Royesland [Full]

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday skipped through the works spaces like a child in a candy shop, picking things up, inspecting them and putting them down entirely where they didn't belong. he plucked a dark iridescent feather out of one of the cabinets and set it behind his ear:
"This!" Tuesday cried at the angry yowling cat, "Is mine and you can't even be angry with me for taking it back. Its just a feather but its mine. My only feather, once stolen now reclaimed~" He said to himself before moving on. Cathal never saw him put anything in his pockets but he could see that both of them were full by time he made it to the second last floor- this might have been a mistake. Tom's work shop where the towers spell forge lay was one of the few rooms with a door, but it gave as Tuesday pressed upon it. Inside it looked something like a glass and copper astroglabe, but at its heart was an alter set with several things; set like a diode in what none of the characters would be able to identify as circuit work was a pearl the size of both his fists.
"Oh that rat bastard. That thief! I knew he had it! THE LIAR," the king of the fairies cried with excitement, carried away with the long held goal of breaking into his rivals hold. There were two stone steps leading up to the spell forge's heart and he all but danced up them.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal yowled in fury and launched himself at Tuesday, intending to gouge the fae's eyes out, or at the very least claw his way up Tuesday's legs. The feather was one thing, but the pearl? Every ward on both the tower and the town centered on Tom's spell forge, and that pearl was the heart of it all, and Cathal was not about to let Tuesday scamper off with it.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday made the uncanny crackle of a corvid as the cat launched at him and was surprised as his own reflexes even as a man. He caught the cat by the scruff in mid it and held him out as he thrashed and hissed.
"Whoa, Whoa," He said taking the pearl out of the core of the spell with the other. Something like the gust shuddered through the room like an invisible flame had been extinguished and rumbled soundless through the tower and down into the ground. And that was when Molly caught up with them. He turned a sincere smile on his face, "Look what I found you," he said and plopped the pearl into both her hands Cathal still hissing like mad at him.
"I didn't find anything useful, but that's the pearl this port is named after and its been missing from my treasure hold for 80 years! Oh quiet you," he added to Cathal.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"MRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOWWWWWW!!!" Cathal wailed, and continued hissing and spitting like an unkempt fire.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

The melancholy mood was spoiled when Tuesday went bolting up the tower stairs like a child on Candlenights, Tubs screeching after him in his feline rage.

"Hey, wait!" Molly tried to hurry behind them, but stars above they were quick, and her leg was starting to really bother her, and also fuck stairs. She paused every so often to fruitlessly shout something usually to the effect of, "Tuesday, stop! What the hell are you doing?!" further up the tower.

The disarray seemed to get worse the higher she went. "How in the world are one man and one cat making this big a mess?" she huffed aloud. Eventually she dumped her satchel and the coat she'd had tied around her waist in one of the slightly less razed workshops. She could come back for them once Hurricane Tuesday had calmed down.

There was the great slam of a door crashing open and another yowl. Molly dragged herself back to the stairs. "This has got to be the top, I swear…" It wasn't quite, but it didn't matter because she had finally caught up- in just enough time to see Tuesday, Tubs by the scruff of the neck in one hand, reach down with the other for a pearl too big to possibly be real sitting on what looked like some kind of altar.

"Hey, maybe you shouldn't-" But she was far too late to stop those sticky fingers. The shockwave of magic that blew forth from it actually made her take a step back. "What- !"

The next thing she knew, she was scrambling to catch the pearl when Tuesday dropped it into her hands. Molly couldn't believe the weight of it. A memory even older than her time with Godmother resurfaced, of this same perfectly smooth texture, except in the form of many infinitely smaller pearls on a string. Her jaw dropped. "Anything useful? Tuesday, this is-" she looked past him at the empty altar. "What did you do? That looks really important!" The pearl, warm when he first handed it to her, quickly grew icy cold. Molly shivered. "It feels really important."

Tubs was having a conniption fit and added his opinion in the form of another banshee wail. Not minding flailing fur and claws, she reached around the cat to slap lightly at the hand holding him. She had to cradle the pearl against her chest in one arm almost like an infant to do so.

"Hey, okay. That's enough. Tuesday, please put him down. You've made your point," she said, sounding tired. "I'm glad you found your missing treasure, but this doesn't look like it was supposed to come off of there." Warily, she looked back into the room. "As always, you're very sweet, it's very beautiful, but... I don't know that we can keep this. What's that thing you just took it off?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

At Molly Sill's Behest he dropped BathTub unceremoniously to the floor.

"Well you right it is very important, the goddess shed seven of them when she cried the sea into its cradle... but its not usefully-useful at the moment? But it is mine. By rights." He said like he'd confused himself. He wasn't used to being able to feel two things at once or be able to focus on multiple parts of the situation at a time, of which his now had many. The pearl was not what he had come here for but it was his by rights and that was exciting. Yes. Right. The Duke of Foxes coronation- the pearl would be no use against that, or his current state, but he had had a hunch the wizard had many of his peoples things and this should be celebrated- and that thought seemed to steady him again from his brief but excitable lapse into megalomania fairy illlogics- "The wizard is a fine thief, and he was probably doing all manner of mischief with it. I wouldn't be overly concerned with the disillusion of that spell. Wizards think they can trick magic into following rules. Its quite obnoxious really."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal landed on his feet and immediately hissed up at Tuesday. If only he was a man, he'd have throttled Tuesday, first of all for making a ruin of his home, and second of all for breaking Tom's spell, and most of all for making a mockery of every law of hospitality that ever was.

Now they needed Tom to come back twice as badly. Cathal resisted the urge to piss on Tuesday's foot (it would only make the room smell and ruin his floor), and instead stalked off to look for any sign of where he was going. The east? To the king's war? That was a big place, and he was such a small cat.

Cathal searched through the rooms, but, even after Tuesday's whirlwind thieving, it didn't look like Tom had left anything behind to give him a clue where he'd gone. He gave Tuesday a side eye before continuing further on, to the top of the tower, where the quilts and the telescope and his pipes and Tom's guitar sat just as he'd left them.

Cathal did a double take.

Tom had gone and left his guitar?

He trotted over to investigate, and found a little piece of paper tucked into the strings, which he was able to bat mostly out with his paws and pull out the rest of the way with his teeth, and unfold with a little effort. It was a song, and it was also a spell, and it was the sort of magic Cathal could have done in moments on Tom's guitar if only he'd had hands. He looked sadly down at the song that he wanted so badly to play, and then picked it up very gently in his mouth, and went to find Molly Sils.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Okay, sure." Molly sighed and cursed herself for not being more specific when she'd asked him to put the cat down. But as cats do, Tubs landed on his feet, voiced his displeasure, and angrily went off somewhere else in the tower.

Molly considered the pearl. With no one here to contest it, for all she knew it was Tuesday's and his to take back, as important as the altar he'd taken it from may have seemed. "So if you can't go back into the woods right now to put this in your treasure hoard, which I'm sure is very impressive, what exactly do you intend to do with it?"

The pain in her leg twinged. "I need to sit down," she murmured. Glancing around the room the pearl had been in, she decided the wizard's things had been messed around with enough. Rather than trying to move anything, she followed Tubs as he passed by again. Toward the bottom of the steps leading to the top of the tower she sat down, stretching out her bad leg.

The memory of the string of pearls returned to her once again. It must have been her mother's; though Molly had been too small to recall now how she'd gotten a hold of it, she did remember getting in big trouble for playing with it even though she didn't think she'd broken it. "This is… not even extremely valuable, it's clearly priceless, and I don't really feel comfortable just carrying it around."

Tubs hadn't been gone very long when he came trotting back down the stairs with something in his mouth. "Oh hey, did you find something?" Molly asked, taking from him what turned out to be a piece of paper. She began to read it, a smile spreading on her face after only a few lines. "Sun and stars, this is beautiful."

She read it through once, then looked it over again, making a puzzled face before turning back to the cat. "...This is a spell, isn't it? Do you think it's-"

He began to meow at her in earnest, indicating she follow him back up the stairs. With a gasp of pain she hefted herself back to her feet. "Come with us or don't, but I think if you keep stuffing things in your pockets like that they're going to tear, magpie." She winked at Tuesday and went after the cat.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tuesday gave her a strange look when she asked about the future of the pearl, "That's far too long in the future to worry about." He said with a laugh, "Are- you alright?" He wasn't aware that she had a bad leg so her need to sit down seemed just a bit alarming after having handed her the most sacred object he'd ever got his little corvid claws on.

when she mentioned his pockets he looked confused, but when he patted them his face changed to delight. He hadn't been aware of his new and terrible habit.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Oh yeah, just an old battle injury," she joked, calling over her shoulder back down the stairs. "I'll be fine!"

The top of the tower was a cozy bedroom, well-loved and lived in under the fine layer of dust and myriad cobwebs. Tubs led her over to a guitar, so lonely in the chilly room. "Poor thing," Molly said, gently setting the pearl down in the middle of the bed where she didn't think it would roll off.

As delicately as she could, she picked up the guitar and blew some of the dust off. The best pick she owned dug out of her pockets, she cradled the instrument and plucked an experimental note that got a cringe out of both her and Tubs. "Aw, you poor, poor thing," she whispered again. She stepped back over to the bed and gestured. "I'm going to sit down, if that's all right."

She started tuning the guitar, wiping it down with her handkerchief as she went, and worked for a little while until the thought occupying her mind was too big to hold in anymore. "Before I do this, you should probably know that I've never, uh… I know this seems silly, given what I… do? But, um… I've never actually cast a spell before." It was a frightening admission; she'd taken Tubs' fate into her hands, and the gravity of this had begun to sink in as she tuned someone else's guitar.

"Magic has always happened when I make music, but ever since I realized that's what it was, I tried to... keep it in," she explained. "I don't- I don't try to cast or enchant or whatever. But it happens anyway and sometimes… a lot of the time... something goes wrong." She glanced up with guilt in her eyes. "Which isn't to say I won't try because I will, I swear on every song I've ever played I'll try my very best. I just… I don't know what will happen. If it'll work. And... I thought I should tell you now. In case I fuck up, that way it's not a surprise."

She tried to smile, but after a beat went back to tuning the guitar. "...That sounded better in my head. I'm sorry."

After another little while she gave one of those musical sighs of hers and sat up straighter. "I think it's almost…" Molly put her pick to the instrument and eased a chord out of it. This time the smile was genuine. "...Yeah. Ready." Taking a deep breath, she met Tubs' eyes. "If you are."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal settled onto the bed beside Molly and watched carefully as she tuned Tom's guitar. He looked up at her face as she spoke, and wished he could tell her all the things he knew about music, and magic. It's just intention, Molly Sill, he would have told her if he could. You just have to believe in your song and your magic and most of all yourself. He knew she could do it, and he rubbed his head against her leg as she worked to tell her so.

 

[CelticSol]

Riley is silent when they return to the ruined house, and somehow the air itself becomes even more quiet, as if the forest itself responded to her grief, when she views her rotting ancestral home. Riley takes a few spare steps towards the house, making a quip with deceptive casualness as her footsteps weigh heavy on the weak wood of the threshold of the house. As Riley enters the ruined home, Lockette hears a small cracking noise.

It's one of those noises that is so small, she barely hears it - in fact, if she depended less on her sense of sound than she currently does in order to understand her surroundings, she might have ignored it as a trick of the mind. It is only the fact she does, absolutely, hear something, and it is a sound she recognizes as rotted wood finally breaking under it's own weight. Lockette's heart jumps into her throat as she realizes the sound is coming not from the floor, but the roof, and she lunges forward with her blood pounding in her ears. She catches Riley around the back of her collar, yanking her back into her arms as the first section of the roof collapses in a cacophony of chaos, followed in short order by the rest of the roofing collapsing the entry way Riley had stood in not a second before.

Lockette breathes heavily, Riley tucked securely in her arms. Her hands tremble with adrenaline as she pulls Riley around, hands on the other woman's shoulders, "Are you hurt? Did the roof hit you at all?" Lockette takes a few steadying breaths to calm herself in case Riley is shaken and panicked, and realizes she clutches Riley awfully close.

Her hands wrap around strong shoulders, built from what Lockette guesses would be hard labour involving her hands and arms more than anything else. She'd heard some scarce rumours about this house, and the residents from long ago - weren't they woodcutters? A life of working with her hands on an unyielding medium, that would do it. Lockette hands are higher than usually required to hold someone by the shoulders - she must be tall, Lockette could feel Riley's head bump her chin when Lockette pulled her close, and she was warm -

Lockette has held onto Riley for far too long.

Lockette pulls her hands away like she'd been burned, resisting the urge to turn about face and drown herself in the river. "Sorry - I, fuck, sorry. I didn't mean to invade your personal space. I just..." Lockette makes a vague waving gesture at the house, "Y'know. Roof."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

The smile turns into a big grin when the cat rubs his head against her leg. She petted his soft head and thought, I swear on this giant fucking pearl this had better work.

Molly tried to shake the nerves away: she yawned, stretched her fingers and shook them out. Arranging the music so she could read it in the dimming light, she took another deep breath, and another. "Okay, kittycat. Here goes nothing, I guess."

Shyly at first, but quickly becoming more steady, Molly began to sing in her high, clear voice, the love song the wizard had left behind.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Playing the wizard's song didn't feel too much different from any other song. Molly soon fell into the music, so clearly able to picture the Sun and the Moon as the lyrics described-

And then her ears popped, as if the pressure in the room had suddenly changed. Molly thought she heard a sort of click come from- somewhere, she couldn't actually place it- and opened her eyes to see the guitar in her hands was glowing.

"Hello?"

Out of literal thin air came a man's voice, quiet but definitely there. Molly gasped, looking over at Tubs in shock. "Was that-?"

"Hello?"

Tubs looked almost as surprised as she felt. The voice was really just… suddenly there. It had an accent, too, one she couldn't quite place. "Uh… um-" she stammered.

"Uh- I think you got the wrong guitar, lady?"

Molly spluttered, suddenly realizing she not only still didn't know Tubs' true name, she didn't know the name of the wizard she was trying to summon, either. The cat jumped to his feet and meowed loudly at the guitar as Molly struggled to think of how to explain the past two days' events.

"No- fuck, Jackie, I'm not having a stroke, someone's in my house- yes because I'm a WIZARD. You still there, lady?"

She had to say something. "I'm... I'm looking for the wizard of the Port of Pearls? Please?" Eyes wide, she stared down at Tubs and mouthed what the fuck??

"Uh yes, that would be me. Are you in my house? Why are you in my house?"

"Well… I think your lover's been turned into a cat?"

There was a brief pause and then the wizard just laughed. "Hahaha. What the fuck."

Can this day get any weirder? Molly elected to just keep talking, hoping something she said would convince him. "And... I mean, I don't know how to fix him, but they tell me you're a pretty powerful wizard, so, um, I was hoping you'd know what to do? Also I swear this isn't a prank, please help," she blurted.

"Did Tuesday put you up to this, who are you?!"

Mentioning the magpie king somehow surprised her, although it had been pretty clearly established the two were rivals. The question seemed to greatly offend Tubs, who began meowing again in earnest.

"No, actually he kinda tried to stop me from helping. Uh, my name is Molly Sill? I'm a singer, and uh-"

"IS TUESDAY IN MY HOUSE?"

...Fuck.

"Listen very, very carefully to me: it is extremely important that you have not let Tuesday into-"

She didn't have to think of a way to respond: the loud CRASH that came from lower in the tower seemed to validate the wizard's question well enough.

"...Maybe," she said in a tiny voice.

"OH, FOR FUCKS SAKE-!"

The tower room suddenly felt far too warm despite how chilly it really was. "...I am so, so sorry." She felt like screaming would be a good stress relief right now, but decided against it.

"Listen very carefully: you musn't let him take the pearl from the altar on the fifth floor-"

Molly delicately set the guitar on the bed behind them, right next to the pearl in question actually, then turned and leaned face-first into Tubs' fur. "Mrow," he acknowledged.

"I fucked up," she whispered.

"...Cathal are you actually a goddamn fucking cat? Meow the tune of Despacito."

Not even registering Tubs' name being spoken at last, she sat bolt upright, whipping around to look at the guitar. "WHAT-"

It was a song probably everyone in Royesland knew, certainly any musician worth their salt. Molly had thought it was catchy the first few times she'd heard it, but quickly grew tired of its overwhelming popularity. However, Tubs was determined, and began trying to pick out the song as best he could.

"Are you- are you fucking kidding me-" Molly buried her face in her hands.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Shit fuck god damn. I love you you dumb sunavabitch," Tom said to Cathal like he was mad about it.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

“Mrrow,” said Cathal, with feeling, because he could not say that he loved Tom back.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"I'm gonna need a hot fucking minute before I can back- cause...fae time dilation, the stars, Jackies fucking mood- JACKIE GET DOWN-" He shouted and made a series of a concernnoises like he'd just fallen down the stairs, "You know- Girl stuff. "
The spell ended abruptly.

 

[Nimbus]

Apollo

and the gentry on holiday



Pol took a deep breath, once he uttered the last of his spell, and tried to think invisible thoughts. Or maybe no thoughts at all might do instead? The wizard-in-study shifted himself to proper posture, disposing of the residual plate water by flicking it towards the earth in the four cardinal directions. If it was suitable for a traveling spell in his home region, it would do well enough here. The geography may be different, but this corner of Royesland had all the basic natural elements as Bonne-Soleil. He also thought the half-wild grasses here might appreciate a bit of extra water with their sun.



Dangling chimes and seaglass string-ladders clinked with a surprising vigor. There had to be a wind rising up from the shore. Some slight breeze-blown spray beaded wet on his temple. Pol looked up. No clouds were directly overhead. Was there a storm stirring already?



"Well if it does happen," he muttered, tucking the plate somewhere less embarrassing than atop his head, "it isn't my fault. Sure as the sky is blue, weather won't listen to the likes of me. Even though, purportedly, I have the pedigree."



The spell, to its credit, at least did something. Pol could feel it as he crossed the back yards with long, unruly strides. Warmth cascaded around the edges of the wizard's being, as though a draped around him was a cloak of sunbeams. Apollo also felt a lightness of being, which he flaunted in secret by breaking into a run that was half leaping, half twirling.



The Teahouse stood unmarred, door ajar but not even scratched. Almost like it had been unlocked. But it was rather earlier. Could it be? Pol checked the windows and was delighted and impressed by what he saw.



Quill served three wizened ladies tea, scooping tapioca into their porcelain cups. Pol has suspected Quill might have had employment of a more stately nature than that of a mere merchant. Never was he more certain than now that Quill had much the same bearing in simple Royesian attire as one of the Court guards.



Ugh, they're too beautiful no matter what they wear. I'm used to me looking this good but I just can't and this complicates things and if I say or do one wrong thing they're going to turn to mist again. And that absolutely cannot happen in front of customers. Wait, is that-



Pol blinked away shock at a brightly colored, shimmery blur crossing to the far side of the room. He squinted, the blur resolving to leaf-veined wings and spindly, green-kissed limbs. A real, live Peri, straight from the deepest, wildest forests of Qin!



All around them, all around the shop, winged sprites with colorful skin darted around, following Quill, chasing one another, scooping up and snacking on stray crumbs. Some had green plumage, others crystalline, others lacy and paperlike. A fox the size of a field mouse curled next to a mug, paws on its three little tails. A couple were rolling a clump of tapioca across the kitchen counter. One of them noticed him peeking through the window and gave a flirty wink. Cheeky little knave!



Pol barely stifled ebullient laughter. Fairies were real! He could see them, and they, him! And best of all, they surrounded Quill not with an air of mischief, but as guardians watching over them and their business. The wizard-in-study wasn't exactly sure what the presence of fair folk signified. But he felt good about it, especially since most everything was exactly where he'd left it. Quill was back and they were safe and so was the happy little shop with all - human and otherwise- who doted upon it snug within its walls. Mm, all except for one. Time to fix that. Apollo strode towards the door, dissolving the spell like sugar in tea. If his timing was right, he'd be turning visible just as he entered the shop.



"I arrive, it appears, later than expected. I'm still fashionably late, I hope?"



The lordling gave Qulll a sly wink as a signal. Pol could not help but smile at Quill, who has made such a happy place out of an overgrown cooper's barrell. He couldn't wait to talk to Quill about the guardian sprites.



Gertrude, Judy and Betty were carrying on over their bubble teas about who was the most egregious cheater and how they purportedly did said cheating, as you do. Betty swore up and down that Judy ordered two teas so she could see both Gertrude's and her tiles in the reflection as they picked them up and set them down.



"Why, with my eyesight that's absolutely preposterous and you know it! If it were cards, you might be right. But seeing through all this with the tapioca and everything to face down tiles, honestly.



"It does seem unlikely," Gertrude admitted, peering into her own tea before adding, "thought I bet a wizard would be able to manage."



Apollo couldn't have gotten a better cue if the sky clouds parted above him.



"Hello and welcome, ladies fair. Having the usual drinks with the usual game, I see."



The grannies twittered at this and helloed him in response. There was a brief calm over the group as they asked where he had wandered off to today and the young man may have been so surprised and pleased that they cared to know that he may have said overmuch on his little errand involving Tuesday and a misunderstanding about a plate. When the tale was told and able to breathe a fair measure, the ladies resumed one turn of their game.



Judy's eyes practically sparked as she set her tile face up for the turn.



"Oh, young Lord Rossaluna would know."



Gertrude weighed this with a nod of her silvery head and asked, "Apollonius Rossaluna, your wizard...science studies the reflection or refraction of light, yes?"



"Oh but of course, Madame Gertrude. One cannot be a proper light weaver without some knowledge of lumosity."



Pol was about to give the Mahjong Trio a dissertation on the subject before Betty blurted out, "So do you think Judy here is cheating?"



The accused rolled her eyes. "At this angle you would have to use magic to spot downward facing tiles across the table, wouldn't you?"



In an owlish fashion, Pol tilted his head and considered the table, the cups of tea, the stacked tiles, the players, their tiles, their expressions-



Judy, she leans forward slightly during a game. Hah. She's trying to hide her excitement over the game, the competition and its spirit. Unless she is right over one of her teacups, she wouldn't be able to peek that way.



"Quite, from that angle. However," he added, "the complexities of breaking a game like Mahjong to one's advantage are many."



Betty looked beside herself, Judy, vindicated. Gertrude patted her friend on either shoulder and sat back in her chair, as if daring Judy to peek at her tiles.



"If you want, I can join you next game and suss out who is bending the rules a little too well ~" Pol singsonged, winking at Betty.



The Mahjong Trio huddled together and deliberated. In that time, Pol glided over to Quill.


"You're back from your errand earlier than expected. Would you like a pie? They're from the public house. I am not so skilled in the baking arts, alas."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal mewed sadly at the now still, silent guitar, and then looked up at Molly. Somehow, after hearing Tom's voice, Cathal missed him more than he had in months, and it was terrible. He climbed more fully into Molly's lap and settled there.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

The pressure changed again. Molly yawned to try to get her hearing to go back to normal, and when she opened her eyes the guitar was no longer glowing.

"Hello?" she ventured, but it somehow didn't feel the same as when the spell was active. "...I guess he's gone."

The cat- whose name, she had so recently discovered, was Cathal- meowed sadly at the silent guitar and climbed up into her lap. "Oh, love, I'm sorry. You're having a rotten time of it, huh?" Molly sighed and stroked his head. "But hey, this is kind of progress, right? If we look on the bright side." She smiled. "And I'm so glad to finally know your name! What now, do you think, Cathal? I'm sure your wizard will be home before we know it, but in the meantime-"

Both of them moving around on the bed caused a shift that sent the enormous pearl rolling down the cover into the small of Molly's back: a gentle reminder of what she'd helped to unleash upon Cathal and his wizard's home. "Oh. Wait. Oh no." She sat up straighter. "We should... probably get Tuesday out of here before he steals or breaks anything else. Ugh, stars above," she grumbled. "I'm really, really sorry."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Mrow," Cathal told Molly gently. He'd let Tuesday in as a guest, it wasn't Molly's fault Tuesday was a terrible one. He rubbed his head against her arm, and didn't move to let her up. So long as Molly had the pearl instead of Tuesday, Tom could put that back to rights when he returned. Tuesday was just going to be a nuisance forever, because that was his nature. And Cathal's nature was to be snug and cozy when he could, especially when he was in his own home with someone he liked, and Molly Sill was a perfectly good friend to snuggle with.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

"Aww, you're sweet." His affection brought her smile back. "I needed a hug right now too, I think," she said, continuing to pet and give scritches. "I don't have many friends, wandering the way I do. So, thank you for letting a stranger so intimately into your troubles. I'm really happy I could help a little bit. It's too bad we're not able to get to know each other better just yet. Not the usual way anyhow, I guess." She shook her head, a little embarrassed for bringing it up.

Changing the subject somewhat, "I like your house. It's beautiful. You haven't been staying here by yourself this whole time, have you? Poor guy." How long exactly 'this whole time' had been was unbeknownst to her, but guessing by the decay it had been a pretty long time. Molly let her imagination run wild, sympathy twisting her stomach for what Cathal must've been through. "You're pretty brave, I don't know what I'd have done in your shoes. In your beans," she corrected, giving his paws a little squeeze.

"Well, I've been staying at the Silver Prawn if you ever need someplace to go. Oh! I guess there's Lockette, huh? They seem…" she paused. "Maybe not nice, but good. They seem like a good person. Anyway I don't know how long I would've stayed in Port of Pearls, but I'll definitely wait now until the wizard comes home. So, either way."

She was quiet a moment. "Now I have Despacito stuck in my head. You guys suck," Molly laughed. "Nope, I can't. I need something else."

After all the thoughts she'd let tumble out loud, one song came to mind. Still petting Cathal, she started to sing.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Meanwhile in Royesland the fountain of the goddess of pearls in the market exploded. Water and statuary rained down and a very confused wizard staggered from the wreckage, followed by about some two hundred rat mans. The wizard Tom had forgotten that he had set the fountain as his wayward teleportation and was now full of regret as he staggered and met the pavers.

The chaos he's unleashed on the the quiet hamlet was incredible. The rat men screamed and scattered, attempted to steal what was not nailed down and to flee the terrified towns folk armed with pots pans and brooms.

"Fuck." He said into the paver. He pushed himself back up to his feet and swayed gently then said; "Okay." ominously to no one at all. he took off at a dead sprint through the chaos to his tower, down the familiar streets, across the bridge and up the slope. He slammed open the front door and began stomping up the steps as fast his feet could take him. As he passed his workshop Tuesday froze, holding on to what could only be described as an hourglass fussed with a lave lamp. For a moment Tuesday thought perhaps he hadn't been seen as Tom continued up the stairs- No luck. Tom stopped, took three steps backward down the stairs and pointed at him.

"Who the fuck are you?" He said pointing at him, and then because he didn't have time for this continued upward to his spell forge. Tuesday, was so utterly insulted he couldn't form words. AT the top of the stairs Tom balked at the unfamiliar girl and the large cat sitting on his bed- given Xanth's time dilation maybe they all lived here now, thankfully his spell forge was intact. That would be tricky. Later. Later problems for later Tom.

"Hi," He said awkwardly slamming the golden apple onto his spell forge and his fingers began to flash with magics and gestures above it weaving a complicated 3demensional fractal of runes and light. It would be no small feat to do what his panic induced mind had concocted. He focuses hard- says a full ass word of power, staggers back and says, "Gotta go!" And rushes back down the stairs.

___

In the tower the giant salamander that was Xanthiel thrashed and screamed churning up the oil sludge in great waves as the tower gave one more petulant rumble and the room's floor began to tilt to the left- slowly, slowly as the sludge began to slosh in that direction, until it was not slowly and the whole room was falling.

Before any of them can grasp the totality of the situation they hit the ground- and not from a great height. The jarring bounce is familiar for any of them that have ever been teleported by their dear dumb wizard. The sun in Royesland is blinding bright as the sludge crashes down and spreads until it is only an inch or two thin across the pavers.

Xanthielex is shrinking and whimpering seemingly searching for some dark place to curl up and hide. The salamander king- the former terror of the kingdom of peaches is no more than foot long and attempting to hide under a marker stall's basket.

___

Tom comes huffing and puffing back down the slope, across the bridge and up the familiar streets. he slips and slides across the slick pavers, past the linger rat mans, the angry babushka's chasing them with a rolling pin and says, "Where is it!" lifting up every thing not nailed down in search for the Wizard King he's set on destroying. He glances at the exhausted and cursed trio and says unhelpfully; "You guys look like shit."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Nicola Drake​

In the end, Nicola didn't have to stop Xanthielex herself (which was probably a good thing, since her entire plan consisted of strangling him with her bare hands). She entered the top of the tower, where chaos reigned supreme and hardly knew where to look, much less how to act.

Finn was closest, and also now only had one arm. "Sun, moon, and stars," she breathed with the tone of one taking names of holy things in vain. Nicola started to hurry over to him to offer support (as little good as that would do, considering how much taller than her he was). Instead, the tilting of the tower threw her off balance too. She slipped in the oil and zipped right past him, totally beefing it just in time for everything to go a bit wibbly. Finding herself rolling into an upturned basket of vegetables, she struggled to gather her wits. "What the fuck?"

The sun was in her eyes and a saltwater breeze managed to push away the most overwhelming of the awful petroleum smell. Nicola sat up, taking in a rural market square somehow even more chaotic than the tower room had been. Wait, was that a rat man? But her thoughts went immediately to her friends. She nearly collapsed with relief when the one she wasn't expecting to see came bolting around a corner.

"Hell's bells, I never thought I'd be so happy to see your dumb face," Nicola told Tom as he tore apart the marketplace, frantically searching for something.

He paused to take in his comrades, much the worse for wear in his absence, and told them as much: "You guys look like shit."

So useless and tactless a remark should've made Nicola angry, or laugh, or anything but what it made her feel: empty. She felt hollow, in the aftermath of the battle. Finn had lost his entire fucking arm, but it felt like she had lost one too. Her magic was still gone.

Nicola struggled to her feet, looking around for Jackie. "Sound off: everyone who's not dead, speak up," she said, failing to suppress a sob.

Molly Sill​

Molly had sat quietly petting Cathal's beautiful orange fur and wondering what they should do next when a very faint, distant sound caught her attention. It sounded almost like… an explosion? But that couldn't be right.

"Did you hear that?" she asked Cathal, looking to the stairs. The sound was too distant to have been caused by Tuesday's meddling (somehow she was surprised he'd found enough to keep his attention this long, but then again, this was a wizard's tower).

After that everything was quiet again for a long few minutes, just long enough for her to start to feel drowsy in this cozy space. When she heard a sound that was unmistakably the tower door slamming open down below, Molly jumped, though this still wasn't quite enough to unseat Cathal.

Her heart began to race as footsteps pounded angrily up the stairs. They paused, a man's voice that wasn't Tuesday shouted something, and then the steps continued, coming ever closer.

Shit, shit, shit! "Cathal, what do we do?" she whispered hoarsely as the footsteps started up the stairs into the bedroom-

A man appeared in the doorway: tall, thin, frazzled-looking. He wore a very wide-brimmed wizard hat and a leather jacket with spikes in the shoulders. The man stared at them breathlessly, and though Molly tensed for a reaction, none came. In fact, no sign of recognition passed over his features; he simply turned and rushed back down the stairs.

"Wha-?" she said intelligently. The man hadn't recognized her or her fluffy companion, but she thought she recognized him.

Where the images had come from, she hadn't known; she'd assumed it was just her imagination. But when Molly had played the wizard's guitar and sang his song, she'd seen a vision of the story it told. "When the Day Met the Night": the man who had appeared in the doorway just then had been the Night, the Moon with his pale hair and dark clothes. It stood to reason then, that the man who had appeared as the Day, the Sun with his stunning ginger hair and slightly wicked grin, was none other than-

Something happened that she could only describe as a surge of energy. Seeming to come from downstairs, it sent all Molly's hair standing on end. It felt, she realized, very similar to the change in atmosphere that had happened when she'd cast the message spell and spoken to Cathal's wizard not so long ago.

"Oh my stars, that was your boyfriend, wasn't it?!" she exclaimed after him as the huge cat bolted from her lap. She jumped to her feet as well, hardly noticing the complaint in her leg, and took a few hurried steps across the room before remembering the pearl. Molly went back, grabbed the huge jewel, and held it tight to her chest as she hurried down the stairs after Port of Pearls' prodigal wizard.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tom looks confused when Nicola comented she was happy to see his dumb face. He look at her hard then looked over his shoulder up at his tower then back at nicola.

"Didn't I just leave you in the tower?" He says thinking of Molly. He does not have time for this, he continues to root around the stalls and baskets. He is looking for a salamander he tells himself.

A salamander.

He knocks a whole stand over and gets down on his hands and knees and peers underneath a cart.

He's looking for...something.

He sits back and tries to remember, "HEY!" he calls to Nicola, "What am I looking for?"