Chapter 4: The Toad's Toll
I turned around, my legs feeling heavy as I walked back through the Uneven, destroyed doorway and into the room of horrors.
The Pink Toad lay perfectly still. She looked smaller now, just a mass of ruined Pink clothes in a spreading pool of crimson liquid. I looked at her and felt a sickening cringe feeling deep in the pit of my gut..
I did that, I was actually capable of something that... vivid.
The Magicians show never really described the smell of it or the way the silence in the room feels heavy once the screaming stops. The emotions weren't gone, not by a longshot. They were just vibrating under my skin like a livewire.
I've never had to do anything like this. No crime scenes, no bodies. My mind started racing, throwing out questions I didn't want to answer. What am I supposed to do?
I know I should use magic. I need to use magic. But my imagination is stretched thin, stressed by the adrenaline and the realness of the situation. I'm standing over a corpse in a New York basement with nothing but a blood stained bat and a head full of someone else's memories and life experiences.
I need a way out of this mess.
The memories of Atreus surface exactly when I need them too, They show the benefit of being Half Human and Half Fairie. I can will magics into existence but I can also use the human system and use there spells as-well..
I walked over to the lifeless body on the floor. I felt the horror but I replaced it with utter contempt. A sneer makes itself on to my face as I approach her body.
Taking a few steps in her direction, I feel the sticky feeling of blood underneath my shoe's. The blood is still seeping out of her mashed head.
I step with caution in order not to slip and fall in the crimson mess, I finally reach The toads body and I reach down towards her pink cloths that are absorbing the thick blood underneath her.
Ruffling with her pink pantsuit, I find something immediately.
Inside her jacket pocket on the inside was a light pink wallet.
Pulling it out, I observe the items inside. A credit card, Some cash at least 400 dollars in cash and some mementoes and random odds and ends inside as well.
I observe the name on the credit card and the name fits for someone like her.
Deloris Umbridge.
My mind flashes to Harry Potter. 'No way these worlds are combined right. It must just be a coincidence.'
I stare at the card for a second. In my old life, I read those books until the covers fell off. Now I'm looking at the name of the most hated teacher in fiction on a piece of plastic covered in real blood. It feels like the universe is playing a prank on me.
Continuing my search I find a Level 4 Hedge witch Star coin.
I can feel 'Deloris's' Magic still inside the coin, She must of been using this to cast a few spells when needed and was Trying to use me as her magicial fix to somehow undo her own condition.
These star coins are like street cred to a Hedge witch showing that you know what you are doing.
The only problem being this star is bathed in Deloris's Magical signature, I will need to soak it in my own energies for it to register to me. It feels oily and wrong, like holding a piece of rotten fruit.
I search her pockets and find typical mundane items like a phone and lipstick.
Its only when I take her jacket off that I find a neckless hidden underneath her shirt. It's in the shape of a circle and seems to be a mirror of somekind.
Atreus feels the familiar memories starting to surface as he looks at the neckless, It is his.
The audacity of this Toad to wear his neckless, This neckless is a Glamour neckless.
It was a gift from his mother back in Fillory, given to him right before everything went wrong and he ended up in this world. He remembers her hands being warm as she clipped it around his neck, telling him to stay hidden and stay safe.
To see it on this woman... it makes the fire in my gut flare up again. She didn't just kidnap me, she stole the only thing I had left of my home.
You find a target and or can even draw one and the neckless will glamour you to look like them.
The original Atreus used this to fit in among the mundane world, His pointed ear's and white eye lashes are bound to get him a few looks.
He looks like he jumped out of a ficitonal novel or even from a very dedicated DND session. he tried to go to a comic-con without his glamor and the people there almost found out his ear's where real.
I take the necklace and snap it around my neck. I can feel the magic in it buzz against my skin, recognizing me. It feels like a piece of me is finally back where it belongs.
After searching her body and putting his Glamor neckless back on he know's its time to get rid of the body.