Iron Bound Thoughts

After he had finished with Astra he had taken her back to the wine cellar and then called his servants to return her to her bunk room. She was unconscious and Synizn expected her to remain so for a very long time. The ordeal of the examination had been great and though there would be no scars left upon her body, the marks left upon her memory would not fade any time soon.

And then Synizn had returned here, to his secret chamber nestled next to his hidden laboratory. He sighed as he made his notes in his book. There was no doubt left now about how far Minestus had mastered the Crystallic and its hoary magick. And with the knowledge and power that the Crystallic had given him Minestus had achieved a level of mastery over the Arcanae Altahrerum, the magics of transformation, that none of his peers could have even dreamed of.

Next to Minestus, Synizn's arcane gifts were like those of a child. Now moreso than ever. Putting down his quill for a moment and taking a deep quaff from his goblet Synizn cursed Minestus for the thousandth time. Once, he - Synizn - had been a dragon of some standing. Young though he was by the reckoning of his race, he had achieved much. But then, as often befalls the young, his arrogance and ambition led him by the hand to his own downfall. And Minestus had been the architect of his humiliation. But without the Crystallic Minestus could never have humbled him so. For Minestus had cursed him in a way that should not have been possible. The deep laws of the unseen worlds should have protected Synizn, but with the power of the Crystallic Minestus had been free to break those laws, free to twist Synizn's flesh and trap his soul.

Synizn remembered the horror well. Minestus had visited his horrid curse upon him forty-three years ago. Just a blink in a dragon's eye. Not so for Synizn though, for from that fateful night onward Synizn was stripped of his draconic nature and condemned to live his life in the flesh of a man.

At the time Synizn had been powerless to comprehend how it was that Minestus had accomplished this. No magic in the world should have been able to cut him so. In the years that passed he thought often on that night and the events which had led up to it. Synizn had put himself in a dangerous situation and so used his powers to affect a disguise that he thought would protect him. He had used his magic to metaform himself, to change the very nature of his body into a thing that not even Minestus could have recognized.

But even so, Minestus did know. And to punish Synizn Minestus trapped him in his betrayer's guise forever.

And Synizn was blasted to his very soul by what Minestus did to him and he wandered, dazed and lost, for a long time after. Until Malachi found him. And then hope anew sprung within Synizn's cold heart and, as is the Dragon way, his hope burned with vengeance.

And so the two of them, Synizn and Malachi, joined together once again to fathom the dark designs of their enemy Minestus. Others too there were, but all was done in secret silence so that not even a whisper of warning might reach Minestus' Peak. And in due time they discovered many things and also came to understand plainly what had always been before them. And the truth shocked them to the core.

Minestus had become a god.

1. Synizn put down his drink and then turned the page...

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