What Betty Did After Death

She heard Astra tell Fred: "A powerful enough witch can live on after her body is dead. That has clearly happened in this case, for you can see that her familiars are still under her control." She pointed up ahead, where there was an intersecting street. Though traffic had now been brought to a stand-still on the street along which they walked, as a result of the accident, vehicles were continuing to cross the intersection. "We must get as far away from here as quickly as we can," Astra continued.

Fred removed Astra's hand from the small of his back, where she had been pushing him in an attempt to encourage him to walk more quickly. Betty sensed that he was beginning to become irritated by the overly-forceful Astra, not helped by the warrior-woman's insistence that she knew him. (How could I sense that? Betty wondered. Has being dead given me extra-sensory powers? Or am I just a shrewd observer of body language?)

"Are you sure those are familiars?" Fred asked Astra. He sounded dubious.

"Why, of course. What else could they be?"

"Well, what she said about their being horseless wagons [17156] might be true. I mean, how could she control so many familiars, and why would she need so many?"

Astra shrugged. "The ways of magic users are mysterioua," she said.

She might have elaborated, but by now they had reached the intersection...

1. And they bravely attempted to cross it.
2. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, they turned down the side street rather than attempt to cross it.
3. There was the sound of a siren, as a police car turned out of the side street and stopped as close as it could get to the accident scene.

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