"He's...what?" Flim-Flam managed to get out.
Winter Warlock looked confused. "Wait, you mean, they didn't know?"
"They do now," Vincent said sarcastically. "No, it never came up, and I did not feel the need to share."
The final words were icy, and Daphne sensed that something underneath them hurt. Before she could say something to try and interrupt the tension, Vincent was pressing on.
"Asamad Van Ghoul once held the position of the most powerful warlock in the world. But he became consumed by his power, and used it to do terrible things. He controlled people's minds, twisting their wills to his, and making them do anything that suited him."
"He was pretty infamous for all his time spent practicing necromancy, too," Winter added. Vincent glared at him. "What? He was very good at it, except for the part where that's a forbidden art." That part was added more thoughtfully.
Daphne and Shaggy had by now realized that they had heard bits and pieces of this story before throughout the time spent with Vincent.
"I've seen that name before," Flim-Flam realized.
"I have too," Daphne added. It dawned on her that she remembered where, too. "There's a portrait...a name on a plaque, the picture in the study!" She finished, able to finally see the picture in her mind. Another question occurred to her. "Why would you leave a picture of him up in your study if he was so evil?"
"It was a reminder to me of what can happen if I'm not careful," Vincent admitted.
Winter seemed to sense that the topic was uncomfortable, and ventured to change the subject. "So, what you brings you by Vincent? Picking up?" He gestured at Idesvigg. Then he looked at the Gang. "Dropping off?"
"I need the library. You still have the spell books I've brought here over the years?"
"Of course I do. I don't mess with them once you put them on the shelves. Let's go up to the library," Winter said, turning to lead the way up a staircase of ice. As he led the way up the stairs, he let some of his magic out through his slippers into the ice to rough it up and make it easier for the humans following him to walk on it. At the landing, there was a miniature ice castle.
"Nice," Flim-Flam said as he stepped aside to look at it. "Have you considered a career as a professional ice carver? I could hook you up with some gigs!"
"A what now?" Winter paused and looked confused.
"I mean, look at this talent," Flim-Flam gestured at the miniature.
Winter gave a half-shrug. "Oh, I made that for Idesvigg. I thought he needed a castle of his own." With that, the ice wizard turned and continued to lead the way up the stairs.
Idesvigg jumped down off Winter's shoulder as the group moved up the stairs. He landed on Scooby, and ran down the Great Dane's back to jump towards Vincent. The other warlock caught the little imp. "Hello, Idesvigg." Idesvigg chirped a greeting, and scrambled up Vincent's sleeve to sit on the other man's shoulder.
On the second floor, Winter stopped outside what looked like a sheet of white ice, criss-crossed into a pattern of diamonds. Winter flung a hand out, and the sheet of ice broke into dozens of little diamonds, revealing a room filled with books beyond. As they went into the room, Winter flung a hand back, and the ice diamonds latched onto the wall.
"Here you are," Winter said. "Like I said, I left all the books where you put them." The library was full of books; the shelf in particular that Winter was looking at was, filled to the brim with black books. "Of course, all the books you bring here have black covers, and are about the same size, so, best of luck in your search."
"Mr. Warlock," Daphne started, but Winter interrupted him.
"Please, call me Winter."
"Okay, Winter," Daphne said. "Do you know any way to fix a broken crystal ball?"
Winter shrugged. "Of the top of my head, I do not know. I don't use many crystal balls, and I make them as needed and since I make them out of snow, I generally let them turn back into snow when I'm done with them. But, one of these spell books might have the answer."
"There's sure a lot of them," Flim-Flam noted.
"Yes, when I confiscate books on magic from the irresponsible or inept, I bring them here to keep them safe and out of the hands of anyone who would come looking for them," Vincent said.
"So, you don't know what all is here either, Mr. V?" Shaggy asked.
"I have a general idea. Most of these books I have not looked through in depth," Vincent admitted.
Scrappy hopped up onto one of the shelves and pulled out one of the books, followed by Idesvigg who went to the next one. "We'd better get started looking then!"
Winter pressed his hands together. "If you will excuse me, I must go, and continue to harass Asamad. It's only fair, after all." He threw his head back, laughed darkly, and disappeared in a shower of snow.
"Wow," Daphne said when Winter had gone.
"He's eccentric," Vincent shrugged. "He's been up on this mountain for a few thousand years now."
"Like, being up here a few thousand years would make anyone crazy!" Shaggy suggested.
Vincent had pulled one of the books down and started to flip through it. "Every year the frost patterns in winter get a little bit more intricate, and the forest around this castle gets a little thicker. That's his doing."
"Guess he stays busy then," Flim-Flam said, opening one of the books he had pulled off the nearest shelf. The others came over to help look, and they all got to work.
(-)
Daphne had started out helping Vincent and the others sort through the books, but curiosity finally overcame her. The search was taking a while, and her eyes were starting to hurt from looking through the books, skimming through them, seeking any references to crystal balls. She had been looking through the ones in French. Shaggy had been alternating between the English and some of the Latin books.
She slipped out of the library to look around the ice castle. There was a window right outside the library, and she glanced out it. There was, as Winter had warned them earlier, no visibility. It was just white outside. She thought about it and realized that ever since Winter had started the blizzard, there had been no sign of Asmodeus. Whatever he had done must have worked.
She continued down the hall. Another door was ajar a few feet ahead of her. Daphne pushed it open and went in. In the center of the room was a wide basin, rimmed by blocks of ice. When she peered over the side, there was nothing in it. Above was a wide dome of clear ice that showed the blizzard overhead, but she realized as she stood there that given how high they were in the mountains, the view of the stars must be beautiful.
Daphne turned and started. There was a desk in the corner, and Winter was sitting there, a reed stylus in his hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to disturb you," Winter said. "You seemed rather entranced by the basin."
"It's very beautiful," Daphne admitted. "Do you make everything you need out of snow and ice?"
"Mmm...most everything," Winter admitted. He had turned his chair to face her, and Daphne could see that he was sitting at a desk, working at something that looked like a drafting table that an engineer would use. There was another reed lying across the top of the drafting table, and there was a design of frost all over the board. The tip of the reed stylus Winter held had what looked like frost on it. This must be where Winter worked, she realized, and these were the tools that he used to make the intricate frost patterns that Vincent had mentioned earlier. "Some things I have to magic up for myself, though. Tired of the library already?"
"Oh, I was just looking to take a break," Daphne told him.
"In that case, make yourself at home! I saw your friends in the red shirt and the yellow shirt, too, earlier. They were hungry so I sent them to the kitchen," Winter went on, and Daphne realized that she hadn't noticed that either of them had left.
"Have you known Vincent for a long time?" Daphne asked.
"Yes! Since he took his place as the world's most powerful warlock! Asamad used to hold that position, you know."
"Yes, Mr. Van Ghoul told us, remember?" Daphne asked.
"Oh, that's right!"
"You didn't seem surprised when we showed up," Daphne went on.
Winter shrugged. "Vincent comes and goes as he wants. I don't mind. I don't get out much, you see, and I don't have many friends. Oh, Kris comes down when he can, but he stays pretty busy these days. Vincent will come by and put a book away and tell me what he's heard that's going on in the world. And he brought Idesvigg here too, to keep me company, he said, and because there was something else going on that was keeping him busy. Now I've realized he meant that the Thirteen Ghosts were out there again. I suppose he didn't want Idesvigg in the middle of that."
"Vincent told us at the time that he was taking Idesvigg somewhere safe," Daphne told him.
"Yes. Vincent is Idesvigg's hero, you know. Idesvigg is always happy to see him," Winter went on.
Daphne hesitated. "Mr. Warlock- "
"Winter, please," he interrupted her.
"Winter, can I ask you a question about magic?"
"Of course! But why don't you just ask Vincent?" Winter wanted to know.
"Because...because I don't think that he wants to talk about this," Daphne said.
Shaggy wandered into the room just then, trailed by Flim-Flam. Both were chewing on globs of dark brown material wrapped around sticks. "Maple sugar snow candy?" he offered, holding the stick out to Daphne.
"No thanks," Daphne said.
"Your question?" Winter went on.
Shaggy and Flim-Flam were looking at her curiously. Winter was waiting to hear what she wanted. Daphne took out a deep breath, and asked, "Can Asmodeus take away memories?" She didn't remember all of the last fight with the monster. All she remembered was falling, and then waking up at home.
"Well..." Winter thought it over. "It's certainly not outside his capabilities. Why do you ask?"
"Because, like, last time we fought him, we lost our memories for like two years!" Shaggy told him. He gave a nervous laugh. "I think if Mr. V hadn't shown up, we still wouldn't remember anything about the ghosts!"
Winter looked like he was deep in thought. "So, you lost your memories while fighting Asamad, and then you saw Vincent, and when that happened you got your memories back. Is that correct?"
"Uh-huh," the three of them nodded.
"Mmm," Winter mused, then sighed. "There are many ways to take away someone's memories. And many reasons for doing it. If your memories were restored when you saw Vincent, then Asamad didn't take your memories away. Vincent did."
The trio looked aghast at that news. Winter went on. "If Asamad had taken your memories, you would have needed to see him to get your memories back, not Vincent."
"No way!" Flim-Flam protested. "Vince would never do that to us."
Winter looked at him, and stated evenly, "the magical evidence says that he did."
They all looked hurt at that. "No wonder he ignored us every time we asked about it," Flim-Flam grumbled. "Why would he do that to us?"
"You're asking the wrong 'why' question," Winter said, opening his hand and letting his reed stylus disappear. "You're asking 'why' to indict his character. There are circumstances where a mage will take away the memories of a mortal. Normally, though, there has to be a good reason to do it. It's not exactly dark magic, but it's frowned upon. I've never known Vincent to be cruel. Cocky when he was younger, yes, and I've never known a young witch or warlock who wasn't. But never cruel. Instead of asking 'why' against his character, ask 'why' about his motives."
[A/N:] It was really unclear in the movie why on Earth Vincent would keep a picture of his ancestor who, you know, was established to be the ultimate Big Bad of the whole doggone series, in his study, so I thought I'd try and clear that up.
Based on Winter and Vincent (so, a random sample of two warlocks) warlocks seem to like isolated castles on mountains and laughing darkly about things. I have decided that Daphne can also speak French, and that Shaggy learned some Latin in college.
Reed styluses were used in ancient times to write cuneiform. I gave Winter this implement, which he uses to create his designs of frost and intermittently for casting magic, to highlight the fact that he's a very ancient magic user. Maple sugar snow candy is a thing. It's made by heating maple syrup and pouring it out onto clean snow, and then rolling it up with a stick and eating it.