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<div class="moz-forward-container">SUBMIT PASS 2...USED THE WRONG
EMAIL ADDRESS LAST TIME</div>
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<div class="moz-forward-container">this is close to the end of the
published novel. You somewhat need it to follow the pieces of the
new novel Airy Castles All Ablaze, which soon will be appearing at
least in part here<br>
<br>
<br>
You flew into the sun?” Comet asked. I nodded. She hadn’t heard
that bit of news yet. Vera Durand’s program broadcasts tomorrow
morning. “But you don’t have to ask him any questions because we
can do the asking and you just have to listen and you don’t have
to fly to Mars because Professor Lafayette is going to bring him,
a projection, into our living room to talk to our Mom and Dad and
Speaker Ming so you don’t have to do something dangerous, except
we have to stop at his castle so I can pick up a starcompass from
him.” Comet’s sentences did rush together a bit, I thought, when
she was worried.<br>
<br>
“The Wizard?” I asked. “Here? And you do the all the talking?”<br>
<br>
“Are you all packed and ready to go?” Comet asked. I hefted my
duffel bag. “Gold Knight, Silver Knight, you’ll keep a watch on
Medford until we’re back?” Comet asked again.<br>
<br>
“Four minutes,” Silver Knight said. “How much can go wrong in four
minutes?”<br>
<br>
“Unless it’s forever,” Brian added. “We fail, we die, then the
world dies.” Sometimes he could be just so optimistic.<br>
<br>
“Right. Exactly. We’d better get back to the house,” Comet said.<br>
<br>
“Your back yard?” I asked. “All good with a teleport?” I waited
for agreement. Silver Knight and Gold Knight waved us good-by.
There was a blue lightning flash, a single chime stilled at once,
and we were all in the Wells’ back yard.<br>
<br>
<br>
~~~~<br>
<br>
Chapter Fifty-Five<br>
The Wells Residence<br>
Medford, Massachusetts<br>
<br>
For a few moments we stood there. Trisha, dressed as Comet, took
the lead, taking us up the back stairs through a large breakfast
room and well-appointed kitchen. I stayed in the rear of the
column. The whole front of the house was a big living room.
Sitting across one wall were Patrick and Abigail Wells, Krystal
North, and -- it took me a moment to recognize him -- Speaker of
the House Ming. Morgana Lafayette was in her other garb, her
Morgan Le Fay garb. I could see what she was wearing, including
the Orb of Merlin, but Patrick and Abigail Wells didn’t seem to
notice that the Living Crone was sitting next to them. Like any
good American, I made a proper bow in the direction of the
Speaker.<br>
<br>
Abigail Wells surveyed her four new guests and gestured at the
couch. “Joe found you, Eclipse?” she asked, “And then didn’t come
along to be thanked?”<br>
<br>
“He didn’t come along,” Patrick Wells shouted, “so I can kill him
for tampering with my daughter!” He used several very harsh words
other than ‘him’.<br>
<br>
Suddenly I understood why Trisha’s parents were so upset. They
thought Joe had been carrying on with Trisha. They assumed she
knew what a terrible thing she had done, so they refused to say it
out loud. They were even more ashamed that she refused to confess
that she had done such a thing. Real Americans always stand
behind their deeds. I blushed slightly. Joe had been a convenient
alternative persona, but sometimes other things were more
important than continuing its pretended existence.<br>
<br>
”That would be kind of impossible,” I answered. “You only get one
of us at a time. Joe and I, we’re the same person. He’s just a
good disguise. For me. And I’m a girl. For sure ‘Joe’ did not
carry on with Trisha.”<br>
<br>
“But I spoke with him,” Abigail said.<br>
<br>
I dropped into my Joe voice. “You spoke with me. Didn’t she,
Aurora?” Janie nodded.<br>
<br>
“What was wrong with my daughter that she didn’t deny it? That’s
beyond disgraceful!” Patrick shouted. Trisha looked at the
carpet. I really wished Trisha’s parents would have some faith in
her, but they didn’t. No matter what she did, it was wrong. Even
when she was about to go off, possibly to her death, they were
saying how little they trusted her.<br>
<br>
...<br>
<br>
<br>
“The world will die?” Brian asked. “Soon?”<br>
<br>
“Another wise question.” The Wizard smiled. “Not as much as three
months.”<br>
<br>
“Dad,” Brian said, “I think we’d better go. It’s the least bad
choice.”<br>
<br>
“City of Steel,” Janie said. “If all else fails, mass desperation
attacks are better than surrendering without trying them.”<br>
<br>
“Your logic is impeccable,” Patrick said. “Please come back
alive.” He glared at Trisha. “Don’t you dare think you get out of
being grounded afterward, after what you did!” I asked myself
what poor Trisha had done, other than revealing that her father
was a fool. He seemed to have ignored what I just told him about
Joe.<br>
<br>
“The four of them have agreed. We now have four slightly tense
minutes,” Patrick announced.<br>
<br>
“No. Stop!” Comet stood up. “You’re government agents.” She
pointed at Krystal and Speaker Ming. “And you,” she pointed at
Morgana, “I looked up your necklace. You’re a government all by
yourself, aren’t you, Avatar?”<br>
<br>
Morgana broke into a broad smile. “You figured it out. Yes.”
Patrick Wells’ face was turning ruddier and ruddier.<br>
<br>
“Eclipse, I need a champion. Now! Please?” Comet was half way
between belligerent anger and terror. I jumped to my feet and
teleported next to her, putting a force wall around the two of us.<br>
<br>
“Trisha,” I said, “To do champion right, I sort of need to know
what is going on.” She took me by the shoulder. The world outside
my force field stopped. She was calling superspeed, with me
inside her speed zone.<br>
<br>
“No time,” Trisha said. “You need to read my mind, no matter how
much it hurts me.” I started reading. Her grip clamped down,
hard, but I could tell. She wanted me to keep reading her
memories. It took a while to digest, but ten seconds outside was
a quarter of an hour for the two of us. Trisha had everything
laid out in her mind, what she had gone through, what she had
tried to do, and how her father had reacted. Several of my rules
engines actually made useful suggestions. She took a deep breath,
shook her head to clear her mind, and returned us to normal time.<br>
<br>
“No!” Trisha shouted. “No! You didn’t even ask me if I want to
go! Why should I care what happens?” She looked at the Wizard of
Mars. “Wizard, you’ve always been nice to me. You helped Janie and
Brian. I’m not mad at you.”<br>
<br>
“I know,” the Wizard said. “But if you want a good outcome from
this, you yourself must now find the path to it.”<br>
<br>
“Someone has my two tons of gold,” Trisha said. “I want it. No one
challenged Eclipse when she said she was an emancipated minor.
Isn’t that true, Mister Speaker?”<br>
<br>
“Indeed.” Speaker Ming answered. “Emancipated de facto, and I
gather Heinlein Act qualified. Though I fear it was somewhat less
than two tons delivered, but still enough that you can live a
comfortable life. ”<br>
<br>
He looked at Krystal North. They were exchanging thoughts about
something.<br>
<br>
“You want me to go on this trip. I might die. I want something
in exchange.” Trisha stared at the Speaker. At this point I
figured out where she was going. She’s smarter than I am, and saw
in a few moments what would have taken me a week.<br>
<br>
“Within reason.” Speaker Ming looked thoughtful. “Actually, based
on the experiences of several past Speakers over two millennia
with the Wizard, the future of America is at stake, so very much
is reasonable. What do you want?”<br>
<br>
“Full-year student status at Atomic Tech Half Moon Bay.” Trisha
was very clear on what she wanted. “I can pay, once you get me my
gold. A trust account for most of it is OK. A place to live,
someplace out there. It doesn’t have to be as nice as my rooms
upstairs.”<br>
<br>
“So you can carry on with boys again, whenever you want? You…”
Abigail Wells’ further language was decidedly to the point.<br>
<br>
“The Heinlein Act. I want out.” Trisha was now entirely calm.
Heinlein had been a Navy Admiral turned divorce attorney and later
Nobel laureate writer. It would be unusual for a girl as young as
Trisha to divorce her parents, but it had been done.<br>
<br>
“Good,” Patrick said. “Then our family is no longer shamed.” His
wife nodded agreement. Everyone else in the room was shocked.<br>
<br>
“You’re sure, Trisha?” Morgan asked. “It’s very final.”<br>
<br>
“Yes.” Trisha stood up, backbone ramrod straight. I felt in her
the determination of the founders of Massachusetts, people not
much older than Trisha, the people who two millennia ago crossed
the continent from Washington to Massachusetts on horseback to
create America.<br>
<br>
“So be it,” Morgan answered.<br>
<br>
Speaker Ming turned to Krystal North. “Captain-General, will you
please do the mentalic validation?”<br>
<br>
“Under the Heinlein Act,” Krystal said, “Mentalic validation of
the state of affairs is required. Any party may decline, but the
worst possible interpretation is then placed on their claims and
positions. Trisha, Patrick, Abigail, I need your permission to
read your minds.”<br>
<br>
“I am an innocent and virtuous man,” Patrick Wells said. “Read
away.”<br>
<br>
“I agree,” Abigail said.<br>
<br>
“Please?” Trisha said.<br>
<br>
<Eclipse,> Krystal said to me, <As champion, you get to
watch over Trisha, represent her side, and validate my mentalic
report.> I nodded.<br>
<br>
Krystal was a very good mentalist. Little time was required for
her to extract the information that was legally required. Unlike
my ham-handed memory scans, Krystal was very gentle.<br>
“Mister Speaker,” Krystal said, “I find that all parties
understand correctly the legal issues at stake, that the
conditions of the Act are entirely well-satisfied, and therefore
that you may properly grant what is requested.” She followed with
a mentalic report that only Speaker Ming and I heard. Heinlein
divorces might routinely be done by filing paperwork, the way I
did, or with a judge’s decree with dueling attorneys, but the
Speaker is also the Supreme Magistrate of the Republic, for all
that Speakers of the House almost never used that authority.<br>
<br>
“As Trisha’s Champion, I endorse Captain-General North’s finding,”
I said. Some people would complain that I was way too young to be
standing up as Trisha’s champion, but Trisha knew exactly what she
wanted, and the facts of the matter were dismayingly clear. I
thought I had bad relations with Mum, but that was only at the
very end. Trisha was much worse off. I couldn’t understand why,
but I didn’t have to.<br>
<br>
“As First Speaker of the Republic, I hereby grant this request of
Jessamine Trishaset no-longer-to-be-Wells, including possession of
all her personal-use property.” Speaker Ming was said to be
extremely decisive; I’d just seen that in action.<br>
<br>
“Trisha,” Morgan said, “I have a house a bit south of Half Moon
Bay, on the beach, that should fit your needs. It’s vacant, and
needs some inside work, but you can be moved there when you
return.”<br>
<br>
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