Hilda - Lycadea

by Paul Kater

Thank you. It looks a bit confusing from the ceiling."

  Slowly and hand over hand, William worked his way along the corridor, tugging the others along.

  "Guys, I think we are reaching the border of this strange gravity problem," he said after a while.

  "How do you know that?" Hilda asked.

  "I just saw two people fall down at the end of this corridor. I will get us down before we reach that point, their landing looked quite painful." It was quite a lot of work for the wizard to pull four people and two cats down with gravity fighting back, but he won, and soon they tumbled over the floor.

  "Well done, I think," said Maurizio as he helped Rebel to her feet.

  William, picking Hilda and Kerna from the floor, thanked him. Then he made handles appear on the wall, so people could pull themselves down along them so they would not crash down.

  "Oh, honoured witch!" a familiar voice then called out. It was Katinki, one of the High Council.

  "What are you doing outside your room?" Hilda asked, hoisting Grimalkin over her shoulders.

  "We hoped you could find your way out of your room, we need you!"

  "They always do," Hilda said with a wink to Rebel. "So where's the fire?"

  "Fire?!" Katinki looked scared. "Is there a fire?!"

  "No, no fire," William quickly said, "we just want to know what is wrong."

  "Oh." Katinki visibly relaxed and pointed at the floating people. "That is wrong," she stated.

  "No kidding," Rebel nodded. "Let's go to that control room and see what's happening."

  "What broke down today, you mean," Hilda commented.

  They went on their way, following Katinki. All the people that saw them made a lot of space as they passed. Clearly the High Council was still seen as a very important and powerful group.

  Inside the Palliza they found pieces of machinery scattered all around. The original location of the parts was what used to be a small console in a corner.

  "Madonna, that must have been a bang," Maurizio said as he judged the distance some of the parts had travelled. "Did anyone get hurt?"

  Somehow nobody had been in the way of flying components, as if a miracle had spent some quality time with the High Council at the right moment.

  Rebel went around, assisted by Gesmarion, to collect all the pieces that had originated from the exploded machinery, while Hilda and William tried to discover what had happened. The why was not so interesting yet. The assembled High Council started an explanation of attempting to correct something which remained unclear, quickly slipping into a series of contradictions and surprised faces as the Council members discovered that one half of them had attempted to do something different from the other half.

  "Twelve in the same room and still they break all records in bureaucracy," Maurizio sighed. Together with Hilda, Kerna and the cats he watched how Rebel and William tried to piece the exploded console back together again. The two almost got it all done. The lack of a few pieces brought the project to an unfortunate and early end.

  "Can't you improvise something there?" Hilda asked. "It's only a few things that are missing."

  "Improvise?" Rebel asked, almost dumbfounded. "With what?"

  The witch shrugged. "I don't know that stuff. Clay, perhaps? Hey, don't laugh, I am the honoured witch here!"

  The High Council, who had withdrawn to a far end of the room to let the specialists do their jobs, seemed to be in a heated discussion. In the end Katinki stepped forward. "We have no clay."

  "Too bad," said Hilda. "Might have fixed this." She tugged William's sleeve. "I have an idea." For a while she whispered in his ear, making the wizard nod, shake his head, frown, look surprised, look despaired, and a number of other things.

  "You and your ideas," he finally said. "Can't make the thing get worse." With these wise words he made a lump of clay appear. It was no ordinary clay. It was pink and yellow, and in a few places it blinked.

  "What is that?" Rebel asked as she stepped away from the wizard. Nobody could blame her, the blinking blob did not look trustworthy.

  William shrugged. "It's something she dreamt up. Step back some more, everyone." He waited until everyone was in what he assumed to be a safe spot. Then he created a safety-wall of energy in front of him, drew back his arm and slammed the ball of pulsating clay into the hole in the machine. A bolt of magic followed the clay and then he raised the safety-wall up high while ducking and turning his back to the crime scene.

  Several terrifying moments passed by, in which nothing happened that caused any reason for alarm. William turned and watched the console. It was there. No smoke billowing from it, no components flying, just a silent console.

  "What happened?" Maurizio asked from the corner.

  "I am not sure," William replied truthfully. "I gather it is safe for some of you to come closer. Hilda, and perhaps someone who knows how to operate this contraption."

  Hilda came forward, the members of the High Council remained where they were.

  "So much for that," the wizard mumbled.

  "Looks like you did not break the thing," Hilda said as she looked at the console. "Not that it could have gotten any worse, mind you."

  William took down the protective wall. "What do you push to make this thing work?" he called out to the assembled High Council.

  "And what is it supposed to do?" Hilda asked.

  With the witch and the wizard so close to the machine, Katinki and Gesmarion dared to come closer as well. "We are not certain what this console does. Today is the first time we got it to work," Katinki said. "But with what happened in the corridor when I came to find you, I think we know what it does."

  Rebel, who had come up with Kerna, nodded. "Did you set some switches or so before you activated it?"

  "No. I think not..." Katinki's face conveyed doubt as she looked at the slightly remodelled console. "I must say that it is hard to tell, as it now looks differently."

  The pink and yellow blob was firmly embedded in the console, parts of it connected to the internals of the equipment. It still blinked, even when the rest of the machine did nothing. Or so Hilda hoped. "It is off now, right?"

  Gesmarion nodded. "As long as that light there is not burning, it's off."

  Hilda grinned. "That's my kind of putting it. I understand that. So why did you switch the thing on in the first place?"

  Gesmarion looked at Katinki, then back at the witch. "We've not switched it on for so long, it felt like a good thing to do it. And see what happens. Last time we did it is so long ago that we did not remember if something happened."

  "We only had it on very shortly then," one of the other High Councillors recalled.

  Hilda closed her eyes and then pointed them at her wizard, who shared the feeling they sent out. Before either of them could do something, Maurizio proved to be more of a captain than they had thought he was.

  "I suggest that everyone stays away from these consoles and machines. If they are running now, leave them running, unless someone has a valid reason to tinker with them or switch them off. What's off stays off. At least that way we have a stable situation. Capice?" With his arms folded over his chest and the eye patch in place, he looked almost impressive.

  Rebel stood next to him, looking very confident. "You heard the man, people. Nobody touches anything here, or they'll answer to us. Without you lot mucking about with controls, at least the witch has a fair chance to figure out what to do, so your friggin' prophecy comes true and we can go home again."

  Hilda was not one to stand with her lower jaw sagging easily, but this situation almost warranted that. Almost. In the silence that followed these strong words, the witch was glad her wizard was with her as they waited for anything to happen.

  Maurizio clapped his hands. "Good. So we understand each other. While the witch and the wizard manage things that deal with the prophecy, Rebel and I will check on things here. Often, you hear? It might be best for all of you to just get out of here so nothing can go wrong. But I understand that t
his would upset all the folks around here, so we have to make the best of it."

  William also stared at the captain in the red coat. Of all the things he might have thought of Maurizio, this was not one of them. "Holy Bejeebus," he whispered. "Is this real?"

  Hilda nodded. Before she could respond, Maurizio winked at them. "It seems that we have things under control, Hilda. Feel free to leave this space in our capable hands."

  "He shouldn't have said that," the witch whispered. Still she thanked Maurizio and Rebel, warned the High Council to listen to the captain and his lady, and then, together with the cats, Kerna and William, she left the Palliza, while Maurizio started distributing orders on how to clean up most of the room.

  After the door had closed behind them, Hilda asked: "Did that really happen just now?"

  25. A floating face

  Upon their return to the room, William had some work to do. After they had disabled the strange gravity-altering device, the furniture had come down to the floor exactly where it had been floating. It looked as if everything had been hovering in one spot.

  The two cats stayed close to Hilda and Kerna while the wizard arranged things back the way they had been before everything had lifted off. After that he made coffee and threw in some muffins, another novelty for their local assistant.

  Hilda recovered the strange tablet they had been playing with and looked at it. "So where is that blue thing we got from the piece of wood?"

  Kerna grinned. "I think you put it in your pocket."

  "Oh. Of course." The witch grabbed. And