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An Interview with a Dragon - Part VI: The Story of Bertrand Continued

"Hm, I would only want to do that in a real emergency. I run the gaming club at my university, and people should be able to see me when we have meetings or play AD&D."

"Well, OK. Just keep a low profile and I think that will be good enough, alright?" With this, Bertrand was about to fly away, when he received a severe shock to the groin. "Yeeeeow! Blast! I guess I have to fulfill the bargain I made somehow, unless there's some way you can undo this spell…"

"No, sorry. The magic is binding. Besides, Damien is a level 5 wizard, I'm only a level 4 wizard. It takes a lot of effort to thwart his magic, and I can only do it when the need is really pressing, and it takes a lot out of me. One time I got mono because I was thwarting a lot within a short period of time. Nowadays I try to take it easy, but even still, sometimes I have to drink like 5 cups of coffee just to function afterwards. It really wipes me out to thwart his magic. Being a white magician is hard work. You really have to play hardball to do serious thwarting."

"OK. Fine. Well, let's think over the agreement again. I have to see to it that Damien never sees you, Julian, alive again. Hmm… OK, I've got it. He won't technically be seeing Julian ever again if Julian is no longer Julian.

"What exactly do you mean?"

"You can do this by going to the town hall and getting your name legally changed. That way, it won't be Julian who is thwarting Damien anymore, but some other guy. You'll be off the hook."

"Brilliant. Great idea. But what should I change my name to?" asked Julian, "I've kind of become attached to this one."

"How the heck should I know? Change it to something else that's wizard-like. How about 'Albertus?' or 'Gondorf?' or maybe 'Darius.'

"No, those are lame," he said. "I'm pretty attached to the name I have."

"Well, how should I know what kind of wizard name you should choose for yourself? Anyway, go get your name changed to something so that I can be free from my spell, not have to kill you, and go home without having my groin electrified. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Great. Well, good luck. Keep up the good thwarting."

"Thanks for not killing me. Bye now."

VR