>>5287017>>5286958>>5286808>>5286800>>5286771>>5286741>>5286714>>5286698It’s almost a pity that the Novice lacks your new <Danger Sense>, or perhaps she would have seen the trap she just walked right into.
“A one-hundred-percent improvement would be a mere doubling,” you correct her. “If I started at ‘asbolute zero’, I suppose I improved to an infinite, or incalculable, degree.”
“I MEANT because you already had one Divination spell!” she scoffs. “Obviously!”
“Maybe, or maybe we should just mark down ‘basic mathematics’ as another area where I excel beyond your ‘superior’ mind, oh One of Inimitable Intellect.”
The Novice hisses in irritation at being bested by a technicality, but does not argue the point, instead shoving a sheet of parchment into your face. You lean back, squinting at the mystic runes and alchemical formulae thereon.
“If you’re so smart,” she says, “tell me what you see.”
“I see… A modification to a fleshweaver recipe for an Amulet of Disguise?”
The Novices yanks the parchment back, rolling it up and stuffing it into a pocket of her robe.
“You only knew that much because I showed you how they are made,” she sneers.
“You’re right—I am a fast learner. How long did it take you to learn such formulae by sight?”
You take a step back, genuinely afraid for a moment that the Novice is going to attack you in her fury. Instead, she lashes her tail once and soothes her temper. She IS a full-blooded Reptilian, after all—your race prides itself in controlling their emotions, and Serpent Priests are the most controlled of all. SO it is said, at least.
“Bring me to your ‘sparring partner’,” the Novice says, the intimate implications immediately apparent in her tone, in turn eliciting a degree of embarrassment from you, “I will show you who is the student , and who is the mistress.”
You oblige. You, the Novice, and Glowie then duck away from the rest of your retinue for a moment, to where the worm-princess can remove her amulet and reveal her true (admittedly much less sexy) self without drawing attention and alarm from the true Reptilians. The Novice tinkers with the Amulet of Disguise, fiddling with the spells surrounding and woven into its metal components, while you and Glowie watch with muted curiosity. At the last, she empties a small syringe carefully into the divot in it, which exists for this purpose. Blood flows in, blood flows out, and the amulet… Changes, in a way imperceptible to those without magical acumen.
