"Hey, anyone notice it's real quiet in here all of a sudden?" Kit Piper said frowning as he finished nibbling the last few scraps of meat from a turkey leg. The dinner was pretty much finished, but Kit was still a bit hungry.
"Yeah..." Drake Marshall said, looking around, "...Mason Templar is gone again."
"Ah, that explains it."
***
"So is Doc gonna adopt you?" Denyce asked Axel over at the kids' table in the other room.
"Yeah."
"Really?" Denyce exclaimed. "When?"
Axel grinned sheepishly and looked at her. "I don't know."
Denyce just looked puzzled while her little sister Latisha smiled shyly and continued to remain mute as she had for almost a year now.
Axel laughed and tried to explain: "I mean... I do know, but I don't... y'know?"
"No," Denyce said, and they both laughed. "So should I start calling you 'Axel Quantos,' then?"
Axel looked down. "Uh... no. That's a name I'll never have."
"Well, you can't go without a last name forever, you know," Denyce said. "What about school and all that? Everyone uses last names for things."
"Yeah, I know, but... well, I've kinda already got a last name," Axel said, his voice remaining quiet. He cupped his hand over his mouth and whispered conspiratorially in Denyce's ear: "It's Magus."
"Maggot?" Denyce exclaimed loudly.
"NO! Not Maggot -- Magus!" said Axel in a voice louder than he had planned to use. "Axel Magus."
"Cool... but what does it mean?"
"Um... well, it's a word sort of like 'magic' and means about the same thing," Axel began explaining slowly. "Anyway, it's not legal... not so far, at least. It's just that the Old Man was telling me that I'm destined to be called 'Axel Magus' and that names have power and all that, and anyway that's gonna be my name now. I don't know what my mom's last name was, and the Perditian government frowned on any of us PSI-Unit orphans using last names even if we knew 'em, so I just got used to having a last name. But 'Magus' is kinda nice. It... I think it fits me."
"If you say so, Doll Boy," Denyce laughed.
"Da Ba!" The two-year-old Eddie said suddenly as if he'd been listening in and hanging on every word.
Denyce was thrilled. "Yeah, that's right, Eddie! He's Doll Boy!" Eddie smiled a small child's smile and promptly started looking elsewhere. "So what were you saying about an old man?" Denyce asked him. "You don't mean Doc Quantos, do you?"
Axel looked troubled. "Denyce, you gotta swear to me that you won't tell anyone about this -- not even your dad."
"O-okay. What is it?"
"It was on my birthday two days ago. My old PSI-Unit trainer Marc showed up again after missing after the hurricane, and he showed up again outside of the Complex after my birthday party was over. I met him out there because he said he wanted to introduce me to his master -- Marc explained that he's sort of the Old Man's butler or whatever -- and I snuck out when some of the guests were leaving."
Denyce looked amused. "You sneak, you!"
"You promised not to tell!"
"Sheesh, don't worry about that. Mum's the--" began Denyce before she realized what she was saying. "Sorry," she said to Axel and Latisha.
"Anyway, around him I had a lot of my own TK powers back again, and I could fly alongside him over to a cave near the old Indian village--"
"Native American."
"Whatever. Well, Marc left, and I went in and met the Old Man. He told me a lot of things about me that I didn't know, and he warned me about a bunch of stuff, too. And one of the things he told me was that my name is Axel Magus. Or I guess he just gave me that name. It seems weird, but it wasn't. He was old and wise, kind of like a grandfather would be, I guess. I never had one."
"I dunno about this, Axel," Denyce said in a worried voice. "You don't know who this old man is or anything."
"But I do!" protested Axel. "And anyway, Marc trusts him with his life, and I trust Marc. I kind of think of it like this: Marc and Tanya were kind of like my grade-school teachers, only they taught us all about telepathy and telekinesis and such alongside the regular schoolwork all kids have to do. The Old Man is so much more. He's like a high school teacher, or... or a college professor or something. He's really wise, and he's really... old. Anyway, you can't tell anyone, 'cause you made a promise."
"I know, I know, but I don't like it," Denyce continued. "What if--?"
"HO HO HO!" a booming laugh could be heard as a large figure entered the room. "Do my ears hear two strapping young whelps whispering secrets to one another?"
"Mas--" Axel began, stopping himself as he saw Mason Templar dressed in a Santa Claus suit again. "Uh... Santa! What are you doing here?"
"It's CHRISTMAS, boy!" boomed 'Santa Templar.' "And what is Christmas Day for a group of children without a personal visit by old Saint Nick himself? And I've brought gifts directly from the depths of the Arctic Circle for the whole lot of you!"
Eddie's eyes were opened completely wide. It was obvious he had never seen any Santa Claus or Father Christmas type ever before, or at least he was too young to remember if Walker had ever had anyone dress up as Santa Claus for his benefit a year ago.
"Ah-ha!" Santa laughed as he knelt down to face the toddler. "And who do we have here?"
Denyce was beaming as she spoke up: "That's Eddie Chish... Shich... Sicks..."
"Cicciotto," Axel finished with a grin.
"Oh-ho... you're Edulcore Cicciotto's young one, are you?" Santa said. "Well, let me dig deeply into my bag and see if I happen to have anything for y-- OH ho-ho! What do we have here? A very rare object for a very rare young lad!"
Mason Templar pulled from his red sack an antique trumpet which, despite its apparent age, was in good shape. Eddie's eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at the trumpet. Templar spoke in an uncharacteristically low tone to the toddler, "Now, Eddie, this is a gift that comes to you all the way from a town in old Germany called Hamelin. Legend has it that it was once used by a man to charm all the rats which infested the town during the days of the Plague to follow him out. Furthermore," he said in a whisper, "it was also used to charm all the children of the town to follow him. I think, Eddie, that one day you may lead many children and men alike, and I give you this trumpet to begin your journey."
'Santa' laughed and said, "It is but a fairy tale, of course, so do not expect to control all your friends with it... at least not yet, lad! HA-ha-ha-haha-ha!" He turned to the two girls next.
"And we have here a couple of stunningly beautiful 'Pipers' who have every chance of charming all the boys they meet with or without Hamelin's trump!" he said with his usual loud brogue.
Denyce giggled and said, "This is my sister Latisha, and I'm Denyce."
"Aha, yes! Mr. Piper's progeny! Excellent, excellent... And what does Santa have for you, now? Ah... here we are." Templar pulled out a small box and handed it to Denyce.
"What is it?" the girl said as she began opening the box. "Shoes? Red shoes?"
"These are not mere shoes, child, they're dancing shoes!" Templar said winking. "Make sure to save them, and wear them only for a very special occasion."
"Okay, thanks," she replied, smiling politely.
"And I have something for the youngest Piper girl as well!" Templar said, pulling another box out of the red sack. Latisha took the box, too shy to make eye-contact, and smiled gratefully as she opened the box and found a piece of uncarved crystal. "Legend has it, young Latisha, that a maiden may see her one true love in this crystal when she comes of age," he said, winking at her as he caught her eye for a moment.
Denyce spoke up after looking at her sister, "She'd say thank-you, too, if she was talking right now."
"Very good, very good," Templar muttered. "And finally, for our fine, young, heroic prodigy, Axel, I have another very special gift..."
And the story of Axel's gift will be told in another place, another time...
