Curiosity and the Wizard Comments on self
CHAPTER I
To the there and when ... and beyond!
Aberadon was a professor of magictology and one of the finest and most renowned wizards in all of the land. He became a professor after encountering too many questions that he wanted answered. No one seemed to be able to help him so he decided to seek out the answers for himself. Thus, he was transformed from an actively practicing, highly respected mage into a relatively obscure scientist laboring in pure research in the dungeons at Imabigwiz University. His was strictly an honorary degree, but his talent was unquestioned.
There was one problem in particular that had captured Aberadon's imagination. Frankly, he obsessed over it. He was sure it was possible to transform and manipulate the dimensions of the universe to one's own whims. If so, he could make small bags that were weightless (by suspending the time dimension) and could hold huge amounts of very large objects (by stretching and compressing the spatial dimensions appropriately). And, more importantly, by bending the dimensions over upon themselves so that "now" touched "when" or so that "here" touched "there", he could travel instantaneously from the "here and now" to the "there and when".
Well ... almost. There were still a few problems to iron out. Things weren't exactly stable. Truthfully, they were absolutely chaotic.
The difficulty was that the "points of contact" which were created when Aberadon folded the dimensions together kept coming apart, often at the worst possible moment. For example, the Dean of the College of Magictology had a prize cat which had won many awards and was famous among cat lovers everywhere. However, the cat bothered Aberadon to no end since he was allergic to it. Cats made his eyes water. Cats made him sneeze. Cats made him cough. Cats made him itch. Cats made him very irritable! And, Aberadon was barely able to disguise his loathing of the hairy pet while in the presence of good Dean Schroendinger.
One day during a particularly crucial experiment and after many tedious hours of preparation, Aberadon had everything set up just right. When, unknown to him, the cat had come into the lab while silently tracking a mouse. Aberadon did not know that the cat had entered; his nose was the first to sound the alarm.
"Achooooooo!!" "Achoo! Achoo!"
The mouse (whose nerves were already stretched to the limit) squeaked and jumped and ran .... right into and through the "point of contact". The famous feline, not to be out done, immediately followed the mouse through while simultaneously toppling Aberadon's apparatus and disconnecting what at one time had seemed to be a perfectly good point of contact.
Aberadon had seen both creatures make it through safely before the contact point broke loose. This pleased him greatly since it proved his ideas could work. But, Aberadon was also very worried.
Aberadon knew that the Dean would probably try to blame him for the disappearance of the cat. Oh well, he smiled wryly, the Dean can't prove anything because he'll never find the body. And, sure enough, many in the alabaster halls of Imabigwiz U heard Aberadon shouting back at the Dean countless times, "You can *NOT* know for sure if the cat is dead or alive unless you observe it in that state!! Where is your proof??"
CHAPTER II
.... MORE TO COME ...