>>5789625Izirina’s REAL head, in the real and lucid waking world, snapped back as if she had been struck.
“Izirina,” you said levelly, “help me understand. What did it mean?”
Izirina Henzler didn’t move a muscle, still as a statue. You waited many seconds, a full minute… Multiple. Still, she didn’t move. Her expression didn’t change. She didn’t… Gods Above, Gods of the WILD, she didn’t even BLINK, you realized.
“Henzler,” you spoke, quietly, approaching her like you would a frightened animal, “what ARE you?”
>1She shouted a word in the Eastern tongue and you leapt back, assume defensive stance as a sparkling and prismatic barrier of dark green magical force was erected between the two of you—a <Jade Aura>. It wasn’t an offensive spell, mostly meant to be a protection against immaterial spirits and magical attacks, but it took you a moment to realize that. By that point, you had already cast a spell of your own—<Summon Elemental>, your offensive staple, to manifest a tiny being of fire.
This, of course, did little to calm her down.
“I’M NOT A MONSTER!” Izirina Henzler cried out.
You stared, wide-eyed with shock still, and then looked down at your elemental ally.
“Shit,” you said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“I thought we were FRIENDS!”
You looked back at her, pausing in the middle of your dismissal incantation, and started to reply: “Izirina, we are—”
“NO!” she screamed. “We’re NOT! You just think I’m some kind of freak.”
“Look,” you began, raising your own voice a little in defence of yourself. “I’m not ATTACKING you… I’m trying to UNDERSTAND you.”
“I’m NOT,” she growled—no, rather HISSED—“an EXPERIMENT.”
“I didn’t… I didn’t say that you WERE< necessarily, or that… Or that you OUGHT to be, if someone is.”
“I AM NOT,” she shouted again as if in desperation, “A CHIMERA!”
Before you could say another word, Izirina Henzler had stepped forward, producing her channeling-wand and pointing it at you. You raised your hands to defend yourself, but rather than attacking you, she waves it and snapped a word of power, and your fire elemental was snuffed out for you. You looked down at where it just was, and then back up at her, but no sooner was your mouth open than a <Gust of Wind> was whipped up to send you tumbling, crashing into a pile of chairs.
(Déjà vu…)
You was dazed for a moment, but you still caught sight of your one-time rival, one-time friend, now looking at you—and perhaps at what she’d just done to you—in horror. Her jade barrier crumbled.
“Henzler…” you croaked out.
She cast one more spell, wit a circular swish of her wand and a bit of fancy footwork. An ephemeral gateway appeared—<Dimension Door>, you belatedly realized. She hurled herself into it… And was gone.
