The setting sun spilling over the snowy wastes poured through the large window, casting the room, and the raven-haired man standing before it, into a menagerie of reds and oranges. The man stood facing outward, his hands clasped behind his back and his gray eyes were focused outside his room. The kaleidoscopic light of a setting sun spills over a snow-covered wasteland and through a large window, casting the room, and the raven-haired man standing before it, into a menagerie of reds and oranges. The man stands facing outward, his hands clasped behind his back, and his gray eyes are trained on the valley below. He’s waited many a day for this moment - his freedom from the evil which plagues his existence has at last been vanquished!
His head turns as he hears a soft chiming of melodic bells, “Enter, Calvin.”
Behind him, a shorter man shimmers into existence. He immediately drops to one knee, head bowed, “Sir, the job is complete. The three children have been cursed by my hands.”
“Is it truly done?” The man turns and looks at Calvin, causing his black robes to shimmer with deep purple runes at the movement., “I gave you a curse to put on three children. However, I have not felt that curse dissipate from the chrysalis in which I gave it to you.”
Calving stammered before finding his words, “That is correct. However, when I arrived, the spell was detected by some sort of … umm … a barrier. I was not able to pass through with it. It seemed keyed to your magic, Sir.”
“Of course it was, you fool!” The man slams his hand down on a large marble desk, causing the solid stone to quiver., “I sent you after the children of my enemies!. You thought they wouldn’t ward against the very person they helped exile from Magihame?
“You just didn’t do exactly as I told you. Repeat my instructions, Calvin.”
“Teleport into IvorySun., Find the three children., Cast the curse on the children, and plant the burn spell in their auras.” Calvin looked down, “May I ask how I made a mistake, Sir?”
“You, spawn of a capiri worm, are a total imbecile.” He sucked air through his teeth and snarled before breathing out this exacerbation, “My instructions were most specific. You were to teleport outside the IvorySun Palace grounds, then, find the children with your magic, Cast the curse, and then plant the mind-burn spell within their auras.” The man looked at the kneeling man, his steely grey eyes now glowing a dark purple., “You could have done all of that from outside the barrier!. That curse would inhibit the children from developing into their racial abilities. It would Make them Human!”
Calvin, still looking at the floor, his body shivering, stated: “I can still go cast the curse on them, Sir.”
As the man ran his hands over a nearby desk, a pattern emerged as a series of runes that matched the glow of his eyes. Running his hands over the desk, the pattern his hands trace stays on the surface as a series of runes, matching the purple glow of his eyes, “No, you can’t., You said you cursed them -, just not with the curse I have painstakingly created for this very task, but apparently by some infernal one of your creation. A body can only function properly with one curse and one blessing at a time; all others just bounce off and fade back to the ether stream. Now, pray-tell, what sort of asinine curse have you laid on the… mongrels younglings?”
“I …” Calvin’s throat tightened, “I used a curse based off of a Japanese animation program I have watched recently where the main character switched gender when hit with cold water. The curse was Hydrosensitivity, combined with the female gender switch spell.”
The man’s eyes narrow as he seemed to be having trouble regulating his anger, His words left his mouth like perfectly time emphasis stones of disappointment being lobbed at Calvin’s head. “You ruined the best chance of defeating the next generation’s strongest Magia strongest of the next generation before they could come into their powers, for a curse you saw on a god’s forsaken TV show?”
“A good show, S-sir,” Calvin’s voice was soft and held a bit of a tremor.
“I don’t care if it is the goddesses bare ass filmed for my amusement!, Aa gender-switch spell is not going to prevent them from being a thorn in my side for years to come!” The glow in his eye’s deepened and the runes on the desk levitated above it.
Calvin raised his head a tad., “I figured as females they wouldn’t be respected and the constant changing and increasing hormones would throw off their body’s magical cycles.”
The man let out a dark laugh, “You figured? You.asinine twit, Did you forget that one of them first of all one is an Amazon? There is no gender superiority within that race. Secondly, I have seen female Magia that even I envy for their ease of touching the stream. So, I know that any woman is just as deadly as a man.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“I apologize, my Llord,” Calvin stammered before falling prostrate on the ground, “I will return and cast a reversal, then we can use your spell.”
Running a finger along the floating runes, hi the man turned back to the window “You know as well as I do that there is no reversal for a curse. I need to see the damage you’ve wrought to my plan, but I have tried to break through that warding and failed. Even in other bodies I have failed.”
Suddenly, his eyes widened and his lips curled into a sickening smile, “However, I have never thought to try a body that has already passed through the warding. With an aura suppression spell cast by an assistant, and the ward’s' ownwards own recognition, I may be able to do it.” As he spoke he turned towards Calvin, “It’s your lucky day, Worm.”
“Sir?”
The man drew the floating runes on the desk into his hand, before flinging the purple energy at a small gargoyle-like statue in the corner. As the energy connected with it, the statute hit it, it screeched and started to crack as if from some immense internal heat, “Stand up! Now!”, the Dark Mage bellowed at Calvin.
Calvin started to stand up, but before he even got to his knees , the man raised a hand, “Not fast enough!” He raised his hand and Calvin suddenly found himself jerked up by his throat, before being set onto shaking feet.
Running both of his hands through his dark black hair and turning away from Calvin, the dark mage stared back towards the snowy expanse outside of his tower. Calvin stood rubbing his neck in silence as he watched his master’s reflection in the glass. After what felt like an eternity, despite probably being less than a minute, he saw a gleaming white smile break over his master’s face.
His Master’s eyes glowed a deep purple as he gracefully slipped down into his chair, and almost instantly slumped over. A searing pain erupted from Calvin’s mind as he felt a dark presence in his head. On instinct he grabbed his head in both hands and screamed as he felt his body go numb and almost drop to the ground again., or was it his sensation of his body go numb. A short moment later, Calvin’s body straightened up, he adjusted his robes, and stepped in front of a rather tall, oval mirror standing between the two men against the wall.
He tried to stop his body from moving only to find out that he was himself a passenger in his body, and a small voice in his mind told him he should feel honored that the Master chose to use his body as his own. Calvin could see out of his eyes, as though he were peering out a window, and could see them glowing an eerie deep purple, the color of his Master’s magic.
His finger’s rose and his Master snapped them and Calvin could feel himself once again, or a simulated feeling at least, as he was looking at his body as if he were the reflection in the mirror. Running a hand through Calvin’s hair, as he’d done his own, the Dark master in his body sneered into the mirror, “Well, Calvin. Glad to see I can get some use out of you. Actually I may get some good use out more use out of you yet. This curse of yours seems so simple a child could do it, yet it still mucks up my carefully constructed plans. Yes, stop being so surprised., I can read your thoughts and memories. As of now I am you.”
“Master,” Calvin said weakly, leaning his hands against the glass of the mirror.
“Don’t look so surprised, I need a body that can make it through the wards. However,” The Master scratched his chin and looked the mirror Calvin up and down in the mirror,. “You will need a reminder of your biggest screw-up, so I think that I will make some changes when I am through.”
Swallowing hard, reflection Calvin’s eyes got wide, “Changes, my Lord?”
“Upgrades. Tweaks. And then use you as the guinea pig. You get the picture, How about I try upgrading your curse, and and then try it out on you.” The reflection’s face paled as the dull green eyes went wide. The Master’s eyes glinted and gleamed purple before the purple was masked by a light blue, “I am sure you will enjoy, or learn to enjoy, your new body … Colleen. Bye bye now.”
The Dark Mage snapped his fingers again and a shimmering wall of magic surrounded his real body and Calvin felt the spell allowing him to inhabit his reflection fade. Once again he was alone in a corner of his own mind. He watched the reflection, the reflection that now followed the Master’s movements like any reflection, as his mouth turned into almost a rictus grin. The master spun away from the mirror creating a small hole in the fabric of reality, and allowed the master to step through and leave the spiritual plane and enter the physical plane.
As he watched the familiar change of scenery Calvin sobbed to himself, knowing his Master was not a kind man and that he would wish for death when they returned.
“I am kind Calvin,” He heard his own voice say as they approached the warding that surrounded the palace of the IvorySun royalty, “I am going to let you live. I’ve never seen the point in killing an underling when they screw up. Then you need to train more, and recruit more. This way you’ll still be useful and in a position where you can’t screw up the same way again. Just think of it as me letting you learn from your mistakes.”
He saw his arm rise up and push through the barrier as if it didn’t exist. They walked and came to the edge of the forest and saw three children sitting as if dazed in the sand near a volleyball net. They’re movements were sluggish and all three were silent.
Feeling power pulled from his magic reserve, Calvin could see a thing tendril of power spin around the children’s heads and seep into their eyes, their ears, their mouths. A moment later all three screamed, clutching their heads and fell to the sand.
They ducked back into the trees and watched for a moment as a pair of Amazons rushed to the children with shouts to call the King, as Calvin and his Master slunk back towards the barricade and disappeared into nothingness with a cackle.