Princess....

But they get a surprise. The girl is obviously not an Astra!

Joan

Now, I know what you're probably thinking. That this naked woman chained to the wall is the Mistress?

Well.....

I agree that it could be possible. Heck, with all the recent events, I wouldn't have been really too shocked.

Lord knows with the wildest rumors that had floated around the human army's ranks durning the Human/Dragon war having been proven possible (that the Dragons could develop a blood curse that changes humans into dragons) what with the last quest we've just completed (and, of course, Malachi 2).....

Nothing had ever been proven, and the Synizn of my world had laughed at that rumor when he'd heard of it....

Personally, I'd laughed at such things as well, but.....

Well, with this business of the dragon's mother is strange. At least after a bit of thought I realize that the "Mistress" hates to be called that, so the dragon's mother can't be her.

Doesn't preclude the possibility of her being the chained lady before us.....

Hrmph....

Well, what with the tales I've heard from my analogous brothers (Champions and those non-Champions from the Red Pyramid), whenever a Fred came across a young, naked woman chained to the wall in this side passage it usually was Astra. Now, this woman who's hanging her head down, clearly unconscious, doesn't appear to be Astra. The other possible answers who this prisoner could be the Master/Mistress. That would remove the second and third of the problems which I identified. If you go that route, I don't know whether enough time will have elapsed for her to have lost her moustache (hair in her face is blocking my view). If she still has it, she'll be being driven crazy by her inability to twirl it (shackles prevent such movement). If she's back to what now passes for normal for her, will the we recognise her?

Wait, I just remember! Inquirer, shamefacedly, had shown us a picture of her handywork by interfacing with a monitor and calling forth a blurry memory of the event. The Golem had been struck intoxicated when the Mistress had hit her with that damn Tissue Compression Eliminator thing, unfortunately for the Mistress. Inquirer has a wicked sense held in check by her good sense. She'd said that the cantrip for the beard and laugh would fade in a day or three even if left alone.

Rumor had it that the Mistress had been in a panicky quest to break this spell, not aware of that....

Could it be?....

Well, there are other possibilities here. She could be either my sister Rowena or Fredrina. There is some kind of magical barrier blurring her image from here. Could be Belinda's younger sister Carola (fourteen, though looking more like sixteen given her Amazonian heritage), or even Princess Exotica, who I only saw in passing back a little before my quest. Or it could of course be someone we've never met before. Finally, it could be Astra after all, either disguised by an illusion or genuinely transformed by the dragon.

The shimmering barrier flickers a bit more, and the chained girl behind it's color darkens into an ebony....black.....woman. And the figure has filled out to a very buxom, hair growing down to her ankles.

Kind of looks like a succubus, minus the demonic bat wings and tail.....

She groans and looks up, and I, and Belinda gasp, recognizing her face!

Well, looks like the Mistress is still unaccounted for....

"Oh shit," she whispers, looking down at herself and then at us.

"Such words from such High Blood," I whisper, inanely.

She then scowls, shouting out defiantly to the walls.

"Damn you wyrm! You shall not fool Princess Exotica, Daughter of the Royal House of the Great Kingdom into trusting these illusions!" she says, struggling against her bonds, "You shall not trick me into signing anything in blood like you did like you gloatingly told me you've done with Belboz!"

The mage who's corpse we'd burned after killing him, to prevent him coming back as a haunting spirit.....

"Princess?" Belinda whispers, heading towards the chained woman.

"Wait!" I and the mages shout, holding her back.

I pick up and throw a pebble at the place where the barrier was....and am rewarded with a blinding flash of light!

"Booby trap," I say softly, pointing at the glyphs over behind one stalagmite.

The mages had sensed the magic, themselves.

1. I'd caught it flashing out of the corner of my eye just as the barrier apparently fell!

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