Unexpected names....

"Little one.....I've heard many strange tales over the centuries....but I must admit that is one of the stranger ones," the man says, still smiling.

The man then moves over to a table that is littered with what Fred's eyes identify as strange and eldritch relics from an unknown land, only to blink when it suddenly something "pops in" to his head. Bach awhile ago, the Oracle, in order for his curse on the Fred who's now a male pixie to have worked, a minimal working knowledge (as well as a language) was needed in order for "Freddi" to be able to function in the new world she'd be exiled to for the rest of her life. The "bimbo" curse (for want of a better term) had provide minimal information....but his time as "Freddi" was enough to recognize a CD album case (a album called "Antipop" by some group called "Primus"). Freddi had been rather enchanted by the wide eyed man with the strange, cobbled together mishmash (automotive and other mechanical/electronic) helmet with the scuba snorkel in his mouth. That and she loved the strange lyrics. Fred, remembering it now, felt that it was utterly bizarre!

No wonder the man's one eye is wide open in shock, Fred the pixie thinks to himself, I'd be shocked to if the snorkel I was using suddenly started spitting out sparks like that at one end!

The young seeming man begins to speak, holding up the odd relic. He has a far away look in his eyes, remembering.

"I have a strange tale of my own....which in part explains why I do things like that." the man begins, still looking down at the CD (a relic he'd found on his journeys that he'd never really been able to fully unlock) but jerking a thumb back at the mural behind him.

"You see, I was what in the language that we are speaking in right now, English, an archeologist of sorts in my earlier years," he continues, "Quiet on a quest of knowledge I'd been on. Last one I'd been on had lasted well over two centuries....with a titanic discovery at the end!"

The man's eyes alight as he turns, remembering.

"Little one, you see, my people originally came from one very special world that," he explains, "See, unlike many other worlds who claimed, at one time or another, to be the center of all creation, Midworld is the center of all creation. Rather, one special part of it. A Dark Tower......"

He goes on to tell a tale of how a special group of mages, proficient in a Dark Art long lost to his people, had as legends had it uncovered an alien edifice accidently while conducting some eldritch rituals for something called a "stealth jet fighter." The ritual caused the edifice to materialize. It soon became apparent that it was a very special thing, this Dark Tower. These mages, called scientists, were able to unlock some of it's secrets. Arrogantly, they felt they'd conquered the heavens or something....that they were on the trail to becoming like the Gods, even. Arrogance and stupidity in one package.....those mages.

Amazingly enough, the Gods and Goddesses in the heavens didn't strike them immediately down for their arrogance. Rather, they let the fools take the eldritch knowledge they'd garnered from the Tower and build upon it. Even build and incorporate the Tower into a transport network , powering it so that they could all reach other realities! Much was garnered and incorporated, and no thanks given to Those who'd provided it.

My ancestors were of a philosophy of Ka. Something of a secret society, shunned by the scientists and their lackies, we believed in a special kind of Fate. A special kind of way of life. We foresaw the Night of Fire that struck the other foolish ones down around Midworld, and departed for the now long vanished city located in the Southern Sector, a city called Atlanta to worlds other than that Midworld.

His ancestors were rather surprised that the magical method we used to escape the Night of Fire had created hundreds and hundreds of duplicates who arrived on hundreds of parallel worlds and to actually become part of those world outside Midworld. Fine and well. The more the merrier.

"See, unlike those other worlds where time branches off into more and more different paths at each possible decision or outcome of 'probability'...there is one and can only be one Midworld," the man says, "One reality containing the center of all existence for this and every other multi-verse in one form or another. Any more than one would cause things to shear apart and collapse."

Fred the pixie kind of got the picture. Kind of like too many cooks working on a meal or something like that.....

The effect also clung to the people and things of Midworld, causing entire universes to act like Midworld's reality, for a time. While they could travel to other realities for a time....spending too long (how ever long that was the man wouldn't say)....was lethal. Apparently it was almost like a immune response to an invading germ. The Celstrials who oversaw the various realities could only tolerated the disturbance for so long....then erased the disturbance from existence....

"This duplicating effect also effected the Ka lines of the worlds we'd touched also to various extents," the mage added as an aside, "Thus is why there are so many similar people and situations going on on various worlds....I've seen."

He shrugs and continues....

"Origins of our people soon passed to legend and myth," he finishes up, "I went on a lark to find out and prove a theory.....and succeeded beyond my wildest imagination. I found a way back to the very footsteps of the Dark Tower itself! After two centuries away I returned....and was dismayed to find a moral decline had taken place and a tyranny replaced my government. I was soon on the run for my life..... Never to return to share my discovery with my people."

"I found refuge on this distant world, well away from Atlantis," he sighed, "Not soon after I find out that Atlantis....all of them.....fell upon each other in an orgy of self destruction. That aside, I had been grievously injured after a battle where I was able to defeat through some miracle an evil version of my now dead uncle, Tessla, this magical bauble. The local griffin clan nursed me back to health to where I was able to use this item to heal myself the rest of the way. In gratitude I protect them from treasure hunters looking for non-existent gold veins in their nestswhich soon turns into a slaughter of griffins let me tell youor from ingredient hunters looking to use griffin parts for magical potions."

The later people, the ingredient hunters, had increased in recent years while mages still trying to fight a plague that killed five out of ten human beings while leaving half of those who survived...sterile. It was looking bad for humanity in general, the man knew that humanity didn't have much longer to exist.....to be a blemish on this world. The man already had a cure, but the greedy mages (desiring power) refused to let it be given out to the rest of the populous. Cruel and shortsighted, but thus was the way humanity appeared to be doomed by greedy power mongers.

The young man didn't mention this, for there was no need. He'd administered the cures to all those here just to make sure that they'd not spread the plague to wherever they came from.... he'd decided to let them go....

"With every human, it seemed, against them they still cared for me," the young seeming man says softly, "Can you not blame me for being grateful? For doing what I can to reverse a wrong? Punish those who'd kill such noble creatures?"

There was a look of challenge, daring the pixie to deny the righteousness of his cause.

Fred, not stupid or really seeing a bit of justice (extreme and brutal as it was in a way), didn't challenge the young seeming man.

"So what will you do with us?" Fred finally asks, waiting for an answer he wasn't sure he'd want.

The man turns and smiles.

"The evil warrior women stay," he says softly, "I've seen their kind and am NOT going to tolerate them running about....threatening to reap havoc and destruction. They shall make....good additions to the repopulation efforts here."

Fred kept his mouth shut at the first few things that popped into his head to say to that!

Some things you just can't fight....and boy did this qualify as one of them! That...and didn't these women deserve something? Unlike the young man before him, the pixie could get a good feel for their character and temperament? Made his skin crawl, with all the violence, hate, and ill will they all had. The mural depicted not only a mere transformation....but the birth of a new entity.....with the old spirit being replaced with a new one. A spirit for a female griffin. Fred doubted that the same wouldn't happen here as well for these villians.

"Their queen shall go with you for a time so you can take care of this business," the man says, "I wish you the luck of Isa for success. After that, either Astra can send her back with just a stated word....I'll be watching for that......or she and her evil twin can fight it out. Either way, business between the two will be done....in a most permanent manner."

Fred shivers a little at the finality at that last word.

He has a million questions right now, but the pixie can only think of one to ask before the man sends those who were leaving.....back to the very spot he'd picked them up at.

"Pardon sir, but I have not had the pleasure of your name?" the pixie says, as polite as you please.

A rueful chuckle escapes the man.

He'd always liked the Seelie fair folk, and had always liked in particular the curious and inquisitive nature of the pixie species in particular.

Reasonable chaps, them. That's why he'd woken up the pixie and not the others. Who need a bunch of needless violence and bloodshed?

"Mostly I call myself the Exile....but I am also called...." the man begins.

The sun is shining and their unwilling guest, Arthema, is bound and gagged most effectively as the pixie tells what happened to those around him back a the "landing sight".

The pixie who still calls himself Fred has to wonder at the others reaction.

1. "Zerm?!" the others from Terra Prime gape, surprised (to put it mildly).

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