"I wish Nora was here."
The body swapped Jack appeared in the room. She was facing the other way and didn't seem confused over the sudden teleport.
"Ah, have I disturbed you?" asked Lucius.
"You made me come all the way here and I need the help of your guards to even walk all the way..." said Nora. "Of course you disturbed me."
"What?" replied Lucius. "Oh, right. The stone changes reality--there was an explanation why you're here, you thought you had walked. No matter. I brought you here because we're trying to figure out what to do with you. My fiancee has suggested you be a waitress. But I had other ideas in mind."
Nora/Jack looked over at Jon skeptically, but Jon guessed she assumed there was some sort of plan. Her grandfather knew better than to say "Jon would never do this to his grandfather" or anything else that would cast suspicion on either of them. "Ideas?" she said.
"Yes, ideas. But first, now that I have the stone and I can force you not to lie, I want you to tell me why you betrayed me all that time ago.
Jon could only listen as her grandfather began, in the voice of Lucius's ex-girlfriend, an explanation that must have been thought up in advance. "When I first saw the idol, I was just an anthropology student who had been shown a piece of rock. I was studying how tribes used witchcraft, so I knew the legend, but I didn't think it had any real power. Who would? So I made a wish as a joke, saying 'I wish I'm an evil genius who wants to conquer the world'. Once I did that, everything changed. Then I met you and of course it meant I would betray you some day."
"What? You lie. I wish you'd tell me if that's true."
"It's true."
"It's true? All of it? I wish you'd tell me!"
"It's true."
Jon had already known that the stone considered Nora/Jack to be Nora to the point of allowing wishes that name Nora to affect her. Apparently this also let her use the word "I". Other than that, it was only a little bit surprising, since Jack hadn't told Jon the full story. But the effect on Lucius was different.
"But that means you only betrayed me because of a wish." DeMorrell raised his voice, nearly yelling. "You only even met me because of a wish. It's not your fault. None of it! This changes everything." He paced the floor, saying "What shall I do?"
"Send me home?" said Nora.
"You'd want that," said Lucius. "To go home and plot and scheme. But it's not your fault that you want that. I shouldn't have done what I did--yes, Jon, your evil fiance is sorry for something. You're not going to become a waitress, Nora. And Jon will have no reason to get jealous, if she's not just playing games with me, that is. Now, Nora, I wish you'd fall asleep and stay that way long enough for me to make my wish."
The girl, once Jon's grandfather, suddenly yawned, sat down on the ground, and collapsed.
"Now," continued Lucius, "Here's my wish. Nora will be exactly the same as Nora from before she made that unfortunate wish, both mentally and physically, except that her life continued without me, Jack Merlin, the idol, or any scheming involving that. She will be at home now. She is an evil genius who wants to conquer the world, but only in a play, which will finish without problems. This stone will teleport to any places it needs to teleport to for it to change reality to fit that. I wish for all that."
He held out his hand with the stone. Nora's belly shrank, and her clothes became less disheveled. Then she disappeared. A moment later, the stone disappeared.
Several moments later, long enough that if Jon had made a wish he wouldn't have been able to keep the same breath, the stone reappeared. "I know what you are thinking, Jon," said Lucius. "Well, you don't always get what you want. And I suppose, neither did I. I won't take revenge on a girl who didn't betray me of her own free will. But then, both of us got something of what we wanted. I washed my hands of Nora, and you no longer have Nora as your rival. I don't believe you're really jealous; you just want me to treat you better. I bet it hasn't occurred to you that if you say you want to have my children, I just need to wish that you really want to. You can hardly complain that I'm altering you to do what you said you want to do anyway, if you're not lying of course.
"Now," said DeMorrell, "we've got something coming up regardless of anything else. I already wished you'd marry me. The birth should be in about a month and a half, but I want to have the wedding before that. You're not going to be a single mother."
"What do you have planned?" asked Jon.
"Oh, just a small private ceremony. And a small celebration with some of my closest allies. They've already been informed--I'm sorry you're the last to know. I regret that I'll have to postpone the honeymoon. Now, shall we get you in your wedding gown?"
