Complicated connections.....

A certain Atlantian artifact was getting......vaguely annoyed. It's current welder, one that had drank part of itself into himself, was making demands rather rudely.

Did the holder know how to use it? No, he did not! To make matters WORSE, the current user was a descendant of one of the subject races!

The prior holder had been incompetent, but at least he was of the same race as the Crystallic's maker! If the Crystallic had any illusions about the users lack of magical skill, it had been dispelled during the last use by the former holder had nearly exterminated the young female (with the as of yet seven unborn fetal units within her). The only thing that had saved the female unit was the fact that the assimilated part of itself, the Crystallic, prevented her destruction.

The Crystallic could not willingly destroy itself, unless specified by the owner in a prescribed manner. Thus, measures had been taken, and Astra spared death.

Furthermore, since magical knowledge was the keystone to the artifacts more quicker lethal measure, the Paine Gang had been spared the same fate as a certain manipulative dragoness in another universe.)

The Crystallic just hoped that his Creator, Lord Tesla, didn't hold it against him!

That was the FIRST part of the problem. The rest was even worse!

First, the wielder wanted "us" to be transported to one who he was going to fix. From inference, the Crystallic assumed that he meant just the user and itself. HOWEVER, since itself was also present within the user, the young female human, and the young male human.....that meant that THEY must come along as well! But.....that's not what the demand meant.....but that's what it boiled down too.

The Crystallic wasn't going to diminish itself in that way. It would have been MUCH better if the whole of it's essence could have been consumed. Thus, the consciousness that made up the Crystallic could retire from it's dreary existence and go to the great Beyond as the consumer(s) became the new vessel known as the Crystallic. But, alas, only a small portion had been consumed and assimilated into the humans and dwarf......

Second and more vexing was the NATURE of the request!

It's wielder wanted it to teleport himself and it.....not just to another place geographically, but to another parallel world entirely!!

The chance of complete and horrible failure approached 100 percent in such a risky endeavor!! That's what it's brother, the inter-dimensional branch of the slipgates. There was a almost certain happening of both user and Crystallic being hung between universes, forevermore!

The Crystallic could warn the user, for it was against the Rules.

Nor could the Crystallic use any leeway in this request, the dwarf had specified specifically that IT was to do the job.

Then, let us not forget the Safeties against there being MORE than one Crystallic together in the same universe!! It had no leeway here! Lord Tesla had been VERY specific about this for he did not want any potential rivals to gang up and overwhelm him with a chorus of Crystallics.

Then, if the Crystallic had eyes, it would blink them.

Perhaps it had leeway after all!

It just realized that the destination was one where the slipgate system was breaking down early (how that happened was curious to the Crystallic). With that in mind, all Safeties were off! So, once there, the Crystallic needn't worry about violating the Rule against more than one Crystallic being there (among other things).

For a brief second, the Crystallic wondered if other Crystallics had to live by the same rules as it did. Then it "laughs" at the sacrilegious thought, and carried on.

The dwarf and the humans had assimilated portions of the Crystallic. Thus, it could be said that the Crystallics would only be transporting itself! If the humans and dwarf were carried along, then the Rules wouldn't have anything to say about it. It was purely incidental!

It would be a rough ride for them, though. And perhaps even a bit embarrassing once they got there.....

What would happen to the Crystallic, once it got there was a mystery. By the Rules the Crystallic must STAY with the holder....but by the route that the Crystallic was forced to go.....the dwarf wasn't TECHNICALLY going to be the holder.....if this trick was going to work.

The Crystallic sighed, mentally, and.......

*************************

Fwoop!

Rift (nicknamed Rifts, Rifter, or Rifty sometimes by a taciturn dwarf as a jab at the lawyer's vanity), stares at the piles of clothing and battle axe left behind. He glances around, and then seeing nothing amiss, sighs in relief.

"Not even dust," Rift mutters to himself, examining the clothing. "Even the gem must have evaporated!"

Must be that dwarves can't use the Crystallic without destroying them and such! Rifts reasons to himself. I'm damn lucky to be alive, then!

Having already written off any chance of reaching the dragon's hoard when Tarin had obviously lost what little sanity he'd possessed, Rift then blinks as he comes across the note he'd entrusted with Tarin to keep Princess Astra in line. He then smiles and nods. He just had a stroke.....of genius.

His search then comes across the damning Pact he had made with Tarin, to spare him his life so long ago that fateful night. Rifts is still smiling, but it's grim. Now, with the Pact finally in hand.....Rift had his hands upon his freedom!

"With the death of one of the Primary contract members," Rift says in a solemn tone. "I declare this pact null and void!"

Rifts is surprised when upon the Pact being torn, nothing more spectacular than the sound of ripping happens. For a second, Rift wonders whether or not the Pact had ever been real (and if so.....he'd been fooled for so long!) Then he laughs, just putting down the lack of special effects as a sure sign that the damn dwarf was well and truly deceased!

"But that DOES give me an idea," Rifts says suddenly to himself as he looks at Master Notch's Pact. "That fool wouldn't know about poor Tarin's demise....and this Pact would work wonders on keeping him under my control...... hmmm....."

So, the corrupt barrister packs the gear that had been left behind by the vanished threesome. He might not be able to cash in on Minsetus' Hoard.....not even cash in on selling Astra as a slave! However, if he was lucky, perhaps Astra's parents would be willing to pay a small sum for silence about their daughter's......delicate condition. A small fee to prevent the rabble from knowing that Astra had conceived out of wedlock......

Played correctly, the royals would find out too late that Astra had shuffled off her mortal coils. Played correctly, Rifts could remain anonymous and reap a profit from this disastrous trip!

If not, at least Rift had Notch's Pact to hold over his head!

Meanwhile, adjustments to key points in DNA are made to a few humans before popping back into existence. Three figures, naked as on the day they were born, each have their eyes roll up in their heads and they hit the stable floors, unconscious!

Meanwhile, the Rules nod and allow the Crystallic to transport itself (and incidentally a few "squishies" as biological units are sometimes nicknamed). However, they Rule that the Crystallic must be with the Holder of the Crystallic.....ALL of the Crystallic at that. Thus, what had been assimilated is harshly (but safely) yanked from the humans and dwarf, and re-integrated into the whole. The slightly disoriented Crystallic suddenly finds itself in the pouch of a certain female personaed AI/golem.....

1. And so.....

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