quite frankly, we have no idea how she did it."
*
"We have found the spell." The tall man in the turban moved out of the clump of wizards, spellbook open across his hands. "But we still do not understand it."
"No, no, no!" The Asian woman snatched the book from him. "We understand it. We just can't repeat it."
"Oh, you understand it, yah?" asked the bearded wizard, grabbing the book in turn. He snapped it shut. "There is nothing to understand. She has left out whole sections."
"She leave out only basics," someone back in the pack announced. "If you study basics..."
"Basically, you're an idiot!"
It degenerated into a seven part shouting match fairly quickly after that.
"If you're going to have to blow something up again..." Alynne tossed another piece of charcoal into the brazier. "...could you wait until I cover my pudding cup? The last time you got their attention, you dusted ash over my sandwich."
*
"We have decided..." An indeterminate noise caused the bearded wizard to pause and glance back at the semi-circle of wizards behind him. "We have all decided," he began again, returning his attention to Carlene. "That since we can not banish you, we had best do as you wish and contain you. We have figured out the spell, but there is a problem, yah?"
"Yah what?"
"We have no... What do you call them? Raw materials. Usually, we would use straw, or leaves, or other organics. But the wizard you called Beth Aswith used..." He looked a little embarrassed. "...herself."
"Say what?"
"You were the spark of life added to an inert ovum. Flesh of her flesh, contained by her magical force."
"Wait." Carlene flared, the wizards stepped back in unison, and Alynne covered the mouth of her glass. "Are you saying she really was my mother?"
"In all essential particulars, yah. Your mother. But unless you want to be an infant again, we can not repeat the spell."
"We?" the Asian wizard muttered, her eyes boring holes in the reindeer knit into the back of his sweater.
He ignored her. "We know how to build a body from organic matter and we know how to animate it, creating a golem of flesh as it were, but none of us..." One hand waved in the general direction of the wizards behind him. "...know how to keep it together more than a few days. It would not hold the magic necessary to hold you and to truly live."
"She really was my mother." Burning couldn’t express what she was feeling. Grief. Joy. Loss. Confusion. Overwhelmed, Carlene burned up a bundle of sage, Alynne's two sugar cookies, and Beth's old apron.
"Fire should not have emotion," the bearded wizard observed as Alynne smothered a spark that had fallen from the apron into the chair.
"So give her a body," Alynne snorted.
"I have explained why..."
"Use Beth's."
Carlene flickered and nearly went out before she remembered to begin combustion again. "What?"
Alynne settled back into the chair and took a deep breath. "Look, she died two days ago right? But Carlene disappeared so they don't know where to send the body so it's still in the hospital morgue. Beth isn't using it any more so you guys use it as the organic matter to build another body. Wizards hold magic so this new body made out of an old wizard will hold the magic needed to contain Carlene who does that whole spark of life thing again and voila! That's French for bride of Frankenstein lives," she added when all seven wizards reacted by staring at her in confusion.
Seven pairs of eyes blinked.
"But I don’t want to be the Bride of Frankenstein," Carlene protested as the wizards went into a huddle.
"You won't be; they'll make you a new body."
"Out of a dead body! That's just gross. How can you even think of something like that?"
"Oh, yeah, that's fine talk from someone who crispy crittered the body she was in."
"That was different. I am fire !"
"Yeah. And you don't want to be."
Carlene could see herself reflected in Alynne’s eyes – a yellow white flame, four inches high. Magical. Elemental.
*
"We have found the spell." The tall man in the turban moved out of the clump of wizards, spellbook open across his hands. "But we still do not understand it."
"No, no, no!" The Asian woman snatched the book from him. "We understand it. We just can't repeat it."
"Oh, you understand it, yah?" asked the bearded wizard, grabbing the book in turn. He snapped it shut. "There is nothing to understand. She has left out whole sections."
"She leave out only basics," someone back in the pack announced. "If you study basics..."
"Basically, you're an idiot!"
It degenerated into a seven part shouting match fairly quickly after that.
"If you're going to have to blow something up again..." Alynne tossed another piece of charcoal into the brazier. "...could you wait until I cover my pudding cup? The last time you got their attention, you dusted ash over my sandwich."
*
"We have decided..." An indeterminate noise caused the bearded wizard to pause and glance back at the semi-circle of wizards behind him. "We have all decided," he began again, returning his attention to Carlene. "That since we can not banish you, we had best do as you wish and contain you. We have figured out the spell, but there is a problem, yah?"
"Yah what?"
"We have no... What do you call them? Raw materials. Usually, we would use straw, or leaves, or other organics. But the wizard you called Beth Aswith used..." He looked a little embarrassed. "...herself."
"Say what?"
"You were the spark of life added to an inert ovum. Flesh of her flesh, contained by her magical force."
"Wait." Carlene flared, the wizards stepped back in unison, and Alynne covered the mouth of her glass. "Are you saying she really was my mother?"
"In all essential particulars, yah. Your mother. But unless you want to be an infant again, we can not repeat the spell."
"We?" the Asian wizard muttered, her eyes boring holes in the reindeer knit into the back of his sweater.
He ignored her. "We know how to build a body from organic matter and we know how to animate it, creating a golem of flesh as it were, but none of us..." One hand waved in the general direction of the wizards behind him. "...know how to keep it together more than a few days. It would not hold the magic necessary to hold you and to truly live."
"She really was my mother." Burning couldn’t express what she was feeling. Grief. Joy. Loss. Confusion. Overwhelmed, Carlene burned up a bundle of sage, Alynne's two sugar cookies, and Beth's old apron.
"Fire should not have emotion," the bearded wizard observed as Alynne smothered a spark that had fallen from the apron into the chair.
"So give her a body," Alynne snorted.
"I have explained why..."
"Use Beth's."
Carlene flickered and nearly went out before she remembered to begin combustion again. "What?"
Alynne settled back into the chair and took a deep breath. "Look, she died two days ago right? But Carlene disappeared so they don't know where to send the body so it's still in the hospital morgue. Beth isn't using it any more so you guys use it as the organic matter to build another body. Wizards hold magic so this new body made out of an old wizard will hold the magic needed to contain Carlene who does that whole spark of life thing again and voila! That's French for bride of Frankenstein lives," she added when all seven wizards reacted by staring at her in confusion.
Seven pairs of eyes blinked.
"But I don’t want to be the Bride of Frankenstein," Carlene protested as the wizards went into a huddle.
"You won't be; they'll make you a new body."
"Out of a dead body! That's just gross. How can you even think of something like that?"
"Oh, yeah, that's fine talk from someone who crispy crittered the body she was in."
"That was different. I am fire !"
"Yeah. And you don't want to be."
Carlene could see herself reflected in Alynne’s eyes – a yellow white flame, four inches high. Magical. Elemental.
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