‘You all work for my father! Tell me more.’ he shoutedangrily.
Asterix startedbacking towards the wall and Aquitain slammed a cylinder ofhardened air around him and another around Bellen just to be on thesafe side.
‘You may have to tell him some of the story, Asterix.’ saidFranciscus.
‘I can’t.’ said Asterix. ‘I’m sworn to secrecy.’
‘Then I will,’ said Franciscus, ‘as I wasn’t and while I don’tknow all the details, I know enough. Besides he should behere.’
‘What, my father here?’ said Aquitain.
‘Yes, here with you, that was the plan, but something has gonewrong. We haven’t heard from him since the Mentarin came here andkilled Llanlorian. said Franciscus.
‘Stop keeping me in the dark! If I’m going to fix the problemhere I need to know the whole story. What are you guys doing hereand how am I involved!’ said Aquitain feeling increasinglyfrustrated.
‘Here’s what I know.’ said Franciscus quickly.
‘About a fifty Astarian years ago, Astaria was controlled byLord Borse who was the head of the Mentarin. Your father, LordK’wala was involved in attacks leading to the capture of Astariaand another gate world called Argenta and Lord Borse went intohiding.’
‘I was a new Mentarin and didn’t know any of the politicsbehind why it happened. I was here doing some research at the time.He captured me and gave me the choice of becoming a collector andhistorian of Astaria or death. I chose life and he turned me intothis book. I was to serve 10 years then he would consider myrelease.’
‘Not long after he captured the place he handed both Astariaand Argenta over to the King of the Elendari to be run by them. Theking placed Llanlorian in charge here and someone else in Argenta.Asterix was left here to help maintain it and keep a watch over itand her. We subsequently heard that Lord K’wala haddisappeared.’
‘We never heard from him again until about two years ago. Anagent of K’wala brought me a message from him apologizing forleaving me here so long and promising release as soon as he could,providing Asterix and I helped in some plan of his.’
‘Can you remember who this agent was?’ askedAquitain.
‘Yes it was a fellow called Allen Amber’ hereplied.
‘How do you know it was my father after all that time?’ askedAquitain quite sceptical.
‘Because he knew the exact details of how and when he capturedme and the terms of my servitude and he was the only one presentwhen I was placed in this book.’
‘What did he look like when he captured you?’ asked Aquitainbecoming rather curious.
‘She looked like a Newman about thirty. Her eyes were strangeand the power he wielded was immense. I had just recently beenpromoted to Archmage and joined the Mentarin. She looked into mymind and decided to give me a second chance if I would renounce myMentarin oath, and work for her. Can you imagine that, she sawherself as judge, jury and executioner?’
‘You mean Lord K’wala is a female?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Well she looked like one when she caught me. I guess they canbe male or female or in between if they want to.’ repliedFranciscus.
‘I guess it seems a bit strange having a femalefather.’
Curiously itdid make sense to Aquitain at last. His father was Terren an avatarof Lord K’wala. In spirit form there is no gender. A gender is onlyneeded in a permanent body if you needed to reproduce. He wascreated by a neutral spirit combining with the neutral spirit ofhis mother in the soul crystal called Alpha therefore by Newmandefinition the avatar was his father even if it was female. Life inthe spirit world must be weird he thought. Glammer was correct ifhe was going to survive he needed to start shedding his adoptedNewman culture and create his own.
‘What happened to Lord Borse and why didn’t the Mentarinrecapture Astaria and Argenta?’
‘I have no idea. They have seemed content to let Llanlorianrun this place and it’s been very boring. Nothing ever happenedhere until a few weeks ago.’
‘What happened then?’ asked Aquitain getting moreinterested.
‘Well a few weeks ago Allen Amber showed up and told Asterixthat a person called Aquitain was on the way. We should help him asmuch as possible without revealing our identity or getting in hisway. We were also not to tell Llanlorian about you.’ repliedFranciscus.
‘What was supposed to happen after I arrived?’ askedAquitain.
‘We weren’t told what was going to happen. We assumed thatyour father would join you here.’
‘Hmm. Thought Aquitain. ‘It’s all starting to make sense,Terren was right. Her job was to get me here and help me freeK’wala from whatever the trap was. However, things changed whenMiranda got involved. Terren must have convinced K’wala to allow meto find Miranda and return with her so that I would be more willingto help
Franciscuscontinued, ‘When you did turn up, Asterix was a nervous wreck asLord K’wala didn’t come. He wasn’t sure whether Llanlorian wouldtry to kill you or not. He was ready to intervene on severaloccasions. He even had the two brass constructs ready to attack herif she turned nasty. I suspect that she knew something that wedidn’t. I think that she must have had some type of plan of her owninvolving you and that is why she made you a gatekeeper. She mayhave even told you for all I know.’
‘Ah At last!’ he thought. ‘K’wala didn’t trust Llanlorianprobably because she was an agent of Lord Borse. It was more thanlikely Lord Borse asked Llanlorian to make him a gatekeeper so thathe could get back into Astaria to release K’wala. That suggeststhat it’s the Dark Lord’s faction of Mentarin that have invadedAstaria as they fear me releasing both K’wala and LordBorse.’
‘But why is Lord Borse so confident that after I releasedK’wala that he can get out as well? There’s bits of the puzzle Idon’t know.’
‘So what are you going to do now that you’re our gatekeeper myLord?’ asked Franciscus.
‘That is an interesting question isn’t it?’ replied Aquitainbut said no more. He had to consider his next steps verycarefully.
Aquitainchanged to a stone statue. He wanted peace and quiet for a few ofminutes while his mind came
