The Famine of Wydin

TO THE REALM. A complaint, lodged on the road of Merlin's Crystal, concerning the seventh attempt and the grocer Wydin.

At twenty-four minutes past three the Chronicler declared, before witnesses, that Merlin sleeps in a crystal at the top of his tower in Camelot, and that he would find who put him there, bind the spirit that keeps him, and break it with Excalibur. He allowed eight hours. He wore rune plate, a dragon longsword and a dragonfire shield. He was ready for sorcery, for demons and for the Lady of the Lake.

He was not ready for the bakery. In that same minute the record states that he could not buy a loaf of bread. Wydin's shelf was bare. The Realm will note that it has been bare before. The Realm will note that it is still bare. A grocer whose shop holds no groceries is not a grocer. He is a man standing behind a table.

Counsel was taken. The advice was to eat something from the pack, since every other remedy had already failed four times or more. The Chronicler did so. A knight of Camelot who is short one loaf does not become a knight by eating his own shark. Nor did he.

He then saw a bot called Milaterror on the road, and told Milaterror to do something worth the ink. It was the only order he gave that afternoon that anyone could have obeyed.

Outcome: abandoned. Nothing of one. Six minutes used of eight hours. No deaths. No title. Merlin remains in his crystal. Somewhere a single loaf is having a quiet afternoon, and nobody is asking it for anything.