From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [BDAY] [MG] Panning for Gold Date: 21 May 93 20:26:04 GMT [ADMIN] This is a joint concoction. Thanks to Liralen and Andrea Evans for their considerable assistance. 0---------------0 They left the darkness behind them. Kardia was warmed by the body heat of Kadrys' bare skin, and half wondering how folks would react to his lack of a shirt. When they reached the party, she was amused and slightly confused to realize that he didn't stand out much at all. There were folks wandering about the party with far less clothing than even Kadrys had. She grabbed another drink from one of the tables, remembering after the blood donations that they recommended lots of liquids. She drank deep. Then she heard the beat... A beat as complex, quick and smooth as a runner in full stride. Latino, she realized with surprise. "Do... do you hear that?" she asked Kadrys with delight suddenly blazing on her face as a voice called in wordless song from the distance. [Oh.. ey ah way...] Kadrys frowned as he nodded. "It's not familiar, but I hear it." [Ohey a ooo ahh...] "It's from my world, but in its past." Kardia said, her head tilted to one side to catch the haunting sound. [Oh ey a way!] "Come on!" Kardia said, laughing, "This is fun to dance to..." Her tiredness, her thirst were ignored and forgotten as the beat ran through her and made her feet light. [Tonight.] They reached the crowd when the brass and horns burst into the beat as well, deepening it, broadening without losing any of the quick sharpness. The rough warmth of a female voice started singing with a light Cuban accent. The melody was haunting, sensual, with just a gleaming hint of something dark. Kardia smiled at Kadrys and saw him smile back. She surrendered to the sound all around her and moved to it. She was unsurprised to find that Kadrys danced beautifully, with a sensual intentness that showed the power of his body. Kadrys let himself be caught in the dance, surrendering just enough to enjoy it, enough to bring long-buried skills to the surface. It had been so _long_ since he had felt this good... The power of her blood, throbbing in his veins, the incandescent feeling of its heat radiating from his skin into the cool night air. The shared enjoyment, seeing her forget all her cares and just dance. Astonishment at the lightness and spring in her steps. ...So long since he had felt this _alive_. "Rhythm is gonna get ya Rhythm is gonna get ya Rhythm is gonna get ya, Rhythm is gonna get youu. tonight!" UNG! The whole crowd around them grunted at the end of the phrase. Kardia abruptly stopped dancing. Her intentness on the music sheared away by seeing just how many people were... The nausea she felt at most things merely sexual drowned the lure of the music. She looked up with frightened eyes at Kadrys. He frowned a little at her and then gave a bright, cynical grin at seeing what had caused her to stop. The activity here did not bother him in the slightest; on the contrary, he rather enjoyed it. But he could see that it bothered Kardia intensely, so he didn't give voice to the amused chuckle in his thoughts. Her reaction was absolutely understandable considering the terrors in her past, and he would do nothing to make her any more uncomfortable with her feelings. A woman moved in, up against Kadrys, the soft downy fur of her body smoothing and rubbing against Kadrys' bare skin, like a cat wanting to be touched. The curved line of the cat woman's bare body curled against Kadrys' spare frame. His skin tingled at the touch, and he inhaled her scent. He frowned suddenly, surprised. 'That _is_ odd. They almost always use simple illusions for masquerade parties. Visual, maybe tactile if it's a rich or talented crowd. But I never heard of illusions where they correctly mingled human and animal scents. No-one bothers with illusions they can't even detect. So they _aren't_ just illusions. True transformations. Someone is expending a _lot_ of magical energy on this little party...' His eyes turned to Kardia. Seeing her tension and worried frown, he raised one eyebrow, gently pushed the furred woman away from him and moved closer to Kardia. "What's wrong?" He wondered if her strange curse-detecting sight had seen something he had not. "I... I don't know... but... is this normal for here?" Kadrys looked around, shrugging slightly. "You mean the, ah, party games? Yes, normal enough when satyrs are playing." His tones were light, offhand. Playing it down, keeping it calm. But his vaguely uneasy expression did not fade. Kardia looked at the center of the crowd, swallowed hard, and said in a small voice, "Oh." She swapped sights, blinked and said a far more surprised, "Oh." She shook her head, "That... that can't be 'Raelf, can it?" She remembered a satyr from her long glimpse at 'Raelf's multiple being, but this one had hair as gold as 'Raelf's. The one within him had had dark hair but the same face as this one. Kadrys stared across the square at the distant, muscular figure of the tall male in the middle of the group of satyrs. The vampire's eyes narrowed as he caught the faintest flash of multicoloured orbs behind the eyelids lowered in sensual absorption. "He has the same eyes..." Kadrys muttered, uncertain. He was unfamiliar with this manifestation, this mood in his old friend. If it _was_ indeed 'Raelf. Confused, Kardia frowned and turned away, shaking out the bundle that was her shawl. She folded the square in half diagonally, frowned again at the blood stain on it, and then put it on, behind her back, off her shoulders to keep it away from her throat. She sighed in relief as the heat and insistence flowed away from her. "What are you doing?" Kardia looked up at Kadrys, brows creasing. "I... I don't know. But he's got... lines of magic running through the whole crowd, not exactly making them do... that... but it's so close that..." she shook her head, her lower lip trembling. "I... I don't know... but I do know I don't want to get caught in that web. This is the only defense I have against it." Kadrys took another look around as he caught the first slight traces of the old familiar scent. Faint at first, then growing steadily clearer. Not much of it, but it was freshly spilled, and it was coming from all around him. He saw the frantic grinding of bodies against rough cobblestones, there was broken glass, twigs, the detritus that was part of civilization everywhere, and the people writhing on them as if they were the softest beds. The faces, even more absorbed and unheeding than usual in such activity. His eyes narrowed. This _was_ unlike 'Raelf. Not so much the orgy, but the lack of care for the participants. That settled it. His unease crystallised into action. "Would you like to talk with him?" Kadrys' tone was soft. The fear flared in the pit of her stomach, but with Kadrys' hand held out for hers, despite the presence of her shawl, she nodded once and took his warm hand in hers. The two of them moved slowly into the center of the groping, writhing crowd. As they drew closer Kardia was able to make out the shape of the face on the big, gold satyr. The nose was squarer than 'Raelf... no... Dave's nose, she thought. His body was close to Dave's solid build, but the legs were furry and hooved. The gold eyebrows were solid over slanted eyes. Those eyes flickered and changed color. The crowd closed around them again, and they lost sight of the band as another song started up. A pair of statuesque women, totally human in appearance, but perfect, no flaws, were dancing back-to-back and reaching out to pull in anyone who came close enough - Kardia instinctively moved away from them, smiling nervously in response to the friendly inviting gaze of the nearer woman. "No thanks," she mouthed, amd the woman smiled a Mona-Lisa smile back, glancing up and down Kadrys' body as he made a path through the press of dancers, then she reached out and grabbed someone else passing by. Suddenly they were through the dancers and into the edge of the circle around the band, clear of bodies except for a few who had found this place where they could rest and do things without being stepped on. The band was between them and their goal: the two dark twins doing amazing things with a multi-headed log-drum, the yellow haired female playing air guitar - and it was very audible - the red-haired male singing and drumming on a tuned metal disk similar to a jamaican drum. The big gold male was intermittently visible on the other side as they moved around the raised stone dias to reach him. 'Similar, but not identical. I'm just not _sure_...' Kadrys thought, but in that moment, the satyr's glance fell on them as they wound their way along the edge of the dance. Raffi was a happy camper. The party was just getting real good. The band was hot, the crowd was hotter. One of the dancers had gone and brought one of the beer carts from the Square and a couple vendors had brought their food carts, even one of the new Pitza carts that had started up since Luthor's party. He fondled a passing dancer. She giggled and slid close, and he gave her a kiss and looked inside her for her hottest turn-on. Foxes - she liked foxes. A vixen, eh? He held his pipes to her lips, and let her blow her tune. She laughed and skipped away into the dance, not really noticing her hair growing longer and red to match the soft fur sprouting on her lithe body, and her ears growing long black pointed sharp. The tail would come later as she was more comfortable with the image. He felt a strange popping - someone had just come into the dance, but she snapped the glamourie that tied them together, the gentle seductive aura that made the party such a success. He looked through the crowd, there, coming toward him having absolutely no fun at all, Kadrys and Kardia in tow behind. He noted absently that his favorite vamp was looking kind of skinny today, must not be eating well. He'd have to give the fellow some eats, share some of the wealth. There were a few folk in the crowd with a blood fetish. Hey! Kardia was injured? ... No? well! Fickle. She'd been feeding Kadrys, he knew the signature of her blood as it flowed in the Vamp's veins. But what the hey. Enough of her to go round. Enough of everybody for him. He continued with the pipe accompaniment, waiting for them to get to the stage, playing with a couple who danced onto the dias; he gave them their hearts' desire and they returned to the rest of the dance. Then Kardia and Kadrys came through the edge of the crowd. "Well heyyy, Heart of Darkness!" the big satyr cried, grinning widely at Kardia in obvious recognition. "And Darkness with her!" He flipped the pipes to the red-furred singer, who pulled them nimbly out of the air and went on with the song, interspersing his words with furious piping without missing a beat or seeming to pause for breath. The next moment, the satyr bounded across the dais with sudden caprine agility, strange in such a large frame, and danced toward them. "'Raelf? Is that you?" Hm. Old Cautious at it again. "Call me Raffi, good buddies. Oh wow, Kardia, my sweet, you decided you want the inhuman touch? I thought we had a promise? 'Sokay, I'm happy to share. Hey, why the face, I say something wrong?" Whatta drag, she looked real unhappy now, "Raffi... what are you doing to all these people? You're... well... you're making it nearly impossible for them to not..." She waved an arm at the partying crowd. She took a breath and stilled. "You gotta stop this." As he closed the distance between them, Kardia could see the ringlets of dense golden hair coating his oaken muscles. His brown skin glistened with the sweat of his playing, radiating a heady animal muskiness, rich and enticing. He reached out, supremely confident, as if to sweep her into his arms, but she huddled into her shawl and shrank away from him, her grey eyes wide with sudden fear of this magnificent, overpowering being. Kardia swallowed, and finally managed to ask in a small unsteady voice, "Raffi? 'Raelf, that _is_ you?" The satyr laughed, "Well sure it's me! And I'm in the mood to parrrrtayy..." The last word was a rumble in his massive chest. "...Aren't _you_?" he husked, smiling with molten-sky eyes. Casually, Kadrys edged closer, Kardia sidestepping instantly to put him between herself and the tall golden creature. The satyr's first reaction was simply a friendly chuckle, as he redirected his attention. Behind Kadrys, Kardia sagged with relief, feeling as if a hot searchlight had suddenly been turned elsewhere. "Well hey, my old sailing buddy, I see you're already getting down!" The satyr ran his large brown hands caressingly over Kadrys' fine white skin, stroking the vampire's sinewy shoulders. Kadrys simply stood there, staring at the satyr. His expression was a perfect study of cold indifference. The satyr's dense gold brows drew low over his eyes, which flashed hotly, seeking a response in the vampire's black orbs. "Gah!" the satyr snorted, snatching his hands away from Kadrys' body and scrubbing them down his own thickly furred flanks as if to wipe them clean. "Like kissing a work droid! Nobody home!" He looked past Kadrys, no longer noticing the vampire, and his eyes lit on Kardia. He smiled, almost leered, and projected the body language of promise and desire. Her only reaction was a convulsive tightening of the fist that held her shawl around her shoulders, a reaching of the other hand toward Kadrys. Silently, he took it. Together, they faced the satyr, wordlessly waiting for his next move. He scowled like a disappointed child, pouting his thick lips and drawing his bushy gold brows down in a frown which almost hid his eyes. They were NO fun at all. "AwwcMONNN!" he drawled, "Little lady, you _asked_ me for this, I'm just offering a preview." He shifted lithely, flowing around Kadrys and to Kardia's side, gently and firmly taking her shawl-wrapped hand and drawing her against his body, ready to hold her in muscled arms, his mouth open to fasten on hers, he looked inside for her fondest desire... Kardia had gone white. She pulled hard at the grasp that held her and when it did not let go, her eyes went wide. Then, quietly, directly to those rainbow eyes, she said, "No." Then, a shocked, unhappy expression on Raffi's face; he released her hand and there was a movement beside her faster than her eyes could follow, and the gold-furred arms loosened. She slid free, took two steps back, and stood staring. Kadrys had lunged between her and the perhaps-'Raelf, and now the vampire and the satyr stood face to face, as motionless as two statues in some bizarre park, carpeted with flowers of writhing, panting flesh. There had been a low rumble of speech from the satyr, too indistinct for her to hear. But now all was silent and still. They were simply standing there, staring into each others' eyes. She could see the flickering of the vivid colours in the satyr's eyes had slowed, the changes dreamlike, hypnotic, insidious, a gradually shifting rainbow rather than an abrupt flashing kaleidoscope. As she circled round, she saw Kadrys' face. His eyes were utterly changed. Gone were the familiar deep black orbs, replaced by twin pools of blood-red radiance, his gaze burning steadily, relentlessly into the satyr's shifting inconstant eyes. Kadrys had been pondering his options while the satyr had made his advances to them both. 'If this _is_ 'Raelf, or perhaps another 'kan, then I'll never defeat him in a simple physical struggle. What impression can flesh, even undead flesh, make on a being who can merge with the elements, or change shape at will? But our relative strengths have never been measured on the mental arena. 'Raelf said to me once, on the lookout of his home, that a human (if not quite an ordinary one), was able to resist him mentally. I think it's time to see whether my own abilities are up to the task.' Then the satyr had slid around and seized Kardia. Time to move. "Oh bummer," the satyr had growled as Kadrys interposed himself. "This is not copacetic, m'frensses. We must needs party, while the party's good. Eat, drink, make merry, for tomorrow..." He flinched. "Kadrys, the eyes may have it, but if you keep tryin' to give me the hairy eyeball, we're gonna have it out." A sharp, white smile in reply. Raffi smiled as the red eyes locked with his. He decided to let it happen; the Vamp wanted a taste of him, they'd both get a taste. He opened a thin channel, watching Kadrys move along brushing the uncomfortable edges, oh well, after all those kiloyears you'd think he'd be better at that... Eyes. Black as death. Then, pupils gaping, light kindling in their depths. Red. Hot as lifeblood. Insistent as a beating heart. Red. Blood red. This was no gentle reaching out, no loving embrace of a mortal consciousness, not the sweet seduction that preceded feeding. It was an attack. Feral, absolute. An assault on the defended fortress of an alien mind. He felt the channel open, probed it with his senses without committing to it. He was surprised to find it no decoy, but a conduit past the massed defences, straight into the heart of the complex mind. 'Raelf - or whoever he was - evidently wanted the contact. Very well. But Kadrys decided that on the way in, he would assess the defences he was passing, in case he would need to break his way out again. He started along the thin conduit, feigning timorousness, flinching aside to just brush against the edges of each defensive structure in turn, sampling it, gaining the information he would need to work out a way to breach them, if it came to that. The first defence loomed, a swirl of vivid hues reminiscent of the glimmering colourplay in the 'kan eyes. As he touched them, the swirling colours broke apart into a bewildering collage of split-eyeblink images. Visions of bizarrely outfitted people, fragments of dreams, reached out to him. Seductive drumbeats, even more complex than those of the satyr band, tried to entice him. Wailing instruments, similar to those the bard Screamer used, assaulted his ears. The obvious response would be to close down the senses. This would leave the attacker helpless. No, the required response would be a mindless, vacant trance. A glass eyed stare, letting it all wash over without attempting to analyse or think. The images and sounds faded. The second defence bulked ahead. Flinch aside, touch it. Blackness. Total lack of sensation, direction, purpose, being. Not too unlike his own mental presence. The best attack would be no attack. Accept it, absorb it, unite with it. The third defence. Touch it. Kadrys' forehead split apart as the ballista quarrel crashed home. The agonising crunch of bone, a gush of his warm blood and brains spilling down his cloven face. His body thrashing in mindless nerve reflex as it fell heavily to the ground. And the agony. Mortal agony. The screaming, mental and physical. And then, the soul-deep shock, the overwhelming, final blackness of death. Death. Familiar territory, to him. Kadrys passed through the experience without fear, emerged an instant later, sound and sane and unscathed. He had even witnessed the death 'Raelf had used as part of his defenses. He had been close enough to be sprayed with his friend's lifeblood, had wept inside as he watched 'Raelf die. So. There could be no doubt. It _was_ 'Raelf. But _why_ was he acting so strangely? He was about to find out. The death image was the last of 'Raelf's defences. "Welcome to my parlor." He drew the Vampire close and reached in turn for *contact* They were standing in a sort of a forest, entwined in a combination of a wrestler's grapple and lover's embrace. "What is this?" Kadrys broke free of the hold, looking around them in shock. His heart pounded in his chest, his breath was fast and his breath? He looked at his hands. Not the sunless ivory of the years of undeath, they were brown and alive and warm with their own heat, not stolen from the blood of others. Sunlight played across his face without any hint of pain. He looked up. "You wanted this, you know." The satyr was still there, but he looked more leonine, instead of being a blend with goat, he was a blend with cat, a shaggy mane of hair, a long tufted tail and the legs were those of a lion, slightly twisted. "This isn't right. What you're doing to those people." "Hey, it feels good, and if it feels this good it can't be wrong." Kadrys stared at him in open disbelief, before a sharp, mocking grin twisted his features. "'Welcome to my parlor'? 'If it feels good it can't be wrong'? 'Raelf. Cheap cliches? What is _wrong_ with you?" "Name's Raffi, and I don't go ragging on you for being maudlin about being dead, do I?" The too-handsome face pouted, which did not look especially good on him. Kadrys clenched his jaw, his lips thinned with disgust. He snarled a rebuke. "Did you actually _ask_ any of them if they wanted to be bit players in your little extravaganza?" "I looked for what they wanted, man. Fair exchange for them givin me what I wanted." Raffi licked his lips. "I noticed. They were giving you what you wanted. You were having fun. And that's all that mattered. You're acting as though you couldn't give a damn about all those people. How they're going to be when your fun is over. Certainly battered and bruised. Possibly diseased or pregnant. Oh, and didn't you think all those transformations were just a touch invasive? Couldn't you settle for an illusion? Did you really have to play around with their species as well as their private lives?" "Yeah. I like it. They do too. They're having themselves some fun too, you dried up old corpse. Fun, remember? Like _you_ were having yourself a moment ago with Kardia there. Tell me, old high and mighty, was she delicious? Did her blood feel reeeal good sliding down your gullet? Didn't you enjoy her? Without worrying about how she'd be afterwards?" "'Raelf, I am _worried_ about _you_! I believe your phrase is, 'you're losing the plot'. I thought you knew Kardia. Hell, I thought you knew me. If you did, you'd never need to ask such questions. You'd know that she has _not_ been harmed by me. I think she has found some measure of comfort. 'Raelf, that woman has been through pain no-one should ever know. How did you think she'd feel about being raped by a satyr? Or did you think at all?..." Raffi stepped back, surprised. "Rape? Never. Seduced. You know all about that. How often do you ask your prey first?" "'Raelf, please. _Listen_ to me. This is not like you. I know you. You _care_ about others. You came to me once, in pain, because just one man was grieving for his lost sister. Now, you're going to bring pain to dozens, to satisfy a passing whim. When I... when I was too old, too tired and used up and worn out to resist the Plane of Shadows, when I lost my soul in the curse; when I was destroyed and damned as a result, you _cared_. You cared enough to go back in time, and twist the courses of Fate: to assume a form that had been forbidden to you, to call down two gods and ask them to reunite me with my love. None of these feats were too great for you, because you cared about other people's pain. _This_ is you, 'Raelf. This is who you are!" When all that greeted those words was silence, Kadrys had to fight to overcome the despair that crashed over him, the fear for his friend. He reached inside himself, searching for the cold poise and assurance of his own soul's centre that had kept him from the madness in the ages past. There was something wrong. Something was draining from him. He snarled and Pulled back. Something deep tore free. "OW! Hey, cut that out!" The satyrlion fell backwards, rolling and coming to his feet in a smooth motion. "That hurt!" "You _won't_ be feeding on ME that way, 'Raelf." "No, man, I keep telling you, my name is Raffi, always has been. 'Raelf is the true line. They'd have me on toast if I used the clan name." "What?" Kadrys could only stare as the feline-satyr started grooming his tail in an affected "when in doubt wash" sort of way. "I said I'm Raffi. We're a cadet line. 'Raelf is the clan's true line." He looked Kadrys steady in the eyes and blinked like a cat being stroked. "OK, I'll ask politely then. Can we share together? Nudge-nudge?" "No. There's something _wrong_ here." "What's wrong is that you tried to crawl into me and then got all upset because I took you up on the offer. I thought you wanted to join with me! All the way, y'know? What kind of a tease are you, anyway?" "The kind who _can't_ go all the way, 'Raelf. That's how my curse spreads. Were I to completely touch my soul to another, the contagion would take their soul too." "Wow, cursed to an eternity of foreplay, how sad. Well, I'm not in any danger from your curse, you know." "Why do you think that?" Kadrys almost laughed - but it would have been a broken sound and he didn't have time for that weakness. "I know. From when we were on the Ghost Ship, remember? I know how it works." He started cleaning his left paw/hand. "I was on the Ghost Ship with 'Raelf. If you're not 'Raelf then it wasn't you." "No way, man, that was me all the way." Raffi stared steadily. Kadrys sat in the warm sun for a moment, part of him savoring a long-lost sensation while he searched through his aeons-long existence for an answer to this particular puzzle. But there wasn't one. At least, not one he liked at all. He would have to take this - this Raffi up on his offer. Abandon the last of his defences. Become utterly vulnerable. Surrender the deepest secrets of his soul, give himself totally to this other being. _Merge._ Doubtless for the 'kan, who had merged permanently with many different beings already, there was nothing at all unfamiliar in the act. For Kadrys, forever essentially alone, it was an entirely different matter. His every instinct, honed over ages of hiding, of survival, recoiled from the thought. All of his unlife, he had spent hiding his true self. Emerging from his careful concealment only to take control of others' minds. Laying bare other people's memories, selecting and storing them, while himself remaining shrouded in his own internal night. Defended from all attack. Concealed. Safe. He snarled suddenly at himself. 'Time to decide. What's it going to be? Am I strong enough to do this for him? Or am I going to go on being a spiritual voyeur? Stay in my own solitary self and let him go to hell?' It was a lot to ask of such an intensely secretive soul. But 'Raelf had already saved that soul from final death and damnation, had given him a gift beyond the wildest reach of his dreams. In the end, whatever the cost to his private self, he _could_ not refuse the chance to help. Grimly, he seized his instinctive reticence, crushed it out. There would be no room for even the slightest trace of his usual reserve. If he was to discover what had happened to 'Raelf, his own commitment to their union would have to be total. He drew a long, deep breath to calm himself, expelled it in a slow sigh. He stared directly into the depths of those kaleidoscope eyes. "Something's been done to you. I can't find out what, not at this level. So I guess I'll just have to trust your claim that you can deal with my curse." All at once he reached out, pulled the surprised satyrlion into his arms and moved to sink his fangs, but they weren't there. "Hey, sorry, dude, the curse is out there, this is just us in here." "Oh? Well let's just drop the illusions and do it." The forest blurred as they pulled tighter together, and with a SNAP Kadrys felt the hard body against his suddenly meld into his own; he fought off the intensity of the sensation with the strength gained from long practice, shoving away the strange physical sensations of merging to concentrate on the mental world. There was nothing here, really, a quiet center around which the world blazed as a cascade of Fire, a solid wall of Air, screaming flows of the Earth which Kadrys knew too well, and the curving inflexibility of Water. And the silence. _Raffi? _Yeah, man, oh wow, what a bitch, no wonder you don't trust anyone. Stakin' you in the afterglow? Geez. And getting led on by that priestess, finding out that all along it'd been a lie? Heinous. Flinch. Old foolishness, long since past. _Open up to me, Raffi. This isn't a one-way. _Really? But you want to be alive, free from the curse, that's your one strongest dream, right? I was gonna give you that in trade. _I'll ... *damn*. I'll survive. I want to give something to you, something of my choice, this one-way taking-and-gifting is wrong. It's ... It's not _good_ enough. _Seems fine to me, but whatever floats your boat. You want my own-true, here goes. growing up in the repressive regimented environment of his home, a cadet branch subject at any time to being revoked, eaten and changed thereby, winning the right to go to the Traveller's school just long enough to learn how to live off-world, escaping, finding a place to be, killing an elf-lord to steal his life and place and fleeing when discovered, finding a dying bird on a world of inconstant magic, eating it, becoming it, finding a dying dog struck by a car, eating it, becoming it, befriending a human who had dangerous hobbies, knowing he'd have an accident soon, eating it, becoming it, walking the world looking for fun, finding a satyr dying in Athens eating it, merging with the compatible spirit, moving on when the locals decide he's a demon, going to Arkham, finding a lost sage who needs a lift home, going on to Nexus, finding... Kadrys pulled free. Something kept getting in his way, a pattern of holes in the memory and mind that made up this Raffi character. One thing conspicuously missing. _Where's ar'Elya in all this? _Who? You mean the sparkly babe from clan 'lyand? How should I know, man, she's just someone I met in Traveller's, wouldn't even give me the time of day. Not a cadet branch. She's full sept, they're snobs like you wouldn't believe. _I see. Remember her for me. _Ok fine, whatever. Whirling vanes of ice aimed at him like a sword of disdain _That's a lie._ Kadrys put his will against the and felt it bend slightly. He reinforced the push. _Help me, Raffi. A torrent of power fed into his push, and the snapped. Whirling vanes of reflective crystal, each reflecting something new he had never seen about himself, the gentle laughter from inside in admiration of his soft-edged furriness ... _Oh man oh man. What the hell. ar'Elya. This doesn't make sense. _Call her. There was a wrenching sense of loss and abandonment, solitude returning where it wasn't welcome, and Kadrys was alone, himself and nobody else, in a quiet dark void. Then the forest sprang up around them, again, the golden satyrlion howling a name into the skies. The sun grew much brighter, blinding but not painful, even to eyes that were live and human in this place. "Help me?" The satyrlion sobbed, and a blazing silver figure with wings of pure light stepped down from the sun and wrapped the wings around. Kadrys felt it looking at him, and somehow an irrational, overwhelming hopefulness began to grow inside him. He smiled widely, a warm smile, harmless and human. The light faded. No black-and-red spots, as Kadrys had expected to see in afterimage. Just a gold-furred satyr-lion changing before his eyes, the satyr part blending into a more feline self. Around them the forest faded, reshaping, replaced by a palm-strewn shore of a beach where a storm had recently taken place. "Kadrys. Oh no. What have I been doing?" The vampire looked at him without speaking. "Oh man. I'm really sorry. Let's get back outside, ok?" Kardia gasped as the tense standoff broke without warning. Kadrys closed his eyes, turning his head away. The satyr stood, stretched to his full height, flinging his arms wide, threw back his head and gave voice to a shout: a burst of sound that stunned the ears of all those around him, drowning out the music of the band like a candle in the sun. And the call was answered. It appeared from nowhere and everywhere, a stream of light, brighter than any star, collecting into a blazing form, incandescent. Spears of blinding white radiance reached out from it, driving all the shadows away, bathing the square in fierce illumination, freezing the partygoers in an eerie tableau. As it coalesced, the watchers could dimly discern a human form, almost lost amid the radiance. It stood behind 'Raelf, bathing his body in its white glory. It cupped its hands round the back of his head, the golden curls burning, illuminated through with reflected light that began to shine from inside him, as they reached inside. Then the bright hands came away, tearing away something with them: vicious tangled chains of something deep black, the dire hue of the shadow that hides attackers. The radiant being ascended, dwindled, became a starlike point of light, vanished. Kadrys had watched the arrival of the light with particular intentness, his senses straining toward it. He had expected holiness in that blinding white blaze, had been prepared to flee for his life. But no, there was none of the terrible destroying agony that holy powers always inflicted upon him. Strangely, all he felt as he looked into that radiance, was a lifting of his heart. A sense of hope. But that vanished in concern as 'Raelf fell, unconscious. Together, he and Kardia knelt by the fallen satyr's side, Kardia calling to him, shaking him, trying to awaken him. Kadrys frowned, kneeling by 'Raelf's head. His hands reached out to the satyr's closed eyes, moving to thumb open the eyelids and expose the eyes, so he could use gaze to go in after him, try to rouse him. But even as he moved, the eyelids flickered, and opened. The rainbow-vivid eyes were clear and sane. For no reason she could think of, Kardia wanted to cry. "Oh man..." 'Raelf groaned softly, running a hand through the tousled gold at his temples, "...that was bigtime bogus. I'm still not quite myself. ...'Lo, you two," He grinned up at them, the same warm, friendly smile they knew. Kadrys and Kardia exchanged grins over 'Raelf's prone form, heaved twin sighs of relief. The satyr turned his eyes to Kardia, and shook his head, sadly, seeing her shawl pulled tight around her shoulders. "Kardia, oh no, I didn't say what I think I said? I'm sorry, it wasn't really me talking, I hope you can forgive me sometime." Kardia yielded to the impulse of her heart and flung her arms around 'Raelf, gave him the hug he had sought so insistently before. But there was all the difference in the world, this time: the embrace was given honestly rather than drawn out of a calculated play on her body's animal nature. He returned the embrace, hesitantly. Some of the dancers who had been looking at him when he had pulled Kadrys in, they were also looking stunned, but then the music picked up again and they rejoined the dancing. 'Raelf raised himself up on his elbows and looked around, sadly, at the panorama of bestial transformed figures. Half animal people, totally submerged in their celebration to the point that they had abandoned all pretense of rational thought, just bodies coupling with other bodies. He frowned. None of them had consented to his otherself's tampering, fantasy or not. He hadn't bothered to ask them. "Wow. Hieronymous Bosch, eat your heart out!" he muttered bleakly to himself, before turning a dismayed look at Kadrys and Kardia. He climbed to his hooves, leaned closer to murmur to Kadrys, "I owe you one, friend." "Nonsense. I still owe you, and Maribel, more than I can ever hope to repay." He grinned whitely, dispelling the sombre mood. "Some ... ah, interesting mental defenses you have there." "Yah, bit of the old 'I waaant my MTV' never goes astray..." 'Raelf looked at the live equivalent of a music video around them, or maybe a beer commercial gone horribly wrong, and far beyond the limits of prime time TV. "Now how am I gonna clean up this mess?"