| "You seem rather...well…at ease at being a ghost," Ajax says, curious.
"What gives?"
"Inquirer performed one of her religion's ceremonies over my body before
she put me in that icebox," the frozen princess says. "It wasn't a burial
ritual, but a preparation ritual used to sanctify a body so the spirit
doesn't become angry as a physician does medical examinations on the corpse.
"I awoke strangely calm, but knowing that there was ONE last thing that
I could do before I depart," the ghost finishes. "I owed Inquirer for service
she did me by saving me from becoming a vampire. I did that. You did your
last act by giving a final, critical report that will save your friends'
asses!"
"This is true," Ajax smiles as a golden shaft of light flashes down and draws the exultant spirits to their reward. "And think! You'll be the talk of the Hereafter! Not many people can brag about how their dead body led to a means to save so many so quickly!!"
Astra 4 and Fred 4 look more than a bit distraught at all this. So do
several others, who know that the mages can either save Terra after using
the Crystallics in battle against Zerm and his cronies, or use the Crystallics
to alter themselves back to normal (and totally exhaust them making them
easy meat for Zerm afterwards).
Black Astra leans back onto her pillow, putting herself out of the field
of view of the magical mirror she'd been using. Black Astra smiles grimly,
and nods to herself. She knows her duty. Her primary concern had been dying
in childbirth and/or losing her children in childbirth. Ironically, through
the magic of Science-not the mystic arts-she and her children were safe
(she smiles as she looks over at the new ones in the incubators by her
bedside). Though she still looks freakish in her present state, being left
a tall ebon skinned woman was a small price to pay for saving Terra AND
defeating Zerm (a name made infamous in her family.) It was enough, and
her loves would make her whole.
Fred 4 is whispering to his silently crying wife.
"But better a demifox than dead and without you, love." Fred 4 whispers
into Astra 4's fox ears. She nods, hugging Fred for support.
Sato has an idea.
Sato, looking at the demifoxes and Black Astra realizes the problem,
and knows something.
"It could just kill two griffin with one spell bolt," Sato mutters to
himself. That spell he'd developed so long ago, in those dire...frightening
days of yore with the Altantian threat would do quiet nicely."
|
