Zann's head spun. Morb was going to steal all of Magica's magic energy!
Morb chuckled. "I can understand why you're all upset."
He turned to face Darb. "Except for you, perhaps.
Voids like you can rule Magica now.
You'll never have to put up with being mistreated again."
He scowled for a moment, his eyes angry and faraway.
Then he glanced at Wyssa. "By the way, you can mark this off as another world that you've destroyed."
"Huh?" Zann said. "You can't blame her for what you're doing."
"Oh, but I can." Morb smirked.
"She taught me everything she knew about magical contraptions."
Zann traded a confused look with his friends.
What was Morb talking about?
"I thought magical contraptions were invented right here in Magica, during the Old Times," Perda said.
"Don't they teach you kids any real Magica history?" Morb rolled his eyes.
Zann turned to Wyssa. "What is he talking about?"
Wyssa looked pale. "It's true. During the Old Times, the vortex was much smaller.
Many worlds had yet to develop, or to connect to the others."
"Yes," Morb said. "That made the vortex much easier to navigate."
"Indeed." Wyssa nodded.
"Back then people from different worlds shared their ideas and techniques.
Many of the relics from the Cave of the Unknown came from other worlds."
"Like the Horn of the Otherworld," Darb said.
"It came from a beast from another world, right?"
"Yes," Wyssa said. "And many forms of magic originated in other worlds, including the contraptions that Morb has built."
"But the idiots who took over during the Days of Discipline banned those types of magic," Morb said.
"They didn't want magic to be available to everyone. They wanted to control it."
"That's not why they banned those types of magic," Wyssa said.
"It was because old King Zanta, the last king of the Old Times, was an evil tyrant.
He used magical contraptions to control people.
He caused all sorts of chaos in Magica."
"I've read about that," Darb said.
"The people rose up against King Zanta.
That's how the Days of Discipline began."
"There's something else." Wyssa focused on Zann.
"You are a direct descendant of King Zanta himself."
Zann gasped. "Really?"
His friends looked stunned. Even Morb seemed surprised.
"Are you inventing lies to distract me, old woman?" he demanded.
"Not at all. That's why their names are similar," Wyssa said.
Zann shook his head slowly.
"Mom said my name was an old family name." He gulped.
"I never asked where it came from though."
"She probably doesn't know its full history," Wyssa said.
"Most of that era has been long forgotten."
"Enough of this talk," Morb spat out.
He touched his fingers together and sent a sizzling blast of energy toward Wyssa.
Gliss screamed and the others gasped.
But Wyssa raised her hand and the blast bounced away, hitting a troll.
As the troll raced off, wailing in pain, Wyssa smirked.
"Nice try, Morb," she said. "You'll have to work harder than that to . . ."
Her voice trailed off as the sudden clicking of antennae filled the air.
Zann spun around. The hut was swarming with the same beetles he'd seen in the Far Frontier.
"No," Wyssa whispered, backing away.
She tripped over a rough spot of ground and fell.
"Wyssa!" Perda cried as the beetles swarmed over the old woman.
"Get them off!" Zann yelled.
He grabbed at one of the insects.
But the beetle slipped away before he could get a grip.
"Use a Blast spell!" Perda rubbed her hands together to create friction.
But suddenly her movements slowed.
Zann tried to rush over to Perda.
But his body was moving in slow motion too!
"It's a spell." Gliss lifted a hand slowly and pointed at Morb.
Morb threw back his head and laughed.
"Oh, why didn't I think to use a Sloth spell on you kids before?
That would have saved me a lot of trouble!"
Zann slowly turned to look at Wyssa.
She was completely covered in bugs.
"What are those things, anyway?" Darb asked.
Morb smiled. "Ah, it's nice to see a Void with some curiosity.
Blank bugs are loosely related to dragons, though they have none of a dragon's cunning or individuality.
They're mindless drones with little intelligence and even less free will.
They only follow their basic instincts: move, eat, sleep." His smile widened.
"And thanks to Wyssa, every person on her home world now lives as a blank bug."
"What?" Perda said.
Morb grinned. "I lived there for a time, remember?
At first they welcomed me.
But as I gained knowledge and power, they turned against me.
So I tricked Wyssa into helping me build a contraption.
She had no idea what my plan was.
But I was able to use that contraption to alter the entire population.
Now they are all blank bugs!"
Gliss looked horrified. "Now we know why Wyssa freaked out when she saw those things earlier."
Zann shivered, imagining what it would be like to live as a mindless blank bug, or to know that people he cared about had to live that way.
"Maybe that's why she's so cranky all the time," Darb murmured.
Morb waved a hand. "Enough chitchat. I have work to do."
He strode out of the hut, throwing up a glowing green wall to block the entrance.
As soon as he disappeared, Zann felt the Sloth spell lift.
"Whew!" Perda shook out her arms.
"That spell felt weird. Now what are we going to do?"
She glanced at the beetles crawling over Wyssa.
The old woman wasn't moving.
"I don't know," Zann said.
"But we have to stop him, or Magica will lose all of its magic!"