While David West and Sandra tracked down evidence of the renegade wizard Elgarin, who fled from another world to Earth, events transpired suggesting that David might be some form of magic user himself. With this revetion, he remembered a bizarre story about a friend of his father’s, a man David knew only as “Uncle Mike.” Realizing that they were in the neighborhood where Uncle Mike lived, David gave him a call, and now the two were heading off to meet him.

  Seven minutes after talking to him on the phone, David pressed the buzzer for Mike’s apartment and the same woman who had answered Mike’s phone told him to come on up.

  The door opened before they got to it and a slightly plump woman with a pretty, round face and whose long, messy, medium brown hair was shot through with streaks of gray, met them at the door. Thick gsses made it hard to determine her eye color. “I’m Kim,” she greeted them. “We were just starting to straighten up when you called so pardon the mess.”

  David smiled; two things he remembered most strongly about “Uncle Mike” were that the man could never keep anything neat and that, even though nobody ever saw him smoking he always smelled of tobacco and, strangely, cinnamon. “David West,” he said by way of introduction, then, indicating his companion, added “and Sandra”

  Kim nodded and escorted them in.

  Uncle Mike was standing in the middle of a cluttered yet somehow clearly organized room. He wore the thick, fuzzy scks Mike remembered him always favoring when not at work, and a button-down shirt that only had the second and third buttons from the bottom fastened, revealing his hairy chest. His thick beard and bushy hair were still the same auburn color David remembered; in fact it looked as if nothing had changed about the man since he st saw him three years ago. Before any of them could exchange greetings, David heard a gasp from behind him, turned, and saw Sandra go down on one knee, her head bowed: “Grand Magister Mikkledarmius!” She excimed.

  Shock appeared in the man’s eyes at this greeting, but then, his voice far more imperious than David had ever heard it before, said: “Arise child, there is no need for such formalities,” there was a slight pause and then a shocked excmation of “Thellissandra!”

  She rose to her feet but kept her head bowed slightly as she nodded.

  “Come here my dear: wow, you have grown in the, what is it, eight years since I saw you st! Why, you have turned into a fine young woman, almost as lovely as your dear mother,” he said as she walked over to him and Mike threw his arms around her in a warm hug. “David, how do you two know each other?”

  Feeling a little pyful, David honestly replied: “I found her in a dumpster.”

  Mike released her from the embrace, looked to Sandra and then to David and let out the booming ugh that David knew so well. “That is a tale I must hear but I suspect it will take some time to tell?”

  “The signs are that Elgarin fled here,” Sandra said, interrupting.

  Mike’s mood suddenly darkened, as if storm clouds had suddenly appeared on a bright, sunny day. “Can our family never escape that fiend?” He sighed.

  ‘I doubt he would have come here if he knew you…” she began but Mike held up a hand.

  “My daughter, he is why I have been absent these st several years. Before, I could freely travel the universes, but he bound me to this world to test a theory, and to shield himself from my wrath over murdering your mother. If he’s here, he likely pns to destroy me before moving on.” Then he looked over at David as if suddenly realizing he had been standing there all along. “And I bet that none of this makes any sense to you, my boy?”

  “You would get back half your wager, Uncle Mike,” he replied. “Some of it, she’s expined but not her history with this renegade mage, or with you.”

  “She does not know all of it, herself, I suspect. But I don’t have time to go into all of that now, I really do have an appointment I must keep in about forty-five minutes. And, given that neither of you knew my part in the rger picture, I doubt that is why you called me?”

  “You are correct, Grand Magister,” Sandra replied. “I believe David is a Mage, and that you might be able to help him understand.”

  Mike froze for a moment, and then grinned broadly: “Hah! I was right; I felt it in your father’s bloodline the night I nudged your parents together,” he told David. “How does it manifest for you?”

  “Manifest? Oh, it is kind of like a, well do you py any video games?” David asked.

  “A few,” the other man confessed, a little sheepishly, while pointing casually at a rack full of game consoles and packages.

  David almost ughed, but instead continued: “It is like a Heads-Up Dispy. Sometimes I see runes in the air, and they glow in various colors.”

  “Only sometimes?”

  “Actually,” David admitted, as he suddenly realized this for the first time, “I think I’ve always seen them, but they only glow and show colors on rare occasions...”

  “Ah yes, only the realm of Spirit has much power in this world normally,” Mike replied, absently. “The reliance on technology has deadened the other Forces in most areas. My grandfather, the first to discover the ability to walk between these two worlds, was very nervous when he brought the idea of running water and flush toilets back, but found them too useful to keep to himself. The areas where everything, ah, lights up, are where something has broken through or where someone has been drawing in power for some reason. Quite likely Elgarin is here and pnning something big. “Thellissandra, Daughter, I beg you not to confront him and just let the Temple know he’s here to have them send a squad after him. He’s taken too much from me for me to lose you, or David, to him as well.”

  Sandra looked up at him, an odd expression on her lovely face: “Wait, when you called me ‘daughter’ just now, were you speaking as Grand Magister or making a formal decration?”

  Mike’s eyes widened at this and again he ughed, though not as heartily as before. “In truth, my dear? Both. I was, indeed, the one who gave you to your lovely mother, and you clearly are at least as gifted at perception as she was...”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Mother told me my father was someone important, but best kept secret, someone who did not have time for a daughter, but I never guessed it was you, father!” Again, she embraced the man, who seemed initially a little embarrassed before his expression softened and he returned the hug.

  “So, my best friend’s son and my daughter, eh?” He said as he teased her. Before either could respond he ughed again. “I’ve seen how you gnce at each other, and I have seen him talk about the girls who caught his fancy over the years. You are only the second one ever good enough for him, though perhaps too good; he may have to earn my approval if he is to continue with you” he teased the pair.

  “Second?” Dave asked.

  “I always thought that girl Carol would have been a great match for you, though I believe she prefers girls to boys?” Mike replied.

  “I don't think she has a preference; she just likes anyone that catches her eye and does not worry about their gender,” was David’s reply. “Though she does seem quite serious with the nurse she’s been dating.”

  Mike ughed. “By all accounts,” Mike then said while gesturing at Sandra, “her grandmother was the same way. When Ryleen had her fifth birthday, she turned her over formally to the Temple to raise and left with one of the other Battle Sisters, returning once a year to check on her daughter’s progress, and when she was not with the other Sister, she had a different lover at her side, male, female, even one beastling, if the stories are true. She got around,” He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then turned to Sandra... “You know, you have her hair instead of your mother’s shimmering gold, but otherwise you could be Ryleen’s twin instead of her child. She was the first woman I ever loved,” he mused. “But I didn't love her enough to leave the Order, and she understood that. I think. Kim here is the third woman I have ever loved, in case anyone is keeping score.”

  The room was quiet for a moment, until Mike spoke again: “I have to go meet a friend about some personal matters and can’t reschedule. Perhaps we could meet tomorrow for breakfast, and I could help teach you ways to tap into your power? Until then, just lie low and take it easy.”

  David nodded: “Breakfast tomorrow; is the pce you and dad went to every Saturday when you were both in town still open?”

  “I was just there yesterday,” Mike replied.

  “I’m in, then. Nine AM tomorrow?” David asked, his eyes darting between Mike and Sandra.

  “Do they have coffee? Or apples?” Sandra asked.

  After Mike replied in the affirmative, they agreed, then David and Sandra bid Mike farewell, Sandra hugging him once more before they left.

  As soon as the door closed, Mike called Kim to his side and put a hand on her shoulder. “You did well to remain silent. Now you will forget everything you just heard. My old friend David came by with his new girlfriend and we all had a pleasant tea together. Tomorrow you will come te, perhaps even around noon, to help straighten up. I will forgive you for being te, as I always do. Do you understand?” As he spoke, his eyes turned a ft gray and the hand that was not on her shoulder seemed to be typing on an invisible keyboard in the air.

  In a ft voice, Kim replied: “I understand.”

  Mike released her shoulder, and his eyes returned to normal as she turned around and said: “Sorry, I just had a slight dizzy spell. Did your guests leave already?”

  “Yes, David, my best friend’s son, has a new girlfriend he wanted me to meet.”

  “I hope they liked the tea. Wish there’d been time to make some biscuits to go with it,” she replied.

  “Everything is fine. If you would like, you can go home for the night, or we can meet up for dinner at that little pce you like in about two hours?”

  “I am feeling a bit tired, my love. Perhaps a rain check on dinner? I have a feeling I might be te tomorrow too, if that's OK?”

  Mike fshed her a broad smile. “As long as we spend some time in each other’s company, my day will be complete, no matter how little time it is.”

  “You know, she was a lovely girl. Looked a bit like the one in that old locket of yours.”

  “Did she? I hadn’t noticed. But David did always have great taste in women…perhaps not as good as mine, though,” he answered, giving Kim a squeeze.

  They kissed and she let herself out. Mike picked up his phone and called a number. When someone answered, he said “I am running about ten minutes te, but you were right. Yes, Elgarin is here. So is my daughter, the idiots picked her to search this world. We’ll need to put some extra protections on that ring. On my way now.”