An Early Morning Visitor
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 57608
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In the morning, Astra woke wondering whether she had merely had an
exceptionally vivid dream. But one look in the mirror on her bedside table
told her that that was not the case. She had never seen anyone with as
dark a complexion as she appeared to have now, although she had heard that
some of the tribespeople who lived in the jungles that covered the far
south of Aqualaria were very dark.
Then she noticed that the door of her room was opening, without the courtesy of a preceding knock. Half suspecting that it might be the elder Cedric, unable to resist his obvious desire for her any longer, she jumped out of bed and grabbed the nearest object that would serve as a weapon. This turned out to be the mirror, which had a very heavy gilded metal frame. She held it high, ready to bring it down hard on the head of the intruder. "If you break that, it's seven years bad luck," a familiar voice said. "Minestus! What are you doing here?" "Not so loud, at least till I've had time to close the door behind me. There. Now, please call me Lucieno, That's the name I'm going under here, in the guise of a wealthy merchant. If you remember my alias, then I'll promise to remember yours, 'Stara'. As to what I'm doing here, I was getting a bit bored watching from afar. The wards around my target mean that I will still have to leave the actual kidnap to you, but even so I should be able to provide you with quite a bit of help." "The kidnap could present a bit of a problem, unless Fred is to do all the work. As I appear now, I'm not exactly going to be hard to track down by the forces of law and order." "Ah, yes, your unfortunate experiences at the hands of your friend Ambaric. Perhaps I should have warned the two of you against getting involved with a bungling amateur like him. But it could actually work in our favour. If you were to be seen like that when you kidnapped Tao Tse Mung, and then I was to dispell the illusion immediately afterwards, it would throw the hunt for you completely off the scent. When I did that, I would give you another illusory outfit to wear, of course, to avoid your drawing intention to yourself. I was planning on giving you something to 'wear' anyway, but Ambaric acted first."
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JH
3/22/2006 2:02:28 PM
Extending Enabled
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