Mist of Shadows

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 30

Snape glanced between Harry and Hermione, not particularly impressed by Harry's story. "Let me get this straight, you're telling me that Ronald Weasley, one of the laziest students I've had the misfortune to teach found an empowerment ritual in the library, a place he'd never willingly set foot, figured out how to draw it with no training and activated it?" he asked, wondering if they'd actually given their story a second thought because it was holier than all of the Vatican drains put togeth...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 29

Harry woke up with a jolt when he landed on a mattress. He sighed in frustration when he caught sight of Fawkes flying out of the open door to his room in Grimmauld Place. "So much for having a relaxing morning."

Hermione yawned as she woke up the rest of the way and glanced around the familiar room, not sure how they'd gotten back. "How did we get back?"

"Fawkes or at least I saw him leaving," Harry replied as hit himself with a cleaning spell, getting rid of the odor and the dri...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 28

"This would be so much easier with magic," Ginny grumbled as she scrubbed at the stubborn stain on the wall that refused to come out, frustrated with the busy work and annoyed because there wasn't any word about Harry and Hermione.

"Excellent idea!" Fred said cheerfully as he walked into the room and waved his wand, instantly cleaning the entire wall.

"You realize Mum is going to complain because Ginny used magic, right?" George asked as he followed his twin into the room, knowing...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 27

Hermione pulled her attention away from the crystal ball that was showing Jade and Jessica sprawled out on the large bed by the fire, reading the books they'd borrowed from Merlin's library and focused on the runes that Harry was carving on the bottom of the crystal ball stand with a nail. "What are the chances of this going wrong?"

"Fifty, fifty? Forty, sixty?" Harry replied, not terribly concerned as he was expecting it to fail a couple of times before he got it right, assuming that h...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 26

'At least the entertainment is better than anything the wizarding world has,' Harry mused as he watched the show, curious how much of their performance was the result of skills and how much was the result of hard work, lighting, or enchantments. He glanced at the middle aged woman sitting off to the side of the stage playing a harp and singing in a language that he didn't recognize. 'That would probably be more entertaining if I could understand her.'

He turned his attention back to the...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 25

Harry pulled his attention away from the mostly finished demon steel blade that he was working on when Hermione started playing her flute. 'Huh, she must have taken lessons, that's actually good.'

Hermione continued playing for another ten seconds, each note summoning another hand sized rat. She stuck the flute in her inventory and gestured towards the closest rat that was glaring at her, turning it into an ornate bronze snuff box and causing the rest of the rats to scatter.

"Nice...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 24

Giles paused when he caught his reflection in the mirror he kept on his desk and realized that he wasn't going to be able to explain the changes away with a couple of good night's sleep and a vat of face cream. 'Give me a leather jacket and I'd look like Ripper, at least I hadn't lost my common sense.'

He took a couple of seconds to review his priorities and run through some of the Watcher's mental exercises for detecting mental influence before he was confident that the desire to set S...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 23

"Yes!" Hermione squealed when her Synthesis skill gave her a token for Time Warped Cooking, rather than yet another token for one of her versions of Magical Cooking, she only needed one of each, because of Harry's skill.

River looked up from the cauldron she was watching. "Something interesting?"

"Time Warped Cooking, it reduces the time required to cook by five percent per rank which means eventually we'll be able to prepare food instantly," Hermione explained as she set the bowl...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 22

"Thanks for the help," Harmony told Fred as she finished putting her math book in her bag, happy that someone had been willing to explain things in a way that actually made sense for once.

"It's no trouble, I like math," Fred assured her.

"You explained things better than the teachers," Harmony assured her.

"It's easier when you don't have thirty five people to keep track of," Fred pointed out as Harmony walked over to the door.

"I guess," Harmony replied as she grabbe...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 21

Eric looked up from his book when the portal activated and deposited Harry and three girls in the exit room. "Welcome back, perfect timing."

Harry laughed when he realized that Eric had obviously placed a bet that he'd return. "How much did you win?"

Eric glanced at his pocket watch that he had on the counter. "Forty seven gold, it would have been less if you'd been twenty seven minutes later."

Guinevere glanced around the stone room then focused on Eric. "Do you bet on ever...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 20

'Sadistic? Or just practical?' River mused as she walked over to where Harry was stabbing a zombie that two of his ice golems were holding in place. "Please tell me that you're not getting sword experience for that."

"Eye," Harry said as he stabbed the zombie in the eye. "It helps if you call out where you're hitting them."

River relaxed when she realized that Harry wasn't sadistic or nuts, he was just taking advantage of a glitch in the system. "Cheater," she teased as she picked...

Demons and Botched Rituals Part 19

River scowled when she saw two ghosts with full health bars fly out of the swamp and join the rest of the army of ghosts chasing them. "Fifteen seconds on my death timer!"

Harry focused on the tunnel and apparated with his friends and the carpet. "No worries," he assured her as he worked on slowing the carpet down so he could stop without tossing everyone off the carpet.

"That was awesome!" Jessica said cheerfully as she let go of River's legs so she could climb off the carpet or ...

Dragon King Part 37

Myst wasn't particularly surprised to find no trace of the darkhounds leaving the city after twenty minutes of looking and flying back and forth over the city, mostly because there was a decent amount of dirt in places and they could have escaped without leaving prints though there were a couple of places where the prints ended abruptly. 'This would be easier if we had access to better divination magic,' he mused as he opened his gacha menu and looked at the collection of wheels, figuring he ...

Dragon King Part 36

Zara scowled as she glanced at the angry looking mountain that loomed over everything in the area. 'I've killed worse,' she told herself, doing her best to ignore the rancid stench that was lingering in the air and the mana in the area. She pulled her attention back towards the crowd of people walking down the twisted streets of the cursed town when she felt a swirling and twisting vortex of dark magic suddenly appear.

Her gaze instantly jumped to the man with ethereal black flames wrap...

Dragon King Part 35

The brief tour of the castle left Myst feeling oddly disappointed and old, disappointed because none of the students felt excited or inspired and old because the only overt display of magic he'd seen that was part of the castle were the moving staircases that screamed safety violation.

Somehow, by intention or years of practice, the teachers had managed to reduce what should have been fantastic and extraordinary to something strangely mundane for all that the students were learning to b...

Dragon King Part 34

Dawn smiled as she stepped through Myst's portal and looked around the Chamber of Secrets, a touch surprised that it didn't look as dirty or creepy as she was expecting. "Did you clean the place up?"

Rose turned to look in the direction of the invisible voice. "Dobby needed something to do, are you wearing an invisibility cloak?"

"Ring," Dawn replied as she turned the ring off and Zara walked through the portal.

"Interesting ritual site," Zara mused as she glanced around the...

Dragon King Part 33

Cersei Lannister stalked into her brother's room, intent on tormenting him or at least ruining whatever project he was working on that caused him to rush to the library. She froze when she saw the mostly naked purple skinned woman sitting on the cripple's desk holding a crystal bottle, the contents of which were shifting through colors faster than she could name them. "What is going on? Is that magic?"

Zara smiled at Cersei. "Lord Tyrion went to look something up in the library, he want...

Dragon King Part 32

Saroiya Farseen glanced over the rather simple contract for the fourth time then looked up at the teenager with dark hair and sparkling blue eyes that was absently shaking a strange metal box while he watched a group of Aes Sedai try on a collection of silk dresses. "What's the catch?"

Myst pulled his attention off the collection of Aes Sedai that were trying on dresses on the other side of the gym and looked at the stocky woman that wasn't much taller than his current form. "Emotionall...

Magic Worm

An: Thanksgiving and hell Friday were unproductive, I blame the turkey or the relatives... so have a chapter of a worm story.

"You're nothing but a stain-" Sophia grabbed the person coming up behind her and tossed him into the wall of the abandoned shop next to their school, causing the teenager to flail forwards, slip on a banana peel like something out of a comedy skit, and slam face first into a graffiti covered wall. She was just about to kick the asshole when part of the graffiti...

Dragon King Part 31

Myst yawned when he woke up, going from asleep to annoyingly awake within a couple of seconds when he realized that Selena was already dressed in her silk maid outfit and had breakfast ready. He glanced at the clock on his HUD. "Let me guess, the council is meeting today?" he asked, reasonably sure there wasn't supposed to be a council meeting today but not sure why else she'd be waking him up with food at seven forty in the morning.

"In about twenty minutes," Selena replied with a scow...

Dragon King Part 30

Egwene glared at the whitecloak captain that was tied to the ground with threads of air. "Any last words?" she asked, curious if he'd implicate his superiors or if this was a personal project.

The captain laughed. "I know your kind, you might be able to bind us but you can't kill with the power now that your life isn't in danger, the bindings will break and I'll run."

"Is that what they told you?" Egwene asked with a touch of amusement, fairly sure that wouldn't work with an actua...

Dragon King Part 29

Egwene al'Vere smiled when a group of twelve whitecloaks dashed out of the woods along the path in front of her. "Excellent, test subjects!" she said cheerfully as she raised her glass rod and pointed it at the 'bandits'.

Evon stared in confusion at the young lady that was escorting their target, not sure why she was wearing goggles or a blacksmith's apron considering she was at least a couple of miles away from the forge nearest. "What?"

"We're in Andor, the queen has placed a bo...

Dragon King Part 28

Radhanan Paendrag glared down at the strange woman with dark green skin and pointed ears that had dared to walk into her throne room with her head held high, looking directly at her with a look of disdain.

"Who dares raise their eyes above their station?!" the woman standing near the empress demanded, not used to people looking at her mistress with anything but awe and or fear, especially in the throne room while she was sitting on the crystal throne.

"I am Laurena, Shadows of Dea...

Dragon King Part 27

"Just let me out for an hour, I promise I'll come back," Vivian begged the witch, hoping Walga slipped up in the wording so she could get help and then come back.

"No," Walga the Wicked replied as she stomped towards the window to scream at the children that were trespassing.

"No threats, no screaming that I'm going to eat your eyes or your toes? No wonder they tossed you out of hag school," Vivian taunted, hoping she could make her mad enough to make a mistake.

"I'm not fal...

Dragon King Part 26

Egwene blinked when she slipped the gold ring on her finger and found herself on a dirt path in a forest holding a picnic basket without even feeling her head hit the pillow. She glanced down at herself and stared when she realized that she was wearing a crimson silk cloak that reached her ankles, a short red skirt that barely came halfway down her thighs and an open vest that barely covered her nipples. 'Is this because we walked past a brothel and I'm curious or is this a result of the ring...

Dragon King Part 25

Elia forced herself to keep smiling as she reached the courtyard where her son was standing with a group of unfamiliar people dressed in silk. She relaxed slightly when she noticed that Ser Barristan and her brother were both relaxed. "Welcome back, are you going to introduce your friends?"

Myst looked away from where Ser Barristan was talking with Garold and gave his mother and Selena a smile. "Of course, let me introduce Princess Elayne Trakand of Andor, her aunt, Lady Moiraine Damodr...

Dragon King Part 24

Kari al'Thor looked up from the book filled with life-like drawings of impossible cities and focused on the dark haired boy that was floating a statue of a naked girl into an ornate coffin in the middle of the lounge, not quite sure what to think of the magic user from another land. "How hard would it be to create a flying city?"

Dawn glanced down at the picture of a flying city in the art book she'd found in the bookstore in the temporary dungeon where they'd found Wolverine and Magick...

Dragon King Part 23

Harry pulled his attention away from where Mione and Hermione were discussing their time in Hogwarts when Myst walked over wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, glad that Hermione had already warned him about the fact that he had an alternate form. "Feeling better?"

"It's like walking through a sewer," Myst complained as she flopped down in the comfortable looking chair across from Harry and Ginny, glad that the tower had extra lounges. "Even if you don't touch anything, you still wan...

Dragon King Part 22

"Risum vocare daemonium, vinculum, risum vocare magum," Viaria chanted as she pushed mana into the summoning circle she'd drawn on the stone with chalk.

'Daemonium should be Latin for demon, vocare for summoning, calling? No clue on Risum or vinculum,' Myst mused as she watched the trench coat Viaria was holding vanish as she completed the incantation. She took a step back when the lines of the pentagram ignited with blue and purple flames, despite the fact that she was already fifteen ...

Dragon King Part 21

Hermione glanced between Laurena, Dawn and Myst, not particularly happy with the plan but not seeing a decent alternative. "I reserve the right to say I told you so when my evil counterpart takes over the world."

Laurena snickered. "On that note, I'm going to see if I can track down the access keys in the mirror world so we can use the Choedan Kal."

"Stay safe," Dawn told her, hoping they weren't making a mistake by going back to the world with the demon lord.

"That's the pl...