There are places here that might be different from what you remember. This underwent heavy editing, cos every time I opened this story and compared these ancient chapters to my new ones, I cried.
"Well," Calcifer said into the silence, "That was certainly an interesting sight to wake up to."
"Oh, be quiet!" Sophie snapped as she stalked to the chair to collect her books. "You don't get to complain. Saying that you woke to something implies that you sleeping, and I did precious little of that last night!" She knew that she sounded petulant and rather Howl-like, but she thought that she was entitled. She was rapidly developing a headache, and chills were running up and down her spine. She arranged her things within easy reach on the workbench. "Come make sure that I've gotten everything right." Calcifer leapt out of the grate, glanced at the underlined bits in each volume, and barely looked at her notes.
"That looks like everything." he said, bobbing back to the grate without another word to finish his log. Sophie decided that he wasn't helpful at all, and finished her preparations by herself.
The idea seemed to be that one could look into their body, as though skin was transparent, and then use magic to repair damage or drive out illness, if one knew what they were looking for. The pages containing the spell were filled with warnings against messing about with things when you didn't know what they did; the results could be fatal. That was why Sophie had the anatomy book. However, the spell required an almost trancelike state of concentration in order to maintain a link between the eyes and the image, and the smaller the problem, the greater the focus was required to sustain the connection. Therefore, an infection required a deeper awareness than, say, repairing a broken bone. Sophie wasn't at all sure that she could maintain the focus required, but there was nothing wasted in trying. She reviewed her notes one last time.
The door to the yard suddenly flew open and Howl reappeared, attempting to hold onto the myriad pieces of his half assembled divination spell. He kicked the door shut and made his way over to her, water dripping from the ends of his hair.
"Is it raining again?" she asked, moving a book out of harm's way as he dropped the entire pile onto the workbench. Market Chipping had had a very wet autumn this year. He shook his head briefly, sending water droplets flying.
"It's snowing."
"Already?" Sophie couldn't help wrinkling her nose just a little in disgust. She should've expected it; it was nearly December after all. But she hated snow, though Howl's expression when he'd received a snowball to the face and another down his shirt last year had almost been worth being outside.
"I remained outside for as long as I could bear it for your sake," he added, inclining his head nobly, "But in the end it was simply too much for me. I content myself with the thought that though I may catch pneumonia and die tomorrow, at least I left you in peace. I hope that after my death you can manage to look back upon me favorably." Then, less nobly, he brushed her braid aside and applied one freezing hand to the back of her neck. Sophie squeaked in surprise and shoved him, jerking away.
"If you intend on sharing this workbench with me, you're going to have to keep your icicles to yourself." she huffed, as she moved her things to the opposite end of the workbench and carefully rearranged them. With Howl there, she was going to have to refocus herself, and that would take ages. At least, she thought as she watched him organize the parts to the spell with some logic which only he understood, her spell didn't require her to build a vessel in which to store it. That in addition to everything else would have been far too much to manage all at one time. He seemed to be taking an unusual amount of care with this spell, presumably to prove to the King that he knew what he was doing. Normally, he couldn't be so neat about spellwork if his life depended on it.
"If you were to die of pneumonia tomorrow," Sophie asked, carefully keeping her eyes on her book, "How many funerals would I need to organize? And which would we have first?" Howl made a wordless sound of irritation, and from then on seemed bent on ignoring her, which meant that he probably wouldn't bother her until she was finished.
Selecting the cupboard door as a focus object, Sophie settled her gaze there and began taking deep, measured breaths. She let her sight blur and forced her mind into blankness. Her senses slowly dulled and faded away, leading her into a black emptiness. She made the few necessary gestures to state her intent. An image was just beginning to form itself in the blackness behind her eyes when she felt her spell disintegrating. Despite her best efforts, she found herself returned to the present. Her eyes cleared and she stared at Howl in confusion.
You had your eyes closed." he said. He sounded unnaturally loud after the utter silence of the void that she'd been in.
"You ended my spell to tell me that my eyes were closed?" Sophie asked incredulously, "I thought you had to get up early to go to the King, not watch my casting technique." This sounded like the beginning of a most promising argument.
Howl, however, didn't seem interested in taking the bait. "You know better."
That was true enough. From the beginning, Sophie had closed her eyes while working more complicated spells, in order to focus. Howl's argument was that she couldn't very well do that during a time when she needed to be aware of her environment, while Sophie had pointed out that it was unlikely that she'd ever be in a duel. She'd been able to argue the point with some success until a Strangian spy had attempted to kidnap her in order to convince Howl to, if not switch sides altogether, then at least stop helping Ingary. She'd worked more diligently to cure her habit after that. However, this time Sophie thought that she might have found an exception.
"Would I want to do that for a spell I cast on myself? Not disguise; directed inward. It takes a lot of concentration to focus in two directions at once." She was genuinely interested. This was a type of magical theory that she'd never touched.
Howl came to look over her shoulder. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes." he said at last, "Since this spell could also be used on another person, you need to be able to direct the magic in any direction. I've never used this one, actually. What are you doing with it?"
Sophie hesitated for what she knew was a second too long before she spoke.
"Err—." One of Howl's eyebrows slowly slid upwards. She sighed resignedly. "I'm trying it out on myself. I've caught whatever you and Michael had, and I'd rather not keep it." Howl promptly began to make some protest about performing such a spell when she wasn't completely well. "Don't!" She cut him off sharply, "I am going to do this. This is what it's meant for. It'll be fine. Besides, you're here to stop me if it goes wrong." Howl still looked unhappy as he went back to the other side of the workbench, but Sophie ignored him. He looked unhappy often enough for her to be quite used to it.
"Bother!" she muttered to a book, "This means that I have to start over, doesn't it? Well, fine then. This time I'll get the spell started even faster, see if I don't!" She thought that she might have seen Howl smile out of the corner of her eye, but she was too busy breathing to pay much attention.
She achieved senselessness quickly, and the image formed again. Sophie could suddenly see the inside of her entire body, dark as it must be underneath her skin, every bit of it pulsing with activity and life. It was fascinating, but she soon discovered that if her attention faltered at all, the spell began to fall apart. Putting the prospect of exploration aside, she set to work, reaching her magic into herself, focusing closer and deeper to draw the illness out and away. It wasn't a long process, but a draining one. Sophie felt her concentration waver several times near the end. Since there all sorts of tiny, glowing things floating about inside of her, it was difficult to keep herself from removing something she shouldn't. Her magic worked with her body to speed the natural healing process along, and she was soon finished.
Howl hadn't done much of anything on his spell in the meantime. In fact, she became self aware again only to find him watching her without even pretending to work.
"How long did that take?" she asked, leaning surreptitiously on the workbench for support. She hadn't expected the spell to be such tiring work.
"Not very long. You didn't even blink. Did it work?" Sophie took a mental inventory of her condition and was pleasantly surprised to discover that she felt better. Her chills and aches had vanished, and so had the churning in her stomach, which she had been barely aware of until it was gone. Sophie grinned. With the immediate problem solved, exploration beckoned.
"I think that I'm going to try it again." she decided aloud, starting to gesture again. Howl frowned in surprise.
"It didn't work then?"
"Of course it did!" she said with a touch of asperity, "I followed the directions, didn't I? I just want to look some more." Howl shrugged and made a show of looking away, reaching for some bit of wire and painstakingly attaching it to the growing structure. Sophie shook her head and let herself fall into nothing again.
It was much easier to maintain the spell when she was only looking, rather than manipulating. Sophie took the time to watch her own heart pump blood through her veins, see her throat swallow reflexively, and even look at her eyes from the inside, observing the way the pupils dilated and contracted. From there, she traveled up and down the length of herself, venturing inside organs, trying to guess what she was looking at and what it did. Periodically, she would break the spell and look things up in the book, comparing what she had seen with the pictures. Traveling back and forth also allowed her the chance to see Howl work at his spell, which grew a bit every time she returned. He was putting an unusual amount of effort into it; while it wasn't one of the perfectly constructed art forms that Michael routinely produced, it was far neater than he usually bothered to be.
Eventually, Sophie found that she didn't know where she was. It wasn't clearly evident from looking around her what this particular part did. Nothing seemed to be happening. A more thorough examination revealed a strange little lump protruding from the wall, glowing with a soft pulsing light that meant that it was responding to her magic. She was immediately worried. The book containing the spell had discussed the formation of growths or lumps inside. They could be very dangerous, and Sophie felt a pang of anxiety. She resolved not to panic until she knew what it was.
She reached out uncertainly and fed a bit of magic into the oddly shaped growth. To her shock, her tentative attempt was rebuffed; the magic was reflected back vigorously. Sophie decided to use her own particular brand of magic instead. With much practice, she had strengthened her natural gift of talking life into things. Only another person could resist the call of her power; a mysterious growth, no matter how frightening, should pose no problem.
This time, Sophie reached out forcefully and willed the lump to reveal its purpose. Even as the full force of her magic came back, knocking her spell down around her, Sophie had her answer. Nothing had changed since last she checked. Only humans could defend against her particular brand of magic. And she wasn't resisting her own.
Sophie snapped back to consciousness and had a split second to see Howl openly gaping at her before the strength of the expelled magic doubled her over like a physical blow. She took the opportunity to sink to her knees and take a moment to absorb what she'd learned, trembling from head to toe. Cautiously, she moved to stand, and found it more difficult than she anticipated. Howl was already beside her and lifted her to her feet, holding her tightly when she wobbled. After a minute or two of just breathing deeply, she leaned back, trying to keep her tone light.
"How's the spell coming?" Honestly, even her voice was shaking. This was ridiculous. Howl didn't seem to hear her.
"Are you going to stand on your own now?" he asked. Sophie let go of him and took an experimental step backwards, nodding once it was clear that despite some lingering discomfort in her stomach, she wasn't going to fall over. She passed a hand over the place absently, soothing the pain away.
"Right then," he said briskly, "Sophie, while I was building the spell—"
"I didn't do anything!" she immediately rose to her own defense. "I was doing my own! One little incident and now whenever something goes wrong, it's always my fault-"
"It always is." he interrupted, "But that's not the point. Do you remember how one goes about building a divination spell?"
That was a silly question. Of course she did. Once a divination spell with all of its complexities was completed, only one question could be asked of it. This was why Howl, Michael, and Ben spent so much time building them. However, in beginning stages, to make certain it was being put together correctly, the caster could ask simple questions. They received brief, disjointed bits of information until the all of the pieces were spelled together, which allowed for a more complex response. At her nod, Howl continued, but with a most peculiar tone to his voice.
"I tested it by asking what you were looking at. There were several things which made no sense at all, and at the very end of it, there was an image of you standing—well, rather like you are now, actually—" he paused and glanced downwards meaningfully. Sophie followed his gaze, made the disconcerting discovery that she still had both of her hands pressed low against her stomach. She immediately clasped them behind her back, "But with a bit… more to you than there is now. Have you…perhaps…come to the same conclusion?" By the time he was finished, he seemed to have gone a bit hoarse.
It took a moment for Sophie to work out exactly what he meant. Once she did, she was so surprised at first that she couldn't do much more than stammer out a "Yes, just now." After she stopped to consider it, she realized what Howl had done. It was just like him to get it backwards! He might be from a land of all sorts of strange ideas, but they were in Ingary now, and in Ingary it was the mother's right to tell the father, when and only when she was prepared to. Or, in this case, when and only when she found out. Fisting her hands on her hips, she fixed him with her most blistering glare.
"This is all wrong! Don't you know how this works? This is not something that you are supposed to tell me! Honestly, leave it to you to mess up such a simple thing!" If she could've produced slime of any color at that moment, she would have. But Howl was curiously unaffected by her raging, even for him. He was staring as though he'd never seen her before. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before snapping it shut again with a shake of his head. "Well? What? Is there anything else I didn't know?"
Howl shook his head again. "Nothing important." He bent down and, to her surprise, placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "I need to go… take care of something now." Wearing a stunned expression similar to when Sophie had hit him with the pan, he turned and walked shakily toward the door. He didn't touch the still incomplete divination spell.
"What about the King?" Sophie asked, a tiny tendril of alarm beginning to unfurl inside of her.
"He won't notice. He's swamped with appointments right now anyway." He assured her, smiling weakly. "I shouldn't be too long, cariad." Howl opened the door and went out slowly, only just remembering to shut the door behind him.
Sophie stared after him in confusion, unheeding of Calcifer's demands for an explanation. Three things had been seriously wrong with that exchange. Howl hadn't spoken his mind immediately when she'd practically invited him to. He had called her cariad, which he reserved for serious occasions. And, somehow, the most distressing of all was the kiss. He hadn't, she thought, touching a fingertip to the spot, kissed her like that since she first let him kiss her properly. She idly wondered where he'd gone for long minutes, before she had the presence of mind to look at the knob above the door.
It was black down.
Sophie didn't have to wonder what Howl's business in Wales was. He was obviously going out to either get himself drunk or walk around for hours, depending on how much this news had distressed him. Oddly, she wasn't particularly saddened or upset by his reaction. Rather, she felt herself filling with a growing anger. They had discussed this, had lifted the spell over her last spring, and now he had to go convince himself that it wasn't actually happening. He hadn't even remembered to change his clothes first. The nerve! He might've at least pretended to be pleased! Her fury welled inside of her until she thought that she'd be sick with it. After a moment, she realized that that was exactly what was going to happen. Sophie borrowed several of Martha's favorite words as she spun on her heel and fled into the bathroom, pulling the door only half shut on her way.
As she retched miserably, she took the time to revise her thoughts. She had obviously been wrong to place the blame on Martha before obtaining all of the facts. Between bouts, Sophie rested her head on the cool tile floor and ordered her stomach to settle itself, but to no avail. Whenever she began to calm, she'd think of Howl and be sick all over again.
"This isn't fair!" Sophie panted to her white faced reflection, "He goes out to get drunk, and I'm left with the hangover!" She had discovered a distinct disadvantage to floor-to-ceiling mirrors: no matter how she angled her head, she could clearly see how terrible she looked. At least she'd tied her hair back this morning. She certainly didn't need to deal with that on top of everything else.
Eventually there was simply nothing left in her stomach, and after a few minutes of stillness Sophie carefully climbed to her feet. When her stomach continued to behave itself she breathed a sigh of relief and began to pull herself together. She ran a damp cloth over her face and neck and rebraided her hair, and rinsed out her mouth. After a moment's thought, Sophie turned and studied at her profile in the mirror. She searched for any physical change, and concluded that she looked just about the same as she always had. Though not, she thought, for much longer. A smile tugged at her lips in spite of herself.
She was finishing a large glass of water when the door creaked open the rest of the way. She turned to find Howl standing warily in the doorway. Sophie stared at him over the rim of her glass, searching for anything vaguely resembling remorse. When she found nothing of the sort, her stomach contracted painfully and she turned away, retching all over again. She reached out blindly with one hand to set her glass on the vanity; she got it there, but the glass was too close to the edge. She distantly heard the sound of it breaking and hoped that the sight of her had been enough to keep Howl away until she could control her stomach again.
Finally, Sophie lay stretched out on the floor, staring at the ceiling.
"I think I felt better when I thought I was just sick." she told it. "It was stupid of me not to figure it out. That lump looked like…" she paused a moment before she said it out loud, "…like a baby. How did I not realize?"
"No point in worrying about it now." Howl suddenly appeared in her field of vision and sat down beside her. It was an odd sight; he immaculately dressed in his new blue and silver suit, sitting cross-legged on the bathroom floor. He urged her to sit up.
"I was comfortable." Sophie protested uselessly. Her vision swam for a moment once she was upright again, so she moved until she was able to lean against his back. Once she was settled, he reached around awkwardly and pressed a glass into her hands. There was no broken glass in evidence, so she assumed that he had repaired the one that she'd dropped.
"I don't suppose you washed it." she murmured as she raised it to her lips. The contents was ridiculously sweet, brightly colored, and it fizzed. Something from his world, then.
"It should settle your stomach." he assured her. It was so unusually thoughtful of him that Sophie decided to pretend that she hadn't noticed his slithering.
"Is this the first time, or have you been sick before and I just didn't notice?"
"Only just now, and while you were gone. I'd bet that if I hadn't figured out that I…if I hadn't figured it out today, I would've escaped morning sickness altogether." she felt Howl shrug. "How long were you gone?"
"No more than an hour. I told you that I wouldn't be long. I just wanted to see about taking you to a doctor and getting looked at."
"What? Why? Can't we just do that here?" Whether it was Ingary or Wales, a doctor was a doctor, and she hated them all. She felt Howl take a breath to argue and she cut him off.
"That took you an hour?" She could see his face in the reflection of the mirror she faced, and an almost guilty expression had flitted across his features.
"I stopped for a drink on my way back." he said, and catching her frown in the mirror, added irritably, "Stop that! One drink, Mrs. Abolition, no more. The man almost wouldn't let me have one. He thought that I was drunk already. Once I explained myself, I got one for free. Useful trick, that; I'll have to remember it." At her questioning look he elaborated. "Apparently, I was walking about with such an odd look on my face that he thought that I'd already had a few drinks. When I told him about you, he said that anyone in my position would do the same thing, so he let me have it. He says congratulations, by the way."
Sophie caught herself before she smiled. He hadn't been upset, then. "You might have told me where you were going," she suggested testily, "Rather than leaving me wondering if you were coming back today. And saying that you were happy about this wouldn't have hurt, either." She took another sip from her glass with a grimace, and almost choked on Howl's unexpectedly direct answer.
"Well, of course I am. Don't be silly. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Don't ask me. You're the one who wandered out the door like a shock victim. That suggested to me that something wasn't quite right."
"Ah," came his enlightened reply. "I suppose that I was one. Between the blow to the head and the intemperate weather... But I was surprised, Sophie, that's all. It hasn't been that long. And what a way to hear about it! You would leave me to figure it out by accident."
Well then. Sophie felt worlds better now. However, there was an unexpected prickling sensation behind her eyes which needed to be dealt with immediately. "But honestly! Using me for free drinks. You really shouldn't exploit your wife when she's in such a fragile condition, you know."
"I wouldn't dream of it. You're the most fragile person I know." Howl said solemnly. "Are you finished with that yet?" he asked at length, glancing over his shoulder at the glass she held.
She held her breath, downed the rest of her drink in one gulp, and rose to her feet without assistance. She fully intended to go to bed now; she was tired of the bathroom.
"Hey, wait a minute!" He was a bit slower in standing, having to untangle his longer limbs first, but he caught up and grabbed her hand. "You should probably stay here for the time being, just to be safe."
"I'd really rather not, thanks."
"No, stay here; I'll be right back." He vanished out the door, glancing back to make sure that she wasn't moving. He returned with one of the books that she had been using earlier.
"Somewhere in this should be spells we can use, once I figure out how, to make certain everything's going well with you. Both of you, I mean." Howl flipped through it impatiently for a moment, and then thrust it at Sophie. "Here, look through this." They searched through the book in companionable silence, occasionally marking something Howl thought useful. His cure appeared to have worked; Sophie felt remarkably fit now. Upon gathering any spell they thought necessary, they set to work.
"What do you need me to do?" he asked.
"Nothing. I can do it." she said, resting one hand on her abdomen and waving one hand experimentally. "Let me see the book."
"You can't just drop into a trance now." he objected, reaching out to catch her wrist before she could make the first gesture, "You've been doing draining magic all morning. You'll need help, and," he added, meeting her scowl for scowl, "All of the glaring in the world isn't going to change my mind, coch."
Somehow, Sophie suspected that pointing out that he routinely exhausted himself in a similar manner wouldn't help. She decided to give in gracefully. "Just lend me some magic." She said, looking at his hand where it still rested on her wrist. Howl was silent for a long moment.
"I don't suppose I'm allowed to see?" he asked at last sulkily. For some reason, he clearly expected her to say no. In response, she silently laid his hand over hers.
It took some guesswork and a few false starts, but between the two of them, they determined that the baby was a perfectly healthy boy, undisturbed by the magic Sophie had used on him. Furthermore, Sophie found she could lay claim to the dubious achievement of not realizing she was pregnant for nearly three months. Reluctantly ending the last spell, she studied Howl in the mirror. He had put his other arm around her, and now stood behind her, staring into space over her head. For a moment, Sophie thought she glimpsed the expression that the man at the pub had seen; not a grin exactly, but a faint tugging at the corners of his mouth, coupled with a faraway gaze that did make him look less than sober. It was fleeting though, and she was left with nothing to do but wait. After a solid minute, she lost her patience and began amusing herself by attempting to lift the spell that kept his hair blond.
"Come on," she whispered, moving her hands as well as she could, imprisoned as they were beneath his, "You know his hair shouldn't be that color anyway. It's unnatural. Let go."
Howl's eyes lost their glazed over appearance just as his hair had finished darkening to its proper, muddy brown color.
"I do hope that you're planning on putting that back." that his voice betrayed only irritation and not fury was an indication of his extraordinarily good mood.
"Maybe." she said, tilting her head back to face him rather than the mirror. "What were you thinking about, just now?" Not that she expected anything remotely resembling the truth.
Sure enough, Howl made a thoughtful sounding noise and spent a good ten seconds pondering his answer. Sophie was surprised that he hadn't thought one up beforehand.
"Actually, I was thinking that this," he indicated their reflections, "Would make an excellent picture." He was plotting something; Sophie would recognize that expression at fifty paces.
"Well," she said cautiously, "We could get one. It wouldn't take long. I think that there's someone in Market Chipping who—"
"No, not like that." he waved his hand impatiently on his way out the door, "A picture from my world. It's faster, the image will be clearer, and it won't raise any questions from Megan."
"Why would a picture do that? This is for us, isn't it?" Sophie breathed a small sigh of relief upon at last leaving the bathroom behind.
"Yes, but," his grin left him looking no older than Michael, "It'll be a easy thing to make a copy, write the pertinent information on the back, and stick it in her mailbox on the way home."
"What? Howl! I think that this might be the sort of news meant to be shared in person!" Sophie would have said much more if Howl hadn't chosen to silence her most effectively. After a moment he continued, oblivious to Calcifer making faces at her over his shoulder.
"We'll tell everyone properly soon. This just solves two problems at once. My sister, as you know, has been nagging me for ages to get a picture of us for her. She still has friends who don't believe that I'm safely married off." For a moment, Howl looked as though he didn't quite believe it, either.
"And?" she prompted when he trailed off and stood silent, worrying the ring he wore absently.
"And," he echoed dutifully with a not-quite-innocent shrug, "This is exactly the sort of thing Megan would expect of me. I can't disappoint her; I'd be a failure as a no-good younger brother otherwise."
Sophie snorted and finally turned her attention to Calcifer, who was now bobbing so close that he was in danger of setting Howl's hair aflame. "What?"
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he whined, "You vanish for hours and now you're just going to leave without saying a word!" Sophie looked over and was startled to see that Howl had already altered his clothes to be fit for Wales and was now starting work on hers.
"I didn't think that you meant now!" she exclaimed, flinging her hands up futilely to fend him off.
He ignored them and continued. "There is no time like the present Sophie." Sophie filed that away to use on him later, perhaps when the workbench next needed organizing. "Maybe you should tell Calcifer now. It'll be good practice."
"Oh. Well," she paused uncertainly. There was a difference between speaking of this with Howl and saying it aloud to someone else. She could suddenly see the merit of just sending notes to everyone she wanted told. Or perhaps just to her stepmother. With Fanny's help, all of Ingary would know within three days. However, Calcifer was hovering in front of her expectantly, and he would give her no peace until he knew.
"I'm…we're…Well, I'm…I'm going to have… a baby…I guess."
Fine job, she congratulated herself wryly. That couldn't have sounded more awkward if she'd planned it that way. Howl suppressed what sounded suspiciously like a laugh, and she glared fiercely. "You can do it next time, and see how it goes!" She smirked at his sudden, dutiful focus on transforming her shoes. It was occasionally useful to be married to a coward.
Calcifer didn't react in any of the ways she thought he might. "Took you long enough to figure it out, didn't it? And after all of the effort I put into dropping hints, too."
Some of the things that he had said over the past few months suddenly made a bit more sense. Sophie crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm beginning to think that maybe you didn't suggest I heal myself out of concern for my well-being."
Howl paused in his activities and looked at Calcifer incredulously, "You told her to do that?"
Calcifer squirmed a bit under their combined stares and broke away, spiraling towards the ceiling. "It was in my best interests. On your own, neither of you would've noticed until after it started talking. Then it would've been, "Calcifer, why didn't you say something' and 'Calcifer, you never tell us anything'! And that wouldn't have been fair at all. I don't have a contract anymore and I don't deserve the blame."
Considering all that had happened that morning, Sophie rather thought that he had done it just to watch the resulting chaos. Howl didn't say anything, just took her arm and began urging her towards the door. She suddenly remembered the abandoned spell on the workbench.
"If you hurried, you might make it to see the King only a little bit late." Howl cheerfully suggested something crude and rather unlikely that the King could do without breaking stride.
"He won't even miss me." he assured her. "I have better things to do anyway." he opened the door and stood aside, gesturing that she could pass first. She began to do so, then paused and looked up hopefully.
"Since we did the spells here, do I still have to go to the doctor in Wales?" All she got for her trouble was a firm "Yes." Undaunted, she tried again.
"Why?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"For someone with such a long nose, you are displaying a marked lack of curiosity. Just think of all of the questions you can ask!"
"Don't slither!"
And they continued in that manner even as she took the hand he offered and they went out into the unusually sunny morning in Wales. Calcifer floated in the middle of the suddenly empty castle.
"That was even more fun than I thought it would be." he crackled gleefully, heading back to the grate. After all that he had done, he, in his own humble opinion, most definitely deserved a nap.
I felt the need to spell out that Sophie did not fall pregnant and have morning sickness 5 minutes later. That's not (usually) how such things work in reality, and often seems to be how they work in stories.
