1.14 Meddling

“Darrel, did you see that?” Emilia turned to her fiancé, wide-eyed. “Isn’t that the girl Grace has been training at the shop? Cordelia?”

“Yes… what of it?”

Emilia frowned. Darrel was being evasive. How could he just watch what they watched without blinking an eye?

“But… isn’t she in trouble? What did she even do to anger L Faba anyway? I know L Faba… she’s not cruel…” Emilia thought out loud.

Darrel sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Best we don’t get involved in the sages’ affairs.”

They watched a young elf approach the mischief sage.

“I hope you like the candy I picked… wait. Where did Cordie go?” He stopped in his tracks, looking confused.

“I’m not sure,” L Faba turned to him. “She just left… Morgyn was around earlier. Perhaps she went to pester them.”

“Oh.” The elf’s face fell. “Yeah, she did make a big deal out of seeing Morgyn earlier, I guess.”

“That must be it, then.” L Faba agreed. “But you know, what, Dandy…”

Instead of finishing her sentence, she stuck her tongue out and made a silly face, prompting him to laugh.

“I’ve missed you, Lulu,” he said finally once he managed to composed himself.

“Yeah… I’ve missed you, too, Dandy.” L Faba looked into his eyes, her expression soft all of the sudden. “So tell me, what kinds of candy were there?”

“Oh, so many! I’ve gotten loads!” The elf’s face lit up as he gestured wildly.

“This is not right,” Emilia frowned. “She just flat out lied to him!”

“She’s the sage of mischief, my love.” Darrel reminded her softly. “Isn’t that what she does?”

“I suppose… but still… this looked different.” Emilia sighed. “You’ve grown up in this world, I know. But I’ve gotten to know all the sages in my short time here, and… well I don’t know what it is, exactly, but this doesn’t seem like a regular mischief trick.”

“You’re thinking into it too much.”

They quickly stopped amidst conversation as the mischief sage and her companion passed them. It appeared L Faba suggested they play a game of horseshoes, and the young elf followed.

“Ok, well now that they’re gone, I think I’ll go check on her.” Emilia informed her Darrel.

“What? I just told you, we shouldn’t meddle with the sages’ business. That’s not how the Charm family got to be so successful in the spellcaster ranks for so many generations…”

“I’m not meddling,” Emilia shrugged. “L Faba’s affairs are clearly over by the horseshoes at the minute, don’t you think?”

Before Darrel could stop her, she stood up and ran off, looking for that silly human girl.

***

Emilia finally spotted the girl by the portal leading to Casters’ Alley. Except, in her dazed state, she wasn’t sure if she was even going to make it for the portal. Emilia sprinted after her, in case the girl missed and plunged herself into the abyss.

“Cordelia! Hey! Wait!” The young spellcaster yelled at the human.

The girl did stop, but it took one look into her face for Emilia to figure she was not really there.

She tried shaking her, but Emilia didn’t really have much actual body strength. And none of the spells she’d learned so far were particularly helpful.

“Dang it… how do I make you snap out of it?” She frowned at Cordelia’s dazed face.

“Decursify!” Her fiancé’s unmistakeable deep voice reached her. Emilia’s face lit up. She saw Darrel sprinting towards them. He didn’t even get his wand out, raw magic bursting right out of the palm of his hand.

For a brief moment, Emilia was reminded of the time they met, and how the spellcaster swept her off her feet instantly… focus, she reminded herself.

She watched Cordelia come back to her senses.

“Wha- where am I?” The girl looked at each of them, confused. “I… Darrel? Uh, hi. Emilia? What happened?”

“You wandered off,” Darrel told her. Emilia looked at him quizzically. He wasn’t lying, per say, but surely there was more to it than that… Still, she decided she was done interfering in things that went far over her head that night.

“Right.” Cordelia’s brows furrowed. “Um, which way is the fair?”

“Up that way,” Darren gestured up the road. “You might want to take a breather for a bit, though. Anyway… I’ll see you at the shop.”

He headed up himself, with Emilia in tow.

“That was pretty chivalrous, what you did,” she gave him a shy smile.

Darrel’s chest inflated. “Oh, well… don’t mention it.”

“No really!” Emilia wasn’t done. “You were like a superhero or something!”

He cupped reached out to her, cupping her face in the palms of his hands gently. “Oh, Emmie… you’re the one who always keeps me right, who always wants to do the right thing…. If I was a superhero over there, it’s only because you’ve made me one.”

***

Cordelia slowly made her way up to the fair. She wasn’t sure what had happened, exactly, but she knew that it was L Faba’s doing. What did mischief sage do to her?

As she neared the roller-skating rink, her eyes rested on no other but L Faba herself. Even worse, she was talking to Morgyn. Just her luck…

Much like with that young girl she saw Morgyn with earlier, Cordelia couldn’t tell what they were talking about. It was pretty obvious to anyone watching that L Faba was rather pleased with herself, though.

Cordelia watched the mischief sage leave with a gloating smile on her face. What was that about?

And was Morgyn… annoyed? Or was that just Cordelia’s imagination? For a split second, she allowed herself to picture that the two sages had been arguing about her, with Morgyn defending her honour… or something like that. Cordelia didn’t quite have time to flesh the fantasy out. She realised Morgyn had noticed her.

But instead of speaking to her, Morgyn just proceeded onto the roller-skating rink. Roller-skates appeared on their feet somehow – probably another spell. The untamed magic sage gave her a subtle nod, got into a position, and started a skating routine of sorts.

Of course bloody Morgyn was practically a professional skater, she thought to herself bitterly. Was there anything they couldn’t do?

Her eyes followed Morgyn as they twirled away, to the far end of the skating ring, and then off it completely. They gave her a hint of a bow, as if thanking the audience. She shook her head. Was Morgyn toying with her again?

“Cordie! Finally found you… where have you been all this time?” Dandelion’s voice brought her back to reality.

She looked at her friend, remembering how pleased he was to reconnect with L Faba again. She couldn’t bear tell him what had happened. She put on her best smile, hopping she’d become a somewhat more convincing liar through her escapades with the sages.

“Hey, Dandy… you were right, the fair is pretty amazing. I just got distracted… I mean, did you see that huge jack-o-lantern?” There had to be a huge jack-o-lantern, didn’t there?

“Oh yeah! It’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?” Dandelion beamed at her, before growing more serious again. “Though I wish you we saw it at the same time. We were supposed to do this fair thing together, remember?”

“Well… did you have fun, though?” She asked weakly.

The corners of his mouth rose upwards. “I did. Did you see the bonfire? And the chocolate fountain?”

“Uh… why don’t you tell me about them?” Cordelia suggested. She only half listened as her friend launched into a lengthy description. She couldn’t wait to get back to her little camp.