Mika trembled like a little girl as his master’s flinty eyes glared at him. “Urm… Archmage? A little help over here?” Ander yelped in desperation as his shield started to crumble. The old wizard snapped his fingers, and the rabbits instantly vanished. With surprising speed, he shuffled around the colossal transformation tree, tracing a circle on the ground with his gnarly wooden staff. When the circle was complete, it glowed and threw up a cylinder of light, sealing the tree within. A pair of long fire wyrms materialized inside the cylinder, belching out crimson jets of flames as they twirled around. Before long, the tree was burning like a fiery tower that stretched up to the heavens.
That should take care of that, he muttered under his breath. He hurriedly scanned the crowd for anyone else who might have been infected by the tree. “Oook!” the Duke grunted as he leapt to the ground, looking increasingly like the ape he was slowly turning into. The old wizard’s eyes narrowed, and immediately restored the Duke to his human form, much to Shari’s delight.
The Archmage’s attention next turned to the transformation stone, now safely secured in its box. “Nice job.” he said with a nod to Lyra. “So the high priestess was able to recover her stone without my help after all. Or perhaps, in spite of my help.” he glared at Mika again, who had turned white as a sheet. “Did you bring along any moon crystal essence?” he asked Lyra.
“Yes.”
“Well, why don’t you use it to heal that young animagus?” he pointed towards Amber in her giant tree lizard form. “She’s in a lot of pain from demonic poisoning. Atelia inflicted that wound, I assume? But I can’t sense her presence in the realm. She must have tried using that glove again. Foolish woman.”
“Thank you for all your help, Archmage.” The old man turned towards the wizard who was bowing respectfully before him. “Aren’t you Merriweather’s apprentice Ander? Weren’t you supposed to escort his daughter to take my Mika’s hand in marriage?”
“My sincere apologies, we were… detained in Lavenguard. But she’s right over there.” he replied, pointing over at the wide-eyed Luka who had just trotted up beside Mika.
“Ah!” the Archmage looked approvingly at his apprentice. “At least you managed to get something right. Of course, dealing with permanency water is well beyond you. I’ll take care of this.” He smiled at the horrified Luka. “My sweet girl, it must be terribly traumatic to be trapped in that vulgar barbarian body. Let me free you from your distress at once!”
“But…but.. WAIT!” Luka sputtered, but the Archmage had already pulled out a small knob of clay from his robes and was molding it with his hands. Throwing it onto the ground beside Luka, it rapidly grew and reshaped itself into that of a plain-looking sixteen year old girl. With a casual wave of his hand, he transferred Luka’s spirit into the girl’s body, and dissipated the muscular barbarian’s form away. “No…No… NO!” Luka wailed with dismay.
“If I remember correctly, your name is Jayrene right? I’m going to send a message back to Arlor to make preparations for the wedding!” he announced with satisfaction.
“You turn him back RIGHT NOW.” said a voice with an unmistakable tone of command.
The Archmage looked down at Tobi with surprise. “It can’t be…” he thought as his eyes widened.