A Petrifying Prospect

Even before he woke Astra, Fred could see by the light of the almost full moon [56752] that she too had been affected, though the curse had not progressed so far as with Velus. Much of her skin still appeared normal, but there were blotches of gritty grey of varying sizes, the largest one covering much of her stomach and breasts. And there were streaks of grey in her hair.

That it should come to this, Fred thought despairingly. In this wild country, there seemed no hope of finding a mage of sufficient power that he might be able to undo the curse - or indeed any mage at all.

"Astra!" he called.

"Huh! Wassamatter?" Coming fully awake, she said: "Fred? Surely it's not time for my shift already?"

"No, it's not. I have some bad news, I'm afraid. The curse is starting to affect you, and Velus is even worse off. You both seem to be in the process of petrifying - turning into stone. I'm about to check on Cederik."

"Petrifying?! No wonder I feel rather heavy and stiff." She scrambled to her feet with less than her customary grace and agility.

"I don't know what we can try to stop or reverse this. Perhaps whilst I check on Cederik, you would go to Velus and see if you can comfort him? He's in a pretty bad way, with his face already too stiff for him to be able to speak intelligibly."

"All right." Fred thought that already her speech sounded very slightly slurred.

Cederik's condition turned out to be intermediate between those of the other two. After waking him, Fred woke Nixy, in case she knew anything about this particular curse. Then they all discussed what to do - apart from Velus, that is, since he could no longer speak intelligibly. He could no longer walk, either, so they held their conference where he lay, so that he could at least listen.

1. Someone had an idea.
2. Unfortunately nobody had any ideas.

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