Chapter 5:Law and Lawlessness
Disclaimer: I don't own Wizards of Waverly Place.
thirty years after the rise of the Wizard-Lord(Forty years after Alex's disappearance)
The Hub was named thus because it bordered every dimension known at one place or another. In short, a traveler could get anywhere from the Hub, and could get from anywhere to the Hub. This of course assumes that you can somehow provide the magic push required to connect the two locations to generate the portal(this was referred to as 'forcing the door' by the travelers). This fact was a generally acknowledged annoyance by the locals, and it produced both trade and grumbling in equal measure.
So it was received with very little surprise (and not a little grumbling) when a young woman dropped out of the air directly above a main thoroughfare of the Hub's capital city.
"Ow." Alex had time to stand before the sharp yell of "Get out of the road!" caused her to look around in alarm. She staggered to a cobbled sidewalk, taking in the city as she tried not to rub shoulders with any of her fellow pedestrians.
The city was an alarming clash of styles, most of which she couldn't distinguish, let alone identify. Buildings stacked haphazardly atop one another gave the otherwise impressive metropolis a ramshackle appearance. The sidewalk, like the street, was cobbled stone, seemingly ripped out of some medieval town and placed here for the use of the inhabitants.
Alex walked through the streets, using her spear as a walking stick. As she walked she stared at the inhabitants crowding the sidewalk, the street, and seemingly peering out of every window and door. Her fellow pedestrians gave her a wide berth, which suited her just fine.
Must be the outfit. She scanned the dizzying assortment of creatures, some almost normal, some decidedly not so. Her pondering was cut short as a tantalizing smell wafted through the air. Meat. and... is that bread? Oh, yeah, I'm getting some of that. She crossed the street, halting in front of a small shop displaying the food she sought in the front window. It looked almost exactly like Ms Mooney's pie shop from Sweeney Todd except the letters on the window were squiggles that looked like a baby's scrawl. Next door a large bull man was working a hammer on some metal in a forge. He caught her eye while she stared at him before she headed into the shop. A bell rang overhead as she stepped through the door, spear in hand. The guy...ish behind the counter looked like a cross between a man and a frog. Alex didn't particularly care as long as he'd sell to her.
"Hey." He glanced up at her greeting. His already massive eyes got bigger as he took her in. "I want some of that meat and whatever bread type stuff you have." The creature croaked curtly at her, not blinking. "Crap. Hold on." She poked herself behind the ear sharply, discharging a bit of magic. "One more time?"
His voice was a gravelly baritone as he said in perfectly understandable English, "Money first." She patted her pockets for a moment before an idea struck her. She held the spear out in front of him. "Trade?"
The frog guy waddled around the counter before squatting and staring intently at the spear. The door opened with a chime. The frog glanced at the new customer before holding out it's flipper to her. "De-"
"NO." The rumbling bass of the bull man almost shook the glass in the window. It approached Alex, interposing itself between her and her meal ticket. "Human. Quality. Magic. Will pay you fair" he glanced at the frog in contempt, "To sell to me, maybe make more?" The last part of the statement was tinged with hopefulness. She shrugged. "How much is it worth?"
The Minotaur opened a pouch on the broad leather belt he wore and extracted a small bag. Opening it, he produced a sapphire, easily as big as one of her thumbs. "Ten." She nodded. "One condition." He snorted, his white fur ruffling in the breeze. "I'llsplit profits with you, but you provide the materials...and lodgings." He cocked his head to the side. She shrugged again. "I need a place to stay."
He snorted again, then nodded. taking her small hand in his massive one, he shook firmly. Well that was easy.
One year later...
Alex roused herself by the starlight and crept stealthily from her cot above Asterion's forge. Her frame had filled out a little from the manuel labor, but she remained as fast and quiet as ever. He'll be asleep until sunrise at least. She wanted to have his gift done before he woke up. After finding out that his 6,037th birthday was coming up, she'd worked behind his back the whole week(kinda hard when she was using his forge) to make him a birthday gift. Finding out exactly when his birthday was coming up had been a chore, though, he had some issues grasping the difference between week, month, year, and century.
To most, the white gold nose ring she had made to replace his old gold one would look pretty, but little else. She'd disguised her magic by hiding it deep within the ore. While this limited what she could enchant it with, she wasn't looking for flashy.
She'd scratched her head over the spell she wanted for a while before she'd worked out how to do it. She'd made a spell that would give someone's skin the hardness of a metal in contact with them, but not the appearance. She'd tried it out first with a pair of earrings, which had worked spectacularly, so she'd done it again, ordering a fist full of starmetal that had set her back quite a bit. It'll be worth it to know he'll be okay. It had turned out that hiring her on was unhealthy for him after he'd been attacked in the street. Since then he'd worn massive armor whenever he went out, and he carried his forging hammer on his belt. So she'd made a new pair of earrings and his nose ring of starmetal, hiding it under the white gold, using what he'd taught her in the past year. She'd finished the ring last night, now all that was left was to put her mark on it. She considered the options for a while, then decided on a simple design. She etched a broken wand,split in half, one half on each side of a flame. She etched the final curl of the miniscule flame just as dawn broke. she studied her handiwork for a minute, then smiled, satisfied. She polished it with her shirt, nodding to herself. He'll like it, I'm sure.
As she turned to sneak upstairs she heard a creak behind her. She froze until a voice rang out. "Can still see you." she sighed, holding her hands in front of her as she turned. "I was gonna wrap it for you and give it to you for your birthday, but you already caught me. Besides, I wanna see your expression." She opened her hands, revealing her creation. He sniffed it as he gently took it from her hands. "Good work," he said appreciatively. "Too heavy for just gold. Core?" She nodded proud of the complement. "Yup, but I'm not telling. Oh, and I marked it. I finally decided on my smith-mark."
He held it close to his eyes for a few seconds,turning it this way and that so it caught the light. When the light hit her mark, his eyes almost popped out of his head. Almost dropping the ring, he stared at Alex. "Where find this?" She shrugged. "I made it," she said, uncertain. "Why? What's wrong with it?" He slapped himself in the head. "Apocrypha. Mean hidden, more or less." He looked her over like he was appraising her in a new light. "Should have known. Too special too stay." Alex was confused. "What?" The minotaur turned, heading upstairs. "Have something for you." He clomped up the steps, muttering to himself. He returned shortly, bearing a dusty box under one arm.
"For you." Asterion handed her the box. "What's this?" He snorted. "Human came here month back. Had baby. Sent baby back. Stayed to die." He gestured at the box. "Picture. Should have known box was for you." Curious, she opened the three foot long chest. Inside were a pair of cloth wrapped objects, one about a foot and a half long and the other nearly filling the box from end to end. Both rested beneath a worn picture. Alex lifted it out of the box. It was a sepia photo of...her. Dressed in old cowboy garb, holding a sawed-off shotgun in one hand and a revolver in the other, smiling along with half a dozen assorted guys.
Carefully unwrapping the objects, she revealed the two guns in the picture. They both bore her smith-mark, done in a careful and practiced hand on the bottom of the grips. 'Alex' was written down the barrel of the six-gun.
"Wh-Who was she?" Asterion shrugged. "Said call her Alex Apocrypha."
"Hidden Alex?" He snorted, nodding once.
A disconcertingly familiar voice behind her almost shocked her out of her skin.
"You bet your sweet ass, honey." Alex turned to look into the eyes of the woman in the picture. "Who- What-"
The older woman clicked her tongue. "C'mon, hon," she said with a mischievous smile. "Is that any way to say hello to your great-Grandmama?"
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