When Jon had clasped the necklace around his neck, he had felt suddenly like he was being pulled and probed. The foot of the stairwell was whisked away from his senses, and he found himself standing back at home, in his room, on a bright, sunny day. Through the window the sunlight cast a pleasant blue glow.
Wait, blue?
He dashed to the window, and peered out. There, high in the sky wasn't the sun. It was the pendant of the necklace he had picked up. It was glowing fiercely bright with a blue light. Almost, but not quite too bright to look at. Still, he could not look for long. He brought his gaze back down, eyes stinging a little.
As he fought to clear his sight, he took in the neighbourhood. It was almost like hi home town. Almost, but not quite. Everything was compacted, drawn together. He could see the mall from his window, and the school. Karyn's house, Sarah McMillan's house. There was a row of shops that in reality existed two miles away. There in the distance was the hospital where he was born, despite the hospital really being behind the house and twice as far away. What was going on?
As he concentrated on the hospital, it suddenly leapt forwards, nearly causing him to fall back in alarm. Parts of it unfolded before him, showing him all the parts of it he knew, but keeping the rest blank. That's when it hit him: This was inside his mind. All his memories, all the places he knew or affected his life, all laid out before him.
Wait, was the hospital that tall and thin a moment ago? Was it really surrounded by that many trees? Jon cast his eyes down to the car-park of the building, only to find it was no-longer there. Still glowing brightly in a fading intense blue light was part of the outskirts of the grove of the healers, where the healers themselves lived. He suddenly remembered one healer who lived in that grove quite clearly. Malcost, an aspiring apprentice mind doctor. He had a sturdy frame for an elf, kind features, piercing blue eyes and a chest that went on forever.
Malcost had been something of a crush when he was a young girl, Jon remembered, the memories playing through his head. Suddenly he shook himself. Those weren't his memories, what was going on? Fearful he looked out of the window again. The hospital was gone from sight, and it its place, a forest bloomed with life. Trees and other massive plants thrust into the sky. Nestled amongst them were all manner of dwellings, both on the forest floor, and in branches sailing up. Instinctively Jon knew that some of the trees' trunks were part hollowed to allow for stairs, branches tied together from tree to tree to allow for walkways.
He tore himself from the scene forcefully; denying that those could be his memories. He focussed on Karyn's house, but Karyn's house was gone, replaced by a mighty oak, at the foot of which, nestled in the roots, was a half growing, half timber cabin that somehow looked like the sort of thing only a half elf might be happy with. Dara never was completely comfortable with either her human or elf heritage, Jon remembered; she had made a home using the ways of both kingdoms.
Now really scared, Jon looked towards the mall "“ the hanging marketplace he corrected himself, as memory of that grand temple of commerce, draped over a half dozen trees and nestled against a mossy cliff came vividly to mind. He saw in his mind's eye the highway by the market; a fine stonework track wide enough for four wagons, running under the hanging market itself; gently weaving itself around trees that had stood since time immemorial.
He looked again for the school, but could not see it. Why would he when as the crown princess of the greater High Elven Kingdom of Tyr, he was schooled at home, in the palace, by the finest mentors the kingdom's vast riches could buy.
He shook his head, even ass the brilliant blue glow receded from the memories of his schooling. No. This wasn't right. He wasn't home-schooled. New memories slipped in, of him sneaking out of the palace, to see other mentors, mentors who would teach him things a princess was supposed to be aloof from.
Magic, and the ways of the mind. That was how he'd met Malcost he remembered. The memory of how Malcost had had introduced her to her womanhood, deflowering her at the culmination of a wonderful night slipped into mind, and she recalled the cantrip she had used to reseal her passageway, so that none might know she was not the virgin she appeared to be.
Turning from the window as the oh so familiar kingdom glistened behind her, she frowned at the room that greeted her. It looked decidedly unfeminine and beyond that, dirty. Filled with strange implements. Summoning her courage, she focussed on her room as it should be, and a blue light intensified, sweeping through the place. Strange machines vanished, the bed enlarged greatly, sweeping out to connect with the wall; part of the living wood. Her furnishings grew sparse, with rich tapestries replacing many, as her antechamber and dressing room channelled themselves out of the rich sapwood.
As the changes continued, Allaria turned back to the window, looking up into the sky. The blue glow puzzled her, until she saw it. The firestone of an Amulet of Mind, burning in the sky of hers. She must have slipped it on instinctively during whatever sorcery befell her. Anger grew within her heart as she realised that someone had obviously tried to use magic to turn her into someone else. The necklace had protected her as was its writ. Restored the form of the mind that belonged in her body.
She felt a sudden rush of sensation as the living world once again returned to her senses. It was a dark, musty stairwell, but her trusted friend Dara Green-Leaf was there, looking up at her with concern.
"Allaria?" Dara asked. "Are you all right?"
