It might take abit of time to get used to as you have been without a body for along time. Your legs will work but you will probably have torelearn how to use them. You will also discover that you will haveno emotions. I’m sorry but it’s the best I could do with what I hadavailable.’
‘I’m sorryAquitain. I don’t want to sound ungrateful but it’s just sostrange. I’ve forgotten what it was like to have a body. It’s allso wonderful but confusing at the same time. How can we get out ofhere if I can’t move or see properly yet?’
‘Let me worryabout that. Just try to get your legs working, try raising one at atime until you can work out which is which.’
Aquitain washaving a similar problem. Too much light input from everydirection. It was disorienting. He had to work out which way wasforward and back, up and down.
He imagined ifhe was in a real Newman body what would he see in front of him. Hishands and arms of course. He moved his arms out in front of him andmentally fixed that direction as forward. He then mentally fixedall the other orientations relative to his arms. He could now makesense of everything.
He took a stepthen another. The legs seemed to work okay. He walked around withhis two arms pointing forward and mentally concentrated on the viewbetween his arms that he knew to be forward. He stopped when he sawsomething moving in front of him. It was huge. It was a ratscurrying across the floor. It stopped momentarily looking in hisdirection then continued on its way.
‘Of course, Ineed to shape change to something more familiar until I can getused to this new body.’ he thought.
He quicklylooked internally at his source. It would hold plenty of magicessence but unfortunately he hadn’t had time enough for it tocharge up. Now if only someone would use a power on him and his newbody should absorb the energy and charge up his source.
‘Glammer, areyou around here somewhere?’
No answer. Hewas on his own. Think Aquitain. How can you get some power? Then itcame to him. He had embedded two of his powerstones out of sight inhis chaos matter leather looking collar. If the Glammer had broughtthe collar here the two stones would be lying on the floorsomewhere. He oriented his vision to the floor and walked aroundlooking and finally spotted one near Yllandril who was stillstruggling to work out how to use her legs.
He walked overto the powerstone placed a foot upon it and mentally sought itsidentity. It was his stone that held two charges of charm. Hemanifested the power on himself and as the stone released its powerfelt a warm glow as his body absorbed it. He then released thesecond charge absorbing its power as well. Now that felt better! Hechecked his source and it held enough power for him to change formto that of a miniature Newman, but the power failed.
‘Damn’ hethought. ‘This body is immune to magic. It looks like I can’t shapechange.’ So he decided to explore around.
He strode offboldly across the crypt floor but after a few Newman sized pacescome to a sudden halt when he spotted a Newman sitting on the floorof a steel cage peering towards him in the darkness.
Who’s that? Helooks like a prisoner. Ansidian was in that cage before. I wonderwhat happened to him?
‘Hello. Who areyou?’ he asked using mindspeak.
The Newmanquickly stood up and started looking around to see where the voiceinside his head was coming from.
‘Is that youAquitain? I can’t see anything it’s too dark. I thought that when Ishattered the crystal you would die.’
‘Why did youwant me to die?’ asked Aquitain.
‘That’s justit. I didn’t want you to die, but when the goddess said to smashthe crystal I thought you would. It seems she has blessed you withyet another body. Lady Lithgala you are truly a wonder!’
Aquitainignored the comment about the body. It didn’t matter. There weremore important questions to ask.
‘I’m getting alittle confused.’ said Aquitain.
‘Who are you?There was a snake creature in the cage when I was captured but Ihave no idea how long ago that might have been.’
‘I have severalforms and names. You will have heard of me as Alin Amber and youmet me a few days ago as Ansidian. I am sorry about what happenedthere I was possessed by that wretched spirit. Its intent was todestroy you. I think you have something it wants. It currentlyinhabits another body and has saved me for another part of itsmalicious scheme. You must escape.’
‘Who are youworking for?’ asked Aquitain.
‘That isdifficult to explain. The person I work for has disappeared. I cameto Moonmist to find him but unfortunately the spirit that liveshere captured me. It possessed my body and attacked you in the cavewith Somanller and the other Llanlleans a few days ago.Fortunately, I was able to help you then by limiting its power. Youmust leave here as this is where it is most powerful.’
‘Don’t you wantme to release you from that cage?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Of course, butwill you forgive me after all I have done?’ asked Ansidian.
Aquitainthought for a few moments. He must know more about this person.‘Will you let me mindlink?’
‘It will notwork. I’m in a dead magic zone. Your link will not get through.’replied Alin Amber.
Aquitain couldsee clearly that there was no dead magic zone and guessed that themalign spirit had used the same magic trick as Llalorax.
‘What youbelieve to be a magic zone is no more than a very strong compulsioncreated to give the feel of a dead magic zone. You should be ableto mentally block it out. Disbelieve it as if were a visualillusion.’
‘Isn’t Lithgalawonderful? She changed an antimagic field to one more manageable. Ican now escape.’ he replied.
Aquitain wasn’tquite sure how to respond to that comment so he didn’t. If thisfellow wanted
