The Dauntless III: Revenge of the Sith

Antoinette bites down on Fleur's arm and holds for a few moments. Then she releases. "Alright. Remember to be in the prison with me before sundown in a week. We can't have you loose on your first night."

***

One week later, Antoinette has Fleur locked up in the prison just before sundown. She has set up a chair just as before. As Fleur continues to impatiently ask when it will happen, Antoinette simply assures her that it will begin soon.

Nketiah smiles brightly when Dorrak returns to her. "So? How did it go?"

------

"C'moooooon, we've been waiting fore-ACK!" Fleur lets out a choking gasp of pain as the transformation takes her. Her body racks with pain as it begins to grow rapidly, her skin turning to sandy yellow scales and her teeth becoming razor sharp. She doesn't fall, and instead stands at a massive nine and a half feet tall, thick tan tail swinging behind her. She lets out an incensed roar and swings her tail in a wide sweep that smashes the bars of the cell out, before attempting to charge out of it.

"Oh fuck I thought those bars would hold better!" Antoinette shouts as she puts herself in front of Fleur and attempts to stop her from leaving. "I can't just let you go running around like this. You could hurt someone!"

Fleur just barely slips between Antoinette's fingers and crashes out the door, running with her body leaning forward yet not quite on all fours at a surprising pace.

"Fleur stop!" Antoinette yells as she gives chase.

Antoinette finds she's slightly faster than Fleur in this new form, and manages to tackle her to the ground and hold her down.

"Fleur I need you to listen to me," Antoinette states. "The beast is in control, and it's going to stay that way until you truly accept its nature. You're fighting it right now. The harder you fight the more its going to control you."

Fleur continues to snarl and struggle against Antoinette, who in her more collected state (and with a great deal more strength and skill) is easily able to keep her pinned.

"Fleur, please," Antoinette begs. "You are only going to cause more trouble. I know you can do this. You are strong. You are a great hunter. But you can also learn. I know you can get better because I've seen it. I've seen your progress. You don't have to fight this. You just have to accept it."

"Don't," Fleur growls viciously, her first shaky words since assuming this new form. "Want... to... fight! Want to hunt! Kill!"

"I know you do, because the beast is in control. Not you," Antoinette states. "Well, you'd want to hunt anyway probably, but I can't let you out until you're in control of yourself."

After a few more minutes of Fleur being unable to control herself, Antoinette pulls her rope out and personally restrains Fleur. She carries the still growling dinosaur back to the now broken cell and sits her down, watching from the chair for the rest of the night. As the first rays of sun peek out, Antoinette is struggling to stay awake.

Fleur remains awake and struggling the entire night, though she's unable to break Antoinette's bonds. As the sun rises, both weredinosaurs shrink down to their natural sizes, and as Fleur turns back she nods off into unconsciousness.

Antoinette sluggishly gets up and walks over to Fleur. She gently picks her up and carries her to her bed. "No success tonight, but we'll get there. Sleep well," she says before writing a quick note for Fleur. The note simply instructs Fleur to meet Antoinette in her lab Fleur wakes up. Antoinette then walks off to get her own sleep.

It's nearly evening by the time Fleur is awake again, stumbling into Antoinette's lab while scarfing down the last bites of a hastily constructed sandwich from the kitchen. "So... did it work?"

"It did, and it didn't," Antoinette replies. "You are a weredinosaur, but you can't control it. You tried to run off into the woods and go on hunting rampage, likely decimating the local deer population. I stopped you and made sure you didn't cause any trouble. You had surprising strength though. You broke the cell we had you in."

"Huh. Cool." She takes a seat and licks her fingers.

"Well it requires a few things," Antoinette replies. "Introspection for one, and meditation. You have to learn how to look within yourself and understand yourself at a deep emotional level. Only then will you even be able to communicate with it. Then you must accept its nature as your own, which would likely mean changing your personality and outlook on things to some degree. In other words its going to take a lot of work and it won't happen overnight. I can guide you through the process. I've done it once before. I can't, however, do the work. That's on you."

Fleur stares at Antoinette after this. "... fuck."

Antoinette walks over and puts her hand on Fleur's shoulder. "I know you can do it. You've already come so far from where you started. I'm proud of you Fleur, I really am."

"It went well," Dorrak replies, smiling back, "We had a good talk, and there's no issues between your father and I. There's more to it, but it's heavy and best saved for a night not meant for celebration."

Fleur lets out a sigh and looks at Antoinette. "... I'll try, I guess."

-------

Nketiah gives a small smile. "You're right. Another day, then. Come, they're about to release the butterflies."

-------

The days pass fairly quickly as Suki and Antoinette work on their project, Dorrak begins opening diplomatic relations between the various nations across the portals, and Django volunteers at the temple of Desna and the soup kitchen like the boy scout he is. Over the course of your first two weeks back, the Breachill City council elections happen, and while Jorsk Hinterclaw retains his seat, a surprise upset has Narine Howerdell overtaking Amara Lang as the successor to Posandi's seat, while the Order of the Silver Scale continues their training and prepares for a new adventure, and Fleur tries-and fails-to train in the art of introspection.

About a week after your return, an assistant to Archmage Nalruven pops in and makes an appointment for a teleport chain to and from Katapesh by way of Absalom from the 5th to the 6th of Lamashan. When the appointed day comes around, a dwarven mage appears in the Citadel (his lack of explanation for how he familiarized himself with the Citadel to teleport there prompts Django to research anti-scrying measures on a later date), and with a blinding blue flash you all vanish from Hellknight Hill and appear in the middle of a lush park that Dorrak recognizes as being in the Petals district. He then takes a seat on a nearby bench, pulls out a book, and promises to wait here for you all.

Once he gives the rest of the group a quick rundown of the city districts and where he can be found in case of emergency, Dorrak heads to the Coins, being sure to stop at his favourite street vendor on the way for a snack on the way to his parents' old house, a formerly pretty run-down two-bedroom townhouse down a narrow street where, when he was last there, several of the buildings were freshly burnt-out husks.

Antoinette asks Dorrak and several locals if they know where Apsu's shrine is. Most people don't know where it is, or vaguely think it may be in the Ascendant Court. Django, however, is able to use his knowledge of religions to guide Antoinette to the most likely place of Apsu's shrine. With this knowledge, Antoinette and Django manage to find a small pagoda-like shrine with a statue of a silver dragon inside. An offering box stands nearby, with a sign indicating all offerings must be silver. Antoinette sighs and walks off to buy a large chunk of silver, enough to be worth about 1000 GP. With the prize procured she returns to the shrine and kneels in prayer.

"Hello, Apsu, Maker of All. I know you don't take an intervening role in Golarion that often. I also know that I have not been one of your faithful. But I am here today because of the reason you most often decide to intervene. I speak, of course, of your greatest foe whose name I dare not blaspheme your shrine by uttering. He has also become my greatest foe in a very real way. Ever since my friends and I came into contact with Alseta's Ring we have repeatedly come into contact with and defeated those who seek to bring your foe back into our world so that he may rain destruction down upon everything we have built. We have also learned why his followers continually seek us out or get in our way.

"Alseta's Ring, as you likely already know, contains a fragment of the false wyrm. That fragment is gaining strength. If we fully activate the ring, the energy building within will be released and terrible things will occur. If we do not vent this power, it will grow until it can escape the ring on its own. Then it will be far worse. The more I fight the servants of your foe, the more afraid I become of what they want to unleash. I know that I cannot let them succeed.

"In our last encounter with the false wyrm's servants, we defeated a primal dragon who had been swayed to his evil. His last words haunt me even now, promising that the wrath of his foul lord would cleanse us from this world. But also, knowing of a dragon and a locus of such power where he resided, I came up with an idea. I am a skilled alchemist, my friend a skilled ritualist and dragon expert, and we know an archmage willing to work with us. My friend and I have devised a ritual and potion which I may use to become a dragon. I know it may be insane to attempt this, but I truly believe the power of dragons will be necessary on our path forward. If we want to fight the false wyrm, we are bound to fight more of his foul spawn.

"There is another reason I seek to become a dragon as well. I need to live longer for the sake of another. Fleur, formerly my warg companion, became an elf after we messed up informing a ritual caster upon her death. She was reincarnated as an elf. Fleur would have only lived around 30 years. Now she will live hundreds. I am her closest companion, and have done my best to train her to be better. She is strong, and brave, but she hasn't yet grasped the concept of good. I believe she will in time, but I also believe the trauma of those dying around her could cause her to close herself back off and fall to darkness given time. Everyone she knows is mortal, and much shorter lived than her. If I teach her to care and everyone dies, myself included, it would be devastating.

"That's why I've come to you, why I utter this prayer before you. I know my ritual and potion could easily fail. What I am trying to do is, well, honestly most would call it madness. It probably is. But I truly believe I can do far more good if I succeed. I ask you to help me succeed, but I ask not for something while offering nothing. I place this piece of silver worth 1000 GP at your shrine as an offering, to show my devotion to this task and to what I am about to say. I swear on my offering and on my heart and soul. I swear to you that if I succeed in my endeavor and become a true dragon, I will spend my draconic life fighting the servants of the false wyrm. First by finishing my current task, and then by continuing to tirelessly search them out wherever they may hide.

"Even if I don't become a dragon, I swear to do good in this world. I swear to do right by your creation. I hope that you have heard my prayer, and I thank you for all that you have already done."