woman, in her silvery clothes, felt something furry under one of her hands. The furry, better known as Obsi, meowed in protest and jumped away. The girl thought that a very commendable idea and also jumped, after which she made for the door. Before she reached it, she forced herself to a halt. Grimalkin sat near the door, looking up at the woman, clearly wondering what all the fuss was about.
Hilda and William both were there to help the young woman back to the sofa. "Come, sit down. No cats here now, so you can sit down. Want a cup of tea? William, get her some tea." The witch sat down with the young woman, patting her hand, as the wizard made a mug of tea appear.
A yelp escaped the girl as she tried to push herself through the back of the sofa.
"Now what?" Hilda asked, not understanding all the fuss.
"I think they're not used to magic, Hilda," said William. And to the young woman he said: "You probably know about the prophecy, right?"
She nodded, her eyes large and on the steaming mug.
"Well, Hilda's the witch, and I'm the wizard. We do magic. Like that mug of tea. Now drink some, it'll make you feel better. And then tell us your name, will you?"
After a few sips of tea, which made the girl relax, she said: "I am Kerna. Davdruw asked me to... uhm..." Kerna's voice faltered as Obsi and Grim sauntered around the sofa and jumped onto the table, curiously observing her.
"Yes, we know," said Hilda, "just drink your tea and then tell us about the room."
Kerna showed stamina as Grimalkin jumped in Hilda's lap: she did not jump, although she did move away slightly. "What is that? Is that yours?"
Hilda and William explained about the cats again, wondering about the animals on this planet. "So. About the room..."
Kerna set aside her shock about the new look of the room and showed them a hidden door (which she had trouble finding because of the new decoration) behind which there was a bathroom. There also was a triangular panel they could open and request food from. They gave it a few tries, but whatever they ordered, the machinery behind the panel invariably came up with bowls that contained a very bad impersonation of oatmeal.
"I prefer the thing aboard the Mimosa," Hilda remarked, which made Kerna frown.
"It appears that this one broke down now," Kerna simply said. "Maybe you can use the one that is in the room of your friends." That made it clear that the Lycadeans had a very simple way to deal with the falling apart of their environment.
"Luckily we have something better," said William as he turned the bowls of oatmeal with a bad day into plates with fried chicken, chips and carrots.
Kerna displayed another frown, but this one was accompanied by large eyes and an expression of disbelief. The way she sniffed at the food made William change another bowl.
"Here we go," Hilda said, taking one of the plates to a table.
William winked at Kerna, handed her a plate and ushered her to the table as well. "Oh!" he then said. He went back to the food machine, made it hand out another bowl, and turned that into magical cat food. Obsi and Grim did not waste time with it.
As they all were eating, there was a pounding on the door. Hilda went to open it and brought Maurizio and Rebel to the table. The two had buried the hatchet for now and complained about the machine with the food.
"There was a nice woman who explained about it, and said we might use yours, which appears to be working," Maurizio said as he eyed the plates.
As Hilda invited them to sit down with them, William went to get more oatmeal and brought that to the table. He asked what they would like to eat and did his magic trick.
"So what was wrong with you two just now?" Hilda asked. "You were almost at each other's throat."
"I'm not talking about it," Rebel said between bites. Maurizio stated something similar, be it mixed with bites. His synchronising probably was somewhat off.
Hilda and William exchanged glances and shrugged. "Where is that nice woman you mentioned?" Hilda then asked.
"Uhm... I'm not sure," Maurizio confessed, this time between bites. "We were so hungry that we just walked out and knocked on your door when she mentioned using your food machine."
"Glad we did, too," Rebel added.
"Sakodi probably went back to her chores," Kerna said, sitting back. Her plate could not be emptier. "We were asked to help you as long as necessary. She assumed she was done when you left."
"Oh." Rebel raised an eyebrow. "I think we were quite rude, running off like that. We should apologise."
Kerna said: "She won't mind. You came here with Grimhilda the Witch. It is an honour to be asked."
Everyone had finished their food, when Hilda proposed they'd go out for a walk and have a look around in this strange place they had arrived at.
"Do you think that is wise, honoured witch?" Kerna asked.
"Sure," Hilda said. "You're coming with us, to guide the way. What can possibly go wrong?" William stared at his witch, who looked back. "What?" she asked.
William laughed. Hilda joined in. Then also did Rebel and Maurizio, leaving Kerna sitting silently, who was not aware of what Hilda and William had experienced before coming here. The young woman took the plates to the food machine, put them in it and closed the door to it.
They all left the table, and then the room, ready for adventure. Kerna asked the witch what she wanted to see. The answer "Everything" was not much help, though.
"In that case let's go outside," said Hilda. "This building makes me nervous."
Kerna shook her head, and she looked very determined as she did so. "That is not wise, honoured witch. Outside is dangerous."
"How can outside be dangerous while we are in a building that is falling apart as we speak? The high council told us so. And we saw things break ourselves."
"Outside things break too, honoured witch." Kerna had a problem trying to keep Hilda inside while also wanting to accommodate her wishes. "Big things."
"Ah, I see," said Rebel. "In here there's only small stuff and out there we can get a brick on our head."
"A brick... not exactly..." Kerna frowned.
"Oh, come on, don't be a spoilsport," said the witch as she threw an arm around the young woman. "See, you're safe now, so where's the door?"
"Hilda, perhaps there is something to what she says," Maurizio tried, but his words found no ears to fall on, not even deaf ones.
Kerna had lost and she knew it. She led the small group down a few tube-like corridors, to an airlock-like door. She typed some codes on a glass tablet. In response, the large metallic (triangular) hatch slowly moved to the side and offered them a view of the outside.
"Crappedy crap."
17. Lycadea
"Now really," Hilda said.
The view could only be called 'different'. Well, it could also be called 'strange', or even 'scary'. They looked at six or so more pyramids that seemed scattered about. Most of them were still in one piece, but at least two of them had somehow been damaged by something immense. They had collapsed, mostly imploded, but tricky gusts of wind pushed against the broken parts that were still upright.
As Hilda and William looked out over the devastation, a large plate of one of the damaged buildings came crashing down.
"That's more than a brick alright," Rebel said. She did not grin.
In front of them, only a step outside, the ground was littered with things. Parts of pyramids, pieces of indeterminable objects, and remains of what probably had been machines, everything was spread out between the pyramid houses. The ground itself looked like what had once been an enormous slab of concrete. Originally it had been white and yellow, the witch guessed from some visible spots. There were so many cracks and holes in it that it looked difficult and dangerous to venture out onto it.
"What happened here?" Maurizio asked Kerna. "Did you have a war?"
The woman shook her head. "No. The machines for maintaining the outside-", she pointed loosely at one of the mechanical carcasses, "-stopped working."
"And nobody knew how to fix them," Hilda und
erstood. "Is it this bad everywhere?"
"I don't know, honoured witch. I do not leave the house very often, and when I do I use the tunnel tubes. But they are becoming increasingly dangerous too."
William put a hand on Hilda's shoulder. He was lost on what they had gotten into. And where. "Do you want to go outside and have a better look, witch?"
"I would like to, although that stuff doesn't look very inviting."
William understood. Walking there was lethal. He drew his wand and pointed it at one of the broken-down machines. He muttered spells and cast magic for a while, until the whatever it had been was completely disassembled. It was hard work, as he had no clue how the thing had been assembled. It was mainly trial mixed with a lot of error.
"What are you trying here, wizard?" Rebel asked. "Anything I can help you with?"
"Can you get all that stuff closer?" William asked. Rebel nodded, held out a hand and lifted the pile of metal components up as Hilda and Maurizio stared at what went on.
"Great," said the wizard as the envy of a junk yard landed before them. William transferred Obsi to Kerna's shoulder. Both looked surprised and uncomfortable.
The witch who was no witch held her breath as she saw William step out into the open, towards the mountain of metal. A twitch of emotional pain went through her as he asked Rebel to step out and help him. She should be the one out there. Instead she was standing there, watching William do all kinds of things as his robe was flapping about like a bird that had gone soft in the head.
William manufactured a most fantastic rig. It had six seats,