Zealots: Wild eyed persons afflicted with incurable certainty about the workings of the world, a certainty that can lead to violence when the world doesn't fit.

A typical master. Right to the end, he didn’t give me a chance to get a word in edgeways. Which is a pity, because at that last moment I’d have liked to tell him what I thought of him. Mind you, since in that split second we were, to all intents and purposes, one and the same, I rather think he knew anyway.

"I warn you," the boy went on. "I am a magician of great power. I control many terrifying entities. This being you see before you" - here I rolled my shoulders back and puffed my chest up menacingly - "is but the meanest and least impressive of my slaves." Here I slumped my shoulders and stuck my stomach out.

One magician demanded I show him an image of the love of his life. I rustled up a mirror.

And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.

Her clarity gave her purpose and her purpose gave her clarity.

He was transfixed at the sight of the lords and ladies of his realm running about like demented chickens.