Out of Phaze

They walked through the forest. ‘This must be near the White Demesnes,” he said. ‘That would be northeast of the Blue Desmesnes, and some distance away. I recognize this particular region not, but if we go southeast we’ll get home.”

“Home to you, perhaps,” she said.

“Thou dost not want it?” he asked.

“Oh, Bane, I am not your kind! I have a task to accomplish—“

“But after thou dost accomplish it, and make thy report—what then?”

“Oh, Bane, I just don’t know! This is all so sudden, so strange!”

“Meanwhile, come and meet my family,” he said. He looked at her appraisingly. “And let’s see how thou wouldst be in blue.” He paused, considering, then sang: “Turn me blue, and her too.”

There was a flash, and abruptly both of their outfits were blue instead of white.

Agape looked at him, and at herself, astonished. “Magic! You did it!”

“I be an apprentice Adept,” he said. But privately he was bothered by a detail; there had never before been a flash when he performed magic. Was he losing his touch?

They walked on. Suddenly there was a commotion to the side. Gnarly little men appeared, about half the size of Bane.

“Goblins!” he said. ‘They be usually trouble!”

“Are they human beings?” Agape asked. “They seem so small!”

“They may be descended from human stock, but they be hardly human anymore. Mostly they interfere not with our kind, but they can be ugly on occasion. I want not to waste magic; I’ll see if I can bluff them off.”

The goblins charged up. “Fresh meat!” they exclaimed, licking their twisted lips.

“Back off, goblins!” Bane cried. “Else I transform you all to worms for the birds!”

“And who dost thou think thou art?” one of them challenged him.

“I think I be the son of Blue,” Bane said.

“Blue be far from here,” the goblin retorted. “We’ll roast thee and thy buxom wench for dinner!”

“Goblins be worms,” Bane sang. “As birds want—“

“We’re going!” the goblin cried, and all of them scurried back the way they had come.

Agape was impressed. “Could you really have turned them to worms?”

“Methinks so; I have tried to transform that many not simultaneously before,” Bane said. “My father could readily do it, of course. But we prefer to employ magic only as a last resort.”

“Oh, why is that?”

“Because a given spell only works well once. I have to figure out a new one each time. So if I use magic when I don’t need to, I be cutting down my options for the future. That could make me pretty much impotent, later in life.”

“Ah, now I understand!” she exclaimed. “So life is not entirely easy, even with magic!”

“Not necessarily easy at all,” he agreed. “Because there be also hostile magic.” He paused. “Speaking of which—the White Adept really has never been very friendly with the Blue Adept, not since the separation of frames. Why would she do us this big favor now?”

“Perhaps she is a nicer person than you thought.”

He laughed. “Adepts aren’t nice folk! They are concerned only with their own powers.” Then he reconsidered. “No, some are all right. The Red Adept owes his position to my father, so he’s always friendly, and Brown Adept’s all right too. She helped Fleta and weres a lot. She’s the one who makes the golems.”

“The golems?”

“They be like robots,” he said with a smile. “ look and act like men, but they be dead sticks. Generally.”

They went on. “Mayhap I should conjure us directly there,” Bane said. “So thou dost not have to walk so far.”

“Save your magic,” Agape said with a smile. “I don’t mind walking with you.”

They came to a mountain. There was a large cave visible at its base. “The vampires!” Bane exclaimed.

“Vampires! The kind that suck blood?”

“They do, but not indiscriminately. It be part of special rituals they have for coming-of-age and such. We have nothing to fear from them.” He walked toward the cave-entrance. Agape followed, not at all at ease.

A man in a gray cape stood guarding the cave, though bats wheeled in the sky nearby. He came alert as the two approached. “Who be ye?” he challenged.

“I be the son of Blue,” Bane said. “This be my friend, a shape-changer. I come to see my friends.”

“Who be thy friends?” the man asked.

“Vanneflay,” Bane said.

“Sorry, he be away these three days.”

“Vidselud, then,” Bane said.

“Him, too.”

Bane considered. “Then Suchevane.”

The man shrugged. “That be a coincidence! He, too.”

“All away?” Bane asked, surprised.

“But thou’rt welcome to join us in a meal,” the guard said. “Any son of Blue be welcome here.”

“Uh, Bane—“ Agape whispered uncomfortably.

Bane smiled. “My friend be nervous about vampire viands. Thank thee, but we shall move on.”

The guard made a negligent wave of his hand.

They returned to the forest and walked on toward the west until they were well clear of the vampire’s mountain. Bane was deep in thought.

“I’m glad we didn’t stay there!” Agape said. “The thought of eating blood—“

“That bothers thee? Is blood not easier to imbibe than solid food?”

“We don’t consume flesh,” she said.

“Actually, the vampires wouldn’t have offered us blood. It’s too valuable, and they always take it fresh. That isn’t what bothers me.”