Knight And Dey 3: Meet The Knights free porn video

{Because of something that happened in "Lost Indian Caves" before he was born, Alex's has a condition that changes his gender; male in the dark, female in the light. Alex's simple goal is complicated by a power struggle within the first school he's ever attended. That struggle is about to take on wider implications. - WARNING: This story has been heavily manga influenced.} Knight and Dey 3: Meet the Knights By Ron Dow75 Out in the outer office of school administration, police Sgt. Murdich was "hurrying" along the paperwork (which Pvt. Tolken (female) was assigned to handle), "We have 26 girls under police supervision in detention, awaiting the arrival of a parent or guardian! Before any of the accused can be released, we are going to have to have their complete records! No one is going to be merely reprimanded and released while I am head of school security!" The man's loud drill instructor voice could be heard within the Vice Principal's office: "You should be proud of these girls, Madam Principal," reported the physical education teacher, her pecs thrown out. It was clear she had more muscles than mammaries (or anything else that might be considered feminine) because the greased body builder had on only a little red bikini with a blue ribbon that was larger than the thong bottom it hung from. "I am not a 'Madam'," the attractive woman in a green dress suit looked at the quote "woman" unquote archly. "And why should I be proud of girls who start school yard brawls!" she turned her glare at the five high school girls in the office with them. "We didn't start it," said the golden haired girl in a flannel shirt and boy's long, baggy denim shorts. She was promptly elbowed in her ribs by Ariel Dey (a neat brunette in blue shirt and jeans that were covered with marking pen study notes). "We were defending ourselves," a black girl with in an oriental looking long dress slit high up both legs and made off her right shoulder by a flap. "A girl has the right to defend herself!" (Her name was Flora Scopes, and that was just about all the VP knew about her.) "I wasn't defending myself as a girl: I was defending Ariel!" Alex Dey moved in time to avoid being elbowed again; this time even harder. "These five girls took on the worst thugs of the school, and beat them at their own game!" Coach Ellena Maccabee was proudly unrepentant. "Mrs. Maccabee, thuggery is not a game!" "It is to thugs! That's the difference between women and men! That's why women have to be made the superior gender! That's why..." Ms. Weatherwax interrupted the Amazon's speech: "...that's why you told all those girls that if they didn't beat up the boys, you were going to beat them up!!" "She did?" the Zoe Ryder girl in black, yellow and red plastic mini-dress outfit. (A known "enthusiast", Winona Weatherwax thought.) "That's right! I heard her!" said Mary Thursday, in an Eastern Mediterranean looking brunette in green diagonal stripes and tights. ('Has PMS problems.') "Might as well use that story, too," muttered Murie Slaughter blonde in a red shirt and blue jeans with hoop earrings. ('Has a short fuse.') "You're the instigators!" VP Weatherwax told them that she wouldn't be fooled. "You supplied the excuse this muscles for maternal-instincts was looking for!" Ariel, Mary, and Murie looked at Mrs. Maccabee. Her only response was a slight smile. Alex was looking at the other woman, "How come it's only the girls being punished?! That doesn't seem right!" "Because brawls are something that can be expected from boys! Not of girls: It's not right that girls be in fights!" Now, Maccabee spoke up, "Female soldiers are always the most feared." "Only if they have guns!" "Then women need to be armed. They're the best shots, anyway." "Maccabee, you are suspended until your competency hearing! Besides contributing to a riot, you're suggesting something that we have metal detectors, profiling and spot checks to guard against!" "Will that statement be on your report to the review board?" "Yes! Count on it!" The Coach's smile began self-satisfied. "Thank you," she said, leaving. When the female-hulk was safely gone: "What was that all about?" Mary asked Murie. It was Zoe that answered, "Maccabee has a plan." "I don't see how threatening girls with bodily harm will help her keep her job," Weatherwax said, letting her nerves show after facing down all that mass of muscle. Zoe simply quirked a smile, and said, "You would if you thought about it, VeePee. It's not about girls, any more." ('My idealism is getting too burned out for this.') "Thursday and Slaughter, you will report to detention. I will have special notes made up for your parents to sign. You are on notice. Ryder, knowing from past history that 'trouble just finds you', I'm assigning you to Student Watch." "No!! Not that! That would make me a rat, a snitch, a-" "A perfect example to others. Fail that, and it's Juve." "Aggh! That'd have more class than hall monitor prime!" "That is enough, Ryder! You may go with Thursday, Slaughter, ...and, uh, Scopes to detention, now." Flora Scopes was so relieved to have escaped any serious punishment she visibly slumped. She meekly followed the grumbling Zoe, and the other two out. Ms. Weatherwax then turned her attention to: "Ariel Dey, I should send you to detention, as well. Basically, the trouble you've been in has been because you hang around the 'Odd Squad'. ('Such as Zoe.) But I think I understand why you have been frozen out of the other informal groups," And the woman in charge looked at Alex. Alex felt guilty; though she didn't understand why just knowing the town's oddest oddity would make Ariel an outcast, too. "That, Miss Dey, is why I want you to escort the other Miss Dey and me. I want to meet her guardian, and the family of her cousin, Alex Knight. If, and I emphasize "if": If I am to have them in this school, I want to have an idea what to expect the next time they're involved in... unapproved activities." Alex asked, "Er, Mrs..." ("That's 'Ms.'!") "Uh, Mizz Weatherwax, may I make a call first?" "To warn your Uncle?" the VP almost smiled at the naivety. "No. To tell him some things he doesn't know, yet." "Why don't we, then, surprise him, together?" +++ "Mrs. Weatherwax!" Sgt. Murdich came towards her as soon as ash blonde had left the office. (He'd been standing behind Mrs. Levin, one of the younger secretaries, as she pulled files. She was cursing about slow computer printers, and blaming them for the mess her files were becoming.) Ms. Weatherwax tried to ignore the former Marine. The man would not be ignored, "I see I was right! I want the chance to interrogate the flannel girl before you suspend her from school!" "What? What are you right about? I am not suspending either of these young women: I'm going to see what kind of home life they have. And, Sergeant(!) Murdich, I do the 'interrogating' in this school." "If you did grill them, you could nip this gang turf war in the bud!" Alex, the girl with the unkempt hair, asked, "What's he talking about, Ms. Weatherwax?" "The act won't work with me, girl!" the large man with the leathery face that went with his neck told her. He would have leaned over her, if the Vice Principal weren't in the way. "I know you abetted the escape of your boyfriend!" "Boyfriend!! I don't have any boyfriend!!" "A cute number like you? That flannel is your gang's colors! It's your uniform!" "Uniform!" Weatherwax cried. "That's what this is all about! School uniforms, again!" "That's right: Conformity! Once everybody looks alike, the factions will lose their biggest difference! The major fault lines can be filled in! That's why the military uses uniforms!" "I've heard enough of that kind of talk already today! Have you met Ellena Maccabee, the P.E. teacher?" "I'm already married, Madam Vice Principal!" he said as if she'd ask him to break his vows. "And so is she. But that's not the reason I'd like to see you two trading views!" and with that, Weatherwax indicated that the two girls with her were to lead the way while she took rear guard. "Mark my words! This episode today was just the beginning! The Flannels have started recruiting the girls! Once they have them under their control, hormones will bring them the boys!!" That did it! "Murdich, Maccabee could be how a certain off-school group keeps in contact with the girls." "Of course!" the cop said, as if he himself should have realized it before. +++ On their way down the school hall, Ms. Weatherwax said, more, it seemed to herself, than the girls with her, "I said, 'could'; and I didn't say what kind of off-school group." "I wonder who'd win?" Alex said. "Alex! He's bigger and heavier! He's also a man!" Ariel said the obvious. "But he doesn't work out like Mrs. Maccabee. Did you see her muscles? They look like they could be on a man," she said in a way that showed she liked the idea. "He's a cop!" Ariel said to end the discussion. "I wonder how well you can move in all those muscles, you know: Self-defense, martial arts, skates!" Alex was into her own thoughts and calculations. "Did you see her chest?! It almost looks like she doesn't have any breasts!" "Alex!" It was at that moment that Ariel crossed the line. Her doubts were now on the other side. All that remained was for her to prove the impossible to herself. +++ Bleaker's Hill was actually a part of Bearing Ridge. That had been named, it was said, because it went true North-South (if you draw a skewed line through it on a map, that is). Blankley High School was at the bottom of the west side. On top of this part of the ridge was the small Greenridge Business District of small stores and shops. A part of the east side of the ridge was Sunrise Terrace on the geology maps. That side of the ridge was covered with more trees than houses, and fences helped to keep small kids and animals inside their yards. Further adding to the sense of isolation were the few straight streets. Those that were straight had cement strips (the "Ridge ridges") running across them to help wheels more to grip. It also gave a bumpy ride. But Winona Weatherwax did it, she told herself, because she was conscientious enough to cut back on the time she was out of the office. "I would think you would go to Nader. The school's on this side of the Ridge." "Blankley's higher than Nader," Ariel told her. "If I went there, and had to walk, I have to go up even more of the Side. And I'm used to walking to the top of the Ridge, if I'm late for the bus. "Besides, the girls decided that we would all go to the same school. Most of us live around here; that's how we became a, uh, clique." "Not because you're odd?" Alex asked, hoping to be relieved of some guilt. "That's just what's kept us together," Ariel admitted. "Oh," Alex did not feel relieved. +++ Sunrise Lane was the terrace's only street and was several blocks long, with Bleaker Street running across it. It was wide enough for good-sized yards on both of its sides. The Knights' basically blue Four Square style house were at the very end of Sunrise, with the Deys' whitewashed brick Gothic Revival next door. Winona was tempted to park in front of the "Dead End" sign and railing just to see how steep this part of the Side was. "You're not going to school looking like that!!" came a yell of a man hidden by the Knights' very high, white fence. (Behind which rose what looked like a small red-and-blue circus tent.) "I want to be normal!" came a youngster's voice. "That's not normal for you!!" A brunette with the long ponytail leapt up on the rail on the other side of the fence. A loud wooden bang followed; the man had apparently run into the fence. "You and Alex get to be-be-" the 11-year-old lost his balance and fell. Winona Weatherwax's heart froze. But the lad landed on his feet like a parachutist and rolled. His roll became a tumble that ended with him back on his feet. He spun and yelled back at the fence "I want to be a boy!!" "What??" the woman asked either Dey. "Er, "Pinocchio"?" Alex said, smiling stupidly. "How can I let you go to school, when you keep saying things like that: In public!!" the high gate opened. "I will keep saying things like that until you let me go out in public!!" the boy wearing flower print pants and little blue tank top threatened. "I can runaway, right now!!" "Halt!!" the man who looked like he could be the child's father ordered. "Halt, or I'll make sure you never have a chance to leave this house: Again!!" "He's not serious!?!" The VP said. Ariel reached over, and honked the horn. "Mr. Knight!! It's me, Ariel! You have company!" she yelled out the open driver's window. "So that's how cars make that noise," Alex said. "We brought Alex... Alex Dey!! ...from the high school!" Ariel decided to add. "Alex... Dey??" said the man who was nothing like Winona expected. ("Geek with muscles" came to her mind; the prescription sports sunglasses said it all.) Ms. Weatherwax moved the girl's head away from her breasts, "I think you've given them enough warning, Dey." The boy came running over, "Alex!? Alex, are you in there?!" Alex opened the door, and stood up as tall as her girl-sized body would allow, "Yes. It's me. Alex, Dey." "Wow!" the boy smiled, taking in as much as he could see. "You did go normal!" He then turned to the man (who was now moving, very upset, towards the car), and said, "See! See! No shades! No dark glasses: Nothing on the face!" The man with the glasses on his face, and long, limp blue-black hair said, "I want to thank you, Ma'am, for returning my, uh, daugh-" "Niece!!" Ariel said, shoving Alex out of the way. "Alex Dey is your niece, remember!" "I said that was enough of that," Ms. Weatherwax said, rising from her side of the car. "Alex Dey's come to live with you: Right!?! Now that you don't have to stay in the dark!!" Ariel persisted. "Any more?" the VP looked at Ariel. "Er... That's all of the story I know." The man (somehow a cross between Jerry Lewis and Woody Allen in their younger days) said the woman, "If you're returning Alex, because of problems, I'll let you know Alex won't be troubling the school again." "No!" Alex cried. "No!!" the boy cried even louder. "This is all your fault!" the 11-year-old said, leaping on the hood ("My car!") as he pounced at the 16-year-old girl. "Val!!" Ariel cried as she got in the way to toss him away by his gut and chest. "Dey!!" Weatherwax cried. "Val's used to it," Alex said, as she watched him land on the cement of the street. "So, it seems, is Ariel! I may have misjudged her." "I don't want to be stuck in this house any longer!!" the kid threw a tantrum that proved he was okay. "Believe me, Ms. Weatherwax," Ariel told her, "this stops the roughhousing before it gets started." "But he's only a child!" "You only know the half of it," Ariel muttered. The man spoke up, "Before you think of reporting me to the authorities, I want you to know that I've always been there for my kids, and have taught them to respect each other! They know how to fight and take their falls and punches. They're kids! They fight: What else were they going to do when they were stuck together in the dark all of their lives without a TV or computer?!" Weatherwax raised an eyebrow, "You are Adlai Knight? The one with a teenage Son, and a young Daughter?" Adlai Knight looked from the woman to the boy sulking on his back on the ground, and Alex, the teenage girl. "I knew no good would come of this." Ariel just bowed her head and shook it, saying, "Even I was quicker on the uptake." "I, uh, told them how when I found out that you didn't have live in the dark any more, it was okay for me, your know, Alex DEY-" "I'd like to hear it from your 'Uncle', if you don't mind," VP Weatherwax interrupted. "'Uncle', hunh? Why don't you come into the back yard with us, where we can have a little more privacy," Mr. Knight invited. "I'm usually invited into the guardian's house," the woman informed the man famous for being a hermit. "You're not ready for that, yet," Ariel said to her. "Alex has done something to get your notice," the man said, leading the way. "That's why you're here. You're suspicious, and you came here to see if you can get something on us." "I'm not here to 'get something' on anybody." "You're with the school, aren't you?" "I'm the Vice Principal." "From what I remember of school, Vice Principals don't normally leave school in the middle of the day to pay a 'social call' at the home of just one of her students," Mr. Knight looked at her, now, as he held the tall gate open. "I'll admit I'm taking a special interest. When I found out that one of our new students was involved in a, 'little incident', I thought having her cousin with us might make things easier for her." "'Her'?" Adlai Knight said. He looked beyond the woman, and saw that Alex was bringing Val; she was giving him an "airplane ride": Holding a wrist and an ankle, she would swing him every time his free arm or leg had a chance to reach her. ("I'm not going back there!! You can't make me!! He'll chain us up this time with that key!") "Your son, Alex, has disappeared from the campus." "This is his first day at any school! He just got lost!" Ariel tried to step in. "There's a very good reason my son could not be found," Alex's father glared at Alex. "Oh, no!! You can't do this to me!!" Alex cried, letting Val become a real "airplane". ("Yaaa!!") With a practiced hand, Adlai Knight unhitched his long, unorthodox "black belt" and (despite the dark glasses) whipped it around Alex. With a snap of his wrist, he yanked the girl off her feet and towards him. "You are going to tie them up!!" Winona Weatherwax cried in alarm. "NO!!" Ariel screamed, grabbing onto the sash and breaking its hold on her oldest friend. "Why!?!! Why won't you let us have a life!!" Alex yelled from the ground. "I told you that in the first place!!" Val yelled, having cart- wheeled onto his feet. "We're all he has! He's a miser!" "They're right!!" Ariel screamed at him. "What you're doing is evil!! You just want somebody to share your lonely life!! They need more than bread and circuses, and Auntie Malkra!!" The man's response was a sharp pull on the sash: Before Ariel could let go, she found herself spinning inside the sash-Right into the arms of Mr. Knight! "You want company!?" the mad man roared, tossing her over his shoulder. "Let go of me!!" Ariel screamed, kicking and struggling, but unable to, yet, bring herself to really hurt this man who, in some ways, was more like a father to her than her own. "You can't do this!! It's bad enough you did it to us!!" Val told him. "I won't let you do it!!" Alex screamed in pure anger, running for the gate. "If anything happens to Ariel, and I'll kill you, this time!! I swear!!" But she could only bang on the gate her pop had kicked shut. Ms. Weatherwax saw there was no latch on this side of the gate. "Mr. Knight!! I will have to call the police, now! I have my cell phone!" she said, reaching into suit coat pocket. Val took a running leap; he was just vaulting over, holding onto the top edge with his hands, when: Alex used karate blows to break through the gate. Val fell, again. This time he didn't land very well. From the ground: "Call the police!" Val asked the woman. "Don't let Pop use his magic!" "Magic?" +++ The boy Alex Knight came into the darkened "circus" tent that filled the back yard right up to the side of the hill. The tent and the house had been just about his entire world for his whole life. Like a blind man who had everything memorized, Alex hurdled over the circus equipment (acrobat board, trampoline, twenty- foot-high trapeze swing sets, high wire, uneven bars at different heights, etc.). "Mr. Knight! Don't tie me up with this rope! This is not one of your Auntie Malkra stories! You can't just abduct people! I won't become a 'Big, Nice Monster'!!" In the back of his mind, Alex remembered the last time Val had skateboarded. He kicked one of the wood chips that covered the ground. It hit the board. That was why the traditional sand wasn't used. Alex landed on the skateboard, and pushed himself for more speed. He remembered the bottom was coming, so he did a smooth squat, and held out his arms, and shot up the other side, rising to a ski-jump angle to the board. When he felt air under the board, he stepped off. He stayed on his feet. "Mr. Knight, listen to me: There is no such thing as magic! It's only in those kid's books you write!" "And that's where it belongs!! Why do you think I write those stories!!" Pop had gone over the edge. He had cleared things from a prop table and placed Ariel on it. What had made it seem even more like a sacrificial altar was that, with a motion of his hands, the two tall candle stands on either side came alive with their red flames. Their glow was not bright, but it would have given the area a hellish tableau, if Alex weren't used to it. And though Ariel, too, had played in the red glow of Mr. Knight's strange candles, at the moment, knowing what she now thought she knew: It was scaring her! "Let her go!!" Alex screamed, racing towards the man he had once thought of as he father. The truth exploded in his mind: "What did you do to my real folks!?!! I don't look anything like you!!" The man had pulled out the pendant. Alex knew it well; it was a golden combination cross and ankh, with square "teeth" along the staff. It was "The Woven Key". "Lithri! I release you!! By the unholy name only I know, your cage is gone!" A shapeless glow as bright as moonlight appeared between him and Alex. Alex's rage only increased: "It's a trick!!" He leaped at the man. The war cry became a scream. "I did not want to have to do this, Ariel! Believe me! I had no choice!" Mr. Knight fought back all the pains of his life. It looked like he might loose that emotional battle at any moment. The aura took shape; but it was not the shape of the Alex Knight it held paralyzed within it. Nor was it the shape of Alex Dey. It was female, but it was tall, and slender, and more... cat-like! It was a cat woman! "This can't be happening!" Ariel said. "At your most stupid, you wrote and drew more imaginative monsters than this!" "Lithri is not a monster," Adlai Knight told her. "She's the ghost of somebody who was, once... a friend." As the shape neared its final form, it opened eyes that had appeared out of nowhere. Of all that was the glow, this was the most, disturbingly so, realistic. "Alekis!" the ghost of Lithri cried! "No! Why am I release!" She looked around with ca-like speed, and found her target over her shoulder. "Adlai! You promise to keep me imprison in the limbo of your key!" "The fool found out! I had to do something!" "Yes!" the feline woman frowned at him, turning, unsatisfied with the excuse. "You always 'doing something'. You 'help' your realm as you 'help' mine?" "I'm going to help by not doing anything, this time!!" "Then put me back in cage!" "I destroyed the cage to get you out of it!" "I see," her gaze shifted down to the human still suspended within her. "Then I must return to Azoth and report I find you and Peasant Lord to Malkra." "Malkra's dead! Dead!! We killed him!! He's dead!" Adlai was losing it, now, for sure. Her feral eyes snapped back onto the man: "Fourth Malkra!!" she roared as much as a cat woman that was more domestic than lion could. "Much as you try to destroy magic, it survive. People demand renewal of magic. Usurper resurrect Malkra through herself!!" There was fierce cat's hiss in her voice with this last news. "She's, she's concentrating the what's left of the magic in herself!?!" Adlai was pale at the thought. "Worse!!" "Worse??" he was now ashen, and too afraid and ashamed to ask how things could be worse. The cat woman looked, again, down at the figure hanging in a semi-fetal position. "Bright thing is only that new Malkra not let old Malkra take over mind completely. She lock away that magic. As spirit, must obey... but think own ideas...feel own feelings. I not ghost." Ariel thought she saw what she was seeing. If it was just a projection, or some other magician's illusion, it was one so convincing she was beginning to believe that it was real. Mr. Knight, she knew, was not that great of an actor (just look at how he handled Ms. Weatherwax). And as cat-like as the phantom was, it clearly had emotions. "What are you talking about!?!" Ariel cried, at last. "You're both talking in a language I can't understand!! Untie me! -I'm getting cramps!!" The cat woman ignored her: "This not Alekis remember... He cross over." "And he's going to stay crossed-over!" Adlai said in a tone that, at once, both asserted and pleaded. The body of Alex began to glow. "I would see My Lord before go... As I remember him!" Where the spirit had been more of the yellow- white of the moon, the spirit within shone with a more pure white light of daylight. The glow grew larger than the small body of the girl. It grew to the size and shape of a grown man. Ariel's eyes widened: The man of spirit wore a strange half-armor over his left side: the epaulets that were larger than his broad shoulders, the finger-like projections that that protected the spaces between the ribs and both kidneys, the belt that rose to cover his abdomen, the thigh shield that hung down from it, and the shin guard buckled to his boot. The right side had only mail, if that. He wore pants, and his right arm was bare, except for a wrist brace. And he wore his mantel so that it barely covered his right shoulder; the mantel reminded Ariel of a cape somebody in the comics would wear. But what impressed Ariel most was the young but experienced, weathered face. He had long, wild hair, and a beard that promised to do likewise, if it were not for the scar down his right jaw. Impressed!!? This was an Alex she had not imagined. This was Alex grown up! More than just grown up: This is what Alex Knight could be in some fantasy! Fantasy? Her fantasy. "Lithri?" Alekis said. "You awaken me? Is there need for me, again?!" "No!!!" Adlai screamed, holding up his Woven Key: "I won't let you become a hero again!! It's somebody else's turn!! Haven't you suffered in enough incarnations!!? Let them save themselves!! Lithri said herself those stupid people are giving Malkra their dreams!!" "Malkra!!?" Alekis cursed the name. "Then I must return. Only when Azoth is free can I rest. That is the reason I was created." The cat-woman frowned but smiled, "Then it your will?" Sensing the answer before it was said, the spirit of Lithri came more shapeless, to engulf the larger spirit of Alekis; together they, also, began to float towards the back of the tent. "NO!!!" came an anguished battle cry. Val had scrambled up the side of the empty swimming pool, and was now sprinting with slim muscles tensed straight at the apparition taking her big brother away. "Val!!" both her pop and Ariel cried. The yet to develop eleven-year-old girl went through the spirit: Who screamed in pain! Her momentum knocked Alex Knight from the aura. The image of the strange man disappeared. Ariel craned her neck, trying to see the now shapeless glow float away towards the back of the tent, "Magic now come to this realm, too! Guard key!" "Alex! Alex!!" Val shook her dazed brother. "He's fine! He's fine!! He'll be okay: Thanks to you!!" her pop rejoiced picking up the girl, and hugging her to him as tight as he could. "I thought you were the second biggest mistake of my life!!" "Thanks a lot, Pop!!" Val cried, struggling to get "unhugged". "But you're the second best thing to ever happen to me!!" her proud father set the girl down, and looked at her through his dark glasses, holding her in place by her shoulders. "You're the next hero! No... You're the New Hero!! You're something Azoth has never seen before!!" And he just had to hug her again. "POP!!!" "You're the hero to end all heroes: Alex will finally be free of his curse!" +++ Winona Weatherwax stepped through the hole in the gate Alex Dey had created, just as the police squad car pulled up. She sighed. Then, setting her shoulders, she went to them, "Officers; I'm afraid there has been a misunderstanding. The children living here are so unique there is no one else that can take care of them better... He even loves them as nobody else can." (Because it's just too, too...unique!) The End of this chapter +++ Explanations: Why did Adlai Knight agree to register them for school, when he was opposed to them going? It was a stalling tactic. After knowing this day would come for over 16 (and 11) years, he had many ideas how he was going to handle it. Too many. He botched it (the former-nerd never had very good people-skills). Alex snuck out of the house without telling him (obviously). Then the father lied, and did some tricks to try to convince Val that Alex was still somewhere there in the dark; then, he said Val had to wait until they saw how Alex did at school. (But, if I ever write that story, things could change in the telling. Plots must always win out over logic. Any continuity problems could, perhaps, be overcome by multiple POV's, or other devices.) Adlai and the VP: He wanted her to know! He is going to argue that she was an example of how impossible it would be to keep the secret. Better that they realize it when it's somebody responsible. (The Woven Key is his ace-in-the-sleeve. -And, remember, just having one can a get poker player shot.) "Auntie Malkra" is "Anti-Malkra", of course. The children's books 'she' is most noted for is the "Big, Nice Monsters" series. If you think Val is going to have any idea what s/he would be getting into when/if s/he travels to Azoth by knowing about these books, think again. But the reason why that is, is for another story. 11-years-old?! A fantasy-genre hero!?! Not yet. I wanted somebody who "had a choice", and who would make female puberty into an even bigger deal than it is naturally. That is: Slow transformation vs. Alex's quick ones. Val shall be a very interested bystander to what effect gender has on Alex. {NOTE: The Val IS the exception to the dark/light = male/female rule: THAT is the source of her/his special power. It all has to do with how she was conceived.} (A little more about Bearing Ridge: A ridge is a long, narrow hill. (Here, it is like "a peninsula surrounded by more flat land".) It is the local custom to call its five lobes "Hills" The Knights' house is by the steepest area between any of the lobes, Suicide Gap (with not enough level ground in most places for machines or houses [though there are a few, especially lower down]). Alex, Val and Ariel know how to play on the Side, of course. (More about the Ridge: The sidewalks, too, have cement strips, but they do not go all the way across; there are gaps along the sides wide enough for skateboards, etc. And for those who remember Chapter One: The bus goes down Bleaker Street, it does not go up it. The bus, like most traffic, goes up winding Vector Avenue.)