BECMI Chapter 387 – Change is the Thing
We only stayed a day at the home of the Immortal, filling up on fruit to complement all the mutton we had, hauling baskets and barrels of the stuff back to the holds of the ships for later use.
Even Delphax wasn’t going to use the Curse to transform any of the food to yyota, and Venton did bestir Himself to remove that particular affliction from the armada, saving me from having to do the same.
Pretty sure all the fruit would have been turned to yyota out of spite if that Curse wasn’t taken down.
The blessing of the Immortal of the Wind proved its value. The winds that drove us on our path were fair, warm, and steady, driving the fleet along at the best speed vs comfort ratio, without straining all the makeshift wingspars and wingmasts slapped so roughly into place by the fleets. Some of the carpenters were talking about making ship designs with such things built right in from the beginning, and wondering how much of a difference it would make in performance.
Well, they hadn’t run into any of the vessels of the natives yet, so they couldn’t examine them, which would undoubtedly give them more inspirations.
The big thing was naturally being able to still fly in a gravity well, as opposed to out here in the aeromantically-dense winds of the void between skylands. That still took power and money and magical skills… like Permanent Reverse Gravities on incredibly dense hunks of metal to offset the weight of a ship and its cargo.
I could do that sort of thing to some of the ships here using multiple boulders of stone, increasing mass and decreasing the need for lift, not something so useful out here in the void with no gravity plane.
Inside a gravity plane, it would be a rude surprise if some of the ships got airborne without use of Cloud Vessel to help them fly. They didn’t have the structure to rotate such rocks and change the weight of the ship, either, so less than effective.
Permanent Cloud Vessels it would be...
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“Turkeys, ma’am!” the scout shouted out enthusiastically. “There’s wild turkeys all over the place, sure as I hunted ‘em back home!”
“Turkeys?” I repeated ominously, the word making the sailors flinch for some reason. I looked in the direction of his pointing finger, an open area on the island ahead of us.
The sea surrounding this skyland was only about ten miles wide. The sky was a normal blue, the sun easy, the atmosphere comfortable. The woods ahead were temperate, not subtropical, probably because of the amount of rainwater.
It took a moment to pick out the flocks of them, and I frowned.
Duum hopped off my shoulder and into the air, I vaulted after him into his saddle and was on the way within a breath.
“This is the Lady Edge. Under no circumstances are you to make landfall until I have verified what this place is, and explicitly do not kill any of the turkeys or any other native animals. They likely are not animals at all.”
With that ominous note, the very interested Duum and I zipped on ahead of the fleet to survey the place.
Especially the turkeys.
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Invisibility was sort of key, or the flocks would have scattered wildly at the presence of such a massive airborne predator as Duum. He did admit the plump fowl looked pretty tasty… until he glided in close enough to see them with full clarity through his Monocle.
And lo, none of them were turkeys at all.
The armada was anchoring off-shore in the calm waters there when I Magespoke again. “This is the Island of the sorceress Nonce, an immortal servant of some Delphan Immortals. Her gaze alone can transform creatures into other forms as she wishes. Every single one of these turkeys is a human or other creature who came onto her island and displeased her.
“Be aware that killing them will return them to their original forms, and if you think to be eating them then, you will be immediately executed for cannibalism,” I finished coldly. “Don’t be coming ashore without Her permission, or mine.
“Nonce will not care if we take her little birds and restore them to their true forms, so start working out where to assign some extra sailors.”
That effectively made sure nobody was going to flout my orders, as none of them wanted to wind up a turkey.
“There should be a cave toward the center of the skyland,” I told Duum, who immediately flitted off in that direction. The island was only about ten miles across, so it should take only a few minutes to find.
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I pulled a telstang loop out of my Masspack and Funf slipped it over Duum’s right dewclaw. He wouldn’t be able to change size while he wore it, but it made him immune to any form of magical alterations to his form while he had it on.
I slid a similar bracelet around my left arm for the same purpose, taking no chances on this matter. Nonce was known to be bored, whimsical, and temperamental at the best of times, a Steel Gray soul unrepentant of her penchant for turning others into sheep and chickens and goats and cows and other livestock, enjoying the reactions when the foolish killed her victims for food and found they’d murdered another mortal.
Of course, if you were polite and didn’t challenge her, she could be welcoming enough, at least in the tales, and she would refrain from transforming Priests if at all possible, not wanting to anger the Immortals who had given her her long years.
She wasn’t an Overmagus, only a High Archmage, at least according to the stories, so I wasn’t afraid of her.
Why our trail took us here was another story. Were we supposed to piss her off? Neither I nor my Sims had ever bothered to meet her. Indeed, her magical power was nothing special by Delphan standards, and if she knew some unique spells, so what? Her real power was her transforming gaze, and whatever Immortal was her backer.
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The cave where she lived was obvious by the gardens outside of it, a decent collection of flowers and herbs growing thickly, and a couple of stone huts put up with magic to store things in.
A stone cauldron over a fire sat capped and empty, although a second, smaller fire was going and looked to be heating some water, possibly for herbal tea.
As an Immortal Creature, she shouldn’t need to eat, but probably had an affection for the stuff.
There were also quite a few turkeys in the area, probably sticking close in a dimly-remembered hope of regaining their true forms… which likely amused her all the more.
Duum swooped up, turned visible, beat his wings once to create wind and noise, and settled smoothly to the ground. I hopped off of him, drifting to the ground, as a darkly robed figure came out of the cave there.
She removed the hood of her cloak after a moment, revealing a pale mostly-human woman’s face, although she had sharply pointed ears, reminiscent of the Fey. Her eyes were bright green, her hair dark, and her expression was one of unabashed interest as I met her eyes without emotion.
I felt the flicker of magic plucking at me, but the telstang’s disruption destroyed it and rendered me immune, the slightest of feedback making her flinch back and avert her eyes sharply in reproof.
“Try that again, Lady Nonce, and you’ll be blinded,” I promised her, swirls playing around my bracelet in the hue of human blood. “I am the Lady Edge, not one of your playthings.” My eyes narrowed sharply and gleamed at her as I approached without fear, and her smile was very forced as she had to concentrate not to step back at my approach. “Persist, and you will become one of mine,” I promised her with a lilt to my voice that made the manafield hum and thrum, including the spells in her head!
“Just a test, dearie, and you certainly pass!” she deflected with a rather forced laugh, suddenly aware that I could crush her like a grape, and her best weapon was useless against me. “I admit that you have flair and style, and you definitely are not one of the Delphans who have such a poor habit of bothering me. I adore your dress, it suits you so perfectly!” she smiled with unabashed shamelessness, careful to make no sudden moves.
“Of course it does. Do none of your supplicants come with suitable clothing for you?” I sniffed, gesturing at her well-made but plain cloak and robe, certainly comfortable, but of no style whatsoever. They’d probably been Created by magic, and while she looked like a deft seamstress, she clearly was not a master of the craft.
She simply rolled her eyes. “Of course not. They are merely men with craven desires, bringing gold and jewels and other petty stuff, perhaps some fair sonnets to woo me like I was some gushing maiden aching only for the company of a man.”
Well, that didn’t really surprise me, all things considered.
“I see. Well, there is an Immortal game afoot, and for some reason it has driven my fleets and I to your island. I will see to it that the crews do not disturb you, although…” I turned about to regard the dozens of turkeys occupying the grasslands outside her cave, none of them daring to get near to her flowers, herbs, and garden. “You seem to have some extra manpower sitting around doing nothing. I lost over three hundred men in the storm which brought us to this skyworld. I trust you won’t mind if I go recruiting.”
Her first snide reply at my cool tone died in her throat when she met my eyes and almost flinched back, expecting feedback. She swallowed to buy time, and answered, “Well, there is my reputation to consider if you take all of them.” She took care to stay amused at the idea and the implications.
“Ah, so the next group of fools won’t know better because they won’t see any turkeys, and so you’ll repopulate. Perhaps with goats this time.”
Her thoughtful expression that this might be a good time to change her thematic animal wasn’t hard to see.
In the end, she just waved it off, not that she had much choice. “Take as many as you like. I trust you won’t have any difficulty reverting them yourself.”
I snapped my fingers over my shoulder. Silver sparks flashed on my black nails.
Like a wave of unseen force, bursts of silver light erupted from the turkeys in the nearby grasses, shattering their forms and abruptly restoring them to the Delphans they used to be. Many of them were wearing armor and all of them were still clothed, although their weapons were gone and absent.
Ignoring Nonce’s rather shocked expression at suddenly having nearly threescore of her victims restored instantly to their rightful forms, I Said in Human, “If you want to get off the island, head down to the shore in that direction, and join the ships there.”
I pointed with Dread. Seeing a chance to make an impression, Duum rose up, and also grandly pointed with one roc-sized wing in that direction.
Their heads still swimming with uncertainty after who knew how long as a bird with a brain the size of my thumb, the men and women there nevertheless knew they wanted to get out of there with all of their hearts and souls. They followed the great dark sail with crimson waves that was Duum’s wing, and started stumbling downhill towards the water.
Their gait was at first uncertain, but it rapidly began to pick up speed as their reflexes started to return… and fear of the woman with green eyes who lived in the cave!