The Magister's ghostly pale face is frozen in a cheerless smile of disbelief. He has never dealt with such insolence, such reckless and willful defiance of vampire law. And by the very logic of this law, Russell's 'request,' if meted out with haste and the ill-conceived foundation on which it is based, the Magister himself would be under scrutiny of the Authority.

As he wanders over to the slab, where he sees Eric has not taken the chains off of Pam, he attempts to explain,

"I am forbidden to conduct any rights of alignment unless specifically authorized--"