| Meanwhile, Tarin had decided that the time had come to let his captive
come round, and enters into the cell that she is being held in...and stops
dead in his tracks!
"What in the name of the Gods?!" he gasps, looking down at the bulge
that he'd seen her lost after miscarrying her whelps that is now mysteriously
BACK.
He KNEW that the misborn had come out (he'd deposited their small corpses
in a rubbish bin....decomposing bodies were so unsightly).
What this mean....wasn't exactly clear right at this second to the ambitious
dwarf....but it made the guy nervous.
Whatever the dwarf is about to do next is put on hold when the Crystallic
he's carrying (doesn't trust the others for he worries about what they'll
think about him with a magical item) does something incredible. Something
that it's never done in it's entire existence.
Back during it's early years of existence, a bit after it's creation,
it had long and quiet (and fond) discussions with it's creator. But never
did it feel pain. Never did it scream in agony! The agony flashes outward
in a wave and is absorbed in most part by Tarin (who swoons and faints
at the shock of the pain). It also washes out and touches the two other
beings who'd ingested part of it. For them, it's a mere pang of hurt, nothing
more. However, it's enough to awaken one (who'd had what could only be
termed a vision from her goddess). Astra awakens in a fevered state and,
not questioning, rises and grabs the Crystallic. She disappears into the
dark tunnels....and by the inspiration of those not totally....sane.....the
dwarves who come running to find out what the source of the noise cannot
find her!
"Malachi....must find Malachi," Astra whispers over and over to herself.
It didn't make much sense at all. Malachi was dead. She'd seen her die.
But orders by her goddess were orders. And better yet, the dead dragon
held the key to her (and the sin that grew in her belly) redemption.
She wasn't going to let a little fact like death stand in her way like
that stop her!
She soon finds a chimney that seems to lead out. Now, any sane person
would know that such a route (for one in her condition) should be impossible.
But she manages it (only getting stuck once or twice). She breaks out into
the daylight and runs...and runs....and runs.... Knowing that, somehow,
in this direction lay her salvation!
A bit earlier, by just a few minutes......
Captain Locke did not like these strange goings on at all. For all
Denom's apparent shock, Locke would bet that he was behind all this. These
people - as they appeared - might well be creatures that Denom had conjured
up in an attempt to free himself. (For Denom was a prisoner in all but
name.) They could be demons; the naked woman was most probably a succubus,
for instance. He only hoped that his and the other guards' weapons would
be some use against them. He drew his sword, and the other guards followed
his example. "Begone, foul fiends," he said, and he started to recite what
he hoped might prove to work as a prayer of exorcism.
The Champions looked at one another in astonishment. This wasn't at
all the sort of reception they had anticipated!
Jarlath is especially dismayed by all the weapons arrayed against them.
Yes, his magic and the might of his friends' and his loves' arms would
win the day (maybe)......
Well.....
"Damnit, I just wanted to see my father in Suffex so I can give him
my warning!" Fred groans, seeing his last little hope go up in smoke.
"No!" screams Rowena, seeing people above them on the castle wall start
to draw arrows on the group (with Fred in the middle of it). She jumps
impetuously in front of Captain Locke's group, ready to shield Fred from
that quarters, at least. She hopes to delay this slaughter so she can talk
reason into what appears to increasingly appear to be (to her) the simpletons
that have replaced her father's guard!
Annafrid, who had begun to make a connection between the Fred before
her and that of Fred 7, instead makes a move to stand before the startled
(and still naked) Thelma to defend her from this increasingly nervous armed
people before her!
"Well, hopefully it'll work this time!" Jarlath muttered, hoping the
Key will return them back to Terra Prime (and then perhaps back to their
intended landing sight in Suffex).
That's when all Hell breaks loose. For the Crystallic, the sudden removal
of part of itself rather unexpectedly form this reality was painful in
the extreme. As for Fred, a quick connection is made, and Fred suddenly
knows without any doubt that while the red haired woman isn't "his" Astra....she's
Astra, but "his" Astra is out their.....alive! That, and a slow transmutation
process that had begun in a few others begins in a few more people.....
That said, suddenly, feelings Fred had been trying to hide from himself
burst forth.....
-
 She's
alive! She's alive!! Fred kept thinking to himself as he suddenly appeared
elsewhere.
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