[Mkguild] The Illusive Chain: Coincidence (16/16)

[Azariah Wolf]

All right, this is the last part of Link 1.  I'll be taking a few days' 
break before I continue into the second Link.  Hopefully it will not be 
more than a week before I have enough of a buffer to be confident in 
continuing.

-LurkingWolf

___

With a deep breath, Lucy smiled to Balrog and then moved to retrieve the 
cage from the table in the corner.The room was beginning to gain a 
subtle chill, as the scrawl that occupied the center of the room had 
kept anyone from refueling the fire.It had kept the room's temperature 
up for quite a while, but the embers were slowly dying, and the 
temperature was falling as a result.It would be bearable for quite a 
while, thankfully, and if all went well they would be finished long 
before they became desperate for a coat.

Lucy took the cage and stepped lightly towards the center of the room, 
avoiding even the tightest of weaves with precise steps and a masterful 
eye for detail.As she reached the center she opened the cage and 
released the ermine into the innermost circle.After being trapped for so 
long, the creature quickly jumped at the opportunity to leave the wooden 
bars, only to find himself restrained to the bounds of the chalk 
circle.He made his displeasure extraordinarily clear to the mages who 
had fashioned this new prison, but any attempts to resist were turned 
away until the weasel stopped his escape attempt and stood watching the 
larger creatures at their work.

Balrog had finished his inspection well before Lucy returned to the 
border of the enchantment.The lutin stood with his arms crossed, 
watching as the young mage carefully placed the cage against a wall.She 
looked at the weaves that they had built, and at the ermine they would 
be working to restore.She knew what had to be done; it was the task of 
doing it that intimidated her.

"Shall we begin?" Balrog asked.

Lucy nodded."Follow my lead," she said.

She stepped into another circle of chalk that had been sketched on the 
floor's surface.She was not trapped as the ermine was in his own circle, 
but the two arcs had similar properties to protect against unwanted 
magic.Balrog walked calmly to the opposite side, stepping into a third 
shape that was identical in form and function to Lucy's own.

Once the lutin had set his feet and taken a deep breath, the girl mage 
raised her hands before her and began to slowly feed magic into the 
spell.The lines of chalk began to glow with their own light from her 
side, and the same light crept towards the center from where Balrog was 
standing.The feral animal in the center watched this in confusion, 
making quiet sounds as it watched the enchantment begin its work.Only 
when he began to rise up into the air at the command of an unseen force 
did he react, and that was only a brief panic.The magic soon pacified 
him, and he hung unmoving before the mages on either side.

"All right, let's take a look at that Curse."

Lucy allowed her vision to turn to things unseen, and she could see the 
strands of magic that surrounded Lois before her.Unlike her inspections 
over the past day, however, she now saw the lines in much greater 
detail, enlarged and projected before her as a function of the 
enchantment that Balrog had helped her draw.

"We must be careful," she cautioned."Make no attempt to change the 
Curse.I will show you where we need to work."

Indeed, rather than attempting to untangle the hopeless knot that was 
the spell known as Metamor's Curse, the two mages needed to move the 
threads of magic in ways that were already possible within the 
parameters of that Curse.Lucy carefully waved her fingers in the air 
before her, slowly finding the avenue they would be using.Once she found 
it, she used the enchantment to make the location clear to Balrog.

"There."A clear blue aura shone between several threads of magic, 
centered around one particular chord that was only barely distinct from 
its many nearby brothers.After a few moments of hesitation, another glow 
appeared near her point of focus, its green color distinguishing it as 
the lutin's work.

"There?"

Lucy waited, making absolutely certain that the lutin was in the right 
place.She needn't have doubted his precision, as he had flawlessly 
picked out the strand despite the sea of others in its area.With a small 
effort of magic, Lucy willed the enchantment to magnify the area a 
little more.

"Very good.All right, here is what we have to do."She slowly and 
carefully described the process they were about to attempt.While, as she 
had said before, she did not think that the spell had been attempted 
before, she was nearly certain that it came down to little more than 
moving a door on its hinges.The Curse was designed to be changeable in 
this way.

The only problem was that, with Lois' will set against their progress, 
she anticipated that it would be more like forcing a locked door whose 
hinges had been fused by a blast of heat, and less like turning a knob 
and pushing a door open.

Balrog listened to her description of the attempt silently, neither 
seeming confused nor indicating understanding until she had concluded 
her explanation.As she finished however, she heard him take a deep breath.

"I understand.I am ready to begin when you are," he said.

"Very well.Do what I do, and be careful not to touch anything apart from 
the strands I mentioned."Lucy took a deep breath.She did not worry about 
her own safety; both of them were putting enough power into the 
enchantment that the safeties would have no trouble turning back almost 
any backlash.She worried most about would happen to Lois if their 
efforts failed.She steeled herself; she was not about to let that happen.

With a rapid burst of motion, Lucy focused all of the power at her 
command into shifting Lois' form.Less than a second after she had 
started, Balrog drove his own will into the same effort as both mages 
braced for the resistance that they would meet.

The analogy of the door seemed even more apt in the next moment.That is, 
if that door had been made of tissue that had been soaked for hours in 
alcohol and then set aflame before two bulls charged through it.The 
startling lack of resistance that met their efforts sent Lucy physically 
stumbling from the exaggerated gesture she had used to direct the 
magic.Her foot scuffed through one of the chalk lines, thoroughly 
breaking it, and the enchantment collapsed.

In the center of the circle, a humanoid ermine also collapsed where an 
animal had been hovering a moment before.The reaction to the magic was 
so instantaneous that even Balrog, who managed to keep his focus on the 
ermine throughout, failed to notice any transition.One moment Lois was 
an animal, the next he had returned to his most humanoid form.

"Lois!" the lutin yelled, suddenly feeling very relieved.

The ermine, clad only in his fur, jerked as soon as he struck the 
floor.He had thankfully been only a few inches from the ground, but the 
fall was jarring nonetheless.The white-furred man looked around in a 
hasty circle, giving Balrog only a glimpse of his panicked eyes before 
jumping up to four paws.

"No!"The ermine slammed into the off-balance girl that separated him 
from the door, thankfully taking no time to more thoroughly deal with 
her as he passed.He slammed bodily into the portal, seeming to 
completely forget how doors were operated in the heat of the moment.The 
wood of the door stood solid against his lunge, however, and he turned, 
wild-eyed, to stare at the lutin who rapidly closed on him.

"You can't keep me here!I will escape!"He dove straight at Balrog's 
gut.The lutin absorbed the ermine's momentum, using it to lock his 
friend's head in a secure, but harmless position.He dropped to one knee, 
intent on letting the confused man tire himself out before he finally 
released him.

Lucy groggily rolled up onto her side and shook her head to clear it, 
looking up to see Balrog holding Lois in a headlock.She climbed back to 
her feet and scrambled over to kneel beside Lois.

"It's all right, calm down!" she shouted.

"You can't make me one of you!" he replied deliriously.He drove a 
stinging jab into Balrog's shoulder, but the stout man took it in stride 
and simply trapped his arm before a second strike could follow.Lucy 
grimaced, but she allowed a spell to take form in her right hand and 
touched Lois with it gently.He quickly stopped struggling and relaxed, 
the spell literally taking all of the fight out of him.

A moment later, the door burst open.Julian took the lead, and he took 
only a moment to survey the scene before acting.He threw his open palm 
towards Balrog, knocking the lutin sprawling onto his back and forcing 
him to release his grip on Lois.Before he could continue, Lucy met him 
halfway.


"Don't hurt him!" she demanded.When he attempted to elbow past her and 
continue his onslaught, the girl caught his arm and kicked his knee out 
from under him in a surprising display of speed and dexterity.Julian 
even lost his grip on his freshly-drawn blade in shock from her attack, 
and the fallen moondog prevented the two men following him from entering 
and acting too hastily themselves.

A few moments later, Lois' unconscious form had been set back on the 
table, a loose robe appropriated from the barracks for his use.Julian 
stood rubbing his shoulder in discomfort, while the rest of the group 
discussed what had happened.

"It seems that our theory was perhaps even truer than we had originally 
anticipated," Lucy explained."There was nothing holding him in feral 
form, not a single thing.I thought he would at least be willing himself 
to remain an ermine, but I doubt even that was true.There was no 
resistance to the shift, not even from the Curse itself."

"What happened afterwards?" Julian asked.

"I am not certain," Lucy admitted."Lois was agitated for some reason.He 
seemed to think that we were attempting to hold him prisoner."She ran a 
hand through her hair as she tried to decipher the events."He was 
yelling at us, saying that we wouldn't turn him into one of us."

"Maybe he doesn't even realize that he is Cursed," Alex suggested.

"I do not know how that is possible, but then again I am also still 
trying to figure out exactly why he was still an animal for nearly two 
days," Lucy admitted ruefully.

"One thing seems certain at least; he no longer thinks that he is an 
ermine," Balrog noted.Although the moondog Keeper's spell had knocked 
him flat on his back, there was no harmful aspect to it, since Julian 
had been attempting to protect Lois while knocking back his perceived 
attacker.The lutin had recreated his illusion from before, and now stood 
seeming more human than any of them but Lucy."While confusing, his 
actions after our spell succeeded were clearly taken by a man, not an 
animal."

Alex smiled."At least that is good news.Perhaps he was merely confused 
by the sudden change."

"That is a certain possibility," Lucy confirmed.

"So, what do we do with him now?" Julian asked.

"First, I'd say he deserves a more comfortable place to rest," Lucy 
suggested."It would also be wise to keep him under guard in case he 
becomes violent again.Balrog seems more than capable in that regard."

"While I certainly appreciate his help, I think I would be more 
comfortable leaving him under the charge of one of our patrolmen," Alex 
said."As much as anything, I simply feel that seeing a familiar face 
when he awakes may do him some good."

Balrog started to protest that Lois would know his face, but he was 
forced to admit even to himself that they had met perhaps twice in the 
last ten years.While Lois was new to Metamor, his patrol would still be 
more familiar to him now than the lutin would.

"Lucy would be the most logical candidate, in that case," Balrog 
conceded."She can use magic to restrain him if he attacks."

Alex nodded."Unless you have any objection to the idea?"Lucy shook her 
head to his question, and her commander continued."Very well, 
then.Julian.Nathan, could you go see if the barracks has any private 
rooms available?If not, see if there is a cushion that can lend us at 
least.I don't want Lois to wake up still thinking he's a prisoner 
somewhere."

While their ranks were effectively identical, the black wolf had no 
argument against the lynx's suggestion.He nodded and pushed through the 
door with no hesitation.The hardest part of their task was now 
done.Hopefully Dupré would not see that fact as a reason to immediately 
assign them all to border patrols.
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