You stretch back in your seat and relax for the first time in ages. Maybe some great heroic intellectually challenged ape like champion will emerge and cast Anarch down in smoking ruin, or more likely she will appear before us all to destroy the whole world, and some of the blame for that will rest upon your shoulders, you, who could have tried to do something, but that will come later. A terrible lassitude seeps through your body and, with a cold wave running down your spine, you slip into unconsciousness.



A cavern. Burning smoke and flame. You striding through the inferno, a blazing talisman in your hand, ready to face the beast. All sight is blurred, your vision wrong, but the sense is there, another sense. You can see the beast before you.

"None can strike me down! NONE!"

Yet in the voice of the beast is a note of true fear.

"The special jelly is strong in you, Luke."

"You are nothing to me! Strike me and you shall die!"

Marching onward, more fear yet in the words of the beast.

"No hope this time, fool! You were spared for your amusement value, nothing more. The game is over now."

The talisman is raised, its burning blue light shining through your burnt out eyes into a mind resolute and without fear.

"The game is over," you grate, "the game is over."

Stepping forward, feeling the beast's tongues of flame. Your flesh runs like wax but there is something stronger, a spirit, a heart that drives you.

The beast screams at the talisman, backing away. Blue fire once, twice, and nothing at all any more.

You awaken with a start, glancing around. The sun is in your eyes, but for a moment you seem to see the faint outline of a thin figure in a grey coat, but then it is gone. You look around, frightened and alone. You have always believed in a sort of destiny that drives actions, and this dream foretells a fate you do not wish to face. The ground rumbles beneath your feet. Something bad is about to happen. You hesitate. Where to go next? Perhaps... you hesitate. Is destiny avoidable? If this fate is inevitable, then why struggle against it? Better perhaps, to stay here and await the end, or should you instead try to enjoy what little time remains available to you? You could follow your earlier plan, and go and look in Cornmarket Street or the High Street.