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she was special.” He winked. “And those legs. I wish to God she had been wearing shorts.” He grinned. “Or nothing at all…”  
    “Allard,” said Regent.
    “Yeah?” 
    “Shut up.” 
    Allard swallowed. They sat in silence for a while, watching the traffic roar up and down the street.
    “She didn’t remember me,” said Regent, adjusting his grip on the cane. 
    Allard frowned. “What, you’ve met before?” 
    Regent nodded. “Once, long ago, when she was still a child. I’m not surprised. We were both under a great deal of stress at the time.” 
    A pair of young women in tank tops and shorts strolled past, cigarettes in hand. Allard turned himself around. “Hey!”
    The young women gave him amused glances. “What the hell do you want?”
    “Don’t smoke,” said Allard. 
    “Are you the Surgeon General or something?”
    “I’m serious,” said Allard. “Those things…those things are extremely bad for you.”
    He knew that firsthand.
    “Everybody dies,” said one of the women, walking way.
    “Not everybody,” said Allard. “Sometimes you’ll wish you were dead.” They ignored him. Allard sighed, guilt flooding through him. “I am such scum.”
    Regent cackled. 
    “What the hell’s so funny?” 
    “Son, you’re an idiot.” Regent tapped his cane for emphasis. “But your heart’s in the right place. Usually.”
    “So this Ally Wester doesn’t remember you,” said Allard, wanting to change the subject. “Good thing or a bad thing?”
    “I don’t know. It’s damned strange, Allard. Alastarius Prophesied about Lithon. It’s Lithon that Marugon wants dead. Yet…there’s something special about Ally.”
    Allard grinned. “I’ll say.” Regent glared. “Sorry, sorry.”
    Regent’s hands clenched his cane’s handle. “Damned if I know what it is, son. But there’s something around her…like a fire trying to explode. But it’s locked away within her. Maybe that’s part of her memory loss.” He rapped his cane’s tip against the concrete. “Goddamn it, Allard. I don’t understand.”
    Allard lowered his voice. “Do you think Marugon is looking for her?” He swallowed. “After the incident with her door room and the…changelings.” The memory of chasing the ghastly changeling through the campus chilled him. And the guilt. The changelings only existed because of his mistakes.
    “I still think that was a very unlucky coincidence,” said Regent. “If Marugon knew she and Lithon lived, he wouldn’t send a changeling to kill her. He’d send a winged one. Or that old demon Goth-Mar-Dan. Or Marugon would come himself.” He shook his head. “It’s damned lucky we deleted her records when we did, though they’ve probably been restored by now. And damned lucky I was able to confuse that changeling.”
    Allard remembered Regent standing tall and strong beneath the dormitory, his cane lifted high, white light flaring around him. The changeling had cowered, terror in its red eyes, and fled. “I don’t think you told me the truth completely.”
    Regent lifted his bushy eyebrows. “Oh?”
    “I think Marugon ruined you, not Wycliffe,” said Allard, his voice quiet. “I think you have some white magic. I think you’re from Marugon’s world, not from Earth.” He winced and waited for the explosion.
    Regent laughed. The older man reached out and tapped Allard’s temple. “You know, son, you’re an idiot, I’ve always said that, but sometimes, just sometimes…you amaze me. You’re right. I’m not from Earth. But I can’t tell you anything more than that.”
    Allard nodded. “For my own safety.”
    “Damn straight,” said Regent. “So. See if you can amaze me again. What do you think we should do now?” 
    “I don’t know.”
    Regent grunted. “Didn’t think so. We keep her safe, son, that’s what we do. We keep her and Lithon safe. And if Marugon is looking for her, we make sure he doesn’t find her.”
    Allard grinned. “Guardian angels. We