Zaph’s Quest – continued ... still

Zaph stood over the table in his room, poring over his notes. He could have sat at the table in one of the plush chairs, but he had spent too much time sitting in his wheel-chair and needed to stretch.

A knock on the door startled him out of his concentration and he jumped into his wheel-chair and assumed a grouchy scowl.

“Yeah, what?” he called.

“It’s me.” a familiar voice called through the door.

“Enter.”

Kreios opened the door, stepped through and quickly shut it behind him. Once the door was shut, Zaph stood up and said, “You gave me a start there, good sir! Thought you were the magistrate. Have you seen the posters they’ve put up?” and he smiled.

“Oh I’ve seen the posters, and I’ve seen half of Dalaran in their scivvies to boot!” he said laughing. “Now, I know the ‘Pink Pantser’ is retired, but the guild doesn’t know what to think. They know about your past but can’t figure out how you’re doing it from a wheel-chair in your room. Of course they are worried about your, umm, sanity. It’s getting harder and harder to not bust out laughing when they start talking about it.”

Zaph smiled, “Well everything will get back to normal soon enough. As soon as I have all of the components. You know, this acting grouchy and crazy is getting to be kind of fun. You should have seen Zaphodicus roll his eyes when I told him I wanted pants!”

Kreios asked, “How many more components until you’re ready to make a go of it?”

“Well once you guys come back from the Forge, I just need Van’s items and what I asked Aradia to pick up for me in the Halls of Reflection.”

“Halls of Reflection? I didn’t know you had tasked Aradia for this …”

Zaph winced, “Ouch! Kreios! You don’t TASK Aradia, you ASK Aradia. You of all people should know that.”

“You know what I mean, Zaph. I didn’t know she was involved in the acquisition of anything.”

“Well, Kreios, it’s like this. A greater project has arisen, but the one you know about has to happen first, as this new project hinges on it. Quite a while back I stumbled upon a manuscript in the library of the Scarlet Monastery but didn’t know what to make of it until I found this schematic, just recently.”

Zaph pulled a schematic out from his backpack and handed it to Kreios. “Here. Reading it will explain things better than I could. Glad you’re an engineer, too. Less explaining I have to do.”

Kreios took the sheaf and started reading. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. He read it a second time, to make sure that he got it all straight. He had to sit down.

“How the … who came up … is this even …”

“Funny, that’s exactly what I said when I read it!” and he laughed.

“You do realize how much trouble this could cause if it were to become public?” Kreios asked.

“Of course, that’s why the project involving Little Z and Van has to be first.”

Kreios nodded, carefully putting the pieces of the puzzle together in his head. “Ok, well. Um, I think it will take a bit for all this to sink in. In the meantime, you do know that the guild is thinking of replacing you as Czar, because of your recent behavior? That’s another element that needs to be taken into consideration.”

“This will all come to a head before they have a chance to ship me off to the lol-lol farm. Besides, nobody else wants the job!”

To be continued …