by Paul Kater
did not feel safe yet. Hilda's nodding gave her a little more confidence although that did not show in the tight way she sat in the chair. "The problem is that we don't know how all the instruments work. And another problem is that some of them are broken."
"Then have them fixed," Hilda suggested, holding her mug near William who provided a refill. "And have some coffee. Once you're used to it, it's really good."
Katinki picked up a mug and sniffed its contents. "No... thank you, honoured Witch," she said as she put the mug back. Her face barely contained her disgust. "The problem is that nobody knows how to fix the instruments."
"Crappedy crap, you have problems here," Hilda voiced her feeling on what she had just heard. "And now you expect me to fix your instruments and teach you people how to use them?"
"Crappedy crap," Katinki repeated as if it were a mantra. "We only hope for the Prophecy to fullfill itself."
"I may get to hate prophecies even more than Latin," the witch muttered. She turned to Maurizio and Rebel. "Can you figure out what instruments they have? You're so fond of them, on the Mimosa and all."
William released their voices.
"We can have a look, Hilda," said Maurizio, looking very relieved, "but since we're on a different planet, we may not be able to understand everything."
"Nor recognise most of it," Rebel added, throwing the equivalent of a Nobbleback dragon on Hilda's hope.
"But you can at least try, right?" William hoped to salvage some prospects.
The two people from the black ship nodded. "Trying is not so hard."
Katinki looked at one of the high councillors that tapped her shoulder quite frantically. She did not say anything as she got up and followed the man. Hilda and her friends got up and went after the two people. The man walked Katinki over to a far wall where a metal table stood against the wall. On it were several keyboards, on the wall over it were five displays of which one actually showed something. The picture however reminded Hilda of snow on a bad day, which could not mean much good.
Katinki looked at William. "I think he is trying to tell me something. Could you please..."
William could, and then the man said: "We have another little problem." He pointed at a switch. "It's broken."
Katinki pushed the switch. It fell over and lay on the desk, quite dead. The wires that had kept it functional, or at least in place, had given up. "Yes," Katinki confirmed. "Broken."
Maurizio picked up the switch and examined it. "Broken," he agreed, and carefully put it back.
Katinki and the man, whom she introduced as Laurean, watched the witch with hopeful expressions. They were about to be very disappointed.
"You should not have pushed the thing," Hilda calmly said. "William, would you know how to fix that?"
William shrugged. "Does anyone know where these wires should go?"
"In there," Laurean helpfully pointed at the cavity that had held the deceased switch. The wizard groaned.
"Maybe if we took the cover off the console?" Rebel suggested.
"And risk damaging even more?" Maurizio pitched in.
Rebel frowned and seemed ready to kick the captain. She resorted to "hmmf."
"Now how does this room control the planet?" William asked. He felt he had to take charge. Hilda was lost in these technical matters, and Rebel and Maurizio did not seem to agree on anything at the moment.
Katinki and Laurean did their best to explain that everything on Lycadea had been automated and computerised, and the room they were in was the central place from where everything on the planet was managed. Unfortunately, the magicals learnt, everything had worked fine for so long that the real knowledge of all the systems had been lost, forgotten. In the beginning, the high council had known exactly what was where and how things worked. There had been people that knew how to repair things all over the planet.
"Then one day something stopped working," Laurean said as if he were a storyteller, "and nobody knew how to make it work again. It was not an important thing that stopped working, so the high council did not worry too much. But in the years after that more and more broke down, and now we are here." The last words came out with a despairing undertone. Gone was the storyteller.
"And more and more breaks down," Hilda added, understanding at least the gist of it. She picked up the switch. "Like this. And that's where I come in. As usual."
William grinned; that was his Hilda.
Davdruw, who had regained his courage now Hilda was talking to the high council, had joined the group. "Honoured Grimhilda," he said, "is there something I can do for you? We have quarters prepared for you and your - companions."
Hilda took the tall man in. "That sounds like a good plan, yes. I am ready to get away from all this madness for a while." She turned to Katinki and Laurean. "Please try not to break anything else." Then she asked William to give the others their voice back.
Katinki nodded. "Honoured witch, may I ask you something? What is this creature you wear on your shoulder?"
"That is Onyx Grimalkin. My cat. William has one too, see, that's Obsidian Shadow. You can touch Grim if you want. Grim, no funny things, do you hear?" Hilda warned her cat.
Two big yellow eyes beheld the hand that came closer. Grim allowed the hand to touch her fur and stroke her head.
Katinki beamed as she pulled back her hand. "Your Grim is so soft," she said.
"You never saw a cat before?" Hilda was very surprised.
Katinki shook her head. "I hope I may touch her again sometime."
"I'm sure," said Hilda.
Davdruw led the party out of the high council's chamber, back into the small corridor. He twiddled something with his sleeve and soon a set of floating chairs arrived. As they floated through corridors, they did not go back into the waiting room, Hilda asked him why he had been so silent before.
"I am the Lycadean spiritual leader, Honoured Witch. I deal not with the mechanics of that level."
The chairs came to a halt. Davdruw handed Hilda a few small silver bracelets. "With these you can open the doors to your rooms," he explained.
"Wonderful. Where are the doors?"
Davdruw showed the group a few small signs on the wall. "Hold the bracelet close to it and the door will open."
"Suck an elf," said Hilda as it worked. "So far you managed not to break that, eh?" She slipped one of the bracelets on her wrist.
Davdruw tried to keep his face straight at the snickering that was his share. "I will have someone show you how you can get nourishment and refreshments," he said. "Please try and rest." He nodded at Hilda and William, ignored Maurizio and Rebel and paced off at high speed. The chairs remained where they were.
Hilda handed the other bracelet to Rebel. "Here, I assume you want to share a room."
Rebel took it and put it on her arm. "No, we don't. But we don't seem to have much choice, do we?" She waved her arm over a sign and another door revealed itself.
"If you need something, just bang on the wall or something," William offered. "I am sure I can help you work out some sleeping arrangements."
"Thank you," said Rebel and walked into the room. Maurizio shrugged apologetically and followed her. The door closed and vanished behind him.
Hilda looked at William. "I'm glad you're here, William." She leaned into him, and together they entered their room.
16. Exploring
The room they entered was remarkable, to say the least. And large.
"William... is it me or do the walls fold back?"
The wizard also gazed upwards along one of the walls. "I'll be a frog if this room isn't like the bottom half or a pyramid," he said, "only upside down."
Two black cats dropped to the white floor and started their own discovery.
"Uhhuh," said Hilda. "And the ceiling. It's that moving mosaic thing. Do they expect us to sleep with all that light going on over our heads?"
"I'll make sure that won't happen, Hilda," William said.
They looked around the room. In a corner, far a
way from the door, hovered what had to be a bed. As the two approached it, Hilda muttered something under her voice. William learnt, after asking, that she found the room too white. It was indeed very white. The floor, the walls, the bed, all other pieces of furniture, everything except the ceiling, the cats and the two magical people was white.
The wizard used his wand and magic with care as Hilda took over the role of interior decorator. The wall near the bed became purple, to humour the witch. The other walls changed to a light sandy brown. Two tables and eight chairs were transformed into plain wooden versions, and three large fluffy white seats became one large dark blue sofa and a low table in front of it.
"Much better," the witch nodded as they sat on the sofa, their cats next to them.
"There is someone waiting outside to see you," a voice announced.
"Who is it?" Hilda asked, used as she was to a talking house.
"Davdruw sent me here, honoured witch," another voice said. "To show you your room."
"Oh, right," said Hilda. "House, let her in." She and William got up and saw a rather young woman come into their room who made a serious effort to stay in. As she saw what had happened to the room, she almost keeled over backwards. "Are you alright, kid?" Hilda asked, sounding worried.
"What happened to the room?" the girl asked, her eyes large, her hand seeking stability against a wall.
"We cheered it up a bit. Less white. Do you like it? Here, see the sofa!" Hilda patted the back of the piece of furniture. "Very comfortable. Come, try it." She rushed over to the girl, took her by the arm and guided her to sit on the sofa.
The young
