She heard the shot from a distance off, after she had run away. It shattered the still air with a bang!, and to Ilse, it felt that the universe itself had been shaken. She shuddered, but kept running ( Read more... )

... since we saw the Merlin. Or, alternatively, since Merlin saw anyone.  His two housemates have been more social than himself, lately, and he's feeling the uncanny desire to see people, meet new people.

So here's a wizard, smoking a pipe in the chill autumn air, looking at the yellow leaves in the trees and the humid, dying grass on the ground.

He' ( Read more... )

Khary likes to do things just to mess with people. Sitting down on any furniture in the main room, or at the island in the kitchen, will result in a rather sudden and alarming change. Khardeen may not be entirely sure what he was doing - it was more just tweaking things around, playing some games, he probably intended some simple young children ( ( Read more... )

You would really only notice the new person if you spent quite a lot of time in the woods -- or the gardens. It's true, she is more used to the Underthing, the passages and hallways under the University, but trees are as good a cover as anything. Especially when you don't like the open sky. But if a person happened to be out and about, even in ( Read more... )

Khardeen just likes these things. And he figures this one can't hurt anyone. At any rate, some rooms and furniture are just randomly spelled. Should a denizen of the Mansion sit in one of these spelled chairs, or step into a room, they may find themselves...altered.

Of course, as Khary is a good boy, and wouldn't want anyone to be bored, he left ( Read more... )

It's never a good sign when the morning starts with a slightly concerned, "Oh dear," from Jaenelle's study.

Nor is it a good morning when one is wandering through the Mansion when said "oh dear" takes effect, quite suddenly and randomly, creating rapid and alarming transformations. Jaenelle herself is looking sheepishly unicornish somewhere, ( Read more... )

Overnight, with the holidays coming up quickly, the mansion's been transformed. Mistletoe hangs from doorways and by windows (and occasionally in odd spots in the middle of the room to make it easier to sneak up on people), fragarent pine garlands wrap the banisters, holly wreathes and candles adorn the windows, punch, eggnog and mulled wine in ( Read more... )

There is a sign on the board, its spelling creative, but its handwriting immaculate. With a moment's reading, one can figure out that it says:

Mass
Every Sunday
Until the chapel is completed, services will be held in the ballroom
All are welcomePhilip would have posted something earlier, but it has taken him this long to gather that nearly all ( Read more... )

For all the hardships at the Mansion, what with memory returns, time displacements, the leaving of the plot-hole, the various Bad Things that have happened, and the people who are sick, dying, or deceased, Merlin feels there is a need for joy and merry making.

And so he has conjured, for the occasion, several spells designed to lift up spirits.

There ( Read more... )

Karla has never been a firm believer in avoiding anything. As someone who tends to face problems head on, she thinks that people around here do altogether too much avoiding of them. In order to help with this, a room somewhere near the main one is surrounded with a Tangled Web, intricately and carefully woven and almost entirely invisible.

Anyone ( Read more... )