Drakon Sssharxx

You could have a rogue check on the really powerful or independant creations where at the start of it's turn you roll to see whether you still have control or whether it turns against you, likewise you could have a regain control check. The more powerful the creation the higher number you need to roll to keep/regain control. I don't see the huge difficulty in porting it over to D&D it seems willingly receptive to the idea, the problem is how tedious it is to balence and get looking good. Sharx

What is D&D for a start?

I like to write it but I also like to know people are enjoying it. Sharx

Are people still reading this and enjoying it? I have found it hard to find time to write it and am wondering if it is still worth makeing the time to continue onto the last book. Sharx

In combat you can not make creations so you should prepare beforehand and be ready for anything. Sharx

Yey! I solved my picture problem. May have to put a few more pictures into the story now! Enjoy. Chapter 32 – The Birth of the Shapers As the unusual trio look on at the scene they begin to move down towards a large clearing. To the trio it doesn’t feel as if they are moving but rather the clearing, and the rest of the land, is moving towards them. As the clearing enters the space around them they see a large stone obelisk in the centre. The obelisk has four flat smooth sides and is made of solid granite. On each side is a different symbol, the obelisk is oriented so the sides align with north, south, east and west. Starting at the north side and going east, south and then west are these symbols: Around the obelisk about thirty people kneel in a circle with a single elderly man stood in front of the northern side. The elderly man is speaking in a chant while the other thirty people kneel occasionally bowing to touch their foreheads to the ground. Saraph notices only four sounds being pronounced by the elderly man. As the three watch the proceedings, strands of gold filaments float out from the people knelt in the circle. The filaments float towards the obelisk and ask they touch the granite surface it begins to gain a golden glow. The filaments gain substance and thickness and huge amounts of energy are pumped into the granite slab. The standing man takes a step forward to the obelisk, and then another. In a flash of flames the man’s cloths are incinerated to leave him bare. The naked man takes one last step to touch with the granite surface and disappear. The circle of kneeling people all stands in unison and the symbols on the obelisk rise off the stone to become glowing shadows in the air. They begin to float around the obelisk slowly gaining speed until the obelisk is surrounded by a white halo. In a burst of light the halo shatters upwards creating a pillar of pure white light shooting high into the air. The sky turns black and white arcs begin to shoot from the pillar and return back to the ground like glowing white rain. Suddenly Saraph’s vision goes black with only Charlotte and the shaper mistress in sight. They look around puzzled at what is happening. A new vision colours their vision. Once again they find themselves with an overhead view of the same forest as before. Saraph spots the granite obelisk only now it is covered in moss signifying a length of time has passed since the last vision. Further north is a village, as Saraph spots it the world moves closer and the village enters the space around them. Saraph sees adults working small crops and children playing. There is no unhappiness in the village. Suddenly Saraph sees a child running at him and before he can react it passes through him and Saraph watches the child chase after a butterfly. After a few seconds the child tires of chasing the butterfly and turns around. She waves her hand and in a pulse of scentless essence a dog appears yapping at her side, the child smiles wider and begins playing with the dog she created only seconds earlier. Both Saraph and the shaper mistress look at her with shock at the ease and perfect control a mere child has over arts that the shapers spend years to gain minimal control over. The vision blacks out again and when the colours return the three onlookers are once again above the forest. This time there are fires burning below them and Saraph can see huge beasts tearing through robed men who launch flames back upon the beasts. Saraph sees the villagers creating the huge beasts and fighting back the robed attackers. The robed attackers are great in number and while one villager may kill fifteen single-handedly the attackers manage to push the villagers back out of the village killing several of them. Saraph spots a man enter a large building and once again the world moves towards them and they find themselves in the room with the man. The man grabs a number of scrolls from the shelves before waving his hand and causing the rest to burn. The vision blacks again and the following visions pass in rapid succession, the first shows the man pouring over the stolen scrolls learning what he can from the pictures, unable to understand the language made up of only four letters. The second vision shows the man’s success at creating a mutated lump of living material and a few flickers of visions show him gaining in competence. Another vision shows his success at creating a living creature able to survive. The visions show him teach the other members of his tribe and how they use the new power to attack other nearby tribes. They show how larger tribes renounce their tribe names and merging into the tribe that had renamed to “The Shaper Tribe”. The visions show their numbers increase greatly until they had the power to conquer the land. They discovered more to their powers and new combinations to create new creatures and slowly they populated or captured the continent placing the other humans below them to tend to and command their creations. The visions show the actions of the shapers right up to the very present. Saraph, Charlotte and the shaper mistress find their vision black and when it returns they are back in the corridor above Mera’s shaping halls.

My understanding was that Wingbolts used gas bladders to reduce their weight and therefore require smller wings to fly and thus while being out of proportion they are still able to fly. Also maybe some of the gas in the gas bladders is ejected backwords as some form of biological jet engine (but not very effective, although gives me ideas for my book) My favorite creation would be the wingbolt as it's cool raceing stripe colours and ability to fly makes it a pretty leathal weapon. Sharx

Now Now, be patient this chapter eplains it slightly... I believe that it gives enough hints for you all to hypothasise what is happening... But before I can post it I need to know how to show pictures on the forum...

Guess what guys... You're all going to be happy for about 10 mins. I found time for another chapter. It's all changeing once again for Saraph. Chapter 31 – Reunion Saraph looks into the face of Mera’s shaping master. Her eyes, a shocking sapphire blue, bore into the shadows of his hood. Saraph’s attention is absorbed by the intensity of her look that she speaks again. “Little late isn’t it?” Saraph is shaken from the force of her gaze and his mind buzzes to find a believable answer. “Err… yes mistress it is, I got caught up in my work and forgot about the time, I came up to get some clean robes to wear for tomorrow.” Saraph manages the words in a steady voice his eyes running over the flawless form of her body. Her face breaks into a small smile. “Not to worry I’m sure you won’t be as late tomorrow?” Saraph shakes his head. In his haste to get away he moves his head too vigorously and his hood falls off his head, his ears less covered picks up rapid whispers of feet brushing the floor elsewhere on the same floor as him and the shaper mistress… *** Charlotte runs through the cobbled road in the dead of night flitting from shop to shop until she finds a cloths shop. The lock melts away under her touch and the door slides open. Charlotte glides through the room and spots an exotic robe made of ruby red fyora scales, she dons the dress and finds it hugs her form tightly whilst allowing free movement. The dress covers her skin while stood still or waking casually but has splits in the long skirt that allows for sprinting. Happy with her find she leaves the shop and hears a whisper of footsteps above her. She looks up to see a foot disappear much to fast for any normal human. Charlotte runs along the road in the direction the foot disappeared heading towards the largest building in the city. She arrives at the foot of the building to see a cloak flicker above her disappearing through a window on one of the highest levels. Charlotte’s curiosity is peaked now not her or any of her previous possessor’s memories recall anything being able to move so fast. She runs flat out past the guards into the building becoming a blur of shadow to any human onlookers. Charlotte quickly locates the stairs and sprints madly up them seven by seven. She sprints silently through an open door at the top of the stairs and along the corridor towards the room the cloak disappeared into… *** Saraph’s mind races and, with the boost of adrenaline that since his educations and alterations he hadn’t felt, everything becomes clearer and sharper. Several things happen at the same time, one is that the shaper mistress begins to form a ball of energy with which to spite Saraph down, the second would be Saraph’s sister, Charlotte, bursts around the corner and runs towards him, the third would be Saraph’s mind makes the link between the four letter language and his own. The clarity of Saraph’s mind allows him to orchestrate his movements with impunity, he waves his hand and cancels the shaper mistress’ magic, he then spins around and holds his arms out to his sister who slows for a millisecond before speeding up and embracing him in a steel grip. Saraph’s mind reels from the connection between the two languages and something begins to happen which Saraph is unfamiliar with. He begins working magic without any control over what he is doing, as if he is only the worker and someone else is giving the orders. The air around him blurs and Saraph begins to feel a pulling sensation at the base of his spine. The shaper mistress leaps forward and grabs hold of Saraph in an attempt to stop him escaping. The three of them are pulled backwards into a black void and it feels as if an invisible force is crushing them together slowly until Saraph can’t bear it anymore. Suddenly the force releases them and Saraph’s eyes are assaulted by colour once more. Saraph looks around to assess where he is while the shaper mistress lets go of him and steps back her eyes looking down at the forest below them thats not getting any closer. Charlotte lets go of him and looks over the view below.

A million apologies guys... Havn't had internet for the last 3 weeks and before that college has had me on my toes with various problems of transport to haveing tonnes of work. Currently on work expirience and could well get round to getting you another chapter, maybe even some photo's. I'm hikeing alot so I have some very scenic pictures that may suit the story. Since i'm walking around in the middle of nowhere my imagination could well be on form. Will see how I feel tomorrow and with any luck you could have a meal. Sharx. Edit: Oh bugger I realise all the fuss... I left you hanging at the worst possible moment. Saraph alone in a strange place with a million distractions and found by a Shaper Master... what could happen to him?

Sorry guys I have been checking the forum and seeing you wanting the stoy continued but haven't had to time to do it yet. I'm hoping this weekend will have some free time where I can sate your hunger.

More power? hehe thats the rebels in a nutshell, power hungry fools.

Hmm I believe a mild age rateing should be in place from this point on. I think the subject matter is a 12+ in english tearms so if you are below 12 do not read on. Contains content of a mild sexual nature. Chapter 30 – Caught Saraph sneaks into Mera in the dead of night; he makes a bee line for the central halls. He leaps silently from roof to roof keeping out of sight of any passing nightwalkers. He can see the main halls towering over the other smaller buildings and sees a window. Saraph leaps nimbly onto the wall grabbing hold of the window ledge to keep from falling. With one hand he holds himself to the wall whilst the other pulls the window open. The window utters a squeak and Saraph freezes. When nothing changes he tries again slowly this time and once again the hinges squeak. Saraph curses the poor maintenance of the windows as a snort issues from within the room and a bed creaks with protest. Saraph pushes himself from the window and flies towards another nearby roof keeping his eyes on the window. As he watches a man approaches the window and closes it. The window squeaks again before hitting the frame with a muffled thump. A lock clicks into place and Saraph sighs. Saraph jumps from building to building around the halls looking for another window to find them all closed. He was about to try and find a second way in when his eyes spot the tiniest of gaps at one window high up in the halls. Saraph leaps to one window and begins scaling the building towards the window. As he arrives there he looks through the window to peer inside. The room is large and very grandly decorated, in the middle is a large curtained bed and lay on the bed is what Saraph can only presume as the shaper master of the Mera. Saraph nearly lets go of the walls in shock at the sight. The shaper master of Mera is female… and naked, the bedcovers sprawled over the side of the bed revealing her naked form to anyone who happened to walk in… or peer though the window. Saraph shakes himself out of his shock and turns his head away from the bedroom to remove the distraction. The woman in the bedroom is incredibly pretty. Her hair is shoulder length and straight, it frames her face in a wonderful rusty brown colour. Her face is flawless with beautifully formed pink lips and wonderfully shaped eyes. The rest of her body is perfectly proportioned. Saraph shakes his head once more and focuses of how to open the window. The air is chill and a rush of cold air from opening the window would wake her. He thinks hard and looks back through the window this time focusing on his plan. He focuses and begins to use magic to reposition her bed covers gently, as he works he is forced to look upon the more revealing parts of the woman’s body, Saraph tries hard to focus but as the covers pass across her chest his focus breaks and the covers fall heavily onto the woman. She stirs and grasps at the coves pulling them up further. A smile spreads across her face and she rolls over facing away from Saraph. Saraph sighs, luck is turning his way. He gently pulls on the window opening it a fraction of an inch feeling the oiled hinges slide smoothly over each other. Saraph focuses again and begins to warm the air around the window to avoid a cold breeze through the room as much as possible. He slides the window open more going slowly and silently. When the window is wide enough for Saraph to slip through he starts to enter controlled and silent again. Within a few seconds Saraph places his feet onto the floor and closes the window mutely. He edges round the room silent as a shadow and hopes the door is as silent as the window. As his hand touches the handle the woman laid on the bed behind him sighs and begins to roll over again. Saraph’s eyes involuntarily flick towards her. Time seems to slow down as Saraph sees the woman roll over the edge of the bed. In a brief impulse Saraph opens the door sliding though it and closing it behind him quieter than anybody else but loud enough to wake her. Saraph runs quickly down the halls and hides in a small storeroom. He knew it was a storeroom by a sign besides the door. As he looks for a hiding place he spots what he came for. On the shelves are a series of shaping robes. Saraph grabs a red robe from the rack and thrusts his arms into the sleeves. He ties the front around his frame with a thick leather belt and pulls the hood up over his head. All the time Saraph’s ears are listening for any indication of an alarm or search party. Saraph waits in the room and when nothing happens he stands and walks out of the room. “Hello, it’s a little late to be wondering around isn’t it?” Saraph freezes and turns to the right his head hidden in the shadows of his hood. As he turns his eyes fall upon the rusty brown hair and perfect face of the shaper mistress of Mera.

Chapter 29 – Alone Again Charlotte’s eyes settle upon the relived form of Iraelithe. His shoulders are slumped and his eyes regain their depth, he smiles a relived smile that cracks throughout his face showing his true age. Charlotte sits up and stretches, she jumps lightly to her feet and smiles at the silence accompanied with her action. She beckons to Iraelithe and darts through the doors of the house and out into the small front yard. She settles down on one of the tree trunk podiums and waits for Iraelithe to join her on the opposite pad. Iraelithe sits down on the opposite pad and takes a deep breath. “Are you sure you are ready to begin?” Iraelithe’s voice is laced with concern fo her well being. Charlotte nods slowly. “Then we shall begin.” One hour… Two hours… Three hours… Charlotte’s breath rushes out, a flame flickers on the palm of her hand for barely a second before dieing away into the air. Charlotte started out confident, she had all the knowledge and experience from the entity, a being she realised had been using magic for several decades. She thought that it would be easy to use magic with his knowledge. Soon after Iraelithe began to instruct her in the use of magic she realised that using magic is different for everyone, the principles are the same but the method is different. For the last three hours Charlotte has been focusing on finding the method that allows her to access magic and at last she succeeded, if only just. Realising her success she tries again. She pictures in her head the flames that freed her from her battle with the entity, she pictures them getting warmer and warmer, hotter and hotter until they burst forth throughout her body and emerge from her right palm. Once again her right palm catches fire; she focuses on maintaining the flame this time and watches the flame dance about on her palm. After several minutes Charlotte relaxes and watches the flames flicker and die. She looks up at Iraelithe and sees him smiling at her. “You have done well. All you can do now is practice your control and learn new ways of manipulating the magic.” Charlotte focuses intensely and after a long moment an ice shard forms two inches above her palm and she lets it fall to the floor. The shard is flawed and messy, not clear and flawless like one of Iraelithe’s demonstrations. She frowns slightly at the melting evidence of her lack of discipline. Iraelithe looks at Charlotte with puzzled eyes and when she looks back up to his face she notices. “When I fought the presence in the ring for control over my body his memories remained. The knowledge of the manipulation of magic he possessed is within my mind.” As Charlotte speaks this Iraelithe’s face twists into a mask of horror “What’s wrong sir?” Iraelithe’s face does not change as he looks at Charlotte. “I have made a mistake, that ring is nothing but an abomination, an unnatural thing, it should have been destroyed and not used. I think it is best if you leave Charlotte, I have caused enough damage. Please do one thing for me though, practice and gain discipline before you use techniques that are stored within your mind.” Charlotte feels like an icy stake has been thrust through her heart and is slowly freeing it shut. She felt at home here, she had lost her family but found refuge with this old man. That refuge is being torn away once more and yet again Charlotte is alone. Her eyes prick before she nods and turns around. She counts to five before accepting his words to be true and like a whisper she flits from the clearing, fast as a cheetah but as silent as a father landing on the ground. For a time she is happy just running, feeling free from the world as the scenery whips past. When she hungers she hunts, her senses aiding her locate food and her strength and speed aiding her kill it. She tries cooking the food with magic but her lack of control causes her to incinerate it leaving only a pile of ashes. She catches a deer and eats the meat raw and continues running. Several days pass while she runs through the wilderness occasionally she sees a town and circles around them in a wide arch. After several days she calms down enough to relax and take stock of where she is. The landscape is littered with swamps but the temperature has been slowly dropping. She can see in the distance many white capped mountains with what appears to be a large spire. She locates and kills a couple of large wolfs skinning them. With one hide she crafts herself some tight fitting pants, the second she throws around her shoulders and hides her face in the shadows of a crudely fashioned hood. She decides to acquire much less intimidating attire that will conceal her skin in the town just north of her current location. P.S. I have My first book of this tale in PDF format is there any way to get it uploaded to somewhere more permenant on the forum?

I think it would be good to have a Blades of Geneforge. Let the public create their own scenarios for what could happen, plus I would be able to convert my story into the game. I don't see why jeff hasn't mentioned a Blades of Geneforge. Hehe i laughed when i went to abbriviate it and realised what it became. BoG hehe my childish side just broke out.

Chapter 28 – Flight Saraph is disturbed from his thoughts when the door slides quietly open. He opens his eyes slowly and looks at the visitor. The man in the doorway is a similar height to Saraph but with blonde hair, his eye colour is obscured by the glow in his eyes and his skin has a waxy sheen with a feint glow from beneath it. As Saraph inspects the man’s skin he can see small fissures on the surface, as if it’s drying up and ripping itself apart. The man wears a pained grin on his face but stands straight. “You’re to report to our leaders, they have another mission for you.” The man quickly turns and leaves before Saraph can ask a single question. Saraph looks over himself and sees that his robes are stained and blackened in places. He thinks it is about time to find some new ones. He shrugs, puts the thought to the back of his mind and stands up to leave the room. The usual journey through the passageways was uneventful and the two drayks let Saraph pass without argument. The rebel ‘leaders’ are all seated and look at Saraph as he walks in. “Ah, Our illustrioussss tool.” The centre drakon pronounces when he spots Saraph. “We would like to discusss a task that we have a need for it to go sssmoothly. You have a sssterling record for your missionss and we are impressed with how you have acted under the most presssing circumstancesss. We have reason to believe the shapersss” he spits “have a mechanical instrument for channelling esssence without fluctuation. We believe they keep it in their research hallss in the Whitespire Mountainsss. Find it and retrieve it, the device is small enough to fit into your backpack.” Saraph nods and departs. Saraph sits on his bed knowing the danger of this mission. He has already been to the shaping halls and prepared physically for the mission, he now sits planning how he may do this. It would be easy in his current robes to convince simple townsfolk that he is one of them, but if he ever met a shaper then they would know instantly. On the other hand if he went in with clean, regal robes with all the character traits of the shapers there would be little to give him away. His skin and eyes are still perfectly normal and the changes undergone by the canisters are easy to hide. He thinks of how he can get himself a set of shaper robes, he had thrown his own set into the ocean before setting foot in this fort. He thinks that there may be a chance to acquire some if he sneaks into a town on his journey to the Whitespires. Saraph leaves the fort through the front gate and looks out over the snowy capped mountains around him. He runs forward and jumps twenty feet into the air flipping once at the peak of his jump, he looks at the ground many hundreds of feet below and can see where he will place his feet already. As he plummets towards the ground at the foot of the mountain he smiles at the feeling of weightlessness. The ground approaches before he wants the feeling to end. Saraph places his feet and then softens the impact through his legs, as he stands up again he observes a ten foot wide crater around him. He looks up at the rebels entrance, hidden to all but those with exceptional eyesight, it lies a good three hundred meters above him. Saraph smiles; happy to be moving again. Saraph thinks of the enormous distance he has to cover and decides it would be quicker to travel most of the distance by wingbolt, dismounting only when near the Whitespires that way there will be people who see him approaching. He quickly puts his new knowledge into action whilst summoning a wingbolt; the result is a much more streamlined body with slightly larger gas bladders and a more angled heat vent. Saraph jumps smoothly onto its back and tells it the destination. Within moments the wingbolt is in flight and speeding through the air. The small changes Saraph made gave it greater speed and agility even with him on the back. Saraph soon settles down for the long ride overnight. When the sun hits the horizon Saraph is amazed at the view suddenly change, from his aerial view he sees the suns light stretch over the landscape like long fingers grasping greedily at an orb of gold. Saraph also feels the wingbolt beneath him begin to descend rapidly. The wingbolts changes allowed the journey time to be almost quartered. As the wingbolt gets a few hundred meters from the ground Saraph gives it orders to return to the rebel fort and help them however it can. Saraph jumps nimbly from its back and lands lightly on the ground with a quick roll converting his downward energy sideways. Saraph continues running until he reaches a road where he slows down to the pace of a human walk. He follows the path west towards the city of Mera.

Chapter 27 – Patterns Saraph looks up from the journal, an uneasy feeling in his stomach. His mouth fills with saliva and he knows what is coming. With little time he runs quick as a blur through the door, shattering it into millions of splinters, without looking back he flies down the corridor and into the toilet just as the nausea hits. The food from breakfast, totally undigested, flies from his mouth and into the toilets. Wave after wave hits until his stomach is empty. He looks down into the toilet at the food that would be pretty much edible for anybody else, untouched by stomach acids and unbroken down by saliva. It looks exactly as it would if you passed it all through some form of crusher. He frowns once at the realisation that his body has changed to live solely on essence, food can no longer sustain him. He walks briskly back to his room and observes the wooden splinters all over the corridor. The door was solid oak more than six inches thick. The hinges made of solid iron tore a hole through the bricks as they were wrenched away from them. Saraph walks over the splintered remnants of the door and into his room. He picks up the book and closes it; he had gotten about a third of the way through the research notes and was finding it a bit of a challenge. Every other book he has found was easy to understand and could be read in moments. He enjoys this book because it makes him think. He puts the book back into his pocket and walks out of the room. Saraph looks over the mess of the shattered door and summons up a quick blaze of fire to incinerate the wooden splinters. A quick gust of wind scatters the ashes and the only evidence left is the mutilated hinges and the lack of a door. He picks up the hinges and places them neatly besides the entrance to his room. Saraph walks away from his room towards the library. He needs a place alone to think and study. The walk to the library is quiet and he quickly descends to the lower level, he mimics his last actions on the small creation and opens the stairway to the old research hall. Once in the hall he closes the entrance and walks over to a pile of cushions left in the corner. He sinks into them and opens up the book; he begins flipping through the pages locking the words into his mind. Once done he replaced the journal onto the shelf that he found it. He walks over to the pedestal with the observation creation. He brushes the pedestal clean and summons a fyora limb. He looks into the eyepiece and begins deciphering the strange four lettered language. Saraph learns fast and as he learns he becomes efficient at manipulating the scrolls of life. He thinks of it like learning to write, at first your letters are jagged and slow but as you practice they get clearer and your speed increases. He works with quick speed allowing his connection with essence speed up his ability to manipulate it. Within a few hours he is starting to notice connections in what he is doing, small patterns that indicate to Saraph that he is doing something right. A few hours later he begins to recognise the patterns he was only vaguely aware of and begins to work with them increasing his understanding. Saraph looks up an hour after he began to become aware of the patterns. He has hit a wall in his research. He has narrowed it all down to six patterns and he can feel within him that there is only one more step to unite them all. That unity would give him a link from his language into the four symbol language. So creating a creation would be like writing a book. He absorbs his fyora leg, it looks quite deformed, muscular and multi coloured, he can get no further with experimenting. He returns the room to how he found it and leaves. He gets to the top of the library the knowledge buzzing around in his head struggling to make sense. What he learnt can still be used effectively but he knows somehow that it is nothing compared to what knowing the link would do. He walks back to his room to find his door has been replaced with a solid granite slab, when he approaches it slides sideways. Saraph smiles, he knows it would still get shattered if he needed to leave his room quickly. He looks at his little golden clock and sees that it is seven o’clock in the morning. He settles down on his bed and relaxes; he focuses deeply and begins to pour over the patterns that are haunting his mind.

Chapter 26 – Nature’s test As Charlotte looks around she sees the world anew. Everything seems small and fragile. She has difficulty keeping concentration as everything catches her attention at once and while she inspects some wilting lilies she is distracted by a butterfly floating around outside. She closes her eyes removing visible distractions from her focus. Her breaths deep, she calms herself and allows a clear train of thoughts travel through her mind. While she does this she hears a small voice coming from somewhere in her mind. As she focuses on it she tries locating the source, the trail leads away from her mind and down her arm to the ring. Charlotte’s eyes snap open and she focuses her eyes onto the ring. As she looks at it she sees the onyx gem in the middle swirls not with fire but with a hazy mist. The flames beneath her skin have also changed to a pale shadow. She closes her eyes letting her mind focus again. She notices her thoughts are clearer and faster, even though her concentration is easily broken. She takes a brief moment to organise her head, almost like tidying her room she stacks and condenses her memories and knowledge feeing her mind from cobwebs and distractions. She finds that her mind is greater, as if the ‘room’ was knocked down and stretched out across an entire planet. She shudders slightly as she imagines her thoughts echoing in such a vast space. All this happens within the space of a few seconds. Charlotte is about to move on keeping a solid train of thought when she freezes. A voice echo’s around her head with an entire generation of wisdom upon its breath. The voice is not warm or homely like Iraelithe’s but damp and slimy like somewhere you know a huge range of venomous and ugly creatures live. She shudders as she hears the voice again. Moments later her mind gains an enormous pressure and even though Charlotte throws her eyes open she cannot see. She feels her body fall to the floor and her entire focus becomes encompassed within her mind. Charlotte opens her eyes to see herself standing in blackness. Opposite her is the frame of an old man he looks at Charlotte with an unending amount of hate burning in his eyes. It is not a personal hate of Charlotte but a hate to the entire world, a twisted hate. Charlotte feels the extent of the entity within her mind, the decades or even centuries of knowledge and experience. Her mind is home to both her and this entity. The man smiles as Charlotte makes this realisation. She also notices her small organised corner of her mind is the smallest fraction of what this entity takes up. Her small corner gets a smothering pressure at the edges an instant later and Charlotte begins to feel her mind fading away. She somehow pushes against it automatically and feels herself returning. As she pushes against the pressure bearing down on her mind she begins to push it away from her entity and towards the man opposite her. As she begins pushing the barrier back towards the man it touches his stolen space in her mind and Charlotte begins to get flashes of what is contained in the ‘territory’ of her mind that she is claiming. It distracts her enough to allow the man to push her back again. Charlotte’s mind clicks into what is happening; it is a battle of wills. Natures test of survival of the fittest; those that desire life live longest. Charlotte realises this and also realises she is at an advantage, the man opposite has already been dead and she has spent every second of her life fighting to stay alive. She fought mountain cats to survive. With this realisation she releases her desire to stay alive and throws it out bashing up against the man’s barrier and sending it back. She engulfs the man’s mind with the sheer power of her desire to live and forces his barrier back until he is left with a similar amount of room as she began with. The man’s smile disappears and is replaced with deep concentration. Charlotte is crushed with centuries of knowledge; she concentrates on maintaining her barrier whilst it is all processed. The man forces his barrier back slightly whilst Charlotte is trapped within his memories. His barrier expands, slowly gaining momentum and beats back against charlottes barrier. When the man meets the place where Charlotte is processing it frees her from the pressure of so many memories and allows her to fight back again but the momentum built up by the evil entity is too great. Charlotte slowly looses ground and she notices that the entity has taken back over half of her mind. The entity continues to gain ground until he begins to assault Charlotte’s memories. She gets the feeling of fading from the world again and she fights against the barrier as hard as she can. Her less important memories are slowly fading and she feels him reaching ever closer to her memories of her… She looses control at that moment as emotion floods into her mind. Her family, her dead family would be removed from her memory before she died. Her entire existence is being stolen from her leaving nothing to take to the next world. Her body, her mind, her soul, she would just cease to exist. This thought builds up a mass of emotion that begins to build up so much it feels like it burns her mind. She rebels so much against the idea that her mind takes over and the emotion boiling up breaks free. Charlotte is aware not of a bubble expanding from the centre of her mind but rather a flaming lance shooting straight across the length of her mind striking deep within the entities thoughts. The flames burst from the lance outwards stealing his most personal memories from the entity first taking away his will to live rather than suppressing his consciousness. The pressure against Charlottes barriers lighten and her mind floods outward removing all traces of the evil consciousness from existence. She is upset to have done to him what her very being rebelled against but it is nature’s way. The weakest die and the strong survive. Charlottes mind reels from the amount of information flooding her mind and once again she stacks it like tidying her bedroom. She begins to feel her body again and opens her eyes to see Iraelithe sitting on a chair beside the bed he laid her in. Charlotte takes a deep breath before smiling a warm smile at him. He looks at her and realises the outcome he smiles back relieved.

Calm down. I'll get around to it eventually.

I apologise to readers for such long waits. I have lots of college work at the moment and it is getting really teidious not to be able to relax and let my fingers flow out a melody of words that weave into this book. I recently got invited onto the Beta testing of google wave and i have 8 invites, if any READERS would like to be invited onto it then I would invite them, that way I can post chapters on there as a wave and you would be able to correct spelling and grammer or even provide an alternative way of wording a sentance. If you want an invite feel free to send me a private message requesting it. Sharx.

As I understand it the shapers release essence which is the basic building blocks (tiny quarks or something like that) and provides them with the right energies to combine and lock together with each other to create the protines that cells are made of. From here they combine cells to build organs and organs to create a body. From this point they jump start the body so that it supports itself and there I believe it would develop like a normal baby's conciousness in a more adult body. To counter this I presume the shapers also infuse certain inteligences and expiriences and share them with the creation in order to speed up brain development and instill the basic subservance that creations display in the solidity that it is like they have known nothing else other than serving. At that point the shapers order the creation to do their bidding.

To quote Arthur C Clarke: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

If magic was real you'd still have scientists try and explain it.

Or for some spectacular unknown reason... It's magic.

I love you all! You just gave me an interesting encounter in my next chapter! Thanx. p.s. As I understand it, it would seem most likely that the your genetic codeing would be passed on to your children (somewhat randomly due to nigh infinate combinations of genes) as the genes in all your body are all the same but cells developments acording to the instructions of the genes are affected by the environment. From what I can tell cells with genes that are not within a certain degree of similarity have a large chance of being rejected by the body. As far as skills comeing from genes and not knowlege I can only see small examples from this in animal instincts that even tiger cubs have without expirienceing a similar encounter.