Author Note: I'm quicker than I thought... Dedicating this very, very slapped together chapter to 13magicalm0ments who so far is the only person in the world who has read chapter 2 and who sent me a list of names which I forgot about until today... I hope you noticed that I did use your list... I can't remember my first plan of what to call Felicity, but she turned out quite important, didn't she? Keep on rocking people! :D
Chapter 3
The Darkenesse was fast, nobody saw it coming, nobody sensed it, even Trevor Mason-Heap or his brother Septimus. They did see young Kayleigh's sudden obsession with magyk as strange though, in all her fourteen years she had never tried to perform magyk and now she threw herself at it body and soul. The first person who realised what had probably happened was the aging ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Marcia Overstrand. She felt a disturbance in the magyk around Dungeon One and she instantly linked the two occurrences together. Wasting no time, Marcia confronted Kayleigh Heap with her theory.
"That's ridiculous, Madam Marcia, I just want to do magyk," was Kayleigh's stock response.
Marcia was not fooled; she had seen people do far worse after meeting necromancers. "Kayleigh, you went to see your father in Dungeon One, I know you did. Now tell me why you want to do magyk so badly, did your father ask you to do anything?"
"No! I just want to do magyk."
"Kayleigh! Listen to me. Why do you want to do magyk? You have no magykal talent and everyone knows that, what makes you think you would be able to perform this charm? What did Simon say to you?"
"Nothing! Leave me alone, you horrible old woman!" Kayleigh shouted, grabbing Marcia's wrist.
To the amazement of both people, their eyes suddenly changed colour, Marcia's turned from green to brown and Kayleigh's merged from blue into turquoise. Marcia tried to do a charm but nothing happened.
"What have you done Kayleigh?" Marcia demanded, slightly scared.
Kayleigh was astounded. "I-I don't know…" she said quietly. Kayleigh tried to cast the charm again and this time it worked perfectly. "But I think I just took your magyk. So, stupid hag, I want you to Freeze."
Marcia froze. Kayleigh laughed, she had magyk at last! Now she would prove her stupid father wrong! Just to be sure, Kayleigh stole the Akhu Amulet from Marcia's frozen neck and ran away through the streets of the Castle. No-one would find Marcia for a long while and nobody would realise who had done it, Kayleigh was just a scribe to them. Now Kayleigh was going to free her mother from that curse.
Unfortunately for Kayleigh, her uncle Nicko Heap was walking past that precise spot not long after she had fled, he recognised Marcia immediately and sprinted up to the Wizard Tower to find his brothers. Nicko thought that Simon or Merrin had escaped; no-one else in their right mind would Freeze Marcia Overstrand.
Trevor and Septimus UnFroze Marcia easily, she was slightly shaken, she had never been Frozen before and she instantly knew that the Amulet was gone. It was Septimus who noticed Marcia's eyes.
"What happened Marcia?" he asked agitatedly.
Marcia shivered and pulled a blanket over herself. "You won't like it, Septimus. Your niece did this."
"Which one? Ria? Freya?"
Trevor stopped in his tracks. "I will not believe that my daughter did this," he said defensively.
"Well the others aren't magykal; they couldn't have done this…"
"Or so we thought," Marcia said sadly. "I think young Kayleigh is possessed."
"Kayleigh?!" said Septimus in shock. "She… You think Simon..?"
Marcia nodded. "Yes. She went to see Simon and she got in. That means she had help with that antidarke spell… I suspect Ria or Nate, Freya hasn't been in the Castle in years…"
Trevor scowled. "Stop accusing my children! Why would Ria or Nate help her break into Dungeon One?"
"Perhaps you should ask them that… I also suspect she had help from another… One of Nicko's brood."
Nicko didn't look impressed. "What would my children do to help get in there?"
"Your children all know how to pick locks, Nicko," Septimus explained. "When me and Trevor broke in, Trevor picked the lock; it can't be done by magyk."
"Yeah, and what about Charlie or Robbie? Saves two trips… I'm sure boys their age all know how to pick locks…"
Marcia had a smile curling across her lips now. "Perhaps, instead of arguing about who it might be, we should ask them who it is…"
Within the hour the seven children were assembled at the top of the Wizard Tower in front of the now defrosted ExtraOrdinary Wizard and a selection of their uncles.
"Now children, which of you helped Kayleigh break into Dungeon One?" asked Marcia calmly.
The children glanced at each other suspiciously. Ria and Felicity felt awful, Kayleigh had promised to take the blame.
Hunter spoke first. "She asked me but I said no. I sent her downstream to find Flick…"
Felicity scowled. "I er… I said no…" Felicity replied unconvincingly.
"Flick!" Nicko sighed.
"See," said Trevor defensively. "Why would my children help her?"
Ria sighed loudly. "I did. I didn't want her going to Nate… Sorry dad."
"Ria! How dare you? Why on earth would you..?"
Septimus grabbed Trevor's arm to stop him doing anything stupid. "Forgive her, she meant well… Remember to stay calm… Do you recall my mistake with Jenna?"
Septimus was referring to the time that he had killed Jenna during a fit of anger fifteen years ago.
"Thank you for owning up," Marcia continued, knowing it was stupid to let the children dwell on this comment for too long. "Do either of you know what Simon said to her in there? Could he have possessed her?"
Ria shook her head. "No, he didn't possess her, he said she was pathetic and she promised him that she would do magyk one day before storming out… Flick and I Sealed the door afterwards. I told her it was a mistake to go in there but she wouldn't listen. Is she possessed? What did she do?"
"It doesn't matter. So, she promised she would do magyk… Did anyone else hear this?"
"Merrin Meredith," Felicity shrugged.
"And did he possess her?"
"No. Simon threatened to kill him if he didn't shut up."
Marcia thought carefully. "Well, thank you for your time children… I think that we will have to do some research on this matter… Septimus, can you go to the Pyramid Library and see what you can find on Darkenesse? We need to find out what has possessed Kayleigh…"
"You know, I think Kayleigh has possessed Kayleigh," said Trevor suddenly. "She is really determined to prove that she isn't pathetic and I remember determined people seem to be able to do very strange things when they want to… Something helped her take the magyk, but I don't think she is possessed."
"Kayleigh took magyk?" Nate blurted out. "Madam Marcia's magyk… Her eyes have gone brown."
The children all stared at Nate and then turned to Marcia; they didn't know how they could have missed that.
"Nate's right!" said either Charlie or Robbie, who seemed to be identical. All three were identical in looks, but Nate had green eyes.
"We'll help you get it back!" said the second triplet.
"No you will not," said Trevor firmly. "Go home now, all four of you… And Ria, you will be punished when I get back."
"Trevor!" said Septimus. "Ria was sparing Nate from punishment… Robbie, I know you mean well, but you can't help… The Great War fifteen years ago saw a lot of non-magykal people giving up their lives for no good reason, just like my brothers Edd and Erik, I don't think anyone here is prepared to let you fight. You're younger than Edd and Erik were, they were seventeen and so had a choice to go into that war, but you are only ten, your dad calls the shots for you."
Robbie and Charlie groaned simultaneously. "Not fair," one breathed.
"I agree," said the other grumpily.
Then the two triplets disappeared through the door.
"Go home you three," Nicko said to his children. "Your mother isn't going to be proud of you, Felicity."
Flick stared at her feet as she followed her siblings from the room. Ria and Nate refused to leave.
"I want to help," said Nate. "I am magykal."
"You're ten," Septimus rebuked.
"This is all my fault," Ria mumbled. "Let me help, please… I'm only twelve, but I want to help."
"NO!" said Trevor angrily. "And don't go telling your mother about what's happened, you know she can't get stressed while she's pregnant…"
"You know, I think Kayleigh will trust Ria more than she trusts us," said Marcia after careful deliberation. "She might be able to help us…"