Chapter Four: Crazy Night

Wonder sat next to Lapis at the map room watching as Rita ran out the door heading after her obvious crush. Heck even Lamont was looking at Rita’s dust trail with that silly smile that meant he knew more than he was letting on. Then again, didn’t he always know more about what he was letting on?

Lapis however had already laid her head down face-first onto the table and let out an audible sigh. It hurt Wonder to see her friend in such despair. Even after all these years Lapis still held out hope that she could be something with Rita, but that wasn’t too far from the case with Rita and Saturn. Wonder wasn’t sure how to help either of her friends with these problems, some days it felt like she was just as powerless to help them as she was powerless to help her mother.

“Lapis,” Wonder said in a quiet and gentle voice.

“Yes, Lulu?” Lapis’s voice came out much more flat than was normal for the high-spirited girl.

“Let’s see how we can help our excitable leader.” Wonder rose from her chair feeling confident that a distraction would help ease her friend’s lonely heart.

Lapis slowly rose to her feet, and offered a weak, but genuine smile. “Okay.”

Wonder walked over to Lamont's side and looked up at him. “Okay, how can the Impossible Wonder and her magnificent sidekick help you prepare for this adventure we’re having?”

Lamont scratched at his chin and put some extra weight onto his stave. “Well, perhaps you two could work on finding or making some potions for us?”

Wonder beamed. “Well I know just the girl who can help with that.” She looked over at Lapis and winked. “What do you say?”

Lapis’s smile grew. “Of course I can help with that. After all I scored top of our class in potions!”

Lamont nodded. “You two know where to go and what to do then. We’ll need some healing potions, maybe some rejuvenation potions as well.”

Wonder grabbed Lapis by the hand and half dragged her out of the map room with more enthusiasm than she really had for the mission. Even if this was going to be just another boring chore to Wonder, it would really get Lapis moving again, and if she really wanted to pull that off she would have to pretend to enjoy the task even harder than she ever had before.

They ran down the hallways until they reached the staircase and went one level up. The sun was long gone from the sky, and replacing it were the bright and brilliant stars. Just off in the horizon, if Wonder looked hard enough she could see the silver streaks of glowing energy running like rivers through the sky. The ley lines of Silver Glow were none of the usual rainbow of colors, but instead they were silver with trails of rainbow colors spreading through much like an oil streak. If only she could paint their majestic appearance onto a canvas she would be able to enjoy them at all times, she'd yet to find a way to get a good enough viewing area to do so.

They reached the potions room and burst through the front door. All sorts of strange things lined the shelves, from baby snapdragon flowers to the hearts of magma rats. A few tables stood in the middle of the room with all the equipment they’d ever need to perform their experiments, including canisters, tubes, pastel and mortars, and everything else.

Lapis was quick to start grabbing a few plants off the wall, along with some strange fish-like things. Wonder on the other hand was too busy trying not to throw up from the sight of the strange eyes which had been pickled to really pay attention to what Lapis was doing exactly.

“Wonder,” Lapis said in a bright tone. “Do you want to help?”

Wonder took her eyes away from the strange and disgusting sight. “Of course the Impossible Wonder will help, that’s what she’s best at after all!”

“Potions?”

Wonder gave her a patient smile. “Being a supportive and helpful friend.”

Lapis giggled. “Yeah, because you kinda suck at potion-making.”

Wonder’s smile dropped into a scowl. “The Impossible Wonder does not suck at anything. Sure there are a few things she’s not interested enough in to learn, but that’s because they are all beneath her grander.”

Lapis giggled. “Well will the Impossible Wonder still help me with this task which is completely beneath her?”

Wonder nodded. “Of course, that is what I said after all.” After taking a look at all the ingredients on the table Wonder felt her stomach twist up. It was like being back in Miss Gaia’s potion class. There was never a time that Miss Gaia didn’t freak her out a little nor a time where Wonder felt her skills were any good at potion-making.

Lapis offered a patient smile. “Can you hand me the catfish I caught yesterday please?”

Wonder looked over to the dead calico fur-covered fish. The thing looked like it could still meow at her. Yep, she was going to have to touch it...

Time went by quicker than expected as Lapis did most of the work, turning the plants, fish, oils and other stuff into a paste and then boiling it and separating the mush from the liquid, Wonder was mainly tasked with fetching whatever ingredient was needed when asked too. It took time, and lots of patience, but whenever things slowed down Wonder was able to focus on whipping out her wand and practice some illusion magic creating lights to float around and dance for her amusement. By far the best part of this was when Lapis asked for several colas out of the fridge, mostly for the potions but Wonder got to keep one for herself.

Lapis was busy taste testing the current potion when she stopped and looked at Wonder who was playing around with a pair of lights making them spin around each other. “Hey, Wonder, can I ask why you always use that thing? Even when you're just using simple spells.”

Wonder’s concentration was weakened and one of the lights poofed from existence leaving only it’s lonely mate behind to spiral in circles by itself. “Well if you must know, wands are very good at directing more delicate or complex spells such as illusion magic. They're not meant for very powerful jobs, but smaller, more difficult ones.” Many a wand had been, and would continue to be broken in such mistakes by novice mages.

“I know that, we both went to the same school you know.” Lapis was smiling. “What I meant is that we both know your good enough to do little light shows like that without your wand. Why use it?”

The last orb of light vanished from its temporary existence. Wonder took a good look at the wand in her left right hand. It was a white spiraled horn, rumored to have come from a once powerful unicorn wizard, but no one had tried to confirm that morbid tale. There were dings and scratches all along the wand, most of which came from before Wonder had obtained it. “My father left this wand in my family’s possession before he... um, anyway I feel like when I’m using it, maybe somehow he’s the one helping me use my magic. Better than what he really....”

Lapis grinned. “That’s a really nice thought.”

“You really think so?”

Lapis put a slightly sticky hand on Wonder’s shoulder. “Of course I do! Man I wish I could have something like that.”

“You want a family heirloom?”

Lapis laughed. “Nah I just want a dad I could care enough about to think about him kindly.”

Wonder shook her head to get out of the mental state she was going in. “Hey how long have we been doing this?”

Lapis pulled her hand back, it must have been sticky because for a moment it clung to Wonder’s blue dress. A sickening feeling spread through Wonder’s gut as she saw the slightly green slime left behind. Lapis wiped the rest of the stuff off her hand and onto her robe. “Five, ten minutes.”

Wonder slumped forward. “R-really? That’s all?”

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“Yep.”

“Man, I wonder if Rita is as bored as we are right now?”

Lapis jumped up for joy. “I’m not bored! Oh but that gives me a great idea! I’m going to go and check up on her and see if we can do anything to help. You can turn off the hot pad.”

Before Wonder could even speak Lapis had already bounded off out the door and down the hallway. This left her all alone in the potions lab staring at the mess they’d made together. “Ugh, that girl left me behind with all this mess. I’m too good to clean this all up… by myself at least.”

Still Wonder did pride herself on many things, being a clean and civil person was one of them. It took longer to clean the mess than it had to make it, nearly fifteen minutes went by before Wonder was finished. Of course once she was fully done and finished she was able to take the bottled potions, three in total and put them away into a side pack for later. A quiet yawn emerged from Wonder’s lips which then turned into a mighty roar of a yawn as she felt a wave of exhaustion washing over her. Today’s excitement had her feeling beat. It was far past time to go to bed.

Going out into the cold halls Wonder found herself heading toward her bedroom without question. It wasn't too far away from the potions lab, and upon reaching it she opened the door, walked in and flipped the light switch. The lights came to life with a flicker revealing a room full of half-finished paintings, sketches on the walls, an acoustic guitar against the wall, a changing wall, a vanity mirror and a nice large bed which was as fluffy as she could ever hope for. Wonder’s floor was spotless. Her bookshelves clean and organized by the color of the books bindings. All in all she took care of her room.

Wonder was all ready to get out of her clothes and then into something more comfortable, like pajamas, but a tapping at her window caused reason for a low growl of frustration to emerge from her. It took all she had to not simply shoot a lightning bolt at the window out of frustration. She knew who it was, and how annoyed she was about to get. Still it was her duty as it was explained to her many times to treat the menace with civility, so she went to the window and opened it.

A brown feathered owl flew inside and found a resting place on a bird stand. Once the owl landed it looked at Wonder and said, “It was freezing out there, why didn’t you let me in sooner?”

Wonder closed the window and thought about her magic wand firing lightning bolts. “I could make you a bit warmer if you’d like.”

“That’s very kind of you to offer, a peasant such as yourself should be proud of having such good manners towards your betters,” the owl said mightily.

Wonder turned out and snapped. “Oh, really? Well then I guess I should be very thankful for such a kind complement as well.”

“Yes you should, human.”

Wonder shook her head and threw herself down onto her bed. “Of all the familiars in the world, I had to choose the owl and all for a stupid pun.”

“I am quite astonished they allowed you to choose me as your familiar as well, and the name Doctor Hoot, never really did suit me, you're all kinds of terrible, but at least you can keep your room clean,” the owl replied. “And an appreciation of the arts is not a downside either, you could have been slightly worse and had no sense of beauty.”

Wonder groaned. “I just want to go to sleep.”

Hoot cocked his head to the side. “Truly? But the night has only just begun. Lazy is the word I’d use for someone taking a nap this early.”

Wonder growled. “I’m not nocturnal you feather-brained jerk.”

“Being called feather brain is much more of a compliment than being soft and fleshy like you. Not to mention that I sincerely doubt there is much of a brain in that thick skull of yours. Not only is your skull too small for a human, it’s thick as well. Those two things do not bode well for your future.”

Wonder grabbed her pillow and threw it in the direction of Hoot. The pillow hit the floor five feet away from him. “Oh throwing things at me now are you? I’m offended.”

Wonder rolled over and covered her ears with her hands. “Can’t I just go to sleep for once?”

“Not when I have come here after fulfilling part of my duty to you.”

That was possibly good news. Wonder pushed herself upright. “Explain.”

“You sent me to go and meet with your correspondence in Starsera.”

“Mistress Glamour Mab, yes. She’s tutoring me to become a better magician so that I can take the guild test by the end of the year.”

Hoot spread his feathers wide and began messing with them, one feather at a time. However because his speech was not actually coming from his mouth, as large as it was, but rather from the psychic link formed between the two when they made their pact, he could still be as snarky as ever. “Oh yes, I do wish you the best of luck on your exams for the Blue Moon Guild, the likes of you will need all the help you can get.”

“Grrrr, what did Glamour say?”

Hoot shook himself. “Just that she’d be free to train you again in a few weeks, she herself seemed to be busy with something.”

Wonder laid back down. “Great. Stuck in the castle with no one to help me. Saturn is a macho-headed fighter, and Lapis uses such a different set of magic skills that I can’t get any help from her either.”

“What about Lamont Frost Fire?”

Wonder glared at him. “He was my teacher, and I’ve already learned all I could from him. I need a fellow illusionist to help me further my skill so that I can get into the ultimate place of knowledge.”

“It would do you much more good than you can imagine to get into such an educational guild.”

“Shut up!”

From just off to her blindside Lapis’s voice came out very quietly. “But I haven’t said anything… yet.”

Wonder rolled over and saw Lapis sitting on the floor, her knees were pulled to her chest with her face buried between them. The long teal hair covered her face hiding it from view, but Wonder could see instantly that something was very wrong.

“I was talking to my dumb bird, Lapis.” Wonder felt herself still feeling a little hot-headed and forced her tone to be as gentle as she could. “How can I help you?”

“Rita doesn’t like me.”

It was like driving a pitchfork into Wonder’s chest. Sure, Lapis would have to learn sooner or later that Rita was just not interested, but hearing her pain was just too much. If Wonder could force Rita to love Lapis back, she would, if only to help cure Lapis of her pain. “It’s going to be alright.”

“I was just… doing what I usually do. Teasing her and stuff. And she got mad at me.”

Wonder put a hand on Lapis’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “I’m so sorry… what would you like to do?”

“Be useful.”

Wonder closed her eyes and turned her head away. The tears were already burning at the edges of her vision. “What can we do then?”

“I don’t know. How can I be useful to Rita? I just want to help her…”

Wonder swallowed and rubbed at her eyes. If Lapis wanted to do something to help Rita, she had an idea. “You know how Rita usually crashes after going on one of her tinkering sprees?”

“Y-yeah, she’s on one right now.”

“Well let’s do something nice for her after she falls asleep.” Wonder forced herself up out of bed and offered a hand to Lapis.

Lapis looked up with tear-streaked and red stained eyes. She took Wonder’s hand. “O-okay.”

Wonder couldn’t really pull the taller girl up, but the gesture was enough to help Lapis pull most of her own weight off the ground. “Good. Now let’s go get some warm blankets.”

***

Lapis was already feeling better knowing that she had a way to help Rita. While Wonder was busy finding some blankets it was up to Lapis to go and find pillows. The halls were quiet at this time of night, leaving a feeling of loneliness in the castle bringing out unforgotten sorrow in her heart.

Lapis leaned against a wall. “What am I even doing here?” this hadn’t been the first time she’d asked herself this. She’d asked that question pretty much every day since she met Rita and realized how deeply in love she really was. If only she could be good enough for Rita.

Around the corner Lapis heard some light chanting. She leaned around the corner and saw the servant girl Fiona, another one of these giant women, dusting a bookshelf and half-singing some chant to herself in a language that Lapis didn’t recognize.

Fiona was half-singing quietly to herself something that sounded an awful lot like, “Wa hey gudu.” Whatever that meant, it sounded pretty.

Fiona was a little bit of an interesting fit in the castle. Usually she was the tallest woman in the castle, save for anytime Saturn was around. Fiona also had long pink hair which flowed nearly to her hips. Generally the servant girl could be found wearing very modest robes of orange hues. The woman was older then Lapis by a couple years at least but was generally so quiet she didn't seem to exist.

Fiona’s feather duster bumped into a vase and it tipped over the edge. Lapis reached out attempting to get her telekinesis around it in time. In a quick and fluid movement that looked like nothing more than a blur of motion to Lapis, Fiona had swooped in with her free hand to grab it safely before putting it back looking as if nothing had ever happened. It was only then that Lapis also noticed the Walkman at the girl’s side clipped to her apron’s pocket and the headphones over her ears.

Lapis stepped around the corner. “Hey, Fiona!”

Fiona turned her head with a nervous but kinda cute smile. She removed the headphones. “Oh, Miss Lazuli, m-my apologies, I d-didn’t notice you there.”

Lapis grinned. That stutter was adorable. “Heh, most people don’t notice me when I’m watching them. It's bad form for a stalker to be noticed.”

Fiona’s smile wavered for a fraction of a second. “O-oh… d-did you n-need anything?”

Lapis kept on grinning. “Ayep. Where are the spare pillows?”

Fiona’s shoulders noticeably relaxed. “Oh, of c-course. They're in the closet to your right. If you wait j-just a moment I will get some for you.”

Lapis shook her head. “I got it. Thanks for telling me where they were.”

It wasn’t that Lapis didn’t know where the pillows were, she had this place memorized down to the last inch of everyone’s private rooms, save for Saturn and Lamont. Lapis just didn’t want Fiona getting the wrong idea about her and forming an attachment to her. Sure Lapis spied on all the cute girls, but only one of them could ever hold her heart.

And now said girl was going to get pillows to sleep with.