Felina takes a deep breath when she appears near Mara in the gardens...it's very reassuring. It always is, in a very real way. "It's always nice to come back here," she observes, smiling a little.

"Makes me long to have lived a different life," Mara puts in. She's sitting in a tree, carefully nursing a dying leaf to life. "Ai does this so easily. It's hard." She concentrates on the leaf. Cold feet doesn't suit Mara, but she certainly has them now.

"Well, my homes are yours, you know that. Come on, let's go visit my father and Saea." Felina nods. I'll be calming for the both of them, she thinks.

Mara finishes with the leaf. "Yeah..." a quick hop finds Mara-kuru on the ground again, trotting along next to her Felina. "I should have dressed in my formal eyebrows!"

"Aww...what's wrong with current ones?" Felina grins, and hands one of the irises to Mara. One's white, and one's pink...Mara gets the white one.

The redhead takes the flower and pets its petals, thoughtfully. "These are my lovemaking eyebrows." She doubts Felina needs, or wants, an explanation of that one.

Felina smirks, and nods. Looks up as they approach the original obelisk, and a second, smaller one beside it. There are some fallen flowers around, but the area's quite well-maintained. She approaches her father's grave first, and sets the pink flower on it gingerly, smiling softly. Looks up at it. "I brought you something, father...it's beautiful, isn't it? It's looked so promising...since it was a bud." She takes knee, and bows respecfully...though she doesn't expect the same custom of Mara, really. Different teachings, but that's understood.

Mara is shivering, a little bit. She can feel Tel's presence here, and it is far too much like Ahmin Rei's for her comfort. A quick flick of a claw frees a lock of her hair from her thick curls, though, and she sets it down next to the flower with a strange expression on her face. "Hiya mister Fel's dad. Felina has been good."

"Don't listen to her," Felina assures her father, grinning a little. She stands up, and bows to the second, smaller obelisk as well. "And don't worry, big brother. Mara has a flower for you as well."

Mara sniffles, cuts another lock of hair, and lays it on the other with the flower. "I miss you," she nods, "I hope you're having fun blushing at angel miniskirts somewhere." Subdued. That's the mood she did not know how to explain.

Felina sets an arm gently over Mara's shoulders. "Mara's having some trouble, I'm sure you've both seen, but I'm sure we'll find something. Ting, Dewei, and Orrin are all doing well...I'll be sure to give the more detailed report later, okay?" Felina smiles, and looks to her double. "Ready to go talk, then?"

Mara nods slowly. "I suppose so. There really isn't any getting around it, is there?" She sighs a long, drawn out sigh. "Afterwards, though, we need to play tag or something cause I'm not having fun anymore."

"That's a promise. I'll give Ting a squirtgun while we're at it. Sound fair?" Felina's really not used to seeing Mara likes this...directs her gently to another part of the garden, bowing her head to the graves as they leave. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea visiting them.

Mara plods along, half-bouncing sometimes. Suhalm is obviously hard at work.

"This is good," she nods when they reach a nice, open section of garden, "if you don't mind. My feet lying about hurting." She tilts her head. "Huh. That's new."

Felina grins. "Right. Darn those feet. Sounds good, though." She settles herself down. "Okay...first off...I just didn't want to do anything without talking to you first. Couldn't have from inside your head, but, anyway...I really wanted to gauge how you feel about all this. I know you've made it pretty clear in the last fifteen minutes, but...I didn't want to jump in and prevent something you were willing to give a chance." No matter how she would feel about losing her Mara.

Mara sits, thinking, swishing her head back and forth. "Everything went funny," she explains. "In patches. But I always knew it would happen, in my head. I don't know that it can be stopped, or can't, but I doubt it, and I didn't want to worry anyone or make them sad." She shrugs. "I had a damn good run though!"

"You did!" So let's keep it going." Felina nods. "I know you probably know or suspect, but I don't seem to have the same instability in my own vital essence...since, except at very young ages, Tel-tiono pretty set me up as I was meant to end up." Her voice trails off a moment.

"Your father would not have condemned you like mine did. Besides, even he didn't know how everything was gonna be. And..." Mara blushes. "I've been studying you pretty thoroughly, anyway. Looking for it, trying not to be found out."

Felina smiles faintly, and nods. "Yeah...I figured. I did bring up my own essence for a reason...you're right. It's not unwinding. It's stable, and should continue to be...more or less indefinitely. There are two things this can mean. One takes longer than the other, maybe too long..." her voice trails off a moment. She's a bit cautious. She's pretty sure in her solutions...but only through magical and psychic logic. The only precedents she can think of are pretty dissimilar.

"My vital essence could very literally be split up the middle--I mean, the long way, winding and curving with every wind and curve. The half detached could be threaded along where your weakening one is...the renewed energy would supply your own personality traits, not instill mine, and, if everything re-knitted correctly...be a permament fix to this forced change. In theory, and with time...since our energy types are radiant and immortal, the half-essences should both be able to build themselves to full structure."

Mara's eyes glitter. "I wondered when you would get around to suggesting maiming yourself for me. Felina... the darker side of me is the real me. It's the core of me. As long as it is there, this will only keep happening. It might even push away your essence. And then what?"

"Then we know we tried," Felina points out. "Besides, the 'real you' is who you want it to be. I mean, we both know the ins and outs of being constructs, but we're certainly ourselves. We've both been able to overcome things pre-written within us, when necessary." Albeit with a whole lot of trouble.

"Maybe. It isn't that I don't want to try, sweety, it's..." Mara looks sheepish again. "I kinda neglected to tell you till the too late stage. Unless you can come up with something permanent in two days. But Fel... I'll still be me. Right? I mean, even if my personality changes internally. I'll still have my experiences?"

"I'm pretty sure you'll remember everything, yeah." Felina nods. "The other suggestion was to try to recreate this part of my father's spells, the ones that created my essence, with his notes, but...too days isn't enough time for that." Felina bites her lip, thinking. "See, the part about using mine that's tricky...we need a damned good psychic to do that. I can't think of anyone we can trust capable of it...I mean, Diamond could moderate a little, but not actually pull off the split." She shakes her head. "There's no way we could possibly do it ourselves. Ting and Ding...I don't know. That's...a lot of pressure."

"Ai and Gabriel are sorcerers, not psychics, so they can't help." Mara leans her chin on her fist, thoughtful, but wiggly. "My Saea couldn't help either. What about... no, he's dead. Hey! No, prison. Um..."

"Prison?" Felina's ears twitch. "What kind of prison, and for what? Goodness knows most aren't much problem for us, if we really need it...."

"Oh, it's a pretty basic prison, except they keep him pumped full of neurotranquilizers so that he can't screw with people." Mara tilts her head. "Don't you remember Iscovis? From the 'flock of space eagles' debacle?"

"It's hard to forget ten space eagles thinking they're geese, six thinking that starships are chewtoys, five storming a capital, and one talking like the queen over tea." Felina winces. "How long would it take the neurotranquilizers to neutralize?"

"Well..." Mara ponders. "When I used to use them, the whoo hoo went away after a few minutes. I'd say by now he's on a constant drip, so if we took him off it he'd probably snap right awake."

"So. Is he worth trusting enough to stage an insidious prison break?"

"Trust is a tough issue. He's probably the most powerful psychic I've ever met though." She tilts her head. "Us included. If we can compensate him well enough, I'm sure he'll be plenty help."

"Getting him out of prison is a start. What else do you suppose he'd be interested in?"

"Stuff..." Mara blushes. "He went to prison for sneaking around people's memories. For stuff." She looks at Felina. "He can't do it for himself, he's paraplegic. So he experiences through other people's memories."

"I see...well. We've got four thousand years of intersting 'stuff' between us, a lot of which we can even share." Felina nods. "That should be plenty of incentive. He can stay at Helantri Deru awhile, if he isn't too grating...will figure something else otherwise. So. Not too much time to plan, want to do this in an hour or so?"

Mara-kuru's ears perk up. "I haven't busted someone out of prison in at least six months. This should be fun! And don't worry about him, he's really very nice. Weird. But nice!"

"Okay. Do you want to tell Moorn/Gabriel and the others what's going on, or just get to it?" Actually...the prison break should be fun. She doesn't say so, but doesn't doubt Mara can tell.

"Nah. Let's just go play like we used to before family was involved." Mara hops up to her feet, dancing a little bit at the crest of her jump. "I hope they have machine guns!"

Felina laughs, and stands up. "Sound like a plan. And hopefully. Hopefully bullets. Energy shots aren't as much fun to play with. You won't be offended if I mask my appearance, will you?" She does have that goody-goody reputation that's good for quite a lot, after all. Mara and not many others know how much fun she finds this stuff.

Mara shakes her head. "Of course not. Felina Dey'ono snatch and grab's a convict out of his cell! Not good publicity. I want to too! Wanna be twins? Or foxes! A goat. No. Wait! I wanna be tall!"

"I dunno. Want to be fox demons? Nine fluffy tails and plenty of tall."

Mara blinks. "That is such a great idea!" She hops, and flips, completely unnecessarily as the transformation spell floats over her, setting her skin to fluff, lengthening her face a little, and generally foxifying her. "How's this?" She does a turn, wagging nine tails at Felina.

Felina grins as she finishes her own transformation, mirroring Mara's general appearance though she goes with white fur and dark-tipped tails and face. "I'd hit on you. If I were into girls, my identical twin, or dogs." Or hitting on people. Eh.

"Actually, I have a funny story about that." Mara nods. "I'll tell you later. Are you ready to go, my foxy Fel?" Through her mind's eye she maps the location of Iscovis's Prison for Felina, fidgeting excitedly at the prospect of doing something under the radar.

Felina grins her needle-toothed, muzzle-y grin. "Whenever you are."

Mara tilts her head the other way. "Huh. I wonder why I suddenly feel like being a porcupine? Ah well. Race!" And she vanishes, bound for one of the prison's less-used cell blocks.

---

Felina helps Mara set Iscovis onto a bed, swishing one of her tails as it slowly dissipates. "Well. That was anticlimatic."

Mara nods, as she reverts to herself. The tails, however, stay. "You'd think there would've been a gunfight, eh?" She wiggles for a moment. "I think he's coming around."

The psychic presence emerging is, while not quite staggering, possibly the most complete presence Mara has ever felt before. It is everywhere, and nowhere. Iscovis's eyelids rise, revealing unspectacular brown eyes.

"Figures. I wake up, and I'm still stoned."

The presence really is...truly impressive. It reminds Felina sharply of her father...whether Tel-tiono's had really been so encompassing is almost impossible to say, though. Maybe. But maybe she had just always perceived it that way. "Mm. Yes, but now to decide if the pretty catgirls around your bed are a happy hallucination or not."

"Pretty catgirls around my bed are always a happy illusion. I was having a dream about them in fact." Iscovis yawns. "If this was a hallucination, you'd have curves. I don't owe any money, what do you want?"

Mara grins. "Same old Iscovis."

"We need some help. You were the only one we could think of with the capability to do it, so...we'd like to talk. Oh, yeah, and staged a small prison break, but that's a minor detail." Felina sits cross-legged in a chair, and shrugs.


"Hey, I'm always found of getting out of prison. So what's the occasion? I'm trying my best not to sneak around in your minds enough to find out, but it is kinda tough." Iscovis looks at them, not lifting his head.

"I've lived around psychics most of my life. I don't mind." Felina shrugs a little. "But to summarize, we need my vital essence split neatly in half, and half threaded where Mara's is, and Mara's fading essence removed. Feel free to pick through my head for the full story, it would be quicker and more accurate than explaining."

The psychic closes his eyes for a moment. "Alright. Can't do it. It's part of a degenerative cycle, it'll just eat your essence before it gets into place, sorry."

"Okay. What's a contingency?" In Felina's world, "no" means "find a another way, damnit."

"I could use some water," Iscovis answers without any particular notion of hearing what she said. "That medicine makes my tongue feel like a cat's tongue. Fine for you, but not good for me."

Felina nods. "Right. Just a moment." She stands, and heads for the door to retrieve that. Could just materialize it, but something like that is too often used as an excuse for a moment alone. Maybe he'll tell something Mara he wouldn't tell her.

Mara watches Felina go. "She chooses not to have any butt," Mara nods, "when if she tried her natural body would stop her at a half-moon. I think she's nice-looking."

"You're weird."

"You, too, brainiac."

Silence for a second. "So you're going to be transplanted, right?"

"Who?"

Iscovis sighs. "Obviously, what's happening is you're losing yourself as you've come to be. Right? So shack up in a new place. God knows you Guardian Topaz's are involved with that enough. That Kaies guy would've lived, too."

"Hey, get out of my head, bumface, or I'll scratch your eyes out." Mara looks down. She had been thinking about him, when Iscovis mentioned the body snatching. "I don't like thinking about him."

"Doesn't change the point. Leave your body to the other you. Or kill it. Whatever."

Mara considers that for a moment. "Gabriel's pretty good about body-ing. It just feels too easy, you know?"

"Easy?" Iscovis laughs out loud, until he's wheezing. "Must be nice to think it's easy. You'll get a new body, sure. But there'll still be the problem of your other you running around. I suggest you make some physical modifications to your permanent form, by the way, to avoid any of that 'evil twin' nonsense that sometimes happens. Not that it would stop her if she was determined, but it probably won't occur to her."

"Who?"

"You're old body and your natural essence. Those ears must be for nibbling, because they're obviously not for listening."

Mara crosses her arms. "You're just jealous because I have a big butt." By Serinian standards, anyway.

"It's tricky," Felina notes as she walks back in, of course having caught most of hte conversation though not actively eavesdropping, since Iscovis would know it. She holds a hand-blown glass tumbler of water out to him. "On top of how complicated having a dual consciousness with all of Mara's memories running around, there's the time constraint. I can access most or all of my father's notes on the creation of my more stable body, but that would take significantly more than the two days we have to prepare." The only thing she can think of would involve actually housing Mara in her own mind until they could do it. That would be...um...awkward.

"When I was in the service of my planet, way back, we made a common practice of storing consciousnesses in holding cells. Animals, comatose people, anything breathing. Only important people ever got this treatment, but it meant having time to prepare a new vessel for them." Iscovis takes the water, and drinks carefully, using his long, unudlating lizard-tongue to lap at the liquid. "Ahhh..."

"Mmm..." Felina looks over to her double. "Want to have a tail on a more permanent basis for a little while?"

"I guess that would be okay..." Mara wraps her fingertips together. "Iscovis, are you sure this would work?"

"Does a dog have ears?"

"Probably. Alright, Felina..." she sighs. "I guess this is what we've got."

Felina nods slowly. "We'll figure it out, Mara. Don't worry, huh? we'll keep you, you. That's what's important." She smiles, nods, and then looks to Iscovis. "For your part...we'll probably need your help and input throughout this. In return, on top of getting you out of prison in the first place, you're perfectly welcome to stay in my home as long as you need, if you like, with full permission to poke through any of my memories not barred by intentional walls, indefinitely or until you get bored. Sound fair?"

Iscovis's eyebrow lifts. "You sure? That sounds like the kinda statement a person could regret."

"Yeah, probably. Anything truly damaging has a block, though. Awkward I can deal with." Felina does like her privacy but, for whatever reason, doesn't have real reservations about this.

"Deal." The psychic nods. "You'll need to isolate her personality aspects. So she needs to be either abnormally happy and jovial, or depressed. The shared traits will duplicate, they need not be isolated."

Mara blinks. "Happy sounds like a better option."

Felina nods. "I'd agree." She looks back to Iscovis. "So, enlighten the amateur. Why are we doing duplications and leaving the impending serious Mara in the original body rather than just moving Mara's consciousness to the new vessel once it's ready? Like we did with Kaies way back when?" Not only does she want to double-check things, but she also needs to know the discrepancies in the process so she doesn't mix them inadvertantly.

"Kaies apparently didn't have a black soul hidden inside a white one. If you simply move her consciousness the impending serious Mara goes with it. What you hope to accomplish, provided you have no better ideas, if to separate off the good mara section of her essence before the bad Mara destroys it. That means taking pains to move her good personality traits. You met them. Suhalm and Guppy, and some others." He's already prowling around in Felina's mind, browsing. Mara lays a hand to her own head. It makes her feel... kinda tingly. "That part of the essence will be taken away and stored. Traits shared between good and bad Mara -survival instincts, emotions, whatever- will duplicate on their own so that each Mara has a set. Clear enough, or shall I..." he smiles. "My, you look funny in an evening gown."

"Look for my wedding formals." Ethnic, simplified Chinese wedding garb, though white instead of red. "Going on. Won't moving only some of the personality traits create an imbalance? Most people have dark traits within them...despite how moralistic my creator was. Mara as we know her has always been influenced by them. We'd still be looking at a changed Mara, wouldn't we?"

"Looking at a changed Mara either way, hon, and... wow. Most people don't want to get married in black lace." 

Mara coughs. "Wrong psyche, psycho."

Felina has to snicker. Yay Mara. "Well..." she looks over at Mara. "At least we have this possibility, and we're running out of workable options fast. I'll try to figure a way to correct things more, it's got to be there. Ehm...do you want to talk to Gabriel about all this?" She very consciously avoids saying "Moorn," for the context.

Mara shrugs indecisively. "I'm not sure I feel up to facing him, my love. You know how he is."

"Uh-huh." Although the link was probably provided, Felina avoids thinking too deeply into "how" with Iscovis around. He'll see that eventually, certainly, but Mara doesn't need an interesting comments about her boyfriend. "Well...everyone's worried about you, including him," can sense that from here... "but I'm not trying to push you into anything either. There are a couple of things I need to look into in my father's study, but you can certainly hang around while I look." Mara's certainly capable of understanding the readings--even to the point of understanding the energy language to a real extent--except, as far as she knows, Mara can't read archaic Chinese characters.

Mara nods. "Iscovis," she looks at him, "don'tcha be crawling around in here. Scary stuff that's not your business. Seriously." Looks to Felina. "What about the kids?"

"Ting's freaked, not acting herself. Dewei's being the reassuring voice of reason for her sake."

"I really ought to talk to them. Gabriel is funny, he doesn't react to things like most people would. I know he's worried, but he'd handle it, pat my head and say 'don't go losing yourself again'. And I'd smile. And there would be cake, and also a pony."

Felina nods. "Things will be fine, then. Would you me to come?" Normally it wouldn't be a question, but there really is a lot to do in a short amount of time.

"Maybe I ought to handle it." Mara shifts from one foot to the other, eyes to the floor, mentally smacking Iscovis's psychic hand in the proverbial cookie jar. "Yeah... you'd research better without me anyway. I'm distracting."

"Fun. Fun. Not 'distracting.'" Felina grins. "You go ahead, though, and I'll do the geek thing and be waiting when you're ready. Okay?"

" 'kay." Mara smiles a little, a warm smile if not grand, for Felina, and vanishes back to helantri deru.

Felina smiles in return. Her face falls almost immediately after Mara leaves, though. She lets out a slow breath. Tricky situation. Tricky, tricky situation. Opens her eyes after a moment, and looks down to Iscovis. "The study is insulated in such a way that you won't be able to sense what's going on or what I'm reading if you're not in there with me. Would you like to come, or...?"

"Got a wheelchair to push?" Iscovis chuckles. "Mara was right, they did cyborg me. About three days more and they would've finished, too."

"Hm...what will the extent of that be, if I may ask? And you getting around isn't a problem. Wizard's daughter."

Iscovis tilts his head. "Extent? I asked for twenty-eight inches, but they told me to think realistically. Clarify?"

"Of the physical capability it would have given you."

"Ah." Iscovis considers that one for a second. "It was a trade off. All I asked for was normal function, but who knows. I suspect they wouldn't have given me any great strength or anything, considering how threatening I already am to everybody I meet."

"Mmm..." Felina's imagining a wheelchair-functioning spell/contraption, laying a base energy as she speaks. "Mara and I showed up at an inopportune time, huh?"

"Nah. You showed up when you were supposed to be there. Good time for Mara, too." Iscovis yawns. "Mara's mind was more interesting for quick entertainment. I'll have to dig around in yours."

"Scan for a night in a bar with a guy with purple skin. And yes, I'm much duller." There we go... once she's sure of what she wants to do, the energies snap into place pretty easily. A few moments later, there's a chair-like contraption next to the bed. It hovers, doesn't roll. "There we go. It should respond to your thoughts."

"Just makes me wish I was naturally telekinetic. Up goes the dress." Iscovis snickers. It's no freaking wonder Mara thinks so well of him. "You're doing an awful lot for me. Mara must be awfully special to you."

Felina smiles a bit, and nods as she helps Iscovis over to the chair. Doesn't mention that her natural protective instinct is affecting that detail a lot, too. "Yeah. She is. Mara and I have been through a lot together, for a very long time...she's jumped much bigger hoops on my behalf, in the past." The chair doesn't fall. Good. That's a perk. "Oh, good. Your heavy metal ass isn't too much."

"Camaraderie is a beautiful thing. Let's not talk about my ass, oh she of the bladed pelvis." Iscovis settles into the chair as best he can. "Right then. To research!"

"Yes indeed." Felina smirks, and heads off in the direction of her father's study. She's removed some of its contents to Helantri Deru, but some remain here. It's quite as well-fortified, and she keeps just as close an eye on it as her own home. "The books are guarded against psychic translation," she notes as they walk, "so you'll need to just watch my mind as I rad, as opposed to actually having two sets of eyes." Which would help. Oh well.

"No problem. God your kids have gotten so much prettier since they were born." Iscovis has a funny way of complimenting people.

Felina snickers. "They grew into the ears well, didn't they? Especially Ting." She had bigger ears to start. Felina really...truly isn't put aside by the thought-snooping. She got used to it so completely, so early in life, with non-malicious people, that it's just there.

"They're beautiful. Unique, too, I doubt there will ever be anyone like them again. What with the dead Dumen and all. This place could use more trees."

"Yes they are. No, probably not." Especially since in the remaining Dumen, marriage is very strictly between Dumen. There was just an exception made for the girl who killed their most infamous aggressor. And, actually, Orrin does have two fully dumen kids, from before meeting her. "And most of the plants on this side of the house need as much full sun as possible. There's a cherry orchard around back." This is spoken as the lights of her father's study--abnormally well-illuminating candles, although they're somehow not too bright to look at--flicker to life. Felina opens the drapes, and the candles dim. She brushes the slight layer of dust that's accumulated on her father's staff since her last visit, and walks straight over to his main spellbook, the one she couldn't access most of way back when.

Iscovis settles into a spot by a bookcase, so that he can peek at the various accumulated volumes. "So you'll be looking for soul-cleaving spells."

Felina nods. "And also the details of the way he wove my essence to contrast with how Mara's is arranged. Maybe it will provide some insight. Provided I can see that page..." that would be the trick. She still doesn't have the power he did when he created her, and that may be a stumbling block. She starts flipping to that section.

"Mara's boyfriend seems well versed in the creation thing. Did you think about asking him what he knows about souls?" Iscovis turns the chair carefully to avoid bumping into a table.

"No." Gradually getting better at the "truce" thing, so she doesn't sound as terse as she otherwise might have. "But it's a good idea. I should." Finds the page on her essence...blinks when it opens. I know I shouldn't be able to see this one... glances at the staff. I know you're going to lock it again after this is done. But thank you, father.

Iscovis blinks, as well. "That is just plain old cheating. So, I'm dying to know what you're made of." He would tap his foot, if he could.

"Yes, yes...can't say I'm not curious." She's read some of the other details of it, but this is one of the areas that's so uniquely her fathers, and makes she and Mara...she and Mara. Very unique among constructs.

She gets a page and a half before she stops. Blinks, and flips back again. "I did not get...any of that. We're dealing with relatively small expenditures of psionic energy, and somewhere in the last sentence it's shifted to life energy and then immediately to vital energy? How is that even possible?" Must have missed something. She did. But she's really in over her head with this reading. Shakes her head, and starts again. Damnit. She needs to get this for Mara's sake.

"There is another way, you know. Skip around the sorcery and go directly into her mind, grab the personality aspects, and ask them to astrally project themselves out." Iscovis grins. "My humourous side did that once. It's how I met my future ex-wife."

"That's not what this section's concerning. I haven't gotten to the soul-splitting bit yet." She smirks up at him a little. "Distracted by some memory of my ass in a mirror?" Yes, yes...jab waiting to happen.

"Oh, I was just thinking out loud." The chair floats over to where Felina is reading. "I wouldn't read too much into that. Consider carefully, first, cheeks, whether you really want to know. The basic nature of one's existance can be quite unsettling if you're not ready for it, especially if it's handed to you." He grins. "Sound familiar?"

Felina smiles wryly...something like sheepishly. "Maybe vaguely." She shakes her head after a moment of actually considering what he's saying, looks back down to him. "I...really don't. Want to know, I mean. But I want to be able to tell Mara that when we rig the new body,the problem with her vital energy will be corrected so that it won't just happen again. I don't want her to have doubts that may hinder the process. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only way to really insure against this happening again is to create a new vital essence from scratch. Mine is the perfect blueprint for that." Glances down to the book. Even if it's over her head.

"You're thinking about this too hard. Trust me. Just concentrate on separating her degenerating essence from the part of it that's blossoming. " Iscovis yawns. "That's why you got me out, isn't it? To help with figuring the mess out. Surely you didn't offer me access to your every conscious thought just because it seemed like a good idea at the time."

Felina blinks, and looks over to him. "The 'part that's blossoming'? This is news to me...."

"Think about it, ears. What use would Ahmin have had with a dead daughter? Weren't Secret and others talking about acting differently, planting man-eating plants instead of flowers? The dark part Mara was talking about taking over? Just trust me, please."

Felina thinks about this a moment...until the page she's holding quite suddenly slips out of her hand, and another page flips back. She blinks. "Oh, hell..." Tries to turn the page. Like before it had been unlocked minutes ago, it simply doesn't work. A true grows just barely whispers from deep in her throat a moment, before she sighs. "I hate not being in control of the situation. I do. Type-a and all. But if my father trusts you..." turns to look at him. "Fine. What do I do next?"

"Isolate the degenerating traits and draw them out. Forget the body for now. Bring a vessel to store them in. Mara's more powerful than you, remember, so she's liable to heal faster. Her daddy was more concerned with pure power than yours. I can help you pull the traits out, no problem. I used to do this on a regular basis to enemy soldier types. Take away their will to fight, snap of the fingers, that's why I'm such a threat to everyone thank you very much."

"Because goodness knows that makes you a worse person than shooting them in the head. People are just weird when it comes to psychics. Going on. I suspect I may still be backwards. Are we putting what we want to keep or what we want to get rid of into the new vessel?"

"What we want to keep, there's less of it, so it's easier to get it all out. The only issue is whether you can build a body strong enough to withstand Mara's power. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, just get her boyfriend to do it. As long as it can house the initial surge the essence'll start feeding it, and then she can do whatever she wants with it."

Felina nods. In a very real way, she's relieved to have someone else telling her what to do. "So what kind of time constraint are we looking at here? Do we go talk to Moorn first, or is this pressing enough to put her in a bunny rabbit for now and figure the rest out later?"

"From what I know about him, asking him would be wise. It'd probably piss him off if you put her in a rabbit without telling him. Though... he's probably already working on it."

"Understand this, though," Iscovis speaks with something of a cautionary tone, "when you take out the good mara traits, the clock immediately starts ticking, counting down to when the bad Mara 'wakes up'. So keep in mind that you need to be ready as soon as we take out those goodies."

Felina nods. "Point. From what I observed and heard in Mara's mind, do you really think that 'bad Mara' will be a threat to us immediately? I certainly knew that Mara and I would come to lethal blows eventually, but I wasn't under the impression that it would come to that immediately."

"I sort of doubt she'll be a berserker from the get-go. She's far too smart for that. Let's say that if you over-prepare, and nothing happens, you aren't losing anything." Iscovis blinks. "It'll be hard to predict how she'll react immediately."

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Got it. Do you want to come with me to bother Moorn, or...?"

"I usually stay clear of genocidal maniacs, even reformed ones. Their mentality gives me the shivers." Iscovis grins. "Though his daughter is interesting. When do I get to meet her?"

"I can always always dump you at Helantri Deru while I go there. It's more alive anyway. This place is more...a shrine."

Iscovis shakes his head a bit. "Nah. I like it better here, I think, than in a place where I'd be visible to girls."

"Well, my big brother's pretty feminine, does that count?" She smirks. "You should be able to wander the gardens all right, that chair shouldn't catch on things. Some places may stop you from entering, but there shouldn't be any real threats around. Kitchen's only partially stocked, but has some rice, eggs, and some others...it's on the ground level--the stairs shouldn't be a problem either, by the way--and in the east wing."

"Thanks. I'll just make myself at home." Iscovis nods. "Now git. Talk to creepyface."

Creepyface, huh? "Only if you keep sweet-talking me like that." And then she vanishes, bound for Istan Aiga.

---

Mara appears in the gardens, still holding the kitty. "Please Felina," she murmurs, "as quickly as we can."

Felina nods. Realizes she'd forgotten to have the kids work on a barrier...oh well. She can do a temporary one here. "Absolutely, Mara." She moves them both again, to near where Iscovis is.

Iscovis is actually outside, looking up a particular tree. "Hello ladies," he greets them, then looks squarely at their chests, "and girls. Everything ready?"

Felina looks at her own chest. "How can you tell?" Looks back up, and then to the persian cat. "Yes."

"Good, good. Mara, smile. We need your happy side facing front." Iscovis refrains from adding anything to that. "Felina, I can draw her essence out, if you can keep her body in stasis. So whenever you're ready."

Mara smiles a weak little smile.

Felina smiles, and nods. "Where would you be comfortable doing this, Mara?"

Mara looks sheepishly at the ground. "I... know it is asking a lot. But I would feel much better with your dad around... and Saea. If it's okay, my love."

Felina's smile softens, and she nods. "I'm sure they won't mind, Mara...and I'm just the site's keeper, after all, it's their choice. Let's head over there, huh?" Sets a hand gently on Mara's shoulder, and heads that way.

The clearing is as quiet as ever. And somehow...faintly energetic, compared to the normal stillness. The atmosphere is still overwhelmingly calming, though...there are also an abnormal number of fresh blossoms on the ground.

Felina smiles a little. "See? They're ready for you."

Mara's smile glows at all that. "Thank you all," she says to the stones, and Felina, and Iscovis. "I can do this!"

Iscovis looks around. "This is a treasure trove for me," he points out. "Never believed much in 'after death' anything. Anyway... Felina, when you're ready, put her into stasis."

Felina smiles at Mara, and nods to Iscovis. She'll bounce her many experiences with the hereafter off of him later...from her dad, to her own death, to Moorn. For now, she sits placidly on her feet about midway between the amittedly close graves, and smiles at Mara, waiting for the other construct to join her. "Ready, Mara?"

Mara sets the kitty down, and kisses Felina once on each cheek. "Yeah... I love you my love. Just in case somefin goes wrong, I wanted to say so." She steps back. "Do it."

Felina smiles, eyes softening, and nods. "I love you too, Mara." She brushes some of Mara's hair fondly out of her face, and then sets her hands on Mara's shoulders, laying near the base of her neck, and begins to gently force the other serinian under.

Mara lets her defenses drop away. Her yes/no sense seems strangely quiet on this, which she takes a good sign. "I'm glad," she whispers, her eyes closing as she slowly falls forward, "I don't think... I... could..."

Iscovis watches this with rapt attention. "She's out," he observes, unnecessarily. "That was fast."

Felina nods. "Didn't want her to dwell on it." She beckons the kitty nearer mentally, and the adorably hallow thing trots over, and sits.

"All right, then." Iscovis mentally cracks his fingers. "I'm going in. This will only take a few seconds, but be prepared for some pretty heavy psychic backlash." His eyes close, and almost instantly a sort of pressure begins to swell onto the psychic plane. Energy transfers in thin lines from Mara to the kitty, while Iscovis hums out of tune.

Felina breathes a slow breath...she needs to be perfectly, calmly even to really be an effective psychic right now.

Here is where Iscovis proves Mara's faith in his ability. Each of Mara's individual personality traits - Secret, Suhalm, Guppy, Shooting, Hackles, Peepers, and the rest - transfer over either whole or in part, gradually revealing a bitter essence beneath. Each section of essence drawn out 'pops' with a psychic burst the flattens the grass around them and immediately gives Iscovis a splitting headache.

Felina's fangs bare a moment before she puts them away. Backlash was right. But she keeps her attention on Mara...both of them, now, both former and kitty.

Moments pass. Minutes, then, the ending of which marked only by Iscovis's chair plunking to the ground.

"There," he sighs, exhausted from the strain, "it is done. You should be able to call Mara's name, and the cat will respond. Just don't expect miracles."