‘Well are you happynow.’ she asked.
‘OK, you win.’ hereplied. ‘I will declare my blood fealty to you but if you arelying to me about Miranda then it’s on your head.’
‘Don’t be so dramatic,my little spiderling.’ said Llanlorian. ‘Every word I’ve told youis the truth and you’ve more to hear which may change yourperspective a lot.’
‘What do I have todo?’
‘First we cut yourfinger.’ said Llanlorian as she took his right hand and pulled outa small jewelled knife. ‘Then we collect a small sample of youblood.’
She cut his finger anda small bottle appeared in her hand to collect it. She then wipedthe cut with her finger and it healed.
‘Now you swear an oathof fealty to me.’ She talked in a language he didn’t understand.‘Now you say. I swear by my blood and my life, fealty to my liegeLady Llanlorian, I will honour and obey her, I will serve andprotect her and never consciously take action to harm or obstructher will in any way.’
He took the oath.There was a surge of magic but he felt nothing more.
‘Now you will become acitizen of this gateworld.’ she said.
‘Say after me, I swearto honour the laws of Astaria. As its servant I will always striveto keep Astaria in fair condition, I will take no action to damageAstaria and I will be impartial as to who uses it. I renounce allother worlds. I wish to become one with the Astaria.’
He swore the gateworldoath and felt another surge of magic and a passed out.
While he wasunconscious Llanlorian carried out another ritual over his inertbody and placed a small parasite on his back which blended in likea chameleon.
Chapter 17 Welcome toAstaria
‘Welcome to Astaria! You have been reborn. You mayfeel different as your guardian has left to help your father?’stated Llanlorian.
‘I felt alittle dizzy at first but now I feel quite all right, thank you,err … how do you wish me to address you?
‘You may callme, your Liege.’
Thank you, myLiege.’ replied Aquitain but he was worried something in his mindhad changed and he wasn’t sure whether it was for the beneficial ordetrimental.
‘You are fullof surprises. All of the others that I have acclimatized to Astariawere violently ill, in some cases for days. Is your sourceintact?’
Aquitain lookedinternally as usual and was very surprised at what he saw. Thecapacity of his source was larger. It was about twice the capacitythat it was before. After he had a rested and meditated he wouldhave more power than he had ever imagined. The problem was ofcourse that he hadn’t learnt any new powers yet so from some pointsof view more power wasn’t greatly useful at the moment.
‘I’ve got alarger source than before, my Liege.’ he said still not believingthat it would or could fill to its new capacity.
‘Hmm … yes Ican see that. I thought that might happen. Something or somebodywas blocking or restricting the size of your source before and whenyou became Astarian all the blocks were removed. Let’s see whatelse you can do. Who is presently in our gate world?’ sheasked.
Aquitain couldsee the spirit auras of a number of creatures. He was mindlinked tothem.
‘I can see you,a gnome, a cat, six constructs and a few … rats, my liege.’
‘Good. Now howmany can you see outside the gate.’
‘I can vaguelysee the spirit auras of several newmans and some animals on theMudrun side and a lot of Elendari on the Moonmist side.’
‘Excellent.’she replied. ‘You will get even better at detecting people outsidewith a bit more experience.’
‘Wait. We havemore than two gates. We have … several gates but I can’t seeanything outside them.’
‘That isenough. Do not concern yourself with the other gates. They are myconcern alone.
‘As you wish,my Liege. I assume that I may use the other two gates?’ he said butthought the opposite. He would make it a high priority to check outwhere the other gates went.
‘Yes you maycome and go to Mudrun or Moonmist as necessary. The gates will openand close on your mental command. They will also open on their ownaccord each full moon on or about midnight and stay open for up to5 days, depending upon traffic.’
‘Am Iunderstanding you correctly, my Liege? You inferred that I havecontrol of the gates.’
‘Yes, you arecorrect. You may open and close the gates to pathway one at will.Don’t abuse the privilege or I will take it away! If you please meI might consider giving you access to other powers that will workwithin Astaria.’
‘Thank you myLiege’ said Aquitain.
‘Is theresomewhere that I might sleep and store my belongings, my liege?’ hesaid becoming quite interested in the new arrangement.
‘Yes. There isa small village here. At one time it was occupied, but at presentno one resides here except Rat Catcher, Asterix and myself.’ saidLlanlorian.
‘You may pickany building you wish to live in, except mine of course, while youare here. However, I don’t expect you to get too settled as youwill want to go to Moonmist.’
‘Who isAsterix, my Liege?’
Suddenly awhite bearded gnome appeared in the room a few paces away.
‘You called, myliege.’
‘Aquitain, thisis Asterix. He looks after maintaining the gate equipment andbuildings. Asterix this is Aquitain. He is now a citizen of Astariaand has agreed to help us look after Astaria.’
‘Aquitain, youhave complete run of the place, except for my quarters. You mayonly enter them on my request. You have one hour to look around andfind somewhere to live then we will discuss your mission onMoonmist.’
‘Asterix, canyou please show Aquitain around and explain anything that he wishesto know about the place.’
Before Aquitaincould say another word she disappeared so he turned to Asterix andsaid
‘Nice to meetyou Asterix.’
Asterix lookedat Aquitain and said, ‘You must be crazy. Why would you want tolive here? Nothing happens from one year to the next. There’s noone to talk to and nothing to do but work. Let’s go, I’m busy, I’vegot too much work to do. Where do you want to go first?’
‘Lead on.’ saidAquitain.
‘Let’s go tothe village first.’
‘You’ll have tohold my hand while teleporting until you get your bearings.’ saidAsterix.
‘You canteleport anywhere within Astaria at will, that includes the twoactive paths
