No, it had to be Keli, who had assumed the form of Nona. Just as Null-Nona had assumed the form of Colene for Darius. These folk were amazingly proficient. So Stave had been tempted exactly as Darius had.
How many more days could they hold out, even if they managed to tie up their opponents?
They had breakfast on their separate daises, the three human beings feeding their confined companions. The food seemed to be of vegetable origin, as it had been the evening before, but of no type he recognized. It was a grainy green porridge that tasted better than it looked. But this was routine; they were actually holding a mental conference and planning their escape.
The first element of this was for Nona to find and tame a suitable familiar. That would enable her to give Seqiro a distant pair of eyes, and the horse could show Darius a suitable site to which to conjure them. This system had worked well enough on the surface, and should work here. It would enable them to get away from the rabble folk. But then they would have to go to the inner chamber, across the barrier they assumed the rabble could not cross, to avoid recapture.
There were several key stages. Nona brought up the first: “How are we going to get away from the daises without causing an immediate alarm? We must be conjured away one by one, for we are not a close-touching group, and the moment one of us disappears the rabble will sound the alarm and close in on the others.”
“That we can solve,” Stave replied. “We can use illusion. I can make illusion figures to take the place of the four of us, so that the rabble will not know we are gone. Nona can make the illusion of nothing, to cloud each of us as we go to join Seqiro. Once we are together, the conjuring can proceed.”
“Yes, that would work,” Nona said. “If you can maintain the four illusions long enough.”
“Illusion is one thing I am good at,” Stave said. “I once made ten illusion figures, just to see if I could do it. Of course they were fuzzy and did not move well. I can do a perfect job on only one at a time, but if I concentrate I think I can make four adequate ones for a while.”
“If they aren’t moving, perhaps,” Darius suggested. “If we all sit and wait for the end of the duels, not only will we be still, the rabble won’t be watching us closely.”
“Yes, that makes it feasible,” Stave agreed.
“I can make four nothing illusions,” Nona said. “But not while I’m animating a familiar at a distance. It is difficult to do more than one kind of magic at a time.”
“Can you hold a familiar once you have tamed it?” Darius asked. “So you will not lose it while you do other magic?”
“Yes, I can do that. It is the taming, and the using of its senses, that require my full attention at first.”
“Then our first step must be to find your familiar,” Darius said. “What is there here that you can use?”
“I need some small creature who can travel readily without being noticed. I need to bring it to my hand, to tame it. But I have seen no small creatures here.”
Darius realized that he hadn’t either. Was it possible that only the human rabble had come here?
There does seem to be only one variety of life here, Seqiro thought. I have quested through minds, and though I can not read many, I can tell that all are human variants. Even the dragons have human intelligence, evincing their origin.
“What about plant life?” Darius asked. “There should be bees to attend to pollination, and other insects with it.”
There is no plant life either. No insects.
“Then what are we eating? This is some kind of grain or tuber.” Darius took another mouthful of the green glop.
That seems to be yeast or mold. A thing which grows in the dark, and has many varieties.
“Mold.” Darius considered, and decided not to argue the case. It made sense; the absence of sunlight—or what passed for it in this reality—down here made such an alternative reasonable. But it did mean that there was no need for bees. That in turn left Nona without any suitable subject for a familiar.
There is small life, Seqiro thought. The children.
“The children!” Nona thought, appalled.
Darius tackled this. “We need something, and we are not going to hurt it. A child can go freely around, if it is old enough. Why not tame a child?”
“Because it has never been done!” Nona protested.
“How do you know what the despots do?”
She took further stock. “I don’t,” she admitted. “Maybe they do use children. I suppose it is possible.”
“I think it is necessary,” Stave agreed. “Is there a suitable child we can borrow?”
Yes. There is one unattached, watching the duels. I shall see if I can get into his mind.
“But he can’t just walk up to Nona,” Darius pointed out. “The others would realize that something is going on.”
“I can craft an illusion of nothing around him,” Nona said. “But he will have to be quiet, and not speak, because the illusion of silence is a different magic.”
I can cause him to be quiet.
In a short while the horse succeeded in getting into the child’s mind. Darius did not see the child, because he did not look; he did not want to give away what they were doing. Nona looked only enough to craft her illusion of nothingness.
They continued eating, which took extra time because they were feeding their opponents too. There was a certain camaraderie between each person and the opposite. Null-Colene expressed great appreciation for Darius’ help, and never asked him to free her, and continued to look amazingly winsome despite her long bondage. It did make him want to pat her on the head and breed with her. He was sure Stave was reacting similarly. Even Nona seemed to wish she weren’t treating her opposite so crudely. A lot of interaction, acquaintaince-ship, and reconsideration could occur in a day and a night together. Friendship could develop, and desire, and guilt. It was perhaps well that the end of the duel was approaching. Darius wasn’t sure how much more of Null-Colene’s confined likeness he could take. The real Colene had some sharp edges that made her both difficult and intriguing. This one was merely intriguing. While Null-Nona differed from True-Nona in the absence of magic and her desire for breeding. That was surely ever more tempting for Stave.
Darius was not sure when the rabble boy arrived at Nona’s dais, because even if he had looked he would not have seen him. His curiosity was considerable. So he worked out a ploy. “Rabble woman, are you ready to use the…?” he inquired delicately.
“Yes, thank you,” she agreed.
So he walked to the rim, glancing innocently around and seeing everything including Nona caged and Null-Darius alone on the dais. Nona was looking out over the audience, her right hand slightly extended. “I wish I could see him!” Darius muttered in frustration.
As you wish. The figure of a child appeared in outline beside Nona. She was holding his hand, taming him as she had the bat when they had fled the despots on the surface. She was able to do two kinds of magic simultaneously now, perhaps because they related to the same subject, and he was close.
Darius picked up the pot and brought it back to Null-Colene. He had seen what he needed to; their plan was working. If they could get through the stages of it and maintain their freedom—
“You are very understanding,” the rabble woman murmured.
He hadn’t even been thinking of her as he automatically lifted her. She was giving him more credit than due, and that gave him another little twinge of guilt. “I have no bad feeling toward you,” he said gruffly. “I merely can’t afford to do what your people require.”