The metal door of Mr Mortem's office was heavy. Together, Mezrielda and Bagsy pulled it open and peeked through the crack into the room beyond. Only, room wasn't the word for it. A massive expanse of space stretched before them – rising high above their heads and descending far below. Grated walk ways criss-crossed and tangled throughout, leading from one metal cubicle to another, or from a massive filing system to a large golden shoot threading through the maze-like space. Like ants, Ministry workers rushed around, all hurrying towards chute entrances or exits with bright red and purple floating arrows pointing towards them. Their robes billowed out behind them, and some of their pointed hats flew off in their haste, forgotten to the confused space they left behind.
Within a few moments, the evacuation of this great expanse was complete, and Mezrielda and Bagsy were looking at a newly-born ghost town.
'Now's our chance,' Mezrielda decided, slipping through the gap onto the platform outside of Mr Mortem's office. Bagsy followed, but as the door closed behind them there was a sudden jolt through the ship. Thrown onto the floor from the abrupt shift, the two were surprised by the giant column of fire that erupted up from the depths below them. It was a raging amber tornado in the flashing red and purple lights and, as they watched, it melted the paths and broke apart the structures. The one Bagsy and Mezrielda had found themselves on began to tilt forwards as the walk-ways on either side of it were pulled downwards by the collapsing parts they were connected to.
The fire column disappeared as soon as it arrived, but it didn't matter. It had caused a complete and utter collapse of the place. With a clang and clatter, pipes high above them came loose and fell down towards them.
'Mez-!' Bagsy warned.
Darting her hand upwards, Mezrielda pointed her wand at the debris. 'Arresto momentum!' she cast quickly. At first, there seemed to be no effect, but then, as the pipes tumbled and began to disperse they slowed until, at last, they stopped completely, hovering in the air.
The platform they were lying upon shifted again, creaking onto its side and lilting towards the depths below.
'Oh, Merlin,' Mezrielda breathed, looking around herself at the carnage.
'That fire,' Bagsy said in a hurry. 'That was Winifred and Robin – I'm sure of it! We need to get down to them!'
Mezrielda gestured angrily at the collapsing structures around them. 'How?'
Bagsy took the scene in; there were gaps between the pathways, floating objects, drops from one cubicle to another. The doom of their situation must have gone to her head for in that moment she smiled, getting to her feet. 'It's an obstacle course,' she explained. Mezrielda stared at her, dumbfounded. 'Follow me. I can get us down.'
'Are you mad?'
'No.' Bagsy jumped from the platform and grabbed a floating metal pipe.
'I can't do that!' Mezrielda protested.
'You're going to have to,' Bagsy called as she swung from the pipe and landed on an unstable cubicle not too far away. There was darkness below them and pulsing red and purple lights filling the dark space. Spits of steam and sparks of electricity spurted out of small holes on the towering walls and splintering piping. Bagsy admitted that there were calmer environments to practise running an obstacle course, but Mezrielda didn't have a choice.
'I… I can't!' Mezrielda reaffirmed, getting shakily to her feet as the platform she was on began to crumble around her.
'You're Mezrielda Glint. I thought there was nothing you couldn't do?' Mezrielda didn't respond. 'Think of it like the game we played at Christmas – the floor is lava and you need to get to me without touching it!'
'This is nothing like that game,' Mezrielda insisted furiously, eyeing the depth below her wearily. 'I'm not as physically strong as you,' Mezrielda called across the gap. 'I can't do it.'
'Do you trust me?' Bagsy countered. Mezrielda was silent but the indignation on her face made it plain; of course I do. Bagsy held a gloved hand in her direction. 'Jump.'
Taking in three sharp breaths and clenching her fists, Mezrielda took a step backwards, pocketing her wand. Then, instead of running forwards and jumping, as Bagsy was expecting, a blank expression crossed her face. Next thing Bagsy knew, Mezrielda was laughing.
'What?' Bagsy asked, frowning, worried her friend had lost her sense in the panic. 'Mezrielda, we don't have time for this!'
Mezrielda merely stepped nonchalantly off the platform, turning into a bird as she fell before flying over to Bagsy. She landed on Bagsy's shoulder and let out a string of loud caws that sounded like a bird version of laughing. Bagsy resisted the urge to face palm. Instead she focussed on her far more difficult task; she couldn't fly her way out of the collapsing room and, as more debris began to fall around her that Mezrielda couldn't stop while she was a bird, she realised she was running out of time.
Squawking in encouragement, Mezrielda took wing and began to descend. Sucking in a breath, Bagsy followed. Her eyes read the area in front of her, deciding what her thaumaturgy-powered jumps could reach and what ones they couldn't, locating objects she could grab onto with her hands, or crawl along using her gloves and slippers. She could only mentally thank all the time Professor Kim had forced them to run the obstacle course – she was nervous at the best of times and if she hadn't felt as confident as she had when she'd leapt from one partially destroyed cube to the next, she was sure her nerves would have sabotaged her attempts.
Eventually, she was far enough down that she could make out a mist-like fog below her.
A magpie landed on the ledge she was perched on and shifted into Mezrielda. 'I've been watching that mist. It's some kind of spell that blocks falling objects,' she explained, pointing down at it. 'Someone must be below it for it to have been cast. I bet we'll find Winifred and Robin there, as well as whoever's taken them captive.' With a brief glance above them, Mezrielda cast another set of charms to slow the entire rooms that were now beginning to tumble down, threatening to crush them. Exertion and concentration drew themselves over her face, but Mezrielda managed all the same.
'Will the mist block us?' Bagsy asked.
Mezrielda shook her head. 'Only non-living matter, I'd expect. If it's the spell I think it is, it should briefly deactivate when living organisms approach it.' In the split second Mezrielda spent explaining, a filing cabinet landed on the ledge next to them, tipping over and spilling cubes of heavy paper, metal drawers and documents onto them. With cries of alarm, Bagsy and Mezrielda found themselves forced off the ledge by the impact, falling through the mist.
They weren't falling for long and, with only minimal pain, they found themselves in a heap on a white floor that pulsed with the same purple lines as the rest of the ship. With loud bangs and thuds, the numerous filing cabinet drawers landed around them. Thankfully, the mist seemed to have reactivated above them in time to stop the filing cabinet itself from landing on top of them.
Mezrielda cried out and Bagsy turned from where she was sprawled to see a massive pile of bound paper had landed directly on Mezrielda's head, who was now looking to the side with her eyelids fluttering closed, dazed.
'What in the name…?' a nasally voice spoke angrily from behind Bagsy. Turning, Bagsy saw Mr Mortem standing at the other end of the room, his wand summoning white bindings that were wrapping around Winifred and Robin. Both the sisters looked freshly singed, and unconscious. The floor and walls around them were burned black, except for one object that surprised Bagsy. Standing in the corner of the room, behind Mortem and the bound Winifred and Robin, was a clostra boab. Looking at it, Bagsy recognised it was the tree Teresa and Neve had grown together. 'How did you get in here?' Mortem gaped at her, before scowling. 'It doesn't matter,' he said, before gesturing at the gaping hole in the ceiling above them where the mist was now protecting them from falling debris. 'You can thank these two infernos for that,' he spat angrily, 'and my incompetent inferiors who didn't follow procedure. I told them this room wasn't designed to contain inferno, that the damn tree would do it just fine, but did they listen?' He sneered at Bagsy as if it was her fault. 'Of course, they didn't. Because no one knows how to follow orders anymore.'
Mortem's looming silhouette was only made more intimidating by the red and purple alternating hues permeating the empty room, casting angry shadows onto his gaunt face. Bagsy found herself unable to speak – she knew there was nothing she could do against Mr Mortem. He was an adult, with magic and experience, and Bagsy was nothing but a foolish, irresponsible child, with no real magic to utilise.
But there were Winifred and Robin, tied up and eyes shut, at his mercy.
Before she knew what was happening, Bagsy was on her feet and running towards her friends. She tackled their forms to the ground, and away from Mr Mortem, before he could react. Urgently, she gripped the bindings in her hands and pulled, trying to rip them open, but they were too strong. Before she could try anymore, hands were on her, pulling her away from Winifred and Robin and hoisting her into the air with surprising strength.
Mr Mortem held her in a headlock. 'Insolent child! What are you doing here, you fool?' he spat in her ear. 'Invorto!' A spell hit the side of Bagsy's head and with a sharp flash the world in front of her inverted. What was on her left was suddenly on her right, and when she thrashed in an attempt to get out of Mortem's vice tight grip she found her arms moving in the opposite direction she told them too, and her legs kicking out in uncoordinated jabs. It was as if the world had flipped back to front. Mortem pointed his wand at Bagsy again, and began to conjure more bindings but, this time, instead of Winifred and Robin, these bindings were to restrain her.
'Anguis!' Mezrielda cried. She'd struggled to her feet and was leaning against a wall with her other hand painfully clutching the side of her head where she'd been hit. A thin line of green shot towards Mortem.
'Protego,' Mortem countered quickly, a blue shield forming in the air, rebounding the spell.
Mezrielda didn't let up, sending spell after spell shooting towards Mr Mortem, who blocked each one swiftly. In the confusion, Bagsy was trying her best to direct her hands subtly into her robe pocket. It was difficult; when she tried to move her left arm, her right reacted instead. When she tried to search her right pocket, she fumbled around her left. Eventually, though, as a bead of sweat was beginning to form on Mezrielda's forehead, Bagsy found what she was looking for.
She brought her hornbeam wand into her hand. Mortem didn't notice, but Mezrielda did, and Bagsy saw the look of confusion that flashed across her face. Carefully, in her back-to-front state, Bagsy pulled her wand training wheel, which she'd located in a separate pocket, onto the wand. Throwing every ounce of magic she hoped she had into the spell, Bagsy uncoordinatedly thrust her hand forward. 'Lumos!' she screeched, envisioning every drop of her power funnelling into the wand, pushing with all her might into the magic. There was a crushing pain in her arm, as if a large, cement bubble was forcing its way through her bones, and Bagsy let out a cry of agony.
There was a moment of silent confusion from Mortem, who briefly took his focus off Mezrielda as he looked down at his captive's wand. The end was dimly glowing, but that was not the alarming part of what lay before him. Bagsy's cry died and she watched as the wand in her hand began to tremble as if an isolated earthquake were seizing it. Then, the shaking grew to the point where she worried it would jitter out of her grasp. Cracks of blinding light formed along the wand, before a sudden eruption of sound and force pushed Bagsy and Mortem to the ground with a thunderous boom that rocked the entire ship as the hornbeam wand splintered into a thousand wooden pieces that scattered across the floor.
It had been louder than anything Bagsy had heard before – louder than Mezrielda's bubulous spell, louder than the rumbling of the ship, louder than the thunder her weather machine had conjured. Her ears heard nothing at all, before a ringing filled her mind, loud and piercing, only adding to the confusion of her currently back-to-front perceptions.
Without a moment of hesitation, Mezrielda was slinging colourful jets of magic at Mortem, who barely recovered in time to block them. Hisses sounded as jinxes and curses flung themselves around the room, either off target or re-directed by a counter from Mezrielda or Mortem. Ducking her head low, and covering it with her hands, Bagsy tried her best to reach Winifred and Robin, except the ship was starting to shudder like the collapsing room above them. Combined with the reversed world around her, navigating a straight line was very difficult.
If only Bagsy could reverse the spell Mortem had cast… even if she had her spare wand on her, which she didn't, she glumly knew that she wouldn't be able to, anyway. Then, with a start, she began fumbling through her pockets again. At last, her hands sealed around the star shaped sunglasses she'd bought from Hooshair. If their label was to be believed, they flipped the world back to front.
Putting them on, Bagsy was relieved to find they indeed did. Her world flipped but, this time, back to its original orientation. Once more, left was left, and right was right. Able to find her way now, she reached Winifred and Robin, and set to undoing their ties. Only, the bindings were as tough and strong as they had been on her first attempt, and she wasn't sure she could break them, no matter how hard she pulled. 'Winifred? Robin?' Bagsy tried, shaking them. Neither of them woke up – Mortem must have placed a strong sleeping spell on them. With a guilty pause as she raised her hand, Bagsy slapped first Winifred, and then Robin, across the face. She winced, murmuring a 'Sorry,' when neither of them awoke as a result. 'Worth a shot,' she added to herself, before her eye caught something bright orange shooting towards her.
Instinctually, she raised a hand up and turned to look at what was rushing at her, catching a reflected hex moments before it would have collided with Winifred and Robin. It dissipated harmlessly into her spell-sponge glove.
'Apologies,' Mezrielda grit out as she took staggering steps and jerked her arm around, trying to cast faster and faster in an attempt to overwhelm Mr Mortem. 'Gelugmenta!' A blue icicle shot from Mezrielda's wand to Mr Mortem.
'Colliquify.' With a casual flick, he melted the icicle before it hit him, and then sent ribbons of darkness in retaliation.
'Medger,' Mezrielda hissed, swiping her wand downwards firmly. The black ribbons faltered, grew white stripes, and then collapsed to the ground, transforming into a horde of badgers composed of ribbons. Mezrielda pointed her wand at Mortem and the badgers turned, lumbering menacingly towards him.
Mortem laughed at the sight, as if he were reading an interesting article, then jerked his wand towards the creatures, whose legs began to move erratically as they broke out into uncontrollable dancing.
Mezrielda fumed. 'Scissor sororibus,' she countered, setting the badger's free of their dancing, and back on their mission towards Mortem.
More amused than threatened, Mortem vanished the badgers with a bright blue blast from his wand, before pointing at the ceiling above Mezrielda's head. A dark grin twisted his face. 'Massa verto.' The white painted metal above her began to slink down, turning a deep, gloopy orange. For a horrible second, it looked as though Mezrielda was going to be devoured by a deluge of hot, molten lava.
'Colliquify,' Mezrielda tried, but there was so much lava forming on the ceiling that the part her spell hit only sizzled, briefly cooled, before the surrounding lava heated it back up. Mezrielda was forced to leap out of the way and, as she did, Mortem shot white bindings towards her, wrapped them around her leg. Mezrielda cried out in frustrated protest as Mortem began dragging her towards him. As he did, he began moving his wand again, shooting countless curses and spells towards Mezrielda.
Bagsy watched on, not sure what to do. She didn't have to worry for long, though. Mezrielda furrowed her brow in focus, pointing her wand first at her robes, then the floor surrounding her, and then the ceiling above her. 'Reverto!' she cried out, her voice echoing around the room and the end of her wand glowing a dazzling purple. The robes she was wearing grew out around her, raising up like rearing horses, forming into countless hooves that kicked out at the spells. Simultaneously, the ceiling and floor stretched down and up, morphing into the white legs of equines churning the air. Each hoof jutted out towards an incoming spell, jabbing it away decisively. The hooves had burst out in an explosion of limbs and, as soon as they'd appeared, they shrunk back, returning to a normal sized robe, a flat floor and a flat ceiling.
Meanwhile, the countless spells they'd repelled had shot away from Mezrielda, and to the rest of the room. Bagsy had just managed to catch the few that had headed towards her or the unconscious Winifred and Robin. Mortem, though surprised, had conjured another shield to protect himself.
Taking her chance, Mezrielda pointed her white wand at the binding gripping her leg. 'Flagrate,' she muttered quickly, severing the strip with a flaming cut.
The sight gave Bagsy an idea – if Winifred was awake, could she burn through the bindings?
As Mezrielda rolled to the side, narrowly missing a shrinking charm from Mortem and shooting a yellow jet of sparks back at him, Bagsy searched through her robes again. 'Come on,' Bagsy breathed to herself. 'I just need one dose…' At last she found the vial, producing it in front of her star-shaped glasses for examination. She smiled in relief. A vial of exhaust-gone.
Uncorking it and sparing a moment to catch another spell that accidentally shot towards her with a spell-sponge glove, she opened Winifred's mouth and poured the liquid down her throat, holding her head at an angle so she wouldn't choke. Within a minute, Winifred was beginning to stir, as Mortem's spell slowly wore off. While she waited, Bagsy turned her attention back to the duel. Mezrielda's robes were ripped in places where there were gashes on her arms and legs, she was breathing heavily and her face was red from exertion.
'Give up, child,' Mortem sneered, approaching her confidently, twirling his wand around his hand. 'You can't beat me.'
Fury roared on Mezrielda's face as she snapped her wand towards Mortem. 'Obliviate,' she snarled like a feral animal.
The spell almost hit Mortem, who stalled in surprise, but with a quick slash his wand disintegrated the spell. As he did, Mezrielda had, once more, forced herself back to her feet.
The next moment, Mr Mortem was laughing a nasally, unpleasant laugh. 'Oh, dear, child,' he chortled. 'Why, I suppose you don't know what department I worked for before I moved to magical creatures. Allow me to demonstrate…' A sadistic pleasure took home on Mortem's face as he whipped his wand through the air over and over, sending so many different jets of light towards Mezrielda Bagsy's eyes could barely keep count.
Desperately, Mezrielda took step after step backwards, letting out harsh gasps as she tried feebly to move her arm in time to counter everything heading towards her.
'Go on,' Mortem goaded. 'See if you can cast it in time. See if you're quicker than me.' He spoke as if the barrage of spells he was casting was nothing more than doing the dishes – boring and tedious. There was a perfect technique in there that Bagsy recognised as only achievable through a life time of dedicated practise.
Taking the bait, Mezrielda paused her countering to hold her wand aloft. 'Reverto!' she began to cast, but as her robe was growing to form the repelling horse hooves once more, a spark of red collided with her side, sending her sprawling onto the floor. The purple light at the tip of her wand faded as Mezrielda groaned, forcing herself back to her feet.
'Come on, Winifred!' Bagsy begged, shaking the girl in the hopes it would wake her sooner. Winifred's eyes slid open, her pupils blown wide and confused as she looked around.
Mezrielda was nearly on her feet, Mr Mortem levelling his wand calmly towards her. 'Go on,' he continued mockingly. 'I'll give you another chance. Cast it quickly enough and you won't get hit. And trust me, you really don't want this next spell to connect.' Mezrielda glared at Mortem with more hatred than Bagsy had ever seen, her teeth bared like a hissing cat's.
Abandoning Winifred, Bagsy moved, running towards Mezrielda. Her spider gloves were already full and glowing with magic – if she caught anything more they'd be overloaded, and the ship didn't need more internal damage, let alone a laser beam from her gloves. Still, she couldn't leave Mezrielda to face Mortem alone.
As she was approaching, the ship jostled again, and Bagsy found herself falling onto her side, her star shaped glasses falling off her face. Everything went back to front, and she could only blink as her coordination refused to return.
'Enough games,' Mortem growled. 'You've grown too big for your boots – someone needs to teach you a lesson about authority.' Holding onto the wall to stop himself from falling, Mortem moved his arm, shooting a green colour in Mezrielda's direction. 'Obliviate,' he drawled, self-satisfied with malice.
'Reverto!' Mezrielda tried, her voice wavering from exhaustion. In that moment, her ability to cast spells was as weak as Bagsy's.
She hadn't been quick enough. Bagsy could only watch on, unable to get to her feet, as it happened.
The spell hit Mezrielda.