Sorry its late – Had to get an MRI and forgot all about this
“Foreigner, hey. So how did you end up next to mugged near the Convention Centre? Were you at ARCon? Do you have a phone? Where are you staying?”
His words gradually slowed down and got louder in the way people frequently do when talking to foreigners, although he had no idea why speaking like that would make it easier for people to understand. And yet now he found himself doing it anyway.
The old man shook his head.
“I follow you speak, I think. Not sure what say you.” He snarled. “Too old this for.”
At which point he muttered something in what sounded like a different language again and flicked his wrist in Jason’s direction.
“Now my speak, you learn.” He muttered in the odd accented broken English he seemed to have picked up just now. He then went back to speaking in the language that Jason thought sounded rather Greekish. He immediately became aware that almost imperceptibly, the gibberish began to become understandable words! What? Now Jason was spooked!
The old man smiled. “Yes, I can see from the look on your face that you are starting to understand what I am saying. It is a spell. A very complex spell that allows you to understand and also speak any language. It works best when you have a speaker of the language in your presence. The spell draws the information from the other person’s thoughts and transfers the understanding to your own brain. Reading is a lot slower way of learning. It is not perfect, but it works well normally. Your language had too many terms I did not understand, so I threw the spell on you so I can now talk to you.”
Jason choked. A spell. Right! Haha! He’d brought home a looney! But he found he could understand more and more of the Greekish language the man was speaking, which was very happening very quickly and kind of scary!
“A spell, eh? Are you a magician?” he asked.
Then he realized with a start he had used the same Greekish language the old man was speaking to ask the question. Shit! Could he still speak English?
“This is scary!” He muttered, trying for English, and was relieved when the words he spoke were obviously English!
He found he could change to the Greekish stuff just by thinking about it. Right. Now he was scared!
The old man grinned. “I am the sorcerer Urasmian. And I am a powerful sorcerer. I rule the city of Shcathor and the surrounding lands and have done so for many years.”
Yeah right. Perhaps the old man had taken a knock to the head and thought himself to be a character out of a fantasy novel. Except how did Jason account for now being to understand and speak the Greekish stuff? Hmm. Jason couldn’t stop himself from saying.
“So, how did you end up here?” He immediately wished he hadn’t sounded like a smart-arse!
The sorcerer glared but then shrugged. “Family, of a sort. Do you have sorcerers here?”
Jason shook his head. “No one who can really do magic. Lots of charlatans and believers in lots of silly gods and stuff. But no. No real magic. How do you become a sorcerer?”
rhodanblog 
Loving it. Snowed in here had some time to catch up on my reading. I’m still on the American/USA assumption due to you mentioning Boston in CH1, his mustang, and there being an arCon in Columbus, Ohio. If that is the case the word choice would just be just a bit different for the first sentence in order to sound more like a local. If not please ignore the rest.
you wrote:Foreigner, hey. So how did you end up next to mugged near the Convention Centre?
we would most likely say something like: Not from America huh. So how did you end up passed out in the gutter near the convention center.
next to mugged isn’t how an American would phrase it, we might say practically mugged or almost mugged, but that would heavily imply someone had attacked us. Also most Americans will say your not American rather than outright calling someone a foreigner unless they were trying to be insulting. Alternately we might just guess and say say hey you sound like your from Austalia. Like as an American I might imagine you say : you aren’t from Australia now are you mate, and I would dryly say ” what gave it away?” We just don’t use the word foreigner a lot in everyday speech. I like you writing though it just has a more commonwealth lingual bent. If you’re trying to sound like a yank, things have gone a bit sideways in places. Otherwise I’m enjoying the story. I’m intending all comments to be constructive and light hearted, so if you read please don’t take offence. Loving it.
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Thanks for the feedback
The Convention Center he’s referring to is in Sand Diego, by the way. I even found the the little alcove referred to on Google maps street view.
And yes it is hard to think in American when you are not one. I try but hey you get what you get….
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I know, I was just trying to provide feedback to help. I figured an American might be able to get in the characters headspace a little bit better if that’s what you were shooting for. I wasn’t trying to be overly critical and annoy you which is why I took a break from commenting so as not to piss you off. I enjoy your writing too much to do that to you.
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