From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: [R] Mistletoe[Rameshan]: True Names And Other Dangers
Reply-To: aaron@space.ualberta.ca
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 16:18:55 GMT

"We can't put it off any longer," Ornigan whispered.  "Amaan will be leaving in
a few days, and we'll need time to come up with another plan if this doesn't
work."

Mistletoe nodded.  "Do you really think this is all necessary?  We should just
be able to say her name and she'll appear."  She gestured at the circle drawn
on the floor, the warding around the door, and the other appurtenances Ornigan
had somehow scrounged.

"Just saying her name won't compel her to do anything--all it will do is
attract her attention.  Given how she feels towards Bronwen right now, I don't
think she'll be inclined to come and help."

"I just hope I remember the name," Mistletoe muttered.  She'd only heard it
the once.  Bronwen was usually careful to make sure that the others didn't hear
it, but she hadn't compensated for grey elven hearing that one time, and
Mistletoe had heard the name.  It was a long time ago, though...

Ornigan chanted a spell.  "There.  Now they won't hear or see anything amiss in
this room if they look in."  He looked at her expectantly.  "It's time to
begin."

She nodded.  Since she knew the name, she had to say the rest of the
incantation as well.  She wished she could have written down the name, but
Ornigan had said that was unwise, since paper can be reconstructed by magic, no
matter how thoroughly destroyed.  She drew in a deep breath and recited the
syllables Ornigan had taught her, her voice seeming much too loud in the night
stillness.  She still half-expected her voice to draw guards down on the room,
but Ornigan's spell seemed to hold.

Ornigan had produced a sprig of mistletoe from somewhere, and a caterpillar.
Thinking of the Kelsie's first misadventure as a caterpillar almost made her
break out laughing and miscast the spell, but she used control garnered from
hundreds of years, if rarely exerted, and held back her mirth.

Finally she came to the part where she had to say the true-name.  Around her
she could feel a collected force, like a rope, ready to be cast out to snare
any target they gave it.  If she said the name wrong, then Erevan only knew
what they would reel in--a demon, likely, since they were more numerous than
any living creatures.  She took a deep breath and found that in her light
trance, she could hear Bronwen's voice as clearly as if she were hearing it at
that moment.  She just repeated what Bronwen had said.  It was easy.

Now the part that Ornigan said could be said in any language, and the target
would understand.  "You who we called the Kelsie, after your race of spirits,
come to us, we beseech you.  You who has been a friend in the past, come to the
aid of us now, and to the aid of the one who aided you before, who is your
mistress, who has bade you to our aid before.  Come, Kelsie.  Come.  Come."

The sprig of mistletoe, sitting in the middle of the circle with nothing near
to touch it, started to twitch, and shimmer.  Then it burst outward into a tiny
humanoid form, of the same size as the sprig.  It sighed and tapped its foot.
"This is tiresome.  I really have had enough of you folk!  Can't you understand
that?  Especially Bronwen, with her heart that she doesn't even know the way
of!  And I get tired of trying to explain it to her!  Why can't you leave me in
the spirit world, where I can do as I please, and laugh my days away, instead
of bringing me back to this vale of tears?"  She paused.  "That's good. I'll
have to remember that one."

Mistletoe was unmoved.  "Kelsie, I bind you to me with your true name.  As you
were bound to your mistress Bronwen before, until she released you, so bind I
you to me."  Whoops, she was lapsing into archaic Elvish.  "By your name I do
this."  And she repeated the name three times, each time making it surer in her
memory.

The Kelsie nodded.  "I am bound to you, Mistress.  But I don't have to like
it."  She looked at herself.  "You couldn't perhaps give me some more mass,
could you?  I left the rest of mine here a while ago, and if all you're going
to give me is one stupid sprig of mistletoe--"

Mistletoe sighed.  "I'll take you to the kitchen, and you can steal some of
their meat."

The Kelsie made a face.  "Yuk.  Couldn't I just take a tree, or cactus, or
something?"

Mistletoe thought.  "There are a few date palms in the garden, but Juhlavi is
so paranoid about his garden.  If something went missing, he'd notice."

"Might as well give it a try," Ornigan said.  "We should be gone by then
anyway, and it's not like he'll find anything."

The Kelsie tapped her foot.  "So, are you going to let me out of this stupid
circle, or what's the plan?"

"The plan--right.  Kelsie, you're going to have to take Bronwen's place for a
while, so we can flee to Generica and rendezvous with Maleiu."

The Kelsie brightened.  "Maleiu?  Now there's a cute one.  Great buns, at
least."

Mistletoe's cheeks flamed.  "Kelsie--shut up.  Now--in a few days, you're going
to come with us into Bronwen's chambers, I'll drug her, and then you'll take
her place.  You'll continue to do so until we're safely away--I'll send you
some kind of signal.  Then we need Bronwen to die, or something like that, so
you can escape and rejoin us.  Unless you want to stay as the mistress of
Juhlavi bes-Pelmaj..."

The Kelsie considered.  "Is he cute?"

"He's about seventy years old, wizened, saggy cheeks, loose skin everywhere."

The Kelsie licked her lips.  "Yum.  Maybe I will stay for a while, after all.
So when do we do this?"

"When I get word from Amaan," Ornigan said.  "The ship from Generica should be
arriving in a few days, but there's word of trouble in Specifica of the Sugars,
which is on their route.  If they get held up there, we might have to wait a
few days, in which case it'd be better not to have to hide Bronwen for that
extra time."

Mistletoe nodded.  "I don't have that much of the drug."  She sighed.  "So,
again, we wait."

--
---Alfvaen(a.k.a. Nysinra, rot13 Psycho)
"So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
 what's so amazing about really deep thoughts"  -- Tori Amos
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