Author: thaumobabble | There are plenty of things to do. Bella orders a carpet to enchant so she can commute to and from Reformist Wizards efficiently and move house. She starts combing through the castle library to find background material on her Minor Technical Issue.
Sometimes she watches Sherlock cook.
Sometimes she watches Tony forge. (Nnnnf.) |
Author: allthebrightest | As promised, Tony does start working on enchanted armour for Bella.
This involves taking a lot of measurements.
And after that, it involves a lot of forging. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella is so cooperative. |
Author: allthebrightest | That is good! It is good that she's cooperative!
The armour that takes shape is very, very pretty. At Bella's request, it has witchable sleeves, which means loose cloth from elbow to wrist; after some consultation, Tony added a pair of short fingerless gloves. From shoulder to elbow, it's the same surprisingly comfortable metal scales as the rest of the armour, each one crafted with loving attention.
A long black cape hangs from the suit's shoulders. Tony is adamant about the cape. The cape, she says, is absolutely necessary.
She works her magic into each piece as she makes it, but it's hard to tell which parts are supposed to do what - even with extensive magical analysis - until the entire thing is finally assembled.
All together it seems made of grace and light, not leather and steel. Every scale, every rivet says dance with me. It weighs half as much as Sherlock's self-deploying plate mail, and it's twice as magical, glittering with protection and enhancement and sometimes just raw love.
And the cape?
The cape is for flying. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella thanks Tony extremely thoroughly, and then she transfers a bunch of her stuff from her old sleeves to her new sleeves, and then she gets no work at all done for about four days because flying flying flying flying.
She then enchants the carpet because it will still be handy for journeys with more than one party involved. |
Author: allthebrightest | As soon as Tony is done with Bella's, she starts working on one for herself. She usually doesn't wear her own armour, but come on, who doesn't want to fly? |
Author: thaumobabble | Nobody doesn't want to fly!
Bella saturates herself on flying to the point where she can stand to do it only a little every day, and she gets back to work. She visits the wizards twice a week to give the women witching lessons and get wizarding lessons (alongside small wizard children). She studies the Skyvault. She determines that no one has already tackled her minor technical issue and that she will need to do the groundwork herself. She flies to her house, and collects Cricket and her door with most of her rooms enchanted into it, and she sets up the garden to go dormant. She tells all her friends she's getting married. She installs her cat and her door in the palace.
And she gets to know her fiancée. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Her fiancée is continually delighted by everything she does! |
Author: thaumobabble | And that's adorable and Sherlock's adorable and Bella is quite falling in love with her, which is convenient, since they are engaged. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Yes, it's lovely how that works out, isn't it. |
Author: thaumobabble | It is!
Bella decides to notify her of this development eventually, one evening when they are all snuggled up and Cricket has absented himself (this feature being essential, as he would be sure to comment if present).
"I'm falling in love with you," Bella announces comfortably. "I will probably be properly there in less than a week." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "That is good to know," says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | "I thought it would be. That is why I told you." Snuggle snuggle. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Thank you."
Snuggle. |
Author: thaumobabble | "You're welcome."
Kisses. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Kisses! Excellent. |
Author: thaumobabble | Excellence is to be striven for at all times!
So are kisses!
Okay, maybe kisses only sometimes. But this time is one of those times! |
Author: calendarofcrime | This is an excellent time for kisses. |
Author: allthebrightest |
So, Tony has been having some trouble with her flying armour.
She doesn't want it to come with a cape - she doesn't know why, she just doesn't feel capey. And she cannot for the life of her figure out how to get it to work without a cape.
So she starts going for walks, watching birds and thinking about air and metal. She sticks to the deep woods, when she remembers; they're as safe as it gets, for a member of the royal family who knows to be polite and friendly and never promise anything and always ask a squirrel.
She doesn't always remember.
And one afternoon, she doesn't come back from her walk. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Hey," says Bella, wandering into the kitchen where Sherlock is fixing dinner, "I haven't seen Tony all day, where is she?" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Walking, ostensibly. I would expect her to be back by now, however." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yeah, she's usually back well before dinner." Bella chews her lip. "...The room with all the enchanted windows is in that door I brought, I could go try to check on her." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Do that, then." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella goes up to her multiply-opening door.
She comes back to the kitchen with no visible wounds, but a few streaks of blood on her face. "My window exploded. Something happened." |
Author: calendarofcrime |
Sherlock closes her eyes for a few seconds. |
Author: thaumobabble | "An explosion rather than search failure narrows it down, but not in a good way," mutters Bella, starting to pace. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "In what way, then?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "If the spell just failed that could mean I made the window wrong or addressed the window wrong or that Tony had secretly been made of soap bubbles all along, or something. If it explodes, that means there's copious amounts of hostile magic between my window and her." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I see," says Sherlock.
She looks at dinner. She looks at Bella.
She walks out of the kitchen door and across the palace clearing into the trees. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Off," Bella mutters to the stove, and she follows. "We should find her but we should prepare - your armor, my armor - we should tell your mother -" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "First I am going to find out where she is," says Sherlock, and she keeps walking. |
Author: thaumobabble | "There is a large amount of hostile magic in the way is where she is! If you walk into it right now it could - Sherlock, it could kill you, I don't know what it is but that's definitely on the list of things it could be -" Bella's hurrying after her as fast as her moccasins allow. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I did not say I would go to where she is," says Sherlock. "I said I would find it." |
Author: thaumobabble | "What makes you think you can do that without running into the great big wall of hostile magic? I know you're insanely good at finding things but nothing says the magic in question is closer to where she disappeared from than to here." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I am not doing what you assume I am doing," says Sherlock, closing her eyes and running her fingers along invisible filaments in the air, "and I do not have time to explain what I am doing until after I have done it. It would be extremely helpful if you would fetch our armour in case we have need of it when I am done." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella swallows.
She turns around and goes inside for their armor. And keeps an eye out for Her Majesty. |
Author: pythbox | Her Majesty is not in evidence. |
Author: thaumobabble | Fine. Bella fetches all the requested armor, puts hers on and pours her loafing-around-the-house sleeves into her armor-sleeves, and dons her hat before sweeping out into the clearing after Sherlock again. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock is still doing whatever mysterious thing she is doing.
It's hard to tell how she feels about it. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella stops a few steps away and puts her specs on for lack of anything helpful to offer. |
Author: calendarofcrime | She is surrounded by threads of royal magic, and there is some kind of communication going on between her and them. Nothing beyond that is clear. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella flicks between lenses but gets no further detail. She puts her specs away. She waits. |
Author: calendarofcrime |
Eventually, she drops her hands and reports.
"I traced her route from the castle to the edge of the forest. She encountered a small party of wizards at the fringe. They left together. No more detail is available, but one can assume she did not go willingly." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella swallows. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock puts on her armour.
"Are you coming?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "We should tell your mother, or at least leave a note, I didn't see her anywhere when I was fetching the armor. But yes, I'm coming." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I've told the forest," says Sherlock. "She'll know." |
Author: thaumobabble | "...Okay. Should I get the flying carpet?" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Yes, please," says Sherlock. "We will need it when we leave the forest." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella runs back into the castle - the armor, unlike her moccasins, can handle running - and comes out with the carpet. It won't fit in her sleeve; she props it on her shoulder. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock can't use the monarch's transport spell, but she can walk into the forest and have it spit her out of the desired edge a few minutes later. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella follows closely, preoccupied, thinking about what could have made her window explode. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "What sorts of things make magic windows explode?" she asks as they emerge from between the trees. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Looking at locations that are unfriendly to divination. Some places have that naturally - there are spells that will do it, almost certainly including wizard spells. It's also possible that I was caught looking and the explosion was someone deliberately reacting to it." Bella rubs at her cheek; bits of dried blood flake off. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "No one likes to waste," Sherlock remarks. "If they had a location with that property available, they may well have put her there to avoid the expenditure of having to bespell it themselves." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Quite possibly. I don't know this area, though, and even though I could heal myself I'm not fond of the idea of having my specs explode while I wear them to look for it..." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "That should not be necessary," says Sherlock. "We can follow them until we find either a wizard or the residue of a transport spell. The former will yield answers to me, the latter to you." |
Author: thaumobabble | "I've - I think I told you I'm good with glass - I don't have a lot of non-spec-based divining options. If you can point me at the exact location of some transport spell residue I can put it through my marble and have a look at it that way, but I don't have a good method for finding it in the first place unless we want to spend hours sitting here while I think of something." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I will easily be able to pinpoint the exact location of the transport spell residue, if we come upon it." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Okay then." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "In the meantime: this way." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella follows solemnly. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock seems very sure of where she is going, despite a lack of obvious signs. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella starts murmuring to her marble. Something about whatever she's doing makes her look tired. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Hmm?" says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | "If we're going to encounter wizards it's safer to have more of my magical energy in the marble where they can't take it than sitting in my witchwell and so on." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Reasonable." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yeah, I just don't usually feed it much magic all at once. I won't overdo it, I'd be no use then." |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock nods, inspects a stone on the ground, and keeps walking. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella eventually gets to the point where feeding her marble any more would be unwise, and stops. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock continues to follow a trail no one else can see. She's going slower now, though. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Do you know anything else yet? Besides where to go?" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Very little. Nothing I could easily put into words." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella nods, and continues following. "I could scout from the air but I doubt I'd be able to report the kinds of things you're looking at." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "You wouldn't," Sherlock agrees. "I am - ah. Here. One moment."
They've come to the edge of a small pond, with a stretch of gravel along the near side. Sherlock studies it from a distance. Then she points.
"You will find your spell residue just there." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella approaches. Bella works her magic. Bella inspects the residue in minute detail.
"It went north, east, or some combination of the two," says Bella after she's sifted through all the available information, "more than one hundred miles but fewer than two hundred fifty, isn't designed to land within the Enchanted Forest's borders, and carried at least five hundred pounds worth of people, creatures, and objects, none of whom were inherently magical like dragons or unicorns are." |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock thinks about this.
Sherlock says, "The Cave of Unpleasant Surprises." |
Author: thaumobabble | "...That doesn't sound at all good." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I agree. But we are going to find it anyway." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella nods.
"Carpet?" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Carpet." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella unrolls it and sits. "You want to drive or should I?" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "It might be most efficient if you drove and I navigated." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella nods and sits at the front bit of the carpet. When Sherlock joins her, she commands, "Up."
The carpet rises. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock points. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella steers. |
Author: calendarofcrime | It is not such an incredibly long flight, and the cave is quite visible from the air. |
Author: thaumobabble | "That sure looks like a cave," says Bella, descending cautiously. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "It is one," says Sherlock. "Apart from that, its contents and nature are not extremely consistent." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Would we be better off invisible?" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "We may very well be." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Okay." Bella pauses the carpet, and carefully casts a spell of invisibility on the both of them. And then she descends the carpet the rest of the way, and rolls it up, and puts it behind a rock. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Let's find Tony," says Sherlock, and starts into the cave. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella swallows and goes in after her, each hand on the opposite wrist ready to pull something out of a sleeve. |
Author: calendarofcrime | It's called the Cave of Unpleasant Surprises for a reason. Sherlock goes in expecting to be unpleasantly surprised. She keeps a little ahead of Bella, but not too far, in case something unpleasant comes at them from a surprising direction. |
Author: thaumobabble | The cave is dark. Bella has a glowy thing, which she takes out and hangs around her neck; the cave doesn't seem inclined to unpleasantly surprise them by preventing the glowy thing from working.
The cave narrows to a tunnel just barely wide enough for them to proceed single file.
Bella follows Sherlock in for twelve steps, and then is swallowed up by the floor with a yelp. The floor closes after her. It doesn't dampen the sound of her in her armor clattering to uncharitably distant ground, or her whimpering the words of her healing spells. |
Author: calendarofcrime |
Sherlock is unpleasantly surprised!
The first thing she tries is stepping just where Bella was. She doesn't expect it to work. |
Author: thaumobabble | The floor is quite solid there.
Oh, also, there's a wall back the way they came now.
"Sherlock?" says Bella's quavering voice. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I am not presently able to join you," says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Sherlock, where'd you go?" Bella asks, overlapping enough of Sherlock's sentence to make it clear that the floor is soundproof in one direction. |
Author: calendarofcrime | That is annoying. Sherlock is annoyed. |
Author: thaumobabble | Is it also unpleasantly surprising? The cave does strive to live up to its name.
"Can you hear me?" calls Bella. Sherlock can hear tentative Bella-footsteps. |
Author: calendarofcrime | It is liable to cause Sherlock to set something on fire if it goes on long enough.
She follows Bella as best she can. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella's path veers off to the left, judging by the footsteps and occasional calls for "Sherlock?".
Sherlock's path - pitch dark with the loss of Bella's glowy thing, unless she chooses to set something on fire - divides, as best she can tell by listening to echoes and groping around, into stairs up and to the left, stairs down and to the right, and a scrunchy twisty passage that goes forward and slightly angled downwards. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Twisty passage it is. |
Author: thaumobabble | The twisty passage is slippery and damp, and it gets cold in there as Sherlock proceeds.
She can't hear Bella walking anymore after she's gotten about ten feet in. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Time to go back, then. |
Author: thaumobabble | The twisty passage's back end apparently now divides into three equally twisty passages (left, right, and forward-and-down) in that direction. |
Author: calendarofcrime | She picks right. |
Author: thaumobabble | The darkness eventually gives way to a crystalline sort of glow; there is moss growing in this part of the tunnel that phosphoresces. Because this is the Cave of Unpleasant Surprises, it also releases a noxious smell when stepped on or otherwise touched, which is hard to avoid in a passage this small.
She can hear Bella again, if that's Bella running and making breathy fearful noises somewhere off to the left. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock quickly becomes very good at not touching the glowing moss. She also keeps following the sound of Bella's voice. |
Author: thaumobabble | The tunnel path Sherlock chooses in trying to stay close to Bella exits into a large cavern with the phosphorescent moss completely coating the ceiling. There is a six-foot sheer drop into a deep pool of water with no less-sheer shore available, except the stream that's running at high speed off into that lower tunnel there.
There's a wall behind her again.
There may be something moving in the water, deep under the surface. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock decides that more light is required.
She holds a hand out to one side and slightly behind her, and ignites her gauntlet. |
Author: thaumobabble | Well, if there was something moving in the water, it's not making the water ripple anymore, although it's possible that from her vantage point there are parts of the pool she can't see, cut under the tunnel she's standing in. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Curiously, she douses the light. |
Author: thaumobabble | The water remains still.
Under this completely still water swims a dark shape.
Also, it does not appear to be limited to travel through the water. It rises, surface yet unrippling, and swims through the air, jaws wide; it looks like a cross between a shark, a weasel, and a sea anemone, and it's six times Sherlock's size. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock attempts to set it on fire. |
Author: thaumobabble | It doesn't seem to be there enough to catch fire.
Till the moment when it bites her in the legs. Then it's there. |
Author: calendarofcrime | At last, a target for her incandescent rage.
The creature steams, then smokes, then burns. |
Author: thaumobabble | When it is very thoroughly charred, it at last stops trying to eat her, and falls into the water, diminished but no longer insubstantial and therefore splashy. |
Author: calendarofcrime | It doesn't take more than a few seconds, but that still leaves Sherlock with her leg armour somewhat crunched.
There is no exit but the water; therefore, logically, the water is the exit.
She doesn't jump so much as stumble gracefully off the ledge. |
Author: thaumobabble | The water conveys her to the exit stream and jostles her along.
She fetches up on a smooth, gently sloped shore in a cavern that is completely white, made of something that looks sort of like alabaster, and populated with rather a lot of frogs of various shapes, sizes, and colors. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Well, that's... something.
Exits? Sounds of Bella? |
Author: thaumobabble | On the far side of this cavern there are four tunnels out, one of which is stairs.
It is down these stairs that Bella shortly comes racing, terrified and breathing hard and chased by a flock of toothy batlike creatures. She doesn't appear injured, but considering her preparations that doesn't mean much, especially since there's a few splotches of blood on her outfit and a few new scratches in her armor.
She spots Sherlock and runs in her direction, pursued by bat-things. "Shr-" She chokes and coughs up a blue medium-sized frog, which she catches, bewildered, as she skids to a halt before entering the water. |
Author: calendarofcrime |
Sherlock does her best to climb out of the stream. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella drops her frog, pulls a handful of something powdery and green out of her sleeve, and throws it at the bat things. She hits four of the flock, and those retreat into miscellaneous exits, shrieking, but the others get at her and start nibbling at bits of Bella that aren't covered by armor. Bella does her best to swat them away - none of them is bigger than size of her outstretched hand - but there's about forty. She eventually gives up on doing anything about their insistence on nibbling on her and attempts to help Sherlock out of the water, upon which exit the bat things begin to nibble Sherlock too. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock immediately heads for the nearest frog-free area, although she has some difficulty walking without help. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella insinuates herself under Sherlock's arm to serve as a crutch; she's nibbled but not in a way that impedes her movement much. "Ml-" she starts, but nope, apparently even spell words produce frogs; this one is small and pinkish-white. |
Author: calendarofcrime | On they limp, then. |
Author: thaumobabble | Unless Sherlock has a better idea Bella will aim for the tunnel with the lowest ceiling, as it seems like it might be unappealing to bat-things. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Fine by her. |
Author: thaumobabble | The bat-things are mostly dissuaded, except for three, which Bella eventually manages to swat.
The frogs thin out as they proceed. |
Author: calendarofcrime | When they pass the last visible frog, Sherlock says testingly, "Frogs?" |
Author: thaumobabble | Frogs! She gets four of them, apparently talking about frogs yields bonus frogs. They're all very little, though, cute little yellow and brown frogs. |
Author: calendarofcrime | She snorts. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella laughs helplessly. Apparently laughter is sufficient to produce a poliwog, which she spits out unhappily. |
Author: calendarofcrime | On they go, then.
When they have left the poliwog behind, Sherlock says firmly, "Mint." |
Author: thaumobabble | This produces no frogs.
"Mulaglarby mulaglarby," mutters Bella, and then she seizes Sherlock's hand and repeats herself. "Why mint?" |
Author: calendarofcrime | "First short word I thought of that wasn't an amphibian." |
Author: thaumobabble | "I love you," laughs Bella weakly. "Let's - will it interfere with you being ready to fight more nasty monsters if we hold hands, I think that would make it harder for the cave to split us up again." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "It will not interfere," says Sherlock, "but I may need to drop your hand quickly if we come upon something sufficiently unpleasant." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Okay." Bella takes Sherlock's hand. And as an afterthought produces a water bottle from a sleeve to rinse out her mouth; she offers it to Sherlock after she has spat frog taste onto the tunnel floor. |
Author: calendarofcrime | She grins and does likewise. "Thank you. Much appreciated." |
Author: thaumobabble | "This cave," says Bella flatly, "is full of unpleasant surprises." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I agree." |
Author: thaumobabble | The next unpleasant surprise is that Tony is apparently being held by wizards who consider the best way to keep a captive princess to be "bound, gagged, suspended upside down from the ceiling, wide awake, and, for some reason, blue". Besides Tony there is one other such captive, an unremarkable-looking (except for having sprouted donkey ears) man in his thirties or so.
There are six wizards in the cave and they're huddled around a large scroll muttering to each other. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Hello," says Sherlock, dropping Bella's hand and stepping away from her. "I am here to unpleasantly surprise you."
The entire exterior surface of her armour catches fire. She draws her sword, and that lights up too.
She heads for the wizards. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella busies herself with getting Tony down from the ceiling. This is delicate but not impossible, as she's suspended by a pulley system to allow wizards to do the same thing as necessary. When Tony has been set on the floor Bella starts on her knots.
The wizards are unpleasantly surprised.
But not for long. |
Author: calendarofcrime | When the wizards have ceased to be surprised, Sherlock lets the flames die down and sheathes her sword. She turns immediately to Tony and Bella. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella has gotten Tony's hands untied so Tony can work on her own feet and now she's picking at the knot in the gag. |
Author: calendarofcrime | All right then.
What about the other one? |
Author: thaumobabble | He's still suspended from the ceiling; he is not Bella's top priority and she left him for figuring out after getting Tony untied. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock decides that she agrees with these priorities. She goes to help Bella free Tony. |
Author: thaumobabble | Presently Tony is untied and ungagged, if still blue. Bella kisses her forehead, then goes to let the guy with the donkey ears down. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock stays by Tony. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella unties the fellow's gag first. "Who're you?" she asks.
"Name's," he coughs, "Kanim."
"What's with the ears?"
"Unpleasant surprise," he says. "Wizards figured out how to get in and out safely themselves by taking unpleasant surprise bait with them. The ears are just the most visible thing on me, I was bait for a few trips."
"Is that why she's blue?" Bella asks, jerking her head in Tony's direction.
"No," says Kanim. "Don't think so. I think that's fire suppression, or something."
"Oof." Bella swallows and turns to the princesses, working on the knots around Kanim's hands. "Um, my specs are almost completely broken, only one lens left - I panicked and put them on trying to figure out how the cave worked when we were split up and they exploded in my face, all I have is a spare witchlens that wasn't on them... I'm going to be less use than usual till I have new ones made." |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony leans silently on Sherlock. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock hugs Tony, as best she can with the armour.
"Nevertheless," she says, "I expect we can manage to leave." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yeah," agrees Bella. "Erm - Kanim - is there by any chance less total unpleasant surprise when someone is bait?"
"You mean," snorts Kanim, "if you copy the wizards' spell when we walk out of here am I going to have any worse of a time of it? Won't be more unpleasant for me, will be more," he flicks an ear, "long-term, unpleasant surprises for bait seem to be stickier, I already have no idea how I'm going to get my ears turned back."
"I don't even know if I can copy the spell without my specs to look at it from a few angles." She finishes untying his hands and leaves him to the task of his own feet, and then she starts gingerly inspecting the wizard staffs for traps, wrapping the first one she deems safe up in fabric in lieu of the more sophisticated prep work she was able to manage with the last leaving of a Sherlock-killed wizard.
"I can do it, now I'm not gagged," he says. "If you leave me one of those staffs I even will. You have no idea how hard it is to find intact non-discard staffs."
Bella pauses. "I have some idea. I live in the Enchanted Forest. How about I pack them all up and we can divvy 'em up outside?"
"Fair enough since you're the one with the sleeves," acknowledges Kanim. |
Author: calendarofcrime |
Sherlock smiles slightly. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella wraps up all the staffs, although she's clearly running low on fabric by the time she finds number six. "Where're you from, Kanim?"
"Sathem-by-the-Mountains." He peers at her assessingly. "So, it's reasonably obvious by now, but we are both magicians, right?"
"Yes," says Bella, smiling slightly.
"That," says Kanim, "is fantastic, let's have dinner sometime."
"I am," says Bella, "engaged," and then it occurs to her that this precludes nothing, "and also gay, but we should certainly compare notes if you are not otherwise particularly occupied."
"Ah," sighs Kanim.
"I have cooperative wizard friends," Bella adds enticingly.
"That is at least four times better than a dinner date, I platonically love you forever," says Kanim. |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony giggles. |
Author: thaumobabble | "By the way, these are Sherlock, and Tony," says Bella, "my fiancée and my sort-of-other-fiancée conditional on me being able to work out the obvious technical problem with both princesses of the Enchanted Forest marrying somebody female."
"Charmed," says Kanim. "And that sounds like a really interesting problem!"
"Doesn't it just?"
"I'd help," he agrees, "I've been missing for so long I'm pretty sure no one expects me to turn up late for my appointments. Help platonically," he adds, "I mean." He rubs his chafed ankles. Bella, who has now packed up all the staffs, takes his hand and mulaglarbys him, then goes and does the same to Tony. |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony continues to giggle! She also hugs Bella. |
Author: thaumobabble | Hugs! Bella likes hugging Tony. This is a positive development.
"All right, time to curse myself with unpleasant surprises and lead you out of this place, I guess," says Kanim, "I really wish you didn't have a healing trigger spell, that makes me much more likely to get seriously injured, it's the Cave of Unpleasant Surprises, not the Cave of Likely Fatal Surprises, but it can sorta tell that sort of thing."
"...Oops," says Bella. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "That is interesting to know," says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Oh, I'm sure it's usually much to everyone's advantage to have a healing trigger, this just happens to be a really perverse cave," says Kanim. "Well, this spell isn't hard, just make sure you stick close to me as best you can on the way out." He stares into space, and makes broad, slow gestures, then makes a face. "That's baiting the cave taken care of, here goes nothing."
They proceed out, managing to stay in a single group. Kanim is assailed by a swarm of inexplicable bees, acquires a tail to match his ears, and is the one to discover another patch of noxious moss, which is apparently new to him even though Sherlock saw it before. Bella heals him as necessary and finally they are no longer in the cave. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock finds the carpet. |
Author: thaumobabble | "This cave has now twice attempted to turn me into a donkey. I wonder if it's trying to tell me something," says Kanim.
"If it's trying to tell you something, it's presumably trying to tell you something unpleasantly surprising, but not necessarily something true," says Bella. "Am I correct in thinking that you're okay with coming home with us instead of getting dropped at Sathem-by-the-Mountains?"
"Oh, sure," says Kanim, "I was being itinerant, don't have anyplace in particular to get back to, I would love to visit the Enchanted Forest and fiddle with technical problems such as getting my ears back to normal. I am considering keeping the tail. I think it's fetching." |
Author: allthebrightest | "The tail is cute," says Tony. "Actually, the ears aren't bad either." |
Author: thaumobabble | "The ears itch," explains Kanim, scratching one. "I haven't had a chance to examine their aesthetic properties."
"I've never seen you without them so I can't judge," Bella says, taking her seat on the flying carpet. Kanim sits behind her. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock and Tony also climb on.
"If they itch, then by all means get rid of them," says Sherlock. "Does the tail not itch also?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "Not so far!" says Kanim. "It twitches by itself, a bit, which was, shall we say, unpleasantly surprising, but it doesn't itch. I'll work on the ears first and then see how I feel about the tail."
Bella commands up the carpet and turns back the way she and Sherlock came. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "This seems like a reasonable plan," says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | "I'm good at those except when I wind up planning things like 'approach the Cave of Unpleasant Surprises right when six wizards are arguing about who has to be bait'," says Kanim. |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony snorts. |
Author: thaumobabble | "So, we were looking for Tony - you were just looking for the cave?" Bella asks Kanim.
"Of course. I'm fascinated by cave magic in general. Locational effect-magic in general, really. My interest in this particular cave has been quite cured, though."
"I'm surprised you don't live in the Enchanted Forest if you like locational magic. Actually, I don't really understand why there are any magicians who don't live in the Enchanted Forest."
"Perhaps I will like it very much and choose to stay. I went looking for Unpleasant Surprises after a lengthy camp-out in and subsequent dissertation on the Caves of Irregular Dimensions that ate two years of my life. You can read the dissertation if you like. It's very long and dry and I ultimately come to no worthwhile conclusions whatsoever. Damn uncooperative Caves." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Perhaps Tony will show you the Skyvault," says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | "The Skyvault isn't exactly locational in that way," says Bella. "More my area than Kanim's. Kanim will be poking at the forest magic itself, figuring out the moss and interrogating squirrels and following trees around while they try to escape."
"Of course I'd like to see the Skyvault for more standard tourist reasons, though," says Kanim earnestly. |
Author: allthebrightest | "It's not like the Skyvault and the forest magic are that separate," says Tony. "I mean, in one sense it's just a big magical windmill making everything else go round, but it does other stuff too." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yes, but it's not a natural component of the forest magic, is it? I'll pay attention to how they interact, but it's not the part that I'm likely to write a thesis on." |
Author: allthebrightest | "Neither are the squirrels," Tony points out. |
Author: thaumobabble | "The squirrels are experts to be consulted," Bella explains, "not themselves the objects of study."
"I do not know nearly enough about the Enchanted Forest to comment on the squirrels," says Kanim. |
Author: allthebrightest | "I think you could say the Skyvault is kind of an expert too," says Tony. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Is it? Does it talk?" asks Kanim. |
Author: allthebrightest | "No, it just - is," says Tony. "I dunno, maybe you have to be me to get anything useful out of it." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Royal magic is a huge advantage there," says Bella. "My specs helped. I need to reconstruct those, I feel really weird without them, I shouldn't have put them on, I just felt like I had to know what was going on... Anyway, I don't think Kanim, not being a member of the royal family, will find the Skyvault's expertise directly helpful."
"Oh, is that why," Kanim starts and does not finish.
"No. It's gonna be a perk, though," says Bella. The carpet is flying in a straight line at this point; she can lean over and peck Sherlock on the cheek. "We're not sure if I will get more than standard courtesy access if I marry them both, anyway, and standard courtesy access would be lovely but not very practically helpful." |
Author: allthebrightest | "And, you know, my dad built the thing and I'm the one who maintains it," says Tony. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yes, that too," says Bella.
"I will enjoy having a look! Honest! I just am not so much specialized in made things," says Kanim. |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony snorts. |
Author: thaumobabble | "I do made things," Bella says. "Especially glass, I'm good with glass."
"Explains the specs."
"How do you find your way around unfamiliar magic?"
"I try not to trust specific solutions like that for anything. I work with a lot of freeform and intuitive stuff. You can probably - well, when you have your spectacles - see more detail than I can, but," he adds archly, "my finely honed magical senses will not explode in the Cave of Unpleasant Surprises."
"Ha." |
Author: allthebrightest | "It would be kind of horrible if they did!" says Tony. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yes! It would be - well, it would be unpleasantly surprising," says Kanim, "but not in a way the cave was disposed to exploit."
"I also lost a window, looking for Tony when we noticed she'd been missing," Bella says.
"Oh dear."
"The window's easier to replace than the specs," says Bella, shaking her head. |
Author: allthebrightest | "How long are the specs gonna take?" wonders Tony. "Can I help?" |
Author: thaumobabble | "Well, each lens gets made separately, you can totally help me with the dwarf lens again, and if you want to make me some lensframes I bet you're way faster at that than I am. I think re-making everything but the dwarf lens will be faster without." |
Author: allthebrightest | "You betcha I want to make you some frames!" |
Author: thaumobabble | "That is because you are wonderful and useful," says Bella brightly. "I think I can figure out enough to un-blue and un-fire-suppression-you without those, though, so that'll be the first priority when we're safely home." |
Author: allthebrightest | "That makes me so happy. Blue is not my colour," laughs Tony. |
Author: thaumobabble | "You aren't planning to keep your own fetching cosmetic change as a souvenir?" asks Kanim. "I went to the Cave of Unpleasant Surprises and all I got was this lousy palette swap."
Bella snorts. |
Author: allthebrightest | "Nope," says Tony. "I am done with the blue." |
Author: thaumobabble | "I will unblue you," promises Bella. |
Author: allthebrightest | "I love you," says Tony. |
Author: thaumobabble | "I love you too," says Bella brightly. Tony's easy to love; she fretted about exact meanings of the word for a while, but finally decided that there is no reason not to call how she feels about Tony by that name.
"Aww," says Kanim, "cutest and least combative two-princess love triangle ever."
Bella snorts. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock laughs.
"We are, it's true." |
Author: thaumobabble | "We are the best two-soon-to-be-three-princess love triangle," says Bella.
"I'll believe it," says Kanim. "About your technical issue, what're you thinking?"
Bella launches into extremely technical chatter that it is unlikely either princess will be able to follow.
"Well," says Kanim finally, "I don't know if I'll be much help, but I can assist with literature searches and so on, since, this not being a traditional rescue by any stretch of the imagination, repayment in the form of a kiss would probably not be welcome."
"I'm gay," says Bella. "I didn't say anything about them." |
Author: allthebrightest | "I'm not gay," Tony says brightly. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Aren't you now," says Kanim, looking with something between speculation and wrongfooted confusion at the bluer of the two princesses. |
Author: allthebrightest | "Nope!" |
Author: thaumobabble | "...I will file this information away! In case it ever becomes useful," says Kanim with affected sagacity, flicking his eyes between all three women on the carpet.
"I would put him out of his misery but I have no convenient explanation tucked away," says Bella. |
Author: allthebrightest | "What exactly are we trying to explain, here? How it's possible that I'm not gay but I'm still going to marry my sister's eventual wife? Because man, I'm not tackling that one." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Is the part that's tripping you up," Bella says, "the concept of bisexuality, or the sharing?"
"The sharing," Kanim says. "Definitely the sharing." |
Author: allthebrightest | "Oh," says Tony. "There's sharing! No one will complain if we make out a little!" |
Author: thaumobabble | "No one at all, huh?" Kanim asks. One of his ears twitches. "No complaints from any corner?"
Bella giggles. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "None here," says Sherlock. "Although perhaps you'd like to wait until we reach the castle." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Why's that? Someone liable to get shoved off the carpet otherwise?" asks Kanim. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "The fact that I don't object to you kissing my sister doesn't mean I want to watch." |
Author: thaumobabble | "Oh. I see. Yes, that makes sense," says Kanim. He scratches one of his ears.
Bella giggles again. |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony also giggles. |
Author: thaumobabble | The flight is otherwise uneventful, mostly silence punctuated by magician thaumobabble about this and that and good-natured insults directed at each other's educational institutions, and then they cross the border to the Enchanted Forest.
"Oh my," says Kanim, noticing the shift in the air instantly. "Oh I like it here. Oh my." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "Mother knows we're home," Sherlock observes after a few more seconds. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Should we land and have you do that tree-shifting thing?" asks Bella. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "That would be efficient." |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella glides them to a stop.
Kanim hops off the carpet and decides to hug a tree like it is his best friend in the entire world. |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony giggles. |
Author: thaumobabble | "I like this forest," says Kanim. "I think I will keep it."
"You probably don't want to sound so proprietary around its royalty," observes Bella archly.
"I like this forest," amends Kanim, "I think I will hug it." |
Author: calendarofcrime | "I observe that you are hugging the forest," says Sherlock, amused. "It is adorable." |
Author: thaumobabble | Kanim eventually tires of hugging the tree. He lets it go, and pats it, and scratches his ear. "What's this non-carpet transportation mechanism, then?"
Bella rolls up the carpet and props it on her shoulder. "You'll see." |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock leads them deeper into the forest. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Holy -" breathes Kanim.
"Isn't it cool?" asks Bella as the castle comes into view. "Forest knows who's boss."
"Extremely cool," agrees Kanim. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "And now we are home," says Sherlock, "and I am going to see about dinner."
She heads for the kitchen. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Yes, good, I'm starving," sighs Bella, and she takes Tony's hand. "Let me sit you down someplace where I can lay out materials without them blowing away and see about the blue. Kanim, you want to help?"
"Can do," says Kanim. |
Author: allthebrightest | "Thank yoooou," says Tony, and she kisses Bella's cheek. Then Kanim's for good measure. |
Author: thaumobabble | Kanim acquires a doofy smile.
Two magicians - even one without her spectacles, a few flecks of blood still on her face as evidence of their demise - make relatively short work of the spell that is suppressing Tony's fire magic and turning her blue. Bella slurps up the spell into her marble. |
Author: allthebrightest | Tony beams and gives Bella a hug and a much more enthusiastic kiss.
And then she does the same to Kanim. |
Author: thaumobabble | Kanim attempts to kiss Tony while continuing to smile doofily. It is a challenge, but he manages to do both things!
Bella whistles and wanders in the direction of the kitchen. |
Author: calendarofcrime | Sherlock is cooking with singleminded focus. |
Author: thaumobabble | Bella watches her with a soft smile. |