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"I'm sorry" the young man said "I've never heard of it".

The Precentor smiled "Of course you have'nt." He half filled two of his
notoriously small glasses with wine and handed one to the young man, who took it as
if the stem were red hot " For one thing, it doesn't exist".

The young man looked at him unhappily "Ah" he said.

"At least" the Precentor went on "we believe it doesn't exist. We hope like hell it
doesn't exist. If it does ." he produced a synthetic shudder of horror that turned
into a real one.

The young man put his glass down carefully on the table "Is it some kind of
weapon?"

The Precentor couldn't help smiling "Quite the reverse" he said "That's the whole
point. Locria is completely harmless, you might say, it is a defence"

"ah"

"A total defence" the Precentor stopped and watched. He'd chosen young Framea for
his intelligence and perceptiveness. This could be a test for him.

He passed.

"A total defence. against everything? all known forms?"

The Precentor nodded slowly "all known forms. physical weapons too. And fire,
water, death by suffocation, and falling from great heights. Possibly some diseases
too. We don't know"

"That would be .. " Framea frowned, and the Preceptor imagined a great cloud of
implications filling the younger man's mind. He didn't envy him that." That could
be bad." He said.

"Extremely. An individual he couldn't harm or kill. Therefore outside our control.

Even if he were a mediocre adept with limited power, knowledge of the basic
offensive forms together with absolute invulnerability, it doesn't bear thinking
about. Even if his intentions were benign to begin with, the mere possession of
such power would inevitably turn him into a monster. Hence ..." he said gently "our
concern".

"But I still don't quite " Framea looked at him, reminding him vaguely of a sheep
"If it doesn't exist..."

"Ah" the Preceptor held up a hand "that is the question isn't it? All we know is
that it *could* exist. Blemmyes, a hundred and seventy years ago proved that it
*could* exist. His reasoning and his mathematics has been rigorously examined and
found to be perfect. There is a potential for such a form. Of course no one has
been able to produce it. ...."

"you mean people have tried?"

The Preceptor nodded slowly "Unofficially you might say, but yes. Well, you can see
the temptation would be irresisitable. Some of the finest minds. Thankfully, none
of them succeeded. Several of them, indeed, wrote papers outlining their
researches, basically arguing if they couldn't do it, nobody could. Flawed logic,
you'd agree but when you are dealing with men of such exceptional vanity. ..."

"I think I see" Framea interrupted "Trained adepts have tried, using proper
scientific method,and they've all failed. But an untrained ..."

Exactly. The Preceptor was relieved, he'd been right about the boy after all. "An
untrained might well succeed where an adept would fail because the untrained ofter
posses a degree of intuitive power, that tends to atrophy during the course of
formal education. An untrained might succeed simply because he doesn't know it is
impossible.

Framea nodded eagerly " And an untrained by definition. ..."

"Quite. Unstable. probably mentally disturbed by the power inside him which he
doesn't understand or know how to control, if not already malignant by nature, he
would rapidly become so. And with Lorica, ... really it doesn't bear thinking
about."

There was a long pause and then Framea said "And you want *me* to ...."