by Des Pensable
Miranda’s heart almost froze. Lash could see through her Dragonfly illusion. She was the only person that could recognize Miranda. What would the wizard do?
Prendergrass stood there for a moment looking as if he had been hit by lightning then walked over to her and began whispering in her ear. Lash listened intently while looking at Dragonfly. Miranda strained to hear what he was saying but it wouldn’t carry. She simply pretended to be totally immersed in looking at her new image.
Lash eventually nodded, whispered to the wizard and left.
‘What did you tell her.’ asked Miranda curiously.
‘I said that Darkmantle likes pretty woman. Currently Lash was his favourite. If he saw the new girl he would want both of you. This would cause trouble and upset both of you, so to preserve the peace I made you look ugly. This way there would be no problems.’
‘What did she say?’
‘She said she’ll keep quiet about it until she gets sick of him or he becomes a nuisance then you can have him.’
Miranda had to bite her tongue to stop from screaming then quickly composed herself.
‘She is Newman. Have you wiped her mind?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’ replied Prendergrass. ‘She came here not long before you. She put up an admirable fight too. It’s a shame but necessary.’
‘Damn her! I don’t want him… can you remove whatever it is on my back that stops me from shape changing.’ said Miranda quite annoyed at Lash’s comment.
‘No, not until everyone believes that you have transformed into Dragonfly and I am convinced that you have sufficient self-control not to run riot and try to kill everyone. You will accompany me everywhere, watch, listen and learn. Speak only when spoken to. You need to be seen by everyone so that they will grow accustomed to your presence.’
‘Why are you doing this? What are you up to?’
‘Patience, my dear girl, have patience. You’ll find out when the time comes.’ said the wizard with a sly smile on his face.
Miranda opened her hand thought of Aquitain and a passion flower appeared in it. She breathed in its wonderful perfume then it turned into a small green bear that looked up at her with loving eyes.
‘You are no illusion my love. You are a part of me.’ she whispered.
Chapter 23 Swapping prisons
Aquitain was quite excited at having escaped from his cell but a bit confused at what to do next. As he sat in the Newman size chair with a Newman sized mug of tea he felt like a little child waiting for the adult to form a plan of escape. Llalorax, the wizard just sat there sipping his tea totally indifferent to Aquitain’s presence.
‘Where are we?’ asked Aquitain becoming impatient.
‘Do you mean what sort of container are we in or where is the container located.’ replied Llalorax. ‘I can answer the former but not the latter question.’
‘Can you tell me about the container we are in.’ asked Aquitain a little annoyed.
‘We are in what is commonly known as a specimen container. It is a squat bottle made of thick magic-reinforced glass with a strong permanent miniaturization effect localized within. They are normally used to capture and transport dangerous animals and of course prisoners. The animal or person is simply teleported into the bottle and shrinks to conform to the miniaturizing effect. You are currently about as small as a beetle.’
‘This particular bottle was created by me as a miniature prison complete with buildings, guards and most importantly food and water. It even has grass and a few bushes outside.’
Aquitain thought for a moment and said ‘I don’t believe you.’
Llalorax nearly choked on his mouthful of tea spilling it down the front of his robe. No one in countless years had ever challenged anything that he had said. He was the Queen’s councillor. People had to believe him.
‘What do you mean you don’t believe me?’ he said belligerently.
‘You said that you made this specimen bottle complete with the buildings. However, it would not have been possible for you to transport the dead magic stone into the bottle to build the cells with. Therefore you are lying and we are not in a bottle at all but possibly some sort of an illusion.’
‘Very astute.’ replied Llalorax with a sudden smile.
‘You are a smart little fellow but unfortunately you’re wrong. I did make the bottle and you’re not in an illusion.’
Aquitain felt himself becoming annoyed again. He mentally chanted a calming mantra. If he was going to get out of here he had to stay calm. Llalorax had some type Geas power on him that forced him not to do anything that might harm the Queen in any way. That would probably include letting Aquitain escape. However, if he assumed that Llalorax was also sympathetic to him escaping and did not lie when asked a question he just might be able to figure out how to escape.
He sat there for a while thinking over his escape from the cells. There was something wrong but he couldn’t quite work out what. Then it hit him. The Truth Radiant, where was she?
‘Where is your friend Glammer. I would like to thank her for helping me escape from the cell.’
‘I don’t have a friend called Glammer.’
‘What! She said that she was your friend.’
‘Who did?’ asked Llalorax.
‘There was a little Newman-like female creature that said her name was Glammer and she was a Truth Radiant. She helped me escape.’
‘You must be hallucinating. Did you eat anything? Many of our plants have substances in them that can cause all sorts of hallucinations especially to Mudrun people. Truth Radiants don’t exist they’re mythical creatures.’
‘I ate some rats.’
‘That probably explains it.’ replied Llalorax
‘The rats were probably fed some grain which was still in their stomachs. You ate the grain when you ate the rats.’
Aquitain was shocked. Maybe he was hallucinating. Was this whole adventure just his imagination? Was he really here?
‘Excuse me, I need to think about what is happening.’ he said as he rose and set off outside the building rather confused.
‘Take your time.’ replied Llalorax. ‘I don’t think either of us will be leaving for some time.’
‘I don’t think she was an hallucination.’ said Slivver.
‘Then there must be a logical explanation.’ he replied using mindspeak.
Aquitain left the building and walked to the glassy wall. He poked down between the wall and the dirt butted up to it. It sure looked real enough. He walked fully around the circumference of the bottle looking for something wrong but found nothing so went to check the cells.
He decided to walk around the outside first. He got close to the stonewall that formed the back of the cellblock and used his detect magic power. He remembered once that his grandfather had brought him a small piece of dead magic rock to examine. When he had looked at it using a detect magic power it had looked black like charcoal. However, the cellblock wall didn’t look like charcoal at all, it just looked like ordinary stone.
He went to the cellblock door, opened it and standing outside looked at the walls within. They didn’t look black either but the whole inside glowed with illusion and other magic. Now, the puzzle started to make sense. He stepped inside the cellblock and his ability to see magic disappeared, he changed to his spider shape and he could feel the dead magic. He stepped outside again and although he was in his spider form his detect magic power reappeared.
To prove the point he removed one of the powerstones embedded in his collar and threw it onto the floor inside the cellblock. It still glowed with the same magic that it did outside. When he went in to collect it, it looked inactive like an ordinary stone. So that was the secret.
The cellblock had illusion magic to make the area look like a dead magic area and strong compulsion magic to make the prisoners believe that they were in a dead magic area. Strong enough even to force his mind to shape change his body. No magic user would ever waste his magic by trying to use a power in
a dead magic area.
‘Slivver I need your help. We need to create our own reality.’ And he explained what he wanted Slivver to do.
He left the cell block, changed to his gnome form, gathered all his will power and walked into the cell block forcing his body to remain in its gnome form.
The pressure of the compulsion on his mind was immense. He stood there, one step inside the cellblock locked in a mighty mental battle. The compulsion was shouting in his mind to conform to its reality. This is a dead magic area. You can’t keep your gnome form. He felt freezing cold pain all over. He blocked the pain as best he could and countered with.
‘I know which reality is true and I will not yield.’
Sliver joined in repeating over and over again.
‘It is not true. It is an illusion. We will not yield!’
He chanted the mantra of auto-hypnotism and while concentrating on their voices he slipped into a trance like state, he imagined himself standing naked in a freezing cold blizzard. The cold was intense. His body was frozen, numb and aching. The wind whispered for him to give in and accept the new reality.
He concentrated on Sliver chanting.
‘It is not true. It is an illusion. We will not yield!’
He stubbornly refused the siren song of the magic and created a cylinder of hardened air around his body to shield it then sent a stream of mental energy to warm his imaginary body.
As his body warmed the pain lessened and he concentrated on the blizzard. He imagined the sun came out and the blizzard began to falter as the area warmed and slowly it dropped to a gentle breeze, where could hear voices repeating over and over again.
‘It is not true. It is an illusion. We will not yield!’ and the magical effect broke.
‘Bravo’ said a voice behind him.
He turned around and saw Llalorax standing outside the door.
‘I would not have believed that anyone could break through that compulsion. You are indeed resourceful and much more powerful than you appear. If it were not for the fact that my sister had sent you, I would have to eliminate you as a potential threat to the Queen.’
‘You will no doubt be smart enough to find the way out but be warned. I don’t know where this prison bottle is currently located and should you escape you might well find yourself in real danger. Now I think that I’ll go and have another cup of tea,’ and he left.
‘I am lost for words.’ said Slivver. ‘You are a born escape artist.’
‘Don’t get too excited. We’re not out yet and judging by Llalorax’s comment there may be a second line of containment outside the bottle.’
Aquitain immediately guessed where the exit would be. He walked down the corridor and noticed the sticky web that he had produced earlier still stuck to the floor. He knelt down and carefully examined a part of the web where Glammer had got stuck. Sure enough there were tiny scales like those of a butterfly from her wings still clinging to the web.
She was real, not an hallucination. Who was she? Where was she? She had always hidden herself from the guard’s view during his escape. Was she really Llalorax in disguise? Was it someone else? This whole damn adventure was confusing and chaotic. Then again he was now supposed to be a true Agent of Chaos.
He continued down the corridor to Llalorax’s cell and sure enough under the mat there was a teleport circle inscribed on the floor. As he stepped onto the teleport circle he thought briefly about Llalorax’s warning then smiled to himself and thought
‘We can’t cause much more chaos in this bottle. It’s time to move onwards again. Now what would the activation word be. Let me guess.’
He spoke the word ‘Glammer’ and he was teleported out of the bottle.
He appeared in a darkened room. As his dark vision adjusted to the new low light conditions and he looked around. There were coffins piled all around the edges of the room. He was in some sort of crypt. This felt a little spooky. He noticed some movement to his right. There was a large steel cage and in it was someone familiar.
‘Well fancy meeting you here, Ansidian.’
Ansidian jerked his head up and spotted the gnome.
‘Who is it? Is it you, Aquitain?’
‘None other. Someone has finally had the sense to lock you up.’
‘You must escape from here immediately. You don’t understand. When I met you in the cave with Somanller I was possessed by deranged spirit. It is around here somewhere. You must escape. The plan has gone wrong. Immediately he had Aquitain’s undivided attention.
‘What plan? Who’s AG?’ he said but unfortunately it was too late.
Aquitain’s body went cold all over and froze rigid with fear. He had never felt so scared in all his life. He wanted to shut off his mind, retreat to somewhere safe, run, hide, scream, anything to get away from here but his body wouldn’t respond. He vaguely saw the same reaction from Ansidian. It wasn’t only him. He was a mind wizard. He struggled for mental control. He created a small room within his mind and fled within it locking the door securely behind him. Once safely inside he quickly tried to categorize the threat.
‘It’s the mad spirit that Ansidian mentioned, it’s using powerful fear magic on me.’ he thought.
‘No!’ he screamed, ‘You can’t have this body it’s mine. I only just got it.’ and his spirit clung on tightly to his body and refused entry to the alien spirit. It pushed and barged and prodded all to no avail. He was still paralysed but totally determined that it was not coming in.
There was a short period of time and just as he thought that it must have given up, the pressure was reversed. Instead of a pressure pushing in on him his spirit was literally sucked out of his body into some type of storage container. He had a brief glimpse of the room as he entered the crystal then darkness.
Aquitain felt perfectly normal except he was no longer in his Llanllean body. He guessed he was in some sort of soul crystal. He had heard all about these from his granddad. He had seen them, touched them, but couldn’t remember being in one, yet somehow it didn’t feel strange to him. It felt almost like a body. His spirit started expanding and could feel the minute density variations of the crystal.
He used his crystal sight and the internal structure of the crystal lit up. He could see the flow of the grain, the small flaws and the slight green glow indicating the magic infused into the crystal. It also had a little magic essence stored. As his senses probed the crystal he became aware of someone else there as well. It quickly occurred to him that as he expanded within the crystal the other was being compacted into a smaller area. He immediately stopped expanding but contracted and imagined himself as having a small discrete roughly Newman shaped body to house his spirit.
The other spirit expanded to fill the container obviously unaware of his presence. He thought about these types of containers. From memory a soul crystal should only house one spirit. If another was forced in the first was forced out. Unless there was another body or other type of receptacle to hold it then it would die. The malign spirit that forced him in expected the previous occupant to die. He had just saved its life. Then the thought occurred to him that it might be his guardian’s spirit or even Slivver’s.
‘Is that you Slivver?’ He asked using mindspeak.
‘What ... what’s happening?’ said the other. ‘Where are you? Who are you?’
‘I asked first.’ said Aquitain as he sent a mental image of a gnome.
‘You’re a gnome. Will you let me mindlink with you?’
This quite surprised Aquitain. Only a mind wizard would ask that type of question. It wasn’t Slivver. Whoever it was wanted to look at his spirit aura to see what it was dealing with. A reasonable precaution, but of course that works both ways.
‘Okay’ said Aquitain and he felt the link take form. Immediately he recognized the spirit aura of the other as a Llanllean magic user. The other was not as reassuring.
‘What are you?’ it said.
‘I’m a Llanllean like you.’
‘No
t likely.’ replied the other. ‘I’m a specialist in spirit auras and I’ve never seen one of my kin with a spirit aura like yours. It looks twice as complex as normal.’
This baffled Aquitain for a while then he realized that the guardian had said that he now wore the mark of his father. Perhaps the mark was on his spirit aura and this person obviously didn’t recognize the mark.
‘I think I know what the problem is. I’m a citizen of Astaria. When I was made a citizen it changed me somehow.’
The other was quiet for a while then said
‘Perhaps you’re right. I can’t remember seeing any spirit auras of people from Astaria. My memory is fading, I’ve been in here too long.’
‘Hold on. I thought soul crystals only held one person at a time.’ said the other.
‘You’re quite correct.’ replied Aquitain thinking about it.
‘I have a rare ability to see within crystal structures called crystal sight. When I was forced in here I looked around and saw that I was pushing you out so I stopped expanding my spirit so that there would be room for the two of us.’
‘That’s an amazing story but a bit hard to believe.’
‘Then look at what I can see.’ replied Aquitain as he redirected his vision to the other person.
‘Why don’t you try and contract your form to something resembling a body. I’ll project what I see. To you it’ll be like looking into a mirror at yourself.’
The other set to work and after considerable effort managed to contract its form to a spherical blob.
‘Good.’ said Aquitain finally. I think introductions are in order. Don’t you? After all we may have to spend quite a bit of time in here together.’
‘Okay, I’m Yllandril, a Llanllean healer. Who are you?’
‘I’m Aquitain, a mind wizard from Astaria.’
‘OK. Aquitain. Tell me about Astaria and its ruler.’
Aquitain described Astaria in general terms but described Llanlorian in detail as he had a feeling that Yllandril somehow knew her. He was right. Yllandril remembered her well. They were sisters.
