Malone looked at himself in the full length mirror. He looked completely human. His mouth had narrow lips, a pale pink where they blended into the pale skin of his face, growing redder in towards the lines of his even, white teeth. His nose was long and straight, completely covered with pink skin, even between his narrow nostrils. His eyes had turned grey, and above them were thin eyebrows that looked as if they'd been trimmed by a professional stylist. They hasn’t been, though. It was just the way they’d turned out. His ears lay almost flat against the sides of his head, so that only their outside edges could be seen through his dense mop of dark hair, and his chin and upper lip were covered by a three day growth of stubble. He was going to either have to learn to shave or grow a beard! He hadn’t decided which yet.

Across the rest of his body the changes were less noticeable. From the neck down he’d been almost human already, but he could still see where his back and legs were straighter than they had been before, better adapted to an upright posture, and he found himself able to walk across the room with an effortless grace he hadn’t had before. Even his feet had changed! They had fully developed arches now, and his toes were longer than they had been, the claws fully changed into nails like the ones on his fingers. He turned side on to the mirror, to try to see his back, and saw that the tiny stump of his tail had completely vanished! Almost all his body hair had vanished, remaining only on his head, in his armpits and around his groinal slit. Everywhere else was just smooth, bare, pink skin beneath which the lines of strong, healthy muscles could be seen.

Benjamin watched with a smile as his former prisoner admired his naked body in the mirror. “Well?” he said. “What do you think?”

“I look human!” said Malone in amazed delight. “Completely human!”

“You are completely human. As a wizard, I am authorised to officially declare you human and I hereby do so. From now on, your name is Malone Hedley and you are my son. My completely human son!”

Malone grinned despite himself. To be human! To finally, after all these years, be human! “I hasn’t expected it to happen so fast!” he said.

“It would normally have taken a year or two,” agreed the nobleman. “I hurried it along with a blessing. It means you don't look quite the way you would have if we'd allowed the process to proceed naturally...”

“No, no! I'm very happy with the way I look!” He turned to look back at the nobleman, then positioned himself so that he could see him and his own reflection in the mirror at the same time. “I look like you!”

“Of course, since I’m the one you're parent bonded to. Or, I should say, the one you used to be bonded to. Now that you're human, the parent bond will begin to fade. You'll become your own man.”

“Aren't you afraid I'll try to kill you again?”

“Not at all. The change isn't just physical. It's mental as well. A bonded child develops a personality similar to that of his parents, and since I'm your only parent...”

“I think like you now!” Benjamin nodded, smiling with pleasure. “I can never thank you enough for this!”

“Thanks aren’t necessary. It was my pleasure.”

“When I think back on why I came to your house...”

“Our house now. You are my heir. You belong here.”

Malone’s smile broadened. “I feel so foolish! I came here to kill you! It seemed so obvious at the time, so necessary! Now it just makes me want to cringe! I feel such a fool, so embarrassed!”

“You were a half raised animal, you weren't responsible. You should never have been out on your own, I don't know what the Brigadier was thinking of, sending you out like that! It was criminal neglect, a gross violation of his responsibilities to you.”

“If I ever see him again, I'll have a thing or two to say to him, you can be sure of that!”

“I'd like to see that, but it’s unlikely I'm afraid. He's in Carrow, stirring up revolution against King Nilon. He thinks he's working against us, but a revolution in Carrow would serve our purposes very well. It would finally finish off a country already crippled by drought and war. Helberion is finished. The other human nations are small and weak, they'll fall easily once the larger nations are gone. That just leaves Kelvon, and Kelvon is teetering on the brink of civil war. One last push is all it needs.”

“And then the Radiants will be in charge,” said Malone. “The human race will be safe. Cared for, like beloved pets.” He shook his head sadly. “When I think of all the misery and suffering we've inflicted on ourselves over the centuries... Wars, tyrannies, crime... We seem to be simply incapable of, of just living together! In peace! I mean, is it really so difficult, just people living peacefully together?”

“Apparently it is,” replied Benjamin. “But soon, a new age of genuine peace will be upon us. An age in which crime and violence will be forbidden, all these new technologies will be forbidden...” He looked at Malone curiously. “Does that bother you? That science and technology will be outlawed, that we'll be returned to a more primitive lifestyle, one of nomadic hunter gathering?”

“All our technology seems to have accomplished is to allow us to kill each other better,” replied the former batman. “Guns, cannons, poison gas... We have the telegraph and we use it to threaten each other and declare war. We have steam engines and we use them to power trains that transport armies and weapons, we use them to make explosives! Technology? We're better off without It! We need a simpler life, a better life. A life with the Radiants watching over us, Making sure no harm comes to us.”

“And one day we may be Radiants ourselves! All the petty concerns of humanity left far behind, able to comprehend things, understand things, totally beyond human imagination! I've been promised that my adoption will be completed when my work here is done, and you yourself may be adopted one day!”

“Do you think that's likely? I mean, what percentage of humans are adopted? One in a thousand? Less?”

“You’ll have a better chance than most because you work for me! Who knows, it might even be me who comes to carry you off! Me in my Radiant form, and maybe not so long from now.”

“Now that would be something!” said Malone dreaming. He stared at the nobleman, and there was nothing but perfect love and adoration in his eyes. “We'd live in the Radiant city together. Help look after the human race.”

“Unfortunately we still have work to do before then,” said Benjamin. “And you’ll find it easier with a good set of clothes on your back.” He went to a closet on the other side of the room and opened it to reveal an expensive suit of clothes. “These used to belong to one of my uncles. You can wear them for now, but I've sent for a tailor to measure you up for something that'll fit properly. You're my heir now, and you have to look the part.”

Malone dressed excitedly while Benjamin watched, and a few minutes later he was looking at himself in the mirror again, fingering and stroking his new clothes excitedly. “I look like a real nobleman!” he said. “A real Toff!”

“Well, you will do when you're wearing a properly tailored suit, but it'll do for now. And please don't use words like toff. It isn't fitting for a man of your station.” Malone nodded contritely. “I'll teach you how to speak properly, how to conduct yourself in polite society. Give it a few weeks and I'll make a proper gentleman out of you!”

“Me, a gentleman! What would the Brigadier think if he saw me now?”

“Forget the Brigadier. He's no longer part of your life. This is your life now.”

Malone nodded. “You said there was still work to do. What kind of work?”

“Emperor Tyron is organising a meeting between high ranking members of the government and the leaders of the popular uprising. He wants to address their concerns and grievances, find common ground with them, make peace with them. He is apparently willing to make quite considerable concessions, including more power being transferred to local districts, more rights for citizens, the removal from office of corrupt governors, even prosecutions in some cases.”

“That's incredible! I never thought it possible!”

“He's desperate. He's motivated by self preservation.”

“Could it work? Could he actually make peace with the rebels?”

“We're going to make sure it doesn't work. This summit is the perfect place to finally get the civil war started. All the leaders of the popular uprising will be together in one place. One bomb will take them all out together. Tyron will be blamed and the people will rise up. They've got enough weapons now that they can even take on the army itself! Nothing will stop them from sweeping across the Empire like wildfire, leaving behind nothing but chaos and destruction. By the time it burns itself out, no trace of the Empire will remain. Only local warlords, fighting each other for their own little patch of turf. The Radiants will be able to just move in and take over.”

“Thousands will die,” said Malone as if in sudden doubt.

“Millions, probably. Not just in the fighting itself, but in the famine and disease that will follow. The Radiants will help, using changes in the weather to destroy crops and create unhygenic living conditions. Any surviving scrap of civilisation will be crushed until all that is left is a few huddled refugees where a mighty empire once stood.”

“Is there no other way?”

“Unfortunately not. It may seem harsh, but the peaceful new world that will emerge, that the Radiants will create, will make it worth it. Sometimes you have to destroy before you can create. These nations and empires that mankind has built are oppressive and cruel. They crush men’s spirits, destroy their hopes and dreams. You saw this for yourself when you were trying to infiltrate the rebellion. You saw the Empire's dark underbelly, how the working men live. The squalor and misery that festers at the bottom of the social ladder. You remember all the anger, the hatred, the resentment towards the upper classes.” Malone nodded silently, unable to deny it. “It was all going to boil over sooner or later, even without any encouragement. The civil war was inevitable, all we’re doing is giving it a little push, and by making it start sooner, we'll make it end sooner. Try not to think about the violence and misery soon to come, Malone. Think about the golden age we’re bringing about.”

Malone nodded again. “You're right,” he said. “It's all for the best...”

Without warning, he jabbed hard at Benjamin with his hand, his fingers stretched out straight like the blade of a knife, straight into his windpipe. A move the Brigadier didn't approve of but which he'd taught him nonetheless, just in case he ever needed it. Benjamin staggered back, staring in stunned surprise, his hands flying to his crushed throat, and Malone pulled back out of reach, aware that the man was a wizard, that he could curse him back to his animal form with a single touch. Benjamin’s face turned red as he struggled for breath. He stared at the former batman, an expression of hurt and betrayal on his face.

“You forgot just one thing,” said Malone, watching with fascination as the man clutched at a shelf to steady himself, knocking a porcelain horse onto the floor, where it shattered. “My mind was already fully formed before you parent bonded me. I didn't think that would matter. After all, you're the wizard, you're the expert, and you thought my mind would evolve further, become moulded to be like yours. If you thought it, then I thought it had to be true, but apparently it isn't. Maybe this is the first time anyone's ever tried to bond someone who already had a fully formed mind, I don't know, it doesn’t matter. You made a mistake, that’s what matters, and now you're paying for it.”

Benjamin was lurching along the wall away from him, desperately trying to croak out a summons to his bodyguards. He was trying to reach a storage cabinet made of oak and glass containing various small items of glass and porcelain. If he pulled it over, it would make a crash loud enough to be heard outside the room, bringing help. With swift medical attention, it was possible that he could still live. Malone searched around the room, looking for something he could use as a weapon while massaging his aching fingers. He would have preferred to have stabbed him, or bludgeoned him with something heavy enough to be instantly fatal, but he had had no way of knowing whether another chance would come. He had had to take the opportunity while he had it, while they were standing so close together.

Benjamin reached the cabinet and put his weight on it, but Malone dashed across to its other side where he leaned on it, keeping it upright. Benjamin stared at him in desperation. He reached out a hand, still trying to croak out a last message to him, but Malone pulled back out of reach. He wasn't going to lose his humanity so soon after getting it! Benjamin let go of the cabinet and fell to the ground, still clutching at his throat as if trying to open his airway manually. Malone saw a knife on his belt. He wondered whether be dared try to get it, so he could put the man out of his misery quickly and mercifully, but then the nobleman gave one last gasp and appeared to collapse into unconsciousness.

Malone approached warily, suspicious of a trap. One of Benjamin's hands was trapped under his body. He stepped on his other hand, then reached down and carefully drew the dagger from its sheath. The nobleman didn't move. Still keeping one foot on the man's left hand, he then reached carefully down, alert for any sudden movement, and plunged the knife into the side of his neck, aiming for the spinal column while avoiding the major blood vessels. There was a small spurt of blood, which then stopped, the tell tale sign that the man's heart had stopped beating.

Malone stepped back, his heart hammering in his chest, almost delirious with delight that he'd succeeded in his self appointed mission. Benjamin was dead! And he himself had achieved full humanity as a bonus! All he had to do now was get out of there alive and warn the Kelvon authorities about the planned bombing of the summit meeting. No, he realised as he tucked the knife into his belt. There was something else he had to do first. Benjamin had left instructions for his servants and employees, instructions that could still mean civil war in Kelvon if they were followed. Chances were that those instructions were kept here, among the personal papers in his office. Those papers had to be destroyed!

He didn't know where his office was, he would have to search the whole building for it. First, though, he had to hide the body before a servant found it and raised the alarm. He grabbed it by the shoulders and pulled it across the room to where a large wardrobe was standing. After several minutes of effort he had the body in the wardrobe, with the door closed. He'd gotten some blood on his jacket, and the rug Benjamin had died on had a small bloodstain on it, so he opened the door again and threw them in after him. That left just the broken porcelain horse. He picked up the shards, including as many of the tiny, dusty fragments as he could, and dropped them in the waste paper bin that stood beside the small writing desk by the window. There, that was everything. A servant could take a casual glance into the room and see nothing amiss...

The window burst inwards and a glowing tentacle reached in towards him. Malone jumped back in alarm, cursing himself for his stupidity! The Radiant! How could he have forgotten the Radiant? Benjamin must have called out to it, telepathically, as he lay dying, and now it was here to take revenge! More tentacles reached in, and the air was filled with its hideous piping, rising in tone as it prepared to cast a curse. Malone opened the door and ran out into the corridor.

There was no way he could escape from the house so long as the Radiant was alive. There was nothing surrounding it but open countryside! Somehow, he would have to lure it into the house and kill it, which meant using fire. There were a number of oil lamps mounted along the corridor. Malone paused long enough to take one down, then continued on to the front of the house, the place he thought it most likely for Benjamin's office to be.

Dennis and Sid appeared in front of him, both pointing pistols at him. “What have you done?” demanded Dennis. “You treacherous bastard...”

“Government agents!” said Malone quickly before they shot him. “They tried to kill him! The Radiant got one of them!”

Dennis and Sid glanced at each other. Was it possible? “That government chap who came the other day,” said Sid. “Looking for His Lordship. I told you they were on to him!”

“Watch him!” said Dennis, indicating Malone. “Lock him up somewhere! I’ll find His Lordship, find out what's going on!” He ran off back the way Malone had come, leaving him with the other man.

“That way!” said Sid, gesturing with the gun towards the stairs down to the prison cell. “Quick!”

“I have to help save my father!” said Malone, though, and the other man hesitated in doubt. Benjamin must have confided in them that he’d adopted his prisoner and was raising him to be his son. “He said he was going to his office!”

Sid glanced down the corridor to his left, then returned his gaze to Malone. That was enough for the former batman, though. The office was that way! “We’ll sort it out with him later,” said Sid. “If there's G-men around, you'll be safest downstairs, and he'll want you safe. Now move!”

The fancy clothes Malone was wearing was enough to convince Sid that Malone was probably telling the truth, so he wasn’t as alert as he should have been. Malone went to move past him, then dropped the oil lamp and reached out to grab the barrel of the man's gun with his left hand, pushing it to point downwards, while grabbing his knife with the other hand and thrusting it hard into his chest. Sid’s finger tightened on the trigger in a death spasm and it went off, a thunderous detonation they deafened Malone and left a ringing in his ears. Malone pulled the gun from his hand as he slumped to the floor, then aimed it after Dennis, just in time as the other man poked his head out of the room he'd gone into. Malone fired three times, and one of the bullets blew Dennis’s brains out.

A strange exultation was coming over Malone. He'd just killed three enemies in the space of a few minutes! There was nothing he couldn't do! He ran along the corridor towards Benjamin’s office while, behind him, the oil lamp spilled oil onto the thick pile carpet and the wick set it alight. The fire spread rapidly, and the flames were already licking up the wood panelled walls before Malone opened the first door to see what the room behind it contained.

Benjamin's office turned out to be at the end of the corridor. It was a small room containing only a small writing desk with a chair, a bureau with a roll down top and a number of filing cabinets lined up along the opposite wall. There was a small window and Malone glanced nervously out, looking for the Radiant. There was no sign of it, so he closed the door and returned his attention to the desk. There was an important looking letter sitting on it addressed to a firm of solicitors and he tore it up, dropping the pieces on the floor. Then he pulled open all the filing cabinets, pulled out all the files they contained and dumped them in a pile on the floor, pausing once at the sound of running footsteps in the corridor outside. “Fire!” he heard someone shouting. “There's a fire!”

“Dennis and Sid are dead!” he heard someone else shouting, further away. “Where's the master?”

“Everyone out! Get everyone out of the house!”

There was a key in the door, he saw. He turned it, just in time as the handle turned and rattled. “There’s a fire!” he heard someone shouting through the door. “Your Lordship!”

“Is he in there?” someone else asked.

“He must be! The doors locked from the inside!”

There was a thumping on the door and more shouts of warning, which Malone ignored. He added everything on the desk and in the bureau to the pile of papers, then poured all the oil from the room's oil lamp onto it. He dropped the burning wick and everything burst alight in a most satisfactory fashion. Then he unlocked the door and pulled it open.

There were two servants standing there. Malone pointed the gun at them and they fled. Malone left the door open, so the fire would have plenty of oxygen, and ran further along the corridor, looking for a way out of the building. Behind him, the first fire he'd started now filled the corridor and black smoke was running along the ceiling. Another servant was beating at it with a mop, a towel tied around his head, with absolutely no effect. Then the mop caught alight and he threw it away before running after the others.

Malone followed the first two, the third hard on his heels behind him. The servants ran out through a door, where two glowing tentacles lashed out and picked them up. Malone skidded to a halt, hearing screams from outside, and then a shower of gore rained down as the Radiant tore them apart. “It's gone mad!” he heard the third servant say. “It'll kill us all!”

“Where's the nearest other way out?” demanded Malone.

“The kitchens! This way!” The man made to run off, but Malone grabbed his arm to stop him. “Wait a minute!” he said. “If I don't make it, there’s something you have to tell the authorities. The rebels are planning to plant a bomb at the summit with the government representatives. You have to warn them! Lord Hedley's safe and he'll reward you well if you pass on the warning! You understand?” How many of the mansion staff knew the truth about Benjamin? he wondered. Most of them, maybe all, were probably just good people trying to make a living, and probably thought that their master wanted the rebellion crushed. They would believe what he was telling them, and even if Malone died here, in this house, Benjamin's final plan would be foiled. The man nodded, therefore, and Malone let him go.

He ran further along the corridor and Malone followed him. Some of the doors to the rooms they were passing were open, and through the windows he could see the Radiant following them, as if it had guessed what they were doing. Malone stopped and thought about returning to the first door, but even if he made it out he'd be easy prey out in the open. The only way to escape would be to lure the Radiant in, where he could burst some of its hydrogen cells with his gun and set it alight, but what were the chances of that? The creature knew the house was on fire. It knew that all it had to do was keep Malone trapped inside and he was dead! There was nowhere he could go where he'd be safe...

His prison cell! he suddenly thought. It was below the rest of the house, and fires went upwards! Was there any chance he could survive down there? If the house collapsed on top of the stairway he'd suffocate. He might suffocate anyway if the fire ate up all the air! The only alternative was to leave the house and try to run across open countryside, though. He couldn't help but smile. He had two choices, then. One with no chance of survival and the other with even less!

The Radiant might curse him, he realised. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die human! That decided it for him and he ran back towards the stairs down to the dungeon.

He passed more members of staff on the way. Maids, cooks and cleaners. Some of them tried to challenge him, but he just waved the gun at them and they ran away. The dungeon was located in the south wing of the house, which had only one storey, and he arrived to find the Radiant tearing its way in through the roof. Of course it anticipated that I would come here! thought Malone bitterly as bricks and plaster rained down in front of him. He tried to run past, but a tentacle lashed down and almost succeeded in coiling around his arm. He pulled back and stared in horror as more tentacles dropped down, blocking the way ahead. Two of the biggest, strongest tentacles took hold of the sides of the hole in the roof and pulled hard, ripping the hole wide enough for its body to fit through. Then it descended, more bricks and tiles falling as its body scraped against the sides. Malone aimed the gun and fired until it was empty, then dropped it as the creature seemed completely unaffected.

The creature was inside the house and it was leaking hydrogen from the bullet holes. All he had to do now was set it alight! He reached for the nearest wall lamp, but it wasn’t lit. None of the lamps in this part of the house were! Malone swore bitterly as several of the creature's eyes fixed on him, and Malone could sense the hatred in them. Its piping was rising in tone again and he backed away into a side room containing stacked chairs and tables. There was a window looking out into the mansion grounds. If he pretended to try to escape that way and drew the Radiant out to the back lawn, perhaps he could get down into the dungeon while its attention was diverted.

He went to the window, therefore, and opened it, then cried out in horror as a tentacle lashed in, wrapping around his arm and yanking him out, his shoulder smashing the other window as he went through. A second Radiant! The mansion shrank beneath him as it pulled him high above the ground, and it held him up to where its eyes could see him. Malone fought to control his terror. I'm going to die, he realised, so die well!

“I killed Benjamin!” he shouted. He had no idea if the creature could understand him, but he fancied he could see its eyes narrowing in anger. “I killed Benjamin! You can stop me warning people about the bomb, but that's all you can do!” He had to help the mansion staff get away, convince the Radiants they had no reason to hunt them down and kill them. “You're going to lose! Mankind is going to beat you! We're going to win, and when we do we’re going to hunt down and kill every last one of you!”

The first Radiant emerged from the burning mansion and rose to join the second. It reached out a tentacle that wrapped around his legs, and then they pulled him between them. Malone screamed, and then died as his body was torn apart.