by Paul Kater
light yellow and covered with coloured ornaments, many of which seemed to be moving as if they had a mind of their own. The ceiling consisted of a mosaic similar to the floor and shone in complementing colours.
There were about a dozen people in the large room. They too had all kinds of colours. And shapes. Some of them sported more limbs or eyes than usual, and several of those were at inexplicable locations.
"These are ambassadors and representatives of other planets and galaxies," Davdruw explained as he got up from his chair. "They are waiting to speak to some of the officials we still have. Only the Witch is allowed to meet the high council." The giant man spoke the words loudly, so everyone in the room knew who was there. It did not make a large impression on most, although curious glances were cast from a multitude of eyes.
Hilda prodded William in the side. "See that one back there, the black and grey one with all those eyes? Could be family of the thing that carried Zelda off."
William had to agree.
Davdruw asked them to follow him and he walked off with his long strides. William popped up his wand and whispered something. The effect was immediate.
Davdruw turned around. "What have you done to my legs?" he asked. "I can hardly move."
"You should be aware that our legs are shorter," William said, "this was just a hint." He undid the spell. "I hope you take it. The next hint could be embarrassing." Here and there snickers, snorts and not so muffled laughs emerged from the lifeforms in the high room.
Davdruw was not curious to what William had in mind. With a more relaxed pace he guided the four people and two cats through the room.
"Wasn't there something about having to be quiet?" Hilda asked out loud.
Davdruw stopped again and looked back at her. "Yes. Fortunately this room is exempt from that rule as it is thoroughly sound proofed. Even the high council does not expect all visitors who are waiting to remain all silent while they are here."
"I see."
Davdruw continued guiding them. They left the waiting room, came into a small corridor and reached a large silvery door. The spiritual leader warned them that silence was necessary from here on. They were about to enter the palliza.
"Are you okay, Hilda?" William asked before the door opened.
She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. The witch who is no witch, you heard him." Her face did not show much happiness as she missed her magic terribly. And the feeling kept getting worse.
Davdruw looked worried because of the talking. He then pushed open the large door and ushered the four inside a large room.
"Crappedy crap," Hilda did not hold herself back, "what happened here?"
Davdruw visibly cringed, which was a very impressive sight from someone his size.
The room they were in looked as if a small war had been fought there. Pieces of furniture were scattered all over the place, on some of the remaining tables were plates with food, some touched, some untouched. About a dozen people, all in the familiar silver clothes, were either sitting somewhere with a puzzled expression, or walking around with an even worse puzzled expression. One of the walking people had some kind of tablet in his hands and stared at it. It was uncanny that he did not run into anything.
"Computer geeks," Rebel stated. She sounded very convinced of that.
The short exchange between the two women had caused all people in the room to look in their direction. As understanding seemed to kick in they all came closer, mumbling and whispering "Grimhilda". It made Hilda feel uncomfortable. She was used to some attention, but not to something oppressive like this, with hands reaching out and touching her clothes.
"Back off, folks," Hilda said, "or my friends will make you back off." She trembled inside, missing her magic once again. It would have been so easy to push them away a bit.
As if he had read her mind, which was impossible without the bond, William popped out his wand. "Step back folks," he calmly said, "you do not want me to help. Trust me."
"But she's Grimhilda," one of the mumblers said in a normal voice, almost sounding offended.
"And I have a wand." He held it up to make his point extra visible.
The assembled group disassembled somewhat and Hilda breathed easier. "So, what is the meaning of this? I thought we were meant to find a high council here, not a band of dimwits." She looked at Davdruw. "Hey, you up there. Care to explain this?"
The tall man looked far from happy, but as the dimwits of the high council dispersed and went back to their apparent meaningless activities, he was forced to supply the requested information. "This, Grimhilda, IS the high council. They are - uhm - chosen to keep all the automatic functionality going that makes Lycadea what it is."
"Can you translate that to something I might actually understand?"
William, Rebel and Maurizio grinned. Rebel removed herself from the group and started to wander around the large room, looking at the strange things that were mounted in and on the walls.
Before Davdruw could attempt his translation, one of the men from the high council stopped his wandering and said: "What he said, Grimhilda, used to be. We're not those people. Oh, we're chosen, but the rest... that used to be. And that is, we think, why you are here. To help us restart the automatic functionality."
"You are just conspiring to confuse me, aren't you?" Hilda wished she had a wand to tap the palm of her hand with, to show these people she was getting impatient.
15. The high council (2)
Grimalkin had to suffer Hilda's slightly growing anxiety, as the stroking and petting became quite rough, until the man who had spoken walked closer to Hilda and William. Keeping a respectful distance, he said: "We are genuinely sorry if you do not feel comfortable here, Grimhilda. The Prophecy is very old, and obviously it lacks details here and there."
"You might say that occasionally it doesn't," a woman commented, "and were it didn't, the details were very wrong, Gesmarion."
"Don't argue about that with me, Katinki," Gesmarion said, turning to the woman. "We are the high council after all, even if we just pretend to know what we are doing."
"Can we go away please?" Hilda asked William and Maurizio. "Rebel? Can you take us away from here to somewhere that's normal? I'd even settle for that weird ship of yours."
"But you cannot leave us!" Gesmarion said, "you are the Witch who will make things right again!"
"I'm also the witch who is no witch, remember?" Hilda snapped at him. "How am I going to make things right like that? Not even considering that I can't figure out what you say when you open your mouth."
"Uhm, Hilda," Rebel said as she had a strange expression on her face. "I don't know why but I can't make us move. It's as if something holds me down."
"Madonna!" Maurizio exclaimed as he walked to the woman, "what is the matter, Rebel? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"No. Yes. I don't know. Hold me?"
Maurizio put his arms around Rebel. Before his hands reached each other behind her, she jumped back and said: "What the hell are you doing?!"
"I was going to hold you, like you asked." Maurizio's face spread disbelief that he had to explain this.
"Don't believe everything I ask for then, okay?" Rebel quickly walked around the captain and took position behind the witch who was no witch.
The situation was slowly getting out of hand, William thought. "What would you do now?" he quickly asked his witch.
"I'd make all of them shut up except one, and let that one explain what the trolls is going on here," she said.
William raised his wand, spoke a spell, and everyone was quiet. The wizard pointed at the woman Katinki. "You can still speak."
"Can I?" the woman proved him right. Her co-councillors gestured in varying forms of despair as they could not open their mouths anymore. Rebel and Maurizio suffered a similar fate.
"Can we have some seats here, William? And some tea? No, make that coffee." Hilda did not feel happy asking for things like that, but it was the best she could do. And William was all there for her. The
seats and a table with coffee appeared. William had also thought to manifest a plate loaded with sandwiches.
After sitting down, Hilda sipped some coffee and looked at Katinki. "Okay, now we have some kind of order in place, can you please explain what this place is? And don't use the words that other guy did, or we have to find someone else who can talk."
Maurizio waved at William, a cup of coffee in hand. He pointed at his mouth.
"Oh. Sorry," said the wizard, and removed the problem for the captain and the confused woman in leather.
Katinki also sat down. She suspiciously stared at the sandwiches. "Are you going to eat that?"
Hilda, chewing already, nodded. "Yes. Why?" she managed without spraying crumbs.
"It does not look like proper food," Katinki confessed. She looked at Davdruw, who tried to shrink away in a corner of the room and doing a miserable job. The man was not prepared for this.
William frowned at Katinki's remark, but let it pass. "You don't have to eat it," he said. "Now please tell us what this place is." He reached for a sandwich and a mug of coffee.
Katinki swallowed hard as her eyes kept moving among all these strange people. "This room," she started, "is the control room for the planet." She paused, observing the witch and the wizard to make sure her words were still understandable.
"What's a control room?" Hilda asked William, who explained the concept to her. "Ah. Right."
"We, the high council, are supposed to keep everything running," Katinki continued. "Using the... instruments in the room?" She
