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Authors: Jack L. Chalker
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modem problems. With that, the Council ceased being the guardian of the Laws and the integrity of magic and our way of life and became, alas, a bureaucracy. Oh, it was a creeping little thing—you never really noticed it, it was so agonizingly creeping—but, after a while, what we had were the Books of Rules to cover everybody's pet idea, theory, moral code—you name it. Anything they could get a majority of the Council to consider and pass on. Every generation of sorcerers brings some new stuff, and that's what you see behind me here.
As long as none of the Rules break any of the Laws—nobody can do that—they are as binding and restrictive as any law of nature..
"Sounds like income tax," Joe commented sourly. "They started with a simple little tax, I'm told, on just the very rich, and got to the point where there were hundreds and hundreds of books of tax laws. I never could know 'em. Last year I had to pay over two hundred bucks to have my taxes done. And even the guys at the IRS admitted nobody really understood the whole thing. It was just too much of a big mess..
Ruddygore smiled. "Exactly! That is exactly it! I doubt if anybody anywhere understands all that's in those volumes. Fact is, you just live in the world and you aren't even aware that what you live with is one of the Rules. It's just the way things are. And they're constantly being revised and rewritten. Biggest mistake we made was forming a subcommittee to look over 43 JACK L. CHALKER the Rules and throw out the bad and resolve some of the basic contradictions that came up. Instead, the fatheads just increased the amount of Rules..
"It's the tax code, all right," Joe said agreeably.
"Only it's worse, since what's in there affects everything and everybody," Ruddygore pointed out. "You have no choice in the matter. And you have no idea—yet—just how petty it can get. And how silly. In fact, that's one thing we will have ,to attend to right away with the two of you. Right now you're aliens in this land and still pretty much outside the Rules. If we don't attune you to them before you leave Terindell, all those dumb things will fall on you at the same time, and the Creator alone knows what sort of terrible things might happen to you. Poquah, is the lab in good shape?.
"Excellent, sir," the creature replied, and both Joe and Marge almost jumped out of their chairs. Poquah was standing there with a service cart filled with pitchers and tankards—for how long he had been present, they couldn't say. There hadn't been a sound from either him or the service.
Ruddygore chuckled at the two. "I admit Poquah takes some getting used to. He is my closest aide and boss of this place, second only to myself in authority. However, he is an Imir— a race distantly related to those elves you saw, but very distantly.
The Imir are large, as you can see, and a warrior race if there ever was one..
Poquah served the tankards to the three of them in a good, Page 36 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods professional butler manner, but then poured a fourth for himself and took the last chair. He still looked something like a stickman, bending only at right angles.
The Imir took a swallow from the tankard and put it down on the carpet. "We deny relation to elves," he said proudly.
"Except, perhaps, the other way around. We have little in common, elves and Imir..
"His people have a basic gift of faerie,* though," Ruddygore told them, "honed in the Imir's case to a fine edge. You simply will not see or notice them until and unless they want to be seen or noticed. It is a trait many of the magical folk have, * Faerie refers to the heritage, magic nature, power, and "realm" of fairies in general; it has a connotation of that which is withdrawn from human ken. Fairy refers in more specific manner to individuals, races, trails, and abilities of the fairy folk; its connotation is more that of a normal, day-to-day
As long as none of the Rules break any of the Laws—nobody can do that—they are as binding and restrictive as any law of nature..
"Sounds like income tax," Joe commented sourly. "They started with a simple little tax, I'm told, on just the very rich, and got to the point where there were hundreds and hundreds of books of tax laws. I never could know 'em. Last year I had to pay over two hundred bucks to have my taxes done. And even the guys at the IRS admitted nobody really understood the whole thing. It was just too much of a big mess..
Ruddygore smiled. "Exactly! That is exactly it! I doubt if anybody anywhere understands all that's in those volumes. Fact is, you just live in the world and you aren't even aware that what you live with is one of the Rules. It's just the way things are. And they're constantly being revised and rewritten. Biggest mistake we made was forming a subcommittee to look over 43 JACK L. CHALKER the Rules and throw out the bad and resolve some of the basic contradictions that came up. Instead, the fatheads just increased the amount of Rules..
"It's the tax code, all right," Joe said agreeably.
"Only it's worse, since what's in there affects everything and everybody," Ruddygore pointed out. "You have no choice in the matter. And you have no idea—yet—just how petty it can get. And how silly. In fact, that's one thing we will have ,to attend to right away with the two of you. Right now you're aliens in this land and still pretty much outside the Rules. If we don't attune you to them before you leave Terindell, all those dumb things will fall on you at the same time, and the Creator alone knows what sort of terrible things might happen to you. Poquah, is the lab in good shape?.
"Excellent, sir," the creature replied, and both Joe and Marge almost jumped out of their chairs. Poquah was standing there with a service cart filled with pitchers and tankards—for how long he had been present, they couldn't say. There hadn't been a sound from either him or the service.
Ruddygore chuckled at the two. "I admit Poquah takes some getting used to. He is my closest aide and boss of this place, second only to myself in authority. However, he is an Imir— a race distantly related to those elves you saw, but very distantly.
The Imir are large, as you can see, and a warrior race if there ever was one..
Poquah served the tankards to the three of them in a good, Page 36 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods professional butler manner, but then poured a fourth for himself and took the last chair. He still looked something like a stickman, bending only at right angles.
The Imir took a swallow from the tankard and put it down on the carpet. "We deny relation to elves," he said proudly.
"Except, perhaps, the other way around. We have little in common, elves and Imir..
"His people have a basic gift of faerie,* though," Ruddygore told them, "honed in the Imir's case to a fine edge. You simply will not see or notice them until and unless they want to be seen or noticed. It is a trait many of the magical folk have, * Faerie refers to the heritage, magic nature, power, and "realm" of fairies in general; it has a connotation of that which is withdrawn from human ken. Fairy refers in more specific manner to individuals, races, trails, and abilities of the fairy folk; its connotation is more that of a normal, day-to-day
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