‘Now let’s go down andsee the workshop, then I’ll find Senior Wizard Curbut and he’llhelp Zephira to settle in at the Barracks. There’s a small bedroomattached to the workshop. I suspect that Aquitain will feel morecomfortable there.’
‘What position doesSenior Wizard Curbut occupy?’ asked Zephira.
‘He’s my second incommand. Very little escapes his eyes or ears. Stay on his goodside and you’ll have no problems.’
‘The people seem tospeak good Galactic Trade Common here Your Excellency,’ saidAquitain, curious as to why that might be the case.
‘Really! They must bebeing polite to you as visitors. They generally speak what is knownas Mudrun Common, which is a mixture of several languages,reflecting the nature of the people here. They are basicallyrefugees from many troubled worlds, all with a past they wish toforget. I have been responsible for most of them coming here. Ihave met most of them personally and know of theirbackgrounds.’
‘I brought a mastertranslator crystal with me which can be used to both upgrade thecommon translator crystals and learn new language variations,’Aquitain said. ‘Are there any restrictions or problems about merecording the language variations?’
‘Thinking of makingsome gold out of us eh! Well I have no problem as long as you takeaccount of the sensitivities of the people. However, you shouldrealise that the population on Mudrun is only a few thousands ofpeople, and almost none of them would own or need a translatorcrystal. You might do better searching for the raw crystal, as Idon’t know of anyone that has actually looked for it onMudrun.’
‘Thank you, YourExcellency.’ replied Aquitain, thinking of the possibilities ofmaking a good profit while he was here.
Aquitain said littlebut thought a lot while he received instructions as to how to gainentry to the front door and the workshop two levels below ground.It was quite obvious that the High Wizard wanted to keep them closeat hand. Whether this was a good or a bad thing was yet to bedetermined. Perhaps he wanted to see if they could be trusted, orperhaps he had other ideas. They had little choice so he decided tocooperate, at least for the present.
The workshop seemedreasonably well equipped, although he wouldn’t know exactly untilhe had done an audit. The place also needed to be cleaned andreorganised to his taste. The small room off the workshop wasactually a safe room, equipped with a bed and some cupboards forclothes storage.
‘I’ll leave you to makethe place habitable and introduce Zephira to the officers of theguard. Beware of tricks,’ he warned, and teleported away withher.
Aquitain wasn’t sure heheard him quite correctly. What did ‘Beware of tricks’ mean? Hethought about it for a minute, concluding that he must havemisheard what the High Wizard had said, and decided to do somehousekeeping and get the workshop reorganised to hissatisfaction.
He walked around theroom mentally working out what needed to be moved to where, andtaking note of anything in excess, short or missing. He heard ascratching sound behind and turned to see a rat the size of a catpeering out at him from behind a bench. It didn’t worry him much asit couldn’t harm him, but it shouldn’t be in the room. He wouldhave to clear it out.
He went towards thecreature shouting ‘Shoo, shoo!’ and waving his arms to scare it.Rather than run it moved out in front of him and suddenly burstinto flames, which didn’t seem to affect it? He quickly tried toremember anything about flaming rats but nothing came to mind.Alpha his memcrystal was inside his body shell. He asked it whetherthere was any special knowledge about flaming rats. It replied thatthere was none.
‘Oh well,’ he thought‘It can’t be that dangerous.’ But he reached over and grabbed alength of iron rod just to be sure, and stepped forward to force itto leave. As he advanced it changed shape to a fiery dog with anevil look about it. The creature growled ferociously and steppedtowards him. He could see small puffs of flame coming out of itsmouth and the smell of sulphur was strong in the air. He askedAlpha about flaming dogs and this time Alpha had some information.There was a type of fire elemental that sometimes took the form ofa dog. It could breathe out a short plume of fire.
‘By the Powers, what’sgoing on here?’ he wondered as he glanced around and saw severalflammable items within the room. If they caught alight it couldcause quite a fire.
‘Maybe I can draw itout of the room into the short hallway, then perhaps I can club itmore safely,’ he thought, so he started backing away towards thedoor. The fiery dog stayed with him pace for pace, its eyes burninglike hot coals, its breath steamy with wisps of smoke rising offits burning coat.
He reached the doorwayand found there was no door handle. In fact the door haddisappeared and looked as if it had been bricked up. Had he been anewman he might have panicked at this stage, but his Logiconaltered mind started examining the logic of what was happening. Ittook only seconds to conclude that this whole event was highlyimprobable which meant he was being tricked. Then he recalled whatthe High Wizard had said and disbelieved that the fiery dog wasthere and the illusion shattered.
‘All right you had metricked for a moment show yourself!’ he said standing blocking thedoorway.
A large snake appearednear his feet and coiled up ready to strike him. ‘That won’t causeme any harm. My legs are made of metal and I’m immune to poisonanyway. Show yourself, I won’t hurt you!’
The snake vanished anda little red haired female gnome appeared a few paces in front ofhim. ‘Hurt me. Ha Ha. That would be the day. I’m much too fast forthe likes of you,’ she chuckled.
‘Who are you?’ askedAquitain.
‘I’m the High Wizard’sapprentice. Jaztrix Boonswoggle is my name and illusions are mygame. I also like riddles and practical jokes. You can call meJaz.’
‘I didn’t know that theHigh Wizard was interested in illusion magic,’ said Aquitain.
‘He’s a Battle wizard.He specialises in explosions, lightning, fireballs, massdestruction and all
