Aquitain lookedaround for anything that might have come from the trixie. It wasimpossible, he couldn’t even get the trixie’s scent as the scent ofthe beasts in the stalls and other smells were too strong. He wouldhave to ask the blacksmith. Suddenly Chantalot stepped out of theshadows in front of him.
‘Hello … whatare you up to lad?’
‘Hello,Chantalot it’s me, Aquitain.’
‘By the Powers,is it really? Featherdown said you were a little person or aspider.’
Aquitainchanged to his little person body and with a big toothy reptiliansmile using mindspeak said.
‘I rather missthe big bear body but this is what I have now thanks to Miranda andThe Lady. When you die you can’t be too choosy what your new bodyis like.’
Chantalotchuckled.
‘You are aprime candidate for an epic song you know. I’ve always sung aboutgreat legendary heroes but never about real living ones. You arethe best candidate I know. Perhaps I better get to work.’
Aquitainchanged back to his small Newman form and laughed.
‘I don’t thinkpeople would be interested in songs about heroic midget shapeshifting spiders. What I am interested is if the blacksmith foundanything on the trixie outcast.’
Chantalotpulled a ring out of a pocket and passed it to him.
‘You mean likethis.’
Aquitain usedhis ability to detect magic and determined that it was a magic ringand by the shade of the magic aura, it used Divination magic.
‘Have you hadit identified?’
‘No.’ not yet,’replied Chantalot. ‘I only just got it. I was hoping that you mightknow more about it or perhaps we could get one of the wizards toidentify it.’
‘Can I takeit?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Yes, ofcourse. I’m intrigued to know more about that weird trixie myselfbut I have other things to do. Featherdown has got me working. I’llsee you later.’ and he walked off.
Aquitain headedfor his workshop in the basement of Featherdown’s tower.
After abouthalf an hour’s work the ring was identified. It turned out to be aring of object location. It was keyed to locate a specific objectwhich he could not determine directly, but he had a pretty accurateidea what it would locate, a sceptre of lordly might.
This was hisfirst useful clue. He closely examined the ring for a marque andsure enough there was one on the inside but it was too small to seeclearly. He felt frustrated at not having a magnifier and a book oflocal marques.
He spent tenminutes carrying out the Ritual of Understanding to allow him tocomprehend other languages then returned to Granwell’s tower andwas shown in by a gnome, who told him that Granwell was gone, buthad left instructions to give him access to the outcast trixie.
He examined thetrixie closely again walking around the cage making sure to keepthe ring hidden. The trixie’s eyes were less fogged, and followedhim as he walked around it. Suddenly, he held the ring in front ofit and got the reaction he expected. The trixie’s hand shot out andtried to grab the ring and it shouted, ‘That’s mine, give it tome!’ in the Mudrun common tongue.
He held itbehind his back and shook his head indicating - no you can’t haveit. He changed his shape to look like a brown-scaled little personwith a partially malformed face similar to it, and then dancedaround with the ring behind his back.
The trixie letout a long string of swearing that would put a soldier to shame,all in the Mudrun common tongue.
‘Something’snot right here’, he thought.
Why didn’t thetrixie swear in its own language? Most people he had known wouldswitch to their mother language to swear when frustrated, or teasedby someone. Why would this offworlder swear in the local Mudrunlanguage? Could it be the dark trixie wasn’t what it seemed butsomeone local changed to look like a dark trixie.
‘That’s a veryinteresting reaction you got there, Aquitain.’ said Chantalotappearing out of thin air.
‘It doesn’tseem to swear like an off-world trixie.’
Aquitainjumped, not expecting him to suddenly appear in the mage’stower.
‘Do you have tojust suddenly appear out of nowhere?’ asked Aquitain usingmindspeak.
‘Oh, sorry.’said Chantalot. ‘I got a ring of invisibility from Featherdown.It’s my job to know what’s happening in town. So I sneak aroundinvisible. Mostly I just watch. But occasionally I show myself sopeople know I’m around.’
‘I think thiscreature is not what it appears to be.’ said Aquitain thoughtfully.‘I think it’s been polymorphed to this horrible little body. I’mgoing to try and find out, if it will let me.’
Aquitain wentover close to the trixie and told it that he was a friend. He knewit was confused and that someone had done something to its mind andits body. He said he could possibly help if it would let him linkwith in its mind, but he couldn’t do it, if it resisted. Thecreature stopped swearing and just looked at him neither agreeingnor disagreeing. Aquitain then took a gamble.
‘I’ll let youhold the ring for a while if you let me look in your mind. Thecreature put out its hand.’
‘I’m glad Icame in here before you changed to look like that horrible littlecreature. I might have put a sword through you. Are you sure youknow what you’re doing?’
‘Of coursenot,’ said Aquitain, ‘I’m just trying to find out what’s goingon.’
He gave it thering. It quickly pulled its arm back in the cage and waited.
‘Can I linkwith your mind now?’
The creaturedidn’t answer but just looked at him. Aquitain took this as a yes.He concentrated and formed the link. As soon as he did he could seehe wasn’t looking at a creature but a Newman magic user, probably awizard.
The spirit auraof a Newman was unmistakable. This one was a very scared Newman,but with something strange about its spirit aura. Something hadbeen done to its mind causing the confusion. Aquitain’s granddadwas a specialist in examining minds and spirit auras. He had shownAquitain a few things, but nowhere near enough to help this poorNewman.
Aquitain askedfor the ring back but
