Chapter 2: Plans
Simon sat in a tavern, worlds away, brooding over a mug of ale. "I don't think there's a chance, Micheli."
"There's always a chance, Kereminde," said the man opposite him. "Even though I can't help you, I can offer advice."
"She seemed so distant, Micheli. As if she no longer cared about what would happen." he replied, taking a long drink. "I think the Ariana I knew is gone."
"Not at all, just subdued. I know; I've dealt with this problem before."
"Truly?"
The man drew his blue cloak around him and leaned forwards. "Listen. I told you of what happened with Jase, and Cedric . . . you remember that?"
Simon looked at him. "Yes . . . they became twisted by magic stronger than they could hold. They were subverted."
"Yes, but they remained." Micheli replied, leaning back in his chair. "They remained to know who I was, and what they had become."
"You might not be able to aid me, but I want two other people to help," replied Simon, "I'll need their talents."
"Name them."
"Dreamer and Derra." Simon said flatly.
Micheli looked surprised. "Not Ilth or Spinner?"
"No. They have their own problems, and I'm not going to intrude on their lives because mine turned out foul."
"Very well . . . when do you want them?"
"Yesterday." Simon drained his mug and set it down. "I need them, Micheli. I need to find the knowledge I need to combat this."
"Why combat it? Accept it, Simon. That power is hers now, and she'll have to learn how to control it, and how to use it. I hope she is exercising caution. Shadow still is out there."
"I know. That's what worries me. He got into her head before. Can't he do it again?"
Micheli finished his glass and stoon. "Not unless she lets him. She won't tolerate him trying to force his way in, and I doubt he can stand against her now."
Simon shook his head. "I don't think I can, either." Then he stood. "Fair travels, Micheli. I hope that I can find what I need."
"Me too. Safe travels, Simon."
Walking through a dense forest cloaked in morning mist, Simon pondered matters. This was becoming one strange set of circumstances, and he knew not where it was headed. He did, however, know how to find out. Looking up from the road, he saw a ruined stone sturcture ahead. It was once a temple for the gods of good, but it had fallen on hard times and simply faded into the forest to be forgotten.
He entered the broken temple, and walked to the altar placed in the center of what was once a great chamber. He knelt there and looked up, folding his hands in his lap. "Asylva, Shal'ille . . . whomever is listening, can you give me some guidance? A hint on where to begin?" He looked up. "Please? For the sake of Ariana?"
No shaft of light followed the silence; no angelic voices to sing a chorus. No booming voice that revealed what would need to be done. Just silence, and the sound of his own breathing.
He bowed his head agin. "Please . . . goddesses, gods . . . can you offer me anything?"
The whisper came suddenly. "We help those who help themselves, Simon Kereminde. Depend on us and you will be disappointed. Leave this place; it will not serve you." He waited for more, but nothing else came.
Simon sighed and stood, looking around the shattered temple. Sorrow etched his face, and he whispered to himself. "I often wonder why places like this fail. There is so few of them left . . . very few places of true power left in any world."
Taking his pack into his left hand, and his travelling staff in the other, he walked out of the broken house. The rain had stopped, but left a fog over everything. The forest that he had entered through now seemed almost malevolent. Shivering with cold and dread, Simon walked along the path that had brought him into those woods.
Then something large and black stepped out. Simon stopped quickly, bringing the staff up to strike it . . . and stopped. "Derra, don't do that!" he said, laughing.
The black dragoness laughed as well and vanished, replaced by a smaller dragon about three feet long. Derrintha, also called Derra by Simon and a few others, smiled and settled onto his shoulder. "Sure. I forgot about the situation," she said, smiling at him. "I'm sooory . . ."
"I wish I could keep my mouth shut." Simon muttered to himself, and looked around. "Where's Dreamer?"
"Here, as well." The speaker stepped out of the woods, shaking water drops from her wings. The blue and gold dragon smiled and offered a foreleg to help Simon onto her back. "Good to see you alive."
"You too . . . please tell me I didn't interrupt anything."
Dreamer took off, then began to circle in the air, steadily climbing upwards. "Well, not exactly. I was studying a couple things that Ilth left for you. Why did you ask for imformation on the Shadow-walkers?"
"My business." Simon said then, and sighed. "Actually, it's about to become yours as well." He sighed and told her everything. Hours later, Dreamer looked over her wings at him and let out a sigh.
"Why do you seem to always get into these messes?"
"Just lucky I guess," he replied drily. "What can you tell me?"
"Nothing at all, except you'd better know what you're going to find when you return to Meridian."
They landed in a circle of stones, and Simon leapt off Dreamer's back. He walked to the center and tapped his staff against a stone statue in the center. "Gatekeeper?"
-You know the rules you must live by, Simon. The gods cannot help you. The dragons cannot help you.-
"You told me Dreamspinner could not help me, or any of the Gifted dragons." He replied, not moving.
-Dreamer is Gifted. You know this-
"I do. But she has chosen to follow me."
-Your attempt to bypass the rules here has failed. I must decline your use of the Gates I watch over. You must do without the gods and goddesses. I am sorry- The voice faded and Simon pounded the ground with his staff.
"So, how are you going to get back?" Dreamer asked thoughtfully. "There aren't any paths off Crescentia that Tilithanth isn't Guardian of."
Simon shook his head. "Then Ariana will have to come here," he said, "If I am to help her at all, she must come here." He slumped his shoulders. "So many things that can go wrong, and so many problems that can arise."
"Simon . . . you always worry too much." Derra spoke up from his shoulder. "Just deal with what comes!"
Dreamer nodded and offered Simon her foreleg again. "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to help you, but it hardly matters. I'll do it anyway and may my punishment come in it's own time."
Simon nodded and pointed off to the distance. "Thanks, my friend. Now let's see what we can do to help Ari out of her shell, shall we? I have to find something . . ."
Dreamspinner watched this in his scrying pool, and sighed. "He's beginning to understand, but how long will it take him to realize what he needs to do?" The dragon swept a claw over the pool and went back to his table, looking at a book laying open on a table. He reached out and flipped a single page.
"There is a danger that he will not succeed," said the voice of Tilithanth from across the table. The golden dragon sat there looking regal, with the torchlight reflecting off her scales. "Especially now that he doesn't have you."
"He has Dreamer."
"He shouldn't even have that, but I am glad he does."
"Why shouldn't he have Dreamer?"
A sigh. "I told him he could not receive help from the Gifted dragons here. Obviously he thought Dreamer was beyond that point."
"Dreamer isn't Gifted." Dreamspinner said seriously. "Spinner got it instead."
"I see . . . so he is following the rules?"
"Of course! He can't do anything else."
Tilithanth was silent for a long time as Dreamspinner read his book, looking for something. "I must get going again. Farewell, and let us meet again!" Then she was gone, as if she wasn't there anymore.
Dreamspinner shook his head and returned to reading. There was enough to be done without dealing with Simon's problems as well. The upcoming Council meeting was going to be troublesome enough for him.
Shadow raged in his lair, slamming his fist into any object he could reach. "No, this can't happen!" he cried out, glaring at the sealed Urn sitting on a stone table not ten feet away. He picked up a stone statue and threw it full-force at a wall. "She sealed it again! I can't grasp it's power. And to top it, I can't open it again!"
He slammed a fist against the Urn, instantly regretting it. Cradling his hand, he sat in a chair nearby. "Calm yourself, Shadow . . . you planned in case this happened." He sighed and took a deep breath. "Yes. I remember now."
He stood and smiled. "In this case, I try to turn the two against each other, and let the victor give him or herself over to me. Perfect. But how to do it . . ."
Then he shook his head. "I'll wait for an oppurtunity to sneak in. If I try anything, it can and will backfire in my face. Be careful, Shadow . . . you're treading dangerous ground here." He left the room, leaving the Urn to sit there and wait.
In the forest of Farolnath, Ariana woke and yawned, then stopped. A piece of paper was carefully left where she would find it. She plucked it up and unfolded it. "'Dear Ariana'" She sat up and read it aloud to herself. "'The power you now have is dangerous and I caution you not to over-use it.' This must be Simon, dear cautious Simon." She read on.
"'I will try to find something to help you deal with this power. I feel that I must.' Well, go ahead . . . I'm not going to stop you." She shook her head. "Unless it's something I don't like. Then you can't force me into it. Not anymore."
"'I am sorry I could not have come in person, but two things prevent me. The first is the fear that the power you're wielding is dangerous to me.' I know that." she said, smiling. "What's next?"
"'The other is that I'm stuck elsewhere for the duration. I had Derrintha leave this message because I cannot return to Meridian yet.' " She let out a laugh, then continued. "'Don't use the power unless your life is threatened, and remember what you know about it.'" She smiled. "I have near infinite power, and he worries that I can't use it right. Hm, amusing."
Then she stopped, and the paper fell to the ground, forgotten. She spoke the words to herself. "'I care deeply about you, and your well-being, and hope that things will turn out well.'" Then something snapped inside her. "You care deeply about me?! Where were you, Simon, when The Lady of the Night pierced my heart and stole my life?" She found the energy she sought and sent it into a tree with her rage, shattering it to pieces. She continued, blindly stabbing out with energy as her anger continued. "What about when Shadow took me to the Temple of The Lady of the Night and made me pledge my loyalty to HER again?! WHERE were you?!" She screamed and threw magic around, levelling any tree she could reach. She then turned on the caretakers of the grove, the living trees that kept the trees healthy. She splintered them with her magic, and heaved a sigh as the rage left her. Then she looked at the paper and considered burning it to ash and sending that ash along the wind. But she stopped. "Simon, you have no idea how deeply that touched me." she said tightly to the air. Then she bent and jammed the paper into her backpack, not caring whether it was intact or not.
Her eyes glowed red briefly, then cleared back to normal. "Where are you Simon? What is happening to me? Can you tell me that?" she asked, then bowed her head. As she stood up from that, she felt the irresitable push of the magic, and knew what was coming. "Oh no . . . not again." she said. She could feel it pushing outward like it was trying to escape. A scream came from her lips as her body arched and then seem to fold on it self.
Ariana was moving like a rag-doll being tossed and turned not of her will. As soon as it came the pain seemed to subside. She blacked out and woke up back on the ground hunched over. Looking at herself she noticed something that was not there before. The place where her tatoos once were have now sprouted some sort of patch. She looked closely at the patches on her wrists. They seem to resemble skin but not quite. Little scales or a thin patch of fur light enough to still pass as skin now covered the tatoos that had once circled her wrists.
Ariana dusted herself off and looked herself over one last time. She notices that her clothes are no longer blue but red. She looks down at her hands and notices that they seem bigger than before. Her fingernails had lengthened slightly, but she shook her head in frustration. "What is this? I am becoming a troll now am I? What in the gods is happening to me?!" Ariana sighed and thought briefly again about the note Simon wrote. "Consequences . . . well, then. I will have to be careful." Not giving it anymore thought she continued about her day.
As Simon stepped into the cavern inside Sethan Peak that he called home, he was immediately knocked down by a small dragon, giving him affectionate nuzzles. "Simon! You're back!"he said at last, and backed up so he could stand.
Simon stood up and smiled. "Aurous! My, you've grown."
The gold dragon looked over his shoulder. He was nearly twenty feet long, and not exactly small anymore. "I know. Where were you?"
"On an adventure." He made a vague gesture. "I couldn't take you with me, as I told you before."
"Yes, I remember." Aurous looked sad. "So why are you back?"
Simon looked around. "I need my spellbook." He walked over to a bookshelf and removed a leather-bound book from it. When he turned around, Aurous was right there, head where he would have walked.
"Please take me with you this time? Please?" Aurous begged. There was no other way to describe it; his eyes were wide and he seemed ready to break into tears if Simon rejected him.
Derra interjected from Simon's shoulder. "This isn't just a trip down the mountain, Aurous. You can get killed."
"I know. Take me with you!"
Simon sighed. "I can't stop you," he said heavily, "But I must insist that you come back here if things get too dangerous."
Aurous broke into a wide draconic grin. "Yes of course!" He raised his head. "I've been studying, though."
"Really?" Simon looked at him. "Tell me about it. What was the last thing you learned? The Dancing Lights?"
"How did you know?" Aurous looked back at Simon. "I'll show you . . . I like this spell a lot. I don't need to carry a book or anything else with me." He closed his eyes and raised his head slightly, concentrating. Then three small balls of light appeared in the air in front of him. He opened his eyes and swept them into a claw, smiling. "See?"
"Very nice, but do they burn?" He ignored Derrintha's squawk and focused on Aurous.
"No. Sel says she won't teach us anything that can hurt."
"I can teach you how to make lights like those that do burn, if you want to know."
"Really?" Aurous' eyes were wide and eager. "Can you show me, Simon?"
"Well . . . of course." He ignored Derra's frantic tug on his ear and motioned at a stone not too far away. "Mennon!" A trio of small, glowing lights flew from his fingertips and shattered the rock. Then he turned back to Aurous. "You try."
Aurous made the gestures and pointed at another rock. "Mannon!" Nothing happened. "Simon, it didn't work."
"You said it wrong. Try again.."
"Mennan! It didn't work again." Aurous looked downcast as he looked at Simon.
"Watch me again. Listen to the word." Simon pointed at the shattered rock and said, "Mennon!" Once more, three small lights flew out and sent dirt clumps into the air.
Aurous looked confused, but he pointed at his rock and said, "Mennon!" The lights flew from his claw, glowing brighter as they streaked at their target. The rock broke cleanly in the center. "It worked!"
"Good job, Aurous. Just don't show Sel that."
Aurous turned back to Simon. "Why?"
"It's human magic, not draconic magic. There is a difference, and she'll know it was me who taught you." He shook his head.
"It won't do anything bad to me will it?"
"No, but Sel might if she catches you."
Aurous shrugged. "Then she won't," he said matter-of-factly, "But what's the difference?"
"Did Sel teach you the difference between elven magic and draconic magic?" Simon asked, bending down and collecting three small stones.
"Yes. She said that elves couldn't master draconic magic and made their own from the earth and the forest. But why does that matter about human magic?"
"Human magic is every bit as different from elven magic as that is from draconic," he said, holding up two stones. They were different in size and shape. "It has less potential for raw power, but it can be applied in several ways. And draconic magic. . . " Simon dropped the smaller stone and removed a rock as big as his hand from his pocket, smooth and long. ". . is every bit as different from elven magic. Not only is it older, it draws upon power that most races forgot was even there."
"What is that power?" Aurous asked, looking at the stones with interest.
"I don't know how to describe it, but it's the same type of magic that creates gateways between worlds. The same kind that keeps the Powers from doing more than they should. Some call it simply the Ultimate. Others call that power 'mana', except they forget that's already what the base for human magic is called." Simon stopped and looked at Aurous. "But there are other differences than simply age."
"What are they?"
Simon plucked the stone from the ground and held it up against the smooth stone. "Every spell uses a piece of energy from the caster."
"But I didn't feel any different after I used the spell you taught me."
Simon smiled. "There is the difference. Let's say you cast a spell that takes this much energy from you." He held up his thumb and forefinger, with a small space between the tips. "That's not much when compared to your energy." He placed his fingers against the stone and then removed them. "But if I tried to cast that spell, I'd lose the same amount of energy. Unfortunately, I don't have enough to support the spell." He held the small stone up, and shook his head. "See?"
"So you couldn't cast the spell at all?" Aurous asked, looking at the stones with a little confusion.
"Oh I could. I'd just die from over-reaching my abilities."
"Oh." Aurous looked at the stones as Simon tossed them away. "But what if a human had enough energy to support the spell?"
"That's another problem. A human caster uses mana, which is not the same as the Ultimate. The difference between the two sources is great enough to prevent a human from using it, unless he or she had a connection to the Ultimate."
"Then what?"
Simon looked away. "I don't know. Actually, nobody knows for certain, but many sages claim to know the answer. Some say the caster would become more like a dragon, in order to focus the power better. Others say it would drive the caster mad from focusing primal energies beyond their comprehension; and yet more say that it simply will not work."
Aurous looked at him for a long moment of silence. "Didn't you use that kind of magic, Simon?"
"Yes." He continued to look away.
"So shouldn't you know what happens to a human who uses draconic magic?"
"No."
"Why not?"
Simon turned slowly around. "Because I was a dragon when I cast those spells," he said.
Aurous shook his head. "I don't understand. You're human, aren't you?"
"Now I am," he replied.
"Why now?"
"Because that was what the Powers wanted." Simon shook his head. "I don't know why they wanted it that way, or how it came to be, but that is what happened."
"So you used to be a dragon?" Aurous asked, not willing to let the subject drop.
"Not exactly. Sort of a dragonwere," Simon said with a frown, "I understand only that I was both human and dragon in that time."
"Wasn't there another name for that?" Aurous asked, looking off into the distance, trying to remember.
"No." Simon looked around and pointed upwards. "Can we start preparing for a visitor?"
As suddenly as he started it, Aurous ended his train of thought and looked back at Simon. "Who's coming here?"
Simon patted Aurous on the side of his neck. "A friend."
"Who? When?"
"Come on, Aurous. You can meet her as soon as we reach the Casting Room." Simon walked up the passage, smiling as Aurous pushed his way through the archway, wings folded against his sides. "You know, if you get any larger, we might have to take out the archways or widen the corridors."
"Or I'd have to find my own lair." Aurous nuzzled Simon. "Maybe we could get a place where we could both stay."
"I'd like that." Simon patted the dragon's head and smiled sincerely. "I'd like that."
Ariana picked up her backpack and heads to the city of Cor Noth for supplies and some food. Walking through the forest, she turned as if she heard something. Looking back in the direction she just came from; she surveys the land seeing nothing that should not be there. After a few more moments, she decided to walk on again.
Thinking to herself, she reflected briefly on the note Simon had left for her. "What does he think I am to tell me not to use it? Like I can't figure it out on my own. How dare he tell me what I should do!" Ariana started to get annoyed and decided to not give it another thought.
Reaching the town in time for lunch, she dusted herself off and walked through the front gate. After a moment of thought she was heading towards the inn for a bite to eat and some rest. She noticed that she is more tired than she had originally thought. Could it be her outburst earlier caused this fatigue? She sighed with a deep breath and sat at a table, waiting for her food.
Then, from almost nowhere, she felt something or someone trying to reach her mind. She shut her eyes and let the presence fill her. She asked mentally, "Is someone there?"
With a strange cloudiness, Simon's image appeared in her mind. Startled by this, Ariana fell nearly off the chair she was sitting in. She regained her balance and focused on the image.
"Hello, Ari," she heard his voice say.
"I got your note Simon. How touching of you to be concerned for me." She smiled, letting the sarcasm in her voice come out plainly.
In her mind she saw the image of Simon nod. "I found something that may be helpful." The voice stopped and appears to be looking at her. She resisted the probe unconciously, not wanting him to see her right now.
"What could help me? Will it stop all the changes?" She inquired as she looked at her hands and wrists. Getting agitated at not knowing why these changes are taking place, she yelled out, "Tell me!" Luckily no one was in the inn when the words suddenly were blurted out.
Simon started to explain, obviously picking his words carefully. "It's a form of magic. I put it away a while ago, when I no longer needed it. It cannot stop the changes, but can redirect them so you can control them consciously. Perhaps it may help on other things as well."
"What sort of magic is this? How will it help?" Ariana asked, wanting to know what was happening and if it could be stopped.
Simon held up a hand, to forestall questions. "I cannot answer that, I only know that this may help greatly. As for what . . . it is a book and an object. The book is made to teach . . ." he paused suddenly. "I wonder . . ."
From somewhere near Simon, a voice cut in. "Who is she?" It was not one she recognized right away, but it sounded familiar.
He turned around to address the voice. "A friend, Aurous, and the one we're trying to help." He turned back to Ariana, and frowned. then to the other person. "You have that book on you, correct?" Aurous? He sounded older, for some reason . . . not the young hatchling she remembered.
"Yes, but . . . " the voice of Aurous answered. Ariana felt hesitation from the other person, and frowned.
Simon interrupted him, however."Give it to me." He then held a book up to be seen, and opened it, turning the pages. The pages are made of a metal, and the book was nearly twice the size of an ordinary tome. The pages were covered in odd glyphs and runes, and she couldn't make them out at first glance.
Seeing the book, Ariana watched Simon for a moment and then said warily, "That is a very big book. It is in there that this . . . magic lies?"
"It does, Ari. Are you fine? You're blocking my vision here, and I feel an odd force from you right now." He seemed to focus, but there was no feeling of connection.
"I do not feel much different. I am a little cold but I ignore it now; it seems I am cold most days now." Ariana answered off-handedly. She wanted to reach that book and look in it . . . to try to discover what Simon thought would help her.
He frowned and closed his eyes suddenly. "Ari, tell me something . . . tell me if you are changing now. That may explain the fluxes of power I'm feeling from you." He seemed to be concentrating intensely on her, and she felt the touch of his mental probe.
"I just changed not too long ago . . . that's why I looked at my hands. Something happened this morning and I used the magic." She tried hard not to mention what exactly happened. She didn't want him to know the reaction she had to his note . . . it wasn't something she was proud of when she looked back on it.
"I see . . . Well, perhaps this book will help. I am trying to reach you now, physically. It may take a long time."
Aurous cut in again, and she could see him beyond Simon, a twenty-foot gold dragon standing there. "Can't she come here instead?"
Simon paused. "I don't know . . . Ari? Can you manage it?"
Ariana pondered the possibility, thinking that she could just do that. It certainly didn't seem hard. "Where is there? I will try to come if I can."
"'Here' is the Casting Room in Sethan Peak . . . can you make it to the main hall? I don't thinnk you were ever in here."
Before Ariana could answer, another, different voice cut in. "She'll have to use her own magic to get here won't she?" It was a female, similar in quality ot Aurous. Ariana thought suddenly that this must be another dragon, or dragoness, with Simon.
"Yes, Dreamer. I think she'll have to." Simon turned away again, speaking to someone out of sight.
"So won't that affect her?"
"I don't know . . . it depends on how much she needs." He said, stopping abruptly.
"I am not doing anything . . . I could come now if you like." Ariana said, forgetting about her meal. She set down her backpack and sat in a corner of the room. Focusing on Simon and where he is, she began to feel power draw within her. Then as if there was nothing to it, she was gone, appearing where he had told her to go.