Malone looked at himself in the full length mirror.

     He looked completely human. His mouth had narrow lips, a pale pink where they blended into the pale skin of his face, growing redder in towards the lines of his even, white teeth. His nose was long and straight, completely covered with pink skin, even between his narrow nostrils. His eyes had turned grey, and above them were thin eyebrows that looked as if they'd been trimmed by a professional stylist. They hasn’t been, though. It was just the way they’d turned out. His ears lay almost flat against the sides of his head, so that only their outside edges could be seen through his dense mop of dark hair, and his chin and upper lip were covered by a three day growth of stubble. He was going to either have to learn to shave or grow a beard! He hadn’t decided which yet.

     Across the rest of his body the changes were less noticeable. From the neck down he’d been almost human already, but he could still see where his back and legs were straighter than they had been before, better adapted to an upright posture, and he found himself able to walk across the room with an effortless grace he hadn’t had before. Even his feet had changed. They had fully developed arches now, and his toes were longer than they had been, the claws fully changed into nails like the ones on his fingers.

     He turned side on to the mirror, to try to see his back, and saw that the tiny stump of his tail had completely vanished. Almost all his body hair had vanished, remaining only on his head, in his armpits and around his groinal slit. Everywhere else was just smooth, bare, pink skin beneath which the lines of strong, healthy muscles could be seen.

     Benjamin watched with a smile as his former prisoner admired his naked body in the mirror. “Well?” he said. “What do you think?”

     “I look human!” said Malone in amazed delight. “Completely human!”

     “You are completely human. As a wizard, I am authorised to officially declare you human and I hereby do so. From now on, your name is Malone Hedley and you are my son. My completely human son.”

     Malone grinned despite himself. To be human! To finally, after all these years, be human! “I hadn’t expected it to happen so fast,” he said.

     “It would normally have taken a year or two,” agreed the nobleman. “I hurried it along with a blessing. It means you don't look quite the way you would have if we'd allowed the process to proceed naturally...”

     “No, no! I'm very happy with the way I look.” He turned to look back at the nobleman, then positioned himself so that he could see him and his own reflection in the mirror at the same time. “I look like you!”

     “Of course, since I’m the one you're parent bonded to. Or, I should say, the one you used to be bonded to. Now that you're human, the parent bond will begin to fade. You'll become your own man.”

     “Aren't you afraid I'll try to kill you again?”

     “Not at all. The change isn't just physical. It's mental as well. A bonded child develops a personality similar to that of his parents, and since I'm your only parent...”

     “I think like you now.” Benjamin nodded, smiling with pleasure. “I can never thank you enough for this.”

     “Thanks aren’t necessary. It was my pleasure.”

     “When I think back on why I came to your house...”

     “Our house now. You are my heir. You belong here.”

     Malone’s smile broadened. “I feel so foolish! I came here to kill you! It seemed so obvious at the time. So necessary. Now it just makes me want to cringe. I feel such a fool. So embarrassed!”

     “You were a half raised animal, you weren't responsible. You should never have been out on your own. I don't know what the Brigadier was thinking of, sending you out like that. It was criminal neglect. A gross violation of his responsibilities to you.”

     “If I ever see him again, I'll have a thing or two to say to him, you can be sure of that.”

     “I'd like to see that, but it’s unlikely I'm afraid. He's in Carrow, stirring up revolution against King Nilon. He thinks he's working against us, but a revolution in Carrow would serve our purposes very well. It would finally finish off a country already crippled by drought and war. Helberion is finished. The other human nations are small and weak. They'll fall easily once the larger nations are gone. That just leaves Kelvon, and Kelvon is teetering on the brink of civil war. One last push is all it needs.”

     “And then the Radiants will be in charge,” said Malone. “The human race will be safe. Cared for, like beloved pets.” He shook his head sadly. “When I think of all the misery and suffering we've inflicted on ourselves over the centuries... Wars, tyrannies, crime... We seem to be simply incapable of, of just living together! In peace! I mean, is it really so difficult, just people living peacefully together?”

     “Apparently it is,” replied Benjamin. “But soon, a new age of genuine peace will be upon us. An age in which crime and violence will be forbidden. All these new technologies will be forbidden.” He looked at Malone curiously. “Does that bother you? That science and technology will be outlawed, that we'll be returned to a more primitive lifestyle, one of nomadic hunter gathering?”

     “All our technology seems to have accomplished is to allow us to kill each other better,” replied the former batman. “Guns, cannons, poison gas... We have the telegraph and we use it to threaten each other and declare war. We have steam engines and we use them to power trains that transport armies and weapons. We use them to make explosives. Technology? We're better off without it. We need a simpler life, a  better life. A life with the Radiants watching over us, Making sure no harm comes to us.”

     “And one day we may be Radiants ourselves! All the petty concerns of humanity left far behind. Able to comprehend things, understand things, totally beyond human imagination. I've been promised that my adoption will be completed when my work here is done, and you yourself may be adopted one day.”

     “Do you think that's likely? I mean, what percentage of humans are adopted? One in a thousand? Less?”

     “You’ll have a better chance than most because you work for me. Who knows, it might even be me who comes to carry you off. Me in my Radiant form, and maybe not so long from now.”

     “Now that would be something!” said Malone dreaming. He stared at the nobleman, and there was nothing but perfect love and adoration in his eyes. “We'd live in the Radiant city together. Help look after the human race.”

     “Unfortunately we still have work to do before then,” said Benjamin. “And you’ll find it easier with a good set of clothes on your back.” He went to a closet on the other side of the room and opened it to reveal an expensive suit of clothes. “These used to belong to one of my uncles. You can wear them for now, but I've sent for a tailor to measure you up for something that'll fit properly. You're my heir now, and you have to look the part.”

     Malone dressed excitedly while Benjamin watched, and a few minutes later he was looking at himself in the mirror again, fingering and stroking his new clothes excitedly. “I look like a real nobleman!” he said. “A real Toff!”

     “Well, you will do when you're wearing a properly tailored suit, but it'll do for now. And please don't use words like toff. It isn't fitting for a man of your station.”  Malone nodded contritely. “I'll teach you how to speak properly. How to conduct yourself in polite society. Give it a few weeks and I'll make a proper gentleman out of you.”

     “Me, a gentleman! What would the Brigadier think if he saw me now?”

     “Forget the Brigadier. He's no longer part of your life. This is your life now.”

      Malone nodded. “You said there was still work to do. What kind of work?”

     “Emperor Tyron is organising a meeting between high ranking members of the government and the leaders of the popular uprising. He wants to address their concerns and grievances, find common ground with them. Make peace with them. He is apparently willing to make quite considerable concessions, including more power being transferred to local districts. More rights for citizens, the removal from office of corrupt governors. Even prosecutions in some cases.”

     “That's incredible! I never thought it possible!”

     “He's desperate. He's motivated by self preservation.”

     “Could it work? Could he actually make peace with the rebels?”

     “We're going to make sure it doesn't work. This summit is the perfect place to finally get the civil war started. All the leaders of the popular uprising will be together in one place. One bomb will take them all out together. Tyron will be blamed and the people will rise up. They've got enough weapons now that they can even take on the army itself. Nothing will stop them from sweeping across the Empire like wildfire, leaving behind nothing but chaos and destruction. By the time it burns itself out, no trace of the Empire will remain. Only local warlords, fighting each other for their own little patch of turf. The Radiants will be able to just move in and take over.”

     “Thousands will die,” said Malone as if in sudden doubt.

     “Millions, probably. Not just in the fighting itself, but in the famine and disease that will follow. The Radiants will help, using changes in the weather to destroy crops and create unhygenic living conditions. Any surviving scrap of civilisation will be crushed until all that is left is a few huddled refugees where a mighty empire once stood.”

     “Is there no other way?”

     “Unfortunately not. It may seem harsh, but the peaceful new world that will emerge, that the Radiants will create, will make it worth it. Sometimes you have to destroy before you can create. These nations and empires that mankind has built are oppressive and cruel. They crush men’s spirits, destroy their hopes and dreams. You saw this for yourself when you were trying to infiltrate the rebellion. You saw the Empire's dark underbelly, how the working men live. The squalor and misery that festers at the bottom of the social ladder. You remember all the anger, the hatred, the resentment towards the upper classes.”

     Malone nodded silently, unable to deny it.

     “It was all going to boil over sooner or later, even without any encouragement," Benjamin continued. "The civil war was inevitable. All we’re doing is giving it a little push, and by making it start sooner, we'll make it end sooner. Try not to think about the violence and misery soon to come, Malone. Think about the golden age we're bringing about. "