* * * THE GARDENS OF PARADISE * * *

Once again, Villius of the Eyes found himself waiting in one of the opulent receiving rooms in the palace serving the greater gods of the low middle tier. He had been informed of this appointment with Bucantil the Somnolent, god of the mid tier who was been in charge of Gods of the lower mid tier. The messenger had only given him two days notice, something Villius found outrageous.

Villius grumbled to himself at all this hurrying, only to have to wait. Hurry up and wait, that seemed to be all his life consisted of nowadays.

Resigned to the wait, he cast his mind back to his last meeting with Bucantil, and that had only been a couple of weeks ago. And that insufferable excitable rodent-brained Meek’aym’ooz had been present too.

They had asked him to sacrifice his pawn. Admittedly his pawn was weak and very fallible, but he had hoped to gain something more than Bucantil and Meek’aym’ooz desired.

He had no choice; Bucantil the Somnolent was his superior in the hierarchy of greater gods, and had been placed as leader of his tier. He remembered their ceremony, the ripping of the weak veil protecting his pawn, their pawn now. And with three gods placing their protection on Markowitz. The level of danger should allow the gods of the world to perceive him, especially with the veil of protection torn.

It had cost him another trio of eyes, but he knew the cunning overachiever had not directly taken the bait. Directly acting against a pawn of the greater gods would have freed them to take direct action in the pawn’s defence. Now he just had to figure out how to slide out from this mess, he didn’t have many worshipers left back on Hastia. Maybe he should stir himself and gain more worshipers. This one was dangerous. She was a killer, and worse, she knew how to entice others to kill for her.

A muted chime rang out through the room, Villius didn’t move but three eyes inclined to observe the doorway. One of the most minor of gods, one of Bucantil’s servants hovered there. Villius ignored him until he said, “Your mightiness, his lordship, the great and benevolent Bucantil will see you now.”

Villius rose slowly, and made his stately way to Bucantil’s grand reception room. As he turned into the tapestried hall that lead to the public entrance of the reception room he was irked to find that insufferable ass Meek’aym’ooz ten paces in front of him.

Meek’aym’ooz entered the reception room and immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed. Despite being surprised Villius didn’t slow, instead he prepared to step around the rodent god.

On entering the reception room he was startled to find Bucantil the Somnolent standing to one side of his throne. Seated on the throne, and wearing a scowl of displeasure was Brinius of the Blue Host, a god of the lower high tier, and a leading luminary of the New Sages. Villius now understood why rodent breath was kissing the floor, but despite the danger, he was too proud to emulate the rat.

Villius bowed low and stood some two paces in front of Meek’aym’ooz and awaited developments, even as he sought for some way out of this imbroglio he found himself.

Brinius glared at the blue freak with displeasure, if it wasn’t for his abilities with time he would gladly squash every one of his sixty-six eyes before throwing him into the frozen depths of the twenty-third hell. He tapped his brightly painted claws on the hand rest of Bucantil’s throne, tearing at the finish and dislodging the gilding. “Why didn’t the little bitch get our message? Why is that useless human still alive? I wasted a full day with my guards on that nasty planet, and the bitch didn’t come. And you may rise.”

Meek’aym’ooz raised his head cautiously, “We tore the veil as you ordered lord Brinius of the Blue Host. The youngster must have learned of Villius’ twice born. Maybe it wasn’t a good choice by Villius, and the... the youngster didn’t see him as a threat.”

Villius snorted. “You asked me to find an enemy of hers from her original planet that had died because of her. The Mother of Monsters very wisely treads carefully on her home world. The established powers there are not to be trifled with. Markowitz was the best of a bad lot.”

“Empower him. Get her to act against him,” ordered Brinius.

Villius snorted again, “She has agents, she won’t bother to deal with a flea personally.”

“She’s young and rash, look how she killed Sentssonwi’tsna’wa,” offered Meek’aym’ooz.

Brinius glard at Meek’aym’ooz while his hands gripped the arms of the throne, splintering them in his rage. Meek’aym’ooz gulped and ducked his head.

“You had better be right Meek’aym’ooz, for I want an excuse to crush her... Now get out of here... all of you and see that I get what I want, or you will reside in one of the eighty hells for a millennium, and not as administrators or guards.”

Villius turned and strode out of the room in the wake of a scurrying Meek’aym’ooz, who had his tail between his legs.

* * *

Back at home Villius plotted. He had to slide out of this, somehow. First thing was to distract the little sociopath. As far as he was concerned she could have Markowitz with his goodwill. Though he suspected she saw the miserable twice born as little more than an irritant to be swept under the carpet.

Villius pondered, ‘Mmm, given her track record, if I was to open a world to her, she might just forgive me my eyes. Now what world would prove best? Given Earth... Yes she would understand a world with a restricted palette of sophonts. I think I know just the place, she will dislike it... and its twin in the sky with all those oceans will draw her... Maybe she will come to an agreement in regard to eyes in Ambuila’s gods realm. I’m starting to get a complex about snakes.’

Villius rose slowly and made his way to his treasury, once there he rummaged around in a couple of cluttered crates. “Ah! There you are,” he exclaimed to himself as he seized a glass globe containing a spinning depiction of a brownish looking planet.

Concentrating, Villius added a special enchantment to the globe. Examining it carefully, he was satisfied with his efforts.

He left his treasury with a lighter step and headed for his office where he spent a couple of hours writing a letter. Most of the time was spent on rejected attempts. When he was finally satisfied, he placed the glass globe and the letter in a small storage device. He then wrapped this up and sealed it with his seal.

Finally he called his major domo and told him to call Sin Tchai the messenger.

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

Ogden just stared at the incongruous sight standing in the doorway to the principal’s office. Beside him he was sure Zelma, Underwood and Yuen were as surprised as he was.

The mage, Ms Margarita stood there in black leather trousers, a manga t-shirt that read ‘Catgirls Rule’ and carrying a motorcycle helmet. Behind her, peering into the room was a feral looking young girl with a woollen hat pulled low over her ears.

“Jill said you wanted to see me Snakey,” said Dona.

Mr Serpiente sighed, “Yes, Dona, our guests have questions about your lesson. About the targeted teaching. Can you explain.”

“It’s simple really, the mages have a duty to instruct the youngsters on what magic is and implies. Very few have any interest in wasting time on this tedious task, so we came up with this ritual. It saves time, and it allows us to use journeymen mages to deal with those children who don’t have influential parents.”

“Can you create a similar ritual for maths or science?” asked Ogden.

“I couldn’t, not by myself. And whoever did it would need a large amount of information. It would involve a team of mages assisted by mathematicians. And it would probably take them months,” replied Dona. “Good luck finding the mages who’d be willing to take time off from their duties for that long.”

Ogden examined Dona’s answer, he was certain she was wrong, he was certain that there were sure to be plenty of people who would be glad to learn how to create something like that. He vaguely heard Yuen ask something about UCLA.

Dona shrugged, “If you want me to give this lesson, and it is not a lecture, at your university. Well, arrange it with Snakey and be prepared to pay for the privilege.”

Ogden watched bemused as Dona stepped back, turned on her heel and strode off with a, “Bye!”