Chapter VIII: The Deeds of the Departed

Cedric's tower was close to a disaster. Books lay open and discarded all along the floor, the desk, the chair, the cauldron was surrounded by half-empty vials of ingredients and potions, and scraps of parchment filled with hastily scrawled notes occupied any space between. Wormwood's perch was shoved closer to the window, and the only clear path on the lower floor was from the entrance, to the desk, to Cedric's room. The sorcerer himself was sleeping on his stuffed chair, two books open in his lap, favorite wand loose in his grasp, and jaw slack as he gently snored.

The two animals in the room simply watched the human.

"I do believe he might kill himself over this," Wormwood commented.

Rowena looked away, choosing instead to glance outside. It was a beautiful day, once more, as it had been since Rebecca left, fifteen days ago. It had been three days since Cedric inherited his family wand, which now was on top of a stack of books. And since then, he had thrown himself into his studies, muttering incomprehensibly, causing miniature explosions every now and then with his potions, and occasional storm clouds from his wand. Each spectacle only made him groan in frustration and deem each experiment a failure. The other two could only look on in confusion, as he refused to explain his actions.

"It is rare that he would exhaust himself so much over someone," the raven continued. "I think only the little princess was able to motivate him as such beforehand."

"Then it's good he's resting now," Rowena hissed. "He'd be no help to Becca if he falls ill from fatigue."

Wormwood glanced down at the serpent. "Perhaps you could keep the scathing comments to a minimum?" he suggested. "After all, it is your sorceress he's doing all this for."

The krait huffed. "It is his guilt more than anything that is motivating him. As grateful as I am that he's finally doing something to help her, I'm still not forgiving him for what he said and did to her. Not until he apologizes to her himself."

"Well, that's rather difficult to accomplish when he doesn't know where she is, now isn't it?"

Rowena held her tongue, and continued surveying the beautiful day. Although… it did not look like it would stay beautiful for long. Clouds were rolling in, dark with rain and rumbling with thunder. A rather tense silence filled the tower, broken only by Cedric's snores and the distant thunder.

"I guess so," she whispered as the sky finally darkened.

A clap of thunder startled Cedric awake, grasping his wand tightly and sending the books flying to the floor. He quickly turned to face the window, and his face brightened.

"Becca," he breathed, before swiftly heading towards the door.

"Don't bother, sorcerer," Rowena called out, causing him to falter in his steps. "It's not her storm."

Frowning, he looked at the krait. "How do you know?" he demanded.

She snorted. "I've been in that horrendous weather for so long, I'd recognize it anywhere. This looks foreboding, but it's hardly got the same intensity. Besides, it came from the ocean. There's no way Becca would go there with her curse. That would be far too dangerous for everyone."

Cedric sighed and leaned his head against the window pane.

"Where could she be?" he muttered. "I can't find her anywhere."

"Oh, is that what you've been doing?" Rowena asked.

"Yes, of course that's what I'm doing!" Cedric snapped. "I don't know how I'm supposed to help her if I don't know where she is!"

"Don't get hissy at me, human," Rowena warned. "If you wanted to help her so badly, why did you practically turn her away?"

The sorcerer's face twisted in bitter anger, and he aggressively placed his fist on the glass. "The biggest misunderstanding I have ever encountered," he growled. "The feeling of betrayal over something that wasn't even true…" He sighed again, and held his head in his hands. "And now I may have lost my oldest friend."

Rowena regarded the lanky human. "Perhaps not," she commented. "You should know as well as I what she's like. Yes, you've really hurt her. A lot. A whole lot."

"I get it!" he yelled.

The serpent smirked in satisfaction. "But eventually, she'll forgive you. And it probably wouldn't even take long. That's just who she is," she added with an exasperated sigh. "She even refused to believe the worst of the one who cursed her until it happened."

Cedric straightened up immediately. "She knew the one who cursed her?" he demanded to know.

Rowena tucked her head deeper into her coils. "Yes," she hesitantly began. "She actually looked up to him quite a bit. And then the rumors started, and she went to confront him, then she came back shaking, sobbing, and soaking."

"So it must have been tailored for her…" the sorcerer muttered. "Who was this man?"

Rowena rasped her scales. "I don't know him well. I don't even know if he was a student or not. All I know is that she liked the man, and I thought he tasted awful."

Cedric recoiled. "Tasted?"

"Smelled, then, whatever," Rowena dismissed, flicking her tongue out. "Point is, he wasn't right. He tasted like a graveyard, or death in general."

"Death…?" whispered the sorcerer. He sighed, leaning his head against the glass again. "This whole thing is becoming more and yet less clear by the day… Was he a sorcerer, or a wizard?" he suddenly asked.

The krait paused. "I believe so," she began, "he was at the college, after all. But, like I said, he could've been a student or a teacher, I just don't know. He didn't come up to the tower much after I told Becca how he tasted."

"Do you know his name?" Cedric pressed.

She thought for a bit. "Well, not his real name, anyway. Becca called him 'Dug,' mostly."

Cedric returned to his desk. "Well, that could be a start."

"A start for what?" Rowena called after him.

"If I can't find Becca, then maybe I can find him," he answered distractedly, rummaging about his cluttered desk. "There can't have been many 'Dugs' attending Castcraft College, right?"

"I wouldn't know…" came the dazed reply as the sorcerer yanked a blank scroll free from the depths of the chaos. He hurriedly scrawled away, before rolling it up and waving his wand over it. A dull yellow glow appeared, and the scroll blinked away. "Who are you trying to contact?"

"Her uncle, Abraham the Apt. And maybe he'd know where she is, as well." Suddenly, he blinked. "He is still a professor at Castcraft, yes?"

"He was when we left four months ago," Rowena answered.

A loud clatter arose as Cedric stumbled against the desk, scattering so many vials and books onto the floor.

"Four months?" he cried, gold eyes wide. "She's been cursed for four months?"

"Five, actually," the krait casually replied. "The first month was spent trying to break it herself, and trying to find you. Her uncle was getting suspicious and she didn't want to tell him."

"Well, whyever not?" he muttered furiously, guilt and regret morphing into aggression again. "He knows very well what happened when she was young, so he'd understand just fine."

"He trusted the death guy," was the simple response. "A lot of people did, and that's why the rumors, whatever they were, were really unsettling to Becca."

"'Whatever they were?'" Cedric echoed. "You don't even know?"

"Look," Rowena huffed, rubbing her scales again, "I spent a lot of time in Bram and Becca's tower. The school barely tolerated my existence. One little incident, and I wasn't allowed out much, even on Becca's shoulders."

"Incident?" Wormwood inquired, sounding more amused than curious.

"One hoity-toity smarty-pants thought he could one-up Rebecca, and then freaked out after I… gave him a little nip."

"A little nip?"

"Okay, fine!" exploded the serpent. "He scared the daylights out of me, and I instinctively bit him! He nearly died, the family complained to the school, and Rebecca fought really hard to keep me. I was confined to the tower, so I didn't hear a whole lot, the uncle didn't like me, and Becca didn't tell me anything that she thought would stress me out!"

Lightning flashed, casting deep shadows in the tower. Immediately afterward, a bright blue glow appeared in front of Cedric, and a new scroll blinked into existence. Before it could fall, the sorcerer snatched it out of the air, almost ripping it as he unraveled it open.

"'Cedric! How wonderful to hear from you again! I remember when you and little Becky…' yada-yada-yada, old man ranting… 'How are Goodwyn and Winnie? I keep meaning to…' blah-blah-blah, more blathering… Ah! Here! 'I do, indeed, know of the man she so… affectionately called 'Dug,'" Cedric's face contorted into a sneer, before continuing, "'although I knew him as Dougal Thanatos. A wonderful wizard, absolutely brilliant! …We were very fortunate to have him as a teacher.'"

His brow furrowed even deeper. "'He and Becky grew to be …quite close… during his time here at Castcraft. I believe, perhaps, that's why she left shortly after his disappearance. A most unfortunate passing, indeed…' Well, blast it!" Cedric snarled, throwing the scroll down onto his desk. "All this does is tell me that the one who likely placed the curse on Becca seems to be dead! And that, for some reason, he thinks that she is heartbroken over him."

"That is merely delusion," Rowena huffed. "Becca used to laugh those rumors off, at first, before more people started bringing them up. After a while, it was clearly distressing her, a lot."

"And are these the rumors that she found so unsettling?" Cedric inquired, leaning down to pick up a stack of books on the floor by his desk.

"I don't know, maybe," the krait answered. "But I was under the impression it was something else that made her go confront the guy, besides the possibility of him proposing."

"Oof!" came a groan from the sorcerer, as his head collided with his desk, and the books came tumbling down onto his foot.

"They grew that close?!" he cried incredulously, hopping in place. "How long had they known each other?"

"A little over a year, I think," Rowena mused. "But, no, she didn't grow as close to him as that. She told her uncle off more than a few times for hinting that Dug liked her in that way. Something about him being married already, I think."

"Already married, and yet such rumors about the two of them were circulating?"

"Partly why it was distressing her so much," the serpent pointed out.

Cedric remained silent for a time after that, aggravation once more growing within him. A good portion directed at whoever this man was, a bit at Uncle Bram, an unfair amount at Rebecca herself… and a great deal toward his own foolish self. If he had only just read the first blasted scroll, instead of assuming the worst of his best friend, then maybe he would have known more of what was going on in her life, maybe such rumors would not have caused her such distress.

Maybe she never would have gotten cursed.

Well, changing the past via temporal magic, sadly, is a forbidden study. So instead of lamenting the past, he ought to look towards the future.

Hopefully, he can give Rebecca a brighter one.