I looked from one to the next, and said, “I am Seth Connors. Lord of House Ursae.”Everyone looked at one another, but made no comment on my procla...mation. Lucie said, “You say Lady Pendergraft may suffer from Magical influence. How do you know?”“I don’t,” I said. “It’s possible she’s only been threatened.”“Threatened by whom?” Kurtis asked stepping closer to stand near Lucie. He had a bit of an accent, possibly British, but I wasn’t sure.“The caster of the Lockdown, Valory Rosenbaum,” I said. “I. I competed for the town swimming club at every age group from 10 to 16 years old and I wasn’t bad, as it happens (as I say, more of that later). I must have been quite young, 11 or 12 perhaps, when Dad said ‘take a look at the opposition, work out who the real competition is, and then feel sorry for them, because you are going to win today, not them’. It didn’t always work, of course, but as a way of strengthening my resolve, not to mention my self-confidence, it became something of a mantra. . .. something like that. It'sfun."'Oh, I'd love that," I said, in as friendly a voice as possible. "Oh,and you must come to our house warming when we get settled into our newplace!" Yes, we will. That would be lovely. Thank you!" She smiled."Well, our car is here," Opie smiled. "Jean, it was lovely to meet you.Brad, see you Monday."We all said our goodbyes and headed out the door. When we were out ofearshot, Opie asked, "I'm sorry about that. I had no idea that I'd meetanyone from work here.". I wore some rather short shorts, and a wife beater. She gave me one of his sweatshirts to wear. He's a solid guy, so with the sweatshirt on, you couldn't really see the shorts underneath. He was sitting in a recliner in their living room and I plopped on the other recliner on the same wall. She was still getting her clothes on and he was looking at me, all legs in his living room. "You know she wants to kiss you, right?" he said, smiling and sipping on his margarita. I was a little shocked, yet.