Grem bellowed and threw himself on the thing, doing his best to hold it down.

  Then another beam of light shot out from the creature and caught Prag on the shoulder. He bellowed with pain and stabbed hard with the sword. The thing made a short, loud shriek and then flashed and disappeared. Instantly, the confusion in Arn's head disappeared as well.

  Both Pakmog dropped to the floor, breathing heavily.

  Grem looked over at Arn, who was on hands and knees in the doorway.

  “That thing,” Grem said. “That thing was Brother for real. Prag kill Villager, did nothing.”

  “Oh,” Arn said. “What was it?”

  Grem shook his head.

  “We tell Dav, maybe he know. Strong thing though.”

  Prag nodded.

  Arn pulled himself up off of the floor and held onto the door frame to keep from falling over.

  “Can you tell me where Ama is now?” he said to Prag.

  Prag let out barking Pakmog laugh.

  “She have good eyes. Find way to this place like Pakmog. She in trees out there.”

  He waved his arm out towards one edge of the village. Arn turned without another word and stumbled down the path towards the trees.

  She came walking out of the woods and raised her arm when she saw him.

  “What happened?” she yelled.

  Arn couldn't stop smiling when he saw her.

  “It's all good,” he said. “Prag and Grem killed the Brother.”

  The two of them stood staring at each other for a moment, then then she walked closer, brushing leaves from her robe. She looked stronger than when he'd last seen her - healthier, more confident. The frightened girl from the Underworld was gone.

  "I wouldn't have got far without Prag," she said, but her eyes never left Arn's face.

  "I'm glad you were with him," Arn said. He wanted to say more but the words stuck in his throat.

  She nodded and looked down at her feet for a moment. When she looked up again she was smiling too.

  "I... I'm glad you're okay," she said quietly.

  "Yeah," he said. "You too."

  They stood awkwardly for another moment before heading back to the others together.

  When they got back to the Brother's house, Dav and Kim were there. Dav still looked woozy, but he was talking, which was a good sign as far as Arn was concerned. Quiet Dav was the thing you needed to worry about.

  “I don't know,” he was saying. “I've read about things that live in the ocean, I can't recall what they were called now...”

  He shook his head and looked frustrated.

  “I hope this wears off!” he said. “I still feel like my head is full of fuzz!”

  Arn felt the same way, and Kim nodded too, so she must have been feeling it.

  “I'm sure it will,” Arn said. He hoped it would, anyway.

  “They make villagers stupid,” Grem said. “Just like Archon magic do to Pakmog.”

  “Maybe,” Dav said. “I don't know. It doesn't seem like quite the same thing. The villagers here are... less, I guess. Like they've had something taken away from them.”

  “Look who I found,” Arn said. He motioned to someone outside.

  Ama walked in, and Kim squealed with delight to see her. Dav looked happy too, and Grem just nodded.

  “You see! Prag good guy, Grem tell you.”

  “I wouldn't have got far without him,” Ama said.

  “She pretty tough,” Prag said.

  They could all see that she looked better than she had in the Underworld. She must have been eating regularly.

  “How did you find us here?”

  “We talked to a few people,” Ama said. “It sounds like everyone goes either here or to that Iron City place.”

  “Good place to search, not know which one though,” Prag said.

  “Then we met a Witch,” Ama said.

  “A Witch?” Kim said. She looked horrified.

  “She attack us right away!” Prag said, “Say, go back to Underworld you no belong here!”

  Ama laughed.

  “Prag jumped on her and held her down. It made her crazy. They really hate the Underworld. But I tried to talk some sense to her. I explained where we had come from, what we had seen, why Prag was there.”

  “Ama talk to Witch good enough she listens,” Prag said.

  It really seemed like Ama had managed to impress the Pakmog.

  “Well, I don't know about that. I said something that changed everything. I still don't really know why.”

  “What did you tell her?” Dav said.

  “When I told her about them changing villagers, and about how we were looking for more villagers who knew about it, and how you were with another Pakmog, she suddenly stopped struggling.”

  “She look like she have big surprise,” Prag said.

  “She told us to come here,” Ama said. “She pointed the way, and promised not to attack us any more if we let her up.”

  “Why?”

  “Well that's the thing. She just said, maybe we can use you, girl.”

  “That doesn't sound very friendly,” Arn said.

  “They're not,” Ama said. She shuddered. “I still don't like them, but when Prag let her up, she cackled and said, You might be immune to their talents, Underworld thing, you might have a place here for now.”

  They picked Zem up from the ground and stood him up again.

  “Why you help water thing?” Grem roared into his face. “He hurt your own people!”

  Zem shook his head.

  “It's too late,” he said, laughing. “The Iron City will be at peace soon, too. What you did here doesn't matter at all!”

  Dav and Arn stared at each other.

  “The Brother is gone,” Dav said. “He can't use whatever magic that was on the Iron City.”

  Zem just kept laughing.

  “Wait and see,” he said. “Doesn't matter now at all. The Brother's will is done. There will be peace in the villages again!”

  Prag growled and said something in Pakmog. Grem shook his head.

  “Prag want do bad things to Zem,” Grem said. “Grem think it not help.”

  Arn could understand how Prag felt, but he had to agree with Grem.

  “He's harmless,” Dav said. “He can't do anything.”

  “We make sure,” Grem said. “We put him in there.”

  He pointed to the square house where they had all been trapped while the crystal sucked away their minds.

  The door only opened from the outside. They pushed him in and locked it.

  Zem never stopped giggling to himself.

  “That magic must have done things to his mind as well,” Dav said. “Maybe he'll get better in time.”

  Kim and Ama both nodded.

  “He's just another villager,” Ama said. “Whatever did this, it was too strong for him.”

  Arn and Dav headed out right away to try to talk to the other villagers again. Everyone was hoping that they might go back to normal.

  But it was no use.

  "Mak!" Dav shouted, running up to the farmer. "It's us! Dav and Arn!"

  The old man turned to look at them with blank eyes. His face showed no surprise at all.

  "Do you need vegetables?" he said. His voice was flat and emotionless. "I have potatoes, and carrots."

  "Mak, it's us," Arn said. "Remember what you used to say about Dav? That he'd probably get us all blown up or something?"

  "Blown up?" Mak said. He frowned slightly. "I don't... I grow things. Would you like to trade?"

  Dav grabbed the farmer's shoulders.

  "Please, Mak! You have to remember!"

  But there was nothing in the old man's eyes except confusion. Whatever the Brother had done to his mind was still there, like a wall between him and his memories. He clearly knew who they were, but only part of him was there.

  "It's good to see you Dav," he said again. "Do you need any vegetables?"

  They tried again with Lyn the Librarian but it was just the same. Worse, if anything since Dav had been much closer to her.

  They trudged back towards the rest of the group, lost in their own thoughts. The others were sitting together on the ground, and just nodded sadly when Dav and Arn shook their heads. Nobody needed to ask for the details.

  “So what are we supposed to do?” Arn said.

  “We need to warn the Iron City,” Ama said. “We don't know what they are planning to do.”

  “Water thing dead now,” Prag said. “Zem crazy. Maybe nothing happen.”

  “What if something does?” said Dav. “We can't let that happen to anyone else!”

  “We should go there. Tell them what happened,” Ama said. “They should at least know they're in danger.”

  “They see Pakmog, they attack. For sure,” Grem said.

  “For sure?” Prag said.

  “Just like the witch,” Kim said. “They have a real issue with the Underworld.”

  “Umi and Ana said things from the Underworld were burning villages,” Dav said.

  “Prag not burn anything.”

  “That's the problem,” said Arn. “They don't listen. They started shooting the second they saw Grem.”

  “We'll have to go alone,” Dav said. “Without Grem or Prag.”

  “Brave plan,” Grem said. “But Dav and Arn not last one night alone. Take two nights to get there. That big problem.”

  Dav covered his eyes with one hand, looking like he was searching for any kind of solution. But he never had a chance to speak. Grem jumped up and whirled around, sniffing.

  "Man coming from trees," he said. "Now we see who he is."

  Something was definitely moving in the forest as the edge of the village. They could see black clothes and hear it muttering as it pushed its way through the foliage.

  What finally emerged was a Witch.

  Arn looked at Ama, who shook her head.

  "I don't know that one," she said. "But let me try to talk to her."

  With that she walked forward and held up one hand in greeting.

  "Hello," she said. "We were told to come here by another Witch. It looks like the Pakmog managed to destroy the thing that was running this place."

  The Witch just stared at them all one by one. She looked disgusted when she saw Grem and Prag.

  “Feh,” she muttered. “Things we have to do.”

  “What do you want?” said Arn.

  She stared at him with icy cold eyes.

  “I want those things gone,” she said, pointing to the two Pakmog, “But I'm told I have to abide them for now. So I will tell you what I am charged with and then I will leave!”

  “What?” Grem said. “What she say?”

  Dav ignored him and walked toward the Witch.

  “Answer Arn's question,” he said. “What do you want? What is your purpose here?”

  The Witch gave him a smile that had no laughter in it.

  “You're the clever one,” she said. “I heard about you. I'll tell you this much, the Iron City says it is pledged to banish the Underworld. What is happening is an abomination.”

  She pointed at the Pakmog again.

  “They do not belong here!”

  “So you need to save the Iron City, to banish the Underworld,” Dav said.

  The Witch cackled a dry laugh.

  “If only it were that simple. Rotten to the core! They seek a greater power, greater than we have! They seek the Deep Witch and the gift only she can give!”

  “I don't understand what you're saying to me,” Dav said.

  “Stupid villagers!” the Witch said. “The Underworld owns them all! They dig and burrow for them! For that reason the Nylocs try to stop them!”

  “Nylocs!” Dav said, and slapped his forehead. “That's what those things are called! That's what the Brother was.”

  “Can't let them make the villagers even stupider!” the Witch laughed. “Have to stop them, have to stop it all!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Wait, so can we...” Dav started to say.

  “Enough!” the Witch yelled. “It pains me to speak to you!”

  She pointed at the Brother's house.

  “In there you will find the maker gift! Look in the chest! Take that power! The Nylocs have a Mindveil Crystal in the Iron City now, a Great one! They study it! Soon it will detonate and that will be the end of all of them.”

  “A what?” Dav said.

  “Just destroy it, boy,” the Witch said. “It looks like the one you saw, but larger. You will find explosives in the blacksmith's shack. Take them. Use them.”

  “What about Witch?” Grem said. “Easy say, go do thing. Witch should help.”

  She snarled at the Pakmog.

  “I won't justify myself to you! But if I could go then I would. The Underworld powers would know it the moment I set foot there. Can only be stupid Villagers and stupider Pakmog.”

  “Really charming, this one,” Arn muttered to Kim.

  The Witch glared at him.

  “We will do what we can,” she said, “You destroy the crystal. Not much time left now. You must hurry!”

  The Witch turned and started to walk away.

  “Wait,” yelled Kim. “How do we even get in there? You think they'll just let us walk in and start poking around in their secrets?”

  The Witch stopped, and turned around to them again.

  “Under the Blacksmith, villagers! Take the tunnel, that is the way the crystal went in to them! Destroy it!”

  “How much time do we have?” Dav said. “We need more information!”

  “If I knew I'd tell you, boy,” the Witch said. “Not long, that's all I know. May be too late already.”

  Then she made a disgusted sound, like she'd said as much as she could possibly stand to say to them, and walked back into the jungle. In an instant she had disappeared into the trees.

  “Well,” Kim said to Ama. “You were right about Witches.”

  “Lovely creatures,” Ama said. “I can't imagine why we haven't made friends with them already.”

  “In the house,” Dav said to Arn. He looked like he had something on his mind already. Arn thought he might know what it was.

  “She said it was in a chest,” Arn said.

  The chest was hidden behind the smashed tank that had held the water and the Nyloc. It was covered with sticky slime now. Grem pulled it open without a word.

  It was filled with potions. They were all softly glowing with blue light.

  “Pretty things,” Prag said, peering over their shoulders.

  “I wonder,” Dav said, holding one of them up. It was just an ordinary glass vial, with the shining blue liquid in it.

  “How do we use it?” Kim said.

  “From what I've read about potions,” Dav said, “You just drink them.”

  “Dav ever drink thing like this before?” said Grem.

  “I've never even seen one.”

  Prag looked at Ama, but she shook her head.

  “I guess none of us know for sure,” Arn said.

  But Dav was too important to be the first to try, and Arn wasn't going to let Ama or Kim do something like that. Anything at all could happen.

  He knew it had to be him.

  He grabbed the vial from Dav's hand.

  “Hey!” Dav said.

  Before anyone could say anything else, Arn pulled out the stopper and swigged the whole potion down. It tasted pretty much like water. There was maybe a hint of something else, something bubbly, but that was all.

  He held up the empty vial.

  “There we go,” he said. “So what's this power the Witch was talking about?”

  “The Maker power,” Kim said.

  “Can you make anything?” Dav said.

  Arn looked around the room. Nothing looked any different.

  Well, except maybe...

  “Grem,” Arn said. “Can I borrow your sword?”

  The Pakmog frowned but didn't argue. He handed the golden sword over.

  Villagers didn't use things like swords, of course. But it felt different in his hand now.

  It felt like part of his arm.

  If he just stabbed with it...

  He stabbed the wall in front of him, then pulled his arm back and brought the sword down again in a sweeping slash that left a gash in the wood.

  His arm felt longer with the sword. He could use it just like it was his own arm!

  Something lit up inside of his head.

  “Of course,” he said, grinning. “It's obvious.”

  Dav was looking at him very strangely.

  “What is it?” he said.

  Arn looked at the shattered blocks on the floor. He picked up two pieces of wood.

  “They go like...”

  He twisted them just right, and they clicked together.

  “That!” he said.

  Dav's mouth dropped open.

  “How do you feel?” he said.

  “Normal,” Arn said. “But I can see some things differently now.”

  Dav stared at him again for just a second, then grabbed another potion out of the chest and drank it without hesitating.

  In the end even the Pakmog drank one each.

  “Hah!” Grem said, piling up another block of dirt. “Grem make thing. Easy to do! Grem make his own fortress!”

  Prag had already built a wall that went across the entire village path.

  “Look!” he said to Grem, pointing. “Stupid Firethrall try to shoot fire, we build wall, laugh at them!”

  “This changes everything,” Dav said.

  Instead of building he was carefully looking for every kind of block he could find, and examining them all one by one. “Some of them work together, some don't. We can start by making a list...”

  He was already lost in thought.

  Kim and Ama both tried building too, but after talking to each other quietly they had walked away deeper into the village, promising to be back soon.

  “This is going to make everything easier,” Arn said. “We can defend ourselves. We can make shelter for the night outside.”

  “No more poor Arn no house!” Grem laughed.

  Arn grinned.

  “Arn can make his own house,” he said. “And any Ashman that tries to get in had better watch out!”

  “Good!” said Prag. “Villagers fight too, not just Pakmog!”

  We might need to, he realized.

  “I hate to interrupt your thoughts,” he said to Dav.

  “I know, I know,” Dav said, standing up. “The Iron City. We can't just sit here and play with blocks.”

  “We don't know how much time is left,” Arn said.

  “The Witch said there was a tunnel in the Blacksmith's.”

  “You bet!” Kim said.

  She and Ama were standing behind them all.

  They were wearing armor.

  Dav and Arn stared at them in shock, but Grem and Prag nodded like they approved.

  “Good,” Grem said. “You find good armor.”

  “There was a lot of it,” Ama said. She pulled out a sword and showed it to them. “These, too.”

  “Plus the tunnel,” Kim said. “Ama found it right away. There was a pressure plate, it opens up a hatch, and there's a ladder going down.”

  "And this," Ama said, holding up a dark red block.

  "That's TNT," Dav said. "There was some in the council house back home. It's really dangerous."

  Ama nodded.

  "We found a pretty worrying amount, but I think it's safe as long as it stays in our inventories. I think."

  In the end they all had armor, and swords. Ama had a bow and a quiver full of arrows as well.

  “I'm a Fletcher after all,” she said. “And I'm probably the first one who can actually use the weapons she makes.”

  She looked slightly ferocious now. Arn remembered how thin and sickly she had been when they found her in the Underworld.

  But she'd kept going anyway, and then found her way back to them alone with a Pakmog, lost in the world. Ama was obviously no weakling. But she smiled and helped him put on his armor too.

  “Not bad,” she said. “But you should get Prag and Grem to teach you how to use your sword. They've been doing it for a long time.”

  “For sure,” he said. Not that there was any time to do it now. They needed to get going. Arn was just going to have to hope that they could scare everyone away without a fight.

  He looked around at them all. Two Pakmog and four villagers, all covered in shining armor and weapons. Even Dav managed to look like he belonged in it.

  I'd be scared of us, he thought. I just hope that's all we'll need.

  They'd loaded up most of the TNT into the inventories of the Pakmog. There seemed to be an excessive amount of the stuff, but they took every last bit of it. For some reason they felt a little more secure with Prag and Grem holding on to it.

  Ama stomped on the pressure plate that was hidden beside the blacksmith's forge. A piece of the floor flipped up, and they could see a ladder going down into the darkness.

  “We go,” Grem said.

  It was a long way down, and very dark. Arn stepped on Prag's head twice along the way.

  “Sorry again!” he said the second time his foot clanked against the Pakmog's helmet.

  “Villagers eyes not very good,” Prag muttered.

  “It's true,” Dav said from above. “I hope there's some light down there!”

  “See torch light,” Grem said.

  Arn couldn't see anything yet, but he did his best not to step on Prag again.

  At the bottom there was a little room, with one torch and just enough space for them all to crowd together.

  “How long is the tunnel?” Kim said. “The Iron City is days away from here.”

  “Must be long tunnel,” Grem said.

  They all looked at it. It was exactly one block wide, and they could see the flicker of a torch far, far away in the distance.

  “I'm not looking forward to this,” Kim said. She'd never liked the dark much.

  “If we don't want hundreds more villagers to end up like them” - Dav pointed upwards - “then we need to get there as fast as we can.”

  “Ugh, let's just go,” Kim said.

  “Grem go first,” the Pakmog said. “Look for things in dark.”

  “Good idea,” Dav said.

  “Prag last,” said Prag. “In case things follow us in dark.”

  “That good plan too,” Grem said.

  Kim made another disgusted noise but didn't complain any more. Arn settled in behind Grem as they headed out into the dark.

  The tunnel went on and on and on, stretching endlessly into the gloom ahead. Now and then there was a torch stuck into the wall that gave them a tiny bit of light, but soon they walked in total darkness again until the next one, each brief pool of illumination only serving to make the darkness feel deeper when it returned.

  They slept and ate sitting down right where they were. Other than their own voices, the only sound was their feet scraping on the rock, the hollow echoes bouncing off the close walls and making the passage feel even more confined than it was.

  Arn felt like he was stuck in some kind of dream that would never end until the tunnel just... stopped. They were facing a solid rock wall, its rough surface rising up before them as a final barrier to their progress. The stone looked ancient and unmovable, with no hint of a hidden passage or alternate route.

  “What now?” Grem said. “Dav have plan?”

  “I sort of thought there might be a door or something,” Dav said.

  “There was a hidden switch at the other end,” Ama said. “Everyone, start feeling around...”

  “Sssh!” said Kim. “Listen!”

  They all stopped talking.

  There were muffled voices. It was obviously two people talking, but Arn couldn't make out the words. They sounded close.

  “Stay quiet,” Kim whispered. “They might hear us too.”

  “Feel around for a switch or something,” Arn said.

  They all quietly started poking and prodding the floor, the walls, and the roof of the tunnel around them.

  “Grem think there something...” the Pakmog said.

  Then a square of light opened up underneath him, and he fell straight down into a room.

  “That hurt,” they heard him say from below.

  Arn waited for a villager to start yelling, to sound the alarm and bring the whole of the Iron City down on them. But there was nothing.

  “There nobody here,” Grem said, as softly as a Pakmog was able, which wasn't very much.

  “I think they're going to suspect something if they see two Pakmog walking down the hall with us,” Arn said.

  “No kidding,” Prag said. “So we just run and yell until we find crystal thing.”

  “I don't know how big the Iron City is,” Dav said, “But there's probably a lot more of them than there are of us.”

  Grem shook his head and said something long in Pakmog.

  “I tell Prag about horses and arrows,” he said.

  “Okay, not good plan,” Prag admitted.

  Dav looked thoughtful.

  “The Witch said that this is how they got the crystal in here in the first place, right?”

  “Right!” said Ama. “So if they were sneaking it in, they can't have taken it very far.”

  “Maybe,” Grem said. “But that only guess.”

  “I think it's as good as we're going to get,” said Arn.

  “We should go,” Dav said. “I mean us villagers. Maybe we can walk around and look for it.”

  “You mean we hide?” Grem said.

  “Just for now. We'll come back when we find it.”

  “And if we don't,” Arn said, and pointed up at the gap in the ceiling. “You can make it out again that way.”

  “What for we here then?” Prag said. “Should have stayed away.”

  “If we can't smash the crystal,” Dav said, “We're going to have to try that TNT. Then we might need your help really, really badly.”

  “Prag,” Ama said suddenly. “Can you smell it?”

  Prag shook his head.

  “Prag not smell crystal smell, no,” he said. “But maybe open door.”

  Dav and Arn looked at each other, then carefully opened the door a crack. Outside was another long, gray hallway. There was nobody there.

  “Okay,” Arn said, and waved to the Pakmog. They all spilled out into the hallway.

  Prag and Grem stuck their noses up into the air and started sniffing deeply. They grunted a few words back and forth at each other.

  “That way,” Grem said.

  “Are you sure?” said Kim.

  “Pretty sure,” Prag said. “Something that way, smell sort of like thing in village. Smell magic too, pretty strong.”

  “Okay,” Dav said. “We go that way. You two wait in there.”

  He pointed to the room again.

  Grem and Prag both looked like they wanted to argue, but started shuffling back into the room again.

  “Hey!” yelled a voice.

  Everyone's heads snapped around to look.

  A villager in armor was standing at the end of the hall, staring at them with his mouth hanging open.

  “You're...” he gasped. “Oh no! The Underworld! They're inside the City!”

  With that he turned and ran away, yelling at the top of his lungs.

  “I think our plans just changed,” Arn said.

  “No kidding!” Grem said. “We go back, in room now!”

  “No!” Dav said.

  “What? We caught! Time to run!” Prag said.

  “No,” Dav said again. “This is our only chance. If we leave it might be too late.”

  “He going to come back, with plenty of others,” Grem said. “We leave now or we fight whole city.”

  “Take Ama and Kim,” Arn said. “It can be just me and Dav. They might let us go. We can talk to them.”

  “They see us all,” Grem said. “Too late to pretend!”

  “We're not going anywhere,” Kim said, and Ama nodded.

  There was more shouting from the other end of the hallway.

  Prag growled.

  “If we do this, we go now!” he said.

  Dav looked around frantically at them all. He obviously wanted to send Kim back into the tunnel, but they were out of time.

  “In that case, run!” he said. “You two, keep smelling!”

  They started running down the corridor, with the Pakmog sniffing loudly the whole way.

  There was a long set of stairs – they ran up it. They could hear more yelling from behind them.

  The walls changed into smooth white and gray stone. There were no torches at all now – the light came from glowing panels in the ceiling, like they had seen in the tall building where Umi and Ana had taken them in.

  Then going through an arched passage, they came to a huge hallway – it was longer than a whole village but there was no one else in sight. It was lined with strange, exotic plants that seemed to glow with an inner light. Towering columns supported the high ceilings, and the air felt cool and crisp.

  Dav ran his hand along a smooth white length of wall.

  "If this was made by villagers, then these people are way beyond us," he said. Then he gave a growl that sounded like a noise a Pakmog would make. "And it's all going to fall apart if we don't get this right. Let's go."

  Grem pointed and they ran up another set of stairs, and now they were in a short hallway lined with doors, and with a window at one end.

  “Oh my gosh,” Kim said.

  They were staring out at the Iron City. A long window showed them more buildings, all of them bigger than villager houses and made of gleaming stone. They could see a street below, with clusters of villagers talking to each other. None of them seemed to be in a panic. Yet.

  The group paused and stared out at everything. Even the Pakmog seemed impressed.

  "Looks a lot like a fortress," Grem said. "But shiny and with trees."

  “There's no time,” Dav said. “Which way?”

  Grem sniffed again and pointed at a door.

  “That way for sure,” he said.

  Arn threw open the door and they all ran inside.

  It was a big room, with another window at one end, looking out over more of the City.

  The room was lined with benches, and filled with tables. All over every single surface were mysterious objects – glowing vials, blocks that flashed with lights, plus tons of strange objects Arn had never seen before.

  A villager in Librarian's robes was bent over a table, working on something. He didn't even look up at the noise of them all running in and slamming the door shut.

  “Have you seen this yet?” the Librarian said. He was so intent on what he was doing that he must have thought they were someone else. “This Runestone device that Lem put together is astonishing. It can turn on and off depending on how much light it gets! Look, I'll wave my hand over this part...”

  He stopped talking when he turned to face them

  He was staring at two at two huge Pakmog who were looking at him like he was some kind of strange new mob.

  “Oh no,” the Librarian said.