Some magic theorists claim that all of the 'universal' non-elemental spells we know actually belong to undiscovered tri, quad or Penta-elemental combinations. They also claim that while nobody has an affinity with them or can't discover their elements by analysis of the diagrams is no reason these elements don't exist. It is almost impossible to prove the existence of an element without someone with an affinity to that element, and there are only less than a hundred quad-affinity mages in the entire world. And no known record of a Penta-element one in millennia of known history.
Excerpt from A Practical Guide to Spellcraft, vol 1. Published by the Royal Academy of Yutis.
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"Your Highness, this is a scandal! I cannot let you take a bath with some street boy you picked up!" Deb protested.
Dawn tilted her head and turned her head to look at the maid with a deadpan expression. "Yes, Deb. It is indeed a scandal. But you have no say in my preferences. I will have a bath with Lady Sora and this delicious street urchin I picked up. I suggest you run and give Pearl the news before someone else beats you too it. I am sure her Royal Highness will be most interested in knowing my refined tastes."
The maid froze and then it hit her. She ran away, leaving them alone. Aidan set up a privacy ward over the whole bath, closed the door, barred it, pulled a chair to sit leaning on the door and tied a blindfold.
"Lord Aidan won't be able to see us. Now, please take off your clothes, Dash. Sora, please aid me."
Dash hesitated but as he saw the princess clothes shamelessly fall down on the ground he removed the rags wrapped over his body. They couldn't even be classified as clothes. As the pieces of cloth fell down they revealed the person beneath, hiding their privates with a hand. Flowing hair a bit below the shoulders, long pointed ears almost going over the top of the head, a slender prepubescent figure and a rusted, rough, hinged iron collar around the neck, a single ring of metal for attaching a chain dangling in front but tied with a piece of cloth to muffle the sound.
"Lumina is that..." Sora asked.
"Yes, Sora. A slave collar."
Slave collars are enchanted tools created to exert obedience over the person wearing them. Normally keyed to a master tool, these collars can shrink to choke the person if the slave disobeys any order or attempts to remove the collar. The first default order given when the collar is attached is to forbid suicide. In both Yutis and Gohar, slavery is banned.
Naked, Dawn kneeled in front of the elf girl. "Can I have your real name now?"
"Its Cythrel, milady." The girl bent her knees, exposing herself briefly.
"Good. Cythrel, do you hold any rank among your people?"
"No, milady. I was just a village girl on the outskirts of the Great Forest when the slavers attacked. Most of my people were killed or enslaved." She sighed and looked somewhere far away. "My entire family refused capture. They fought to the bitter end but I was knocked unconscious before I could join them."
That was too much for Dawn. She reached out and pulled the elf girl in a tight embrace, feeling her soft skin and the bones beneath. Too many bones.
"You are safe now with me. Come, let's take a bath and relax a little. I know you want a good bath."
"I am sorry for my smell, your Highness." She said meekly.
"Sora, please have the servants fetch some proper and cute clothes for our guest."
"As you will, your Highness." Sora played along and left the room.
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"Your hair is gorgeous, Cythrel." Dawn caressed the girl's head and played with her locks while she dried them.
They ran back to Lumina's bedroom with Cythrel wrapped inside a towel roll. It felt almost like kidnapping a princess.
"Not as magnificent as Princess Lumina's." She replied and both girls giggled.
Sora got a dress for the girl but had trouble keeping Pearl outside, now that news of the scandal was raging around the inn. Lumina was into young boys. Pearl regretted not having another princess around to gossip about the news. They should travel in bigger groups, she thought.
"Cythrel, we need to be fast. I want my friend over there to look at this collar. He is a mage. I am going to rest a little, all this commotion left me a little winded."
"As you wish, milady."
Dawn retired and after that Aidan stood up from the chair and came. Sora took his place holding the door.
"Miss, I am going to inspect the magic tool around your neck. Please lie down on this recliner and stand still. I am going to touch it and maybe touch you, but don't worry. Just stand still."
"As you wish, milord."
Aidan activated his magic sight and started to look into the slave collar enchantments. It was a masterpiece. Several enchantments and anchored spells intertwined like the work of a madman. Linked in a chain to trigger one another and to drain mana from the wearer to power themselves. He pulled the desk close to the bed and took to drawing. Glyphs, circles, notes as he tried to analyze and make sense of the jumbled mess of magic inside that piece of iron. He gently pulled the band, spun it around, got close to it to see in detail. There was a hinge at the back on the opposite side of the ring-latch.
The slave tool worked just like some curses he studied. His underworld affinity kicked in and a deeper understanding flowed into his mind. It was the work of a genius!
The elf girl watched it with bated breath. She was almost alone with an unknown man, and she was just a little scared. The slavers would never tarnish their merchandise, she knew she was safe until she was sold. But now? She was at the mercy of these people. And she knew how nobleman couldn't keep it inside their pants.
"You don't need to worry," Aidan told her as if he was reading her mind. "I won't hurt you or abuse you. Now please sit up and hold your hair back. I need to see your entire neck."
She wanted to believe. But what if this man had a master tool and was about to attune her collar to it? These rotten nobles could very well do that. Her fears took over and she silently cried.
"There, there. I know it hurts. I know what is to be afraid to die. To despair and lose all hope. Cry. Cry all you want. Know that every breath you take, every day you survive you get stronger. So live, little Cythrel. Fight tooth and nail for the right to see another day. Never give up."
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He let the girl shed her tears and resumed his spellcraft work. He found the circle and glyph that attuned the collar with a master tool. Following that he found the punishment sequence and little by little he was unraveling some of the secrets of the slave tool. She fell asleep as he continued to draw magic circles and make connections between them for the next hour or two.
After several hours he came to a crossroads. He could risk to disable the punishment sequence and leave the collar on the girl. If he succeeded it would probably be safe to cut it off and maybe the master dwarf smith could do it. Or he could try and make a fake master tool and attune it to the girl's collar, giving the command to release it.
Aidan decided to set the girl free. Over the night, he painstakingly drew a magic circle to function as a master tool with the unlock command. Instead of attuning the collar to a tool, he tried to reproduce the signature that the collar would recognize as its particular master. He ran mana through the circle and gave the command word.
"Release."
The ring holding the latch crumbled and with a 'clack' the collar came open. He removed it without waking up Cythrel and stashed it in his belongings. He nudged Sora awake and gave her a thumbs up.
"You did it!"
"Yes. But swear you won't tell anyone about this. You should go to bed to sleep now. We need to recharge."
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"My, my, what a lovely lady!" Pearl exclaimed as Lumina's retinue of four plus a dragon descended into the common room for breakfast.
Cythrel was wearing her only dress and a beautiful ribbon tied as a choker around her neck hid the soreness that the iron ring left behind.
"
"
The two of the slapped each other's hand up high. Typical otherworlder.
"
"
"
Dawn rolled her eyes. What were these otherworlders talking about? How can a person be trapped?
Cythrel picked the hem of her skirt and curtsied. "I am honored to be in your presence, your Royal Highness."
Pearl reached the girl and looked at her, touched her. Cythrel made her best smile despite being bothered by all this touching.
"You are too beautiful. Too gorgeous." Pearl swooned. "I know now why Lumina picked you up!"
"I am the luckiest to be in the care of your Highnesses."
"Come, come, you should be starved, poor thing. Living out in the streets, it is not how our country treats one of the fair people."
Before Cythrel was kidnapped by Pearl, Dawn stepped ahead and called her fellow princess' attention.
"Pearl, dear. Could you let Shinji heal her? I'm afraid the streets were rough on the poor girl."
"Of course." She turned to face the heroes. "
"
The rest of the breakfast went without much trouble. Pearl was doting on the elf girl and commanded the servants to get her a full wardrobe. Aidan didn't know if he should be worried about the girl's future. She was about to become Pearl's maid, toy, or something like that.
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After the healed Cythrel went away to take a nap, Dawn poached Pearl into her room.
"What is going on, Lumina? Why are you bringing me to your room alone?" She was wary, eyes swimming everywhere. 'Probably thinking something she shouldn't', mused Dawn.
"Pearl, I am not doing anything to you. I just need to tell the Crown Princess some dire news."
She deflated, somehow frustrated. Even being in a girl's body for months couldn't make Aidan understand them. But mentioning her station meant the news were of national relevance.
"So please tell, Lumina. We are busy packing up to go and I must be sure we have enough soap for the trip." Dawn rolled her eyes. People would care about enough food, ammunition, or healing potions, but this princess' concern was scented soap. To each their own.
"There is a slaver caravan around these parts. I don't know why but Cythrel escaped them. I thought I should warn you."
"This is town is a wilderness frontier. They'd have to cross the whole realm to get here. Why would they come here?" She snickered slightly. "It is absurd."
Dawn hung her head slightly. "Yes, it is. But even if Cythrel was lying to me, and I don't believe she would, it is a fact that she escaped them and reached this town on her own. That much is true."
Aidan didn't want Pearl to know he could unlock slave collars, even with a hard, long reverse-engineering of the attunement with the master tool. That would be an even bigger can of worms. He was proud of his spellcraft, but understood too well the value of discretion.
"I'll notify the mayor. Thanks, Lumina." There was not much reassurance in Pearl's words. And it did little to soothe Aidan's worries.
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While everyone was getting ready for departure, Dawn slipped out of the inn and went to the blacksmith. There was something eating away at her nerves.
"Ah, yer Highness Princess Lumina. What boon to have yer beauty in my humble smithy."
"Master Gaemon is too kind. I came here to ask one thing. Master, why did you offer this rapier to me for only twenty gold coins? It is obviously an object that is worth much, much more."
Dawn presented the rapier to Gaemon. She was really confused about the sudden shift in price and was having a hard time pinning it to simple greed.
"Lass, care to share a mug of ale with me. Oh, I'm sorry I don't have any wine. Ale is a commoner drink, ain't that true?"
"I'd be delighted to indulge in your hospitality, master." She answered with a smile. "I am just afraid I am weak for liquor, and dwarven spirits are too strong for a 'wee lass' like myself."
"Ah, don't worry. Come, come, this way."
Gaemon ushered Dawn to the smithy kitchen, but not before shouting and cursing at the lazy apprentices. Dawn sat at the table and Gaemon poured two mugs of ale from a tankard.
"Thank you, master." She sipped the ale. Strong. Bitter. She forced her face to remain still and then took a swig. She tapped the mug on the table and smiled with a white mustache. The aftertaste hit, her head spun, but she just focused on staying composed. "And also thanks for giving me the weak stuff."
Gaemon laughed a lot. He tapped on his knee several times and after a while, his fit ended.
"Are ye sure ye are a princess? Nothing I heard about Lumina of Yutis matches ye, except for the beauty."
"I changed after the accident. A lot, master. But can we skip that subject? It still hurts to think about that. I can assure you that this one in front of you is the genuine Lumina."
"Aye, Princess Lumina of Yutis ye be, no doubt about that. It would be too hard and stupid to fool Princess Pearl."
Dawn took another swig of her ale. It felt much better than the first. And then three more. The mug was almost empty.
"Easy on the drink, lass. I want nobody accusing me of getting a royal drunk on purpose."
Her tongue was tipsy. "Master, if anyone slanders you, I'll give them a taste of your steel. Except that blue thing is not steel, is it?"
Gaemon raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think so?"
Dawn turned around, pulled her skirt and rose from the bench. A complicated maneuver. 'Skirts are so impractical!' Aidan thought.
"Master, can you ask one of your apprentices to fetch a piece of scrap metal?"
"Aye." He shouted something in the dwarven language, and a young dwarf brought a ruined dagger. Probably some failed practice forging for them.
Dawn wobbled but took the dagger, stuck it in the table, and drew her rapier. Gaemon picked up the mugs and walked away from the table. She swung the rapier and cut the dagger in half.
"Ha! I knew it. Master, I cannot have this weapon." She sheathed the rapier slowly, removed it from the belt and placed it on the table.
Gaemon was with a troubled look. She was clearly tipsy. Dawn licked the foam around her mouth when she thought nobody was looking.
"That is adamantite! Master, I cannot... Why did you offer me this weapon for only twenty gold?"
"Are you concerned with the change in the price when her Royal Highness Pearl came in?"
"Yes! That too!"
"Princess Lumina. Please let me put your weapon back on your belt." Gaemon took the rapier and latched it back on the belt. "Now let me explain."
"Speak, master. Please!"
"For the kind village girl that came into my shop and showed respect and love for my crafts, it pained me to charge an impossible value. It felt like I was a monster driven to rob you of all gold."
Dawn closed her eyes. " 'How could I not show respect for such magnificent weapons? They are all perfect. Masterworks!' " She voiced her thoughts out loud. Gaemon pretended not to listen.
"For the haughty royal that came into my shop like they owned the place and I was her gong farmer? I took an insurmountable loss even if she had paid the full two hundred I asked."
"But..."
"Princess Lumina, this weapon was forged for you. I didn't know at the time, I acted on a whim and even tried to mix a bit of adamantite with the steel. I thought it was a waste of materials. In fact, now I see, it was Vulcan himself guiding my hands. For you."
"Thank you, master. I vow to use this weapon to do good."
"Aye, lass. May it serve you well and keep ye enemies at bay."
"One more thing, master. Can I have some more ale?"
"Nay. Ye had enough already. Now let me fetch some guards to escort you back home."