The Castle [03] (Remba, but don't let it stop you)

[Stygian]

A light humming and the taps of steps was the only warning Stygian gave before entering, carrying a folded umbrella and a still wet black coat. Casually, he walked in from between the shelfs and swept his gaze across the scene, his eyes for some reason having returned to a normal, only slightly azure-tinted gray from all black. He froze on the spot. And for a moment there was not so much as a cough to break the silence.
   When the bat broke the silence after a few seconds, it was with a tone so neutral that it could only possibly mean disappointment and the immediate loss of all regard.
   'You always do complicate things, don't you?'
   As casually and unconcernedly as he had walked in, Stygian made a quick turn, coat swinging behind him, and paced out.

[Boog]

"Hey, wait, hold up!" Jeremiah started after Styg, turning back to add a quick "Erm, Rynkura? This is your area mostly, right?" and continuing before he stopped to consider the fact that unlike Cog, Stygian did NOT consider him all that indispensable. Well, gotta make it up to Mel for yesterday somehow... "Stygian, wait!" He caught up with the bat panting, "What... Symbol... Just a sec, if I don't catch my breath I'm gonna sound like Bambi. Hoo... Huehhh... Right. Sebastion, what did that thing do to them? We need your help here."

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog nodded to Mel, his face still neutral. "Right." He gazed at the circle warily, crossing his arms. "Better to ask the bat." Cog's voice trailed off into a mutter as he turned around, content to let Mel set a wall around the runes. He'd just about walked back to the stacks again, searching for anything to do with transformational magic, when somebody yelled Mel's name out. He flinched, and turned towards the dragon.
Mel had erred, somehow - the glyph was again glowing, pulsing with that strange blacklit light, and ropes of shadows had suspended the dragon in midair. Cog cursed. This was exactly what they had hoped to prevent. He reached into his jacket to retrieve a certain piece of twisted silver, hoping the holy magics might dispell whatever had Mel in it's grasp.
There was no need - Keaton, much more adept than the wolf was with darkness, had gotten there first. She started to change the symbol around, adding and modifying in some esoteric fashion, before the glyph reacted.
The tentacles in the air writhed, and dropped Mel to the ground suddenly. They emitted a strange, screeching wail, and returned back into the glyph from which they came. As she plummeted, however, the glyph again glowed and pulsed, and with a dull whoosh the same darkness that had hit Cog before swept all of them. He felt uncomfortable for a moment, a sensation that quickly passed. The glyph had been destroyed by Mel's fall, and she seemed to at least be breathing.
Cog took a step forward to see if she needed any help, and stumbled, his center of gravity unexpectedly changed. Quirking an eyebrow, he looked at himself, surprised, and despite the dire circumstance, grinned. Something good had come out of this, at least.
As he looked up to regard Mel and Keats, however, his grin faded. Both of them had experienced a similar transformation to his own. Frowning slightly, he stepped forward and addressed the jackal Cubi.
"Keats?"

[Sunblink]

In all honesty Keaton wasn't expecting for something to go awry, even if she had hastily rearranged something improperly in the rune-encrusted circle. When Mel was released from the shadowy grasp keeping her levitated in he air she assumed automatically that everything had proceeded according to plan, albeit Mel's depositing on the ground was rather brusque and painful-looking. Wiping some sweat that had accumulated on her brow, Keaton climbed to her feet and dusted some of the remnants of sanguine substance still smudged on her fingertips off on the wrist-band of her glove.

That was when she stopped. Something didn't quite seem right. Did her fingers seem... thicker than before? Slightly more muscular? That wasn't... that wasn't...

Involuntarily, Keaton let her eyes venture down her arm, where she hesitantly absorbed all the significantly more athletic features that had seemed to materialize out of nowhere. She started feeling grave trepidation swell inside of her, especially when she noticed everyone's reactions--hell, she even noticed that now she was slightly taller, having boosted in height by a few inches. Height never was a strong suit in her family...

Not even for the males.

"...Fuck."

And Keaton utterly panicked.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

It was the strangest thing, to see someone who was already gone. But Jeremiah couldn't have described it otherwise. Stygian seemed to keep on walking, but as the bat and he passed through the shadow cast between two windows, his eyes seemed to fool him. The bat's contours slunk away, his black-clad shape dimmed. He was no more than a shadow in Jeremiah's vision, and then not even that. The hall was empty. Not even a flutter or a shift, or a scrape of a sole, was heard.
   Behind Jeremiah, standing on the socket of a life-sized marble statue of a winged woman in a flowing robe, her arms embroidered with intricate tattoos, was a packet of fine, dark-roast brand mocha coffee.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Too many nightmares. Mel couldn't deal with the vast amount of horrid sensations that had been forced upon her. So she did what she would with memories she had copied from someone else, she gathered them up and locked them away. Of course that meant when she forced herself up onto her hands and knees she had no memory of why she was on the floor. "What happened?" She stared at her hands pressed to the chalk-smudged marble and wondered why she had sizeshifted to a less delicate form than normal. When she heard Keaton starting to panic she jumped up and looked around, wondering what she had missed.

[Boog]

Jeremiah's hands dropped to his sides, "I did not see this coming and am surprised by this turn of events. Yes I am," As he turned to go back, however, something caught his attention.
The first thing he noticed was the statue. Rather well done, although he didn't recognize the sculptor, with an eye for detail on the robes that always impressed the frog when he saw it. Folds and the associated shadows could be a pain working with ink, it was probably harder when you were working with rock. The face was rather beautiful, but he found his eye drawn to the tattoos. It wasn't something you often saw in such a subject matter; angels or Christians both tended toward certain motif, that usually had a dim view of tattoos that looked like abstract designs. He had a personal like of those sorts of contrasts, the severity of the angel conflicting with the simply formless beauty of the tattoos.
Breathtaking...
Is pretty! Is very very pretty!
Plic, if you take anything from this statue-
Has the girl hit a nerve, sir? Cab had been quiet lately. That was out of character for him. Finally, the frog noticed the coffee.
"What's this? Coffee?" He grinned and picked up the package, "A terrible habit, madam. Fairly addictive, and it stains the teeth. Besides, one of your qualities looks as though she should be calm and poised at all times, and caffiene jitters would completely ruin that. I act only in your best interests by taking this, madam." With that, he went back to the library, in a mildly better mood for that moment of silliness.
"Sebastion pulled a him, but I found this after he vanished. Thinking he might have left it or something," he set the bag of coffee on the table next to the watch, "Ah, you're doing alright Mel? Great. As for your question..." the frog looked around a little, and then grinned sheepishly, "Well, I suppose it's a very good question. Where to start?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Bambi stands up after Mel, she is not sure if the dark magic in the dragon was gone.  But she plow on to the real reason she came running down to the others.

"Okay, Okay, I am not sure what is going on, but something Ebil, this way comes and it is here in the castle, now.. or that is what Gina was warning me about.  I don't think it was from this circle, but it is somewhere.  .... here"   Says the Fae. "Where and What is Aisha hunting chasing? Some demonic Crow?  Gina, please can you tell us where this ebil threat is?  anything?" Bam pleads with Gina.

PBH

[Angel]

Ketefe, having allowed herself two minutes of nothing but emotion, finally looked up. Her eyes were red, and she still looked and felt upset, but for now she'd have to put up with this. She stood up awkwardly, steadying herself on a nearby bookshelf. Then she looked around the room.

"Ok," she muttered breathily. "OK. There has to be some way to fix this. I'm sure there's some sort of book written on how to handle spells gone awry. Gotta find it."

She walked over to Jeremiah. "I don't think Keaton's in much condition to help. Could you help me look for a book on how to fix this?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel stepped over to where Keaton was becoming more and more upset. She paused in mid-step as she realized that Cog had once again become male, but Keaton was male as well, and Ketefe she noticed from the corner of her eye. That explained why everyone was upset. It also explained why her own clothing had felt funny for a few moments. Being specially enchanted to be worn by a sizeshifter the outfit had adjusted itself back to a perfect fit over her now masculine frame. She smiled just a little at the jackal. "Come now Keaton. You're getting upset over a little bit of gender adjustment? This is the least offensive thing to happen since we got here. Calm down and let's see how complex the spell was."

Mel backed off, away from everyone else before she started probing at the spell holding her in the unnatural form. Her track record with her magic over the last few days was rather abysmal and if she did something horribly wrong she didn't want anyone else to suffer. It was her fault that they were changed anyway. Rather than trying to put up an elaborate magical barricade it would have been simpler to move the chairs to make a circle around the glyph. With a sigh she began poking and pulling at the strands of the spell to see if it was anything she recognized.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog sighed as he looked at the girls, putting his head in his hands and making a small groan before turning, his coat swishing just a bit behind him.
"I'll go find the bat." Cog said, walking towards the doors out of the library towards where he had seen Sebastian exit. The bat had drawn the symbol - he had bent the girls, and he could un-bend them.
If he felt like it.
Before he reached the doors, however, Jeremiah came rushing back in, holding a curiously small package in his hands. A moment after Cog saw it, its fragrance hit his nose like a brick. Mocha coffee. Caffeinated, dark roast. Arabic, not african in origin, if he wasn't mistaken. The sight and smell of it stopped Cog dead in his tracks.
He let the other's talk for a moment, unfortunately lost in his own little world too much to comfort them or say anything. He stared at the little package for some time, as though he expected it to burst into flames, or run away on hidden legs. He walked over to it slowly, and picked it up gingerly, as though it was something...precious, to him. He took a deep sniff of it, taking in the smell, and nodded his head sadly, a half smile on his face. His eyes were sad underneath his glasses. Cog placed the coffee in his jacket, and taking the watch he had set down on the table next to it, slid the little silver thing over his wrist and snapped the latch into place.
He turned towards the others. "I..." he began, suddenly coughing and starting again. "Someone should probably go find Sebastian. I would, but..." Cog frowned weakly and looked at the carpet for a moment, sighing. "That probably wouldn't be a good idea. The only place he could be is in his room, anyway - if someone does want to go look, I'd start there." Cog nodded his head, and walked back into the library towards the others.
"When Keats took control of the glyph," Cog tilted his head towards Keats as he began to walk down one of the bookshelves, "She altered the control portion of it, stopping it from attacking Mel. Unfortunately, she caused it to replicate it's effect, which was apparently to change genders. Since the glyph is now destroyed, we have several options."
Cog pulled down a book labeled 'Tenser's Guide to Fleshmelding and Manipulations, Third Edition', a large red-leatherbacked tome undamaged by the earlier scuffle, and without searching further set the book down with a large smack on a table. He left it there and walked back to the stacks. "We could try simply transforming them back. But the darkness element worries me. That might stick with them, or resist normal means of transmogrification. So..." Cog trailed off, getting a little too far in the back of the shelves to be heard. He was gone for a minute or two before he returned, a slim, wide hardcover in his hands. "If shadow is the main element of the spell, dispelling that may also bring them back. And what's better to dispel darkness magics than holy spells, yes?" Cog finished, and opened the next book. Every page was made of dark paper, and the entire book was written in silver ink. The title page declared the book the "Magi sub Argetum', or the Mage under Silver. He flipped through the pages for a few moments, looking for something suitable.
"Of course, if anyone else has any ideas, now might be a good time." he said, running his finger down one page.

[Aisha deCabre]

Rynkura stood dumbfounded for but a few moments, looking around at what the spell had left in its wake concerning those close to it...a few of them with their genders switched.  The tigress wasn't very amused, but quietly shook her head.  "That is why things like this should not be tampered with," the healer dryly commented for about the third time or so to the group, and stepped forward to assess the damage.  Nobody looked injured, which was at least one bit of relief.

But when Sebastian returned for but a mere moment and the room went quiet, Rynkura glanced up and sent him a look of disapproval before he walked out...whether or not he had noticed, she didn't know, but now it seemed the guests were left to their own devices.

As the frog ran to look for the bat, she quickly answered his question.  "As I've said just a moment ago, I've never actually looked into this sort of dark magic.  Would I have I would have set things right in less than five heartbeats."  With that, Rynkura turned back to the others, pinching the bridge of her nose in slight exasperation while looking things over.  Her ear however turned to Cogidubnus's explanation, in earnest interest.  "It is a worthwhile thing to try," she commented and glanced at her staff.  "I know not how much help I can be, but I do however have a considerable amount of light magic at my disposal."

If any of it bridged into what one considered the 'holy' spectrum, however, was something that had to be remembered.

*     *     *

Aisha had her right hand cautiously lifted to grip the sword's hilt on her back, continuing to traverse the darkened corridors.  She stopped for a moment or two often to check her position and that of the bird's, and hopefully the noises she heard meant that the thing was still ahead of her.  Whether or not she'd let it go if she found it was another interesting matter.  She figured it the right thing to do at any rate.  Ravens and such, while symbolic of death to the most superstitious, were still just birds.

It was the feeling of being watched that sent chills up her spine.  Her eyes consistently scanned every inch of the place...in front, behind and especially the ceiling...but what could possibly be left after the flash-freezing that the place had been subjected to?

Less thinking, more walking, the panther simply chided herself and kept on.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

See a very male dragon that looked like Mel's brother, and then Figuring out that it was Mel herself, and Then looking at the male version of Ketefe and Keaton.  She realizes that no one was going to listen to Gina's and her warnings just yet.  Still, What about Aisha?

"Healer, I can add my light magics to yours if you need help with the *ahm* girls, but Someone needs to see is if Aisha is okay.  Cog, can you track down Aisha, I feel, she was going after something more dangerous than a mear bird.  Also, I think, no one should wandering around alone in this castle" asks Bambi of the wolf and the Healer tigress. 

[Boog]

"Sure, I'll- Ketefe!?" Jeremiah did a classic double take at Ketefe's appearance, and added another to make it a triple take when he saw that her eyes were all red and puffy from crying, "Oh, Ketefe... Yeah, of course I'll help. Where was that book gruesome had out earlier before he drew that damn thing?" Etches something that dangerous and then just leaves it lying around, freaking irrisponsible, poor girl, grumble grumble, was pretty much the sum of his thought processes right now. Rather instinctive reaction to a young person crying for a high school teacher.

[Cogidubnus]

 Murmuring to himself as he read, Cog nodded absently to Rynkura's comment, flipping the pages of his book. "Any assistance you could give, Ms. Msh'taan, would be more than welcome. As you might imagine, people proficient in light magics are rare here. I..."
As Bam spoke, Cog turned his head, listening. He narrowed one eye at the Fae, his finger continuing to travel down the current page, although slower.
"I...well, I'm a bit busy right now, professor." Cog said, a hint of irritation in his voice. He nodded his head at the transformed girls, and turned back to his book. "I can help and find her in a moment, if you'd like. Unless you already know how to undo one of the bat's spells."
Cog turned his attention back to Rynkura, shaking his head. "I'm...unfamiliar with the workings of holy magic, but from what I read, there should be...cure-all, spells? Something that gets rid of mundane and magical ailments, I mean. A mithridate, as it were." Cog frowned at the book, and looked up at the tigress. "I fear that might not be enough here, however. We'd need some sort of dispelling effect with it, else we'd get rid of one malady and leave the other. Something to both transform them back, and get rid of the shadow." Cog sighed, brushing his bangs out of his eyes, his face a little soured. "I'm somewhat out of my element here. Perhaps you could recommend something?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Mel I will add my magics to you" says Bambi as she puts her hand on the Dragon's strong male chest.  The magic lights up with dragon's arua, but layers of dark clouds appear in the arua.  The fae magic light spears through each layer as the dark clouds drift around the dragon and the Fae magic lances through to the next level as they move pass as Bam's light reachs down to Mel's core of being.  With each new level breached, Bam and Mel feels a wave pain and then pleasure, the fae cat grasp or moans, but she doesn't stop until reach her goal

Once Bam's magic reach Mel's core of her self, the light energies pours into Mel that double, then triples the dragon's magic.  And the power intoxiating as the dragon feels her full size, a full dragon size. A ghost of Ice dragon expands outwards and the dark clouds are burned away as the image fills the library. 

A mental thought "I see you, Mel" is send to Mel that only Mel can hear.

Mel feels she has the power to do anything.  The darkness in her is on the retreat and fading, but still a threat. Mel is still male with a female cat leaning against him, fast asleep and now, sliding to the floor.

PBH

[Aisha deCabre]

Rynkura hummed in concentration as she tried to go through a few different possibilities in her mind about what to try.  Her memories switched and spanned through the events of hundreds of years of her trade and study, which mostly had to do actively with enchantment and defensive things.  But then she remembered...

Her ears suddenly pricked briefly as she heard Bambi's question of concern for Aisha and the bird that she had been chasing after.  Her emerald gaze passed briefly toward the Fae, and then to Cogidubnus as he answered.  The tigress cleared her throat for attention and returned it to the felid.  "Your concern is admirable, child, but I raised and trained Aisha.  Whatever happens, I trust her to be more than capable of handling it...she isn't one of the more reputed demon hunters in her region--enough to send a small uproar through a couple of clans, in fact--without reason.  A conjured bird is hardly worth a bounty."  She ended the statement with a light grin of pride.  The panther probably would not have liked that she had revealed such a status, but she'd be happy to be recognized all the same.

"We shall find her if she does not return soon.  But for now, we have a slightly bigger problem," Rynkura finished, turning back to the women who had been transgendered before them, her fair but hardened face etched in the concentration of a scholar of magic while listening to Cogidubnus.  "Hrm...holy magic is indeed a useful choice...light magic, while used in the same ways but not exactly in the same spectrum, can still be dangerous if not handled carefully with shadows.  Take into account a known law, light is what creates shadow if there is a barrier to carry it," she smiled.  "One of those laws often bent but not broken.  Take away the barrier..."

The tigress hummed, then shook her head slightly and stood up.  "I might be treading into the obvious here now.  But as for cure-all spells, yes, they would exist, and especially in the spectrum of both light and holy magic.  If I remember correctly from my work with a group of paladins.  From what I see, the spell does not seem all too complicated."  She was talking a little more to herself now, but still remembered that she had an audience, and out of habit kept her voice at a steady level, and could only hope that her guess was right about the complication.  Damn, but if we weren't left to ourselves...!

"The best thing to do probably then is to be wise with the kind of light magic that we use, and perhaps there is something here that could act as a hold...to separate the elements that bind them to the transformations and just pull it apart..." the tigress paused, suddenly glancing at Bambi, trying something with Mel.  "Excuse me, but I wouldn't mess with anything until we're certain.  I don't wish to have to heal her twice...Bambi?"

[Angel]

Ketefe sighed softly at Jeremiah's reaction to her - shock, then pity. She hated being pitied, but it was a natural reaction to seeing someone who'd been crying. At least the frog's pity was meant in kindness.

"It's not so bad," she said halfheartedly. "I was just kind of shocked. Maybe he left the book over here." She walked slowly over to the table where Stygian had laid out food earlier, examining it for the book Jeremiah had mentioned. Only thing I'm really not looking forward to is, if I stay like this, I'm gonna have to explain to Jarevei that he'll have to be gay to keep dating me, she reflected. She watched the others carefully, to make sure nothing else bad would happen. Cog and Rynkura were discussing cures for this, and Bam was trying to help Mel recover. Ketefe decided to look through the books Cog had gathered later.

[Stygian]

The unfortunate part of it all was that none of the books on the table were authored by Stygian, nor were there any notes or such left of what he had done. He must have known how to create that circle by heart, thus. There were some books on transformation, but the only thing that came close to touching on dark magic was a book called 'A Treatise on The Dark and The Twisted' by one J.M. Morrow.
   The fortunate part was that Keaton was collecting herself again. She hadn't reacted quite as Ketefe, but for a while she had been tense as a violin string, red in the face and trembling. She moved back, where she now stood steadying herself against one of the shelves. There was a slight twitch in her eye, and a look of utter annoyance on her face. She didn't look too dissimilar from before, even though the change was very noticeable. It seemed that rather than a somewhat masculine woman, she had turned around to the opposite.
   'Okay...' she began, listening to Cog. She turned to look at him. It seemed that he was beginning to put that knowledge he had gotten to good use. 'Light. That sounds good,' she said, all the while thinking 'Breathe. Just breathe. It's a simple transformation. it will pass. Breathe...' Casting a glance toward the symbol on the floor, she began distracting herself by trying to figure it out. It had a stylized simplicity and quality to it, even when hand-made, but the way the parts of it worked together was somewhat complex.
   'I think... It would seem that light would work,' she said, a bit shakily still. 'Use light to purge it, and then we'll see if we need a transformation spell. But... make sure you get all of it. I think you have to,' she said. That was the scary part of it. It seemed to run purely on darkness, and the terribly strong containment seals on it spoke for themselves. She knew that the more pure and powerful the dark magic, the more hazardous it became. In this case, it could be like a virus infection. Get it all out, or it would just return.

- -

Quite unexpectedly, as Aisha rounded the next corner, she had only to take three steps before she heard the dry caw of the raven from above her. Perched on the top of a statue, she had not seen or heard it. The bird tilted its head and looked at her with beady, reddish eyes, seemingly studying her.

- -

Never let it be said that I were inconsistent, Stygian thought, standing in front of the blurry windows and gazing out at the rain. I'll catch the blame for this as well, so I'll stay away. Let them see that they can solve things themselves...
   Pulling the curtains, he turned around and slumped down on the bed, settling with a sigh. He grabbed his notebook and fountain pen, and started scrawling. Idly, he began moving the fingers of his left hand, slivers of darkness slowly slipping around and between them.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was busy analyzing the spell. It looked like a straightforward spell except that the dark energy seemed to give it tenacious roots. It needed to be completely cleaned up or it would respawn. Distracted with tracing all the tendrils she only belatedly noticed what Bam was up to, only after her automatic defenses had trapped the girl. Mel was an adult dragon, which meant she was older than the ancient castle they stood in and had many millennia of layers to her defenses. Mel was an illusionist by training and her mind and soul were lodged behind a maze of fake trails, false copies, and dangerous traps that only those trained in mental assaults could tread. The young fae was caught in an illusion, a reflection of her own mind. Bambi spun through a rapid dream sequence until she tired herself out and fainted, requiring Mel to catch her. Mel blushed a little to see what the illusion contained. She was going to have to explain to the fae that she was the wrong species, the wrong gender, and the wrong body temperature for the dragon to have any interest. She put the sleeping fae in a nearby chair and went back to analyzing the gender shift spell.

[Boog]

Jeremiah shook his head at the pretty flashes of light Bambi had set off. One day, that girl will get in over her head trying to help someone without planning it out first, it was easy to sort of extend that teacherly viewpoint to also encompass the rather absentminded feline. He picked up the book by J.M. Morrow.
Dark and twisted does describe this place rather well. Those idiots who made it should be-
Shaddap Nex.
Figuring that it wasn't too likely to jump up and bite him, if only because the odds of there being two cursed books lying where anyone could get there hands on them were too low, he flipped to the table of contents. Lets see if there's a 'how to dismantle' section...

[Angel]

Ketefe slumped her shoulders a little when none of the titles on the table were by Stygian. She glanced at Bam and Mel, and noticed that the fae had fallen asleep and been caught by Mel. She glanced away, blushing. Everything about this situation is SO wrong... But her ears perked up when Keaton mentioned a way to change them back.

"Thank the Gods," Ketefe said, a look of relief crossing her features. "I'm guessing I won't be much help here, but that's still good news."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

As Mel puts Bambi into the chair, she awakes enough to grumble "Now, Now, Mr Dragon, I'm not that kind of girl.... Beside I have a girlfriend.  If you don't want my magical gift, I will just have to re-charge right heeare,oh mm yawn"

Bam goes back to sleep
PBH

[Cogidubnus]

With practiced ease, Cog ignored goings-on with Bam and Mel, instead reading through the litanies of light-based spells set before him. The 'Magister sub Argentum' was filled with light-based spells and praxes, although none seemed to catch his eye quite right. He nodded at Keats as he tapped a finger thoughtfully.
"Makes sense. Of course, let's hope there is something in this book powerful enough to dispel all of it. The book is somewhat...specialized." Cog raised the book and blew some dust off the somewhat musty, but otherwise pristinely untouched book. "Arcanum and lore is has, but practical usage...well..."
Cog set the book down and sighed. "It mentions very little about the actual spells themselves. But it mentions enough that I can gather the rest." He set the book aside and stood up straight. "Not that I expected a practical book of light here."
He looked at Rynkura. "We need something similar to a 'Holy Explosion', to quote the book, without the explosion part. Heaven's Wish, without the destruction bit, as it were. Something extremely powerful, that won't kill when cast. The book mentioned something about 'Aurora'. It sounded spot on. You might know more."
Picking up the book and walking towards where Sebastian had drawn his circle, Cog picked up the chalk that the bat had left there and began to copy the circle emblazoned on the front of the book.
"While you do that, I'm going to try something else..."

[Stygian]

Closing on the solution, the group pressed on in their work, unsettled though they might have been. Keaton in particular looked remarkably broody, as she sat down as well as she could and tried to remember the seal as it had been before her alterations. She did not possess photographic memory, unfortunately, and thanks to the complexity of the sign there were quite a few points where she was unsure. But nevertheless she had felt the power as it had flowed through it, and even if that was hardly enough to form a full picture from, it narrowed things down considerably. Pressing her fingers to her lips, she sat muttering, seemingly ignorant of the others's talk and moving around, an amber-furred statue with her, or his, large ears expressively slanted backward, muzzle adorned with a frown.

- -

The raven and Aisha stared stolidly at each other for what seemed an eternity. Then, with the utmost suddenness, the large bird cawed a last time, and with a strike of its broad wings descended on the alarmed feline. However, just as eerily, it did nothing but settle on her shoulder, and turn so it could direct one gleaming eye against her, its talons holding on to her firmly but not sharply. It sat, simply, expressing an inexplicable composure and curiosity.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Having satisfied herself that the transformation spell was fairly standard and it was the shadow magic component that they needed to concentrate on Mel moved away from the window and back to where the glyph had been drawn, intending to study it further. She immediately saw it was different. Someone had changed it. That must have happened during the time she couldn't remember. Taking a good step back from the glyph to make sure there was no magic crossover this time Mel created a small illusion, a copy of the original design drawn from her memory floated in mid air before her. She studied both versions to see where the changes had occurred. As she did she heard Cog speaking and noticed he was messing with circles of his own. "Aurora?" she muttered, thinking of the lovely aurora displays at home.

[Aisha deCabre]

Hearing the hoarse call of the raven above her, Aisha froze in place beneath the statue where it perched, her eyes the only part of her moving at all to look at it.  The ebon creature's eyes seemed to hold inquisitiveness and interest rather than fear.  The eyes, glowing red, put her off just a little bit...but because the jaguaress was of the same colors, she thought little of the appearance.

Trying not to scare the bird, she stood up a bit and stared it down, wondering what it would take to get it off its perch.  As far as she knew it was an innocent animal...Aisha thought of nothing in killing it.  But that still left how...?

That's when the creature decided for her.  In a flurry of feathers it dove from the statue and straight towards her, to which point Aisha winced with a yelp and instinctively put an arm over her eyes to shield them.  But she felt its little claws grasp her shoulder instead.  An eye poked out between her fingers after a second, regarding it with a bit of disbelief as it regarded her with that same curiosity.

With a chuckle, the relieved feline slowly took her hand from her face and tilted her head at the creature.  "Well.  This is the first time something I was hunting came without a fight," she smirked, however her expression was friendly, and stole a look back down the corridor, to find a window.  "...I won't hurt you, but maybe you can sit still long enough so I can let you out of this big stone obstacle course, sí?"  She carefully took a step forward, hoping that the raven would in fact be calm.

*     *     *

"'Aurora'...?  It sounds familiar to me," Rynkura admitted with a slight smile at the fact that things were progressing, finally.  "We're on the right track."

The tigress observed the group left before them in the library, composed of some very unnerved and transformed people...especially Keaton, she noticed.  She wondered if some of her forgotten magic was going to get something of an exercise in this place.  She shook her head dismissively and held her staff in front of herself, eyes taking on a slightly lighter glow of emerald than what their original color had been while calling on the light spell stored within.  It was the same kind that she had used while healing Mel...only instead of mending what was there, this was tuned to banishing impurities, natural or unnatural...one of the more holy spells she had, and could more than likely work.  Her pearlescent fur color seemed to blur a bit at the edges, framed by the bold ebon stripes.  Once she knew she could call on it, the tigress returned to normal, only one hand glowing just slightly as a remnant of the spell.

"Alright..." the tigress murmured thoughtfully, glancing curiously at the glyph that Cogidubnus was using to modify the older one...then her eyes scanned the others in the room...Mel, Keaton, and Ketefe.  "Will one of you permit me to test this magic before all of us proceed?  It will not harm you; merely it will gauge the extensiveness of the shadow element involved."

Rynkura didn't wish to rush headlong into the cure, but perhaps it would show just how close they were.  Only a small amount of the banishing sequence would suffice for that.

[Angel]

Ketefe, still standing near the book table, looked up when Rynkura spoke. The blue cat had been listening to parts of the conversation between the tigress, Cog, and Keaton, despite the fact that she barely understood most of it. From what she'd heard, light magic could be used to dispel the spell's dark magic, which made sense, but a transformation spell would also be needed to reverse this particular one. Now Rynkura was asking for someone to test some sort of light magic on to measure how much shadow magic was used in the spell that had tansformed Ketefe and the other girls.

I haven't been very useful up till now; I might as well, she decided. She took a few steps toward the tigress. "I'll do it," she said. 

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Healer, Mind that the amount of dark magic may be variable depending on the girl's own nature and how close they were to the orginal spell when to fouled up." peeped up Bambi with her head in her arms  "Pixulated protons, That is the last time I try emptying myself of all magic, Groan my head and hangover" 
Bam grumbles something and curl up into a ball with fingers rubbing on her temples in her seat.

PBH

[Cogidubnus]

 Finding a somewhat clear spot, Cog set the book down in front of him and began to copy the lines embossed onto the cover. The pages within had made numerous references to certain properties contained by the eldritch lines, although in typical fashion it had been inspecific as to the actual effects. Something about cleansing, the immutable beat, and 'Heaven's Wind', and yet more obscure holy arcanum. Still. It didn't mention anything harmful, so it might not hurt to try.
Well, probably not, anyway.
Cog drew the lines deftly, moving in quick, brisk strokes and curves. The circle began to take shape rather quickly, and by the time he had finished, Ketefe had volunteered for the first trial run with Rynkura. Double checking his work, Cog put the finishing touches on the rather simple glyph and stood to watch.
"The book said something about 'Cleansing bloody impurity', if that helps any." Cog shrugged, and tilted his head to watch the healer work. He had never seen a master of light magic work, and was curious.