Prequel: Bansished Bonds

[Nohiki]

"If you think he's been killed, don't worry, i didn't have one in the first place." he said, smiling, because he knew that it would take a while for the dark elf to get used to or even comprehend. Fireheart waved his hand and the ball of light shifted and the simple ball changed into a star map. "This is Earth's night sky as you might see it even now. I come from here." he said as all stars faded while one gained more brightness. "My home is in danger, and if i could do something like that, it might help." he explained.

[Morty]

Moira took a minute to quietly process the information. "So you're telling me, you're a riderless dragon from outer space, and your planet is in danger, and you came to me for help. You do know how weird that sounds, right? But who am I to be skeptical, I've had contact with things from other worlds before, just not worlds that happen to be in the same universe as this one." she mumbled, mostly to herself. She went on, louder, "I'd certainly be honored to teach you, but as you could probably tell from that incident back there, I haven't even perfected the technique myself." She said haplessly, her arms falling to her sides.

[Nohiki]

"I might be of some help with that." he said, thinking. "So that black thing wasn't part of the plan?"

[Morty]

"My intention was to create a sentient being, so yes, but things got.. A little out of hand." admitted Moira. "This skull used to hold the bound spirit of an elder demon." she said, holding up the skull. "I couldn't tell you what clade or family, though, that language it spoke before it charged me was unrecognizable, as far as I'm concerned. My goal was to tie the demon's consciousness to a false body after I'd wiped its memory, in effect creating almost a completely new individual. I guess elder demons aren't exactly as compatible with the college's textbook mind-wiping techniques as the other test subjects, ahaha..." laughed Moira self-consciously, realizing that most people didn't exactly regard induced amnesia as a noble practice. "Anyways, its memory must have returned after I tried to read its mind, and its old instincts took over from there... have to speak with one of the ifrits later, learn a mind-wiping technique that actually works..." she trailed off reflectively, her mind already drifting to plans for her next experiment. She shook her head, clearing her mind of the distractions. "Are you really sure you want to learn this stuff? It's pretty experimental, you know." she said to Fireheart, wringing her hands.

[Nohiki]

Fireheart laughed. "Are you serious? Playing god, creating life? Whatever's your reason? Because it is NOT gonna work." he said, thinking that he might be wasting his time. "You can bring dead back to 'life'" he air quoted, "or be happy with a demon itself. You would need a very powerful catalyst to do what you want, such as existed on my world years ago when i was few days old hatchling, but it is gone and if i knew of something like that on earth, we wouldn't be having this conversation." he waved his hand.

[Morty]

Moira bristled. "Then why did you bother asking? I don't know how far your civilization has delved into the science of alchemy, but believe me, it's possible! Did you see how close I came today? To actually imbue a body-- one created purely artificially, I might add- with a conscious spirit? Maybe I don't have the necessary mana-power (*shot*) to complete the creation process, being what I am, but that doesn't mean it is impossible!" Moira cried, hands balling into fists. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get upset. I have been working far too long at this to have some random dragon who claims to be from space tell me my life's work has been for nothing. Was I actually rescued by that elf in white or am I currently being mind-screwed by a pissed off Elder Demon? I don't know, really, maybe I should ask you." she said venomously, crossing her arms to stop them shaking.

[Nohiki]

"Well, to be blunt, i thought that thing was something dead and it was just necromancery going wrong, not summoning." he shrugged. "this might help... he said, handing Moira a piece of transparent stone. "It is the same material as the catalyst i told you about. It has no power on it's own, but it can be either enchanted with elemental energy or hold a soul inside. think of it as a high quality skull." he said with a snicker. "it should prevent the failure we encountered recently, though the mind part is still up to you. Personally, i'd control the construct wit my mind though. It would suffice for the defense of my world." he trailed off.

[Morty]

Moira took the stone dubiously. "This reminds me of a material used by the Light Clan to channel souls from the Void." she said, turning the stone over, observing its surface. "A similar type of crystal is used by the demons of Hell to gather and hold dead souls, or so I've been told." she said approvingly. "Thank you. I didn't mean to snap like that. As for your dilemma, an elemental golem sounds like the thing you're looking for. My specialty is more organic constructs, though. Creating a facsimile body is easy enough, it's the artificial consciousness that's the hard part... Now, uh, care explaining where we are?" she said finally, not even having thought to take stock of her surroundings yet. They could have teleported anywhere, and yet she was too preoccupied with the mystery of the riderless dragon to even pay attention to where they were. This would have worried her if she still wasn't a little shocked from her near-death experience.

[Nohiki]

"A pocket dimension. A place i truly CAN call my own." he smiled and teleported them back to the city they came from, adjusting their appearance to be less likely to be caught. "Mount up so we don't look suspicious and lead the way. So, how do i make that... elemental golem?"

[Morty]

Moira's eyes widened and she looked around, but the pocket dimension was already dissolving around them. They reappeared a few blocks from where they disappeared in the underwater city. Moira clambered onto Fireheart's back uneasily. Of the two times she'd ridden a dragon both times had happened in the span of the last hour. "Well, I'm not really the one to ask." Moira admitted in regards to Fireheart's query. "Most people just create mock-golems by focusing their elemental powers into a shape with arms and legs or something. They're very temporary though and only last as long as the caster remains focused. Their thoughts and actions control the golem's movements." Moira explained while they flew. "There are all sorts of elemental golems, most of them use an elemental crystal as a power source if they aren't of the point-and-cast type. That's probably the type you're looking for. Some people use a rune circle to give the golem a set of commands to obey, or a summoning circle to imbue the golem with a bound soul, as could be done with the crystal you gave me." She continued, thinking. "Short of dying and getting someone to bind your soul to a crystal though I don't know how you'd go about reliably hijacking the golem's movements. You could use... Nah, but that's really dark magic. I don't know, you'd probably be better off talking to someone from the College. I could point you in their direction, if you want. Mind dropping me off here? I need to pick up my things." said she, pointing to the canvas tent where all her equipment was stored. She knew she had to get out of the city as soon as possible. Her holiday was at an end, it seemed, and a rather unceremonious one at that. Oh well.

[Nohiki]

Fireheart landed and kept silent, thinking and spinning what he hear into his own ideas. "I guess you have no idea how taxing it was to create even that little piece of soulstone i gave you." he said with a frown like he just ate a bucket of lemons. "And summoning them in real time isn't solution. Maybe you have noticed but i'll say it - even though we are dragons as well, we are smaller and weaker than earth's, but we have much more elemental power. and that is why we use it in fight. From what i saw even here in the city, dragons on earth fight with claws and teeth. They wouldn't survive a day on Dragon Essence." he noticed. "but if i can manage to figure out a crystal structure that would be easy to make and capable of holding elemental energy, well, we could store it in time of peace and then..." he sunk back into his thought waiting for the dark elf to pack.

[Kauria]

The bored pair of guards that questioned Mags and Erasmus seemed to think that everyone was completely overreacting, and let them go quickly without really pressing for information.
"Well, that was kind of a relief," Erasmus murmured, taking Mags' reins in one hand once they were clear of the guardhouse. "Egg okay?"
"Of course," Mags snorted. "It's not that fragile. Give yer wife and Jaraen some credit."
"Speaking of whom, we should find them as soon as possible." Erasmus pulled himself into the saddle.
Both of them looked up abruptly as another one of the pairs left through the large door.
"You guys all right?"

[Midnightmoon]

"Heh? Ya, nothing to worry about." Lioh answered. "It's that pair that incinerated the creature." Oron noted. "Hmmm." Acknowledged his bond before saying aloud, "Say, do you two suppose you know where a botanist specialist may be? Or a herb store? I sort of knocked myself around while chasing that thing." He smiled a bit awkwardly.

[Kauria]

"An herb store?" Erasmus looked down, his brow furrowed in silent thought.
"It's on the tip of my tongue," Mags muttered, making a strange expression as he tried to remember. "The White something-or-other. The White Seer, no, the White S—"
"The White Sage!" Erasmus exclaimed, snapping his fingers.
"You're in luck, my friends," the dragon explained. "There's an herbalist not two buildings away from the stables we've rented fer the festival. Right now, she's been mostly preparing powders for the children who want make their magic go colors, but I'm sure she'd happily whip something up fer your pains."
"Here, you can come with us; it's not far, and the streets should be nicely empty by now." Erasmus gave a wry grin. "What are your names?"

[Morty]

"Are you sure you don't want to keep it?" asked Moira to verify, referring to the crystal. "I could always try to barter with the light clan for one, I'm sure the markets in Janahal would have some for sale, too." she offered, hesitantly holding up the crystal. "Oh wait, wait here." she said all of a sudden, ducking into the tent, the sound of rumagging eminating from within. "Here!" she announced, emerging, and held out a slightly tattered book to the young alien. "This is the handguide for any aspiring golem-smith. I only ever got about halfway through it... Any way I remember it having some nice cross-sections of crystal structures, like you mentioned. Anyways, this stuff is all mostly earth clan territory, I thought it'd be interesting. I think you'll find it more useful than I did, haha." she said.