While the king fetched a servant and sent him off to fetch some clothing, making sure he didn't see Jeffy, Bran the wizard was addressing that same apprentice. "Jeffy, I'll need you to fetch the eye of newt, the wyvern tail, the powdered amethyst, the redroot, and the deciding stone. And the mixing chalice and the ladle, of course." The weredog, apparently still unaware of his past existence, nodded dutifully at the mention of each item. Just as he finished his list, the servant returned with some of his own spare clothing. King Rupert thanked him politely, if rather quickly, and tossed them over to Jeffy in a most unkingly manner. Jeffy quickly got dressed and then ran out, now dressed in royal livery so that he wouldn't be accosted.
"Well, then," the wizard said. "I believe we were going to make a list?" The king nodded heartily in agreement, and got out parchment and a quill. The court always expected him to use a scribe for his reading and writing, which he hated, so he was glad to write for himself. He was the only one who could write the list, of course, with the wizard being blind and all.
They recounted possibilities they had already come up with for what to transform Grand Duke Robespierre into to give him some much-needed perspective, and they came up with some new ones as well. The wizard, however, stopped them when they had reached twenty, calling it the perfect number for their purposes, and the list looked like this:
Dog, plow horse, scullery maid, serving girl, stable hand, serving boy, elf, centaur, pair of boots, codpiece, blind old man, little boy, guardsman, peasant, gold coin, mercenary, halfling, cow, pig, dragon
"A dragon? Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked the king incredulously?
"Oh, don't worry, your majesty," assured the wizard, "it would be a small one. And besides, dragons are misunderstood and constantly persecuted. Being one could show that Grand Duke what's what, maybe make him less paranoid after he's been in a position where everyone really is out to get him." "
"Well, perhaps," admitted the king, "but why twenty? And how are we supposed to decide from these?"
"Ahh, that's where the deciding stone comes in."
And just at that moment, the deciding stone did indeed come in, along with all of the other supplies being carried by Jeffy. Most of the supplies were hidden away in sacks slung behind Jeffy's back, because he was carrying the deciding stone, the most important of all, in a glass case in his hands. It was a shiny little black shape that looked like a circle, but upon closer inspection proved to be an icosahedron.
"The purpose of the deciding stone is to cast a spell from a list like ours. All those reagents are needed to charge it. Speaking of which, you don't mind if I use your table, your majesty?"
"Not at all," answered the king, and Jeffy rushed over to Bran and guided him to a clear portion of the table and unloaded all the supplies onto it. From what the king could see, Jeffy was guiding the wizard's hands as he performed the charm, leading them to the right ingredients so that the wizard could perform the right gestures with them before dropping them into the chalice. At the end Jeffy rushed back to the king, grabbed the list for Robespierre's changes, and brought it over to the wizard, who tore it up into shreds and dropped it into the chalice before dropping in the deciding stone as well. He muttered an incantation in a language the king had never heard, and there was a flash of light. The wizard took out the deciding stone again.
"There, each of the sides of the stone has been inscribed with one of the options of our list. Now I need only throw it, and whatever change is inscribed on the side that faces up will be cast on Robespierre, through the magic of the stone. Which is my magic, of course." Without further adieu, he tossed the stone onto the table. There was another flash of light, and the air above the stone briefly took the outline of...