Ch 7

  Melchsee waved her hand, and a light blue rectangle appeared in it's wake. It was semi-transparent, solid around the edges, and made entirely of light. It hung in the air as though solidly affixed, close enough to the ground that it lit up a patch of tiny grass near Casimer's dirt mound. He rose from under the dirt, or more accurately, the dirt rose and lifted him up into the air. He was, conspicuously, just a bit taller than Melchsee stood.

  “What have you made here,” he asked, a little tendril of dirt coming out of the column and passing through the window without affecting it.

  “This,” she said delicately “is a very useful prop, part of a system my previous partner and I discovered. As of now, however, this is my main tool of negotiation.” Casimer moved through the window, column of dirt shifting him back and forth through it.

  “It doesn't do anything. It isn't anything. It's useless. How is this supposed to help you, or me?” She smirked.

  "It does quite a bit more than nothing. It's a part of a vast, complex system designed for the express purpose of intelligently controlling mana. Even better than that, it's a piece of the system that my partner and I managed remake, giving it a degree of independence from the larger whole." Casimer, upon hearing all of Melchsee's words, lost interest and became frustrated.

  "Your system is stupid and your rectangle is an unappealing shade of blue. What is it supposed to do?"

  “I can show you," she said seriously, "All you have to do,” she paused, “is let me into your mind.” Casimer stopped moving, a thin red light playing around his edges.

  “I don't want to do that, that sounds dangerous” he said, then “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Well,” Melchsee said, the word taking an entire breath, “That is some very rapid advancement of your intellect and logical skills.”

  “What does that mean,” Casimer interrupted, red light growing more intense.

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  “It means you are very smart,” Melchsee said earnestly. The red light faded, and a faint green and pink replaced it.

  “Yes, I am very smart,” Casimer said.

  “So smart,” Melchsee continued “that you will definitely be able to see why letting me into your mind is a good idea. First,” she said before Casimer could react again, “it will put me under your control. I am a being composed entirely of mental energy, a mental ele-mental,” she said, clearly finding her own joke very funny, “and though I can sustain myself to a certain extent, I am funda-mentally,” she emphasized 'mentally', “symbiotic in nature. I need to be attached to another mind, to feed on and refine their thought processes. It's much more complicated than that,” she assured him, “But I don't have very much time to get into it. Suffice to say, you are one of the few beings who are capable of fully supporting me, without losing your identity, going mad, or simply dying from over-stimulation. Once you let me in, you have a very,” she paused, “very, powerful servant totally under your control.”

  The light around Casimer turned a shade of avaricious gold, small streamers of dirt rising from the ground and reaching towards Melchsee, Casimer's greed and lust for power manifesting as grasping hands.

  “How?” he asked, voice sounding rough. Melchsee smiled and laid on the ground, allowing the dirt hands to grab her and feel the contours of her body.

  “It's very simple. In your mind,” she said while pointing at the blue window, “Picture that. Then, draw this symbol,” a simple geometric design appeared, “on the one you've made in your mind. And all you have to do after that, is say my name three times.”

  “Why three?” Casimer asked absently, already working on the task in his mind.

   “I'm a being of the mind, and so mental laws govern me,” she said, shutting her eyes. "There is a great belief; a power, associated with names and numbers, and few more powerful than the act of saying something three times. Oh,” she said, suddenly smiling, feeling a tingle in the dungeon core's direction, “You've done it correctly, I can feel the link.”

  Casimer felt nothing, but noticed that Melchsee appeared to be glowing a bit brighter. In his mind, the window and symbol on it were almost disturbingly solid, sustaining themselves without any input or effort.

  “Melchsee,” he said, and the symbol in the center began spinning.

  “Melchsee,” he said, and the window began to spin in the opposite direction.

  “Melchsee,” he said, and she vanished from the ground and walked into his mind through the portal. She began to laugh, a deep and mirthless laugh. Her posture was wide, totally confident, and Casimer knew he had made a terrible mistake.

  Then, she stumbled out of his mind, leaned over the ground and vomited, rainbow liquid spraying forth from her mouth as she fell to her knees and heaved again, becoming absolutely soiled in the process.

  “Oh thank God,” she said in-between convulsions “Oh, I thought I was gonna die.”