Vivian was being trained by Catherine when the message came. They were studying more spells.
“You can do almost anything if you know the right spell,” Catherine was explaining. “Anything that magic can do, that is. But the difficulty is remembering the right spell. There are thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands of them. Millions maybe, if you went through the whole history of magic. So how can any one person possibly remember all of them?”
It was obviously a rhetorical question, but Vivian chimed in nonetheless. “Yes, how can you?” she said. “I’ve often wondered that myself.”
“Well, in fact, if I’m being completely honest, the truth is that I’ve never learned everything,” said Catherine. “No one ever does. I’m sure Talon knew some spells that I didn’t know. I’m sure I know some spells that Talon never learned. But many of the spells are minor. Some of them are completely obscure or useless, like a spell to get rid of your own shadow, or a spell to make roses smell sweeter. And then there are numerous spells that are just duplicates of other spells. This is what makes reversing a spell so difficult. Unless you know exactly what the formation of the original spell is, you don’t know how to reverse it.”
“Yes, that’s what Midor was worried about after you shrunk him down,” Vivian said.
“Exactly,” said Catherine. “There were plenty of magical beings in the forest who might have been willing to reverse the spell for him, but if they didn’t know what particular spell I had used, then how could they know what spell to reverse? But that’s not the point I’m trying to make for today. The point is that most practitioners of magic don’t bother learning multiple spells for the same thing. You only need to learn the key spells that do what you need to do. And here’s the other good news--you don’t really need to worry about remembering spells. The spells do the remembering for you.”
“What do you mean?” asked Vivian.
“I’m not exactly sure how it works,” admitted Catherine. “But once you’ve used a spell a certain amount of times, it embeds itself in you. It lodges itself permanently in your soul, somehow. When I need to use a spell, a spell that’s lodged within me, I no longer need to worry about remembering it. The spell just comes to me. They’re almost like living things.”
“Yes,” said Vivian suddenly. “I’ve felt that.”
“You’ve felt something surging through you when you’ve used the spell? Yes, that’s it exactly. Our human bodies are only conduits for the spell to flow through us.”
“Yes,” said Vivian. “Yes, yes. That’s exactly how I’ve felt.”
“So,” said Catherine. “For each spell that I teach you, practice it. Spend all day practicing it. Use it on every object you can find. And then, by the end of the day, you’ll find the spell embedded in you.”
It was at that moment that two red cardinals flew up on the windowsill. Catherine noticed them, but didn’t bother to pay them any mind. But Vivian recognized them immediately. “Sandi and Stuart!” she exclaimed. “They are friends of Midor!”
“Of course they are,” said Catherine sarcastically. “And what does Midor want now?”
“Midor wants you to come at once,” said Stuart. “And bring your magic sword with you.”
“What is it?” asked Vivian.
“I’m not exactly sure,” admitted Stuart. “It sounded like something about a monster.”
Vivian turned to Catherine. “I need to go,” she said.
“Yes, of course,” said Catherine. “I understand. Midor needs you to use magic to help him again. Well, let me come along then. I love to see it whenever Midor has to admit that he needs magic to help him. Now, we’ll operate the same as always. I’ll give you the guidance, but you’ll do all the spells. Midor might try to guilt you into asking me to do the spells….”
“I don’t think he will,” said Vivian. “He’s gotten much better about that lately. Ever since you gave him that talk.”
“It was a few talks, as I recall,” said Catherine. “Well, I guess we’ll see. Let’s go.”
“Midor wanted you to fly out if possible,” said Sandi.
Catherine laughed. “Well, if that’s what Midor wants, then we’ll oblige,” she said.
*************************************************************************
Catherine and Vivian flew through the forest. Sarah and Stuart guided them as they flew, and directed them to the entrance to the cave. By the time they got there, it had only been a few hours since Midor had put out the call from the beehive.
During these few hours, Jason and Garth had emerged from the cave by themselves. But neither General Graten nor the dragon had been seen during this time. Midor had even gone back into the caves to try to find General Graten, but he could find nothing. It seemed that the dragon must have disappeared into the deepest parts of the caves (taking General Graten with him.)
“Well Midor, we meet again,” said Catherine in a sweetly sarcastic tone. “I know you asked for Vivian, but I thought I would come along as well to see what you were up to. They tell me you are in need of magic.”
“Welcome Catherine,” said Midor in a flat tone. “I would have called you instead of Vivian. Except I had a feeling that you would just ask Vivian to do all your magic anyway. So I thought I would just skip the middle step, and ask Vivian directly. Have you come here to help me with your magic, or just to tell Vivian what to do?”
“Vivian is in need of an advisor when it comes to magic,” said Catherine. “And I have decided to make my services available.”
“Well as long as you're both here, maybe you can both help. It’s a monster in the caves. We can’t tell if it’s one of the ancient monster from the other realm, or just one of the creatures hidden in the forest, but…”
“I thought you knew all the creatures hidden in the forest,” said Catherine sarcastically.
“I do,” said Midor. “That’s what makes this so puzzling. I don’t know this one.”
“Very well,” said Catherine. “You want us to kill it.”
“That seems a little bit drastic,” said Midor. “If it’s not one of the ancient monsters, you could just change it into a mouse or something, right?”
“Yes, we could. Well, Vivian will be doing the magic today, so I’ll let her decide.”
“Killing is always the last resort,” said Vivian. “I’ll see what other spells I can weave. But before we use magic unnecessarily, we should try to at least talk to it.”
Midor smiled. “I love the way you think. But I’m way ahead of you darling. I’ve tried to reason with it, but it cannot be talked to.”
“Yes, but we have methods of persuasion that you do not,” said Catherine. “Let’s just see if we can’t get it to talk to us a little bit. Where is it?”
“It’s in the caves,” said Midor. “But we don’t know where. This is one of the dwarf mining caves. It has many different shafts and tunnels extending deep underground. And the creature seems to have retreated to one of the deep tunnels, with General Graten.”
“With General Graten?” asked Catherine.
“He was fighting it,” said Midor.
Catherine made tsking sounds. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now you’ve lost my General as well, Midor? Not a very good track record for your first day back into the forest.” Catherine turned to Vivian. “Well Vivian, what do you think? What spell shall we use? You want to try to locate the monster that’s deep in the cave.”
“We could use a locator spell,” said Vivian.
“Yes, we could,” said Catherine. “If we knew what we were locating. Which we don’t.” Catherine turned to Midor. “Did you manage to get its name?”
“We never got that far in our introductions,” said Midor.
“Were you able to get anything from it? A whisker? A piece of hair? A single scale? A drop of blood?”
Midor shook his head. “We did make it bleed some, but I didn’t think to save any of its blood,” he said.
“Do you know what type of creature it was?”
Midor shook his head again. “It was a creature I had never seen before. It had a face like a dragon, but a body like a giant serpent.”
Catherine turned back to Vivian. “So we’ve got nothing to go on. We’re not even sure what type of creature it is exactly.”
“But,” said Vivian, “We know that it is with General Graten right now.”
“Ah, yes, good thinking,” said Catherine. “Assuming, of course, that it hasn’t eaten General Graten yet. But even if it has, we could still find General Graten inside its stomach.” Catherine turned back to Midor. “Now, I’m assuming ‘General’ is not the name his mother gave him. Do you know his first name?”
“He’s not the kind of man that you want to be on a first name basis with,” Midor said.
“Don’t I know it!” Catherine said. “But the spell will work smoother if we have his full name.”
Midor turned to Jason, and Jason just shrugged his shoulders.
“Fine,” said Catherine. “We might still be able to make this work.” Catherine turned back to Vivian. “Do you remember how to do the locator spell?” Catherine asked Vivian.
“I think so,” said Vivian.
“Go ahead and try it out,” said Catherine. “I’ll help you if you get stuck. Now, for the part in the spell where you say his name, we’re going to improvise a bit here. You can use the Runic language to say ‘man of the family Graten’. I’m not 100% sure it will work or not, but you should be able to feel whether or not the spell is working as you chant it.”
Vivian started to chant the spell in the Runic language. Where she got stuck, Catherine would help her out with a word or two. But pretty soon, as Vivian chanted the spell over and over again, she became used to it. She was no longer stumbling for the words or pausing, she was becoming more and more fluent. She had her eyes closed.
“It’s working, isn’t it?” said Catherine. “You can see him.”
“I can see the General,” said Vivian. “He is deep in the caves. He is hurt. Injured.”
“Is the creature with him?” asked Catherine.
“I do not see the creature,” said Vivian.
“Well, I guess we might as well rescue the General first,” said Catherine. “Who knows. Maybe he will have some information.”
Midor still had the moonstone from the dwarves, and Midor, Vivian, Catherine, Jason and Garth went into the cave together.
Vivian had her eyes closed almost the whole time. She was chanting the locator spell, and walking with her eyes closed as the spell guided her. Occasionally, whenever they came to a fork in the path of the tunnels, Vivian would open her eyes and point one way or another. But then she would promptly close her eyes again, and start up the chanting once more.
After walking through the tunnels in this way for some time, they at last came to find General Graten. He was lying on the ground, groaning.
“Are you alright General?” asked Catherine.
General Graten opened his eyes to look at her. He seemed confused for a second, as if exhaustion had made it difficult for him to comprehend what was going on. But then a look of recognition came over his face, and he chuckled. “Of course,” he said, chuckling. “Of course it’s you. When Midor was threatening to kill that monster, I wondered how in the world he would be able to carry out his threat. I should have known Midor would bring you in to fight his battles.”
Catherine smiled. “You’re a smart man, General,” she said, as she knelt down beside him. “You’re hurt, aren’t you?”
“I’ve had worse,” General Graten said. “You should see what I did to the creature.”
“It’s okay, we’ll fix you up,” said Catherine. “Alright, Vivian, what do you think?”
“He needs a healing spell,” said Vivian.
“Yes, but the spell will be more effective if we know what’s wrong with him,” said Catherine. “A general healing spell might do the trick, but it’s a rather crude instrument to use. First, you want to use a diagnostic spell to try to locate the injury. Now, there are a number of diagnostic spells to choose from. I think the two most common ones are the ones to search for broken bones, and the ones to check for bleeding. But we’ll do those in just a minute. Why don’t we start with the general diagnostic spell first. You remember that one, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure I do.”
“You remember how it starts?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Okay, go ahead and start it. I’ll help you when you get stuck.”
“Oh great,” moaned General Graten. “I’ve been in army camps long enough to know what’s going on. I’ve become the poor sap that they let the apprentice doctor practice on. That usually only happens to the lowly grunts. If you ever get assigned the apprentice doctor, it’s a sure sign that nobody cares about you.”
“Quit complaining,” said Catherine. “Not every soldier gets healed by magic spells. If you were back with your army camp and left to the care of human doctors, you’d spend months recovering from your injuries, or die from the infections. Don’t worry, I’m watching Vivian.”
Vivian chanted the spell, and then conferred with Catherine. “I think he has some broken bones,” she said. “I don’t detect any bleeding.”
“Okay,” Catherine said. “Do the broken bone diagnosis to be sure. Now, the spell for healing broken bones is going to be the same no matter which bones are broken, but you will need to know where to focus the spell, so you can weave the name of the bones into the spell. Have you learned the Runic names for all the bones yet?”
Vivian rolled her eyes. “When would I have learned all the Runic names for bones?’
“What are you doing with yourself every night?” asked Catherine. “Aren’t you doing the homework I give you? You’ve got to learn the Runic names for things if you want the spells to work. Okay, I’ll help you just this once, but you really have to study more Runic.”
General Graten started muttering more complaints about having the apprentice doctor, and Catherine told him to hush. Vivian determined that General Graten had several broken ribs and one broken leg. Catherine helped her with the Runic names, and Vivian completed the spell.
General Graten closed his eyes while Vivian was muttering the chant over him, but then once the chant finished, he opened his eyes and looked around. He seemed surprised. “Was that it?” he said. “Did you just heal all of my bones? I was expecting something more painful.”
“Do you feel healed?” asked Catherine.
“I don’t feel in pain anymore, if that’s what you’re asking,” said General Graten. “But I never felt anything moving around or anything. Was I supposed to feel anything?”
“You should be okay now,” said Catherine. But then she turned to Vivian. “But go ahead and re-do the diagnostic spell just to be sure. It never hurts.”
Vivian redid the diagnostic spell, and concluded that General Graten was all healed now.
General Graten got to his feet. He moved slowly, but this was partly because he didn’t believe he had been fully healed. He kept expecting his leg to still be broken and to collapse under him, but nothing happened.
He looked around him. “Well…” he said with a chuckle.
“Well, General,” said Midor. “What happened to you?”
“What do you think happened to me?” asked General Graten. “Do you think I broke my leg by tripping over a stone? I’ve been fighting a massive beast.”
“I think what Midor means to say,” said Catherine, “is how come you’re still alive. Why did the creature just leave you here injured? Why didn’t he eat you?”
“We were fighting,” said General Graten. “And at one point I lost my grip on the beast and fell to the floor. It attacked me with its mouth open as if to swallow me whole. It would have done so too, but fortunately for me, there was a big boulder on the ground that I was able to pick up. It was a huge stone, almost as big as me,” General Graten gestured with his hands to show how big it was. “I could barely pick it up, but somehow I managed to drop it into the creature’s mouth as it attacked. The boulder went down its throat, and the creature was choking on it. It was furious, and swung its tail, hitting me and knocking across the cave. I don’t remember what happened after that, but it must have run off.”
“Well it couldn’t have gone far if it was choking on a boulder,” said Midor.
“Yes, but how do we find it?” asked Jason.
“If we’re going to use the locator spell, we need something that belongs to the creature,” said Catherine. “General, did you manage to grab anything from the creature? A scale? One of its whiskers?”
“I’ve got plenty of its blood on my clothes,” said the General. “Of course, it’s dried up now, but…”
“”Is there nothing else?” asked Catherine.
“I’m afraid all the creature left me was its blood.”
“Okay, possibly we can make this still work,” said Catherine. “Take off your shirt, and give it to us.”
“Not so fast ladies. I do have my modesty to consider.”
“You are as tiresome as ever, General. Just give Vivian the shirt.”
General Graten took off his shirt and handed it to Vivian.
“Now,” said Catherine to Vivian, “the difficulty with the blood is that it's mixed in with the shirt fabric. It might still work, but you’re going to have to use a special variation on the locator spell so that it knows what to focus on. Now, there’s a lot of blood on this shirt, so…” Catherine paused as she was talking and looked back at General Graten. “General, is all of this blood from the creature or is some of it yours.”
“A lot of it is mine as well,” said the General.
Catherine swore angrily. “Okay, we can still possibly make this work,” she explained to Vivian. “It will be a difficult spell, but then again, performing difficult spells is how we learn the most. So this will be good practice for you. You’re going to have to separate out General Graten’s blood from the creature’s blood. You can do that by getting a sample of General Graten’s blood, and having the spell analyze it for you. Then, use the spell to separate the blood from the fabric, and to separate out General Graten’s blood from the creature’s blood. You’ve been practicing your conjugations, right? Because you’re going to have to make use of the different referencing pronouns to keep this all straight.”
“I’m not sure I can--” Vivian began.
“Just try it out. I’ll correct you when you make mistakes,” said Catherine.
And so, they began. General Graten agreed to give a sample of his blood (it was obtained by pricking his finger with the point of a sword that Garth brought). Then Vivian analyzed the blood with her spell, and Catherine helped her form a spell that she could use to separate out this blood from the creature’s blood. Vivian began chanting the spell in Runic. Catherine jumped in frequently at the beginning to correct the grammar, but as Vivian repeated the chant over and over again, she got more and more used to it. At last, she was chanting the spell fluently.
“I’m going to ask you some questions,” said Catherine. “To keep the spell going, you can answer me between repetitions of the spell. You should have about 20 seconds or so before the spell breaks, so keep your answers short. Can you see the monster?”
Vivian kept chanting until she got to the end of the spell. Then before she started it again, she said, “I see something.”
“Okay, that’s fine. Where is it?”
Again, there was a wait while Vivian kept chanting to the end of the spell again. “I think it’s inside the cave walls.”
“Yes, that sounds right,” said Midor. “It can crawl through rock. I think it eats the rock.”
“Is it still moving?” asked Catherine.
Another wait, then, “Yes, it’s still moving.”
“I thought that boulder that General Graten put into its throat would have slowed it down,” said Jason.
“Don’t forget,” said Midor, “this is a creature that eats earth and rock. That boulder may have temporarily blocked up its throat, but it probably was able to swallow it down eventually.”
Vivian got to the end of her chant, and then said, “But it’s not a monster I see. It is a young man.”
“What?” said Catherine. “In the rock?”
“Is there a mix up with the blood?” asked Midor.
“Possibly,” said Catherine. “But a mixup with the blood wouldn’t show a man eating through the rock of the cave walls.” Catherine turned to Vivian. “Vivian, are you sure that’s what you see?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Vivian. “He looks quite handsome. He’s wearing clothes, but they’re very old, he looks familiar. I think maybe I’ve seen--.”
“Start chanting again or you’re going to lose the spell,” said Catherine.
Vivian started up the chanting again.
“Well, what to make of this?” asked Midor.
“It was not a young man in old clothes that I was fighting, I’m sure of that,” said General Graten.
“Yes, we all saw it,” said Midor. “So, either we are all out of our senses, or the spell must have gone wrong. Catherine, why don’t you just perform the spell yourself?”
“I don’t need to perform the spell myself,” said Catherine. “I am right here watching and listening. If Vivian gets one syllable of the spell wrong, I’ll tell her. The spell is not wrong. I don't know what’s going on, but she’s performing the spell correctly.”
“Obviously something’s gone wrong,” Midor insisted. “I know you’re deliberately trying to make Vivian do all your magic just so you can corrupt her. But you’ve already made her do the spell. All I’m asking you to do is to double check it.”
“To corrupt her? Who was it that called us over here? Is magic necessary, Midor, or is it corrupting? I thought we'd already been through this.”
“We have, and you won,” said Midor. “I admit magic is useful. Now, do you want to double check the spell? There’s no way Vivian is seeing things right.”
Catherine was silent for a moment, then she said, “She could be seeing it right.”
“What do you mean?” asked Midor.
“Sometimes a spell can show you something that the eyes can not see. A spell can see through an enchantment, for example.”
“You mean…” Midor began.
“I’m not sure,” said Catherine. She sighed. “I would have to see for myself. Vivian, dear, stop chanting and give me that shirt, would you?”
Vivian handed it over, and Catherine began chanting the spell herself. Catherine, it was noticeable, was able to chant the spell effortlessly. It was much different than Vivian’s labored recitation. In Catherine’s mouth, the chant sounded like a song, or a hum. Catherine closed her eyes to try to see the vision from the locator spell, but then suddenly stopped chanting and dropped General Graten’s shirt. Her eyes flashed open again.
“What’s wrong?” asked Vivian.
“No, it’s not possible!” Catherine exclaimed.
“Did you see him as well?” asked Vivian.
“What is he doing here?” asked Catherine. But no one moved to answer her. It was obvious that she was talking to herself.
After a pause, Midor ventured, “So you know him then?”
“I never thought I’d run into him again,” said Catherine. “Certainly not here.”
“I thought he looked familiar!” cried Vivian. “It’s Alfred, isn’t it? I hadn’t seen him since I was a girl! But I thought he was dead.”
“We never did find his body, did we?” said Midor
“What are you talking about?” asked General Graten.
“It’s a long story,” said Midor. “And there are elements of that story that have always remained unclear.”
“Alfred was from the old noble families of the forest,” said Vivian. “He was a great friend of Catherine.”
General Graten laughed. “I’ve been watching Catherine,” he said. “She’s like me. She doesn’t have any friends. She just has people that are useful to her.”
Catherine raised her head and looked directly at General Graten. “Alfred was a great friend of my youth, when I was but a young woman. He was someone whom I shared all my secrets with. I never loved anyone like I loved him. And I never got over his betrayal.”
“Betrayal?” said Vivian, surprised. “No, Catherine. Alfred would never have done anything to hurt you.”
Catherine smiled sadly. “That’s what I once thought,” she said.
“Alfred tried to stop you, didn’t he?” said Midor. “When you were first beginning to lose control of the magic, Alfred tried to save you.”
“In the end, it turned out he was more concerned with the forest than he was with me,” said Catherine.
There was a silence as everyone realized the same thing simultaneously. Vivian was the first to speak. “So you changed him into that creature.”
“I did,” said Catherine. “Although he appears to be greatly changed from the creature I turned him into. I changed him into a creature that would only eat rocks and dirt, and burrow harmlessly into the ground. I did not give him the taste for meat. That he must have picked up himself over the years.”
“Does he have his memories?” asked Midor. “Does he know who he is?”
“He does not,” said Catherine.
“Can you reverse the spell?” asked Vivian.
Catherine stood simply in silence.
“Can you reverse the spell?” Vivian asked again. Then Vivian noticed that tears were beginning to form in Catherine’s eyes.
“He was my only true friend,” Catherine said in a quiet voice. “I loved him.”
“You can reverse the spell,” said Vivian, answering her own question. “Every spell is reversible if you know how it was formed. That’s what you told me. And since you cast this spell yourself, you know how it was formed.”
“I don’t know why I did it,” Catherine said.
“It was the magic,” said Midor. “It was making you lose your mind.”
“But you can reverse it,” said Vivian. “You can get your friend back.”
More tears flowed down Catherine’s cheek. “It’s too late now,” she said.
“What do you mean? It’s not too late,” Vivian insisted.
“Too much time has passed,” said Catherine.
“Catherine, listen to me,” said Midor. “We need to do something. The reason we came down here into this cave was to hunt this monster. We can’t let it keep roaming the caves and killing the dwarves. We can’t just turn around and go back out of the cave now that we know it’s Alfred. So what do you want to do? Kill it? Shrink it? Change again into something else? Or do you want to reverse the spell?”
Catherine stayed silent.
“Catherine, you have to reverse the spell. It’s the only thing to do,” said Midor.
“I can’t,” Catherine said. By now tears were streaming down. “After all these years, I can’t see him again.”
“You can’t leave him like this Catherine,” Midor insisted. “He’s become a monster. He’s eating the dwarves.”
“He’ll blame me,” said Catherine. “As soon as he gets his memories back, he’ll blame me!”
“Catherine!” Midor said in loud voice.
“It’s okay,” Vivian said back to Midor. “The monster is behind the cave walls for now. There’s now imminent danger. Give her a couple minutes to process this first.”
Midor immediately realized Vivian was right. “Yes, of course darling,” he said. He sighed. “You always were good at balancing me out.”
Vivian smiled briefly at him, but then turned back to Catherine. Catherine still appeared to be in shock. “Sit down,” Vivian said gently. “Sit down Catherine, it’s all right.”
“So, I think I’ve gathered enough,” said General Graten to Midor. “Alfred was Catherine’s old friend. He tried to stop her when she was going crazy with magic about 20 years ago. So she changed him into this monster.
“That seems to be what happened,” said Midor. “No one really knew what had happened to him until now. But I guess that mystery is finally solved.”
Meanwhile, Vivian was comforting Catherine. “It’s okay,” Vivian said soothingly. “It’s okay, Catherine. You can do this.”
The act of Vivian cooing softly to Catherine did more to bring Catherine back to her senses than Midor’s yelling did. Once Catherine calmed down, she realized that Vivian was having to comfort her, and she realized that this was making her look weak. And Catherine had spent her entire adult life always striving to look strong in the face of an unforgiving world. So Catherine stood up.
“Enough!” she said, in a strong voice. She seemed to have regained herself. “I will reverse the spell. It is what must be done.”
“Good,” said Midor. “But don’t reverse the spell just yet. We don’t want Alfred stuck inside in the middle of the rocks.”
“Is there any way to get him out?” asked Vivian.
“We can wait for him to attack again,” said Garth. “It’s been terrorizing us all day. It goes away, but then it comes back when we least expect it.”
“Yes, we could wait,” said Catherine. “But why wait around for him to take us off-guard when we can take control of the situation?” Catherine then turned to Vivian. “Vivian, I’ll handle this one dear. But listen to the chanting closely. I’ll quiz you later on what the syntax is.” Catherine then started chanting and waving her arms around. And as she did, a hole gradually opened up in the cave walls. And then out of that hole, came the dragon, floating through the air and looking very confused. Then Catherine started chanting something very different, and the dragon changed into a man’s body. And then, there was standing before them a man that Vivian, Catherine, and Midor all recognized immediately.
“Alfred!” Vivian exclaimed.
The man, Alfred, looked confused. “What happened?” he said. “How did I get here?” He looked at Vivian with more confusion. “Who are you?”
“Don’t you recognize me?” asked Vivian.
“Vivian, it’s been twenty years,” said Midor gently.
“Vivian? Yes, I see it now. You look…” Alfred paused, reluctant to comment on a woman’s aging, but then could see no way around it, “...older somehow. I don’t know. And Midor, is that you? You look old as well.”
“You haven’t changed at all,” Midor observed.
“Why should I have changed?” Alfred asked.
Alfred at this point had not noticed Catherine, who was standing off to the side. “Alfred, dear,” she said cautiously.
Alfred turned around. “Catherine? Now you look 20 years younger than I remember. What’s going on?”
“A little bit of magic,” said Catherine. “I cast a de-aging spell on myself.”
Alfred still seemed confused by this. “Why would you..” he began, but then he shook his head as if to shake the question away. “Catherine, what’s going on? The last thing I remember, we were in the castle. We were arguing. We were very angry at each other.”
“I remember,” said Catherine softly. New tears formed in her eyes.
“I told you that if you didn’t stop with the black magic, I was going to have you removed from the throne of Castle Tauna.”
“I remember,” said Catherine again, softly.
“And then, the next thing I know--” Alfred began.
“Alfred, you don’t remember what happened next,” said Catherine, “But I got very angry at you, and I cast a spell to turn you into a giant worm, who would burrow beneath the ground and eat rock and dirt.”
Alfred stood still, shocked by the news. “You what?” he said.
“Alfred, I’m sorry,” Catherine blubbered. “With all my heart, I’m sorry. But it was so long ago.”
“So long ago…” Alfred said slowly. Then he turned to look at Vivian and Midor, and he remembered Midor’s words. “20 years ago,” he said at last.
Midor nodded. “Yes, 20 years ago now Alfred.”
“You two were so young the last time I saw you. But I see now you’ve grown into respectable adult men and women.”
Midor smiled. “I’m not sure about the respectable part.”
“So for the past 20 years, I’ve been a monster?” Alfred asked.
“That’s all over now,” said Vivian.
“I just want to know what’s happened to me,” said Alfred. “Have I been a monster for the past 20 years.”
“You have,” said Catherine. “Alfred, can you forgive me?”
“What kind of a question is that?” asked Alfred.
“Alfred you know that I would never…” Catherine began, but then stopped herself.
Alfred looked at her, and knew what she wanted to say. “The girl I fell in love with would never have done that to me,” he said. “Yes, you’re right. But the woman who did it to me wasn’t the same girl I fell in love with. It was the magic that corrupted you.”
“I could have done great things with that magic,” said Catherine. “I could have transformed the entire kingdom.”
“Maybe. If you could have controlled it. But it controlled you. You brought those evil spirits out.”
“I can still control it,” Catherine pleaded.
Alfred opened his mouth to respond, but then thought better of it, closed his mouth, looked around the cave at everyone, and then finally said, “Maybe you can now. I don’t know. Apparently I’ve been gone for a long time. Take me back with you to Castle Tauna. Tell me everything that happened while I was gone.”
“I can tell you some of the story,” said Catherine. “But the truth is, I’ve been away from Castle Tauna for a long time myself.”
“We’ll all fill you in,” said Vivian.
General Graten dusted his hands against each other. “Well, all in a day’s work,” he said. “We’ve stopped the monster, and saved the dwarf mine. It’s getting dark. We’d better make our camp for the night. I must say, Midor, it’s never boring travelling with you.”
“Ah, yes, that’s right,” Catherine said suddenly. “I had heard the three of you had set out on some journey. You’ve gone off to seek the new sorcerer, is that right?”
“You’ve been informed correctly,” said Midor.
“I wasn’t going to say anything before,” said Catherine, “But now that we’re all here together, and now that we have my darling Alfred back with us, I feel moved to tell you that I have some information on that account which may save you a trip.”
Everyone reacted in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell us before?” said Vivian.
“Firstly, because none of you bothered to consult with me,” said Catherine, “even though a little bit of common sense should have told you that I know many things regarding magic and Castle Tauna, and can be a valuable resource on that account. So if you’re not going to do me the courtesy of asking, then why should I volunteer information on my own? But secondly because both Midor and General Graten have been particularly bothersome toward me recently, and I thought a nice long walk away from the Castle might be good for all of us in terms of keeping Castle amicable. But my mood is much altered after the events of today, and so I would welcome you all back to the Castle.”
“What information do you have?” asked Midor.
“Since the death of Talon, I have been in touch with the Guild of Sorcerers myself,” said Catherine.
“How?” asked Vivian.
Catherine looked at Vivian. “Vivian, dear, don’t ask stupid questions. The same way Talon was in touch with them. Through the magic orb. It can transmit thoughts and feelings over thousands of miles. The Guild is indeed aware that we are without an official guild sorcerer at the Castle. But the guild is also aware that for the first time in centuries, Castle Tauna is once again under the reign of a queen who can wield the ancient ancestral magical powers. There is, therefore, no need at present to send another sorcerer.”
“You told them not to send another sorcerer?” exclaimed Midor in shock.
“Midor, you overestimate my powers. I am not even a member of the sorcerer’s guild, much less a leader. They do not recognize my authority. I couldn’t have told them anything even if I wanted to. We discussed the issue at length, and they agreed with me that their services were not needed at present. Two magic wielders in the castle is superfluous. It is true that when I was younger, I ruled the Castle with Talon at my side. But Talon was a fixture of the Castle that I inherited from my predecessors. Now that Talon is gone, there is no need to replace him.”
“But what about the opening to the other dimension?” Midor cried. “The sorcerer’s guild needs to close it.”
“The sorcerer’s guild is hard at work on the problem as we speak,” said Catherine. “Sorcerer’s possess the ability to work on a problem without being physically present. They are working on the spells on their end, and I am working on the spells at my end.”
“When have you been working on the spells?” asked Midor.
“What kind of a question is that?” asked Catherine. “Think a little bit Midor. Remember all those times when you and General Graten begged me to come down out of my chambers to solve this or that problem you were having? What do you think I’ve been doing locked in my chambers this whole time? Why do you think I’ve been trying to train up Vivian to handle everything in my absence?”
General Graten thought to himself, and then nodded slowly. “It is beginning to make sense now,” he said.
“I can’t believe I’m the one who has to say this,” said Midor. “But this is hardly the time to be economical with magic. These monsters that are emerging are going to be very hard to defeat. Especially the monsters who can perform magic. And they will be coming eventually. We shouldn’t refuse help from the sorcerer’s guild. If you’re in contact with them, tell them to send one of their sorcerers here anyway. Two magic wielders are going to be better than one when it comes to battling the monsters.”
Midor realized his mistake as soon as he said it. “Aha,” said Catherine gleefully. “So you admit it then. We do need another magic wielder.”
Midor stayed silent.
“I have been thinking the same thing,” said Catherine. “That’s why I’ve been training Vivian up to handle everything. By the time I’m done with her, she will be my equal in everything.”
Midor looked over at Alfred. Alfred was still too confused about what was going on to speak. But seeing Alfred reminded Midor of the downside of magic. “I know we need the magic now,” he said. “I just hope we don’t have a repeat of what happened with Alfred.”
“I would never harm Alfred again,” said Catherine, and there was great emotion in her voice. No one there doubted that she was sincere. But of course, she had had sincere emotions about Alfred once before long ago.
After a moment, it was General Graten who broke the silence. “Well, I suppose we’d better think about where we are going to sleep. I don’t think we have enough daylight left to make it back to the castle.”
“You’re welcome to stay with us dwarves,” said Garth.
“Thank you,” said Midor. “It’s been too long since I spent time with the dwarves. I need to sit down and have a chat with your chieftains.”
“You can stay if you like, Midor,” said Catherine. “But I want to head back to the castle. And I’m not worried about losing the daylight. I can make my own illumination with magic if necessary. A simple light spell.”
“In that case,” said Midor, “I’ll chat with the dwarves some other time. There is much that we need to discuss on our walk back.”
Catherine sighed. “Yes, Midor,” she said. “You’re very good at discussing. But sometimes you would do well to just shut your mouth and listen to me.”
“Someone needs to tell me what’s been happening,” said Alfred.
“We can discuss everything on the way,” said Catherine.
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