exploratory kidnapping

[alicornucopia]

In this room are two women, one gray and sixty years old, one just thirty and red-haired, both wearing elaborate outfits. The younger casts a spell.

In this room is now also a third person. (On whom the elder woman promptly also casts a spell, which she had at the ready.)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

And in half an hour, Matilda is resummoned and translation-spelled into the same room, again with Kerah and Terali present.

"Before we summon your mother," says Kerah, "there's a few things we need to check on to be sure that it's safe to bring you to meet the witch and everything. I'll ask you a few questions and all you need to do is answer them yes or no, okay?"

[missnicegirl]

"Okay, I guess," says Matilda.

[alicornucopia]

"Are you a human?" asks Kerah.

[missnicegirl]

"Yes."

[alicornucopia]

"Can your magic do anything besides move things around?"

[missnicegirl]

Matilda has recently read a physics textbook, and is not entirely sure that there is anything her magic might be able to do even theoretically that could not be described as 'moving things around', since matter and energy are things and all they do is move around in different ways.

But even without that, while she suspects her magic might be able to do more than she's done with it, so far the least moving-things-around-like thing she's managed is Lavender's ability to fly, which definitely qualifies as moving even on the macro scale.

"No," she says.

[alicornucopia]

"Do you have any intentions to hurt anybody or anything while you're here?"

(Terali has a vaguely conspiratorial aren't-these-questions-silly look on her face.)

[missnicegirl]

"No," says Matilda, with a smile that agrees that these questions are indeed silly.

[alicornucopia]

And, with a very gracefully done surreptitious chalk-smudging with one foot, Terali leans across the circle and offers Matilda her hand. "There's another circle set up in another room - there wasn't room for two here - and it's made so that you can show us how to summon your mother," she says.

[missnicegirl]

"Okay," Matilda says agreeably. She takes Terali's hand.

[alicornucopia]

Terali leads her into another, emptier room, which has a similar circle with a loopy bit on the outside. Kerah follows.

"Just hold your hand there and concentrate on her," says Terali, "and I'll summon her."

[missnicegirl]

"Okay," says Matilda. She puts her hand in the circle and concentrates on Miss Honey.

[alicornucopia]

And Terali casts a spell, and there is Miss Honey. (Translation spell! Yaaaay!)

"Hello. I'm Kerah, and this is Terali. Just a few precautionary yes-or-no questions," says Kerah. "Are you a human?"

[pythbox]

"Yes," says Miss Honey.

[alicornucopia]

"Do you have any magical abilities?"

[pythbox]

"No," says Miss Honey.

[alicornucopia]

"Do you have any intentions of hurting anyone or anything while you're here?"

[missnicegirl]

"No," says Miss Honey, with a questioning glance at Matilda. Matilda shrugs.

[alicornucopia]

Terali is again fairly surreptitious about the chalk-smudging. She incorporates it into a polite bow. "There's a witch in the office down the hall."

[missnicegirl]

"Let's go meet the witch, then," says Miss Honey, stepping forward to take Matilda's hand.

[alicornucopia]

Kerah and Terali lead them down the hall. There is a large room that says Raha Torail-sa, Witch on the door and inside contains cauldrons and a whole lot of assorted plants and substances in various glass containers and baskets. The witch is about forty, also red-haired but with a scarf keeping her hair up and out of her face, and wearing a much simpler outfit than the wizards, with an apron covering most of it. "Hello! You must be Matilda and - Jennifer Honey? Am I pronouncing those right?"

[missnicegirl]

"Yes," says Miss Honey. "You can call me Jenny, or Miss Honey, if those are easier."

"And what's your name?" inquires Matilda.

[alicornucopia]

"My name is Raha," says the witch. "I hear you want to be a witch, but the wizards aren't sure if you can?"

"She's from another world. It's not like CC, where we can just check," says Terali.

"We should probably actually check," allows Kerah. "I'll go look it up." She leaves.

"Well, I've never tried to teach witchcraft to somebody from another world, before," says Raha, "but I don't see why you couldn't learn. It's mostly a matter of mixing."

[missnicegirl]

"It sounds like it might be fun," says Matilda. "Oh, but we should probably do the clocks thing first." She digs a watch out of a pocket of her dress. "Can someone cast the spell that tells time, please?"

[alicornucopia]

Terali does that.