Chapter 6
“Okay, in my defence,” Maeve started to say as she looked at the small mess they had created.
“You don’t have a defence.”
“I absolutely do.”
“You blew up a wall.”
“It was a controlled explosion.”
Maeve stood in the centre of Merlin’s Gate cavern, hands on her hips, hair slightly frizzed, robes dusted with ash, and absolutely no intention of admitting fault. Behind her, where there had once been a perfectly respectable stone wall, was now… not that.
Chunks of rock smouldered faintly along the edges of a neat-ish hole blasted clean through to a darker stretch of cavern beyond. Maeve tilted her head, considering it.
“I mean, structurally, it’s still holding,” she added.
The silence lasted only a second before Arietta snorted and Isabeau lost it completely. And just like that, they were all gone. Maeve had doubled over, clutching her sides as laughter spilled out of her, echoing wildly around the cavern.
“I told you,” she gasped between breaths, “I told you not to layer the sigils.”
“And I told you the resonance would stabilise it!” Isabeau shot back, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Clearly, it did not,” Arietta wheezed.
Another wave of laughter hit, stronger this time because honestly, it had been a spectacular explosion. Which, in their opinion, counted for something, and somewhere behind them, there was a deeply unimpressed huff. Maeve glanced over her shoulder.
“Oops,” she chuckled, then ducked her head to hide the smile.
Binky stood a few feet away, wings slightly puffed out, feathers noticeably singed at the edges. He looked like an extremely disgruntled, lightly toasted feather duster.
“This,” Binky said flatly, “is a personal attack.”
Maeve winced.
“A small one?”
“A flaming one,” Binky snapped.
Beside him, Bas flicked his tail irritably, said tail now sporting a very unfortunate singed tip.
“I liked this tail,” Bas muttered. “It had character.”
“It still has character,” Maeve offered.
“It smells like burnt regret.”
“That’s also character.”
Bas glared at her. Nearby, Grundlepus, who had somehow managed to remain seated through the entire incident, blinked slowly, his enormous feline face utterly unimpressed.
His whiskers, however, were gone… or rather singed down to uneven, slightly crispy stubs.
Grundlepus turned his head toward Maeve with the kind of quiet, devastating disappointment that hit far harder than shouting ever could.
“I can fix that,” Maeve said quickly.
Grundlepus blinked again, stood slowly, and walked away, also ignoring his own witch on his way out of the cavern.
Arietta and Isabeau were no help whatsoever, still laughing behind her, their laughter turning into hiccups.
“You’re all very unsupportive,” Maeve added.
“You blew up the wall,” Arietta reminded her.
“It was a team effort!”
“It really wasn’t,” Isabeau said sweetly.
Before Maeve could argue further, they heard the fast stomp of footsteps hitting stone. Jessica burst into the cavern, eyes wide, hair slightly windswept, with Dave right behind her.
“What in the holy Kraken happened?!” She started scanning the space and then stopped as she saw Maeve, Arietta, and Isabeau laughing like absolute maniacs.
“I leave you alone for five minutes,” Jessica said slowly. Dave leaned around her shoulder, taking in the scene.
“Huh,” he said. “Well. That’s new.”
Binky flapped his wings sharply. “They blew. Up. The wall.”
“I heard the explosion,” Jessica said.
“It was controlled,” Maeve offered helpfully.
Jessica raised an eyebrow.
Maeve paused. “Mostly controlled.”
Dave nodded thoughtfully. “I respect the commitment.”
“You would,” Jessica muttered as she stepped further into the cavern, hands on her hips now, her gaze sweeping over the damage before settling on Maeve. “No more experimental layering without supervision,” she said firmly.
Maeve opened her mouth then closed it, even as she tried to control the laughing.
“Define supervision.”
“Maeve.”
“Right. Yes. Supervision. Love that. Big fan.”
Jessica sighed, but there was a hint of a smile tugging at her mouth despite herself. She instead looking at the two remaining familiars.
“You guys okay?”
“No,” Binky said immediately. “Emotionally, I am devastated.”
“My tail is a tragedy,” Bas added
Jessica winced. “Okay, fair.”
Dave crouched slightly, peering at Bas’s tail. “Adds a bit of edge, though.”
Bas stared at him.
“I will bite you.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Binky puffed himself up further, clearly not done. “And another thing,” he continued, voice rising, “Not only have I been lightly roasted in what I assume was an act of magical negligence—”
“Allegedly,” Maeve muttered.
“But I have also suffered a devastating financial loss this evening.”
Jessica blinked. “What?”
“Denzel,” Binky said darkly.
And that, right there, explained everything about what was really important to the familiars.
“He cleaned us out,” Bas added, flicking his singed tail.
“Every coin,” Binky said mournfully. “Gone. Vanished. Stolen under the guise of ‘fair play’.”
Dave winced sympathetically. “Yeah, that sounds like Denzel.”
“I had a winning streak,” Binky insisted. “A strategy.”
“You had hope,” Bas corrected.
“I had both.”
“You had neither.”
Binky ignored him. “I demand compensation,” he declared, fluffing what remained of his dignity. “For the feathers and the funds.”
Maeve raised a hand. “We can do snacks?”
“Continue,” Binky said cautiously, wiping his glasses with his wing. That little action started the laughing all over again, and this time, Jessica and Dave joined in.