Finally, daughter and father stop crying and whispering to eachother
....a strange shorthand that Fred nor the other's can understand....the
former king turns his head and stares up at the Golem who brought him here.
"Sir," Natthias says in a calm voice. "I'd appreciate it greatly if....I
could hold my last surviving member of my family....." The last part ends
in a ragged hitching voice.....one filled with grief for those that he's
lost. But.....the man has regained something he had thought he had lost
forever.....and could now face the future. He had a reason to live.
Probe shot the manbear a questioning look, and the mage nodded.
"He's got a sense of self control that makes some of the Zen masters
I wished I could have studied under seem.....party animals!" the bemused
Synizn mutters as Probe undoes the restraints to the jacket. "It's like
the lycanthropy doesn't even effect him!"
Natthias stand and hugs his daughter, and then pauses in confusion as
Alicia looks up at him in confusion. Her noise is telling her....that this
is the were-jackal that had tried to kill her! When the former kind is
told of what he had tried to do.....
"Good Lord," whispered Natthias in horror, then spends two seconds throttling
down the urge to howl in anguish at the emotion. "I had....I never meant
to......"
"Sir," Fred says softly. "You had been driven insane by all that had
befallen you....your nation.....our family. You MUST not hold yourself
responsible for actions taken at the time, for you were NOT in your right
mind......I hold you not responsible for trying to silence the song of
my.....soulmate."
Similar murmurs from those around the stricken Natthias echo Fred's
sentiments.....all except for one.
"Madness or no," Astra grinds out darkly. "If my husband dies from what
you did....." There was the promise of slow and painful death in the crimson
haired Amazon's eyes.
"Astra?" Alicia whispers in shock. "He....."
"He broke Will's back," the furious warrior princess whispered hoarsely.
"I will neither forgive....nor forget that. Only the fact that he is your
father, friend Alicia, is the reason why he still breaths."
Astra's gazes then falls upon the silently watching Golem, who stands
there like some statue covered in camaflauged uniform.
"You!" Astra says, coming up and looking eye to eye with the construct.
"This Alliance has a science.....or a magic not of this world, correct?
"Then heal my Willian!" Astra commands Probe.
Probe looks at the fiery Amazon, and silently applaudes the woman's
bravery....if not her common sense.
She must know by now what an Avatar can do, thinks Probe. Yet
she acts like she'll run me through with that sword at her side if I refuse!
Problem is......
"Princess Astra," Probe says in a sad voice. "While a decent medical
clinic could indeed make your husband walk again, but.....I have no way
of getting him to a clinic!"
"But what about an Enemy clinic......or perhaps even some demi-animal
hunting grounds?" Fred asks to head off the incipant mayhem he sees in
Astra.
"Enemy medical gear is even worse than none at all....since it's for
the reptillian body," Probe says, reviewing his data files. "As for what
the other....wait one......"
The Golem grows still, and appears to be having an internal dialog....which
he is.
-
 <Probe paging Inquirer!>
the AI shouts over channel. <Probe paging Inquirer! Because Inquiring
minds Wanna know it!!>
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