Direct Approaches and Some Unwelcome (?) News….

Annafried

“Crystallic,” I say, holding the gem/artifact up before me. “Would you please awaken the Changeling before me if you can. . . .do it without endangering her?”

I’m rather hoping for a quick answer and cure here, frankly. I really want to be able to get on with this and get around to curing Jarlath! Poor dear, even temporary blindness (though he hides it well) is so hard for him, considering his history!

The gem changes colors for a few seconds, turning blue and then pink (then back to amber) before answering. It appears that I surprised it by addressing it directly like a person.

Maybe the others would be surprised at the turn of events, but they’re busy right now with other things. However, that said I had known that analogs of it from other realities had always had (or gained over the years and centuries) personalities and sentience. Why NOT address it as a person instead of a thing. Other magic users (outside my Clan) had disagreed when I broached such thoughts, being too used to magic items being only tools and nothing more (can’t talk with them)….

Negative, I hear finicky but somewhat surprised (and please--but tinged with an apologetic tone indicating it wish he’d had better news to bear- -at being acknowledged as an entity by it‘s user). Awakening target/subject at this juncture carries a 75% chance of the most violent of Matrix fracture/insanity, homicidal rage. This assumes we begin immediately. The odds get worse with each passing moment, mistress.

This is if a normal magic user like one of my group tried it. Being I’m not a magic user (and the only one available right now given the time limits), the chances are MUCH more dire.

Shit, if we hadn't needed to waste time fighting that worthless Belboz we'd.....

Sigh.

The Crytallic (I assume that the voice is the Crystallic) continues on, basically stating that there was only a one percent chance of awakening with her mind intact, stating that the odds were some kind of insanity would otherwise result (the most dangerous, of course, becoming a homicidal maniac).

Sorry mistress, it finishes up, Would that I would have better news.

However, on something of a happier note, the Atlanian artifact says that it can return Checkers to her rightful form (or rather remove the Changling curse, and thus her body would revert to normal). However, the Link between her and the Glider’s land was now too strong (and alien) for the magnificent artifact to break. Perhaps, it concedes with more than a little trace of distaste, not even an it’s creators could have broken the Link safely.

……

That makes a certain amount of sense. This and other types of magic concocted back in those desperate early days of the Dragon Nations, they’d taken drastic and fantastic (some quiet lethal to the implementer) steps forward in magery to counteract any possible attacks on their lands by Atlantis. Seems that this admission puts to rest some debates I’ve heard buzzing about still amongst the magic users (draconian and otherwise).

Ah, but this is not important right now. What’s important is doing right by Checkers by her wishes. I’m not going to unilaterally change her back, only to find out she’d grown to love being a dragoness! Goodness, might even make things worse by doing that because that would have meant her mind had accepted the changes to the Matrix and shifting BACK could cause the mind to crack….along with the Matrix…

Strange business. Yes, I must say I’m glad I am not a magic user. Give me the old fighting field any day to this…

Being that I’d rather not have to fight Checkers for obvious reasons, I sigh for a moment, thinking defeat but then realize another tactic might work here.

Where we cannot talk to her whilst awake, I can use the Crystallic to speak to her in dream….

And entering in, I see her mind awash in a tug of war between enculturation for her birth form and the seductive pull of being a dragoness. Even as remote as I am, I can feel the pull myself and thank GOD I’m not experiencing it first hand. The fact she hasn’t succumbed already speaks volumes about her….

In dream I explain (quickly!) what she faces and the dangers of whatever course of action she takes. But bottom line is that she’ll be bound to her land (and live and die as it lives and dies).

“So….I can be again a….weak and puny winged girl….and a potential dagger at my homeland’s throat because of that…or be more protective of it and myself by becoming wholly a dragoness…..?” Checkers asks me in dream, her self-visualization shifting back and forth between what she had been and what she was right now.

“Dragon….please,” she begs me, “The Dream foretold I was to play a...this part and ...it feels so gooood......“

A look of pure, unadulterated delight passes over her with the last ….and the Gem I hold flares….

The shifting stops, and a dragoness looks back at me….right before the connection is broken.

See, as I reel and sit down hard, dizzy, I realize that I should have expected that. As a Changling, she wasn’t fully a dragon so a bit of… leeway with the Link to her Land was still in effect. With her becoming full dragon means….she’s been reeled into the boundaries of her homeland. Bet you that her Hoard (something she really doesn’t need now but is still attached to her none the less) went with her…

….

Must make sure to have one of the mages or some such contact the Oriental Dragons of this world to give their newest member tips and trade secrets of Oriental Dragonkind. Right now, I’m too….

1. Tired to do it myself…

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