© J.B. Norman — Published by Emona Literary Services™
“Is there eggplant in this?” Giulia asks.
“It’s, uh, it’s fish-on-a-stick,” Kat says. “It’s fish. On… a stick.”
Giulia looks up at her from behind her glasses.
“There’s no eggplant.”
“I don’t like eggplant,” Giulia says, taking the fish-on-a-stick.
“I don’t like eggplant either,” Annie notes. “It’s like eating a big, gross sponge.”
“So gross,” Giulia agrees. Holding her fish-on-a-stick in her mouth, she sets down the big, battered, ancient book on their table and looks up at Kat. “You’ve been looking in entirely the wrong place to undo the magic that has turned Princess Tenebella small and lacking her magical powers.”
She opens the book.
“Ancient Tanithite magic won’t work. We need an Ancient Archipelagian spell,” Giulia says.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Kat mutters.
“Oh, yes,” Giulia says. “Spells of morphic alteration were never something the Tanith magicologists devoted much time to. But the Archipelagian magicologists were some of history’s best scholars of alteration magic.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Kat mutters.
“It’s true, Kat,” Annie notes.
“And, luckily,” Giulia continues, leafing through the pages of her book. “Ancient Archipelagian is both much better attested than Ancient Tanithite and much more easy to translate.”
“That’s true, too,” Annie tells her cousin.
“Now, of course, we need to keep in mind that the ancient Archipelagians were keenly aware of an concerned with the underlying order of the cosmos, as represented by the perfectly proportional Music of the Spheres, and of magic itself.”
Annie nods along raptly. Kat blinks dumbly.
“Ergo, all transmutational magic is predicated on inverting or disrupting that perfect portion,” Giulia explains — for a certain of ‘explain,’ anyway…
Annie nods along raptly. Kat blinks dumbly.
“Which, of course, means that to undo the spell affecting Princess Tenebella, we simply must identify the inversion caused by the spell and invert that inversion,” Giulia declares.
“Of course!” Annie says.
“I just need to identify the ancient incantation that will actually do it,” Giulia says, running her finger along the page. “No. That one will allow me to talk to small bears.”
“That’s oddly specific,” Annie notes.
“How does the spell know if it’s a small bear?” Kat asks. “And what happens if it’s, like, three-eighths of an inch too big?”
And then, Kat leans back in her chair, lays her chin on her chest and starts drifting off.
They’re talking more about the Music of the Spheres as Kat nods off the sudden sensation of her head pitching forward snaps her back to wakefulness.
“Huh?” Kat exclaims. “I’m awake! I was paying attention! About the… thing we need to… thing.”
Giulia and Annie stare up at her, and Kat feels small and inadequate in the face of the two geniuses.
“So, uh,” she offers. “Why don’t I go get some more fish-on-a-stick?”
“Kat,” Giulia says with a smile. “Never let yourself think you aren’t a valued part of our team.”
“Yeah!” Annie agrees.
“You’re a very skilled fighter,” Giulia offers.
“Yeah!” Annie agrees.
“And because you’re not afraid to get dust and cobwebs in your hair, you’re the best one to go into the old dungeons first,” Giulia says.
“Wow. That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me,” Kat replies.
She frowns.
“Which is sad, in a way.”
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