Lutz smoothed the last lock of his fine cyan hair with a comb of laconia, the handle carved into twin dragons. He wondered with a mix of bemusement and irritation what had possessed him to tie his hair back with a leather cord. It made him look immature and undignified, like an ill-tutored apprentice, not to mention putting strain on his hair where it was tied too tightly. His hair had darkened – probably due to the same overexposure to the sun that had tanned his delicate skin. He was a scholar and a magician, not a wanderer!

His physical appearance was the least of his worries. A few simple illusions placed over himself would hardly take any of his power to cast at all. That was becoming another problem, though... power. He was still at a fraction of the level he should be. It had never taken him this long to regain his power after a long sleep before. Something was blocking him.

Algol had changed so much. Whole continents of Dezolis had shifted. It had taken him all day just to find the Menobe Tower. He had learned from asking the residents of nearby towns that the entire region had been enclosed in ice when the weather had gone out of control – the work of Dark Force, as he might have guessed. By the time the unnatural blizzards had receded, too much damage had been done to the area, one of the worst affected areas on the whole planet. An entire mountain had collapsed, separating it permanently from the inhabited areas of Dezolis. That was the problem with Algol. It changed very rapidly over small time periods. It was a troubled world, always in turmoil. Lutz had always said that he needed to be woken up more regularly. However, the cryotechnicians insisted that the shock to his system caused by more frequent awakenings would make it impossible to keep him alive indefinitely.

He was relieved to find that the Menobe hadn't changed. The enchantments woven around it by entire quorums of elite wizards over millennia of use had kept it as pristine as the day it was first officially opened. Even the pot plants, delicate conifers in shades of blue-grey that looked almost fossilised inside earthenware pots depicting Alis battling several different exotic beasts, now near-mythical, such as the Medusa, were still thriving. He began to feel his old self as his white robes swept across the stone floor. He walked past arches that extended as high as he could see, beautifully cropped menageries and fountains,spiral staircases and balconies that overlooked what remained of the mountains, with views of the Gumbious Temple, its fires a brilliant beacon in the murk of the cloudy dusk.

He stopped on the second to highest floor, where the library should still be. He had gone here mostly for the content of the Menobe Library. Partly because he still couldn't find his cryochamber and suspected that some idiot had physically moved the Esper Mansion so that his basement was no longer under it but mostly because the Menobe Tower was where the research took place, both scientific and magical, back when all five buildings were still in use. The Ikuto was a martial training centre and weapons storage bay, the Guaron was a place of religious ritual and the more spiritual defenses against Dark Force and the Naval was a Government centre and court of law. If any knowledge remained that would give him a clue as to what happened to him, it would be in the Menobe.

"Riy rever ma hahm Malay." he muttered, placing his palm against the rune carved on the door. In response to his correct incantation, it shone pale blue and the door swung open without making a sound. He stepped inside. The magical ward had done its job. Even Dark Force's monsters and the descendants of Alis, who had come to borrow the sacred weapons (and never gave them back, Lutz noted with some irritation) with which to fight Dark Force, had not been able to enter this door. Most likely, they had not even seen it. The books were all perfectly in place on the shelves, in the order and condition they had always been in. He scanned the rows and saw books on magical theory, technique, healing and life extension, combining magic and technology, the astronomical cycles of Algol and the phases of Dark Force's return.

He stopped to browse the technology section, then walked over to a Laerma-wood desk with a white sheet draped over it. Someone had left out their research tools. On the desk, surrounded by slim telekinetically reactive blades and fine measures of psychic energy, were a number of the glass spheres that hosted Telepathy Balls. They were in different stages of construction, most of them not yet usable, some faulty, some of them still in two halves that weren't joined together yet. Espers were normally tidy people and certainly wouldn't leave their equipment out before going into thousands of years of solitude in preparation for an attack by Dark Force. Telepathy balls were something they took even more care of, in case someone stored confidential information on one and didn't ward it correctly. He picked one up at random...

Rune cried out and dropped the object in his hand.

He heard it smash into several pieces, then heard a much louder noise. It sounded like the infernal roaring of hell's furnaces and was growing louder.

He dove out of the way just in time as a gout of flame flew through the air towards him, large enough to immolate him instantly. His battle instincts took over and his staff was out in his hands, both his physical and magical barriers were up. The flames coalesced and rose up into a living, billowing pillar of fire. It didn't seem to be setting anything else on fire – despite the fact that he appeared to be in a large library – but he could feel the intense heat overwhelming him. The thing was after him.

"NAWAT!" he yelled. A column of supercooled air shot out of his outstretched arm, which was glowing deep blue, and hit the thing just as it threw a cluster of fireballs at him. Gouts of steam poured from it, making an angry hissing sound. While the blow didn't stop its advance, the fireballs were vapourised, giving Rune a chance to scramble out of the way as the creature threw itself at him.

"NAWAT!" he cried again, putting slightly more force into the technique. The ray of cold punched through the fire, knocking it back. Mental exhaustion seeped into him but he pressed the attack, using the technique again and again. He wasn't sure he could defeat the creature on his own. He had never seen such a being. He didn't even know how to tell if he was damaging it. It wasn't really slowing down and it was too large to just destroy by extinguishing it. He looked for a way around it. It was trying to block the entrance but he wasn't sure if there were more entrances to the room he had woken up in. That was when he spotted one of the glass balls as it was about to roll off the table. Unwilling to be responsible for even more destruction of property in a place he had never been to before, he jumped back to catch it.

As his hands closed around it, the room went dark. A roaring filled his head, then white noise began to seep from the floor. He looked down, then saw his own hands and realised that he, too, was evaporating into white noise.

Someone was walking towards him...

Lutz?

He heard the voice in his mind. It was a soft, female voice. The figure was that of a young woman with short hair and wide eyes that stared at something far away.

Who are you? He asked, hoping that it was working. He had some experience of talking to voices in his head but wasn't really that well practised.

Do you really not remember me, Lutz? It hasn't been that long. Its me, your sister.

Lutz's eyes snapped open. He registered the column of fire bearing down on top of him, then was on the other side of the room with a short-range Ryuka.

"WHY are you attacking me?" he demanded, "NAWAT!"

A blue column fell from the ceiling, completely enveloping the living fire. When it subsided, the thing was a statue of ice. Lutz studied it for a moment before he shattered it with a Nazan technique. It didn't look as if its enchantment had been tampered with. The security systems can't stay in place for this long without malfunctioning slightly, but even so, they shouldn't be attacking Lutz!

He bent down to try and clean up the broke glass – it was clumsy of him to go around breaking things in a fight - then blacked out from psychic fatigue.