All Shades of Magic

All Shades of Magic - Chapter 11

 "VAL! VAL! VALERIE GET UP!" Kimi was screaming. My eyes popped open and I sat up Kimi was shaking my shoulders, there was dirt on her face. I froze. Just above her head was the ugly face of the monster I had paralyzed only days before. Kimi glanced behind her and pulled out a - HOLY HELL IS THAT A SWORD?

I quickly crawled out of the way and hid behind a tree. What should I do? What should I do? If i perform a spell Kimi will know, but if i don't Kimi might die! My thoughts were screaming. So was Kimi. her scream was embedded with pain and bubbling with rage. I raced out from behind the tree.

First I saw the monster, floating, a growling sneer implanted on its face, it looked concentrated on... Kimi. Kimi was dangling in the air, curled up in the air, screaming. Fear and rage pursed through me. I had to do something. Then it hit me. I'm gonna blast that ugly beast out of the sky. By breaking its spine.

Using all the power, I took a deep breath and screamed.

"Os frangeretur!" I could feel the power in my scream. Dizziness overtook me.

The monster flailing and falling to the ground was the last thing i saw before i blacked out.

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It must've been hours since the fight when I woke up, the sky was already turning orange from the sunset I could barely glimpse through the trees. My dizzying vision slowed and I sat up to find Kimi sitting where she fell hours before. She wasn't knocked out, at least not anymore, but she hadn't moved except to sit in a different position. It kind of looked like she was crying. Knees tucked to her chest, arms hugging herself, head down. Unmoved as well was the creature. It was dead and bloody right where I had left it when I cracked its spine hours and hours ago.

I slowly started to get up and then instantly fell back to the ground taken over by a dizzy spell. The power put into the spell to break such a big bone must've been astronomical for me to be wiped out for so long with such powerful dizzy spells.

After many, many tries at rising to my feet, I finally managed to make myself stand up straight and half-limp half-trip my way over to Kimi. She was still sitting in the same position, not even glancing up when I tripped over a vine and produced a particularly loud THWAP on the ground. At long last, I reached her.

"Kimi!" I yelled in triumph and worry alike. "Kimi are you ok?"

No response. I reached out to touch her shoulder. Her skin was smooth, and upon further inspection, I saw that it was china. Bone china. I screamed and lifted her head to see her eyes and lips sealed shut.

"Kimi!" I screamed. "No no no no no no NO!"

Kimi was no longer human. She had become some sort of life-size china doll.

She looked relatively the same, same clothes, skin paler but still the same shade, slightly pinker lips but still the same size and shape (not that I noticed or anything... haha). Her hair wasn't braided anymore. The only majorly different thing was a black-chained necklace laced with glowing crimson and ruby gems that I couldn't remove. I needed to think.

Digging through my bag, I pulled out my spellbook and looked for anything that could help me and Kimi. a transformation spell maybe, to turn her back. Too bad the only thing I ever transformed was a pie into a different kind of pie. If I botched the spell Kimi could end up being some sort of creature, but if I succeeded... Kimi would be ok!

On my way to the transformation spell, something else caught my attention. A story spell. One that could tell me any truth behind a mystery, like the mystery of why Kimi is a bone china doll and not Kimi. but what would I be revealing the truth of? For the spell to work, I had to touch something, or someone, or whatever else, to tell the story behind it. But I don't know what will tell me the story. I guess I could try multiple objects. It had to be either Kimi, or the necklace she now had.

Welp. I thought to myself. There's only one way to find out. One more glance at Kimi and it was time to start story snooping.