"And we put a piece of her soul here, connect it to her, and... Done!" [Diana]
"Good. Good. You three are improving steadily. For Siti, it won't be long before you become a full-fledged witch without my supervision. Tiara next and then Diana" [Merlin]
"Wow! You two are really amazing!" [Diana]
"I'd say Siti here is more impressive than me." [Tiara]
"To be fair, I did a lot of self-study before becoming an apprentice to Master Merlin" [Princess Siti].
I asked Master Merlin about my plan for the Doll Diana. My initial plan is simply to transfer her soul from one body to another. She's a puppet, a puppet with a soul that's also the master of this dungeon, so I thought it would work out fine, but Master Merlin has a better idea than mine.
She improved and refined my idea. First, instead of transferring the whole soul, she only takes a part that is responsible for sensation. She also takes an unused marionnete that's almost identical to the doll, transfers it, and makes sure that it's able to use the sensory share. Not just the usual sensory share, this is even advanced. As Master Merlin said, this is like being in two places at the same time.
"I... I did it! This feels really strange. It really feels like I have two bodies at the same time" [Doll Diana].
"And now instead of like a twin, you're like a triplet" [Princess Siti].
"YAY! TRIPLETS!" [Diana, Doll Diana]
"Really becoming a triplet here" [Tiara]
"As long as it's cute, I'm not against it. I'm sure you can go outside with this without risking the dungeon collapsing" [Merlin].
We don't know what will happen if the puppet leaves the dungeon. We all just think that the worst case scenario is that the dungeon collapses. Probably not, like 99%, but none of us wanted to risk it, hence Master Merlin's brilliant idea. There's a reason she's a master and I'm an apprentice.
She tried to control her new body. It proved to be a bit difficult. In her words, it's like a human baby just learning to walk. But unlike a baby, she's actually able to get used to it very quickly. At least for walking. She doesn't have any strange movements when she walks.
"Okay, let's go go go!" [Diana]
"Let's go go go!" [Doll Diana]
The three of us said this while raising our hand. My movement is natural. So is the original body of the doll. But the other one has many more improvements. It's not that the puppet body is bad. It just needs more time to adjust.
"Tiara, Siti, why don't you two follow along and see how it goes" [Merlin].
"Sure I can, but doesn't Teacher Tiara have a date with Sir Aeron?" [Princess Siti]
"Who told you... I mean, he prioritizes his work. He said there's an uncalculated movement from the Empire and wanted to investigate it alone, so he skipped that last minute... Last minute meeting between the two of us. I understand. I completely understand" [Tiara].
"So this is what Teacher Tiara looks like when she's sulking" [Diana].
"Sulking! Sulking!" [Doll Diana]
"Am not!" [Tiara]
"Yes, you are..." [Princess Siti]
I wanted to tease her more, but I'm afraid since school will start in a few weeks, and I don't want her to punish me with an extra amount of homework. She wouldn't do that... Wouldn't she? I'm sure she won't, but it's better to be safe than to have my hand suffer with homework.
With that, we leave the dungeon. Calypso follows us as well. The Jester Bone doesn't want to. He wants to play with the monster in the dungeon. Hanging Treant, well, he can't leave, so he happily photosynthesizes everything he can get. The original doll body also get left behind as she say bye-bye to us
The doll's movement outside the dungeon is a bit more awkward, but she says that since a part of her soul is there, she can actually maneuver it in tandem with the soul. It's pretty complicated, she says, but she's not afraid of it. In fact, she even starts to run a little.
The guards at the entrance to the dungeon are confused. So are the other adventurer and the merchant. How is there a second me that obviously looks like a living puppet? I enjoyed their reaction, but what I enjoyed even more was
"What is this? What is that? What is that?! Is that Hanging Treant friends!? What is this strange colored water? Can I eat this thing!? And it's so bright! Is that the sun! This is so fun! So fun!" [Doll Diana]
"Hehe, allow me to teach you, young doll" [Calypso]
"Me too! I will teach you even more than Calypso!" [Diana]
This is going to be so much fun!