "let's play a game. We take turns asking questions, and the first one to lie loses. You go first, go."

"Wait...what? What kind of questions?" Minna had been taken off-guard by his machine-gun manner...smirks a little, sheepishly, when it sinks in. "Or does that count as two turns? Three."

"It counts as three so..." Dream looks out over the sparkling lake. "We're playing a game. Any kind of questions but hopefully pertinent ones. And no. My turn. How much do you weigh?"

"Around a hundred and twenty pounds, usually, sometimes less." That's actually true. Large, she's not, she she's quite fine-boned. She thinks for a few moments. "How...old are you?"

"Age is a concept without meaning, really. But according to Earth years, I am..." He thinks. Leviniarel only maintains an earth-esque environment through the power of one of its denizens. Its distance from its own sun is much greater than earth's from the yellow star. "About four thousand... no... three..." He blinks.  "When did Babylon fall?"

Four thou...? Holy. Hell. This brings a slight pause. "I'm not sure. I was always better with science than history." She thinks quietly for a few moments. "Where is this place, in relation to...Earth?" She was going to say 'home,' but stops herself forcibly.

"To a Leviniarelan, the distance of any place anywhere is relative to your distance from Tristian's mirror." Dreamscaper points off into the distance, where an ivory palace rises from the apparent center of another lake. "With its power we can go anywhere we like in a blink. Literally, we are in a different dimension than Earth, so it doesn't matter." He smiles. "Aren't you an astronomer?"

"Yes. I enjoy my work a good deal." Minna nods. Her words are still measured, soft, and slow. Of course, she doesn't quite pick up on the fact that he probably already knows what she just said, since she's an elemental deity--or has the capacity to become one--whose element is of the lunar realm. She'll keep that mirror thing in mind...ask about it a bit more later, and commits the name to memory. She looks down, thinking. "Why was I invited here?" Of course, she isn't sure whether or not it had been voluntary. She hadn't tested the theory.

"Ah, now with the important questions. You were invited here because the order of things requires the possibility." Dream reaches up to the book again, lightly tracing its binding. "Destiny is a funny sort of thing. It wants what it wants, but still allows for side trips. In your case, it wants you to have the chance to become a Leviniarelan for some reason. My invitation has provided that chance. The rest is entirely your choice. Why did you leave your bodyguard behind?"

She's quiet a moment. She really, really hadn't wanted to. She misses him. A lot. "Because...I didn't want to make him miserable and lonely, on top of making it complicated." She closes her eyes a moment. Kaies. Opens her eyes again. Looks up after a few seconds. "I'm pretty freaking scared. Do I have reason to be?"

Dream looks at her then, really looks at her for the first time. Stares directly into her eyes.

"For your life, no. For the way you see things, perhaps." He nods. "You can read this book when you want, but it cannot leave here. For now..." He points. "See that hanging garden over there? The one with the crystal garden. That belongs to Starscaper Zalika. Go see her first."

Minna looks that way. Squints in the light, and finally nods when she sees it. "All right." She nods, and looks back to dream. She's be fairly passive, sure, but...what else can she really be, considering the last few weeks?

"Don't worry," Dream nods. "You are safe here.  You're about to get one hell of an education, though. And watch out for Rupert at the gate."

She's neither relieved nor truly skeptical about the 'safe' bit. That had been promised to her at the Keep, too. Now...she just notes that it had been said, and little more, and will wait to see what happens. "Why is that?" She's wondering who 'Rupert' is.

"He's loud." Dream points again. "The peacock. Are you still here? Minna... are you afraid to go alone?"

"Oh...now. No, I'm fine." There we go. First lie. Well, borderline lie. Part of her wants to be alone. Now she picks up her cane carefully again.

"My home is the one with blue glass in the windows. The brick. Come see me if you have any problems that Zalika cannot answer... she is younger than most of us. So she doesn't know everything. And her hair is green. Don't let that spook you."

"Okay." Minna nods, and smiles at Dream. "Thank you for everything." She looks off towards the crystal gardens.

A light emanates from somewhere within those gardens. Small at first, but with growing intensity, it pours a blueish glow outward in a steadily expanding path.

Dream grins at that. "She's working. Did I mention... each Leviniarelan is named for hir duty. I, Dreamscaper, invoke the images between waking and sleep. The Skyscaper Yim watches over the wind. Seascaper... Beastscaper... Timescaper... many Scapers. Little Zalika, therefore... makes stars."

Minna thinks about that for a moment, and then looks back to dream. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Obviously you won't be making moons for a while." Dream winks. "You learn. You grow. Leave the rest to the professionals for a while."

Moons...? Minna has to grin at him a little for that. "Right. Well...I'm guessing I'll be seeing you later plenty of times. Bye now." She smiles, and starts off towards Zalika's house, unusually conscious of her wobbling gait and very conscious of how bright the starscaper's house is. Her element may be light...but not the warm sort Zalika uses.

Rupert, as warned, squeals that 'baby crying' peacock squeal and fans his immense plumage when Minna comes near. The bird is large, but his tail plume is immense even by peacock standards. Immense, and the eyes blink.

"The gates are open," a distinctly hebraic voice calls out, "ignore the bird, he is just an attention-magnet!"

Minna's lips twitch towards amusement as she watches the bird, stepping around the bird's maneuvering as best she can. "Thank you." She isn't really sure who she's talking to, of course...heads up to the gate quietly, and pushes it open with a bit of timidity.

A bit of a smile pulls at Dream's lips. There is a good reason hopefuls are sent to Zalika's gardens first, and Minna above all should appreciate them.

"Dream told me about you," calls that same voice from atop a short staircase. A woman of extravagant, perhaps unnecessarily decorated, dress waves to her as she speaks, batting carefully tended eyelashes over violet eyes that, if one looks closely enough, lack pupils. In their stead, fixed twinklings shine like clusters of stars and galaxies in a manner that, if one were to look the wrong way, one could easily miss. "I'm Zalika. Pleasure!"

Wow. Is everyone here so fixated on appearance...? Eh. Probably not. There are quite a few degrees of difference between Dream's primping and Zalika's. Minna does smile, though. Zalika seems nice. "I'm Minna. The pleasure is mine."

She beckons with a ring-adorned hand. "Come to the top of the stairs and see what I have been up to. Unless you are tired or hungry?"

"Oh, no...I'm fine, but thank you for the offer." It's not entirely true...she never had taken the time to rest and get some food in Ian's keep. The letter had distracted her away. But, she really isn't ready to feel like she's settling into this...new place. "And...certainly." Minna smiles, and starts picking her way carefully up the stairs, doing her best to not look pathetic. She doesn't usually feel self-conscious...but among these beautiful people, she does.

Zalika disappears down a short hallway, turning right, past an apparent bathroom - which ought to relieve Minna, the knowledge that 'divinities' do in fact have such facilities - and separate shower room and into a different doorway.  The darkness inside is not absolute, but low enough that, from inside, only Zalika's eyes can be seen peering out.

"This is what I do, Minna," she reports pleasantly. A light burns into life in the center of what turns out to be a skylit chamber with perfectly smooth, black walls littered with star charts of every sort. The light rotates, giving off the same glow that the Starscaper's eyes possess. 

"What do you think?" She points. A living, breathing star chart, different from any existing galaxy.