Escaping

Inside the Amalfi Cathedral, some not so outwardly terrified people are trying to calm others down. Some are afraid this is a repeat of the Pompeii disaster from 79 A.D. However, scouts report that Jasmine is succeeding in turning the main activity north and towards the ocean, away from any settlements. Still, they can feel minor earthquakes below the surface and lava geysers spewing up. The pastor vulacish alternates between protecting the town and comforting the people of her congregation, many of whom are divided between letting her do her duty as protector and keeper of the volcano; and believing she needs to do her duty as pastor, comforter, and prayer warrior. It's a lot more difficult without her sister here to help.

Elizabeth has been passed out for the past couple of hours. Zeldris is worried about her and the babies. The doctor is checking her again and assures the demon king that she's well, she just exerted too much power and energy and should wake up in a few hours, considering that it's nighttime.

"What about my niece and nephew, are they safe?"

"I assure you they are." Answers the doctor looking at the sonogram. "The female especially seems to be very active and excitable."

Zeldris a feeling that the baby is still pumped up by all the excitement. Definitely Meliodas' daughter.

Ban and Wild watch as the teenage magic-science apprentice known as Cracker has been restraint to a bed. His body is severely overloaded with drugs and stimulates. Among those stimulates is tons of caffeine, which is making him very hyper and jittery. There are no traces of alcohol in his system, nor does he have any on him, however, there's traces of a cannabis suspense. He's keeps demanding his "modern" vaping pipe and cannabis, which was found on him. A couple of locals who are aware of the existence of cannabis are wondering if this maniac is a habit smoker, which just like alcohol and even caffeine can be very dangerous outside of small amounts. Ban's wondering how this guy's even still alive with all this substance in his body. The fox sin might be a heavy drinker sometimes (maybe too often since trading his fountain of youth immortality to Elaine), but he's never been a drug user and is well aware of how dangerous alcohol and drugs are together since both of his parents and neighbors often mixed them, especially his mother. Smoking isn't very common in Britannia at all, although Ban has seen priests sniffing and vaporizing incense, usually as rituals or before ceremonial services.

Jasmine returns again, looking very exhausted. People of her congregation and others are swarming to her, wanting everything from prayer to answers. After attending to their needs and taking a second to pray herself, the city mayor has questions for her. He wants to know the status of Mt. Vesuvius and the other volcanoes. She can't answer for the other two vulacish out there. She's sure that the brother is at least half-heartedly handling Mt Edna due to his obsession with women, but if the sister's doing anything at all, it's about saving her own neck and nobody else.

Jasmine must return to Vesuvius soon. Before she goes, she checks on the daughters of Artemis. The healing mage speaks to her briefly. Zeldris, Ban, and Wild also want to know what's up with the still unconscious girls. Jasmine herself runs her hands up and down them and is alarmed. They are under a curse, and it's a self-induced curse as well, most likely Arwin. Elizabeth should be able to bring them out of it once she awakes, although Arwin might have to let her.

While she hasn't had time to think, Jasmine believes the location of the seal they need to reseal will soon be revealed, as they've yet to find it. Unfortunately, she can't leave here right now. While she doesn't know Artimes very well, except that she can resort to extreme behaviors and actions, such as trapping her and Iris in purgatory to save their necks and keep them out of the whole mess, something like causing a volcanic chain reaction and putting so many innocent people and settlements at risks just doesn't feel like her. Something else is going on, something much bigger, or someone much worse, then Artimes. Certainly, Iris has found something out and taking action. Maybe she's even at Artimes' fortress by now. She just has that feeling.

"Pastor Jaz wait;" calls Zeldris; "Is there anything else we can do? As soon as our friends get here, I want to find this Artemis. Do you know where she's at?"

"I do;" she admits; "I can't leave here right now, but we'll try to make a plan as soon as I return. It'll be much harder for your friends to get here with all this volcanic debris in the air.

"They'll be here, knowing Merlin she'll find a way;" says Ban.

"One more thing;" asks Zeldris; "Sorry, but what was that power that Elizabeth displayed? Do you know?"

Jasmine smiles; "It's called huki. Later."

She dashes out, Zeldris is perplexed. "Huki?" He asks looking at Ban. The fox sin shrugs his shoulders.

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Willie takes the animals to where Inuyasha and Meliodas are. Inuyasha has fallen asleep and Meliodas is still unconscious, nearly almost completely consumed by blackness. Hawk freaks out when he sees him and frantically runs to the perfect cube, putting his front feet on it.

"MELIODAS! What's happened to you?! Don't die PLEASE! You're my bestest friend! You haven't even meet Melidy yet!"

Melidy wakes up crying cause of the yelling, Hawk's flying tears soaking her as well. Hawk apologies to his sister but barely calms down.

"What the hell!" Inuyasha also wakes up abruptly from the noise. "Who are you, Pig?"

Hawk doesn't even notice Inuyasha as Willie arrives next to him.

"What took you so long?!" ask the half-demon rudely; "Meliodas' heartbeats are fading rapidly!"

"Get back!" Bluey gets out the anti-magic bomb, waits for the guys to get out of the way then throws the bomb, creating an opening just large enough for them to get through. Hawk's the first one to Meliodas and cries over him, calling out his name again. The response he gets is a horrifying growling sound.

"What was that?" Hawk's body shakes; "A monster?"

"That's his stomach moron!" says Inuyasha rudely. "Get used to it, it's getting worse."

Hawk finally notices the Japanese half-demon; "Who are you? Are you that other guy?"

"Why is there a crying baby here?"

Willie and Bluey push Hawk out of the way and look over Meliodas. His stomach keeps rumbling and Hawk can't believe it. He knew what his friend's hunger pangs sounded like, and this was like 10 times worse. The dragon sin's face is contorted with pain, and almost completely black. He alternates between calling for Elizabeth and asking for food but remains completely unaware of anybody's presence. Hawk cries as Bluey examines his friend but has to snap out of it to calm down Melidy.

"Dr. Bluey, what wrong with him?" ask Willie.

It feels great being called Dr. Bluey, but she can't go into her happy dance right now. She looks at the cuffs binding him.

"Devil prism cuffs, maa, no wonder. His own power is literally eating him alive because these cuffs are suppressing it. Plus, he has a high fever and is quite malnourished. But why and how did he exert so much power."

Inyusha quickly explains about the Supreme Deity trashing his mother, then losing control of his wrath.

"His mother?" asked a surprised Hawk, realizing that Meliodas probably never knew about his mother, just like Zeldris.

Willie looks very worried. "He told me he didn't know anything about his mother. Oh my gosh, poor guy."

"Excuse me;" goes Inuyasha; "Get these cuffs off of us and get us out of here."

"Maybe we can pick the locks on the neck and ankle cuffs;" says Bluey; " They're just ordinary devil cuffs. But the wrists devil prism cuffs are the real culprits. We can't even touch them. Madame Artemis has the only key for them.

"I can do that." Willie gets out his skeleton key and hair pins he carries, adds his threads, and gets to work on the locks.

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Inside Meliodas mind, he's mostly dreaming of Elizabeth, food, and ale (occasionally his friends too), all either inside the Boar Hat or the bedroom. Something else, however, is lingering in the background, like a very faint face watching over them. As time passes, he sees the face more and more, realizing that it's the woman from his dreams, the one who looks like him! Her long, shiny blond hair, sparkling emerald eyes, and wide grin more profound than ever. Slowly, the scene shifts from feasting and partying to just Meliodas (holding a large chunk of meat even bigger then himself in one hand and a barrel of Bernia Ale in the other) and the lady standing in white light. In one arm, she's holding not one, but two bundles. One is wrapped in a red blanket, the other one in pink and light blue. The face of the one in the red blanket is revealed, it is Zeldris as a baby (no mistaking that face). The second infant's face is mostly blurred, only revealing the same emerald eyes and short hair with an auburn tent to it. Meliodas (eating and drinking while watching this) assumes the other baby is him, as he was said to have a slight red tent to his hair in when he was born (the first known picture of him was captured as a toddler). The woman looks at Meliodas and reaches out her other hand. Finally, for the first time ever in his life, the dragon sin wonders if this lady could be his mother, his and Zeldris mother!

Slowly, the heavenly scene starts to darken as the giant outline of the old demon king towers over them. Meliodas rarely dreampt of his father, even when he was alive. He drops the meat bone and barrel in terror. Suddenly, the scene shifts again. This time, it's Meliodas childhood playground in the demon realm. He's a rambunctious toddler making just way too much mischief for the two nannies trying to watch him. Then there's somebody peaking at them, or rather him, from behind a pillar. It's her, the dream lady. Baby Meliodas notices her and points with curiosity. His nannies are trying to block his view, telling him firmly not to look at that filthy human. Curiosity gets the better of him and he runs towards her. She kneels, opens her arms wide, and with tears of joy in her eyes says; "Come to Mama, Meliodas my boy."

Suddenly, Cursack appears and grabs her aggressively. Chandler grabs Meliodas. His innocent eyes meet with the lady's as she's dragged away, screaming; "Let me see him! He's my son. My boy, my boy!"

Meliodas breaks down and starts crying, both in sadness and anger.

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Back in real word, Meliodas now has tears falling down his face. Hawk thinks he hears him say Mother, but he's not sure. Willie continues working on the cuffs. It takes longer than normal, but he succeeds in removing the cuffs around Inuyasha's neck and ankles. The Japanese half-demon immediately tries to get up, but it's clear that he's weak. Bluey realizes that he has untreated injuries and tries to help him, but he stubbornly refuses treatment. Even Hawk with his improved strength after his time in purgatory can barely hold him down.

Growl!

"Your belly's grumbling too;" informs Hawk; "How long has it been since you guys eaten? And we're not food by the way?"

"None of your damn business. Just help Meliodas. I don't even like pork or hog demon meat!"

"Hog demon? I'm a purgatory hog."

"Close enough. Get off me and quite your baby, please!"

As Willie works on Meliodas' cuffs, the door opens. It's the demon slayer from earlier sneaking a meal to the prisoners. He's surprised by what he sees. "What the?" He drops the plates and takes out a couple of his weapons. Hawk appears, Melidy removed from his back, and blocks one of the slayer attacks. However, he suffers a deep cut on his right hip. He tries to ignore it when Inuyasha jumps in front of him and takes a hit.

"What are you doing you moron?" yells Hawk; "I've got this."

"NO YOU DON'T!" shouts Inuyasha as gas is released on them; "I've fought several demon slayers."

Inuyasha starts coughing and fights to keep from passing out. Hawk's not effected as badly by the gas and manages to charge at the slayer, who foolishly forgot to put his mask on 'before' throwing the bomb, and drags him out the door, which closes.

"HURRY!" shouts Inuyasha to Willie.

"He's trying!" replies Bluey. She's hitting the wall in different places. "Pinky Hawk, help me. Many of these rooms have not so secret passages to them. Hold on a minute, I reconize this room. There is no other door. We'll have to go out the front and get to the levers.

"We'll make another one." Inuyasha tries to punch a hole through the way, but they're made of some of the hardest rock and stone on Earth and are magical enhanced, not to mention the half-demon is weak, the cuffs much further restraining his strength. Hawk and Bluey shake their heads and have to get on top of Inuyasha to restrain him from doing it again. He's fighting them with all his adrenaline might, and Bluey increases her size, weight, and strength to a 5-ft tall muscle goat, her dress stretching to look like a bikini-top and not ripping at all.

Hawk and the half-demon's noses pick up an extremely foul smell coming towards the room, as well as footsteps. Plant lady Ivy Jane arrives. The wrenching purgatory stink hasn't lesson, and even the unconscious dragon sin's nose is twitching, then cringes.

"What's this?!" shouts Ivy Jane in Transylvanian Hungarian; "I don't think so."

Her vines grab Inuyasha, Bluey, and Hawk. Willie tries to put up a thread barrier, but the vine breaks right through it. As the vines start to drain their energy, Hawk's speed goes into overdrive, chewing his way out of the thick vines. The ones holding the goat and half-demon catch fire and explode. There is Bluey in her large goat form, now a walking fireball (clothes intake). "Monster ball, flame bubble."

Bluey has swallowed one of her monster balls, given her temporary power.

"Don't think your monster balls are a match for me." Ivy Jane attacks them again, sending vines into several directions. Bluey shots several bubbles with flames in them, each exploding, setting several vines on fire. Hawk sees an opening to Ivy Jane herself and gets an idea. He spins in a small high-speed maelstrom, absorbing some of the fires and hits Ivy Jane head on in the stomach, sending her crashing through the door and into a wall.

"Quick Rolling Fire Ham Attack!"

Willie finally gets Meliodas loose. He has trouble lifting him, so Hawk puts his old friend on his back, noticing that he feels lighter than he remembers. Willie grabs Melidy and everyone runs to the door. Inuyasha, with his still bond hands and wrists, stubbornly refuses help and runs out on his own, although it's apparent that he's struggling. As soon as they reach the hallway, an alarm goes off.

"What's that? asks Willie and Hawk in unison.

"Something got loose;" yells Bluey; "This way! The levers."

They follow the goat down the hall, but Bluey stops suddenly, causing everybody to bump into each other. "Maa, not again. Turn back!"

Hawk and Inuyasha can smell it, but it's not the half-demon's style to run away from a fight and he charges ahead, finding three of the same types of boars that attacked Britannia.

"What the heck are those?!" asks Hawk shaking in fear.

Before Bluey can answer, the bulls start attacking. Both Inuyasha and Hawk get slammed into the wall. Meliodas drops to the ground. Willie's threads are ineffective against those overpowered bulls, and he just barely avoids getting wrapped up in his own threads. He's able to grab the two talking animals away from the boars' mouths as they were about to get eaten. Inuyasha kicks one on the nose and just barely gets out of its way. One is about to go after Meliodas, blocking everybody's view of him. One bull suddenly traps Willie and Hawk, pinning them to the wall and driving its tusks into the wall to keep them from escaping. Another one attacks Inuyasha with its fire blasts. Fortunately, his fire rat robe protects him. He also tries to use the blasts to loosen the cuffs, unfortunately, the boar's power has no effect.

"If only I could get these stupid cuffs off. Then I could flatten these beasts.

The trapped monk and pig barely remain out of reach of the boar's sticky tongue, and he inches slightly ever towards them, so he doesn't lose his prey.

"MELIODAS, WAKE UP!" shouts Willie not really thinking.

"MELIODAS PLEASE!" yells Hawk; "WE NEED YOU BUDDY! PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT AND HELP YOUR FRIENDS!"

Bluey's about to pop a large yellow ball into her mouth, knowing the consequences involved doing so. However, a black flame suddenly hits the boar that was over Meliodas, knocking it out. Meliodas is partly sitting up, his eyes slightly open, and black as coal. He's even somehow managed to free one hand from the devil prism cuffs. He turns his head and strikes the second boar, saving Hawk and Willie.

"Meliodas!" Hawk screams excitingly. The dragon sin appears to be in a half-awake, hypnosis state, like he used to get when he lost control of himself. Except this time, he gives a little smile and thumbs up, then collapses again. The final boar turns his attention away from Inuyasha and gets ready to attack. "Leave him to me." Bluey switches pills, popping a smaller pink ball into her mouth, and suddenly grow into a muscular goat nearly the size of the boar (intact clothes even tighter). Hawk bits off a small bite of flesh from one of the other boars and changes into a miniature size raging fire boar. The goat slams into the boar, still very out matched but able to slow him down. Hawk burns its rear, which temporarily distracts it.

"Hurry this way;" shouts Bluey.

The goat leads them to a couple of hidden levers which come out from the wall. Inuyasha, who's now being dragged by Hawk, doesn't trust the goat and is protesting. Meliodas is on the pig's back. Willie, who knows he's taking his chances, has Melidy in his arm.

"Pull lever, it'll take you to safety."

"Stop talking goat." Inuyasha rudely pushes her of the way and tries to grab the right lever with his cuffed hands.

"NO not that one, maa!" yells Bluey; "The one on the left is the one we want."

"Whatever!"

"Where does that other lever go?" asks Hawk.

"Believe me you don't want to know;" answers Bluey; "I don't even know why it was installed"

Hawk pulls down the left lever, which would be next to impossible for a normal human to pull. A trap door opens and Inuyasha falls in, followed by a slash.

"Go ahead," Bluey tells Willie; "and take care of baby spotted Pinky and her dress. Maa"

Willie jumps down the hole, followed by another splash. Hawk looks at Bluey before going down. "Aren't you coming?"

"I can't fit through that hole until the monster ball wears off, maa, then I'll be too tired to move. Don't worry about me, I know these people. Just relax and let the river do all the work."

They hear, and smell, Ivy Jane and the demon slayer coming. They also hear an army of others coming to deal with the boars.

"Go."

Hawk, with Meliodas on his back, jumps into the hole. However, he gets stuck since he's still in the miniature fire boar form, which is bigger than his usual size.

"Forgive me." Bluey moves Meliodas over slightly and slaps Hawk on the back, sending them through. The trap door closes and Bluey pushes the levers back into the hidy hole. Ivy Jane and the slayer arrive and look at the goat.

"Bluey;" says the plant lady; "What's going on? Why are helping the hostages?"

"If they're hostages, why were they in confinement with no food or water, instead of VIP? What did they do that was so bad?"

Ivy Jane, who's lost her ability to reason due to Caelestis' curse, can't answer properly. "I don't know. Because Madame Artemis put them there. The demon called Meliodas badly hurt Nemesis during the raid of the Lexor demon realm."

"Bluey's baffled; "Whose Nemesis? What raid? Why would you attack the demons of Lexor? I thought they were a peaceful race."

"Because...because Madame Artemis said so that's way?"

Bluey can tell that's something's off about Ivy Jane. There's a strange aura coming from her too.

"Ivy Jane, maa, what's going on around here? Things have been off the past few days."

Bluey is suddenly hit by something. It a weapon dart from the male demon slayer. It counteracts her monster ball and she starts shrinking.

"Sorry doctor wannabe Whitney Jane Blue, it's for your own good;" grins Ivy Jane.

"HEY YOU TWO!" somebody yells from down the hall; "Quit dilly dollying and help us trap these sociopathic boars."

They leave an exhausted Bluey and join the boar fight.

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Willie, Inuyasha, Hawk, Melidy, and a still unconscious Meliodas find themselves in a gentle flowing underground river. It's fresh, pure spring water, and there's lights down here. There's also, oddly, inflatable tubes floating around.

"Why the hell did that goat...whatever she was, send us down here?" yells Inuyasha standing in almost shoulder depth water.

"Give her some credit...dude," says Hawk swimming in place; "She just saved our butts."

Willie, who's barely tall enough to stand in the water, grabs a tube. Melidy floats away from him and to the guys' amazement, she actually starts swimming.

"Melidy...you're swimming you're swimming!" exclaims an excited Hawk, accidently dropping Meliodas into the water and causing Inuyasha to grab him. "She can't even stand yet. SHE'S SWIMMING!"

"Hey, don't drop your load on me;" informs Inuyasha, holding Meliodas head above the water with his still bond hands and wrists. "And will you change your appearance, you look ridiculous like that."

Hawk looks at himself, he still looks like a miniature fire boar. "Sorry dude. I'm stuck like this until I burn off enough energy, or poop it out, or eat a piece of another magical creature."

"Never mind."

GROWLLLLLL!

That deafening growl catches everybody off guard. Meliodas, with his left hand now free, subconsciously puts his palm on his stomach and licks his lips. Half of that black mass has disappeared. Meliodas must have burned it out when he subconsciously attacked the boars and freed his hand. Unfortunately, it looks as if the blackness is consuming him again. He mumbles the words pork, ale, and cake, which make Hawk feel every uncomfortable.

Inuyasha's stomach also growls. "SHUT UP!"

"Guys;" informs Hawk; "Bluey said just float in the river and we'll be safe, so maybe we should get in those tubes and float."

Inuysusha tries to argue that's a waste of time, but he doesn't have a better idea. He puts his upper body through a tube. There's barely enough room to squeeze Meliodas in behind him, which makes the half-demon feel squashed, but at least his fellow half-demon won't slip into the water. Willie also gets into a smaller tube, which suits his small stature better. Hawk decides to float on his back and puts Melidy on his belly. However, she's reluctant to get out of the water and slips back in, forgetting her exhaustion and just wanting to play.

"By the way, where's Myoga?" asks Willie.

"Ran off somewhere away from the danger;" answers Inuyasha; "He'll show back up again eventually, he always does, that useless coward."

Hawk, who's always been insecure about his own cowardly tendencies (and covering it up with arrogant boasts), never thought he'd meet a true coward. No matter how scared or weak Hawk might get or be sometimes, he always stood up for his friends when they were in danger and faced the enemy, no matter how strong they were.

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Diane, Kagome, and 4-year-old Hana find themselves in a bitterly cold environment. They are surrounded by huge ice-covered mountains and icy ground. They aren't dressed for this weather at all. Diane is now sleeveless since she lost her sleeves in that last battle, and the thin socks and wooden sandals do little to keep her feet warm. In her natural giant size, Diane is very tolerant towards most temperatures. In human size, she much more sustainable to the cold. Little Hana is wearing an even lighter kimono then the adults wear, with only her wooden sandals and bare feet. Diane nearly freaks out when she sees that Hana's there and picks the scared child up, wrapping her arms around her to keep her warm. Kagome's school uniform provides even less protection from the cold, especially with her short skirt and long socks having fallen down to her ankles with not the warmest brown loafers.

"Inuyasha! INUYASHA!" Kagome starts to run off. Diane has no problem catching up and tries to reason with her. Kagome shouts in Japanese. They then try to make conversation with Kagome's minor, sporadic, school-girl English.

"No understand Diane. Inuyasha. Where is Inuyasha? Bad."

Kagome falls to her knees and cries. Diane understands and puts a hand on the teens shoulder. "It'll be alright Kagome. We'll find Inuyasha and King and everybody and get you back to Japan and us back to Britannia."

Kagome barely understands what the giant means, but nods. Too bad her flip cell phone doesn't work in this past era (not that anybody else has a phone to answer). For the first time, the girl from the 21st century takes a real good look at Diane. She seems familiar. But where has Kagome seen this face before? In a book or a sketch drawing? She remembers that this girl is actually a giant, and she's from Britannia, an ancient name for England, or Great Britian (whichever it is) used mostly in Arthurian legends. One of her best friends back home is a huge fan of Arthurian folklore, even belonging to an Arthurian medieval club at school. She knows just about everything there's to know about the legends and folklore of King Arthur tries to share stories and details with her friends, although they usually get bored with it all pretty quickly. Kagome usually paid little attention to her information but does recall her friend recently talking about a little-known group of seven deadly knights who had been allies to the young King Arthur. Kagome remembers a picture from her friend's sketchbook that she copied from a rare medieval picture (which actually resembles a modern-day photograph) on internet search. One of the seven people in that picture was a 30-foot-tall giantess named Diane. Other names she remembers are Harliquinn the fairy, Merlin (who was a woman instead of a guy as in traditional Arthurian lore) and Queen Elizabeth, who appeared in a different sketch with the same short-blond guy who was supposedly their leader and a king at one point (what was his name, Melvin, Mel Dust? She doesn't remember). Her friend said that this particular group and their families had disappeared from history and that there was a rumor or two that they had re-emerged recently in the modern area, supposedly released from a seal, and were hiding and living amongst modern society. One of her club members even mentioned that it would be a great idea for a manga and anime series. Kagome at the time though little of the story and thought the whole idea was ridiculous. However, she used to think the same about a manga about a girl traveling hundreds of years back in time to save her future and find her true love was ridiculous until it actually happened to her (except she denies the finding true love part).

Is it possible that this Diane (although her name is pronounced slightly differently) is the same one from the sketch and her friend's stories? Maybe it's just a coincidence. She should research that in depth the next time she returns to the future.

Kagome calls out for Inuyasha again. Diane calls out several names, including Harliquinn, Elizabeth, and Merlin, the word English word 'king' several times. Hana soon says she's cold, hungry, and wants her family. The cold is starting to get to them, and they are starting to run short of breath too. They must find shelter and help, fast.

Carmine is on her way home on her magic carpet when her magic tele-ball starts beeping. She had given one to Merlin to contact her if they ran into any trouble. The tele-line isn't coming through very well in the unusually dense fog, and she must land and return to her home to make the teleline connection. She suddenly feels the same energy disturbance that she felt the last time the gate opened. Did it just open again? Did Uba or somebody else somehow manage to open it artificially? She decides to check it out. One her way to the site, the tele-line connects, and Merlin's voice comes through.