| Duke Zular, native...
"Wait," I say softly to this group of......strangers.
And how strange they ARE! By Heaven, I never saw a griffon before, much
less talking griffons!
As it was, it looked like the ebony male griffon looked like he recognized
me....
BRR! Very hostile look, there.....
Why, I have no idea. It isn't like I was out to poison people and gain
power! I use my skills to find counter agents to poisons. I've made more
than a few enemies in several in the Assassin guilds, my sources tell me.....
Anyway, I don't know what to make of this group, but something told
me that it would be in the best interest of all if I whispered into the
right ears (read the King's Advisors....helps to be a distant relative
of theirs) that they should be given a hearing.
And what a hearing it was! We find that the long feared Dragon is dead!
That...and....the Dragon was actually a rogue mage reviled by the Order
of the White Hand.....and this Minestus was actually the public face for
the real dragon......
Ack, while I'm politically astute (have to be to be able to have a chance
of surviving going against the King's decree like that....networking does
wonders)....the full implications haven't been seen in my mind yet!
While I have MANY questions the first question out of my mouth was how
come Frederigo.... er..... "my" Frederigo (since I see so many duplicates
of him about....along with duplicates of this worlds Astra) stood against
that travesty in the Court.
In the past my long time rival had sided on the King's side, despite
justice being violated.
Young people were put to death by that senile man (it's beginning to
show in his speech). I recognize the signs of Delgrado's Syndrome easily
within his last speech before my rival went out to kill the Dragon (where
it slipped in with the rather childish choice of wording: ".....and
been an all around mean dragon."). That and other signs.....
Sigh.
But I dare not try to overthrow him....for it would weaken the nation
and open the door to the Dragon and his minions.....and OTHER nations who
view us as an enemy to be crushed under their feet.
The dragon may be gone, but the other nations are still there.....
Anyway, that aside the answer I got from them was VERY.....interesting.
I learned that the tales my mage tells me (and he was eager to share
once he found out that I was sincere.....usually people tend to look upon
mages as necessary evils....and their knowledge was something that ordinary
people should not delve into)...... He told me about doppleganges and other
versions of this world.
I'd thought it so much moonshine until today with all I've seen....and
heard from them tell their tale......
So I have....had several evil twin brothers floating out in the multiverse
as they call it.....
I'm not a rube, but my gut instinct....says they are being truthful.....
Well, I'm sure that if I ever came across one in life....we'd be at
each other's throat....
I don't know where they went after they left....and wonder sometimes
at night as I try to sleep at night what kind of world they are going back
to.....
Where ever they went, the Frederigo D'Honaire of my world went with
them it appears. He's been missing for months now.
Strange enough, but the really interesting (and uplifting) thing is
the change I saw within "my" rival before he'd left. It was the initial
answer he gave me to my first question as he smiled and hug one of those
Astras (Astra 8 she called herself....).
"It was the right and honorable thing to do," he'd said simply.
And so Andrea 2 (deciding to stay a demifox due in large part that her
father had rejected her...and perhaps was spiting him in staying a demifox).
The others try to console her the best they can and reflect on how ironic
it is that despite all they have at their disposal....all the good luck
they'd had up until now that there are still things that can't always be
helped....
The curse of demifox lycanthropy, as per the demifox mage's request
to the Rules and Agents, was altered into a similar....er....upgrade as
what the manimal had. In other words, the demifox became yet another real
species instead of those under a curse.
So, pregnancies restored, the Aninas officially adopted by Queen Astra
(much to their chagrin) to become the mothers of ALL the Astras.....
-
 Later, on
the order of ten years back on Terra Prime.....
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