Mist of Shadows
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Dungeon Myst Part 17
🕑 Added 2023-10-14 04:06:04 +0000 UTC"Are you sure you should be touching that…" Thea trailed off as Dawn poked the portal frame and a menu appeared floating where a portal would have been.
"Nice, it has a menu," Dawn said as she looked over the available options. "City Under the Ocean, Demon Town, Desert Planet, Infinite Shop, Magic Base, Magic Girl Town and an option to hack the portal, what do you think?"
"We should probably avoid trying something that could break the portal without permission which means hacking the portal is out." Thea glanced at Xander. "What do you think?"
"I'd rather wait for Buffy and a legion of soldiers before we open a portal to a demon town and opening a portal to the bottom of the ocean sounds like a risk. The Desert Planet is probably Tatooine, that leaves the shop, the magic base and the Magic Girl Town," Xander said thoughtfully.
Thea smiled as she thought about picking up a magic girl device of her own. "I'm sort of curious about an entire town filled with magic girls."
"Works for me," Dawn replied as she reached up and tapped the magic girl town entry on the list with her left hand, causing the menu to vanish and a portal to appear that opened into an old fashioned village. "Hopefully they sell transformation items."
"That would be nice," Xander said as he slipped past Dawn and stepped through the portal.
Dawn followed Xander through and looked around, not sure what to make of the differences in clothes between the people that were walking around in simple clothes that looked to be made of wool and the girls that were walking around in elaborate dresses or costumes, most of which were sheer or low cut which majorly clashed with the local style. "At least we seem to be in the right place."
"Hello?" Xander offered as several of the teenage girls in elaborate costumes turned to look at them and several of the girls pulled weapons out of thin air or some type of hammer space pockets. "We come in peace."
"Are you an Aes Sedai?" one of the dark haired girls asked as she walked over to the strangers that had stepped out of a portal, not sure what she was going to say if they said yes.
"Not that I know of," Thea replied as she stepped through the portal.
"But you have magic?" the girl asked as she focused on the strange symbol floating over Dawn's head that didn't match anything she'd seen.
Dawn blinked when she noticed all of the girls with elaborate costumes or dresses had cat-like eyes that had starburst patterns. "We have magic."
"Where did you come from?" the girl asked, curious why the strangers had glowing spheres floating over their heads instead of the normal black and white circle that was split in the middle.
Dawn glanced at the girl with black wolf ears on her head that was walking over then looked back at the girl that had asked her a question. "Originally, Sunnydale but the portal connects to a flying city."
"Flying city? That's worse than one of Mat's stories," a different girl complained that looked like she could be the other girl's sister.
"I'd go for something more believable," Mat complained as she let her staff vanish back to wherever it went when she didn't need it.
"Unless you're talking about the girls in various taverns," the girl with wolf ears said as she walked over. "Is there a problem?"
"We're just visiting, if that's acceptable. If not we'll leave," Xander assured them.
The first girl to talk smiled at Xander. "Welcome to Emond's Field, we don't get a lot of visitors from outside but you're welcome to enjoy Bel Tine. I'm Berowyn al'Vere."
"Egwene al'Vere," the slightly younger looking girl offered.
"Perrin," the girl with wolf ears offered.
"Can I take a look around your flying city?" Mat asked with a grin, figuring they were stretching the truth or lying.
"Careful of the edges and don't kill the gremlins, they're mostly friendly," Xander told her.
"Gremlins?" Mat asked, not recognizing the term.
Xander held his hands up about six inches apart. "They're about this tall and they like to run around and insult people."
"I'll keep an eye out," Mat replied as she walked through the portal, curious about the flying city.
"Don't mind my friend, he's always looking for new things to explore," Perrin said, thinking about his friend's wanderlust and how often he left the village only to return with interesting stories.
"He?" Thea asked.
Perrin winced as he realized what he'd said.
"Let me guess, he has a magic girl transformation trinket?" Dawn asked.
"Trinket?" Berowyn asked in confusion.
"An item or artifact that allows him to shape change and gives you magical abilities," Dawn explained.
"That's not how our abilities work, is that common where you're from?" Berowyn asked, not seeing a reason to mention Mat's ring that let him change his appearance as it wasn't the cause of his transformation ability.
Dawn shrugged. "They're not exactly common but we've run into a couple."
"If you're not using a trinket, are you using a spell?" Thea asked, curious how their transformation worked.
"Not exactly, we use a ritual to give people the ability," Berowyn said, not wanting to reveal that the process was actually easy and not exactly lying because there was a bit of a ritual around giving people the ability.
Dawn glanced at some of the people wearing wool. "Is there a reason that only some of the people can transform?"
"The ritual only works on people that have magic," Berowyn explained. "Are the trinkets different?"
"I'm not sure," Xander admitted. "The trinkets boost magic, I'm not actually sure if they'd work for people that don't have it but it shouldn't be that hard to test."
"Do you have any trinkets that transform people into males or something that would let us change our outfits?" Perrin asked hopefully.
"No but we met a guy in the flying town that might be able to figure something out in a couple of days," Xander offered.
Perrin smiled as he thought about finally being able to change his dress to something more reasonable and or stay male while transformed. "I love being able to manipulate metal and use magic but the dress occasionally gets in the way when I'm working at the forge."
Xander glanced at the dress that looked like something a Disney princess might wear to a fancy dance. "Makes sense, how flammable is the dress?"
Perrin shook his head. "Thankfully, it's immune to fire and transforming cleans it or I'd have a lot more issues."
"How many people ended up with wolf ears?" Thea asked as she studied Perrin's ears.
"I'm the only one," Perrin admitted, wondering if they had answers for why certain people had different symbols.
Egwene glanced at Perrin then looked at Thea. "It probably has something to do with the wolf symbol we can see over her head when we're transformed."
"That's an interesting trick. What do you see when you look at us?" Dawn asked.
"You have a glowing green key and a ball of light, your twin just has the ball of light, same with your friend," Egwene explained.
"I'm guessing the ball of light means we have magic?" Xander asked thoughtfully.
"Most likely," Berowyn agreed. "Most of the magic girls have a black and white circle that is split in the middle floating over their heads unless they have a red teardrop. Everyone with the circle can use magic when they're not transformed, the people with the teardrops can't, outside of runecrafting which seems to come with the transformation."
"Have you found any other symbols?" Xander asked, curious about the ability.
"Rand has a musical note and a couple of the girls have a field of stars like Egwene. Min has a swirling vortex of light and Mat has a hand of cards. Some people have faded circles which probably means they're carrying the potential to use magic but don't have enough for the transformation ability to take," Berowyn explained, trying not to think about the grasping black hand that she'd seen over Fain and his guards.
"Do you think the system would tell them what the symbols mean?" Thea asked thoughtfully.
Xander shrugged. "Can't hurt to check."
"System?" Berowyn asked.
"It's basically a magical spell on the world the flying city is floating over that gives people information about themselves so they'll know how much they've improved," Xander explained, figuring it would be easier to just show them than to explain the floating screen and the game-like qualities that came with it.
"Can I try it?" Egwene asked, hoping that it could tell her about the field of stars over her head as it had been bugging her for the last seven years since her sister had mentioned it.
Xander gestured towards the portal. "Go ahead, you should be able to walk through the portal and say character sheet to get the information."
Egwene ducked through the portal before her sister could complain. "Character sheet!" She stared at the floating translucent window floating in front of her filled with numbers and words that didn't make a lot of sense. "Can I get a little help?"
"Sure," Xander replied with amusement as he walked back through the portal so that he could open his own character sheet.
"Do you always stay transformed?" Thea asked Perrin, knowing that Xander only generally transformed when he was expecting combat.
"I generally only transform when I'm using magic or when I'm sparring but everyone transforms on the solstice, it celebrates the day everything changed," Perrin explained.
"What happened?" Dawn asked.
"Do you want to explain?" Perrin asked Berowyn.
Berowyn sighed as she realized they should hear part of the story, if only to see if they could tell them if they'd heard of anything similar. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread the story around, there are people that would be interested in abusing the ability or trying to meddle."
"I know how to keep a secret," Dawn assured them.
Berowyn nodded. "Seven years ago a particularly nasty version of bone break fever was brought in by a merchant, my husband caught it and then my daughter caught it. I lost my husband and was probably hours away from losing my baby girl when a purple mist surrounded her and she transformed into a teenager, completely curing the fever and leaving myself and the Wisdom rather confused."
"I can imagine," Dawn replied. "Wisdom?"
"Village healer," Berowyn explained. "Things happened and the Wisdom acquired the ability to transform, after that we figured out how to spread the transformation."
"What do you want in trade for the transformation or at least a chance to acquire it in case the ritual doesn't work?" Thea asked, wanting to pick up the ability to transform into a magic girl.
"We don't generally charge but we'll accept donations of books, magic trinkets or spells that we haven't seen or even gold if you're feeling generous," Berowyn said, knowing her father's library could use more books, especially if they had access to books on magic.
"I'm sure we can work something out," Dawn said, figuring they could come up with something to trade, even if it was just a copy of Willow and Tara's grimoires.
"I figured out what the symbol is!" Egwene said cheerfully as she walked back through the portal. "No one else has symbols for their channeling abilities which means it has to be related to the Dream Walking ability which makes sense considering it's a field of stars."
"We'll have to check the rest of the girls," Berowyn mused, wondering what the spell would tell them about Min's ability or Rand's ability. "Do you want me to show you around?"
"Sure," Xander agreed as he walked back out of the portal. "We've got time."
0o0o0
Harry stared in shock when a familiar bushy haired girl stepped out of the expensive looking car and promptly blushed when she saw him. "Hi?"
"Harry?" Hermione blurted, recognizing him from the last couple of dreams she'd had of St. Trinians.
"Yes?" Harry replied.
Richard pulled his attention off his sister and glanced at his granddaughter. "Do you know this young man?"
Hermione shook her head when she realized that the man from her dreams was at least a couple of years older. "Sorry, he just looked familiar," she said, not wanting to explain the weird dreams she'd been having for the last couple of years where she went to a school that didn't exist and took classes that would horrify her parents.
"Don't worry about it, it happens all the time," Harry assured her, thinking about the strange people that would stare at him now and then when he was out in public.
"It's good to see you Sarah, I thought you were dead," Richard admitted as he walked over and pulled his sister into a hug.
"Just sleeping," Sarah replied as she carefully hugged the old man that her brother had turned into. "You got old."
"You're still a brat," Richard teased his sister, relieved that she wasn't dead.
"I'm just being honest," Sarah replied with amusement as he let her go. "When did Mum and Dad die?"
Richard sighed. "Two weeks before the end of the war when a shop exploded while they were looking for a new mirror. It was some type of gas leak in the heating system the owner had cobbled together. Wrong place, wrong time and nothing to do with the war and everything to do with idiots. Unfortunately, Mum wasn't able to key me into the secret because I was deployed when they set everything up and she didn't trust the post. I asked the house elves when I got back and sort of lost my temper when they couldn't tell me where the bunker was. I said some things I shouldn't have and I haven't seen any of them for forty five years."
Sarah winced. "Ouch."
"Yeah, it wasn't my finest moment," Richard admitted. "Either way, this is my granddaughter, Hermione, she's a bookfiend."
"Hey," Hermione complained.
"Am I wrong?" Richard asked with amusement.
"No," Hermione admitted as the door to the house they were parked in front of opened, revealing an obese man with an ugly mustache holding a rifle. Before she could really think about her reaction she'd grabbed her pocket knife, flipped it open and tossed it at the man as he brought the gun up.
Harry watched in disbelief as Vernon fell forward and drove the pocket knife sticking out of his neck all the way into his neck. "Shit!"
Hermione stared in horror, thinking she’d just killed a man.
"Nice throw," Sarah said, impressed with the accuracy and or luck.
Richard sighed. "Not the point and I thought you said it was safe."
"He was stunned, it should have been fine," Sarah complained as she rushed over and pulled the knife out of his neck then drew her wand just out of her sleeve a couple of inches and whispered a healing charm to deal with the damage to his throat, leaving him with a cracked skull from his face planting on the concrete walkway. "Eh, he'll live."
"Sorry, I saw the rifle and the look on his face and just sort of reacted," Hermione admitted, relieved she wasn’t a murderer.
"Don't worry about it, he probably would have shot us. He hates magic and Sarah had to stun him earlier, he's always been a bit unhinged," Harry explained, wishing he was surprised by Vernon's insanity.
"Idiot," Richard muttered, not sure what possessed the man to attempt to shoot someone in the middle of the day.
Sarah tapped her wand on Vernon's head, focusing on Petunia, Dudley, Harry and the house. "Obliviate."
"How much did you erase?" Richard asked as they walked over.
"Assuming I cast the spell correctly, a bit." Sarah turned to look at Harry. "Where does he work?"
"Grunnings, it's a drill company," Harry replied, thinking about the various times he'd been locked in the cupboard or outside at night when Vernon had a client over for a business dinner.
'Drills and Grunnings,' Sarah thought as she tapped Vernon's head with a wand and said, "Obliviate." She pushed her wand back in her sleeve then looked at Harry. "We should probably explain things to your aunt since with any luck he won't remember her."
"Yeah," Harry muttered, not looking forward to the conversation.
'That seems cruel but maybe it's for the best, he seemed unstable,' Hermione thought as she followed the group through the open door. 'At least it's better than what they would have done to him at St. Trinians.'
0o0o0
"Are you sure you can't see?" Vivian asked as she followed Myst towards the magical farm, surprised at how well he was finding his way considering his host was blind.
"I'm cheating, I can see the map on my HUD," Myst explained as he took another step and promptly tripped over a large rock that Vivian hadn't warned him about, landing face first in the dirt.
"Okay, I believe you," Vivian replied with amusement as she cast her mind control spell on Myst's host, creating a collar and leash.
"You could have warned me," Myst complained.
"You said you didn't need any help," Vivian replied with amusement.
Myst twisted around so that he was sitting rather than lying on the ground face first. "I wasn't expecting to find random crap in the way."
"You have a bunch of gremlins running around, what were you expecting?"
"That's fair," Myst admitted as he deactivated his transformation ring, causing his host to shift back into the attractive male form he'd acquired from the magical banana with crystal scales covering his arms and legs. He activated the ring and changed into the monstrous form with a crab claw. "So much for upgrading the form," he complained as he took the ring off and tossed it in Vivian's general direction.
Vivian caught the ring. "Ready?"
"Yeah." Myst jumped out of the ex-slime beast and spent the mana to sacrifice his previous host to the magical farm. He quickly possessed the green slime beast his spell created before it could jump for Vivian or the magical plants.
Vivian glanced over the magical plants that appeared in the five foot garden square. "White peppers?"
"No clue," Myst replied as he assigned one of his farmers to harvest the plants. "I'm also not sure about the purple strawberries but the onions and peach tree look normal which probably means they're nothing of the sort."
"Hopefully," Vivian replied cheerfully. "Are you going to try creating more teachers now that you have places to put them?"
"I probably should. Give me a minute to create some more classrooms so I don't lose any magic users," Myst replied as he opened his school menu and selected the naked classroom option then tossed a couple of mist stones into the box to further corrupt things and hit the button.
"Sex Education Classroom unlocked, any students taking this class have a five percent chance per class to lose a derangement or negative mental trait."
"Personal Massager Creation Classroom unlocked, taking this class has a small chance to unlock talents based around toy creation and doubles crafting experience for two days."
'Nice, three qualities if you count the boost from being naked and none of them conflict,' he thought as he read the notes on the templates he'd unlocked.
"Sure," Vivian replied with a grin, looking forward to seeing what he came up with.
Myst quickly created another classroom using the Personal Massager Classroom and the Naked classroom as templates.
“Nude Calendar project and X-ray vision cameras unlocked. This classroom includes a project to create nude calendars of various events around school that can be sold for gold."
"Hmm, only one new thing, still, that's a pretty solid room," Myst mused as he pulled up the new room and assigned students to the new class. "I should probably ask Willow if she wants to teach a technology class."
Vivian nodded. "Or her twins."
Myst dropped the twins into the teacher's slot for the winter themed rooms and flagged the assignment as a request. "That works…" he trailed off as Danielle and Maple accepted the teaching positions. "That was fast."
"Does that mean you're going to summon more teachers?" Vivian asked hopefully.
"Give me a minute to make sure everyone is assigned," Myst told her as he pulled up his student list and made sure that everyone that had magic was assigned to classes so he wouldn't risk killing them when he summoned a teacher. He finished tossing the gremlins into classes then tapped the button to summon another teacher, wiping out forty one skeletons and nine gremlins. He watched the video of the summoning ritual and stared at the video when a pink haired girl that looked in her early teens appeared in the summoning circle wearing a short black skirt, reading glasses and a white dress shirt.
He pulled up the information on his new teacher. "Ms. Raspberry: She has the basic teaching talent that doubles the number of students she can handle and she occasionally drags students to a pocket dimension where they can kill monsters. If the students don't listen or misbehave while in the pocket dimension, she'll come back with better behaved clones that have a demonic class in addition to whatever talents the originals had previously."
"That's awesome!" Vivian squealed. "I bet the clones would count as different people for my ability, we could supercharge the number of students we have."
"Considering their current behavior, we'd probably be replacing most of the students," Myst mused as he assigned the teacher to one of the teaching slots and the gremlin that had been teaching to a student slot.
