What Good is Magic?
Ruby stood by her twin's side as they sailed towards the sorcerer's lair. A powerful artifact held on the flagship of the Frosted Fleet dispelled the magical fog that surrounded the island of burnt, frozen food held together by yoghurt cultures and layers upon layers of dark enchantments.
A purple taffy steel sword was strapped at her hip across from the longest of Sapphria's dagger. The shortbow she had been practicing with was slung around her back alongside a quiver of arrows that matched her sword. Strapped underneath the long sleeves of the thick, bright red tunic she was wearing to ward off the cold were her other two daggers, ready to fall into her hands with a flick of her wrist.
She'd spent much of the last two days ensuring that she'd completely memorised the spell, practising runes and chants over and over until she could do them almost without needing to thin. All she had to do was make sure she stayed by Jet's side.
She'd been having troubled dreams for the last few nights. Usually her visions dwelled on the past, but this time she saw hundreds upon hundreds of different futures, all of them awful. She hadn't wanted to see Jet die once, let alone a hundred times, and on top of it there was all the others, dying again and again on repeat, each in slightly different ways. One moment Jet would have an arrow through her throat, then her father would have been beheaded, then Saccharina was strangled by ropes, Theo was dragged down into the depths of the ocean as he was caught in a ship wreck, Lapin was stabbed through the heart and then Jet went down again, struck by lightning. Over and over again until Ruby was screaming for it to stop. She'd woken in a cold sweat, panting heavily and her heart racing. The nightmares had left her jumpy and vaguely nauseous.
From her shoulder, Yak cooed quietly and nuzzled into her cheek. Ruby reached up and petted him.
"You'll watch over the battle, won't you?" she whispered. "Make sure no one tries any funny business."
Yak cawed in agreement and then took flight, quickly climbing into the clouds where he could watch the battle below, completely unseen.
Jet grabbed her hand and squeezed in comfortingly. "We'll be alright."
Ruby nodded absentmindedly but was interrupted before she could speak by a strong vibration from her breast pocket. Ruby pulled the black sugarglass mirror out of her pocket, seeing it emit a faint indigo glow. Ruby tapped the surface and saw Frostel light blue face fill the image.
"Princess!" she greeted, in a whisper. "We found it, we found the proof."
"Really?" Ruby asked, her voice hushed even as Jet shifted closer to her.
Frostel grinned and moved the mirror so Ruby could see one purple and one bright pink bubble-gum square. "Hubert Bubba and Streya Bubbles snatched the letters right from his office. They reveal how he got the Meatlander arrows to cover up General Roccocoa's murder and the fact that he got his orders from Ceresia."
"Do we know who in Ceresia?" Ruby asked.
Frostel grimaced. "Apologies, my princess."
Ruby tightened her free hand into a fist but said, "Don't apologise, you have all done very well. You will all be given rewards upon my return to Candia. I will appeal directly to the king and queen."
Frostel's eyes widened and then the mirror tilted as she bowed deeply, the background behind her head rushing. "Thank you, princess."
The other two behind her chimed in with their own gratitude and Ruby smiled. "Bring the evidence to Castle Candy and ask for Mr Sarone. He'll make sure you're taken care of until my return. I will forever be grateful to you."
There was another bow and then there was another round of gratitude and then the call ended.
Jet and Ruby exchanged a wide eyed glance. However, before they could say anything, there was the call of a battle horn from the flagship, and they were surging into battle.
This time, Jet stuck to what she was told. Neither of them left the ship.
That wasn't to say they didn't get any action. In less than two minutes, their ship was swarmed. Many of the nights stayed on the ship, protecting their princesses, as Jet and Ruby attempted to stay as close to the mast as possible, their backs almost up against the wood.
Theo never strayed further than ten metres away from them throughout the fight as slashed through seemingly endless waves of opponents, trusting their father and their sister to get into the temple and destroy the magic orb that was working as the source of the sorcerer's power. Ruby tore through sorcerers and shot down their human acolytes, who couldn't cast magic but were incredibly well trained fighters, and dispelled as many spirits as she could with her radiant power from the Bulb, pausing every so often to send a healing spell at whatever ally she could see that was most injured.
It was gruelling work and Ruby found her energy flagging, the magic steadily becoming harder summon. However, she could tell they were making headway. None of the knights that Ruby could see had fallen, and if they did go down, they were quickly dragged away or protected by their brothers at arms.
At one point, Ruby saw Gooey and Swifty make their way up to the helm of the ship to protect the Candian maple syrup sailor that was holding the wheel steady. Both she and Jet spied the gigantic storm spirit, crackling with lighting, creep up behind them as they were preoccupied fending off the last few acolytes that were remaining on the ship, since the sorcerers were retreating to attempt to shore up their temple, which had been penetrated by the Candian and Frosted forces.
Ruby hesitated and Jet nudged her.
"Go!" her sister yelled. "I know you've been practicing for something like this."
Ruby glanced back at them, seeing the storm spirit creep across the deck silently.
"Now!" Jet insisted in Twinspeak. "You'll regret it if you don't."
Ruby grimaced but jumped up and grabbed one of the rigging ropes that were being blown around the ship in the storm. She used her momentum to swing forward and around so that she could smoothly land on the deck, right in front of the huge storm spirit just as it was about to envelop Swifty and Gooey. She hit the spirit with the most powerful dispel magic she could manage, hoping that the golden light cantrip she'd cast on herself would be enough for people to ignore the small purple sparks that materialised around her fingertips and that the slight chocolatey and caramelly scent would be overlooked in the heat of battle.
Both Swifty and Gooey turned at the dying screech of the spirit. Their eyes widened briefly before they nodded at her.
Ruby was about the return the gesture when she was distracted by a battle cry. She turned her head to see a wave of spirits led by a team of acolytes surge onto the ship as the sorcerers retreated towards their temple. Within the second, they had overtaken half the ship, surrounding the knights and warriors standing there.
Jet spun to face the new attackers but was almost immediately knocked off her feet as spirits and acolytes converged on her, sweeping her and Theo too far apart for Swirlwarden to help. Ruby let out a cry as Jet went down, feeling a too familiar pulse on her chest as her locket grew brighter.
Suddenly, something inside Ruby snapped.
Her screech was inhuman as she lunged towards Jet, seeming to teleport as she found herself in front of her bleeding sister. Before any of the attackers could even touch Ruby, they were ripped back, shadows lashing out and tearing her away from them. More opponents lurched towards her and Ruby yelled, a shockwave of shadows exploding out of her, immediately tearing through all the spirits and flinging the acolytes back, many of them going overboard.
Ruby fell to her knees at her sister's side. A huge stab wound through Jet's chest was bleeding sluggishly and the Locket of the Sweetest was beating slower and slower against her chest. It felt almost like Ruby's heart was slowing down with it.
She was out of healing spells, having used her last to seal over one of her sister's arrow wounds a few minutes ago.
However, she didn't allow herself to wallow, grabbing Jet's hand.
"I will not watch my sister die again," she snarled.
She threw the golden light off of her and up so that it was glowing down on them and illuminating her sister's rapidly dying body.
She reached inside herself, knowing what she should do as Yak swooped down and shifted into Cerridwen and started to pace around them. Ruby managed to grasp the energy inside her, sucking in the magic that was dancing in the air.
Ruby dipped a finger into one of Jet's open wounds, combining it with it with some of the blood from one of her own many cuts before she spread the mixture across her sister's skin as she drew the many intricate runes that she'd memorised, chanting the long incantations over and over again, focusing on perfectly articulating the ancient dialect of Candian.
She sunk further and further into the ritual, quickly losing herself to the magic in herself and in the air as her Hungry One shadows kept away any attackers and her Bulb magic covered them in a general layer of protective light.
-----
Theo was knocked back twice in the space of ten seconds. The first time, by the barrage of storm spirits that took him off guard, which swept him away from Princess Jet and the second by the wave of shadows that burst from Princess Ruby, who had somehow made it to Princess Jet's body in almost no time at all. He stumbled backwards along with everyone else on the ship as the storm spirits were immediately ripped apart.
A few of the acolytes were knocked clear off the ship and swept away by the currents, though a few tried to lunge towards their attacker, only to be skewered by roiling tentacles of shadows, appearing out of the corners of the ship or cast by the light that appeared in the sky against their bodies.
Their section of the battlefield went deadly silent, as the two sorcerers' ships that had been flanking the Candian battleship were also affected by the wave of shadows, which had been so powerful that it had knocked over the masts on those two ships. The marauders, sailors and Candians alike all came to a standstill as Princess Ruby began drawing symbols over her sister's skin in blood and started chanting an ancient dialect of Candian that Theo couldn't understand but recognised from his days squiring under the Archmage Lazuli.
Dancing streams of light in shades of silver and purple sparked to life around the princesses and a scent, sweet and warm, filled the air. The light got brighter and brighter until Theo had to look away.
When he managed to blink the stars out of his vision, Theo saw that Ruby had pulled back and was kneeling up as she gazed down at the still unmoving form of her sister.
"Come on," the princess murmured as she leant back. "Work! Dammit."
She leant forward and placed her ear on her sister's chest. A few moments later she pushed herself back up on her knees and hit the ground.
"No!" she screamed, her shoulders beginning to shake. "Please!"
She bent over and pressed her forehead to her thighs as sobs began to shake her frame. Before he could even think, Theo was moving forward, only registering his mistake when the other knights called out for him to stop. However, he was not skewered by the shadows, which seemed to have settled sometime during the spell.
He reached Princess Ruby's side at the same time as the Chancellor. Theo felt his stomach clench at the sight of the Primogen. This couldn't be brushed off as simply an advanced bit of magic. This was distinctly magical, and certainly not of the Bulb. However, the Chancellor didn't say anything about the crimes he just witnessed, instead he knelt down on Ruby's other side and gently pulled her back.
"No!" Ruby yelled, pulling away from him, only to bang into Theo's armour. She recoiled, warpping her arms around herself as her chest heaved with sobs.
"Princess-" Theo began only to be cut off.
"I can't watch her die again! I won't do it!"
Theo's voice was stolen from him as a shard of ice skewered his heart.
"The spell was meant to protect her! It was meant to keep her alive."
The chancellor's ears drooped and he reached out with his paw in an aborted move to touch the princess's shoulder.
"I was better this time! I found the right spell! What good is magic if it can't bring her back?"
Theo swallowed, his voice sticking in his throat. There was nothing he could say to that.
Suddenly, something in the air shifted. Where previously, it had been charged with energy, magic palpable in every breath and sparking across Theo's skin, now it had gone completely still, as if all the energy had been sucked away. The shift was so fast that it left goosebumps across Theo's skin, and caused a weird pressure in his ears.
Theo sucked in a breath and watched as Ruby's head snapped towards her sister. Theo followed her gaze to see that Jet's body was glowing. The runes on her skin, which had previously disappeared, were glowing a mixture of purple, silver and pale gold.
Ruby stared, her hands scrunched in her thick, crimson pants.
All three of them watched as the light was slowly overtaken by a dark magenta and rosy red. The Princess Ruby sucked in a sharp breath a moment before Theo felt four distinct pulses of energy and four lights formed around Princess Jet's body, one a pale yellow, another a midnight blue, the third a lighter, paler blue and the last a mixture deep bronze and shining copper.
The spheres of light elongated and features started to form as the shapes sharpened. Theo stared, transfixed as between one blink and the next, the familiar figures of the four Rocks sisters appeared in front of him. As one, they all knelt down and put their hands on the Princess Jet, who's eyes snapped open as soon as they touched her.
The black liquorice took in a shuddering gasp, the gaping hole in her chest slowly sealing over as she sat straight up. Princess Jet's gaze swung around to look at her aunts before it rested on her sister.
"Ruby…" she whispered.
"You're alive," the red-skinned girl whispered back. She lunged forward and threw her arms around her sister, who hugged her back as they shared a tight embrace.
Ruby pulled back. "I-I did it… I saved you."
"You sure did, kid," the Princess Sapphria said, grinning at the girl. The four spectres had stood up again and were watching their nieces.
Ruby blinked at her for a few seconds before she burst into hysterical tears.
Jet leant forward and wrapped her arms around her sister again. "Ruby! It's alright. I'm okay."
"You were dead!" Ruby exclaimed between heaving breaths. "You were gone! And I wasn't. And I can't - I can't do that again. I can't be alone. Not again."
Jet rubbed her back. "I'm here. You're not alone."
The words only made Ruby sob harder. After a few moments, General Rocococa knelt down, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "I'm sorry, girls, but the battle is dying down now. We need to be going now. You both did very well."
Jet pulled her head out of Ruby's shoulder and grinned up at her aunt. "Thank you."
The general smiled back. "Keep at it, soldier."
Lazuli looked to Theo and both he and the Chancellor scrambled hastily to their feet, bowing deeply.
"You've done well, young Theobald," she said.
"I-I failed," Theo stammered back. "Princess Jet got hurt. You died."
Lazuli smiled sadly. "You have done the best that you could. What happened here today was out of your control. And you could not have stopped me. Everything is falling into place.
Then she looked down at Princess Ruby. "That was a fine piece of spellwork, young one. You will be a credit to Candia, and one of its most powerful protectors when you are older."
The Saint Citrina stepped forward, extending a hand towards Ruby and a hand towards the Chancellor. "You are both truly blessed by the Bulb. It is an honour to see you continue the practice of the Faith."
Princess Sapphria snorted. "Alright, let's get this show on the road here. We need to be going if we don't want literally everyone on this battlefield to know what happened. Too many have seen us already."
General Rococoa nodded. "We will see you both soon."
"Yeah! I'm excited to fight alongside the three Rocks sisters! I did not get to kick enough ass when I was alive."
Citrina sighed. "Sapphria."
"What? Don't pretend like you don't agree with me. We both had to be nice all the time."
General Rococoa put her hands on her hips. "Enough. We are going."
And, with that, they all disappeared."
The three ships were left in silence as the noises of battle indeed started to fade, their little island of interlocked ships floating slightly apart from the mess of decks that the others were locked in. At some point in the commotion, King Amethar and Princess Saccharina must have completed their objectives as all the storm and sea spirits had completely disappeared, leaving the sorcerers and acolytes as easy pickings, unable to use their power now that the source of it had been destroyed.
It was the Chancellor who broke the silence by crossing his arms and looking down at Princess Ruby.
"That was about the least subtle display of magic you could have managed," he observed flatly. "There's pretty much no way that that could be anything other than arcane blasphemy."
Ruby huffed out a laugh as her and Jet tried to shakily get to their feet. "My apologies, Chancellor."
The Chancellor sighed, but Theo thought he could see a small smile on the rabbit's face. "I suppose it was unavoidable."
Ruby smiled and went to take a step forward but swayed violently, paling rapidly. Theo barely lunged forward in time to catch her from hitting the deck ad Sprinkle gave a squeak of warning a second before the Chancellor caught the other fainting princess.
-----
Ruby woke up to find Theo standing beside her bed, and Lapin sitting on a chair a few feet away from him as he read a book. She blinked and raised her head, feeling a shift beside her and glancing over to find Jet sitting up in bed, a mug of some steaming liquid in her hand and a tray of food on her lap.
Jet glanced over at her as Cerridwen shifted from her legs to Ruby's lap and grinned. "Ruby! You're awake."
The conversation that had filled the room immediately sputtered out as both Saccharina and her father strode over to stand at the foot of the bed that Jet and Ruby had been placed in.
Ruby groaned, feeling a dull ache in her head. "How long…?"
"You've been out for five days," her father informed her. "Jet's only been up for about half an hour."
Ruby frowned. "Five days."
Saccharina nodded. "Yes, it seems doing a miracle of that magnitude took a lot out of both of you."
Ruby furrowed her eyebrows. "A miracle… what?"
Lapin cleared his throat. "Yes, Princess. It seems you are blessed beyond what we previously hoped for."
Ruby glanced at him, and then looked wildly around the room, spying several of the knights that had been on the ship, as well as Gooey and Swifty, leaning in the corner of the room.
"What?"
Theo straightened. "The Knights of North Gumbar are first and foremost protectors of Candia. Many of us follow different spiritual paths but we all do it with the understanding that our duty is to protect the realm. And, it is in the interest of the realm that we observed the princess perform a perfectly holy miracle."
Ruby looked to Sir Toby, who was standing at the wall. "Even you?"
The blue gummy bear inclined his head. "I may be a devout Bulbian, but my loyalty is with Candia. Besides, I have seen the golden light that surrounds you when you heal and the radiance of your attacks and your studying of the Book. From my perspective, your magic is of the Bulb, your highness."
Ruby blinked and then glanced at Gooey and Swifty.
Gooey shrugged. "I don't know anything about magic. All I saw was some pretty golden lights."
"Yeah," Swifty added. "We ain't no snitches. Besides, we owe you."
Ruby took a deep, shuddering breath and slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, careful not to jostle her familiar. "Alright."
Lapin poured a cup of what Ruby realised was tea from a steaming pot, adding sugar and milk before he handed it to her.
"What are we doing now?"
Her father drew himself up and glanced slightly at Saccharina.
"The Dairy Isles have agreed to receive us on our way back home."
Ruby nodded. That was good. "It will be good to visit our closest allies and for Saccharina to…"
She trailed off, not quite finding the right words, but Saccharina smiled warmly at her all the same.
Her father smirked. "Your mother said the same thing in the letter she sent this morning."
His expression turned more serious as he pulled out another envelope of lolly paper, sealed with the royal crest.
"Actually, there was another letter addressed to you girls as well as me. I thought it be best to wait for you to wake up before I read it."
Ruby shifted in anticipation alongside her sister.
"Well, dad, read it!" Jet urged. "I want to see what Mum found out!"
Her father slipped the glasses that Ruby had found for him out of his pocket. They had been in a sealed box in the secret compartment that Ruby had found the Barbarian book in. Lazuli had enchanted them to give to Ruby's dad on his Saint's Day to help him with reading, but had never gotten the chance to give them to him.
He scanned the document, his fingers clenching around the paper as his eyes moved down the page.
Everyone in the room felt his mood shift.
When he was done, he dropped his hands, looking down at his feet.
"What did it say?" Jet asked.
Their father lightly tossed the paper into Ruby's lap.
"Documents arrived from Muffinfield, evidence which proves that Calroy Cruller is in contact with Ceresia and was responsible for the murder of Rococoa."
His voice was thick with rage. "The formal recommendation from the queen is immediate execution."