Chapter 15

The following characters reappear in this chapter from previous stories:

Chu Hua

Dragon offspring, now a Dragon, Frank’s Wife, 5’-0’’ tall, a very sweet but plain looking woman, still somewhat thin at 30 years of age with medium length black hair

Franklin (Frank)

Dragon Security employee, Chu Hua’s husband, 5’-9’’ tall, 170 pounds, 39 years old, black hair, brown eyes, a very strong Talent, now a Dragon

Stewart

Dragon Security employee, Eve’s husband, 5-11’’ tall, 200 pounds, 47 years old, brown hair, violet eyes, very strong Talent, also now a Dragon

Eve

Stewart’s wife, 5’-4’’ tall, still a bit thin, small breasts, 32 years old, short brown hair, no Talent initially, but she now has a medium Talent thanks to the Spirit of Ley Line Magic

I didn’t speak to Sara about the doctor’s request until we went to bed that night. Call me a coward if you like, but it was sure to be a touchy subject. Instead, I borrowed Maddy’s computer and went on the Internet looking for manual printing presses, as I didn’t believe that digital presses or copy machines would be able to deal with the Magic spells in the books, despite Maddy’s assurances that they had a spell to protect electronic equipment from Magic.

There are several major types of small manual printing presses besides the toys advertised for home owners. One type is termed Letterpress and the other is termed Offset. Both come in a number of sizes with varying abilities as to the size of paper they can print on and the number of pages they can print on a single sheet of paper. Some can also print on both sides of the paper in one pass. They are all complicated in their operation.

The letterpress type of press requires lead type to operate. This must be set by the printer or an assistant. The alternative is something called a Linotype machine. It is faster than hand setting type, but again, it is a large complicated machine that requires a well-trained operator familiar with its operation and problems. He or she would also need to know and read Gaelic, especially older dialects, and the machine would need to have the typeset for that language. What were the chances of finding someone meeting all of those requirements, I wondered.

The offset type of press used a different system. It used paper or metal plates to transfer the image to a smooth rubber cylinder to print the pages. There are machines that can print on both sides of a sheet of paper in one pass through the press. From my reading, it appeared that the plates could be prepared by computer from the images taken by the photographers. This would simplify things greatly, as the operator wouldn’t need to be able to read Gaelic. They would need to be familiar with how the pages were arranged to be printed and turned into signatures to be trimmed and put together in the books.

From the size of the pages in my books, it appeared that we would need a machine that could print on 13 x 18 or 13 x 17 inch sheets of paper. This would allow us to print four pages on a sheet or eight pages if the machine could print on both sides of the paper in one pass. It was also apparent that we would need people who were familiar with the operation and maintenance of the press and the plate maker. There was also the need for a large supply of ink, plates, and paper for printing. Additionally, there was the equipment for cutting the signatures into pages and binding them into the books as well as storage of the pages and the finished books.

For all of this, it was obvious that we would need people who were professional printers. Additionally, we would need Dragons or near-Dragons to supervise the preparations of the plates from the negatives and to make sure that none of the finished material was lost, and that all samples or test pieces were accounted for and destroyed. There would need to be very tight security of the printing site. This would require that the correct people would be dedicated to the operation for a considerable time. It appeared to be a daunting task to find those both capable and willing to undertake the task. I would speak to Maddy about what I had learned later. Perhaps she knew of people or a company that could do the necessary work.

Following dinner, Sara and I watched the news before going up to our room. There was nothing new on what was being called a terrorist attack in North Charleston. This wasn’t surprising given the little evidence we had left the authorities. I broached the subject of what Dr. Graham had asked me for before we prepared for bed.

“When I was talking with Dr. Graham, she made a very personal request,” I started in a serious voice.

“A request? What kind of request, and what could be so serious?” she asked, picking up on how I had sounded.

“She asked me to donate some of my seed so that her Daughter and Granddaughter could have children with long lives like their parents. They have all had children who only lived as long as normal people do, but not any who are long lived like they are,” I told her.

“She wants you to have sex with her adult children?” Sara asked in an offended voice.

“No, she said that wasn’t necessary if I didn’t want to. She has the equipment to freeze my seed until her children are ready to get pregnant,” I told her.

“Oh! I had never considered that. Why haven’t they asked other Magic users and Witches to do that?” she asked.

“Perhaps they have. She didn’t mention it. It may not have made any difference. I don’t know,” I told her.

“You’re sure she was serious about this?” she asked.

“The poor woman was in tears when she asked me, and at her age. She and they are very lonely, yet everyday she sees women who are pregnant, and she delivers their babies, but they have none of their own. I gave her a hug ... just a friendly hug before leaving. She was crying about that also. They seem to be very much alone and lonely,” I told her.

“Well ... if you don’t need to have sex with them, I guess it would be alright, but only after you marry me,” she told me with a smile much to my surprise.

“Okay, we’ll talk to Maddy tomorrow and see about getting married here in Georgia,” I told her.

We went to bed following a good shower, and Sara was definitely in need after agreeing to me helping Dr. Graham and her children. We made love twice before going to sleep. It was a good thing that I had cast a ward around the room, and also a Silence spell. There was very little Magic in the room when we finished both times. In the morning, I brought up the topic of marriage to Maddy.

“You can get married at the county building. We’ve all been married there. Jorani was the last one about ten years ago or so. Dallas and Doreen can take you. They went with her, so they are more familiar with the procedure than I am,” she told me before calling her Daughters. Dallas and Doreen appeared a few minutes later.

“So, you’re ready to get married,” Doreen said.

“Yes,” Sara answered enthusiastically.

“Can you wait until tomorrow? We have things to do today,” Dallas asked.

“Yes, that won’t be a problem,” I assured her, but Sara looked disappointed. She studied for the rest of the day, and I got with Maddy about my research on printing presses. She would need to check with some of the local business people that they had contacts with to see what they knew about printers. I also did some more studying of Magic that day. Dallas and Doreen arrived at 9:30 the next morning. Sara was wearing a new blue dress with long sleeves, and I had on a reasonably new suit. We were both ready to leave.

“We’ll take our SUV. Yours is too small for the four of us and our Familiars,” Dallas told us. I noticed that Al Jr. accompanied us out to their vehicle and jumped right in when the door was opened. He moved to the back of the vehicle where Bee and Bess, the twins’ Familiars, were. There were several extra cat seats in the back of their vehicle.

“Little Al must like you,” Dallas said. “He doesn’t usually go out with anyone but Mother,” she added. The trip to the county building was uneventful. Our reception there was not. As we approached the building after parking the car some distance from it, I could see a security kiosk outside the front entrance.

“They used to do that inside,” Doreen told us on seeing it. “Wonder what has changed?” she added.

What had changed became apparent as we moved closer to the building. A ward appeared in front of us, and a blue light started flashing from the front of the Kiosk. Two tall deputies stepped out of the Kiosk to address us from behind the ward.

“Magic users are not allowed in this facility. Turn around and leave,” the Deputy on the right told us.

“So, you would disenfranchise the Magic users of this county,” Doreen demanded in a very unhappy voice. I had learned that it wasn’t wise to be around her when Doreen was unhappy about something.

“The County Commissioners have passed an ordinance that forbids Magic users to enter county facilities, all county facilities,” the other Deputy informed us. Dallas was also frowning on hearing this.

“Do you know how to deal with something like this, Nick?” she asked.

“Yes, from the stories that I have heard, I believe that your Mother dealt with something like this once,” I told her and called up one of the spells that I had been studying just yesterday. Casting it, I drew its glyph in a very large size in the air in front of me using both hands before shouting the word in Gaelic that would activate the spell. The word in Gaelic was ’Scrios’. What came out of my mouth was something else.

“Acc?cs,” came out of my mouth in the Dragon language and in a loud Dragon voice. It reverberated off the front of the building and across the cleared area in front of it and out into the parking lot. The ward around the building collapsed in a wreck setting off sirens, and the blue light changed to a flashing red light. The glass entry and exit doors of the ground floor of the building also shattered and were blown into the lobby of the building.

The two deputies had just managed to remain on their feet during this and now went for their guns. I just smiled at them. We had all changed into our Dragon forms at the twelve-foot-tall level while the spell was wrecking the ward around the building. Even Sara had changed, as both Dallas and Doreen had been holding her hands.

“If you draw those guns, I will feed them to you one bullet at a time,” I threatened the deputies in a normal but loud Dragon voice. They instantly removed their hands from near the guns.

At the same time, Doreen was casting the spell for the Defensive Ward but not as a sphere, as an ellipse instead. As she finished, the alarms cut off, and the blue light came on in the remains of the kiosk. There was silence for a short time before a short, fat, balding man appeared in the lobby. He carefully stepped over the glass shards on the floor.

“You Magic users can’t come in...,” he was shouting as he emerged from the building but stumbled to a halt on seeing four Dragons standing there in front of him.

“Well ... well, if it isn’t the Chairman of the County Commission,” Doreen said with a smirk. “I recognize him from when he was campaigning last year. I’ll bet that this whole thing was his idea, or one planted in his mind by some other asshole,” she continued grumpily.

“I believe the Queen will have a few words to say to him and the other commissioners when she hears about this,” Dallas said with a large Dragon smile. The fat man blanched on hearing this.

“What ... what have you done?” he asked in a near whisper after looking around at the building.

“We crashed your ward intended to keep Magic users out and have cast a ward of our own around your building. It will allow no one in or anyone out. If you are very nice, we will remove it when we leave. If we have any trouble, we’ll just leave it in place for a while,” Doreen told him to a look of terror from him.