Fairy Vivienne

Vivienne paced and cursed, sat and grumbled. She, Fairy Vivienne, Lady of the Lake, was imprisoned in a tower, reduced to boredom, computer tarot, and waiting. Waiting to be rescued by Merlin, whose true heart she once held so vainly. She cursed. About a month ago her 2300 year old oak bracelet had broken and so she understood that Merlin had been freed. Freed from the imprisonment she had imposed upon him. From the balcony she yelled at her wolves. "Only Merlin can free me and only that paladin Rinaldo knows where I am." The wolves looked up and wagged their tales.

Vivienne had been in Tower Morab 2200 years. She stomped over to the mirror and smiled at the fact that she still looked 27. Then she booted-up the hyerlunky control computer, surfed the net and ordered a bunch of vanity items she didn't need.

On the starship, The Bullfinch, in the great hall unable to concentrate Merlin glowered and lost yet another game of chess to the computer Zaldivar who cackled in triumph.

Merlin was distracted.

Thalia was reading, and Mercury and Rinaldo were restless.

"Rinaldo," Merlin said, "how do you know Fairy Vivienne is imprisoned someplace called Tower Morab?"

"I'm trying to remember. You know how she can be; it was more like a dream than an actual conversation."

Mercury stood up and stretched. "I'm going to the holodeck to ride motocross and wrestle with dragons."

Zaldivar said, "I'll enhance the graphics."

"I'm in," Rinaldo said and followed Mercury out of the great hall.

Still in the great hall Merlin found some books. He cross referenced and muttered, yet he could not find anything about Tower Morab, only vague mention of a planet called Morabia.

"Did you ask Zaldivar?" Thalia said.

"He and I are recommending course to Morabia."

Thalia nodded. "Had you ever before heard of Morabia?"

"I had not."

Thalia said. "Morabia will most likely have some interesting wolves. You and Zaldivar will need to concoct a love potion for them."

They continued to search, but found nothing else to help them find Fairy Vivienne.

In the holodeck, Mercury and Rinaldo stood back to back fighting dragons. Zaldivar was giving them a great battle. Mercury liked to throw thunderbolts, and Rinaldo stood strong and used a heavy sword in one hand and a chain and mace in the other. Mercury would stun a dragon with fire and Rinaldo would pound him. Zaldivar made the dragons fierce and wily, with scorching fire.

The next program was a bath in Rome. Mercury had his flute and played a love song to Thalia.

In the great hall Thalia continued to study with Merlin. She studied maps and charts and the cultures related to the planets relative to The Bullfinch's course. She thought of Mercury.

Bored, Fairy Vivienne in the middle of about her kabillion and thirteenth spread of computer tarot got an eerie chill as the computer screen grew foggy then revealed an image of Rinaldo. Next was a striking woman, and Vivienne caught her breath with jealousy. After that there was a handsome, red head who was with Rinaldo wrestling a strange, mean dragon being cheered, by an unseen voice. Finally, she saw Merlin studying, frowning, longing, and she knew he would find her. Then the screen fogged again, but instead of returning her to tarot the hyerlunky control computer froze. She cursed, "Now I'm going to have to reboot the whole damn thing. The last thing I'm going to do before exiting this tower is terminal velocity testing."

For Merlin it was a slow, tedious trip.