Starting with the Difficult One

"Help those who we can to complete their quests," Jarlath says,
smiling. "Come along with those who can return to their worlds and aid
them, or go in ourselves and finish it for them."

"Let's start with our 'sister' who they only call Astra as a
nickname," Astra 9 says, referring to the 'sister' who's finally gotten
that nudity curse broken. "That and her respective Fred as well...."

"Very well," Jarlath says, "but I think you may be starting with the
most difficult one first. All your 'sisters' are proud women, and
justifiably so, but Thessamar ix'latl seems the proudest of all. To be
blunt, she's rather an awkward customer, and I'm not sure how willing
she'll be to accept our help."

When Jarlath's group puts their offer of help to her, it goes rather
as Jarlath has foreseen. "I'm naturally very grateful for all you have
done for me," Thessamar ix'latl says. "Especially reversing my
transformation into Unseelie, of course, but also the nullifying of the
nudity curse. And if you can restore me to my own world, I shall be even
more grateful. But as for helping with my quest, I must politely
decline. I have already imposed on you more than enough, and anyway a
quest is a personal thing and those on them should try to accomplish
them without outside help.

"Actually, I'm not sure that I know what my quest is any
longer. The main reason why I was attempting to kill the dragon was that
the legend said that a dragon's blood could be used to remove curses.
That is no longer relevant. I am tempted instead to go after Sir John
and make him pay for his evil ways and what he did to me. [404]

"On the other hand, the Fred from my world did rescue me
from the dragon's clutches, so I feel I owe him something. I was
actually rather horrid to him after he freed me, I admit. I'm afraid I
found it hard to accept that I had needed rescuing by a mere man."

"Perhaps we should see whether he would like your help in his quest to kill the dragon, before you come to a decision?" Astra 9 suggests.