A/N: Thanks to all people who reviewed. I can't believe you're still with me. Thanks to you. You probably don't believe me, but it actually makes me write faster and encourages me to try to improve my writing skills.
Blackjack: Oh, my darlin'... what do we have here? No, I will not introduce the killer rabbit from the Monty Phyton movie. No. No. NO! And besides, you seem to have a really weird attitude towards matrimony. You should work on that!
lazy.kender: Hey, somebody thought of Naranja. But, I think you question will be answered right now...
Part 21 - Truths revealed.
When the villagers came and the fair began, Raistlin was left alone. Finally he could analyze Orsany's Crystal. During the last two days, he had managed to get the most basic components he needed. His possibilities were still limited compared to what he was capable of with his own laboratory at hand but at least it was worth trying. While he concentrated on a spell to make magical structures visible he forgot the throbbing ache in is left foot. His mind focused solely on the artifact. Forgetting the world around him, Raistlin looked into the marvellous realms of magic. At first he was nearly blinded. As he had suspected, the stone pulsated with a bright light, radiating a power even the archmage had rarely seen before. The energy was bound in a complex system of diverse magical strands. They formed a web, holding the energy inside, guiding it. He had seen a similar structure in the other crystal, though now everything pulsated like beating heart. This was highly suspicious; according to every magical theory, a wish shouldn't be 'doing' anything after it had been invoked. Not even when the energy had been bound again instead of evaporating. It was rather likely to stay dormant until activated another time. Nevertheless, the crystal looked as if it was still working. Fascinated he stared at it. It was beautiful. A subtle, complex and highly intricate work.
It had rather taken years, maybe decades and immense power to design a structure like this. Raistlin couldn't help getting exited over this fascinating piece of spellcraft. This was a grandmaster's work. Amazed, he realized that the structure consisted of several different components, which were all connected through the strands, the energy being only a source for the spells to work on a permanent basis.
Now, the spells had been activated. The kender couldn't be blamed for that. It took a mage of cunning skill to bind several active spells into a material source to root in, this surely couldn't happen by accident. No, the kender seemed to be innocent for once. Moreover, Raistlin observed some strands that hadn't been there before on the other artifact. They stuck out of the structure, dangling into nothingness. That seemed odd, since everything else was absolutely perfect, whoever had designed this wouldn't leave wavering strands.
Suddenly it dawned to him. The strands didn't fade into nothingness, as he had assumed at first, they probably just lead into another plane. Raistlin's jaw dropped. Multidimensional magic? Could this artifact really influence different planes? Only a truly legendary mage or a god could create such a device. Who had designed this? And what for? Suddenly the crystal had turned out to be much more then just a wish. Somebody must have had the wish beforehand and added this structure to it. But who? Raistlin went through all the wizards he knew who were capable of such high-level spellcraft. He didn't find much. Par Salian could maybe have done it, and of course Fistandantilus. But Raistlin knew both mages very well, none of them had taken the necessary time to create this structure. Par Salian had a conclave to lead and Fistandantilus book's had never mentioned anything like this. And Orsany himself? According to his research on Orsany, the red robed wizard had lived some centuries ago, he had been a specialist on transformations, "Master of Chimeras", they had called him. Somewhere Raistlin had read the mage had also had a hand in artifact creation, but still... how could somebody have been capable of acquiring the necessary knowledge to create this masterpiece in a single life-time? Rumor had it that Orsany had died around the age of forty during an accident in his study-room. No matter how ingenious the man was, he couldn't have achieved this in so short a time. But if it was someone else... Raistlin felt a sharp sting of jealousy at the idea that someone probably walked the face of Krynn who was even more skilled than him. Impossible. That couldn't be.
Raistlin cast another spell, focusing more closely on the spells and the mysterious strands. He could barely sense the nature of the spells, they seemed to be mostly of the transformational type. But there was at least one with the aura of domination. He couldn't find out more details with his simple, improvised spells. The transformation-magic hinted into the direction of Orsany again, still it seemed unbelievable regarding the man's official biography.
The strands passed for an even greater enigma. They might lead into another dimension, but where were they headed to? Another piece of the puzzle moved into place. What if these strands formed a link to the other half of the crystal? Raistlin remembered his analysis of the counterpart. He had noticed some blank spots in the structure holding the wish. At that time, he had suspected them to result from the parting of both halves. With his recently gained knowledge in mind the situation looked different. It was likely that these spots were active now, maybe they had also developed the same kind of strands and linked to this part.
If this was true it could only mean that the halves had never been together! There had always been two parts, they had been created to work together exactly like this after one part had been set in motion. He had probably started the process while unleashing the wishing-energy. However, all this lead to only one possible conclusion. He, Archmage Majere, had been misled by an old legend and had walked right into a trap. A highly subtle trap, but nevertheless, a trap. He cursed.
At this moment a tentative knock came from the door.
"Nima, are you in there?" asked a female voice. The gypsy girl. Of course this had to happen now. He let is spells fall and hid the crystal one of his pockets while telling the girl to come in. As soon as his senses focused on the here and now again, the pain in his foot was back. He winced. Suddenly Raistlin felt exhausted from spellcasting. Whatever the girl wanted, she had better get over with it soon. Naranja climbed into the wagon and sat down with him. She had brought a lute.
"I wanted to keep you some company, I know how much you hate loneliness, Nima."
The gypsy began telling him what had happened in the last hours. -Had he really passed hours in his trance-like state?- She chattered about some adolescent peasant boys who had got drunk and made fools of themselves, and told him how many times she and her mother had laid the cards today. She explained how she had danced with one of the village boys and how nice and how charming he had been. From what she told, he was probably the same type as his simple, good-looking brother. To his surprise she insisted that she hadn't flirted too much with the guy. She wanted to wait for her true love who had to be a mage of course. Were had she got that idea from? Ah yes, the card-laying issue. Superstition and a romantic attitude. A dangerous mixture. He could only be happy she didn't know who he really was or he would probably be subject of her infatuation. Raistlin's mood got worse with each passing minute. The pain in his ankle wouldn't lessen, this little body suffered from the after-effects of spellcasting and Naranja went on and on with her nonsensical chatter until Raistlin couldn't bear it anymore.
"He will come." Naranja stated all starry-eyed, still rambling about her future wizard-love. "The cards foretold him and I know we are destined for each other. He will probably be evil at first, but I know I can turn his heart if try. Love can make everything right."
At this point Raistlin lost his temper.
"Love?" he snickered. "What do you know about real love? I doubt you can think of anything else then your fun?" he finally spat at the surprised girl. "All I hear you talking about are your idiotic, naive ideas about romance and your feasting. You are so shallow it hurts! No mage with a little bit of intelligence and self-esteem would even look at you! Grow up, girl."
There, now she had stopped talking. Her face went white and her eyes filled with tears. Of course she hadn't expected such a reaction from her "little kender-friend". She was about to start crying when Raistlin continued acidly.
"And they don't care for crybaby's in the least. Neither do I. So don't think you can start whining. That is so pathetic."
He saw her visibly fight with her tears. When she finally spoke, her voice cracked once or twice, but she spoke clearly.
"You think me shallow, Nima Teketoll? Finally I know what you really think of me. It's true, I live for music and dancing and having fun. I love it because it makes people happy, and I like to make people happy. I think life is too short to ruin it with hate and greed and jealousy and ambition. I want to make people happy, because if they are happy they don't cut each other's throats. There is so much evil and violence in the world, but when people sing and dance there is no room for evil. That's why I love it so. Music is my life and if you really think this to be shallow then be it so. But I tell you what, you developed a nasty attitude these days. It's as if you want to make all the people who love you turn away from you. I don't recognize you anymore, Nima. And I think-"
She paused, again fighting tears. But this time she lost the struggle and little droplets slipped past long eyelashes and run down her cheeks.
"I think under these circumstances we should rethink the basis of our friendship. Fine, now you get what you want. You can talk to me again when you've fixed your attitude."
She turned about to leave. Raistlin watched her approaching the door. He didn't want to admit it but her little speech had made a certain impression on him. Maybe she wasn't that shallow after all. She was scatterbrained, though. Naranja had already opened the door when she turned her beautiful, young, tear-streaked face back at him.
"I came to ease your pain a little bit." She raised the lute "But since you abhor what I'm doing, you can just stay like this forever as far as I am concerned. Good night, Miss Teketoll."
When she was gone, Raistlin frowned. What had she meant with "I came to ease your pain?"
A/N: Word explanation: Dally advised me to explain how the term "Chimera" is used in this story. I use it the way most roleplayers use it. Here, chimeras are magical creatures that carry features of different animal races. They are not a species of their own but have been mixed and mutated by magical cloning or however you like to call it. Their looks and abilities can vary a lot due to their progenitors.