<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> 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 ___ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Shall we begin?” Balrog asked.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy nodded. “Follow my lead,” she said.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “All right, let’s take a look at that Curse.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “We must be careful,” she cautioned. “Make no attempt to change the Curse. I will show you where we need to work.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “There?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I understand. I am ready to begin when you are,” he said.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Lois!” the lutin yelled, suddenly feeling very relieved.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “It’s all right, calm down!” she shouted.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “What happened afterwards?” Julian asked.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Maybe he doesn’t even realize that he is Cursed,” Alex suggested.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Alex smiled. “At least that is good news. Perhaps he was merely confused by the sudden change.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “That is a certain possibility,” Lucy confirmed.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “So, what do we do with him now?” Julian asked.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “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.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Lucy would be the most logical candidate, in that case,” Balrog conceded. “She can use magic to restrain him if he attacks.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">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. <meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14"> <meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 14"> <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CNathan%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml">  <link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CNathan%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"> <link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CNathan%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml">  <style>  </style> </body> </html>