| "May we talk with you three?" Astra, Jarlath, Joan, and Andrea ask
together....blending voices rather harmoniously, if not intentionally.
It made some of them chuckle, under other circumstances. Others don't,
and look rather worried. The chuckles of the others falter when they see
those frowns. Apparently the reasons as to why the adventures were calling
over was different for the mages than for the non-magic user types. Joan
has a question, but Thessamer, Velus, and Fred interrupt it before that
question can be asked.
The three in question, questions on their tongue, walk nearer. Jarlath
nodded, and reached into a pocket for something.
The dragon, finally getting over his own magnificence, comes back to
look into his scrying device and blinked.
"Where are they?" he asked himself rather surprised.
They were gone, again. This time, Velus was with the ranks of those
missing! Missing and well out of range of his scrying spells, it seemed!
The dragon scowled, beginning to wonder if his brilliant, complex scheme
was still viable....or perhaps.....just perhaps he'd been wrong....
Terra Prime, Dr. Vincent's Teleporter.....seconds later (relatively
speaking)
Joan is a Fred who got turned into a woman. Before Belboz, she'd been a man. She'd been a man named Fred, and looked like the Fred in this story right now. Face she sees in drawing is one that Fred wears (and one she'd worn before being transformed into a woman. The picture that Thessamer had drawn hadn't been completed, but it looked just like she'd then looked, before, and like what Fred looked like now. She rather liked her new face and body, but sometimes still felt that....having
been born with a face like that on the paper, it was her's still....in
a sense (by a sort of heritage). Thus is why she'd kept thinking of that
face in such an oblique manner earlier (re: 17224).
Anyway, she had been sure that nothing was really amiss when she'd seen
it. At first, it looked to be fine material indeed for some friendly needling
with Thessamer. Joan thought that Thessamer's heart had caused the hands
to draw it's love, unknowingly. But a split second right after she'd called
over the three people, she'd thought better of it (it, on second thought,
wasn't perhaps a smart idea to tease such a proud woman over such things).
Astra and Annafrid had had similar ideas as Joan about joking with Thessamer.
Annafrid felt that Thessamer would be big enough to take a joke. Astra,
knowing Thessamer pretty much (being analogs and all that) was almost certain
Thessamer would be able to take a joke....once she saw it was a friendly
jab and not a spiteful one. Since Annafrid had been a split second too
late in asking for Thessamer coming over (and rather amused by the unexpected
barbershop quartet), she'd stood back a bit to watch the fun of what happened
next.
That is, before arriving on the teleporter pad back on Terra Prime!
Both Annafrid, Astra, Fred, and Thessamer were asking why Jarlath had
teleported them back here!
Velus was blinking, shocked, and as such was silent.
.....
The Dragon of the Southern Caverns of Fred's world is powerful with
his magery and cagey with his manipulations. That, and in this case very
unfortunate to have crossed paths with two mages who not only got trained
by wyrms in the ways of magery, but who's potential in magic was so.....unusual
and powerful. Jarlath's wellspring of magic was increased to vast proportions
when that spelltower he'd been studying in burned down. Andrea's potential
peaked through indeed during that incident with Thaobath, despite the rather
little magical training she'd had up until then (only cantrips taught to
her by her nanny). Either one factor alone would make detection of a faint
whiff of dragon magic on that drum, but the dragon's drum had met up with
Jarlath and Andrea. Thus what is happening here.
Andrea, after a quick discussion with Jarlath, was going over to the
control console where Dr. Vincent had left it on automatic (man needed
more sleep at his age than before) and calmly erasing the coordinates of
Fred's reality from the system (after writing them down of course). Thus,
the different rates of time between Terra Prime and Fred's world came back
into play once the transporter lock was gone (and time passed much more
quickly on Terra Prime than it did on Fred's world).
First Andrea explained that thing about erasing the teleporter's data
banks of Fred's reality. Takes a few tries before she gets them to understand
what that was about....
Then Jarlath slowly explained that he'd found traces of draconian magic
on the drum. The traces had been almost overlooked with the spells he'd
used....but Jarlath was a mage who (like Andrea) had been trained by dragons
(as well as by others). That odd training let him and Andrea see what would
have been missed, otherwise, here.
And those traces being there meant that a strategic fall back was in
order to reaccess things. That and a bit of other business that Jarlath
and Andrea feared was the case here with a few new friends of theirs....
The last wasn't mentioned, though, yet....
"Simple enough for a mage to make.....can even possibly been done by
instinct by your dragon and thus keeping him merely a beast," the young
mage finishes up, "But then nothing would have been amiss with the descriptions
of events before Fred's and Thessamer's abduction by the Nameless Book."
"That and Velus' story of 'his' Belboz doesn't match with what's in
here." Andrea adds, pointing to the leather book that they'd used to track
down the realities where Fred and Thessamer had been dumped after being
blighted with the Unseelie Curse.
She then reads the entries (re:17190) to them in the ledger from the
Red Pyramid (something that had originally been intended to be given over
to Fred and Thessamer to do with what they would after this adventure was
over). Naturally, there was much argument after that.
"But.....that things wrong!" Velus protest yet again (for the tenth
time), extreme frustration and fear overriding the teen's better judgements
(peasants of his world don't usually go around ticking off mages and those
of high blood).
Luckily, the adventurers here were of a good sort....and weren't inclined
to take offense....
That said, Jarlath and Andrea look at each other in consternation (this
was going to be harder than even they'd first thought), then back at not
at the analogs, but rather Astra and Joan. Both had been rather silent
during this whole thing. With a trace of exasperation and not much hope,
Andrea asked if they'd noted any odd behavior during Thessamer's recollecting
the past. Neither Jarlath nor Andrea expected anything......but....
"Like getting through with drawing Sir John and then erasing it to draw
Fred?" Joan said softly, pointing at the pad of paper that Thessamer still
had in her hand, "Her hands drawing it and her seeming like she wasn't
aware of it while she'd been thinking about something else?"
Of all of the Fred analogs running around, the only that hadn't looked
like this particular Fred in the D'Honaire/Thessamer/John clan could
be counted on one hand. Thus recognition of the person on this pad of paper
was almost a forgone conclusion.
Fred, Velus, and Thessamer were now staring at the picture. Then, slowly,
they all looked up at the others....and were beginning to....wonder.
But in both Thessamer's and Fred's mind, it was almost like something
kept on trying to break through to make itself known. It was an....odd
feeling.
Why had Thessamer's hands erased Sir John's sketch and then drawn Fred's
picture instead when Thessamer hadn't been paying attention?!
"That doesn't necessarily prove alteration of memories by spell," Jarlath
said, "But I know of someone that could aid us in finding out....and have
an Hippocratic oath to keep silent so nobody need be embarrassed by all
this."
With the problem here of the mind, a healer was what could be used to
bring back those memories. The methods for bringing memories (science and
magic) back and fudging them were the same in most cases....oddly enough!
That said, frankly, enough prodding and probing by the Nameless Book
had been enough for done here to last a lifetime for all concerned. Thank
you!
So, to prevent further spectacle, some privacy would be a rather nice thing,
right?
On Nantucket Earth. In Voyager's Sickbay....moments later.....
The adventurers are standing in front of a desk in a side off. The Doctor
is looking up at them from where he sits.
"You want me to scan them for patches of anomalous patches in the memory
centers of their brains?" the Voyager's holographic, "Human" Doctor asks
quietly, perplexed, "Why not do it yourself by spell?"
In the background, the Voyager's holographic "Furry" Doctor is administering
treatment to one young blonde woman named Swindapa, to erase the damage
done to her fallopian tubes done by the brutal handlings of her captors
before being freed (re: 15394), while Swindpa.....er....friend (papers
had been filed for both to be "domestic partners") Marian Alston (Captain
of the U.S. Coastguard ship, The Eagle) and her mother (who'd arrived
back from what would have been called Stonehenge after learning from a
Voyager search team (on the search for a Unseelie victim) that her daughter
was alive and well and had almost forced her way onto the shuttlecraft
back to Nantucket). The Furry Doctor usually wouldn't have allowed an audience,
but these two were....rather formidable.
Whatever the case, that was a side issue not for now.
Jarlath sighed and leaned forward a bit on the desk.
"While readily done by magery it would be a long, delicate, and draining
process," Jarlath explained, "If rushed I or another mage could very well
destroy sections of the brain we wish to examine. The degree of concentration
needed..... The control....
Jarlath shook his head before continuing: "Then compare it to the rather
un-invasive and safe nature of science based examinations...."
"Oh," the Human Doctor blinks, understanding, "For something magic is
better than science and vice versa? Is that what you are saying?"
"That and quicker," Andrea added, "Especially with one as skilled as
yourself!"
A little flattery (laced with a lot of truth to back it up) always had
been said to agree with the analogous brothers of this machine intelligence
she'd spoken with in the past. From the way the Doctor was suddenly beaming
told her that it worked.
Moments later, after what seemed to be utterly eldritch and mysterious
to the three apparent victims of the dragon see the bald, apparently pajama
clad man put down what....looks to some to be a salt shaker.
"It's subtle, but it's there," the Doctor says finally, "I doubt I'd
have been able to have found it if you had not told me of it's possible
existence. Casual examinations wouldn't have found it."
"So we.....so things we remember aren't as they were," Thessamer says
softly, finally conceding, "Is there a way to restore our memories?"
The others quickly echo that question.
"It would take months but it could be done," the Doctor said, almost
unwilling, after a moment, "But being that you have a dragon still to slay
and all that....."
The Doctor pauses, feeling conflicting emotions over the whole of that,
what being a healer and all that.
"Go forth and seek your dragon friend Synizn 3 with that magic gem of
his," the Doctor finally says, "Perhaps with the skills dragons are reputed–from
what I've heard over the past few days– to have at healing the mind of
others, coupled with augmentation from the Crystallic, the truth can be
dug forth from the false.
"That could be a problem," Jarlath mutters, remembering recent plans
the love struck dragon had been having.
Somewhere along the lines during the search for the Unseelie Afflicted
here on Nantucket Earth, a comparison of skills of healing of minds had
been conducted between the various dragon mages. It came out that Synizn
3 was, amongst other things, an actually also a cleric of Tiamat
(thus the actual messages he gets from her from time to time). Being
that as well as a dragon mage meant that this dragon could draw upon a
wider range of magic (broader sphere of healing spells) as well as a deeper
supply of magic (his own supply and whatever Tiamat (or whatever) apparently
was willing to give him). Once he recovered from his ordeals getting to
Nantucket Earth and all, he'd have been perfect be able to extend the time
the Afflicted could mentally hold out against the Unseelie Curse until
cured.
Back then, it was a good thing him being of the Tiamat clergy. Now?
Er....like it had been said earlier, with leave given to him by his new
liege lord and lady (Demifox Fred and Demifox Astra).....he'd been planning
on going to a rather special holy city important to his faith with his
love to be wed! A special wedding indeed it would be, since Babylon on
Nantucket Earth was still a going concern!!
"Thank God he is not a religious zealot," Astra sighed, remembering that in Babylonian human theology/mythology that Tiamat had not been a...er...very popular goddess. In the human version of the story, Great goddess, counterpart of Sumerian Nintu. Tiamat was Primeval chaos that had been destroyed by her children to create the world. In dragon lore, similar accounts took place, but went on that Tiamat rose again to at first destroy her teacherous children as swell as everything that was there's. But she saw what they had created from her old form, the world, and saw it good. Touched enough by it's beauty and amazed her children could create such, she spared the world. Instead, the Mother of Dragons instead through a long tale stripped her children of most of their godly powers, weakening them and binding their wills to her own will. The treacherous children became her attendants, with her being their mistress in all things. These children were still important in the dragon's faith....but would be more like powerful servant spirits than anything else. If Synizn 3 said that to present day Babylonian human clergy....expect a fight. But as hot tempered as Synizn 3 could be, he wasn't stupid or rude enough
to say something like that. Heck, with those rebellious children now in
check by Tiamat....they were things that were important and holy to Tiamat....and
thus to Synizn 3 (and those dragons who still followed this faith) as well.
No danger there.....but....the Crystallic was back with this dragon
"Now, excuse me while I attend to some matters," the Doctor says, getting
back to chipping away at the long list of things to do.
The three victims look at each other, then at their muttering friends.
They'd heard that the dragon mage and his love had gone to Babylon to be
wed (somehow), but....
"Uh, how far away is this Babylon?" Velus ventures.
"A rather long walk," Joan sighed, "Or even a long trip by dragon back....and
while magic carpets are good and short for trips like what we made to get
out here.....it's way too long for Babylon as well. Magic carpets are much
slower than dragons, of course...."
With a key (the Crystallic) to the new Slipgate system of Nantucket
Earth, it would make the journey short indeed.
Too bad it was with the newlyweds to be!
"Don't suppose we can talk the leader of this wrecked vessel can lend
us a lift to Babylon?" Andrea asks the others, ears perked up at the thought.
Silence. Then....
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