Lightning cracked, and the deep rumble of thunder followed it.

“Monstrox, I need your help.”

Brightwood Forest was not their usual meet-up spot. Then again, things hadn’t been usual for nearly a year now. While Monstrox was not the same wizard Wanda had met two years ago, she wasn’t the same witch he had met either.

The monsters with him now weren’t the ones usually with him. They appeared to be made of solid rock, with moss growing on their joints. They glared at her with their solid yellow eyes and snorted at her with vitriol. Monstrox, on the other hand, seemed pleased to see her, if not surprised.

He laughed. “Is that so? I thought you said that you were ‘never gonna talk to me again, never ever’ before the war even started. You havin’ second thoughts?”

Wanda tightened her grip on her staff as she glanced away from Monstrox. “…You could say that.”

“Well,” Monstrox spread out his arms as he said, “let’s talk!”

One of the monsters behind him growled. Monstrox turned to it and scolded, “Cool it. She’s not here to hurt ya.”

The monsters voiced their unease with low growls, but left the matter at that.

Monstrox turned back to Wanda, shifting his weight onto his left leg as he did so. “The Grimrocs are realterritorial. They’re not fond of strangers.”

One of Wanda’s eyebrows raised slightly. “They’re fine with you, though?”

“Oh yeah! They’re easy to bribe,” Monstrox replied with a laugh. “But enough about them. What was it that you came to talk to me for…?”

Wanda took a deep breath in. The Grimrocs kept their piercing gazes on her. “I need your help. Ever since I gave birth to my son, the darkness in me has been growing stronger. I’m not strong enough to fight it, and I know I have to protect my son, but… I don’t know how.”

Monstrox nodded along with furrowed brows.

“I would have gone to Merlok, but he doesn’t know about my son or the darkness. If I told him now…” Wanda inhaled and tightened her grip on her staff again. “Well, I thought you would know what to do about the darkness, at least,” Wanda finished.

Monstrox’s eyebrows raised as he let out a quiet ‘huh’. He shifted his weight back evenly as he replied, “The kid’s news to me, but it’s a good thing you didn’t go to Merlok; you’d never get him to shut up. Personally, I’d go put the kid in magic stasis somewhere remote.”

“…Right. So no-one knows where he is. That makes sense,” Wanda murmured, her eyes cast to the ground.

“And the ‘darkness’, as you call it? Don’t worry about it!”

Wanda’s eyes widened. She looked at Monstrox as she questioned, “How can you say that? I’m fighting a losing battle for control over myself, and you want me to… not worry?!”

Monstrox’s unnervingly relaxed smile morphed into a ice-cold glare in a single moment. “You can’t fight dark magic, Wanda. It’s a part of you now. Tryin’ to resist it is only gonna make you sad. So,” he smirked, “work with it! Make it your own! When you do that, you’ll be in control.”

From a far distance behind them, a magic blast tore through a tree, accompanied by the pained wail of a Grimroc. Wanda turned to face the direction of the blast as she processed the small spike of magic she had sensed. There was the smallest moment of quiet before the Grimrocs with Monstrox started wailing back.

“Merlok…?” Wanda whispered. She turned to face Monstrox again, but found he had turned to the howling Grimrocs.

“Hey! HEY! Cut it out! You want that magic blast to come hit you?!” he snapped at them.

Wanda raised her voice above the Grimrocs’ wails to tell Monstrox, “Monstrox, that was from Merlok!”

Monstrox glanced over his shoulder, a scowl on his face. “Damnit,” he growled. “Someone must’ve told him I’d be here. I’ll find the sneak later. For now, I’ve gotta be prepared for him.”

He turned around and walked past Wanda to head to the clearing nearby, the Grimrocs following behind him.

Reaching out with her free hand, Wanda called out, “Monstrox, wait!”

Monstrox came to a stop. He was still for a moment before glaring over his shoulder at her.

“If Merlok’s coming here, then he can’t see me like this,” Wanda said, pointing to the blotchy circles and jagged black streaks that surrounded her now-yellow eyes. “You know a lot of transformation magic, could you… teach me something to hide it?”

Monstrox thought for a moment before letting out a loud sigh. “Fine,” he said, turning around and walking over to Wanda, “but only to trick that dumb brother of yours.”

Though Wanda did flinch a little at Monstrox’s remark, she was more happy to have something to help her out.

Readying his staff by tapping it once on the ground, Monstrox told Wanda, “This is just a basic illusionary spell. It doesn’t take as much effort to maintain, it’s easier to use and I don’t know how much time I have before that Mer-loser finds me. Now, focus on what your face looked like when Merlok last saw you, charge your staff and wave it over your face. Simple.”

“Right. Focus…” Wanda wasn’t 100% sure how many of the blotches were on her face when Merlok last saw her, but she was sure there was at least a couple of small ones. Doing her best to remember the placement of the blotches before things got worse, she let her magic flow through the hand holding her staff. A green cloud of magic manifested in the center of her staff, which she then waved over her face.

“There you go,” Monstrox said. “Now as long as you keep remembering the illusion, it’ll stay.” He spun on his heel and began to head to the nearby clearing as he added, “I’ve gotta go and let these Grimrocs loose on Merlok now, see ya.”

Wanda watched as Monstrox and the Grimrocs made their way towards the clearing. They had gone a couple of meters away before Wanda realised something: the Grimrocs’ movement was loud enough to mask her movement. She jogged closer to the herd of Grimrocs following Monstrox, then broke off to the right. She kept jogging until she reached a tree at the edge of the clearing, which she hid behind and peered past. Merlok had just reached the clearing himself. It was awfully good timing for Monstrox and the Grimrocs, as they emerged from the forest mere moments after Merlok had walked into the clearing. Monstrox laughed as he approached Merlok. Merlok frowned upon seeing Monstrox and the Grimrocs.

“Monstrox!” Merlok called out, “I have been sent by the Wizards’ Council to end your evil destruction of this land!”

Monstrox couldn’t help but laugh. “Sent by the council? You think all of them are on your side?” Merlok opened his mouth to speak, but was swiftly cut off by Monstrox scoffing, then ordering the Grimrocs, “Destroy this wearisome wizard!”

The Grimrocs stomped forth on Monstrox’s command. Merlok gripped his staff in both hands, charging it with his own kind of magic.

Raising his staff and spinning it above his head, Merlok called out, “Brickelo Ogel!” He slammed the bottom end of his staff onto the ground, sending out a blinding burst of orange magic. Merlok’s magic turned into a wave that spread through the whole forest, turning anything not human it touched in stone. The Grimrocs let out fearful wails before being encased in rocks just tall as they were. The trees, shrubbery and even the dirt beneath the wizards’ feet… that was all turned to stone as well.

A yelp slipped out of Monstrox’s mouth as things went south for him. Scowling at Merlok, he fired a ball of lightning from his staff. Merlok bent back just enough so the ball of lightning barely flew over him. He then retaliated with orange twin beams of magic. The beams hit Monstrox dead on just as he was readying another attack, firing him into the air as the beams caused a small explosion. His staff slipped from his hands as he went flying with a scream. As his staff hit the now-stone ground with a clink-clang, the bracelet holding his darkest and most powerful spells slipped off his sleeve. Merlok was too busy looking around at the damage he had caused to notice the bracelet fall to the ground with a clunk.

Wanda had noticed it, though. As fast as one could run in a dress while holding a magic staff, she ran into the clearing and picked up the bracelet. She looked at it for a moment. It was deceptively heavy, and the charms each had a sigil on them that denoted… something. She figured it had something to do with the specifics of each spell.

She thought about keeping the bracelet for a moment. Even holding the bracelet, she could feel the immense power flowing through it. It was tempting. But then she looked over at Merlok, who had since fallen to a knee. It was hard to tell why, exactly - the spell he used to turn the Grimrocs and forest to stone looked like it took a lot of energy, but maybe he was simply mourning the life he had snuffed? Whatever the case, she felt bad for him.

Wanda walked over to Merlok, causing the latter to look up at her with a raised eyebrow. Offering Monstrox’s bracelet, she said, “Here. He dropped this.”

Merlok reached out and took the bracelet with his free hand. His eyes widened for a moment as he held it, clearly taken by surprise at its weight. He looked at it for a moment, then rose to his feet.

“Thank you, Wanda. But… what are you doing out here?” Merlok asked. “Cerebrum said that you had called in sick, and that was a year ago! Shouldn’t you be at your tower recovering?”

A chill ran down Wanda’s spine. Had it been that long since she filed for child leave? She was glad Cerebrum respected her wishes and told the council she was sick, but… “I’m just… just getting some fresh air. I-I’m fine, really.”

Merlok let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear. I was getting worried after a month had passed, and then when Monstrox said Count Dragov had fallen ill late last year as well…”

Wanda raised an eyebrow. “He’s sick? That’s… strange.”

“Indeed. He’s always been very resilient. If he really did fall ill, then he must have caught something truly terrible…”

A moment passed where a crack of lightning lit up the sky. Merlok looked up at the sky with furrowed brows. “We should leave. It looks like it’s going to rain soon, and this is no place to deal with Monstrox’s bracelet of dark magic.”

“Agreed,” Wanda said. She pointed in the direction that Monstrox’s staff had fallen, adding, “Though you should probably get his staff as well.”

Merlok’s eyebrows raised as he said, “Oh! You’re right.” He quickly walked over to the golden staff. He slipped the bracelet over his wrist, then picked up the staff. Wanda couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of Merlok walking back over with two staffs.

Once Merlok had returned to Wanda, the two of them headed to the path Merlok had entered the clearing on. As they exited the clearing, Wanda asked, “I suppose they won’t be calling this place ‘Brightwood Forest’ anymore, will they?”

Night had long since fallen across the kingdom. Like Merlok had predicted, it was raining. It was much stormier in the capital and its surrounding areas; the countryside was calm in comparison.

Draped in a black hood, Wanda trudged up the tallest hill nearby a village she hadn’t bothered to learn the name of. She clutched her months-old son close to her with one arm while holding her staff with her other hand. Her son was wailing at the top of his lungs despite her attempts to soothe him. Maybe he knew what was going to happen…? She doubted it, but it was always a possibility with magical children. It was more likely that he wanted to get out of the cold and rain.

Arriving at the top of the hill, Wanda slunk into the small canopy of trees standing tall. She looked down at her son. Her son looked back up at her. Wanda let a shaky sigh, her breath turning into fog in the cold.

“I’m sorry, my son, but I have to do this. For your sake and mine.”

Wanda charged her staff with the time magic she was known for cataloguing in the Wizards’ Council. The center of her staff filled up with a purple haze, and a spiral of electricity soon manifested in the center of the mist. A single bolt zapped the ground, and the outline of a clock appeared in the air. At first, the hands spun rapidly as a purple forcefield was built from the ground up, but they quickly slowed to a complete halt, and the forcefield was complete. Wanda took two paces toward the forcefield. She stared at it for a moment before gently placing down her staff and holding her son with both hands. She carefully placed her son inside, where he instantly started hovering in place. Once her hands were out of the forcefield, the clock outline flashed a bright white before disappearing. The stasis had been made. Her son was safe now.

Wanda picked her staff off the ground. She took one final look at her son before making her way down the hill.