Aquitain could hardlybelieve what he was hearing. Was it the same Zephira? She wasspeaking as if Miranda was her sister. Then it finally hit him thatZephira had stepped aside and allowed Miranda to take over a newrole as his partner, and she seemed to approve. He was really happyabout it.
Now he could understandher enthusiasm and her confidence in him. Miranda had made achoice. She wanted him as much as he wanted her, but they werestill physically incompatible and she didn’t know that yet. By thePowers, she was going to be unhappy. He’d have to find a way tobreak it to her gently.
Loma was unsure how tostart the ceremony, so asked Kami what they should do. Kamisuggested singing a welcome song to the spirit bear, and thenformally asking it to assist with the passing of the spirits oftheir dead. So that’s what they did, with Kami leading the singingas usual. All of the little people tribes used many of the samesongs with only minor variations, so there was no problem with thesinging, and both Aquitain and Miranda could see it helped to relaxthe Barra people markedly.
Cunningly, Kami thenhad them sing a song of courage and bravery, after which they allseemed very much more confident. Loma formally welcomed Aquitainand beseeched him to assist them with the passing of the spirits ofthe dead. Aquitain then formally replied,
‘Thank you for yourwarm welcome. I am sad at your loss and agree to help the spiritsof your dead find your ancestors. As I am unfamiliar with yourexact ritual, you may notice small differences. Please forgive mefor these.
‘Kami suggested thatyou mindlink with him,’ said Miranda suddenly. ‘He is prepared tohelp where possible.’
He looked at the oldreptilian man, who smiled back with a toothy grin; so he created amindlink with him and thanked him.
‘You will be needing totalk to the wand and then picking it up. It should be glowingbefore you are touching It,’ Kami suggested.
Aquitain asked for thewand and Loma scratched around in a nearby fireplace with a stickand uncovered their urn that held the ashes of their dead. Hescratched around to one side of it and turned up what at firstappeared to be a blackened carrot. He walked over and lookedclosely at it and rotated his chaos matter collar around with Alphaembedded in it, so that the miniature construct could have a clearview of it.
Alpha, who had beentotally quiet until now said, ‘Careful. Don’t touch it! It willkill you. It uses mind magic and is very powerful. See if it willaccept you.’
Aquitain used his powerto detect magic and saw no magic on the wand, but instead that itwas dead black, like his chaos matter. He mentally tried to contactit as if it was a powerstone, then realized he had spoken in commonso again tried using archaic Draconic, and the wand responded usingmindspeak.
‘What is your nameLord?’
‘I am Aquitain.’
‘I recognize you MindWizard Aquitain. I am The Omen,’ and it turned into a long glowinggem, shaped like a dragon’s tooth.
‘Excellent,’ saidAlpha. ‘It should be safe to pick up now.’
‘Very good,’ said Kami,‘but how shall you pick it up?
Kami was correct. Theproblem was that bears have no hands, so it was time to reveal hisnewman body. He turned to them and said,
‘The wand accepts mebut I will need to change form to use it, as bears have no hands.Please don’t be alarmed at what you see. You will come to noharm.’
He saw greatapprehension on all their faces. Even Miranda and Zephira lookedworried. Then he warned Alpha and shape changed to his giant formwith green skin matching the color their scales. Alpha grew legsand climbed onto his right shoulder and clung on tightly. Hisgolden collar melted and ran down his body like golden water andreformed as a simple golden loincloth. There was a collectiveintake of breath, and he saw a look of horror on Miranda’sface.
‘I’m sorry, Miranda. Ican’t change to something smaller. As you can see the Lady hasplayed another trick on us.’ Miranda said nothing, but the look onher face spoke volumes.
He bent down and pickedup the wand and it burst into brilliant light. The Barra peopleremained steadfast as if they were made of stone. Their fear wasgone, and they wore expressions of awe. Miranda and Zephira turnedpale, and Chantalot, Belloe and Gastan dived for cover, thinkingthat the wand was about to explode.
‘Get up,’ said The Orc,‘You insult T’Kwala. He has said we will not be harmed.’
Kami was impressed.
‘It is accepting you,Spirit Lord. Next you must be walking into the river up to youwaist and be calling a Barra fish. You should be dipping the wandin the water to be doing this, I am thinking.’
Everyone followedAquitain breathlessly as he strode down to the river’s edge andentered the water. It was warm and refreshing but he didn’t noticeit. He was too busy looking for crocodiles. Hopefully they wouldconsider him too big. The next problem was how to call the Barrafish. He had no idea what one looked like, so he asked thewand.
‘Omen, how shall I calla Barra fish?’ he asked the wand, dipping its tip in the water.
‘I will call a Herder,mind wizard,’ replied the wand, and it gave out a melodic call andbegan a gentle vibration.
He waited only half aminute before a green-scaled reptilian creature, similar to one ofthe little people but larger with gills and webbed hands, appearedin the water in front of him.
‘You called, Lord?’ Itspoke using mindspeak in ancient Draconic, then stared at him for amoment, taking in the glowing wand in his hand but evidentlyundecided as to how to react.
‘How dare you doubt aLord,’ said Alpha, ‘He has shape changed for a ceremony.’
‘My humblest apologies,Lord. I am meaning no disrespect; it is being an honour toBhopingar, being the first herder since the Great Storm to beingcalled upon to be serving you. May I be begging your nameLord?’
‘I am Aquitain,’ hesaid feeling
