This chapter is based on Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series, specifically the first trilogy The Farseer trilogy. More in Book 3. A lot of the plot has been changed as well. So please if you've never read those books read them, they're really great.

Rose looked out over the mountains at their destination a little annoyed. She had found the sisterhood in the Mountain Kingdom in the capital, if you could call it that, Jhaampe which wasn't much more than a collection of huts, a large garden and a palace. The palace was somewhat impressive at least as it was grown out of a collection of trees, rather than being made.

Ohila insisted they must travel to the once great but now abandoned and forgotten city of Kelsingra. It was the place where the richest nearby source of the psionic silver could be found. And since that much psionic energy can interfere so badly with the TARDIS they weren't going to chance going there any other way than hiking. Rose however refused to join them quite yet. No she, the Doctor, and Narvin had other things to do first. First they had to extricate the Doctor's son Zaiden from the situation only someone related to the Doctor could manage to find themselves in.

Apparently the family he was left with had been left with the impression that he was born to the daughter of an old couple and the bastard son of a foreign prince. Well apparently said foreign prince, Price Chivalry Farseer, came back for business and the grandfather dumped young Zaiden off at the fort where said prince was residing at the time. Zaiden also happened to look so much like his supposed father he was taken in and now resided in Buck Keep. His father abdicated in favour of his brother Verity and he was acknowledged as a Farseer but still a bastard so not of the royal line. Also apparently this kingdom known as the Six Duchies was currently undergoing assault from well organised raiding parties known as 'The Red Ship Raiders'.

She held Zaiden's watch which he hadn't been allowed to take with him when the grandfather ditched the grandson, and sighed. It looks like they have a lot of work to do.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Narvin came back to where the Doctor and Rose were waiting in the TARDIS hidden inside a rundown hut within the outer walls of Buck Keep after scouting. He did so by wandering around the castle invisible, but only Rose knew that. He was also dressed in the garb of a servant so he could stop to talk to people while visible. He handed his sister a tankard along with some honey cakes.

"What's this?" Rose asked as she sniffed the tankard from her seat on the jump seat in the TARDIS Console room.

"Mead. It's also quite good. Had some already. The honey cakes are gorgeous, and those are fresh out of the oven according to the cook Sarah. She makes the best honey cakes I've ever tasted. She insisted I must give you some when I told her I had to go meet-up with my sister and her husband."

"Where's mine?" The Doctor whined.

"I gave it to the wolf that's made a den out of this hut as bribery to get past. He complained they weren't ginger cakes but seemed happy enough," Narvin replied as he took a seat by his sister leaving the Doctor standing in a slight huff.

"There's a wolf out there? This close to civilization?" The Doctor asked incredulously.

"A yearling cub if I'm not mistaken. He was rescued by your son as a small cub and has been living here since. I think he's his familiar but couldn't get much out of him in that regard. He told me I needed to bring him ginger cakes if I wanted to get that as well as his name out if him. On the bright side if he is, Zaiden or FitzChivalry Farseer as he's known around in these parts, familiar, he should be here soon enough out of curiosity if nothing else."

"So what can you tell us about what's going on other than that?" Rose asked.

"Well it seems our boy Fitz is actually being considered to become part of the line of succession officially. King Shrewd is rumoured to be quite ill, his second wife Queen Desire died some years ago now and their son Regal was killed in the first raid of the red ship war. No one knows why he was even at the place the raid took place in the first place. King in Waiting Verity has been wed recently but no signs of an hare yet. Fitz's suspected father Chivalry is supposed to be dead but know one really knows, he apparently just disappeared one day and his horse returned to the stables by itself. Also FitzChivalry is well loved among the common folk and has gained some renown for his battles against 'the red ship raiders'. Winter has finally arrived so people can relax now the seas are too rough to bring any raiders. The raiders have managed to take some of the people captive and done what they call being 'forged' to them. This apparently makes them walking zombies that attack senselessly and have lost any connections to the rest of humanity and crave things like food, or other resources and will get quite violent to get it, only to forget about it if something else peaks their interest."

"It had to be zombies. As if the Dogma virus wasn't bad enough," Rose muttered.

"Quite agree with you on that one," Narvin replied and shuddered. "So we need to catch one of these 'forged' people and figure out what is wrong with them."

"Do we really have to bring zombies in here? My TARDIS still hasn't forgiven me after the last strain of zombie…. Well second to last since there was that incident with the gas mask zombies thanks to Jack and the nano genes…. Anyway, the second to last incident I came across zombies. I trapped one in here to study it and it made quite a mess."

'Quite a mess? It will destroy the console, ripped out my wiring, and produce this slime stuff that got everywhere! I swear I still find little bits of that slime in places and that was three whole regenerations ago for him,' the TARDIS complained to Rose, who thought better of correcting tenses right then so she wouldn't also be angry at her.

"Yea definitely no zombies in the TARDIS," Rose agreed with the Doctor and gave an involuntary shudder at the images the TARDIS sent her of the previous incident in a tirade.

Suddenly the TARDIS door opened and FitzChivalry wandered in, in a daze. "No this can't be real. That was all a dream…"

"We seem to be getting that reaction a lot lately," Rose commented, she turned to her brother, "looks like you were right Narvin, that wolf was his familiar."

"Familiar?" Fitz commented, shaking himself out of the daze.

"It's what we called it when you choose to bond with an animal for whatever reason, back on Gallifrey," The Doctor replied and approached him like he would a startled animal as he held out the watch.

Fitz saw the watch and started to panic. "No! It's not real! It can't be real!"

The wolf from outside ran inside feeling his partner's distress and made a lunge at the Doctor. The Doctor quickly shifted into Dahrama form and wrestled with the yearling cub until it submitted. 'Calm down, we will not hurt him deliberately. He's not in danger, he's just freaking out because he's remembering who he really is. We are his pack. We only want the best for him,' the Doctor told the wolf.

In the meantime though the watch fell down and opened changing FitzChivalry Farseer back into Zaiden the time lord. It hurt a lot but not anywhere near as much as it would have if they had left him on Earth for example. The people here are descended from colonists who came from Gallifrey so are in large part Gallifreyan with some White mixed in. They had evolved enough in a different evolutionary path since then to register as a different genius of their species though. Main difference is no second heart or respiratory bypass. Those were evolutions that happened on Gallifrey sometime after they became time lords. They also somehow lost the ability to shape shift along the way, but some could still talk and bond with animals in what they call 'the wit'.

Zaiden got up from where he himself had fallen on the floor and looked over at the two wolves. "It's ok Nighteyes, what he says is true. He's my actual father."

The young wolf managed to get up and shake off the fight. 'Are you ok brother? You feel the same yet different.'

"I'm back to who I once was is all. It's very complicated in ways you wouldn't fully understand. But these three are part of my pack."

'And I wouldn't have believed any of it if I didn't see it,' the mental voice of King in Waiting Verity Farseer added.

Zaiden had forgotten that Verity was riding along with him using the skill as they called it, or psychically as his people would call it. 'Should I make a run for it now?' He sent back to the man he had thought was his uncle only moments ago.

'Why would you do that? There's still raiders on our shores most of the year. I can't trust the skill users Galen trained. Regal may be dead but I'm afraid they still seem to be following my brother's plan despite that. We have forged ones encroaching on us even when it is winter. I still need you Fitz… or what should I call you?'

'Uh.. my name is Zaidenlecitisherlungbarrowmas of the house of Lungbarrow and Prydonian chapter of the once mighty and great race of the Time Lords…. Or just Zaiden for short, but you can still keep calling me Fitz. It's fitting really considering I really am the bastard son of a man from a noble house, left at the doorstep, handed over to my uncle. Although my father over there did raise me once we sorted out who that was exactly. Until he had to rescue my niece from a fate worse than death when I was the equivalent of fifteen, steal this TARDIS and run away. Was largely raised by my uncle after that, but that's another story.'

'Well I guess I'll just have to do better at earning the title of favourite uncle,' Verity added in amusement.

'Wait… what?' Fitz asked back.

'We always knew it was a risk Fitz. You look like Chivalry, you have a lot of his mannerisms, you even have the wit like he did. All pretty strong indicators that he was your father, but there was always the risk that he wasn't. It was one we accepted when we brought you home from Moonseye. One I for one am glad we did. Just because we may not be blood related doesn't make you less my nephew. Honestly the Farseer line probably isn't even a straight line anymore from generations ago. Things like this have been known to happen in most noble families, what really matters when all is said and done with them is the appearances of it all. Besides I'm the only one that needs to know.'

'Wait Chivalry had the wit?'

'So did our mother. It skipped myself but it's been known to run in the family. It's not a bad thing, and people gave up killing people for it years ago even if there still is a stigma.'

'I much like my father over there can turn into a wolf from my home world. We all can turn into an animal form, it just happens that those of us here are wolves. Ironic considering the untrue myths about people with the wit being able to change into the form of their bonded animal. How long have you known I have the wit?'

'Chade figured that out years ago. Also I have been regularly in contact with you for a year now. It was obvious when I could see everything you were doing. I just sensed you would be less embarrassed if you thought I didn't know. Your father, I've picked up thoughts that he is somewhat of an expert in helping with situations like we are in now… do you think he can help?'

'I'm certain of it. He's no doubt thinking up a few hundred different plans already and how to catch a forged one to find out what exactly is wrong with them. I have a few ideas on what could be the cause already and none of them are good. Where are you? Should we go to you or you come to us? I really need to be in physical contact with you to check something. I know from my previous lives all about using the skill now and am much stronger with it. I've found several skill compulsions that Galen no doubt placed on me that I've gotten rid of. I need to check they didn't do anything to you either.'

'Is there no end to my brother's treachery? He's been dead for a couple years now and still we run into problems he's caused. Fine, come meet me in my study. You may as well bring your relatives with you.'

Zaiden jumped a little when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to see his father looking concerned. "I'm fine Dad, I was just having a mental conversation with my 'Uncle Verity' . We have been psychically linked or 'skill linked' as they call it, for a while. I've kind of been acting as his eyes and ears around the castle for a while as well as passing on information when I'm at sea about where the latest attacks are and to head to them. I kind of forgot he was with me when I came here. He knows everything and wants us to meet him in his study."

"We can cut and run if you're in danger for not being who they thought you are," The Doctor replied.

"I'm fine for the moment. Besides Chade doesn't actually have any poisons that will work on a Time Lord. Chade is the royal assassin, adviser, spider, spy, and my mentor. Also a royal bastard, the brother of King Shrewd. He's getting on in years and they have been training me from a young age to replace him. Verity also told me he's going to be competing with Brax for the title of favourite uncle," he said soberly with a lighter note on the end.

"Since a child! They've been trying to train you to be an assassin since you were a child! How can anyone do that to any child yet alone one that is supposed to be family," The Doctor was annoyed on his behalf.

"I'm a bastard, not family. The only one of the royal line who ever treated me as family is Verity. He used to ruffle my hair when passing and comment on how big I'm getting, or give me toys he'd claim to have found in the bottom of his clothes chest even though some where obviously new. Others have since Regal's death started to look at me as a possibility for being in the royal line, but to most I am still the bastard. Being a royal bastard is a precarious position to be in that could get me killed by my own family if they think me a threat. This is a primitive society."

"That doesn't mean I have to like the way you have been treated. You are still my son, no matter what life you've made for yourself here and wherever you decide you wish to stay in it or not," The Doctor proclaimed then pulled his youngest into a tight hug.

Zaiden hugged his father back then pulled away and said, "I don't know exactly what it is I am going to do later, but right now a lot of people need me in order to stop the atrocities the red ship raiders have been committing."

"That's my boy, now let's go talk to your new surrogate uncle and see what we can do to help," The Doctor told him proudly.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Verity didn't know what to make of the three people who came with Fitz to meet in his study. They spent ages talking about what could possibly be going on with the people who have been forged, and it basically came down to they needed to capture one of them and see. Chade had of course tried this before but nothing had helped. From what he could tell from Fitz's memories though they could do things Chade could only dream about.

As for the three people themselves. The one Fitz claimed was his father had an ancient look in his eyes despite what his outward appearance was, and babbled a lot without actually really saying anything.

The twins seemed to take his lead. The woman Wolf she insisted on being called, seemed to be very adept in the skill from what he could tell. Her twin brother Narvin appeared to be very adept at sneaking around and gathering intel, he was worse than Chade in that regard. Fitz seemed to trust the two unconditionally though, a feat in and of itself considering the only one he's ever shown that level of trust to was Verity himself.

He was going to summon Chade and get him to join in on this discussion when the Fool wandered past and their leader, the Doctor accosted him. The Doctor wrapped an arm around the pale colourless young man and led him in. "Well hello! I thought all of the White left this world during the war!"

"I don't know what you are talking about. I am just a fool. Something you seem to be trying to emulate. Alas my time here at court is done, the king has a new fool for entertainment," the Fool retorted.

Fitz took in his odd friend and groaned as he realised something. "He's following the old religion of 'The White Prophet' and has been using me as his 'Catalyst'. Also you'd need to come up with a better insult for him fool, that man has been playing the fool for about a millennia now."

"Oi! I'm only 900 years old thanks," the Doctor huffed out and let go of the Fool.

"Years by the time it takes Aidiealia C to make one revolution of the sun maybe," he quipped back.

"Oh come on even I'm not that old. Aidiealia C takes six hundred years as measured by a year on this planet to make one revolution of its sun," the Doctor protested. "Oi, what are you two laughing at? You're only two gallifreyan weeks younger than me," he said to the Wolf and Narvin.

"See fool. Just hit him where it hurts, his age," Fitz said in aside to the fool. He could see the fool was looking ready to bolt. "What do you know about what's going on Fool. You'd not be here if you didn't have a prophesy to follow."

"I had a dream of where I needed to go, a black rock carved as a Buck coming from the sea. So I found Buck Keep and the name Farseer. Suddenly there is an unexpected son who has no name who knows not his mother. He shall be the catalyst to be a stone before the wheel of time to change its track," The Fool said in some defeat, "But suddenly everything has changed and there are so many more possibilities I cannot make heads nor tails of them. The red ship raiders are being led by a brute of a man who is the catalyst for who the people from where I came from says is the white prophet but she's wrong. On the bright side her sight is probably as messed up as mine right now."

"It sounds like you need help with deciphering your time senses to see the most likely outcome and how to counter it if needed," Fitz or Zaiden said simply. "Luckily for you, now I am back to being a time lord with all the memories and skills that entails. One of which is doing exactly that. I'm like my father that way, it's an innate part of our magic, able to see and put things on a better track. Just unlike him it's not something I did before the time war because it was forbidden to meddle, I wasn't a rebel until then. Before the war I was an instructor at the Time Lord Academy teaching children how to properly use their time senses."

Fitz reached his hand out to the Fool, "when I became a rebel I dropped my old name and took a new one as is customary by our people. I am Changer and it's time to change things for the better."

The Fool took Fitz's hand and was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of possibilities he saw.

'Calm down. I know it's overwhelming but you may be a white because of genetic happenstance but you're also part gallifreyan you should be able to handle it with help. Show me what you know of the past first,' Fitz spoke to him mentally.

The Fool as private a person as he is hated to do this but he just knew he had to. 'It all started when I was taken to Clerres as a boy.' He then showed him his life from then until now and everything he knew. After they finished with the past they started looking at so many possibilities the fool thought he was going to get lost despite being able to see things this way normally, just never so intense. Suddenly a path light up among those possibilities as the changer helped him sort through it and they saw a path to defeating the false prophet.

-x-x-x-x-x-

The four time lords and one wolf had to track down forged ones. The plan was for them to subdue them then bind their limbs and bring them to the castle dungeons.

The Doctor, Rose, Narvin and even Fitz turned into their dahrama wolf forms where no one would see them and sniffed some of the forged out. They had intel from Chade's network of people a general direction to look for a large gathering of them but that was about it.

Fitz knew he'd have to turn back before anyone saw him, but he had longed to change and go on a hunt since he had changed back into a time lord. His coat was much like his father's flame coloured coat but was more golden in its highlights giving it a lighter hue than his father's more deep red and orange coat and had a more swirling pattern.

Rose was having fun playfully trying to shoulder check her brother as they ran. Fitz often wondered as twins how their wolf forms looked so different. Rose's fur was more golden with an effect that made it look like swirling vortex energy, while her brother Narvin had a black 'shadow' coat making him blend in easier in the dark.

'This is pack, my brother. Even if the hunt is about man stuff,' Nighteyes called out to Fitz.

'I'm sure we will be able to hunt together like this for real sometime,' he consoled Nighteyes.

'Even a pack has to defend their territory from time to time from another pack. This is what we do cub,' Narvin sent to Nighteyes, 'You have much to learn about pack life young one if you think wolves only kill to hunt. Sometimes such battles over territory end in death. We don't even aim to kill this time. Just to capture.'

'I smell them this way,' the Doctor interrupted. 'They smell worse than the turserons, and Turserus is one of the smelliest places ever because they communicate through precisely modulated gastric emissions.'

'Yes we know, they communicate by farting,' Rose replied, 'it's such a pity they discovered fire, they were such a peaceful race.'

'Yes, well can we just concentrate on taking down some of these zombies so we can do something about this?' Narvin asked and they stopped messing around and concentrated on the hunt.

Instead of sending words to each other telepathically they used visual and mental queues on where to go, how to approach and finally to go for their prey. They found a group of three, so Rose, Narvin and the Doctor sprang on them and managed to pin their targets. Nighteyes ran around snapping at any that seemed to be struggling too much, while Fitz changed back from wolf form behind some bushes then rushed forward to restrain the forged people, tying up their arms legs and gagging their mouths to stop them from biting.

Satisfied they all changed back and started the long arduous journey back to the castle. Luckily there were no superstitious locals around because their magic on this planet doesn't include transfiguration. So one of them transfigured a cart to put the forged in so at least all they had to do was push and pull a cart all the way there.

-x-x-x-x-

"Interesting. It seems this person has had most of their soul removed. If that was all they may recover in time but we'd be talking decades. That's not all it is though, the connection to the rest of the soul is not severed, they are on a tether to whatever is draining that energy from them," Rose reported after closely examining the zombies she, Narvin, the Doctor, Fitz and Nighteyes has rounded up for study.

Some guards looked chagrined at Nighteyes who had thoroughly enjoyed the hunt. Verity told Fitz to be seen with the wolf because there were enough rumours going around about him thanks to political enemies like the Dukes of Farrow and Tilth. People had been remarking about how the bodies of forged have been savaged by a wolf and thought Fitz himself did it. Of course he actually could now, but they didn't need to know that. A lot of guardsmen were feeling foolish for believing superstitious nonsense when it was revealed to be just a normal wolf Fitz had acquired and trained from a cub to help him in such endeavours.

Also apparently Nighteyes new favourite person is the head cook Sarah because she feeds him ginger cakes.

"How could that be possible?" Chade asked more fascinatedly than anything else.

"There's a substance in this land that was used by what you call the Elderlings. It's stone laced with psionic silver. The silver is like a kind of liquid magic. The early settlers here used it to carve dragons out of stone when the colony was under attack before the civilisation fell to barbarism. Once the dragons were complete the people who carved it melted into it body and soul. That is how the race of dragons came to be. They then breed and lay eggs inside beaches made from this stone and hatch as serpents, then they come into land and make a cocoon out of the same substance and become full dragons. It's quite fascinating really. But they jealously guard the silver as they call it because they need to keep drinking it in order to not turn into stone. Of course it can also be used to do a great many things so it's a precious resource.

What I believe is happening is they are forcing people into this stone but not all the way. For what ends I don't know but it can't be good. Fortunately we do have a way to reverse the process," Rose explained.

"We do?" The Doctor was confused.

"Psionic silver is one of the secrets of the Pythia, Karn was one of the few planets which possessed it. We need psionic gold to draw it back. That substance should be more familiar to you since it was a natural resource on Gallifrey. One of the nearby uninhabited planets should have it since psionic bronze, silver, and gold are all found in the same solar system when it does occur naturally," Rose replied.

Something occurred to the Doctor then, "That's why the sisterhood went out to seek a source of it isn't it? That's the real secret ingredient in the elixir, not that sacred flame stuff."

"I honestly can't believe sometimes that the Time Lords fell for that one for so long. I shouldn't be telling you any of this but it's going to come out sooner or later," Rose replied with a smile.

"Well we don't actually need to go farther than my TARDIS for the psionic gold," The Doctor added. "I've got some in there."

"We should be able to make a device then that we can put into the TARDIS and make everyone go back to normal," Rose speculated.

-x-x-x-x-x-

The Doctor babbled to anyone who would listen about the brilliant invention he just made with some help from Narvin who, being an engineer for years before ever joining the CIA couldn't help but throw in random bits of advice and help in making it. Apparently psionic gold is stronger than psionic silver so should help them pull the people's souls back into their bodies. The soul containers of the chameleon arch work much the same way only they use bronze and gold to balance each other. He didn't know for sure there was a silver but always suspected as much before this. Karn was the source of psionic silver in his home system and they had kept it a closely guarded secret.

Rose had known of other solar systems such as this one that had the psionic metals because she had been one of the few skilled in working with it within the sisterhood so had made a study of it. It took a certain skill set to work with the stuff and few people had the patience or talents to learn it. It was why Ohila was the current high priestess, and one of many reasons she still had her eye on Rose as a successor.

They tested the new device on the three captured 'forged ones' to much success, leaving three bewildered people who didn't remember much of what had happened to them. They remembered the raiders and being taken onto a boat that was white in colour rather than red and there was a giant rock on there, but nothing after being pressed against the rock.

So the Doctor then hooked the device up to the TARDIS and used the TARDIS to boost the field emitted by the device into a field that covered the entire planet. This cured all the 'Forged', including the important leaders or their families in the Out Islands who they had this done to them as punishment in order to make them cooperate and join the raids.

For the next week the weather was particularly clear with no storms. Instead of any Red Ships an envoy arrived from the Out Islands and the leader of the raiders' own mother house. They presented King Shrewd and Crown Prince Verity with the head's of both Kebal Rawbread who had led the red ship raiders and the 'Pale Woman' who had started it all. They hoped to make peace and end the war their men had started. They had started by 'forging' the women in charge of the clans and led by fear. Once the reversal had happened there was a very bloody uprising to take back the out islands and make examples of those men who defiled the mother houses.

The next step had been to contact the Shadow Proclamation to let them know exactly what the 'White's servants' had been doing in their absence. They came and they sent the Jadoon into Clerres to round up the servants and all the White they had bred like cattle in order to tell the future. The White took in all the White from Zv r to try and integrate them into their society. This included the Fool who didn't want to go but was given little choice.

The Time Lords are going to be going into negotiations with the White to reclaim their lost colony on the premise that it was they who originally terraformed the planet and had claimed first. The White just had originally an agreement to lease it from them. They also plan on terraforming two other planets in the system for their resources, and to live on one of them.

Zaiden/FitzChivalry volunteered to stay behind to be one of the representatives of the native population from lost colonists when negotiations begin. A role his 'Uncle Variety' and King Shrewd gladly gave him, the old king being as his name suggests shrewd enough to agree they would have an advantage having someone who knew all the relative laws on their side.

One other strange thing happened when the device was triggered, a number of people appeared at the witness stones. All of which had been said to have been lost at the stones anything from a year to a century ago. One of which was Prince Chivalry, who after bemusedly finding himself there made his way to the castle. The guards at the gate thought he was Fitz at first but got the shock of their lives when they got a closer look. The entire castle was brought into an uproar as people scrambled to inform the King and his brother Verity. His wife Patience had a lot to say about worrying her and how much he hurt her just disappearing like that, then turning a complete 180 in typical Patience style and saying she'd have to forgive him now or risk dying of old age before she had forgiven him.

The Doctor, Rose and Narvin made their goodbyes and went to the sisterhood where Rose got the psionic silver she needed. The Doctor and Narvin really wanted to look around the eerie abandoned yet magically alive city, but they had to go. After all Bernice needed the elixir she had made with it.

-x-x-x-x-

Sorry this has been so long, can't promise the next one will be any quicker. I've just had problems getting motivated to write recently.

Thank you to all who have read so far, reviewed, favourited, followed, or anything else to help me along.