Mirror, Mirror (A Semi-Sequel To 'Pikachu Problems')
1: Flute Through The Looking Glass
Whether it was from sheer boredom, or, as he later thought, from
the spell that kept his head from rotting's failure, Bass had decided
to give the infamous spell book another try. You might be wondering why
the spell book had not been destroyed by Vocal's escape (But then again,
knowing my luck, probably not). This could be semi-accurately
contributed to Vocal's skill as an escape artist, but more accurately
he had deliberately left the book undamaged so as to piss off Bass.
At first it seemed as incompetent and useless as ever.
Ineffectual spells coupled with garbled language that tried to pass
itself off as Old English made Bass wish he had left it behind the
desk gathering dust. That is until he actually came across a useful-
sounding spell.
"No strange arcane ingredients," he thought wonderingly as he
triple-checked the spell, "the only strange language is in the
incantation itself, and I actually know what this one is supposed to
do. And, best of all, it's not a summon spell for some obscure beast!
The author must have let himself slip!"
Bass considered letting out a cackle, but he was trying to cut
back. All he needed was a mirror and something of Flute's and he would
have one less annoying person to deal with...
Flute was bathing in the hot springs. It had taken many
threats and other tactics (many of which involved blunt objects being applied
to his head with varying degrees of force) to get Hamel to take
her there, but she had finally ended up in the famous resort town of
Consonance. She really needed the break after following Hamel
willy-nilly across the length and breadth of the continent in an effort
to retrieve his hat. As she was relaxing in the hot spring, which was
deserted at this early hour, and she could hear Hamel's voice faintly
coming from outside of the indoor pools. He was trying to haggle with the clerk.
"She's royalty!" she heard him say, "She should get a
discount!"
"If she's royalty," the clerk replied in a sleepy tone, "Then
she doesn't need a discount."
Flute decided to tune out the argument, figuring that she had
at least another hour before he started threatening to use physical
violence. Or violin-ce, for that matter.
Sometimes she wondered why she tolerated him. Sometimes she
wondered if there really was a decent man hidden underneath his
bravado, or if she had just imagined it. She sank deeper into the
water, just as she sank deeper into her thoughts.
She didn't even notice the small light blue form that flew in
through one of the windows that let out the steam. Ocarina, not
bothering to turn into human form, quickly snatched up one of Flute's
hair wraps, and flew out back out of the window.
"What is it?" Bass said, only a small hint of his curiosity
showing in his voice. He had to keep up an image, you know.
"A hair wrap." Ocarina replied, a slight edge to her voice. She
had just gotten back to Hameln, and all she wanted to do was find a
place to dry off. The steam from the hot springs had left her soaking
wet and, now that she was back home, very cold.
"Oh." Bass said, still not quite sure what it was, but
unwilling to admit that, "Are you sure it belongs to Flute?"
Ocarina sneezed, "Sure, unless there is some other girl with
a large cross-shaped birthmark on her back!" she snapped.
Bass was in too good a mood to bother punishing her for the
slight show of disrespect, and waved a hand idly at her in dismissal.
"This time," he murmured to himself, "Nothing shall stop me."
Then he threw back his heads in his patented Villain Style Laugh.
Vocal, who had been leaning in the doorway, shook his head and
muttered "And if that's not stock dialogue, then I don't know what IS."
Flute was in a bad mood. First her bath had been cut short by
about thirty minutes due to Hamel torturing the poor clerk with a
marionette version of something or other (she had to come out there
and bean him with a cross to get him to stop). Then she had lost one of
her hair wraps, so she had no choice but to leave her hair loose. She
just knew that the wind was going to wreck havoc on her tresses. Hamel
was unapologetic for the first and unsympathetic for the second.
"You lost your WHAT?" he asked as they walked back to the inn.
"Hair wrap." she muttered.
"What the hell is a 'hair wrap'?" he queried.
She paused for a moment and lifted a bunch of her hair in one
hand and mimed wrapping it up in its normal style in the other, "You
know, the things I put my hair in."
Hamel made a little noise of understanding and she resumed
walking.
They soon reached the inn. Flute intended to go back to sleep
for a few hours and then restart the day fresh, when Hamel said
something unexpected. So instead she spent a few hours in her room
deep in thought, then fell into an uneasy sleep.
"You know," he had said right as she was stepping into her
room, "you look much prettier with your hair down."
Before she had time to reply, he had entered his own room and
shut the door.
Flute, of course, then had to rethink her opinion of him for
the forty-seventh time since she had met him. Hamel, once he was laying
down, wondered what had prompted his comment. But he didn't worry about
it and slept soundly until well into the afternoon.
Although early afternoon wasn't the ideal time for dark
rituals, Bass was too eager to try out the new spell to wait. It
was a very easy spell to work, requiring only a simply drawn diagram
on the floor, a small mirror, and the aforementioned hair wrap. The
drawing on the ground was a rudimentary 'x' shape with the points
aligning with the North-South-East-West of a compass. Bass completed
it easily, laying the mirror directly in the center with the hair wrap
laying on it. The personal item only needed to be touching a part of
the cross, but the Hell King wanted to make absolutely sure that it
worked. After all, he had never seen a spell that promised to banish
the victim permanently to another dimension without any chance of return
before, and he wanted to be absolutely sure that it worked. If it did,
he knew several more people that he would be happy to introduce it to.
The second, and most complicated, part of the spell was the
spoken part. The incantation was written in an ornate hand, so it was
difficult to make out. Once he was reasonably confident that he had it
right Bass chanted:
"Zah rorrim eht
Zegaf owt
Ton yam noy
No Z'tahw ekil
Ediz rehto eht"
The x flared, the mirror flashed brightly and shattered,
and Flute disappeared from her bed. The spell worked perfectly...
except for one thing.
Bass had carelessly placed his staff on the x while he was
chanting, and it was the very personal item that the spell needed
in order to work its magic on Bass too.
He vanished so suddenly he didn't even have time to realize his
mistake.
To Be Continued...
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NOTES:
Consonance- stability, simplicity, repose
And yes, I did make the town up (I think the name hasn't
been used...)
As for the chant... it's a plot point. I'm not telling... yet.
It should be easy to figure out any way. (
geocities.com/tokyo/bridge) (
geocities.com/tokyo)