Further Shocks for Astra

"You mustn't do that!" Astra said. She herself had calmed down a little now from the shock of seeing her illusory dress suddenly change colour. "It's not his fault. When I knocked at his door, he had just been practising a spell, and when he answered my knock some of the residual magical energy must have affected my imaginary dress. He did warn me that we shouldn't stand chatting in the doorway, though the risk was very small. But by that time the damage must already have been done. This is not exactly ideal attire for a kidnapper, though. I'm hardly going to be able to fade into the background. At least with our table being tucked away in a corner of the bar, and the place being so quiet, nobody else seemed to notice the change."

"You only mentioned the dress. I guess that you haven't realised what else the magic has done to your appearance?"

With Astra's new complexion and in the dim light of the vestibule to the bar, it wasn't easy to see her expression, but Fred thought that he detected alarm in her face. "There's more? What else has it done to me?"

"Your hair appears to be as black as night."

Astra grabbed a tress and pulled it forward so that she could see it. She sighed. "Well, I suppose that it could be worse. At least I needn't worry about anybody recognising me now, extremely unlikely as that was anyway."

"No, I don't think that anyone would recognise you. You see, your skin now appears to be dark brown - pretty much the colour of a ripe chestnut."

"What! I'm going up to my room. There's a mirror there, and I want to see what I look like. Meanwhile, I would like you to return to the others, please, Fred. Try to smooth things over, and tell them that I'm going to have an early night and will see everyone at breakfast."

"All right. If you insist."

1. Meanwhile, Ambaric is explaining the situation to the two Cedrics.
2. Unfortunately someone else has witnessed Astra's change.
3. Unfortunately the colours of the illusion are now unstable, and will continue to change randomly at unpredictable intervals.
4. Astra will soon discover that most of the people of the Western Kingdoms are prejudiced against those with dark skin. (And of course her apparent attire doesn't help.)

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