Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Grimmtowne
Grimm Castle
Zora went to check the lock on the bird cage, when Sal snapped, "No, stop. Don't touch anything yet."
"Why?"
"Everything is rigged," said Sal, adjusting the poofy dress as she paced in the bird cage perimeter. "Both of you just stay where you are and I'll explain everything that I know."
Zora nodded and looked over at Kirsch who stood perfectly still, yet eyeing the cage. It was good that both he and Kirsch were sent—between both of their magic, they'd be able to figure out a way to break any spells. "Okay, start talking."
Sal let out a huff. "As the Love Curse incident was dying down, I heard through the grapevine of my informants that some shady shit had ramped up in Grimmtowne. Since we're worried about devils at the moment, I thought I should investigate it. From the information I gathered, it definitely sound like people were being killed by whatever lived here in this castle."
"Yeah, I gathered that much from that old hag you spoke to," said Zora, nodding.
"This is not devil mana," said Kirsch, eyes narrowed. "This is witch's mana—like Vanessa and Captain Dorothy's."
"Afraid you're correct, Kirsch," said Sal, sighing. "I snuck into the castle after checking out how many people went missing over the years. I got trapped shortly after, forced magically into this dress, waiting for "my prince" to arrive and save me. The witch's magic is somehow tied to the Clover fairy tales."
Zora frowned. "That's why the front half of the castle still looks like shit, but as you go, it's transformed the place to look like back in its heyday. It has to be some sort of illusion magic."
Sal nodded. "The witch, whomever she is, is very powerful. Definitely on the scale of the witches we know, probably even more so. That is why it was utterly reckless of you both to come charging into here without a plan. You two are supposed to be smart and cunning!"
"We're sorry, Sal," said Kirsch, shooting Zora an "I-told-you-so" look. Zora rolled his eyes. "There was no time and I don't think there was any way to break the spell from the outside."
Sal scowled. "Yeah, well, too late now. But, together we can break the spells and fight the witch. By the way, how long have I been in here?"
"A month," replied Zora, as Sal cursed up a storm, not believing it. He looked at Kirsch. "You got an idea to bust her out of this cage?"
"Not yet. But I think I might know what kind of magic this is," mused Kirsch. "According to Captain Dorothy, the witches that live outside the Witches' Forest tend to be powerful in ways that the Witch Queen does not like. Captain Dorothy mentioned other than herself, Vanessa, and that Diamond wizard's wife, there were about a dozen or so other witches with the same level of abilities that don't live in the Witches' Forest. I remember one of the powers the Captain mentioned had been Storybook Illusion, but that Witch has to be old. Captain Dorothy said there were many witches that left many years before she was even born."
"That would make sense with what we know," replied Sal. "Man, I never catch Dotty when she's awake. I still got to get that list of witches from her!"
"So, if it's illusion magic, that's a subset of water and light magic," said Kirsch, deep in thought. "We might be able to overwhelm illusion with a combined spell of your Ash Magic and my Cherry Blossom Magic to get Sal and us out of this room."
"And then we have to find my grimoire," said Sal, crossing her arms annoyed.
Zora nodded in agreement with Kirsch's assessment (see, this was why he was okay with the two working together often, because may have a ridiculous personality but he was competent), taking his grimoire out of his holder. "Let's see what we can do, since our magics are basically opposites." Ash Magic was a subset of Fire Magic while Cherry Blossom magic was a subset of Flower Magic which itself was a subset of Earth Magic. Their magics would, in theory, cancel each other out.
Kirsch took out his own grimoire and they both sat on the floor to look through them.
Clover Kingdom Fairy Tale
The Prince and the Peasant
Part 1
The heroic Prince went back to traveling after the attempt on his life, but he made sure to visit his old mentor and the mentor's daughter regularly. The Prince, you see, was quite lonely on his adventures—especially since his brothers don't seem to care for him and his parents were dead. It was nice to have a place to go where someone actually cared for his well-being and not what he, the Prince, could do for someone or some town.
In fact, the Prince had been considering it was time to settle down, find a wife and have some children of his own. And he had one person in mind to become his wife, but she, the shadow wizard, was very stubborn and fierce. It kind of made him shy about asking to properly court her.
While thoughts of marriage and babies preoccupied the Prince, the Prince's brother the King was still on the throne and madder than ever that his pesky youngest brother was still alive and gaining even more and more popularity over him, the King. So, the King came up with a diabolical plan to get rid of his brother once and for all.
As the King plotted against his brother, the Prince returned to the little cottage in the woods where his mentor and the shadow wizard invited him in for dinner. That day he had been feeling rather bold and asked the shadow wizard to take a walk with him after they dined. With a sharp look from her father, the shadow wizard agreed.
When they went for the walk, the Prince intended to ask the shadow wizard for permission to court her.
But alas, the Prince should have been more concerned about his evil brother trying to murder him!
The pair were attacked by another coven of witches. This time there was a fatal consequences—the shadow wizard saved the Prince's life by intercepting the attacks, only to die of the wounds immediately as a result.
The Prince so distraught over her death went on a rampage. So much despair entered his heart that he went on a three-day massacre of everything in his path, only to be struck down by his old mentor. The Prince, in his dying breath, cursed the Kira Clover family with madness. And yet, when news reached the King of his brother's death, there was no dear only joy.
Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Grimmtowne
Grimm Castle
Sal was laughing at them both, as the spell they came up with for a Union Magic was using one spell from both Zora and Kirsch, except the spells were basically baby spells. Kirsch and Zora had years of magic spells in their grimoires, but they were all too big, too powerful for such a delicate job. And there was also the fact that they didn't want to accidentally hurt Sal. Kirsch went straight to the front of his grimoire, which had the spells he learned back when he was fifteen and Zora had a bit more to look through than Kirsch since he was a bit older.
They practiced the spell on a nearby jewelry box, which unlocked it without damaging the box as a whole, but it was a spell that didn't fit either of their personalities.
"Sal, come off it. Don't you want to get out," Zora snapped, annoyed.
"Just don't tell anyone," said Kirsch.
"Of course," said Sal, still laughing, completely and utterly amused.
Kirsch and Zora traded looks, understanding that Sal was going to tease them about this until the end of time. They both sighed and activated their new Union Spell.
"Union Magic: Cinder Petals."
A small amount of cherry blossom petals appeared but immediately became ash, filling the lock on the bird cage and immediately making the lock fall apart.
"I'm free," Sal cheerfully said, stepping out of the cage and the dress turned back to her normal traveling clothes. "Geez that dress was so uncomfortable."
"You wore a dress for your wedding," pointed out Zora, putting away his grimoire.
"Yeah, a dress that was tailored to my specifications. That was a monstrosity," said Sal. She started stretching in earnest since she had been stuck in a cage for a month, while Kirsch put away his grimoire.
Kirsch was too busy trying to control his own emotions to listen Zora and Sal bicker over dresses. While it was embarrassing to use two weak spells at their level of wizardry, it was actually kind of fun. Kirsch didn't often get to use union or compound magic since most of the people he worked with had powerful magic that didn't need a bolster. It was nice to know that Kirsch's own magic would immediately made Zora's magic stronger, even if it destroyed Kirsch's beautiful smelling cherry blossoms.
Sal gave them a big grin. "Either of you got a healing spell."
"Ah, right, sorry, Sal," said Kirsch, quickly doing a healing spell to help restore her mana a bit.
Zora moved to inspect the rest of the room, but not touching anything after the warning, while Kirsch's Cherry Blossom Healing Dance encircled Sal. Once Kirsch did what he could, Sal said, softly, "You two made beautiful magic together."
Kirsch's felt warm as he hissed at his cousin-in-law, "Sal, no."
Sal rolled her eyes. "Alright, now, we're gonna need to find my grimoire, but first we need out of this room, so boys, work your magic again, just a bit bigger this time."
"Are we really gonna explode a hole in the wall," asked Kirsch.
"Kirsch, we're not exploding anything, just disintegrating a wall," said Zora, smirking.
"Same difference, Zora."
"Stop flirting, and get to it," said Sal.
"Shut up," chorused Zora and Kirsch.
Needless to say, the castle had one less wall and they were able to get back to the hallway. Sal was busy trying to sense where her grimoire was looking and Kirsch just wanted his face to stop feeling warm.
He hoped that Zora didn't notice that Kirsch was flustered. (Again).
Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Grimmtowne
Somewhere in the Grimm Castle
"Pity, pity, little Sal doesn't want to play anymore. She was no fun anyway. Ah, but an actual royal—Kirsch Vermillion. Hmm, should be interesting, let's see what's in his heart."
Ch. End