‘You mean I won.’ said Aquitain 2.
‘What, are you still here?’ said Aquitain 1.
‘I defeated Franciscus using brute force while you huddled onthe ground thinking.’
‘I can’t believe this.’ said Aquitain 2.
‘I worked out it was a dominating illusion and eliminated itusing a pure heart.’
‘Really?’ said Aquitain 1 noting that he was inside a pureheart.
‘A dominating illusion, how did you come to thatconclusion?’
‘You didn’t win.’ said the book.
‘You didn’t beat me by playing but by destroying the game, sotherefore technically you didn’t win.’
‘We did win.’ said both of Aquitain’s minds.
‘Oh my, you’ve got a problem.’ said the book. ‘You’ve splityour mind into two. I thought you must be a bit inexperienced whenI saw you do it in the arena. It’s okay for a short period butdangerous if it goes on for too long. You’ll both want to be theboss. You’ll fight and disagree then one of you will become sulkyand bitter and in the end you’ll drive each other mad.’
‘Listen here book, that’s for us to worry about. We won, youowe us a wish.’ said Aquitain 1.
‘Mm. Irregular as it is, I suppose you’re right. What do youwant?’ said Franciscus.
‘I want you to ...’ said Aquitain 1.
‘Hold on.’ said Aquitain 2 .
’Who said what you want is the same as what I want? Surely weshould discuss it first!’
‘What does it matter.’ said Aquitain 1. ‘We’re both the sameperson.’
‘Well it doesn’t feel like it, because you seem to want tomake all the decisions without asking me.’ said Aquitain2.
‘I’m starting to agree with the book. We’ll have to get backtogether again otherwise you’re going to drive me mad.’ saidAquitain 1.
‘So now you’re agreeing with the book, instead of me.’ saidAquitain 2.
‘My, my, can’t we agree on who gets the wish?’ chuckled thebook.
‘Shut up.’ said both Aquitains.
‘I wish you’d put us back together again.’ said Aquitain1.
Moments laterAquitain felt a little confused then the situation became clearagain. He was stuck here with a dilemma, what should he do aboutthe other mind.
Miranda decidedto sit down in the force bubble.
‘What do you think is going on out there.’ said Miranda toYllandril.
‘I came here expecting a fight but all that’s happened isAquitain floats around out there as a big cloud of eyes. I wonderwhat he’s looking for?’
‘I think we’ve got to get back together again.’ said Aquitainbut the other mind didn’t answer.
‘What’s up! Aren’t you going to talk to me now.’ he said butreceived no answer.
‘Well that’s solved the wish problem, what would you like totalk about now?’ said the book.
‘Eh. What are you mean?’ said Aquitain.
‘We haven’t agreed on the wish yet?’
‘Yes you did.’ said the book. ‘I distinctly heard you say Iwish you’d put me back together again. So I granted yourwish.’
‘What, you can’t do that, it was our, I mean, my wish.’ saidAquitain a bit annoyed.
The forcebubble burst and Miranda jumped up, scimitar at the ready.
‘Are we supposed to be fighting or what?’ sheshouted.
‘No it’s all over.’ said Aquitain reforming his Newman malebody.
‘But, we haven’t done anything.’ said Miranda.
‘Yes we have and so have both of us, I mean, so have I.’ hesaid.
‘Are you alright?’ said Yllandril. ‘You seem a littleconfused.’
‘Thanks Yllandril, I was but I think I’m okay now. The bookput up a good fight but it was all in a mental arena rather thanhere.’
Mirandasuddenly tensed up, pointing with her scimitar she yelled.
‘Behind you, Aquitain!’
Aquitainquickly turned to see a small person seemingly flowing out of thewall behind him.
‘It’s Okay Miranda, I know this fellow, he’s a friend.’ saidAquitain to allay Miranda’s apprehensions.
‘Asterix, what are you doing here?’
‘Hello again My Lord, I thought that I’d come and join theparty. It seems that you’ve already met my friend Franciscus.’ saidAsterix.
‘Your friend! The bastard tried to kill us.’ saidMiranda.
‘Ha. ha. If he really tried, you’d be dead.’ saidAsterix.
‘He wanted to test the new Lord of Astaria himself. You seewe’ve got a problem here in Astaria and I think that we’re going toneed quite a bit of help to fix it.’
‘Where are we Asterix, I haven’t been here before.’
Asterix said afew words and the room lit up, the wall of force partitioning theroom disappeared, and the two wrestling constructs stopped andreturned to their guard positions.
‘Welcome to Astaria’s Control room. I didn’t show you thisplace before, as it was a secret, kept even from Llanlorian. Fromhere you can mechanically control all the functions of Astaria,including the weather, the lighting, the gateways and you can alsowatch and hear what is happening almost anywhere within the town,pathways 1, 2 and 3 and a short distance outside theirgates.’
‘How can you do that?’ asked Aquitain. ‘There is nothinghere.’
Asterix said aword and a large crystal mushroom-shaped control panel about waisthigh and two paces wide appeared in the centre of the room. On theconvex curved topside were dozens of small flat windows eachshowing a scene within Astaria.
Aquitain andMiranda with Yllandril on her shoulder walked around the crystallooking at various scenes, noting that they could see differentviews around the village and a lot of people, mainly fighters and afew that looked like wizards.
‘Now you see our problem.’ said Asterix.
‘You can hear a conversation in any place by touching thescreen with a finger like this.’
‘Who are they? asked Aquitain.
‘The fighters are mainly mercenaries recruited by theMentarin. The wizards are all Mentarin.’
‘By the powers, that looks like a significant fighting force.What’s happened? Why are they here?’ asked Aquitain.
‘We don’t know. We were hoping that you might know sinceyou’ve been stirring up such a lot of problems lately.’ repliedAsterix.
‘Bellen filled us in on some of your adventures around thepalace but we don’t know what else you’ve learnt.’
Aquitainchanged shape to a large bear and turned to face Bellen.
‘So we have a traitor amongst us. Someone that sneaks out andsells secrets for magic. You never mentioned that you knew Asterixand the book was located in Astaria. Do you sell your informationto the Mentarin as well.’ he growled.
Bellen turnedwhite in fear.
‘I’m on yer side, My Lord Warden. I works for yer father justas they do.’
Poof, Aquitainexploded into a cloud of mist, in shock. He quickly formed a cloudof eyes,
