To Pinery: Thanks for the suggestion. It's been a big help.
A little over an hour later, Aggie and the girls sat, contently, around the table.
"I'm full," said Areida.
"I'm stuffed," sighed Ella.
Aggie burped, then, politely, excused herself. The three had eaten more than half of the enormous feast before them, but now, they couldn't eat another bite.
"The only downside," said Aggie, "is that I made an apple pie for dessert, but I don't think we'll be getting to it tonight." The girls sighed.
"Next time," said Ella. "Next time, we'll save room for some pie."
The trio continued to just sit and sigh a while longer, until Ella finally spoke up. "Why don't we help you with the dishes?" she suggested.
Aggie smiled. "Thank you, Ella, but you know something? Tonight, I'm just feeling lazy. Why don't we let the dishes do themselves?"
As Ella and Areida sat there, wondering what that meant, Aggie turned to the dishes on the table. "Attention!" she shouted. To Ella and Areida's amazement, the dishes stood up in a parade formation. Many of them still had to be careful, since they were still carrying food. The dishes all turned to face Aggie.
"Forward ho!" Aggie ordered. The dishes marched from the table to the sink. They put the leftover food into small containers on the counter. When they were finished, the containers marched themselves into the icebox. Then, the dishes filled the sink with soapy water, and they all jumped in. They acted as if they were taking a bath. Once they were clean, the dishes marched into their respective drawers, shelves and cabinets. While they were both amazed by what they'd just seen, Ella and Areida could hardly call themselves shocked.
Just then, the clock in the hall chimed 8 o'clock. Socrates flew through the dining room and perched himself on the windowsill. "Well, I'm off, ladies," he said, as he stretched his wings. "I'll see you all in the morning." He pushed the window open and took off into the night.
"Well, girls," said Aggie, standing up from the table, "I'm off to bed. You're both welcome to stay up as late as…"
"Actually," Ella interrupted, "we're both feeling kind of tired."
Aggie smiled. "Follow me. I'll show you the guest bedroom."
As the girls got up from the table, Aggie stopped Ella.
"Ella!" she exclaimed, "Is that a gray hair?"
"A gray hair?" Ella exclaimed. "Where?" Aggie continued.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-four."
"Only twenty-four? Oh, that's much too young to be going gray." Aggie plucked the hair from Ella's head. "Ow!" yelped Ella.
"There, problem solved," said Aggie. She discreetly tucked the hair into her apron.
"Uh, thanks, I guess," said Ella.
The girls followed Aggie upstairs. As they walked through the upstairs hallway, the girls noticed a large bedroom that looked like it was decked out for royalty. The girls stopped and stared for a second.
"That would be my room," Aggie said, smiling.
"It's very nice," said Ella.
"It definitely looks like the 'Master Bedroom,'" added Areida. Everyone chuckled.
Then, Aggie and the girls continued on, until they reached a small room at the end of the hall. As the door opened, Ella and Areida frowned. The room was the exact opposite of Aggie's room. It was small and plain. The room consisted of two beds, a closet, a nightstand, and window on the opposite wall. There was no rug, no wallpaper and the only light in the room, besides the window, was a candle on the nightstand. It was chilly, and the beds didn't look very comfortable.
"I am sorry, girls," Aggie apologized. "I know it's not much to look at, but it is the best I can do right now." Ella sighed, and turned to Aggie. "It'll do," she said.
Areida added, "I once had to sleep on a hardwood floor. But, at least here, there's a bed."
"But could we get some more blankets?" asked Ella.
"Absolutely," said Aggie. Aggie headed down the hall and returned with two blankets and pair of pajamas for both of the girls.
"If you girls need anything else, you can knock on my door anytime." Aggie smiled and closed the door as she left.
The girls changed for bed, quickly. As they crawled into bed, the girls got another surprise. The beds, although they looked hard and uncomfortable, were actually quite soft and warm.
"I should've guessed," said Ella. "If I had to describe Aggie, I would probably say, 'not what she seems,' don't you think?" Areida was already asleep. Ella just smiled. "I'm sure you'd agree." With that, Ella yawned and fell asleep.
As Aggie closed the door to the girls' room, she hurried downstairs to her laboratory in the basement. The lab was a large, underground, cavern-like room where Aggie conducted most of her work and research. While the lab wasn't a top-secret location, it wasn't a room that too many people got to freely roam around. It was lit by a series of gas lamps, which Aggie lit as she entered the room. All around there were cauldrons that were constantly brewing, cabinets of equipment, both magical and non-magical, shelves of ingredients for potions and a small library of books and spellbooks.
Aggie reached into a cabinet and pulled out a magical microscope, a spectrascope. Taking Ella's hair out of her apron, she placed it under the spectrascope and took a look.
"Well," she muttered to herself, "This explains quite a bit."
"Um, Aggie?"
Aggie yelped in shock. She turned to the window and saw Socrates perched on the sill. Clearly, he'd also been spooked by Aggie's yelp.
"Socrates," Aggie said, annoyed, "How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me in the lab?"
"Sorry," grumbled Socrates.
"It's alright," Aggie replied, "What did you want to say?" Socrates flew down onto the table where Aggie was working.
"Have you noticed anything strange about that Ella girl? She seems like a nice girl, but whenever she's told to do something, even something rhetorical, she does it, and usually in a very robotic fashion."
"I did notice that, and I think I may have just figured out why she does it. Take a look."
Aggie moved aside, and Socrates hopped over and peered into the spectrascope. He saw the hair and noticed an aura surrounding it.
"This is a hair from Ella's head," said Aggie, "Notice anything?"
"Indeed," replied Socrates, "There's a magical aura around the hair. So she's enchanted." Aggie nodded in agreement. "It must be some sort of obedience spell."
"Who could've done this to her?"
"Take a wild guess."
Socrates thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Lucinda."
Aggie nodded in agreement. "Lucinda."
Despite her claims, Lucinda Periweather was not a true fairy. Over two hundred years ago, Lucinda was just a young witch's apprentice, working under Aggie's grandmother. While she had been very good at casting and maintaining spells, Lucinda had gotten to be a showoff and didn't always think about the consequences of her actions. Then, one day, she accidentally ingested some fairy dust, turning her into a human-fairy hybrid. Feeling she'd reached her full potential, Lucinda set out wreaking unintentional havok all over the kingdom. Feeling somewhat responsible for Lucinda, Aggie's grandmother stepped in to get her pupil under control. However, Lucinda believed that her mentor was jealous and wanted her power for herself, so she disappeared and went on the run. Aggie's grandmother spent years trying to find Lucinda, but whenever she got close, she would slip away. Over time, Lucinda was declared an official enemy of the McPhiney family. Aggie's whole family spent years chasing down Lucinda. Aggie spent much of her time and energy cleaning up Lucinda's messes.
"Can you undo the spell?" asked Socrates.
"I think so, but it'll take a while. I'd best get started." Aggie made her way over to the cabinet and started pulling ingredients.
"I may need to make some coffee, too."
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