The Truth of the Arcane Order

Chapter 14 Classes and Plans

Claire POV

"I will Murder. your mom." I say as I walk into the room we're held in.

"Pfft.. You– You might want to get out of that dre-ess fir– " Douxie barely gets the words out before buckling over with laughter. Jerk.

Looking in the mirror to find any useful traits about the dress was not helping. It's way over the top and exaggerated. Also there's like 30 layers because of it, well technically around 8 or so, but it feels like 30. At least it was purple and just fabrics.

"She always said she wanted a girl.."

"This is worse than the one I wore for Mogana as her Servant."

"She could've given you worse."

Behind me, Douxie's undoing and fixing the sleeves and back.

"Worse than this?" He shrugs

"I've seen some of them before.. This is probably one of the better ones..." He winces at the memory

"Postpone it then? I dunno. How'd she even get me in it?"

"She's a literal siren; she also had come when both of us were asleep. Woke up to Ezekiel floating me down the hall. He gave me a half-arsed apology before dropping me and dragging me the rest of the way here. Then proceeded to knock me out when I walked in."

"Such an amazing family; Wish I was in it.." I deadpanned

"They gave us a bookshelf.." In seconds, he's looking through the names on the spines. "I highly doubt they'd risk hurting either of us with how hard they tried to get us here.. Want to abuse the opportunities they freely gave us and go through slash steal the spell books we don't have?"

"Why'd you even ask."

Then the next few hours are spent in a peaceful reading session where I learn new things and Douxie's annoying family doesn't bother us.. Or it would be if they didn't barge into the room! 'The queen has requested Douxie-'....... Nope nope no no nope.

"He's not going with yo-"

"Claire, it's fine. I'll be fine." Blatant lie and he knows it. Yet he still walks out with a tight smile, leaving me in the quiet room to panic and worry. Hate you too Evil Queen. Can't things even be just a little easy for us?

"Are you sure I can't hurt her? Or any of them? It could probably help with escape."

"Nah, It would assist their will to spell us into submission more likely." He's just come back from wherever he was for hours, wearing new clothes too. He looks ready for a distraction or just being away.

"Why did you think Circe's doing this again?"

"Probably to win our favor, she likes buttering people up, making them more susceptible to following her before she spells them to. From what she told me and I could gather when I would ask, she doesn't like having to use so much magic for a singular person." He's looking at the bookshelf again, grabbing and putting away a few books.

"She also prefers to make a person partially-willing, so that when they break out, they'll still listen or at least hesitate long enough for her to reinstate the spell."

"And what's her power? I can feel the magic coming off her, but usually when she's talking."

"That's exactly it. Circe's magic comes from her voice, her magic comes out in bitter-sweet words or singing. Honestly, I don't see a difference in it." He picked up a book, looked at it, then put it back shaking his head.

"I heard her talking like that when we first met her, then she stopped after."

"She was using a light version of the spell, trying to see how willing we are right now. When she saw we had no intention of listening, she moved on and left." He grabbed another book, this time taking it with him over to me.