Ulius was the last of them to wake up. He saw Sem brooding away under a tree, taking the relay from Sirinn as a sulking champion. The rest were running all over the place, sorting things on their blankets. All backpacks were opened and emptied of their content.

„Hi, Ulius!” greeted him Sirinn. „Want a piece of rabbit meat?”

The boy took in the smell; it was terrific. On the fire embers, bits of meat were cooking slowly.

„I’ve made a throwing stick and hunted it myself,” bragged Sirinn. „It’s a common rabbit; they are plenty around. They must have escaped from some farm and probably, like the crows, don’t have any natural predator here.”

„I understand taking rabbits with you when you migrate, but crows?” wondered Ulius.

„Must’ve followed through the wormhole by themselves; they are curious creatures. That wormhole, fifteen years ago, is said to have been huge,” replied the beauhemian.

„Sirinn, let the kid eat and come help!” asked Frey’r. „By the way, Ulius, I hope you don’t mind we burned the survival books you took with you. All ten of them. We have to travel light.”

Ulius dag into the meat while the rest were fiercely debating about the use of some objects, dividing them around. He saw his backpack was the source of most items circulating. His huge camping bowie knife had been taken by Vella, while Frey’r had adjudicated the small hatchet. The hammer and nails were thrown away, and so was the heavy army tent he was most proud of. The clothes he had taken were divided too. To his amazement, despite the warm weather, they had put on some coats.

„Have you caught cold or something?” he asked.

„They prepare for battle!” angrily stated Sem. „Children preparing to fight a Nemesis level wizard. Folly! At least give me back my sheet to record your last words.”

“No chance. Even if you’re not a spy, this inspecting thing is not on my liking!” said Vella. “I’ll have the Royals take a look at it when we got back. I bet they’ll want a say in this.”

“Did you read the scroll?” asked Ulius, disappointed that he didn’t have the chance of inspecting it again.

“We did, for a little while, after it fed on sunlight,” she said. “He seems to check out. But nevermind that, Estella did a reading, and we’re going into battle. Put some armor on you!”

Now Ulius understood the clothes thing. His, his sister’s, and Vella’s clothes were all made from a shock-absorbing material stolen by his father from the evil Others, the Second Moon's clones. They were able to stop arrows, bullets, knives, all sorts of nasty things. The Nemesis fighting part was explained by Estella.

„Probabilities have changed. When I woke up – strangely, I’ve slept very well – the probabilistic horizon was apparent. We’re in the eye of the storm now, and that presence, the wizard, probably Fits Patrifoy, is approaching from the north. He has not seen us yet, and we have three paths before us. The first and the safest is to flee back to the south. I see no presence there whatsoever; it’s like every beauhemian is gone. Yet, if we do that, we’ll be stuck on this planet for a long time. I see you marrying Vellantina, actually, and have kids together.”

“Puah!” they both exclaimed.

“The second is to go around and flee to the north, but somehow this is the riskier one, lots of beauhemians in between, and some more things I do not understand yet. And finally, the third path is to confront him. He has only a small force now. Beauhemians... and something. Domesticated birds and monkeys? That’s very strange, but that’s what I see. For the record, I voted to go south, I think you and Vellantina are a good match, but I was outvoted by these three hot-heads here.”

„I should have voted too!” protested Sem.

„Let’s vote if I should just put a bullet in his head,” asked Vellantina, and she was dead serious.

„NO!” shouted the rest of them, appalled.

„Tell me if you change your mind,” she said. „Somehow, I cannot stand this guy. Anyway, Ulius, Estella says that if we attack him first, we win.”

„Yes. Timing is all. I foresee one of those typical conversations, you know, he’ll start explaining his evil plans, gloating, and that’s the precise moment we’ll strike. Keeping him talking is paramount, Ulius; I count on you for that, ask as many stupid questions you can, champion!”

„I can fight too!” he protested. „Give me something. That halberd, there, by instance... err... how do we have a halberd, anyway?”

„I had taken it from that guard yesterday,” said Vellantina. Had used it as a walking stick, haven’t you noticed it? I’ll let Sirinn have it; it will just slow me down.”

They finished their sorting and packing soon and went on their way up the hill. The grass was more agreeable, and the landscape too.

„Cows,” announced Frey’r, the first on top of the hill. „A full herd, the shepherd, and two small dogs. Coming this way.”

„Strange, they don’t show in the probabilities,” frowned Estella. „Maybe not important?”

„Or maybe your powers don’t work so well, and you’ll get us all killed!” pointed Sem. „Yesterday, you say you couldn’t see the kidnaping coming, and now you say you can read even the dialogue? Please, reconsider!”

“You think Seeing works like in the novels?” Estella shot back. “It’s complicated. Imagine all you see with your eyes, in other colors, felt with another sense. Like a painting of those artists, the impressionals. Blurred. And there are hills, meadows, and the sky, towns, and people, and everything, and I mean everything, moves. It’s alive. You cannot see everything. Suddenly, a dog can jump out from behind a corner, or a train scares you with its signal. To See well, you have to be connected with the subjects in a controlled environment. The more disconnected you are, the more chaotic the environment is, the harder it is.”

At that same time, the herd arrived at them, together with the dogs and the shepherd, an old beauhemian.

„Hey, kids!” shouted the old beauhemian in a hurry. „You’re from the town? It’s not the best day for excursions; the Scourge is coming.”

„The Scourge?” they asked, surprised.

„The Scourge,” the shepherd strengthened his words. „I’m taking the village’s cows to safety. Hide somewhere, fast! Take care!”

He shouted the last words while running toward two strayed cows, whistling a dog to help him.

Looking downwards from the hill, they could see a small city far away, at maybe ten to fifteen miles, and a small village one mile below, just at the hill’s feet. Approaching the village, but still far, a column of dust.

“He took us for beauhemians, that’s sure. That Scourge he was talking about must be our Nemesis, Patrifoy had become a tyrant.”

“Looks so,” approved Estella. “We can be there in ten minutes if we hurry.”

And they were. They entered the village from the south, on the main street, and proceeded onward, towards a big ruckus who could be heard from the main square. Hiding their backpacks and the bicycle in an empty cart, they hid behind the same coach and evaluated the situation.

The square was full of people, the villagers were gathered in the center. Surrounded by troops, a score of beauhemians armed with long rifles and bayonets, looking scared.

The more strange part was the second group. Ten gigantic humanoids, muscle built on muscle, with no neck and a tiny head with only two small holes instead of ears and a beak instead of nose and mouth, flanked a woman on a horse. Behind them, a wasp the size of a small man and a metallic vehicle on two tall legs with a glass dome on top. In the dome were three small red humanoids looking like the imps of legend.

Sem gasped, but no one paid attention to him.

"Wasn’t she afraid of insects?" asked Sirinn, whispering in Ulius’ ear. Surprisingly, Estella was keeping calm despite the giant wasp’s presence.

“Crawling stuff only. Severe Myrmecophobic, but anything that creeps does a number on her.”

“Marmeledowhat?”

“Ants, mate, she’s afraid of ants more than anything. Sat on an anthill when she was little, and they bite her tushy and some more private parts very, very badly.”

“Ah, I see...” said Sirinn, a little perplexed.

Meanwhile, the woman talked to the peasants. She had long and braided dark blond hair, with a flower wreath on it, and was tall and majestic. Beautiful in a bitchy way, with a severe face and with a hint of wrinkles in the corner of her eyes.

“Fools! What were you thinking? A last little effort, that was all I’ve asked. Do you realize what you are making me do? How am I supposed to feed the army? It’s your fault, only yours. If you don’t produce the cattle immediately, I’ll take the elderly as supply!”

The armed beauhemians started to pull people from the crowd.

“Alienor, please don’t take her’, have mercy!” shouted a woman, gripping her old mother’s hand. “Please, we were once friends,” she begged.

“It seems we have the wrong Patrifoy,” whispered Vellantina. “But is she the real Nemesis, or her dad is around somewhere?”

“It’s her,” confirmed Estella. “The real deal, the power is coming from her… I didn’t saw that coming.”

“Well, as long we have our target…” raised her shoulders Vellantina. “Let’s move; we don’t know if they want to transport their food dead or alive.”

“Vella, wait!” said the princess. “She’s Ejlsa’s daughter, remember? We have to capture her alive! Promise me…”

“I promise!” said Vellantina seriously, putting her hand on the other shoulder.

“Thank you! Ulius, I’ll need you more active than I’ve thought. You know what to do, I suppose.”

“It’s obvious,” he replied. “I’m ready.”

“Children, stop! You do not understand what you’re dealing with here. Let me ex…plain…”

Frey’r shoved Sem off, and they began strolling into the square. The sun was at full height now, the day and night cycle were much shorter. Step by step, they approached the center until they were in front of the woman. She looked at them, squinting her eyes.

“What are you doing here, children? Go away. This is a grown-up business.”

As they didn’t move and just stood there frowning, pouring disdain from their eyes, she glared back.

“Who are you?” she asked, with a small hesitation in her voice.

Vella spoke, her tone so cold the air seemed to freeze around.

“I’m Vellantina Guerrefido, daughter of Dora and Diago Guerrefido. Prepare to die!”

Lighting fast, she pulled out her gun and shot the woman once in her chest and once in her head.

Estella gasped in horror. The first word that crossed her mind was a NO! Instead of speaking it, she raised her hands and shouted:

“TIME!”

Everything stood still. A bird’s droppings stopped in midair. The villagers shouted with mouths opened, but no sound was coming out, eyes looking and seeing, but brains too slow to process what was happening.

The only ones who moved were the youngsters. Sirinn and Frey’r proceeded to kill Alienor’s beauhemians, the first stabbing them with the halberd, the second hitting them with the hatchet in the head. Ulius began mumbling some spells while Vellantina discharged all her bullets, each aiming at the big muscled humanoids' heads. She recharged, then shot again, then finished the last two and the wasp with her knife.

“Hurry, I cannot fold the time fold for much longer!” shouted Estella. “In five, four, three, two, one. Now.”

As she lowered her hands, the world began to move again. It seemed like the teenagers had disappeared and then reappeared in another place for the villagers, and all the enemies were falling dead, inexplicably.

The red humanoids inside the metal vehicle started to jump all around, pulling levers and pushing buttons, but their contraption collapsed in a heap of metal and glass; Ulius had worked his destructive technological talent on it.

Among the enemies, only two were still moving. One was the wasp. Although stabbed twice in the chest, she tried to grab Vellantina’s foot with a claw and scratched it lightly, only to have her head crushed under the girl’s heel.

To the immense surprise of the youths, the other enemy that was still alive was Alienor.

“The luck the beauhemians have!” thought Vella. One bullet had hit a medallion on her chest, the other an amulet she had on a headband, a jade scarab, and both were diverted.

Gasping and hiccuping, grabbing with her right hand the destroyed medallion, the woman had trouble understanding the situation. That made Vellantina laugh, and that laugh put a second more between recharging and pointing her gun again at the other. A small black ball of glass, escaping from the medallion, fell to the ground. The moment it broke, a bright, blinding flash of light.

“Not again!” Vellantina thought.

It took a few seconds to see something, and those seconds almost cost her her life. Alienor had somehow transformed. She was now brunette, younger, and maybe - because beauty is in the eye of the beholder - prettier. But not more amicable, but any mean. She had instantly spurred the horse, making it neigh and try to hit Vella with its hooves. At the last moment, Frey’r pulled her away, and Sirinn yelled: CALM! SLEEP!

The two words in the Voice did the job. The horse stopped, shaking his head, the brunette slid from the saddle, limp, in the young Beauchemin's arms.

“How on the Realm did she transform like that?” yelled Vellantina, still startled.

“It’s not her!” shouted back Estella in a hurry, not because she was mad, but because she feared that Vella would shot the girl, be it together with Sirinn or not. “The power, the magic, is gone! She’s somebody else.”

“A westerner,” said Ulius. “I have a theory...”

“Oh, shut up!” both the girls roared.