‘She might have been lying to you, Aquitain. Everyone lies toeveryone about everything here. Nobody knows what is true or false.It’s layer upon layer of deception.’ she replied.
‘Yes I know. That’s what Granddad told me many times. I didn’tbelieve it before but I do now. But we all have to trust somepeople some of the time.’
‘You trust me don’t you’ said Miranda suddenlyworried.
‘Yes of course but I don’t trust your goddess. I hope that shedoesn’t force you to choose between her and me.’
‘So do I my love.’ she agreed.
‘I don’t care if you are half dragon. I still love you! Do youknow why? You know that I’m a Llanllean and you’d hardly call thatordinary. Most Newmans would already call me a monster. My creaturefriend Slivver is a psychic parasite, another monster and our childis a monster as well. We’re all monsters.’
‘The Lady taught me to love all creatures great and small andI never realized how important that was until a wise bear taught methat it’s not what we are but what we do that counts in this world.I don’t know why this has happened to us but I do know that whilewe love and trust each other then we will have a chance tosurvive.’
‘You’re quite right my love.’ replied Aquitain. ‘We havealready done the most extraordinary things and I’m afraid there’sno stopping now. Unfortunately, I think that we’re going to have tosplit up again for a little while.’
‘No! No! I won’t go! Every time I leave you we get intotrouble.’ she cried. ‘I want to be with you. I don’t want to loseyou again.’
‘Miranda, it’s not just you and me anymore. We have toconsider Tigerlilly. She’s a part of us and very vulnerable. I wantyou to take her to somewhere where she will be truly safe. I wantyou to find your nanny and ask her to hide, protect and raiseTigerlilly in our absence. We need to also tell our friends what ishappening so that they are prepared and can help us. Then you and Iwill face our enemies together.’
Mirandaconsidered what Aquitain had said for a while.
‘I suppose you’re right. I’m already worried about Tigerlilly.I’ll do it as long as you promise not to go doing anything foolishwhile I’m away.’ she replied. ‘I’ll be really annoyed if you dieagain!’
‘I can assure you I have plenty of planning to do before I doanything else and I will not try to get killed again or do anythingwhich you might consider foolish.’ he replied.
Miranda smiledand said. ‘I’ve got a feeling that what you and I think is foolishis quite different, however, I’ll give you the benefit of thedoubt. Is there anything else you would like me to do?’
Aquitainexplained to her what he wanted her to do and while she wasn’thappy about parting, she had to agree that it was a logical courseof action. While she was absent Aquitain would remain and try towork out what was wrong at Astaria and work out a plan to recaptureit. He also suggested to Bellen that he return as the Trixies wereworried about him.
Once Mirandaand Bellen had left Aquitain had to decide what to do first. Thereseemed to be so many competing priorities he wasn’t quite surewhere to start. He decided to meditate at least that would calm hismind a little and allow him to consider the problems and possiblesolutions in a logical fashion. After half an hour a plan began toform.
‘I want to learn how to create arenas in people’s minds.’ hesaid to Franciscus. ‘It could be useful.’
‘Ah. The gatekeeper wants something from me,’ he said. ‘Icannot just give valuable knowledge like this away for nothing butI might be willing to trade with you for it.’
‘Okay. What do want?’ asked Aquitain patiently.
‘I want out of here. I want a body so that I can leave thisplace far behind. I want my life back again. What else would asentient book want?’
Aquitainthought about this for a minute and then said.
‘Okay. I agree, however, I obviously can’t get you a body hereand now but as soon as I can recapture Astaria I will either getyou a new body or build you one and free you from thebook.’
‘Really.’ said the book a little surprised. ‘Okay when youfree me I’ll teach you the power.’
‘Not so fast.’ said Aquitain. ‘I’m likely to need the power asa part of a plan to capture Astaria. So I’ll need you to teach methe power first.’
Franciscusthought about this for a minute then said.
‘I’ll agree if you’ll swear a wizard’s oath that you will freeme at the first opportunity after you capture Astaria.’
Aquitainagreed, swore the oath and Franciscus explained how the powerworked and the theory behind it.
The power was avery high level one similar to the maze powers which could normallyonly be understood by high-level wizards with considerableknowledge of magic behaviour and plenty of magic essence at theirdisposal.
The classicmaze effect caused the victim to be teleported to an illusory mazewhich took them several minutes to find their way out. This wasoften used to temporarily remove difficult opposition during afight. By the time they returned the fight was over.
Another versionwas the one used on Granite where only the victims mind was in themaze. In this version if the mind couldn’t find a way out, thevictim’s body starved to death. The arena power was much like thisone involving a small simple area rather than a complex maze. Itwas as Aquitain had expected a special type of double power,involving a complex interaction of domination and illusion typepower effects.
The power usedthe principles of domination which were usually applied to capturethe other person’s mind but rather than controlling it and forcingthem to do things against their will, the effect forced them onlyto see themselves as part of an illusion, the arena. Their mindsbecame illusory avatar bodies. They still had free will inside theillusion and of course that gave them the ability to
