'Zaratorio: The Story Continues' is a political parable dedicated in general to everyone who believes in #PeaceinUkraine and who says #NoToWar. More specifically, it is written in support of the brave and generous women and men of Medecins Sans Fro...
Zaratorio is in a trance – the same trance that he uses to create his most evil schemes.
For several days a thought message has been reaching him – at first quite indistinct, but now finally becoming much clearer.
Zaratorio, Zaratorio. This is Circe. Contact Anna Roland; contact Anna Roland.
A large cloud of gas billows around the cave he is using as a hideout in 'The Far Future' and he slowly re-enters what passes for normality – although he has adopted one of his other personas for the time being.
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'Always good to give my shape-shifting genes a workout. Inga, I have made a decision.'
'Yes, master. I am glad to hear it.'
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'The timestorm spells worked very well, but they did not encourage the SISP to send any of their people to the thirteenth century, so I am going to close down that approach for the time being. Still, it will have kept them guessing.
I was more hopeful of the Mark Smith plan, but they seem to have been able to bring him back to twenty-first century Kyiv without any major problems.'
'I see, master.'
'So we need to go to the early 2020s and see if we can contact this Anna Roland woman. At the very least she may be able to help us rescue Circe – ideally we will be able to inflict some major damage on the SISP.'
'But not destroy them completely?'
'No, not yet. For a start I still need to make contact with the child Harnii, and secondly, I am not yet ready for a conflict with Admiral Pathway. I must choose my battles carefully.'
***
As far as Anna Roland can tell, the Slavic Institute for Studying the Paranormal has not yet detected that she has access to most of their computer files.
Of course, a great deal of the classified material means absolutely to her, given that she is neither a post-doctoral computer scientist, nor an expert on the occult. But she is now convinced that most of the recent strange sightings of a vidʹma (or witch) relate to a mysterious figure called Circe, who is held captive at the SISP headquarters in downtown Kyiv.
Secluded in the back room of her flat, Anna begins to think out loud.
'Perhaps there is a clue in her name ...? Precisely who was the mythological Circe?'
In Graeco-Roman mythology, Circe was a beautiful goddess who had the power to turn her enemies into animals and use herbs as both medicines and poisons, in order to heal those she favoured and vanquish her enemies. She was particularly associated with the ancient Greek hero known as Odysseus or Ulysses.
'So perhaps there is a clue here. Does Circe use something – perhaps not a herb, but some other kind of catalyst – to trigger her movements through space and time? And who is her Ulysses?'
