Hilda - Lycadea (12 page)

"Maybe if we took the cover off the console?"
Rebel suggested.

"And risk damaging even more?" Maurizio
pitched in.

Rebel frowned and seemed ready to kick the
captain. She resorted to "hmmf."

"Now how does this room control the planet?"
William asked. He felt he had to take charge. Hilda was lost in
these technical matters, and Rebel and Maurizio did not seem to
agree on anything at the moment.

Katinki and Laurean did their best to explain
that everything on Lycadea had been automated and computerised, and
the room they were in was the central place from where everything
on the planet was managed. Unfortunately, the magicals learnt,
everything had worked fine for so long that the real knowledge of
all the systems had been lost, forgotten. In the beginning, the
high council had known exactly what was where and how things
worked. There had been people that knew how to repair things all
over the planet.

"Then one day something stopped working,"
Laurean said as if he were a storyteller, "and nobody knew how to
make it work again. It was not an important thing that stopped
working, so the high council did not worry too much. But in the
years after that more and more broke down, and now we are here."
The last words came out with a despairing undertone. Gone was the
storyteller.

"And more and more breaks down," Hilda added,
understanding at least the gist of it. She picked up the switch.
"Like this. And that's where I come in. As usual."

William grinned; that was his Hilda.

Davdruw, who had regained his courage now
Hilda was talking to the high council, had joined the group.
"Honoured Grimhilda," he said, "is there something I can do for
you? We have quarters prepared for you and your - companions."

Hilda took the tall man in. "That sounds like
a good plan, yes. I am ready to get away from all this madness for
a while." She turned to Katinki and Laurean. "Please try not to
break anything else." Then she asked William to give the others
their voice back.

Katinki nodded. "Honoured witch, may I ask
you something? What is this creature you wear on your
shoulder?"

"That is Onyx Grimalkin. My cat. William has
one too, see, that's Obsidian Shadow. You can touch Grim if you
want. Grim, no funny things, do you hear?" Hilda warned her
cat.

Two big yellow eyes beheld the hand that came
closer. Grim allowed the hand to touch her fur and stroke her
head.

Katinki beamed as she pulled back her hand.
"Your Grim is so soft," she said.

"You never saw a cat before?" Hilda was very
surprised.

Katinki shook her head. "I hope I may touch
her again sometime."

"I'm sure," said Hilda.

Davdruw led the party out of the high
council's chamber, back into the small corridor. He twiddled
something with his sleeve and soon a set of floating chairs
arrived. As they floated through corridors, they did not go back
into the waiting room, Hilda asked him why he had been so silent
before.

"I am the Lycadean spiritual leader, Honoured
Witch. I deal not with the mechanics of that level."

The chairs came to a halt. Davdruw handed
Hilda a few small silver bracelets. "With these you can open the
doors to your rooms," he explained.

"Wonderful. Where are the doors?"

Davdruw showed the group a few small signs on
the wall. "Hold the bracelet close to it and the door will
open."

"Suck an elf," said Hilda as it worked. "So
far you managed not to break that, eh?" She slipped one of the
bracelets on her wrist.

Davdruw tried to keep his face straight at
the snickering that was his share. "I will have someone show you
how you can get nourishment and refreshments," he said. "Please try
and rest." He nodded at Hilda and William, ignored Maurizio and
Rebel and paced off at high speed. The chairs remained where they
were.

Hilda handed the other bracelet to Rebel.
"Here, I assume you want to share a room."

Rebel took it and put it on her arm. "No, we
don't. But we don't seem to have much choice, do we?" She waved her
arm over a sign and another door revealed itself.

"If you need something, just bang on the wall
or something," William offered. "I am sure I can help you work out
some sleeping arrangements."

"Thank you," said Rebel and walked into the
room. Maurizio shrugged apologetically and followed her. The door
closed and vanished behind him.

Hilda looked at William. "I'm glad you're
here, William." She leaned into him, and together they entered
their room.

The room they entered was remarkable, to say
the least. And large.

"William... is it me or do the walls fold
back?"

The wizard also gazed upwards along one of
the walls. "I'll be a frog if this room isn't like the bottom half
or a pyramid," he said, "only upside down."

Two black cats dropped to the white floor and
started their own discovery.

"Uhhuh," said Hilda. "And the ceiling. It's
that moving mosaic thing. Do they expect us to sleep with all that
light going on over our heads?"

"I'll make sure that won't happen, Hilda,"
William said.

They looked around the room. In a corner, far
away from the door, hovered what had to be a bed. As the two
approached it, Hilda muttered something under her voice. William
learnt, after asking, that she found the room too white. It was
indeed very white. The floor, the walls, the bed, all other pieces
of furniture, everything except the ceiling, the cats and the two
magical people was white.

The wizard used his wand and magic with care
as Hilda took over the role of interior decorator. The wall near
the bed became purple, to humour the witch. The other walls changed
to a light sandy brown. Two tables and eight chairs were
transformed into plain wooden versions, and three large fluffy
white seats became one large dark blue sofa and a low table in
front of it.

"Much better," the witch nodded as they sat
on the sofa, their cats next to them.

"There is someone waiting outside to see
you," a voice announced.

"Who is it?" Hilda asked, used as she was to
a talking house.

"Davdruw sent me here, honoured witch,"
another voice said. "To show you your room."

"Oh, right," said Hilda. "House, let her in."
She and William got up and saw a rather young woman come into their
room who made a serious effort to stay in. As she saw what had
happened to the room, she almost keeled over backwards. "Are you
alright, kid?" Hilda asked, sounding worried.

"What happened to the room?" the girl asked,
her eyes large, her hand seeking stability against a wall.

"We cheered it up a bit. Less white. Do you
like it? Here, see the sofa!" Hilda patted the back of the piece of
furniture. "Very comfortable. Come, try it." She rushed over to the
girl, took her by the arm and guided her to sit on the sofa.

The young 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."