“So where is the Laurel?” Sylvia asked, then looked surprised at our laughter.

“I forgot,” Pater said to Sylvia. “You wouldn’t have been here until after Brandon had it covered up.”

“What?” Sylvia asked, her irritation and powers beginning to show.

“I was rather, uh, inspired when I cast aside the Laurel,” I admitted. “Considering how I thought of all the royal family and courtiers as Dic*-”

“Martin!” Pater cautioned.

I nodded, understanding. Sylvia was still a very ‘young’ guardian.

“Well, considering what I called them. I put a ‘cauterizing’ spell on the Laurel and threw it so it hung from the great statue of Pan, in the Great Hall.”

“I’ve seen that statue, but no Laurel…”

“Well, Brandon did have a kilt put on it,” Pater explained. Sylvia’s mouth turned to an ‘O’ and she blushed.

“Anyway the cauterizing spell will incinerate anyone the magic deems unfit to be king or queen,” I told her. “No one has been fit for that role yet. And it’s that magic Ziliea is trying to break.”