A Magician Never Reveals Her Secrets (Quaggan!)

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Dorothy watched the two boys converse, growing more aggrivated by the second. She cleared her throat. "Ahem... do you not see how cluttered the floor is?"

She was right- while cleaner then it had been when she had come in today, the floor was still cluttered with old textbook, dusty robes, and broken magical devices. Dorothy crossed her arms. "You two can sweep and dust after you put this junk in the closet!"

[quaggan]

 "Cluttered? You mean, this isn't supposed to be there?" Ria blinked. It was a very appropriate question on Wyrdwood. Moving stuff without the consent of its owner, knowledge of its purpose, or common sense could be lethal - like this time he decided to rearrange Vesyll's runic stones into a more aesthetically pleasing pattern and the resulting explosion burned off his eyebrows. Or that time he helped a friend move a chair that turned out to be bonded to the classroom because apparently removing furniture from its proper place was a problem. Or that other time... this was quite a frequent occurrence, actually.

He picked up a small rod and looked at it, questioningly. Arthur looked none the wiser, so he decided to consult the glitter monster professor. "So..." he began, turning in her direction. "Where, exactly, should this be placed?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Dorothy's eye twitched. "I just told you, put it in the closet!" Standing up , the magician walked briskly to the door in the back of the room and opened it. "See? In-"

*CRASH*

Upon opening the door, an avalance of clutter seemed to pour out of the closet. Dorothy barely managed to get out of the way so as not to be crushed under the mess of schoolbooks and parchment. Arthur stared wide eyed- a rare occurence, normally his eyes drooped even when he was excited.  "Whoah..." he said. "Do we need to clean that up too?"

[quaggan]

 "Why do we have to clean it up? We weren't the ones who made this mess" Ria grumbled. He didn't really expect her to acknowledge it and let them go - if there was anything he'd learned at Wyrdwood, it would be that it's best not to touch stuff unless one is sure, some people thought orange was an acceptable colour to wear in public, and that transforming the sun into a frog is an endeavour more likely to succeed than convincing a teacher.

Well, better to finish this cleaning and get his Thanati silk! He picked something he didn't care to identify from the floor and put in the cupboard. He picked up another thing that was barely holding together. Was it always this repetitive? He was getting bored already! Perhaps next time he gets to go home, he should ask one of the staff how could they make an entire living out of something so... dull!

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

As Dorothy walked back to her desk, Arthur lazily began to pick up clutter from the floor and toss it into the closet. A worn invilibility cloak that merely made you transparent, a fractured crystal ball with mist leaking out, and a school journal full of demonic sigils were all thrown haphazardly into the cabinet...

"Wait..."

Yawning sleepily, Arthur crawled into the closet to retrieve journal. He began to flip through the pages, blinking slowly. "Uh... guys? I think this book might be kinda... illegal."

[quaggan]

 Aha! A reprieve from boredom! Ria' immediately dropped what he was holding - fortunately, it didn't break or open a portal to an evil dimension. He leaned over to take a look. It didn't appear to be illegal. "So... illegal means it's been overdrawn at the library?"

That was a serious problem. No one wanted to mess with the librarian, and while most would return someone else's overdrawn book without a second thought (after copying the important passages and making a few more for friends, of course), the perspective of being lectured, should there be something wrong with the tome, was very unpleasant. Ria' shuddered at the very thought! He fixed his eyes on the sigils - was one of them looking like the library stamp?

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Arthur shook his head, shuddering. "I... I think it's demon related, man..." he said nervously. "Like, look at these pentagrams! That's gotta be bad, right?"

"What's this now?" Professor Summers had walked over, gently taking the journal from Arthur's hand. Her face paled, mouth thinning. "Whoah..." she muttered quietly. "Good find, Clearwater." She absentmindedly ruffled the top of Arthur's pillow hat, cauing the normally pale boy to flush a deep red. "Looks like it's dated from only a year ago... initialed 'O.B.'..." 

Closing the journal, she handed it to Ria. "Could you two take this to the lost and found for me? That seems like the easiest way to find out who wrote it." The magician flashed a brilliant grin at the two boys. "I'll drop the detention if you do~!"

[quaggan]

 Demons? Ria' didn't know of any demons that attended Wyrdwood. Then again, he didn't know how to tell a demon from non-demons either. Maybe the professor herself was a demon trying to blind all the students unfortunate enough to attend her classes. That would fit - she would be concerned about competition.

"Aha! I know where lost and found office is!" he grinned. He used it before, to search for his needles that some meanie stole. Probably Aahva Chatterjee, that guy looked like the type to steal someone's sewing tools and later stab someone with it. He didn't even get the needles back, but at least knew where to go.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Arthur nodded, still blushing. "Y-yeah, I can take it!" he said, looking very determined all of a sudden. "You can count on me- erm, us."

The pillow-headed boy scratched the back of his head. He'd never actually been to the lost and found before- normally if he misplaced something he'd try to mooch off of his brother to get a new one. Good thing Ria seemed to know the way!

Arthur would step out of the classroom, holding the door open for the fashionable student. "Um... you lead the way, 'kay?"

[quaggan]

 Ria' puffed up proudly and marched through the door, his steps hitting a triumphant rhythm. "I will!" He slowed down almost immediately, remembering that Arthur had rather shorter legs. It would be impolite to force the poor guy to jog, when he just replenished his energy with a nap. Granted, he could be quite a sprinter like Vesyll who could easily keep up with most humans, but courtesy never hurt.

He peered at the staircase. "Ugh, the twins trapped the stairs again." He pointed at the barely visible faint runes on the underside of the stone railing. "We better not go there, unless you want your lovely hat to be turned into a frog or worse. Those idiots really should be more careful - whoever their little feud is with, isn't the only person using those stairs. Oh well, we have to take the long way around after all."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Arthur tagged along behind Ria, head filled with thoughts of his Professor Summers. "Oh Kia, she's so hot! I can't believe she rubbed my head like that" The boys cheeks flushed pink at the thought. "Maybe if I find out whose journal this is, she'll do it again! Or kiss me on the cheek!"

Ria's words broke Arthur out of his daydreams. He looked at the stairs, sighing. "Could be worse, I suppose..." he said quietly, eyes drooping. "I'd take those two over Aahva and Beatrix any day. Did you hear what they did to Susie?"

[quaggan]

 "No, I didn't" he admitted, heading back into the hallway. The juicy gossip always excited him, although he usually preferred to discuss people's clothing rather than their actions - unless those actions linked back to his preferred topic somehow.

"You said they 'did something', so it probably was more than just yelling and the usual Aahva... vocabulary." Sometimes, Ria' was truly impressed by the effort that boy put in inventing insults. And sometimes he was just plain indignant! How could anyone hate on his hair after he even dyed it purple!

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"Yeah, it was worse than that." Arthur said, looking rather uncomfortable all of a sudden. Aahva cpuld be mean, but sometimes his actions seemed a bit too calculated- asif his strings were being pulled by somebody else. "They stole her hackysack and she was never able to get in back. She, like, needs that thing to cope with her stress."

The image of Susie Rainfeather curled up in her bed sobbing flashed through Arthur's mind, and the boy slowed his pace. "I feel really bad for her. I wanna help, but I don't know how..."

[quaggan]

 "Hackysack?" he blinked. That was something he hasn't heard about. Was it some kind of a bag? Like a lucky item to handle? "Well, if it's something sewable, perhaps I can help - I'm a bit of an amateur tailor. I could make something for her - or if it has to be this one specific sack, then we can sneak into Aahva's dorm and pick it up."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"You don't know what a hackeysack is?" Arthur asked, looking rather shocked. "Huh... Maybe it's just a Verdan thing." He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, it's like a tiny cloth bag with beans in it. It's would be really simple to make one I think!"

The boy looked at the strange journal in Ria's hands. "We still gotta return that though...." He shook his head. "Hey, maybe we could enchant the hackysack too! I bet Susie would love one that sparkled and stuff when you kick it!"

[quaggan]

 "Must be a Verdan thing" he agreed. Now he was growing curious - it seemed that there was quite a lot to learn. What kind of hackysacks did Verdans use? Were they like lucky charms to carry in one's pocket, or more like an accessory to add to one's looks? He was getting excited just thinking about the possibilities! He would have to pay a visit to Miss Rainfeather, perhaps Arthur could introduce them and explain the intricacies of Verdan culture.

Oh right, they still had to hand back this book. He almost forgot. It would be awkward to forget about a detention, especially if he were to deal with the professor again. And he'd rather not burn bridges with someone so well-dressed.

"Are you good with enchantment?" he asked. Making a hackysack sparkle nicely didn't sound too complicated, but it could be surprisingly hard. If there was anything he learned here, it would be that every simple-sounding thing could easily turn into an ungodly complex nightmare.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

So it was just a Verdan thing! Arthur could remember just how shocked he was after coming to Wyrdwood and finding out how different his province's culture was from the rest of the Serendipity. They didn't even do butterfly kisses to greet each other here! So weird...

Arthur shook his head at Ria's question, pursing his lips slightly. "Nah." he said softly. "All I can enchant are people." His magic was something he hated talking about- for how marvolous it supposedly was, all it ever did for him was get him stuck at a school he didn't want to attend.

The hallways began to crowd with people as more classes began to end, and it was soon difficult to keep Ria in view. "Hey!" Arthur called to the boy. "Isn't there, like, a secret passageway we can take or something?"

[quaggan]

 Enchanting people sounded interesting, and led Ria' to wonder about potential applications of it. Was it like enchanting items? Could he perhaps ask Arthur to enchant his hair so that it wouldn't get messed up? That was a brilliant idea!

But before he managed to voice his hopes, they were interrupted by a sudden onrush of fellow students. Ah yes, the biggest downside of regulated class schedule. Ria' personally preferred those professors who held their classes in a more whimsical manner, with little regard for order and organisation. It added colour to the student life, and functioned as a lovely excuse. After all, if a professor could call his students in the middle of a night for a random practical, then the same logic should apply to Ria suddenly getting a flash of inspiration and working at late/early hour, no matter how loud it was!

Students were annoying. He kept glancing around, making sure that he didn't lose Arthur - granted, the pillow hat was rather hard to glance over, but the boy was rather short. Maybe he needed a bigger pillow. "Secret passageway?" he blinked. "Well, we can- Excuse me- Please move over-" He pushed through to the window and peered down to the courtyard below. "Good, looks like the gravity enchantment hasn't expired yet."

"Seriously?" one elf commented, having overheard his comment. "Well, good to know." Without even taking a moment to test the situation, she hurled herself outside. Her fall slowed down considerably a few metres above the ground, leaving her with plenty time to shout warning. "Move aside!" she called, almost landing on a dwarf.

"That's some shortcut" he agreed. He quickly turned around to see if Arthur was still around. Getting carried away by a rabid crowd of students was the second greatest danger at Wyrdwood, after being turned into a frog.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Ria had stopped to look out the window, but the crowd seemed intent on preventing Arthur from joining him. "H-hey, let me through!" the pillowheaded boy yelped as he was jostled further and further away from the fashionista. "I need to be over- huh?"

Somebody's hand had gripped onto Arthur's shoulder, and began to lead him through the crowd. Startled, the boy looked up to see a horned girl he'd often saw hanging around his older brother. What was her name again? Patience? Arthur couldn't remember, but it was something strange like that.

Being brought out of the flood of students and stopping at the windowsill, Arthur gingerly stepped away from the creepy looking girl. Timidly he looked at Ria, an odd grimace on his face. "Um.... thank you miss..."

The tiefling beamed. "But of course!" she said sweetly. "You're Percy's brother, so it was my pleasure."

[quaggan]

 Ria measured Arthur's new girlfriend with his well-honed fashion sense. Most of the time, making holes in a perfectly fine hat was a travesty, but the shape suited the texture of her horns and gave her some sort of a roguish charm. She passed the fashion muster, at least for now.

"A friend of yours, Arthur?" he asked. He would have offered to let her through to jump out, but people were usually wary of letting the others see what was under their robe. His golemancer friend, Arien, kept all the secret tools of the trade there.