Again, just like Harry ... and very like some versions of 'the trickster' ... but I sincerely hope this will all have a happy ending ...(Bob back please!) the suspense is addictive ...

Oh, I love this story arch so very much... I think it might be my favorite by you, which is saying something, since I greatly enjoy all of your writing. Loki is such an enormous shit during this, pretending to be Bob, although I was right about him getting all the good lines: Ancient Mai in a tutu! Incidently, I was quite pleased to see him changing his shape around like that, since it's so prevalent in the mythology.

Ek! Sad. You did a good job. But sad!

Now, I hope that you will excuse me as I go all Professor Higgins on you, and nitpick a small and relatively unimportant (plot- and content-wise) point.

You original sentence reads: "A quick scrub and dressing later, the wizard was pouring over the first book, which was so conveniently in alphabetical order of obscure omnipotent beings."

Would be better as: "A quick scrub and dressing later, the wizard was pouring over the first book, which was so conveniently in alphabetical order, of obscure omnipotent beings." The comma separated the non-essential part of the sentence.

And should probably be: "A quick scrub and dressing later, the wizard was pouring over the first book of obscure omnipotent beings, which was so conveniently in alphabetical order." It's a little clearer this way, without the split clause. Split clauses can be okay, but right here I think that it muddles your meaning.

Now I'll stop, because this is long, but feel free to smack me if the grammatical picking gets on your nerves!