Part 13 (2/2)
”This is Phaze?” Agape asked.
”It seems like it,” Bane said. ”It be hard to believe that return could be so simple!”
”But I-I am not magical!” she said. ”How can I be here?”
”The same way I be here,” he said. ”I exchanged bodies not; I be still in the robot body. We made a physical crossing!”
”All the time the Citizens knew this route!” Agape said. ”It was not your imagination!”
He glanced at her. She was very fetching in her dress; it fitted her beautifully. ”Thou didst doubt?”
She spread her hands. ”I know that robots can be programmed and reprogrammed. They must believe what they are programmed to believe; they cannot do otherwise. I was sure that you believed, but not sure that you really came from Phaze. I apologize, Bane.”
”Accepted, Agape!” he said. ”I could prove my origin not as readily as thou didst.”
”If this really is your frame, where should we go? I really don't belong here.”
”I think thou dost belong with me,” he said. ”Thou didst help me wend my way through Proton; now it be my turn to help thee in Phaze.” He brought her in to him and kissed her. ”And how glad I be that this be not our separation, Agape!”
She clung to him. ”Oh, Bane, I told you I wanted to learn how your species indulges in s.e.x, and I do, but I think that was only part of it. What I really want is to be close to you. I felt so alone, so-so alien when I came to Proton, and you have made me feel like a person.”
”Thou hast made me feel wanted,” he said. And that, he realized, was the essence. He preferred to be genuinely wanted and needed by an alien creature, than to be routinely accepted by the most human of women.
They walked through the forest. 'This must be near the White Demesnes,” he said. 'That would be northeast of the Blue Desmesnes, and some distance away. I recognize this particular region not, but if we go southeast we'll get home.”
”Home to you, perhaps,” she said.
”Thou dost not want it?” he asked.
”Oh, Bane, I am not your kind! I have a task to accomplish-”
”But after thou dost accomplish it, and make thy report-what then?”
”Oh, Bane, I just don't know! This is all so sudden, so strange!”
”Meanwhile, come and meet my family,” he said. He looked at her appraisingly. ”And let's see how thou wouldst be in blue.” He paused, considering, then sang: ”Turn me blue, and her too.”
There was a flash, and abruptly both of their outfits were blue instead of white.
Agape looked at him, and at herself, astonished. ”Magic! You did it!”
”I be an apprentice Adept,” he said. But privately he was bothered by a detail; there had never before been a flash when he performed magic. Was he losing his touch?
They walked on. Suddenly there was a commotion to the side. Gnarly little men appeared, about half the size of Bane.
”Goblins!” he said. 'They be usually trouble!”
”Are they human beings?” Agape asked. ”They seem so small!”
”They may be descended from human stock, but they be hardly human anymore. Mostly they interfere not with our kind, but they can be ugly on occasion. I want not to waste magic; I'll see if I can bluff them off.”
The goblins charged up. ”Fresh meat!” they exclaimed, licking their twisted lips.
”Back off, goblins!” Bane cried. ”Else I transform you all to worms for the birds!”
”And who dost thou think thou art?” one of them challenged him.
”I think I be the son of Blue,” Bane said.
”Blue be far from here,” the goblin retorted. ”We'll roast thee and thy buxom wench for dinner!”
”Goblins be worms,” Bane sang. ”As birds want-”
”We're going!” the goblin cried, and all of them scurried back the way they had come.
Agape was impressed. ”Could you really have turned them to worms?”
”Methinks so; I have tried to transform that many not simultaneously before,” Bane said. ”My father could readily do it, of course. But we prefer to employ magic only as a last resort.”
”Oh, why is that?”
”Because a given spell only works well once. I have to figure out a new one each time. So if I use magic when I don't need to, I be cutting down my options for the future. That could make me pretty much impotent, later in life.”
”Ah, now I understand!” she exclaimed. ”So life is not entirely easy, even with magic!”
”Not necessarily easy at all,” he agreed. ”Because there be also hostile magic.” He paused. ”Speaking of which-the White Adept really has never been very friendly with the Blue Adept, not since the separation of frames. Why would she do us this big favor now?”
”Perhaps she is a nicer person than you thought.”
He laughed. ”Adepts aren't nice folk! They are concerned only with their own powers.” Then he reconsidered. ”No, some are all right. The Red Adept owes his position to my father, so he's always friendly, and Brown Adept's all right too. She helped Fleta and weres a lot. She's the one who makes the golems.”
”The golems?”
”They be like robots,” he said with a smile. ” look and act like men, but they be dead sticks. Generally.”
They went on. ”Mayhap I should conjure us directly there,” Bane said. ”So thou dost not have to walk so far.”
”Save your magic,” Agape said with a smile. ”I don't mind walking with you.”
They came to a mountain. There was a large cave visible at its base. ”The vampires!” Bane exclaimed.
”Vampires! The kind that suck blood?”
”They do, but not indiscriminately. It be part of special rituals they have for coming-of-age and such. We have nothing to fear from them.” He walked toward the cave-entrance. Agape followed, not at all at ease.
A man in a gray cape stood guarding the cave, though bats wheeled in the sky nearby. He came alert as the two approached. ”Who be ye?” he challenged.
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