So when the queen showed Colene with the knave, there was an animal there?
“Probably a spider in the corner. Once a despot trains a familiar, that creature serves the despot loyally, and the despot makes sure it is fed and cared for. When a familiar is killed, the despot who has it is most annoyed, not because he cares about animals, but because it requires considerable effort to train a replacement. Only the despot who trains a familiar can draw on its images, because animals do not see or hear the way we do, and each is different, and that information must be interpreted. I could train a familiar, but seldom do, lest my ability be discovered. I keep only a lizard near my house, whose perceptions will tell me whether anyone strange has come there.”
Then I am a familiar.
She laughed. “I suppose you are, Seqiro! But you are to an ordinary familiar as a king is to a theow child.”
Perhaps so. I can see the similarity in the magic. But I can not relate readily to unfamiliar creatures, and have extreme difficulty getting into the minds of strange human beings.
“The despots can’t get into human minds at all! Only animals, and only with patience. Then it is mostly a matter of controlling their movement and reading their senses, not truly relating to their thoughts. However, we can never be sure which animals are theirs, so we must always be cautious. When a blackbird watches us, we know it is a familiar, but when a fly buzzes near we have no way to tell. However, I doubt that they have many night creatures; usually they use flying animals to spy away from the castle.”
He saw the situation in her mind, and agreed. We must remain hidden until darkness. Unfortunately I am growing hungry.
“But I can make food!” she protested. “All I need is something organic to transform. What do you prefer?” Oats.
She took one of the smaller stones and transformed it into a bucket. Then she found a loose hair on his back. She held it and concentrated. It became a mass of oats, which poured though her hands and floated up to the surface. “Oops!” she exclaimed in dismay. “I forgot where I was; I meant them to fall into the bucket.”
She fashioned another stone into a tight-fitting cover for the bucket, then transformed another hair into oats inside it. She passed this container around to Seqiro’s nose. But he couldn’t eat it, with both the oats and his nose encased. She did some more magical shaping, and finally got a hood which had a feed bucket at the base.
This is nice magic, the horse thought as he munched. “So is yours,” she said. Then she made some food for herself from a spilled oat, and ate it. Lend me your mind.
Nona found this request odd, until she fathomed his reason. Seqiro was a horse, with the mind of a horse; he could remember very well, but could not reason in the human fashion by himself. But with the mind of a human being, he could think as well as that human could. He had something to work out. So while they ate, they thought, and Nona became a viewer of that thought. It was as if she were thinking, but she was not; she was merely watching.
Seqiro drew on his memories and limited understanding of the situation of Colene and her companions, and on Nona’s experience of Oria. When the two meshed, it became apparent that three abilities were needed to escape capture by the despots: Nona’s magic, Seqiro’s mind-talk, and Darius’ conjuring. These meshed abilities would enable them not only to escape the despots but to reach the Megaplayers. The Megaplayers were the ones most likely to be able to reverse the animus, establish the anima, and so change the culture of Oria and free the anchor of the hostile spell which prevented the main party from returning to the Virtual Mode.
“It is true!” Nona exclaimed when the horse finished and returned her mind to her. “We must work together, for otherwise we all are lost, and if we succeed we all prevail. You are the folk I needed to reach at the instruments.”
Or at least we are folk who may be able to help you. Our arrival here was coincidental.
Nona now understood the concept of the Virtual Mode better than before. “It was not coincidence that I came to that place and sought contact. I thought it was the Megaplayers, but it was for a Virtual Mode—and yours was the one I encountered. Perhaps some groups could not have helped me, but yours can, so I was lucky I connected with you.”
Perhaps so. But much remains in doubt.
“Much remains in doubt,” she agreed. “But I’m glad it was you, Seqiro, and your friends.”
The horse did not send a direct thought, but she felt his mental warmth. He did like her. He liked human girls, and she was one, but he also liked the type of girl she was. Just as she liked the type of horse he was.
After eating, they slept, for they knew that they would have little rest once they left the water. They would have to locate Seqiro’s friends, and try to find the Megaplayers. Nona found it comfortable, for though she was awkwardly perched on the back of the horse, under water, with a complicated head-hood, Seqiro sent a pleasant mind message of relaxation.
NONA woke from a pleasant dream which quickly faded. Her legs were feeling stiff, because she was not used to remaining on a horse, but in a moment Seqiro’s mind caused that discomfort to fade. It was a continuing comfort to be in his company; he knew how to make a human being feel better.
It is a skill we require in my reality, he explained. There we control the humans, and require them to do our bidding, but we prefer them to be satisfied. Most would have trouble functioning without horses. Colene is more independent, as are you, but the techniques remain helpful.
“They certainly do! Are there other things you can do for our kind?”
I can make you perform beyond your normal level. But this would be a stress on your body if used too often.
“Beyond my normal level? You mean I could do better magic?”
No. Your magic is beyond my scope. You could run faster, lift a heavier weight, or act with improved coordination. You could be more effective in combat with another of your species, or could accomplish some necessary task with better dispatch.
“So if a despot catches me, I might be able to twist out of his grip with unusual strength, and escape,” she said. “But that would not affect his magic. I would have to counter that myself.”
Yes.
“Still, it’s probably going to be helpful, because our chances of hiding long from the despots are small. We had better hurry to join the others, and start our journey to the Megaplayers.”
Seqiro made his way up the slope and out of the water. The tights of the night were bright, helping to clarify the ground so that he did not stumble. Nona had always liked the night as well as the day.
She changed the hoods and hoses back into innocuous objects, and did the same for the stones which had weighted the horse enough to enable him to remain below water, freeing them of encumbrances. “But before we go farther, I must get down,” Nona murmured.
Seqiro did not need to inquire why; he knew it from her mind. You could have done that in the water.
She realized it was true: she was wet through anyway. The currents would have carried the fluid away. She just hadn’t thought of it. So she got down and squatted by a bush, then returned. She preferred to walk beside the horse, getting her legs back into shape.
“Where should we go?” Nona asked.
You must work out a procedure, for I am not an original thinker.
“But you have been thinking original thoughts for hours!” she protested.