always and forever is forever young
your shadow on the pavement, the dark side of the sun
Like all the originals, Mallos wasn’t especially adept at time-keeping. By the position of the sun, which had long since set, it was somewhere past the middle of the night when he arrived on Shaman. Probably the early hours of the morning.

The castle was silent. The only people awake were the night-watchmen, quietly patrolling the corridors with their flickering torches.

Out of sheer habit, Mallos materialised in his own bedroom. He contemplated the hour of the day for a fraction of a second before teleporting again, this time to the place he knew Arthur would be.

Mallos had never actually been inside the king’s bedroom before. The heavy curtains blocked out any light from the moon and stars, but that did not present a problem seeing for divinity. A large four-poster bed dominated the floor space, its drapes drawn back – presumably because the summer air was supposed to be warm, but Mallos found it hard to tell. The drapes hung elegantly down the length of the posts, their exact colour obscured by the darkness. In this part of the castle, the stone walls gave way to a rich, oak panelling, making the room a touch warmer. A thick rug underfoot disguised light footsteps.

He absorbed all of this in a swift glance. Pocketing the laser pen-pointer he had been absent-mindedly deconstructing, Mallos pressed his hands together. As he pulled them swiftly apart, a gob of water grew between them, silent as the void. Without wasting any time, he gave the gob a shove. It would not have arced so magnificently without the aid of magic, landing as it did with an audible splash on the sleeping king’s face. Mallos gripped the top of the bed and swung onto it, landing – fortunately for his friend – next to Arthur rather than on top of him. A soft yellow light materialised in the air above them, revealing the deep reds and golds of the fabric.

Sperantia was not with Mallos, and a quick look would, for Arthur, have sufficed to explain why. Mallos did very well at hiding his feelings, but he was either unable or made little attempt to hide the energy thrumming through his veins. He was alert, his eyes bright, unable to stay still for more than a moment. Sperantia never tolerated these moods.

“You need to hire a magical expert,” he remarked. “Or put Thoth on the payroll. But I am not your personal encyclopaedia.”

He leant over and plucked the clock off Arthur’s bedside table. It was a very nice clock - before today. Mallos had the back off and had already pulled out a couple of the cogs before Arthur had a chance to lodge a protest.


i can feel you in the silence saying, “let forever be,
love, and only love, will set you free.”