We call up the Mage, and actually manage to get him. We ask him, and he's fuzzy-headed, and we have to explain things to him. He says that he saw her last about a year before he met us and she went to her aunt's house near his castle. We get directions.

We worry about what's up with the Mage because he sounded funny, but what can you do, eh?

We decide to talk to Henderson, to find out what he knows, since he relayed the first message. We grab a time machine and make our Henderson Rendezvous.

Alag searches the ship that's there, a one-man aerospace vehicle, with the far-seer. Henderson is wounded. We talk to him, invite him over for healing and conversation. He comes over to the time machine, one of Ashleigh's teak-and-brass Victorian jobs, and mutters about never getting used to us.

He gives us three silver coins. A victory coin to give to Lee, a person looking ahead for Waverly, and one in profile for Elias. There's a message in each that we're not told a whole lot about.

Henderson says that he ran into a bad place and got hurt there.

We ask him about Dimlai, and we hear a little about where he met her, and he can't say much, but he met her and they talked. He tries to tell us a lot, and fails, but mentions it's near a conundrum point.

We ask about Paratime, and he says that he almost infiltrated them.

We speculate about Paratime and the Worldbenders. Our favorite speculation is that the Worldbenders act in terms of their concern with "inevitability" as if they are under temporal attack from someone using statistical techniques like Paratime does. Thinking about this gives us the willies, and we think that it may be a very bad idea to give Paratime a pantope. We decide to think about this for a while before even considering a return to the Classical line.

We head for Hreme, to see Dimlai's aunt. Ashleigh, Kate, and Glorian go there with Alag (who becomes a djinn again) as backup. The aunt's place is lush (for the Middle East), and walled in. The walls delimit an amazing oasis of lushness there. A Moorish fellow meets us, and asks us our business. We explain, and are asked to sit in the garden. We decide not to drink the water.

We get announced to "Her Ladyship" (Dimlai's aunt). Our names get mangled.

Ashleigh explains the story (including Henderson's meeting with her) as best as can be expected to Dimlai's aunt, given that it involves time travel, improper sequencing, and the fact that we've never met her. Her Ladyship is amazed at all of what has been mentioned, and presses us for details. We start fearing that perhaps Dimlai is a very young girl.

We mention the Mage's story and that he directed us here. Her Ladyship seems a bit put out by this, and mentions that loose talk isn't like him. She also mentions him by name (which for the life of him, your chronicler cannot remember -- next log). We begin to fear that the Mage is her father.

Her Ladyship sighs, calms down, and talks more to the Young Ladies as she calls them. She asks where they are from. Ashleigh smiles and says, "England" cheerfully. Her Ladyship has never heard of it. Ashleigh assures her that it is north of France, which Her Ladyship has never heard of, either.

Enough of this seems to be plausible that Her Ladyship invites the Young Ladies inside to a meal and some more talk. She implies that there is some trouble, and decides that the Young Ladies are probably not up to no good. We begin to fear that we are about to embark on the quest that causes Dimlai to be as fond of us as she is.

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