A Failed Accusation

The Crystallic has interpreted "Probe and those people who are around him" to mean anyone who was within ten metres or so of the avatar. That includes Probe himself, Dredrick, Fred 1, Lady Champlaine, Fredrina, Zular, two guards and two female servants. Not surprisingly, at first there is great confusion. Zular cries: "What sorcery is this?" He draws his sword and the guards do likewise. "Peace," says Inquirer. "You are in no danger here. Please listen, and I will explain how you come to be here."

Inquirer runs through all that has happened. Most of the former inhabitants of the castle even manage to understand the explanation. When the Duchess, Lady Champlaine, asks how this can explain her daughter apparently rising from the dead, Probe and Inquirer manage to work out that two separate analogs must have somehow become mixed up with one another. Fredrina is from an alternative reality to Champlaine and Zular (and Dredrick). That is quite a shock for Fredrina, but she cheers up when it becomes apparent that Fred 1 is truly her brother. Whilst Dredrick is happy enough to treat both Fred 1 and Fred 2 as his sons, and to take Fredrina as his daughter, and he and his wife are naturally overjoyed at being reunited, Lady Champlaine wants to see Fred 2, her real son. Inquirer uses her Crystallic to bring him to Ethiopia from Walants, and there is a touching reunion, though it is rather marred for Fred 2 by learning of the death of his sister.

Whilst all this is taking place, Probe receives word from the fleet that the castle has disappeared, leaving no trace. They had got out just in time.

Fredrina has lost the handful of notes that she dropped on the castle floor, but she can recall most of what was in them. "No time like the present, when I've got everyone together," she thinks. "Duke Zular," she says, "I have evidence that you have plotted to seize the throne of Allaria, and also that you falsified the map of the caverns that my brother used." It is no longer strictly true that she has any corrobative evidence, of course, but if it should come down to her word against Zular's she is confident that she would be believed. Zular is a cool customer, however. "But, if I understand things aright, that was my - what was the word - 'analog', not me. I can assure you that I only have the best interests of Allaria and the D'Honaires at heart." "He's right," Fred 1 concedes, "that was his analog." "Too bad," he thinks. "The analog worlds are close enough that it's very unlikely that this Zular is pure as the driven snow. As far as I could make out, Fred 2 had an identical map to me, too, but that's not proof that Zular was responsible. I also wonder if the death of the other Fredrina was as innocent as my mother - correction, Fred 2's mother - apparently accepted. Zular will need watching."

"Well, I have a theory about that," Fred says. "Hearing Fred and Astra 4 describe what happened to them when they were ambushed by Moreau got me thinking. We just assumed that it was the next morning after conception when we came back to our senses and found Malachi looking down at us. What if we were actually out of it for a couple of weeks? A fox pregnancy is only about seven weeks. Assuming a demifox pregnancy is the same, you'd be something like halfway through it when the Crystallic turned us back. Assuming that the Crystallic preserved the relative stage of the pregnancy, that would just about work out."

"Could be, but I don't think so," mused Astra. "I rather think that 'our' Crystallic has a weird sense of humour. I suspect that when I was turned back to human, it set me to about four to five months pregnant. Then when Rift used it on me, I think I gained another month or so. Fortunately for me, using one for transport rather than transformation doesn't seem to have had the same effect - whether it's transport between realities or just an ordinary journey - seeing as one has been used on me twice more today."

1. Meanwhile, it is time to catch up on what the ghost of Dr Vincent and his two allies are up to. [4032]

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