by Des Pensable
‘They are mindless.’ said Yllandril. ‘They have been mass hypnotized. Even your pet Royal Guard has been rendered useless.’
‘Well done, Your Majesty. You have outsmarted me.’ stated Darkmantle.
‘Did I manage to kill the real Queen or her double.’
‘Ha Darkmantle. Like the rest of your pathetic people, you never knew that your Queen died years ago. Not even her royal brat knew.
‘I must admit you have given us much amusement in your primitive efforts in trying to detect us. We know you have been harbouring malice about us for years. We could have simply brainwashed you like all the others but then it would have been no fun. I must give you credit for the brilliant scheme resulting in the death of the other Queen’s double. Of course you realize that you only killed one of your own people. My colleague immediately left the corpse and possessed someone else.’
‘Aquitain we’re in trouble, there’s at least three of them.’ said Yllandril.
‘It’s Okay Yllandril. Be calm. I need a distraction. I’m still in little pieces.’ he replied.
‘I hope you are listening in little stone spider. We know about you too. You can’t hide from us. We will find you.’ said the Queen.
‘Find her!’ and four Lords, a Lady and a trixie stood up and began searching for Yllandril.
‘Correction.’ replied Yllandril through the mindlink. ‘There are nine of them.’
‘You must be pleased with yourself manipulating Darkmantle for all these years.’ said Llalorax.
‘Coming from another world and having to live in this dark place must be boring.’
‘Ha you are the idiots. We were here well before you. It is our world not yours. You are the new ones. You are just puppets to us. An experiment to help us adjust the world to our liking.’ replied the Queen.
A very real looking illusion of a woman suddenly appeared on the seat of dragon throne. It was the Elendari form of Yllandril which would be readily recognized by many of the onlookers as she had treated most them as a healer.
‘I have an objection.’ shouted the illusion. ‘I don’t like my world or my people being controlled by a bunch of mindless ghosts.’
‘Ah. Yllandril the spider I presume. So you are within my trap.’ said the Queen. ‘Find her!’.
‘No need, I am here on top of the dragon’s head.’ said Yllandril and all eyes turned to her.
She then sent a quick mental message to Aquitain to quickly do whatever he was planning and an amazing sight occurred behind the Queen. All the crystal shards of the Warden of Moonmist rose off the floor and flew together forming a swirling bobbing and spinning mass that slowly rearranged forming the shape of the little green crystal man.
Several powers were aimed at Yllandril but she just stood there soaking up magic.
‘I’m immune to your magic, you fake bitch Queen. I’ll bet that you are some type of eunuch ghost that craves feeling in the body of a real woman because otherwise you’d feel nothing; you’d be numb as a construct, useless, hollow and cold.’
‘Ha. Thanks for revealing yourself. You are the last of the unaccounted. You may try to taunt me. It will be to no avail. Whatever your plans they are useless. You see we are the Mentarin. Our intellect is far above that of you pitiful creatures. You have no hope. I have been toiling for several years to make this particular ball a memorable meeting but I’m afraid I had little to work with.’
‘I was hoping that you would provide something of a miserable challenge to make it all worthwhile. Listen carefully.’ She shouted a single power word and Llalorax, Darkmantle and Yllandril froze.
‘You see how easy it is.’ I say a word and you are all powerless, frozen and defenceless.
Aquitain looked towards the ceiling. There were at least three globes of scrying watching on. Now I understand the curse he thought. If I stay in the pure heart then all these watchers will forget. I will not be credited with doing anything and that is the blessing.
‘I’m not powerless, frozen or defenceless and I think that you talk too much.’ he said to the Queen using mindspeak.
The Queen spun around and fixed him with a malevolent gaze
‘I destroyed you. Why are you still here?’
‘Obviously not! You may control all born on this world with implanted words of control but I wasn’t born here. You can’t control me. That is why you have all been afraid of me. I am immune to your influence.’
‘You are a Mentarin and claim some sort of mental dominance over these people. I am Aquitain! I am the new Warden of Moonmist and I am here to destroy you. It is you that should quake with fear. He raised his little green arms and said
‘Awaken and behold your enemy!’ and all the spirits of the hypnotized crowd awoke and floated above their bodies.
‘These Mentarin spirits would steal your world and enslave you. What do you say to them?’
The spirits of all the hundreds of Elendari, Trixies and Llanlleans in the hall looked at the nine spirit possessed people and shouted in unison.
‘We will destroy them!’
Aquitain then gave a Kwala growl that would scare the dead.
The Queen panicked and screamed to her followers to flee and the nine Mentarin all teleported in fear.
‘How’s that for my first attempt at a mass illusion Terrin. Now how do I wake them all up?’
Terrin laughed and replied
‘Well done Aquitain. That was masterful mind magic! Wait! There’s something wrong on Astaria. I must go and the dragon throne turned into a real stone dragon and teleported away.’
Aquitain was amazed. ‘Wow! Terrin must really have some power now to do that !’ he thought then walked over to Miranda and tapped on the stone. It seemed real enough. He knew she was still alive as their mindlink was still intact but she was mentally frozen like the rest confirming she was born here as well. He used his crystal vision to look into the rock. Interesting, very interesting!
Chapter 34 The Divine Aquitain
Aquitain refocused his attention on Yllandril, Llalorax and Miranda who were still mentally linked but not responding to him. He tried several mental commands to wake them but nothing seemed to work then he noticed movement behind him and directing his attention towards it and saw Bellen approaching then go down to his knees.
‘You were truly amazing my Lord. You were destroyed and remade yourself. You raised the spirits of all the people here to drive away the malevolent spirits. You are truly divine. I shall be your most devoted follower. I shall spread the word of your greatness throughout the land.’
Aquitain was surprised.
‘Get a hold of yourself, Bellen. I’m no divinity, just a bit lucky. You saw my bear illusion fighting Darkmantle’s wyvern illusion didn’t you? They were both awesome. What you saw after that was a sequence of illusions created by Yllandril and myself. They were mind tricks. You saw an illusion of me being destroyed to trick those nasty spirits to reveal themselves. You saw an illusion of the Newman form of Yllandril to capture their attention while I worked on the spirits of the people illusion. We tricked them this time but it won’t likely work next time.’
‘What about the throne? It’s gone!’ stated Bellen.
‘Yes. The throne really was asleep and I woke it up. That was no trick and as you heard it has accepted two contenders to be the next Queen. It told me it had something to do. I guess that’s unusual as thrones don’t simply come alive, talk and disappear. Has it disappeared before?’
‘Are you sure that you’re not just a little bit godly?’
‘No.’ said Aquitain. ‘Being expert at illusion magic doesn’t make you even a little bit divine. Darkmantle is an expert at illusions; does that mean he’s divine?’
‘No, My Lord. He’s far from being divine but you’re also the Warden of Moonmist that must count a little.’
‘No the Warden is a job title. You don’t have to be divine for the job.’
‘How come you and I weren’t affected by whatever happened to
all the Elendari and the other trixies, My Lord? Did you save me?’
‘No I think it’s because I’m not from this world. It also suggests that you are not from this world. So where are you from Bellen?’
Bellen was quiet for a few moments. ‘I am from Mudrun.’
‘Ah! So there are some brown-scaled little people left on Mudrun after all!’ stated Aquitain. ‘You were all supposed to have vanished during the Great Storm.’
‘No Lord Warden, many survived the Great Storm but not long after it a band of powerful wizards tracked them down and killed all they found or so we thought. A small group of browns managed to hide and stay hidden for fear that they would be destroyed as well.’
‘I am from that small hidden group. I was a little different from the others. I ventured away from the group and was found by a dragon. He told me that there were many browns on Moonmist. I wished to see them so he brought me here. I was horrified when I saw their misery so decided to help where I could. They have accepted me but only so far as I am also different to them.’
‘What do you mean when you say you are different from the others?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I am not a true brown, My Lord,’ replied Bellen. ‘One of my parents was a red and the other a brown. I am half and half. No one really accepts me.’
Aquitain thought about this revelation for a few moments.
‘Bellen, there is nothing wrong with being different. Sometimes like now being different is a great advantage. You and I are both different. We’re simply just tougher than these Moonmist people.’
Bellen liked that idea.
‘The others are always teasing me because I am different, My Lord. Now I can see why. They are all jealous of my toughness. I had not considered that before.’
Another trixie, an old one with a malformed body whose real name was Allalanllea looked on in admiration.
‘You are indeed an Agent of Chaos Aquitain! You might have fooled the others but here it is plain as day.’ she thought.
‘I’d better spread the word about what happened here tonight. It will be a new beginning and they will have my little girl as their Queen. I never thought we’d pull it off.’ and she happily teleported away.
‘Are you going to wake them up now, My Lord?’ asked Bellen.
‘Yes Bellen but first I need to remember something. I may seem remote for a few minutes while I seek the knowledge I’m after. Have another drink and enjoy the sight.’ said Aquitain.
Moments later, The Rat Catcher appeared in front of Aquitain and using mindspeak it said
‘Astaria has been captured, Llanlorian and Terrin are dead and Asterix is missing. You and I are all that are left. You are now the Gatekeeper and Lord of Astaria. What do you want me to do, My Lord?’
Aquitain was stunned!
The cat had never said anything to him while he was at Astaria or when it had been used by Terrin to transport his spirit.
‘I thought that you were Llanlorian’s familiar.’ he stated uncertainly.
‘No. I am the Rat Catcher.’
‘Am I a rat?’ asked Aquitain curiously.
‘No. You are now the Gatekeeper and I am bound to you.’
Aquitain looked around until he spotted a guard and using telekinesis withdrew the guard’s sword from its scabbard. He then floated it over to him held it upright, hilt against the floor and said to the Rat Catcher.
‘Go back several paces, then run towards the sword, leap and impale yourself on the blade.’
‘You wish me to kill myself. My Lord?’ replied the cat.
‘Yes I do.’
‘As you wish.’ and it retreated back several paces then raced at the sword and leaped as instructed. At the very last moment Aquitain pulled away the sword and the cat landed on four paws unharmed.
‘I no longer wish you to harm yourself.’ commanded Aquitain somewhat satisfied that the cat was actually bound in some way to him.
‘I do not wish you to impale yourself on this or any other sword.’
‘Thank you, My Lord.’
‘Stay close by. We will discuss Astaria once this current problem is resolved.’
He adopted the meditation position, chanted a calming mantra several times then put his mind into autohypnosis to examine his memories.
After a few minutes, he left his trance and returned his attention to Bellen who was sitting on the ground facing him with a mug of ale and a concerned look on his face.
‘I’m back.’ he announced. ‘I’m concerned that these ghosts can control the minds of the people too easily. I think I know how to fix the problem. However, this is dangerous knowledge for you to know. So I am going to place a zone of silence around you while I fix the problem with your people. So don’t be scared if suddenly you seem deaf.’
‘Okay.’ replied Bellen.
Aquitain already knew a lot about words of control. Powerful mind wizards could implant them into the minds of their thralls to control them. There were several types but the most common simply immobilized the thrall to stop it from doing some action. Others gave punishment such as pain and some gave rewards of pleasure.
It seemed that the Mentarin spirits considered all the Elendari, trixies and Llanlleans as their thralls. This had to stop. However, removing the words was a complex and difficult procedure that could take a considerable amount of time. The quickest solution to the problem was to change the current words of control to new ones like you might change a password. If the Mentarin didn’t know the new password then they would have no control over the people.
Aquitain knew the procedure, as his grandfather had explained it several times. He had never used it although he wasn’t so sure that his grandfather hadn’t. The ritual took about 10 minutes and he checked on Bellen several times as anyone who knew the new words who gain considerable power over people. Once the ritual was over and the new words established he used the Mantra of Forgetting and locked them away.
He then tried various ways to try and break them out of their mental paralysis but nothing seemed to work.
He removed the zone of silence around Bellen and said. ‘Bellen, they are not responding to my attempts to wake them up. I think they might be responding to the Queen’s royal presence. We need to be able to create an illusion of Queen Aurora and have it speak like her but I haven’t heard her enough to be able to copy her voice.’
‘Let me help.’ said Bellen excitedly and ran off quickly returning a couple of minutes later with a small wand. This wand will do illusions and I can easily mimic the Queen. We … er …we kind of mimic her in the kitchen.’
‘Excellent. Since you have seen the Queen a lot, I want you to cast an image of her in the middle of the floor over there then have the image say in her voice what I’m going to tell you.’
Bellen excitedly cast an image but it didn’t look much like the Queen.
‘Try again. Take your time and get a clear mental image of the Queen as we saw her tonight before she died.’
The second try was much more successful and although Bellen obviously needed much more practice at creating illusions, it was passable.
‘Now repeat what I say mimicking the Queen’s voice.’ said Aquitain.
‘Stand up you bunch of worthless idiots.’ and all those present dutifully stood up.
‘Now watch me and copy my actions. Put your right hand on the top of your head and rotate it slowly clockwise.’ Bellen laughed and had the Queen’s illusion do it and the entire crowd copied.
‘Now put your left hand on your stomach and rotate it slowly anticlockwise.’
Bellen laughed so much he almost lost concentration and let the image disappear but eventually got the Queen’s image following the instructions and the crowd did the same.
‘Miranda wake up! Yllandril Wake up! Llalorax Wake up! Darkmantle Wake up! ’
All four were instantly awake.
Darkmantle broke out laughing.
‘How appropriate! Puppets doing what puppets do best.’
‘They are doing a Newman special arm movement which requires great coordination of both arms simultaneously. I am checking whether they are all really hypnotized or whether some are faking.’
‘What a brilliant idea.’ replied Llalorax. ‘I shall move amongst them and check.’
‘I know you better.’ chuckled Yllandril. ‘You’re making fun of them aren’t you?’
‘Well Bellen thinks I am and I guess they do look rather funny but there is a serious side. I think we won too easily. I think there are more of those Mentarin here but more deeply hidden than the ones that left.’
‘I see your point. If only I could fly then I could screen their spirit auras from above.’
‘Good idea.’ replied Aquitain. ‘I think we can make you fly. Hop in a bowl.’ And with that he lifted the bowl containing Yllandril up with telekinesis and flew her around above the crowd. After about five minutes she decided that she couldn’t detect any more double spirit auras so he lowered her to the ground and asked Bellen to get his Queen illusion to talk some more.
‘Ok you faithless bunch of schemers listen carefully. Soon I am going to ask you to awake. After you awake you will accept the fact that I am dead. If Queen Aurora appears again you will know that it is not the true Queen Aurora but a fake. You will not listen to this fake Queen Aurora. You will hold a council meeting and select a new Queen and work together and support her to fight your enemy the Mentarin. Now everyone Awake!’
Immediately the crowd awoke and there was noise everywhere. What had happened? Why were they standing there doing such silly things with their arms? When were they going to select a new Queen? What were they going to do about the Mentarin threat?
‘Bellen use the Queen illusion to tell them to be quiet.’
The trixie did this but this time the crowd ignored the Queen illusion completely.
‘Well done Bellen! I am proud of you. You can dispel the illusion of the Queen. It has done its job.’
