Becca hated to admit it, but the elder girl Morgan had quite a lot of cool things in her house. Some of it looked to have been bought on E-bay, but there was the occasional very interesting oddity.
"Wha's this" asked Becca pointing to a candle.
"Supposed to be a magic fire. Supposed to burn forever... course it doesn't," She said with a shrug. It just sparkles. Everything here is just sparkle... everything except us, that is," Smiled the girl genuinely.
Trident and Vertex were also looking at each other with some strangeness to the two.
"Do I know you?" Asked Trident.
"Mmm.. no, I'm Princess Vertex. Nice to meet you."
The two small creatures shook hands. It was actually quite nice for Trident, to shake hands with someone her size. It was very interesting and even a little nice. So they had finally made a connection to another magic girl... the two glanced over head their charges. "You have quite a challenging companion," said Trident.
Vertex just smiled. "Oh, she is... enthusiastic. I believe in her though. You know what Two's are like."
"Um- actually I don't," said Trident. "Could Two be a very difficult number?" she asked aloud.
The fairy mulled the question over with a little flicker of her wings. "Sometimes. Her power's often tend towards extreme ends. Darkness and light, Good and evil... two paths... and I am hoping she will take the right one- but once it is taken, she will only be on that path." At least this time anyway.
"It sounds like quite a concern," thought Trident.
"And wha's this?" Asked Becca again gesturing to some old books.
"Books from the Magic Circle," She said shrugging. "Call it a... club if you like. People interested in old things like alchemy, and what old magic used to be like. I got them all. All the birthstones, everything. Even a magic orb- no it doesn't work," Morgan said rolling her eyes. Oh how she wished they could work!
"An' that other girl is a member? Aint she a bit young?"
"I was her age when I was interested in magic," said Morgan. "But now I can make it all true. 'We' can make it all true. Imagine it Becca, you and me... pioneering the new art. Here take a look at this." Morgan took out a scrap of paper, and showed it to her.
Becca looked at the scribbles Nothing on it made any sense to her head. It was filled with lots of equations and weird symbols.
"These are a copy of Issac Newton's work. He was an alchemist as much as a physicist you know. He wanted to believe in this... course it was simply the wrong time. But now we can make things like this real. Don't you see? They will name magic spells after us!" She giggled. "We could make a magic school and... the world will change. Oh- but first the bad guys," She said quickly. "Vertex? You going to tell us more about them?"
"They exist on the edge of our reality... and seem to 'break' reality in some ways. When reality bends enough, they appear and sort of... annihilate things." The fairy fluttered about her charge's vision as she explained. "Magic Girls are... constants. That's why you are 'numbers'. You can repair things, bring solidity to the reality. When you 'fight' one of them, that's sort of what's going on." It was a gross over simplification, but that was generally the idea.
"I suspected something weird like that," thought Morgan. "Okay, well you heard her Becca. You an' me, we are going to go patrolling. Go on change into your magic girl form.. I'll do the same."
"...she is quite enthusiastic," Thought Trident.
Adam blinked as the shopkeeper from next door came to her store. He seemed a bit annoyed of something. He was a human- one of the few to actually work during the day time. He arrived at just before sun rise, then left just after sunset. He ran his own business of toys. Stuffed animals... that kind of thing. Generally he was a nice old man, with a long beard. The kids called him Santa clause, though of course that was not his name.
"What's wrong?" He asked the old man. He wished he could remember his name, but felt a little embarrassed to not. It's not as if they talked to each other that often.
"Sorry miss. I don't suppose you've seen any children here? Seems I've lost a toy," he said shaking his head.
"Oh that's terrible," Adam thought placing a wing over her mouth- then blinked at the tickly feeling of them and quickly put her arms back to the side.
"Honestly, what's the world coming to. Well, I got more of them anyway. Why would anyone steal a candy wand anyway?"
Adam shrugged. At least it wasn't anything expensive.
Lilly frowned feeling just a little worried. She knew that guardians might come unannounced... she knew that they had to earn the trust of their partner... she knew she had to take a leap of faith, but something about all this was just feeling so wrong. She had never had such a feeling before. She ignored it though. This was- this was too Important! She was going to learn magic!
What kind of magic could she learn? Something to help her friends and family of course. Maybe even people who were unhappy with what they turned into... maybe she could even turn back into a boy? She would do anything...
Even if it was coming from a strange voice inside a box (Or in her head?) ... she hoped she wasn't going crazy. But so far everything had checked out. She flipped through each page in the Grimoire. It looked like a normal published book. It wasn't anything that ancient or anything...
stop.
Lilly frowned at the page at the center of the book. "The God Chronos," She read aloud. It seemed like a legendary greek god. They were going to learn all about them in school someday. "Chronos is th' pers'nifica'tion of time. Past Prese't and future," She continued to read. "Invo- invok'" she frowned at the hard word.
... issue? asked the voice uncertain.
"It's hard to read," said Lilly.
It is in your language is it not? The voice was even more perplexed. Had they not used the correct system?
"I- I'm too young- I can't read it easily" Lilly said blushing embarrassed even more of what the sun did to her.
There seemed to be a pause as the various entities pooled over this confusion. What was young? What is that? What did it mean? They equated over a few more scenarios and realised that it might simply mean that Lilly's pattern was not developed. Though it was clearly not unintelligent. Very strange that they would have a pattern in a half way state like this, but much of these individuals confused them. Finally another consensus was reached.
'Young' Lilly They addressed. A solution. We can give you the apparel of a magic girl. Would this make you less young?
Lilly gasped just a bit at that thought. A- a real magic girl uniform? She had to blush just a bit more at the idea. She was a boy! But... well... couldn't she just do it? She had to learn magic, and being a magic girl seemed to at least require it. At least in all the researching she had done so far. "M-Maybe," said Lilly a little dauntingly. "H-How do I do it?"
Use the wand... and the rest shall be
Lilly looked at the strange red and white striped wand. She tried to play with it, waving it around, and recited some words that she had heard a couple of times from other shows... (Lilly did watch them... guiltily). Still nothing worked yet. There was no spark of magic, nothing to suggest this was ever going to work... "Am I doin' this right?" she asked in the end.
No
"Well how do I do it then!" Lilly shouted.
close your eyes.
Lilly frowned a bit... but did so. She waited for a moment, as she felt her clothes just suddenly dissolve, and re-work themselves into something new. She was feeling just a bit anxious at this new turn of events.
open them
Lilly looked at the mirror. She couldn't believe it! She was wearing a shimmering blue skirt, raised to just above her thigh. She wasn't wearing any boots or shoes, although she was wearing some kind of 'sock' that covered her ankles, allowing clawed appendages to grip the ground. Raising her eyes she saw her top was coloured green, with a black paw print stretched onto the middle. It looked just like something she had... imagined. She was a magic animal girl... this change was a little freaky, but she had to focus. It was just one step towards becoming a boy again.
This came from your mind. Is it acceptable? Strange to have to ask permission like this. These creatures were a consensus of their own. That had to be remembered.
Lilly had to admit her imagination was probably just a bit too girly now. But she couldn't hate it... !I-It's fine." Not to mention that this was real! It was real! She was feeling giddy. She had to tell Jenny and Artemis about this. She could now help them fight the enemy.
Now on that page, trace the image you see...
Suddenly a strange visor appeared over Lilly's eyes. She blinked as she saw strange runic symbols appear overlaying her normal vision. It depicted some hideously complicated patterns. When she focused on the book, they became a picture.
Then a drop of essence.
"Y-you mean like blood?" said the squirrel girl a little tensely.
Anything of yours will do.
They detected Lilly had a very tiny amount of energy, likely from being close to a magic girl- even if it was brief. Perhaps enough for one tiny 'push'. A lot of power existed within these pages, due to it's particular path through the ages. With the right nuance they could achieve the desired effect. Or maybe, it was too weak for anything to happen... in which case, they would have to decide what to do with her as she would be of no use.
Lilly took out her pencil and very slowly started to draw on the book... Her paws were guided very carefully with precision at each small rune. She placed a piece of her fur onto the rune next. "So... what is this going to do?" Asked LIlly hopefully.
test
The picture on the book glowed briefly, then...disappeared. Lilly looked a little surprised. "D-Did I do it right?"
There was another pause as the response was weighed. ... yes.
"So um- d-do you know a spell to change me back to normal?" The little girl asked hopefully. Now that the test was out of the way, maybe she can get onto bigger things.
There was a moment as 'they' considered this query. Technically Lilly had accomplished all that was needed. The Force of Time would be attacked, so it didn't really matter what the creature did now. If... you 'wish'. they said, not really planning this part. Explain... normal? trying to speak like one of these individuals was very difficult, especially over an extended period of time.
"Well- so I wasn't a squirrel girl. I used to be a boy an'- I was older too."
it... will be considered. the entity said strangely. Requires... more
"C-could I see what you look like now?" Lilly asked still hopefully. It wasn't fair if she couldn't see her guardian while the other magic girls could. She wanted to know who they were. The box suddenly became very bright, turning her window into a strange shimmering curtain of light.
...yes. Go through this portal. It exists outside of time... your family will not notice you... it will be as if, you were never here...
"Thank you!" Lilly said happily.
There was another pause. The words had no meaning... what did it mean? They had to research again quickly the correct response. Finally they found a few words that seemed common enough after those words are spoken. You... are welcome
what has been learned?
Those called 'young' are easily deceived. This is important. The creature Lilly, actually believed she was a magic girl? Equivalent to the numbers? Just because they changed her clothes? It was too easy. Though they had to be careful. Was it really that easy? They would have to find a way to differentiate between young and not young. It would be more efficient to use the young then ones like Anneza.
The magic girls are also young. Why is that?
They exist in two states. Of knowing and not knowing. It makes them both strong against us, but now it can be perceived as weak as well. The advantage though they had, was that they could detect them. They would know if they attempted a deception on them. Even this one had some suspicion.
This turn of events seemed hopeful.
*The plan: The beast will annihilate the Time Force. All will be undone. The ultimate annihilation can now be accomplished. All numbers gone in one equation.
With one exception?*
A specimen. Harmless.
