Chapter 27 Melodia

We ended up telling them everything. The dolls, the other girls, the spirit of destruction, the whole thing. They actually took the whole thing really well. In fact, the worst part was that they weren't even surprised.

"I mean, we've known there was something powerful under the city for a while now," Clancy said from the spot on the table I'd stuck her to. Her needles were safely kept away from her on the other end of the table after her third time trying to take some of Pickati's blood. I guess that's what happens when a 'blood' magi discovers a new form of life.

I was ready to keep her in place while enjoying the hot chocolate which had come up for me via the little elevator built into the wall.

"The only question now is… what do we do about it?" She said before glancing over at the other two. The jerk who put a sword to my brother's throat was sitting silently and staring at the wall with an unreadable expression. He had one of his dolls floating over him, keeping his arm elevated and stable. He had apparently hurt it when I dropped him to the floor.

I would have felt bad, but he put a sword on my brother's neck. So I didn't care if his arm was broken or whatever. As for Tina…

She had spent the entire explanation staring at me from the other side of the booth. Normally I would have been hiding behind my brother, but the big goofy smile on her face was throwing me off.

"We help them," Marvin finally broke his silence, "we give them all the aid we can in taking down these criminals giving dolls a bad name." He gnashed his teeth as the dolls around him started shaking. "Look at them. Hand crafted with love and care from wood, cloth, porcelain, or metal. Completely inert on their own, but coming to life once under one's direct control. These are true dolls. That these abominations would dare call their monster's dolls… I'll tear them all apart."

"Well, it's nice to know that you're so invested in this," Tina nervously smiled at his rage before turning to us, her smile a bit calmer. "That's what the South Palm High Magi Association is for, keeping the town safe."

"Our school has a magi association?" My brother raised an eyebrow. "Must have missed it on the club list they gave out at the start of the year."

"We'll there's a reason why we're meeting in a private room in a café instead of a classroom," Tina chuckled, "once we realized we had three magi all enrolled at once, we figured we'd team up to protect everyone else."

"But is it really only you guys?" My brother asked, "I would have thought there would be more people involved in this. Why are three teenagers the only magical defenders of a whole city? Aren't there any other magi who could help?"

The three said teenagers looked at each other. Well, Tina and Marvin looked at each other, Clancy was still stuck to the table.

"You said you were created thousands of years ago right?" Marvin asked as Pickati carefully nodded. "Were you… aware at all during this time?"

"A bit, but not as much as I would have liked. While in my slumber I could feel what was going on through the outside via my dreams, but dreams aren't exactly the best way to gather information," he admitted. "The fact I woke up and wasn't immediately overwhelmed by the sheer change in human society still amazes me."

"Were you keeping track of any changes in the magical side of the world?" Pickati shook his head at Tina's question.

"Only a little bit at first, but after a while I figured Magi tended to not change culturally that much, and any big supernatural event would be felt by everyone," he explained as the three magi's eyes widened. "Although I will admit, magic is strangely well hidden these days. I would have expected it to be common place by now."

"It's not well hidden," Tina said slowly, "Pickati, have you ever heard of the starving time?"

"No, but I don't like the sound of that name," I wasn't sure why, but the name alone sent a shiver down my spine.

"The starving time was a period starting roughly four hundred years ago," Tina started to explain, a small frown appearing on her face. "Old sources of magic started to fade, magical creatures started disappearing, and children of magi started being born with corrupted, unusable magic."

"As the years went on," Marvin continued, "magic started disappearing altogether. It only started coming back in the last few years. Despite our legacies, by strict definition we are all first generation magi."

"Both Marvin and I are from old families who lost their magic over the years," Clancy added. "Tina's a bit of an odd one out, her family only started getting involved in magic while the starving time was in full swing."

"Yeah, that's why my concept is so modern, we started putting our magic together during the industrial revolution," she put her hands out and spread her fingers out. She muttered a spell as a crack of electricity shot from her thumb, traveled across her fingertips, and then went back into her pinkie. "We still ended up losing it though. I had to relearn all our magic from books my family left behind."

"Same story here," Marvin admitted, "we had an old library with books that never opened until I touched them."

"I got lucky," Clancy smirked, "my grandfather had no magic, but his mother did and made sure to pass down all she could about our magic. He managed to teach me the basics before he passed."

"But how did you awake your magic on your own?" Pickati gaped as Tina shrugged her shoulders.

"Book reading, and a lot of luck," she admitted as Pickati's eye twitched, "so yeah, that's why it's just us. The only other magi we've ever met was the crazy one who tried to kidnap people and turn them into mushroom farms. Other than that, our family records talk about something called a 'Council of Babylon', but they've never reached out to us, if they're even still around."

"Well, I suppose that explains some things," Pickati grumbled as he look down at the table, "to think that the world of magi and the supernatural had become so fractured and isolated."

"So does this mean we're all on the same side now," my brother cut in, "because I would rather not get another knife to my throat?"

"I would say we are," Marvin patted the head of the doll holding up his bad arm. "We needed to ensure you weren't a danger, and you've more than proven it. My name is Marvin of the Maezavon family. I use the concept of control to move my dolls."

"O…kay?" Arturo stared at him and I did the same. What a weird way of introducing yourself. Was it a magi thing we didn't know about?"

"My name is Tina of the Storm family. I use the concept of charge to make magical tools," Tina added which meant this probably was a magi thing my brother and I had no idea about.

"My name is Clancy of the Bloodturner family. I use the concept of blood to manipulate my own and create medicine," she finished before trying to squirm around a bit. "Can I please go back to normal? I promise I won't try to draw any blood."

Arturo and I looked at each other and my brother gave me the single to let her go. I let the spell drop and Clancy sat back up, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Oh that hurt," she groaned as Marvin fought back a chuckle. Her eyes darted to him and glared right at him. "You see something funny?"

"I was looking at something funny," he smirked before shrugging, "but it's gone now so I'll just have to live with the memory."

"Enjoying my misery a little much aren't you?" She growled as I blinked.

"No, I don't think it's possible to enjoy your misery too much," he scoffed as Clancy raised her and dug her fingernails into her palm. Her blood started flowing out of her before crystalizing into a sword.

"It seems that a Mezavon dog needs to be taught its place," I leaned back as Marvin smirked back at her.

"We Mezavons know our place, and it's above the likes of Bloodturner trash like you."

Clancy roared and swung the sword down only for it to be blocked by a sword wielding doll that shot out from under the table.

She moved her head to the side as another doll dropped from the ceiling and swung an axe at her. The axe flew past the spot where her head had been a moment ago.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I was about to hit them both with a gravity spell when Tina's arms shot forward like snakes and gripped both of their shoulders. The pair looked down at the hand on them and froze. There was a cracking sound as the electricity flowed out of her and into the bickering pair. They squirmed a bit before sitting back into their chairs.

"And they were doing so well too," Tina sadly shook her head before reaching into her jacket and taking out a little book and pen. She opened it to a page near the back before writing on it with the pen. "On the bright side I think this is the longest you guys have gone without trying to kill each other over a feud your families started over eight hundred years ago."

I stared at the now slightly charred magi while sipping my hot chocolate.

"But going back to your question, there's not just three of us," Tina turned to my brother like nothing had happened. "We have a fourth member, but they've been gone for a while. They should be back in a few days though."

"Does that happen often?" Arturo pointed at the two collapsed magi. Honestly, I wanted to know too.

"More often than you would think," she sighed before shrugging her shoulders, "those two take their family feud way too seriously. This is the only thing I can do to keep them in check."

She put the book bag into her jacket before sitting back down at the booth. Specifically the seat across from me. She leaned over the table and got that goofy look on her face again.

"So… tell me more about your whole magical girl thing?"

Magical… girl? I mean, I was a girl, and I did have magic, but wouldn't that make her a magical girl too? Was there something I was missing?

"What?" I managed to squeak out as Pickati and Arturo both looked at me, like they weren't sure what to do. To be fair, I didn't know what I wanted them to do either.

"Oh, do you not know about them? I guess the genre has been kind of MIA these last few years," she reached for a remote on the other table and aimed it at a wall.

A section of the wall split open to reveal a big TV. How did they do that?

"No," Marvin groaned.

"Now you got her started," Clancy added as Tina turned the TV on and we got blasted by a wave of music in a language I didn't understand. On the screen was a girl with big eyes holding up a toy bow as a bunch of light shone around her. She smiled as her clothes glowed and changed into a dress… oh.

"This… is a magical girl," Tina proudly announced. "I have the whole first season of Magical Huntress Artemis-chan on this thing. It's a classic and the perfect show to get people into the genre. Plus it even has a decent English dub." Was I supposed to understand any of this?

"Well I guess we have time to watch an episode or two," Arturo shrugged his shoulders before looking over to me.

"I don't have much of an issue with it either," Pickati added before looking over at me. "It's up to you Melodia."

A part of me wanted to leave since they had attacked my brother, but another part of me wanted to stay. The only one who had really tried anything was Marvin, and he was acting to keep other people safe which I guessed was okay. And Tina was actually pretty nice all things considered, even if she was being weird. Plus they had offered their help in fighting the dolls, so it'd be worth being on friendly terms with them.

What harm was there in an episode or two? I nodded my head as Tina cheered and clicked play on the first episode.

We ended up spending three hours watching Magical Huntress Artemis-chan. The show was actually pretty good, and I was going to track it down on my own time, but boy was it a weird viewing experience. Especially with Tina stopping every few minutes to ask me if something from my life was like the show or not.

That the answer was 'yes' more often than not only made it weirder. Not only did the show start with a young girl getting the power of the Greek goddess Artemis, but she even got them from a magical animal, a deer in her case. She also ended up recruiting four other girls who got powers from other Greek goddess to fight against the evil Titans who attacked once a week. There was even one girl in particular who got her powers from Persephone who was a cool girl who fought on her own. She even wore purple, like me.

But as weird and uncomfortable as I felt it was still more than worth it to have the extra help with the 'fake dolls' as Marvin insisted we call them. All we had to do was give them a call the next time one of them showed up, and both Tina and Marvin would be there. Not Clancy though. Once I finished telling them about what the dolls could do and the damage they could take, she said she was going to have to sit out. She apparently didn't have anything that'd work against them.

With any luck, two more people on our side will be more than enough to turn the tide. Arturo traded phone numbers with all three of them, and I wondered if I should do the same. In the end, I couldn't muster up the courage to ask them. We said our goodbyes and headed home, Pickati safely back into my bag, not a single drop of blood missing.

Needless to say, I went to school the next day a lot calmer than I had the day before. It was a perfectly normal Friday. I went to school, turned in the project to Ms. Calloway, and internally cheered over not having to present it. I spent the rest of the day in a weird mood. On one hand, the other girls were kind of leaving me alone now, and we had more help for the doll fight to come, which was good. On the other hand, the other girls leaving me alone made things feel a bit too peaceful. It also didn't help that with the week over, I wasn't going to be Ray's partner anymore.

Was he going to still want to be friends with me now that he didn't have to anymore? A part of me wanted to go straight home as fast as I could. He couldn't tell me he didn't want to stay friends with me if I didn't see him again.

Of course that plan kind of defeated the point, didn't it? No, I was always telling everyone how I wanted to face my problems instead of running from them. So I went to the only place in school where Ray and I knew to meet. I stood in front of the school's library and waited with my back to the wall. With any luck, he would show up in the few minutes I had before I needed to head home. I was about to give up when I heard someone walking my way. I looked down the hallway to see him turning the corner. Our eyes met and he smiled before running over to me.

"Somehow I knew you'd be here," the two of us smiled, "good thing too, there was something I wanted to tell you."

"I think I can guess what it is," I admitted as I braced myself for whatever came next.

"Yeah, we only ever really started talking after we had to work together on the project, so I wanted to ask…"

Here it was.

"Would you like to stay friends now that it's done?"

"Yes," I said with zero hesitation before letting out a sigh of relief. I had to check myself for any spells I may have casted by accident, because I suddenly felt a lot lighter. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that one and not the other one."

"Yeah I figured that'd be the case," he nodded, "so, you want to hang out this weekend? I have a soccer," football I mentally corrected, "game this Saturday. I kind of wanted some more friends there to cheer me on."

"Sure I would love to go," Oh right the dolls. "But I can't, kind of."

"What do you mean kind of?" Okay so how to explain this in a way where I didn't sound like a crazy person?

"I have something else I have to do at some point during the weekend, and I don't know when it is," I admitted. "And it's not something I can get out of. If it happens before or after the game, I'll be there. But if it happens during, I'll have to go to that instead, sorry."

"Well, is there anyone you can ask to learn when it's going to be?" Ha, I wished. I shook my head while giving him a sad smile.

"No, it's all up to chance," I held my fist out to him. "But trust me if I get the chance to go, I'll go. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that," he said as he met my own fist with his own. I couldn't help but smile, I still had my first friend.