Daine was on her way from Rider trainee lessons with Onua when she saw it.

"Ye gods..." Onua stopped in her tracks and stared at it.

Daine stared too. The thing was huge. It was composed of several dining-room chairs lined up side-by-side, a large armchair in the middle of the line, an upside-down wheelbarrow at one end, and what looked like a giant wooden fork painted electric green at the other. Wires ran all along the chairs and were hooked in the middle to a large colander. Sitting in the armchair with the colander on his head was Telemain.

"What...is...it?" Daine squeaked.

"It," Telemain announced proudly, "is a magical mechanism to reproduce and carry out the functions and duties of the cross-universal spell the *faira godmotherliosa* set upon my physical self."

"Huh?" Onua asked blankly.

"It's a machine to send Telemain back home." came into view, shuffling the dog-eared papers that he and Telemain had been poring over for the past week. "Telemain, the luminescence spells are in check."

"What about the anti-utensils default?"

"Check."

Daine wandered over to the wheelbarrow end of the machine. Telemain doesn't seem like the type to keep cats, she thought. Then again, they're his wife's cats. He says she talks to them. Absentmindedly, she gave the upended wheel a spin. I wish I could meet her.

The air shimmered an electric green. There was a whop, and a small auburn-haired woman fell from the sky to land next to Daine. Nine cats followed the woman, landing on top of her with several furry thumps.

Morwen sat up dazedly. "Where am I?" she asked. Then she fainted.

d bl nNumair smacked his palm to his head and bounded over to the woman. He waved a hand in her face, then sighed and murmured a few words. Morwen floated up until she was wavering in the air about waist-level, cats still on top of her in multicolored heaps. "Onua, let's get her inside. Daine, can you get Telemain?"

Daine rolled her eyes and turned to the magician. He was staring into space, eyes narrow, a small smile on his face. "Interesting," he began. "The pattern in which our nine domesticated felines fell upon my lovely spouse might have something to do with Catt's theorum that felines have nine lifespans..."

"Come ON!" Daine seized his hand and dragged him, still babbling, after Numair.