Author's Note: Again my apologies for last week, but it was the end to what was a rather trying week at work. With this in mind I hope that this chapter makes up for my goof.
Chapter 25: Substitute Evil Queen
"RAARGH!" Morgan was angry, she did not like this little gaunt down memory lane, but alas in the same way that you can't un-ring a bell she could not forget these series of events, and more importantly what they lead to. "No but I can stop you!"
With that Morgan pinched her finger and thumb together and suddenly everything in the tower went black. Huu... The Obscuris and it's space warping powers, the very bane of a Narrator's existence. Fine then, memory lane can wait until after the witch queen has calmed down.
Duchess was in the midst of studying the book Apple had retrieved for her, oddly enough it didn't provide information on removing any of the curses that afflicted these creatures and more so information on their overall biology and cultures. It was strange but Duchess could take advantage of the information within: of interest to her were two of the entries in the Demon and Demi-human sections. There was a particularly nasty species of demonic bird called a Malphas that lived in hell tormenting people who had been turned into trees, apparently, and given what Duchess's job description entailed having something with an affinity for dark magic in her arsenal seemed like a generally good idea.
The second entry however was interesting for different reasons, Harpies and their greater subspecies the Siren. In both cases we see creatures depicted as being half human and half bird, fully flight capable and armed with their own means of doing things. A harpy resembled a human torso with bird wings and legs and is very much a bird of prey with high combat capabilities such as sickle like talons and tightly wound thread like muscles which gave them huge muscle strength. A siren was something with much lower direct combat potential, a very small bird with a human's head but whose voice had a hypnotic intoxicating effect. Still it would be difficult trying to copy creatures forms purely from pictures.
"Well at least Apple brought this back from Wonderland." On the other hand Duchess was able to get up close and personal with the walking/flying croquet mallet that Apple had brought back with her from Wonderland that was now taking a bath in the fountain. "I hope you are enjoying this anyway." Ever After was significantly less horrible then Wonderland, some of the students would even drop by and toss bread crumbs at it and, it's only real complaint seemed to be that no one was willing to use it to play croquet, or for that matter was willing to bludgeon anything with it. "I'll just leave that one to it's devices, it can go back home any time now." Duchess, aware of the existence of omniscient disembodied voices that the Wonderlanders could listen in on no matter where or when correctly suspected that was sufficient message to the bird's rightful owner to come and pick it up. "Now than... How would Mrs. Yaga feel about me summoning a demon for my magic class?"
A question for another day, for Duchess had matters that needed tending to. There was for example the massive screw up perpetrated by 'her' prince Daring. Of course her repertoire had nothing to so with earth so one should be able to safely conclude that she should have nothing to do with this operation right? Nope. Thanks to Daring shoving most of the raw dirt, earth and rock off to the sides one good rainfall should be enough to trigger a mudslide and fill the hole Daring had made. With that in mind Duchess took off into the air as a Thunder Bird and looked down at the canyon, running a few circles getting all around were the soldiers of Ever After, already informed of what was coming and now scrambling for the last minuet clean up. A flare off in the air signaled that the army had officially buggered out. Duchess floated in mid air for a few minuets while she went to work, water from the nearby lake was scooped up and turned into clouds which were then positioned over the canyon, a severe torrential downpour ensued as lazily pushed out of the way dirt turned into mud and slid back down into the hole it had come from. Once huge stretch of dirt was located where a Canyon was Duchess landed in the school's courtyard and met up with Faybelle.
"Lots of dirt and water in that canyon now, I assume that'll be enough to regrow the forest?" Duchess asked the school's resident Chlorokinetic.
"Eh. It's a start, why don't you go to Mrs. Yaga's lecture in the mean time?"
The familiar tap of chalk scrawling across a board echoed as the honestly rather cranky old witch scribbled down the subject of the afternoon's lecture.
"Ritual Magic. The act of two or more individuals combining their abilities together to generate a more powerful end result." Mrs. Yaga turned to the class and began walking around them. "Ritual Magic can be utilized for one of two reasons: Firstly is a matter of power. When one person does not have the raw power to accomplish a task on their own then the only solution left to them is to either seek out a group for assistance or make one." Mrs. Yaga wrote a second line on the board, the Rule of Three. "In this situation the Rule of Three falls into place." Using her magic Mrs. Yaga produced a diagram from thin air, a pyramid with three corners as the base. "When three Mages use their power together it acts as a multiplier, the combined power of the spell is multiplied by three and a fraction is skimmed off and absorbed into the body. Towards this end it is doubly important that one does not make use of the Power of Three while casting a Curse, less you end up cursing yourself." Towards this end one of the students raised his hand. "Yes Hopper?"
"So say for example you cast a buff with a couple of your mates?" The Frog Prince asked as he took notes.
"Yes you will receive a boost to your stats. But for this same reason, your ritual magics project will be limited to groups of two, which leads us to the second reason for ritual magics." Underneath the line that said the Rule of Three was the term complexity. "The simple fact of the matter is that some tasks cannot be done by one person, not because they require too much power but because they are two complex for some knacks." Mrs. Yaga explained as she brought up a diagram of the human body. "Say for instance you have a Knack that allows you to manipulate water, so obviously becoming say a surgeon who uses that water manipulation ability to command the fluids inside of the body to stitch a wound close. Well then, what would you do about broken bones?" That question made those in the class legitimately look at one another before turning back to Mrs. Yaga. "A knack that allows one to manipulate earth or Minerals can be used to straighten out bone, and one with the ability to manipulate fire can be used to weld bone back together. And while it is indeed possible for someone to learn magic they have a bad affinity for, it takes far longer than to learn a magic that they have a good affinity for. Towards that end." Mrs Yaga bent over and picked up a chest before she put it on the table. "Your assignment, is to pair with one of your classmates and combine your unique Knacks together to find a way of opening these chests." With a snap of her fingers Mrs. Yaga made Chests appear from thin air and unceremoniously land on half of the desks in the classroom. "Now choose your fate!"
"So remind me how did I get paired with you Duchess dear?" Faybelle asked sat on a park bench in the courtyard Duchess across from her and a locked chest in between them.
"It pays to show up on time." Duchess stated admiring the grove of trees that Faybelle had grown over the hole that Duchess had buried earlier. "Speaking of which why is it that no one seems to want to pair up with me?"
"In my case? The two of us rank in the top five people in our class with the most flexible Knacks, having us pair off together seems like stacking the odds a little lopsidedly." Faybelle held her finger and thumb a inch apart to emphasize her point. "But for them in general, you can be a little pushy sometimes Duchess." The former Swan Princess was obsessed with perfection in everything, while many would feel content to pass or simply learn how to use their powers Duchess would never settle for anything less than A+ and that frightened many of her classmates.
"Is that going to be a problem for you too?" Duchess asked one suspicious brow above the other.
"No I happen to like opportunities to rub my superiority in the face of others." Faybelle stated with a overly smug look on her face. "So then what's it going to be?"
"I recently learned how to turn into a bird from Wonderland." Duchess stated with a shrug of her shoulders.
"If we can steal the Blondie girl's hair we can implant her knack into one of my plants." With that understanding between them the two of them went off to find Blondie.
"UGH!" By the looks of things the two did not have to forcibly remove any of Blondie's hair, she was doing that fine by herself. "So you show up, you snatch up the guy that's been sssuch a pain in the rear for the past couple of days! You apparently perform some kind of Miracle surgery on the king and then you leave without talking to anyone again!" Faybelle already knew which realm Morgan called home, and how to get there. But why tell Blondie that when she was having so much fun watching her freak outs.
"My mother was a old friend of the bogeywoman when she still went to school here." Faybelle stated smirking knowingly as she magically swept up a bit of Blondie's fallen hair off of the floor. "I'm sure that there is something lying around her old classroom."
Blondie slammed her hands down on her table and looked at Faybelle straight in her eye with a glare that was nothing short of murderous.
"You're doing this on purpose aren't you?" Blondie asked very much aware of what Faybelle was doing to her and having little choice but to go along with it anyway. "I hate you, I hope you know that right." Saying that Blondie promptly ran off.
"Why do you torment people so?" Duchess asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Because I'm a sadist, and by keeping her from figuring out where The Witch Queen is and how to get there she stays much safer." The realm was not always a nice place to visit, doubly so when one's destination was Morgan's tower filled with all manner of creatures that the members of heroics course are specifically told 'avoid as your life depends upon it.' "Let us return to our project shall we?"
Duchess subsequently spent every free moment of her day over the next couple of days in the form of a Wonderlandian Hammer head, refining her control over the unstable riddlish power. She learned for example that the difference between switching and reversal was a matter of distance and angle, that to make something take on the characteristics of something else the energy must be reflected off one and hit the other. To reverse something it must be saturated with the stuff until it has turned inside out on a magical level. Faybelle on the other hand amused herself by taking care of their demonstration dummy: a potted plant.
"Isn't there something more productive you could be doing for our project?" Duchess asked as she cocked a pink feathered brow at Faybelle. "No not really. This one isn't too complicated so it suits our project as is." Faybelle stated as she trimmed off some of the sides of the plant.
Like that the days progressed, the time for the fairy and the witch in training to the present the fruits of their labors came.
"This is your Chest." Mrs. Yaga stated gesturing to the chest she dropped on the table in front of the two girls. "Now open it."
The two nodded to each other and got to work. Duchess grew pink feathers from her wrist and combined it with a strand of blond hair before stabbing it into the tree needle point first. The two items were absorbed into the base of the tree causing it to change colors into a mixture of pink and gold. The sound of creaking echoed as the little plant forcibly ripped itself out of it's pot and took on the shape of a dove with pink feathers inlaid with gold. Duchess had no power to control birds, only to assume their form, in this Faybelle was vital, for even after it was made half bird she was able to control a plant with but a gesture.
"Open that box." With a gesture like she was pecking at the chest the bird opened it's lock, before grabbing hold of the lock with it's feet and flying over it thereby opening the chest. And inside of the box the two of them found a booklet, to the confusion of the two girls. "Ah Mrs. Yaga?"
"Your next assignment, study it carefully, for this involves far more then just opening a box." On that note the two girls opened the booklet, the entire thing was written in code, the numbers were rather complex and it made the two girls scratch their heads.
Review Section:
rmarcano321: True, not particularly, yes but we're a little off topic.
Zwei Eis: Again my apologies for last week.