The Minotaur’s body lay in the hollow tree and the only motion was insects taking advantage of the sudden bounty and the slow unfurling of leaves on the vine which bound it. Faintly at first but building in intensity, crawling bands of chaotically coloured light appeared and played across the corpse.

The bands flowed over the form pausing to pool and fill where they encountered the many rents and tears wounds had inflicted in the hairy hide. Once all were found and had been limned in shifting light the corpse floated into the air and the light intensified, sinking deep into the body through those rents and tears. Thumb thick iridescent burrowing beetles and other insects were evicted from where they were setting up housekeeping and fell with soft plops to the ground. With a rasping tear the carnivorous vine the druid had restrained Obbst with was peeled off leaving a trail of small holes where it had been invading the sweet, sweet, meat.

The chaotic light flared brilliantly, scintillating patches playing across the inner walls of the trunk and then was gone leaving behind reknitted hide and undamaged flesh.

The body settled to the ground, the massive chest heaved once, heaved twice and breathing started. The pale flesh showing on it’s spine and flanks where the it was exposed by the runnelled hair flushed as blood which had been darkening the lowest parts of the body was drawn out and returned to circulating.

Soon it seemed as though the massive form simply slept, breathing deeply and evenly.

The Minotaur’s eyes rolled back to expose the whites and his body twitched and shivered violently, legs drumming and cutting gouges in the soft and decaying wood he lay on.

He jerked upright and stood swaying on unsteady legs with his eyes still rolled far back into his head. Reeling, he staggered and his legs danced under him striking each other in an uncoordinated frenzy. Pitching heavily to the left he slammed into the inner trunk and slid down still twitching, but now groans and strange noises came from his bovine mouth.

There was a flare of flame around his body, he changed to his humanoid form then lay still.

After several long moments his body resumed it’s twitching and shuddering. Soon the spasms slowed coming further and further apart, eventually they ceased entirely and after a short pause he pushed himself up to sit upright leaning on the inner trunk.

“So that’s the way of it. Glad I wasn’t stuck with four legs, how do they do it” Glancing down he said with surprise, “oh… OH, I’m male and very male. What Fae race have I found myself in? Some type of shifting Beastman? At least this body seems sturdy enough.”

‘He’ stood swaying a little and stretched, “Whoa, tall, and feels very strong. I’d give those musclebound morons Toixnae and Paegg a run for their money. Good. Should make my revenge much easier.”

Forming the strong and distinct image of a location required for a teleport the new inhabitant attempted to reach through the body’s gateway to the Realms, the metaphysical doorway through which all magically active creatures drew their power.

Nothing.

Opening her inner eye and studying the gateway she laughed, well this was a fine jest by the capricious realm of chaos. This body’s gateway was already at capacity with flows of two other realms and one of those (also the strongest) utterly blocked all access to chaos. She could use nothing of her knowledge of the chaos realm because this body was awash with the golden light of order. Being who and what she was of course she had access to all the realms but she had specialised in chaos magic tens of thousands of turnings ago. She had little skill in other realms past what any Fae Chanar held, which was still far more than the mongrel races had admittedly.

This body being locked to fire and order would be a problem, not an insurmountable one but it would slow her revenge down while she learned how to fully utilise those realms and more importantly utilise those realms in a very novel manner for her. She had been a Mage but this body had been a Warrior and had accessed magic far differently. Warriors used magic to strengthen their own bodies, vastly increasing purely physical capabilities, she on the other hand had almost never engaged in melee combat. Her other abilities had always made that need extremely unlikely but she was certainly not unskilled in close combat. While she had not practised it often she had practised for it diligently, to be unprepared usually meant a loss in the grand game. It would just take some time to retrain her reflexes and skills to match this much larger and much, much, stronger form.

Snorting irritably (and being somewhat surprised by the action, it seemed some actions were automatic in this form) she walked from the hollow tree.

The instant her hoof hit the cool loamy soil in the dappled shadows of the forest she inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of life. With an expression of eagerness and joy she took two steps quickly forward and spreading her arms basked in a shaft of sunlight that speared through the canopy of the forest.

She sighed lustily. She had missed this, missed life, in the time she’d been bodiless.

Folscach had a lot to answer for, he had tortured her for information then murdered her for her blood. She would have her revenge on him, soon or late it didn’t matter to her which, only that she would.

Since she couldn’t teleport back to the city and begin her campaign directly, the death of his agents here would make a good start. That Fae and the Beastman would die first, disembodied she had seen them take the money from Folscach’s agent in the mercenary group. She had been following his agents for seasons now, learning their patterns, their habits. Learning where Folscach was building influence and manipulating things to increase his power. She was not just going to kill him, she was going to destroy his entire existence first and then once he despaired she would take his life while she watched the realisation fill his eyes that it was she who had done this to him.

She wove a quick order spell, order was the realm of control, structure, command, and righteous retribution. She was hoping that last would allow her to use mage spells even though this form was a Warrior and unlike those of her own race who were Warriors had no capability to cast spells.

The spell worked and she was surprised to find the body had potential as a caster, it’s capability was still unrealised and only small but it was a possibility.

A small golden arrow had appeared pointing her toward those that needed taking to task for their trespass against her. She had specifically targeted those who had trespassed against her body, hopefully that would be the Fae and the Beastman since they should be the closest.

Following the small arrow she soon discovered this body ran easily and well, loping along at a good pace with no strain. So she sped up, seeking it’s limits. Best to learn them now before they possibly became a problem later. As soon as she did golden tinged flames ignited around her and her speed increased dramatically, laughing in joy she pushed harder, watching the flows of magic with her inner eye.

Running at full speed burned magic at a furious pace but she was moving much faster than a horse at a full gallop, she was moving fast enough that the fairly wideset trees around her were an almost solid blur. The magic entering her body did not slow as the source was inexhaustible but there was a limit she could see now. If she drew past that, corruption would start to damage her body.

Not her mind though since that was Fae Chanar and immune to corruption.

As her body tired the gateway narrowed and the limit lowered forcing her to slow or risk corruption. No wonder all the Warriors she’d ever known were constantly training, their stamina controlled their access to power. She slowed further until she was running at a pace that was not tiring her particularly. She was still moving faster than a horse but monitoring the flows and the gateway this pace would be sustainable for as long as she wanted.