<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Finally, I'm ready to start posting part 2 of this story! Sorry for taking so long. -LurkingWolf --- Link 2: Ignorance <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> The ermine opened his eyes to the familiar sight of a grey stone ceiling, dimly lit by a faint, flickering glow. Panic gripped him for a moment, causing him to bolt upright in the bed. As quickly as it had taken him, however, the panic faded. He remained cautious, but he could not divine the cause of his initial terror.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Now that he was sitting up in the bed, he could see that he was in a small but well-furnished room. He was sitting on a bed against the wall furthest from the only door. The cushion he was resting on was kept off the floor on a stout wooden frame, not particularly tall but high enough for the bed’s occupant to reach anything atop the adjacent table.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> On the table itself was the single guttering candle that provided the room’s only illumination. There was a small pack sitting behind the small candlestick, likely belonging to the girl in the chair at the foot of his bed. She seemed to have been asleep until recently, as she looked at him only a moment before he first noticed her.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Lois?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The ermine’s ear twitched at her voice. It took him a moment before he realized that she was talking to him.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Lois…” The sound of his voice seemed odd, like his tongue and teeth would not cooperate the way he was used to. In fact, as he felt about the inside of his mouth, he realized that everything felt wrong. First, there was far more space in his mouth than should have been possible, second, and more alarming to him, his teeth were all sharp and pointed.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The panic returned in a moment as he raised his hands before his face, finding that they were now covered by white fur on the backs and strange black pads on his palms and fingers. Those fingers were shorter than he remembered, certainly capable of grasping and manipulating objects but still significantly reduced in their flexibility. His right hand also featured a tangle of ugly scars where once the flesh had been entirely unblemished.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> In blind terror, the man swung his legs over the side of the bed, unable to see any unexpected changes due to the robe that hung to the floor as he stood. He looked about the room, hoping in vain to find a mirror.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “What’s wrong?” the girl asked. She stood quickly and walked beside him, trying to make eye contact even as he glanced around erratically.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “What happened to me?” he asked. His voice still seemed odd, but at least the foreign feelings did not keep him from being able to speak intelligibly.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “A lutin shaman cast a spell on you to increase the effects of the Curse. It took us two days to discover how to change you back. Are you all right?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The ermine turned to face her finally, gasping for breath in his desperation. Seeing her face, however, he came up short. There was a moment of confusion, and then a flash of recognition lit the man’s face.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Lucy,” he said simply. “Lucy, you’re a mage! Tell me, why am I some sort of animal?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> This plea brought the girl up short. She looked at him incredulously for a moment, but a realization slowly dawned in her eyes.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “You don’t remember?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The ermine shook his head, his eyes pleading with her to explain his unexpected change of form. He continued to watch her, even as she stepped back and walked a small semicircle back around the room, silently trying to explain the happening to herself.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “What is the last thing you recall?” she asked slowly. It was beginning to dawn on her that the man they had rescued was an assassin. If he had forgotten enough to be terrified to find himself turned into an ermine, could that mean that he had likewise forgotten his decision to give up his former employment?<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The ermine stared off into the ceiling to his right. His eyes darted about for a few moments, until he finally shook his head in frustration.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I don’t know,” he admitted, returning his gaze to the mage standing before him. “I remember, people, places… I remember events, but I cannot remember if I was ever there or if I simply heard of them from someone else. I remember you; I remember I met you after I came to Metamor to live…” He stopped, his eyes again darting for the ceiling. “Metamor,” he mumbled.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Why is Metamor Keep important?” Lucy prompted.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I came to Metamor because… Because it was home? No, I had only visited it once before. How could it be my home?” He grunted, clasping a fist to either side of his head. “Why can’t I remember?” His voice carried a very genuine degree of desperation.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy rubbed her chin as she considered the same question. “It must have been the spell somehow.” She winced. “Did we take too long?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “There has to be something you can do to help me,” Lois demanded. As Lucy’s expression turned sour, he groaned again and paced around her. He drove a fist into the nearby tabletop, making the candlestick jump and wobble briefly, which earned a cautious glance from Lucy. As it settled, she returned to her considerations.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Do you recall who you are?” she asked after some time.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lois hesitated for a moment, but he nodded slowly. “I do not recall everything, but I think I know enough. I am Vincent Lois. I am a patrolman for Metamor Keep. I have not been here long – but everything before coming here is a blur.” He winced. “No, not a blur, I can’t seem to pick out any details at all.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy was cautious about taking him at his word without question, but he seemed sincere enough. He seemed lost, his eyes glancing about at nothing as he tried to find hint of the memories that continued to elude him. His breathing was erratic, and he occasionally hissed something incomprehensible under his breath. The clear stress in his face and his voice made it hard to even consider duplicity on his part.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The youthful mage made her way over to the side table, taking the pack and browsing briefly through it until she found a small book with soft leather binding. The first few dozen pages were occupied by a rather eclectic combination of nature sketches, annotated magical diagrams, and indecipherable lists that seemed to combine necessities that she intended to buy at market and snide notes to self. The mage flipped past those pages silently until she reached a blank sheet.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Do you think you can still write?” she asked.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> She gave Lois a small charcoal pencil, and watched as he looked at the blank page. It took him a few moments, but he slowly began to sketch a few letters, and before long the letters had formed an intelligible, if uninteresting, sentence.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I have not forgotten my letters,” he confirmed, looking at his work.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy smiled. “Good. Based on what I have observed, you seem to have quite a few memories,” she noted. “I would suppose that the best thing for you would be to write down what you can remember, and try to remember details about each particular thing. Memories exist as a chain, with each one connected to the last. If you can find those connections, you should be able to reconstruct much of what you have forgotten.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lois looked skeptical, but he nodded. “What will you be doing?” he asked.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “I need to tell the others that you have regained consciousness. When we first broke the spell, you acted strangely. They will be happy to hear that you recovered completely.” She started towards the door, but hesitated. “Do you remember anything about what you said then?” she asked.<o:p></o:p> The ermine shut his eyes and grimaced. “I don’t recall anything beyond my first few days within the walls.” He glanced at one of his hands. “Until I noticed that something felt odd, I did not even recall being Cursed. I remembered you, though, and we did not meet until after the Keep’s curse changed my form. Are you sure that memories are like a chain? How would I remember the one and not the other?”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lucy gave a smirk. “I said it was a chain; I did not say that the chain was linked in a line. A memory from your earliest years may connect to something very recent. The links are caused by emotions and senses, not necessarily in succession of time.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Lois nodded quietly. “I still cannot recall any details of regaining consciousness earlier,” he admitted. “I am sorry.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> “Don’t worry about it,” Lucy replied. “Once you have recovered your memories, I am certain that this mystery will be revealed as well.”<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> She opened the door and stepped out slowly, even as Lois sat on the edge of the bed and began to look at the paper before him. He tried to think of someplace to start, even as the door closed and left him in the dark chamber alone. After a few moments of thought, he put the pencil to the sheet of paper and wrote a question.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;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">“Who is Vincent Lois?” <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>