bewitched armor

[thaumobabble]

There are plenty of things to do. Bella orders a carpet to enchant so she can commute to and from Reformist Wizards efficiently and move house. She starts combing through the castle library to find background material on her Minor Technical Issue.

Sometimes she watches Sherlock cook.

Sometimes she watches Tony forge. (Nnnnf.)

Comments

[thaumobabble]

Bella laughs helplessly. Apparently laughter is sufficient to produce a poliwog, which she spits out unhappily.

[calendarofcrime]

On they go, then.

When they have left the poliwog behind, Sherlock says firmly, "Mint."

[thaumobabble]

This produces no frogs.

"Mulaglarby mulaglarby," mutters Bella, and then she seizes Sherlock's hand and repeats herself. "Why mint?"

[calendarofcrime]

"First short word I thought of that wasn't an amphibian."

[thaumobabble]

"I love you," laughs Bella weakly. "Let's - will it interfere with you being ready to fight more nasty monsters if we hold hands, I think that would make it harder for the cave to split us up again."

[calendarofcrime]

"It will not interfere," says Sherlock, "but I may need to drop your hand quickly if we come upon something sufficiently unpleasant."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay." Bella takes Sherlock's hand. And as an afterthought produces a water bottle from a sleeve to rinse out her mouth; she offers it to Sherlock after she has spat frog taste onto the tunnel floor.

[calendarofcrime]

She grins and does likewise. "Thank you. Much appreciated."

[thaumobabble]

"This cave," says Bella flatly, "is full of unpleasant surprises."

[calendarofcrime]

"I agree."

[thaumobabble]

The next unpleasant surprise is that Tony is apparently being held by wizards who consider the best way to keep a captive princess to be "bound, gagged, suspended upside down from the ceiling, wide awake, and, for some reason, blue". Besides Tony there is one other such captive, an unremarkable-looking (except for having sprouted donkey ears) man in his thirties or so.

There are six wizards in the cave and they're huddled around a large scroll muttering to each other.

[calendarofcrime]

"Hello," says Sherlock, dropping Bella's hand and stepping away from her. "I am here to unpleasantly surprise you."

The entire exterior surface of her armour catches fire. She draws her sword, and that lights up too.

She heads for the wizards.

[thaumobabble]

Bella busies herself with getting Tony down from the ceiling. This is delicate but not impossible, as she's suspended by a pulley system to allow wizards to do the same thing as necessary. When Tony has been set on the floor Bella starts on her knots.

The wizards are unpleasantly surprised.

But not for long.

[calendarofcrime]

When the wizards have ceased to be surprised, Sherlock lets the flames die down and sheathes her sword. She turns immediately to Tony and Bella.

[thaumobabble]

Bella has gotten Tony's hands untied so Tony can work on her own feet and now she's picking at the knot in the gag.

[calendarofcrime]

All right then.

What about the other one?

[thaumobabble]

He's still suspended from the ceiling; he is not Bella's top priority and she left him for figuring out after getting Tony untied.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock decides that she agrees with these priorities. She goes to help Bella free Tony.

[thaumobabble]

Presently Tony is untied and ungagged, if still blue. Bella kisses her forehead, then goes to let the guy with the donkey ears down.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock stays by Tony.

[thaumobabble]

Bella unties the fellow's gag first. "Who're you?" she asks.

"Name's," he coughs, "Kanim."

"What's with the ears?"

"Unpleasant surprise," he says. "Wizards figured out how to get in and out safely themselves by taking unpleasant surprise bait with them. The ears are just the most visible thing on me, I was bait for a few trips."

"Is that why she's blue?" Bella asks, jerking her head in Tony's direction.

"No," says Kanim. "Don't think so. I think that's fire suppression, or something."

"Oof." Bella swallows and turns to the princesses, working on the knots around Kanim's hands. "Um, my specs are almost completely broken, only one lens left - I panicked and put them on trying to figure out how the cave worked when we were split up and they exploded in my face, all I have is a spare witchlens that wasn't on them... I'm going to be less use than usual till I have new ones made."

[allthebrightest]

Tony leans silently on Sherlock.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock hugs Tony, as best she can with the armour.

"Nevertheless," she says, "I expect we can manage to leave."

[thaumobabble]

"Yeah," agrees Bella. "Erm - Kanim - is there by any chance less total unpleasant surprise when someone is bait?"

"You mean," snorts Kanim, "if you copy the wizards' spell when we walk out of here am I going to have any worse of a time of it? Won't be more unpleasant for me, will be more," he flicks an ear, "long-term, unpleasant surprises for bait seem to be stickier, I already have no idea how I'm going to get my ears turned back."

"I don't even know if I can copy the spell without my specs to look at it from a few angles." She finishes untying his hands and leaves him to the task of his own feet, and then she starts gingerly inspecting the wizard staffs for traps, wrapping the first one she deems safe up in fabric in lieu of the more sophisticated prep work she was able to manage with the last leaving of a Sherlock-killed wizard.

"I can do it, now I'm not gagged," he says. "If you leave me one of those staffs I even will. You have no idea how hard it is to find intact non-discard staffs."

Bella pauses. "I have some idea. I live in the Enchanted Forest. How about I pack them all up and we can divvy 'em up outside?"

"Fair enough since you're the one with the sleeves," acknowledges Kanim.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock smiles slightly.