The Books of Magic
Chapter 4: Time Enough for Tea
Keiichi Morisato watched silently as his girlfriend served tea and snacks to what appeared to be nothing more than a laughing eleven year old girl and a giggling Skuld. Urd was busy on the phone conversing with the Almighty. Belldandy smiled and got up, taking the empty serving tray and left. Keiichi quickly moved to intercept as she exited the room.
"So what is she?" he demanded bluntly.
Belldandy looked bemused. "Excuse me?"
"What is she? I don't see any Goddess or Demon Markings. Some sort of Spirit? A Ghost? An Astral Projection?" Keiichi pressed.
Belldandy smiled, "She's an eleven year old girl Keiichi."
"Hah!" Keiichi scoffed. He looked at her with narrowed eyes, "She came with Urd through the TV set. And there's that … thing with her. Yeah, toys have gotten a lot more sophisticated and stuff but I haven't seen one yet that eats and drinks food … like that thing does," he jerked an accusing thumb at Kero whose head had quadrupled in size and now resembled a wedge as he swallowed a slab of cake. Keiichi watched as Kero chewed a few times and swallowed and accordingly his head shrank back to it's normal size. He turned to gaze accusingly at Bell, "Don't tell me she's just a normal eleven year old girl."
"I said she was a eleven year old girl," Bell admitted, "I never said a thing about her being normal."
"She's safe. So far. I don't think we were followed Father," Urd reported over the phone.
There was a pause and then Kami-Sama replied, "Very Good. Fail Not In This Charge Daughter."
Urd gulped and bowed her head in acknowledgment. "I will try."
"Do Better Than That," Kami-sama said sternly and then his voice softened, "There Are Forces In Motion Here. The Future Is … Uncertain. Be Wary Daughter. Danger Is Afoot. Do Not Tarry Here."
"Why Xellos?" Pluto hissed with narrowed suspicious eyes.
"That's a rather large question there Puu-chan," the purpled haired priest drawled, a finger tapping thoughtfully on his cheek.
"I am speaking about the Child!" Pluto snapped, "Why are you so eager to aid her?" she demanded.
Xellos looked hurt. "You don't believe that it's nothing more than a charitable desire to aid a person in need?"
"Hardly Mazoku. Your kind never does anything without having something to gain. You recruited Urd, manipulated Schneider, and even pushed me into accepting this foolish task!" Pluto growled. "Why? Why her? Let her stand or fall! Find or lose her way on her own!"
Xellos' cheerful mien turned serious and he opened his eyes to gaze levelly at Pluto. "Do you really want to know Guardian?" he asked in a sober and utterly formal tone of voice.
Pluto's annoyed expression cleared, "Of course."
"I will pass on this information to you only because I trust you will understand the gravity and seriousness of this and you will not disclose it," Xellos said solemnly.
Pluto gravely nodded.
"Very well," Xellos said. He glanced over his shoulder as if suddenly nervous of potential eavesdroppers. He leaned forward, closer to Pluto and beckoned her with one hand even as he cupped the other close to his mouth protectively to prevent the sound from travelling. Despite herself she leaned towards Xellos as well.
Pluto perked her ear as Xellos whispered, "That's a secret."
Schneider took a swallow of wine and made a face, "Tastes like horse piss."
If he had known that Urd was going to leave and take all of the good stuff with her, he would have made sure to have liberated a few bottles for himself. Not only that but she had stuck him with the Bitch-With-The-Staff-Up-Her-Ass and the Fruity Loon but he was completely sober to boot.
He sighed and then took another swallow.
Maybe if he was lucky, he could get drunk before the brat and Urd came back and—KLANG!
Schneider's head snapped up and his arm was already weaving a series of mystic symbols when Pluto came stalking down the alleyway muttering. He lowered his arm and then reconsidered his decision after he got a good look at her as she brushed past him muttering something about namagomi.
Schneider pursed his lips thoughtfully and finally shrugged. A little further on, he saw a pair of legs sticking out of the wall. Xellos apparently had gotten on Pluto's bad side. Again.
He briefly considered freeing the Mazoku but wondered why should he bother anyways. It was not as though Pluto could really hurt Xellos.
Pity too, Schneider thought to himself as Xellos' arms extracted themselves from the hole and felt around to find the edges and pull his body free.
Xellos was a foot shorter now, his upper body was compacted almost accordion-like as he tottered backwards on his legs. He grabbed his head with both hands and pulled it upwards, stretching his body back to it's original height. He grinned once he was finished and dusted himself off. "Puu-chan has no sense of humor," he confided to Schneider.
Xellos tilted his head back and forth, "Hey, I think she got rid of a crink in my neck!"
"Fruitcake," Schneider muttered and took another swallow of wine as he wondered again how he had been tricked into doing this and how much more wine he was going to need before this was all over.
"Do you believe in magic Keiichi?" Belldandy asked intently after ushering him into the kitchen for more privacy.
Keiichi goggled at her as though she had lost her mind, "Magic? You mean … like the Tooth Fairy or the Great Pumpkin…"
"Or like Goddesses?" Belldandy smiled faintly.
"I er … when I was a kid, I guess, maybe, I suppose. Sometimes I did wish that there was magic," Keiichi scratched his head, "I don't know. I mean, I can accept that you and your sisters are Goddesses and there are even Demonesses like Mara or Hild wandering around. Although Goddess know, thinking about that makes me queasy … I mean I've seen Spirits and Ghosts and a lot of weird things ever since I called the Goddess Hotline," and a bit of a fond smile touched his features in remembrance of their first meeting, "but as far as I can tell, these spells or whatever that you guys cast are simply you manipulating various physical and natural laws in some bizarre fashion. Even Urd's potions are super advanced chemistry or something. Those runes or glyphs or whatever you guys got scrawled outside in that magic circle are just some sort of hyper-calculus or eighth-dimensional quantum mathematics as far as I understood Skuld's explanation one time. I can handle that. I can sort of understand that."
"Yes, that is correct Keiichi," Belldandy looked pleased, "It is our Power to control the very fabric of the Universe itself. We are inextricably part of the Universe and while Magic is a fundamental force, it is a force that we lack power over. Magic is a force that mortals wield and shape," Bell took a breath. "Which brings us to Sakura Kinomoto."
"Sakura is potentially the most powerful sorceress of all time. That is if she desires it, if she studies and dedicates herself and her life to it … she could wield tremendous power. She could be a source of great good … or perhaps of great evil. Under normal circumstances, we would not interfere. Humanity must choose it's path. Sakura would have to make her own choices, her own mistakes, and learn from them, to walk the path on her own."
"Normally?" Keiichi asked curious.
Belldandy looked pensive. "There are … Dark Forces in motion here Keiichi. They know of Sakura. Of her existence. Of her potential. They would desire for her to follow their path and use her powers for their goals. Which is why Urd is ostensibly guiding her while at the same time giving her a measure of protection."
"Urd is protecting her?" Keiichi demanded, his voice rising a few notches at that revelation. He was just barely able to bite his tongue and blurting out an expression of horror. Urd? Our Urd? That Urd? Urd, the irresponsible, inattentive, careless reckless Urd?
Suddenly Keiichi was aware of a faint click of the phone receiver and the creaking of the floorboards as Urd slid open the door and poked her head into the kitchen. "Hey Bell," she began and then noticed Keiichi's presence and nodded a brief acknowledgment, "Is it ready?" she asked.
Belldandy gave a brief nod, "Yes. Skuld and I have been working on it all day. The Gate is set and properly attuned. We have twelve minutes before the astrological bodies are correctly aligned."
Urd clapped her hands together nervously, "Great. I'll go get Skuld and the kid. We need to get moving. Fast."
"Trouble?" Belldandy asked, her normally cheerful expression clouding over.
Urd hesitated, clearly debating whether or not to say anything before relenting, "According to Father, the Opposition is on the move," she reported.
"I see. You're correct then, you should get moving," Belldandy said solemnly.
Urd quickly departed.
Belldandy began untying her apron and hanging it up on a hook. Keiichi waited a beat before blurting out, "What was that about? Is it those … Dark Forces, you were talking about? So what if they're moving?"
"It means that there is a good chance that they have decided that Sakura is too dangerous to live." Belldandy said flatly.
Keiichi felt a chill run up his spine at the finality of Belldandy's last words and his face twisted in disgust, "What are you saying? That they'd ... they'd kill her if she doesn't join them?"
"Yes."
"But she's just a child!" Keiichi protested feebly.
"Yes. So she is. But she is also much more," Bell said sadly before adding in a soft voice, "That is her destiny … or her curse."
"Remember, do not leave the Circle," Belldandy repeated, "until Urd tell you to."
"I remember," Sakura said softly.
Belldandy smiled and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "Don't worry. Nothing can harm you. At least, not in the past. What you will see are nothing but shadowy images of times long gone by. They will be phantoms of thought, wraiths of vapor, and ghosts long departed."
"The past is boring!" Skuld cut in, "Now the future is really neat!" she said brightly, "I am the Goddess of the Future you know so I should know!" she said with an arrogant tilt to her head at Urd who merely grunted and continued scribbling some additional glyphs in chalk to the magic circles.
"Yeah, yeah," Urd muttered.
Skuld stuck her tongue out at her eldest sister and at Belldandy's gentle pressure, flounced off to one of the magic circles even as Belldandy took her own position. Urd gave the glyphs and runes and everyone else's position a final check. She took a deep breath and looked upward. "Get ready. The stars and the planets are going to be alignment in three minutes."
"Banpei is keeping lookout," Keiichi reported as he hunkered down well outside the circles. The last thing that they needed was for someone unexpected to pop in and disrupt things. Keiichi adjusted the upside down cooking pot turned impromptu helmet on his head and hefted the metal carpenter's level like it was a club, clearly wishing he could join the loyal guard robot far far away from here.
"Gee, if anyone does show up, you better hope they're really unbalanced Keiichi," Urd drawled.
Keiichi bristled and smacked the level in his hand to show it's solidity and weight. "I couldn't find my baseball bat OK?" he said defensively.
"You better not break my level Keiichi!" Skuld threatened, "If you do, you're buying me a new one!"
"Yeah, yeah," Keiichi muttered and consulted his watch. Two minutes. He managed to resist the urge to glance again at it for almost another minute before he started staring at it as the seconds began ticking down.
Thirty seconds.
Twenty.
Ten.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
Urd's arms suddenly snapped out to maximum extension and before Keiichi's eyes as the entire engraved runes and circles began pouring out intense white light. Urd's entire body began to glow as she began chanting. It was words that he didn't recognize, words that he suspected were far older than Latin and he saw that both Belldandy and Skuld were both chanting as well, each of them radiating their own light as well.
"In the name of the Norns of the Past, Present, and Future! I call unto thee! Hearken to me!" Urd suddenly spoke in Japanese in a voice that caused the ground to shake and the wind to howl.
Lightning sparked and arced and thunder roared as a huge storm appeared right above the temple itself.
"In the names of the Norns of the Past, Present, and Future! I summon thee! I command thee!" Urd shouted as her arms wove patterns of light in the air. Glowing glyphs and runes and mathematical symbols spun and danced in the air in strange patterns.
"Show us the path we must travel! Illuminate our passage! Reveal yourself to us!" Urd snapped her head upward, beseeching, "In the name of the Norns of the Past, Present, and Future! Unlock the Gate!"
Then as suddenly as it all began, the wind died down, the lightning sputtered and fizzled out, even the storm clouds vanished leaving behind clear skies. Keiichi raised the iron pot serving double duty as his makeshift helmet cautiously. Then he heard a strange buzzing sound and he glanced at his watch and frowned as he suddenly noticed that it was frozen. The digital display was stuck. He tapped it curiously as the buzzing sound began louder and the air split apart and what appeared to be a black hole appeared. Keiichi tried to look at it but his mind veered away as though his eyes didn't want to focus on it. It didn't seem to make any sort of sense when he looked at it. Light seemed to be sucked into it, as well as all warmth and bizarrely enough, even color itself seem to fade or become washed out near it.
Urd gestured, "Take my arm Sakura," she said firmly. Sakura gripped the crook of Urd's arm protectively as Urd gestured towards the doorway composed of inky darkness, "The Past awaits."
Sakura gulped convulsively. She bit her lip and ducked her head down and gazed at her feet. She shuffled them awkwardly. "I'm scared. Really scared," she whispered.
"I know," Urd said softly. There was a long moment of silence. "Do you want to go on?" she asked gently.
"Sakura … everything will be alright," Kero added helpfully in her ear. Sakura smiled at the small plushie and reached up and stroked his head. "Thanks Kero," she whispered, her eyes closed and repeated her mantra. She looked up at the white haired Goddess and her eyes clear. "I'm ready."
They both took a step forward. And then another. Then they passed through the threshold of the portal and promptly vanished.
A/N: OK before anyone jumps on me, as far as I seen Belldandy's magic has always seemed to be more scientifically based than most fantasy magic spells. That is I have always seemed to grasp that her "magic" is like I stated in the episode; a form of manipulating or altering the basic physical properties or laws of the universe. If you like you can consider Belldandy and the other Goddesses' magic as a different style or system of spellcasting than regular mortals. Sort of like Divine Magic or something like that. It is ineffective for the most part on mortals and vice versa. Whatever.
I wanted to try and frame that basically what Urd and Belldandy and Skuld do is very different from what other spellcasters do.
