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May and Isabella write Joel the white stag leader of the Christina Lake Regional Avalon. He is surprised. When he calms down, he has some suggested tweaks, which they make, and then they start envelope stuffing, a task accomplished substantially with magic.
They include, after some deliberation, a fundraising scheme: Isabella can heal people and they're planning to run around visiting lots of Avalons. If anyone would like them to visit their Avalon sooner rather than later, they can bid on the privilege, and while they're anywhere Isabella will heal needy parties. (They suspect, but have no affordances to test immediately, that May might be able to soak up some of the side effects of the healing, like an eaten spell. They mean to find this out as soon as possible.)
Before they mail out the final letters, it occurs to May to call her friends back in Toronto. She starts with Alli.
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maybeso
revivian
The person who picks up is not Isabella. Vivian's voice is frantic. "May, oh God, have you heard from Isabella, please say you know where she is-"
revivian
"She's not here, she left her phone and there's no note and I can't find her with a trace spell, I don't know what happened!"
maybeso
"...Okay. From a magic theoretic perspective and assuming she's alive why would that happen?"
revivian
"It's a physical component spell, it should work unless her actual body is missing entirely, either she's- she's- I don't know, been transported whole and entire to Dis or something, or something is blocking me and I don't know what or how could except maybe you."
revivian
That was not at all what Vivian meant but whatever, bigger things to worry about. "Other dragons? Someone's made a spell that does the same thing? I'd say limitations of the spell but I've tried three since you called. How long have you been calling, how long has she been gone?"
maybeso
"I first called about - three hours ago? If someone's got a spell blocking you it might not block me, depending how I work. Email me a trace spell to try, I can find one of her hairs on my hairbrush."
revivian
"Okay, I can- okay. I'm going to call the police, you'll have an email shortly."
Vivian hangs up and sends May instructions for two different trace spells. She calls 911, but the woman on the phone is... not unhelpful, not exactly, but tired. "I've already got two armed robberies and a guy who put his wife and toddler in the ICU. I've filed the report, we'll do all we can, but you said no fight, no forced entry, no nothing- it might be a while. Okay? I'm really sorry. We're coming."
They need to come faster, Isabella, it's Isabella. Vivian paces and starts calling neighbors, other magic users, any of her friends who've ever met Isabella. Maybe someone's seen her. Maybe someone's seen anything.
Vivian hangs up and sends May instructions for two different trace spells. She calls 911, but the woman on the phone is... not unhelpful, not exactly, but tired. "I've already got two armed robberies and a guy who put his wife and toddler in the ICU. I've filed the report, we'll do all we can, but you said no fight, no forced entry, no nothing- it might be a while. Okay? I'm really sorry. We're coming."
They need to come faster, Isabella, it's Isabella. Vivian paces and starts calling neighbors, other magic users, any of her friends who've ever met Isabella. Maybe someone's seen her. Maybe someone's seen anything.
maybeso
May's trace spells don't work either. She sends back an email to this effect for Vivian to read whenever she has a moment mid-being-frantic.
And then -
Which will take longer, figuring out a way to get on a plane or drawing diagrams that might turn out to be teleportations and swallowing them when they don't work until she winds up in the Bay Avalon to see if she can find what she's looking for from closer by?
...Probably the second thing, but she doesn't actually have the money for the plane ticket and Isabella would have to be more missing for longer before her parents would be on board and also, hey, teleportation.
She and Isabella have part of an assistive spreadsheet laid out. Sort by this, sort by that, sort by this other parameter, rune rune rune, this might work, that might work, if it doesn't work that's fine she eats faulty spells for breakfast.
May draws them all out and starts trying them.
Eighteen spells later at four in the morning Toronto time and the comparatively reasonable one a.m. Pacific, May knocks on Vivian's door.
And then -
Which will take longer, figuring out a way to get on a plane or drawing diagrams that might turn out to be teleportations and swallowing them when they don't work until she winds up in the Bay Avalon to see if she can find what she's looking for from closer by?
...Probably the second thing, but she doesn't actually have the money for the plane ticket and Isabella would have to be more missing for longer before her parents would be on board and also, hey, teleportation.
She and Isabella have part of an assistive spreadsheet laid out. Sort by this, sort by that, sort by this other parameter, rune rune rune, this might work, that might work, if it doesn't work that's fine she eats faulty spells for breakfast.
May draws them all out and starts trying them.
Eighteen spells later at four in the morning Toronto time and the comparatively reasonable one a.m. Pacific, May knocks on Vivian's door.
revivian
The police arrive, not nearly fast enough to suit Vivian, but they arrive. They take her statement. One of them, his badge says Officer White, he makes soothing noises and tries to reassure her, that there's no sign of violence, that Isabella is probably just out with friends, she forgot to leave a note, teenagers do this all the time, not to worry ma'am-
She wants to scream, to hit him, to make him stop talking, it's nonsense, this is Isabella. She wouldn't, she wouldn't, and she can't tell him about the magic but something is wrong.
The cops leave, and she sobs, and she casts tracer spell after tracer spell, hoping one of them will work, something, anything, why can't she find her daughter?
When there's a knock on the door, Vivian rushes over, hoping- Isabella, Isabella, maybe- but it's just May. She doesn't even stop to think how it's remotely possible that May is here right now before slumping against the wall. "I thought- maybe-" she whispers, then breaks into tears again.
She wants to scream, to hit him, to make him stop talking, it's nonsense, this is Isabella. She wouldn't, she wouldn't, and she can't tell him about the magic but something is wrong.
The cops leave, and she sobs, and she casts tracer spell after tracer spell, hoping one of them will work, something, anything, why can't she find her daughter?
When there's a knock on the door, Vivian rushes over, hoping- Isabella, Isabella, maybe- but it's just May. She doesn't even stop to think how it's remotely possible that May is here right now before slumping against the wall. "I thought- maybe-" she whispers, then breaks into tears again.
maybeso
"...I'm sorry. I just, uh, wanted to stop in before I went looking. She's still gone?"
revivian
Vivian tries to say "yes", but her throat is refusing to make sounds. So she just nods miserably.
maybeso
"Okay. I'm going to get her. Sit tight. ...Also don't copy this spell, it's entirely possible that it's trying to kill me every time I cast it."
And May copies out her expended teleportation scroll onto a fresh page, and recites her incantation in French, again.
Take me to Isabella -
And May copies out her expended teleportation scroll onto a fresh page, and recites her incantation in French, again.
Take me to Isabella -
-and she will arrive in the dingy entryway of a room in a discount hotel an hour's drive south. Isabella is tied to the bed, asleep or unconscious, while two men in priest's cassocks are chanting tiredly in Latin.
maybeso
May doesn't actually have a plan for this, but... priests? Seriously?
She can't very well call the cops on them while Isabella's furry.
So she'll just have to go with being a firebreathing dragon.
She has a decent growl, when she's in midform around the throat. She skips right past that for fullform. Ice-blue dragon, warmth rising from her jaws just shy of enough to set off the smoke detector.
Snarrrrrl.
She can't very well call the cops on them while Isabella's furry.
So she'll just have to go with being a firebreathing dragon.
She has a decent growl, when she's in midform around the throat. She skips right past that for fullform. Ice-blue dragon, warmth rising from her jaws just shy of enough to set off the smoke detector.
Snarrrrrl.
The priests jump backwards, shocked out of their chant. One takes a wavering step towards May, but the other snaps something at him in Latin and grabs for a weird black device on the floor next to them. Instead, he sketches a sign on the floor, chanting a quick couplet.
maybeso
Someone didn't do their homework on dragons. She has no idea what he's trying to do but is reasonably sure she doesn't approve.
And what is this device? It is hers now. There are claws involved, not too delicately.
And what is this device? It is hers now. There are claws involved, not too delicately.
When the spell fails and the claws come out, the priests visibly change priorities. They bolt for the door.
maybeso
"Oh no you don't," snarls the dragon.
May doesn't have a lot of room to maneuver, but it wouldn't do her much good anyway and they don't have a lot of room to go around her. She swats them with her tail and they go down.
"You don't kidnap my girlfriend and tie her up and then get to leave. Not when you've made it so hard to explain the situation to the people with the Miranda warnings and the procedural training and the accountability. I'd love to hand you over to those people, believe me I would, but it would be sort of hard to explain my girlfriend having claws and wings, you see, so instead you get to deal with me. Undersupplied with all the aforementioned. If they don't hand out manuals on dealing with angry dragons at the Vatican here's a tip: untie her girlfriend."
May doesn't have a lot of room to maneuver, but it wouldn't do her much good anyway and they don't have a lot of room to go around her. She swats them with her tail and they go down.
"You don't kidnap my girlfriend and tie her up and then get to leave. Not when you've made it so hard to explain the situation to the people with the Miranda warnings and the procedural training and the accountability. I'd love to hand you over to those people, believe me I would, but it would be sort of hard to explain my girlfriend having claws and wings, you see, so instead you get to deal with me. Undersupplied with all the aforementioned. If they don't hand out manuals on dealing with angry dragons at the Vatican here's a tip: untie her girlfriend."
The smaller priest scrambles to his feet and heads for the bed, but the taller one hauls him to a stop. "We can't just release a demon," he tells May in frustration. "Do you any conception of the damage they can do?"
maybeso
"A demon?" snorts May. "You can't release a demon but you can try to run away from the dragon who wants to do exactly that without pausing to explain? What makes you think she's a demon?"
"We go where we are sent," the priest says, still shrill with fear. "We are not the ones who evaluate. Demons lie, and we haven't the training."
maybeso
"What a pity," says May. "Then you can't convince me not to let her go, can you, since you kidnapped her on no information. You can let her go for me with your nicely clawless hands, or I can crush this box that I suspect is stopping our medallions and tracking spells from working and then do it myself."
The smaller priest looks entreatingly at the taller priest, who ignores him. "We're helping her," he insists. "Do you know nothing about demons? It's this or death."