Free Change Fault
A/N: Okay, okay, I keep putting this chapter off! I'm sorry, but the end of the school year is coming up and I have finals, essays and projects to put together! I have been so busy that I can barely get things updated. And since I truly have to update three fics, it's been hectic.
Also, my goal is to get at least two chapters up before June 26, which is when I can't get on for a month because I'll be away. I'm really sorry for inconvenience, but I plan on working so that I can get three chapters up for this fic and Ordinary, my CCS one. For any that have read Insane Fan Fic Authors, it is highly unlikely that a new chapter will come in time. So sorry for those who are waiting!
Now, I decided to answer reviews in the beginning so I could get that all behind me:
SVZ: You know what's amazing? The only book I've even partially read more than once is So You Want To Be A Wizard. And then I read these two parts in A Wizard Abroad cause there funny. But that was a while ago. Don't ask why I can pick up on the whole thing so quick! I HAVE NO CLUE! And I know egg rolls are more Chinese, I got to the buffets all the time! I should've made it Ramen... mmm... Squirrels! MANY MANY SQUIRRELS!
DSRockStar: You were the only reviewer to notice the Senior Wizards comment at the end! At least the only one to comment about it! There will be a flashback in this chapter to not leave you hanging, I promise!
katie janeway: I don't remember how long the wait for the last chapter was! I hope I didn't take as long... *sweat drops* Don't mind me...
seraph14: Bravisimo? Don't ask me, I'm not usually congratulated (I swear!) on anything. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! Here's your update!
Kalyra Shadowdancer: Thanks! I kept writing, even though I kind of put it off.
Morgaine of Ithil: Where does your name come from? I like it! I seem to be getting a little better at cliffies, even though I hate them so much!!! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? I hope this update was soon enough.
Katherine the Great: I know, I spent so little time on the last chapter! Bad SAT! *hits self* Anyway, I'm trying hard to get the chapters edgy, but IT IS NOT WORKING. Failing attempts.
DTN: Go ask Spot about the internet. Maybe it'll know. Thanks for reviewing!
Silverwitch: Updated! Updated! Updated! I updated! YAY! Here's what happens, read on!
Sars: Is wicked awesome a good thing? I sure hope so. Don't mind me, I like to take things literally. This chapter is suppose to be the most intriguing of all the ones I have written so far, so I hope it's okay. And reviews I've gotten more than I expected. Thank you!
Anyway, here's the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I may like Diane Duane, but I am so not her and could never be that good!
Chapter 10: Catch A Tiger By The Toe
Rejoice in thine enemy's fall, but don't rush to pick him up either.
It was Friday already, and the week seemed to have gone by faster than Nita had wanted it to. Everything was getting so uptight at her house that the wizard was sure her brain might explode. Which, there was of course, a spell for, that had suddenly appeared in her manual without a second thought. Nita suddenly had this odd feeling that her manual was trying to be sarcastic to her... But that was another thing to find out, later, because Friday was the day Dairine and Darryl set their plans into action.
Unfortunately Nita wasn't the only one who disagreed with the spell that Dairine and Darryl were using. Tom and Carl had come over the Monday of this week with flustered looks on their faces.
~!MONDAY!~ ~!LUNDI!~
They had gotten there before Nita had even gotten home, and she had met Dairine halfway up the driveway. Dairine had a slightly worried expression on her face, but wasn't questioned by her older sister. It was things like this that could often be considered more abnormal in the family. Dairine somehow knew when she was in trouble, and Nita knew when Dairine didn't want to talk about it. And before either wizard picked up on any of that, their father was aware of anything and everything. There was some kind of adult link that transferred information faster than any child can get home from school.
Oh yeah, the telephone.
"How could plan a bait for the Lone One without the supervision of Advisory Wizards?" Tom asked, rubbing his temples as he paced the length of the Callahan's living room. Dairine tried hard to muffle her laugh at the tear Tom was making on the floor. She managed to make it sound more like a cough, though Nita caught the humorous air behind it and had to cup her hand in front of her mouth.
"We did have a council and everything. It's what was decided!" Dairine protested, after stopping her "coughing" that seemed to last quite a long time. "Annie was there and everything, we weren't unsupervised!" Nita rolled her eyes and sunk a little deeper into the couch where she and her sister were being interrogated. Her father would not be home for another hour from work. So Tom was the only one there to make sure they didn't get into trouble. Again.
Tom shook his head and rubbed his temples. When he finally looked back at them, his eyebrows were together in concentration. "You're telling me Annie agreed to let you do this?" Nita nodded slowly, making the Senior Wizard groan. "I guess Carl and I can't convince your sister otherwise?" Nita shook her head, wondering why he was talking about Dairine like she wasn't there. Dairine made a small face at Nita, before looking back at Tom.
"Look, it's the only choice we have! Besides, Kit agrees, so Nita does too, what's wrong with it?" Dairine demanded, standing up. Nita rolled her eyes at the comment involving her, before shaking her head at Tom's questioning look.
The senior wizards stared at the two younger wizards with a gaze of pure astonishment, and a side of respect. He nodded, before exiting the Callahan's house without another word. Harry Callahan opened the door for the other adult, then rolled his eyes and Nita and Dairine put on their most innocent faces.
End of day one.
~!TUESDAY!~ ~!MARDI!~
Nita met up with Kit at the gate immediately after school, and both walked silently over to the Callahan's home. It was time to transfer wizardry into the spell, which Darryl and Dairine would wind themselves, to there own liking, with their own names. When the two wizards arrived, Darryl and Dairine had already pushed the coffee table to the side of the room, while Mr. Callahan looked on with a longing face, almost wishing his youngest daughter was the young book-obsessed girl she had been.
On the floor already laid by their sides were their names in the Speech, Dairine's more complicated than Darryl's after all that had been happening. Nita and Kit looked down at them with faces almost equivalent to Harry Callahan's, before Nita sat down next to Dairine and Kit next to Darryl. Luckily there was a carpet, the cold floor could get in the way of the wizardry they were about to commence. Soon everything was ready, for the two younger wizards had already prepared the tools (or supplies) needed. Obviously their manuals had already helped them along the way. Then Nita noticed what seemed to be missing. She looked around for a minute, and Dairine looked at her strangely, then grinned. She nodded weakly and let out a small, soft whistle, and in came trotting Spot, who sat down on its hind legs and-if it had eyes-stared up at all four of them with keen interest.
The spelling began.
Everything glowed with a soft blue aura as the Speech was weaved in and out of mathematical equations and other symbols than only Kit's family had even started to comprehend. The words of the Speech were something Kit had missed the most with all the silence, though one thing lay above even wizardry, or rather sat, across from him. He didn't let a stray thought slip out, seeing as three other wizards were there to pick it up. Right now his partner was Darryl, as he fed power into the spell that the younger male wizard was combining with Dairine. It was a two-part spell, one to catch its prey, and one to make it stay. The wizardry net was the more complicated part, to make both sides of the equation even out properly with the combing parts, to make a net strong enough to keep, even for only a little while, the Lone One staying still.
Nita was tired before the spelling even began, and feeding her power into Dairine's side of the wizardry was getting tough. Dairine could feel her sister's weariness, but made no comment, she knew how stubborn her sister could be. The net was beginning to form, each special "magic" knot turned a light yellow when finished, making the net look magnificent. The spell was not going to be completed in one day, in fact, by the end of three hours only a quarter of the net was finished. Each spell was left down to one 'word' in the Speech, so it would take less time to start the spell.
End of day two.
~!WEDNESDAY!~ ~!MERCREDI!~
Nita was late to school that morning, her father let her sleep in after how exhausted she felt. Kit called at about 10:00 a.m. to check up on her, he had gotten out of math with the simple excuse that he was bored. Which wasn't lying at all, for wizards couldn't lie, because he really was bored. It was merely review, and the teacher agreed to let him go out for a few minutes while she helped the other students. It's what you got for being smart.
"What?" Was Nita's answer when the phone rang and she had to pick it up. It came out as a sort of grown sounding something like eggbidiff, which was a species Kit had read about once that often ate masking tape for fun. Where they had gotten masking tape was as much a mystery as how teenagers got up in the morning.
Kit let out a long sigh. "Neets, where are you?" He asked, rather weakly. He was only a little less tired then his partner, and at the moment a couple of seniors were walking snidely down the hallway. He didn't want to even talk about the looks they were giving him, none good, rest assured.
"At home, Duh." Nita drawled out, wishing she could merely fall back to sleep. She heard her partner grunt on the other line. "I'm coming, I mean it. Just not now." And then she hung up, and Kit tried hard not to slam the pay phone back down on its hook. The seniors had left, thankfully, and Kit slipped silently back into Math class without being cornered. He had missed absolutely nothing, thankfully, and when he came back in not a head turned in his direction.
Yippee.
When Kit and Nit arrived at the Callahan's that afternoon, only Dairine was there to greet them. Apparently, Darryl was outside being lectured by Tom, for illegal brain tapping into the mind of a non-wizard while he/she was in the shower. Dairine rolled her eyes when she told them, saying that Darryl's excuse was what's the use of powers if you can't use them? He was growing up to be such a guy, it scared her.
The work ran smoothly, and they managed to finish another quarter of the net that day before the wizards fell asleep, exhausted.
End of day three.
~!THURSDAY!~ ~!JEUDI!~
It was the day before the spell would be put into action. Obviously, everyone was antsy. And that was beside the fact that it was over seventy-five degrees outside and the fans were arguing with Kit about how they shouldn't have to work in this heat. Obviously, even the inanimate objects were antsy. Nita could feel the trees and plants leaning closer to hear the chorus of voices stating the Speech under their breaths so as not to interrupt anyone else. And then came the actual bait to call the Lone One by. Dairine pulled a loose hair from her own head and thread it through the closing part of the net. Kit, smirking, pulled a hair from Darryl's own head, who yelped in surprise as Kit handed the hair to his partner's sister. It was also weaved into the intricate roping of the Speech in the net.
Now lain out was a rather large net, which looked like a glowing fishing net, though smaller. It was about the size of two house doors, and where the hairs had been placed beat a crimson flash. The rest was either blue or green, or both, for that matter. Each square of the net was about the size of Nita's hand, spread, which is one main difference from that of a fish net. Dairine spread it over her legs and felt for any loose "threads" of magic, and finding none, Nita opened her own Pocket of space and slipped it in. Dairine, though she could have one, decided against her own pocket of space.
Darryl and Kit sat on the couch only an hour later in the Callahan's home, while the two sisters sat in front of the TV They were finished with work until tomorrow, where approximately five words in the Speech had to be said to start the chain reaction of spells. Of course, it was more like a long code than five words.
Kit went home soon after, and Darryl after that, and then Nita and Dairine fought over the last chocolate chip cookie from watching movies on the TV, and the all was silent in the Callahan household.
Outside, sat a Power, not a recognizable one, not the Lone Power nor Peach, though it was in a Sprite form, watching. After the two male wizards departed, the Power, quick as a flash of lightning, disappeared into the night.
~!FRIDAY!~ ~!VENDREDI!~
Everything had been prepared and thought over. And then a final change was made.
"What do you mean we can't come?" Nita burst, looking at her sister with wild eyes. Kit stood at her side, jaw dropped.
Dairine seemed to grow impatient. "I mean, you can't come. If the Lone One finds Kit has gotten out of his cell, then our plan of finding out about his plans won't work! You know the Lone One is intrigued when the wizards are interested in his side of wizardry. It's the only thing we can do! Neets, just this once, let me do this on my own."
The pop! of displaced air sounded right between the two female wizards, who backed off of each other immediately as Darryl appeared, a bag slung over his shoulder. "Did I interrupt something?" He asked, as Kit secretly gave him an amused smirk.
Nita crossed her arms over her chest, obviously frustrated. "I guess I did." Darryl continued. "But that doesn't exactly matter, seeing as Tom was the one who said neither of you could come with us. We're calling him by the world gate in New York, so there's also money that we don't have to get us there. So stop badgering each other can we go Dairine?" Darryl's voice grew more impatient as he said every word. It was bad enough that they couldn't have the support of their fellow wizards with them, but the fact that the said wizards didn't believe the fact that they couldn't go just made it all that more frustrating.
Kit grabbed Nita by the shoulder when she was about to advance on Darryl, and Dairine thanked him gratefully as she dragged Darryl into the backyard. The Pop! to the station was even bigger this time. Nita sent a glare to Kit and he let go of her shoulder immediately, and the wizard stomped back into her house. Kit remained outside in her driveway, looking up at the sky. Ponch had been sitting on the porch, and now sat silently next to him.
Suddenly, like a whisper from the wind, Kit heard something. He wasn't sure at first, but then the words formed, only in English, that seemed almost like a different language after all the Speech work. And then he heard it, like a song or poem rhythmically, that unnerved him. Ponch nudged his leg in acknowledgement that he heard it too, and didn't like it. The voice was uncaring and cold, and sent shivers down both wizard and pet's spine.
"He who has one thousand friends, has not a friend to spare. And he who has one enemy, will meet Him everywhere."
The voice erased itself from both minds, leaving a small emptiness that wasn't there before.
Kit turned to his dog with startled eyes. "Th-that was a p-pow-power, wasn't it?"
Ponch's head was spinning, and the dog whimpered at the words. I don't know.
~!~!~!~!~
A/N: Yay! Chapter is over! By the way, both the quote at the beginning in italics and the quote at the end are not mine! I like the quote at the end though, I've been reciting it over and over in my head!
So anyway, how was this chapter? Don't mind the names of the days in French, I have a final tomorrow and needed some practice!
By the way, for those who forgot from reading this chapter, I will be gone for a month starting June 26th, and I'll try to write down a chapter in a notebook, maybe two chapters, so I can just type them up when I get back and post them! Thanks for reading and...
REVIEW!
