Oracle (Book I)

A Fated Three

"Good evening, Professor Starstaff. Out late again, Miss Bilberry?" Seeming to have appeared out of the dark itself, Merlin walked towards Caprice and Professor Starstaff with his arms behind his back.

"Merlin," Caprice said. "I didn't see you coming."

Professor Starstaff glanced between them.

"Ah, our...esteemed senior, Master Merlin. You two have met?"

"We have," Caprice said, brightening. "Earlier, I was telling Bossa that I met you—"

Smiling charmingly, Merlin said, "Do you have to tell Bossa everything?"

"She's my friend," Caprice frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing at all. She must be a good friend," he said softly. "I'd love to meet them, your friends. Professor Starstaff, might I have a word?"

"Excuse me, Miss Bilberry," Professor Starstaff said, giving a small regretful bow.

The glowing bobeep rod and curly grass had stopped flowering though Professor Starstaff illuminated them. The two walked away and disappeared down Aquarian Passage.

After coaxing Fritter along with her by dangling a tail of dragon snap in front of per face, Caprice went and tended her cauldron. She waited a while, stirring, then went after Starstaff and Merlin. When she looked for them in the passage and in the catacomb's enclosure, they were nowhere to be seen. After finishing her potion, she and Fritter went back to their room, Caprice wondering why the two had gone without so much as a goodnight.

Nezzle and a half-sleeping Bossa were waiting up for her with the lamplight on low when she returned.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you or wake you up." Happily, she presented her friends with the fruits of her labor. "I made these for you."

"What is it?" Nezzle got up from her bed and took the phial pointed in her direction.

"Zoraian eye drops. And sweet peppy potion for Bossa. The parchment sealant I'm making for Po should come in handy. And, well, the best thing I can do for my brother is help him with his potions. At least until I think of something good to make him."

Bossa beamed and started reaching for the phial full of thick salt-and-pepper colored potion in Caprice's right hand. Quick as a flash Nezzle plucked it away.

"Heeey!"

"I'll take that, thank you," Nezzle said to Caprice, ignoring Bossa. "She drinks that and she's bouncing off the walls and running naked on the grounds all night."

"Give it back, Nez," Bossa demanded. "Preece made it for me. Get your own!"

"No."

"It's mine!"

Nezzle made a rather childish sound and stuck out her tongue. She went over and picked a dropper out of her wardrobe. Without another word on topic of Bossa's confiscated gift, she uncorked the phial Caprice had filled for her, drank some, then squeezed a few drops into each eye with the dropper. With a ragged sigh of relief, she grabbed the nearest book and cracked it open.

"Much better. Thank you, Caprice. My eyes are clearer and much less weary already."

"You're welcome," Caprice laughed. Bossa standing beside her inarticulately fuming was funny enough. And, just as she'd hoped, the eye drops did good for Nezzle. "There's more if you need it."

"I need my potion right about now," Bossa bit out. "I'm having trouble staying awake."

Nezzle raised her book, hiding her face completely.

"Which is fine, since it's the middle of night. Go back to bed."

Bossa rounded on Caprice and stuck out her hand.

"Don't you have anymore of my sweet pepperup, too?"

Caprice chuckled nervously, toeing the flasks with the extra potions in them further under the bed beside her.

"I'm not sure I made too much of that," she hedged. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Nezzle's head bob in a near imperceptible nod of approval.

Bossa tossed herself face down on the bed and flailed around, screeching into the pillows.

"You're mean, Nez!"

Once Bossa was done with her tantrum (and still empty-handed), they stayed up a while chatting (and reading, in Nezzle's case) before turning out the light again for bed.

     Professor Didi Starstaff and Professor Earithean faced each other on the now deserted grounds in the fogged gardens by the lake.

"Has he gone?" Earithean asked, keeping wary eyes on the night around them.

"Yes."

"That was close. I feared he might suspect something."

"I as well. I managed to interrupt before he saw her."

"Yes, he didn't seem to notice Aether at all, did he." Forcibly steadying herself, Earithean expelled a breath of relief.

Starstaff gazed into the thin fog that was dissipating even as they spoke.

"Have you made contact?"

A woman's face appeared delicately in the fog and nodded.

Earithean spoke to the drifting, ghostly face as well.

"When he appeared before me, shortly before he noticed Miss Bilberry, The Second One did mention that the oraci have become restless of late. He may have noticed your activities, Aether. Maybe not. I cannot say for certain. Perhaps you would know best what Merlin knows or does not know of you."

The faint whispering at the fog's appearance might have been mistaken for the wind if there had been one this night. What the face in the misty fog said was conveyed less in those near inaudible words and more inside their minds than anything else.

"Very well," Earithean said. "For now we shall continue to assume The Second knows nothing of our plan. Therefore the other two know nothing."

"So Caprice Bilberry is the one," Starstaff said, nodding her agreement. "So many years and so many students and unfortunate souls. Now, finally, another. There must be at least three."

Almost as quickly as it had appeared, the fog faded away, vanishing along with the woman's face.

"She is gone," said Earithean.

"It is amazing that she was able to corporealize that much long enough for us to see her. And for Miss Bilberry to see her as well."

"Everyone is fighting hard," Starstaff said. "Doing all they can for this."

"What was the girl doing out on the grounds so late?"

"Brewing potions. For her friends," she smiled. "She is a caring person."

"That she is." Earithean closed her eyes for a moment. "Let us hope that this time we end this, once and for all, and that they are all alive to brew another day when it is over," she said grimly.

With a look between them, the two vanished from the gardens.