Rieber's run also contained several stories about the need to stay connected with the world that you live in. Several of his characters, including Tim, seek to avoid their problems in the real world by escaping into fantasy, but Rieber later explained "Wishing never solves anything in the Books. Have you noticed? At best, it gets you into trouble. About the only thing you can do in the Books that's more dangerous than wishing is surrendering to fantasies that others have constructed. The first of these characters living in another's fantasy is introduced in "The Hidden School": playing on the suggestion in the original miniseries that Tim could grow to be a force for good or for evil, Rieber introduces a future version of the magician - Sir Timothy Hunter - who has tortured multiple versions of Molly all his life, after coming under the sway of the demon Barbatos. Sir Timothy is under the mistaken impression that he is Barbatos' master and that he lives in grand luxury, when in truth Barbatos is manipulating him for his own ends and Sir Timothy lives in a cardboard box in a back alley.