"Are the Cups of Integrity well and truly suffused?" intoned Brother Watchtower.
"Aye, suffused full well."
"The Waters of the World, are they Abjured?"
"Yea, abjured full mightily."
"Have the Demons of Infinity been bound with many chains?"
"Damn," said Brother Plasterer, "there's always something."
Brother Watchtower sagged. "Just once it would be nice if we could get the ancient and timeless rituals right, wouldn't it. You'd better get on with it."
"Wouldn't it be quicker, Brother Watchtower, if I just did it twice next time?" said Brother Plasterer.
Brother Watchtower gave this some grudging consideration. It seemed reasonable.
"All right," he said. "Now get back down there with the others. And you should call me Acting Supreme Grand Master, understand?"
This did not meet with what he considered to be a proper and dignified reception among the brethren.
"No-one said anything to us about you being Acting Supreme Grand Master," muttered Brother Doorkeeper.
"Well, that's all you know because I bloody well am because Supreme Grand Master asked me to open the Lodge on account of him being delayed with all this coronation work," said Brother Watchtower haughtily. "If that doesn't make me Acting Supreme Grand bloody Master I'd like to know what does, all right?"
"I don't see why," muttered Brother Doorkeeper. "You don't have a grand title like that. You could just be called something like, well … Rituals Monitor."
"Yeah," said Brother Plasterer. "Don't see why you should give yourself airs. You ain't even been taught the ancient and mystic mysteries by monks, or anything."
"Weve been hanging around for hours, too," said Brother Doorkeeper. "That's not right. I thought we'd get rewarded-"
Brother Watchtower realised that he was losing control. He tried wheedling diplomacy.
"I'm sure Supreme Grand Master will be along directly," he said. "Let's not spoil it all now, eh? Lads? Arranging that fight with the dragon and everything, getting it all off right, that was something, wasn't it? We've been through a lot, right? It's worth waiting just a bit longer, okay?'
The circle of robed and cowled figures shuffled in grudging agreement.
"Okay."
"Fair enough."
"Yeah."
certainly.
"Okay."
"If you say so."
It began to creep over Brother Watchtower that something wasn't right, but he couldn't quite put a name to it.
"Uh," he said. "Brothers?"
They, too, shifted uneasily. Something in the room was setting their teeth on edge. There was an atmosphere.
"Brothers," repeated Brother Watchtower, trying to reassert himself, "we are all here, aren't we?"
There was a worried chorus of agreement.
"Of course we are."
"What's the matter?"
"Yes!"
yes.
"Yes."
There it was again, a subtle wrongness about things that you couldn't quite put your finger on because your finger was too scared. But Brother Watchtower's troublesome thoughts were interrupted by a scrabbling sound on the roof. A few nubs of plaster dropped into the circle.
"Brothers?" repeated Brother Watchtower nervously.
Now there was one of those silent sounds, a long, buzzing silence of extreme concentration and just possibly the indrawing of breath into lungs the size of haystacks. The last rats of Brother Watchtower's self-confidence fled the sinking ship of courage.
"Brother Doorkeeper, if you could just unbolt the dread portal-" he quavered.
And then there was light.
There was no pain. There was no time.
Death strips away many things, especially when it arrives at a temperature hot enough to vaporise iron, and among them are your illusions. The immortal remains of Brother Watchtower watched the dragon flap away into the fog, and then looked down at the congealing puddle of stone, metal and miscellaneous trace elements that was all that remained of the secret headquarters. And of its occupants, he realised in the dispassionate way that is part of being dead. You go through your whole life and end up a smear swirling around like cream in a coffee…
