***
I woke up in the arms of my angel. Luckily, not buried face first, in her orbs of mental destruction. I still barely remember what happened yesterday.
Of course, I have cards of my own to play.
Now that I know Sophia is at least somewhat interested in me, I have decided to boil her frog. Make her fall for me so hard that she abandons her church and God because she can't bear to leave me.
I mean it's that or like, talk to her about my feelings and shit. But where's the fun in that?
Gestalt floods my mindscape with images of chickens.
'I am not a chicken!'
[Cluck, cluck.]
'A conversation wouldn't work anyway. If she thinks logically about things I don't stand a chance.'
[So your plan is to emotionally manipulate Sophia into making life choices she wouldn't ordinarily make?]
'Well it sounds bad if you put it like that, but, like, shut up!'
[We are not judging you. We are an evil mind-controlling, brain eating slug. We don't have a leg to stand on.]
[Or legs at all.]
'You're not evil!'
[We have zombies in our basement. Very spooky, very evil.]
'You can't be evil. You are friends with me, and I wouldn't be friends with evil people.'
[Sure, but tell us, what is plan B? Should you not be able to boil her frog?]
'Lock her in your basement forever; so she can only ever look at me?'
[Solid plan.]
'Thanks.'
I reach under my pillow for the small pouch I borrowed from Lillian yesterday. Carefully as to not wake Sophia.
The pouch is filled with powder, Elven glamour. I take a small pinch and sprinkle it over myself. There is a certain tingling sensation, letting me know that it has taken effect.
"Sophia, it's time to wake up." I said gently to the sleepy head drooling on my shoulder.
"Mmgh?" Is the reply I get, as she slowly batters her eyes open. She looks at me, and her eyes grow wide. A faint blush creeps across her face.
"Something wrong?" I asked, with the most innocent expression I could manage.
"Ugh." She takes her pillow and smothers me with it. "Nobody else can see you like this." she mutters to herself.
I giggle and roll out of bed. "Come on, time to get ready for class!" I said, starting to get dressed.
I say starting, because I'm attacked with a wash cloth before too long. I fight back, but not too hard. Allowing her to pin me down on the bed while she assaults me with warm soapy water.
There is a moment, once she has finished scrubbing my face free from glamour. A pregnant pause, me lying on the bed, her sitting on my stomach, looking down at me. Her face has not gotten any less red.
'Step one of boiling the frog; success.'
[How many steps to this plan?]
'Probably eighty seven.'
[Eighty six now.]
'Progress!'
Sophia of course dismounts me, a blushing mess. I finish getting changed with the biggest grin on my face. She is sooo into me. I feel like my heart could burst.
Of course, before we leave I hit myself again with another sprinkle of glamour.
We join all the others for breakfast. Sophia hasn't been looking at me so she didn't notice. Well that was until the whole table went silent. Daisy actually did a double take. Rupert missed his mouth with his spoon. Bronson was drooling and the twins were in fits of giggles.
I sat down in my usual spot next to Lillian. Who's jaw has dropped. I'm starting to think that this might have been a mistake.
"Damn. Did I give you weapons grade glamour by mistake?" Lillian finally said, after picking up her jaw. "Hey look, maybe I could give the sapphist thing another try, third time's the charm right?"
"Sod off. But you did it twice?" I laughed.
"Well you gotta make sure that you really don't like something. Plus I was bored."
Sophia, now realizing what I had done; was clinging to my arm protectively. Staring daggers at everyone looking my way.
It makes me happy, that while she doesn't yet want to put a ring on it, she clearly doesn't want anyone else too, either.
***
I'm a little worried that I over cooked it.
On the walk from the rift walkers eating hall to runes class, I received three marriage proposals and one kidnapping attempt.
The would-be kidnapper was quickly dissuaded by Lillian, Shiv and Chekhov.
Sophia has gone from sweetly jealous to resigned. Which is not the reaction I'm looking for at all. I'm feeling kinda bad, so I'm clinging onto her. She won't look at my face, but she doesn't push me away either.
Once in class, Cid has us learning the other side of runes today, artifacts.
If runes are the software, the artifact is the hardware. And it turns out, it really matters, narratively speaking.
"Take a sleep spell." Cid said from the front of the class, scribbling runes out on a blackboard. "These same runes could be entwined with any number of objects. But depending on the object, the effectiveness could vary from nothing to both cheap and extremely effective. For example, this spell placed upon a trumpet would barely work, yet the exact same spell on some panpipes could knock a village out for a month. Anyone care to take a guess why?"
I raise my hand.
"Tangerine?" Cid said.
"The panpipes are more believable?" I said.
"Correct." He smiled a genuine smile at me. "Good job. There is no law or order to magic. It is a force unto itself, forever changing. A spell can go out of fashion, and in as little as a hundred years that spell will no longer work. Nothing in magic is constant."
He starts handing out artifacts to the class. "But there are some exceptions to that. Because it's magic and there are always exceptions. Artifacts are the biggest of these exceptions. They can hold their own narrative will, even if we do not understand the spell, both its form and function having faded from society memory. The artifact - should it be powerful enough - will continue to fulfill its original purpose."
Cid handed me a black metal hand mirror. "The quality of the artifact helps its longevity as much as its functions effect."
"There are two sides to working with artifacts. The first is creating your own. The second is identifying how an artifact you didn't create - or created over six months ago - works without blowing your head off."
He waves at the artifacts in front of us. "Good luck."
I pick up the mirror and examine it. Metal, black, barely reflects. Aesthetically it has an ominous vibe. So probably black magic. It's a mirror so I'm going to guess at some sort of sight, maybe future or past?
It could show you what you want to see, so it couldn't be trusted until verified. Although I don't know why someone would want to make such an artifact, unless it was a trap for someone else?
Hmm I'm actually kinda stumped. I could push a little bit of mana into it, not enough to fully activate it. But my mana is uncontrolled, I can only flood the thing.
Wait, my flashbang tablet! That would take as much mana as I could give it, but only release on a trigger. I could quite easily add some filter runes to the trigger, which would allow for a variable output.
I pull out one of the clay tablets from the desk and start scribbling away with the various molding tools. It's pretty much the same spell as the flashbang, but I removed the mana to light conversion and added a funnel filter to the end.
I place the mirror on top of the tablet and start drip feeding it mana, and it works, well it doesn't really work, but that's the point.
At the lowest mana output the black mirror grows cloudy, I slowly increase the amount of mana being pushed through, I'm fairly confident it won't explode. But better to be safe than sorry.
Two figures emerge, women. One with black hair, the other with silver white. Both wearing white dresses.
I immediately slam my whole body over the mirror. My cheeks, pink.
Did anyone see? Fuck Shiv is laughing, she saw.
I groan out loud.
I cut the mana flow from the mirror before I sit back up.
Well it's certainly some sort of vision mirror. But is it just showing me what I want to see?
Or is it giving me visions of the future?
I hope for a moment. But I already know the answer.
The future is vast, and while it's determined, it is uncalculable. This is a tiny little mirror, it doesn't have the narrative weight to believably decipher the future.
I raise my hand to attract Cid's attention.
"Yes Tangerine?" He asked.
"I believe I know what my Artifact does, sir." I said. "I believe it shows you what you want to happen in the future."
"Excellent Tangerine. You are correct, top marks."
"We're being marked?"
"Yes, secretly, all the time."
Ominous.
I help Sophia with her artifact. Her cheeks are a little red.
Wait, did she see?
***
I suffered through another two proposals before I found a damp cloth and washed away this treacherous glitter. Sophia relaxed a bit after that. It was funny but I'm probably going to avoid glamour for a while.
I'm not getting caught out like last week, so I did another gym session.
Went to bed in the arms of my angel.
***
***