‘Once she removed the emerald from the small magicallyshielded area that it occupied then the voice introduced itself toher and she began chatting with it. I suspect the removal of thegem from its alcove must have set off some type of magic alarm as awizard appeared claiming the gem. She refused to give it to him andtried to fight him but he killed her and took it.’
‘I arrived just as he was teleporting away and managed totrace where he went. I was enraged that someone would break into myhouse and kill my daughter. I followed him, to the portal outside,caught him before he could come into here and killed him before hecould hide or dispose of the gem. I retrieved it then laid anelaborate trail to cover up what had happened. Fortunately itseemed to work and no one managed to work out who had interceptedthe gem or where it had gone.’
‘When we tried to resurrect Tina we discovered that her spiritwas gone and a little later when I was examining the emerald I hada message from the gem itself telling me that her spirit was safeinside the gem. I was most surprised to discover that she was notalone in the gem but there was another spirit in there as well.This went against normal magic theory, which stated that only onespirit could exist inside a soul crystal. As it turned out it was avery unusual soul crystal.’
‘My problem was how to get her out as her body had died andwas no longer useful. It took me two years to find a host body andlearn enough to be able to even try to get her out. Yourgrandmother and I communicated with her regularly to keep up hermorale and as we did so we could hear from her comments that shewas falling in love with the other spirit trapped in thecrystal.’
‘You were born as a joining of the spirits of your mother andyour father in the crystal. You had no body other than the crystalitself. I have asked many people on many worlds to see if this hadever happened before but as far as I can tell it hasn’t. So you areunique.’
‘While I worked on the problem how to get you all out of thereyour father created some type of illusory world inside the gem andyou lived as a small family inside your own world. Your memcrystalalpha is that world.’
Memoriesflooded back to Aquitain of happy times as a child in that smallworld.
‘Wait a minute!’ said Aquitain.
‘You just said that I was born in Alpha when my father andmother were in there. You obviously got me and my mother out. Whatabout Terren?’
‘Oh. Yes the other spirit. He…’ and granddad fellunconscious.
‘Damn!’ … thought Aquitain. ‘They’ve got a blood oath onGranddad. He was always so concerned that I was protected and he’sbeen got at by someone.’
‘What happened.’ asked Granddad as he regainedconsciousness.
‘You’ve been affected by a Blood Oath.’ replied Aquitain.‘I’ve seen it several times. Someone doesn’t want you to revealsomething you know.’
Granddad wasquiet for a minute or two thinking.
‘I’m sorry’ It looks like I’ve been deceived. I need peace andquiet to find out what has happened. I need to go back to Mudrunfor a while.’
‘Perhaps I can help. I can unblock memories now.’ repliedAquitain.
‘Ah. So that’s how you know a lot more than you should. I’msorry Rob I can’t allow you to look into my memories it would betoo dangerous for both of us. I will take care of theproblem.’
‘Damn! I’m always so close to getting answers only to havethem withheld.’ said Aquitain becoming annoyed.
Granddaddecided to leave and was shown out by Aquitain.
***
Sometime laterAsterix spoke up.
‘There is some activity down there My Lord. It might havesomething to do with the specialist Mentarin arriving soon. Themages were discussing it a few hours ago. There seems to be aproblem in one of the hidden pathways.’
‘That means he will come here.’ said Franciscus.
‘Why?’ asked Aquitain.
‘He will need access to the door controls.’ repliedAsterix.
‘What door controls?’ queried Aquitain looking directly atAsterix.
‘Look Aquitain you’ll have to face it. I can’t tell you muchuntil I get the approval from your father. However, in thisinstance it is likely that you will find out anyway and since youare the Gatekeeper, I will show you the manual gate controlpanel.’
He said a wordand a second mushroom shaped piece of crystal appeared. Aquitainasked him to repeat the words for making the two mushroom shapedpanels appear and disappear and memorized them. The new panel hadsmall levers around its face for opening and closing the gates inpathways one to three and markings for pathways four to eight butno levers.
‘What happened to the levers for the other pathways?’ heasked.
‘I don’t know.’ said Asterix. ‘It’s always been like that. Iassumed that they must run automatically and have no manualcontrols.’
‘Someone new has arrived.’ said Yllandril who was watching oneof the viewing windows displaying a view of the main road. Aquitainand Asterix had a look and agreed. This could be the specialist.They watched the wizard ask for directions then followed him to thewizard-in-charge’s quarters and listened in on their conversation,which confirmed that he was indeed the expected person.
‘Quickly.’ said Aquitain.
‘Yllandril go back to the palace with Bellen. Asterix show mehow to merge into the wall.’
Aquitaindismissed the control panels and merged his body into Astaria’srock wall leaving one small eye in a corner to view what washappening. Moments later the room was empty except for the book.Aquitain suddenly panicked.
‘What about you Franciscus? Can you hide?’ he said usingmindspeak.
‘No need, remember, I am a collector and the officialhistorian. They expect me to be here.’ he replied.
Five minuteslater the specialist teleported
