Spellbound & Hellhounds, page 6
part #1 of Coven Chronicles Series
For whatever reason, perhaps the man finally snapped, Leon laughed so hard that his belly hurt, and he had to fold in half as he chuckled through the pain. Once the laughter had subsided, he had to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye.
“I suppose if you’ve survived as long as you have with her, then two weeks should be nothing for me,” Leon sounded like his old self again, and that seemed to satisfy Bobo, but Vanessa seemed too angry to care about his minor fit over the Council’s decision.
She had stormed off down the hall without even bothering to call after Bobo. “Well, she’s going to be a delight the whole way home,” the ogre griped.
“How lovely, my first night will be such a cheerful one,” Leon sighed sarcastically.
“I’ll have the gin and tonic at the ready,” Bobo remarked before sauntering down the hall to catch up with his owner.
Leon had let Vanessa carry on with her aggressive march through the Coven building. She wasn’t happy with what had just transpired, and he needed to use a quick teleportation spell to go home and gather a few things before he’d catch back up with her and Bobo back at headquarters later. Bobo assured Leon before he had left that he would ensure Vanessa would stay at the Coven headquarters until the end of her shift.
On the way downstairs, Bobo was a bit too hasty in his attempt to catch up with Vanessa. His final steps being bumbled near the end, and he elegantly caught himself just before he reached her.
“Oof!” Bobo grunted as he connected, and hard, with Vanessa’s back.
She screeched in return and caught herself on the railing, her back leg extended trying to balance herself as her head lunged forward and hands clamped down on the wooden railing like tiny vices. Her foot jutting backwards to aid in gaining her balance, contacted Bobo’s lower stomach, and he roared in pain. To the roar, both to Bobo and Vanessa’s surprise, there was a sound of a mousy yelp and then the sound of papers flying, and they turned their awkwardly twisted bodies in the direction of the tiny girl that had made the sound. They twisted just in time to catch a glimpse of wild blonde hair and a long navy blue pleated skirt fling backwards and then tumble, head over feet, down the staircase.
“Double-dip a candlestick!” Vanessa seethed. She pivoted her one good foot, saddled the railing and slid down as her hand reached into three different dust pouches on her hip. Squeezing the dust into her hand, she channeled energy for a second and then flung her hand out behind her yelling, “Feather fall!”
Blue light erupted from her hand and skyrocketed faster than eyesight could keep up with before spiraling down after the plummeting maiden. A gentle squeak was heard right after the light left Vanessa’s hand. She slowed her ride down the railing when she saw Ell floating in mid-air. Her tiny hands were gripping her skirt in a fashion that would keep it from rising up and showing the world all her wonders as she tucked her legs under her bum and blinked, looking around her and then blushing madly when she saw Vanessa. “O-oh, h-hi again, Vanessa,” she squeaked and then looked behind her to see how far she had to go before she’d reach the bottom of the staircase. Which was only a few steps, but with the feather fall spell upon her, she’d take a minute or two to reach the comforts of the solid floor below.
“Blast it all with hellfire, Ell!” Vanessa remarked with concern glinting in her eyes. She dismounted from the railing and walked next to the slow falling girl. “Are you all right?”
Ell took a moment to smooth her hands over her body and attempt, but fail miserably, to fix her hair. “I-I think I’m all right,” she said with a nod.
“Still…” Vanessa sighed, “I’ll want to sweep over you with a quick recovery spell just in case. Don’t need you waking up sore tomorrow and running up a bill at a clinic because of my bluster.”
Ell bit her lower lip and looked down at her hands folded on her lap, “I don’t want to be a bother. I’m sure that I’m fine.”
“What a load of imp poo. I’ll mend you and that’s that,” Vanessa said, stomping her foot on the ground at the foot of the steps.
As she started to float up upside down, Ell squeaked and flapped her arms wildly trying to turn herself upright again just as she came within inches of the ground and the spell broke, causing her to fall the minor distance to the floor with a soft groan. Ell rubbed her backside and looked to Vanessa. “I suppose, if you insist.”
Vanessa put her hands up on her hips and puffed her chest out proudly. “I do.”
Just as Vanessa started to search her pouches for a quick spell, Bobo came racing down the stairs with sloppily stacked papers and filing folders in his massive arms. “Is she al—” he called out huffing and puffing.
“She’s fine,” Vanessa said, and Ell nodded with a warm smile. “I’m going to give her a quick recovery spell just to be sure,” she added.
“Oh, blessed be,” Bobo said, almost melting into the steps as he went to sit down and catch his breath on the foot of the staircase.
“Are those… Oh, they are! Bobo, you wondrous beast, you gathered my files for me. I for sure thought I’d have a terrible time trying to recollect them all,” Ell exclaimed with a bright, cheerful grin.
Bobo couldn’t help but smile back at her. He rubbed the back of his neck and started to flush as he spoke, “Oh, it was the least I could do. After all, it was my bluster that caused you to fall.”
He hung his head low and she waved in front of herself frantically saying, “No, no. Really. I’m fine. Don’t worry so much over a silly accident, please, Bobo.”
“We are both sorry, Ell. You could have been hurt really bad if I hadn’t cast that spell in time…” Vanessa admitted, and that was when Ell went silent, her tiny hands plucking at the fabric of her skirt in nervous frustration.
Vanessa’s hands reached out and hovered in front of Ell’s chest, and she started to whisper a chant for minor healing. A soft, spearmint green light started to pulse out of Vanessa’s hands as she closed her eyes, slowed her breath, and focused on channeling the spell to heal Ell’s minor bumps and bruises. As Vanessa worked, Ell watched in partial amazement.
It was no secret that some of the record keepers that worked at the Coven were magicless or possessed such low-level magic that they couldn’t get promoted to a Hunter class or more. A lot of magicless people were hired on at the Coven to be record keepers. There was always a place for people, magic or not, in this world. About seventy-seven percent of Aeristria’s population was made up of magical beings. The rest was magicless, but still had a place just as much as those that possessed it. Discrimination against magicless beings did happen, and was highly frowned upon when it did, but it was still a rarity in Aeristria.
Not to say that the mass majority of magical beings didn’t have it all easy in and out of the work field because of magic and spells. There were things that magical beings had to endure that magicless folk would never have to face, like Medusa’s Kiss. A magic eating disease that slowly eats away at the magic a being possesses, and this is called withering. Once all the magic in the body is consumed the carrier turns to stone and dies.
But, still, on occasion, you’d stumble upon those people that cannot perform spells on the level that Hunters, Spellweavers, and Summoners could, and you’d find their eyes twinkling with a sort of cheer that was full of wonder and innocence. Ell was not able to perform much magic past calling someone on a crystal ball, but she was always fascinated when her peers did a spell in front of her or, in this case, on her.
“There,” Vanessa said before sighing heavily and slumping her posture a bit. “That should be enough.”
Ell twisted and turned her body, patting at it here and there but focusing on her hips, bum, and one of her upper arms. “I must say I’m glad that you insisted on that spell. I feel so much better now,” she said with a grin. “And not all that you repaired was from my tumble down the stairs,” she added with an embarrassed look upon her delicate features.
Bobo and Vanessa both couldn’t help but find the act and statement both painfully truthful and adorable and burst out laughing after trying to hold in the side splitting cackles for a few seconds. Ell turned redder than a cooked apple and fidgeted with her fingers a bit and nervously giggled along with the two of them.
Bobo was the first to break free from his laughing fit. “Worry not, dear. You are just so precious. Just too precious,” he said, standing and holding out the files after tapping them on a step to straighten them all out. “I believe you need these back.”
“Oh. Yes. Of course,” Ell fumbled over her words as she retrieved the folders from the ogre. “Thank you. I need to file these down in the library,” she said, flicking her fingers through the files to make sure that they were all in order.
“Do you need some help?” Bobo asked.
“It is the least we could do,” Vanessa chimed in before Ell could politely reject the request.
She blinked at the two before her lips curved into a wide smile. “Actually, a light spell would help me a bunch! Those torches down there sometimes don’t light the book cases that we need to use, and it makes filing these records even harder,” she confessed.
Bobo motioned for Ell to lead the way and then for Vanessa to follow close behind with her light spell. Straightening out her pouch belt hanging on her mauve robes and pushing her ashen black cloak behind her shoulders so she could better see each pouch, Vanessa poked around until she had the powders she needed and summoned a light orb.
“That took longer than usual,” Bobo said.
Vanessa nodded with a half-pout, “I’m running low on golden dust,” she said, sounding less thrilled than usual. “We’ll need to stop by a supply shop to pick up some more on the way home.”
“Hmm… is there a place on the way home?” Bobo asked as they stopped in front of a dark doorway with baby blue glowing runes above the entrance. Ell seemed to study the markings for a moment while the other two spoke.
“Honestly, Bobo, I forget you’re an ogre some days,” Vanessa sighed.
“Well, thank you, but I don’t see what that has to do with what I asked,” he tightened his half-singed tie and stood tall and proud. If anyone could make a tattered suit look good, it was Bobo.
She rolled her eyes. “Spellvana, the dust shop that is right next to your favorite book shop,” she explained in a tone that was attempting to rattle his memory.
He looked lost for a brief second before gasping and saying, “Oooh, that one place next to The Dragon’s Tale.”
Her deadpan glare was bordering a mix of un-amused and annoyed. “Yes, Bobo. That bookstore. And the store next to it is Spellvana. Stay with me on this…” She sounded as exasperated as she looked in that moment.
“Right. We’ll stop by Spellvana on the way home then, Vanessa,” he assured.
“This is it!” Ell sounded delighted that she found the proper door and pointed at it energetically while Vanessa and Bobo came closer to aid her in her descent down the dark steps and file the stack of folders she had.
The ivory washed walls swiftly turned into smooth cobblestone and held a blue-gray hue to its aged, rocky skin. As Ell had explained, there were torches that filled the descent into the library. Torches were also fastened to the edges of the bookshelves and even along the walls and pillars that lined the library halls, but their light was dim, and they were scattered so scarcely around the halls that it was hard to see between their outer edges, and there were patches of encroaching darkness between the firelight. Someone really should tell Being Resources about this. It was a safety hazard for sure. But, one needed a touch more courage than what Vanessa possessed now because it was run by boogeymen. No, really. All the Being Resources in Aeristria were run by boogeymen.
Vanessa used the light spell to look down one of the isles. “I never knew how big this place was.” Astonished, she peered down a few narrower passages.
“Over here,” Ell called out to her and started to shimmy between the bookshelves.
The ogre looked around them and grumbled while looking at the small birth between the shelving units, “Didn’t exactly make these with … larger beings in mind.”
“This place is about a hundred years old, they didn’t really build it thinking that it would last this long…” Ell informed.
“What do you mean?” Vanessa asked. She knew a lot about spells and sorcery, but she was sort of bad with history and never paid that much attention to it while attending the academy.
“Well, the first Coven built was much older than this one, but it burned down a hundred years ago. We lost a lot of scrolls, records, spells, and knowledge because of that fire. My family was one of the three that provided extra documents and literature for the new library the Coven erected years later.” As Ell spoke, she went about her work and the other two followed her as she educated them. “About a hundred years before that was the last demon sighting.”
“You mean the hellhounds?” Vanessa asked.
Ell nodded. “Yes.”
“But, how did the other Coven headquarters burn down?” Bobo inquired.
Ell stopped shelving her folders and looked around to make sure that they were all alone. She hooked her finger and motioned for the two to come closer as she whispered in an ominous tone, “No one knows, but some say…” as she said those magical words that seem to start every horror story, Bobo and Vanessa leaned in closely to listen. “…that it was caused by elven folk that came from the Black Forest. But no one is for certain, or why they would have done it.”
“Elves?” Bobo whispered, perplexed. “I thought they had died out long before that.”
“Yeah, the last sighting of an elf was around the time that the last demon was sighted,” Vanessa whispered right after Bobo.
Ell gave them a look that didn’t match her nature, it was almost dark and gave both Vanessa and Bobo the shivers. “They say that the elves didn’t die, that they all went into hiding after the elven war. To hide from each other so they wouldn’t die out completely.” She stared at them a bit longer and they were all silent until Ell straightened back up and fanned at them while laughing into her free hand. “But that’s all just Coven tales that the seniors tell the rookies. Could you imagine elves actually still being alive?”
Bobo grumbled something under his breath and turned to venture off through the library while Vanessa continued to help Ell. “It would be pretty cool if they were…” Vanessa sighed and looked up the thirteen-foot-tall shelf as Ell shelved another folder.
She looked over her shoulder to Vanessa. “What would be?”
“If the elves were just in hiding.”
“Oh, yes. Well, all of us magic beings were sort of created by them, or by the humans and elves mating,” Ell said and let her hand caress the top of the manila folder. “Imagine the spells they could teach, the stories they could tell, and the knowledge they would have. They were not only the creators of everything we hold dear now, but the ones that taught us how to control and use magic from the very start.” The mousey blonde seemed struck with wonder and daydreams for a moment.
“Yeah, but it’s been so long since anyone has even heard the re-telling of a sighting. Surely, they have all passed,” Vanessa sounded sad, and she slumped her shoulders. Even the light spell she was controlling dimmed as her demeanor turned sullen.
Slowly, Ell stopped shelving the files and turned to face Vanessa. Opening her mouth to draw in breath and speak, Ell was prepared to attempt to lift the Hunter’s spirits only to have a scream erupt from her as a jumbled collection of loud clattering clashes echoed through the library.
Vanessa jumped at the scream and the several sudden crashes that resounded through the basement level of the Coven. Thwack, thwack, thwack. The thick wooden sounds of the massive bookshelves as they slammed into one another in a booming domino effect rumbled through the shadowed library.
Both of the girls turned just in time to see Bobo standing with three shelves in front and three behind him. All of them toppled over and only hindered from causing more damage by the pillars that were placed between every six cases, to halt such an occurrence from transpiring past a few bookcases instead of the whole section.
Coughing, Bobo waved away gray clouds of dust that billowed around him like he was in the middle of a sandstorm. The echoing sounds of the fallen bookcases subsided, and Ell and Vanessa had run to the edge of the shelving unit they were at in order to catch a better glimpse of the pouting ogre standing above the wreckage as the billowing clouds of dirt was slowly dissipating.
Nothing was said. The ogre simply finished the movement that had caused the accident (his elbow had slammed into one of the bookcases and sent them toppling over, and when his large form turned to catch it, the other side toppled over). He pulled out his spectacles from his pouch, placed them atop the bridge of his nose and blinked rapidly, letting his eyes focus before bending over the fallen shelf in front of him. A large digit raced over the spine of the books and stopped when he came across a title that had caught his eye.
“Ah-ha!” he cheered victoriously and plucked the book from the shelf and started to open the book and skim through the introduction pages. Glancing over at the ladies, he grinned wide with an obvious blush growing on his cheeks as he waved the book from side to side and pointed at it with his other hand. “It’s the complete works of Darion Black, the famous epic poet who wrote about the elven wars,” he exclaimed.
At that point, it was too much, and Ell laughed hysterically, and Vanessa looked embarrassed to have Bobo as her pet while trying to slink into her own body like a turtle slipping away into its shell.
Chapter 10:
The trio picked up the mess, which was rather easy considering that Bobo could lift each of the bookcases on his own, which left the three of them to pick up the scattered books and scrolls to re-file onto the shelves. Ell being the quick handed filer that she was, made the task go by even faster.
