Exotica Explains the Spell

"Very well then," said Exotica. It angered her that Fred, someone who she liked and respected from what she'd known of him, could be so prejudiced, but at least he was reasonable. "The dragon is an old and alien being and uses magic very different from that we use, but any kind of magic would have both a caster and something on which it is cast. A spell of this kind would have to be cast either on the person or on the location the person is rendered unable to leave. I strongly suspect that it is the latter, since Velus already has a curse on him and it would seem unlikely for him to have two different curses cast on him at once. There are two known entrances to the caves, the one in Allaria and the one in Aqualaria. These would be the two endpoints of the structure that is accursed. What I intend to do is cast a spell, which would be rather hard to explain in layman's terms, which would teleport us to one of the endpoints--which one couldn't be determined beforehand, so we could be in either Allaria or Aqualaria. Of course, it could be that I'm completely mistaken, and we'll be teleported to another country or elsewhere in the caves or not at all. There is also the normal risk of spell failure and of the safeguards against teleporting into solid matter, especially since this spell will take intense concentration. So there's a fair chance that we might die. However, if we remain in these caves we will almost certainly die."

"I understand," said Astra. "Tell me, how did you know to use this particular spell. I doubt you studied it beforehand because you knew it would be of use in circumstances like this. And I doubt you devised it on your own, as you seemed to indicate that you are not an especially skilled sorceror."

"I devised it on my own," said Exotica. "It happens that this problem is related to the area of magic that I have the most understanding of, namely, magical geometry. As I said, I'm not completely confident it will work."

Meanwhile, Fred still waited sullenly beside them. Something Exotica had said was beginning to trouble him--"future dragonlayers will need to be powerful mages rather than warriors." It seemed that the rumors that Exotica had been studying magic in private without the knowledge of the White Hand, which Fred had before attributed simply to malice, were true. He'd also heard rumors that she had worked to undermine the White Hand's political authority. If the warriors who had been dragonslayers were thrown out and mages were brought in, perhaps these would hold no more allegiance to the White Hand than true dragonslayers did to feudal lords. Then, he began to wonder whether in fact it had been Exotica who had cast the illusions and set up the statues. Perhaps the real Exotica was dead and this was the dragon itself, seeking to weaken those who were truly capable of fighting it and aiding its rogue mage allies.

1. Fred becomes enraged and attacks Exotica.
2. Fred realizes that this is simply paranoia and goes along with her plan, for now, although he will certainly oppose having mages replace warriors as dragonslayers.

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