* * * MARY & MARY * * *

On Parthia Mary dismissed her avatar and sank into her core. On Earth Mary gave one last look around her original domain off Maui before releasing her consciousness to merge with herself.

First came the all too familiar sensations as they merged their experiences of the previous day, and then came the surprise. They found themselves looking down on their people on their worlds. And they saw some possible short-range futures and outcomes for their faithful.

They knew they were looking at the Stellar Voyager, Hawai’iloa and his crew were busy, they had just done a sling shot around the local star and now had their liftwood providing maximum acceleration against the still close star. Mary could see her crabmen were standing up well to the manoeuvre. The future was easy to read. They would soon enter hibernation and Hawai’iloa would be all but shutting down for the long journey.

Then they were observing a very pink bedroom on Maui. Two very different little girls were ranged in alliance against the world in defence of their little ponies. Mary noted the two ponies were dormant, their sides had merged and their baby was growing in the blister that currently united them. The future showed them a viable birth, and that the tomboy and the little princess would become firm friends and allies.

On Ambuila, in a poor fishing village, the villagers were celebrating three pregnancies. And a young gangly teenager was sulking at being ignored. He was a twiceborn and his name was Markowitz. The near future showed a new shrine and a priest.

Elsewhere there was an orbital telescope – and it was not the Hubble Space Telescope.

On Parthia she/they watched a skirmish between the drow and the dwarves. The near future suggested a high chance of an all out war between the two communities in the south.

On Earth again, in LA, in a classroom full of thirteen-year-olds, a casually dressed catgirl was using ritual magic to give targeted individual lectures on basic magic. And at the back of the room four adults listened attentively. The near future suggested Dona was going to need some help.

The scenes flashed past one after the other and when Mary separated into her separate selves again she spent a few seconds in contemplation.

* * *

From her core at the bottom of the Pacific Mary reached out. She sought out Shadow on Parthia.

« Shadow, Dona’s goin’ need you soon. Some rich stalker is goin’ to fixate on her soon. I’ll get Mycroft to get you everythin’ you’ll need to be legal in the USA. Make your way to one of Lewis’ entrances and make your way to Earth an’ report to Mycroft or Moriarty for info. »

Shadow froze, and as he gained the understanding as to what Mary meant by ‘stalker’, he growled softly. Dona was his... Unless she was to tell him otherwise... And even then he would look out for her.

Without another thought he turned on his heel and trotted out of town heading for the nearest Mock Turtle Dungeon.

* * *

Then she sought out her mother’s house on Maui, and she reached out to Whiskers.

« Whiskers, gather up a friend or two. Two of the ponies have merged. They are producin’ a colt, the first one ever. Their partners are havin’ trouble keepin’ ’em out of the hands of some well meanin’ adults. Do you mind goin’ an’ keepin’ an eye on ’em? »

Whiskers stretched and yawned, blinking lazily.

« I’ll take Patches and Smoke. It’s been boring here without you Mother. We’ll fly over now.”

« Thanks Whiskers. Keep in touch. I’ll be ’round. And you know you’re always welcome to visit other me on Parthia. Or me, when I’m on one of the other worlds. »

* * *

On Parthia Mary’s core flickered in a way that suggested a resigned sigh. Mary transferred her consciousness to Ambuila; she hung on to her spare core for a moment, fighting the pull of the Gods’ Realm. She considered the various plans she had for airships.

Drawing on the stores of mana she had building up on Fragatta, she started to create a mid-sized lightly armed airship. She incorporated the solar cells from her Earth flying bus and the electric motors. She didn’t have portals all over Ambuila after all, and refuelling would be a pain.

For the crew, she went with a mix of wolf and cat ’folk. After all it worked well on Parthia, albeit with sailing ships.

Only when everything was on hand did she relax her grip on her local core, and ascend to her throne room in the Gods’ Realm of the planet. With a certain resignation she got down to work. The urgent tasks and problems transcended the barriers imposed by the worlds, so they had already been dealt with. The routine, day-to-day stuff didn’t, so it needed doing.

Resenting the time she could have been using to play in any of her many oceans, Mary ploughed through her backlog.

Twice during this time her eye hunter serpents caught and ate trios of spying eyes.

After the second occurrence Mary looked at her happy, well-fed serpents and thought to herself, that she would have to do something about the source of the eyes. Soon. She spent a few minutes plotting, then shook herself, and returned to clearing her backlog.

Having finished, Mary took a moment to look down on her world. Her new airship seemed to be performing well as it made its way across the world on its maiden flight. Almost half way across the planet she noted a small blurring. She grinned, that was Markowitz the twice born.

“We’ll soon see Markie, have you learnt your lesson? If not, well, maybe soon you’ll be thrice born,” she said softly to her throne room. Then she went back to scanning her world for problems, or just entertainment. After all, it was better than any Soap.

* * * AMBUILA – DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

Blue Lagoon: Fin, got a request from your Earth other half’s companion. Question is, do YOU want to be connected to him an’ through him to the US authorities?

Stillwater: What! Hey Fin say no. I don’t want the man around here.

Blackrock: Cool it Katie. It isn’t that bad. And in answer to your question Mary, I’m in two minds about it. *grin*

Unnamed (Daniel Azevedo): I think my link to the other me is growing stronger. Does that mean he’s getting ready to put down roots?

Blue Lagoon: Ouch! Puns Fin? And Daniel, yeah, almost certainly, Bluey is forcin’ things along.

Blackrock: Sorry. Just put off finding me please Mary. Don’t want to lose the link for selfish reasons, but I don’t like what I became on Earth and I don’t fancy having the army in control. My defences just are not up to it.

Unnamed (Daniel Azevedo): Will you keep an eye on my other me? Please oh mighty Goddess. I most definitely don’t want me to fall into the hands of the local gangs or the government.

Blue Lagoon: ... Fine! ... But you owe me a favour.

* * * EARTH / L.A. – DR. SWINDLEHURST * * *

Zelma gazed at the school building with a vague sense of bemusement. She murmured a vague thank you to Ogden for the lift, and got out of his car. After a few moments, during which, she gazed at the hovering blue box that told her she had found the Falstaff Middle School. Swiping away the System’s sign, she headed for the front entrance.

Behind her, Dr Ogden Swindlehurst locked his car and followed his absent-minded friend. He wondered, not for the first time, if he had been wise to persuade her to accompany him. It was very hard to gain her attention, but knowing as he did, of her fascination for all things pertaining to magic, he had persisted.

Swiping away the System’s message, he wondered how they had managed it. He liked the wavy line under ‘Falstaff Middle School’.

Once through the main entrance Ogden found Zelma having a fruitless conversation with a youngster, who was wearing a woollen hat. Considering the weather, Ogden found that odd, but he put it down to the idiosyncrasies of young boys.

Spying the administration offices, he headed in that direction. He found the school’s principal discussing something with professors Underwood and Yuen.

Ogden was startled when someone said, “’Ere’s the uvver one Snakey,” in a voice that hadn’t broken yet. Turning he saw that it was the urchin in the woollen hat. And he had Zelma in tow.

The man he presumed to be the principal, surely he couldn’t be named Snakey – sighed, “How many times have I told you to call me ‘Mr Serpiente’, Jack.”

“It’s arright governor, yer want me ter take them ter Dona, then?” answered Jack, apparently unfazed.

“That’s Ms Margarita to you, Jack,” insisted the principal. “And I’ll take them, hurry along now Jack, or you will be late to class.”

Then the principal turned to his guests, “I still think this is a bad idea, but the governors insisted. Please follow me, classes will be starting soon.”

Ogden followed Mr Serpiente the principal, or more accurately he followed Zelma. They waded through a sea of children all hurrying to get to their next classes, and were ushered into a classroom where most of the pupils were already seated under the eyes of a very attractive looking young cat woman.

The principal, Mr Serpiente, introduced his unwanted guests to Dona. She smiled and said, “So you want to learn about magic. I’ve borrowed some chairs from the staff room and placed them at the back. Please make yourselves comfortable.”

Ogden murmured something even he didn’t understand, and he made sure to take the chair next to Zelma. He intended to keep an eye on her during the lecture as he found her beautiful when she was intent on learning.

A few minutes later the roll had been called and Dona turned to the whiteboard where she closed a gap on a partially drawn circle.

Ogden blinked as he felt something pass over him. He almost felt as if he’d just answered several questions. And then the lesson began and he forgot everything else. The cat woman proved to be an excellent teacher, though he was sure the children would be unable to understand most of it due to the vocabulary used, and the concepts that were being explored.

And then, before he was ready, the lesson was over. The children seemed quiet as they gathered their things and started to depart.

“Liss,” said Dona, stopping one of the girls in her tracks. “Don’t forget your phone now.”

Liss looked back at her desk, blushed, darted back to grab her phone and fled.

“Well, I hope you got something out of that, I don’t have long as my next lesson is in half an hour. Any questions?” asked Dona.

Zelma smiled, “Yes, what did you mean about the use of spiritual energy as a special case in certain types of mages?”

“Just that. Priests practice magic, but mostly they get their mana from their gods via centres of worship.”

Ogden blinked in surprise, “Where did that come from Zelma. Mage Margarita was teaching about how it was important to access and store mana. Not about Spirituality.”

“What! Nonsense. I recognised the concepts of yin and yang...” said Underwood, before trailing off.

Dona grinned, “The initial lectures are tailored to the recipient’s world view and prior knowledge. Just a bit of admittedly complex ritual magic and prior preparation.”

Ogden stared at this mage in stupefaction. He blurted, “You mean we all got a different lesson?”

“It was broadly speaking the same lesson, only the – particulars – differed. The lessons will soon converge and the children will soon have a compatible knowledge base. Now please, I have to prepare for my next set of pupils.”