“And how are we today?” asked Benjamin with a benevolent smile.

     Malone jerked at the manacles on his wrists. His hands weren’t behind his back this time, they must be confident that escape was impossible. He tried to think of a way he could take advantage of that, but nothing came to him. “Fine,’ he said cheerfully. “Never been better. Thanks for asking.”

     Benjamin smiled. They were sitting across the table in the crockery room, the same as always. A butler was placing a steaming teapot and two small porcelain cups on the table, a look of inscrutable calm on his face. It wasn't the man Malone had whacked on the head the day he’d been captured, he noted. He hadn’t seen him since that day, in fact. He hoped it was because his benevolent employer had given him a few days off while he recovered, but part of him worried that the man might have died from his injuries. Surely, though, if that we’re the case, Benjamin would have mentioned it, just to increase his torment. Malone was afraid to ask, just in case.

     The nobleman was wearing casual clothes this time. A green velvet jacket over a white shirt and with skin tight breeches covering his legs. Malone, as before, wore nothing. Benjamin looked at the bandages on his arm. “And how are your injuries healing?” he asked.

     “Coming along,” replied the former batman. In fact, the torn skin was healing a lot faster than he'd expected it to. He'd been injured plenty of times before, while with the Brigadier, so he had a pretty good idea how long deep lacerations should take to heal, and his injuries were well ahead of schedule. They also weren't infected. He hadn't worried about that until recently, because he hadn’t expected to live long enough for it to matter. The dogs had bitten him through his jacket sleeves, he remembered. The fabric must have wiped the dog’s teeth clean before they could reach his skin.

     He looked down at the bandages that still covered his arm. Maybe the injuries hadn't been as bad as he'd thought they’d been, he thought, except they had been. He knew exactly how badly the dogs had hurt him. So what was going on? He wasn't going to show uncertainty and confusion in front of this man, though, so he kept the smile on his face as if everything was perfect in his world. “And you?” he asked. “Is all well with you?”

     “Everything is very well indeed,” replied Benjamin. “I'm glad we can have these nice, civilised discussions. It would be a shame if things got unpleasant between us.”

     “If things had been different, we might have been friends,” said Malone, continuing the banter.

     “Precisely,” agreed Benjamin with delight. He picked up the teacup and poured a cup, which he then pushed over to his prisoner. “Do you take sugar?” he asked.

     “One lump please.” The nobleman picked up a sugar cube with a pair of silver tongs and dropped it into Malone's cup. Malone reached over with his manacled hands, picked up the silver spoon and stirred the tea. Then he picked up the cup and took a sip from it. “Very good,” he said.

     “Corwellian. Very expensive. I only share it with very special guests.”

     “I'm flattered. I've got nothing left to tell you, you know. I've told you everything.”

     “Yes, I know.”

     “I was just wondering why I was still alive. I broke into your house, killed your dogs, injured your men. All in an attempt to kill you. I thought you would have killed me and dumped my body somewhere by now.”

     “I abhor waste. I think you can still be useful to me.”

     “If you’re expecting someone to try to rescue me, someone you can lure into a trap, I'm afraid you’re going to be disappointed. Nobody's going to come for me. No-one even knows I'm here.”

     “They won't be coming for you, I know, but people are going to come for me sooner or later. I haven't been able to appear in public for some time, because of this.” He produced a small handkerchief and wiped some of the powder from his arm, revealing the luminous skin beneath. “Ever since your Brigadier discovered us, ever since Fienwell's incompetence. People are beginning to notice, beginning to wonder. I can only say I'm ill, or attending a business meeting in Darmorell, for so long. People expect me to actually be at home, able to receive visitors, now and then. Business contacts are beginning to remember that I had powdered skin the last time they saw me. Sooner or later they're going to figure out what I am, and then I'm going to have to leave.”

     “I imagine you've made arrangements to make sure the rebels continue to benefit from your largesse.”

     Benjamin chuckled. “One really doesn't expect to hear that kind of language from someone not yet declared human. I could wish that all declared humans had your intellect! Yes, I’ve made arrangements. My money will be handled by agents who share my views on the current state of the world. War, misery, starvation... Why do you and your Brigadier think it so important that there be so much suffering in the world? Would it really be so bad if humans were farmed instead of being allowed to run around hurting each other?”

     “Yes,” said Malone, although he found to his surprise that he wasn't as convinced of it as he seemed to remember being. “Human civilisation has its problems, it's true, but it should be up to us to solve them for ourselves, our own way.”

     “And how many people must suffer and die before we solve them? Look at cattle, for instance. In the wild they suffer from disease, parasites. They're preyed upon by wolves and coyotes. Compare them with farmed cattle. Fat, healthy, content...”

     “Blooded once a month and eventually slaughtered for food,” countered Malone, but again his heart wasn’t really in it. He began to have the very strange feeling that he was arguing the wrong side of the issue.

     “The Radiants don’t want to eat us,” chuckled Benjamin.

     Malone blushed with embarrassment. Of course the Radiants didn't eat humans! They adopted them, raised them to become higher forms of life. Everyone wanted to be a Radiant one day. It was the natural end point of a lifetime of strife and effort. The reward that came at the end of all that stress and hard work. It was strange to think that he'd once seen them as enemies, hated and feared them. He probably still would if he hadn’t come here, on his foolish, stupid mission to kill this man, this man who only wanted what was best for the human race...

     He jerked back to himself with sudden shock and a feeling of near panic, as if he'd fallen into deep water and nearly drowned. What was he thinking? Just a few days as a captive of this man and he was coming to think the way he did, to believe what he believed. What was happening to him?

     He saw that Benjamin was staring at him with a strange intensity, as if he was an interesting experiment he was performing in a test tube. “Not quite there yet,” he said in disappointment. “Soon, though. Another day or two...”

     Understanding came to Malone with a shock like a jolt of electricity. “You're trying to parent bond me!” he said, almost in a shout.

     “Trying,” admitted Benjamin. “Succeeding. I admit I'm hurrying it along a little. Just a little blessing to turn weeks into days. The Brigadier parented you for years, and look how little progress you made in that time. You're barely more human now than you were when your first parents died.”

     “That's not true! I'm much more human than I was then. My hands...” He held up his manacled hands to show him his long, dexterous fingers.

     Benjamin waved a hand dismissively. “Look at your face,” he said. “Your teeth. Under my parenthood you'll be fully human in no time, and as an added bonus you'll believe what I believe as well. Adoption causes the mind of the adoptee to resemble the adopter. Not just the body. You’ll be a genuine, and highly valuable addition to the cause...”

     “No!” Malone leapt to his feet and threw the table aside, then threw himself at the other man.

     Benjamin caught him in his arms, though, and held him off easily. “I took the precaution of adding a little something to your morning meal,” he explained. “Just to take away a little of your strength. Jenkins!” The butler reappeared as if he'd been waiting just outside the door. “Please set our guest's chair upright again, will you?” The butler did so, and then Benjamin sat Malone back down in it. Now that his attention had been drawn to it, the former batman could feel the weakness in his limbs. A very faint numbness in all his extremities and a slightly bitter taste in his mouth. Despair swept over him, and only a tremendous effort of will prevented him from shedding tears of pure terror.

     “I'll never join you!” he declared, almost in a pure rage. “Never!”

     Benjamin just smiled, though. “I'm afraid it doesn’t work that way,” he said. “Any animal that spends too much time with another animal one rung up the ladder will soon find itself parent bonded to the higher animal. What the lower animal wants doesn't come into it. Come on now, lad! You're going to be human! A fully declared human! What you've always wanted!” Malone could only shake his head.

     “I think you knew all along what I was doing to you,” continued the aristocrat conversationally as the butler set the table upright and placed the broken shards of the tea set on a serving tray. He then bowed to his master before carrying it away. “You must have known why I was spending so much time alone with you. Maybe the fact that it was only an hour a day allowed you to deny it to yourself. After all, it normally takes many hours a day, over weeks, for a human to form a parent bond. But you knew I was an adoptee, and that adoptees have wizard powers. I think there was a part of you that wanted me to adopt you.”

     “No!” Malone was full of doubt and confusion, though. Could Benjamin be right? Had a part of him known all along? Was he really so desperate to become human that he was willing to betray everything he believed in? Betray the Brigadier? Tears of guilt and shame filled his eyes, and this time there was nothing he could to do stop them.

     “I can see the turmoil you’re going through. This is completely normal and nothing to be ashamed of. It will pass in a day or two, and then I think we'll be able to do away with those cumbersome manacles. I hope you don't mind if we leave the clothes until you’re completely human, though. Your body still has one or two dog features if you know where to look, and it fascinates me to see them gradually fade away.”

     He paused as the butler returned with another tea set which he placed on the table, then poured a cup for both of them. Benjamin waited until he'd gone before he spoke again.

     “In the meantime, we have to spend some time together. Even with blessings, the process can only be hurried so far, I'm afraid, if we want to avoid the risk of aberrant development. So, what shall we do? I know, how about a nice game of Glory?”

     He stood and went over to a small cabinet that contained a number of board games while Malone could only sit there, slumped in the chair, weeping bitter tears of utter, final despair.