51

Oh the things she knows

Time: The next day

Place: Biddy's Farm

"So what are we doing out here again?" asked Nita, looking around. The two girls, having Teleportaled to the farmhouse Susan had battled Biddy, were now standing on her front step about to ring her doorbell.

"Seeing what she knows. She did say that we should ask her if we needed help. You want to go visit wizards in the area. Not sure what good that will do us, they will no doubt be as clueless as we are right now. All of you having the same information from that... where did you put your book anyway?"

"Otherspace. Carefully, because of the magical radiation around here."

"Ah, right. Anyway, if the book could tell us the answer, it would have already. It obviously can't or won't, so we'll go ask the next best thing- one of the people that helped make the world around here."

"Usually we go up the chain of command, so to speak. I should be talking with other local wizards, then if they think it's appropriate, to the area senior."

Susan laughed. "Area senior? You have a girl (and cat) from another world wandering around who has told you about a creature of malevolence that wants to cut your "branch" off from the "tree" and take the power of your dimension for itself. What do you think another wizard at your level is going to do about that? I need to find the Darkness or the "event" that The Darkness is going to use to trigger the extinction event here. That should hopefully solve your problem of going sideways."

"Why do you figure that?"

"Easy. With The Darkness gone, whatever event is getting set up around here goes away, and things go back to normal."

"I guess you could be right. Do you hear a banging?"

They stood and listened. There was a rhythmic banging coming from the direction of the forge, at least Sparkle's ears swiveled in that direction.

"No," said Susan, her Poor Sense weakness once again making a brief appearance.

"Come on, she's probably working at this hour."

Susan followed her into the back, where indeed, Biddy was working on something long, pointy, and probably sharp.

"Making something for our rematch?" asked Susan, looking it over. Biddy didn't turn, continuing her pounding on the glowing iron whatever it was she was making.

"Are we... having a... rematch?" she asked between swings.

"Only if you want to lose to me a second time."

"Please, we're here to ask for her help!" said Nita, glaring over at Susan. "Not bicker about past misunderstandings."

"Misunderstandings, right," said Biddy.

"The truth is, if you can tell us what's going on, maybe we can fix it and all get back to our normal lives. I can move on, everyone's happy."

"Little busy right now," she said, shoving the object back into the forge fire.

"I'll wait," said Susan, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. Biddy glanced over at her, sighed, and went back to work.

Some time later, Nita, who had been watching her quite closely, spoke up again. "What are you making, exactly? It looks like a weapon."

"I'm just getting back into practice," she explained. "I have a feeling I'm going to be making the real thing soon enough."

"What real thing? This one isn't real enough for you?" asked Susan.

"Not in the way you would understand it. Look, I can stop soon, just let me work here, okay?"

"Okay."

Finally she left the metal to cool and stripped off her heavy gloves. "All right, let's go up to the house for some tea and we can talk."

Ugh, more tea.

"So what do you want to know?" she asked, cup in hand. The girls were sitting at her kitchen table, which looked perfectly ordinary in every way. Susan looked around, considering.

"What?"

"You're some kind of other worldly being, right? One of the original creators of the world?"

"She doesn't mean any disrespect!" Nita hastened to put in.

"It's fine. Actually, meeting someone that doesn't go all weak at the knees on meeting me is kind of novel." Her eyes narrowed a bit over her cup. "Just don't take it too far."

"Right, wouldn't want to have to beat you up again," said Susan, taking a sip. "The point is, don't people notice?"

"Notice what? Is there something in here that shouldn't be?" She looked around.

"What, no, the place is incidental. I mean don't they notice you're not aging? I mean you've been around since the beginning, right? How do you do it? Shape-shifting? Magic to keep people from thinking about it too much? Illusion?"

"Is that really what you came here to talk about?"

"No, just a thought I had. Okay, to business then. What's going on around here that's allowing people to travel to other realities so easily?"

"And how do we put a stop to it?" continued Nita.

"More then likely it's about time for a reenactment around here. Probably the battle involving Balor that took place here some time ago."

"Another one?" groaned Nita. "The last one nearly got me killed, I only got off on a technicality." Susan looked at her questioningly. "'Read the fine print!' the bird tells me. HA! No more agreeing to stuff without knowing what I'm getting into for me, that's for sure."

"Okay, you two know what you're talking about, but I don't. Care to share?"

"Places that experience pivotal moments in history, and wizardry, tend to remember them," Biddy began. "This can cause them to repeat somewhat, and cause trouble for us now. Thus, the wizards of today have to go and fill the rolls that were played by wizards in the past. This puts the events to rest for a time and everything goes back to normal."

"And this Balor fellow?"

"Another name and form the Lone Power took."

"Oh, that guy I made retreat last night, right. But if he was defeated before, what's the danger of this 'recording' as you put it?"

"That's just the thing, he's a Power, like I am. He doesn't exist in the same time as you do. If that 'recording' of him should be unopposed, or if the wizards of today lose... well, he would be free to continue doing whatever it was he was trying to do the first time."

Susan looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. "That which holds the image of the Weeping Angel becomes an Angel." The others looked curiously at her. "Just something from my world. Maybe you'll get it in twenty years or so. The point is, to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, we need to enact a kind of play to keep the image of Balor in check. Except if you die in the play, you actually die. And if everybody dies, things here get much, much, worse."

"That's about the size of it."

"And that's why you're forging a weapon?" Nita asked.

"That's why I'm practicing forging a weapon. Like I said, the real one will have to be made of sterner stuff."

"Not sure what that means but given a little time, my magic can make anything you forge practically indestructible."

"I'll keep that in mind. Meanwhile, you'll need to find the other 'props' so that the play goes on smoothly."

"Ah, a fetch quest!" said Sparkle. "That's good for XP all right."

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem," said Susan excitedly. "What are they?"

"The physical embodiments of the four elements. The spear, that's what I'm working on, is fire. You need to find the others. At least, something that can serve to represent the elements. The old objects that held the power are still around here, I can get you the address of the museum you'll find two of them in. The rock is just sitting out in a field someplace north of here. If you can rekindle their power, they can serve again. If not, find another object that's similar and can hold the spirit of the element. Don't worry about moving the rock or anything, it can stay right where it is. Just wake it up."

"Hey, I'm not going to carry around... okay, I probably would show off by yanking it out and bringing it."

"Wow, she knows you that well already?" asked Sparkle.

Susan stuck her tongue out at her.

"Does this all solve your problem though?" asked Nita.

"It sounds like it. If I know The Darkness, and I like to think I do, that's where it'll be. This 'recording' of yours sounds like a good place to camp out and gather power from. It'll have taken the image over, augmented it with whatever skills or powers the body can support, and use it as a jumping off point. Plus the timing is right, this one event, just days before I arrived? That's our guy."

"Okay. Get us the address and we'll go take a look at these objects. Should we bring them back here, or what?"

"I'm really not supposed to be helping even this much, you know," Biddy protested. "This all is what we made wizards for. Give the objects to them."

"Oh, right. The bunch of you let one of your own invent death, and now it's up to us to clean it up- until the end of time. Even though you're supposed to be like gods around here, you spend your time repairing horseshoes. Right."

"Don't push it, little traveler," Biddy growled. "I could take my real form and crush you. It would mean the end of this persona, but that might be a small price to pay."

"Oh, so your buddy the Lone Power doesn't have a monopoly on destroying things, huh? I'm just calling them like I see them, okay?"

"Girls, please, we're all on the same side," said Nita, standing up and pulling Susan up with her. "Can we get that address, please?"

"Sure." Biddy dashed off an address on some paper and thrust it at Nita. "Hopefully you won't need any more of my help after this."

"You've been a big help, thank you. We'll do our best."

"If you change your mind though, decide you want to protect this land you seem to love, you know where to find us," Susan called as Nita pulled her out the door. Sparkle followed.

"What's your problem?" Nita asked as the three walked away from the house.

"My problem is with people that have power and don't use it. My father got his amazing magic and abilities for a reason- to save his world and others from The Darkness. I inherited it and have taken up his fight. I have the magic, and I've always used it to help whomever I could. But her? She's one of the original beings but she may as well be powerless for all the good any knowledge of wizardry does her. Even doing things on the sly- how many stupid, pointless deaths have happened while she was putzing around with her silly forge? And if she's any indication, her fellow creators are just as bad, sitting around letting you wizards take the risks to fix their mistakes!"

"Oh," said Nita after a moment. "I'm starting to understand you a little, I think. That's why you can't just sit in the sun on a lazy afternoon, isn't it? You have to be doing something, anything, because you feel your power demands it. You have spider-man syndrome."

Susan snorted. "Spider-man syndrome? That's a new one. But sure, that's one way of putting it. That, and wasting time here means another day my father and Luna are out there, somewhere, lost or captured or whatever. My father knew the risks, and Luna did too, but we were supposed to face them together. I let her down, and I have to fix that. I can't move forward until this world is safe, because even I can't weigh one life against an entire dimension."

"Let's get started then."

"Finally."

The pair rode the bus to the address given to them by Biddy, which was a museum.

"What exactly are we looking for?" asked Susan, looking around.

"I guess something that embodies an element?" hedged Nita. "We know fire and earth aren't here, so something that represents water and air. You can feel things out, right?"

"Guess we'll have to. Biddy could have mentioned exactly what we were looking for."

"Maybe she would have, if you had been nicer."

"I'll choose to believe I was as nice as I could be, and she was the jerk. It would seem to fit my worldview better that way."

Nita rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

The three poked around, looking at ancient art, artifacts, and stuff people of the time would have thrown out as trash. Nita was drawn back to a chalice; a two feet high metal cup, encrusted with jewels and seemingly made of gold. It wasn't just sitting out for any fool to grab, however, it was locked in a case made of thick glass. A spotlight from above shone down on it, and Susan wandered over to her.

"You think this?" she asked, pointing to the cup.

"See those designs? Those are old binding spells, engraved into the metal. And if you feel it out, it feels like it's sleeping."

"Sleeping, huh?" Susan tried Magic Sense, (minimum, an 8) Spirit Sense (even worse, a 7), Dimension Sense (an 11) and felt nothing. She said as much.

"Can you even feel wizardry?"

"Not sure. I can tell if an active spell is on something, or if it has spiritual power, but if what Biddy said was true, this cup has neither. And it was made around here, so it wouldn't show up to Dimension Sense. You getting anything, Sparkle?"

"Not a thing."

"There you go. Still, a cup for water would fit. We just need to get it out of there and wake it up. I guess you'll have to handle the second part. I can handle the first."

"Are you crazy?" Nita hissed, eyes darting about. "You aren't just going to swipe it are you?"

Susan barked a laugh. "I'm not dumb, you know. I'll wait until we're outside at least. Gosh, you think I want security guards after me? I might hurt them accidentally, that would be no good."

"Thank goodness for- wait, how could you get it while you were outside?"

Susan touched her nose. "Magic."

"You're impossible!"

"Tell me something I don't know. Okay, so look for that funny writing, huh? Maybe we can find something for air too. She said both were here."

Susan didn't expect to find much, given her failure with the cup, but she could look for weird writing on stuff with the best of them. They both looked for about an hour, but apart from a really old sword Nita thought might have been suitable once, they didn't find anything promising.

"Wouldn't they decay at the same rate though?" asked Susan as they walked out of the building. "I mean they must have been used at the same time, whenever the last 'reenactment' was performed."

"I think it depends on a lot of things," explained Nita. "How skilled was the person that put the spirit of the element into the object? How much care was taken creating the vessel? How powerful is the spirit?"

"Wait, they must all be the same power level."

"Not necessarily. Which is there more of in Ireland? Air or fire? Water or earth?"

"Only the Avatar can master all four- never mind. So does a stronger spirit decay faster or slower? The vessel might not contain a stronger spirit as long as a weaker one. But a weaker one would have less far to go to become useless. So again, wouldn't that balance out?"

"You got me. So can you really steal the cup?"

"Sure. You want it now or what?"

"We'll have to study it, see if we can wake it up. We had better do it someplace out of the way, though. I don't want someone coming by and seeing us staring intently at a cup made of a million dollars' worth of solid gold."

"Wow, was gold that high in the 90s?"

"You know what I mean!"

"Okay. We could take it to my workshop, plenty of room there with all that potion making stuff gone."

"Workshop? What workshop?"

"The one I keep in my pocket. You'll see. For now let's head back to your place. We'll step in and out from there, save us time later."

"Okay. I hate to just steal it though."

"We can give it back later. Again, it's about using the power properly. What good is the cup doing the world just sitting in that case there? And we aren't melting it down or anything, the cup will still exist. It'll just be doing the job it was created to do, rather than gathering dust in that case."

"Can it gather dust in that case?" asked Sparkle. "It looked pretty solid to me."

"Dust finds a way."

"I thought that was life?"

"Works for a lot of things. Love, mustard stains, getting senpai to notice me..."

"Getting what?" asked Nita.

"Look it up in fifteen years or so."

"Yeah,I- I'll do that. That aside, shouldn't we, I don't know, hand it over to some better wizards?"

Susan gave her a "don't you trust me?" look. "Believe me, I can become better than any wizards you have around here. I can make you better, too. With the three of us working on it, I'm sure we'll have the cup cracked in no time. And by cracked, I mean fixed."

"The three of us? Who's the third?"

"Me," said Sparkle indigently. "I have the Adaptive skill, same as she does. And I think I know what she has in mind, too."

"Do tell."

"Cheating."

"It's only cheating if you get caught. Come on."

So the three made their way back to the trailer, and slipped around behind it. Susan had gotten out her notes on Personal Dimension, a spell she still needed to cast from writings. She did a quick Retrieval and handed the cup over to Nita, who stared it at.

"I'm really holding it."

"Yeah, did you think we came all the way back here so I could say 'whoops, I can't magically magic it into my hand after all. How stupid am I?' and giggle? No, we came to study it, and that's what we're going to do. Besides, you could have done it with wizardry, right? I mean if you can go to the moon (as you claim) then you must be able to talk an object into your hand." Though, as usual, I'm the only one doing any magic around here.

"I suppose normally, yes. I wouldn't want to try it around here without some precautions though."

And that's the other reason for suggesting my Personal Dimension. This will require wizardry, and thus far apart from a small light spell and knocking herself out, I haven't seen my new friend here do much of that stuff. I'd like to see what she can do, before I go to do some kind of highly dangerous reenactment with her. I'd like to know what she's capable of.

"Fair enough," she said. "Now it'll take some time to open this, don't disturb me, please."

With that, Susan started casting the nine minute spell (double that because of doing it from writings) but cutting it down some with energy. Higher grade spells are so weird. The higher grade spell of Dimension Gate only takes two seconds, while Legion would normally take twenty minutes. I guess magic really is unfathomable.

The spell completed, Susan beckoned Nita inside, and both stepped in. Nita took in the gently sloping hillside that ended in Susan's cottage by the lake.

"Are those solar panels on your little house down there?" she asked, squinting into the distance.

"Yeah, they keep my refrigerator running. Had to get rid of most of the food, I couldn't access this place for a bit. I should put a permanent spell of 'food not spoiling' on it somehow. Anyway, come see, and we can get work."

Susan started down the hill, Sparkle and a somewhat impressed Nita trailing along behind them.