Daltun Becomes a Wizard

Boojaa was about to go on shift. Policing the Lower City was fairly routine, not many people were out after dark and the main responsibility of the Municipals Guild was to keep the streets in the less prestigious half of Thardiihuuch free of trouble. Trouble elsewhere was someone else's department.

As he stepped out of the station he realized someone was approaching. Someone small. Yup, it was the shougild Chester, here no doubt to keep his shift free of boredom. "What is it, Chester?" he asked, resignedly.

"I think Daltun has gotten himself into trouble again."

"I see. Did i ever mention that i'm a cop, not a nanny?"

"This is serious, Boojaa, i think he might be in real danger!"

Boojaa indicated for the shougild to lead the way. And Chester led the way. All the way to one of the worst slum districts in the Undercity. On the way he told the story.

"You see, Boojaa told me he wanted to do some sympathetic magic."

"Isn't that another of those advanced techniques that only fully trained mages are supposed to try? I know Daltun has been impatient with the training he was getting from Krand, but after those accidents you'd think he'd have learned that magic is dangerous."

"Well he said he only wanted to contact his new mentor, the one he met when he was outside the city."

"Mentor, huh? When i rescued him from that band of barbarian rinkers they said he'd been hanging around with a golden skinned demon."

"Daltun says his name was Sool and he wasn't a demon."

"Go on."

"Well, Daltun said he needed something gold to establish the connection. And i was able to help him."

"You had something gold? As in the color reserved only for the Upper City? Should i arrest you now?"

Chester became defensive. "It wasn't much, just-- well remember when we were doing that search down in the Verge? And i started to get really woozy? You were a bit out of it yourself."

"Yes, i was feeling tired and weak, but you were ready to lie down in the nearest soft spot. I had to drag you away. Later we found some strange yellow dust on our persons that might have been a drug of some sort."

"Exactly. It was in my hair and all over my face, you just got a little on your tunic, you hyuumins are lucky to be so tall."

Boojaa sighed. "Let me guess, you kept some of that dust."

"Only for investigating! I found out that it's part of a com- com- what was that word? Composite! Part of a composite organism, they told me at the apothecary. There's a moss that produces the dust, it's made of spores that cause tiredness and hallucinations. And then there's some sort of large carnivorous bug that makes a colony. They call it deadly bed."

"I see", said Boojaa, seeing all too well where this was going. "The dust makes you go to sleep on the moss, then the bugs chop you up, incidentally making fertilizer. So when Daltun told you he needed something gold, you gave-- let me guess, you *sold* him some of this dust?"

"Well i warned him not to breath it! Besides, he was nowhere near the place where we found it!"

"So what happened?"

"Well, i, uh, i went back to the Laborers Guild later to ask how it went but he wasn't there. They said he had sort of stumbled around like he was really drunk, then he mumbled something about power being in his grasp and walked out. I tried to find him but when i got to where i thought he was going, some mean people *mugged* me. They took my nice boots!"

"Have you noticed how prone you are to being mugged? Could it be because you keep getting into things you shouldn't?"

By now they had reached the neighborhood where Chester had traced Daltun. As they turned into an alley, shadowy figures moved to intercept them. "I'm a municipal, oh worthy names, check the uniform", declared Boojaa. "Would you like to see my id card? Of course i'll need to see yours!"

The figures paused. "Oh, no problem, Municipal" said the one in the lead. "We were just watching out for our neighborhood. There are some shady characters around here."

"No doubt. Say you wouldn't happen to have seen some nice boots belonging to my small friend here? He says he got mugged on this street. No? Somehow i didn't think so. Now, this is very important. We are looking for a man named Daltun, a member of the Laborers Guild. He was last spotted headed this way. He was apparently not in his right mind. Have you seen him?"

There was some shuffling in the dark. Finally the voice answered reluctantly. "Ah, well there was this person, who seemed, well preoccupied. He was walking like he was looking at something different from here, you know? And he headed down the alley and climbed into the pile of rubbish at the end. Awfully rude of him, people live there, you know? We'd really appreciate it if you'd remove him."

"This is how you guard your neighborhood?" asked Boojaa. "Why not remove him yourself?"

"We thought of it", came the embarrassed reply, "but there was something spooky about him, reaching out like he was grabbing something, and muttering to himself like that."

"Muttering what?"

"Well it sounded to me like `at last i am a wizard', but my friends heard differently. One thinks it was `at lunch i'll eat a lizard' or maybe `alas, i hurt my gizzard'."

Boojaa snorted impatiently. He strode down the alley while Chester struggled to keep up. There was indeed a pile of old broken furniture and crates there, but there seemed no sign of life. They called out but there was no answer. Chester poked around and finally found a pair of twitching feet sticking out of the furthest corner at the end of the alley. As he leaned over to pull on the feet a cloud of golden spores rolled over him, glittering in the torchlight. "He found another bed!" exclaimed Chester, coughing, before he collapsed.

Working furiously, holding his breath between runs out of the area, Boojaa first dragged Chester away, then looped a rope around Daltun's ankle. Small, multilegged forms scuttled and clicked in the shadows. "Deadly bed!" he gasped to the crowd that had gathered. "It's back there!"

*  *  *

Daltun sat on his throne and smiled indulgently. A throng of polite petitioners, rulers of nations, waited to consult him. Further back, his former mentor Krand gazed with admiration. How she, and others, had humbled themselves and admitted that they had been wrong all along, that he was not an incompetent wanna be, but the greatest natural talent in the history of magic! But Daltun had forgiven them all and now they were his loyal followers. And look, here came his favorite shougild, Chester, who had unaccountably become present all of a sudden.

Chester was happy too. Handpicked by the world's greatest wizard, he flew by magic as envoy to other parts of the world where all the local shougilds received him with rejoicing. It was not long before they were begging him to accept the newly created position of Supreme Shougild. He could hear them calling in the distance. "Chester! Chester! Chester!"

"Chester!" Slap! "Chester!" Slap! "Chester!" Splash! After ten hard slaps and two buckets of water, the shougild seemed to be regaining his awareness of the outside world. This time Boojaa splashed water directly into Chester's nose, causing a prolonged bout of coughing and sneezing. Hopefully, he'd expelled the last of the spores.

"Chester, we have to get out of here! The locals have set fire to the trash in the alley but i don't think that's all that's gonna burn. Help me with Daltun!"

"That's no way to speak to the Supreme Shougild! You'd better-- um, you'd better-- oh." Chester looked around. At first he didn't recognize Daltun. The would be self trained magician looked a lot like a side of meat prepared for a barbeque.

*  *  *

"He'll have to spend at least two weeks in the protein gel", explained the attendant at the Hospitaler's Guild. There were times when Boojaa regretted that his culture's antipathy towards religion meant there was little access to paranormal healing. But in this case he thought, it was a good thing. Two weeks of stewing in his own juices, or rather in the medicinal potion, was two weeks during which Daltun would be unable to endanger himself or others.

*  *  *

Daltun floated in dim light. Thoughts dissipated, fled, and regathered like fish in a bowl. The others knew nothing. He had become the greatest wizard of all time, but he had also had some help, from Krand and others. It was grudging help, from people who were really trying to hold him down. But help nonetheless. Now he intended to do it on his own. That was why he had projected himself back in time, to his earlier life. This time he would refuse all aid, all advice or offers of instruction. He would train himself and initiate himself, and take his rightful place in history.

It was his destiny.