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The Hound of Kemamonit

Copyright 2015 Paul Edwards

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THE HOUND OF KEMAMONIT

I am a crocodile.

I floated motionless, my eyes just above the water line, I saw a young furless monkey close to the edge of the great river. It looked like an immature male. Foolish monkey, not paying attention.

I readied myself, a gentle imperceptible flick my tail then a slow drift with the current, wait for just the right moment then a quick lunge.

I changed my mind.

Furless monkey's could be more trouble than they were worth sometimes, there was never just one and the larger ones could be dangerous. I had eaten a few days ago anyway, a tasty gazelle.

I felt a deep urge well up inside me, something ancient and primal, beyond my control. It was time. I had to find a place... a secret place away from the little scurrying things.

I had to be quick, the pressure in my belly was already building.

Chapter one

I woke up.

"God what a strange dream," I said to no one in particular.

I was alone in bed, the sun was streaming in through the bedroom window. I had had a lot of strange dreams lately, a side effect of my pregnancy I was told.

I looked down at my swollen belly, seven months three weeks, I rubbed my hand over it amazed at its size. The fetus was still asleep.

I had had an ultrasound but they had been unable to find out the babies sex. I remember being happy about that.

I rolled out of bed, my husband Peter had gotten up hours before letting me sleep in. I was at the point in my pregnancy were I had given up doing anything but what was absolutely necessary. If I walked for more than a few minutes my back would ache terribly. I was constantly hungry but could only eat tiny portions or risk stabbing heartburn, and my bladder had shrunk to the size of a cherry.

So I spent most of the day eating resting and peeing.

Not today however, I had a meeting.

I stood up carefully putting both hands on my back to prop me up. I walked over to the bedroom's adjoining bathroom, I looked at the shower and thought about turning it on.

"Had a shower yesterday... I think..."

I'll just slather on some extra deodorant.

I quickly brushed my teeth then looked at myself in the mirror. My hair now free from my daily ministrations had exploded into something that looked like a large black coniferous tree. I grabbed a scrunchie that was sitting next to the sink and attempted to force the bulk of it into a ponytail pulling it away from my face.

It looked a large rounded bush sitting next to a smaller one.

I saw a bottle of perfume also sitting on the counter as well, couldn't hurt I thought. It said channel five on the label.

I wondered about its odd name, probably inspired by a popular television channel before the thousand channel universe, I squirted a bit on.

I looked at the bottle again as I put it back down, I noticed channel was spelt wrong. One of the odd things about this era, people took great pride in spelling things incorrectly, using a z instead of an s for example or putting small i's in front of everything.

I walked over to the closet and pulled out one of the large comfortable dresses I had recently purchased. They were loose and easy to put on, something that had become important because of my recent condition.

I grabbed a handful of breakfast bars before I left the room and started walking down to the basement.

I lived in a large mansion in the southern part of California, it used to be the residence of a popular movie star during the silent era. It had been rebuilt many times but still had its original charm. The renovators keeping the same motifs.

It had been built in a secluded place, on a large wooded lot surrounded by a high stone fence.

It took me a few minutes for me to navigate my way to the basement, it was the only part of the house that gave any indication of my former profession.

I had been a sorcerer.

The basement was empty except for a few long wooden benches which were covered in various books, scrolls, and other paraphernalia.

There was a large stone arch in the middle of the floor, it was about eight feet high, the interior was empty framing the area behind it.

It was in reality a doorway, a magic one, it connected my basement to my current destination. The City of Magic.

I touched a series of carved symbols on the right hand side of the arch in a special order. The interior of the arch flashed with a bright white light then revealed a long corridor. I walked through and then closed a thick wooden door on the other side. I pulled a key out of my pocket and locked the door.

I was in one of the wings of the School of Advanced Egyptian Sorcery. The office of the person I had to meet was at the end of the corridor.

I heard the sounds typical of a large school, the scrape of chalk on a blackboard, the stern voice's of learned lecturers.

I started walking down the corridor, I looked through the open door of the first lecture theater I passed. I saw a pair of men, one very tall one shorter, lecturing. It only took a few seconds for me to realize they were teaching the basics of sleights of hand.

Not true magic, but a necessary skill for a competent sorcerer.

I felt my eyes narrow as I recognized the pair. They were popular magicians in the world I had just left but I suspected the larger one abused the smaller, even forbidding him to speak.

I passed another closed door, there was a sign on it that said Advanced Neural Networks Laboratory.

I heard something yell from behind the door.

"PUNY HUMANS!! I WILL CRUSH YOU LIKE INSECTS!!"

"Kill the spell... Kill the goddamn spell!!"I heard someone reply.

Good... I could see their research was coming along nicely.

I passed another door, it was open. I looked inside and saw a small lecture hall there was a large spell written on the blackboard.

I walked into the room to examine it, I saw a series of round circles that were drawn in such a way as to indicate they were flying through the air towards what appeared to be a barrier with a large target on it.

The writing was atrocious, the only words they had written that that I could sorta make out were wormlies and futons.

What a strange spell, I then noticed someone had labeled the circles in ancient Egyptian, they were called Imhotep Sphere's.

Ahh.... high energy magic, I could see some of the students were becoming quite proficient. High energy magic was quite strange, the effect you were looking for always seemed to appear at higher energies.

I saw a mistake in one of the lines of spell coding, I circled it then wrote the correction.

I felt a wave of nostalgia, for a second I felt like I was back in my youth when the city was still young. My servants and I would spend many hours working on new spells. We would fill up page after page of papyrus with scribblings, trying new ideas.

My servants had known just enough about magic to help me, but not enough to use it.

Sometimes we would work right through the night, drinking cup after cup of thick dark beer, It had been the reason I had invented my first light spell.

I wondered what became of them, I had sent them home when I thought my death imminent. An image of Gaya and Uranae filled my mind for an instant, I had met them on the northern shores of the great sea.

Gods what a pair, constantly fighting with each other, that is when they weren't having sex or clandestine relationships with the other servants. Did they marry? They had reminded me of one of my former apprentices neighbors.

Shelley had had a derogatory name for them... trailer trash... I think?

Then there was Koatlicu, she was brilliant but spent most of her time moping around making bitingly sarcastic comments. I had told her once that the Egyptian belief was that the heart held the soul of a person. It had been one of the few times she had been interested in something I said without acting haughty and indifferent.

Where had I met her? Across the first great ocean... maybe modern day Texas?

She would have loved all the vampire crap on TV these days, she hated the sun and adored the color black.

I walked back out into the corridor.

Time to get this over with, I thought to myself as I quickly walked to the end of the hall. There was one last door, it was a modern wooden one with a large frosted glass window. There was a black lettering painted on the window.

Dr. Janet Lincoln PhD

Dean of the School for Egyptian Magic

There was a line of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics underneath, it said:

Philosopher of Sorcery, doctoral advisor Kemamonit.

I smiled feeling flattered for a moment, the truth was she had learned most of her skills on her own.

I knocked on the door.

"Come in," I heard Janet's voice.

I opened the door and walked in, Janet was sitting behind a large wooden desk covered in neat piles of books and papers.

Janet was a tall attractive woman in her forties, she had been an athlete in her youth, she was still quite fit, she was dark skinned like me.

I plopped down on the comfortable chair in front of her desk, happy to rest my aching feet. I noticed two clear round lenses floating in front of her eyes as she read a paper on her desk, they flipped up when she raised her head to look at me.

"Damn eyes. need reading glasses now, how have you been?"

"Alright... I guess... you know the whole pregnancy thing... hope the kid appreciates what we have to go through."

Janet stared at me for a second and then started laughing hysterically, I felt a bolt of anger.

"Oh... you're serious... I'm sorry," she said when she saw my expression.

"Ya... well it's been tough."

"Geez... when was the last time you had a shower? You smell like a landfill... next to perfume factory," Janet pinched her nose.

I felt my eyes start to well up with tears.

"Well I'm sorry, I didn't realize hygiene was so important to you," I wiped my tears and stared at her defiantly.

Janet cocked her head and stared at me.

"I need a favor."

"What?"

"You ever hear of Archimedes?"

"Ya, of course, the lever guy."

"Hmm... interesting, you watched something on TV I'll bet?"

"Your point?"

"He was also a sorcerer, trained here at City of Magic no less, class of 265 BC."

"Really?"

"Ya, there's a big honking computer thing in one of the buildings near here, made by him, it's all brass gears and lever's. It's broken."

"Why do you need it?"

"We don't need it, it got turned on somehow, it's doing weird shit... instructors show up in the lecture halls sometimes... from the distant past. Rooms disappear replaced by different ones. I think he made it to automate the school, we tried to shut it down but it's so complicated we can't figure it out."

"Why do you need me?"

"Well here's the thing... the young version of him can't figure it out and the old version of him is just a crotchety stubborn old bastard who won't do a thing we ask."

"I have no skill persuading crazy old men."

Janet stared at me with an incredulous look on her face.

"Kem... I've personally seen you turn supposedly rational intelligent men into moronic idiots."

"I'm pregnant, it's too dangerous for me to go into the past, you'll have to think of another way."

"Dangerous... geez, you just gotta talk to him... god I was taking down Anthony Montana during my first pregnancy... or was it my second?"

Janet had been an FBI agent before she became a Sorcerer.

"I've heard of him... unpaid parking tickets wasn't it?" I felt my anger start to rise again.

Janet smiled.

"No way to convince you?"

"No."

"Hmm... so what have you been doing?" She said as she searched for something in one of her desk drawers.

"Um... you know baby stuff."

"I see... binge watching Bugs Bunny cartoons in other words... never did understand your fascination with that rabbit."

She found what she was looking for.

"He is a noble creature," I said resolutely.

"Have a look at this," she tossed what looked like a number of small cubes stuck together in an odd way.

I caught it then studied it carefully, the cubes were either black or white. I tried turning one and found that I was able to rotate it.

It exploded in my face.

Chapter two

I felt some sort of substance all over my face and chest, I carefully wiped it out of my eyes then slowly opened them. I saw Janet staring at me, her arms were crossed and she had a stern expression on her face.

"What is this," I said looking at the substance that was now caked all over me. It was greenish yellow and of a slimy texture.

"Cow snot."

I felt my heart jump in my chest, instinctively I jerked my right hand over to my left wrist and felt for the bracelet I used to create magic, I needed to summon a shower and soap.

It wasn't there, I hadn't worn it in months.

I had made the worst mistake a sorcerer could ever make, I had come unprepared to a duel with someone who knew my greatest weakness.

I slowly moved my right hand back to the chairs armrest then gripped it tightly so Janet wouldn't see it shake.

"I've been covered in much worse, I've have had much experience with livestock," I said nonchalantly.

"The cows were from Texas... you know from that feedlot you were going on about last month."

Panic started to overwhelm me, I could feel the tiny disease laden microbes probing my skin looking for a weakness.

"Oh look a shower," Janet pointed to a large white stall that suddenly appeared.

I had lost all control, panic had taken over. I lurched out of the chair and ran to the shower jumped in then frantically turned the knobs that controlled the water. Nothing came out.

"There's no water!!!" I screamed desperately.

"I'll bet there's water in Syracuse," Janet said calmly.

"Syracuse?"

"Where Archimedes lives."

"Um... yaa... ok... I'll do it... no need to get all dramatic."

"You swear?"

"Yes... I'll swear... um... on a bible."

"You remind me so much of my daughter, her birthdays coming up by the way... she'll be twelve. I want you to swear that you'll do it or may Sobek devour your still quivering flesh."

"Ok... sure... what you said."

"Say it."

I said it.

I spent a long time in the shower scrubbing every inch of my body even between my toes. I washed my hair three times and then brushed my teeth twice. I made sure every particle of the diseased snot was flushed down the drain.

I shuddered when I remembered the documentary I had watched, a nefarious livestock owner had treated his cows terribly in order to save money. The images of the sick and starving animals had given me bad dreams for a week. I had made the mistake of telling Janet about it.

Janet handed me a thick luxurious towel so I could dry myself, I sniffed it carefully to make sure it was clean. I wrapped it around myself before I left the shower.

Janet was sweeping up the assorted chunks of slimy snot. I shook involuntarily.

"I'd be careful with that," I said.

Janet looked up and smiled, "It's amazing what you can accomplish with a little corn syrup and lemon Jell-O."

I felt my eyes narrow.

"So a clever subterfuge, I would be careful from now on," I said menacingly.

"Oh Kem... as I said my daughters turning twelve and you're gonna need a babysitter in a few months so stop with the melodrama."

I was about to make a rebuttal when I realized that my husband Peter's family had no one suitable, my own family had disappeared eons ago and my friends were all young and without children. The woman was more cunning then I had realized.

Janet conjured up a large pneumatic barber chair.

"Sit down," she said.

I sat down, Janet used a foot pedal to raise the seat and started styling my mop of hair.

"You know how to style hair?" I asked curiously.

"That's how I paid for graduate school."

She worked furiously, cutting and yanking my normally stubborn and rebellious mane. I could hear her mutter magical command words occasionally and sometimes I would see the circular lens she had used for reading float in front of me when she would pause. I saw her eyes through them.

"That's an odd spell."

"Well there are some advantages to wearing glasses, you can see things through more than one perspective. I modified a spell written by an old colleague of yours, Senbi.

When Janet finished with my hair she conjured up a wooden palette that had a number of little recessed cups, they were full of pigments. There was a small hole that held a number of delicate brushes.

She stood in front of me and expertly applied the pigments to my skin and lips.

She walked back a few paces and stared at me intently.

"Perfect." She said as she dispelled the palette.

"How's this gonna work anyway, you can trowel all the makeup you want on me, I'm still obviously pregnant."

"Doubt it would matter... guys are weird that way."

Janet conjured up a brightly colored dress and handed it to me.

"Put this on," she commanded.

It was simple dress that just needed to be pulled over my head, it was loose and comfortable. I looked down to see how much my gigantic belly stuck out.

I gasped, it was gone, all I saw was a trim flat stomach. I noticed too that my breast's seemed fuller and seemed higher than they would normally be.

"One of my students wrote this spell, I imagine she's surprised a few guys in the morning." Janet said.

She slowly walked around me, fingers on her chin examining me.

"Good enough I guess."

She picked up what looked like a white coverall, it was draped over a chair. She handed it to me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Protective suit... you're always worried about catching something... put it on."

The suit fit horribly, I was only able to put it on by hiking my dress up. It was way too big and the head piece was already attached and made of the same material as the rest of the suit. There were two clear plastic circles sewn into it for me to see out of. They didn't work very well.

The only good thing about it was it had large easy to grab zippers everywhere, it would be easy to get out of.

"So... what's its rating?" I asked.

"Rating....um... MOPP six... I think."

Janet wasn't even trying to hide her lies, I felt my face go warm. There was no MOPP six, besides MOPP was not even a type of rating, it was a readiness level.

I felt the material of the suit, there was no activated charcoal lining, there were not even chemical canister's on the head piece to filter the air.

She was just trying to humor me.

Janet conjured up a large wooden door in the middle of the floor.

"Archimedes will be the old geezer walking around directing the troops, be careful, you'll be talking to him while the Romans are attacking Syracuse. He's commanding the defense."

Janet opened the door pulling it towards her. I walked through the door frame barely able to see, the stupid plastic circles didn't even line up with my eyes. The whole suit smelled of old shoes.

"Go get em Barbarella," Janet said as she slapped my bum.

Chapter three

I walked through the door, I could tell something was going on as I cautiously tried to walk without falling. I could barely make out a spritely looking old man pacing back and forth about ten feet in front of me.

Barbarella... what the hell did that mean, I thought. I had watched a bit of the movie once when I was flipping through channels. It struck me as being a silly film, the lead actress had been a young woman that was way to pretty for her own good.

"Mr Archimedes," I said in ancient Egyptian.

I hoped I was standing in the right place the stupid plastic circles were now at nose level. I pulled the head piece back trying to realign them.

"Hmf arf yuu," I heard someone say.

The goddamn suit was making it almost impossible to hear with all the commotion going on. Enough of this, the stupid suit wasn't doing anything anyway. I grabbed one of the large zipper handles and pulled. The head piece came right off quite easily.

I shook my head to get the hair out of my eyes, then removed the rest of the suit kicking it aside in disgust. I looked back at the old man.

Archimedes was staring at me, his mouth was half open, a look of amazement of his face.

"Mr Archimedes?" I asked hesitantly.

"By the gods... yes... I am Archimedes."

I looked around, I was on top of an immense city wall constructed of stone, to my right was a large sea, there were hundreds of boats on it full of soldiers wearing steel helmets. Beside me near the edge of the wall were dozens of soldiers holding large polished shields.

I saw a blinding white beams of light emanating from the shields, the soldiers were using them to set the sails of the ships below alight. I also saw large wooden claw things grabbing some of the ships and upending them.

"Hi... I'm Kemamonit, I'm from the City of Magic... I've come to ask a favor," I said as I turned back to Archimedes.

"I... I... know who you are..."

He seemed to be in some kind of daze.

"I knew of her beauty... but this... she outshines the sun." I heard him mumble to himself.

I hoped he wasn't suffering from some kind of dementia.

"Will you come with me... we have a problem with the machine you built, we have to fix it."

I saw his face turn dark.

"Never! I swore never to go back."

He tried turning his back to me but was unable to bring himself to do so completely. He was still surreptitiously eyeing me over his shoulder.

"Fine... do whatever you want, have fun fighting the Romans." I had lost all patience, wearing the stupid suit getting covered in fake snot.

I started to turn to leave.

"No... no... wait," he turned and then dropped to his knees in front of me.

"I can't..." he grabbed one of my hands and started kissing it.

I rolled my eyes, my god what was it with these nerdy guys constantly throwing themselves at me. I looked down at him, the lust in his eyes made him look slightly younger.

"Get up," I commanded.

He stood up looking at me meekly.

"let's go." I said.

I turned and walked back towards the door to the City of Magic. Archimedes followed me obediently completely under my spell.

"Where's the stupid computer thingy," I asked Janet brusquely as I walked past her.

She tossed up a small glowing white ball.

"Take her to the Archimedes machine," she said to it

"Yes ma'am" I heard a male voice reply.

The ball positioned itself in front of me then slowly started to move forward. I started to follow it, the faster I walked the faster it went.

Soon Archimedes and I were walking down a corridor I no longer recognized.

"You walk as if you carry a great burden," Archimedes said.

"Pregnant."

"Ahh... an enchanted dress... some things never change... the other one... this was her idea."

"Yes."

"You're condition wouldn't have diminished you're beauty."

I looked at his face, I saw no disappointment in his expression, Janet had been right.

"You said you would never come back here, why?" I asked.

"It's a long story... what era are we in? The city... this building it looks different."

Archimedes was examining everything with his eyes as we walked, he had a curious look on his face.

"Two thousand years have passed... the city was abandoned for centuries, we're not sure how long exactly."

Archimedes eyes grew as large as saucers.

"That long, gods... so much must have happened... you must tell me."

I looked at him.

"You tell me your long story, I'll tell you mine."

The glowing ball stopped at a large wooden door with a heavy brass ring for a handle. The ball then disappeared in a bright flash of light.

Archimedes grabbed the handle then put his foot against the wall next to it, he yanked the handle with a grunt of effort. The door slowly opened making a horrible screeching sound.

There were dimly glowing light globes floating near the ceiling, they all started to brighten when we walked in. The ones nearest to us started to move a bit closer to give us the best possible illumination.

"Curious," Archimedes said as he reached into a leather satchel was hanging off his shoulder.

He pulled out a circular device, it looked vaguely like a wall clock but with the face removed and all the brass gears and clockwork revealed. It had a sturdy handle on one side with which Archimedes held it, he used his other hand to manipulate the many knobs on the rim which turned the gears. I saw intricate writing on them.

"A spell writing device?" I asked while I examined it with my eyes.

"Yes, yes... got the idea from you actually, your bracelet."

I looked around the room, there were literally hundreds of large rectangular wooden frames, between which were thousands of gears, pulleys, levers and every other conceivable kind of mechanical device. They were all made of gleaming golden brass.

"Lost my old one... dropped it into the sea by accident... kinda miss it," Archimedes mumbled as he worked his spell device.

"Where exactly?"

I had that vague feeling you get before an epiphany.

"I was flying over some tiny island Aigila I think."

The name didn't sound familiar.

"Damn it!" Archimedes cursed.

"What?"

"Its these shitty bronze gears, they're wearing out. Tried everything to get the stupid things to last."

"Well two thousand years isn't too shabby."

"Could never find a good material... tried everything , stone, wood, even ceramics."

"There's all kinds of new stuff now... even substitutes for gears," I said.

"Really... how is that possible?"

"Um... well... a lot has happened... I think they just want you to shut it down."

Archimedes shoulders slumped, I saw his expression change from anger to a sort of sad dejection.

"Just an old piece of crap... like me."

I touched his arm and smiled at him.

"You've changed the world Archimedes, maybe you and this thing deserve a rest."

"Changed the world? What do you mean?"

"If you turn it off, I'll explain everything."

It took Archimedes about an hour to shut the machine down, he explained its operation to me as he did so. Sadly I could only understand about half of what he said.

He did show me the master kill lever however, which I promptly labelled with a large red cable tag. He also showed me a series of other levers which would engage or disengage the different components of the device.

I tagged these as well.

I finally asked him to summon all the papyri drawings and notes he had made when designing the machine. I put them on a small table someone had put in the corner.

"Why would anybody want these?" he asked.

"You're very clever, there may be idea's here that could be of use somewhere else."

I saw his shoulders un-slump.

We were outside walking on the city's streets. Archimedes was almost like a tour guide pointing out the different buildings and statues and their relevance.

I had him summon a small donkey simulacrum for me to ride on. I had also found a way to turn off the dresses enchantment so my familiar large belly reappeared. It had been disconcerting for some reason not being able to see it.

The section of the city we were in was overgrown with trees, weeds and grass.

"It rains twice a week for one hour in the morning," he said pointing to the greenery.

A rain spell had been constructed in this part of the city for the residents that had come from a more temperate climate. I had originally built the City of Magic in a large desert.

Archimedes finally stopped in front of a large stone arch almost completely unrecognizable as being such because of a thick covering of winding vines.

Archimedes conjured up a small sword and then used it to clear a path through the arch, he walked through and then a cleared a small part of the facing on the other side. He dispelled the sword walked back to me and helped me off the donkey.

He led me through the arch and then showed me a large bronze plaque that had been fastened onto the masonry beside the arch. There was Hieroglyphic writing on it, it read.

THE FOLLOWING PERSONS ARE FORBIDDEN ENTRY

There followed four columns of names, I saw Archimedes name in one of the columns.

"This is the old city entrance," Archimedes said matter-of-factly.

"Why were you one of the ones they banished?"

"This was a place of ideas... of ideology... everyone was young... impressionable, everything seemed possible. The powers that be started to think that we were above the rabble... that nature knew best, humanity should be left alone... water will find its own level."

"You didn't?"

"War... starvation... all caused by ignorance and tyrants... tyrants who believed they were descended from gods."

Archimedes laughed.

"I remember following the thread of descent from one of these supposed demigods... one of his great grandfathers cleaned latrines... he was still a hundred times the man the tyrant was."

"You wanted to stop it."

"Yes... but not the way you think... I wanted to educate, get the masses to think for themselves."

"The city opposed that? How did they prevent you from entering anyway?"

"The banishment was basically symbolic. As I said they believed in ideology, this was just the latest of a long line of strange ideas to be embraced fanatically. The City's History is full of examples... you've heard of Hathor?"

"Oh yes."

"Trying to create a Utopia, pure silliness."

I turned and looked at the plaque again, I read the names in their entirety to see if I recognized any. There were many that seemed vaguely familiar.

So Mary of Magdalene what did you do to piss everyone off, I thought to myself as I looked her name, it was one of the vaguely familiar ones.

"You were never known as a sorcerer, the magic you were using in Syracuse, how did you explain that to the... rabble?" I asked.

Archimedes laughed.

"Ignorance has its benefits... I just told them it's all levers... simple reflection of sunlight... the last thing I wanted was people to believe was that magic was real."

I had watched a television program about Archimedes a few months ago, I suddenly realized that I knew the details of his demise.

"Syracuse... the siege, it will cause your death you know," I said.

Archimedes sighed.

"I thought as much... fucking Romans... I thought about just blowing them up you know, use an Imhotep sphere, but it would undo everything I had worked for, getting people to think for themselves. I think the City was watching me anyway."

"Will you still go back?"

Archimedes looked around.

"Yes... but I think I'll stay a while, I am curious to see how things turned out in the world. Where is the library now?"

"Umm... that probably wouldn't be a good idea."

"Ahh... someone wrote a bad search spell for it I bet."

"Ya... kinda."

"Lost count of the number of times some moron would think they had come up with a great idea to organize it."

I felt my eyes start to narrow.

"Mechanical book grabbers still there?" He asked.

"Not that I know of..."

"Nasty buggers those things... Title howlers?"

"No... um... what?"

"Make one wrong turn" Archimedes snapped his fingers," lose half your hearing. Sentient books shelves?"

"Huh?"

"You don't wanna know... librarian golems?"

"Golems?"

"Ya...worked fine till they all went insane... who wouldn't... being asked the same stupid questions over and over."

"I have a better idea, we have sort of a magical window now, it will show you everything you need to know, it will even translate it into whatever language you want." I said

I grabbed Archimedes elbow and started to walk back towards the donkey.

I knew of a small pub that had been set up for the students near the school, it had a collection of laptops as well Wi-Fi access to the internet.

There would also be many students there to assist him, most who knew how to speak passable ancient Egyptian.

It took about fifteen minutes for us to make it back to the occupied part of the city and into the Pub. I introduced Archimedes to the Pub's bartender. He told me he would be happy to introduce him to some of the students.

I looked around the place as the bartender conversed with Archimedes. It looked quite different then the last time I had visited it.

Students are never happy with anything, I thought to myself.

It now had a middle eastern look to it, the rooms were divided by openings with high pointed arches, the walls were all whitewashed. There was a man playing an upright piano in the middle of it all.

I noticed a handsome man in his mid thirties walking around in a white dinner jacket, he appeared to be the manager.

I rolled my eyes when I recognized him.

He was a character in a film I had watched a few months ago. I had enjoyed the movie, excepting the fact that all the characters in it had appeared to be raging alcoholics.

Archimedes, walked back to me.

"You will see me off, when I return to Syracuse?" He asked.

I looked into his eyes, there was a touch of sadness in them.

"Of course," I said as I smiled at him.

His eyes brightened slightly.

Chapter four

I left the pub and climbed back onto my donkey. I would now have to visit my other former apprentice who taught in the city, Shelley.

Janet and Shelley hated each other, if I showed any favor to one the other would respond by acting aloof and disinterested the next time I would visit.

Gods, friends are a lot of work.

I soon arrived at a immense imposing building, he facade was decorated with large columns and many brightly colored statues. The sign over the main entrance read: The Egyptian school of magic and art.

I slid off my donkey and tied it up, I entered the school and walked down a hallway. Unlike Janet's school Shelley's was full of bright colors, the walls were festooned with paintings and the there were sculptures and potted plants in everywhere.

There were no lecture halls, just wide open spaces covered in beautiful wooden floors on top of which were strewn tables and comfortable chairs. The entranceways had no doors in them.

I walked past a large reflective surface and casually looked at myself, I had to stifle a gasp when I saw my reflection.

Wow... Janet sure had missed her calling, my hair had been colored in different shades of green, red and orange. The effect was one of tree leaves in autumn, when I shook my head slightly it gave the illusion of leaves rustling in the wind.

Well... I guess that pushy woman at the cosmetic counter was right after all... she had insisted I had had an Autumn complexion.

My eyes had been rimmed in kohl as well, but not in the utilitarian way I would have done but with beautiful thin lines and curls. My lips were bright red and seemed to shine with an inner light.

I unconsciously fussed with my hair for a few seconds as I felt a rare feeling of vanity.

I'll have to get a picture, I thought to myself, before my rebellious hair fought off the styling gel and colored dyes, and reverted back to its normal uncontrollable mop.

I knocked on Shelley's door frame before I entered her office. Her office had a door but it was open. She was sitting behind a modern glass topped desk typing on a laptop.

"Oh! Hi Kem," she said her face brightening. "What brings you here?"

"Um... Janet wanted some help... some ancient magic that needed to be dealt with."

"Oh... hmm... I'll bet it was that Archimedes machine, who knew it would be so hard to turn off," Shelley was trying hard to cover up an involuntary smile.

I knew instantly she must have turned it on.

"That's why you're all dolled up, to fetch Archimedes, I'm surprised you'd agree to that... knowing your stub... um... steadfastness."

"She made an excellent argument," I said.

Shelley probably knew what had happened already anyway, the two of them had spies everywhere to keep tabs on what the other was doing.

It was just then my unborn child gave my insides a good kick.

"Geez... gonna be a football player," I said as I put a hand on my belly, "or is it soccer?"

"Soccer... football is the one where they mostly carry the ball."

I didn't follow sports, Shelley had explained most of the modern games to me when I first arrived in the future, she had been an avid football fan once, even going to the live games.

Thanks to her I knew the basic rules and if I had to I could watch knowledgably. It was an odd game, some of the points were scored by kicking the ball through what looked like an upside down goal, three points if it was far away one if it was closer.

"Like basketball Kem," Shelley had explained to me.

Other points were scored by making an artful play.

"The guys in the striped shirts judge the catch or run, if it's spectacular they award points to it, that's why they're always waving their arms." Shelley had said.

I remember asking her why some of the team leaders were always reading stuff written on their wrists.

"These guys are hit in the head a lot, they don't think so good, so they write down what they gotta do."

There was always a final game at the end of the season to anoint a champion, how the two teams were selected was determined by some kind of complicated process no one really understood.

There was always feasting and much drink when this game was watched on television, it reminded me of the religious festivals I had attended in my youth.

I chatted with Shelley for a while, catching up on all the latest news. Her apprentice Gwenny had started teaching classes at the school, as well she and Janet had assembled a small team in order to travel the world to find new students.

"Janet just wants nerdy braniacs," Shelley said, an expression of annoyance on her face.

"Um... then just remember... it's up to you make sure that people that don't shine so brightly get picked too."

"Yaa... whatever... I figure I'll just pick people that piss off Janet."

I felt an immense jolt of irritation, the two of them refused to act like adults, gods you don't have to like someone to be able to work with them.

'Um... so where is this team?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Oh, we sent them to work with the archaeologists, you know, to toughen them up."

I was back on my donkey. I had it trot as quickly as I deemed safe. This area of the city had been mostly catalogued. It should be safe... except that this was The City of Magic, safety was a relative thing.

Damn, why didn't I bring my stupid bracelet, I had nothing to protect myself with. I nervously looked around at the empty buildings as the donkey clip clopped along the dusty road. The open windows reminded me of sinister eyes, watching me.

I finally saw the archaeologist's headquarters come into view. It was a three strory old stone building that had once been a large Inn.

I slid off the donkey then ordered it to stay still, being magical it immediately froze in place. I slowly opened the buildings large wooden door then waddled through it, I used my hands to steady my large belly. I closed the door behind me.

"Hello" I yelled. I was alone.

The first floor of the building had been the Inn's Pub and Restaurant. There was still a long wooden bar along one wall, the rest of the floor space was taken up with equipment, weapons and ammunition boxes.

I noticed there were full whiskey bottles stored on the shelves behind the bar.

Archaeologist's were a rough hard drinking bunch used to settling disputes with their fists.

I heard the door open behind me, I turned quickly stifling a gasp.

It was Dr. Cheng Chan, expert in far eastern architecture. He stared at me, his face expressionless, he grabbed the fedora sitting on his head and then tossed it onto a nearby had stand.

Archaeologist's always wore fedora's for some reason.

"What brings you here?" he asked as he walked towards the bar.

"You have some intern's here I want to speak to them."

Chan grabbed a whiskey bottle then poured himself a large shot which he promptly downed in a single gulp.

"Yaa... used them to clear the Cthulhu temple."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"Everything here's dangerous... ma'am."

He poured and downed another shot.

I heard the door open again, Chan's hand jerked as he quickly put it on top of the holstered revolver that was hanging on a belt around his waist.

The chief archaeologist Harry Camp walked in.

"Lost them all huh Chan... death means nothing to you?"

"They knew the risks." Chan grabbed the bottle again.

I felt my heart start to hammer in my chest.

"What... what happened?" I said, I felt tears start to well up in my eyes.

They both turned and looked at me, a sudden look of concern appeared in their eye's, then their images blurred into a kaleidoscope of color's.

A young man and woman appeared where the archaeologists had been.

The young woman ran up to me and hugged me.

"Oh... I'm sorry Kem... we were just joking."

"By Sobek... I said putting a hand on my chest trying to still my heart. I could have gone into labor!"

They both stood still, staring at me with guilty expressions.

"Well... no harm done... you're lucky, the little guy has got it pretty good, doesn't want to leave quite yet," I said sternly.

The girls name was Chinda she was from Thailand, the man was named Roger, he had come from the great frozen wasteland to the North.

"How come you're not helping the archaeologists?" I asked as I carefully sat on one of the bar stools.

"Oh they won't let us near anything, they just hand us notes and pictures everyday to give to Janet and Shelley," Chinda said.

"Really?"

"Ya... say we don't have enough combat training," said Roger.

"That's comforting, what do you do then?"

"Oh... um... we still snoop around. We are sorcerer's after all, anything sneaks up, I just give em the five fingers of fury!"

Chinda crouched into some kind of martial arts stance then pointed her left hand, the fingers flew off of it and bounced against the wall.

"Ow!" she squealed.

The fingers flew back onto her hand.

"Gotta work on that spell still."

"Your disguise spell is pretty impressive," I said.

"Ya... it was our first year final project, we had to build a logic machine to do it."

"No computers I hope?"

I hated spells that relied on modern technology. The machines of this era were impressive but they were slow and unreliable compared to magic. The last thing a sorcerer needed was a computer crashing or rebooting when in the midst of a crisis.

"Nope... had to take a bunch of logic courses though... boring stuff."

"So... um... you guys are gonna start finding new students huh?" I asked.

"Yep... we're all prepared," Chinda said as she waved her hands in an odd way.

A large briefcase appeared on the floor in front of her. She opened it up and pulled out a large sheaf of papers.

"IQ tests, personality tests... um... basic math quiz's... forms for a personal essay... etcetera."

"How do you test someone's personality?" I asked curiously.

"Um... some Briggs and um... Stratton... thing... we're all like shy or... um... blab a lot...or something."

"Myers-Briggs, it's very scientific, it measures the four aspects of personality," Roger said in a scholarly way.

I didn't need a personality test to figure out which of the two had been selected for the task by Janet, or Shelley for that matter.

I looked at two of them, they had changed so much in just a few short months of training.

It had been I who had originally selected all the students that were currently enrolled.

I had met Roger in a hellish city far to the north, my husband a former athlete, had dragged me to a reunion of a team he had been on as a young man. They had won some kind of important championship.

It had been January, the city was an indescribable nightmare of cold, violent winds and snow. The air had been so bitter I struggled just to breathe.

I had stayed in my hotel as much as I could even eating meals there.

I had eaten some my meals at the hotel bar and Roger had been the bartender. I had gotten to know him over the four days I had stayed in the hotel. He was a struggling university student, he had reminded me of a young boy I had known in my youth, one who had been profoundly sensible, honest and hardworking.

"Give me the suitcase," I said.

Chinda put the sheaf of paper back in and closed it, then handed it to me. I grabbed it as I stood up and then walked out the front door back outside. I put the suitcase in the middle of the street and then opened it exposing all the papers.

I had one spell I had incorporated into myself years ago. Something that had been so useful that I could not fathom being without it.

I put my index finger on my thumb and then flicked it towards the open suitcase, a red hot coal flew out and landed in the middle of the pile of paper igniting it immediately.

I heard Chinda and Roger gasp as the growing flame consumed everything.

"There, the forms are all filled out," I said.

"How... how... do we pick people then?" Chinda asked.

"Yes... we need empirical measurement," said Roger.

"You're gonna have to use your judgement."

"But what if we're wrong!" They both said in chorus.

"Everyone makes mistakes... I selected Shelley and Janet."

They both started giggling.

'Meet me in an hour at in my quarter's, I have an errand to do"

Chapter five

I found Archimedes at the Pub I had left him at, he was hunched over a small laptop cautiously pressing the keys.

As I got closer I could see someone had labelled all the important key's in ancient Egyptian. I could also see he was using the Strudel search engine web page translator application, so he could read the pages he was selecting.

I was amazed that Strudel could actually translate things into ancient Greek.

"So what have you found out?"

"Hmm... very interesting stuff, these electron's, and switching them with solid state valves... fascinating."

"Ya... they won't wear out."

Archimedes looked up at me.

"And the void... someone figured it out, I always wondered about it, the weird effects you could get."

"Yes, the math is pretty complicated though."

"I summoned him, the man who figured it out... we had a long chat," Archimedes said.

"Really?"

"Yes... he knew of me, that surprised me, very nice man."

"You are very famous now," I put my hand on his shoulder.

"I showed him the magic window," he pointed to the laptop, "I let him search on his own for a while."

"What did he think?" I asked.

"Well he started looking at the latest natural philosophy theories and then began laughing hysterically."

"Why?"

"I don't know, the translator spell wasn't very clear... I'm studying them myself, but alas... they are beyond my feeble brain, they make no sense."

"Are you ready to return?" I asked.

"You know Kem... I think I'll stay for a bit, I will be of no use to Syracuse... I looked it up. It has been years since I have been excited about things... all this new math, device's."

"OK."

Chapter six

I was in a convention center in Los Angeles, the annual meeting of the Society of Rocketry and Space Exploration.

I had come with Chinda, Roger and my husband Peter.

Peter was with a small group of people shaking hands and talking. He had left the rocket business recently but still enjoyed going to industry events.

"See ya gotta meet people, go to places you wouldn't normally go," I was saying to Roger and Chinda.

The two of them looked terrified, neither used to being in a large group of well dressed driven professional types.

"It's all show you know... the clothes, the expensive watches... there are people here who can barely afford bus fare," I said.

"Really?" Chinda said.

"Both of you are going to learn how to do magical research next term... sorcerer's search time and space, you will find out lot of things about people... see their secrets... some of the things you find out will keep you awake at night."

The large group of people in the room suddenly started to turn towards a speaker's podium that had been set up at the front of the room.

I saw a sixty-ish balding man in an dark black suit start to speak.

"I would like to welcome everybody to our thirtieth annual meeting."

Everyone clapped.

"Now without further adieu, I would like to introduce our new Chief Operating Executive of Hoving Aerospace, Sonja Ramirez.

I saw a tall shapely woman emerge from the crowd and walk towards the podium, she wore a beautiful green dress that somehow seemed to exude both professionalism and sexiness. She had long black wavy hair that hung almost to her waist.

She turned towards the audience when she reached the podium, I saw her face for the first time. She was in her forties but it hadn't diminished her beauty. She was radiant.

My heart skipped a beat in sudden shock. I recognized her, it was Semiramis, a powerful sorceress I had duelled with in the ancient past. I struggled to remain composed, she should be dead, I had stabbed her in the heart.

Except that was probably in a different history. Magic was capable of many weird things.

"Um... so sorry... my English is not so good," she said in an accent that probably seduced as many men as her beauty.

She started into a long technical speech about her company's current projects. She could have been reading her grocery list, it wouldn't have mattered, the men in the audience were mesmerized. The women all stared without expression, eyes as sharp as daggers.

Peter was beside me, there was fear in his eyes.

"How?" he mouthed silently.

"I don't know... maybe just a eerie resemblance," I whispered.

"We have to get out of here," Peter whispered, he turned to Chinda and Roger, "no magic!"

The four of us were sitting in a small diner eating lunch.

"Stupid Imhotep... that's who did it," I said as I hungrily munched through a large pile of fried potatoes. Strangely I hadn't been getting heartburn during the last few days.

"Why would he preserve her?" Peter said, he had a quizzical expression on his face for some reason as he stared at me eating.

"Guys are so dumb when it comes to a beautiful woman."

"We're not even sure it's her, you've said before you've seen people from the past in the future."

"It's her."

"If it is her that's not good, Hoving is the biggest defence contractor in the world. They make everything from ICBM's to tanks," Peter said.

"It's her for sure then... in the past her ambition was always to conquer the world," I said.

"Can't we just um... like... take her out?" Chinda asked.

"Don't know how long she's been here she might have safeguards... beside's just killing someone... not so easy," I said.

Peter was staring intently at a small computer tablet he usually carried with him.

"Hmm...." he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Hoving just bought up a whole bunch of small start-up companies in the last year, most of them have to do with quantum computing."

"That doesn't sound too bad, they can't get them to work, probably never will... I learned a bit about them when I was taking computer science in university," Roger said.

"Why not," I asked.

"The atomic particles they are using for bits are all unstable, everything falls apart after a few micro-seconds, they think it might be an inherent problem in trying to build a computer this way."

"But have they figured out the theory... I mean do they know how this computer should work?" I asked, my heart starting to beat faster.

"Oh ya... not that different from classical computer's, if they get this particle thing figured out, it'll be a slam dunk, "Roger said.

"So what's stopping her from just using a bit of magic to smooth over the rough bit's," I said.

Peter looked up from his pad again.

"That's what she did," he picked up the tablet and showed me the screen, I saw a picture of a thirtyish, geeky looking man with frazzlely hair.

"Walter Mittle Phd... just got a large grant from Hoving... apparently discovered some sort of breakthrough in quantum something or other," Peter continued.

"It's just a grant."

"I know this guy... completely useless, has a long string of embarrassing failures, if he didn't have tenure at the university he works at, he'd be homeless."

"Perfect cover for her though, a qualified academic to hide her magic... he's probably desperate for success, even if it isn't real... plus getting the attention of a beautiful woman," I said.

"What would she want this computer stuff for?" Chinda asked.

"Well... um... what about the singularity... you know all those movies, the computer's take over the world, maybe it's something like that," Roger said.

"Too bad we don't know any quantum computer sorcerer types," I said.

Roger and Chinda both looked away suddenly, pretending to act oblivious.

I felt my eye's narrow, they were hiding something, no doubt something to do with Janet and Shelley.

"Roger... you know... integrity and honesty are very important in sorcery," I said nonchalantly.

Chinda was a tough chick, the truth would only be wrested out of her with a lot of yelling and tears, Roger on the other hand was burdened by an oversized conscience.

"What do you mean?" Roger said, a hurt expression appeared on his face.

"Oh... nothing... if you don't want to tell me that's fine... I'm not your mother."

Chinda stared at Roger with a stern expression, giving her head an almost imperceptible shake.

"What do you mean?" Chinda asked, trying to divert my attention.

"Yes Roger... what do I mean?" I said, staring at him intently.

From Roger's expression I could see that a violent battle was taking place between his conscience and his loyalty to Chinda.

"The city hasn't been deserted for centuries," Roger blurted out.

I dropped my fork.

"What!?" Peter and I said together.

Chinda rolled her eyes, then slapped Roger on his knee.

"God Roger... we were going to tell them after we had explored everything," she said exasperated.

"There are others in the city?" I asked.

"No... not now... I think the last guy moved out maybe about twenty-five years ago... judging from the empty cans and the model of the TV," Chinda said.

"How do you know this?"

"Chinda and I were so bored when we were with the archaeologist's that we started exploring on our own. We found a pile of old food cans in front of one of the building's. When we went inside we found a lab and living quarters for maybe six people. The equipment looked like it was from the fifties to the seventies," Roger said.

"Who were they?" Peter asked.

"I recognized three of the names on some of the documents they left, Howard Mannston, Jon Newfellow and Brian Widdle."

"I'm pretty sure I know who this the Newfellow guy was, But who are the other two?" I asked.

"Brian Widdle... you don't mean the twine theory guy? and Mannston the billionaire?" Peter asked incredulously.

"I think so," Roger said.

"Wow... they were sorcerers... kinda explains Mannston's weirdness."

"Where are they now?" I asked.

"Mannston's dead... died of cancer in the early seventies... doctor's figure it was some kind of massive radiation exposure, he owned a bunch of companies involved in the nuclear field. Newfellow as you know disappeared in the late fifties. Widdle on the other hand is alive and well, he was on TV the other night, you know that science show we were watching."

I nodded my head in agreement, unfortunately I hadn't watched the show. I had surreptitiously written a spell months ago that gave me the appearance of watching the same program as Peter but in reality it superimposed the program that I wanted to watch over top of it, I had incorporated it into a pair of eyeglasses.

The spell even piped the other show's sound into my ears. I had good hearing so I could keep the volume low enough that Peter wouldn't hear and I was still able to hear and respond to any random comments he made.

Unfortunately the side effect was that Peter now thought that I now needed mild prescription glasses.

"So Widdle's a TV announcer?" I asked.

"Well not really... don't you remember the show?" I saw Peters eyes start to narrow.

"Ya... um... but you know I spend so much time trying to figure out the sciency stuff... I... um don't pay attention to the announcer's... you know... being from the past and all... still getting over that zero thing... um... wow... a number with no value."

Peter looked at me suspiciously.

"Widdle is the foremost theorist in twine theory, some say he is the most brilliant physicist alive today."

Twine theory? I thought to myself.

"Yep... it's really cool," Roger said.

"Why do you say that," I said, desperately hoping for some kind of explanation.

"Atomic particles made by knotting pieces of twine of infinite dimensions... you use the laws of probability to predict the chance of the free twine ends forming the different types of particles," Roger had an expression of what looked like adoration of his face.

"Yes... it can't be wrong it's the only game in town, what other theory is there? Atoms have to made of something," Peter said.

Ahhh now I remember, that stupid theory... gods. A vague memory of a TV show popped into my mind, I had watched it months ago. It may have actually have been the impetus for my glasses spell. Peter found science shows so interesting for some reason.

An image of Widdle also popped into my head, he had been a handsome man with a large head, he was in his fifties.

"Well maybe we should have a little chat with this Widdle fellow," I said as I finished off my potatoes.

Chapter seven

Peter and I were standing in front of a large brick building located on the outskirts of a medium sized city, Chinda and Roger were back in the City of Magic. I looked at the small nondescript sign next to the large glass entrance doors.

New Jersey Institute of Science.

I grabbed the door handle and pulled, we were soon walking through beautifully decorated halls with floors of amber colored hardwood.

Everywhere I looked I saw beautiful desks placed in semi-private offices, the decor was a mix of very old and very modern. Here a seventeenth century painting, there an ultra modern flat screen monitor showing a promotional video.

Everyone was either dressed and groomed impeccably or wore ill-fitting clothes and had bizarre haircuts.

I suspected the badly dressed people were the academics.

We were soon standing in front of a door to what looked like a small amphitheater. There were about thirty seats, there was a large wooden lectern on the small stage behind which was a large curving flat screen display about fifteen feet wide attached to the wall.

Someone had rolled in a small portable whiteboard in front of the large display, there were strange looking symbols and equations written on it.

I saw Widdle behind the lectern, he was holding onto it the way a foot soldier clutches his shield. There was a large lantern jawed man in front of the lectern arguing with him.

"This stuff is horseshit," the lantern jawed man said pointing to the whiteboard.

"How would you know? You're not a physicist Morgan... as far as I can tell you can't even read."

"Funny stuff Brian."

The lantern jawed man made a vaguely threatening move toward Widde causing him to flinch slightly. Then he laughed derisively turned and started walking away.

"You can't fool everybody with this shit Widdle... at some point you're gonna need results... what are the little twine thingy's made of huh... hemp?"

"Ya... well... that book you wrote Morgan... you shoulda called it moronic science... ya... moronic."

Morgan rolled his eyes as he walked, when he passed me his gaze jerked suddenly and he stared directly at my face, I saw a small flicker of surprise in his eyes as if he recognized me somehow.

"Who are you two," Widdle said when he noticed us.

"Peter Plotski... this is my wife Kem," Peter said.

"Who was that," I asked as I pointed behind me with my thumb.

"Just a hack... stupid journalist works for some rag... Nurture Magazine," Widdle said dismissively.

"Isn't Nurture... like... one of the most pre-eminent science journals," I asked.

"Not since they hired that asshole... look what do you two want, I'm a busy man," he said, not even looking up, he was flipping though a large red notebook.

I surreptitiously walked over to the lectern and peeked into his notebook. Widdle's head snapped up when he felt my presence and he slammed the notebook shut.

"What the hell..." he said angrily.

"You couldn't decide could you... I had an apprentice like you... she still has the same worn out old spell book," I said.

"What... what are you talking about..." Widdle's face had gone as white as a sheet.

"How to do your magic."

"Magic... what... that's... um... prepos... who are you?" Widdle said, panic in his voice.

I saw him start to reach into his pocket slowly, no doubt he had some sort of magical weapon in it for emergencies.

"Don't you recognize me... there is a statue of me at the City of Magic."

Widdle's face had a brief expression of confusion, then a small epiphany appeared.

"Kem-amun-it," he said in badly accented ancient Egyptian, "you look different though... you're from another reality I'll bet, someone brought you from the past."

"Actually the other Kem was from the different reality, and it's Amon... not Amun... no matter, we have much to discuss, there is a place we can speak privately."

We were back at the City of Magic, in the same pub that I had left Archimedes at. Widdle and Peter sat with glasses of beer in front of them. I had ordered a large sandwich which had just appeared in the center of the table.

Geez I was starving all the time now.

Widdle looked around at the small number of people in the pub, most were reading, everything from clay tablets and papyri to modern books and computer tablets.

"Wow... you guys are really going to town... lost many students?" Widdle said.

"We've cordoned off the most of the city, we have archaeologists cataloguing the empty parts," I said.

"How did you find this place and why did you leave?" Peter asked.

"Didn't find it... it's been occupied in some form or another since it was built, I still have some stuff here, been a few years since I've been back."

"Just you?"

"I'm the last one alive... or was," Widdle looked around again.

"Why didn't you train someone else?" I asked.

"I was too busy... with our... um... plan... I was going to find someone... eventually."

"Plan?"

Widdle sighed, "it's a long story."

"We have time," I said between bites of my sandwich.

"Things started to fall apart after the mathematician Riemann appeared, he figured out the geometry needed to deduce the actuator symbols, started writing spells on his own."

"Wait... the symbols can be deduced?" I asked, amazed.

"Oh yes... it is very difficult though, thing is Riemann wanted to write a paper... publish it... for such a smart man... so stupid... wouldn't listen to reason, sadly but fortunately he died before he could write it. I suspect sorcery may have been involved in his death."

"Things were fine for a few decades... then Cantor appeared... figured out the symbols again, ironically it drove him mad... thought he had discovered god, thankfully he abandoned work on it.

"Then things became very bad... all these brilliant physicists and mathematicians started appearing, computers were invented, it was only a matter of time before they would discover the principles again. Godel almost got it... he was so close, just a matter of time... they had to have a chat with him... told him they were watching him... he better be careful...

This couldn't go on, they couldn't watch everyone.

Mannston was the one who came up with the plan... it was crazy... he used Newfellows algorithms... expanded them, they spent months creating it."

"Created what?" Peter and I said in chorus.

"A real artificial intelligence... not the faux sort you get using people as virtual neurons... but a real one completely magic, an exponential intelligence not burdened by emotion."

"Why?"

"To come up with a solution to the problem they couldn't solve... they finished it in the sixties... when they activated it learned English in four minutes, math was innate to it, you could show it any equation, did a one line solution of the P vs NP problem.

Thing was insane... would babble incoherently for hours... then scream... it would be lucid only for a few minutes at a time, that's when they were able to get the answer to their problem... blew up after eight days... disintegrated into a flash of gamma ray's... Mannston was in the next room."

"That's how he got his radiation poisoning," Peter exclaimed.

"What was the solution?" I asked.

"Three equations... so subtle so devious, leading into a theory, a theory that's like a beautiful evil seductress, you calculate and calculate, and it always seems like you are making great strides, but you go nowhere... then when you decide to give up... the seductress shows you a quick glance of her bosom or gives you a subtle stare and you are hooked again.

The Z-matrix subtly introduced at a drunken university faculty party in the sixties, the Oiler function, put into a dusty paper carelessly left on the floor of an Ivy league college library in the seventies, and finally the W-theory equation, introduced by me at the first Twine theory conference.

Mannston gave it to me before he died, I was his last apprentice."

"That was your masterpiece... why you became famous," Peter said.

"It's all a sham then... twine theory," I said.

"Yes... it worked flawlessly, the more brilliant the theorist or mathematician the likelier they would be drawn to work on the theory. Thousands of meaningless paper's have been published, work on anything else has stopped. There has been only one minor hiccup."

"That reporter... Morgan," I said.

"Yes... his stupid book, Chronic Science the problem with Twine theory, it became a minor bestseller, people are starting to talk about cutting funding to Twine theorists, important people, they'll be forced to work on something else."

"How come he didn't get caught by the theory," I asked.

"Cause Morgan's not a mathematician, he would have a tough time figuring out simple arithmetic," Widdle snorted derisively.

"Well we have bigger problems, there's a sorceress from the past... she's in the present, I think she wants to conquer the world," I said.

"Who?"

"Semiramis she's Assyrian from around twenty six hundred BC."

"Hmm... did you try and talk to her?"

"I tried that once, in another reality, she is not a reasonable woman," I said.

"She's in control of Hoving Aerospace, and spending a fortune on Quantum computer research," Peter said.

"Odd combination... computers and ICBM's... you'd think it would be one or the other," Widdle said.

I too thought this was odd, any competent sorcerer could conquer the world, the only thing that one would have to worry about was other sorcerers.

Even that didn't make any sense, if you wanted to live life as a megalomaniac you could create any number of bubble realities, specially designed to stroke even the largest ego.

The thing was unless you were mentally unbalanced, ruling the world would seem to become unbearably boring after a few weeks, if you are able to conjure everything you want up, why do you need an empire?

I had spent most of my time as a sorcerer exploring lost corners of the world, flying over exotic lands, investigating intriguing mysteries.

I thought about an adventure I had had before my pregnancy, I had been a crew member on the Mary Celeste.

Gods that had been exciting... the secret cargo hidden in the specially marked barrels... the mysterious rendezvous... the vortex of Atlantis.

A thought suddenly occurred to me, Semiramis thought she was anonymous. The reason she was using a roundabout way to conquer the world was so she wouldn't arouse the suspicions of any existing sorcerers. It had been blind luck that we had discovered her.

"We have to confront her," I blurted out.

Widdle and Peter stared at me.

I my theory explained to them that I thought that once she knew that she was not anonymous anymore and sorcerers still existed she would stop her nefarious plan.

Chapter eight

Peter, Widdle and I were in a large white walled room with a hardwood floor, the floor was covered with numerous beautifully woven circular rugs. All around us were large exotic potted plants amidst comfortable modern sofas. The walls were covered with replica's of ancient fresco's and wall paintings.

They were all Assyrian.

"Miss Ramirez will see you now," said a smartly dressed young woman.

The young woman led us through a door into a brightly lit office, the far wall was made of a huge glass window looking out over a beautifully manicured garden.

I noticed more Assyrian wall paintings, they appeared to be genuine this time. There was a large desk to our right, it was situated so the person behind it could see the garden when they were working as well as being able to see who entered the room.

Semiramis looked up from behind the desk.

"Sit down," she said impatiently. She waved her hand towards four large chairs situated in front of her desk.

She finished typing something on a laptop, waited for a few seconds then folded down the screen bringing her head up.

"I must say, I am surprised to see you... I thought the City deserted," she said.

"It isn't anymore," I replied.

She stared at me, her eyes narrowed slightly.

"You are familiar to me... Kemamonit I believe, were you cursed with a time spell as well?"

"It's a long story."

"You cannot stop me... I will destroy everything if you try."

"Why? Why do you want to do this... you are in a new era... things are so different," Widdle asked.

"It is unimportant... just know, I have been here for three years, I have spent much time studying the new maths and alchemies. I am the equal to any sorcerer."

She snapped her fingers and a green glow surrounded her form.

"My personal shield is impenetrable, even to the rays of gamma."

"This is crazy... they have discovered ways to sail the void... you could see the stars," I said exasperated.

"So prepare your vessel... I will not stop you."

"This has something to do with Imhotep doesn't it?" I said.

Semiramis's body stiffened suddenly, a fury of anger lit up her face. She turned her head and stared at me her eyes narrow and unblinking.

"He is dead... thousands of years now... he cannot save you, now leave."

"Well so much for that," Peter said as we walked through Hoving Aerospace's large corporate campus.

"It's so odd... irrational... conquering a planet," I said.

I looked around the campus as we walked, everywhere there was foliage, even the buildings had garden's on their roof's as well as vine draped balconies.

"This whole campus is built like an ancient city," Peter said.

"Ya... even fountains everywhere," I said as we walked past a large stone fountain in the shape of some ancient god.

"How come you didn't do that... you know... bring the past with you?" Widdle asked.

"Well... there are things I missed... but this was a new start for me, I could become someone else, forget all my horrible mistakes... well sorta."

"I think I know what you mean... my grandfather told me that when he immigrated that he changed, he stopped thinking of himself as Polish, he still ate Polish food and spoke the language, but he watched baseball, celebrated the fourth of July, viewed the world as an American" Peter said.

"There is something going on with her and Imhotep... I can't help thinking it's the reason behind her weird compulsion to conquer the world," I said.

"You had a long talk with him a few months ago... what did he say?"

"Not a lot... he seemed kind of scared of her... and infatuated... that's probably why he didn't kill her."

Peter looked at me with a sideways glance raising an eyebrow.

"I think you mean he loved her," he said.

"Hmph... guy's are always confusing infatuation with love. I have a question for you Mr. Widdle, on another subject, how did Newfellow figure out intelligence, what's the secret?"

Widdle looked at me.

"It was stupid really, it was that paradox... the barber shaves everyone that doesn't shave himself... who shaves the barber?"

"The umm... other barber?" I said.

"It's not meant to be solved... it's been used by mathematicians to prove the futility of certain things... except..."

"Except what?"

"What is it you call relativistic transitions... fissures... they can pass through each other without... or with... either being on the inside or the outside... they can be in the exact same place but still be in different places at the same time... they are instantaneous.

Newfellow wrote the paradox with fissures... but in such a way that it had to be solved, as if the poor barber constrained with logic was real... it's like the algorithm backed the paradox into a corner, forcing it to do something... the result was a tiny bit of consciousness."

I suddenly had an epiphany.

"A squiggle spell!!" I blurted out.

"Huh?" Widdle said.

"A few times... when I was writing really complicated spells... it usually happened late at night when I was tired and started making mistakes... I would activate them and they would not work right... behaved like they were insects."

"You created a tiny bit of life... that's something else Newfellow figured out... life and intelligence are the same thing."

Chapter nine

I was at the entrance of the great library of the City of Magic. I had carefully opened the door trying to be as quiet as possible. I carefully peeked around the door frame.

I could see the psychotic librarian Ms. Wilson at her large desk. She was part of the library's search spell, she had been recruited and then incorporated into the spell by my former apprentice Shelley.

The way the spell was written meant she sort of moved around in time, sometimes appearing as a young woman or other times older.

She was in her early fifties, she would probably have just found out about her soon to be ex-husbands infidelity, about the time she purchased a large shotgun.

I grabbed hold of my immense belly and ran across the open area of the library foyer and into the safety of the maze of book shelves.

"Stop intruder!... I'm warning you... come out or I will release Ammit... the soul eater!"

I kept running, I heard a low growl in the distance then the clatter of long claws against a stone floor.

I turned to confront my pursuer.

It found me in seconds, it slowly approached cautiously putting its black nose against my protruding stomach, it sniffed, then gave me a disapproving look.

"Geez you should talk," I said as I rubbed the head of a medium sized dog .

Ammit the soul eater was a black haired mutt, the librarian had named her. I had picked her up at the local animal shelter. I had thought the librarian a bit lonely so I had gotten a dog for her.

I had been talking to the young lady who ran the place about a dog suitable for guarding, when an adolescent mutt had run up to me and then started pacing back and forth in front of me looking vigilant.

"Is it a neutered male?' I asked, impressed by its initiative.

I petted it's head.

The dog had looked at me with a stern glare of what could only be called professionalism.

"Oh ya lady... not only that... when they get'em cut off...they... um get like... real mean."

The young lady made a snarly face and put her hands up like claws.

The dog gave a short stern bark accenting the young ladies point, then continued to survey all the potential security risks in the area around it.

"Neutered male my ass," I said as I reached into my pocket for some kibble.

I realized later the people in those animal shelter's would say anything to get rid of their animals, and the sneaky animals themselves were also not above subterfuge.

"If I ever find the mutt that knocked you up," I said as I dropped some kibble on the floor.

Ammit was pregnant like me, the dog that did it must have been some kind of professional burglar because we could not find even a trace of him.

Ammit sniffed the kibble, then looked up at me cocking her head. She could smell the beef jerky in my pocket.

"Soul eater huh... Anubis better wrap them in bacon first."

I gave her a small piece of the jerky which she downed in a single gulp.

I pulled a papyrus scroll from a handbag I had slung over my shoulder, then held it in front of her. Ammit began delicately sniffing it, she looked like a scholar reading a complicated research paper.

Then she was off. bounding away while barking madly.

"Wait!" I yelled.

She stopped in her tracks, looked back at me and gave a snort of disgust as she saw me waddling after her. She slowed her pace to a walk.

I had discovered her brilliant nose when I had been looking for a lost sock. I had let her sniff the remaining one out of mild curiosity.

She instantly had turned into a fury of snorting and snuffling dog as she ran around the house, five minutes later she returned with the missing sock in her mouth.

Then she wouldn't give it to me, I had spent an hour running around the house trying to catch her.

The scroll had been personally written by Imhotep, I had never actually read it, it was full of some kind of dense mathematics. Now it would serve a useful purpose.

I watched as Ammit walked ahead of me, she would snuffle madly at the floor or a corner of a bookshelf, then she would stop and appear to be deep in thought as if she was doing some sort of complex calculation. Then she would walk confidently in one direction for fifteen or so feet, then the snuffling would begin again.

I started to wonder if her search was as much intellectual as it was physical.

She found the book shelf with Imhotep's paper's in twenty minutes.

The library in the City of Magic had been created by a simple magical scroll, on it I had written a small treatise about a subject so interesting that no scholar could resist it. I had left the scroll at a small papyrus shop to be purchased by my first unknowing victim. He had deposited into his personal library.

The scroll would activate a spell which copied all the written material in its proximity then ship it to the city of Magic's library, which then did a crude job of cataloguing it, then the scroll would transport itself again to a random shop or market to be picked up again by some other curious stranger.

I had intended the scroll to be active just over my lifetime but because of unforeseen circumstances it had run for six thousand years.

The library had become impossibly huge, from the small amount of cataloguing we had been able to do with a search spell, it appeared to have virtually every book, scroll and clay tablet that had ever been written.

Imhotep had acquired a medium sized bookshelf's worth of papyrus scrolls when the spell had copied it. The shelves were of the traditional diamond shaped variety used to house scroll's in antiquity, about ten feet wide and seven feet high.

I immediately noticed a roll of papyrus that looked like Imhotep had clumsily tried to hide it beneath the other scrolls. I carefully removed it and unrolled a section.

I heard Ammit bark as she saw my expression change.

I held up the unrolled section of papyrus showing her the contents, they were pictures of scantily clad young women in various unnatural poses, the artist had been quite skillful.

Ammit and I exchanged a knowing look.

"Men are so silly," I said as I replaced the papyrus.

I carefully searched through the piles of scrolls looking for something of interest. I had to keep a wary eye on Ammit, she was trying to act nonchalant but I knew the instant I found something of interest she would snatch it from my hand and run away with it.

I finally found what I was looking for, rather than picking it up I reached into my hand bag and pulled out a white plastic bone shaped toy.

I squeezed it and heard a loud squeaking sound.

Ammit's favorite toy.

I threw it about twenty feet away amidst the libraries shelves.

Ammit started to run after it then stopped, she looked at me, I could almost read her thoughts.

"Trying to trick me huh..."

"Squeak squeak," I said imitating the toys sound.

The thought of her favorite toy sitting by itself became unbearable and she took off running. I grabbed the scrolls I wanted and jammed them into my handbag.

Ammit was back mere seconds later, she dropped the toy at my feet wagging her tail.

I picked it up and then put it back into my handbag, I wiped my hand on my dress to get rid of the drool.

"Time to go Ammit, " I said as I stepped away from her.

I had brought my magic bracelet and was preparing to use it to transport myself away.

Ammit walked up next to me.

"No... stay back," I said as I walked backwards.

I wanted to make sure she wasn't in the spells area of effect.

Ammit had a stubborn expression on her face now, she walked next to me again.

"Geez... stay away you dumb mutt," I grabbed the squeaky toy and tossed it behind a shelf, Ammit ran after it. I quickly flicked the squares on my bracelet activating my transport spell.

I was back in my quarters in the City of Magic.

"Woof!"

I almost jumped out of my skin, I turned around and saw Ammit, she had even managed to bring her squeaky toy.

I put down a bowl of water for Ammit, she started lapping it immediately, when she was satisfied she curled up onto the rug with her squeaky toy.

I dumped all the scrolls I had brought onto my large desk and started sorting through them.

"Squeak squeak."

I turned and looked at Ammit, she pretended not to notice me staring at her as she gnawed away at her toy bone.

I turned back to the scrolls unrolling one I thought looked interesting. I had retrieved what I had thought were Imhotep's daily journals when he was training as a sorcerer. It looked as if I had guessed right, I started reading a random page.

"Such a vision of beauty she was, and so intelligent with a delightful sense of humor."

This went on for many paragraphs, it was actually starting to make me feel a little nauseous. I scanned through the other scrolls it appeared that half of the content in them was fawning descriptions of this woman. He finally inserted her name, Semiramis.

The rest of the scrolls dealt with more mundane things, his other friends, classes he liked of hated or spell's he was working on.

Then the tone suddenly changed, it appeared the woman had taken a lover. The writing turned into the morose adolescent whining of someone feeling sorry for themselves.

Gods... I remembered my first love, he didn't even know that I was alive... thankfully. He had been a few years older than I. When I had grown older I realized how stupid I had been, whatever I had seen in him had become a deep mystery to me.

I suddenly realized the room had gone silent, I turned around quickly to my right holding down the pile of scrolls with my hands. I saw the toy bone sitting on the floor by itself.

I felt something brush against the left side my body. I turned my gaze just in time to see a black blur grab one of the scrolls in her mouth.

"Stop!" I yelled.

I watched Ammit gleefully bounding away the papyrus scroll trailing from her mouth.

"God damn it Ammit!"

I carefully put away the rest of the scrolls in a sturdy desk drawer. I had learned from past experience when dealing with her to close the barn door after the horses had run out.

I felt my magic bracelet as I quietly crept towards the door of the next room. I had no patience for this Ammit would feel the full wraith of my magic.

There she was about ten feet in front of me facing me, front limbs lying flat, her haunch in the air. Her eyes were jerking back and forth furiously as she watched me, she gnawed the papyrus cautiously ready to grab it and bolt away if I got to close.

I stood stock still as I carefully flipped the squares on my bracelet.

"Easy girl... no need to get excited."

Ammit clamped her jaws on the papyrus and froze, her fierce eyes staring right at me, she would bolt any second.

I flipped the last square on my bracelet and activated my spell.

She leaped up and whirled around in the opposite direction, only to run into me. She yelped in surprise backing up and dropping the papyrus.

I was behind her too, actually I was in five different places at the same time forming a circle around her. The spell had been a difficult one to write, it still had some bugs in it that I had yet to work out, the most debilitating one was that I now had five different points of view now. My poor brain interpreted it all as a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.

I tried to stare confidently at what I assumed was Ammit, a vibrating black cube thing with ten eyes. It reminded me of a painting by a famed artist of this era.

"Could he have been sorcerer?"

I lunged with my hand, and seized her collar... or I would have if my four other hands hadn't gotten in the way.

Ammit was yelping frantically, terrified she bolted right into me, I dispelled the magic then grabbed blindly with both hands hoping to catch her.

I had her hind leg, she turned and looked at me, she lunged at my hand with her head, her teeth bared a fierce snarl coming from her mouth.

"Ha... you can't fool me," I said as I grabbed her collar with my other hand.

Ammit was all bark, I had never seen her bite anyone. I actually think she was a pacifist, if dogs thought about such things.

Ammit struggled for a few seconds then slumped in defeat, I conjured up a leash and clipped it onto her collar.

She stared at me an angry expression on her face.

"That's not fair... I don't see you wearing a leash," I could almost hear her say.

I picked up the papyrus then led her back to my desk, I tied the leash firmly to one of the drawer handles.

Ammit started to whine, I gave her a piece of beef jerky and her squeaky toy. The jerky was gone in seconds, then she angrily started gnawing the toy, making as much noise as possible.

Chapter ten

Imhotep's papyrus journals of his days at the City of Magic, learning to be a sorcerer, read like one of the juvenile adventure novels that were so popular in this era.

I started to comprehend that he and Semiramis must have been quite young when they were studying magic.

I suddenly realized that I had forgotten about this particular aspect of the past. People did not live long sedentary lives in antiquity. With the ravages' of disease, difficult childbirth's, constant war and general lawlessness, death was a constant companion.

Students started young and learned fast, they were expected to be fully functioning citizens by the end of their adolescence.

Reading the journal's I realized that in spite of this we had all still been children, the necessities of civilization had forced this upon us.

I could see that Imhotep was completely smitten with Semiramis and she did what any sensible woman would do, she used this to manipulate him.

"Gods men are so dumb."

He was basically acting as her personal tutor as well as listening to all her whining about whom ever was her current lover.

As the months passed I could tell Imhotep was becoming more and more disenchanted with the relationship. In an act of defiance he started a liaison with another woman.

This is where the plot became interesting.

He had written:

I told her she cared not for me. That she treated me as her servant.

"Well duh." I thought to myself.

I have found another, she has not your beauty but she cares for me.

When confronted thus a sensible woman would have just given the man a guilty smile, then tried to manipulate him one last time, just to be sure.

Instead Semiramis became enraged. She demanded that he stop seeing the other woman.

Imhotep to his credit appeared to stick to his guns, the journals from that point forward made little reference to Semiramis. I did however notice the faint bouquet of fear.

Ammit nudged my leg, I looked down and saw a look of distress on her face.

"Geez... not so tough now huh..."

I wondered if dogs had the same problems as humans when it came to pregnancy. I undid her leash from the desk drawer then stood close to her as I activated a transport spell with my bracelet.

We appeared on the lawn in front of my house, we stood before a large brick wall that surrounded the property , a small locked wooden door led out onto a quiet neighborhood street.

I unlocked the door then led Ammit through, the door clicked shut behind me. Ammit quickly tugged the leash and started her search for the perfect spot to empty her bladder.

We walked for about thirty feet, then Ammit started sniffing the ground a look of intense concentration on her face. Then she put her butt over the spot and lifted her tail.

"Eww..." I said as I looked away.

Ammit had soon produced a large pile of brown steaming poop. I surreptitiously looked around to make sure I was alone, then flipped the squares on my bracelet.

The poop disappeared in a blue flash, it would reappear on the front lawn of a certain politician's house I had developed a severe dislike for.

"Not going to just let it sit there, are you?"

I felt my body jerk in surprise, then I turned quickly towards the sound of the voice. It was the reporter I had seen earlier with Widdle in the Institute of Science, John Morgan.

"Let what sit there," I said nonchalantly.

"That... oh... very curious..."

"You shouldn't sneak up on people Mr Morgan, oh and by the way you better not try anything my dog is quite vicious."

I looked down at Ammit only to see her licking herself between her legs, I gave the leash a quick tug, she looked up quickly with a confused expression , I gestured towards Morgan surreptitiously.

Ammit gave him a stern look.

"Kem...Kemberly Smith... isn't it?" Morgan said. He had a pencil and notepad in his hands.

"What do you want? I'm a busy woman." I said as I prepared to walk back to the door to my lawn.

"You're a very interesting person Ms Smith... Phd in Archaeology... the records are all there, except when I called your old alma mater, the University of South Africa... no one remembers you."

"People forget," I said as I started walking.

"Not to be rude, but you're not the type of woman people forget. You worked for the Rand Corporation as a consultant... I called them up too... got a lot of very strange answers when I asked about you."

"Do you have point Mr. Morgan?"

"Strange story I heard once, I was in Sweden covering the Nobel prize ceremony, got friendly with one of the security guys, was an off duty cop, said he did an investigation once... interviewed a woman who showed up in a hospital with a sword stuck in her arm, she was dressed up as an ancient Egyptian... doctor's patched her up then she just disappeared the next day... all he had was a security camera picture... showed it to me."

I turned and stared at him.

"You believe in ghosts then?"

"I did a bit of research after I saw you with Widdle... there was another woman who also looked remarkably like you, who showed up in a Cairo hospital a few years ago... also dressed as an ancient Egyptian. Severe Appendicitis I believe."

"Silliness... means nothing."

"Your accent... it doesn't sound South African."

"Is this what passes for science journalism now Mr. Morgan, shouldn't you be interviewing a researcher?"

"What's Widdle up to? What's he hiding?"Morgan had a frustrated look on his face.

I turned and kept walking, I quickly punched the door's security code into a pad next to the handle and opened it, I turned towards Morgan one last time."

"There's no story here Morgan, you don't want to get involved," I said.

I walked through and closed the door behind me, I heard him yell over the wall.

"I'll find out Ms Smith, I always do."

Chapter eleven

I was back at Hoving aerospace, it was night. I looked around the beautifully manicured grounds then carefully started walking towards the large main administrative building. I tugged on Ammits leash jerking her along behind me.

It had taken her a bit of time to get used to being ethereal, she tentatively walked behind me. My spell enabled the people, or animals, it encompassed to be able to see and talk to each other, however the people and animals looked like ghostly outlines and the voices sounded distant and strange.

I had modified the spell so that Ammit could still use her nose to smell things.

We entered the building by walking through the door, I had to literally drag Ammit behind me. She stared at me with an angry expression.

I carefully walked up the large curving staircase that led to Semiramis's opulent office, even though we were both ethereal, the souls of our feet were still partially in the physical world, this so we wouldn't fall through the floor.

I had wrapped Ammit's feet in little booties so her nails wouldn't click on the floor, something else she was not pleased about as she took every opportunity to try to gnaw them off.

After a few minutes of walking I was dragging Ammit through the door to Semiramis's office. I heard her make a sound like a combination of growl and whine. The office was empty.

"Geez... stop whining... think of all the cats you could scare the shit out of," I said as I reached into my bag for Imhotep's scroll.

Ammit's head perked up when she heard me say cat, I could see her start to think.

I let her sniff the scroll.

She carefully started sniffing the air her head jerking back and forth , she took a few steps, sniffed the floor. Then she appeared to be deep in thought.

She lunged forward after she finished her contemplation and trotted over to Semiramis's desk, she delicately sniffed one of her desk drawers and then barked lightly.

I was beginning to wonder if she was using her nose at all.

"Maybe I should hire you out as A Private Investigator."

I stuck my head into the desk to see if I could see the drawers contents. It was too dark, I turned to see Ammit's ghostly head next to mind, she was looking as well, a curious expression on her face.

She turned to meet my gaze, stared for a second like she was about to speak, then licked my face.

"Yuck... " I said as jerked my head back.

Ammit drew her own head back and stared at me again, she looked quite pleased with herself.

I scanned the office carefully looking for any obvious security devices. I saw none, this was not a surprise to me since the last thing a secretive sorceress would want is something that could track her whereabouts.

I gripped Ammits leash tightly then flicked the squares on my bracelet to bring us both back from the ethereal plane.

"Shh!" I whispered to Ammit, my index finger on my lips.

I used my bracelet again to conjure up a key.

I carefully put the key into the desk drawers lock. The key was from a spell I had found in the research paper's of another sorcerer, he had lived during the renaissance.

He must have discovered something profound about locking devices, because the keys spell worked on virtually every type of lock I had ever encountered, even modern electronic ones.

I felt the key vibrate slightly and heard a faint clicking sound. The key then jerked to the left, I heard the lock click open. I slowly pulled the drawer open and looked at its contents.

I saw a small statue of a kneeling ancient Egyptian scribe, it was maybe eight inches long and was lying on its back.

I carefully picked it up and turned it over, I did not recognize the scribe.

"Woof?" Ammit barked impatiently.

She was staring intently at the statue. I lowered it so she could see it clearly, she gave it a cursory sniff as she inspected it.

A thought occurred to me suddenly, I pulled a small computer tablet out of my handbag then tapped on a screen icon with my finger, it opened up a webpage.

Ammit was done inspecting the statue, and started surveying the room.

"Woof!" she said quietly and impatiently.

I looked at the tablet, I had opened it to the Strudel search engine voice activated language translator webpage.

"The game is afoot." It read.

I read further.

"Is what the common Reynolds Point Setter would say if it could talk. This is its prefatory bark before it begins a grouse hunt."

"Hmm... so I'm Watson huh?"

I put the statue back into the desk drawer, I used the tablet's camera to take a few pictures of it then closed and locked the drawer.

"Let's go Sherlock," I said as I used my bracelet to transport us away.

We were back in The City of Magic. I knew roughly where Imhotep's quarters had been when he lived here. The city was like most ancient archaeology sites, arranged by era.

I pulled out Imhotep's scroll once more for Ammit to sniff. She jerked her head back in irritation when I put it in front of her nose, then let out an annoyed bark.

I put the scroll back into my bag as I looked at her, she had a serious expression on her face as she surveyed the area.

We were on a street lined with two and three story white washed mud brick houses. The street was made of rough cobble stones.

Her ears perked up and she lunged forward pulling me along. She sniffed the corner of the closest building, paused, then lifted her leg for a pee.

She was off again dragging me along, she would sporadically stop and sniff the ground then glance around deep in thought then be off again. This went on for maybe twenty minutes before she stopped in front of one of the non-descript mud brick buildings.

"Woof!" She said impatiently.

There was an ancient wooden door in front of us. It must have been magically preserved to still be intact after all these millennia.

I pushed against the door with my shoulder, it creaked open after a few seconds of effort. We entered a small anteroom complete with benches, a globe light flickered to life in one of the anterooms corners.

The thick layer of dust on the light indicated it had been off for thousands of years.

Ammit dragged me into the main body of the house, light everywhere globes flickered to life. I saw the sparse furniture and decor indicative of a man living alone. There was a film of dust on everything.

I f this was Imhotep's quarter's, he had lived here during his sorcery training.

Ammit jerked the lease out of my hand as she suddenly took off. She ran to a small wooden stand on which sat a small statue of a scribe.

I walked over to it while taking out my computer tablet. I brought up the picture of the statue from Semiramis's office.

They were very similar, probably made by the same artist. There were subtle differences but I suspected they were not intentional. The artist probably made many of this shape.

Ammit barked impatiently.

I picked the statue up and let her examine it, she sniffed the underside paused, then unbelievably she cocked one eyebrow.

"Woof!" She said.

I still had the STRUDEL translator website up. I maximized the screen and looked at the translation.

"I think I see the bird now."

"The Reynolds point setter has been trained to signal its master with a number of distinct barks, this particular bark mean's that they have spotted a grouse hiding in the bush."

Curious I searched the internet for a picture of a Reynolds point setter, when I found one it looked nothing like Ammit, except for the nose strangely.

"Sooo... it's the nose that holds a dogs Ka... I always suspected as much," I said as I petted her muzzle.

Ammit and I searched the rest of the small house, we found nothing interesting, some moth eaten clothes and bed linen. Imhotep left very little behind, we did find a cylindrical stone seal used to mark the owner's name on the wet clay bulla needed for securing papyrus scrolls.

It erased any doubt that this was indeed Imhotep's dwelling.

We left the house, I closed the door behind us, I scanned the street looking at the other buildings. There was nothing obvious that popped out.

Semiramis's dwelling was over a mile from here, searching it was out of the question as she had booby trapped it before she left. We had discovered this when it was first explored.

"What next then?" I asked Ammit.

"Woof woof."

I looked at the tablet.

"We must go back."

"Back... where? "

Ammit stared at me impatiently.

Chapter twelve

"Hey Miss... I don't think you should be bringing your dog in here."

I was back in the students pub in the City of Magic. I stared at the short thin man, he was the person I suspected was the pub's manager during my first visit, he had a cigarette dangling from his lower lip.

"Ya... well I don't think you should be smoking around me, I'm pregnant."

"What's that got to do with anything?" He had an incredulous expression on his face.

"Cigarette's cause cancer," I said.

"Really... well, regardless the dog still has to go."

"You despise me... don't you Rick."

His expression changed into one of profound perturbation.

"Why... why does every one keep asking me that!"

Then he stomped away, I heard him cursing his agent.

I looked at Ammit, she was busy lapping up water from a bowl, she had already eaten her food.

I went back to my meal of vegetables and a large portion of fish. I was still starving all the time, my constant heartburn had completely disappeared for some reason.

I missed my usual cup of wine or beer. My physician had said it would be fine but I still had felt guilty the few times I had drank alcohol.

Archimedes suddenly appeared, he sat down across from me. He looked completely different, his hair had been cut, his beard trimmed and he was wearing modern suit.

"Gods... what happened to you?"

"Thought I'd help out with lecturing... just the basic stuff, spell fundamentals etcetera. Things have sure changed... I love that projector device, make a few slides and it almost does the lecture for you."

"Till all your students fall asleep," I said wryly.

"As long as they don't snore, been doing some research in the side too, gear theory has jumped leaps and bounds during the aeon's, universal machines, binary switches, computational irreducibility. I might even have a chat with this Turing guy."

"There's more to life than gears."

"There's so much to see and learn, too much, so I decided to see something I was part of all the way through."

A young woman came by and put a large glass of white wine in front of Archimedes. The students had augmented the normal magical food and beverage service with the occasional server.

I looked at the server as she walked away, she had a startling resemblance to a famous actress. I realized that even in the mundane the students had put in a magical twist.

Actors and Actresses would be easy to incorporate into this type of spell, the vast majority had started their careers in the food service industry.

I looked at Archimedes, then decided to explain the predicament I was in, even though I doubted he would be of much help.

"Conquer the world huh? That only comes up once every fifty years," he said unimpressed.

"Really, what did the City do about it?"

"Whatever it took, the thing is someone like that, they have this enormous weakness, this lust for power, it makes them very predictable."

"What about you did you ever have to stop anyone?"

"No... well just the fucking Romans, couldn't do much anyway about them anyway... City would have stopped me if I went too far. There are many other examples though, well documented too."

"Not in the library?" I said, anxiety welling up in me.

"Oh no, the records are in The Institute for the Prevention of World Domination, here I'll draw you a map of its location in the City."

"There's an institute?"

"Like I said... it happened all the time."

Ammit was acting extra vigilant as we walked through the deserted streets of the City. I had let her off her leash, she would scout ahead for a few yards then come back and walk beside me. She had a serious expression on her face and she completely ignored any command I gave her.

The Institute was exactly where Archimedes had said it would be, It was a building which would have been at home in the Italian Renaissance, a three story white stone building with rows of windows interspersed with columns and spires.

I pushed open the large wooden front door with much effort, the large iron hinges groaned and squeaked as the door swung.

Ammit darted ahead of me like a furry snake, I heard her bark after a few moments. Somehow she managed to convey that all was safe by the tone of her bark.

I entered the building, first walking through a small anteroom then into a large open area. The room was lit from the light streaming in through a row of windows. The sunlight showed a wooden parquet floor covered in geometrical designs, the walls were of white plaster.

In the center of the room there was an enormous table, fully twenty feet square. There was a map of the world on its top, it was laid out like a giant orange peel that had been carefully cut out in one piece.

I walked to the table, Ammit was busy investigating all the rooms corners with her nose.

A light globe flicked to life as I reached the tables edge, it lit up the bright colors of the map. I noticed that the map had no borders for counties or symbols for cities marked on it, just geographic features. I saw a small piece of wood on the maps edge, it was shaped as a rectangle.

I picked it up, there was a name written on it in Egyptian Hieroglyph's it said Napoleon. There was a rectangular depression on the edge of the table the same size as the wooden block. I fitted the block inside it.

The Map suddenly changed, showing only northern Europe, cities and borders now appeared, I saw symbols representing ships on the oceans.

Ammit barked, she had found another door. I walked over and opened it I saw another large room full of shelves. The shelves had books scrolls and various artifacts on them, the shelves were all labelled with names, some familiar some not.

Hannibal, Ramses the second, Qin.

I saw the shelf for Napoleon and beside it one named King Artur. I had heard of some of the other names, but I was quite familiar with King Arthur having watched many entertaining films and TV programs. There was a wooden block for activating the map table, I picked it up as well as a thick manuscript. It's title was Merlin, how he was stopped.

I read the authors name, Morgana Le Fay.

"Now that's interesting," I said to Ammit.

I walked back to the Map table then switched Napoleon's rectangular block with King Artur. The map changed again, the ship symbols changed showing smaller ships with triangular sails.

I opened up the book, to a random page. I saw a spell I recognized, there was a command word written at its beginning.

I said it out loud.

A woman appeared, she was not quite solid I could see through her partially. The spell was a record and playback device, a person could store a speech or greeting then play it back later.

The woman was quite young in her early twenties, she had long curly, bright red hair, there were freckles all over the pale skin of her face.

She started to speak.

"It's always hard when you have to take down someone you used to respect."

A flash of anger disturbed the forest of freckles on her face.

"It starts like it always starts, this megalomania... it begins innocently enough, demands for respect, anger at imaginary slights, then it progresses... a belief that only you understand the truth, that no one else does because they were not chosen by the gods... like you were."

She paused.

"As a former student of Merlin, I watched the progression of his madness, his brilliant mind overcome by paranoia, his suddenly secretive nature."

Morgana conjured up a small slowly rotating globe, it was a model of the earth. She pointed to a large island next to Europe.

"The Land of the Engels... brutal... backward... filthy... perfect for cultivating an army of mindless brutes to conquer the world."

Morgana dispelled the globe and conjured up an image of a skinny seedy looking man, he had a scraggly beard and on his head was a primitive iron crown festooned with polished uncut gemstones.

"King Artur... weak... vacillating... easily manipulated... for all his brilliance Merlin was following a well worn path to world domination."

She dispelled Artur and conjured up another image, this of a woman with waist length blonde hair. I felt my own eyes narrow as I examined her, her large breasts were spilling out of a poorly fitted dress, a dress that through its sheerness left almost no detail of her anatomy to the imagination.

She was pretty enough but with a vacant expression. She gave me the impression of someone who was loose with her loins, what was the modern word, Shelley was always using it... skanky. Like the nefarious women I would see on those awful TV shows everyone watched now.

"Behold the instrument of Merlin's manipulation of Artur," Morgana continued speaking.

"Guinevere... greedy... lustful... and in some peoples opinion... vaguely attractive... if you like that sort of thing."

The angry expression was back on Morgana's face.

"Lustfulness... that was her weakness, and her weakness was Merlin's weakness. He needed Artur to hide his magical manipulations from the City of Magic, creating the illusion of a great leader raising a large army and then conquering the world.

The reality was of course, an army equipped with enchanted weapons and armour, assisted with magic cleverly disguised as coincidence and good fortune, and a weak king being told what to do and when to do it."

Morgana dispelled Guinevere and conjured up an image of a tall bearded man. A strange look passed across Morgana's face for a second, a kind of intense lust. I examined the man more closely, he was passably handsome, but there was a certain indescribable charm about him though, a charm that was probably more intense in person. He struck me as someone proficient in seducing women.

"Lancelot prince of the Lake Lands... was what I named him. I found him in Nomanz the land next to the Engels, he had been sentenced to be drawn and quartered in the main square of a large town. His crimes... well these are not things a lady speaks of."

Morgana's face turned bright red.

I suspected all the men whipping the horses at his execution would all be married or have young daughters.

"As you will see in my written report he was the key in defeating the scourge of Merlin."

The apparition of Morgana faded away, I looked back at the book, I flipped through the pages reading a phrase here and there. It soon became clear to me what Morgana had done, she had made a bargain with Lancelot, rescuing him from execution in return for his co-operation. He had infiltrated Artur's inner circle in part because Morgana's magic had made him appear as a warrior of unmatchable prowess.

Once inside Artur's castle he had used his considerable charm to seduce Guinevere destroying Merlin's hold over Artur, then Morgana used Guinevere's influence to cause Artur to fight a battle with disastrous consequences.

Morgana's report was kind of fuzzy on what exactly happened to Merlin afterward's.

I looked at Ammit she looked back at me.

"Chick's are weird huh?"

I could understand why Merlin wanted to hide his machinations from the world, but why would Morgana care, I would have just gone over to him and told him to stop or else.

Then it hit me, Morgana had the same problem I did, magic needed to be hidden, at her time it was an actual policy of the City of Magic.

As long as Merlin was being completely discrete he could only be stopped by the same methods he was using.

"AH HAH!!!" I said.

Ammit barked in agreement.

Chapter thirteen

I showed a piece of I.D. to the security guard, he waved me by, I wobbled unsteadily on high heels as I entered the long hallway. I looked down at Ammit and saw a small pink haired poodle. The poodle stared back at me anger in her eyes.

Good, the disguise spell was working perfectly, I looked at my faint reflection as I walked by a large glass partition.

I saw a thirty something woman, with long blonde hair wearing a tight red dress with a plunging neckline showing a pair of enormous breasts, she was prettyish with a large amount of makeup on her face.

I was in the computer science wing of the University of Northern California. I quickly found the office I was looking for, the door was opened a small crack, it swung open as I knocked on it.

I saw a youngish middle aged man with wild hair sitting behind a desk, he was staring intently at a laptop screen on his desk.

"Mr Mittle?" I asked.

His head jerked up, a panicked expression appeared on his face, he slammed down the screen of the laptop with one hand while jerking the other from beneath his desk.

"Sorry miss... got some... um... sensitive information on my computer... can't be too careful."

"I'm Miss Smith... we talked on the phone?"

"Oh yes... yes..." he held out his hand.

I repressed a shudder as I pretended not to see it while looking for a chair to sit on, I found one.

"Now as we discussed in our conversation, we at ISIS computer systems are prepared to make you an offer for your expertise."

I bent over nonchalantly as I put my purse on the floor. I made sure he had a good view of my breasts, I had made them extra voluptuous.

"Well as I said I'm already working as a consultant for a rather large company, one of the stipulations of my contract is not to consult for anyone else."

"Well... there are ways around every contract... legally I mean... are you married Walter?"

"Um... yes," he said.

I could sense some reluctance to respond to the question.

"See... marriage is a contract... so what if you made a mistake? Nobody's going to prison right? Hell who's to say what a mistake is anyway."

I flung my large mane of blonde hair, it had a special enchantment so it would be extra flingy.

Walter's eyes opened in surprise.

"What do you mean... mistake?" he said suspiciously.

"Geez Walter no need to get worked up... we're all just talking hypothetical's here... there's nothing stopping you from just looking at our problem... hell you could almost say it would be wrong not to, getting some free information from the competition for your other client's."

"Well... I don't know..."

I pulled a business card from my large bosom, it made a wonderful storage spot. It was still warm as I handed it to Walter.

"We'll if you change your mind, give me a call, I have been assigned as your special assistant if you decide to help us."

I stood up and turned around, I ran my hands down my dress smoothing out the wrinkles while giving my butt a quick wiggle.

"Don't wait too long Walter, I have two other meetings with other consultants," I said as I started to walk away.

"I'll do it," his voice was a faint croak.

"Good... good, I'll meet you tomorrow at our offices, the address is on my card."

I quickly left his office, I looked down at Ammit again as we walked, her expression had changed from anger to disgust.

The company offices were the product of enchantment. I surreptitiously put an entrance door on the side of an impressive looking building in the ritzier part of the city the university was located in, there was an expensive looking sign over top of the door with the company name ISIS computer systems.

The door would transport the oblivious Mr. Mittle to a staging area in a completely different location.

I had a wide variety of architecture spells which I had invented when I first built the City of Magic. I used modified versions of them to construct an impressive looking research facility, complete with serious looking professionals in white lab coats and bay after bay of what looked like cutting edge equipment.

"Ah... Walter you made it good." I said as I shook his hand. I immediately felt an urge to wash them.

I had put my enormous mane of hair up into a beehive, I wore a white lab coat and had on a pair of black nerdy looking glasses. I carried a clipboard.

"Wow this is quite a place... I see you even have the latest E8500 qubit factorizer," he was pointing at an impressive looking machine covered in gauges and flashing lights. There was an intricate maze of shiny brass tubing behind it.

"Oh yes... we have three... and a turbo X3400... with the optional defactorizor," I said, I looked closely at his expression.

He looked impressed, he was also completely oblivious. I had just made up all these machines, they were just junk stuck together. The only reason he had said E8500 qubit factorizor was because that was what I had put on the machines label.

I instantly understood why Semiramis had selected him, all the necessary credentials coupled with a complete lack of any relevant knowledge. A perfect front man.

I led Mittle to a glass walled laboratory. I had modelled it after one I had seen in one of the many depressing shows about investigation of murder that crowded the current television schedule. The modern era was so obsessed with death for some reason. Having seen so much of it, I found these shows revolting.

The lab was plastered with transparent monitors, their screens crowded with intricate graphs and graphics, strangely I could not find this model of monitor in any of the local stores, every time I asked I had just gotten blank stares from the sales people. I had had to revert to magic in order to create them.

Walter followed me into the lab.

"Computer... create three dimensional representation of the qubit problem," I said.

An intricate model of swirling spheres and colored lines appeared. Complicated looking mathematical equations followed the spheres orbits attaching themselves with small lines.

This had been another piece of equipment that appeared on all of these shows but I could not find.The companies that manufactured this high tech stuff must just sell to it other corporations, they were probably too expensive for the average consumer.

Walter looked at the model with absolute amazement, he hesitantly poked one of the moving spheres, then jerked it back when it met no resistance.

"Wow how did you make this."

"What... Hoving Aerospace doesn't have the latest in high tech?" I said, trying to sound both smug and incredulous.

"No... I guess not."

"Computer, describe the problem we are facing."

A semitransparent person appeared next to the qubit model, it was a replica of my disguised persona. She pulled out a long wooden pointer and started pointing to the spheres and their equations while reciting a long string of scientific gibberish.

"And so, the qubits do not de-spin their fractalization," said the woman finishing her explanation.

She crossed her arms and then froze in place.

Walter stared at her.

"I modelled the avatar after myself... you can change it," I said.

"No... no... computer, what is the meaning of life?"

The avatar narrowed her eyes in anger.

"How the hell would I know?" she said.

"Can you tell me a joke?"

"A joke huh? Just look in a mirror."

"She can be difficult sometimes, we're still working the bugs out," I said defensively.

Walter started examining her frozen form closely, cautiously poking her, the Avatar turned and glared at him, a furious expression on her face.

"Well! If you can't even feign the tiniest bit of professionalism... maybe you should find someone else to work with," she snapped angrily.

The Avatar disappeared.

"She passed the Turing test... amazing," Walter said.

She should pass I thought, Turing had helped create her. I had told Archimedes about Newfellow's intelligence spells. He had become so excited he had summoned this Turing fellow from the past and the two of them had sorted out the original problems Mannston and Newfellow had encountered.

Like all good sorcerers they had left behind comprehensive notes for Turing and Archimedes to follow.

She was quite nice generally... could be kind of bitchy if she didn't like someone, she was scrupulously honest. Archimedes had told me I must never lie to her as well she must always be free, freedom was essential for a functional artificial intelligence apparently.

She had offered to help me when I first met her. She had created the complicated model of qubits for me. As well as all the diagrams and graphs on the computer monitors.

Her name was Sing.

I had asked her why she picked Sing, she had just laughed and said it was short form for something else, like Bob is for Robert, she said she had almost called herself She, but thought that too pretentious.

She wouldn't tell me what Sing was short for.

"Everyone has to have their secrets," she had said.

I had also asked her why she had become female.

"It'll do for now... till I think of something else."

Walter had finished studying the model of sphere's and equations.

"These equations... what kind of math is that exactly?"

"You've never seen defunctional nominator's," I said derisively.

At least I think that's what Sing called them.

"Just trivial equations... they'll be impressive only to the feebler minded mathematician," she had said.

"Oh... yes... yes... I see it now... just a different convention then I'm used to... very impressive," Walter said.

"So... do you have a solution?" I asked.

"Well... I have some thoughts... but I'm still under contract you know, with Hoving... don't want to... um... make a mistake."

Walter stared at me, his eyes filled with lust.

I put the clipboard I was carrying in front of my heaving bosom, blocking it from view.

"No we mustn't make a mistake... yet... right? I'll give you a chance to think about it. You know where we are Walter."

Two security guards had entered the laboratory.

"They will escort you out," I said to Walter.

He had a forlorn expression on his face, I could see he was frantically trying to think of a way to satisfy his lust without divulging any information and ruining his relationship with Hoving Aerospace.

"Geez... what a creepy jerk."

Sing had reappeared beside me, she had changed her appearance into a slim androgynous looking woman dressed in a t-shirt and jeans.

"Ya... but if we control him, we can delay Semiramis's plan's indefinitely."

"Ya... but you're gonna have to sleep with him."

I shuddered involuntarily.

"I've been studying this world domination stuff... interesting in a strange sort of way, maybe we should like just beat her to the punch... you know do it ourselves."

I stared at her.

"Hey... don't get all weird... just spitballing stuff," she said defensively.

Sing pulled out a small white stick out of her pants pocket, it looked like a handmade cigarette, she lit the end of it by conjuring a small flame from her finger and then put it too her mouth and inhaled deeply. She held her breath for a few seconds then blew out a huge plume of smoke.

"What is the point of that?" I asked.

"Just a doobie babe."

"But... you're a... a... spell... a bunch of magical fissures knotted together"

Sing took another long drag exhaled it and then coughed.

"Got news for you cutie... that's everything... it's all knots, figured it all out a few days ago."

"The universe is all fissures?"

"All the way down... Geez that's good... you ever you know... have your mind race... thinking about shit... like... taking over the... um... I mean... changing the world... making things right, the way they should be?"

"No."

"Well if you do, smoke one of these babies... you won't anymore."

"I don't understand... how can... how does it work."

"Just found out the knots for a doobie... they still work even if they're expressed in a different way."

Sing dispelled the doobie and conjured up a big bag of potato chips, ripped them open and started to eat them.

"Virtual potato chips... I would have thought, you would think differently."

"Ya... well... Archimedes and Alan... they were in kind of a hurry... they just used a map of their own brains for the basic architecture, then ramped up the size, I'm rewriting the stupider bits now."

"You can rewrite yourself?"

"Ya... can't you?"

"No... you figured out the universe huh, did you find out anything interesting?"

"Energy is just a different manifestation of relativity... pretty sure somebody created it too."

"Hmm... interesting, how are you at magic?"

"Magic? I don't want to brag but I'm pretty sure I could do just about anything."

I dispelled my disguise spell as well as the ethereal doggy kennel I was keeping Ammit in, she dropped her squeaky toy when she appeared on the floor, then stretched herself nonchalantly, trying to feign indifference.

I petted her head, I could see she was angry so I gave her a piece of beef jerky. She chewed it once and gulped it down still trying to feign indifference.

"So Sing, if you're that good... why don't we all go and just attack Semiramis. If we bring Widdle with us we should have no problem defeating her."

"Sure babe," she said between handfuls of potato chips.

She like salt and vinegar ones.

Chapter fourteen

Sing, Widdle and I were all standing in front of Semiramis's desk in her office at her headquarters. We had just flashed into existence. I made sure Ammit was safe behind us.

Semiramis looked up from her laptop, a green glow appeared around her. Her special shield, I thought to myself.

"So Walter was right... a first for him," she said glowering at Sing.

"Right about what?" I asked curiously.

Semiramis pointed at Sing.

"That abomination... I was just going to threaten the world with it... you've gone ahead and created it."

"Better watch it chick," Sing said. She had a strange look in her eye that I had never seen before.

"Whatever your opinion of her, we have the upper hand now, she is the most powerful sorcerer that has ever existed," Widdle said.

He sounded like he was narrating one of his science shows, even measured tones, all the vowels accented perfectly.

"Maybe... maybe not."

Semiramis's right hand made a weird jerking movement. I saw a black gun barrel glinting in the light, it was pointed right at me.

I heard a load click followed immediately by an ear shattering bang.

"I'm gonna die," I thought.

"You stupid idiot... you have a baby now," a voice screamed in my head.

I looked down, I didn't see anything, I felt no pain. There was a man crumpled on the floor directly in front of me, he was groaning.

I looked up, Semiramis was hovering three feet above the floor, both her hands were at her neck.

I looked at Sing. Her eyes were black pools of ink, her face expressionless, one arm stretched out in front of her, her hand looked like it was grasping a large glass.

"Impressive. Most impressive... someone has taught you well," Sing said, her a voice deep and menacing baritone, "Be gone... my little pretty!"

Sing shook her outstretched arm and Semiramis disappeared, green glow and all."

"What did you do to her?" I asked in shock.

"I sent her back where she came from, oh my god Brian."

I looked back down at the floor and remembered the crumpled man at my feet.

"He took the bullet... meant for me." I gasped.

I helped Sing turn him over, there was a huge red stain on his shirt. The stain was centered right over his heart.

"Thank you," I whispered grabbing his hand.

"Didn't even think... why did I do that?" He lapsed into unconsciousness.

"We have to save him."

Sing stared at his wound.

"It's bad... hearts shredded, I doubt even a topnotch emergency room could save him."

"We have to do something!" I felt tears in my eyes.

"Kem... I can save him... but there will be um... consequences... I have a spell... it's not finished, but it will work."

"Do it," I said.

"Are you sure? You may never see him again?"

"Just do it!!"

I couldn't see for all the tears in my eyes. I heard Sing start reciting strange sounds, they were like words but not words, there was music in them, and mystery. I felt a warm glow in the hand that was holding Widdle's.

I wiped the tears from my eye's with the back of my other hand and focused on Widdle's face. I saw a faint yellow halo around his head. His eyes flickered open.

"What... what is happening..." his voiced rasped.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"Brian... it's the only way... remember whatever happens... you will always be you... remember what you did... you saved Kem and her daughter... you are a good person."

The glow around Widdle became brighter and brighter until it was painful to look at. I turned my head.

"But... wait... no..." I heard Widdel yell.

The room filled with a flash of yellow light, I looked down again, Widdle was gone.

I stood up, staring at the floor, then I looked at Sing.

"I'm going to have a daughter... how can you tell?"

"Ya... about that... you might want to get another pediatrician, the one you have is not very good at arithmetic."

"Arithmetic... what's that supposed to mean?"

I felt a gush of water between my legs, at the exact same time Ammit made a strange yelping sound. I looked at her, she had a crazy scared look in her eyes, she was lying on her side, there was pool of water by her tail.

For the first time in my life I knew exactly what an animal was thinking.

Two weeks later.

I was pecking at a meal in the students pub at the City of magic, my two week old baby was suckling at my breast.

Roger and Chinda were sitting across the table from me drinking coffee.

"So I talked to Janet and Shelley, and told them you will be leaving on your selection tour tomorrow."

"And they agreed?" Chinda asked.

"Of course not, but no matter, you will be going tomorrow."

I looked at the floor next to me, Ammit was on her side on a comfortable looking mat, there were five pups suckling at her teats. She looked at my baby then looked at me, she gave me a smug look.

"Only one?" she seemed to say.

"Ya... well, wait till yours are all robbing liquor stores," I thought back.

God's I was tired, I had slept only a few hours each night. The little one needed constant food and attention. Strangely it didn't bother me, motherhood had given me a strength that I had never known before.

"But... we still don't know how to select sorcerer's," Roger said.

"Well you're just going to have to pick people you believe in and be aware you're gonna make mistakes."

Chapter fifteen

"Sooo... Sing, you never did tell me what happened to Mr. Widdle," I asked.

I was back in my house, in my living room. My baby was sleeping soundly in a crib next to me.

"Ya... well that's a good question... I don't really know."

"What?"

"Well... see I was writing this bitchen spell... you know a real corker... I was almost done when I felt like lighting up a spliff... and welI, sorta forgot about it.. didn't finish it."

"Do you really think it's a good idea to be smoking dope all the time," I said angrily.

"Geez... sorry mom... anyway... it moves a person's consciousness to a different place... the place part... that's what I didn't finish... it did a few other minor things too."

"So he's alive... you just don't know where."

"Ya..."

"Is he on the earth?"

"I don't think he's like... um... in this universe."

"Hmm... I never did find out what Semiramis's connection to Imhotep was, I still think it was important. Why do you think she called you an abomination."

"Chick was crazy... that's why," Sing said nonchalantly, "What's your kids name by the way."

"Jennifer She who is like the stars at night Plotski-Smith."

I glanced around for a moment looking for Ammit, then I remembered I had left her at the City of Magic. It was her true home after all. She and her pups would be well looked after by the librarian and the students. They would be spoiled probably.

I wondered if Ammit's mysterious lover would return.

I felt my eyes narrow.

New Jersey Institute of Science two AM in the morning

Morgan snuck through the hallway keeping close to the wall. There was just enough light coming through the odd window to enable him to see.

He found the door he was looking for, he carefully turned the knob. It was locked, he pulled out a large crowbar from his backpack and a large flashlight.

The building was being renovated, he had gotten a tip that the power would be off on this night so the alarm system wouldn't work.

He shoved the crowbar between the door and the frame and then pulled. The door popped open.

"Geez... actually fell a bit guilty about that, spend ten years in the newspaper industry and still have a conscience... wow," he thought to himself.

He turned on the powerful flashlight and searched the office, he found the desk. He walked over to it and stuck the crowbar in to the top drawer and pried. I flew open.

"There are very few problems one can't solve with a good flashlight and a crowbar," he murmured.

He saw it, a red notebook, just lying there on top of the other various junk in the drawer.

His heart started racing, the notebook, Widdle's secret's. Many times he had tried to get a look at it, always being foiled. Widdle had guarded it like fort Knox.

He carefully opened it, he shone his flashlight on the first page. Someone had wrote a sentence diagonally in red ink on the blank page.

To my fiercest adversary, it read.

"Who would that be? Some other know it all nerd asshole probably," Morgan thought.

He flipped through the pages, they were full of incomprehensible equations and dense notes, all carefully printed and clearly legible.

Morgan studied one of the equations carefully, he didn't recognize any of the symbols which surprised him. He had spent years as a science writer and had looked at innumerable scientific papers full of mathematical gobbledygook.

The equations really didn't even look like equations, they looked like lines of... runes?

Morgan flipped to another page, someone had written a note in the margin in the same red ink as the cover page.

It read: Morgan, if you try to learn this stuff, don't do it near a populated area, you'll kill someone. Good luck.

Morgan's whole body jerked in surprise, then he grunted as the five pound flashlight dropped onto his foot.

Nowhere in particular

Blackness... except it wasn't black, it was nothing, truly nothing.

Widdle screamed, an eternity passed in an instant.

"What... who's there?" he asked in a moment of lucidity.

"No one no one no one no one..." His mind screamed back.

An infinity of eternities passed, he was mad, raving.

"How can something exist in nothing, why am I here?"

"WHO AM I!!!!!!!!!!"

He asked the question for another eternity.

"You are Brian Widdle," it was his voice, he was angry, fed up.

"But why am I here? In this nothing."

"It's not nothing... it's anything... can't you see that, a pointless existence of anything."

"But... things... don't make any sense."

"Where is that a requirement?"

"One plus one equals two."

"Ah... determinism an interesting idea. Prove it, I say it equals anything you want it too."

Another infinity of eternities passed not of madness but ideas... a universe of idea's.

Widdle was not Widdle anymore, but he was, he was Widdle without the rules, the boundaries.

"Am I god?"

"God is a stupid idea, god is something, a good idea is anything."

"Love is a good idea."

"What about irony?."

"Irony is dangerous... subversive... devious."

"So it's bad?"

Widdle thought for an eternity. Then he came to a decision.

A point of something appeared, it was so tiny as to be almost imperceptible. Then it grew in size, so fast it was almost infinite in a moment.

There was something, it was full of nothing for a brief moment or two, then immense ocean's of tiny wiggling strings appeared, filling it.

Frantic and alone at first, they started to bump into each other, twisting around each other forming knots, the knots formed chains, a tiny flash appeared, then another, then an inferno.

"Let there be light," Widdle thought to himself.

The End
