A/N: I know the last chapter wasn't super long, but I was tired and my imagination took a hike, and is now snoring in my bed because she's exhausted; the hike was up a steep hill. So since I couldn't wake her, I had to make a not-so-good chapter. But I tried! Give me credit for that. Trophy to Eleka Nahmen and Greenpelt for reviewing. And yes, I did notice the Emerald City thing. It was intentional. And Eleka Nahmen, I'll keep your suggestion in mind and yell my imagination awake.
I'd like to add that going to be at 12:00 p.m. and waking up at 8;00 a.m. four days in a row is not a good idea. I felt so tired that getting up from the couch was an exercise. Be happy I wrote this.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A few other members of the Resistance had come, too, in the next week. Jire, who was excited to come, even though he wasn't completely sure what we were doing, though he got the gist. Seana, who was a blonde woman in her thirties with a cranky attitude, had come, but complained about our settlement until I told her that if she didn't like it, she was welcome to leave, as she hadn't officially joined yet. Once you get a codename, you can't leave. That was the main rule. Wijire and Rorte came, as well. They were blue-eyed and brown-haired twins, and they were about twenty-eight. They had completely opposite personalities, and often fought. Wijire was usually the first to start arguments, but he could cope with being in the Resistance. His parents were in it, and he had always wanted to be in it. Rorte came with him, of course. There was also Khila, an eighteen-year-old girl with mousy brown hair and green eyes; Tyian, a pugnacious red-headed boy with a soft spot for cats; Mottie, a forty-year-old blondie; and Brike, a chestnut-haired, brown-eyed thirty-two-year-old man who was always offering opinions. So we had Sid, Rile, Ana, and Yew. Now we needed more codenames, and more codenames we were going to get. We sat down at a meeting in the chamber we always did it in. It had high ceilings and no windows, so no spying would be possible. There were countless chairs and one enormous, round table that I could stand on or behind, depending on how much attention I wanted, and how important the meeting was. Chistery took notes at our meetings, writing down the codenames. Apparently, he'd taught himself to write. Impressive.
At the meeting, we got more chairs from the corner closet, where we kept the ones we didn't need. The table was big enough to have at least forty chairs around it, so that wasn't a problem. I stood behind the table--or in front of, whichever--and spoke.
"We'll start with codenames." I said, nodding towards the group of newcomers. Mottie volunteered to go first.
"I'll have Mo." She said. "That's very putting-off, because it sounds like a man's name." I nodded to show my approval. It was something I got used to doing.
"Jire?" I asked.
"Ire." He replied, looking at me intently. That was something I got used to seeing.
"Seana?"
"Sen."
"Rorte?"
"Torr."
"Wijire?"
"Rew."
"Khila?"
"Ki."
"Tyian?"
"Tye."
"Brike?"
"Irk."
"Alright." I said, to conclude. Then I went over the rules again. "Now that you have a codename, you can't leave for reasons that are obvious. Does anyone protest to this?" Everyone shook their heads. "Good. Sid and Yew will show you to your chambers." I said, and instantly, Yew and Sid got up and beckoned the newcomers to follow them. I motioned to Chistery to give me the list. He obliged, and I scanned it, murmuring the codenames. "Fae, Yero, Sid, Rile, Ana, Yew, Mo, Ire, Sen, Torr, Rew, Ki, Tye, Irk. . .fourteen people, including me. . . Well, that's not nearly enough, we'll need more!" I said worriedly. Fiyero wandered towards me and gave me a hug. I flinched, startled, and whirled around to face him. He grinned.
"Don't worry, Fae, we'll get more." He said, and I smiled back.
"I know. I need to go work on something." I replied, and walked out of the room, towards my main chamber. After clambering up the broken steps, I opened the trapdoor and climbed up to my room. I had been working on a serum that would stop the clocks in Protikin for good. All that would have to be done was for it to be inserted into the top of his head, where the main clockworks, the ones that gave him life--but not Life--were. If those were destroyed, he would be destroyed. I ambled over to the cauldron--wow, I really am a witch--that contained the required ingredients. Quoxwood tree bark, water--I didn't touch this, of course--and a few other things I had forgotten about. It was almost finish. It would take a week to cook and a day for it to settle to its maximum power. I opened the Grimmerie. I wonder if the Wizard really was its owner. I don't believe in other worlds, because otherwise, with the Grimmerie, I would have been able to contact them with incredible ease. Maybe I just hadn't come across a spell like that. Or maybe it was one of the ones that I was working on beginning to read. I could decipher everything in the Grimmerie. The letters moved far too much, and the language was different. Much different. It wasn't even Qua'ati. If it had been, I'd have learned to read it. But this was a language of magic, and I guessed that that took much more than a year to learn.
I flipped through the dusty pages and finally found the spell I needed: the preservation spell. I thought I'd put it on the serum so it would rot or something. Can't have rotten serum. And it wouldn't let anything touch it for seven days. Well, if I set it to seven days. I think it's very convenient to have flexible spells.
"CREO HAEC DURO NAM SVEN DYS!" I chanted, and a yellow glow envelopped the vial. I set it down gently on the table and shut the Grimmerie with an almost inaudible snap. I yawned. I looked out the window and saw it was getting dark, and I was very tired. For once I wish I didn't have to sleep, so I could put more work into my spells. But there was nothing to do but plop on the bed and sleep. So I did so, reminding myself to recruit more people for the Resistance.