"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."
- Jessica Rabbit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
CHARLOTTE WISHED FOR NOTHING LESS THAN BE FEARED AND ADMIRED AS THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL SORCERESS. She had joined the Belmonts' fight against the forces of evil and vowed to use her arcane talents to protect the innocent, but behind her heroic motives, the quest was simply another way to sate her hidden obsession with arcane knowledge. Looking past past her noble title pages, her index was sparse and her appendices were desperate to be penned with every kind of magical incantation. Given the chance, she would gladly throw her life aside to become an unrivaled master of all the elemental powers.
But there were forces beyond Charlotte's control pursuing their own ruthless quest for knowledge. Between this world and the next one, something was compiling a library of magical artifacts. With an envious eye, it had already reserved a small place in the archive just for her.
These two parties were about to strike a bargain.
Charlotte stumbled backwards from an attack, almost dropping her spell book. Dogether emitted a low, guttural chuckle as he levitated in front of her. His three-eyed monk familiar balanced on one foot, still holding her other leg straight up from the high kick that had knocked the wind out of Charlotte. Jonathan was taking an extended nap under the crumbled remains of a marble column.
Charlotte regained her footing as Maria lunged forward. Charlotte ducked a flying palm, side stepped another kick, thrust her spell book forward, and sent the martial arts devil scattering with a swing from Don Quixote's battle axe.
While Maria landed on her hind end and pouted, Charlotte rapidly searched through the book and stopped at the page for SANCTUARY. She began reciting the words for the holy spell as Dogether hovered toward her and Maria slowly cartwheeled back to her feet. A large white magic circle materialized on the spot where Charlotte stood. In a few more seconds, she would rid the universe of Dogether and his gross little ninja-imp.
In the blink of an eye, Dogether flashed from existence. Charlotte continued chanting the words undeterred, conjuring all of her power as Maria staggered closer.
The magic lines under Charlotte's heels began to change. The spell circle ignored the words of her incantation and twisted into something very different. The points in the constellation stretched and converged until they took a more recognizable formation.
The circle changed into the shape of a giant eyeball.
Charlotte fell through the unstable floor of her own Sanctuary and landed in Dogether's. Screaming in horror and thrashing her hands in the air, she disappeared inside the cyclops demon's cold and intrusive embrace.
Dogether phased out of the two dimensional mandala and ascended back into the musty temple air. Charlotte was little more than a limp silhouette trapped within the foreboding confines of his single pupil.
Maria hopped on her bare toes and took her place lying atop her master's upper eyelid. Together they went about the arduous and vicious task of publishing Charlotte Aulin: 2nd Edition. Dogether was the author. Maria was his studious editor.
First, the plain old dust cover had to be swiftly skinned from the tome. The quaint but restrictive outer cloth wrappings dissolved away so the thirsty porous binding could fully drink the rich ethers in Dogether's magic core.
The tome parted open at the first page with only a small effort from the demon's will. The human soul was little more than a stack of delicate vellum sheets containing a lifetime of knowledge. Any worthless prose was quickly stricken out and rewritten in beautiful demonic calligraphy.
The pages were submerged in darkness to cure the fragile parchment of its mortal impurities. Invisible brushes made of carefully woven curses polished every crease, dimple, and pit in the curves of the binding to bring out their natural splendor. Dogether's iris flashed and dilated, applying a few unspeakably powerful spells to reinforce the smooth pink leather hide. The revised tome was dressed firm and tight in a lavish new cover made from the demon's very essence.
The unsanctimonious appraisal was complete and it was time to stamp the masterwork with Dogether's final seal of defilement. Maria retrieved a small poison pouch from her sash, severed the drawstring with her nail, and sprinkled the tiny bag until all of the dry toxic pepper had fallen into Dogether's iris.
Dogether's eye became bloodshot and irritated. It throbbed in a ring of hellfire, melting the suspended outline of the captive mage down into tiny flecks of salt. Moisture built up in his stinging tear ducts, and oozing droplets of tainted water began to seep from his eye.
Drip by drip, the water flowed across the floor and gathered into a single puddle. When it had grown big enough, the pool began bubble up like a slowly rising spring, forming the basic shape of a clear blue hourglass with a long waterfall hanging down its back. Clothing materialized on the surface, the flesh regained its pigment, and the waterfall dried into smooth brown hair. Dogether's tears condensed into a solid elemental being.
Charlotte was wearing a long sleeveless robe over a white satin shift. A short blue capelet rested over her shoulders, tied across her bust with a scarlet ribbon. A wide slit was cut on one side of her robe all the way up to her waist, showing a dark blue stocking tightly hugging her thigh.
In her long brown hair, she wore a magically focused crown that was emblazoned with the icon of a single demonic eye in the center. More eyes were tattooed down the sides of her face. A light sprinkle of violet mascara and black lipstick gave her a more mature and sagely appearance without altering her former human body.
She held a long spiral scepter adorned with a crystal Peeping Eye in her left hand. Sanskrit texts pulsated along the visible skin on her arms and her one thigh like vines of enchanted ink. Hidden underneath the capelet, the robe, the shift, and the stockings, every inch of her body was swarming with drawings of taboo runes and prying eyes.
Charlotte no longer needed a spell book to bend magic energies to her will. Now she was the living copy, a vast archive of arcane knowledge stored in the body a beguiling maiden.
"Well, look who just came hot off the presses," the three-eyed Maria snickered. "Now let's get one thing straight: I'm the head acolyte around here." She pointed to her protruding chest with her thumb, driving the tip into the plush pink silk of her kimono.
"You're kidding, right? Nothing can deceive me now that I possess Dogether's insight," Chalotte answered back, brushing a wisp of hair from her shoulder. "I can see all the dirty little secrets you're hiding. My binding is trimmed from authentic stock. Yours is loaded with cheap pulp filler."
Her long robe rustled as she swayed her naturally contoured hips.
"Puh. Who cares how you look on the outside?" Maria snorted childishly. "You're just as much of a scam with all of your phony powers. I bet you can't do this without Dogether's help."
She snapped her fingers. The reanimated carcass of an enormous white tiger appeared beside her, bloody foam dripping from its putrid whiskers as it growled. Flaming bird's wings erupted from her shoulders and her fingers transformed into long dragon's claws. A protective field shaped like a giant turtle's shell appeared around her.
Charlotte turned up her nose in jealousy.
The servants of darkness bickered back and forth until they were interrupted by the sound of crumbling stone. Jonathan was starting to regain consciousness under the shattered ruins of the column.
Charlotte and Maria glimpsed toward each other, then turned their heads in unison toward the only mortal in the ceremonial chamber. They may have sparked a bitter rivalry as oracle demons reborn from clashing schools of dark magic, but they also shared a common hatred of humanity.
Jonathan shook his head in bewilderment and grasped his ribs in pain. As his vision became less blurred, he began to see the wretched and unholy creatures that were gathering in front of him. Charlotte and Maria loomed over him while Dogether weightlessly floated behind them.
Between three demonic onlookers, there were a thousand sets of eyes staring down at Jonathan. Each one gleamed with impending death.
