Jayde zapped Keavy back into existance and they raced along the dirt path. At them moment Jayde seriously didn't want to be left alone. The numb feeling was wearing off and she felt sick. She missed Mozenrath and she also couldn't believe what she had just experienced. It hurt beyond her understanding and she felt a greater appreciation for the relative degree of sanity she had carefully cultivated in her life. She saw two figures in the distance whom she picked out to be Mozenrath and Darius. A lone tear coarsed down her cheek but after a little while longer she reached the conclusion that she really had no need to be too devastated. Jayde was aware of the remarkably slim chance that one day, after many months of meditiation and relaxation, she may be able to bring Ann back. Mozenrath's lecture on magic conservation sounded alot more sensible to her in that moment. She smile at the feeling of exhileration as her cloak and hair whipped in the wind.
"Now if Ann had experienced this..." She thought, before stopping herself, biting her lip to quell the sudden surge of emotion. "She is not truly gone." Jayde told herself, to shut her overactive 'what-if' imagination up. "Now is not the time to mourn."
After a while the two figures ahead gained form and Jayde could confirm their identities as being Mozenrath and his brother Darius... "Who is cute."
Jayde decided. "In a different way to Moze." Jayde transformed Keavy into a horse and cart while hoping Keavy wouldn't mind and Jayde signaled to Mozenrath to stop and wait.
It took a few minutes for Mozenrath to notice the giant ball of fire that was sent hurtling along beside him, and a few minutes more for him to get back on his horse. Certainly a rather amusing sight considering Jayde zapped it out of existence a second later and invited him to join her in the cart as the road was different now, suitable for a cart.
"Getting better at riding, I see." Jayde joked, now sitting beside Moze and Darius. "You have perfected the fall."
"There are better ways of getting a person's attention." Mozenrath replied, snappily. "Like calling out for one thing... So what was it that dragged you away so suddenly?"
Jayde's face fell. "My... a few of my friends had an upset." It was a bad explanation but Jayde found the subject hard to explain.
"That's it?" Mozenrath asked. Jayde had expected him the react in such a way "Well yeah." Jayde replied, running through her mind the few ways she could explain the signifigance to Mozenrath. "Thats's it."
"So what is so important about an upset between friends?" Asked Mozenrath.
"To understand that you'd have to know my friends." Replied Jayde.
"Well tell me about them." Replied Mozenrath. "I'd like to understand."
"Let's see..." Jayde started. There was so much she couldn't mention. "Krys, she is the one all those animals belonged to, is a very nearly all-powerful sorceress quite like me. She's my best friend I wound have to say. Ty is an egomainiac human which admittedly is not that bad but then there was his girl... ex-girfriend Ann who is... was an emotionally unstable half-human with magic she couldn't control."
"Ah. That explains it. A nasty break-up."
"Not just any break-up." Jayde said. "A break-up coupled with suicide that I, of all people, could not control. Thankfully, one day when I have five months, a yak skin and a waterfall to spare, I might be able to reverse the effects but still, it is devastating at the moment."
"Reverse a death?" Mozenrath was alarmed. "Are you sure that's sensible?"
"I have to." Jayde replied. "I was completely powerless when it happened. If I hadn't been so hasty getting Ty out of the way, I would have been able to avert it all. Besides, I can handle any strange side-effects the revive spell would cause."
"Even..." Mozenrath gulped. "Even if you ended up with a life-for-a-life effect?" "That would't happen." Said Jayde. "I wouldn't let it happen. I know all the nescessary charms and."
Suddenly, Darius interrupted in. "Magic talk, eh?" He said, obviously trying to impress his brother. "I studied magic for a while, my teacher said I was pretty powerful."
"As powerful as me?" Mozenrath asked.
"More powerful, I think." Replied Darius, trying now to impress Jayde, not Mozenrath. "I'm not entirely sure."
"Don't count your chickens, Darius." Jayde advised. "You may have been more powerful than Mozenrath say... a few months ago, but there's no way you could come close now."
"How about you, Jayde?" Asks Darius. "How powerful are you?"
Well, I don't like to brag but..." Jayde started, but was quickly interrupted by Mozenrath.
"Be truthful, Jayde." Mozenrath said. "You do like to brag."
"Okay, I'll brag then. Let's put it like this." Jayde continued. "There is a mountain controlled by me, levitating half a mile up, on the other side of the world... but it's really nothing, I guess."
"Wow... That's power." Said Darius, in awe. "Could you give me some?"
"Sorry." Jayde replied. "As much as I love giving out magic to everyone wily-nily, I'm very drained at the moment, from creating a time portal in addition to giving Moze half my magic. I really couldn't."
"What? That was your magic you gave me?" Mozenrath exclaimed. "I just thought you... actually I don't know what I thought."
"Yeah, Well I knew you wouldn't part with your gauntlet otherwise and there was no way I was marrying a guy with a skeletal hand."
"Hold up, hold up." Darius cut in. "I think a little history lesson might be in order."
Mozenrath started telling Darius everything that has happened since they were split up and Jayde's gaze drifted to the mountains ahead of them.
There were six mountains closest to them, getting taller from left to right and then smaller the other way. Behind the first row were who knows how many mountains. Jayde noted the quick transition from the flat plains to the crowded mountain range. It was obviously created by magic. After a few minutes, Mozenrath distracted Jayde from her pondering.
"Jayde." He said. "Darius wants to know why we hooked up."
"Correction." Darius interrupted. "I want to know why you would ever ask Mozenrath to marry you."
"Well that's a long story." Jayde said. "But we have a long journey ahead. Where would you like me to start?"
"At the beginning." Said Darius. "Tell me how you met, first."
"Okay. I was travelling through the desert on a camel back to Agrabah because my magic was drained from a recent time portal. I don't do them often, most travellers don't, but I had recieved a magic crystal message from my sister that she was getting married. Well, I wanted to be there for the wedding and I wanted to claim the throne for myself so... I had to get back home as soon as possible and find a suitor. Suddenly I saw someone amongst the dunes which is what surprised me. Surprising me more was that the 'someone' was still alive and dressed in pretty expensive robes. I put two and two together and decided to try my luck. I introduced myself and it turns out he was Mozenrath, Lord of the Land of the Black Sands. My sister had been complaining about this particular villain in recent messages but I decided it was still worth a try. I do love conflict after all. Well I offered him my help and gave him a lift back to his citadel. By the time we got there it was too dark for me to ride back to Agrabah and although my powers were somewhat recharged, I still did not have enough power to create a portal to Agrabah. Mozenrath here suggested I stay overnight. He took me to his room and insisted I share his bed, I have no idea why."
At this, Mozenrath began to blush a deep red. "Uhh... It was the only decent bed in the citadel. Xerxes... had been having some pretty gruesome problems on the ones in the guest rooms."
"Right." Jayde continued. "Well I stayed the night and decide to stay three more days to see what I could do. My friends always said I'm very hasty and I certainly didn't waste any time falling in love with Mozenrath, an obvious setback to my plan. I decided then to tell him who I am, and the implications this had. To my surprise he took it pretty well. Telling me he'll do anything to stay with me. The first thing that came into my mind was the gauntlet. He won't have told you about that, I don't think. I had grown pretty curious about it so I asked him to take it off. I guess he was expecting rejection because he put up a fight at that but eventually he gave in. I didn't reject him like he expected. Instead, I used all the power I had just regained to heal his skeletal arm and destroy the gauntlet. It was painful for him so he got pretty annoyed when I told him he couldn't have the gauntlet back. I remembered that I didn't need any power to give him half, in fact a selfless act like that actually charges your power... for a while. I simply split my power and gave him half. He's a lot more powerful than you now, that's for sure, and I've got back the power I gave away in other ways. That makes him the second most powerful person in the world and me the most powerful."
"So that's why you said a few months ago my powers could have surpassed his."
Said Darius. "But you said you regained the power you shared with him? Why can't you share with me?"
"I don't want to." Said Jayde."You can't make me."
"Okay." Said Darius. "So can you at least tell me what you did after fixing Mozenrath?"
"Yep." Answered Jayde. "Anyway, After that I started preparing for the journey while Mozenrath recovered from the spell. When we got to Agrabah, Rasoul let us in to the palace but went psycho when he saw Mozenrath. That made me realize that this would be harder than I thought. Luckily, I am able to control Rasoul easily. Daddy was another matter, He quickly forgave Moze for past mistakes and welcomed him into the family. My sister was the same, she's permanenly indebted to me. Her boyfriend and his associates were tough but they did what Jasmine told them and that's how we got married."
"Interesting." Said Darius. "And you won't give me any magic?"
"No." Jayde answered.
Everyone was silent for a while while Jayde tried to work out which mountain the crystal would be hidden in.
"Now if Ann had experienced this..." She thought, before stopping herself, biting her lip to quell the sudden surge of emotion. "She is not truly gone." Jayde told herself, to shut her overactive 'what-if' imagination up. "Now is not the time to mourn."
After a while the two figures ahead gained form and Jayde could confirm their identities as being Mozenrath and his brother Darius... "Who is cute."
Jayde decided. "In a different way to Moze." Jayde transformed Keavy into a horse and cart while hoping Keavy wouldn't mind and Jayde signaled to Mozenrath to stop and wait.
It took a few minutes for Mozenrath to notice the giant ball of fire that was sent hurtling along beside him, and a few minutes more for him to get back on his horse. Certainly a rather amusing sight considering Jayde zapped it out of existence a second later and invited him to join her in the cart as the road was different now, suitable for a cart.
"Getting better at riding, I see." Jayde joked, now sitting beside Moze and Darius. "You have perfected the fall."
"There are better ways of getting a person's attention." Mozenrath replied, snappily. "Like calling out for one thing... So what was it that dragged you away so suddenly?"
Jayde's face fell. "My... a few of my friends had an upset." It was a bad explanation but Jayde found the subject hard to explain.
"That's it?" Mozenrath asked. Jayde had expected him the react in such a way "Well yeah." Jayde replied, running through her mind the few ways she could explain the signifigance to Mozenrath. "Thats's it."
"So what is so important about an upset between friends?" Asked Mozenrath.
"To understand that you'd have to know my friends." Replied Jayde.
"Well tell me about them." Replied Mozenrath. "I'd like to understand."
"Let's see..." Jayde started. There was so much she couldn't mention. "Krys, she is the one all those animals belonged to, is a very nearly all-powerful sorceress quite like me. She's my best friend I wound have to say. Ty is an egomainiac human which admittedly is not that bad but then there was his girl... ex-girfriend Ann who is... was an emotionally unstable half-human with magic she couldn't control."
"Ah. That explains it. A nasty break-up."
"Not just any break-up." Jayde said. "A break-up coupled with suicide that I, of all people, could not control. Thankfully, one day when I have five months, a yak skin and a waterfall to spare, I might be able to reverse the effects but still, it is devastating at the moment."
"Reverse a death?" Mozenrath was alarmed. "Are you sure that's sensible?"
"I have to." Jayde replied. "I was completely powerless when it happened. If I hadn't been so hasty getting Ty out of the way, I would have been able to avert it all. Besides, I can handle any strange side-effects the revive spell would cause."
"Even..." Mozenrath gulped. "Even if you ended up with a life-for-a-life effect?" "That would't happen." Said Jayde. "I wouldn't let it happen. I know all the nescessary charms and."
Suddenly, Darius interrupted in. "Magic talk, eh?" He said, obviously trying to impress his brother. "I studied magic for a while, my teacher said I was pretty powerful."
"As powerful as me?" Mozenrath asked.
"More powerful, I think." Replied Darius, trying now to impress Jayde, not Mozenrath. "I'm not entirely sure."
"Don't count your chickens, Darius." Jayde advised. "You may have been more powerful than Mozenrath say... a few months ago, but there's no way you could come close now."
"How about you, Jayde?" Asks Darius. "How powerful are you?"
Well, I don't like to brag but..." Jayde started, but was quickly interrupted by Mozenrath.
"Be truthful, Jayde." Mozenrath said. "You do like to brag."
"Okay, I'll brag then. Let's put it like this." Jayde continued. "There is a mountain controlled by me, levitating half a mile up, on the other side of the world... but it's really nothing, I guess."
"Wow... That's power." Said Darius, in awe. "Could you give me some?"
"Sorry." Jayde replied. "As much as I love giving out magic to everyone wily-nily, I'm very drained at the moment, from creating a time portal in addition to giving Moze half my magic. I really couldn't."
"What? That was your magic you gave me?" Mozenrath exclaimed. "I just thought you... actually I don't know what I thought."
"Yeah, Well I knew you wouldn't part with your gauntlet otherwise and there was no way I was marrying a guy with a skeletal hand."
"Hold up, hold up." Darius cut in. "I think a little history lesson might be in order."
Mozenrath started telling Darius everything that has happened since they were split up and Jayde's gaze drifted to the mountains ahead of them.
There were six mountains closest to them, getting taller from left to right and then smaller the other way. Behind the first row were who knows how many mountains. Jayde noted the quick transition from the flat plains to the crowded mountain range. It was obviously created by magic. After a few minutes, Mozenrath distracted Jayde from her pondering.
"Jayde." He said. "Darius wants to know why we hooked up."
"Correction." Darius interrupted. "I want to know why you would ever ask Mozenrath to marry you."
"Well that's a long story." Jayde said. "But we have a long journey ahead. Where would you like me to start?"
"At the beginning." Said Darius. "Tell me how you met, first."
"Okay. I was travelling through the desert on a camel back to Agrabah because my magic was drained from a recent time portal. I don't do them often, most travellers don't, but I had recieved a magic crystal message from my sister that she was getting married. Well, I wanted to be there for the wedding and I wanted to claim the throne for myself so... I had to get back home as soon as possible and find a suitor. Suddenly I saw someone amongst the dunes which is what surprised me. Surprising me more was that the 'someone' was still alive and dressed in pretty expensive robes. I put two and two together and decided to try my luck. I introduced myself and it turns out he was Mozenrath, Lord of the Land of the Black Sands. My sister had been complaining about this particular villain in recent messages but I decided it was still worth a try. I do love conflict after all. Well I offered him my help and gave him a lift back to his citadel. By the time we got there it was too dark for me to ride back to Agrabah and although my powers were somewhat recharged, I still did not have enough power to create a portal to Agrabah. Mozenrath here suggested I stay overnight. He took me to his room and insisted I share his bed, I have no idea why."
At this, Mozenrath began to blush a deep red. "Uhh... It was the only decent bed in the citadel. Xerxes... had been having some pretty gruesome problems on the ones in the guest rooms."
"Right." Jayde continued. "Well I stayed the night and decide to stay three more days to see what I could do. My friends always said I'm very hasty and I certainly didn't waste any time falling in love with Mozenrath, an obvious setback to my plan. I decided then to tell him who I am, and the implications this had. To my surprise he took it pretty well. Telling me he'll do anything to stay with me. The first thing that came into my mind was the gauntlet. He won't have told you about that, I don't think. I had grown pretty curious about it so I asked him to take it off. I guess he was expecting rejection because he put up a fight at that but eventually he gave in. I didn't reject him like he expected. Instead, I used all the power I had just regained to heal his skeletal arm and destroy the gauntlet. It was painful for him so he got pretty annoyed when I told him he couldn't have the gauntlet back. I remembered that I didn't need any power to give him half, in fact a selfless act like that actually charges your power... for a while. I simply split my power and gave him half. He's a lot more powerful than you now, that's for sure, and I've got back the power I gave away in other ways. That makes him the second most powerful person in the world and me the most powerful."
"So that's why you said a few months ago my powers could have surpassed his."
Said Darius. "But you said you regained the power you shared with him? Why can't you share with me?"
"I don't want to." Said Jayde."You can't make me."
"Okay." Said Darius. "So can you at least tell me what you did after fixing Mozenrath?"
"Yep." Answered Jayde. "Anyway, After that I started preparing for the journey while Mozenrath recovered from the spell. When we got to Agrabah, Rasoul let us in to the palace but went psycho when he saw Mozenrath. That made me realize that this would be harder than I thought. Luckily, I am able to control Rasoul easily. Daddy was another matter, He quickly forgave Moze for past mistakes and welcomed him into the family. My sister was the same, she's permanenly indebted to me. Her boyfriend and his associates were tough but they did what Jasmine told them and that's how we got married."
"Interesting." Said Darius. "And you won't give me any magic?"
"No." Jayde answered.
Everyone was silent for a while while Jayde tried to work out which mountain the crystal would be hidden in.
