Part III - The Trouble with Magic #2
“You weren’t very impressive back when I first met you. I remember you broke your rod on the first day we worked together. I lost a bet to Pumpkin that my table would finish the most toys that day. I hated you.”
Pop looked mortally offended and Bop laughed. “You don’t remember?”
They reached the experimentation room, and neither Bop nor Pop noticed Billy walking away from them and toward his own table. He didn’t get to hear the end of their exchange, but if it ended with the two of them sneaking off for a romp in the closet he wouldn’t be surprised.
Standing at his own table, Billy picked up his shaping rods. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be making yet—he hadn’t talked to Pat since finishing up the day before—so he decided to make dolls that could drink water from a bottle and pee until he was told to do otherwise.
Children loved dolls that peed, right?
Billy held his shaping rods firmly in both hands and reached for the castle magic, picturing what he wanted to make, and… nothing.
Billy frowned, wondering where the magic was. He could feel it in the castle walls, humming and soft and familiar, but the rods might as well have been sticks from the forest for all the magic they were channeling.
Taking a tighter hold of the two rods, Billy tried again.
It didn’t work.
Billy frowned, wondering if maybe it had something to do with the alcohol he’d had the night before—or the heavy meal. Looking around the room, feeling very conspicuous, he tried to see if anyone else was having problems with their rods.
They were. Not a single elf that Billy could see was making anything.
This was not good.
“Do you know what’s wrong?” Billy whispered to the elf working at the table next to him. His name was Ralph, and though Billy didn’t know him well, his impression of the man was that he was a calm and levelheaded guy.
“Do I look like I know what’s wrong, Billy? Jingle Bells! This is because of that machine of yours, isn’t it? We’ve been having nothing but trouble since you tried turning it on!” Ralph whispered back loudly, spit flying out of his mouth as he talked.
Billy stepped back at the panicked frustration lacing Ralph’s accusation. The poor man looked like he was ready to murder someone, and Billy did not want it to be him.
“Sorry, Ralph. I don’t think that my machine could affect the castle magic like this. The experimentation room is shielded, remember?” he whispered back.
Ralph turned away and focused on his rods, grunting out something that didn’t sound very convinced. Looking at the table in front of him, Billy saw Elsa giving him a speculative look, like she was considering the possibility that this was his fault.
It wasn’t. It couldn’t be… could it?
No. The experimentation room could draw on the castle magic, but not interact with it. Everything that happened down there was separate.
“It’s probably something to do with how the new Santa overloaded the castle yesterday, you idiot. I can’t believe you’d think Billy would sabotage Christmas!”
It was Tulip, marching over to a suddenly very flustered Ralph with a furious look on her face. Her voice was loud enough to reach the entire workshop, and with the silence broken, the room erupted into chatter.
“Hey,” Billy said, trying to make sure Ralph could hear him over the sudden noise. “It’s okay. I know how stressful this must be for you guys.”
“That’s no excuse for baseless accusations. Is it, Ralph?” Tulip stopped between Billy and Ralph’s tables, crossing her arms and glaring at Ralph until he wilted.
“I guess not, Tulip,” Ralph mumbled. Tulip harrumphed and turned her back on him. She grinned at Billy, but the lines around her eyes gave away her stress. Billy was well aware that any interruption this close to Christmas was a disaster.
“Is anyone investigating what’s going on?” he asked, hoping that Pat was on it.
Tulip nodded. “Pat and Grumpus are finding Santa as we speak.”
Billy nodded, but then a thought occurred to him. Would Nick be able to fix the magic? Billy liked Nick, but he honestly wasn’t very impressed with the alpha’s commitment to being Santa or his knowledge about the job. What would they do if Nick didn’t know how to fix this?
“How much time can we afford to lose?” Billy was worried. If they couldn’t get toy production up and running, he didn’t know what they would do.
“I don’t know,” Tulip said, shrugging. She reached out and touched the bike Billy had finished up the night before but not yet taken to be packaged, spinning the back wheel while she thought it over. “I guess we could work longer shifts to make up for lost time… Three days? Four, maybe?”
Billy was relieved. Even if Nick didn’t know how to fix the problem right off the bat, three days was more than enough time to figure it out. Or so he hoped.
“So what do we do in the meantime?” he asked. He grabbed the bike on the table and lowered it to the floor.
Tulip shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean… it’s December third. Pretty much the only thing we’ve got going on right now is making toys.” She studied him. “You could work on your machine, though. Couldn’t you? I mean… the design and research you do doesn’t require magic.”
“I could do that,” Billy hedged. He wanted to do something to help, but unable to think of anything, he might as well make himself useful. “But I think I’ll wait to hear what Nick says.”
“Who?” Tulip scrunched up her brows like she was thinking hard.
“The new Santa,” Billy said. “His name is Nick.”
“Oh, I almost forgot! You had a date last night! How did it go?” The lines of stress smoothed out on Tulip’s face as she clasped her hands together excitedly. She was way too invested in this.
Billy smiled anyway. “It was good.” He looked down and shuffled his feet. He knew that he was blushing. “We had dinner and drinks, and we talked… I like him.”
“And did you…?” Tulip made a thrusting motion with her hips, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she grinned lasciviously. Billy shook his head with a snort.
“No. I fell asleep on him and he put me to bed. We cuddled, though. He was the big spoon.”
“Spooning with an alpha.” Tulip sighed and gave him a look. “What ever happened to my shy little Billy?”
“I’ve never been shy!” Billy defended himself, indignant. “I’ve had sex with eight different people!”
Tulip raised her eyebrow like she was less than impressed by the number. Billy harrumphed. Screw her. He was perfectly happy with the level of his experience, and with the prospect of increasing it.
“I know. I’m just teasing you.” Tulip grinned and bumped his shoulder. “You’re a regular beast in the sack, I’m sure.”
“Ugh, screw you,” Billy said, but with a smile. “Why don’t we take this bike down to the packaging room. Maybe when we get back they’ll have fixed the problem.”
He knew that he was acting out of character with Nick, and that this was Tulip’s very unsubtle way of making sure he was okay and that he wasn’t screwing it up. It was sweet, if you knew her and how her twisted mind worked.
“Might as well,” Tulip said. She took the bike by the handle and rolled it away from the table, leaving Billy to scramble after her.
Watching the frustrated and frazzled elves all around him, quite a few of them sending murderous glances his way like he was the reason the magic was failing, Billy hoped Nick could fix whatever was wrong, and quickly!
Nick was fucked. He had no idea why the elves were suddenly cut off from the castle magic.
His magic was working just fine. Shifting from foot to foot, uncomfortable, he tried to think of something to say.
Pat and the middle-aged elf accompanying him were staring, waiting with baited breath for Nick to fix the problem.
But Nick had no clue what the problem was, much less how to fix it.
“Maybe you could try calling the old Santa?” Pat said when the silence dragged on and it became painfully clear that Nick didn’t have a clue what to do. “He might know how to fix this.”
The older elf next to Pat nodded, as though this was the obvious next step. “It’s always good to consult with your elders.”
Nick clenched his fists, the older elf’s superior tone making him want to punch something. He hated looking this incompetent and helpless, and he’d never felt more useless. There was nothing wrong with the magic that he could feel. Nothing.
And asking the old Santa—a beta—for help? The humiliation of it had Nick’s stomach twisted in knots.
Was this some sort of new Santa hazing? Nick considered it. If it were anyone but him, telling the new Santa that the magic was broken and watching him scramble to fix it would be hilarious.
It had better not be a prank. If it was, Nick was going to find every elf involved and beat them senseless. They’d be wishing for Krampus and his stick by the time Nick was through with them.
The expression on Nick’s face must have been scary, because it made both Pat and the older elf shrink back.
“How do I get in touch with the old Santa?” Nick asked through a clenched jaw.
He knew he sounded murderous, but he didn’t care.
He wasn’t going to make himself look like an idiot by outright asking the elves if they were pranking him, though from the looks on their faces he was now pretty sure that they weren’t.
“You could use a talking mirror,” the older elf said, speaking with a nervous tremor in his voice. “If the magic is still working for you, that is.”
“It is,” Nick ground out.
“The mirror works by rubbing the glass with the palm of your hand, just not too hard, while you think about the person you need to talk to.”
“And where can I find one of these mirrors?” Nick asked. He wondered if his face was red. It felt like his face was red, his anger and humiliation threatening to bubble over.