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"Enough!" shouted a voice, striding towards the angel hanging in the air. "No more games! No more running! No more, Micheal! I am Radergeist, and I defy you! Do with me what you will, I care not! My power may be broken, but you may never break my spirit!"

The angel, forgetting feather, floated down towards the old man, folding his wings behind his back. There was a virtuous smile on his face.

"Poor, broken old man," he said, sympathetically. "So many delusions. But that is allright. We shall bring you to the truth yet. Our machines will cleanse you through pain, and you shall emerge pure and sacred and glad that I have tracked you all these centuries to bring you back to the light. Come and be redeemed, little Radergeist." The angel was all tenderness, holding out one hand to the old man.

"I do not desire your redemption, Micheal! If you wish to torture me, you will find me stronger than you think. You may as well kill me now."

"Perhaps," agreed the angel, taking the old man by both hands. "Come into the light, Radergeist."

And then they were gone. The shining portal shrunk to a speck, and vanished.

It was then that the lightning illuminated the figure of the girl, lying sprawled on the ground, her black dress soaked with the rain, forgotten by the angel and everyone else. Her hair is plastered around her face and shoulders, her skin pale in the glaring light. She is perfectly still.

Her breathing is faint, but steady. She is alive. Her hand is warm, and as Feather touches her she lets out a small groan. She looks to be about nineteen. Here eyes flicker open and stare at Feather as if trying to get her in focus.

"Help...me..." she groans. "Too much power...too strong...no strength...left..." Her eyes close, her breathing becoming shallow and rapid with the effort of talking.

The girl straightens up, blinking, looking around at the familiar faces. "Thank you," she says formally to Feather. "To whom do I owe this gift?"

The girl watched Feather fall over, blinking sligthly, as if her eyes were somehow obscured. That had been genourous, she registered dimly. If she was that low on energy, to give some away had been kind. "Thankyou," she said, to the prostrate figure of Feather. Then, bending, she tried to carry the blidn girl, but couldn't lift her. She cursed softly, and shut her eyes.

A strange thing happened then. The girls simple black dress seemed to fade, or rather to brighten, glowing colours of the rainbow bursting from the fabric. Sleeves grew from the shoulder straps and the back of the dress rose until it covered her back and neck, fanning out into a large collar. The spit down the side of her leg knit together, the matierial becoming heavier, thicker, brighter. The heels of the girls shoes shrank, and the toes curled, the shoes themselves rising up her ankles. The dress lengthened, until it brushed the ground, its bright colours dulled by the mud and rainwater.

The girl's face became darker, her hair became a dark chestnut brown. behind her head it spunt itself into a long plaid that stretched down her back. Her hands broadened, her slender fingers thickened, her nails shortenes, sliding back into her fingers like the claws of a cat. Her cheekbones and her jaw seemed to swell, and brown hairs bristled forth from 'her' lip. The man turned let out one last exhalation, and felt his throat reform itself into the voice of a male.

He felt strangely weakened, and was alarmed. If this, little spell caused him weakness, what would it mean for his greater abilities? How much power had he lost? Questions, worrying questions, buzzed through his head like flies.

Brushing them aside, he lifted the blind girl easily. He tried to sense how much power she had, but he could not, and this troubled him still more. He turned to the girl's companions.

"Radergeist," he said, curtly, by way of introduction.

"She's ill," said the wizard, seemingly to himself. He stretched a fine brown hand over her face. Nothing happened. He stared at his fingers, aghast. What had happened to him?

He looked around over the waste. There was not a house in sight. But far away, there seemed to be a building of strange archetechture. Radergeist turned towards it and began to trudge, wiping the girls blod from her eyes with his sleeve.

"I've seen worse, believe me," said the man, with a wry smile. His powers may have been dulled but in her weakened state the girl was broadcasting her thoughts as if she was shouting through a megaphone. Radergeist lapsed into silence. How much had he let slip, when he lay, his power drained, on the earth.

All questions would have to wait until they had shelter. He sped his pace, looking anxiously at the thunder clouds overhead. There were odd vortices there he did not like the look of at all.

Radergeist opened the door of the Dojo quietly, and shut it behind him, blocking out the noise of the storm. "Anyone here?" he asked, staring into the darkness. "I've got one here who's injured. I mean you no harm. Show yourselves."