Chapter 11

And time passed...

Darcy had fallen asleep in Magus's arms. When it was all over, she simply nodded off. What little energy she had was spent. All her fear and anxiety had gone away, to be replaced by peace.

Magus, though out of breath, was wide awake. He rather enjoyed making love to her, and not just the physical pleasure. He had never felt so...happy. So at peace with himself. He wished he could stay like this forever, Darcy quietly resting in his arms, her breath on his neck. But he had things to do. He ran his fingures through her long, red hair one final time, then got out of bed. After covering Darcy up with the sheet, he quietly put his clothes on, then headed for the door. But he realized that he had forgotten something. All this, and he had missed the whole point of being here! He was losing sight of his objective! He reached into a pouch, took out a piece of parchment, and quickly wrote a note on it. He kissed her, and saw that she was shivering. It was cold in there, and she only had a thin sheet to warm her. Magus took off his cape, which was woven from thick material. He covered her with it, and left.

A hour or so later, Darcy woke up. She rubbed her eyes, unsure about what had happened. she stretched, yawned, remarked the lack of clothing on her body, and it came back to her. She and Magus had...had... even the thought gave her the shivers. He had already left, for some reason or another, but it had happened. (This is the kind of thing that you don't forget easily..) She hadn't meant for it to get THAT far...but no use trying to change what has happened. It HAD been nice. "Besides," she thought, "with a memory like his, he probably doesn't recall a thing." she rolled over, sat up, and blinked. Magus had left his cape on her bed, which was unusual. Darcy had never seen him without a cape. It didn't seem like an accident, since it was spread out to cover her. Darcy gathered it up, and wrapped herself in it. Partially for the comfort of having something of his, partially for warmth.

As she did this, she heard something 'clink' on the floor. She looked, and saw the small bundle and the note. She picked them both up, and opened the bundle first. It was the pendant! She put it on, and read the note, looking for an explaination.

Sorry I had to leave. I have many things to prepare for. As soon as you awaken, come to the top of the castle. I've excused you from your chores. I'll meet you there, and explain more of what I need you to do. Be sure to bring the pendant.

Magus

Darcy just stared at the note. No explaination. And no mention of anything else, for that matter. She was tempted to just ignore it, but she wanted to know why he gave her the pendant back. And she wanted to see him again. She stepped out of bed, and put on her jeans and shirt. she folded up Magus's cape, and put it in her bookbag, along with a few other things. She had a feeling that something was about to happen. Something bad.

Just then, as she was putting on her sneakers, something outside her window caught her eye. By the light of the full moon, she saw three figures at the entrance to the castle. One (Which, by the way, looked a whole lot like a frog, even from the distance.) drew a HUGE sword, and hopped through the gates. Darcy said to herself "I'd better tell Magus about this...I'm sure these aren't his guests for tea." Picking up her book bage, she made a dash for the top of the castle, wherever it was.

It took her half an hour to find her way to the top. Every corridor looked the same, and most lead to dead ends. In fact, Darcy only found the place by accident. She saw a little twinkly spot on the ground, and stepped on it. The world faded to black, and she reappeared in a room that wasn't any brighter. Darcy took a cautious step forward, praying not to bump into something nasty. Instead, she caused two bright blue flames to light up. They didn't provide much light against the blackness in there, but Darcy could make out a form on the other side of the room. Her knees shaking, Darcy took a few steps towards the figure. As she did, three more groups of flames lit up. Her heart kept into her throat, but she kept on walking. After the seventh set of flames, Darcy could finally make out the figure. Magus, of course. She thought to herself "Well, who else would it be, stupid..?" He was standing in the middle of a circular pattern in the middle of the floor, arms spread, chanting. A thin spiral of mist, which was growing bigger every second, surrounding him. Darcy tapped him on the shoulder, but he didn't react.

"Boy, talk about your daydreamers. This must be the place." Darcy thought to herself. "But why here?" Then she remembered something. This was the same place where he had accidently summoned her here! Darcy may not have been the brightest person in the world, but even she knew that he was trying to summon Lavos. "But why the hell does he need me?" She mumbled. She looked at Magus, who hadn't noticed her yet. He was still 100 absorbed in his magic, lost to the rest of the world. For safety's sake, Darcy backed away from him. She didn't want to get caught in the way of whatever he was doing.

The mist around Magus grew thicker and thicker, until it filled the room. Darcy started to choke, but he still kept on chanting, oblivious to everything else. Just when she thought that she would be smothered, the mist quickly dissolved.

Darcy tried to take a breath, but couldn't. Even though the room had cleared, her lungs hadn't. Magus had finally finished his spell, and just in time. The first thing he noticed after regaining his senses was Darcy, doubled over and coughing. He rushed over to her, to see if she was alright. Darcy just pushed him away, and coughed a few more times. Magus patted her on the back, and she coughed up a wad of black... stuff. She took a few more deep breaths, and satisfied that her lungs were clear, Darcy said "You could have given me a warning."

"I didn't think that you would be here so early." said Magus. "I assumed that you would sleep longer after..." He stopped in mid-sentence. "...Well, you know what I mean." he finally finished with. He gave Darcy a hand up. "Anyhow, everything is now ready."

Darcy blinked. "Ready for what? Are you gonna try to summon Lavos again?" She knew it was a stupid question, but she wanted to be sure.

"Not quite." Magus said. "YOU will be summoning Lavos."

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!? ME? Are you out of you FUCKIN' MIND??" shouted Darcy.

He stepped back into the center of the circle. "Clam yourself, love. I mis-phrased that. You, and your pendant, will provide the raw energy that I need to awaken Lavos. I will be doing the actual summoning." He pointed at a rack of candles, and lit them. "Precious seconds are being wasted as we speak. We shall begin now."

"Oh, I don't believe this... And just HOW am I gonna DO that?" replied Darcy, raising an eyebrow. Strangely enough, she didn't complain about him calling her 'love'.

Magus sighed. "I'm not sure. But I know that you can. You have it in you." Darcy gave him a look. "Oh... just focus all the magic power you have into the pendant. I'll do the rest."

She was still skeptical. "Well, that's helpful." Darcy stepped closer to him. "One more thing. What happens if this doesn't work?"

"It will." said Magus with confidence.

"I know your track record. Something WILL go wrong. It has to." returned Darcy. "I just want to know if I can walk away from this in one piece."

"I'm not sure about that either. You should be alright."

"Should?!??"

"Things can always happen. Fate is like that."

"You are sooooooo helpful." said Darcy sarcasticly. "Hell no, I won't do it . I don't do things that aren't conductive to a long life."

Magus was expecting this. He had a plan prepared. "Not even for me?" he asked innocently. "I'm not asking much. And you know I wouldn't put you at any risk, love."

Darcy shook her head. "No way. I've nearly died twice. I'm not aiming for a third time."

"Perhaps I can persuade you." he said smoothly. He took Darcy in his arms, and gave her a long passionate kiss. "Convinced yet?"

Her face turned a bright shade of red. "...Not yet...But if you do that again...Damn..." Darcy didn't even have to finish her sentence. Magus gave her two more, equally long kisses before she said "...Yeah, sure I will..." She felt like a total fool to let her buttons be pushed like that, but his kisses just melted away all her resolve.

Magus smiled. Giving her a final peck on the cheek, he pointed to a spot in the front of the candles, and said "Stand over there, and do as I tell you." He then stepped into the middle of the circle.

Darcy did as she was instructed. She walked over to the spot, and stood there. "Well...now what?" she asked.

"Take off the pendant, and hold it in front of you." said Magus. Darcy did. "Now...hmmmm. focus all your energy into the pendant." he ordered.

Darcy didn't have a clue how to do that. She just stood there, looking at the pendant, trying to think of a way out of this. Magus was giving her the evil eye by now, so she figured "Oh well, what's the harm in trying?" She closed her eyes, and thought really, really, REALLY hard. A few sparks came out of the pendant, but nothing else happened. "Um... I doubt that was the raw energy that you were talking about..." she said.

Magus was livid. He was trying hard not to lose his temper, but he couldn't keep it in anymore. "You're NOT doing it right!!!!" he shouted. Causing Darcy to jump. "You CAN, you just aren't TRYING!!!"

Darcy lost her cool, too. "Doing WHAT?! I can't TRY if you DON'T tell me what I'm supposed to do!!! BE MORE SPECIFIC!!!"

He would have kicked himself if he could. Here he was, yelling at a girl who barely knew more magic than Ozzie, and he wanted her to bring Lavos to him. He sighed and went over to Darcy. "Here, I'll try and show you." said Magus, placing his hands on Darcy's shoulders.

A warm feeling went through her body, and the pendant started to glow. She heard a voice in her head, saying "...this is what I mean, love...do this..." Darcy tried to copy the feeling, and the pendant glowed even brighter. Then Magus removed his hands, and most of the warmth faded away. It was like stepping out of a hot tub, and into a pool of cold water. She shut her eyes, gritted her teeth, and focused. So this is what Magus meant... Blood rushed in her ears, and stars exploded behind her eyelids. She was slowly losing her grip on consciousness...but she kept on.

Magus waved his hand, and all the light in the room went out, except for Darcy. It was like she and the pendant were glowing as one. "Try not to think about it..." he muttered. He took a deep breath. He was ready. Tonight, it would work. He knew. He spread his arms, and began to chant...

(A/N: Sorry for the lateness of the chapter! But I made this one extra long. This story is almost done, there is at least 2 more chapters before it all comes to an end.)