Further Than Effigy Magic

The voodoo using hedge-witch had advised them to read the grimoire thoroughly before attempting the hand seals. "Don't ya dare use this without first mastering it, ya hear?" she'd warned, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Effigy magic was not meant to leave Nawlins, but if dis 'monstre' of yours has really killed my Henry...den ain't no other choice."

The wall of fire that had previously protected them extinguished, leaving behind a black ring of soot in its place.

"THEY'RE COMING!" Margo warned, firing a magenta beam of light into the approaching crowd.

The undead creatures bombarded them, tackling them to the ground, only receding at the scream of a familiar voice.

A blinding emerald light engulfed the area that they'd been in, disappearing to reveal a bronzed woman, with dreadlocks and a white painted face, her arm outreached, holding a bleeding chicken's head in her palm.

"It's Marie Laveau," Eliot said.

"You didn't translate de book right," she announced.

"Well, the Latin in your grimoire is hard...So what's the secret?" Margo asked.

"Child, it's a dead  language," she joked, walking around them. "I'm kind of the masta of dead dings. De moe' important topic here, is how ya couldn't even follow its instruction. Chicken's head, Quentin, it said use de bloody head of a chicken, not puppy. Now ya done gone and killed ya po' dog fo' no reason at all," she said looking at his hand. "Look, I come here, because I knew ya wouldn't be able to face de Beast alone, hell, ya couldn't even fend off de draugr properly."

"Draugr?" Eliot asked, scratching his head.

Marie looked at him, her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, draugr! De undead dat you so horribly fought, against ah called draugr. Dey only reanimate by de hands of a strong Effigy user."

Alice looked up, adjusting her glasses. "Well, what do you suggest we do about our beast problem?"

"Der is no we, bebé. Der's only me and Quentin. You all will tend to ma' shrine yonder up the hill," she said, pointing east. "People come here askin foe Hedge Blessins all de time, and it's me who fulfills those prayers. Today, ya gonna' play my role. When ya see de shrine wit X's on dem, you find da person who left it, and wash der sicknesses away. Do dis, and we, will solve ya beast problem."

Quentin looked to them, as if saying "Just go with it."

"Okay," Julia acknowledged. "Deal."

"Good," she replied, as she touched Quentin's shoulder, causing yet another viridescent uproar of blinding light.

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"You can open yo eyes, Quentin"

"Where are we," he asked, looking around at the thickets.

"Ya know de answer."

"Fillory? We're in Fillory?!" he said, jumping off the ground with child-like giddiness.

"Yes, child, but lowa' ya voice," she said looking around. "I promised I'd help ya defeat de Beast, and so, I've brought us to em."

Quentin's eyes widened with fear.

"Um, are you serious, Marie? He'll kill me! I couldn't like, even learn the freakin Effigy Magic."

"You're right," she agreed, using the blood still on her hand from the chicken, to draw a sigil on Quentin's arm.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he screamed.

"Stop ya cryin, I just linked ah minds. Now ya know what I know, and vice versa., which is fortunate, because ya beast knows we here."

"Quite impressive you are," an elderly voice hissed from behind them. "Ms. Laveau, I presume?"

Quentin immediately extended his arms, facing his palms outward, his thumbs connected and aimed at his moth infested head.

"Quentin, please spare me the remedial battle-magic you're bound to produce."

Quentin crouched to the ground, picking up a jagged-edged rock, slicing his palm till blood gushed from it. "Let's see how uh, remedial this is," he muttered, placing his bleeding hand on his face, until the crimson blood leaking from it, reversed direction, flowing upward, encasing his face, leaving nothing but his eyes visible, until finally, it hardened and whitened, reforming into a human skull.

"Ah, so Ms. Laveau has taught you theatrics. Cute," the beast laughed, weaving his twelve fingers together, ending with his hand extended, his middle finger pressed against his thumb. Jets of black lightning shot beside Quentin, barely missing both him and Marie.

"You missed," he bragged, aiming his hand at the ground, causing the earth to quake profusely. Marie sat on the ground, her legs crossed, and arms outstretched to the ground, as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, exposing the whites of them. Thousands of hands that had not fully decomposed, erected, bringing forth the drauger from before.

"Get your filthy hands off of me!" the Beast bellowed, his hands outstretched in front of him.

"Not so, uh, easy to defeat, now are they?" Quentin asked, outstretching his hand to the air beside him. A sturdy, sharp tipped ivory staff, encased in a red soot that resembled blood, shot from a fissure in the ground, placing itself in Quentin's palm.

"Nice job," Marie called out in an otherworldly voice, as she stood beside him.

The beast entwined his fingers, ending with the index and pointer fingers of both hands pointed outward at the surrounding undead. "EXORSI MUSTE!" he screamed, incinerating the surrounding corpses. He walked forward, straightening his suit jacket, that had turned grey with the ashes of the draugr, in the aftermath of his spell.

"Quite nasty those things were," he commented, raising his hands to the sky. "Here's something as equally nasty."

Lightning flashed in the sky, as hail began raining down.

"Uh, brown rain?" Quentin asked.

"Not quite," the Beast revealed, snapping both of his fingers. The snap sparked a jet of sparks that ignited the falling liquid.

"IT'S KEROSENE!" Quentin exclaimed.

Marie merely clapped her hands, causing two massive voodoo golems to rise up from the ground. The mud creatures arose, lifting their hands, which were easily the size of houses, to shield Marie and Quentin from the downpour of fire.

"Quentin, da doll technique, do it now!" Marie commanded.

With one hand still holding the porcelain colored staff, Quentin touched the tip of his thumb to his pinky, ending the somatic process by breaking his thumb. He cried out in a fit of agony, bending down to the earth to pick up a handful of mud. A yellow light emitted from his hand, revealing an auburn clay doll, resembling the Beast resting in his palm.

"STAB IT!" Marie ordered.

Quentin dropped the doll to the ground, stabbing its heart with the end of the staff.

"The Beast paused, bending down to clutch his chest, as if going into cardiac arrest, but then he stopped, standing upright in a fit of laughter. "Did you really think that would work?" he asked, removing his jacket to reveal a gaping black hole. "I have no heart, Quentin! You merely poked a stick into an empty hole," he chuckled, waving a hand towards Quentin.

"You missed," he bragged.

"No, I didn't," the Beast assured him, pointing to the area nearest him.

Quentin's eyes widened as he saw, Marie's dead body lying on the ground, her head twisted, facing the same direction as her back.

"You see, my boy," he began, walking forward. "The thing about linked spells is that they link more than just minds," he pointed out, looking at his silver wrist watch. "They also link hearts, so I'd give it about another minute before yours stops as well, Quentin."

Within the minute, Quentin fell, grasping at his chest, just as the Beast predicted he would.