The Prophesy: Book 1 - Cave Lupus

 

Williams was almost asleep on the ducal throne when he was awakened by Paschal.

"Williams, we need to send specific mobilisation orders before the curfew is raised. Enron, Harp, Sitar and me have been collecting a list of names and addresses, both in the three cities and on the farms. I have organized the dispatch in such a way that the legionnaires and elves that collect the volunteers are picked from the furthest away to the assembly point, on the road west of Hamburg. Here they are. I need the drawbridges down early, so the task can begin right away."

"Oh? And why are these people so vital to the army they cannot be mobilized at a later date?"

"Simple: they are child molesters and animal molesters. We will not leave them behind while perfectly decent people get killed. We intend to put them in the line of fire. If we weren't at war and in such a dire situation, we would dispose of them in a more expedite way, but, given the circumstances, they will do nice arrow meat!"

"Child molesters, eh? I don't think I need to ask how you found out!"

«No you do not!»

"OK, I get the point. Legionnaire! Have these executive orders of the royal highnesses executed immediately! I herby order the lowering of the drawbridges! Signal Hamburg and Loren the same order!"

"Yes, your Highness!" The legionnaire took the pile of scrolls and ran off with them to the courtyard.

"Just by curiosity, how many names are there in these lists, Paschal?"

"I'll say about two thousand five hundred give or take a hundred."

"That makes for a lot of abusers!"

"Given how corrupt Franz was, are you really surprised? It's like the regime attracted abusers of all sorts. We have only taken off the worse cases, but I am sure we could find more. We targeted those that practiced torture, rape, and slavery of others or their own family. Also included are murderers and accomplices of the crocodiles."

"Some will be pissed! Forcing them out of bed two hours before prime isn't going to make you popular!"

"We aren't here to win a popularity contest! We are here to render justice in a way beneficial to the whole of the community. And they better not think they can lag behind and be dropped during the day's run! They will be framed by legionnaires and elves, and be right in the middle of the army on the move, to be pushed forward once we have an engagement. Harold has already signed the desertion decree: a deserter will be killed."

At that time the legionnaire that had been sent to distribute the dispatches came back and reported that the different orders were being carried out.

"I hope they carry them out in the proper order. I don't want any rat to escape the trap."

"There is a specific order?" Williams enquired.

"Yes, you see, those in Sophia are the most likely to try to make a run for it, so they must be picked up first. Then the drawbridges are dropped, slowly, to minimise the noise, and those in Loren and Hamburg are collected. It's very easy for rats to hide in the slums and seedy parts of a town, so they must be picked up before they even know something is up. The last stage is the collecting on the farms. We took care of that part ourselves, with wolves and dogs keeping the targets cornered in their own home until the military police picks them up. The farms are visited further first and those that get enrolled are pushed forward towards the city. We noticed that the cities are encircled by roads and we plan to use them to move our recruits to the northern road off Hamburg, without making them enter the city except to cross the bridges."

"You boys have been thinking about this for a while!"

"A few days, yes. We divided the work between ourselves. I did the planning for the farms; Enron dealt with Sophia, Sitar with Loren, and Harp with Hamburg. It went well."

"When will the reaping be done?"

"Oh, about an hour after the curfew is raised. By then all of them should be waiting for us on the western road. We will leave two hours after prime, dad told me, so we could get the new recruits properly organized and framed. They better be in shape because they will have to run their day!"

"I can imagine the mess!"

"They had better not make any!"

As prime was getting near, the other royals were getting up, and everyone moved in the refectory for a quick breakfast. An hour after prime, the army stationed east of Sophia entered town, crossed it, and made its way to the bridge leading into Hamburg. The elven army stationed in Loren and in the surrounding farmland northeast of the city began a similar move to enter Hamburg from the northern gate. All three armies converged to the western drawbridge and joined the units guarding the volunteers. Two hours after prime, the royals joined the army and took the lead to follow the western road across Ultrech.

Marlin, the mage, was strapped on his belly, across a horse's back, much like a potato bag. To say that this was an uncomfortable posture is an understatement. The mage kept eating dust and dirt raised by the horse's hoofs.

"Why this posture, Harp?" asked Samson.

"Simple: by keeping him worried about receiving stuff on the head he won't be spending time scheming to escape. Anyways, assuming he did manage to take control of the horse, he would more than likely get his head smashed by a tree or a log during his escape run that way. I don't want to spend the whole day monitoring the horse."

"You have a point. He'll be sick as a dog too!"

"More like the swine he is!"

***

The first day found the army some eighty-eight miles west of Hamburg, well engaged in the fork leading to the border with Frieburg. There had been some resistance in the conscripts, but a few heads rolling and being put on spikes had softened their resolve considerably.

"What is the strategy for entering Frieburg?" asked Samson.

"Oh, I discussed this with Enron. I will lead the legionnaires on horseback across the bridge found a little west of the twin villages facing each other across the river, and turn on the village in Frieburg coming from their side of the border. Enron will enter the village on the Ultrech side the moment I turn south on the stretch of road leading to that village. By and large we should each reach the shore of that lake at the same time, Enron on its southern shore, and the legions on its northern shore. We rest the night, pick up the units, and remerge early the next morning to resume our run northward."

"Won't that make for a longer distance for the legionnaires?"

"Somewhat, about twenty-six miles. The horses need a good run, and that will do them good."

"But won't the people in Ultrech know something is up?"

"Not necessarily. For one the river has a number of twists, and second, the bridge is eight miles downriver. They won't be able to hear or see us."

"Good. It seems you have everything planned."

"I hope so."

***

The evening was well engaged when the Great Grand Master tried to contact Harp and the royals.

«Sorry, Great Grand Master, Harp is busy. This is Sitar, one of his older brothers. We were expecting a contact from the Grand Master first?»

«I was told you are detaining my son? On what grounds are you doing so?»

«Your son, mage Marlin, tried to use his powers to kill Harp, and do a palace coup. He failed miserably, twice at that. I thought the Grand Master Evans would have informed you of the situation beforehand?»

«Yes, he told me as much, but I cannot believe a five-year old can be that powerful! Evans Ferriday told me he could even see he missed a finger and read his mind. This is impossible! You need to reach sexual maturity to have your powers bloom!»

«Maybe it's time you review your long-held prejudices. After all, I am far from that too, and I'm holding a telepathic chat with you without even raising a sweat. That should be more than enough to get you thinking!»

«And how old are you?»

"I turned thirteen this spring. The healer says I am a late bloomer, whatever that means, but I know one thing for sure, I have yet to have my teen growth spurt, and my gonads haven't shown any signs of growth either. So, I am far from the sexual maturity you so attach importance to.»

«I see. I have been trying to contact my son and I can't raise him. Is he dead?»

«No, we simply block any attempt at contact from the outside or from him to others.»

«But that is impossible! Telepathy cannot be blocked!»

«You do have the word impossible come too often to your mind, Great Grand Master! Ah, here comes my little brother with Silver Moon, his colt.»

«Good evening, Great Grand Master. Would you like to see your son? I must say he doesn't look too well after spending the day riding a horse on his belly. He left a trail of brownies and puking along the road. I think the horse made sure he got one hell of a horse ride! It sure wasn't a merry-go-round!»

«Well, eating all these beans at lunch didn't help him!» Enron commented.

«We told him he should eat something else too! The pork roast was good, even if the pork was a wild boar!» Paschal added.

«It was lucky he was tied to the horse! The bugger might have flown away with all the natural gas he was generating!» Harp informed the Great Grand Master, laughing at the thought.

«Back to my son's fate. You invited me to see him, but I am in the great mountains near Pacifica, at the Mages' School of Magic. I cannot imagine how I could see my son? After all, from the last reports given to Ferriday by my son, you were still on the eastern region of Americus. And there is a wide swath of glowing lands between us, making the travel even longer since we have to move deep in the south to circumnavigate that area.»

«I can bring you here,» offered Sitar.

«Bring me where you are? But that is impossible!»

«Again that word! When will you learn it is not in our vocabulary?»

«That is enough! I know it is impossible!»

«Oh? Let's see how impossible is the impossible! Be there, now!» Sitar thundered, in a commanding voice, as he pointed to a spot about five feet in front of him.

The materialization of Nestor, the Great Grand Master, in camp was spectacular. First, the sudden displacement of air to let the mass of Nestor materialize itself created a powerful wind, accompanied by a thunder clap that woke up everything in the forest for miles around; second, there was a bright flash of light as the electric charges equalized themselves between the mage's body and the ground he now found himself on; third, he had been sitting when he got teleported, and he actually fell on his ass upon gravity taking hold of his now unsupported body.

"Where am I? What happened?"

"I told you I would bring you here to see your son. What else is there to say?" asked Sitar, standing above the mage.

The noise had attracted the attention of the other royals and just about everyone in camp. Harold, Dunbar and Williams were the first on site, followed shortly by Samson, Greywolf, Yamato and Theresa.

"What's all the racket?" asked Harold, as he walked into the light of the fire that Enron had restarted with a mere move of the hand, to the astonishment of Nestor.

"Oh! Hi dad, sorry I woke you up, I brought Nestor, the Great Grand Master of the College of magic, here. I forgot to bring the chair with him and he fell on his ass upon materialization. I never thought someone falling on his bum could be so noisy!"

"Some days, boys, I wish there was such a thing as a God, so I could complain to him and ask for His help! You will be my death! "

"Come on dad, you know you enjoy our little pranks! "

"That was a prank? I think your dad is right in praying for a God!" commented Nestor, as he stood up from the ground. "How many dozen devils like these do you have up your sleeve?"

"For the moment, three, isn't that enough? By the way we have not been introduced? "

Harp took center stage and introduced everyone to Nestor. As the introductions were getting to King Samson, Nestor looked at him closely, and Samson was eyeing the man as well. Finally, Samson took the bull by the horn.

"So, Nestor, you have progressed since I last saw you! I still remember your first tries at magic! They were more than disastrous! You had power, but you lacked focus and concentration!"

"That is you! I wasn't sure! From prince to king! That isn't something to neglect either."

"Oh, don't overstate kingship, I fell into it more than earned it, you know. When dad died, I found myself with a crown I didn't want. You had to earn every promotion!"

"Still, king of the Elves! I remember the laws of the land, you know! They state that you have to get a majority of the kingdom's Peers to vote for you to get the crown. That isn't easy, knowing how divisive elven society is!"

"I know. We had another similar issue not too long ago. I had to spill some blue blood, well, my liege lord, king Harold, did."

"Yes, I heard the reports from my son, as Ferriday relayed them to me. I will have to apologize to Ferriday when I see him; his reports were not exaggerated concerning what is happening here."

"You can do that now!" piped up Harp. "I am sure he will appreciate a bit of humility from your part!"

"Now?"

"Yes, now!"

With that Harp pointed to a spot in front of him and said, loud and clear, "Evans Ferriday, be here, now!"

Again a thunderous noise was heard, and Grand Master Ferriday materialized in camp, bathtub, water, soap and washcloth included. This time the other boys had given enough thought to the materialization process to send the air upwards rather than let it spread in a sphere around the incoming mage. The noise was more muted, like a rushing howling wind in leafs of a tree. The fires did not even blink.

"Better! Much better!" commented Harold. "You boys need to learn progressive materialization, so that the air gets displaced at a slower pace!"

"Yes dad, we know, but it's only Harp's second attempt. Let us learn things as we need them."

"Oh sorry, you are right, Sitar. You need only practice!"

"Where the hell am I? What happened?" exclaimed Ferriday, as he looked around, wide-eyed.

"I said the exact same thing when I was brought here, Ferriday."

"Nestor? Where are we? Everyone is looking for you at the college, you know. There was that huge thunderclap in your office, all the windows shattered in the college, and quite a few people got cut from glass shards. And your massive oak door is now good to use as tooth picks!"

"Oh damn! Naturally, when we removed the mage, the void created by his dematerialization had to be filled by air! Given he was in an enclosed space, the damage must have been considerable!" Sitar explained.

"Hey, I think I have the solution to our problem! Next time we exchange the air for the mage, that way, no sudden voids or sudden air displacement!" Paschal suggested.

"A bi-directional teleportation? But that is impossible!" exclaimed Nestor.

"What did we tell you about that word, Nestor? Impossible has been removed from the dictionary!"

The two mages looked at each other, and bleached.

"Anyways, boys, it's nice to have brought me here but I have nothing to wear."

"Don't worry, here is your towel, and fresh clothes from your bed, I figured you had planned on putting them for the evening. I also took the liberty to bring your toiletries and a table to put everything on. We are in the middle of nowhere, and conveniences are sparse within an army on the move." With that, Paschal looked at a spot and the aforementioned objects materialised silently this time. "Ah, the impossible bi-directional transport works!"

"But I am nude!"

"So? We are boys and your equipment has no secret for us. Remember we can see you when you look at yourself in the silver plate! No false modesty!"

"Harp! Don't show off!"

"Dad, I can't help it! The mages all seem to rub me in the wrong sense of the fur!"

After drying himself and putting the clothes and shoes so diligently teleported by Paschal, the Grand Master and Great Grand Master sat at the table with the royals to discuss what would happen next.

"I'll have to get another tub installed in my bathroom, since mine will now be used by the birds of the forest," said the Grand Master, as he looked at the tub.

"Bah, no worries. Say bye-bye to your tub, it is now back in your water room!" Harp said as he looked at the offending ornament. With that, the bath vanished in a puff of blue smoke, immediately accompanied by a splash of water, suddenly freed from its container, spreading around on the forest floor.

"Harp, why the puff of smoke?"

"Come on Sitar, you have been doing all that noise, let me have my fun!"

"Show off!"

"Look who is talking, Enron!"

"I haven't done any teleportation yet!"

"Well, you'll be sending Nestor back to the college, Enron. Just make sure you have a clear image of where you want to send him." Paschal replied.

"A cooking pot?" suggested Harp.

"Harp! Now he won't be able to think of any other place!" exploded Sitar.

"Don't worry, Nestor, I won't do that to the poor cooks at the college, you haven't taken your bath yet!" replied Enron, with a gleam in his eyes that sent shivers down the Great Grand Master's spine.

"Before you four adult abusers think of sending these poor mage victims back, would you mind telling us why you brought them here in the first place?" asked Harold.

"Oh, with all the excitement, we forgot. First, I think you have something to say to Mage Ferriday, Nestor?" asked Harp.

"Ah, hum, yes, I do. Ferriday, I will never doubt your reports again. Not only are they as powerful as you described, but you understated the facts and their level of power. I do not know if the reasons were my own short-sightedness, or the fact that Marlin, my dear son, deliberately misled us in his reports, but I intend to find out."

"I think we need to come clean here, Nestor. We never told Ferriday what we could do, and he has yet to hear it all. Furthermore, your son has been acting like a pal in our backside ever since he found out we could do things, like he took these as personal insults and threats to his plans. We also kept Marlin in the dark for the most part, because the more he learned the more frantic he became." Enron replied.

"I don't want to sound impolite, gentlemen, but I am hungry. When I was brought here, I was taking a bath prior to having supper at vespers."

"Vespers? But it is compline!" exclaimed Harp.

"Harp, we never did talk about the Earth's shape and its consequences, did we?" Dunbar asked.

"The shape? It's flat with some bumps, that is all?"

"Sorry to disappoint you Harp, but the earth is round. The shape of the shadow the earth casts on the moon during moon eclipses tells us that. There is another consequence; the sun does not reach the zenith at the same time everywhere. This means that sext, defined as the time where the sun reaches the zenith, is delayed as we go further west. We are unaware of this, but the comment by mage Ferriday confirms this: he is three hours west of here from his comments, maybe more. There is another proof to the round shape of the planet: as you move north, the shadows lengthen and the sun doesn't reach the same height in the sky for the same day in the year. This goes for the stars as well. Furthermore, some of my books on night navigation show an entirely different sky for the southern hemisphere, and it talks about the Southern Cross as the pointer to the South Pole. I have never seen those stars, but the fact that we cannot see them tells me that are hidden from view by the spherical shape of the planet. That knowledge of the height of the sun is stored in a book that the mariners share with us, called the ephemeris, or a marine almanac, which tells us what height the sun should reach at noon at the equator and at different latitudes on the planet. That height is called the declination. I will show you that book, if you are interested. Be aware it's a collection of numbers and dates."

"That is interesting! Maybe Paschal should look too!"

"I have been taking notes, but I have a problem. I cannot verify with exactitude the time of day, since the sun rises and sets at different times each day."

"That you have noticed that shortfall in your data is, in itself, remarkable, Paschal. Please, do come and look at the book. There are so many interesting information in it."

"All this is nice, but I'm still hungry!" commented Mage Ferriday.

"Oh, sorry, our manners at war are taking a dip! May I offer you food fit for a king, mage?" Harp said. In the blink of an eye, the table was covered with all sorts of foods and drinks.

"When I think I have been starving on military diet all that time and all I needed to do is ask!" exclaimed Samson. 'You, boy, had better start thinking of feeding me! You have been eating from my bread basket long enough!"

"Where the hell did all that come from? It's as if my most secret wishes materialized right there on the table!"

"You said it, I materialized it. Dad says I rearrange atoms and molecules to create things, but I don't see them being rearranged. I only think ham and it's there."

"You think ham, and it's there? You create things out of nothing?"

"Not according to what we think, mage. Actually it would take considerable energy to create matter, and even Harp probably cannot bring that amount of energy to bear to create a visible piece of matter, we think. It takes considerably less to displace atoms and molecules and bind them properly."

"I beg to differ, your Majesty. Are you aware of the phenomenal quantity of energy involved in transporting matter instantly from one point to another? It implies creating a confinement field, a stabilizing matrix to maintain the quantum states of each matter component, of which each atom contains hundreds, from electrons to quarks, converting them to energy, a process called dematerialization, funnelling them through space and time by warping space to join the two distant locations, reverting the process with materialization, and setting each atom in conformity to the matrix also transferred with the matter, then releasing the space fold slowly so it doesn't tear as it springs back to its original form. Your sons are able to create a controlled black hole! It was the dream of the Ancients, but they never succeeded! That is a far greater feat than creating matter out of cosmic energy. The later doesn't need to conserve spin and other critical information needed for the life form to be viable. That boy must have a vast knowledge of biochemistry and molecular biology to be able to create edible food out of random molecules and atoms. To be honest, Kings Harold and Samson, I have never been so scared in my life; these four boys have, each, individually, more power than my whole order combined. We have never succeeded in teleporting even a piece of rock, much less a life form! And forget creating. We are good at destroying, I will admit, but that is a piece of cake, after all it only requires breaking weak chemical bonds, vectored by photons of the electro-magnetic field."

"Those boys, you mean," Francesca stated. "I have seen them help a mare give a difficult birth and revive the colt from certain death. It takes more than superficial knowledge of organic chemistry to do that!"

"What do you mean, brought back from the dead?"

"The boys joined, well, touched the colt, glowed and brought the colt back from beyond the veil. Being a healer, I knew the colt was dead; he had not been breathing when he left the mare's uterus. That nails you good, Nestor?"

"You can say that again! I have never, ever, heard of people able to break the veil and come back with a life form!"

"You mentioned that teleportation required vast quantity of energy " enquired Samson.

"And also a vast information matrix! Let me see, there is an old formula, which relates energy to mass, or matter if you wish. Energy is equal to mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light, discovered about the time the Great Cataclysm began."

"Yes, I remember that, I am of Japanese origin, Nestor, and we were the first targets. It seems that to destroy a whole city took less than .6 grams of matter to wipe out the fabled city of Hiroshima. I do not know what this quantity of matter represents in today's units."

Paschal took a distant look, and in a voice that was not his, stated "0.021 ounces."

"What?" Nestor asked.

"Well, Yamato stated that it took .6 grams of matter to wipe Hiroshima, and it's like my brain immediately made the conversion, and came up with the answer, that is 0,021 ounces of matter."

"And who stated that relation between matter and energy?"

"Albert Einstein."

Nestor bleached. "Young man, you amaze me. Are you aware that this name is the most revered of our order? It is one of the greatest minds to ever grace this planet!"

"You forget Isaac Newton, Enrico Fermi, and Stephen Hawking. This is why we did not blink when you mentioned black holes. We know what they are."

"These names are inscribed in the Book of Secrets! You told them openly! It is a violation of our most sacred oath of secrecy!"

"Get off you high horse, mage! Do not start behaving like your son, or you might face a similar fate!" Harp thundered. "We took no such oath, and are therefore not bound by it!"

"I am forgetting my son here. Where is he?"

"We have him under guard, in the trees you see off to our left. Refresh yourselves, and eat your content, then we will bring you to him," Sitar replied. "However, whatever you might think, it is Harp's decision as to what will happen to him, no one else's. Your son tried to kill him twice, and that in itself justifies he renders justice as he sees fit."

Ferriday and Nestor looked at the diminutive Harp, trying to gauge the boy in front of them.

«If I were you, I would reconsider any stupid ideas!» came to their mind. «Size has no relevance to the use of magic, so my physical appearance is misleading.»

The two mages looked at each other, eyes wide as saucers, before sitting down to the table. Mage Nestor touched the wood of the bench softly, testing its consistence.

«I can make it of steel if you want. It will support your weight, and that of Ferriday as well.» Sitar commented, as he watched their moves.

The mages took their time eating, unsure as to the quality of the food on the table.

"Don't worry, I won't create things you can't eat. After all, I'll be eating it too, from now on, it seems!" Harp said.

"Anyways, I suspect that your stint as food creator will be short-lived, Harp. We will take turns doing it, until dad and Samson learn to trust themselves!" added Enron.

Once the food had been consumed and the mages had their fill, along with Harp, who had a second supper just to prove that the food was edible, they moved off towards the fir trees that hid Marlin and his wolf guards. As the party left the table, the food vanished in a flash of light.

"Where did the food go?"

"Oh, I distributed the meat to our allies the wolves, and, as far as the vegetables and fruits are concerned, I dispersed it in the forest for the benefit of rabbits and other vegetarians. The seeds were dispersed as well, to help create fruit trees, if birds do not eat them before they germinate. I see no reason to destroy what I created."

"Are you aware, Prince Harp, that you talk and act like those gods of old?" Nestor asked.

"So? They falsely claimed what we realized! Now, get moving! All this work is making me hungry again!"

***

The entire group walked towards the thick clump of firs, to be met by Greywolf and Blackie Dog.

«Ah, King of the Wolves, Princes, he is agitated. I think he is conscious of where he is, and afraid he will be left here. Fear permeates his body and is making him a very tempting sausage link!»

«I can smell it too, my friend. I do not recommend he be made into food. Having been at the top of the food chain for so long, he has collected a vast amount of heavy metals and toxins in his body; furthermore, the fear is adding quite a lot right now as a defence mechanism to make him even less palatable.»

«King of the wolves, King Harold? When I heard that report, I just couldn't give credit to it! I wonder how many mistakes I made in this affair!»

«Quite a lot, I would wager, Nestor. Do I need to give you an exhaustive list, starting with selecting your son for that mission?»

«No, thank you. We could stay here until prime, and the list wouldn't be exhausted. Can I see and talk to my son, please?»

«Harp, he is your prisoner, therefore you have full control in these circumstances.»

«Thank you, dad.»

Harp moved closer to Marlin, and a bluish-white light gradually appeared at the tip of the battle staff, bringing it to the attention of the two older mages. In a few minutes, the light was as intense as the sun at sext on a clear day, than it diminished to a more comfortable level.

«Show off!» Sitar told Harp, to which the boy pulled a tongue.

"You have visitors, Marlin," said Harp, as, with a flick of his fingers, the blindfold and gag that had been applied to the mage vanished soundlessly, to the astonishment of Nestor and Ferriday. It took mightily fine control to be able to do that without tearing the head off in the process, or burning it beyond recognition! And that boy had done it as if it was nothing, like he took a step, or drank a cup of water, without even the use of a wand to focus the energy. Only master mages could do wand-less magic, and never with that level of precision. And Harp was looking at them, flicking his tongue out, laughter in his face and his eyes! He was laughing at them!

Marlin's eyes gradually adjusted to the light, and he looked around. Finally, his eyes came to rest on his dad and his supervisor, Ferriday. He said nothing, waiting for the inevitable questions.

"Well, son, you made a fool of yourself this time. What I cannot understand is why you acted the way you did. All you had to do was find the source of the disturbance, and once found, to track it! What in the world took to you to try anything against that vast amount of power? You were told that it was powerful, and that it resonated in magic space for weeks, months. Even simple logic should have told you the extensiveness of that power given the huge distance it covered. The shockwaves circumnavigated the planet, Marlin! They rebounded off the surface of the moon! How much power must there be in an event for you to start thinking before acting?"

Marlin stayed silent, defiantly looking at his dad.

"I see what it is, Nestor," Harp stated. "He is rebellious towards authority. I may be prone to practice pranks, but I show respect towards mom and dad, and my brothers. I even show respect towards those that have vowed to be at our service. Your son, on the other hand, seems to be a self-serving belly button!"

"Ah, you changed your focus of attention, Harp?" Sitar asked.

"No, it's simply that he is sitting on it. I could flip him over?"

"Don't bother! I think he needs another diaper!" Paschal commented. "He is worse than Ian!"

"Back to answering your dad's questions, Nestor. You will answer to all questions immediately and truthfully!" commanded Harp, using the voice that had so badly failed Marlin at his first attempt to take control. "See, fool, I learn fast! I did not know that voice of control until you tried it on me, but I gave it some thought afterwards, and noticed its power resided in the proper use of inflections, but that you were a poor user of its true power. Feel its grip to your bowels when it is used properly!"

"He is yours, Nestor. Try to keep the questions simple and clear or you might learn things you do not need to know for my decision to be clear. I, for one, do not need to ask, I have siphoned his memories from his first diaper change onward. His mind is divided in two big parts: the front of the store that you see, and the cesspool in which he bathes his ambitions."

"I felt nothing!"

"Ah, I thought the sabre tooth lions had taken a liking to your tongue! No, you felt nothing, because I wanted it to be like that. You have been way too busy fighting the physical discomfort of riding a horse on your belly, dangling on each side, to worry about all these memories that kept coming to the surface! Sometimes, I found things that, had I not promised Ferriday to keep you alive until your dad had a chance to talk to us, would have had you executed on the spot. Your son is at your disposal; for once light will shine in his mind and no dark corner shall survive. Nothing will be secret to us, and his innermost desires, his longings, his ambitions, and his private perversions, little or big, shall be visible for all to see as if he was nude on the beach at sext!"

"Son, what was your goal?"

"To replace you! For that I needed power, and had I succeeded, I would have had two of the most potent blades ever created at my disposal, Mitsuko and Excalibur!"

"Why didn't you wait until you had your chance at getting promoted?"

"Because I had none! Had it not been that I am your son, I would never have been promoted to master, and I know it as well as you! Whatever your influence, it stops at the level I have reached. I cannot even consider earning the Grand Master title without cheating! And I want what you have, at all costs, by whatever means necessary."

"Even serving the dark side?"

"I am serving the dark side! How else do you think I managed to get what I have?"

"What would you have done had you succeeded?"

"Make the order serve the dark side! I would have earned the right to rule both light and dark!"

"Are you aware that serving the dark side is an enslavement to Evil? That everything offered is but illusion? That, in the end, all you would have gotten is a one-way trip to a nightmare, not a dream?"

"Maybe so, but you are enslaved to Light! I made my choice! I want power, and I will get it!"

"What have you done to merit of the dark, since you think that this contract will be honoured?"

"Nestor, I think I'll dump the contents of my perusing your son's mind into your memory. That will be a lot faster than waiting for him to pull out of the bag all the vicious things he did for the past two thousand years. Ferriday, do you want to have the dump as well? Ultimately, when the council of the light meets, it might be good that you can testify to the rightfulness of the decision I took already. Be aware you will need a puke bucket, both of you."

"I am responsible for Marlin. I need to hear it all."

"You will hear, taste, feel, see, and even experience what that scum bag felt. You want to see corruption? You will see corruption." With that, Harp materialized a small table, a pitcher of water with ice, two glasses, and two buckets. "You will need that to sit down, the water to rinse the foul taste in your mouth, and the buckets to puke in. Please be seated, and put the buckets between your legs, on the forest floor."

The two mages sat down and did as Harp had asked, shaking.

"Ready? I will dump direct from his memory to yours, in a continuous data stream. Marlin, no use trying to resist, the compelling spell works as well with your thought process as with your mouth. In fact it is the basis of the spell. Mages, it will be unfiltered. I will start from his first memory and dump everything. You will relive his life as he lived it, everything he remembers, how he saw things, how he interpreted the events."

"How long will that take?"

"About until matins, somewhere around two hours. You will have a searing headache when we're done, but I will ease the pain afterwards, to help you integrate the information. As for you, Marlin, you will have to live with it, I am in no mood to ease anything for you!"

"Proceed."

"Then relax, Nestor, if you tense up at the beginning the pain will be unbearable."

"Thank you for the information. Give us a few minutes to do some breathing exercises."

"Ah, yoga. That is an interesting means of control, but you should practice chakra, and meridian control as well."

"We have heard of these, but so much was lost!"

"Francesca told us the same thing when we controlled the mare's birthing pains."

It took about ten minutes for the two mages to nod towards Harp, and the dump to begin. At first, Harp limited the bandwidth in order to test the mages' capacities, and gradually increased it to where he noticed that Ferriday, who had a narrower width than Nestor, was losing data. He backtracked so that Ferriday would get the missing data and slowed down the transfer to Nestor, until both men were again in step. After that data was transferred at maximum sustainable speed for Ferriday. It took until lauds to complete the transfer, some three hours longer than expected. By then Marlin was begging for the transfer to stop, writhing in his bounds from the excruciating pain he was feeling. The buckets had been filled by the mages, twice, and replaced. The two men were weak, trembling all over and ashen. Nestor was openly crying, big sobs of despair and pain racking his body.

Nestor's voice could be heard saying repeatedly "What have I done? How could I have been so blind?"

Harp moved towards Nestor and touched him gently on the cheek to get his attention.

"Nestor, do not blame yourself, you could not know what your son thought, what future lay ahead for him. You practiced respect for your son's privacy, and refused to invade his thoughts to learn what was happening behind these apparently candid eyes of his. You are of the Light, Nestor, truly of the Light, and that is your most serious weakness and your most beautiful strength. You love your son dearly, and he seems to be able to only love himself. I say seem, because you certainly noticed he despises himself as much as he does you. This is Darkness in its most subtle gift."

Turning towards thee grey figure of Ferriday, Harp continued.

"Ferriday, do not blame yourself either. He fooled his own dad. Nestor is a whole magnitude ahead of you in power, and yet he was blindsided by his son. I admit it was filial love that did most of the blinding, but yet, Marlin did his best to fester the blindness."

"You are kind, young man, but we must accept responsibility for our failures."

"I know, Ferriday, but do not make the mistake of overburdening yourself with guilt. Accept responsibility for what you should have seen, for what you could have changed, and accept what you could not see or change. Please show the sagacity of your status in the Order of the Light, mages, and apply it to recognizing the differences between the two sets of events and facts."

"We understand your viewpoint. You talk like some of our greatest, most renowned philosophers. We accept your advice, Prince Harp. Now, what will happen to my son?"

"Initially, before meeting you, I had intended to simply kill him and disperse his body components in the atmosphere. However, finding I am faced with a grieving dad and a shocked supervisor, I have been giving thought to this decision as we reviewed your son's past actions."

"I would understand your decision, Prince Harp, and support it, however hard this may be on me!"

"Nestor, you love your son, and I know you would have loved him even if he had not been a mage. This is what gave me the idea."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I will remove his magic core. It will be unpleasant for him, very unpleasant, but he will no longer have any capacity as mage. I thought of keeping the core locked in, as it is now, but who knows, some mal intentioned mage might unlock it and release the beast within. I cannot take that risk."

"Won't it leave him open to the evilness that has permeated his being?"

"In a way, yes, but that evilness has invested a lot of its power in taking control of your son's core. By removing the core and dispersing it, I will also be removing a lot of power from that evil entity. It will get out of this severely weakened."

"Won't it be able to escape during the process?"

"It has been trying to escape the containment field that has confined your son's power for the past days. The amount of energy it has expanded in trying to break the field would blow the planet out of orbit if it was released in a focalized, directional manner. I plan another method of dispersal."

"Dad! Don't let him do it! It will kill me! Please!"

"Son, I have no say in this. You made your own bed, now you have to sleep in it."

Another, very harsh voice, took over Mage Marlin's body and voice box.

"If you think you can destroy me, princelings, try again! I have yet to use my true powers! You will join me in the Dark! I swear to the Void that is my true Master, you will be destroyed!"

"You have been trying to escape my bounds, and I, alone, set them in place. Can you really think you will be able to do better? Have a try!"

The evil entity inhabiting Marlin did try; the harder it tried, the tighter the bounds became, the stronger their strength.

"I wonder how you do it, boy? You do not even seem to be working up a sweat, and that entity would give my entire Order a run for his money!"

"I'll explain when we're done disposing of the garbage. Brothers, dads, let's form a circle of confinement."

"Yes. Harp. How do you want it?"

"Oh, simple and straightforward. Let's move towards that clearing first. I'll carry mage Marlin there, he is a bit tied up!"

Marlin's body rose above ground to about shoulder-level for Harp and began following him as if it had a leash tied to the left foot.

"The more I see, the more speechless I grow!"

"Nestor, it's only telekinesis. It was first applied to Marlin by Harp when the mage tried to assault him the first time, and then when it came time to bring the man to reason in the dungeon. What is so strange about it?"

"Oh, so many things, you have no idea! First, he didn't say any complicated formulas to get the levitation or the telekinesis to start; second, he didn't even move his hands to direct or focus the energy, much less use a wand; third, the quality of control I see is such that even I can't match it. "

"And Nestor is missing the less obvious. Nestor, there was no noise! We are less than three feet from the event, and I did not even feel a ripple in magic space! Look at the fabric of magic space, of time and space! It is as if your son wasn't there! He is there, but the curvature of space-time is flat, totally flat! I see yours, I even see mine, but, for a reason I cannot fathom, your son's body doesn't curve space anymore!"

"So? Isn't levitation the suppression of space-time curvature?" Paschal asked. "As for the effects on magic space, it is folded, in the other four dimensions, constrained. What you see as the matrix is simply lines of folded force fields. For now, the magic is contained within a tiny strand of the field, a string. We make it resonate to our needs, and the shorter the string, the lesser the footprint, and also the lesser the energy we need to expand."

The two mages looked at Paschal, wide-eyed.

"String theory of magic! Applied! That trip is worth all the back pains I will get from falling on my ass when I got materialized here!"

"Don't worry, we'll fix you up before sending you back!" Enron told Nestor.

The party reached the center of the clearing, and the royals encircled Marlin, who had been spewing invectives and curses for all to hear. By then, too, the containment field was glowing bluish hot, as the entity within Marlin tried to escape at all costs its impending fate. Everyone looked at Harp, waiting on his directives.

"OK, Williams, Dunbar, stand between Samson and Harold; Sitar, to my left; Paschal, to my right, and Enron, between Samson and Sitar."

"Where will we stand?" Nestor asked.

"The two of you would create weak links in the confinement; please turn your back and look outside. The light will be too intense for your eyes, and you would be blinded. Equines! Canines! Elves! Men! Obey this order! Do not look at us while we do this or your will be blinded for life!"

The use of the voice had its desired effect as every living life form turned their back away from the circle, for well over five miles. No bird, no rodent, no reptile, not even the fish in the rivers could escape the strength of the command. It resonated through magic and physical space like a whip. Even the worms took shelter. However hard Nestor tried to break the compulsion, he was of stone and found himself looking at a squirrel's back, merely a foot from his face.

"Take the hands of those near you to complete the circle."

"Well, son, I was almost tempted to turn when you gave that command. Strangely, it passed. Won't we be blinded?"

"No, dad, we will see darkness, but those outside will see light brighter than the sun. We will see Darkness, Evil; they will see Light. We are the walls separating the two, the confinement. Are you all holding hands? Yes. Do not break the circle under any consideration. If you feel like puking, now is the time? No? Let's proceed."

Harp took a breath, and resumed his explanation.

"I will begin chanting the confinement. I have organized the circle in such a way that our voices go from my boyish to the tenor that is characteristic of your voices, as adult male. The baritone voice of Williams will complete the circle. Each of us will sing the same song; I, first, then Paschal, followed by Enron, Sitar, Samson, Dunbar, dad, and finally Williams. We will create a resonance in magic space, a sort of black hole of magic, and then I will bridge Marlin's core to the black hole; the core will be siphoned off, I hope cleanly, leaving an empty, but living shell. Ready?"

Everyone nodded.

"Let the Magic dance begin, circles of confinement ring, strings of power sing! We call on magic space, to fold and enlace, with its ropes forever spin with grace! Prison to magic, gain power from within, shield the world from your contents, reject light, and attract darkness! Within your core confine evilness of intent, imprison the core of magic to fuel your existence, until such time that none is left! Bonds straighten by resistance; gain power from the pressure within! So mote it be!"

As Harp stopped singing, a reddish sphere appeared around Marlin, and a powerful cry of despair escaped his contorted mouth.

"No! No! NO! Please, No!"

As each in turn sang the confinement song, the sphere expanded and reached the group, sending shivers of cold through their body. The darkness within grew to the point nothing could be seen of Mage Marlin. Even his cries gradually dampened as if he was far away or speaking through cotton. From the outside, things took a different look. As the sphere expanded, it grew ever brighter, reaching such intensity that it could be compared to the flash of Creation itself. Shadows themselves ran away. The intensity reached its peak as Williams finished his part of the confinement song.

"Let there be a string to join the core and the Void! Open a bridge to passage, drain all there is to drain, let there be not a spark of magic left in that pustule!" ordered Harp, in an icy voice that would have turned the sun's ovens cold had it been directed at its core.

The blue-white string that sprung from the mage's body to the core of the spinning magic black hole would have blinded everyone had Harp not wrapped it in a secondary confinement funnel. The flow of the mage's core inflated the string to a thick rope, as the contents traveled from its prior confinement to its new, eternal, prison. As the mage's core traveled, the bluish hue traveled the whole spectrum of colors, going back to the deep infrared end of the spectra. The process took less than five minutes to complete before the light began to reappear along the string and followed the reverse process, going from red to blue white.

"Show me Marlin's residual magic!" ordered Harp.

None showed within the now empty shell of Marlin, no longer mage.

"Let the bridge be ruptured, the string fold, the gate be shut!"

At Harp's command, the bluish line of force faded, broke with a resounding sound within magic space and folded back into its original virtual dot size.

"Let the sphere of magic close on itself, imprisoning its contents forever!"

The sphere collapsed to a virtual point no longer visible within physical space, but detectable as a distortion in the lines of the magic grid.

"Banned you are! Forever banned from this universe and all universes! No rest shall you find, no peace shall you earn! No home shall you find! Forever errant, forever rejected, forever unwelcome, until no universe are left or nothing of you subsists! Be gone! Now!"

The new world which contained the evil entity and Marlin's core slowly started to leave, climbing vertically towards the stars and gaining speed as it was pushed away by the Universe itself, a reject, to be expelled as fast as possible. As it gained speed, it broke the sound barrier, which everyone heard, then the light barrier, which everyone saw as a flash of bluish light rapidly fading towards the red as it moved away.

"We can now release the confinement ring. There is nothing left to confine. The energy is within the new universe we created. We need only let our hands go."

Everyone did as Harp said and sat down on the ground, tired from the ordeal. Marlin's body slowly drifted to earth, resting on the seared leafs and grass of the confinement circle.

"Can we look, now?" asked Nestor.

"Certainly. I suggest you go see your son."

Nestor moved to his son, and sat beside him, holding his head on his lap, crying, tear drops falling on Marlin's face. Marlin's face looked peaceful, almost childish, as if the removal of the core had given him a new life.

"Why does he look so restful?"

"The lines you remember in the face of your son were those of ambition, of greed, of viciousness. He has recovered his innocence; the issue is that he will forever be innocent, never be a grown man. You have a perpetual child as a son, Nestor. I am sorry it had to go this far, but the evilness permeated the very fabric of your son, inside and out; when I removed it, I removed most of what made Marlin who he was. What you have left is an empty shell. He will remember his name, how to speak, to take care of himself, but that will be about all; he will also remember you are his dad, but not how you two interacted. You have a unique opportunity here, Nestor. Do not repeat the mistakes you did while raising the first version of your son. I also erased the memory of the pain he experienced during the extraction of his magic core."

"Several questions remain unanswered, Prince Harp. May I ask them?"

"Certainly, you can ask, Ferriday, but I reserve the right to keep the answer to myself."

"That is acceptable. First question, then. Why did you expand on your plans within earshot of Marlin?"

"So the entity would desperately try to fight against it. The more it tried to escape, the less it put into thinking. When I opened the string bridge to the magic black hole, it did not balk, such was its panic it saw it as an opportunity to escape. It totally ignored where that weak point led, it took the bait, hook, line, and sinker."

"Acceptable, and it worked. Next question, why didn't you destroy the evil entity?"

"For a question of balance. There is such a thing as conservation of greyness. If I had destroyed that evil entity, there would have been imbalance and good would have taken the same road. By confining it, I maintained the balance; the fact that the evilness is confined is a much less dramatic departure from equilibrium than flat out destruction. Remember the need to conserve mass, energy, polarity, and other elements of basic physics; it also applies to good and evil; it applies to magic too, by the way."

"I don't fully understand, but I will probably have the opportunity to discuss this later; next question. Did you see who possessed Marlin?"

"Yes. It is an extension of what I just told you. There is an Order of the Light; there is also an Order of the Dark; it just lost its Great Grand Master. There will be an ugly fight for the position within that organization, I suspect. If the fight for the Throne of Nature was ugly, it was a walk within a flower field compared to what these people will do to each other."

"Won't that create imbalance?"

"Not really; each time someone dies, the potential is dispersed, not destroyed. It is conserved."

"What will happen to my counterpart?" Nestor asked.

"He will be killed, most likely. I do not care much about that. We have our own issues."

"What will happen to that world you created?"

"It is now traveling towards the edge of the Universe, folded on itself. As it travels it collects evilness and increases in size slightly; each time it adds another evil entity to itself, its attractive power increases for its kind, and it rejects light. The entities within will be unable to merge, too focussed on their own needs. Hell did not exist; I created it. It will dissolve to nothingness the day there is nothing to confine within because it draws the energy for its existence from within. The energy dissipates along the axis of rotation; the lower the mass, the slower the dissipation rate. By dispersing it within inter-universe space, it will prevent the emergence of a cohesive entity any time soon."

"Well, that covers the essentials. What now?"

"How about we eat something? It's prime, and the sun is getting up. Nestor, your son will probably like some child food. He has returned to somewhere around four years old."

Everyone moved back to the table that had been used the previous evening, to find it filled with food.

"I hope I didn't forget anything."

"It looks complete, Paschal. Have you fed our canine and equine allies?"

"I took care of that myself, Harp," replied Sitar.

"Ok, sit down, gentlemen. Dad, what would you like to have?"

"I have all I need right within reach; even some fresh water."

"While we are eating, could we look at Excalibur, please? I have dreamed of holding that blade in my hands ever since I read of its story."

"Certainly, Nestor. Here it is!" Harold replied. The fabled blade appeared on the table right besides the mage, who took it reverently in his hands.

"Would you like to have a look at Mitsuko?"

"Yes, I would, but I will not touch it. I feel too impure to dare touch that blade, prince Harp."

Again, to the amazement of the mages, the blade appeared right beside Nestor, who deposited Excalibur on the table to have a closer look at Mitsuko.

"This artefact is truly amazing. It is so old, yet as sharp as a new blade!"

"You have no idea how old it is, Nestor. I read the date on the blade, and it predates the Cataclysm by such a long time its origins fade into the history of my country, to the beginning of the Edo period."

The statement brought a long whistle call from both mages.

"Next, Harp, may I examine the battle staff you seem to handle so lightly?"

"Sure, Nestor. I like it! It's so light, and sturdy!" Harp placed the staff across the table and sat back down to resume eating.

"I wonder where you put all that food?" asked Ferriday.

"I have been asking myself the same question ever since he raided the royal kitchen!" commented Samson. "However, I can tell you he has stiff competition from his two brothers, and my son Enron."

"You said this staff is light, Prince Harp, but I can't even lift it off the table using both hands!"

"You are too old, maybe?"

"I don't think it's a question of age, prince. It's actively blocking me from moving it. Can I enlist your help in examining the staff?"

"Certainly. Let me sit by you. Dad, can you take my place?"

The two quickly exchanged position around the table, and Harp took the staff, and lifted it with his tiny left hand.

Nestor began examining the staff in detail, and found some writing at its head, which intrigued him. Using mage sight, he then examined the staff's composition, whistling a couple of times.

"This battle stave is remarkable, young man. Where did you find it?"

"It came with dad."

"Dad?"

"King Harold, if you prefer."

"And where did you find it, King Harold?"

"I did not find it, as you say; during my travel along the road of apprenticeship, I came to the help of an old man, and I stayed at his place for a few months, taking care of him until he died. The day of his death, he said something to the effect that I would need a battle staff one day, and to look under his bed for his. I did as told, and his last words were in a strange language, I had never heard before nor since."

"Did he tell you what he was saying?"

"Yes, he was ordering the staff to be mine and to my descendants."

"Ordering?"

"Yes, he talked to the staff, and it glowed when he was done with it."

"What happened after that?"

"He died a few minutes later. He told me the name of the staff, and expired."

"And what was that name?"

"Draiocht siúl bata."

"That is Gaelic, old Irish Gaelic, at that. It means Magic Walking Stick. It tells us where it comes from but not the name or the original owner."

"Why are you so interested in the original owner's name?" Harp wondered.

"Because of its composition. First, its core is a composite: it is made of oak, striated with ironwood, and it contains a feather, the feather of a roc. Do you know what a roc is?"

"A rook, or roc, is a giant bird that went extinct at around the time of King Arthur. According to my memory, the last roc, a male of flame-red feathers, died even if mage Merlin tried to save it from the hunters of magic artefacts. It dates around 1100 A.D., some five hundred years before Mitsuko got forged."

The two mages looked at each other, awed again by the depth of knowledge shown by the princes.

"How did you know that, Prince Sitar?"

"As Harp once told Marlin, we are one with the Wolf conscience; it has been around and kept abreast of a lot of events which the individualistic nature of humans has deprived the two-legged of. Merlin was accompanied by one of ours. When you mentioned the roc, the memory came to the surface and played for us to see."

"What else do you know about this staff?"

"It was made by magic. The embedding of the ironwood script found within the oak was done using the roc feather now found at its core, using human blood to write the words; the mage's blood itself. It is warped in mithril, and has a condenser at its lower end to accumulate magic as the mage travels. The condenser is made of alternating thin sheets of pure gold and graphite, a type of coal."

"Is that all?"

"No, there is a type of material that acts as isolator; it is amorphous, and it was named porcelain by the Ancients. The wolf's head that is the handle is the portrait of the wolf that accompanied the owner."

"Remarkable, I had a headache just trying to figure out what was in that staff and you describe it as a toy."

"It's far from a toy. It even has a strand of magic imprisoned between the tip of the roc feather and the condenser. The string vibrates to the user's magic core, and will only do so properly for rightful owners, otherwise it creates infinite inertia. That is why you couldn't lift it, Nestor."

"Can you tell me anything about the writing?"

"They are Viking runes."

"Viking runes? But that is impossible."

"Why is that?"

"Because the only Viking member of our order at the time of King Arthur was Merlin! He founded the Order, stayed around for a while, until we were well on our way to being self-sufficient, and left, with his staff."

Mage Merlin's Walking Stick (segment)

"Are you telling me the man I met was Merlin? That would have put the old man at, what, at least eight thousand years old, give or take a few hundred!"

"Did he have a characteristic that stuck you, when you took care of him?"

"You mean, apart from looking like he was dried out? He had an ugly mark on his left shoulder, like some giant claw had pierced him right through, well, three holes in the front and a single hole in the back. Why?"

"Then you did meet Merlin, King Harold. That was the mark of the roc; the puncture holes were those of the bird's talons, in its death. After dispensing death to the hunters, Merlin tried to salvage the roc, and got too close. Prince Harp, you have inherited, by the good will of your dad, of Mage Merlin's stick. Be proud, be honoured, and be careful of its use."

"We have inherited, you mean. Not only can I use it, but so does Paschal and Sitar. We each exercise in turn with it during battle. Enron too, and yet he is not directly related to Harold, except by the vow of fealty."

"All this is very interesting, but we are nearing departure time for our next stretch to the border of Ultrech with Frieburg. Do you wish to accompany us?"

"No, if I could be sent back to the college, with my son, I would greatly appreciate it. However, I would like to attach Ferriday as ambassador of the Order of the Light to your royal suite, King Harold?"

"I wouldn't mind, but shouldn't you ask Ferriday what he thinks of the idea first?"

"I would gladly accept the post of ambassador to your court, your Majesty. Nestor, would you please inform my family of my whereabouts?"

"Certainly. I will do so as soon as I am back on the college campus. I am ready to leave at the discretion of Prince Enron, since he is assigned taxi service?"

"Where do you want to land? You have the choice of: your office chair, your bathtub full of water, the pool, the cactus patch."

"Let me stand up first! Then I'll tell you. One bumpy ride is enough for me!"

Nestor quickly evacuated the table bench and looked at Enron. "How about the Grand Hallway of the College, just about in front of that lazy night guard I have been trying to catch sleeping on his job for the past three years? Can it be noiseless, no fancy light and stuff? I want to be able to shake him awake by my own means!"

"Could it be that meanness is contagious? You have been sitting beside me too long, Nestor!"

"Prince Harp, I wish I could have you as grandson. It is very refreshing to see you at work. Please be well, all of you."

As Nestor was being teleported back to the college by Enron, he thought he heard Harp say to his taxi driver something like "You better not be mean to grandpa!"

Grandpa That sounds so nice, thought Nestor as he materialized gently in the Hallway, to the snoring of the guard.