“Use your head, Sep. Loads of wolverines. Hanging around waiting for super. Gtting excited. eating mint blasts. so what do you think they do?'it must be here. they can't have eaten that... i dunno, Nik, what do they do?'POO.”

“Oh dear," said Sarah anxiously, "I do wish he wouldn't do these silly things."I'm sure we all wish that, Sarah," said Marcia sternly. "But unfortunately he has progressed rather further than the silly stage. Evil-minded-scheming stage is more what I would call it.”

“What's a flange?" asked Marcia.A what?"A flange. It says here attatch piece Y to the long, upright D, taking care to align holes P and Q with the corrosponding holes N and O in the left-hand flange. I can't see a wrethed flange anywhere.”

“That, dillop brain, is what getting close to the Darke does. It makes you think only of yourself. It takes you away from people you care about. And now you don't have anyone to talk to and it serves you right.”

“Why?” breathed Boy 412. “Why me?”“You have astonishing Magykal power. I told you before. Maybe now you’ll believe me.” She smiled.“I—I thought the power came from the ring.”“No. It comes from you. Don’t forget, the Dragon Boat recognized you even without the ring. She knew. Remember, it was last worn by Hotep-Ra, the first ExtraOrdinary Wizard. It’s been waiting a long time to find someone like him.”“But that’s because it’s been stuck in a secret tunnel for hundreds of years.”“Not necessarily,” said Marcia mysteriously. “Things have a habit of working out, you know. Eventually.”

“You can't just rattle it off like a demented parrot.”

“Septimus was suddenly horribly afraid that the Antidote would not work. He glanced nervously at Marcia, who whispered, "It will work, Septimus. You must believe in it." Physik isn't like Magyk," said Septimus unhappily. "It doesn't matter whether you expect it to work or not. Either it does or it doesn't.""I doubt that very much," said Marcia. "A little belief in something always helps.”