It was fortunate that Tio had aided Navyri in regaining her true identity and restoring her owl before he reached into his pocket for his orb. He was entirely correct that it was "his" orb. If he had not been entirely sure already, the elusive effort the orb now spent thrashing around in its tight space to avoid the man's hand would confirm his suspicion.
The reason that it mattered about Navyri was that she too, was drawn up into the effect of a winner being decided. After informing the newly awakened Davic that he could keep the marbles, so long as he used them to help the others, Tio reached in to take hold of the orb. Where the slippery little sphere
had been pulling the pocket of Tio's jacket to and fro to break free, it now grew to engulf Tio, jacket, pocket and all. It then shimmered internally, flashing distorted reflections of an hundred different, distant locations, and then vanished in an implosive fashion.
This same effect extended suddenly to Navyri and Curio, who would have remained switched had Tio not helped them switch back first. Her orb, previously doing everything in its power to avoid her, suddenly rushed in upon her, expanding as it arrived, to swallow her into its depths, as its internal patterns swirled and coalesced in seemingly random patterns. It too, then, shrank in a blink into apparent nonexistence.
Zana was also swiftly encapsulated within her orb and whisked off to the same distant location. She however, had not been relieved of the curse she'd gained from Tio. The same curse that had been placed upon him by Delroth, who, in his infinite patience and benevolence, was sure to be immensely amused by this turn of events.
The remaining four men -
well, three men and Finn - may have spent the next few moments in alternating states of fascination and dread as they awaited the same fate at the hands of their orbs. But their orbs simply sat where they were. Handor, still in Finn's body, explained to Nir'wei, Robin and Davic what he had previously explained to Tio about the bugs and their colors, and took more notes as they went through a similar routine to restore their Defier magic correctly.
He was, however, unable to shed any light on why their three orbs did not behave in the same manner as had Tio, Navyri and Zana's. He could only assume they shared some connection outside of the orb contest itself. One of the orbs that he'd been holding had turned out to be Navyri's. It had sprung free from him the moment Tio had ended the contest, to react with Navyri and her owl. The other had the image of a mountain shimmering in its depths.
That orb had not tried to win free of his hold. He offered it to the three others to see which one it would react with. When Robin touched it, the orb melted into a liquid form and poured from Handor/Finn's hand to pool at Robin's feet. Any initial disappointment, at what might have seemed like a complete shut-down of whatever magic had empowered it, was quickly dispelled when the this pool of dark liquid rose up to shift through a number of bodily forms.
It stopped at that of a large burrowing rodent, and immediately dug into the soil. Robin would suddenly be connected to this entity through his defier tie with the earth, as it surged like a robust worm through the dirt. A strong flash of rejoicing sang in Stark's mind as the entity flew through layers of soil and stone. And then, all at once, it composed an intelligent series of images, displaying how the four of them needed to return to "the structure" to be able to go home. It then flashed a vision of it returning to its orb form and being picked up and held as it went with its new friend back to the world. The worm-like form rose from the soil, its trailing length following the inertial flow to pour back into a single sphere again, lying at Robin's feet.
Nir'wei's orb sank into its inner squirrel image, to become opaque and solid. The creature then displayed the same celebratory attitude as it rushed through the trees as if newly freed from some prison. Nir'wei might suddenly experience a dizziness similar to when the insects had bitten him to "inflict" Robin's magic upon him. But this was in concert with an unexpected visual viewpoint that the Sev'ryn realized was his being able to see through the dark squirrel's eyes.
It bounded around for some trills before joining, literally, with Archailist's shadow. Nir'wei's long-term companion did not seem to be upset by this connection, and even went so far as to suddenly confirm that returning to their chambers would allow them to go back to sleep, whereupon they would awaken back in the regular world.
Davic would have been taking care to keep the midges enrapt with the marbles as the others settled their imbalances. He'd find that he'd need to leave four of the truly mesmerizing "Siren" marbles behind to keep the bugs from creating new chaos. But he was able to keep the other six, as well as the ten simply "glowing" ones, and the four "Mood" marbles.
When his orb burst to display some purpose, all it did was engulf him, much as the three Delroth contestants' orbs had done. But instead of whisking him off to some new phase of adventure, it just seemed to sink into him, leaving no outward trace of its presence, but also giving no indication of what the man had gained by this. Davic
could tell, however, that he could compel the presence to leave him and reform into an orb that he could then carry separately, so he knew there must be
some effect. Perhaps some future incident would reveal what this effect was.
As the three returned to their rooms in hopes of finding that they really would reawaken in the real world, Handor sighed and pulled the insect containing Finn's identity from his pocket.
"Well, I guess there's no reason to keep you stuck here. I know how I can leave, but you probably need to leave with them. Besides, your orb won't respond until it's you." He "injected" himself with the bug's stinger, and Finn found himself restored to his body.
When the youngster picked up the orb, he could feel a connection of sorts form, but there was no immediate reaction. He followed the familiar figures of Nir'wei and Robin, as well as the
unfamiliar figure of Davic, back to the odd circular structure. It was not until he found the door to his section of the structure locked that the orb reacted. It suddenly formed the shape of a key that fit perfectly into the lock to spring the door. There were no other locks to try it out on, but when he awoke back in the world, that would change.
| ! | Message from: Maltruism |
| Okay folks, this ends round two of the global. Work has been a flood lately and I need to hit the sack. I will get around to the additional details I need to address in a day or two. Those of you who have gone on to the next round were sent there by the power of your orbs, and will not be getting the little "consolation prizes" the others got. But you will ALL get a special opportunity to make some slight one-time adjustments to your PC's character sheets. I will explain later. goodnight. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz |
