Once again I woke up wrapped up in someone else's cuddle, and it was no less awkward than the last time it had happened. I opened my eyes and was entirely unsurprised to see Webby once again sleeping next to me, admittedly it would have been stranger to not see her considering I had stolen her bed last night. She must've gotten back late the previous night and decided to just share the bed rather than shove me out of it. I was very appreciative of that choice and was more than willing to enjoy some wake-up cuddles than sleep on the hard floor again.
Yawning I pulled myself out of the rather restrictive embrace and pulled myself up. I thought about heading to get my typical morning coffee, but a different thought struck me. This was the perfect time to actually test what connection was flowing between us. If Webby was awake she would probably never give me a chance to test anything without telling everyone she could. She was not good at keeping secrets. I wasn't an expert at it either, but I was not immediately yelling it out as soon as I saw something with a pulse. Yeah, yeah, that's a bar low enough to trip over.
Still, with the early morning, I had been given the perfect opportunity to devote some time to properly investigating just what this stupid impulsive hunger really was. I could already tell that Webby must've gotten back relatively early last night because I was positively bursting with energy stolen from our connection. Despite the hunger reaching saturation, I could still feel the connection between us sitting there with little more than a trickle flowing. Pulling out the talisman once again, I prepared to channel some proper magic. I closed my eyes and mentally reached into the aether between us, slowly wrapping myself mentally around the elusive connection.
Magic did not have a physical manifestation of anything, and a magical connection was drastically more ethereal than even typical spellwork. What I am trying to say is that it probably took me five minutes before I'd even worked out how to trace the connection between us. I didn't so much see or feel the connection, as much as I just received the knowledge that it was there, magic can be a real pain to properly communicate to those without magic. Still, I traced it as best as I could and wasn't too surprised to find the connection was strengthened on Webby's side by her friendship bracelet.
That stupid friendship bracelet really should not have been able the withstand the amount of power she had channeled through it to bring me back the first time. Feeling only slightly like a creep, I gently lifted it and studied the threadwork on it. The restorative magic she had hurled at me to help me should have had some sort of effect on it, and yet it looked perfect. In fact, it looked suspiciously perfect. I narrowed my eyes and gently took a hold of it, slowly slipping it off her wrist. Somehow she didn't wake up.
There was something wrong with the bracelet, it looked new. I focused and could feel that the connection between us was still solid despite the removal of the magical focus, the bracelet. I was beginning to realize that there was something much deeper going on here. I trailed the connection between us and frowned as it seemed to split and flow from me in two directions, one back to Webby despite the lack of focal object, and the other strangely to the bracelet directly. The source and the focus were both emitting the impulse somehow.
It didn't make any sense. It was just some woven thread, it should not have had anything to give me, and yet it felt like it was holding enough energy to help me for days. I'd heard about magical casts that split sections of life force away to get used as a lethal form of magical battery, but all I really knew was that it was the darkest of magic driven by emotion.
Biting my lip I quickly made my way out of the room, focusing on how the connection between myself, Webby, and the bracelet twisted under the separation. I had barely left the room before the connection between Webby dropped to nothing, and I let out a breath of relief. Knowing that the distance required to stop magically stealing her soul was so short was definitely a good thing, though it did mean that hugs were not really going to be an option in the future.
With that first bit of good news sorted I focused back on the bracelet and could see it slowly draining itself back to me. So I could see that it really was behaving like some sort of magical capacitor or something. Useful to know but still not quite enough to fix it. I quickly ducked back into the room and slid the bracelet back on her wrist. If she woke up without it I did not want to have to deal with her racing around trying to solve the mystery of how it went missing. With everything back to normal I backed out of the room, keeping my attention on the magical connection.
It never stopped. I nearly reached the front door and the connection stayed active the entire time, not even a hint of the considerable distance affecting it. Sure I could tell that it likely wouldn't send quite as much so quickly, but it was still there and I would still be stealing from Webby to keep this worthless form alive. I needed to find a proper way to sever this connection before the effects on the other started to become permanent. I had worked out enough. It was clear that the hunger impulse was not a good thing and I needed to make sure I stopped it as soon as I could.
Scrooge always complained that magic was all about cheating yourself to your goal. In all honestly, he wasn't that far off the mark. I preferred to say that it was more cheating so successfully that even reality gave up on stopping you from reaching your goal. If you decide that a bag is going to float over to you, and your willpower is enough to decide that it is happening, then reality just kind of throws its arms in the air, curses at you, and floats that bag. So I needed to break the connection and I needed to make sure that it stayed stopped.
The first step was to find somewhere relatively distant where I would not be distracted, so I soon found myself sitting in an upstairs sitting room far away from the others. The room was mostly empty apart from some old furniture that had clearly been dumped there to clear room for newer stock. The perfect room to give me the privacy to save Webby and Vi.
I sat with my back against the wall with my knees against my chest, the talisman floating in front of me supported in my magical focus, as I let myself drift into the magical nothingness that filled the void. Darkness soon surrounded me as I let my magical projection float through the air. Trying to actually work on magical connections was considerably more difficult than merely finding them. For detection, you just have to get yourself into a mindset where you are allowed to know where they are, and from there you are good.
Actually changing it is considerably more involved. I couldn't just sit there and let my mind wander a little, I needed to actively push a small part of myself across the void and into the aether of magic, it was not what I would ever call a pleasant feeling. It wasn't a feeling at all in some respects, it was more an absence of everything that seemed to stretch off into the nothingness. Magic is just hard to really explain. It took me a long time to really get my mind to settle, I knew that it wasn't mere seconds of minutes passing as I focused. This would be hours of focus.
I finally got my hands on the connection, tracing it as best as I could. I soon realized that it was a lot more splintered than I thought. It wasn't just a single connection, but multiple and seemed to spread out in a variety of ways. I shuddered as I realized what it was. I wasn't just leaching off Webby and Vi, I was stealing from nearly everyone in the manor. Gritting my teeth I pulled my magical feelers around the connections before abruptly slamming the connection shut, it pushed back and brutally flashed as if to defend itself. I didn't let up and threw my everything into it, squashing the connection down as hard as I could and keeping as much magical pressure that I could on it. I buckled against me, but I kept my focus and pushed down.
Time seemed to stretch on as I kept up the relentless force, slowly starving the connection and reducing its stretch as I strained. I could feel the exhaustion start to take its effects on me but I forced myself to keep focusing. I don't want to know how long that struggle went on, but it was no mere short-term battle. Likely over an hour passed as I sat there, and then it stopped. My magical strength slammed together and the bonds were gone. The impulsion's connection was gone.
With a blink I was back sitting in the empty room, the talisman no longer floating but was now hanging heavily around my neck, feeling incredibly tired. I looked out the window and was unsurprised to see that the sun had made considerable progress. I was tired, but still rather happy all things considered, my friends were going to be safe. There was a part of me that was worried about what would happen now that it was blocked, but I knew I had made the correct choice. Now I just had to make sure I kept my distance to make sure I didn't reinitiate it or something.
Of course Webby didn't entirely understand the concept of personal space and I was reasonably sure that just being within arms reach of her could undo my hard work. So it was time for another day of reading through old manuscripts in the other bin, Violet was a bad influence on me. I really was turning into a nerd.
The next few hours passed slowly in the cold storage area of the other bin, though this time I was focusing on less academic-based works. Okay, I'll be honest I was reading through some wizard's journal. It was a freaking riot of stupidity, apparently, he really wanted to make sure some ruler would take up the throne despite seemingly hating magic. Shenanigans didn't even begin to cover the absurdity of his efforts. Unfortunately, my amusement was starting to sour as the annoying impulsive hunger was starting to grow within myself.
I had removed the links between myself, Webby, and Violet, however, that did not mean that I didn't still feel the stupid thing. At least I had made sure that they were safe away from this mess. I yawned loudly as I tried to focus back on the words before me, however, they were starting to swim. I blinked in confusion, frowning as strange black spots started appearing in my vision. I tried to blink them away, but they seemed to multiply around the edges of my vision. I felt myself start to panic as my vision started to get obscured.
I tried to work out what was going on but my mind kept looping and looping and looping on nothing. It was like even my thoughts refused to be properly thought. I took a shallow breath and could hear something muffled near me. I tried to focus on it, but I just couldn't manage it, until things started to slowly fizzle back into being understandable. My thoughts still weren't working, it was like every time I tried to process my surroundings I instead just started back at trying to start focusing.
The muffled voice beside me finally started to make sense and I heard the sound of someone telling me to just lie still and give myself time. I wanted to at least try and get my arms under me so I could try to get up, but it didn't happen. It's not that I couldn't move, it's just that I couldn't seem to actually do it. The voice from near me was talking calmly and I tried to make my mind focus on it until I was finally able to understand.
"You need to just stay still," Mrs. Beakley was kneeling next to me with a hand on my arm, likely in an attempt to help me. "You took a bit of a tumble and you're not quite ready to sit up."
"I want to," I managed to mumble out as I finally managed to actually make out where I was. I was lying sprawled out on the floor with a small pile of books tipped over next to me, and at least one had been slightly damaged. I finally managed to get my hands under myself and I was soon sitting with my back against the wall, Beakley holding my shoulder to keep me upright. "Hey, tea time" I tried to give her a wave but things didn't seem to feel right so I instead just dumbly sat there.
"You fainted Lena," She gently put an arm around me, but rather than helping me to my feet she instead pulled me up into her arms. I made a weak effort to push away, but I wasn't really able to do much. "Come on, we're heading upstairs and getting some sustenance back in you."
Within a minute I found myself in Webby's previously vacant bed with my back propped up on pillows and a cup of water sitting awkwardly in my lap. Webby was nicely already waiting for me when I got there, as was Violet. I didn't really get to ask any questions, but Violet did mutter something about coming over for a sleepover when I tried to ask. I'll be honest things got more than a little hazy and my vision was really not even close to being clear. All I really know is that I was able to focus on my surroundings Webby was there kneeling on the bed staring at me while Violet was sprawled out of the floor engrossed in some ridiculously thick textbook.
"Granny is getting you some food," Webby told me, but I may have somewhat failed to entirely pay attention to her. I had something considerable more time-critical to look after. I closed my eyes and tried my best to ignore my friend, mentally reaching out my magic to check that the magical connection was still properly severed. I was relieved to see that the connection had not reformed.
Thankfully Webby remained mostly silent except for a few gentle questions about whether I needed more water or anything, and eventually, Tea Time graced us with her presence as she arrived with a bowl of some soup. I frowned as it was placed in front of me. I was a creature of shadows and magic, what did she expect it to do for me.
"That's fine, I'm not hungry," I replied tiredly as I took another sip from the water before me.
"Lena, your eating patterns are not very consistent over these last few days," she told me quietly, pushing the bowl towards me. "I think both Webby and myself would greatly prefer to see you at least try some. Finding you passed out in the vault was not something that I wanted to see."
I shot a glance at Webby and flinched at the adorable puppy dog eyes that she was shooting at me. I sighed and started eating. To be fair to both of them, it was rather nice tasting and I did enjoy eating it. Of course, all good things were not to last and I had barely gotten halfway through before we heard an almighty crash from downstairs. There was a rapid exchange of words between them and soon I found myself alone with Violet.
"You need to watch your food intake," Violet told me simply as she closed her book and made her way over to me. "Webby was rather horrified to see you in such a state. I know you care for her, so I expect that in the future you will take steps to ensure that this doesn't happen again."
Vi was annoyingly good at making me feel guilty. "I didn't exactly plan on this," I replied with an eye roll.
Before Violet can come up with another reason to send me on a guilt trip, we are interrupted by Webby shoving open the door and slamming it shut behind her. She took a few seconds to regain her breath before talking. "Okay so turns out the Pukwedgies may have found us and are trying to reclaim their treasure that Mr. McDuck rightfully stole."
"My dads don't want me to stay around wild animals, so I assume the sleepover is not happening tonight." She responded with a sigh as she pulled out her phone. "I'll get them to come to pick me up."
"That might be best," Webby responded with a sigh, a loud crash from downstairs perfectly punctuating Violet's decision. Suddenly Webby perked up. "Actually, tonight's going to be a write-off for me dealing with this, but it doesn't need to be one for you, Lena. Also after the whole fainting thing, it might be a good idea for someone else to look after you as we may be slightly distracted by this mess." She turned to Violet as I scowled at the thought of needing to be 'looked after' like I was some useless child. "Do you think th-"
"That my folks will be happy for me to have a friend over?" Violet actually smirked at the question. "They will be ecstatic, to a worrying degree. It'll also be a good chance for me to study Lena's magical aura with fewer distractions." She was already dialing the phone before I could even have a chance to respond. I didn't need to be babysat by Violet's dads, I had survived for 15 years on my own so I could survive a night without Webby.
Of course, Violet ignored my protests. So a few minutes later we had made our way past the mess downstairs and were waiting patiently at the gate for her folks.
At least the connection was still severed.