The Union of Peanut Butter and Jelly

The Tale of Lady Hypatia and A Helping Hand

Celestine then told everyone the story of how, over fifty years ago, a terrible plague had terrorized the kingdom and wiped out nearly half of the population. Luckily, after countless weeks of research, experimentation, and trial and error, Celestine's grandmother, Lady Hypatia, created an antidote that could cure everyone of the plague and make them immune to it. Lady Hypatia, a powerful sorceress, and a young wife and mother found the place where the first plague victims were reported and used her magic to contain it into the vial. As a reward for her work to save the kingdom and to end the plague, the King granted Lady Hypatia land and a royal pension along with a seat on the Council of Magic, which Celestine inherited when she died. Unfortunately, at the time, the Council of Magic could not destroy the vial without accidentally releasing the plague into the kingdom again, so Lady Hypatia spent the rest of her life keeping the vial safe and sealed within a secret compartment within the desk in her study and potions lab.

"The only other person who knew the fact that she kept it there was me," Celestine said as she finished explaining her grandmother's story. "So how did Pelmazo get his hands on it?" asked Athena. "That would be my mother's fault, I'm afraid," Celestine said somewhat bitterly. "I got a message from the Council that informed me that they finally found a way to destroy the vial safely. The day I was supposed to send it to the Council, I placed the small chest with the vial on the desk and I went into town to pick up some packaging supplies. While I was out, Pelmazo arrived here, and he lied to my mother by claiming to be a member of the Council who the Archmage had sent to pick it up. Luckily for him, my mother is gullible and naïve enough to believe lies like that and the fact that she knows no one on the Council. So she took him into the study and gave it to him, and then he left."

"What did you do when you found out?" Apollo asked rather curiously. "When my mother explained to me what had happened while I was gone and gave me a full description of him. I told her that she had been duped because I knew that he wasn't on the Council since I was going to send the vial directly to the Archmage," Celestine said, frustrated by her own mother's naivety." A few days after that had happened, I had a magical doorknocker placed on the door to my grandmother's old study. That way, I will be the only one who will be able to enter the room since I am the only one who knows the password I set up."

"How did you obtain a knocker like that?" asked Athena. "It was given to me by the Head of the Council of Magic, the Archmage Lord Socrates. After I contacted him through my magic mirror to explain what had happened due to my mother's ignorance," Celestine explained. "Luckily, he didn't blame me for what had happened; however, he did give Mama a stern talking too."

Celestine then stood up from her seat and signaled to the small group to follow her. Once Caddaric and Aimee, along with Athena and Apollo, had gotten up, Celestine led them to a large oak door with a large golden wolf knocker. Celestine then gave the knocker a good knock, and immediately the wolf head's eyes opened, and it spoke. "What is the password?"

Celestine whispered the password into the wolf's ear immediately, and the door slid open. "Come on in," Celestine said to them as they followed her into the room. Upon entering the room, Caddaric and Aimee, and their friends, stood in awe at the sight of the magnificent study where they now stood. Like the rest of the house, the room looked like it was made out of gold and marble. The main room had a grand fireplace, fine carpets on the marble floor, a beautiful mahogany desk with a comfortable chair, bookcases filled with books. A portrait of Celestine's grandmother, Lady Hypatia, hung over the mantle, and a magic mirror was placed in between the two doorways covered with silk curtains. The curtain on the right led to a small room with a comfortable sofa, bookshelves filled with more books, and a window that overlooked the garden outside. The curtain on the left led to a potions lab with cupboards filled with herbs and rare ingredients from all over, instruments for brewing and distilling the many different herbs and ingredients to be used in Celestine's potions and remedies, and a large cauldron in a fireplace at the end of the room with Celestine's family grimoire on a bookstand right next to it.

Upon setting eyes on Celestine's grandmother's portrait, the small group could see where Celestine inherited most of her looks and beauty, save her bright red hair. In life, Lady Hypatia was as beautiful as she was intelligent and powerful with short dark hair, a robust figure, bright blue eyes, and beautiful fair skin. "In my family, you have a chance to inherit any shade of blonde, red, brown, or dark hair. My mother, my older brothers, and some of my cousins are some of the family members that I have that are redheads like myself," Celestine explained as she came out of the lab with a chest of vials that contained a blue-colored potion. When Celestine set the chest down on the desk, both Caddaric and Aimee picked up a vial from the chest and examined them.

"These vials contain a portion of the antidote that my grandmother created. This is just a small portion of what I have created," said Celestine. "How much of the antidote have you created?" Aimee asked curiously. "A whole cauldron of it is enough to fill a hundred vials, and each chest can hold up to ten vials," Celestine told the couple as she did the math in her head. "Over the past few weeks, I was able to make two hundred cauldrons worth which can fill up to twenty thousand vials."

Caddaric and Aimee started at Celestine in shock at her achievement. "Twenty thousand, that's enough to cure a quarter of the people in both of our kingdoms," Caddaric exclaimed. "I know, but I also know that what I have is not enough to cure everyone in both of your kingdoms," Celestine said forlornly. "My mother and my father are no longer young, my eldest half-brother has a family of his own to take care of, and my older half-brother doesn't offer to help anyone but himself. While my mother cares for my father and gives him the daily medicines that I brew for him every week, I have to tend to the garden, make sure that every room is clean and spotless, and clean each room with the aide of brooms, mops, and dusters that can work on their own with a simple spell that I cast. I have to do some of the cooking and the laundry and walk my dog in the afternoon, along with my work and research for the Council of Magic."

Just by listening to the young sorceress speak, both Caddaric and Aimee and Athena and Apollo could quickly tell how stressed and overworked Celestine was. "It would be nice if I could have some help with the housework; that way, I could have more time to focus on my work and my research," Celestine explained as she sat down in her chair, rubbing her temples. "Why don't you just ask the Council to assign you an assistant and a housekeeper for your family?" Apollo asked as he tried to calm Celestine down and help her relax. "I did several times, but someone on the Council has been stalling," said Celestine. "Well, why don't we help you so that why you will be able to finish making enough of the antidote to cure everyone?" Athena offered much to Celestine's surprise.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to do things that you are not used to," Celestine asked them as she wondered if they were serious. "Of course, we would be more than happy to help out," Aimee said honestly. "You could assign us the chores that you want each of us to do, while you can continue to walk your dog in the afternoon. That way, you can finish the last three-quarters you have to make to cure everyone in both of our kingdoms," Caddaric told Celestine as he finished the open conformation that Aimee had started. Celestine thought very carefully about their offer for a moment before she finally agreed to allow them to help her with her daily household chores.

For the next few weeks, the royal lovers and their two friends helped the young sorceress with her daily chores as she continued to brew the antidote to the plague. Each day, they would alternate the household chores between each other. On some days, Caddaric and Aimee would do the gardening and the laundry, and Athena and Apollo took care of the cooking and the cleaning. While on other days, Caddaric and Aimee would take on the cooking and the cleaning, while Athena and Apollo took on the gardening and the laundry. Whenever the sun was shining during the afternoon, the small group would often accompany Celestine as she walked her dog. After only two weeks, Celestine had created enough of the antidote to cure up to three-quarters of Caddaric and Aimee's people, and not only had she become fast friends with the small group, but she began to view them as family.