Astra Has Some Questions of Her Own

As Astra transported Fred into the central vault in accordance with his wish, she sighed to herself. It was a pity he hadn't thought to take the lamp with him. Then, by rubbing it, he could have called her to him instantly should he have need of her. She would have liked to have suggested it to him, but her status as a djinn made it almost impossible for her to offer unsolicited advice to her master.

Once Fred's teleportation had been accomplished, Astra found that she felt strangely uncomfortable - almost unwell. It wasn't normal for a djinn to be very far away from her master. She knew the approximate direction in which the vault lay, for she could feel Fred's presence in that direction, but - even though she had sent Fred there - she did not know the distance.

Since Splitgrave was not her master, Astra did not have the same enforced subservience to him that she had to Fred. Thus she was able to ask him: "How are my master and I going to find each other once he has destroyed the orb and left the vault? Since he did not take the lamp with him, he cannot use it to call me to him, and I cannot teleport myself unless called." "I have a map of the caverns here which you can use to find the vault. It is not shown on the map, since obviously I did not want to leave any clues to its location, but it can be found here." He marked a cross on the map and handed it over to Astra.

Astra's next question was: "Are you going to prepare the potion now?" "Since it should take Lord Frederigo no more than a few minutes to shatter the orb and bring my existence to an end, I took the precaution of preparing the potion in advance. In fact, I made it after you first made contact with me, before you and Fred even got here. It is in that beaker on the table over there." Astra looked in the indicated direction, and saw a beaker containing a clear but slightly pink-tinged liquid. "It will retain its potency until its colour fades away in about another three hours," the necromancer told her. "After that, it would be necessary to make a new batch, but three hours should be more than a sufficient safety margin."

1. We switch to Fred inside the vault.
2. We remain with Astra and Splitgrave, as they wait for the undead necromancer to die.
3. Splitgrave suddenly exclaimed: "The idiot! Look over there! He forget to take the hammer."

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