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I thought, still using Elfmind.  "You won't need a scalpel, just your mind."

"Well that ain't no fun," Burnside grumbled.  "My old Stabbin' teacher from back in the Antglade used to always say, 'A sharp wit is no mach for a sharp blade.'  He said that all the time, right up until I stabbed him to death.  Made a nice necklace out of his jawbone.  Reckon I still have it, if you wanna see."

"Use Elfmind!" I thought at her irritably.

"Fine," she mentally pouted.  "What do you wanna test out?"

"I need to know if the trees can hear Elfmind."

"Don't it tell in that book o' forest magick that Ash wrote?"

"I don't think so," I responded.  "I flipped through it, and - wait.  How do you know about that?"

"Ash told me.  I did mention that we was collaboratin' for a while.  Did you forget?  Do you still have the book?"

"Uh, Well... Um.  Go back to humming," I instructed.

Burnside covered her ears and started nodding her head as she hummed an incoherent tune.

I turned and stepped a short distance away, then fished the aforementioned book out of my Elfintory.  Right next to it I also found Ash's How to Be Unseelie and Look Good Doing It.  I could have sworn I got rid of that.  What was it doing still in my Elfintory?  Earlier I had refused to look at it on principle, but on second thought it might be worth thumbing through, just to get a better idea of the Unseelie mindset.  It would be useful to know the most likely ways my Unseelie "allies" would betray me.  I tucked the small booklet back into Elfintory to peruse later.

I quickly skimmed through Ash's treatise on the Voice of the Forest.  Unfortunately, it didn't give any conclusive answers on the subject of trees using or comprehending Elfmind.  The omission could mean the trees were deaf to it, or the entire subject could have been simply left out.  Ash did say that he hadn't put all of his secrets in there.

At this point I decided there was only one thing to do.  I walked to the edge of the circle and thought "Hey, can you hear this?" directly at the surrounding woods.

Several minutes of uncomfortable silence passed as I repeated the message.

"What are you doing?" the trees finally asked.

"Trying to find out if you can pick up Elfmind," I answered aloud.

"What's Elfmind?" they rustled back.

"Never mind."

Now that I had an answer to that question, it was time to find out if Elfshot could affect elves.

"Can you help me with something else?" I mentally called out to Burnside as I readied my bow.

"What is it now?" she sighed, as she took her hands away from her ears and began to turn around.  "Woah!  Hold on!  There's no need to do nothin' rash!  Let's talk this over!  I can change, I swear I can!"

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Comments

Torchfire

You know what would be funny? If elfshot did affect elves, but not in the same way as lowfolk.

Anonymous

>Adler: "Oh, quit being such a crybaby." *twang* >Burnside: You are cut off right as the elfshot hits you between the eyes. >Whether or not elves can be affected by elfshot in some way is up to the author. >Adler: If Burnside is affected, examine her to see how severe the effect is. Take her pulse, poke her with a stick, try to snap her out of it, see how long it takes to wear off. >Burnside: You convulse and babble incoherently as Adler leaves you alone to tough it out. -Or- >Adler: If Burnside is not affected, you have an angry psycho raccoon to deal with. >Burnside: What the heck?? He damn near made your heart stop! >Adler: You note that the apparent effect elfshot has on elves is to make them very angry. Fascinating. >Burnside: Really? Or maybe you're angry because he shot at you! >Adler: True, but how much angrier could the elfshot have made her as opposed to something else that would startle her. You may need to test further. >Burnside: Seriously? Whatever, screw this. Adler's had his fun. You need a drink. If he needs you, you'll be getting blackout drunk by the dolmen. You pull a flask from your elfintory and stalk off in a huff. -Anyway- >Adler: Now that your tests are complete, something occurs to you. You don't know for sure Lana used elfshot. Whatever she used must have been pretty potent, Rebecca was out of her mind and bedridden for days. Have your shots ever done that? A chilling thought comes to mind. She intended to steal your essence and turn you into a mindless puppet. Whatever she used may well have originally been meant for you. To knock you out so she could do whatever horrible ritual on you. >Adler: With nothing else to do now but kill time, you head back over to Rebecca. You tell her you'll help her practice with elfmind. Maybe she can figure out how to do it consciously. >Fast forward until Oak arrives.