Chapter 1: Time off.
Miss Constance Hardbroom was looking forward to relaxing, enjoying the fact that Cackle's was empty once more for the summer holidays. Peace. Quiet. Not even any teachers around to dismay and annoy her. Some might question the oddity of remaining at the school all alone for the entire summer, but she had no place else to go and it gave her an opportunity to work on a seminar she would give. The Witches Council had invited her back to lecture next summer. So far she was stuck on a topic, but she was sure one would reveal itself to her before the year was out.
And really was there any better way to relax then curled up in a chair with a book? She pondered as she browsed the shelves of the library. She had read every book in it but that just allowed her greater knowledge of which book she wanted to read. Her eyebrows knotted as she thought her way through the library's catalogue but couldn't pick out anything particular. She decided to go down into the storage room underneath the library, perhaps one of the older books they kept down there would satisfy.
Her first thought when she opened the hatch door was to set lines for the DOB Society, 'I must leave a room in a useable condition once I have finished with it.' There were cushions and bits of stringed lights everywhere, even a broken set of speakers which she instantly puffified in disgust. The deputy head-mistress might be in less formal attire; her hair was in a loose ponytail and hung in folds around her face, her black dress had been swapped for loose black trousers and a baggy dark indigo silk shirt, but she had not lost her standards. Flicking her long hair over her shoulder she began clearing up. Really, Miss Drill should've checked the state of the room before we sent the girls home for the summer! Then they could've been made to tidy it. She grumbled half-heartedly, straightening a lampshade as she made her way to the bookshelves at the back of the room.
Glancing down the shelves, she spotted a book on the origin myths of magic and her mouth twitched. She had always enjoyed the fantastic ideas people had, non-magic and magic people alike. As she pulled it gently from the shelf, a thin red book fell off as well. Arching an eyebrow she picked it up as well. The Labyrinth? She raised both eyebrows at the title. Perhaps something to do with Minos? She jack-knifed her body onto one of the sofas and opened the red book. Ignoring the "once upon a time" opening she snorted as the heroine of the story wished away her younger brother to the Goblins. Perhaps I should try doing that with some of the girls here. A new form of detention. Her mouth twitched again at her humour. Hmph. I wish…and then she stopped herself. She'd lived long enough in the world of magic to know that even if something appeared to be a fairy tale, you didn't start wishing for things. She recalled her grandmother's maxim. "Careful what you wish for, my girl. Wishing has a very bad habit of coming true on you!"
The book began to bore her; the heroine was whiny and childish. Of course life's not fair, you little brat! Constance tutted and threw the book back towards the bookshelf. It did not slide neatly back into its place as she'd intended, instead falling open on the floor. Constance sighed and got up to place it back on the shelf. Magic must be slipping. It's what comes from relaxing too much. As she bent down to pick it up her eyes were arrested by the picture page the book had fallen open on. It showed a flamboyant man…No, not man. She saw the ears. The inscription at the bottom read "The Goblin King."
"The Goblin King, hnm?" her lips pursed in disapproval. He looked more arrogant than 'Helliboring' and more evil than Miss Cackle's twin sister, but not half as idiotic as either of them. Despite his bird's nest of hair, he looked someone to be reckoned with. Constance shivered slightly and then snapped the book shut and returned it to the shelf, shaking herself as she stalked back to the book of myths on the sofa, putting the book and the Goblin King as far out of her mind as she could.