"All right then," says Sarelle. "It should be less of those things than it would be if we were near a lot of people, at least."
She reaches a hand toward Kiri, past the approximate perimeter of her range.
There is a lot going on in Sarelle Dochenza's mind.
The biggest and most complicated layer, but also the one that gets the least conscious focus, is situational awareness. Inside the closed carriage, her visual universe is limited to Kiri, the carriage's interior, and what she can see out the windows - but she pays attention to all of it. She is, as implied, constantly aware of the distance between herself and Kiri. She is listening to Ekador and Aleko, who are currently experiencing a lull in their conversation. She is listening to the horses, all of whom seem healthy and unimpaired - but she would notice if one missed a step. She can smell the elemental affiliations of everyone present, hunti strongly flavoured with sweela from Ekador and torz from Aleko and sweela from Kiri and her own elay with hints of sweela and overtones of hunti, each tied into a unique individual scent representing the person themselves. She can also smell faded traces of everyone who has passed along this road in the last few days. On a more mundane level, her nose tells her what kinds of soap everyone uses to wash themselves and their clothing, more things about the state and identity of the horses, what plants they are passing, the quality and origin of the dust on the road, and miscellaneous other details. A bird calls in the distance and she identifies its probable species. Through her magic she is aware of the patterns of local air movement, and sometimes absently tweaks the breezes to change which sounds and smells are coming to her more clearly than others.
After all that come the things on which she is consciously focused. She is watching Kiri to note exactly when Kiri reacts to the read, so she can update her estimate of Kiri's range, and to see what Kiri's reaction to the read is; she is ready to pull away if it seems prudent. She is curious about what will happen, and deliberately suspending any concrete guesses until Kiri offers her some information. Since so much of her attention is on Kiri in particular, the Kiri-related parts of her situational awareness are especially in focus, which raises her background awareness of several minor conclusions she has made during the trip based on immediately available data - speculations about where Kiri obtained this or that piece of clothing, theories about the possible origins of this small hole in the end of a sleeve or that scuff on the toe of a shoe.
no subject
She reaches a hand toward Kiri, past the approximate perimeter of her range.
There is a lot going on in Sarelle Dochenza's mind.
The biggest and most complicated layer, but also the one that gets the least conscious focus, is situational awareness. Inside the closed carriage, her visual universe is limited to Kiri, the carriage's interior, and what she can see out the windows - but she pays attention to all of it. She is, as implied, constantly aware of the distance between herself and Kiri. She is listening to Ekador and Aleko, who are currently experiencing a lull in their conversation. She is listening to the horses, all of whom seem healthy and unimpaired - but she would notice if one missed a step. She can smell the elemental affiliations of everyone present, hunti strongly flavoured with sweela from Ekador and torz from Aleko and sweela from Kiri and her own elay with hints of sweela and overtones of hunti, each tied into a unique individual scent representing the person themselves. She can also smell faded traces of everyone who has passed along this road in the last few days. On a more mundane level, her nose tells her what kinds of soap everyone uses to wash themselves and their clothing, more things about the state and identity of the horses, what plants they are passing, the quality and origin of the dust on the road, and miscellaneous other details. A bird calls in the distance and she identifies its probable species. Through her magic she is aware of the patterns of local air movement, and sometimes absently tweaks the breezes to change which sounds and smells are coming to her more clearly than others.
After all that come the things on which she is consciously focused. She is watching Kiri to note exactly when Kiri reacts to the read, so she can update her estimate of Kiri's range, and to see what Kiri's reaction to the read is; she is ready to pull away if it seems prudent. She is curious about what will happen, and deliberately suspending any concrete guesses until Kiri offers her some information. Since so much of her attention is on Kiri in particular, the Kiri-related parts of her situational awareness are especially in focus, which raises her background awareness of several minor conclusions she has made during the trip based on immediately available data - speculations about where Kiri obtained this or that piece of clothing, theories about the possible origins of this small hole in the end of a sleeve or that scuff on the toe of a shoe.