Severalhours passed by as the pair of mages created their chalk masterpiece. Alex marveled as the two started half theroom apart at some point, and their lines constantly joined perfectly when theyreached the center, never wavering even by a hair. Although he had originally been impatient forthem to finish, the fascinating detail that their work required kept himmesmerized, and the noon hour came and went without him even noticing the firstpangs of hunger. They finished perhapsan hour later, although they both stepped carefully in and out of their designfor several more minutes, making certain that no line was out of place. Finally, they both agreed that it wasfinished, and they stepped outside the lines to rest for a moment. “Whendo you think you will make the attempt?” Alex asked. “Icould use a few moments of rest, but I should be prepared soon,” Lucyopined. She did not seem agitated at thequestion; she simply answered honestly. Balrognodded his agreement. “I do not believethat either of us is incapable of working the magic immediately, but some briefrespite would certainly help alleviate the cramps from the past few hours.” The two mages shared a quiet chuckle at hiswords, and Alex shook his head. He wasamazed that the two of them could even walk straight after spending so long invarious uncomfortable positions during the process. Julianwas still managing to keep up a slow conversation with Nathan, though it hadbeen quite a while since it had been very active. Now that the mages had finished their work,however, the two canines were more interested in the discussion taking placenear the door than they were in each other’s words. They both stood and made their way over,being careful to walk around the border of the linework rather than crossingthrough it. “Shouldwe recess for food before we attempt the casting,” Nathan suggested. Alexturned to the mages to see both of them shaking their heads. Lucy acted as their spokeswoman. “Timeis of the essence,” she declared. “WhileI am certain that neither of us would mind a bite to eat, I think that weshould be able to cast the spell safely before we leave for the noonday meal. I would rather see this done now. I am unwilling to let food be the reason ourefforts fail.” Balrognodded his agreement wordlessly. Withneither of them expecting to be extremely involved in the process, neitherNathan nor Julian expressed their opinions. If the mages were prepared for the attempt, then none of the remainingtrio would argue with their decision. “Actually,”Balrog said, testing the flexibility in his joints, “I believe that I am readyto begin whenever you are.” He looked toLucy, and she nodded. “Yes. I’ve caught my breath at least,” sheconfirmed. “I will get Lois; Balrog,make one last pass to be certain that there is no debris on the floor thatmight interfere. The rest of you…” She hesitated. “I would actually recommend that you leavethe room if at all possible.” Alexwinced. “I would prefer to be here, justin case something goes wrong.” >>>That can't be good! Makes you wonder what type of damage might result. “Thatis precisely why I would prefer you leave the room,” Lucy replied. “This is the Curse we are fighting. Only rarely do things go as planned whenmages play with its threads. While magesmay be able to take precautions, we cannot focus on our own safety as well asyours. Alexhesitated. He glanced over to Julian,and the moondog waved his paw towards the door. The lynx nodded, and he gestured for Nathan to follow them as they wentto the door. The wolf made no protest,and the three of them, cracking the door only a little bit to keep fromrevealing Balrog, slipped out into the hall and left the mages to their work. >>>Smart idea! Witha deep breath, Lucy smiled to Balrog and then moved to retrieve the cage fromthe table in the corner. The room wasbeginning to gain a subtle chill, as the scrawl that occupied the center of theroom had kept anyone from refueling the fire. It had kept the room’s temperature up for quite a while, but the emberswere finally dying. It would be bearablefor quite a while, thankfully, and if all went well they would be finished longbefore they became desperate for a coat. Lucytook the cage and stepped lightly towards the center of the room, avoiding eventhe tightest of weaves with precise steps and a masterful eye for detail. As she reached the center she opened the cageand released the ermine into the innermost circle. After being trapped for so long, the creaturequickly jumped at the opportunity to leave the wooden bars, only to findhimself restrained within the bounds of the chalk circle. He made his displeasure extraordinarily clearto the mages who had fashioned this new prison, but any attempts to resist wereturned away until the weasel stopped his escape attempts and stood watching thelarger creatures at work. Balroghad finished his inspection well before Lucy returned to the border of theenchantment. The lutin stood with hisarms crossed, watching as the young mage carefully placed the cage against awall. She looked at the weaves that theyhad built, and at the ermine they would be working to restore. She knew what had to be done; it was the taskof doing it that intimidated her. “Shallwe begin?” Balrog asked. Lucynodded. “Follow my lead,” she said. Shestepped into another circle of chalk that had been sketched on the floor’ssurface. She was not trapped as theermine was in his own circle, but the two arcs had similar properties toprotect against unwanted magic. Balrogwalked calmly to the opposite side, stepping into a third shape that wasidentical in form and function to Lucy’s own. Oncethe lutin had set his feet and taken a deep breath, the girl mage raised herhands before her and began to slowly feed magic into the spell. The lines of chalk began to glow with theirown light from her side, and the same light crept towards the center from whereBalrog was standing. The feral animal inthe center watched this in confusion, making quiet sounds as it watched theenchantment begin its work. Only when hebegan to rise up into the air at the command of an unseen force did he react,and that was only a brief panic. Themagic soon pacified him, and he hung unmoving before the mages on either side. “Allright, let’s take a look at that Curse.” Lucyallowed her vision to turn to things unseen, and she began to see the strandsof magic that surrounded Lois before her. Unlike her inspections over the previous day, however, she now saw thelines in much greater detail, enlarged and projected before her as a functionof the enchantment that Balrog had helped her draw. “Wemust be careful,” she cautioned. “Makeno attempt to change the Curse. I willshow you where we need to work.” Indeed,rather than attempting to untangle the hopeless knot that was the spell knownas Metamor’s Curse, the two mages needed to move the threads of magic in waysthat were already possible within the parameters of that Curse. Lucy carefully waved her fingers in the airbefore her, slowly finding the avenue they would be using. Once she found it, she used the enchantmentto make the location clear to Balrog. “There.” A clear blue aura shone between severalthreads of magic, centered around one particular cord that was only barelydistinct from its many nearby brothers. After a few moments of hesitation, another glow appeared near her pointof focus, its green color distinguishing it as the lutin’s work. “There?” Lucywaited, making absolutely certain that the lutin was in the right place. She needn’t have doubted his precision, as hehad flawlessly picked out the strand despite the sea of others in its area. With a small effort of magic, Lucy willed theenchantment to magnify the area a little more. “Verygood. All right, here is what we have todo.” She slowly and carefully describedthe process they were about to attempt. While, as she had said before, she did not think that the spell had beenattempted before, she was nearly certain that it came down to little more thanmoving a door on its hinges. Theinterplay between the Curse and the countercurse was such that this was alreadypossible within the bounds of their magic. Theonly problem was that, with Lois’ will set against their progress, sheanticipated that it would be more like forcing a locked and barred door whosehinges had been fused by a blast of heat, and less like turning a knob andpushing a door open. Balroglistened to her description of the attempt silently, neither seeming neitherconfused nor indicating understanding until she had concluded herexplanation. As she finished however,she heard him take a deep breath. “Iunderstand. I am ready to begin when youare,” he said. “Verywell. Do what I do, and be careful notto touch anything apart from the strands I mentioned.” Lucy took a deep breath. She did not worry about her own safety; bothof them were putting enough power into the enchantment that the safeties wouldhave no trouble turning back almost any backlash. She worried most about would happen to Loisif their efforts failed. She steeledherself; she was not about to let that happen. Witha rapid burst of motion, Lucy focused all of the power at her command intoshifting Lois’ form. Less than a secondafter she had started, Balrog drove his own will into the same effort as bothmages braced for the resistance that they would meet. Theanalogy of the door seemed even more apt than she had expected in the nextmoment. That is, if that door had beenmade of tissue that had been soaked for hours in alcohol and then set aflamebefore two bulls charged through it. Thestartling lack of resistance that met their efforts sent Lucy physicallystumbling from the exaggerated gesture she had used to direct the magic. Her foot scuffed through one of the chalklines, thoroughly breaking it, and the enchantment collapsed. Inthe center of the circle, a humanoid ermine also collapsed where an animal hadbeen hovering a moment before. Thereaction to the magic was so instantaneous that even Balrog, who managed tokeep his focus on the ermine throughout, failed to notice any transition. One moment Lois was an animal, the next hehad returned to his most humanoid form. “Lois!”the lutin yelled, suddenly feeling very relieved. Theermine, clad only in his fur, jerked as soon as he struck the floor. He had thankfully been only a few inches fromthe ground, but the fall was jarring nonetheless. The white-furred man looked around in a hastycircle, giving Balrog only a glimpse of his panicked eyes before he jumped upto four paws. “No!” The ermine slammed into the off-balance girlthat separated him from the door, thankfully on pushing her aside as hepassed. He slammed bodily into theportal, seeming to completely forget how doors were operated in the heat of themoment. The wood of the door stood solidagainst his lunge, however, and he turned, wild-eyed, to stare at the lutin whorapidly closed on him. “Letme go! Monsters!” He dove straight at Balrog’s gut. The lutin absorbed the ermine’s momentum,using his position to lock his friend’s head in a secure, but harmlesslock. He dropped to one knee, intent onletting the confused man tire himself out before he finally released him. Lucygroggily rolled up onto her side and shook her head to clear it, looking up tosee Balrog holding Lois in a headlock. She climbed back to her feet and scrambled over to kneel beside Lois. “It’sall right, calm down!” she shouted. “Youcan’t make me one of you!” he replied deliriously. He drove a stinging jab into Balrog’sshoulder, but the stout man took it in stride and simply trapped his arm beforea second strike could follow. Lucygrimaced, but she allowed a spell to take form in her right hand and touchedLois with it gently. He quickly stoppedstruggling and relaxed, the spell literally taking all the fight out of him. Amoment later, the door burst open. Julian took the lead, and he took only a moment to survey the scenebefore acting. He threw his open palmtowards Balrog, knocking the lutin sprawling onto his back and forcing him torelease his grip on Lois. Before hecould continue, Lucy met him halfway. “Don’thurt him!” she demanded. When heattempted to elbow past her and continue his onslaught, the girl caught his armand kicked his knee out from under him in a surprising display of speed anddexterity. Julian even lost his grip onhis freshly-drawn blade in shock from her attack, and the fallen moondogprevented the two men following him from entering and acting too hastilythemselves. Afew moments later, Lois’ unconscious form had been set back on the table, aloose robe appropriated from the barracks for his use. Julian stood rubbing his shoulder in discomfort,while the rest of the group discussed what had happened. “Itseems that our theory was perhaps even truer than we had originallyanticipated,” Lucy explained. “There wasnothing holding him in feral form, not a single thing. I thought he would at least be willinghimself to remain an ermine, but I doubt even that was true. There was no resistance to the shift, noteven from the Curse itself.” “Whathappened afterwards?” Julian asked. “Iam not certain,” Lucy admitted. “Loiswas agitated for some reason. He seemedto think that we were attempting to hold him prisoner.” She ran a hand through her hair as she triedto decipher the events. “He was yellingat us, saying that we wouldn’t ‘turn him into one of us.’” “Maybehe doesn’t even remember that he is Cursed,” Alex suggested. “Ido not know how that is possible, but then again I am also still trying tofigure out exactly why he was still an animal for nearly two days,” Lucyadmitted ruefully. “Onething seems certain at least; he no longer thinks that he is an ermine,” Balrognoted. Although the moondog Keeper’sspell had knocked him flat on his back, he remained unharmed. Julian had thankfully been attempting toprotect Lois while knocking back his perceived attacker. The lutin had recreated his illusion frombefore, and now stood seeming more human than any of them but Lucy. “While confusing, his actions after our spellsucceeded were clearly taken by a man, not an animal.” Alexsmiled. “At least that is goodnews. Perhaps he was merely confused bythe sudden change.” “Thatis a certain possibility,” Lucy confirmed. “So,what do we do with him now?” Julian asked. “First,I’d say he deserves a more comfortable place to rest,” Lucy suggested. “It would also be wise to keep him underguard in case he becomes violent again. Balrog seems more than capable in that regard.” “WhileI certainly appreciate his help, I think I would be more comfortable leavinghim under the charge of one of our patrolmen,” Alex said. “As much as anything, I simply feel thatseeing a familiar face when he awakes may do him some good.” Balrogstarted to protest that Lois would know his face, but he was forced to admiteven to himself that they had met perhaps twice in the last ten years. While Lois was new to Metamor, his patrolwould still be more familiar to him now than the lutin would. “Lucywould be the most logical candidate, in that case,” Balrog conceded. “She can use magic to restrain him if heattacks.” Alexnodded. “Unless you have any objectionto the idea?” Lucy shook her head to hisquestion, and her commander continued. “Very well, then. Nathan, couldyou go see if the barracks has any private rooms available? If not, see if there is a cushion that canlend us at least. I don’t want Lois towake up still thinking he’s a prisoner somewhere.” Whiletheir ranks were effectively identical, the black wolf had no argument againstthe lynx’s suggestion. He nodded andpushed through the door with no hesitation. The others set to cleaning the remnants of the mages’ efforts. There was some comfort knowing that they hadsolved their most immediate problem, but concern remained. Lois was no longer trapped, but no one couldtell if his recovery was complete. Theyall worried what else they might have to unravel before their task was trulyaccomplished. >>>>It seems there are still more mysteries to unravel.
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