1: Flute Through The Looking Glass

Whether it was from sheer boredom, or, as he later thought, from the spell that kept his head from rotting's failure, Bass had decided to give the infamous spell book another try. You might be wondering why the spell book had not been destroyed by Vocal's escape (But then again, knowing my luck, probably not). This could be semi-accurately contributed to Vocal's skill as an escape artist, but more accurately he had deliberately left the book undamaged so as to piss off Bass.

At first it seemed as incompetent and useless as ever. Ineffectual spells coupled with garbled language that tried to pass itself off as Old English made Bass wish he had left it behind the desk gathering dust. That is until he actually came across a useful- sounding spell.

"No strange arcane ingredients," he though wonderingly as he triple-checked the spell, "the only strange language is in the incantation itself, and I actually know what this one is supposed to do. And, best of all, its not a summon spell for some obscure beast! The author must have let himself slip!"

Bass considered letting out a cackle, but he was trying to cut back. All he needed was a mirror and something of Flute's and he would have one less annoying person to deal with...

Flute was bathing in the hot springs. It had taken many threats and other tactics (many of which involved blunt objects being applied to his head with varying degrees of force) to get Hamel to take her there, but she had finally ended up in the famous resort town of Consonance. She really needed the break after following Hamel willy-nilly across the length and breadth of the continent in an effort to retrieve his hat. As she was relaxing in the hot spring, which was deserted at this early hour, and she could hear Hamel's voice faintly coming from outside of the indoor pools. He was trying to haggle with the clerk.

"She's royalty!" she heard him say, "She should get a discount!"

"If she's royalty," the clerk replied in a sleepy tone, "Then she doesn't need a discount."

Flute decided to tune out the argument, figuring that she had at least another hour before he started threatening to use physical violence. Or violin-ce, for that matter.

Sometimes she wondered why she tolerated him. Sometimes she wondered if there really was a decent man hidden underneath his bravado, or if she had just imagined it. She sank deeper into the water, just as she sank deeper into her thoughts.

She didn't even notice the small light blue form that flew in through one of the windows that let out the steam. Ocarina, not bothering to turn into human form, quickly snatched up one of Flute's hair wraps, and flew out back out of the window.

"What is it?" Bass said, only a small hint of his curiosity showing in his voice. He had to keep up an image, you know.

"A hair wrap." Ocarina replied, a slight edge to her voice. She had just gotten back to Hameln, and all she wanted to do was find a place to dry off. The steam from the hot springs had left her soaking wet and, now that she was back home, very cold.

"Oh." Bass said, still not quite sure what it was, but unwilling to admit that, "Are you sure it belongs to Flute?"

Ocarina sneezed, "Sure, unless there is some other girl with a large cross-shaped birthmark on her back!" she snapped.

Bass was in too good a mood to bother punishing her for the slight show of disrespect, and waved a hand idly at her in dismissal.

"This time," he murmured to himself, "Nothing shall stop me." Then he threw back his heads in his patented Villain Style Laugh. Vocal, who had been leaning in the doorway, shook his head and muttered "And if that's not stock dialogue, then I don't know what IS."

Flute was in a bad mood. First her bath had been cut short by about thirty minutes due to Hamel torturing the poor clerk with a marionette version of something or other (she had to come out there and bean him with a cross to get him to stop). Then she had lost one of her hair wraps, so she had no choice but to leave her hair loose. She just knew that the wind was going to wreck havoc on her tresses. Hamel was unapologetic for the first and unsympathetic for the second.

"You lost your WHAT?" he asked as they walked back to the inn.

"Hair wrap." she muttered.

"What the hell is a 'hair wrap'?" he queried.

She paused for a moment and lifted a bunch of her hair in one hand and mimed wrapping it up in its normal style in the other, "You know, the things I put my hair in."

Hamel made a little noise of understanding and she resumed walking.

They soon reached the inn. Flute intended to go back to sleep for a few hours and then restart the day fresh, when Hamel said something unexpected. So instead she spent a few hours in her room deep in thought, then fell into an uneasy sleep.

"You know," he had said right as she was stepping into her room, "you look much prettier with your hair down."

Before she had time to reply, he had entered his own room and shut the door. Flute, of course, then had to rethink her opinion of him for the forty-seventh time since she had met him. Hamel, once he was laying down, wondered what had prompted his comment. But he didn't worry about it and slept soundly until well into the afternoon.

Although early afternoon wasn't the ideal time for dark rituals, Bass was too eager to try out the new spell to wait. It was a very easy spell to work, requiring only a simply drawn diagram on the floor, a small mirror, and the aforementioned hair wrap. The drawing on the ground was a rudimentary 'x' shape with the points aligning with the North-South-East-West of a compass. Bass completed it easily, laying the mirror directly in the center with the hair wrap laying on it. The personal item only needed to be touching a part of the cross, but the Hell King wanted to make absolutely sure that it worked. After all, he had never seen a spell that promised to banish the victim permanently to another dimension without any chance of return before, and he wanted to be absolutely sure that it worked. If it did, he knew several more people that he would be happy to introduce it to.

The second, and most complicated, part of the spell was the spoken part. The incantation was written in an ornate hand, so it was difficult to make out. Once he was reasonably confident that he had it right Bass chanted:

"Zah rorrim eht

Zegaf owt

Ton yam noy

No Z'tahw ekil

Ediz rehto eht"

The x flared, the mirror flashed brightly and shattered, and Flute disappeared from her bed. The spell worked perfectly... except for one thing.

Bass had carelessly placed his staff on the x while he was chanting, and it was the very personal item that the spell needed in order to work its magic on Bass too. He vanished so suddenly he didn't even have time to realize his mistake.

To Be Continued...

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NOTES: Consonance- stability, simplicity, repose And yes, I did make the town up (I think the name hasn't been used...) As for the chant... it's a plot point. I'm not telling... yet. It should be easy to figure out any way.