During the following days, Usagres took over Reines previous job... and she did a good job, Reine had to admit. She just had that aura of serenity and happiness around her that attracted all people.
And her grandfather was happy to see that the urn containing the daily donations to the temple was as full as ever.
Still, neither of them would have known that this was all but a cloak of falsehood and treachery, and that the blonde sorceress was actually here for a very special reason.
One week after she started her job, Usagres proudly presented yet another full urn to the happy high priest.
Hinos smiled. "Excellent! You are really doing a great job, Usagres! Reine wouldn't have done it better."
Reine sadly looked up from her work in the background. What she would give to once again stand in Usagres' place...
The priestess smiled. "You are too kind. But, you know, I would actually be able to increase your daily income... I mean, the donations to the temple."
"REALLY?" Reines grandfather asked with glee. "Um, how?"
Usagres smiled. "To create an amulet that allows me to fulfil your dreams, I need to prepare an old ritual, in the middle of the night... and I have to do it in the temple. Alone!"
High Priest Hinos thought about it. Until now, he didn't really believe in such things as magic and miracles. But... he was willing to change his views if that would mean more wealth.
He grinned. "Absolutely no problem, my dear! I will close the temple early today and inform all of the other priests and acolytes, so you will be not disturbed."
"I'll be glad to be of assistance," Usagres said while bowing towards the old man.
Inwardly, she smirked. 'Old fool!' she thought. 'This decision will be the downfall of your little temple... and it will turn into a temple of my real mistress, the goddess Hera!'
----
In the evening, Usagres asked Reine to get her a big cauldron for her ritual, as well as various ingredients.
While Reine was sad that the blonde priestess had taken over her own job as an oracle, she was pretty curious about the ritual itself.
"Um, may I stay and watch you?" she asked, inwardly hoping that she could learn something from it.
"No!" the other girl snapped. Reine was taken aback, but Usagres quickly smiled at her. "No... I'm sorry, but I will need my full concentration for this, and I hate to say it, you would be a distraction."
The black-haired girl sighed. "I understand..."
When Reine and the other acolytes were gone, Usagres sighed in relief. "Finally she's gone... that girl is far too nosy for my tastes."
Her black cat came walking over to her. "Well, she is a true oracle... she could easily realize what we are planning by accident... and she only needs to touch you."
"Let's not hope it will come to that, Lunaria!" the sorceress muttered. "Let's finish this ritual quickly, I can feel that my mistress is getting impatient."
"Well, that doesn't surprise me," Lunaria said as she sat down on the smooth marble floor. "Remember the last time you tried to finish the ritual?" The black cat shook her head. "In a temple of DYONISOS of all places! No wonder it turned into a disaster."
Usagres grimaced. "It was an accident, okay? I mean, a temple is a temple, right? How was I supposed to know that his temple was useless?"
"You are a priestess of Hera, you should have known that any place you want to turn into a shrine of Hera should at least be a temple of another goddess," Lunaria pointed out.
Usagres angrily shoved her cat's face down to the floor. "Do you have to remind me of my failures all the time?" she grumbled. Lunaria mumbled something unintelligible. Usagres sighed. "Doesn't matter... as soon as I have finished this ritual, this temple will belong to Hera!" She chuckled. "And that amulet will turn me into the most powerful sorceress of all times!"
----
Meanwhile, at a faraway place...
A small hut that was situated in a mountainous region of Greece, well-hidden from anyone who didn't know it was there...
"You still don't get it, do you, Artie?"
The white cat huffed. "I only believe what I'm seeing, Miana! And when I look at a box, all I see is a box."
With a frown, the beautiful witch looked up from her experiments and pulled back her hood, revealing long, blonde hair that was being bound by a red ribbon. "I'm telling you, Artie... one day, humans will see the whole world within this box, moving pictures and sounds. With a smaller box, some wires and something resembling a banana, they will be able to talk with each other, even over big distances."
The white cat chuckled at the idea. "I wouldn't believe that if I saw it with my own eyes..." He then snorted. "BWAHAHAHAHAH!"
Miana glared at him. "Laugh while you can! You'll see that I'm right."
"Yeah, right..." Artie chuckled. "If you think your ideas are so great, why don't you bring them to market?"
Miana shook her head. "You know how the people are... they would all laugh at me. I think I will leave the results of my research for later generations of inventors. I have everything I need: Formulas, layouts, and, most important, my pansy seeds!"
"Very funny!" Artie giggled.
Miana tipped against her head. "Everything else I need is in here."
"Is that so? Well, if you're such a great inventor, why don't you make a big bang?"
"Hmmm... not a bad idea, actually!"
And the blonde sorceress pulled out a wooden hammer, which she smacked down on her pet's little head.
----
Meanwhile, in the Temple of Artemis...
"Everything is ready!" Usagres smirked. "Now the show can begin!"
"Are you sure you have everything?" Lunaria frowned. "I hope you didn't forget about the rhinoceros horn and the dragon's teeth, like last time."
"GAH!" the priestess cried and quickly pulled out some small pouches. "I almost forgot about them."
"It's always the same with you..." her black-furred familiar sighed.
"Quiet, you!" Usagres grumbled as she threw the final ingredients into the cauldron.
----
In her hut, Miana was just finishing her own brew.
She nodded in satisfaction as she looked into her own cauldron. "Only a few seconds, and the seeds of wisdom will be ready."
Artie didn't say anything, because his head was hurting...
----
Usagres smirked as she looked into the colorful plumes of smoke that were rising from her mixture. "Look at that, Lunaria! Very soon, my magic will have turned this temple into a shrine for my mistress Hera! Five... four... three... two..."
----
Miana smiled as she fished the pansy seeds out of her elixir. "Okay, out with you and into the chest... Now it's finished!"
But neither of the two blonde sorceresses knew what the other one was doing at the moment.
And in this very rare occurence, their magics mixed with each other, created a magical stream that connected the cauldron within Miana's hut with Usagres' cauldron within the Temple of Artemis, and discharged itself with a bright flash.
"Oh no!" Usagres shouted. "Too much magic!"
She stared down into her empty cauldron in disbelief. "Oh no... Now I have to start from the beginning."
Lunaria shook her head. "Why am I not surprised something like that happened?"
----
Back in the mountain hut, Miana was staring down at her empty hands, which, seconds ago, had just clutched a small chest that contained the special pansy seeds she created.
"I don't understand this..." she muttered. "Where did it go?"
Artie shook his head. "What... what happened?"
She then took a look at her own crystal ball, which was shining brightly. "Hey! Something like this happened before. That time, when Usagres and I tried to combine our magic at the same time..."
She took a close look into her crystal ball... and gasped. "Usagres! Don't tell me she's trying that ritual for Hera again! And look where she is, Artie... it's the Temple of Artemis!"
By now, the old colleague and fellow student of Usagres was very worried. "I have to go there... the head priest won't know in which danger he's in."
She then looked at her empty cauldron again, and at her hands. "But... where did my seeds vanish to? Where are they? They could have easily gone anywhere... and anytime.."
"Seeds?" Artie grumbled. "What are you, a farmer?"
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(Posted Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:44)
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