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Familiar of zero is owned by another
Skyrim is owned by a company
is it just me or is it getting harder to write these?
RedBurningDragon: Maybe because it has both lightning and dragons.
Cheese PuffXx: Which one?
helkil: Would you really not punish someone for hiding in your room around midnight from the guards?
OSDStitch: She has experience.
Guest: Okay, the jumping back and forth didn't seem to work out in the last chapter. Thanks for telling me.
TheENDstyler: Agnes is trying to take advantage of it, but she's underestimating how hard it is to learn Magicka.
amimai002: I should look more into this Zelrech guy :} PS Dove did make a magical girl!
Guy Passing by: I know that this could easily blow up in either the queen's face, or Dove's face. What if she claims to have divine permission? that should save her throne at least.
Akshka: Done!
the guest: I love that idea, it's in the running for how to get Dove pregnant.
Guest000: Yup, I don't think Dove would hesitate to use Magicka in this war since she easily left Skyrim to defeat Miraak. Dove being discovered will probably be a little bloody.
Touhou is Life: It was a joke, and Cyanide was the only thing Dove could think of to imply that she had poisoned Agnes for her joke.
alexc123: Agreed.
Guest: Thank you for the correction.
perfectshade: Either way she put someone's life in danger just 'cause, that doesn't fly in most books. Julio is kind of slimy in my opinion, he rubs me in a wrong way (Like everyone in the last chapter) but I know he was smart enough to get something out of Louise during drills. The entire event with Agnes, from the moment she started popping to ordering the musketeers, was supposed to be critically important and I'm glad that it showed.
Okay, It doesn't sound like the flashbacks worked as well as I would have liked.
NacNak: No aborting! We are to close to stop now!
GrimKid98: I agree about the train wreck part.
Guest: Here it is.
Solders, musketeers, men at arms, no matter what you called them. People in metal suits weren't all that sneaky.
Dove knew that fact from the one to many times a guard or bandit would say, "I think I heard something" while she was near. This time around, she was the one who caught on to the fact that she had shadows.
It was a little annoying for her to glance over her shoulder and see someone slip away and then try to follow her again after she returned to work. Baking in the kitchen was the only time she didn't see or hear the musketeers following her around and trying to be unnoticed while doing so.
The illusion of safety and freedom however was broken when a server had gone to get some more supplies from storage. Outside the room, watching the door with a pair of sharp but seemingly uninterested eyes was a dark green haired musketeer.
Dove snarled before catching her anger and bottling it down for now. She had already revealed too much in her fight with Agnes. 'How could I have been so stupid'. Dove thought while banging her head on the counter top once or twice before going back to work, ignoring the looks from the other servants.
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The day passed and the only difference was that the musketeer she occasionally caught sight watching her through the doors was changed to a girl with a brown, short ponytail.
Martone was seated at his table wiping sweat off his forehead. The dinner meal had been a delectable stir-fry that he had slaved away at for almost two hours. Very hot work, but he was pleased beyond anything else when he got the seasoning down right.
"Time to close down for now," he called to Dove as she packed up her freshly washed cooking utensils.
Dove looked at the window, it was facing towards the setting sun which was little more than a sliver on the horizon. "Agreed," she said before hopping onto the counter top.
Martone blinked and looked at her strangely.
Dove mudcrab walked to the window and with practiced ease, slid it open.
"Feel free to tell the guard at the door that I've slipped off to my secret laboratory," Dove said over her shoulder before hopping out the window. Brushing her thighs once or twice, she turned and closed the window behind her before striding off.
-[]-
Martone sat there looking out the window after his assistant before sighing and getting to his feet. Pushing open the door he found a musketeer wearing a white cloak, she was rather tall with blue hair.
"Excuse me miss," he said hoping that he wouldn't make her angry.
Michel looked at the head chef, "Yes?" she asked.
"I was told to let you know, that my assistant Dove has gone to her 'secret laboratory' by jumping out the window," Martone felt like whimpering under the musketeer's sudden hard glare.
"She just wanted you to know," he finished lamely.
Michel rushed past Martone and into the kitchen. It was empty.
Michel turned and raced past Martone again in search of Agnes.
-[]-
"SHE LEFT!?" Agnes was angry.
Michel nodded, "I think she when to wherever she created the potion she gave you."
Agnes paced around the courtyard she had been standing guard in when Michel had reported to her. "Do you have any idea in which direction she went?" Agnes asked.
Michel shook her head. "She went out a window," She explained, "and I lost her after that."
Agnes growled, it looked suspicious to her that Dove could apparently vanish from her musketeers in the kitchen, she would have to order them to keep a closer eye on her after this. Agnes then tempted fate.
'Damn it! What could possibly happen now to make this worse?'
A musketeer came jogging up with fate's warmest regards. The blond girl saluted before giving her message, "The queen is going to be coming here tomorrow to personally give orders to Zero and to check up on your progress with the baroness."
Agnes buried her head in her hands with a growl of anger. She then pulled herself together and looked at the other women around her. "Find the Baroness," she said in a voice that promised sloooooowww death, "I need her for the meeting tomorrow."
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Dove was working in her cave. Her current project was making an enchanting table. She had spent the days before the queen's coronation gathering a lot of the raw materials.
Now she had the pentagon shaped table part finished.
Reaching into the bag she snagged before leaving the academy, Dove pulled out a knife and started carving in the mystic shapes that had adorned all the other tables she had seen in Skyrim.
After a while, Dove was pleased with the lines and reached back into the bag. She pulled out a small brush and a bottle of blue liquid that was made out of what no one really wanted to know.
Spreading the foul concoction on her table, she started sketching in the sign of oblivion, destruction, restoration, alteration, and illusion into their respective sections.
Stepping back, she admired her work, the lines were ready, the marks were drying except for the center one that she hadn't drawn yet, and the space behind the table was ready for the candles and skull or orb she would need to get.
Glancing at the hole in the celling she noticed that it was starting to get light out. She had worked the night away and morning should be in an hour or so.
Walking into the second 'room', Dove laid down on her hand made bed. It was a little drafty, Dove decided as she pulled a deer skin over herself to build a proper wall between the two rooms sometime in the future. She pulled a dear skin almost to her head and turned over thinking about the steadily growing list of things she wanted to do.
-[]-
Dove woke up about four hours later. The sun was completely up, Dove stretched and looked around the room with foggy eyes.
'Oh, right,' she remembered, 'I slept in my cave to tick Agnes off.' She grinned as she thought about the grim faced new mage accidently shooting off little bursts of lightning in her anger while glaring at an unconcerned Dove.
'That would totally be how she reacts,' Dove thought to herself as she stood and stretched.
Deciding to burn even more time, Dove drew in the large enchanting symbol on her table and set it aside to dry.
Dove finally left her cave after setting her gear aside.
Dove was able to see the academy walls before too long. As she entered the largest courtyard she was presently: read smugly, pleased to see Agnes just like she had envisioned her to be: Standing at the doorway, tapping her fingers against the air and giving off tiny bolts of lightning every now and then.
"Good morning," Dove played extra cheerful, "How was your night? I enjoyed mine a lot, although I should build a proper wall in my lab to separate the work space from the living space."
Dove's light and cutesy dumb voice appeared to break something inside of Agnes and she seized the maid/baroness by her collar. Dragging the woman in close. Dove's head gave little twitches as the lightning coming off the other woman shocked her nerves.
Agnes grated out, "You. Will. Not. Ever. Leave. My. Sight. Again. Do. You. Understand?"
Dove smiled and tilted her head innocently, "Yup, you are going to try and stay close to me and I'm going to vanish from between your fingers from now on."
Agnes lost it.
She suddenly pulled Dove into her own chest while jerking her knee up and into Dove belly, just below her diaphragm and driving all of the air from her.
Dove froze in a half crouch and choked as she tried to refill her lungs. Agnes grabbed her burden by the neckerchief again and pulled the gasping woman face to face again.
"I don't like you, Dove," she said coldly, "in fact I might go as far as saying that I hate you for what you did to me. However, it's my job to help you for the time being, this includes adding some rules until I'm reassigned."
Dove just gasped for breath as Agnes laid down the law.
"I won't have you disappearing on me ever again," Agnes said in a dangerous voice, "I'm placing a continues guard on you for the time. If you ever ditch them again I will place you under house arrest to keep an eye on you. Understood?"
Dove regretted ticking Agnes off, she jerked her head up and down. She didn't completely submit, and would undoubtedly test those boundaries but knew it was stupid to argue now.
Agnes loosened her grip at Dove apparent caving in.
"Now," Agnes stated, "I'm standing guard here because the princess came here in secret and requested to meet with first Zero to discuss her tasks and then you to discuss your progress with the potion. Zero's partner asked for you to be there as well for the first part but no one could find you."
Dove finally had enough breath to wheeze, "Louise has a partner? That's nice, I hope he or she can handle her."
Agnes growled again, Dove didn't seem to mind the fact that she was making the QUEEN OF TRISTAIN wait and the thing that got her attention was the pink mages new partner?
Feeling like it wasn't worth it, Agnes seized Dove by the arm and started dragging/leading Dove up to the meeting. For some reason this amused the maid as she allowed her to be pulled behind the captain towards the room where the Queen was waiting.
Dove enjoyed the free guide to the room and then straightened up, pulling her arm out of Agnes's grip just outside the headmaster's door. Agnes glared at Dove's unconcerned expression before knocking on the door to announce their presence.
"Come in," a voice Dove recognized as Henrietta's came from inside the room. Pushing her way in, Agnes moved quickly and then took up a spot next to the doorway for Dove to come in.
Dove walking into the room right behind Agnes and took everything in. Apart from Agnes, the room contained Louise, Michel, the queen Henrietta, and surprisingly Julio. The headmaster was nowhere to be seen but his things were spread around as he liked them, giving the impression that he had just stepped out.
Dove smirked at the only thing out of place, "do you always travel with the exact same black hooded cloak?" she asked Henrietta.
The Queen glanced at her favorite cloak, "maybe a bit too often if you recognize it," she admitted.
Dove smiled in a teasing manor. "So," Dove said clapping her hands together, "why am I here? I heard that Louise was getting a partner." She glanced at Julio, "I assume that is you Mr. priest-who-flirts."
Julio smiled, not letting the name bother him. "Yes, I will get to work rather close to miss Louise in this endeavor." He looked at her with enticing, half closed eyes and a soft smile, "I would also like to extend an offer for you to join the two of us."
Dove tilted her head, "Huh?" She felt like she missed something.
Henrietta spoke up, "What Flamen Julio is asking is for you to be part of Louise's group, making it a group of three instead of just the two I was originally planning." The Queen looked at Julio but still spoke to Dove, "I was however, telling him that I have you working on an important project and couldn't be pulled away from that just before you came in."
Dove raised an eyebrow at the Queen before glancing at Julio. "I see," she said looking at the Priest's hand, not making any more to take it.
Julio sighed as he lost the mage, he really wanted to know more about her creating-weapon-from-air spell. Maybe he could talk to her in passing or after she finished work.
"Is there anything else, Flamen Julio?" Agnes asked since that should conclude his business.
"No," he said sadly, "I hope to get along with you two, Agnes, Louise." He swept a short bow to Louise that just so happened to end with him holding her hand. Louise blushed red and he smiled at her as he stood. "I hope to see all of you around, Dove," Julio said as he started leaving.
"Bye flirt," Dove said with a wave.
Julio however, didn't get to the door before the Queen call out to him.
"Flamen Julio, I think you might want to stay for this. In the spirit of cooperation with the church, I would like you to share in this project."
Dove never considered Regicide until this moment. Technically, Ulfric wasn't a king at the time so that didn't count in her opinion.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Dove asked looking at Henrietta worriedly, "There are some aspects of this project, that might offend someone in your church."
Julio blinked, "'your church?' Don't you also believe in the church of the founder?"
Dove looked at him, "no I don't, why is that so shocking to people?"
Louise intervened, "the church of the founder is the only church in the country of Halkeginia. Only the elves, and you of course, don't believe in the founder."
"Huh," Dove said for the second time in this encounter. Back home there had been at least a little diversity in gods, even if it was just in the way different people had named the same gods.
"So you don't believe in the founder?" Julio returned to his question.
Dove shrugged ignoring the question, "I was just thinking that my potion was created by my people and that our explanation of how it works relates to our gods, the Nine Divine."
"I see," Julio said thoughtfully impassive, "This potion, what does it do?"
Henrietta explained what she thought it did, "we are calling it a booster. The mage who drinks it receives an increase in their magical energy. For example, a point mages are able to perform triangle level spells with one drink."
Julio looked at her hard, "that sounds incredible. How does it do that?"
Henrietta looked to Dove to answer.
Dove looked to Agnes.
Agnes cleared her throat, "The potion isn't fully understood." She hoped this priest didn't push her too hard for an answer, "What we do know is that it basically contains something akin to a 'seed' of magic that the person can tap into."
"Is it temporary or permanent?" Julio asked her.
Dove took up the line of questioning, "Permanent. The drinker will forever have MagicKA in their system. The MagicKA, seed can grow and allow the drinker even more power but that's only something that can be reached with training."
Julio frowned at Dove's strange pronunciation. "Why are you adding a KA sound to the word magic?" he asked.
"Because I'm not talking about magic at all, I'm talking about Magicka," Dove said as if that explained everything.
"I didn't know there was another word for magic," Julio said.
Dove REALLY wanted to go into her rant about the difference between the so called hereditary 'god' gift and true power of the gods. She let it pass since there was no point arguing with Julio, it was only lead to trouble. Instead, she passed it off with a shrug.
Agnes and Louise had the sense to leave him in the dark as well.
"There is more," Agnes said. She bit the inside of her lip when everyone looked at her. She silently cursed how hard it was to say something possibly heretical in the presence of the church's representation, Flamen Julio, but she had promised herself that she would tell her Queen about this one aspect of the drink.
"The potion places a seed," she repeated, "it doesn't require the drinker to have already had a supply of magic. The person could be a commoner and still be granted equal power as a mage."
Henrietta froze, Julio's eye's widened. "What does that mean exactly?" Henrietta asked to ensure that meant what she thought it meant.
"It means I can create mages, make none magical people magical," Dove said secretly enjoying how her blunt, uncaring tone seemed to be giving the Queen and priest a heart attack, "Question: does that make me a goddess to your church? Since I can do what only your god was reputed to have done?"
"The church doesn't recognize goddesses," Julio said by route, still in shock.
"Oh, Darn," Dove said snapping her fingers in mock frustration.
"This is theoretical, right?" Julio asked Dove as sense started to return to him. Henrietta started to breath properly again as he tried to diminish what this could mean. "I mean; you think you could give a commoner magic with this potion?" Julio clarified
Dove Stared at Agnes. The others in the room followed her gaze and looked at her, two of them were confused at the constant back and forth between the baroness and captain.
Agnes clenched her hand and sucked in a deep breath before lifting her hand.
The lightning dancing between her fingers drew everyone's attention immediately.
"You don't have a wand," was the first thing Henrietta could say as the light flickered up Agnes knuckles and terminated about an inch off the tips.
"You don't need it if you drink my potion," Dove said moving up to the hypothetical plate. "I have some conditions for the continued use of my potion, are you ready to hear them or do you need a moment?"
Julio's shock turned to slight anger and he frowned, the woman sounded like a merchant selling her knickknacks, not the most incredible gift to humankind.
Henrietta nodded, "what do you want for this potion?"
Dove smiled, "Final say in who gets it."
Once again the Queen was stunned, she had thought it would ask for something much more than that. At the same time, this would limit whomever got the gift to only those Dove approves of.
"I think, that might be reasonable," Henrietta said slowly, "with some conditions."
Julio was silent, his thoughts were kept to himself.
Dove smiled, "great."
"Would it be possible for us to see this potion?" Julio asked intently, breaking his silence.
"I don't have any made up right now, I'm keeping every batch very close to my person and only making one or two batches so that others can't take it from me," Dove informed him.
"I would like to receive a serving to send to the pope," Julio said.
"Well then, I guess I'm going to see the pope since it's not leaving my sight," Dove was not going to bend on this one. It was bad enough that the existence of her potion was as well-known as it was now, there was no way she was going to let some stranger get a hold of it.
"I don't think that would be necessary," Julio soothed calmly, "I just wish to show our greatest link to the founder that our lord's creation is being put to an incredible new use."
Dove stared at him for a second before bursting out into laughter. "Hahahaha, HA AHAHAHA!" The others didn't get the joke, 'brimir's gift?' Dove thought, 'comparing the two is like apple and boysenberries. They're nothing alike.'
Julio looked confused at her reaction. "Hehehe. There is no way I'm letting anyone else handle my potion," Dove said as she got her breath back.
"Then I would like to see someone receive this potion, so that I may tell of it to the pope," Julio asked in a voice that could pass for a commandment.
"I guess that wouldn't be unreasonable," Dove said thoughtfully, 'need to replenish supplies for it anyway'.
"How long until you have more?" Henrietta asked.
"If I can slip my new leash," Dove said causing Agnes to growl, "about forty-five minutes."
Louise spoke up for the first time, "New leash?" No one should have a leash on her familiar.
"Agnes here," Dove said gesturing at her, "doesn't appreciate my humor and new refuses to let me leave her sight, afraid that I'll disappear again like I did last night."
"Your vanishing is what caused us to be late to this meeting," Agnes growled.
"Oh relax," Dove said, "I vanished because I don't take well to a military force trying to be silent as it follows me around like a lost talking dog while it spies on me. If your attitude was better than I wouldn't sneak off."
"Enough fighting," Henrietta said distracting the two, although she had no idea where the talking dog fit in, "Dove, you will take Agnes with you to get more of the potion for a demonstration."
"But it's in my secret lab~" Dove whined like child, "secret means no one else is supposed to know."
Henrietta sighed, irritated with Dove's sudden childish attitude and Agnes almost equally childish fighting. If she had seen their confrontation just outside the academy, then she wouldn't be calling either of them childish.
She could see the tension between the two. She didn't need to think too hard as to why Agnes was angry at Dove considering her past, but she couldn't figure out why Dove didn't like Agnes.
They both were physical women, fighters and both could be considered friends of hers in some ways. Maybe they were too similar and that pushed them apart.
Regardless, they needed to suck it up and work together for now.
"I know where her 'lab' is," Louise said authoritatively in the silence after her Queen's long breath, "I could go with Dove since it won't be sharing her secret with others," this appeased Dove, "and I could make sure that she comes back in a timely fashion as well." This appeased Agnes.
Henrietta didn't need a long time to consider, "go, please hurry back."
Dove and Louise nodded and left the assembly.
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As soon as the two girls left the academy grounds, Louise turned on Dove.
"WHAT WAS THAT? YOU NOT ONLY CAME LATE BUT YOU ONLY SEEMED TO BE THERE JUST TO ANGER AGNES," she shouted at Dove.
Dove looked at the trees, not at Louise. "I didn't like her attitude, or the fact that she placed guards on me to watch wherever I go," she said self-righteously.
"And that gave you the right to throw her life completely out of form," Louise said, a small part of her was surprised at the fact that she was rebuking Dove of all people.
Dove blushed, still not looking at Louise.
"If that wasn't enough," Louise continued, "you deliberately stayed in your cave making her late to a meeting with the Queen. Agnes doesn't like being late for anything."
"I didn't know that the Queen was going to come here," Dove defended.
"Instead you were probably just planning on ticking her off my being missing the entire day," Louise pressed, "either way the result would have been an angry Agnes just like you wanted."
Dove didn't have anything to say and so remained silent. Pausing in her stride, she plucked a red flower and held it in her hands.
"I expect you to apologize to her when you get back," Louise said firmly taking the lead on the path to Dove's cave.
"I will not," Dove said indignantly behind her, moving to catch up.
"You will, what you did was cruel and she deserves your apology," Louise said still in the lead.
Dove remained silent and glowered at the flower she had picked for the rest of the way to her cave.
-[]-
When they arrived Dove started working at her little potion set.
Louise sat down on an extra seat to watch.
Dove cut the flower she had gathered into different parts and set them to boil in a little glass beaker over a candle flame.
As that started extracting the juices from the plant, Dove moved to her cabinet and pulled out a couple of berries.
Returning to her table she crunched those in a bowl. As she crushed, the purple plant mush started to sparkle.
"Why does it do that?" Louise asked, she was still angry with Dove but she was also curious about the potion. She was fascinated by looking at the little sparkles that were now escaping the bowl and floating in the air.
"The plants are actually rather normal," Dove said, "while I work them I add Magicka to the potion and the end results gain the mystic properties the potions are known for. Each different way I prepare the plant or ingredient causes it to react in a different way to when I add my Magicka."
The pulp was ready and the flower was not too far behind. Dove sat and waited for another five minutes as the water drew out the juices before grabbing a small bottle and pouring the hot mix though a rough strainer. The reddish flower juice went through the strainer and collected in the bottle. Dove dropped the shiny berry pulp directly into the mix and shook.
She felt the potion draw on her Magicka supply almost immediately as the colors in the bottle swirled and turned an almost unnaturally bright blue shade.
"So you need Magicka to make the potion?" Louise asked interested.
"Yes," Dove answered, "I think that's why no one has ever figured out how to make this potion before I came along. They could mix these exact same ingredients for your entire life, but unless the creator has magicka to add to the potion, it would just be colored water."
Separating the potion into two different bottles, one of which Dove labeled and put in her cabinet and the other remained clasped in her hand, the two girls left the cave.
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They quickly arrived back at the academy and made their way to the headmaster's office.
Dove immediately moved in and handed the vial to the Queen.
"One portion of potion as asked for," she said with a smile having recovered her good mood on the outside on the trip back.
Henrietta took the bottle and held it up to the light to get a good look at it.
While she and Julio was giving the small potion their entire attention, Louise glared at Dove.
Dove scrunched up her face as if she was eating a lemon. Huffing, she walked over the Agnes.
"Agnes," she started when she was face to face with the captain, "I'm sorry for tricking you into drinking that potion and I'm sorry for making you late to this meeting."
Agnes blinked, surprised at Dove. She then saw Louise looking happy over Dove's shoulder. "Did Louise put you up to this?" she asked, her surprise was now torn between Dove actually saying it and Louise making her say it. Nobles simply didn't apologize to commoners, even if they were knights.
"She said I should and pointed out how badly I've been treating you," Dove said before briskly adding, "even if I don't like your attitude with Professor Colbert or you placing a guard on me, what I did was out of line and petty, and I'm sorry for it and hurting you with my potion."
Agnes let the silence between them stretch for a moment or two before nodding. "I accept your apology," she said evenly, this didn't fix what she did but the Baroness genuinely seemed to regret things going this far.
Dove nodded, "thank you." Internally she knew that what she did was in the wrong but it had taken Louise giving her the push to say it. She was grateful to her for that despite how much it hurt for her to admit it.
Almost done beating this dead horse of a potion.
by the way, I'm starting another story
This one will still be the more important one for now and will continue as normally as I can make it
but I might be a bit slower on the update.