A "Gargoyles" fanfic by Rydia Erdrick Landale (aka Captain Chaotica!!)
Rated: G. Spoiler warnings for up through "The Gathering"
Chapter Two: Departure
"That annoying little imp!" she muttered to herself. "I'll summon him again, and this time, make him cast a spell so that I stay as myself, a Gargoyle, during the day, but not stone...or else!" Snarling, she stalked through the empty, echoing house until she reached a room that would have been thought ostentatious even for a mansion--the main feature was a chair that could only be called a throne, with a narrow, intricately-patterned carpet leading up to it. Across the room from the throne was a tall, thin shape under a covering cloth.
Demona slowed as she approached it. She would never admit it out loud to anybody, but this thing gave her--just slightly, mind you--what the humans would refer to as "the creeps". After the incident with Puck, when she first found out HOW, exactly, he had made it so she would no longer turn to stone during the day, she had brought both fists down on the mirror's glass and shattered it in a fit of rage. She knew she had broken it--there was the shattered glass all over the floor (and the bleeding rivulets in her hands--hands that were much weaker and softer than she was used to)--to prove it. She had then shoved the empty frame back into a corner to get it out of her way, and spent the better part of the next hour cursing Puck, her injured hands, and Fate in general before finally storming off to get some breakfast.
When she came back into the room with her coffee...the mirror was whole again, the shards of glass had all disappeared. Only the bandages on her hands and the lingering pain of her injury told Demona that the past hour had even happened at all. At the time, she remembered thinking that this would explain how something made of mere glass was able to survive so many centuries...but she mainly remembered deciding that the den would be a much better place to eat breakfast, instead.
Demona approached Titania's Mirror again now, mentally scolded herself for being weak, and yanked the covering cloth off in one rough gesture. After she had gotten over her unease at the way it magically healed itself, she had obtained two new chains of iron...just in case she ever decided to summon that obnoxious trickster again. One was wrapped around the mirror and secured with a heavy iron padlock, the other draped loosely over the top. She took the spare chain and tied it into a sort of lasso, flinging it back over her shoulder--she wasn't going to take any chances this time. Then she walked over to a nearby shelf, took a silver bell, small gold hoop, and white feather and walked back over to the mirror. Facing it, she struck the hoop against the bell four times and pronounced the incantation:
"Cum aescerat argentum
et aurum involare,"
Here Demona placed the feather on the palm of her hand and blew it towards the mirror. It should have slipped into it as if the mirror's surface had become a liquid pool of silver, but instead bounced gently away and floated to the floor. Demona broke off for a moment at this, wondering what she had done wrong, but decided to finish the spell anyway.
"Postea Puck ad speculum
Titania penetrare!"
Nothing happened.
Taken aback, Demona tried it again, this time making absolutely sure she did everything exactly right.
Still, nothing happened.
Now quite frustrated, Demona walked over to the mirror, tenatively reached out a hand to touch it--expecting her hand to pass into some kind of vortex--and felt only smooth glass. "What?!" she cried, completely mystified. "Have I somehow been robbed, the mirror replaced with a fake? But who would--"
Several ideas flickered through her mind, but she settled quickly on one--a human who had pretended to be working at her side once, then of course turned out to be lying...and who was also known to be interested in collecting magic artifacts. "XANATOS!"
With the chain still over her shoulder, Demona rushed through the mansion to the nearest outside window, climbed out of it and onto the roof, spread her wings, and leapt out into the night.
"Ah, here's our first guest now!" said Xanatos, as he stood atop one of the towers of what was once Castle Wyvern, his trench-coat blowing about in the wind. Puck stood off to the side, behind a low wall--even though it was night and they were alone on the highest rooftop in the city, he still felt nervous about being seen in his real form. "It's like I told you, Owe--er...."
"Better call me Puck, sir." came the fay's voice from out of the shadows. The slender humanoid rubbed his elbows and shivered, wishing the flimsy silk blazer was better protection against the elements.
"Sorry. Force of habit. It's like I told you...Puck, we might need all the help we can get." The dall, dark-haired businessman smiled confidently as he watched the gargoyle figure approach the tower. He knew that Goliath would come here...after all, he had sent word to one of his many contacts on the street to send word to the police that he, Xanatos was trying to illegally hack into Cyberbiotics' computers and steal some of their information. This kind of thing was sure to bring Detective Maza to the tower--and where she went, Goliath usually tended to follow. They seemed to have made it their personal life goal to catch him in something big and have him sent away for good. Of course, he could just call Maza over a secured line, explain the problem, and ASK for her to bring the Gargoyles and the Gate...but what would be the fun in that?
Xanatos peered into the darkness, having a hard time seeing the figure against the faint starlight, and it was a new moon...was the gargoyle carrying a human or not? He couldn't tell.
The wind picked up, blowing snow into their faces in vicious gusts...and when the two could see again, the silhouette had already landed on the roof. Two eyes flared red as the Gargoyle caught side of a familliar small figure with white hair...and before either of the two men knew what was happening, Demona POUNCED on top of the fay and pinned him against a snow-flecked stone battlement, snarling.
"Demona!" cried Xanatos, showing actual surprise, which was rare for him. "You're hardly the Gargoyle I was expecting..." But she might still be useful... he mused, the wheels turning in his mind.
"Silence, human wretch!" hissed Demona, her fangs mere inches from Puck's throat. "My business is only with THIS one!" She yanked Puck into the air by the collar of his shirt with one hand and shook the elf like a rag doll. "I came here thinking to reclaim my stolen mirror, Xanatos, but I see that its servant is here already. So I'll just take him and go!"
"Wait, wait..." said Xanatos, walking over to the Gargoyle woman and spreading his hands placatingly. "What do you mean, stolen mirror? I have never gone near Titania's Mirror. Honest." Why SHOULD I?, he thought, wryly. What need do I have of an artifact that summons Puck? After all, I see him every day. Well, not SEE him exactly, but...
And it was never YOUR mirror anyway, it belongs to Titania. thought Puck, but, considering his current circumstances, considered it unwise to say such things aloud. Besides, he didn't know if he could talk, seeing as how it was getting so hard to breathe...
"Lies!" roared Demona, dropping Puck and rounding on the human. "My mirror has magical powers, to summon"--she pointed at the fay--"that puny one. The mirror I have in my house now looks exactly the same, but has no powers at all! You are always trying to collect magic artifacts, YOU must have switched them!"
"I assure you, I have never been to your home." said Xanatos.
"Prove it, then!" said Demona, tossing back her mane of hair with a haughty gesture. "If it is the same mirror, you get the spell to work! Come to my mansion and show me!"
"It won't work." said Puck, standing up and massaging his sore throat. "The mirror is authentic but its magic is...broken, now. The same goes for your spell. Even if I wanted to restore it, I can't. Not right now."
"Broken?" said Demona, skeptically. "I never said the counterspell to the mirror. I don't even know it."
"No, that's not what I mean. Magic all over the world is...suffering, now. I'd be willing to tell you all about it..." or as much as I think it's SAFE to tell you "...inside?" He gestured to the door that led into the tower.
With bad grace, Demona stalked past him through the door, Xanatos following after her, and Puck went last to close the door after them, as a good retainer should. Of course, he was kind of on a...forced vacation at the moment, but--as Xanatos had noted just a moment ago--old habits died hard.
Inside, the two men shook off the snow that had accumulated on their hair and clothes as best they could, shivering, and Xanatos walked over to the nearest thermostat to turn up the heat a bit. It looks nice and impressive to own a castle, he thought, but it does mean one heck of a heating bill. Fortunately, I can afford it.
Demona just sniffed at their weakness and flicked her tail back and forth with impatience, waiting for Xanatos to get on with it. After all, the sooner she heard whatever lies he was about to spin, the sooner she could claim Puck and go home.
This part of the castle had been made into a bit of a living area, with fancy rugs, bookcases, and a wooden table and chairs of old-fashioned design. It was still obviously a huge, drafty, cold stone room, but some effort had been made by the original inhabitants to make it cheery and Xanatos had kept the medieval decor scheme intact as well as he could--aside from the obvious modernizations such as electricity and heating systems. Puck noticed a tray with a silver teapot and three cups on the table, obviously brought up by another servant, and poured some for each of them. He was feeling strangely...dizzy...maybe drinking something would help. He handed the first cup to Xanatos, who took it with a small nod, but when he tried to hand the second one to Demona she knocked it aside, spilling scalding hot tea all over his hand and the floor.
"ENOUGH!" shouted the female Gargoyle, knocking the table over (Puck barely rescued his own cup of tea in time). "I grow tired of these trivialities, Xanatos. I did not come here for a social visit, I came here to claim what is mine. Explain what is going on...NOW...or I will tear your tower apart, stone by stone if need be, until I find the mirror."
Puck took a sip of the tea, and felt a little better. Well, at least now I know why humans always go on about how nice it is to drink something hot right after coming in out of the cold... "That won't do you any good. We keep telling you, you still HAVE the mirror, it's just--" He broke off suddenly, as he noticed something different about Demona, now that he could see her in better light. "I love what you've done with your hair."
"What?!" said Demona, startled at the non-sequitur. "What are you talking about?"
Xanatos saw it, too. "Stylish," he agreed. He held up the silver tea-tray so that she could see her reflection.
Deciding to humour him--but only for a moment--Demona bent down to look at herself in the tray--and gasped. She ran a clawed hand through her red hair...her...mostly red hair. There was a wide streak of white in it! And was it her imagination, or were there definite lines under her eyes...?
"What sorcery is this, little one?" she snarled, and tossed the chain lasso around the fay, pinning his arms to his sides. "What have you done to me THIS time?"
Puck realised that the chain was made of iron and winced, expecting to feel dizziness, disorientation, a sudden dulling of the senses...but instead, felt nothing but the vague sensation of cold metal through his clothes. At first he was confused, but then it came to him: Of COURSE iron doesn't affect me right now; what it does is interfere with our magic...and I have none... She hadn't even tied the chain that tightly, he discovered. He easily struggled free of it, dropped the chain with a loud clank that made Demona jump despite herself, and walked very slowly and deliberately towards her. The female Gargoyle stayed where she was, frozen in shock, until the fay was right up in her personal space and glaring her directly in the eye. The gesture lost a bit of its effect since he had to stand on tiptoes to do it, but she didn't seem to notice.
"I haven't done ANYthing to you...at least, since the last time we saw each
other--and that was one time too many if you ask me--now SHUT UP AND LET ME EXPLAIN!"
A bit startled, Demona regarded the fay as if he was a bomb that could go off at any moment, and tip-toed back a few paces.
"Thank you." Puck straightened out his clothes and cleared his throat. "Ahem. I do not know the cause of it exactly, but--"
"Hold that thought, Puck," said Xanatos, waving a hand to silence him. "I think our other guests are arriving. Might as well just explain it once and save time, hmm?"
"Hello?" A cautious female voice called from down the spiral staircase that led to the tower room. "Anybody there?" A cone of light spilled into the dimly-lit room and just behind it was Elisa Maza, holding a flashlight. She pulled her favourite red jacket closer to herself and wished she had thought to wear a warmer coat.
"Ah, everybody's here." said Xanatos, greeting her with a warm smile. "The party is almost ready to begin."
Elisa was ignoring him, however. "Demona!" she cried, as she noticed the female Gargoyle. "And Puck, again? What are YOU two doing here? What does any of this have to do with Cyberbiotics?"
"I would like to know that too," came a deep, rumbling voice from out of the darkness, and the huge form of Goliath treaded quietly into the room, his wings folded about his shoulders like a cape. "Explain yourself, Xanatos."
"Well, actually, it has nothing to do with Cyberbiotics." Xanatos held up a hand to forestall the inevitable outraged outburst from Elisa and Goliath. "A little subterfuge to get you here simply because...well...I gotta be me. As to the real problem, I would be all too glad to explain it to you, Detective Maza, Golia--oh, hello, dear!" He broke off suddenly as he noticed a third, unexpected, figure coming up the stairs behind the other two--his new wife, Fox.
"THERE you are!" called Fox, dashing across the stone floor. "I kept trying to find you all day, but nobody knew where you were. Then I tried asking Owen, but nobody has seen HIM since that board meeting and that, as you know, is downright weird..." She slowed down as she caught sight of their guests. She was used to Gargoyles by now, and Detective Maza was almost a fixture around here in her way, but... "Who is THAT?" A pause, as she realised something else. "And why is he wearing one of my old suits?"
Puck and Xanatos looked at each other. I was right, he HASN'T told her yet, thought Puck to himself. Well, he might want to tell her sometime soon...
"Owen is...indisposed, my dear." said Xanatos. He turned the table upright again, pulled out one of the chairs and, with a courtly bow, gestured her towards it. "But since you're here, I suppose you might as well listen to what we have to say."
"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world, dear." she said, twisting the last word into a darkly mocking tone. "And I'll interrogate you about what's really going on with Owen later, in private. That man has never taken a day off since the beginning of time, and you and I both know it. But please, continue."
"Puck, would you do the honours?" Xanatos gestured to the fay.
"Puck?!" Fox repeated the name, then burst out laughing. "What, you mean like the character from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'? David, honey, if you wanted to put together a showing of that play to get us some good publicity with the arts crowd, you didn't have to hide it from me. You could have just asked..." She stood up and walked over to Puck, then pulled on the tips of his pointy ears. "Nice makeup, though. These things feel almost real!"
"No, madam," said Puck, removing her hands as politely as possible. "Not the Puck from the play--the REAL one. Shakespeare slandered us Children of Oberon terribly, I'm afraid."
Fox laughed again. "You're KIDDING me."
Silence.
She looked around at the serious faces of everybody else present. "You mean..."
"Yes, Fox," sneered Demona, "He's quite real. As are his entire meddling race. I summoned him a while back and tried to get him to do a few spells of my bidding, but..."
"Hey, finding loopholes in a wish by deliberately misinterpreting the words is pretty much EXPECTED, for a captive magical creature." Puck shrugged, not apologising at all. "You obviously haven't read enough fairy tales."
"We have met him before, too," said Goliath in his deep voice. "Elisa and I were among the ones his spells affected that night."
"That's right," agreed Elisa, "But I, for one, would like to know why we're all here. The REAL reason we're all here." She stared suspiciously at Puck. "Although I don't know how much truth we're going to get out of THIS guy--probably just a bunch of illusions."
Puck shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid I couldn't even pull a rabbit out of a hat right now, Detective. It seems that sometime earlier today, all fay magic in the world stopped working...I believe Avalon, our homeland, is cut off and possibly in danger. Therefore, all spells and artifacts created or powered by its magic are dead or broken, until this crisis is over."
Demona opened her mouth to snarl a retort...then suddenly remembered the OTHER spell she was under, reached up to run her hands through her hair again...and kept silent. I'm aging... she thought, frightened. Fast. The Wyrd Sisters would never have taken that spell off even if I begged them, so maybe the trickster IS telling the truth, for once...
"And that means I can't re-cast my spell on you right now, either." Puck nodded towards Demona and took another sip of tea. "I have no powers. I think nobody of the Third Race in the entire world has any powers right now. Except for any that might be on Avalon right now...if there is an Avalon any more..." He said this last part very softly, with a catch in his voice--but if anybody noticed, they didn't say anything.
"What do I do, then?" said Demona, pacing back and forth like a tigress in a cage. "The Wyrd Sisters put a spell on me, and it's broken, too! I'm aging rapidly--I don't know how much time I have left!"
Goliath, Elisa, Xanatos, and Fox all exchanged glances with each other, wondering what were these spells she was talking about, but said nothing. Demona wasn't likely to answer, and the Fair Folk were well-known for being secretive.
Demona, on the other talon, was having some thoughts of her own. She considered gliding across town right at that moment and slaying MacBeth, now that she finally could do so without killing herself as well. It was a tempting idea. Very tempting. He would be aging too--and humans aged at twice the rate of Gargoyles, so by now he'd be rather weak...but she shook her head quickly to dislodge such thoughts. The world was a terrible, lonely place...but she wasn't ready to leave it just yet. If the Wyrd Sisters' spell was not reactivated soon, she would die soon after killing him anyway...and not a warrior's death, either. When she died, she didn't want it to be like this. Besides...despite herself, she was intrigued and wanted to find out what was going on. Curse my morbid sense of curiosity.
"Puck here believes that if we can travel to Avalon, find out what's going wrong there, and somehow fix it, then all the currently broken spells will immediately come back on again--like a light switch that's left on when the power goes out." Xanatos smiled as he addressed the group.
Demona sniffed. "What makes you think they will? Maybe they'll stay broken, for all you know."
"Maybe they will," replied Puck, "but this is our best and only chance. Besides, most spells don't break permanently unless a specific counterspell is chanted. Since nobody has done that..."
"So we were about to travel to Avalon and investigate." Xanatos stepped in. "However, since the island is not normally accessible from this end, we shall have to use...alternate methods of travel."
"The Phoenix Gate!" said Elisa, the light dawning in her eyes. "But what makes you think we'll go get it for you?"
"Yes," rumbled Goliath. "Elisa is right. Why should we help you? Fairy magic has done nothing good for any of us. It seems to me...the world might be better off if your kind didn't have your powers, to manipulate us, spy on us, and even hurt us. It's not as if you need your magic to live. You will do fine without it."
"We can survive without our magic." said Puck, looking the human woman and the male Gargoyle in the eye. "But not live. Not really live. Without any powers at all, we can't even disguise ourselves to pass among humankind undetected. We would be forced to live in the darkest, most secret places, coming out only at night, darting from shadow to shadow, always afraid of being hunted and killed like the 'monsters' we are...is that the kind of life you really want to condemn an entire race to?"
Demona tossed her head back and let out a sharp bark of bitter laughter. "Ha! Sounds like now you'll know how WE feel."
"Oh, yes." said Puck, coming over to stand in front of her. "I thought about that. Go ahead and gloat, Gargoyle...for the all of maybe three days you have left."
She went silent.
He turned, pleadingly, to the others. "I know you mortals think of magic as nothing but a myth, or, if you believe in it, a mysterious force that is only to be used in special circumstances. But for us, magic isn't a rare, strange thing. It's part of us. It is our lives. We learn our first spells in the cradle, and grow up with it, until by the time we are adult it is as natural to us as breathing--and nearly as necessary. Many of us are nowhere near as big and powerful as Gargoyles, so we don't even have fangs, claws, wings, tails, or strength to defend ourselves with. We look strange, but can't fight--we'd have the disadvantages of being non-human...with none of the advantages. Even the bigger, fiercer ones of our kind can be slain with ordinary guns and explosives, if their supernatural powers are gone. And, with a few exceptions, of course--" here he broke off to look at Elisa, Fox, and Xanatos "--your kind is not exactly known for opening its arms to those who look different. With technology advancing the way it is...even the blackest nights will not hide us for long."
Elisa sighed, walked over to Goliath and put her hand on his massive leathery-skinned arm. "He's right, you know." she said softly. "We can't just stand by and let an entire race be doomed like that. Xanatos knows it; that's why he called us here."
"Yes..." mused Goliath. "But how does HE know Puck in the first place? What was the Child of Oberon doing here?"
"I'd like to know that myself." said Fox, staring at Puck sharply. "You know, there's something almost familiar about you. I wonder what you'd look like in glasses..."
"Er, that's not important right now!" said Puck, waving his hands in front of him. "The important thing now is to get to Avalon and do whatever it takes to fix this problem."
"I'll go back to our home and get the Phoenix Gate." said Goliath, heading for a window. "But if any of your people follow me, Xanatos..."
"I assure you, nobody except the people in this room even knows where I am tonight." said the businessman.
Goliath just gave him a baleful look, opened the window and the wooden shutters, and leapt off the sill.
"Well," said Xanatos, turning towards the others. "It's going to be a while before he gets back, so can I offer you people anything?"
"I'd like some of that tea, if you don't mind." Elisa had noticed the two cups--and the broken one--when she first walked in. Looks like Demona's manners are the same as ever.
Puck suddenly realised why he was feeling kind of dizzy. "I know where the kitchen is, I'll get it." he offered, before Xanatos could ring the bell. "While I'm at it, I think I'll get something for mysel..." but when he took a step, he staggered and almost fell over.
"You all right?" said Xanatos, concerned.
"I...yes...er...no." said Puck, leaning against a chair. He felt very...what was that human slang term? Woozy. "This is going to sound odd, but I think I...better have some food, myself. Lots of it. Very soon."
Xanatos laughed. "Oh, so THAT'S it! It's been several hours since you first lost your powers, and you haven't eaten anything...you've never felt the effects of low blood-sugar before! This day is just one big learning experience for you, isn't it?"
"I'm learning that I'll be very glad when it's over," muttered Puck to himself.
30 minutes later. Goliath had taken a while to explain the problem to the rest of the Clan before taking the Gate finally and leaving, and had left Brooklyn temporarily in charge until he got back. "If you encounter any crimes that look too big or serious for you to handle alone, call Elisa's partner, Matt Bluestone, at the police station." he instructed them. As he walked back into the tower room, his eyes were greeted by a rather odd sight.
The group was mostly sitting down, enjoying hot cups of tea and talking amongst themselves...except for two. One was rather expected--Demona, pacing back and forth across the floor with a scowl on her face and a growl under her breath-- the other was not. One entire end of the table was taken over by a large array of dishes--and sitting there, attacking the food ferociously, as if he were starving to death, was...Puck?!
The little fay noticed Goliath staring at him and paused with a chicken leg halfway to his mouth. "Hey, YOU try not having any full meals for 300 years, and see how YOU feel."
"I can beat that, actually." said Goliath, a smile stealing slowly across his square, rough-hewn features. "Try a thousand years."
Puck shrugged, but didn't concede defeat. "True, but you weren't awake and using energy for the majority of that time." He finished the drumstick and started in on a bowl of salad. Hopefully I'll recharge as soon as we get to Avalon...IF we get there...but in the meantime, energy is energy...
"Did you bring the Gate?" asked Xanatos, walking over towards the huge Gargoyle.
"Yes, here it is." said Goliath, holding up a shining blue and gold medallion. Puck put down the breadstick he was holding--reluctantly--and rushed over to look at it. "Let me check to see if it's still working."
"How do you intend to do that?" asked Fox. "You're not going to go travelling through time by yourself, are you?"
"Sssshhh..." said Xanatos, putting a finger to his lips. "Let the man concentrate."
Puck looked Goliath in the eye, questioningly, and the huge Gargoyle nodded. The fay took the Phoenix Gate out of Goliath's hand, closed his eyes and...
Power. A burning, tingling thrill ran all up and down the fay's spine, as he held the magic artifact. Oh, how he'd missed it. The energy inside the magic artifact was almost trying to get inside of him, the way water will automatically flow from a full tank to an empty one if they are connected. It would be so easy to let it...
The others gasped. Puck opened his eyes and blinked, taking a moment to come back to dull reality, and wondered what they were staring at--until he looked down and realised he was floating a few inches above the floor.
"Ahem." he said, embarrassed, and forced his feet to touch the stone floor again. "Yes, the Gate is still working. It's linked to Avalon, I can tell--which means it probably can still take us there."
"Okay, Goliath, Elisa, come over here and gather around Puck," said Xanatos. "He's the only one here who has ever been to Avalon, so naturally he has to be the one commanding the Phoenix Gate."
Goliath stood next to the fay on his left side, Elisa stood next to him on the right. Xanatos stood in front of him. Then, to everybody's surprise, Demona came over to stand behind the Child of Oberon. This put her uncomfortably close to Elisa. The two women glared at each other.
"Why are YOU coming along?" demanded the detective.
"I'm not letting this slimy little trickster--"
Puck clicked his tongue disapprovingly and wagged a finger. "Labels, labels..."
"--out of my sight until he promises to restore my spell!" finished Demona.
Fox stepped forward to join the group, but Xanatos stopped her. "No, my dear," he said, holding up a hand to forestall her objections. "I know, I know, you're a great fighter and would help out our chances. Nobody knows that better than me. But with both Owen and myself gone, for who knows how long--"
"Where IS Owen, anyway?" asked Fox again, staring intently at her husband.
"Anyway, with both of us gone," Xanatos ignored her question and continued, "SOMEbody has to take care of Xanatos Enterprises. And you, my dear, are now a Xanatos." He kissed her hand. "Well, you've only been one for a short time, but it still counts. Take care of the store until we're back, my dear--I'm sure you'll do it proud." He turned back to Puck. "Let's see if this works. Everybody...quiet!"
Puck held the Phoenix Gate high above his head, and started to speak the incantation:
"Time, always rushing forward in thy flight--" then he cut off abruptly. Of course that spell won't work now, he thought, chagrined. Our spells to activate items work only partly on the item's own power; the direction comes from within us. I'll have to use the mortal version. Oh, Danu, if any of the others find out about this--especially Coyote or Loki--I'll NEVER live it down...
Realising that the others were all staring at him in confusion, Puck cleared his throat, carefully avoided their eyes, and tried again. "Deflagrate muri tempi et intervallia!"
A swirling green vortex appeared above their heads, swallowed them up, and disappeared.
Fox stood there in the empty room. "What an interesting crowd I run with," she muttered, and wandered over to munch on the leftover breadsticks.