Setting Bert to Rights

Bert ignored the question and instead pleaded, "You must believe me, Lord Fred! She must be a sorceress! She's stopping me from using my magic!"

By this time Astra had turned around and knelt beside Fred. She observed the confrontation silently.

Fred released his grip and snorted. "Bert, the mighty Mage, beaten by a mere woman? There was a time you could prove no female magic-user could beat you. Have you really deteriorated that much?"

"But Lord-"

Fred interrupted. "No buts, Bert. Astra is not stopping you using your magic. Something else is."

Fred could still see confusion clouding Bert's face, so he decided to take drastic measures: he slapped Bert twice, then recited something in a language Astra didn't understand.

Bert stared at Fred again. Astra had expected him to be rather annoyed by Fred's hitting him like that, but instead he thanked Fred and apologised to Astra for calling her a sorceress. Fred let him sit up.

"What's going on?" A perplexed Astra asked Fred. "Why did you hit him, and what did you say?"

It was Bert who answered. "Something must have possessed me, though I have no recollection of what, when or where it happened. Lord Frederigo performed a kind of exorcism on me."

"It had just come to me. I had no idea whether it would work or not," Fred confessed.

So you were basically doing what this 'something' wanted you to do?" Astra asked Bert, who nodded.

"Yes. Though I am confused as to why my magic wasn't working on either of you."

Before Fred could reply, Astra interjected with: "If you were possessed once, can it happen again?"

"Not by the same force, no," Bert told her. "Once banished, it can never return."

1. Fred gave Bert a brief recap of what had happened to them.
2. They heard the horses whinny in panic.

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