satisfiedI just got to write the line of dialogue:
"I don't expect that you fear me most, only that you fear me enough," Mallory said smoothly. "Your unreasoning panic at my arrival was quite sufficient."
Reason #3,263.b. to hate my subconscious
This particular character is not actually named Mallory. "The Archon," as I refer to him elsewhere, drops by Earth for a friendly visit with one of his charges and takes the form of a policeman seen in one of the other plotlines. I needed a throwaway name for the policeman today and my subconscious helpfully supplied one. About an hour later, my conscious brain finished a long, slow double-take and said "Waaaaaait!"
Backstory: The Archon is a character that in his original incarnation in my brain was inspired by the Fisher King from the graphic novel "Mage: The Hero Discovered." Which is an adapted retelling of "Le Morte d'Arthur." Which was written by ...
Thomas Malory.
And so we come full circle.