You do want to get the familiar ritual over and done with, and you definitely need to talk to Lu-sensei about the consequences of stepping up your involvement with the local martial arts community - and those of not doing so. While those are important matters, you feel that they rank a distant second to your promise to help Briar get in touch with her mother. Perhaps it's just your own immaturity speaking, but ten years seems like entirely too long a time for someone to be apart from their family.
When you broach the subject, Briar agrees with you, and you begin planning.
First up is nailing down the location of the portal she used to use. This is easy. Briar knows the site quite well, and through your link as master and familiar, however shoddy, you're able to draw upon that familiarity to give your divination magic something to home in on. A standard scrying spell, cast using a fancy old standing mirror at Amy's place - while your erstwhile student of sorcery watches and takes notes - yields the TV-quality image of a forest glade where two standing stones and a layer of high-climbing ivy form something that looks very much like an open doorway. There's no obvious sign of human activity in the glade until you cast some follow-up divination spells and uncover a faint sense of abjuration magic about the arch of stone and plants. Your analysis suggests that it's the magical equivalent of a tripwire, something left behind by who- or whatever sealed the gateway in case the portal was re-opened. It's not a very powerful spell - what you saw of the Hawaiian sorcerer's work was more impressive - but it's pretty well put together, and appears to have been in place for a number of years. Aside from that lurking alarm, there's no indication that the glade has been visited since Briar was last there, a decade ago.
Gained Mage Sight D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Now that you know where the portal is, you're able to work out how to reach it. Your standard teleportation spell isn't quite powerful enough to get you there - at least, not without seriously increasing your risks of materializing inside a tree or something - but a ritual casting will easily make up the difference, as long as you're outside of Sunnydale when you perform it. Just because you're confident in your ability to use space/time magic on the Hellmouth doesn't mean you need to be reckless about it, particularly when you can afford to take the time to do this job right.
The third step is working out exactly what spells you'll likely need to use to re-open the portal for general use. Something to suppress that alarm spell would be a good start. After that, spells of analysis to work out exactly how this portal ought to look when it's active and what was done to seal it, invocations of opening to unlock the planar passageway once more, a spell of secure travel to make the way safe... and finally, an amped-up message spell for Briar's mother. As far as you're concerned, that one's the easy part; Briar seems to think differently, and has been flitting about muttering to herself as she tries to work out what she's going to say to her mom.
While you're calculating your spellwork, you take the opportunity to have that conversation with Briar about purification rituals. You meant to do this sooner, but you've had a lot of demands on your time: Moblin REALLY missed you in the month you were gone; Zelda and your Mom have been only slightly less clingy; Amy and Larry both wanted to hear about your trip in detail, and to see demonstrations of your new magic kung fu abilities (Amy being more into the magic, Larry the kung fu); and then there's been the business with your appearance in the papers and your resulting boost of popularity. Being a celebrity, even just on the local scene, is draining. You've barely had five minutes to yourself since you got home, let alone time enough for an in-depth magical debate with Briar. Now that things have calmed down again, though, you make the time.
Incidentally, Briar figures that the reason she reads as less afflicted by the Hellmouth's corruption is a combination of all the factors that you noted: she IS fey, and thus to some degree a being of chaos herself; she HAS only lived on the Hellmouth for a couple of years, as opposed to your heritage as a lifelong resident descended from several generations of lifelong residents; and she DOES make regular use of cleansing rituals, and has before she ever got here.
"Nothing you didn't already know, really," Briar concludes with a shrug. "Though while we're on the subject, you'll want to slip a purification ritual or two into your battle plan. Ideally after we're off the Hellmouth. Getting away from its interference before you work big mojo is a good idea, but clearing the malice out of your aura on top of that would be even better."
"Not to mention that it should reduce the odds of your mother getting the impression that you've been captured by a demon sorcerer or something, right?"
"That, too." Briar pauses, and you get the impression that she's worrying her lower lip between her teeth. Then she blurts out, "Do you really think she'll think that?"
"How would I know? I've even never met your mother."
"Well, no, not in this lifet-" Briar slaps one tiny hand over her mouth.
You regard her intently. "What was that?"
"Nothing! Forget I said anything!"
"Briar-"
"No! It's not important! Really! Just sit there and Do Magic!" Briar flies off in a hurry, chastising herself from the sound of things. You're tempted to go after her and get a straight answer, but you decide instead to stay where you are and Do Magic.
You can't help but feel a little worried about what Briar's slip of the tongue implies.
It takes until the end of May for you to be satisfied with your preparations. In that time, you've resumed your normal activities at home, at school, and around town, at least as much as you've been able to without compromising your magical work. You've begun reviewing your new skills with Lu-sensei - a process that he is taking slowly to ensure that he understands the limits of your remarkably diverse collection of powers - and you've also discussed your prospects in joining the amateur tournament circuit, though mostly as a sideline. Also, Lu-sensei had copies of the tournament tapes with him when he got back from Japan; the disorder of the last couple of days, combined with the police investigation, caused an understandable delay in production, but you have the video evidence of your matches at last.
Gained Tournament Tapes
Lu-sensei has noticed that the focus of your attention lies elsewhere at the moment, but has not pressed you unduly - well, not aside from breaking out the Enlightenment Stick and chasing you halfway across town when you mentioned your little deathmatch with the Hawaiian. You... probably deserved some of that. Maybe.
Your friends have also noticed your distracted state, and unlike your teacher, they have asked about it.
When Cordelia, Larry, and Amy corner you at school to ask for details on what it is that's been taking up so much of your time and attention recently, your first instinct is to simply tell them the truth. They're your friends, after all, and it's not like what you've been doing is a great world-shaking secret or anything.
But then you recall Briar's recent evasiveness on the subject of her mother's identity - and her previous reluctance to tell you about her own origins, even after you'd been partnered together for a couple of years. This is kind of a big deal for her, and she might not be comfortable with the idea of sharing it even among your little circle of friends. At the very least, you should get her opinion on the matter before you say anything.
So you tell the others that you're working on putting together a gift for Briar, and press one finger to your lips in a sign of silence and secrecy. Larry nods, looking enlightened, and promptly drops the subject. Cordelia also approves, though she demonstrates it by saying that it's nice to see you trying to make up for all the shocks and stress you caused Briar during the tournament. You know, paying back what you owe?
On a related note, you've since managed to repay the five bucks you owed Cordelia for her loan back in Japan. It was a little tricky - your allowance and other non-essential expenses have been a bit sparse since you came home, even though Dad's been working weekend overtime at the garage and your Mom has taken some extra shifts at the hospital - but it's done, and you feel better having that little weight off your back.
As for Amy, she gives you a bit of an odd look at your response. Having seen your recent venture into scrying, she's probably wondering exactly how that relates to a "gift" for a fairy - but with the other two outgoing members of the group having apparently accepted your choice of words, she doesn't say anything.
Your decision not to spill the beans to your human friends is vindicated when you ask your fairy friend if she'd mind them knowing the full facts. As it turns out, she kind of would - at least until the two of you know for sure whether or not things are going to work out the way you both hope that they will.
Gained King of Women D (Plus)
Finally, the day of reckoning arrives. Rising with the sun, you take stock of your reserves during your wake-up workout and note that, aside from the 5% of your mana rendered inaccessible by the maintenance of your dimensional pocket, you're at full power. You shower thoroughly, dress quickly, and eat a light breakfast; then, with a quick farewell to your mother and sister, you're out the door. You've explained ahead of time that you have planned a day out - completely true - and probably won't be home in time for lunch - also true - so your Mom has prepared a simple bagged lunch for you. To your friends, you've simply said that you need today to yourself for work. It's not the most elaborate cover story in history to be sure, but best to keep things simple.
There is one unexpected development. Moblin kind of refuses to let you leave without him.
"No," Briar says. "Bad big ugly goblin-faced dog. Stay here. Stay! Alex, tell him to stay already, will you?"
Moblin gives you a look that, in a smaller, cuter canine, would be called Puppy Dog Eyes.
Under different circumstances, you'd have no problem with bringing Moblin along with you for the day. However, your plans for this day involve situations that your loyal canine companion has no experience with or preparation for. The teleportation alone will probably freak him right out, not to mention the struggle you'd have just getting him to sit still long enough for a purification ritual. All in all, it really would be best for everybody if Moblin were to stay home. You don't particularly want to have to tie him up in the yard, but fortunately, your options are not so limited.
Quickly ducking back inside the house - and offering a brief, "Moblin," in response to the questioning looks from your mother and sister - you get a box of doggie treats out of the cupboard, dig one out, and then go back outside. Moblin's ears perk up and his tail wags when he catches the scent of the biscuit, and takes a step forward, only to pauses in mid-advance when you hold up one hand.
Confident that you have your dog's full attention, you cast a spell to Speak With Animals. It's a magic that falls under Farore's domain far more than Din's, but you have enough power to fake it.
"Sorry boy," you start out, "but I can't take you along. This day is for Briar."
Moblin's ears flatten as he growls. "That's not safe, pack-leader. You know this place is dangerous. I should be there to guard your back. I'm much bigger and stronger than the fairy, I can do a much better job of it!" He's not actually making words, but between body language, vocalization, even scent, your spell is making it very clear that your dog is communicating with you, and always has been. You just couldn't or didn't see it before.
"The hell you can, mutt!" Briar shoots back.
"You're right about this place being dangerous," you cut in firmly, hoping to quash the impending argument. "That's why I need you to stay here and look after Zelda while I'm gone."
Moblin looks thoughtful. "The pack-sister is very small," he admits slowly.
"And looking after her is an important job," you agree. "Mom's very good at it, but like you said, this place is dangerous. I'd feel better if there was somebody else around to keep an eye on things."
"Then I will stay, pack-leader."
"Good boy." You hand over the doggie treat and scratch Moblin's ears while he chows down, getting a pleased rumble. "We'll play when I get back. See you then."
Gained King of Beasts F (Plus) (Plus)
You head off, Briar following in your wake - no doubt after stopping to give Moblin a smirk or a raspberry.
"Tell me, Briar," you say casually. "How long have you been able to talk to animals?"
"Since always," she replies. "It's a fairy thing."
"So all this time, whenever you were talking to Moblin, you were actually talking to Moblin?"
"Well, yeah. He's not a particularly sparkling conversationalist, but you may have noticed that there aren't a lot of animals around Sunnydale, outside of the pet stores, those saps at the zoo, and all the cats. Most of the wild ones have the good sense to stay as far away from the Hellmouth as they can, unless they're rabid or god-touched or something like that. Even a good number of the domesticated ones figure it out and make tracks as soon as they can, unless they get eaten."
"But not the cats?"
"Cats are killers, Alex," Briar says seriously. "Alert, intelligent, happy, playful killers. Even the ones that aren't evil little shits could give most demons lessons on pride and sadism. Living on the Hellmouth, surviving where almost no other animal in the world except man will go of its own free will? Yeah, that's right up a cat's alley. Then there's the magical side of things."
"What, like the witch with a black cat? That's just a stereotype, isn't it?"
"Stereotypes and cliches get started for a reason, kiddo - and there are LOTS of reasons why witches like having cats for familiars." Briar shakes her head. "Anyway, now's not the time. Let's get moving. We've got a busy morning ahead of us."
"...yeah. Right."
With the Moblin issue settled, all that remains is getting clear of the Hellmouth. How do you wish to do this?
You have somewhere to go, and only so much time to get there. Since you don't want to expend any of the mana that you will need to reach and unseal the gateway and send your message to Briar's mother through, the obvious answer you're left with is to warm up your ki and give your Body Flicker technique a workout. You know from Lu-sensei's example that it's possible to hone that skill, or something very much like it, to the point where one can warp space and time around oneself without using a drop of magical energy. This seems an opportune time to get in some practice in that direction.
Before you start experimenting, though, you spend a little of your mana to raise an enchantment-based ward around yourself that will encourage people to ignore you and what you're doing. Once the spell is set and Briar has concealed herself in the pocket of your shirt - to avoid windburn, she claims - you muster your energy and take off.
Gained Body Flicker D
Gained Endurance F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Speed E
You've never actually run or walked from your house to the city limits, but given that it took you and your Dad about ten minutes of constant driving to get home after you passed the big "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign - leaving aside a couple of pauses for other traffic - you figure you could make the trek in about an hour. Less, if you pushed yourself. Moving at Body Flicker speed, it takes you maybe a quarter of that time, though the number of "jumps" you make along the way burns up some 16% of your ki. The expense is almost worth it just for how the lurking sense of the Hellmouth's malice gradually fades behind you.
Gained Corruption Sense F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
After your ninth burst of ki-based superspeed carries you past the city limits and a fair distance down the highway, you stop and look back, taking in the entirety of Sunnydale in the early morning light. It appears remarkably peaceful... but the faint sense of menace and corruption gives the look the lie. One last Body Flicker puts you within sight and easy walking distance of the rock formation you wanted to reach, and you make the rest of this leg of the journey at normal speed, saving a little energy in case you need it later. Briar pops out at this point to stretch her wings by checking the area for any lurking dangers - mundane as well as mystical - although the most hazardous thing she spots is a crow perched on a withered, stunted old tree. The bird gives you both a beady-eyed look before cawing once and then taking off with a great flurry of wings.
Not the most auspicious of omens.
Reaching the rocks, you duck out of sight behind them, reasonably well-hidden from the road in all directions, and take a moment to test the atmosphere. As you hoped, the Hellmouth's contamination doesn't reach this far, at least not in any amount that you can pick up on - why it doesn't is a good question, but one you'll have to leave for another time. You have work to be getting on with.
First up, the purification ritual. Grabbing a stick, you draw a fairly complicated ritual circle into the dry soil, sit yourself down inside it, and begin to repeatedly cycle the power in your body to help identify and force out that which isn't native to you. Your moderately improved control of your magical energy helps to cut down on the power wasted by the process, but some loss is unavoidable - like most monsters, the Hellmouth doesn't easily let go of its victims - and after an hour's work, you've burned about 4% of your reserves. What remains, however, is about as clean as you can make it without taking some very expensive steps.
Gained Abjuration D (Plus) (Plus)
With that out of the way, you take up the stick again and begin modifying the symbols within circle - being very careful not to break the protective outer ring itself - while also laying down simple reagents you gathered over the last couple of weeks for this very purpose. Although the ritual casting of your teleportation spell works out to be just as expensive as the purification rite, it goes much faster. Not ten minutes later, you're ready to make the trip up north.
Although you're confident in your magical skills, you take the time to double-check everything, including making a sweep of your current surroundings to ensure you're not being spied on - you're not, as far as you can tell - taking a look at your ki to determine if the cleansing ritual left any of the Hellmouth's poison in your system - it didn't - and finally casting a modified, extremely long-range spell of clairvoyance to make sure that your intended landing zone is clear of witnesses - it is.
Gained Corruption Sense E
Gained Divination D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"All good?" Briar asks. She doesn't sound the least bit perturbed by your extra level of precaution.
"As far as I can see, yeah. You ready to go?"
"As I'll ever be."
"Then let's do it."
And you utter the trigger word that activates your prepared teleport. The world blinks out-
-flying/fleeing from danger/terror/horror/claws-and-fangs/pain-and-blood-and-death/it-lurks-beneath-you through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance and a near/distant green energy/presence/huh?/you-again/you're-over-there-now-
-and then comes back. You stand there, silently, breathing air that is noticeably cooler and more damp than where you just were, surrounded by a virtual sea of living green and brown, and feeling distinctly like a rabbit that has just outmaneuvered the biggest, ugliest, meanest predator that ever stalked the Earth.
"B-Briar?" you ask after a long moment.
"Y-yeah?"
You swallow heavily. "Did you get a feeling of... teeth, just now?"
"Y-yeah." You feel your fairy companion shudder. "For the record, Alex, I strongly recommend having a Protection From Evil spell up whenever you teleport anywhere near the Hellmouth."
"That sounds like a good idea," you agree, shivering.
Gained Traumatic Memories E (Plus)
Well, shaken or not, you've arrived where you wanted to go, atop a rocky hill that has just enough trees growing on it to provide you with cover, but not so many that you have to worry about local predators hiding in the shadows. The stone-and-ivy archway that marks the location of Briar's gate is off to your right, just a couple minutes' walk downslope. Your landing zone is far enough from the portal that you shouldn't have tripped the alarm spell you found there. Still...
How do you wish to approach the gate?
You've come this far by being careful, so why let your guard down now? Especially since you're far from home, on approach to an interplanar gateway - notoriously hazardous things - that has already been locked down by an unknown magic-user once before, with none but a fairy to watch your back. Really, it only makes sense to keep your eyes and ears open, stay frosty, and take the long way around to reach your target, just in case there's more here than your previous scans spotted.
Your eyes glimmer as you awaken your ki sight, mage sight, and spiritual perception, and you feel your consciousness stretch slightly to accomodate the increased flow of information. Fortunately, you've improved since that embarrassing self-induced fainting spell back at the master-level finals, so you're able to maintain this level of augmented perception while moving slowly. You get the feeling that pushing any further might be a bad idea, however, so you don't try to investigate the area for demonic corruption, at least not constantly; rather, you pause every twenty steps or so, let the other senses revert, and look around for signs of contamination. You even let your nose test the air a few times.
Gained Concentration C (Plus)
Gained Mage Sense D (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Control E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Power F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Initially, what you get out of your extra-cautious approach isn't much that you didn't already know. This neck of the woods is probably the cleanest place you've ever been, in all senses of the word. It leaves Sunnydale in the dust in terms of magical health and wholeness, and on the spiritual end of things, it's second only to the Higurashi Shrine in your admittedly limited experience. And on the physical side, it just trumps everywhere else in your experience. The air is clean, the water in that little spring is clean - even the dirt looks clean! What's particularly interesting is that, the closer you get to the disabled gate, the less corrupted and poisoned this already-pristine wilderness becomes. It takes some mental judo to wrap your head around the notion, but it seems that wherever the portal leads is a really GOOD place for what you consider the Forces of Nature. That fits well with it being Faerie, or some outlying domain thereof.
You do have to wonder what would happen if you brought an obvious product of unnatural forces up here and left it out for a while. Would the Faerie gate's dimensional spillover "corrupt" such things? Would a demon become less demonic, or a car less damaging to the environment? Maybe so... and then again, maybe not. It's just as likely that something would show up to slay the demon and render whatever kind of corpse it left behind down for fertilizer. Likewise for the car. Nature doesn't mean Nice, after all. Just look at Link, the Chosen of Farore, who among other domains is the Goddess of Nature. "Unstoppable death machine" is a good way of describing that boy, which says things about the divine lady who has his back - things that don't really tally with the pop culture, modern pagan-influenced image you've had of her. In the future, when you think of Farore, perhaps you should think less "flower-wearing woman-child with fairy attendants," and more "Mama Bear, green in soul but red in tooth and claw?" Food for thought.
Gained Hyrulean Theology F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Getting back to the matter at hand, it takes you a good ten minutes to make your way down the hill while probing all the nooks and crannies that present themselves along the way. Long before the end, you start to feel more than a little silly, as it's clear that your caution wasn't needed.
This is about the point where a brilliant green light flares amidst the trees beyond the gateway. From that light, you pick up a strong, complex magical signature - primarily Summoning, but with an almost equally-potent level of Elementalism.
It occurs to you that casting a protective spell or readying your ki for an emergency evasive maneuver might be a good idea here, but your mouth is moving before you have a chance to put either idea into motion.
"Hello?" you call out the no-longer-backlit-by-mystical-energy treeline. "Who's there?"
"Alex, what the hell are you doing?!" Briar hisses into your ear. It's particularly attention-grabbing because the fairy has seized your ear with both hands and is all but yelling down the canal, and you kind of lose track of your surroundings as you attempt - and fail - to recoil from the source of the noise.
"Will you let go of my ear?!" you hiss back, trying to keep the utterance low enough not to be overhead by the new arrival.
"Not until you explain why you're- oh, crap. Magical old lady at one o'clock low."
You look, and sure enough, an "old lady" with an aura of mystical power has emerged from amidst the trees. To be fair, she's "old" mainly in the sense that everybody whose age is in double-digits is old to all those who have yet to see their first full decade; her hair is iron grey, but it's long and full, and while she looks older than your mother, it's hard to say by exactly how much. Her face is lined rather than wrinkled, and she seems to be pretty fit, if the way she's moving up the hill towards the gate without slowing down or breathing hard is any indication. "Well-preserved" is the term you believe you're looking for. The stranger is dressed fairly simply, in a white blouse and ankle-length brown skirt that appear to be homespun, and a knitted sweater that is mostly dark green. You don't see anything in the way of jewelry except for a wedding band and a light golden chain about her neck. As far as magic goes, the woman's aura is dominated by the same essence of Elementalism that you picked up from her teleportation spell. She has respectable skill in most of the other schools aside from Illusion and Necromancy - which are very limited - but everything appears tied into the elemental spectrum somehow, with only the most fleeting traces of demonic power, none of which appear to originate within her. Her ki is even more pure, though it's unremarkable in all other respects, suggesting she has exactly zero training in its use. Spiritually, she's much stronger - you get the impression that she is not a lady to be trifled with.
Gained Spiritual Perception E (Plus) (Plus)
While you've been examining her, the woman has been studying you right back as she climbed the hill. Stopping about ten feet away from the gate, and a good thirty-five feet from where you're standing, she frowns.
"What in the name of the Goddess are you, boy?" Her tone is that of someone who doesn't simply expect to be answered, but who KNOWS that she will be, and promptly.
"Me?" you reply innocently. "Why, I'm just an interdimensional postman, ma'am. You know, neither apocalypse, nor demons, nor evil chickens will keep me from my appointed rounds."
You're not sure, but you believe that the look the woman gets on her face after hearing your reply is the textbook definition of, "flabbergasted."
Gained Trolling F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
On your shoulder, Briar facepalms. Before she can follow it up - say, by attacking your ear again - the not-visibly-old woman shakes her head.
"So you're here for the gate, then." Her remark is not a question.
"Yes, ma'am. Will that be a problem for you?"
"It might. I spent no small amount of time and effort sealing the gate in the first place-"
Briar starts to growl.
"-and I am not terribly keen on seeing it opened up again." She pauses and gives you an assessing look. "Particularly not by someone near my granddaughter's age who has that incorrigible meddler Ambrose's mark on him and seems to be trying to emulate the old goat's attitude, to boot."
You consider that for a moment. You're not terribly surprised that Ambrose has an international reputation for being a pain in the ass, and somehow, it just figures that the first being to so much as comment on the little spate of graffiti he left on your soul isn't a god or a demon or even a hellbound warlock, but a seemingly completely human whose power, as best you can tell, is derived wholly from this world.
Actually, that kind of makes sense. If she's Earth's equivalent of a Forest priestess or sage, as the vibrant green hue of her aura suggests, then "powers not of this world" would be pretty high on her personal list of Things To Kill With Fire.
Belatedly, you recall your manners, and decide to use them to try and recover from your less-than-spectacular first impression.
"Sorry if I offended, ma'am," you begin, ducking your head enough to be politely apologetic without giving the impression of submission. "I'm just a little wary around strangers, especially when they're magic-users - especially recently. The last three spellcasters I had significant contact with were Ambrose, who did this" - you gesture slightly above your head, where you sense the mark on your aura - "without my permission or even giving me any kind of warning, a young woman whose summoning went out of control and nearly killed me and a friend, and a nasty old man who out-and-out tried to kill me. Twice."
Gained Manners D (Plus)
The older woman's frown deepens as you continue, making a few of the lines on her face more pronounced.
"I see," she says. "Well, I certainly can't disapprove of a young boy being careful around strangers."
Gained Young King E
"Even so," she continues, "that still leaves the matter of your interest in this gate."
"I made a promise to a friend that I'd help get a message to someone important to her. This" - you nod at the standing stones - "is the only real way I know right now."
"And what is your friend's connection to this gate?"
Not quite sure how to go about answering the woman without violating Briar's privacy, you hesitate. For a moment, you're tempted to simply say that the whole matter is a private one, possibly adding a humorous reassurance that it does not in any way involve trying to summon monsters, which you could have done much more easily back in Sunnydale.
You promptly stomp on that Ambrose-esque impulse, concerned that backsliding in such manner might irritate the agent of Nature before you.
Fortunately, an idea occurs to you on how to handle this situation.
Clearing your throat, you slowly say, "I'm... not sure what my friend would be comfortable with me telling you, ma'am. But, um..."
Briar, bless her tiny one-emotion-at-a-time heart, gets the message. Into your ear, she quietly says, "Just tell her I have family on the other side, Alex. And for the love of Farore, DON'T let on that I'm an ACTUAL fairy."
The emphasis that Briar puts on the latter half of her statement makes you more wary than you were just a moment earlier. Heeding that urgency, you do as requested.
The old woman's frown doesn't lighten, but it doesn't get any worse. She mutters under her breath, and you catch the words, "Meddlesome fey and their changelings."
Gained Listening D (Plus)
Then, sighing, she addresses you directly. "So your friend got stuck on this side of the gate after I sealed it, and now she wants to go home, is that it?"
"At the moment, she just wants to let her mother know that she's okay," you say firmly. Mainly because you hadn't ever considered that Briar would "go home," at least not with the sense of finality you're getting from this lady's tone. Going to visit, sure. Bringing you along, even. But leaving you behind entirely? Briar has basically adopted you as her charge, and fairy guides never abandon the children they're responsible for. Okay, those children are almost always Kokiri, who never grow up, but one of the Links had a fairy guide, and she stuck with him even when he was a teenager at least twice as old as you are now. That's like, forever. And anyway, you're both planning to go through with the familiar ritual in a couple more months. That's a definite lifetime committment thing.
The old-but-not woman remains silent for a long time, but finally nods. "Very well, then. If you're confident that you can send a message through the gate, without disturbing the seal-"
She gives you a sharp, meaningful look. You wordlessly nod, projecting as much confidence as you can.
"-then I won't try to stop you. Goddess knows being cut off from their own children is less than some of those cradle-robbers deserve, but I've always tried to be a better person than they are."
Shaking her head, she steps aside, leaving the way between you and the standing stones clear. She does not, however, make any indication that she's about to leave.
With a murmured, "Thank you, ma'am," you stride past the lady and get to work. You don't bother to take any special precautions, beyond those you normally adhere to for the sake of safety, neatness, and efficiency. Some spellcasters might say you aren't being properly paranoid about the rival magic-user standing not fifteen feet away, but you'd rather not run the risk of setting her off by acting suspicious and secretive. Besides, from what you've picked up in your previous encounters with Earth's magical traditions, the spells and methods you have in mind aren't going to reveal anything that a woman of her obvious training and experience shouldn't already know.
As your first order of business, you make several slow circuits of the gate, each time with one of your mystical senses cranked up as far as it'll safely go. Mage Sense, Ki Sense, Spiritual Sense, and Corruption Sense, followed by Mage Sight and Ki Sight; you even spend some time simply studying the portal with your eyes, ears, and nose. You don't get much on the life-force or spiritual levels, apart from the presence of the unusually large and robust creeping ivy and a couple of similarly-hearty insects skittering along the stones, and there is no demonic contamination at all. Magically, you get a faint sense of Abjuration, suppressing an even fainter signature of mixed Elementalism, Enchantment, Illusion, and Summoning. The latter is definitely the gate, and it certainly feels like the kind of magical atmosphere you'd expect to find in Briar's homeland.
As for the mundane part, well, it's two irregularly-shaped pillars of stone that don't appear to have ever been touched by human hands, wreathed in ivy. The one on your left is almost straight, while the one on your right is distinctly leaning towards its neighbor - say, at an angle of about eighty degrees relative to the ground inside the arch. What you can see of the rock is dark grey and glitters a bit in places; quartz, maybe? Also, you don't hear much except for the click-click-click of some kind of unfamiliar insect. Smell is limited to the appropriately earthy aroma of the forest, given a certain crispness by the altitude and the cool, early morning breeze.
Gained Ki Sense D (Plus)
Gained Scenting E (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Power E
Gained Spiritual Sense E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Sight E (Plus) (Plus)
With the preliminary assessment done, you cast an actual spell of Divination. Aiming to be thorough, you use the ritual method and run with it, taking close to half an hour to complete the spellwork. What you learn from this is mainly just reinforcement of everything you've learned about the portal before now, but you do get a wealth of specific, technical information about the energies that make up the gate and how they are being suppressed by the old woman's magic - and it's definitely her magic, although you do pick up hints of two additional, weaker casters. Same style, as far as you can tell, just with one favoring Earth Elementalism more than the balance of forces the lady off to your right has, while the other was more inclined to Wind Elementalism.
You frown. In addition to the gate and the seal upon it, your Divination spell has picked up traces of a third spell. You can't tell what it's meant to do, for it's heavily-shielded against detection.
Focusing your magic, you take a closer look at the shielded spell. A non-invasive examination doesn't tell you anything new, except that whoever masked the presence of this magic is better at Abjuration than you are at Divination. You're tempted to get a little invasive and start poking the thing, but you refrain for the moment. After all, you've a likely candidate for the casting of this thing right here.
"Excuse me, ma'am," you say, turning your head to look at her, "but what's this shielded spell supposed to do?"
She looks startled. "What 'shielded spell'?"
You blink. "I'm picking up three distinct magical signatures from the portal," you say slowly. "One is the magic of the gate itself, and the second is the seal that you and two other spellcasters put on the gate. The third is warded against divination, and-"
Man, she moves fast for a grandmother!
While she doesn't storm right up to you, and in fact keeps you just outside of arm's length, the woman moves closely enough, quickly enough, to give you a start. She's murmuring under her breath as she comes on, and you see the divination range of her aura brighten as she casts a spell that makes her eyes shine.
"Eeep!" Briar ducks behind your back.
The woman doesn't appear to have noticed; her attention is fixed on the gate. After a long, tense moment, she glances at you. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary, young man. You're sure you saw something?"
Her question doesn't strike you as derisive or dismissive, merely direct - she's seeking confirmation, rather than expressing doubt.
"Yes, ma'am, I am. I can set up an illusion to show you what it looked like, if you want?"
"...I think you'd better do that, young man."
You do. The spell you cast is one of the most simplistic forms of Illusion, just a projection of light with no accompanying sound or scent, and no real heat or mass - at least, none that a human could notice without a lot of special equipment. You wrap this spell around the shielded magic, being careful not to disturb the concealed spell even as you reveal its presence to your erstwhile companion.
Gained Illusion E (Plus)
She studies it for a long moment. "I have no idea what that is," she finally admits. "All I know is that I didn't put it there, and I'm reasonably certain that neither of the girls is responsbile for it, either."
You take note of that phrase: "the girls." It implies that the two other presences you sensed in the seal belonged to women. Three women, working on a single spell, all of them skilled in Elementalism... are you dealing with a local coven?
Images of Koume and Koutake cackle in your mind's eye. Hopefully it's not that bad.
"Is the fact that you couldn't see whatever it is on your own a bad sign, ma'am?" you ask.
"That's... one possibility." She scowls, and mutters, "On the other hand, it could just be Mother's lectures about the importance of divination coming back to haunt me after I ignored them for so long." Long, steely-grey hair momentarily billows about as she shakes her head. "Regardless, I think this is something that needs to be investigated before anyone goes mucking about with the gate. Would you agree?"
Interesting. It's clear that she expects you to agree with her, but she's actually asking for your input, not simply telling you that you're going to have to put your plans on hold while she gets down to the magical detective work.
"Actually, ma'am, I do agree," you say plainly. "And on that note, would you object, terribly, to the idea of us pooling our resources to deal with this?"
Her answering look is a wordless objection all on its own, but she does you the courtesy of not expressing it out loud, instead saying, "How do you mean?"
You take a breath. "What I mean, ma'am, is that we already know that whatever this spell is, I can detect it where you can't. From one perspective, that would make me the natural choice to try and analyze it, maybe unravel it - except that I don't have much prior experience trying to suppress or break magic that isn't my own, whereas you've managed to lock down an inter-planar portal. With help, maybe, but you did it. So. I've got the skill to see the problem, you've got the skill to fix it. Doesn't it make sense for us to work together to find out where that" - you gesture at the illusion of the shielded spell - "came from?"
"Aren't you the boy who just half an hour ago said he was wary of magic-using strangers?" she points out, not quite smiling.
You grimace. "Okay, point - but I was standing with my back to you and my attention very much elsewhere for most of that time, and you didn't try to do anything to me. That's worth some trust, at least. Meanwhile, somebody else I don't know has left a spell whose purpose I haven't figured out attached to the gate, hidden from casual and even reasonably alert notice. THAT is something I really don't trust, especially since it's getting in the way of me keeping a promise."
The woman is silent, thinking. Then she sighs and rubs her eyes. "Been watching too much damn Sesame Street with the kids," she mutters, before lowering her hand and raising her voice. "Alright, lad. I'm willing to give it a try if you are."
Gained King of Women D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Young King E (Plus)
"But if we're going to be working together, then there are a few things we should both know. For starters, you can call me Mrs. Lawson. What should I call you?"
"Pleased to meet you, Alexander," Mrs. Lawson says perfunctorily. "Now, the second thing we need to know - well, you saw my arrival here?"
"Yes ma'am. At least, I'm assuming that flash of green light was you."
"It was. So you know that I have a way out of here if I really need it. What I want to know is, if something happens, can you get yourself out of here safely, Alexander?"
"I can, ma'am" you reply. Really, a word is all it'll take to bend the walls of Space and Time about your person and send you flying through that Other Place. Though recalling what happened when you came out here, you doubt you'd head back to Sunnydale directly - a brief stopover in L.A. sounds like a good idea, so that you can get that protection spell Briar recommended up and then take your time setting up the teleport that will take you back to the unfriendly, not-entirely-stable region of the Hellmouth.
Unaware of your strategic considerations, Mrs. Lawson nods. "Good. With that in mind, Alexander, I'm going to be taking the lead on studying... this. I want you to stand as far back as you can while still keeping a clear view of the spell, so that you can update that illusion according to how the real thing looks. If something bad happens, if it even looks like the portal is about to blow up or open or we're about to have uninvited guests, I want you to leave, immediately."
She's not asking this time. That is a full-blown adult, parent, and grandparent telling you how it's going to be.
"I have no arguments with the basics of that plan, Mrs. Lawson," you reply slowly.
"But?" she asks.
"There are some improvements that I might suggest."
"Go on."
You do. Your suggestion of adding a Circle of Protection, such as you would have set up to contain potential traffic from the portal, gets her agreement almost as soon as you voice it. You do take a minute to discuss whether barring conceptual Evil or Chaos would be more appropriate, but in the end you decide to go with both, just to be thorough. It seems to reassure her a bit. Similarly, when you offer to cast a spell to Detect Scrying, Mrs. Lawson takes but a moment to ask if you actually can do such a thing - sounding somewhat startled - and upon receiving confirmation, is entirely in favor of it.
Your last idea of sending a message to her unnamed associates turns out not to be necessary. "I appreciate the offer, Alexander, but I'm capable of that much, at least." And she steps aside for a few minutes, working a spell of Wind and Thunder, wound 'round a core of low-level Divination.
Do you listen in on this message?
Just as Mrs. Lawson took a few steps off to the side and half-turned her back to you while she cast her message spell, you politely turn away - after getting a brief glimpse of her spellwork, at least - and proverbially shut your ears, concentrating on your own magical endeavors to give her at least some privacy while she talks to whoever is on the receiving end of the spell. It's not that you're not curious about what the woman is saying, or to whom - because you are; you really, really are - it's just that you managed to get off to a rocky start with her, and you'd rather not reinforce your less-than-stellar first impression by doing something as rude as eavesdropping on someone else's personal phonecall.
Besides, if you don't go prying into Mrs. Lawson's affairs, she should be that much more inclined to return the courtesy. You have plenty of things you'd prefer to keep private for the time being, not the least of which is the presence of the fairy who is still using you as a living blind against the woman.
By the time you're done casting your chosen spells over and around the gate, Mrs. Lawson has finished up with her mystical correspondence. She takes a minute to look over your work and shakes her head, clearly impressed despite herself.
"Shall we, then?" she asks.
"Ready when you are, ma'am." And you quickly back away to a safe-ish distance which still allows you to use your divination spell. You have to wonder what Mrs. Lawson is going to do to investigate that spell. She's admitted that her knowledge of divination is inferior to yours, and having a second pair of eyes to spot for her isn't really the best way to go about compensating for that. It suggests that she has some plan other than merely observing this unknown magic in mind.
As you watch, Mrs. Lawson casts a simple Summoning spell, calling forth something small, furry, chittering... ah, it's a couple of rats. Brown ones, and not particularly big as rodents go; you recall some rats in Hyrule that were as big as small dogs. Quickly casting a second minor spell that you immediately recognize, although with much more precision than you managed while talking to Moblin earlier, Mrs. Lawson speaks to the rats, asking one of them to run through the portal.
Gained Enchantment E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
The critter in question squeaks in what sounds like affirmation and then does as requested, skittering through the archway without touching the stone or the faintly-glowing illusion that marks the suspect magic.
Nothing happens. With the gate locked down, it was almost a given, but...
"Anything, Alexander?"
"No, ma'am. No reaction."
"Alright. Watch the next bit very closely." She takes a breath and asks the second rat to run through the portal as well, this time deliberately touching the illusion.
The rodent pauses, giving the woman the oddest sidelong look of what you'd swear was suspicion, but then it, too, does as asked.
With your attention and your own magic focused, you're able to see it quite clearly when absolutely nothing happens. Either the hidden spell isn't programmed to react to animals - which would make some sense, given its location in a forest - or it isn't meant to react to summoned creatures. You report as much to Mrs. Lawson, who agrees with your assessment, thanks the rats, and dismisses them. Her next spell is also a summons, but it's stronger, and has a sizeable dose of Earth Elementalism added in. Given that, you're not overly surprised when the ground near Mrs. Lawson's feet shudders and begins to rise, shedding grass and twigs as more and more dirt and stone piles up on top of each other until there is a four-foot-tall lump standing next to her. The "lump" promptly grows primitive arms and splits at the base to form similary crude legs; then part of its upper body opens up, revealing two glowing green gem-like eyes, which regard the woman intently as the elemental rumbles and creaks.
Gained Earth Elementalism E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus) (E (Plus) (Plus))
Mrs. Lawson's response is, interestingly enough, nonverbal. She points at the portal and makes several slow gestures with her hands.
Gained Sign Language F (Plus) (Plus)
The elemental nods, turns in place, and strides towards the gate, avoiding your illusion just as the first rat did - although where the rodent was able to simply run under the line of light that runs from the inner face of one pillar to the other, the spirit of earth and stone has to step over it with careful, exaggerated motions. Once again, there is no response from the magic. You're beginning to wonder if you were overly paranoid about its presence.
Then the elemental turns around and stomps back through the gateway, deliberately swinging its clubfeet through your illusion and the spell beneath - and where you previously saw the colors and patterns of a cloaking Abjuration, you see a sudden flare of something more active, a different "flavor" of Abjuration that reaches out through the shield, twists itself about a shade of space-time energy, and fires it off into the distance.
The elemental has quite literally tripped an alarm. And it's just transmitted itself... well, somewhere on Earth.
"Well, Alexander?" Mrs. Lawson asks.
Before you can answer her, your Detect Scrying spell twitches.
Something is looking in your direction. Something that feels... uncomfortably large. And unfriendly.
You put Mrs. Lawson's question and the notion of casting additional spells out of your mind for the moment, and concentrate your efforts on the magic that you already have active. You've never used Detect Scrying before, but from your studies, you're aware that it isn't precisely an automatic defense - it needs at least some input from you to yield the best possible results.
So you focus on the spell, trying to backtrack the threads of the divination magic you can sense bearing down on you. You're immediately aware of the otherwise imperceptible sensor hanging in the air above and just to the left of the gateway - that's the automatic function of your spell at work, telling you where your unidentified observer's attention is centered, if not which direction it's currently looking in. Half-glaring, half-squinting at the invisible, inaudible, intangible manifestation of unfriendly magic, you mentally direct the power of your anti-scrying ward onto the sensor, and then outward.
Something, somewhere, flinches, and there is a moment of tension that - from your perspective - seems to stretch out into hours, even days. Whoever is on the other side of this scrying spell is magically powerful, possibly more than you are, but you also get the sense that he - and it's definitely a male presence - has also been taken aback by your sudden counter-divination, leaving his defenses momentarily weaker than they'd normally be. For one brief instant, you see the image of an exceedingly good-looking man - one of those handsome-to-the-point-of-prettiness types - wearing most of a high-priced suit, save for the mising jacket and an unbound necktie. His hair and eyes are dark, the former black, the latter icy blue and rather startled, and his skin is very pale. You can't really see the room around him, but you get a clear sense that it's farther north than you currently are, far enough to be out of California entirely and on the far side of Oregon. You're not the hottest geography student, but you have a strong feeling that he's in the city of Portland, and-
-the spell you were tracking abruptly cuts out, leaving you momentarily disoriented and mystically adrift. You quickly recover yourself and pull back, blinking slightly as your consciousness once more settles itself behind your eyes. Your Detect Scrying spell is still active, and handily informs you that the divination spell you intercepted has cut out; even so, you take a moment to cast an overpowered spell of Nondetection, just in case another probe comes your way.
"I take it we had an audience?" Mrs. Lawson guesses, when you finally turn to her.
"Yeah. One very pretty guy wearing most of a business suit. I think he must have been getting ready for the day when your friend there walked into his alarm spell."
"Can you describe him?"
You can, and do, but Mrs. Lawson merely frowns and admits it doesn't sound like anyone she's met, certainly not anyone who has a connection to this portal. He's certainly nobody you're familiar with, but from the tiny voice you can hear muttering, Crap," Briar might know something.
This is getting entirely too complicated. Seriously, all you wanted to do this morning was the mystical equivalent of mailing a letter - to the Amazon Rainforest, maybe, but still, it's not that complex or cosmically-significant a task. So why are you tripping over high-end spellcasters? First Mrs. Lawson and, by extension, her two absent companions, now this guy in the suit; what's next, a guardian beast on the other end of the portal? An evil interdimensional postmaster general, come to tell you that your postage was insufficient and to take the difference out of your soul? Goddesses, what if Ambrose decides to turn up? You'd almost rather deal with the next incarnation of Link...
...okay, maybe not.
Regardless, you want to get this message sent and then be on your way, preferably before the pretty-boy comes looking for you. He wouldn't have seen you when your detection field hijacked his scrying spell - as a sensible safely precaution, the images produced by that magic are strictly one-way as long as you remain in control of it, which you did - but he might have had time to see you in the moment between his spell taking effect and your spell taking it over. It depends on where he was looking. Considering the distance you're standing from the portal and the fact that it was Mrs. Lawson's elemental - who she's since dismissed - that tripped the hidden alarm, you figure the odds are quite good that you weren't observed. You'd like to keep it that way, which means getting out of here before the pretty-boy shows up.
You sigh as the idea of casting a teleport-interception spell occurs to you. It would be a very handy thing to have in this situation, but unfortunately, it's not something you've had the resources to learn. Meddling with space and time is Nayru's domain, not Din's; Ganondorf made do by brute-forcing his teleportation methods and portals, but he never got the hang of the subtler and more complex techniques favored by the Goddess of Wisdom and her followers. Similarly, such magic is too advanced for Briar - if it wasn't, she might actually have been able to get home under her own power.
Oh, well. Something to work on in the future, perhaps. For now, best to focus on the matter at hand.
With that in mind, you turn your attention back to the no-longer concealed spell on the gate. It had to disrupt its own shielding to send out that alarm, and while it's repairing itself, that protection isn't back to full strength yet. As such, you're able to get a good look at the inner workings of the magic. There's a a complexity to it you don't think you can duplicate at this time, but overall, it's really nothing more than the grown-up cousin of the common Alarm spell. You can deal with that easily enough.
"Did you want to get rid of that tripwire spell, Mrs. Lawson, or would you like me to do it?"
She looks at you for a moment, then glances at the spell. From the glow in her eyes, the older woman has called up her own mage sight, and by the scowl, she's finally able to see the actual "Augmented Alarm" spell, as opposed to your illusory depiction of it. Without a word to you, she raises her hand, utters a simple, "Begone!" and casts what looks like a bigger, badder version of Dispel Magic at the Alarm.
The two magics clash for a moment, but you're not terribly surprised when Mrs. Lawson's spell wins, dissolving its target into so much raw mana. Your own Illusion gets caught up in the effect and gives out in similar fashion, but that's fine by you; it's one less obvious sample of your magic to be traced after you've left the area. Besides, watching a couple of advanced spells in operation is as enlightening as ever.
Gained Abjuration D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"More for spite than actual effect, I suppose," Mrs. Lawson says, half to herself. "Still, I- Alexander, what are you doing?"
You don't answer her, already being deep into the casting of a modified Spell of Sending. You'll have to forego the remainder of the slow, cautious approach you were using earlier, but it's not so bad now; all the scanning and probing you did before this has given you quite a good sense of the portal's energies and, more importantly, the unique signature of the realm that lies on the other side. With those, you can aim this spell in the general direction you want it to go. Only two things remain.
"Briar," you mutter, hopefully too quietly for Mrs. Lawson to hear, "what's your mother's name?"
"This really isn't the best time, Alex-"
"Briar."
"-think we should go, before-"
"Briar."
She sighs, mumbles something about pig-headedness, and then says, "Navi."
You blink. Twice. You know that name, but surely... "That Navi?"
"Yes, that Navi."
You take a moment to consider the implications - and boy, there are a lot of them - then sigh, complete the shaping of the spell, and mentally tag one end of it to Briar. "We'll talk about this later," you tell her. "For now... just say 'hi' to your mother. Using twenty-five words or less, if you can."
Briar lets out a breath, and for a moment, says nothing. You feel bad about putting her on the spot like this - but then she starts talking all at once. "Hi, Mom! I'm okay, I even found a kid who can use Hyrulean sorcery. Drop us a line sometime, but watch out for demons! Bye!"
Its pre-programmed quota of words reached, the spell self-activates and flies towards the dimensional weak-spot that exists between the stone and ivy arms of the gateway. Though the sending itself is invisible, you see a brief flare of green, gold, and white light when its energy crosses the threshold of the portal, leaving your plane of existence for the fey realm on the far side.
Mrs. Lawson looks from you to the portal and then back again. "Of all the- was that really necessary, Alexander?"
"Yes, ma'am," you reply firmly. "It really was."
Priority, Mission: Interdimensional Postman, complete!
Gained-
The words are barely out of your mouth when your still-active spell to Detect Scrying blares, warning you that half a dozen different magical signatures are locking in on the location of the gate. One of them is the semi-familiar aura of the pretty-boy, while the other five feel similar to his in some respects, but weaker. You get a mental image of that man, now wearing a full suit, accompanied by four similarly-dressed but decidedly un-pretty men who also wear sunglasses and have a certain bulkiness about the shoulders. The last is a pale blonde woman of indeterminate age who you would normally call exceptionally pretty, but who appears rather less so in the company of that entirely too handsome man. She's the only one not dressed in business formal, instead wearing a long, light dress of blue, silver, and black.
The vision comes and goes in an instant, as do the scrying spells, with no hint of resistance from the other side. They don't seem to care if you saw them - and from the immediately following build-up of magical energy around the gate, you can guess why.
You have incoming.
This one's a no-brainer. You've done what you came here to do, and as such, have little if any further interest in the gate: as a Great Fairy, Briar's mother is powerful enough that she can most likely make the trip across realities under her own power; and if such a feat happens to fall beyond the bounds of her personal skillset, she's also influential enough to call in a favor with someone who is capable of working such magic on her behalf. Plus, now that you've actually cast the Spell of Sending in a real-life setting, you know everything you need to cast it from pretty much anywhere else on Earth, should Briar desire to speak to her mother again in the future (and she almost certainly will). Though you might prefer to get away from the Hellmouth even then, just because.
So really, it benefits you nothing to hang around when a bunch of unfriendly-looking unknowns are incoming. Besides, you did promise Mrs. Lawson that you'd make like a tree if trouble showed up as a result of your mutual meddling with that alarm spell - and this outcome definitely qualifies.
"One pretty-boy, four thugs, and a woman in a dress incoming, Mrs. Lawson," you say quickly, as you gather the mana necessary for your exit. "And I am out of here."
"Thank you, Alexander," the woman says with clear relief. "Stay safe."
"You too, ma'am." And then, just as the six incoming figures blur into solidity amidst a flash of ice-blue energy and a suitable blast of arctic chill, you utter the word that pulls you and Briar out of the world-
-flying/falling/sinking through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance and a near-distant green energy/presence-
-and puts you back in it in the middle of a dusty flatland that has too little grass to be called a field, but not enough sand and exposed stone to merit the title of desert. Your inner Ganondorf is rather particular about that. It's a Gerudo thing. Regardless, going from a cool, humid, elevated forest to considerably hotter, drier, and lower-lying terrain is a bit of a shock to the system, but not so much that it hinders your ability to function. You've no sooner touched down than you're taking stock of your still-active spells. The Spell of Nondetection is running smoothly, without any hint that something is trying to breach it, and your Spell of Detect Scrying is likewise stable and undisturbed.
Gained Honest E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"Any sign we're being tracked?" Briar asks.
"Not yet," you reply.
"Good." She pauses, and from the way she shifts about, you get the sense that she's looking around. "Where are we, anyway?"
"I was aiming for a spot off the road not too far outside L.A.," you answer. "I didn't want to show up in the middle of traffic or too close to the highway itself, so I tried to think of a place I saw while we were driving home with Dad."
"Huh." Briar turns about slowly as she hovers in the air. "I don't recognize this place at all," she admits after a moment. "But there's the road" - she points off to your right -"and I think that's L.A. over there." She points to a low, distant haze of grey and brown that has equal odds of being modern architecture or mid-day smog.
"Which means Sunnydale is an hour or more that way, by car," you conclude, looking in the opposite direction from the relatively-remote cityscape. Most of what you see is unrelieved brown, broken by the long, unwavering line of the road, the odd building, and some scattered hills. Plus some mountains, way the heck off in the distance.
"So," Briar asks after a pause, in which nothing materializes from the dust or the arid atmosphere to attack you. "What now?"
While you are curious to hear what Briar has to say about her mother and the well-dressed, too-handsome fellow you just ducked out on meeting, your most immediate concern is Mrs. Lawson. She was a bit brusque and suspicious at first, but all in all, she's arguably the most helpful and friendly fellow magic-user you've yet met, and you'd really like to know if she's okay. This is clearly a job for Divination - it's just a shame that all the Divination spells you currently know that allow for long-distance viewing take several minutes to cast. Scrying is by far the worst in that regard, not to mention it requires items you don't currently have access to. By the time you get any of the alternatives set up, the encounter at the portal will almost certainly be over, one way or the other.
Well, so be it. If you can't find out how Mrs. Lawson is doing right now, you can at least find out if she's doing alright a few minutes from now. If she is, great, and if she's not... well, then you'll have decisions to make.
You take a moment to consider your options. You could call up Din and ask for some divine guidance, but you really don't care for the idea of leaving your body insensate in the middle of nowhere for the ten minutes of meditation and low-end astral projection you'd need to contact the Goddess of Power. Locate Creature doesn't have the range, normally, but your skill with Divination magic is high enough that you might be able to modify the base spell into something with the necessary reach - and if it worked, it would be much faster than the only other option that comes to mind, which is a Spell of Clairvoyance, similarly modified for greater range. The flip side is that Clairvoyance is a simpler spell than Locate Creature, and considerably more likely to work.
You decide that there's no need to rush. Mrs. Lawson's a grown woman, and one who's lived long enough to acquire some fairly powerful magic without making deals with demonic entities. That kind of achievement takes dedication and discipline, a big part of which is knowing your limits and when not to push them. If she decided to stay and confront the Pretty Boy and his companions, it's because she felt she could do it, or had to do it - and if worse comes to worst, you know that the old girl is teleport-capable, and can be out of there with little more than a word.
So, with Briar keeping an eye on the area for you, you settle down on a fairly flat piece of rock and begin weaving mana in a ritualistic fashion. You're a bit surprised by how easily it all comes together; normally, a Spell of Clairvoyance ought to take a good ten minutes of concerted effort to cast, but between your advanced Divination skill and the extra power you pour into the casting, you're able to get it working in maybe half a minute.
Gained Divination C
Behind your closed eyelids, you go from seeing the usual darkness to a detailed image of the mountain forest you just left. You were thinking of the gate when you cast the spell, and the sensor that marks the other end of your magic has materialized above the portal, much as the Pretty Boy's own magic did earlier. Another surprise reveals itself when you find that you can not only see, but hear the surrounding area, just as well as if you were still standing there; normally, a Spell of Clairvoyance is either video-only or audio-only. Looks like your powered-up version has more benefits than you were expecting! Despite this, a quick test with Mage Sight and Ki Sight confirms that the spell still does not mingle with additional sensory enhancements, so you're forced to keep your eyes open and your ears peeled as you study the distant scene.
Gained Listening D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Looking C (Plus)
The scene in question is one of remarkable violence, second in your experience only to the caldera of Kilauea. There are half a dozen shallow craters scattered around the gate, which is looking a bit blacker and crispier around the edges than it was just a minute ago. Two of the pits are a good twenty feet across, filled with smouldering ash, and are matched by burning bites taken out of the nearest parts of the canopy, as if there were - very briefly - columns of flame standing there. In contrast, most of the other craters are filled with shards of ice, steaming in the cool but still too-warm air of late spring; some of the trees again bear the marks of near-misses, in the form of unseasonal frost and slowly-melting shrapnel.
Not too far from the gate stands the Pretty Boy, although you may have to find a new name for him, as he appears to have been caught up in at least one of those pillars of fire. His suit jacket is a loss, but for one ash-dusted, black-spotted sleeve and a bit of char over the chest and back, and his shirt is little better; that's not even getting into the mess of burns on his face and exposed torso. His left arm is a twisted, blackened thing from the gnarled tips of his fingers almost up to the shoulder joint, and one of his eyes is either swollen shut or... well, gone. Cordelia would go into shock if she saw the state of his hair.
"-ing HATE witches!" Not-So-Pretty Boy is snarling at his companion, the woman in the dress. She's by no means unruffled, but aside from a certain redness of the skin, the worst damage she appears to have suffered is to her garment, which is no longer blue and silver, just unrelieved black where it hasn't burnt away. She's working a spell of some kind over the man's ruined arm - almost certainly healing, though you can't be sure. "Meddling cunts, the lot of them! FUCK!" The man punctuates that by slapping his companion across the face with his good hand. "That fucking HURTS!"
"I can leave it alone, if my lord would prefer," she responds coolly, not looking harmed or upset by the strike.
"What I would prefer is that you'd killed that interfering old bitch before she had time to burn my arm and half my fucking face off! But no, you couldn't even manage that much, could you, you useless twat!" And he hits her again, to about as much effect as before.
Before either of them can speak, one of the quartet of thug-types they arrived with stumbles into view from the treeline. He's only moderately burned, but is otherwise nearly as messed-up as the apparent leader, bearing numerous bloody slashes and puncture wounds that appear to be the marks of claws and fangs. He's also peppered with tiny pieces of wood. Where a typical goon would be carrying a gun, this one is instead packing a medium-large sword, which does not reflect the morning light as steel does. It's darker, somehow, where it isn't stained with blood - blood that is boiling away in wisps and motes of eldritch potency. The same metal also glints from places beneath his ravaged suit.
"Oh, lovely, the valiant hunters return," Burn Boy proclaims. A moment passes in which the other thugs fail to appear, giving the lie to his count, and he frowns. "Carl, dare I ask where are the others are?"
"Gone, sir."
"Naturally," Burn Boy replies, ignoring the woman as she resumes treating his injuries. "What the hell happened?"
"That would be bears, sir." The thug glances over his shoulder, shudders, and continues. "Big. Fucking. Bears."
"And big fucking lions and tigers, too, no doubt." Burn Boy sighs. "Please tell me that you at least managed to maim the bitch before she escaped."
"Curt got a piece of her, sir, before the bears..." Carl the Thug shivers again. "Didn't look like it'd be fatal, though, even without a healer."
"Perfect. What an abso-fucking-lutely perfect start to the day!" Burn Boy exclaims with false cheer. "And to cap it off, the fucking portal is still sealed! Mother's going to be just thrilled about that!" After taking a long moment to pose thoughtfully - gingerly pinching the bridge of his blistered nose in the process, as if nursing a headache - Burn Boy smacks away the woman, almost gently compared to his earlier treatment. "Right. Make sure Carl isn't going to die on us, then go with him to recover the bodies."
"Yes, my lord." The woman moves to obey at once, and Carl - after a moment under blue-tinted mage-light that visibly closes the worst of his wounds, and stanches the rest - leads her off into the forest, leaving Burn Boy by himself.
"And see if Curt's sword still has some of the witch's blood on it!" he snaps after the pair. In a low mutter, he adds to himself, "That'll at least be something salvageable out of this disaster..."
A plan occurs to you. More correctly, two plans do, but they both have equal appeal - and since they don't explicitly exclude one another and won't cost you all that much mana, you decide to go ahead and do both.
First up, summoning a creature that can get rid of that sword. Given the situation, you feel that the best option is a beast of the Elemental Earth, either one able to digest metal or move deep underground in a short span of time, if not both. Such creatures generally have the sheer physical resilience necessary to survive the sort of objections you expect Burn Boy and his remaining allies to raise, at least long enough to snatch the weapon and dispose of it, and aren't as likely to destroy the forest as, say, a Fire Elemental. So you cast, envisioning... well, there was a sort of creature Briar mentioned, something with a reputation for eating swords, name starts with an X...
*POP*
You glance at the results of your summoning.
...
...it's not what you were expecting. Instead of the trilaterally-symmetrical critter you were going for, you've gotten a vaguely tube-shaped beast a bit taller than you are and just as broad, which looks part plant, part worm, and part... jelly.
"Alex?" Briar asks carefully. "Why did you summon a Like-Like?"
"...good question." You stare at it, then shrug and decide it'll have to do; in your still-active Spell of Clairvoyance, Burn Boy is studying the gate, cursing, and pulling out a cellphone that might even have survived the heat its owner was exposed to. There's no time to try again. Working quickly, you establish a telepathic link between your mind and what passes for the Like-Like's. It's not as mindless as it might appear, but it's no mental titan by any stretch of the imagination.
After a moment, the creature starts making a distinctly un-threatening bubbling sound and wobbles forward to... ick... ooze against you. Repeatedly. It's rather disgusting, even if the Like-Like isn't as slimy as it looks like it should be; you're reminded of nothing so much as a happy, very messy cat, greeting one of the humans it owns. This has one upside, in that you're able to cast a modified Spell of Teleportation to send the Like-Like to the clearing around the portal without any further delay.
In your mind's eye, Burn Boy breaks off a conversation on his miraculously - or perhaps magically - functional phone to stare at the squishy thing. "What. The. Fuck?"
Someone on the phone calls out sharply, with a distinct note of female disapproval.
"A five-foot-tall ambulatory Jello mold has just materialized in front of me, Mother," Burn Boy replies absently. "I think I'm entitled."
That's about the point where the woman in the dress and Carl the Thug return. The woman is holding a sword that she didn't have before, and there is blood on the blade, red blood that isn't dematerializing. Maybe the other stuff belonged to the Big Fucking Bears? If they were summoned, it would make sense that no part of them stayed around long after they "died." Regardless, as soon as you see the weapon, you send a mental command to the Like-Like. You receive a brief sense of glee as the top of the creature's body... okay, that is just... wow, could it be any more disgusting?
To sum up, the Like-Like opens its maw, shoots out a gigantic tongue, seizes the woman - who actually looks SURPRISED - and then swallows her, sword and all. She struggles, of course, but Like-Likes have engulfed Link himself on occasion, and only let him go when they were good and ready. Unless the sorceress can get a spell off under those conditions or is about ten times stronger than anyone her size has any right to be, she's not getting out of there.
Carl and Burn Boy stare in shock for a moment, but when the Like-Like heeds your command to run - which is more of a squishy shamble - they quickly move to intercept it.
Again guided by your will, the monster spits up the woman, launching her in the direction of the nearest threat, which happens to be Carl. Caught off guard by the action, the big man barely manages to get his own weapon out of the way in time before the woman collides with him, sending them both down in a heap. The Like-Like moves faster without its passenger, though it's still not particularly swift.
Burn Boy curses. "It's got the sword! Quit screwing around and stop it!" He raises his good hand as if to cast a spell, but breaks off, swearing profusely, as his Mother snaps at him over the phone. "Not now, Mother!" And he snaps the device shut and pockets it, going back to spellcasting as fast as he can. The sorceress is back on her feet and also casting a moment later, and then there is ice everywhere.
The Like-Like wails as it's slashed, frozen, and impaled, but it doesn't die - not until Carl gets there and cleaves it through lengthwise with his own blade, in a display that wouldn't shame the Hero of Hyrule. The blow has the added benefit, from the bad guys' perspective, of striking the sword the Like-Like stole and forcing it out of the creature's gelatinous body, which is already starting to break down as it "dies" and goes back to wherever it came from.
"The sword!" Burn Boy says, running up. "Check it! Is the blood- oh, by the Queen's fucking frozen tits! FUCK!"
You can't see it for yourself, but from his reaction - and subsequent unleashing of what looks like a pure force spell that sunders the blade into so much shrapnel - the Like-Like's digestive fluids destroyed the blood.
Good enough. You cancel your Spell of Clairvoyance, call Briar down to her usual spot, and then start running.
"What did you do, Alex?" she shouts over the windstream of your Body Flicker-enhanced escape.
"Not so loud," you chide, before quietly explaining the whole situation. After that, several more Body Flickers, and about fifteen minutes' worth of sneaking around in between them, you decide that nobody's coming after you, and whistle up a Spell of Sending for Mrs. Lawson.
"Ma'am," you say, respectfully. "Don't worry about the blood you left behind. I had a summon destroy it before they could use it. Take care."
Gained Thunder Elementalism E (Plus)
Gained Wind Elementalism E (Plus)
You wait a moment to see if Mrs. Lawson will use the built-in "respond to owner" feature of the spell. As it happens, she does, although the response in question is... well:
"What were you thinking, Alexander?! You insanely reckless boy, if those creatures had seen you, they would have killed you if you were lucky! Why-"
The spell cuts out there, and you breathe a sigh of relief for the built-in word limit. You'd kind of prefer not be chewed out by a worried magical grandmother today. Or ever, if you can help it.
So, what now?