It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language that is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.

Walter Benjamin

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Chapter 7

"Jane?" Evie questioned, stepping beside Jay. Jane hesitated before making her way down the steps, nearing the two. "What's going on Jane?"

"I'm so, so sorry, none of this was supposed to happen," she insisted. She pulled her hands from our behind her, Mal's spell book clutched in her dainty fingers. Jay tensed to lunge but Evie placed a hand on his back to keep him grounded.

"It took me awhile to figure out how to distract Audrey so I could get it from her. She hasn't let this out of her sight since, you know," Jane gestured vaguely, "the thing happened," she finished lamely.

"Audrey did this?"

"No, well yes, I mean," Jane paused, thinking of the best way to answer Jay's question. Evie rubbed her hand in small circles on Jay's back. She needed him to stay calm. What they needed from Jane was information, and Evie knew that the more pressure they put on the nervous girl, the less they could extract from her.

"We did this." Jane finally admitted, then gulped at Jay's expression. Her wide eyes met Evie's and Evie motioned for her to continue. "Audrey wanted to do a prank so we thought that we'd make them a little bit younger but something went wrong and the magic was stronger than we'd intended and they're so little and it was only supposed to last a day or two tops! I swear, I'm so sorry!"

Jane clutched the book to her chest and took a heaving breath, on the verge of sobbing. "Jane, please, take a few breaths and calm down," Evie spoke, taking advantage of the naturally harmonious quality of her voice to soothe Jane. "Thank you for telling us, that took a lot of courage." Jay snorted and Evie swatted his back. Evie cleared her throat. "As I was saying, I know that this must have been difficult for you. We just want Mal's spell book and we can forget about all of this, alright?"

Jane nodded, "Oh yes, the book. Um," She chewed at her lip. "Something isn't right."

Jay, while not pleased with Evie's promises to ignore Jane's mistakes, seemed to finally understand why she was taking such a calm demeanor. "What do you mean?" He asked, the level of aggression in his voice diminishing significantly.

Jane opened the book to a random page and tapped her light blue fingernail on the page. "When I finally managed to get this from Audrey I tried to find the spell that we used so I could undo it but well, take a look." She passed the book over and Jay grabbed it, tugging it from her hands with more force than necessary. Evie skimmed the page, then looked at Jay in confusion.

"Runes?"

"Looks like it." He confirmed, tracing his finger over the strange characters replacing the spells. "How did this happen? Did Audrey do this?"

"Oh! Heavens no! Audrey doesn't have an ounce of magic in her. I think the book did it to itself," Jane suggested, defending her friend.

"Mal mentioned that the book had a defense mechanism but she never really elaborated," Evie offered. "This must be it. If something happens to its owner, the book makes itself unreadable. It's like how only I can use my mirror."

"Yeah," Jane interjected, awkwardly holding her arms against herself. "Well, I should probably get going so I don't get caught out after curfew. I don't think my mom would be happy." She gave a nervous laugh. "Let me know if there's anything I can help with and I'm really sorry."

Jay took a predatory step forward. "We don't need your help. In fact, it'd probably be best if you left us alone for a really long time. Understood?"

Jane squeaked and nodded vigorously before turning and running back into the school.

"Harsh." Evie commented.

"Hardly. She deserved it."

"Jay," Evie chided him, merely by saying his name.

"Why do you keep defending her? Don't you see what she's done?" Jay turned his anger on Evie, but she just raised an eyebrow at him. She'd known him for too long for his tone of voice and volume to have any effect on her.

"Audrey and Jane had Mal's spellbook with the intention of performing magic on Mal and Carlos. Mal's spellbook is no toy. I mean have you seen some of the spells? They can get pretty gruesome at times. But you know which spell they chose? A harmless de-aging spell. Doesn't that say a lot about them that they chose that spell over almost any other spell? They could've done serious harm to us, but they chose to prank us. I think that's worth taking into consideration," Evie explained, almost desperate for Jay to understand her position. Evie had always liked Jane and hated seeing her get into situations like this. She also knew that 'regular Jay' scared the living daylights out of Jane. Jane didn't need an 'angry Jay' on her tail and Evie didn't need an 'unfocused Jay' in general.

"Plus," she added, "We wouldn't have had all those really cute moments with Carlos and Mal if it weren't for them. I thought you always wanted Carlos to confess his love for you." She bit the words mischievously, taking pleasure in how quickly Jay's face flushed.

"Yes, I mean, no! I mean, well, not like that," Jay spluttered uncharacteristically, realizing his slip up. He sheepishly ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's just go to bed and get some sleep. It's been a long week." He walked up the steps towards the castle, away from Evie who smiled, knowing that she'd effectively diffused his anger for the moment. Evie knew her friends better than they were aware of, a fact of which she was very proud and that came in handy during moments like this.

"Mmm, a full night of sleep almost sounds too good to be true." Evie ducked under Jay's arm as he opened the door and they parted, heading to their own separate rooms to enjoy one night without having to care for energetic four-year-olds.


"—But s'okay cuf we stobbed hib." Carlos jabbered around a mouthful of toast, describing the epic of Susan the Dragon-Dog and how Carlos and Susan had to help Mal and Ben fight the swamp monsters and save the world. Jay had woken up and gathered Evie and Doug before going to Ben's room. To Jay's astonishment, his knock was what awoke the occupants of the room. Every morning the past week Mal and Carlos had woken them up at six, but Ben got to sleep in until eight thirty? Not cool.

Ben had called down to the kitchen to get some breakfast trays sent up for him and the kids, who munched cheerfully as Evie and Jay recalled the event of the previous night, which then led to Carlos telling his story. While Carlos had been speaking, Doug had scrutinized the runes, paging through the book with care.

"Telath!" He burst out unexpectedly, causing Mal to clank her fork loudly against her plate. "Sorry." He apologized, then explained, "Telath is the language of the Fae which uses an alphabet that appears to be a cross between the Elvish alphabet and the Phoenician alphabet that we use." At their confused looks, he elaborated. "I did a project for my history class about the linguistic oddities of different languages and luckily for us, I was assigned to research into the origin of Fae'len—that's their name for Telath, their language."

"So you can read it?" Jay asked, incredulously.

"No, of course not!" Doug waved a hand at him. "But I know where to find research on it. I might be able to translate it into our alphabet, and from there into English. Taleth is an ancient language, that even at the height of its popularity—if you will—was only spoken by the upper class citizens of Fairies. Which makes sense that Maleficent guarded her book with that language. I wonder if Mal speaks any of it?" He trailed off thoughtfully, looking at the girl who was chasing a grape around her plate, unsuccessful in her attempts to impale the fruit on the tongs of her fork. "Never mind."

"That sounds difficult," Evie pointed out, eyes watching as Mal finally managed to spear to grape and lift it to her mouth. "That sounds really, really difficult."

Doug hummed. "Not difficult as much as tedious and time consuming."

Jay felt his heart drop. "How long?" He voiced what they were all thinking.

"Unless we get lucky, long." Doug disclosed. "We don't have any idea which section of the book the spell is in, let alone which section the counter spell is in so we'll have to translate the whole thing. Not all of us are lucky enough that a magic lake washes away our enchantments." Doug shook his head wistfully at Ben.

"Magic lake? What magic lake?" Evie had spoken softly, but her tone of voice was dangerous, every word punctuated with threat. Doug paused and looked back and forth between the former villains and the king several times.

"Mal didn't tell you?" Ben let out a nervous chuckle, genuine in his question, but concerned by her reaction.

"Tell us what? Is there a magical lake somewhere that neither of you bothered to tell us about?" Evie snapped, pushing a blue curl behind her ear. Mal watched the exchange carefully, setting her fork down. The curtains rustled, despite the windows being closed and the lack of draft in the room.

"I took Mal to a lake on our first date," Ben began cautiously, gauging the reactions of those around him. "I went swimming and the lake had magical properties that washed away the love spell. I thought that she told you."

"We knew that she was going to reverse the spell after the coronation, but she never elaborated and well, things were kind of crazy," Jay spoke, feeling strange that he was for once the calmer of the two.

"Okay, pause. Why haven't we taken them to the lake yet?" Evie narrowed her eyes at Doug and Ben.

Doug raised a finger, fearing his girlfriend's wrath, but wanting to placate her. "Well, the lake washes away simple magic. Love spells aren't difficult, they're probably the most common type of enchantment. But reversing someone's age is much more complicated. I'm not surprised that Jane and Audrey were unable to achieve their desired results. This type of magic is specific and complex, as I explained to Jay and Ben earlier in the week, and so will have less ways to break the spell other than just waiting for it to wear off. I'm sorry we didn't tell you, Evie, but it didn't seem important because we knew that it wouldn't work."

Evie set her jaw, not budging in her annoyed expression. She was sleep deprived and stressed, and overall in a bad mood. This news about the lake hadn't improved anything, rather it momentarily gave her hope, only to be snatched away. Instead of responding, she plucked a strawberry from Ben's plate and nibbled at it. Ben wisely tolerated her thievery and pushed his mug of coffee towards her, sensing that she needed it more than him. Evie accepted the caffeinated peace offering and the mood of the room became less tense as she nursed the hot beverage.

"I'm not sure if this is the best time to bring this up," Ben stipulated. "But Lonnie mentioned that her parents own a beach house about an hour's drive from here and I thought that maybe we could make a weekend trip there. It could be relaxing." He pushed a napkin over to Carlos, who'd accidentally spread a glob of jam all over his elbow, before picking up the napkin himself to clean Carlos.

"Nice save," Jay poked fun at Ben. "I'm game if E is."

Ben and Jay turned to Evie, who was sipping at the coffee. She rolled her eyes and sighed, "Fine." She hid a reluctant smile behind the rim of the mug as Jay and Ben burst into cheers. Their jubilance garnered the curious attention of the younger two.

"What?" They chorused, both pestering the nearest teen in their reach for answers.

"You're going to the beach," Doug explained.

"Beach?" Mal questioned.

"You're?" Evie questioned.

Doug addressed Mal first, then Evie, "You'll find out soon, and I can't go. I want to get started on this translation project, plus I have a band festival coming up in a few weeks. If I miss the weekend practices Mrs. Suono will have my head." He drew a menacing line across his throat, then shrugged. "Sorry."

Ben clapped him on the shoulder as he stood, "Not a problem, Doug. Some other time maybe. I'll let Lonnie know that you guys agreed. Let's pack a bag and then meet back here at ten?"

It was a statement, but he phrased it as a question, hyper-concerned with ensuring that Evie's approval was met. She took another sip of her coffee and nodded. "Ten is good."

Ben smiled gappily at her, "Great! She'll be so excited."


Lonnie indeed was very excited.

She chattered about the beach house on the entire car ride over, detailing her favorite parts about the beach. Carlos listened closely, having never experienced a beach before. Jay hadn't either, but he was more reserved in showing his lack of knowledge. Despite consuming a mug of coffee, Evie had fallen asleep within ten minutes of the car pulling away from the school, resting her head on Ben's shoulder. Mal followed Evie's example and curled up in their laps and resting, more an act of rebellion against Lonnie than of actual exhaustion.

Jay enjoyed the car ride, for once just talking about normal teenage things instead of trying to find the spell book or how to care for a child. He'd forgotten how much he'd missed this type of interaction in his week of being assigned guardian to Mal and Carlos. While Lonnie told Carlos all about the beach, Jay and Ben talked about Tourney tactics, indulging in their love for the game.

At the beach house, which Jay admitted was as wonderful as Lonnie had described, they threw their bags in the two bedrooms and had a light lunch before dressing for the beach. Mal and Carlos were standing by the sliding glass door, dressed in their swimsuits, water wings, and water shoes. Their hands were pressed against the glass, leaving smudges, as they patiently waited to be released to the outdoors.

Jay walked over and opened the door, following them as they ran down the wooden steps onto the sand. Carlos stopped, excited by the feeling of the sand, but Mal was dead set on playing in the waves, which were mercifully calm today. "Ben!" Jay called, gesturing towards Mal.

"On it!" Ben jogged after her, quickly catching up.

"Hey Carlos, do you want to go in the water?" Jay cajoled as the girls walked past him, arms piled high with towels. Carlos looked up from his handful of sand, then eyed the water suspiciously.

"It's moving on its own," Carlos stated, letting the sand trickle through his fingers. Jay had seen waves on the isle but the barrier had prevented him from ever experiencing them. He could see and understand Carlos's interest paired with quiet distrust. Carlos allowed himself to be carried near the water. Jay stopped when the water lapped above his ankles.

"You ready?" Jay asked, shifting so he could lower Carlos. Mal had seemed very receptive to the water and Jay could see her jumping into the shallow waves, laughing when they knocked her back and spitting out the salty water that found its way into her mouth.

Jay almost dropped Carlos when he started to shriek. Carlos's feet had barely skimmed the water, but already he was trying to climb up Jay's arms and get away from the waves.

"Carlos, what's wrong?" Jay struggled to keep his grip on the squirming boy because he knew that dropping Carlos in the water wouldn't end well.

"No no no no no no," Carlos whimpered, "I don't like it, I wanna go back to the sand."

"Alright, calm down, we're going." Jay stepped back from the water, setting Carlos down near where Lonnie was seated.

"Is everything okay?" Lonnie asked, concerned.

"The water is bad." Carlos spoke, plopping himself down next to Lonnie.

"Oh well that's not good at all," Lonnie appeased Carlos. "Do you want to build a sand castle instead?"

"What?" Carlos and Jay echoed.

"You've never built a sand castle?" Lonnie questioned, taken aback.

"We may have lived on an island, but there weren't any beaches. It was just a cliff that dropped off into the ocean, with a barrier keeping us in," Jay explained, wiggling his toes under the sand and enjoying the strange sensation.

"I want to build a sand castle!" Carlos interjected. "Can we? Please!"

Lonnie smiled at his enthusiasm. "Of course! Jay, you have to help too. We'll make the best sand castle ever! Let me go get some shovels and buckets." She pushed herself off the ground and bounded back towards the house to retrieve the necessary tools.


Evie turned when she heard Carlos's shrill reaction, but had to stifle a giggle at what she saw. Jay struggled comically to lift Carlos away from the water while Carlos squirmed. When Jay managed to get both of them to the sand, Evie returned to watching Mal. She waded through the water that was up to the middle of her shin and stood by Ben.

"Thank you for suggesting this." She gave him a smile and adjusted her sunglasses. "I think a change of scenery will be good for me, and for Jay too."

"You should thank Lonnie for getting permission from her parents to let us use their beach house," Ben humbly deflected her praise to Lonnie.

Mal scampered over to them, stumbling with the movement of the waves. "Lookit!" She held up a murky colored seashell that she pulled from the water. "I'm gonna find all a'them. Here!" She took Ben's hand and put the shard in his palm. "Hold it for me," she commanded, pairing a demand with an irresistible smile.

Evie giggled as Ben pocketed the shell, and said, "If nothing else, Mal is having a wonderful time."

"Yes," Ben agreed. "Mal is a very explorative child."

They fell quiet again, listening to the waves lapping at the sand and the sounds of Carlos' delight at something. The sun beat down on them, warming them without being oppressive. The water helped combat the warmth by providing a cool relief on their legs.

"Will you miss it?"

Evie took her eyes off of Mal to give a quick look to Ben. "Miss what?" She asked.

Ben gestured towards Mal, then Carlos. "I know it's only been a week, but do you think you'll miss taking care of them?"

"No way." Evie answered shortly, her statement confident and concise.

"Really?"

"I won't miss the taking care of them parts, but other things, probably. The unshakable trust, the love and affection that they willingly bestow upon us. They're not as open about these things when they're older. I'll miss that," Evie elaborated. She sighed, exhaling a small breath through her nose. "Do you think they'll remember all this?"

"I don't see why not." Ben paused to accept another shell from Mal before continuing his thought. "They'll probably be embarrassed. We can't let Mal destroy the scrapbook." He wagged a finger in Mal's direction. "You know that she'll try."

"Maybe we'll have to cast a protective spell on it after Doug's translated her book," Evie joked. She stepped further into the water, using her toes to play with the sand. Evie marveled at how in control Ben always appeared. Evie felt frazzled by the whole situation but Ben approached it with an impressive calm, searching for a solution with determination.

Perhaps it was the whole King thing, giving him the ability to remain cool and collected even when his girlfriend is turned into a four-year-old. He not only helped care for Mal and Carlos, but also made sure that Evie and Jay were staying sane throughout it all. Evie was grateful for his presence and his wonderful idea of visiting the beach. Maybe she could even beg-off child watch duty to take a nap.

She startled out of her thoughts when Lonnie splashed through the water near them. "Just getting some water," Lonnie explained, holding up a green plastic bucket spotted with sand. "Ben, tonight. S'mores—yay or nay?"

"What's a s'more?" Evie wrinkled her nose, trying to imagine the unknown.

"That's definitely a yay," Ben spoke, eyes lighting up at the thought of the treat. "We'll have to have a campfire and show them how it's done."

"Obvi," Lonnie laughed, taking in Evie's muddled expression. "Anyway, gotta get back with the water before Carlos gets impatient." She leaned down and scooped up some of the ocean water before prancing back to Jay and Carlos.

"I have a feeling that this 's'more' adventure is going to have its own page in the scrapbook," Evie predicted, rather befuddled by Lonnie and Ben's exchange.

"I would be very disappointed if it didn't," Ben agreed, accepting another shell from Mal. "Oh, this one is cool," he complimented, earning a toothy smile from the small girl.

"Come find shells with me," Mal begged, pushing at both of their legs.

"Only if you show us the proper technique," Evie posed, watching as Mal launched into and explanation of her process for finding the best shells. Yes, she thought to herself, this is exactly what I needed.

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Hello again my lovely readers. Thank you so much for your kind words regarding my physics exam and my writer's block. Guess which girl blew her exam out of the water? The sleep deprivation and caffeine induced haze was worth it because I got a 99.5% which is almost unheard of on college exams :D It brought my overall grade up by nine percent :o Also I think my writer's block is lifting its grasp on my brain because this chapter was much easier to write. I just want to thank you all again for your wonderful reviews! I read each and every one of them. Make sure to sign in (if possible) so I can respond. I love you guys so much! :)

If you guys want to see more of my daily struggles, check out my Tumblr. Sometimes I post about IYA there, my username is minigirl-loves-you

This week's question is: If you had a book written about your life, what would the title be?

Mine would be: I Drank So Much Coffee It Turned Me Bitter

Updates on Sundays!

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