Cedric's Giant Curse

Chapter 8: Real or Fake?

Chapter 8: Real or Fake

Sofia had been gone for nearly two hours, not that Cedric was really counting, and he was starting to grow bored. It wasn't like he really needed the young girl's company, he refused to admit to himself. In fact, he tried to make himself believe that he actually found her quite annoying like he did most children. But in reality, as he stood in the ballroom all by himself, he really did miss her presence. Without Wormwood beside him, like the bird usually was, he was beginning to feel lonely. It was only after the princess left that he remembered how the raven had perched himself on top of his head in an attempt to hide from the king earlier. Cedric had reached up a hand to his head when his familiar did not answer to his name, gingerly brushing his fingers across his two-toned hair. But Wormwood must have flown off sometime after he left the throne room, he speculated, for the sorcerer could not find him anywhere on his head. Not that he blamed Wormwood for leaving. Now that Cedric was no longer able to communicate with him, there was nothing more the dark raven could do to help his master. Cedric imagined he was probably back in his workshop, sitting peacefully on his wooden perch.

After taking a stroll for several laps around the room, exhausting the need to become lost in his thoughts, he became bored of that activity. He had tried entertaining himself instead with what very little magic he could do. Although Cedric had claimed time and time again that he couldn't do magic without his wand, he could in fact do a few tricks without it. Wandless magic was not something Cedric was very good at though, more of a loss art among sorcerers. Because he had never been trained properly in it, he couldn't do any real spells, and what he was able to teach himself was very limited to nothing more than mere party tricks at best.

He hadn't found much amusement in creating a ball of light between his hands, making it change a variety of colors like a spherical rainbow. Nor did he take any interest in causing magical sparkles to rain from his fingertips, watching as they disappeared before reaching the floor below. He couldn't help but grin though as he played around with these tricks. Conjuring the rainbow ball and the sparkles caused his mind to drift towards Sofia as he thought of how much she would enjoy his silly tricks, even if they seemed mediocre to him. Everything he did, every spell and every potion, seemed to fascinate his young apprentice. He really did admire the girl's fascination for magic and her aptitude to learn it.

Of course, he could only perform these small acts of magic for so long before he felt himself growing weary. Hand magic took a lot more energy to perform than magic with a wand, especially when one neglected to practice. Probably a good reason why it is used very scarcely among sorcerers. Not knowing what else to do after that, he decided to gaze out of the large windows, their vast view spanning out across the castle yard. Not too far off in the distance, he could see his forlorn tower sitting in silence without its royal sorcerer in it. Or at least he thought so until he caught sight of a figure walking past the window. Although he couldn't see the figure clearly, he had a good guess as to who it was. So King Roland really had given his father access to his workshop. He could only wonder how they had found his key, unless he forgot to lock the door like he sometimes did. Or his father could have made Wormwood locate it. With a long sigh, Cedric plopped down on the floor in front of the window, staring longingly at his tower.

He already missed being locked away in his workshop with the only company being his bird. Unless Sofia barged in, that is. And although Wormwood could never participate in the conversation, he still enjoyed divulging all his evil schemes to his familiar, or telling him about a potion he was brewing, or a spell he was experimenting with. He missed losing himself in his work as he experimented with his spells and potions, sometimes for the king, but most of the time it seemed for himself. Grant it, most of the time his spells seemed to backfire, which was quite often really, but he didn't think he would even mind that at the moment. And when he wasn't working, he would allow himself the leisure of playing games of cards or checkers with Wormwood, even if most of the time he lost. Would the raven even miss him? He even missed King Roland's ridiculous demands of spells and potions that he really could have cared less to make for him! But he knew he was far too big now to even consider trying to fit into his small workshop, let alone do his work. While the room itself was very tall, the tower wasn't very wide, and the door was ten times smaller than those to the ballroom or the throne room. There was just no way he would be able to squeeze himself through! And now his father was in there, probably messing around with all of his books, potions, and instruments, reorganizing the mess that Cedric was so accustomed to. He let another sigh escape his lips as he continued to stare at his workshop, wishing more than anything that he could undo the mistakes he made that day that caused all of this to happen.