A Potential Problem

Arkas closed the door, and then said: "That's better. Now, D'Honaire, first things first. Now that you have been assured that your friend is safe and well, perhaps you would be willing to tell me your story?" Fred's first impression of Arkas had been favourable, and in any case he had no reason not to co-operate - quite the reverse, in fact. So he repeated the story which he had already told to Ringroot when under the influence of the shaman's truth potion.

When Fred had finished, Arkas said: "That is a truly remarkable story. I'm afraid I can't say why you should have changed into a demifox - or whatever it is that you now are - within a matter of a few hours of being 'infected', when Elder Ringroot and his human test subject have shown no sign of any effect whatsover after a much longer interval. A number of possibilities occur to me, but they are no more than speculation at this point, so I'll keep them to myself for the time being. However, I'd very much like to hear your friend's story as well. I've heard it at second hand from you and from Ringroot, but that is not quite the same as hearing it from her own lips. Also there are some questions I'd like to ask her about precisely what happened when Minestus transformed her."

"I'll have her brought here and then awaken her," Ringroot said. He opened the door to speak to the guards: "Two of you go and get the female and bring her here. Try not to drop her." Two of the guards left to do as they were ordered.

"I'm quite hopeful of being able to change you back using this Crystallic, if it is as powerful as is claimed," Arkas said to Fred. "Once I've heard your companion's story, I will ask Ringroot to have it brought here - for I'm sure that he keeps it locked safely away somewhere. Then I will need to assess its powers, and perhaps to try out one or two minor spells on inanimate objects, to make sure that I can control it. That will probably take an hour or so. If all goes well, I will then be ready to attempt to change back the two of you.

"I said that I was hopeful of being able to change you back, D'Honaire, but I should warn you that I'm much less sure about your friend. If it is true that she's in the early stages of pregnancy, then I'm afraid that greatly complicates things. You see, changing the embryos into human ones, without disturbing the pregnancy, may be beyond even the Crystallic's power. And even if that can be done, there may be too many in the litter for a human woman to be able to bring them to full term. Leaving them as demifox embryos when she was transformed would almost certainly be fatal both for them and for the woman. And it is almost certainly too early in the pregnancy for an induced premature birth to be safe, prior to transforming her. The final, and probably most straightforward option, would be to make the embryos simply cease to exist. However a lot of advanced magical artifacts - and the Crystallic may be by a wide margin the most advanced still in existence - contain a built-in safeguard against taking intelligent life. That may not apply to the Crystallic, or it may be that it wouldn't count embryos as intelligent. I won't know until I get to use it."

Both Fred and Ringroot's faces darkened at this. Fred was naturally concerned that it might not be possible to restore Astra. Ringroot knew that to leave the female in her current form, even should she should prove not to be infectious, risked divine retribution. He would hate to have to do it, even though she had bitten him, but if there was no alternative then he would have to have her killed.

At that point the two guards who had been sent to collect the sleeping Astra from her locked room re-entered.

1. But Astra was not with them. "Where is she?" Ringroot asked. "She's gone!" one of the guards replied. Ringroot's jaw dropped open.

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