"Okay," said Shaun a few minutes later. "So we're going to try to find the Sceptre of Samnos. We have no idea where it is, so we have to find this Emerald Oracle, whatever that is, and ask it. Unfortunately, we have no idea where that is either, so we have to find somebody to ask. Have I got that right?" He and Matthew had resigned themselves to the inevitable. There was simply no denying the look of determination on Diana's face. It was a look that said that nothing and nobody was going to stop her, and woe betide anyone who tried.

     "Yes," said the cleric, still glowing with jubilation and pride. "That's about right. I don't suppose any of you wizards have ever heard of either the Sceptre or the Oracle?"

     "I've heard of the Oracle somewhere, but I can't remember where," said Thomas. "I seem to remember that it would truthfully and completely answer any question you asked it, but that it was guarded by all kind of traps and monsters so that only a resourceful and intelligent person could reach it."

     "Yes," agreed Lirenna, "I heard that too, and some of the stories say that it's on an island somewhere in the Western Sea.”

     “Where in the Western Sea?” asked Jerry. “It's quite large.” Lirenna could only shrug, though.

     "Quite large is right," said Thomas. "No-one knows how far west and south it goes. It's so full of monsters and sea dragons that no ship, not even the largest warship, dares leave sight of land. Merchant ships just travel up and down the coast. Any ship that goes out into deep water runs the risk of being sunk by the monsters."

     "How much do you bet that the island we want is right in the middle of it, hundreds of miles from land?" asked Shaun.

     "Very likely," agreed Lirenna with a rueful smile.

     "How do we find out?" asked Diana. "Someone somewhere must know its exact location. Zebulon mentioned sages. How do we find a good sage?"

     "Perhaps there's something here, in this library," said Matthew, looking around at all the books. "There must be the names and hometowns of a few good sages in there somewhere."

     "It would take months to sort all the way through all this," said Shaun, looking dismally at the crowded, dusty shelves.

     "So the sooner we start, the sooner we'll be finished," said Thomas eagerly.

     "We can't waste that much time," said Diana, however. "Zebulon said that the invasion could come at any time. We must find the Oracle and then the Sceptre quickly, as quickly as possible." She faced the three wizards, her eyes imploring them for answers. "You must have heard of a few sages during your time in the University. Who lives nearest to here?"

     They looked at each other for a moment. "Most sages have very narrow areas of expertise," said Thomas. "One may be an expert on one subject, such as ringlore or trogology, and yet be almost totally ignorant on almost every other subject. Broad subject sages, the kind who might have the information we want, are very rare. Offhand, I can think of only three. Malefactos, who's retired to the University, Boswell of Bluevale in the kingdom of Mestopia, nearly two thousand miles away, and Llania of Everdeen, in the kingdom of Karpen on the island continent of Garon. It would probably take longer to reach any of them than to search all through this library for the name of someone I've missed. There's also the library of Pargonn, in the middle of the Great Lake. We could try there if the Fellowship of the Golden Griffin allow it, and of course there's the University library itself."

     Lirenna and Jerry confirmed this, and added that they knew of no other person who might have the information they wanted. Undoubtedly other great sages existed, but they tended to be reclusive people, keeping to themselves and known only to each other and a very small circle of friends. "There must be someone else who knows!" cried Diana in frustration. "The location of something as useful as an Oracle that can answer any question you ask it must be known to someone! People must go to it now and then, to ask questions! Surely they would tell other people where it was! If for no other reason, they could sell the information! How can it possibly be that no-one knows?"

     "I don't know if it's true,” said Jerry, “but I heard somewhere that people who go there have a hypnotic block placed in their minds, to prevent them from passing on its location. Apparently, the Oracle wants to prevent its location from becoming generally known. The task of finding it prevents it from being inundated by thousands of visitors each year. It's sort of like an admission test. Being able to find it proves your worthiness to go there."

     "That sounds about right," said Shaun dismally.

     "So that leaves us with either an endless search through this library in the faint hope of finding the name of a nearby sage, or a long journey across the continent to find one of the ones we know about," said Diana, her shoulders sagging in hopeless despair. "Either way we lose several months of precious time."

     "There might just be one other possibility," said Thomas, however, frowning thoughtfully. "About a day's walk from my home town, there's a mad old hermit woman, a wizardess, whom people sometimes go to for help when they need to know something. She's supposed to have rediscovered the secret of immortality and to be over four hundred years old, but apparently she didn't get it quite right and the magic that keeps her alive has driven her insane. They say she's as likely as not to kill anyone who comes to her, or perhaps do something even worse to them. She's supposed to know all kinds of stuff, though, so it's just possible that she might have the information we want."

     "We?" said Diana, looking up hopefully. "Does that mean you're with us? That you'll help us find the Sceptre?"

     Thomas looked suddenly uncomfortable, embarrassed. "Well, if the threat to civilization is real, it's everyone's duty to help..."

     Jerry laughed. "You just want to meet the Emerald Oracle!" he said. "The answer to any question you ask it? What're you going to ask it, Tom?"

     Thomas ignored the question. "What about you?" he demanded. "Are you on the quest?"

     "You bet!" cried the tiny nome. "Excitement, adventure, the chance to see the world. I wouldn't miss it for anything!"

     "I'm expected back in Haven," said Lirenna, looking grief stricken. Then she brightened. "But I can write them a letter, tell them I'll be delayed for a while."

     "Wonderful!" cried Diana. "The six of us together, just as my Lady intended. We're going to succeed, I know it. With the Goddess Caroli to lead us and guide us, we can't fail!" Her enthusiasm was so infectious that the others couldn't help but grin at the thought of the adventures that lay ahead. They assumed that it would be an adventure. The idea that it might be a nightmare, the memory of which would wake them shivering, their bedsheets soaked with cold sweat, for years to come, never entered their heads.

     "So what's this woman's name?" asked Diana.

     "No-one knows for sure. Everyone refers to her simply as the mad woman, or the mad hermit, or her up there. There was a suggestion once that her name might be Allis, but no-one really knows."

     "Well, if you think it's worth the risk, then I'm game," said Diana. "What do the rest of you think?"

     "How far is it there?" asked Shaun.

     "Only a day's journey past my home," replied Thomas. "Say a couple of weeks from here. And even if she can't, or won't, tell us, chances are we'd have to go that way anyway, to get to one of the sages we do know about. We'd need to take ship, and the nearest ports are along the Ilandian coast."

     Shaun nodded. "In that case, I think it's worth trying."

     The others agreed, and so it was settled. They would go to Allis, if that was her name, and if she turned out to be a dead end they would return to the University to ask Malefactos and look in the library. If they failed there, they would try Pargonn, and then the other two sages Thomas had mentioned. Somewhere along the line they just had to strike it lucky, assuming it hadn't just been a figment of Zebulon's imagination all along.

     "You said that Allis rediscovered the secret of immortality," said Shaun. "I thought the immortal wizards were just an old story."

     "Oh no, they really lived," said Thomas, however. "They're all dead now, though, or at least that's what most people say. There are occasional rumours of one or two immortal wizards surviving to this day and living incognito somewhere, but hardly anyone pays any attention to them."

     "How did they die?" asked Matthew. "Surely a dead immortal wizard is a contradiction."

     "They weren't immortal in the same sense that the Gods are," said Thomas. "The Gods cannot die ever, under any circumstances, any more that the force of gravity can die. We say that the wizards were immortal to mean that they never grew old, and that therefore they had the theoretical potential to live indefinitely. They could still be killed, however, just as any other person can. This is referred to in scholarly circles as minor immortality, as opposed to greater immortality, which is what the Gods have. Isn't that right, Jerry?"

     "Yes," agreed the tiny nome. "Most of the immortal wizards were killed during the Mage Wars. Huge areas of land were destroyed and contaminated with fallout magic that took centuries to dissipate. A few of them survived the centuries of the fiercest fighting, but they couldn't stop fighting among themselves and so they died one by one. The last immortal wizard, Daglass the eternal, died just over a thousand years ago at the age of sixteen hundred and twenty, in battle with the demon Bana, unless, of course, the rumours are true and a few have managed to survive. Just imagine if it was true! A wizard maybe over three thousand years old! Just imagine what knowledge and power he must have accumulated during that time!"

     "A wizard that powerful couldn't possibly remain hidden for long," said Lirenna, however. "The temptation to use that power would be too great, and eventually he would betray himself. I don't believe there are any still alive."

     "But now the secret of immortality has been rediscovered," said Diana, frowning and fingering her silver caroli flower thoughtfully.

     "In a very imperfect way," said Thomas. "The necessary spells drove her mad. None of the immortal wizards were mad, so far as we know, unless you count paranoia and megalomania as forms of madness. Not only that, but she seems to need to renew her immortality in some way from time to time, as if it wears off after a while."

     "Why has it taken so long to rediscover the secret of immortality?" asked Shaun. "There must have been powerful wizards between then and now who tried to find it."

     "Not all that many," said Jerry. "Wizardry went into a bit of a decline after the Mage Wars. Because of the destruction they caused, there was a massive backlash of public opinion against magic users. Howling mobs killed every wizard they could get their hands on, and wizardry might have died out altogether if it hadn't been for Lexandria University and a few similar institutions. Quite a few priests and clerics were also killed, despite the fact that their power is of a completely different kind. It's only been in recent centuries that wizardry has made a bit of a comeback."

     "So more and more wizards might rediscover the secret of immortality," said Matthew. "The Mage Wars might start up all over again."

     "Quite possible," agreed Thomas. "That's why Lexandria wants to institutionalise magic. Their eventual goal is to create a continent wide organisation that contains and regulates every wizard in the world. So long as most wizards operate independently, without thought for anyone or anything else, the possibility of someone rediscovering the true secret of immortality is a constant threat, and our greatest nightmare. Until the University succeeds in monopolising all magic everywhere, the threat of another Mage War is very real indeed."