[ WP ] Finally , after years of searching , you have found the source of magic that was sealed away in the ancient past ! However , just as you are about to undo the seal , you spy some ancient text ...

I had finally figured it all out - and Roland was not there! It was rare for the old scholar to be out of his study on an afternoon like this. He had even left the outside door open, and his black cat Bayard was idly stalking a frog that had just wandered in. I threw Bayard into the library, the frog back outside, closed the door, and sank into the plushy armchair holding tightly to the ancient box. 
 
 The long years of our search passed in front of my eyes as I closed them. I had n't thought much of Professor Roland back when I first met him - and he had a terrible reputation among my peers to boot. Who even studies Medieval Latin these days? I was practically forced into his class after a drunken bout made me miss all other opportunities to satisfy that last, pesky distribution requirement. But when he showed up with his long white beard, calm demeanor, and the only extant copy of a breathtaking illuminated manuscript - I was instantly hooked. Has it really been 15 years of poring over old tomes together? It felt more like a single semester. 
 
 `` And that semester is almost over'' I thought proudly while looking at the old box in my lap. Just imagine the look on Roland's face when I tell him that I, his best student and intellectual heir, had figured out how to unseal it! Looking at it, the handiwork of Aelfgar of Lindisfarne was very pretty indeed. His contemporaries had acclaimed him as the last true wizard - and it showed. The careful engravings of angels, demons, pentagrams and other occult symbols were interspersed with knobs and protrusions that made the box look almost like the cockpit controls of a modern space shuttle. You could pull and turn and change the configuration in myriad different ways. But you had to be careful with such an old artifact. Aelfgar had made three of them, and only two were still extant. We had found them last summer in the claustrophobic confines of an attic in an old English abbey. It was really no problem to get them loaned for research - the parson did not even know he had them, much less appreciated their true value. 
 
 But where was that Roland already?! It's been almost an hour - and I just could n't wait to tell him my brilliant idea. It had been suggested by our conversation the night before, really. Roland had casually mentioned his finding that Aelfgar had been a follower of Saint Aedelberht; and as I was sleeping last night my mind's eye had put two and two together, and realized that the symbols on the box were actually the same as those in the Aedelberht Manuscript, which had deeply puzzled Roland and me not three years back. Checking my notes this morning confirmed it - the Manuscript was the key to opening Aelfgar's boxes! As my mentor was notorious for holding on to loaned materials, I had little doubt that the Aedelberht Manuscript was still in his possession. 
 
 Impatience got the best of me at this point, and I started pacing around the room. Sheer boredom made me notice a tome that was slightly out of place on my mentor's desk. There was a pentagram on the cover and... by Jove, if it's not the Aedelberht Manuscript itself! I smiled triumphantly at my good fortune. Last night's discussion had made Roland retrieve it, and here was the answer to all my fervent wishes! 
 
 Should I wait for the old man? But who knows when he might be back. For all I know it will be another two hours - and in the meanwhile here I am with the old box and the manuscript! I might as well try it - if it works I'll show him how to open his own box. With feverish hands I follow the instructions in the old tome, pressing knobs and turning dials. What incredible works of art or wisdom might be sealed inside these amazing boxes! The thoughts rush through my head as I approach the end of the long sequence. A final turn, and... is this real?! 
 
 The box slowly rises up into the air, slowly dissolving as rays of light stream out of it and into my very soul it seems. I can feel something incredibly good and powerful coursing through my veins... it feels amazing. I can feel... MAGIC!?! Aelfgar... he was truly the last wizard... it was his very power that he sealed inside these boxes!!... and now it's mine... all mine... it's IN ME! I point my hand at the heavy armchair I used a few minutes ago... and it rises up into the air, obeying my will perfectly. 
 
 I am... a wizard. Yeah, me - who would have thought?! Even the crusty old tome makes sense now. It talks to me about ways to use the power... I effortlessly absorb all its wisdom... it talks about... WHAT?! `` After the ritual is complete, you must recite this incantation while burning the hair of a black cat and the puff of a dandelion. If you do not do so then all your power will seep away and you will turn into...'' 
 
 BAYAAARD! As I storm into the library I lift the tomcat effortlessly with a surge of my power, and then rush towards Roland's garden. I open the door and see it right there while I feel my power draining away - it's a dandelion - it's... it's... it's... 
 
 My thoughts stream out my my head as they get replaced by a single sound. 
 
 RIBBIT
