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 Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:00 pm
"I have talked to him," the king reminisced. "I have a sense of his personality, like mine in its own strange way. He invades my dreams sometimes, because in some ways it is safer to talk to him there, without such a strong temptation to switch worlds. I would like very much to see him in the flesh as I have seen him in my dreams."
Harlan seemed to make up his mind with that last sentence. Katrina did not seem harmed, and he was close to the right age any way, so what reason was there for worry?
"Perhaps I will see what Cedric would propose to me. But perhaps I will make his impetuous self wait a bit longer." The kind chuckled and sipped his drink. "We must figure out sleeping arrangements after all. Perhaps you would like a room near my sisters?" And thus, near his own.
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Cedric huffed and crossed his arms. "Well I know what I want to do," he grumbled out loud, unable to return her mental speech. "I should show you the place where I was initiated. It's big enough for a dragon to sleep in. It has to be." He turned to look at her, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. "Those guards can't stop us, and Katrina can find you through the bond I bet. What do you say?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 6:34 am
If there was one thing Katrina did surmise about the political situation in Tok, it was that you do not easily decline a King's offer. There was little harm in it anyway.
"I am certain any room you have available would be sufficient accomedations. However, there is one more question before I leave. I did not know any better when I started to discover the dragon world. Cedric decided for me, to bring Drxisisliege here and she consented I suppose. Since I'm certain a conscious ruler such as yourself has already thought about it, my question then is, since there is a danger to your safety, why are you willing to take that risk as the King of your country and the leader of your people?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:12 am
Harlan's grin spread as he stood to escort her out. "The idea is so appealing to me, that I have determined to have it done some day. Why not tomorrow? Although there is some risk..." He shrugged as he opened the large doors for her, "I can't see myself dying in this misadventure."
The room he was leading her to was not very far, since the royal family lived near the top of the tower. The king, of course, would have the most space, and he had given his sister considerable space as well. By taking a room or two from each of their suites, the kind created a new place for Katrina. "Cedric would be over there, if he ever comes to bed," the king said as he pointed out a room on the other side of his sister's rooms, furtherest away from himself and Katrina while still being on the same floor. Well you never know what can happen when you share a wall with some one, so Harlan prefered not to share any with his older brother.
"If any other questions rise to mind," he assured her, "come knock on my door. I'm a light sleeper."
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Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:32 pm
"Thank you, King Harlan. You are most kind. I bid you goodnight." She smiled and closed the door after being sure he had departed enough for propiety to do so. As she turned to her own private space she let her smile go. There are worse things then dying, King Harlan, as you may not yet know for all your wisdom. However, far be it from Katrina to stand in the way of royalty. Cedric would say something if it was too dangerous. For now, she needed sleep.
----------------------------------------------------
I have been sleeping much of the day Cedric, but shelter would be appriciated. If there is anything to say about your world, it is that you humans pick places in the mountains to live where as I prefered the sunny forests where there was enough sun to warm you and only a cool breeze at night. Drxisisliege gave a dragon's sigh. She was sure there was places like that here too, it was just so long since a draogn had been there.
Tell me where I need to fly. Drexisisliege said, bending herself so Cedric could climb back on the saddle.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 11:19 am
Cedric had indeed complained about danger in the past, when it involved her, his daughter and a person that he did not entirely trust to handle things. But when it came to his brother, who besides being related, was a powerful person that he more or less trusted, Cedric's attitude was a bit different. And it was definitely different when it came to leading Drexisisliege into the heat of things. Dragons were strong creatures, Cedric reasoned. More importantly, he had an agenda, and the dragon might be able to help if his brother Harlan was too chicken.
He scrambled unto Drexisisliege's back and slapped the base of her neck affectionately. “We must find a place to roost for the night,” Cedric explained to the guards with anarrogant, 'go-ahead-and-try-to-stop-me' attitude. “Don't worry, we won't go far. And the king will know where we went.” With a chuckle, Cedric lowered his voice and gave Drexisisliege directions into, of all places, the large hill that the tower was sitting on. It was true, they did not go far.
You wouldn't call the entrance secret, either, since it was big enough for a dragon. Yet by some trick of the eye, Cedric was not able to see the entrance until they were just upon it. Neither was it guarded by physical beings, a selectively permeable magic field and alarm sufficient to keep out or at least warn the royal family of intruders. The magic field allowed the two through without a hitch, checking only for familial relation to the royal family. Drexisisliege, in her own way, was related, and the field understood that. It had not been worked by humans, and had been in place for quite a while. Nor was it the strongest work of magic in the area, for as soon as they had passed into the warm hill-- perfect for a nest, by the way, with its one large open space and walls reinforced by magic-- Drexisisliege was drawn to the center of the open space where a more familiar working came into focus.
Why, it felt like home.
“This is the place where we bonded are strengthened in our connection to your world. It is not necessary for most...but extremely helpful. Without this strengthening of my own bond, I may not have been able to bring you over. Do you remember?” Of course she did. Cedric and his wife had shown up by switching with their dragons, then taken a dragon back with them by drawing the dragon into a temporary bond with them, just strong enough to drag the three of them back over when they switched again. They had not even tried to take full-grown beasts, considering how hard it was to bring Drexisisliege. But Cedric had wanted her, as grown as she was, very badly. “Even so I needed my wife's help, and we could only bring over one at a time. Here I thought we might be able to do it a bit easier... but I suppose you would know better, me being a mere human.”
Cedric hopped up to to alter in the middle of the room. It looked like a metal casting worked by an artist, a life-sized model of a hatched dragon shell lying in a bed of pine, small branches, and the like. On closer inspection, it seemed more likely that it was actually fossilized, or by some other method worked from a real egg long ago. It would have been as tall as Cedric before it hatched, and he had to pick carefully to climb into the middle. “The connection between the worlds is weakest here, since this is where.... by legend at least... your world was created. Even I can feel it, without drawing on my other half.” Cedric took a deep breath, feeling strengthened by the proximity to the other world. Danger meant nothing to him here.
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 7:09 am
The presences of the other world is certainly strong here. There is much less strangness about it. Drxisisliege had heard of this place and had learned the mechanics behind how it worked. She had even visited the twin in the other world, the lower half of the same shell, which stood in a similar cavern.
I have explored some of this place before, but I have never had the chance to use it for fear of injuring Katrina. Therefore I never told her about it. Drxisisliege cocked her head to the side and leaned her head over the cracked eggshell, looking down at Cedric.
Do you intend to sleep there like a newborn hatchling refusing to leave its shell? Drxisisliege said amused by Cedric's enjoyment. She could understand though, as she felt the connection as well. It felt secure, but each and every dragon knew that the other world had been created, that this land, this world was truely their home.
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Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:53 am
Cedric laughed. "I was hoping to somehow bring my dragon over, actually." He crossed his arms and stared at Drex. "I feel certain that you can help me do that, but I admit that I have no idea how. Your people created that world, this connection... it seems you should be able to do more with it than I can."
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:48 am
Drxisisliege took on a thoughtful gaze before her features pinched into a somewhat doubtful look.
I am aware of the theory behind it. It somewhat like a teleportation spell, but there are differences. Drxisisliege paused a moment, lowering herself into a thinking position.
I don't know if you can get an older dragon, but they would have a better grasp on this then I. The difference between the two is similar to the difference between walking and flying...when you fly you have to worry about up and down as well as the usual directions. So it is with these. Not only are we physically altering the location of an object, we have to worry about were in existence we place it. Perhaps if we can have your dragon and I working in tandum on the same spell, it would minimize any possibility of error. Plus the more bonded you have to stabilize the transition, the more likely your dragon will end up where we want him rather than where we do not. The mechanics of it were clear, Drxisisliege just doubted her own mastery of draconic magic to accomplish the task. After all, the dragons that had created the second world were ancients and had thousands of years of magic between them. Drxisisliege had a few decades...maybe a century or two at the most.
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Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:07 pm
Cedric knew how to get right to the point: "Are you saying that we should attempt to get my brother and possibly my sister down here to help before attempting it alone? If they decide against it, this may be our only chance... Yet also, whatever we do here may be detected."
Cedric sat down in the middle of the egg and leaned back against the curved inside of the shell. He seemed content to do as the dragon pleased, in contrast to his hurry to get here. It seemed that she had reassured him by indicating that it could be done.
"Perhaps," he mused, "it would be easier for me to switch out, and for the two of you to try to bring me back. I'm a bit smaller."
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Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:29 pm
Cedric recieved something similar to a mental chuckle.
You humans are so curious. It is not the size of your bonded that worries me. A simple inanimate object with a few inaccuracies does not usually hurt anyone. That is why switching out is one of the first abilities a bonded achieves, esspecially before they are able to handle the psychological side of it. One small bit of the important parts of a living creature can be rearranged in such a way as to cease its existence. On top of that, bringing the essence of the creature requires a very precise focus point, which is usually the bonded. But since you are not switching, it is not a transference...We will have to be able to guide every bit of your bonded to correspond with his body. Drxisisliege thought about it a moment, her eyes flickering back and forth as if calculating the risks.
More bonded may aid in the gathering of the conscious of your bonded, acting like a buffer to collect his spirit and keep any of it from 'leaking away' as it were. This will ensure that your bonded has a mind that remains...intact. Then again, with the appropriate preperation, we could construct temporary sigils to act in place of other bonded and accomplish the same task. Basically, we create runes that give off a psychic marker that will act as the psychic presence of the bonded. There are two problems with this. First, you need a brass dragon or its bonded to create the proper sigils, at least the most effective ones. Katrina and I would only be able to see how well it is working and the best places to put them. The second problem is that it would take time to make the sigils and it would be difficult for them to go unnoticed. Drxisisliege was now into a realm that she understood. The care and protection of meta-physical essences was part and parcel with some of the extra-sensory perceptions that came with the colour of her beautiful scales.
Lucky for you, we would only need three to shore up the ancient connection between the worlds. If there is ever a place to do this....it would be here. Also, Katrina and I could keep a very close eye on your bonded. Ideally, your own ingeniuity has created a much safer way of pulling dragons back. Using other bonded to serve as focal points and bringing the dragon with them. If your siblings are to find out before we complete the trans-location, it might be safer to simply convince them to do it for you....
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:48 pm
Cedric thought a few moments about what she had said. Dragons were cryptic sometimes, even when they didn't mean to. In this case, it was just that she knew a lot more about magic than he did. Technically he was not a mage at all, since without his bonded he would not have a lick of magic at his command.
"Let me understand," he apologized. "You think we can do this if you can convince Katrina to help? For the third, might we still switch me out with my dragon so that he may aid you more? If one of us dies, the other dies, and it does not matter which one of us we risk."
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:27 am
I'm saying that someone with a dragon is going to have to know about it. You might as well ask the people you trust to help you. A dragon or bonded from the other world can be brought over without having other bonded switch out as well, but you will still need bonded to make a safe attempt at it. You might as well just convince your family to help you. Drxisisliege said by way of confirming Cedrics question.b It did not really matter who helped, so long as there were other bonded, or something in place of the bonded, here to help guide the transfer.
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:09 pm
King Harlan was arisen at the notice that his brother had flown off on the dragon. He ordered that no one else be woken, and donned a dark outfit fit against the cold, taking with him a few provisions and the two guards that had been on duty outside his room and would not leave his side. He thought that he knew where to look, but he was prepared to go further if necessary.
Katrina did not hear a knock on her door before, of a sudden, another woman was in her room, the swish of underskirts giving away her presence. "Forgive me," she whispered and bowed. "You must know that the king has left on account of his brother."
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"Would you like to talk to my other half?" Cedric asked chipperly. "I may be his bonded, but your heads can meet better on the matter of the magic that will be involved."
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:19 pm
It may prove useful to discuss this matter with him. He is older than I and may have a more advanced grasp of the kind of magic will be using. Drxisisliege said. She agreed that Cedric had educated himself very little on the matter of draconic magic. She would have to remember to rectify that with her own bonded.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Katrina started at the swish of garments that were not hers, but composed herself in time to hear the news. She thought it was interesting.
"Two questions for you then: I'm I supposed to accompany him...and who sent you to inform me?"
If it was not the king that had sent the messenger, it might imply internal politics. If it was the King, the intentions of his actions would be puzzling if he did not mean for her to follow.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:36 am
"I sent myself. Ready yourself, and I will show you were to go," she answered simply.
--------------------------
"Very well," Cedric agreed. For Drxis, the switch between the bonded was not without warning. What would have appeared quite sudden and unexplainable to most humans was prefaced by the two contacting each other to set up the switch.
A large white dragon crouched precariously over the petrified egg that Cedric had been inside. He huffed in annoyance, looking sleepy to Drxis. Greetings. Stretching languidly, he regarded the room. He'd been here before, so surprise did not grace his cranky features. My human is quite tired, yet he keeps me awake, he complained by way of apology.
My daughter, do you remember me? He grinned then, his comment referring to the fact that she had been in the human world for the past month or so, while he had been stuck in their more familiar artificial world.
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