Fantasy The Owl House - Statice and Oak

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano​

Audrey listened to Thomas, right up until he said that she wasn't making sense. Sure he didn't see what she saw, or rather, sensed, but this was a lead. As flimsy as it was, it was still something, compared to five minutes before when they had nothing, and were resorting to looking at oddities. As Thomas spoke more, Audrey got more and more annoyed. She found herself crossing her arms, raising an eyebrow, and tapping a foot. As he finished speaking, Audrey remained silent and unmoving, letting her annoyance simmer in the moment, grinding her teeth slowly. The angry girl debated with herself, going off on Thomas would certainly feel good. Highly doubt. She audibly huffed. Give me a textbook on Plant Magic and a week. She thought to herself. Audrey glanced at the mushroom, she had half a mind to open that case up again and take a nice whiff of those spores just to see again to prove more definitely that she knew what she saw. But that small voice in her head, the voice of her mentor, who had always tried to temper her fiery tendencies, won out.
"I will sit for five minutes, then I'm going to check those herbs, and then those trees." She said sternly, she then grabbed the green book of notes, put it on the table in front of her, and moved the chair so that she was facing the mushrooms and the book. Away from Thomas.

 

[Edric Blight]

Thomas clearly didn't feel or sense much of the bubbling anger and annoyance with his words as he went on, simply just passing off her visions as seeing things that weren't really there as a result of the magical yellow spores. The clueless boy only began to sense a bit of tension from Audrey as she sternly agreed, swiftly taking the green book and moving her chair facing away from him.

The boy just nodded, making a bit of a worried face as he cleared his throat in an attempt to alleviate the awkward silence and tension that had clearly developed between the two. "Right then," he said in acknowledgement. The blonde witch boy just sighed as he stood there, alone with his thoughts, waiting a good five minutes to let Audrey rest and to his knowledge, try to shake off the effects of the odd yellow pores that seemed to make her start acting strange.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano​

Audrey spent her five minutes, definitely a bit more, she honestly wasn't keeping track, reading through the green notebook in detail. While the writing was difficult to read, she more closely examined the diagrams and pictures, learning which parts of the more normal mushrooms were taken highlighted. The detail for some went as far as microbiology, reminding her of the highest advancement level Healing textbooks her parents kept in the study. She didn't understand a thing about it, other than the very absolute basics, that the world of micro organisms existed. Whoever worked on these mushrooms was an incredibly intelligent and skilled witch, smart enough to identify and extract individual micro organisms in fungi. After matching nearly half of the mushrooms arrayed out on the table, she made the realization that she still didn't know why their specific features were highlighted. Only that the cream colored normal looking one had its stem pointed out, the red and pink berry looking one had it's... redness pointed out, as well as it's underside. She grumbled and took out her scroll, unraveling it and opening the camera function. She took photos of both of the workbenches, as well as individual photos of each mushroom, with the notebook beside it, turned to it's matching page. What she had was a mystery on her hands, and she was getting caught up in gathering evidence. In her head, she was playing out a detective like this was a crime novel. Her annoyance turned to focus, and admittedly, fun. She had gotten used to this element, and now she thrived in it, despite her wound. Being trapped underground, in a fantasy dungeon like ruin, being presented with a mystery, unknown and potentially powerful relics right in front of her. Audrey was living an adventure novel from her childhood again, though with a few things missing, and she would rather have her Latissan company, she admitted to herself.

Audrey spared a glance to Thomas. He definitely was not having fun living this adventure novel, he looked pensive, and Audrey knew the dangers of deep thought while on an outing like this. For her, it was lots of, 'could have done this better', 'shouldn't have done that', she didn't know what his were, and she was just reminded that he was still new to all this, and never asked for it. She kept on forgetting, and she let out a sigh.
"Hey Thom..." She spoke up, speaking softly, "let's take some pictures of the horn and notes on the horn. When we get out, we can start figuring out what each of these does, ask around, that sort of thing." Audrey started to sort the pages of notes more neatly, making sure they didn't overlap each other.

 

[Edric Blight]

For the next five minutes, Thomas stood there alone with his own thoughts. Eventually after a little while, Audrey glanced up at Thomas and finally spoke. He snapped out of his little trance in his own mind and raised his eyebrows as he looked at her and suggested that they take some pictures of the horn and the notes that were written about it that came along with it.

"Hmm?" he mumbled. "Oh uhh, sure," he said with a little shrug and following nod. "I don't really think anyone will know but I guess it can't hurt to try," he said. "People might think we're crazy," he joked as he chuckled, "But yea I guess we can take some photos of the thing," said Thomas, nodding, not seeing why they shouldn't as he watched the girl neatly lay out all of the notes.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano​

Once Audrey was done neatly arranging the notes, there was still a large stack of papers on the table, but it would take an eternity to photograph all of it. What was already on the table would have to do for now. The mystery of the horn was compelling, but not compelling enough to sit here for hours on end recording every sheet of paper. Though, hypothetically, they could. There was food, water, seating, comfortable lighting, there were plenty of plants so it wasn't like they were going to run out of air, despite being underground. She thought, technically, they could live down here for years.

Audrey turned around and leaned on the table, holding the edge of the table with both hands. "If nobody knows what these are then we figure it out. And we'll only ask people we trust, so they won't just call us crazy and move on." She said, "My aunts are in the plant coven, but they just went to Palm Springs for a project. It'll be a while before they're able to come back here. Finding a trusted Bard witch though... would be trickier." Audrey said. She might have just been feeling paranoid, or picked up the habit from her mentor, but letters, scroll messages, crow phones could be intercepted. It was best to show them this in person, that way nobody else could steal or peek into the message, even though she had no idea who would know about the messages or even want to steal them.

 

[Edric Blight]

Thomas was about to ask who could they trust when instead, Audrea brought up that she had some relatives in the plant coven. Maybe they could help if anything, he thought. He sure didn't know anyone from the plant coven off the top of his head. His eyes then widened when she mentioned finding a trusted Bard coven witch. Thomas once again thought of his old childhood friend and the whole fiasco, the bad memories flowing back to him again. He technically knew of a Bard coven witch and a way of. contacting them through a Penstagram account named chasey13 that Thom hadn't contacted in years, but he wasn't going to do that, not after the incident....

No, he would never contact that evil wild witch or his family ever again.... plus, his parents would prohibit such a thing. He didn't even want to contact the Bard boy, still feeling betrayed even all of these years later. So, he decided to keep his mouth shut about the certain Bard coven witch he was technically able to contact. He also made a mental note to delete that wretched photo of him and the brown haired blue eyed witch boy that was one of two posts on his Penstagram account.

Thomas just stared blankly at the ground, thinking of the Bard coven boy as he absent mindedly nodded, even as Audrea had finished speaking. "Y- yea, sounds good..." he eventually replied, very softly, "G- good thing you have some plant coven witches you know, sure is a shame about not having a Bard coven witch though...." he mentioned. He was never going to reveal his deep dark little secret regarding a Bard coven witch. "But of course, we first gotta figure out how to get outta here before we even contact any of these people- and preferably, we survive and stay alive," he said.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano​

"We'll figure it out, both the Bard, and getting out." Audrey replied, "Speaking of, it's been longer than five minutes. Finish up taking photos here, I'm going to check out those herbs." She instructed, still a little annoyed at Thomas. She leaned forward and got up from leaning on the table, walking towards the rows of potted plants across the room. Now was the moment of truth, well, one half, she still should check the plant coven room for those fruit trees. To her it all pointed towards truth, why would someone nurture a mushroom that just gave someone hallucinations, there were plenty of mundane mushrooms for that already. It had to be special, in some way. She examined the first herb she came across, seeing only some spider webbing on the stem and leaves. The soil had nothing as well. She let out a grumble and moved down the row to the next plant several pots down. This one had something that didn't seem right. There were dozens of small, six legged, orange colored insects along it's stem. Audrey looked at the next one and found the same sort of insects on the stem. Were these the pests that she detected earlier? They must be, healthy plants weren't covered by bugs, right? She drew a small spell circle and her bracelet formed into an armored gauntlet once again, and she put an abomination clay covered finger in the path of one of the tiny orange insects. It crawled onto her finger and he brought it close to her face, watching it closely, then she squashed it between two fingers. Surely no hallucination was as detailed as this? Then, next up was to visit the plant covens classroom, just to see if there were fruit trees, then gather those supplies in the gym once again, and finally, an attempt at the stone wall.

 

[Edric Blight]

Thomas just nodded, "Alright, got it, yea," he said, finishing up taking some of the photos they were going to take back with them and ask around some questions about. As Audrea went off to go check on the herbs and the plant coven room, Thomas stayed back and took some good photos of what they had found. Once he was sure Audrey was a good distance away from him and out of earshot, he muttered to himself irritably. "Bard coven witch..." he scoffed, rolling his eyes, "Never talking to that freak again," he said to himself quietly, referring to an old former friend. "He betrayed you..."

Once he had finished taking pictures for Audrea, the boy decided to join her in what she was doing with the herbs. Thomas scurried off to join Audrey, now having a good amount of solid pictures for the duo to take back with them, of course, permitted they got out of this place alive. "Hey, I'm back," said Thomas, panting slightly as he caught up with the girl, "What did you find?" the boy asked her.

 

[Skyrte]

Audrey kept her hand held up examining the smear when Thomas came over, his task of recording the notes for the horn complete. He asked her what she discovered and Audrey replied plainly, “A good chunk of these potted plants have these tiny orange insects on their stems. I think that’s the pest I sensed before. I also saw a spider web on one of them, but I don’t think the spider is here to harm the herbs.”

Audrey wondered if there really were fruit trees in the plant coven room, it would be a quick check, and she could have sworn that she sensed grasses and mosses lining a tunnel leading upwards, starting from the cavern that the stone wall blocked off. Their original plan was to go through that wall in the first place, but that was a hunch and a guess, now there was evidence that it really was the way through, however shakey it was. But first, as per Latissan salvage rights, and as Thomas joked, finders keepers.
“Do you think that we could fit that terrarium in your backpack Thom? The horn is an easy carry, but I’d rather not have to hold those training staffs and wands, and the big mushroom, with just our hands.” She asked, the horn, although heavier than its appearance suggested, had a leather belt and buckles attached to it, so it’s wielder could just sling it over their shoulder. The mushroom terrarium however was much less mobile, and Audrey thought that placing it in a bag would help them free up their hands for the trip back to the gym. She was still mulling over how to actually get past that stone wall though…

 

[Edric Blight]

Thomas raised his eyebrows slightly as the girl informed him as to what she was analyzing. "Spider webs and a spider you say?" he asked nervously, "The smaller ones, right? Not those freaky big demon ones." he said. "Of course not, these are small," he said softly to himself, looking at the small spider webs. He shook his head a bit, trying not to dwell on it too much.

"Hmm?" he asked slightly as she had asked him a question. He furrowed his brow in thought a bit as he processed her question, then shrugging his shoulders and putting his arms up a bit. "I don't see why not. I'm not that strong though so if it's heavy I might start to get tired or not be able to hold it on my back any longer," he told her, not confident in his physical strength. "But I don't see why we can't try and shove it in the bag. It'll probably fit." he said.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

Audrey made a questioning face at Thomas, he wasn't that strong? She let out a light hum, she knew exactly how strong she was, and how much time and effort it took her to get there. Thomas, as a boy, could probably match her in strength with just barely a week of training. She thought that he was underestimating himself, even untrained, Thomas could probably easily hold her down with just his strength alone. Though if she wanted to escape she had all manner of tricks up her sleeve. The fact remained though, she knew boys were on average stronger than girls, it was a biological fact. They gained muscle and strength more easily, and she guessed for every month of effort she put in, a boy could catch up in an equal number of weeks. Luckily for Audrey she had more than just strength in her repertoire.

"You're strong enough." Audrey said to Thomas, she walked back over to the work tables and grabbed the horn, slinging it over her shoulder, and picked up the glass terrarium with both hands. "It's not that heavy, just a few pounds more." She reassured, heading back to Thomas. She walked behind him, opening up his bag, holding the case in one hand resting it against her chest. Once she had the bag open, she carefully placed the terrarium inside, it was just barely too large, and she wasn't able to zip it closed all the way. But it was zipped up enough. "Hmm, it doesn't quite fit, but it works well enough." She walked back around to Thomas's front, "So. We peek into the Plant Covens classroom, then we head back to the gym, gather our things again, and figure out how to break open that stone wall." Audrey reaffirmed, she got to work drawing a large spell circle, gathering the scattered pools of abomination goo to a single location so she could rearmor again. "Any ideas so far?"

 

[Edric Blight]

Maybe Thomas was under estimating his own physical strengths. He tended to put himself down quite a bit when in reality he was quite capable of doing many of the things he wasn't necessarily confident about. Thomas certainly wasn't the pinnacle of male witch health, but he was physically fit and admittedly well built. A lot of this was thanks to his parents, who made sure the boy had a healthy diet from an early age and continuing on throughout his life. Junk food was minimal, although of course he enjoyed it and craved it. His parents were a bit strict with his diet though, as they were with most things in general regarding their son. If Thomas were to hit the gym or go through a week or two of physical strength training, surely he'd be quite the capable and even more fit young man. But his current state wasn't necessarily anything too unhealthy. Sure, he was a bit skinny and wasn't really muscularly built, but he had a slim tone and was in good shape athletically.

Although Thomas had a good body, what the boy had going for him most were his brains- more specifically his book smarts. He certainly wasn't confident in his intelligence but he undeniably was a smart young witch boy. He was quite the fast learner and was relatively easy to teach. He was also studious, always reading and studying, trying to be the best at whatever it may be. As for street smarts like Audrea, they certainly weren't there for the boy. But who could blame him? Thomas is still and certainly was raised and grown up as a very sheltered boy. His parents practically kept him living under a rock and away from any harm or danger in his upper middle class neighborhood. They also didn't really let him do things like sports when he was younger and limited where beyond the neighborhood he could go or was allowed to go with and without their parental supervision.

So yes, he was quite sheltered throughout his whole life and it also didn't help that his well-off parents were certainly unabashed supporters of Emperor Belos and the Emperor's Coven, but still, Thomas was a more capable young man then he let on. It certainly didn't help that his parents fed him and led him to believe all of Emperor Belos' propaganda and lies regarding wild witches and the use of wild magic. Thomas just simply shrugged as Audrea had said he was strong enough. He hoped it was true and appreciated her words, but also couldn't help but wonder if she had really meant that or she just wanted to use him as someone to hold their items and hope for the best. He nodded as she reassured him it wasn't too much heavier. It was only a few more pounds, surely he could handle that. "Alright," he said softly in acknowledgment as she opened up his bag from behind him and placed the terrarium inside. He felt the bag on his back gain a few pounds, but it was certainly manageable. It didn't seem to fit entirely and Audrea couldn't zip the bag back up all the way, but it still worked out. Thom shrugged and nodded, figuring it would be fine as long as it was secure enough back there.

"Works for me," said the boy with a nod as Audrea walked back to his front. It sounded like a plan to him. Thomas chuckled a bit and shrugged his shoulders, "Any ideas? No not really. You've probably got a whole lot better ideas than me," he admitted. To him, Audrea seemed to have it figured out and under control, even if it wasn't all figured out and completely under control. He admired her ability to keep cool and calm, making calculated and logical moves on their next steps. He was smart too, but easily lost his focus and confidence, often cracking under high pressure situations or big decisions, especially so when he was in an unfamiliar environment and in a panic. Also, his apparent lack of "street smarts" in comparison to the Latissa born and raised Audrea showed quite a bit through this whole situation. Audrea seemed like she knew what she was doing, even in a scary and unfamiliar environment. She was also more brave and courageous than the often timid and skittish Bonesborough suburb born Thomas. Essentially, if it wasn't from the books or something he had studied, he was useless in the practical sense. The old abandoned ruins of Glandus High was certainly a situation and environment Thomas was not prepared for in any way. "Sounds like a plan to me," he said in reference to them checking out the Plant Coven room.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

Audrey nodded, Thomas didn't have any ideas, which was unfortunate. Two heads were better than one, but he might not've been working on the issue. His priorities were likely much simpler than hers, just stay alive and get out. Audrey found herself setting multiple objectives for herself, breaking down this normally overwhelming situation to normal people, into something like the chapters of an adventure book. She made a thoughtful face as the abomination goo crawled up her legs again, encompassing her in her battle dress once more. Thinking on the problem of the stone rock wall... several solutions came to mind. A bomb maybe? They had a bunch of magic batteries upstairs in the gym, if they could rupture those all at the same time... would probably result in more cave ins. It would get rid of the wall, sure, but also maybe get rid of the whole hallway and the whole ruins too. With them still in the ruins. So maybe not a bomb.

Once she was redressed, she did a few stretches, feeling the weight and flexibility of her armor once again, wincing when she felt the cut on her back flare up with pain when she did some specific movements. Audrey made mental notes about how far she could move her limbs.
"Think on some solutions, any idea could help, no matter how crazy. The ones we can't do might make us realize ones we can." Audrey said while stretching. Once she was done, she headed towards the door and poked her head out, looking both ways. The plant coven door was just across the hall, so she walked right over and opened the door with a loud scrape. The interior was lush with plant life, and like she sensed earlier, now seen, were three fruit trees on the far side of the room. Their roots spilling out of their large pots. Audrey looked back at Thomas, not saying anything. Proving the plant sight granted by the mushroom was something they shouldn't argue over, they were going to go through that stone wall anyways. She left the door open and back tracked, making sure the cafeteria door was shut closed, and then retreading the same halls and staircase they took to get to the healing covens office and the cafeteria in the first place. No need to explore any further if they had routes to the places they needed to go. Audrey thought back to the roots, and it reminded her of water. Could they do something with water and ice?

Once up the staircase and back to the gym, the armored girl started gathering the training wands and staffs into neat piles on the ground. The gym was riddled with those spines, points sticking into walls, the ceiling, the ground, laying on their side scattered across the grassy and dirt floor. She eyed them curiously, then walked over to a few sticking out of the ground, and grabbed one. It stuck to her armored hand, it's barbs digging into the glove. She let out a noise of mild surprise, then using her free hand, took off her messenger bag and took out an empty notebook. She used the thick stack of papers to grab the barb from out of her hand, and it stuck to the notebook. She used the notebook to grab a few more, totaling four barbs. She wrapped the notebook into a roll, keeping the large spines contained with paper. Audrey stuffed the notebook into her bag, and zipped it back up. She looked back to Thomas.
"Trophies. We beat the Spider-Demon after all," Audrey explained, looking back to the gym storage room door, and the slowly melting abomination golem keeping the door shut, then looking back to Thomas. "And proof, if anyone thinks we didn't do it." She said, "Any ideas come up about that wall? A bomb came to mind but that's too dangerous. And then something with water, and ice, maybe to loosen the rocks? But that still doesn't solve the problem of moving the rocks." Audrey walked over to the piles of training wands and staffs, kicking a pebble aside on the way there.

 

[Edric Blight]

Thomas nodded. He supposed she was right. A crazy idea with a seemingly low probability of working was better than no ideas. He admired that line of thinking as evidenced by today, Thomas was one to kind of throw in the towel when he had no ideas and it seemed all hope was lost. The boy waited for her to stretch and then followed her close behind. "The ones we can't do might make us realize the ones we can," she had said. The blonde haired witch boy let those words sit in his mind for a bit as he followed Audrea. They went back up the main stair case and headed to the gym. Thom wondered what they were doing back there but raised his eyebrows as Audrea explained why: trophies. Proof of their battle.

"Trophies? I guess ya wanna tell the folks back at home that you beat a Spider-Demon," he said. "Heh, I must admit, taking a trophy from this experience wasn't on my mind but I can see the appeal," he said with a tiny shrug. "I'd tell my parents or something, but I doubt they'd even believe me," he said with a little frown. He didn't have many friends so really if he were to tell anyone of his adventures or daily life it'd be his parents. But they'd surely not be too happy to learn of this situation, so. Thomas probably wouldn't tell them of this. But they probably were wondering where he was... "My parents would KILL me if they found out about all of this though..." he said. "That's also IF we get out of this place alive," he added. "Doesn't seem like survival is a guarantee," worried Thomas. "No one's gonna believe I helped with something like this," he said quietly with a shrug and a slight frown.

"But it's whatever," he said brushing it aside. Thomas shook his head, "No, no ideas yet. That bomb one sounds nice- just a bit dangerous. Plus, I don't know how we're making explosions down here," he said. Thomas thought over Audrea's possible proposal of using ice and water magic to possibly to possibly loosen the rocks. "Err, maybe something with ice and water.... I don't know, I have an idea, it's stupid and out there but I'll shoot," he said with an unsure look on his face. "Is there a way we could like use REALLY hot fire magic to possibly melt the rock down? Probably not since I doubt we can generate enough heat to melt a rock- especially as big as that..." Thomas said, a little defeated and at a loss of ideas.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

Audrey stood up, hands full of training wands. Telling her parents about dueling a, probably, primal Spider-Demon wasn't on the things she wanted to do. She would have to explain the cut on her back somehow, but she could leave details out. What the witch wanted to do was study the spines, the ancient Spider-Demons were a force to be reckoned with in their prime, and judging from the one they just fought, these spines played a large role in that. Her mentor could have some insight, and the Beast Coven witches would probably have more, but she didn't know any. But telling his own parents crossed his mind, as well as his doubt that they would even believe him, and the doubt that they would approve. She let out a hmph of indignation, she knew the feeling, not like they had any say in being in this situation.
"We'll get out of here. We made it this far already." Audrey stated, "And as for proof, I've got that covered. It'll be a surprise, just give me a few days." She smirked, she had just pocketed four barbs, parting with one or two wasn't going to be a loss at all, and there must be a glass maker somewhere in Bonesborough, the city was massive enough she wouldn't be surprised if she could find anything she wanted here.

Thomas then talked about the ideas of how to break through that stone wall. He had an idea, calling it stupid, but in this situation, any idea was a valid one. He presented his thought of a higher temperature flame, as well as his doubts that they could generate such a heat. But the cogs were already turning in Audrey's mind. The more magic a witch put into their fire spell, the hotter it got, or the larger it got. Usually witches go for size, who would need a heat that melts rock after all? But they needed to, now. So a smaller flame, more focused, and compressed, with the same amount of magic would generate a higher heat. She moved her hand to scratch her head, narrowing her eyes, but instead she just smacked a fist full of wands into her chin. Audrey blinked and looked down at the wands in her hand, then at the wands in her other hand, and then at the staffs Thomas held. And a wide grin grew on her face.
"We might not be able to generate a fire that can melt rock, with only our two bile sacs. But we don't have just two bile sacs, we have two and some two dozen magic batteries." She explained, "And we don't need to melt the whole wall, we can just melt a section off the top, just enough for us to crawl through. We cast the spell, and let the batteries do the heavy lifting."

 

[Edric Blight]

"A surprise, eh? Alright then I guess, but I can't say I'm the biggest fan of surprises," he told her as he gave her a small shrug. Thomas nodded. Maybe she was right, if they had made it this far, what was to say they wouldn't make it out of there alive? He then listened to her response on his idea, which he quite frankly thought was stupid and wouldn't work- but to be fair, it was a last ditch attempt to at least throw something out there. She was right on one thing- they were only two witches, meaning two bile sacs between the two of them. But she did bring up a good point. They really only needed to melt PART of the rock, not the whole thing. It seemed perfect in theory. Surely the two young and nimble witches could crawl through a small opening were they to create one.

"Oh yea! That's a great idea! We could melt a little hole into the rock just large enough for us to both crawl through!" Thomas said in agreement. That way they didn't need to use a crazy excessive amount of energy or magical ability that they didn't have there at the moment. Thomas was a skinny and somewhat short kid. He was 15 after all, so he was by no means fully grown. "I'm sure we could both crawl through if we were to make even a small opening in the wall," he said.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

Now they had their last piece to their plan, the actual dismantling of that obstacle in their way. It felt like she was in this cavern system for hours, and she looked forward to a hot bath and her bed. Including laying there for the next few days. Audrey didn't look forward to the bombardment of questions the entirety of the school had for them, pretty much the entire student body saw what happened to them, and having to repeat the story over and over again would be tiring, annoying, exhausting. Seeing everyone get worried about her, including people she barely knew, using this as an excuse to get more popular. A part of her was glad, despite the taking advantage of, people cared. But the other, less tempered part of her scorned the idea of being crowded around and fussed over, and very much preferred that everything go back to normal after a few quick words. It all happened before, it would happen again here.

"We have our plan then, let's go Thom." Audrey said with a slight smile, eager to get out of this ruin. She lead the way again, making sure to check her surroundings thoroughly and slow down at the corners. No need to stumble when the finish line was in sight. The task isn't done until it's done. Fast with mistakes is slow, slow with no mistakes is fast. She recalled countless lessons from her mentor, and lessons she learned in the rough and tumble environment of Glandus High, in these adventurous situations, her experience served her well. And after a short while, she found herself in front of the stone wall again. She drew a small spell circle, casting a small light spell, and let the bright orb hover above her to the middle of the hallway, illuminating their small section of the pass. She took a knee and set down the bundles of training wands onto the ground. "Now... how to actually use the batteries on these? We could maybe... Thomas have you cast fire with each wand and then I'll take the fire and control it? Empty every battery one after the other and I'll focus on spell forming. "

 

[Edric Blight]

Thomas smiled, glad to have a plan at last. He nodded, determined to put it into action. The blonde haired boy shrugged as she asked how to use the batteries on the wands. Thomas set the bag down temporarily as he bent down to pick up the training wands. He now held both of the wands in each of his hands. "Ok yea, I can do that!" Thom replied. Thomas kept the wand drawn, ready to perform the fire spell. "Ready!" he told her as he began to draw the first spell circle with the first wand so he could cast one of the fire spells. Now that he had some fire coming from the first wand, he smiled at his success, motioning for Audrea to come over. "Got it! Look," he said. The small fire illuminated Thomas' face, his chocolate brown eyes glistening in the light.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

Audrey smiled devilishly. "Good, now we just do that again, with all of our wands." She instructed, "Hand the fire to me, and keep adding to it."
She put her hands on her cheeks, and her helmet melted away, the excess abomination clay moving to her back, and she slapped her cheeks a few times and took a few deep breaths. She rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles, shaking her hands after. Audrey drew a spell circle near Thomas's fire and gently took control of the fire, holding it with her right hand, and with her left, she drew a second spellcircle, pointed at the fire. This was going to be difficult, and she welcomed the challenge. The stakes were high, they only had so many wands and staffs with full batteries, if she failed at stabilizing the fire and directing it, they would be set back by hours, and if they couldn't find a solution, being trapped until someone from the surface rescued them was a very real possibility. The thought annoyed her, having to be rescued like that.

Audrey was taught that everyone perceived magic differently, and to her, every spell that wasn't healing related was a beast to be tamed. Threatening to break away from her instruction and run amok, especially fire. Her second spell circle fed Thomas's fire instructions to get smaller, instead of a ball of flame, heat and licks of fire flicking away, to become a sphere of pure fire. Nothing wasted, everything held into as tight a form as possible. The fireball in front of her slowly pulled in on itself, she felt the flame resist her, but for now it obeyed her.

 

[Edric Blight]

Thomas nodded, a little smile visible on his face. He then carefully handed the fire over to Audrey. Once she had drawn a spell circle of her own to take over Thomas' first fire spell, he used the next wand to draw a spell circle and create another fire spell. He handed her this fire now as the second wand had ran out of all the battery life it had. He watched on as Audrey now took his flames and attempted to get some sort of control over them. "N- need any help?" Thomas asked a bit unsurely, although by now it seemed that Audrey had gotten a pretty good handle on the flames herself.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

Audrey felt the flame grow more powerful with the addition of a second wands worth of flame, she focused, trying to remember that growth of power in the spell. The amount of fire added would increase linearly, so every jump in power, and thus, every jump in instability, would be the same. This felt manageable, she thought. The fireball, now a perfect, glowing sphere, grew in size, small flares of flame shooting out before the sphere became uniform once more, getting smaller and smaller as Audrey focused the fire into a singular point.
"N- need any help?" Thomas asked concerned,
Audrey, with her brows narrowed with concentration, shot Thomas a glance. He had only just learned fire spells a few days ago, and Audrey had known how to control fire for years now. And this compression spell wasn't easy, requiring constant attention, willpower, and magic feeding into it. She wondered if he even could help with this spell, he was gifted with fire, but they were going all in on this one spell. No practice runs, no training, no thorough planning. They were spellcasting at the edge of their seat.
"No. Keep up the fire spells, this is a good pace. If I need help keeping it together I'll speak up." Audrey informed.

 

[Edric Blight]

“Ok! You’ve got it Audrea,“ he said as she stated he didn’t need any of his help with the fire spell that didn’t relate to him creating the fire with the few training wands they had. So, Thomas continued on with making the fire spells with the training wands, being sure to use all of the battery energy on each one.

After drawing the spell circle and creating the fire, he’d carefully hand it off to Audrey. She seemed to handle that well, as Thomas did a good job of making the fires. Soon they were nearing the last few training wands they had found with full batteries.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

Audrey had never handled this amount of magic before, it was easily triple the amount of her own bile sac capacity, and the struggle of keeping it controlled was clearly seen. There were beads of sweat on her forehead, and her spell circles occasionally wavered. She glanced down to the pile of wands, and noticed there were only small number left. Almost there. She spared a thought to wonder how strong this fire already was, guessing if one battery was roughly a full bile sac of an average adult witch, then this fireball was the combined might of easily ten witches already. It was probably more than ten, but she lost count. The little witch was too focused on keeping this fire compressed into its sphere, which was now the size of a volleyball, and more luminescent than the light spell hovering above them was. The sphere was pure fire, at it's center, white hot, and at the edges orange. Through the translucent exterior, swirls of flame moved through the orb like waves. The fire rumbled, vibrating in place slightly, like it was a distant growl.
Through gritted teeth, she spoke up, "Going a little faster... wouldn't hurt now."

 

[Edric Blight]

This was a lot of magic for one young and not even fully grown or developed witchlet to handle. But still, Thomas did as they had planned and continued to make the fire and hand it off to Audrey. Admittedly he was doing it a bit cautiously, slow and methodical as he handed it off. As he was nearing the last few wands he raised his eyebrows as Audrey spoke up and told him to pick up the pace a little bit.

“Y- yea, right! Sorry!“ he replied quickly, quickening his pace with the last remaining training wands. With a worried look on his face, the young witch began increasing his speed. Thomas quickly, and a bit shakily, created fire with the last few wands, handing it off to Audrey fast. Soon, the boy reached the last wand. “Last one!“ he informed her as he drew a spell circle and created a flame. Thomas handed the last flame off to Audrey, “That’s it, we’re done, that’s the last of ‘em.“ he told her.

 

[Skyrte]

Etheldreda Sano
​

The ball grew in size with every addition, as well as its light and growling rumble. It was too much, going to be too much, and she wouldn't have enough time to properly formulate the next part of the spell, much less aim it. She stared at the sphere, it seemingly like a caged angry beast staring back at her. As her spells instability grew, rivers of sparks emerged out from its surface, curving back into itself, creating arches of magic that howled discordantly. Audrey had never seen this before in a spell, or ever heard of this before, even in those crazy magic gone wrong stories. This was an entirely new beast to her, and it was about to break out.
She frowned and quickly combined her spell circles into her left hand, and rose her right hand, pointing, next to Thomas.
"Quick! Draw a spell circle with me!" She shouted over the roaring sphere. Her fingertip glowed with her magic, "Follow my lead!"
And as soon as he did, he would be able to feel with his own magic her entire spell casting process. An intimate knowledge, that counter spellers only dreamed of. With this knowledge, Thomas could topple any of her spells that followed the same methodology, a death sentence to any duelist. But she did it anyways. This spell was rigid, firm, concrete instructions that left no doubt as to what it was. Compression. Not just to a specific size, but to a single point at the center of the sphere, forcing the sphere to be as compact as possible. Then a sphere of shielding, at the smallest size the sphere could go. And at one end, a funnel, creating an exit for the sphere. Finally, releasing the compression, and letting it loose.