BBA - Ficlet 3 - 5
Title: A Magical Mishap
Wordcount: 517
Warnings: None
The world shifted slightly. Kahlan wasn’t sure what had happened when Zedd had moved his hand over the magical artifact, muttering words only wizards knew, but something had. She wasn’t standing in the same spot as before. And Cara, who had been at her left, had disappeared. To her right... she gasped.
“Zedd, there are two of me. Again. Why are there two of me?!” She pried her eyes off of the woman next to her... off of herself, to demand an answer from the Wizard. It came from Richard though.
“I can’t be sure, dear one, but I think something I said might have unleashed the power in this figurine.” She frowned as he continued. “And it was only a delving spell, too, designed to probe these types of artifacts, to investigate magical attributes, nothing more.”
Over by the stone on which the small statuette was currently placed, Zedd was running a hand through his hair, looking as confused as she herself felt. And to her right, her mirror image was doing an eye-roll Cara would have been proud of. Oh no! He can’t have!!
She looked down at herself, noting the blonde tresses that framed her view of the Mord-Sith leather she was wearing. ...he did. She looked up to glare at the wizard, to demand he undo what he’d done, only to be blocked by her own face.
“Like what you see?” her own voice asked, accompanied by a smirk that was definitely Cara’s. She tried to hide her blush as she looked herself... or Cara inside herself, as it were, up and down.
“Indeed. I always thought I might look breathtaking, it’s nice to have it confirmed from this point of view.” Again, she saw herself do a magnificent eye-roll. “As much fun as this is though,” she hoped her sarcasm was not lost, especially on Zedd. “- I think it’s time we fix it.” She started walking around Cara and nearly stumbled. “How do you keep from falling over in these high heels anyway?” she muttered.
“Mord-Sith training,” came the terse reply. She sighed.
“I agree with Cara. Uhh, with Kahlan. I mean ...with her.” Zedd said, pointing at her. Though of course, it wasn’t Zedd. It was Richard.
“Yes, this is rather ridiculous,” Cara agreed. “I don’t like being this tall.”
“And I don’t like being this short.” Kahlan couldn’t help herself. It earned her a glare she didn’t know her own face was capable of. She stored that information away for later use.
“So, can you do something?” she asked Richard... no, the wizard, folding her arms in front of her. He took a bite out of a pear, and chewed thoughtfully.
“It might take me a little bit of time, but I should have us back to normal soon enough,” he finally said between two mouthfuls. They all sighed in relief. “Yes, I should have us all back to normal within the end of the week.” He turned and bent down to pick up another pear, just in time to miss the murderous glares he received from his companions.
Title: Child's Play
Wordcount: 935
Warnings: Set after S02E22, "Tears". Also; SILLINESS ALERT
The toddler... no, Kahlan, was clinging to her leg. Again.
”Someone get her off of me!” she said, rather loudly, shaking her leg in an effort to make the dark-haired toddler let go. "Now!"
“She just wants to hug you,” Richard laughed.
“She’s a Confessor, Richard. She was born with her confessor magic. As much as I don’t fear dying, being killed by a toddler is not the way I want to go.” Cara glared at him. Richard blinked, then pulled a giggling Kahlan from her leg and onto his lap, trying to distract her with his pendant.
“I’m sorry Cara, I didn’t think.”
“Obviously not,” Cara agreed. “Zedd, did you figure anything out yet?” she poked the Wizard a bit harder than she had intended, making him grunt.
“Yes,” Zedd scowled at her from behind the tome he had been studying. “It seems the spell was triggered when we entered the mausoleum.”
“But why was only Kahlan affected?” Richard asked, keeping an eye on Kahlan who had crawled over to their backpacks, and was trying to open one of them. Hopefully her own.
“That puzzles me too,” Zedd frowned. “It should have happened to us all. I wonder if it could have to do with who we are. Or what we are.”
Cara could tell that there was another lecture coming on Powerful Magic and the like. She sighed and looked over to see Kahlan contentedly throwing all of Richard’s things out of his backpack. So she had managed to open it. Smart kid. And it was Richard’s things. Good. Should teach him to keep a better eye on the child. The toddler looked at her and grinned. She found herself smiling back. It seemed Kahlan had been quite beautiful even as a child. She was taken by surprise when the toddler winked at her. Cara didn’t know much about such things, but children that young didn’t wink, did they? She opened her mouth to ask Richard, but the toddler shook her head slowly from side to side. Fine, she would keep silent for now, in spite of the unwanted hugs her legs had received all day long. She tuned in on what the Wizard was saying.
“You and I are Wizards, Richard. And Cara is a Mord-Sith. She can deflect any spells, and evidently, this spell was keyed to let Wizards pass. So the only one of us it could have any effect on at all, was Kahlan.”
“Can you undo it?” Richard asked, only then noticing what Kahlan had been up to. He sighed and got up to go get her, her thrilled laughter making Cara smile again.
“Let me have a look...” the Wizard flipped past some pages and was quiet for a bit as he studied one of them. “Ah yes, here it is. This should turn her back to her normal self again.” He chanted words Cara had never heard before, and Kahlan was abruptly covered in the same dark cloud that had covered her that morning. The cloud grew bigger as Zedd chanted, because Kahlan grew bigger, Cara assumed. It was the reverse of what she had seen when they had inadvertently triggered the spell earlier. Finally, Zedd stopped chanting, and Cara found that she had been holding her breath. She exhaled as the cloud vanished, and there was Kahlan, looking around herself with surprise.
“Is it night already?” she asked, blinking. “And why are all your things on the forest floor, Richard?” Both Zedd and Richard frowned.
“You really don’t remember?” Zedd asked.
“Remember what?” Kahlan asked, looking from the Wizard to the Seeker.
“It’s a long story,” Richard said and gave her a hug. “I’m just glad you’re back to your old self again. Literally speaking.”
Kahlan caught Cara’s eye over Richard’s shoulder, and winked again. Cara rolled her eyes and smirked. She wondered what made the Mother Confessor think she would keep her secret. She hadn’t forgotten about the unwanted hugs her legs had received, yet.
“Welcome back, Confessor,” Cara said, not unkindly. “Say, what do you know about toddlers and winking?”
Kahlan groaned and Richard held her out and looked at her. “Kahlan...?!”
“Oh fine, I do remember it.”
“And...?!” Cara prodded, just in case the others hadn’t worked it out yet.
“And I might have been a toddler only in appearance, the whole time.”
“That makes sense,” Zedd said and nodded. “Based on what I've read in this tome, anyway.” He started studying the thing again, ignoring what was going on around him.
Richard, on the other hand, looked aghast at the revelation. “But I’ve been chasing you all over the place all day, trying to keep you out of trouble!”
“I had a lot of energy.” Kahlan shrugged.
“You’ve been torturing Cara all day!”
“She looked like she needed a hug,” Kahlan smiled.
“You threw your bowl of porridge at my head!”
“It seemed like the right thing to do, at the time,” Kahlan grinned.
Richard shook his head. “I’m having second thoughts about those daughters we’ve been trying to make. If they’re anything like you, we’ll die from exhaustion before our time.”
That made Kahlan gasp. When Richard laughed, she slapped his stomach.
“Okay, fine,” he said. “Maybe we can try some more. After you help me pick up my stuff.”
Cara sighed, wondering once again why she was putting up with these people, knowing full well why she did. “I’m going hunting!” she announced, picked up her bow and walked off, a smile playing at her lips. These types of things had never happened back when she served Darken Rahl.
Title: First Lesson
Wordcount: 884
Warnings: Partly based on book-stuff, but only partly
Darken Rahl was nearly dancing with anticipation as the servant was trying to help him dress.
”If you stood still for one minute, young master, this would take less time and you could be on your way,” the old man admonished him, but wearing a smile all the same. Darken grinned and tried his best to not fidget.
Today was his 7th birthday. It was the day when his lessons in magic would begin. His father had told him for as long as he could remember that he had magical potential, but he had not been allowed any lessons until his father felt he was old enough. Today was that day.
“There, all done young master,” the servant said. “Your father said to meet him and the Wizard in the Garden of Life.” Darken had moved for the door before the old man had even finished. “Ever in such a hurry,” he could hear the old man mutter to himself, and of course he was. Especially today! He started running.
In the Garden of life, he could see his father talking to an elderly short man with brown hair that had started graying.
“Ah here he is, finally,” he heard his father say. He could see the Wizard looking at him thoughtfully. “Darken, this is Nathaniel Iluryon, a Wizard of the Second Order. He will be your instructor in the arts of magic.” Darken bowed courteously as he had been taught to do.
“Greetings Wizard Nathaniel,” he said.
“Greetings Darken Rahl,” the Wizard replied. “Are you ready, then, for your first lesson in magic?”
Darken nodded. “Yes Wizard, very much so.” His eagerness made the two older men laugh, but Darken didn’t care. He had been waiting so long for this day.
*****
He was seated on the ground in the Garden of Life, the Wizard sitting on a stone in front of him, telling him of different types of magic. Darken knew that magic meant power, and paid attention as best as he could. He didn’t much like what the Wizard told him of Confessors, mostly because theirs was a type of magic that wielded a lot of power, more so than his own magic ever would. The Mord-Sith, he liked better. He already knew that they were his and his father’s greatest protection, but he had no idea that the leather-clad women could deflect magic as easily as he himself breathed. The Witch-women of the world, he could care less about. Their power was vast, his tutor seemed to think, but it sounded like these women preferred to stay in their dwellings. Sorcerers and Sorceresses, on the other hand, roamed the world, practicing their abilities as they saw fit. Darken already knew this; his father had several of them working for him.
As time went past and the Wizard talked on, Darken found he had trouble focusing. The Wizard must have noticed, as he stopped his story, and said they would continue that part of the lessons another day.
“We should check whether you actually have any potential,” the Wizard said, looking at him thoughtfully again. He then taught him the words of the first spell he was to learn, and had him repeat them carefully, before showing him the magical symbols to go with the spell. He had Darken draw them several times on the ground before they went over to the pool of white sorcerer’s sand in the middle of the Garden.
“Now remember, the symbols have to be drawn perfectly, and at the right time while you say the magical words. Once you have started, you cannot stop until you are done,” Nathaniel cautioned. Darken went through the instructions mentally, before he started chanting the words, drawing the symbols in the sand at the right places. As he drew the last symbol with his fingertip, and uttered the last word, a fire without heat seemed to move through the symbols.
“Did I do it right?” he asked excitedly, feeling the power that was moving through his own body at that moment.
“I believe so,” the Wizard said. “...although... I’m not sure about that last line. Still, it seems to work.” The last seemed to be meant for himself and not Darken. Darken looked around the garden expectantly.
“When will it happen?”
“When the fire dies out, that’s when the result of the magic will come forth.”
Darken sighed and put his weight on one foot, then on the other, waiting impatiently. Just when he thought that nothing would ever happen, clouds started forming above them, under the ceiling of the Garden, and a light drizzle started. The drizzle turned into a downpour that seemed never-ending.
“I thought we were just making some raindrops?” Darken was awed. His teacher sighed.
“I thought that last line looked out of place. This might last for a while, young master. We should end today’s lesson and go see if your birthday party is ready.”
*****
For his next lesson, Panis would have to find his son a new tutor. He couldn’t let a Wizard teach him, who had nearly destroyed the Garden of Life in his ignorance. Panis sighed, and wished, not for the first time, that he hadn’t fallen out with his old friend, Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander. He would have been the perfect teacher for his son.