The Magicians' Realm Chapter 96: A Little Night Reading, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 96, everybody! In which we try to cure Teana's headache and everyone tries to check out a book after hours….

A hot toddy is a mix of whiskey, tea, and honey, and was traditionally given to ease the cold or flu. Mom recalls being given it once or twice as a kid, but it seems to have fallen out as a remedy as time went on (possibly because of the alcoholic content).

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! I only ever heard of two people doing it, so I'm not sure if it's a popular thing, or if it's just an old thing that fell out of use (like the hot toddy). I looked up a skinny latte and that does sound good….And no! Possibly from the alcohol, possibly because they might have thought she had a bad dream, possibly because Kineil was being so matter-of-fact about it all. Maybe….

References:

Original characters, + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

The Delvaire Public Library was surprisingly easy to slip into at night.

That was both good and bad, Yami felt—good because he could get to Anzu and ask his question, and hope she was in a helpful mood.

Bad because if he could, Skellington could.

"Anzu?" he hissed, sparking a small light in his hand—not fire, fire spells wouldn't ignite in here. "Hey!"

…Correct him if he was wrong, but he was pretty certain he was the only one here.

Well then—beeline for the back and the restricted section—maybe he was lucky, and this thin hope was there—

"Hey!"

"Anzu!" he gasped—had to pat his chest to get his heart to beat right. "What are you doing here by yourself?"

Anzu didn't seem even remotely amused. "I was trying to repair some of the books in the back—what are you doing here so late?"

"I—" Could fib, but she was the sort to see right through it, and she'd already made her position clear…sigh, glance away. "I was hoping there was a book here I missed."

"You already tried here."

"I know, I know," he sighed, shaking his own light out—she had her own and it was enough.

"What about telling your folks?"

He gave her a long, searching look…had to remind himself that from her standpoint, alerting an authority would be less fraught with peril. She'd have reason to believe she'd survive that conversation.

"If I told my dad what I did, the next you'd be hearing of me is how they sent me to the asylum after stripping me of my magic," he said, making sure his point got across. "It wouldn't be pretty."

Anzu blinked. "Then why would you have even done this to begin with? I mean—" she started pacing. "I know, we were having the whole maybe he wasn't such a bad guy conversation, but…then he comes back, then the Administrator's dead, and you're asking me to help in a situation where, by your own admission, you're way over your head—and now you're saying we don't have the option for any outside help at all?"

"Look—I know I did a stupid—but when I did the stupid I wasn't expecting him to still be mobile! He was supposed to be stripped of his magic! All that should have been left was a bag of bones!"

She stopped pacing, sagged with her free hand to her face.

"I get it, okay?" she asked finally, taking her hand away from her face to gesture. "But…look, my whole life I've operated with the impression that if things got too desperate, I could always ask an adult, or get outside help, or something. You're asking a group of kids to go up against a former Head Mage, and of the lot of us only you have magic. Do you see the problem?"

"I do," he admitted. "And…fine, I've run out of ideas. I don't know what to do about Skellington. But that doesn't mean I have to stop trying."

She nodded, expression tight. "Fair enough. But that doesn't mean I have to be okay with this."

"I'm not asking you to be," he said, before looking around the dark library. "And while we're on the topic of things we're not okay with, I'm not okay with you being here by yourself with a crazy walking skeleton wandering around."

"The longer I thought about walking home the more nervous I got," she admitted. "Not that this place at night is an improvement, but…."

"Then here," he said, putting his hand out. "I'll walk you home."

She gave him a look. "And how are you going to be an improvement? You just said you weren't a match for him."

He shrugged. "I figure I'll try Kels' plan—beat him with his own femur."

"I get the other one."

"Fair enough. Now let's get out of here."

*\*/*

"Can I get you anything?"

"Peace and quiet," she muttered, arm still over her eyes as she lay prone on the couch.

"I already kicked the boys out," Yami admitted. "And Kineil's whipping up her not a hangover headache cure, she says, so I'm not allowed in the kitchen, so…maybe I'll call Mitzi for you—let her know ahead of time that you might not be coming."

"It's not that major of a headache, I'll be fine," she insisted, still with no fire in it.

"Um…I'll call just in case—I'm not sure what it is Kineil's doing in there, but she just got the whiskey bottle."

"Yami!" Kineil called. "I need a bottle the boys haven't been in!"

"I'll look," he sighed, touching her lightly on the leg before leaving, if his footsteps were anything to go by.

But this was frustrating, so frustrating—maybe she had given the headache to herself, trying to keep a hold of all those threads at once. Just—the one thread, find that one thread, and she'd be fine….

"Here you go—drink it up, will you?"

Teana finally lifted her arm from her eyes to see Kineil offering her a mug of something steaming. "What is it?"

"My other patented headache cure, genius," Kineil said, rolling her eyes. "And before you can accuse me, no, I didn't poison it, Yami would have a fit and if he did I'd never hear the end of it."

That made one of the other threads curdle—she mentally stamped it down, sat up to better accept the mug with a muted thanks. Tea, it looked like. "So why did you need the whiskey?"

"Are we talking the snipe hunt, or what I had in there?" Kineil asked, thumbing at the kitchen. "Don't tell me you've never heard of a hot toddy before."

"I think I've heard the term."

"Good, because it's basically warm tea with a kick. But it'll make you feel better."

"Or make me so sloshed I don't care."

"Just drink the stupid stuff."

Teana obliged her, surprised to find that the warmth flowing into her stomach did make her feel a little better—still nauseous, but less chilled.

"So you think you'll live?" Kineil asked, arms crossed as she leaned against the couch's arm.

That caused another line to curdle, and she forced herself to ignore it. Not helping right now. "I don't know—we'll see," she said, handing over the now-empty mug and laying back down.

"I suppose that's all we can do—call me if you need another mug," Kineil said, taking it back to the kitchen.

Right now, all Teana wanted was to clear her mind and rest, considering she hadn't slept at all last night—she was mildly aware of Yami coming over, patting her shoulder lightly—slipping his arms under her to carry her—

One image suddenly twanged into the forefront of her mind so strongly that she actually screamed and flailed back—Yami stepped back so fast he tripped and fell over the coffee table.

"What? What is it?" Kineil asked, storming in—and coming to a halt upon spotting Yami. "You can still get your body into some pretty funny shapes."

"I'm sorry!" Yami said, struggling to get back upright. "I was trying to get you back to your room without waking you up!"

"You failed," Kineil observed.

"I'm fine," Teana said, waving them off. "You startled me."

"Yes, shame on you."

"I just figured sleeping on the couch wasn't exactly comfortable," Yami said, finally managing to straighten himself into a sitting position.

"I'm fine," Teana said, laying back down. "Okay? I just need a power nap."

"All right…."

She closed her eyes, felt something approaching a blanket a few minutes later. "That had better not be your cape."

"It's an actual blanket this time," Yami said softly, kissing her on the forehead. "I hope you get feeling better."

She did too, to be perfectly honest.

Which meant that there had to be a way to fix all this.

*/*\*

It was dark again when Yami Skellington snuck into the Delvaire Public Library.

He paused within the doorway and extended his magic, searching the library for other presences. Within a minute, he was satisfied that there wasn't a living soul in there.

How ironic, he thought as he softly trod through the dim aisles, searching for one in particular. When he found the aisle, he turned left into it, and followed it to the bare, wood-panel wall, where he spread his bony hands against the paneling, trying to sense empty pockets behind the wood.

China Sorrows, among other things she had done before fleeing Delvaire, had made sure to hide the more delicate documents and books away, safe from prying eyes. There was only one person she had told about the panels before she left—Yami Skellington.

And now, he was trying to find one delicate document in particular.

And then he heard footsteps.

He froze—he thought he had been the only person in the library—who else would be here in the middle of the night? Don't tell him the Administrators patrolled here too!

"Anzu! What are you doing here by yourself?"

Goody—his twice-great nephew. What was he doing here?

"I was trying to repair some of the books in the back—what are you doing here so late?"

That voice—her. And in the back—of course, he hadn't bothered to check back there.

Yami began looking frantically now. He had to find the right document and get out of there. If they raised the alarm now, he'd never be able to get his—

His hand stroked a panel that was warm to his touch.

His face split into a grin as relief flooded through him. All right—this was the right panel. He pushed in slightly, applying some magic to the nearly-invisible runes in the wood, and shifted the panel aside. The document within had writing related to such a magical item that it exuded energy itself—he was confident of encountering this particular scroll as he stuck his hand in.

Then his elbow….

Then his whole arm.

Yami felt around frantically. The scroll wasn't there!

He started tracing the magic in the air frantically, thankful that he was back in a place where magic worked properly. He was almost back up to snuff, and—

He stiffened—unless he was mistaken, the scroll had been discovered by an Administrator and taken to the Administration Building. An Administration Building that was probably on high-alert by now, thanks to Max.

In all, it wasn't good. It certainly didn't give Yami good feelings about the ultimate fate of China Sorrows.

He looked up sharply at rapid footsteps—his great-great nephew and that girl were heading his way. Time was up—he had to do something, and fast.

He pulled his cape tight around his bony frame, pulling the shadows along with it. Within a matter of seconds, he was practically invisible, watching the end of the row carefully and waiting with baited…well, not breath, if he wanted to be honest….

Sure enough, there they were, the girl holding a lantern, his nephew behind her, poised to cast any sort of spell. The sight of them made him think of what he and Teana must have looked like—good grief, he missed her.

They glanced down his row and continued on their way. Yami almost breathed a sigh of relief, still not quite sure how that would work (despite having much too much time to ponder it)….

"Wait a minute."

They reappeared at the end of the row and came down, the Teana-lookalike pointing at the still-open panel.

"That wasn't there before," she said.

The nephew passed within a foot of his uncle—Yami had to fight the urge to suck in tight and focused on mentally shelving the question of breathing until later when his—okay, not life—when he wasn't in danger of getting caught.

The nephew looked into the cubbyhole produced by the panel before turning to the girl (he really had to learn her name—it couldn't possibly be Teana).

"What was in here?" he asked.

She gave him a disbelieving look that smacked of Teana. "I didn't know it was there until a minute ago. How on earth would I know what was in here?"

He looked down, obviously thinking hard. "Skellington," he said finally, and the one mentioned flinched at the tone used. "He must have been here. And that means that whatever was in here…."

Yami tried not to be worried at his nephew's opinion of him; ah, what a lovely family he had—and not much removed from how his sisters acted (he truly wondered if Helen had had any children after he died; the attitudes matched). Right now, however, he had to worry about getting out of there. His nephew was smart—sooner rather than later, he'd figure out how to track his magic, or to figure out where he was heading next, or actually succeed in locking him up somewhere. Or, worst-case scenario, put his hand out and hit him.

He had to buy a few moments' head start.

He glanced at the lamp. It was a simple glow spell—China Sorrows had made sure to cast a powerful spell that kept fire from burning in the library; thus, it was the only sort of light that could survive within the library.

Yami leaned over, concentrated his magic….

And blew it out like he would snuff a candle.

It had the intended effect: she shrieked in alarm, he flustered for a few moments, and Yami hustled out of there.

Once out on the street, Yami glanced at the clock tower. He had to have enough time to get to the Administration Building before daylight—he didn't like the idea of skulking about for another day, ducking and dodging and knowing full well what his appearance would cause.

He had to get that document.