Risu carefully consulted his notes and examined the diagram a final time.

He was taking a further step in his magical education by trying to summon a Quasid. A minor imp that seemed to exist in a plane of quasi-darkness, they would offer advice for the right price. The advice was usually cryptic and rather useless, so the ritual was rarely done, but Risu wasn't doing it for advice. He was doing it to see if he could.

Risu wasn't sure how much talent he had. Maleficent seemed vaguely pleased with his progress, but more pleased with his quiche. Her lessons were sporadic, so he had gotten used to learning from the books and experimenting. That was actually quite familiar… he'd been born into a lower class than Demirene, and had effectively trained himself in the technical specialty. He was used to learning without help.

He began carefully intoning the words, feeling the power build. And halfway through he stopped abruptly, banking the candles to disrupt the build of power.

It was too much power. He carefully grounded it as he had learned, then examined the pattern minutely. If even one whorl was out of place it could spell disaster. With a sigh of disgust at himself, he found the problem and corrected it… it had been in the name of the creature he was summoning, of all places! He didn't think he would have died… he had placed numerous wards over himself… but he would have had to channel deeply from the darkness to save himself. He was mindful of the warnings in the books that darkness corrupted. It was also the easiest and quickest power to draw on in an emergency.

Stepping back into his spot of the diagram, he began the ritual again. This time the power rose in a gentle hum, and before long there was a shadowy little figure hunched over in the circle. It looked vaguely like a Heartless, but less threatening and more… natural. The eyes that glowed from the shadows were a soft white.

What you want magic maker? What you give? It asked in a wheedling, childish tone. Risu smiled faintly at his success.

"I want to know whatever you want to tell me. As for what I have to give… a nice, raw steak." A small note in the margin of his book had indicated the creatures did eat and sometimes appreciated raw meat. The Quasid chattered.

Give first! Risu tossed the steak into the centre, and the creature grabbed it greedily. The book had also mentioned not to give the reward until the summoned creature had spoken, but that supposed you had a question you cared about. The Quasid tore it apart and gulped it down, then grinned toothily at him. Good meat. I give you good advice. Two heads is better than one. It vanished, leaving Risu behind, looking at the centre of the diagram thoughtfully.

It sounded like something out of a fortune cookie but he had the odd feeling he'd heard something important. He mentally noted it, then grounded the power and began taking apart the diagram. You couldn't be too neat when you were working this kind of magic.

If the darkness had had teeth to grind, it would have. It had put considerable effort into clouding Risu's perceptions and guiding his hand into an error… all for nothing!

Risu couldn't know the truth about his own talents, but the darkness did. Maleficent's indifferent teaching would have ensured a fatal accident for most apprentices. Or they would have pestered her with questions and likely ended up a statue in the garden. But Risu possessed a gift for independent learning coupled with methodical attention to detail. And most importantly, a natural talent most wizards would envy.

No apprentice should have realized the summoning was going wrong until it was too late. Full fledged wizards and witches would have failed. The darkness hadn't wanted to kill Risu… it had just wanted to force him to channel darkness that it could absorb and use.

So frustrating.

With the delicacy of a surgeon, Risu inscribed the final line on a fresh piece of parchment.

He had run through so many in his work that this room was a veritable tomb of dead paper. Fortunately, Maleficent's workroom seemed to have an endless supply. He'd detected some enchantments on the box that made him think that was literally true. And that was a good thing… he'd have hated to bother her for more paper. Picking up a pair of tweezers and the special tube of glue had had prepared for this, he began to apply tiny gems to the paper. Everything needed to be precise. A major flaw would result in failure, a minor flaw would cause friction when he cast the final spells and lower the lifespan of what he was attempting to create-

"Risu!" He winced at Maleficent's call, and carefully put the tweezers and tube away as she entered his workroom. She ignored the papers completely. This room had been given to him to use in any way he wanted. "Are you done with that?" She pointed at the parchment, not really looking at it. Risu shook his head.

"No, but I can finish it at any time. What do you need me for, Mistress?" At first that title had chafed a bit, but after reading over some of the more descriptive books in Maleficent's library, Risu had realized that she had been telling him the literal truth. Being an apprentice in magic to anyone was basically slavery in return for knowledge, and Mistress or Master were the correct titles. It was refreshing, really, to have the responsibilities on both sides so clearly lined out.

"I need you for a lesson. Come, I have something to show you." She turned and swept out of the room, her apprentice in tow. "I need to make a batch of love potion. I have some uses for it, and you can help prepare the ingredients." Risu smiled to himself. His skill with cooking was easily transferred to preparing potion ingredients.

Soon he was chopping as Maleficent stirred a cauldron over the heating pad he had built for it. Unlike the traditional wood fire, it kept the temperature very even while not stinking up the castle. Some of the ingredients he chopped coarsely, while others needed to be very fine. He recognized almost all of them from the herb book he had memorized. Although…

"Mistress, if I can ask… what is this?" He held up a dark red root. She glanced over at it.

"That's the plant you fetched me last week from the pixie forest. It will infuse pure magic into the brew." She looked back into the cauldron, gauging the color. "Put in the sage." Risu immediately added the finely chopped herb. "I could have used anything from that forest, but that particular root has a nice taste."

And it would annoy the pixies, whom you dislike, Risu added to himself. He'd come back with several wounds from that particular trip. Not that he really minded… just from his brief time there, he hadn't liked the pixies either. But even big blue stinging nettles needed pixies, he supposed. He wanted to ask about the love potion but held his peace. Maleficent would tell him when she was ready. That was how her lessons always went.

"Now… the love potion." Maleficent said slowly. "This is a particularly good one, from the Grimoire of Oswald." Risu made a mental note of that. Anything Maleficent said worked very well, he copied into his own book. "A tiny sip will act like wine, only moreso, releasing the inhibitions of the imbiber. A long drink will cause him or her to fall in love with the next person they see."

"And the catch, Mistress?" There had to be a catch. Maleficent laughed.

"They learn so quickly… yes, too heavy a dose will cause not just love but jealous, possessive love. And if the other person doesn't return the love…" Maleficent smiled, and Risu nodded thoughtfully. It wasn't a nice thing to do to anyone, but Maleficent wasn't nice. And, when you got right down to it, neither was he.

"So the dosage would be important for whatever effect you mean to achieve."

"Indeed. Add the heartroot." Risu added the final ingredient, and Maleficent examined the brew thoughtfully. "The color is important. It needs to be a deep, wine red." At the moment it was a bright crimson. "Now, you stir this." Risu took the spoon and began to stir as Maleficent stood back to watch. "There's also an antidote. We'll make that tomorrow." Risu nodded, and mentally pushed back his map another day. He would need an uninterrupted space of at least four hours to complete it, and he would have to be well rested for the final incantation.

It took some time for the potion to change colors, but when it did he glanced at Maleficent. She nodded, and he removed the heavy cast iron pot from the heat, setting it onto a stand he had also built. It put the cauldron into easy distance of the table where the bottles sat. There were, he noted, over a dozen of them as well as a ladle and a funnel, and corks with wax to seal them in place.

"Bottle those, and put them into the racks. Then clean up the room, apprentice." Maleficent instructed before leaving. Risu sighed faintly, but began the drudge work of potion making dutifully.

It was what apprentices were for, after all.

"Tell me something about yourself."

"Huh?" Risu pulled his thoughts back to the room with a blink. He and Maleficent were waiting patiently for the stars to reach exactly the right alignment to cast a curse. It could have been done at any time, but Maleficent was feeling particularly nasty towards someone. Doing the curse exactly right would optimize the effects. Risu had no idea who she was feeling malicious towards, but he had a suspicion it had something to do with the tartlets he had prepared for her a few days ago. He had carefully spiked them with the love potion she had prepared then concealed any color change with whipped cream. Maleficent had been very pleased with the result.

"Tell me about yourself. About why you want to remove your conditioning." She waved a hand as he opened his mouth. "Not the bare facts. Tell me why, from your heart." Risu's mouth clicked shut, and he stared away as he thought about that. A story from his heart?

White walls. They were everywhere.

"I think," he started slowly, armoring his heart in ice. He would need to be calm and composed to tell this story. "The first time I was punished by my systems was when I was eight." He paused, then said gently. "Are you sure you want to hear this story? It's very unpleasant." Maleficent gave him a look like he was an idiot. Unpleasantness was her business. "Alright… when I was a child, I grew up in a white house. Everything inside was white. All our clothing was white. My mother was obsessed with the color, and wouldn't allow anything un-white in the house at all." Risu looked up at the sky, watching the stars for a moment. "We had a white cat. She didn't have a name… naming animals could be done but wasn't encouraged, and mother had never had a socially unacceptable thought in her life. So she was just the cat. I loved her very much, and named her Cream in my head." Risu's voice was slightly husky, and he had to pause to calm himself and make sure the ice was firmly in place. Only the cold could let him tell this story.

"She lived with us all my life. But when I was eight, Cream started to turn grey. She was an old cat by then and only wanted to sleep on my lap. At first Mother dyed her white, but the grey kept showing through." Risu glanced at the white, white walls. "She could have gotten an AI treatment for it, but Cream was just an old cat. So she applied for a new one. Once she had approval, she put Cream in the trash disposal." Risu paused, then added. "I'll always remember how she screamed when it disintegrated her."

"I picked up a lamp and tried to kill her with it. I meant to kill her, wanted to kill her, and my nanite systems punished me for it. And as I lay on the floor, writhing in pain, she laughed and called me a stupid little boy." Risu looked at Maleficent, who was watching him with an unreadable expression. "We got a new cat, but I could never love him. Because I knew that if his fur began to turn grey, he would be gone."

"A terrible story." Her tone was not sympathetic, simply acknowledging, and Risu was grateful for that. He wouldn't have believed sympathy. Maleficent just wasn't a sympathetic person. "If you want revenge on your mother, you don't have to wait to be free. We could lay a curse on her that would make her wish for death." Risu smiled at the offer, but shook his head.

"She committed suicide decades ago. She was just a small, cruel, self-centered woman who was too small to even see her cruelty. I just want to be free, so I never have to endure anything like that again." Maleficent laid a hand on his shoulder, and smiled at him. It was the smile of a co-conspirator, and he returned it.

"Perhaps you will, someday." Privately, Maleficent thought that if there was any solution to his problem, Risu would find it. "But now, the stars are in alignment. We have an hour to complete this. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Mistress." Risu stood and took his place in the diagram. He would provide a grounding for the power and help with direction. Not a hard thing, and something any apprentice could have done.

He was more than pleased to help. The victim of the curse didn't concern him at all.