Eclipsing the Dunes

[Tom Marvolo Riddle]

“Fair enough, but I’ll pass on any naming conventions for such. It has come to my attention that wizards have had poor experiences naming things practically.” I said with an unobtrusive look embarrassment. One had only read had read or hear the names of the charms I used to know it was a fact. Most of them weren’t mine… some were.

Something touched upon my consciousness, a subtle fear that I was not used to, possibly tied to distrust of circumstance. Nealaphh seemed to be giving me a lot of information and upfront access to his organization. The whole thing was made me wonder if there was a motive I hadn’t yet dissected from the conversation. If it were me, I’d never trusted myself without some sort of rite to bound… huh. Maybe that’s where He went wrong.

Back to the conversation, I had been given a puzzle.

I could perceive a number of means to stun a dragon. Such was the ways of several professions back upon my world. But the suggestion that the dragon had been growing stronger factored significantly. Likely a prime?

My eyes were still falling back across the land, maneuvering best as I could so not to land myself in a hole of doom and pain. Just what I didn’t need would a reputation that included ‘death’ by punji stick. Or at least something close to it. Not that the beige and white mixing sands weren’t important enough to actually pay half attention to.

I could make several assumptions but details were always devils to nail down, “Does the intention remain the same of simply stunning the beast?” I murmured questioningly.

The crow nodded before the telepathic words followed, Yes, killing it could be potentially disastrous if it were to resurrect within the Nexus and would make it extremely difficult henceforth to predict. Subduing it would be our primary goal.

I nodded; the prospect of immortality did come with that specific complication. A few ways of which I had an idea of how to combat it. “I suspect that not everything my world pioneered in the ways of farming dragons will be applicable. Since I doubt the common tactic of using a team of thirty or so wizards with stunning spells would work nearly so well here. But some concepts can be applied.” I almost chuckled as I had a thought of what that oaf Hagrid would do if I brought him here and threw him at such a beast. Raising an acromantula in his trunk? Probably go weak in the knees at the sight of a dragon. No, as satisfying as it would be to poison the idiot and use him as bait, it wouldn’t likely win me any trust with the locals.

I ran the numbers quickly, enchanting metal had always been a goblins specialty, but conjuring was a wizard’s. Especially alchemy, though it was a course that I had to forgo due to the Old Man’s presence being necessitated. The concepts however were not foreign to me though it was an area I wanted to brush up more upon in the future.

“It would need to be alloyed, lest you let it tarnished and subsequently poison the wielder, or at least magically reinforced to the point of stasis.” I stated as I pondered to basics, however deep thought and planning weren’t all that hard for a basic bludgeon, “Spacial-expansion charms could be employed with a selective featherweight charm, to increase its density tenfold at least while still making it wieldable by a man-“ I paused and corrected myself, “being of average to above average strength.”

“It’d also give you more flexibility in material choice.” I said in conclusion to that thought.

My wand appeared without much fanfare as I began drawing out the basic designs, in burning stylized effigy, that such an item would need to incorporate both mathematically and structurally. This however carried one major flaw; it was assuming that such a thing employed the physics native to my universe. Which did give me pause again. “That is supposing the cost and effects are translated roughly equivalent from my universe to this… realm” I cast the last word out with slightly less deference than I’d have liked.

I stepped around an odd look flat area before moving forward again while I continued my train of thought.

As much as I liked the opportunity, I was suspecting that the transition may have corrupted my abilities far more than I initially assumed given Nealaphh’s own formula to how physics worked here. It set my teeth on edge at the audacity that such a thing would be done to such sacrosanct laws. “However” I continued finally, “with enough omnilium it might be able to ensure that the omniverse at least observes it with some lip service.”