Then the whole Spellplague thing had happened, Dweomerheart had been sundered - and his dazed body had been slammed into a mountain in a place called the Nine Hells.
Asmodeus, the ruler of that realm, killed him and took his power from him. When the arch-devil was done, he'd been reduced to flecks of ash that had been scattered to the winds.
So here he was, in a multi-story library in a dimensional pocket. Frankly, he'd been a lot better. A lot worse too.
And the job he'd been reconstructed to do wasn't all that onerous. Teach a kid magic. Use the library's defenses to protect the place. Actually a pretty good gig as far as such things went - especially as there were books here on nearly every subject imaginable.
Being stuck in a library for all eternity? No. Not that bad a thing at all.
"WAGH!" yelled a little boy as he tumbled down some stairs.
Of course, it could be that he really had his work cut out for him as well.
"-but I gotta become a ninja to become Hokage!" complained Naruto.
"And what does a ninja do?" asked Azuth.
"Well, ninja are heroes who do stuff like this! Henge!"
Azuth looked it over. A transformation charm. Not bad, fairly low level from the look of it - and that puff of smoke really could be done without. He politely clapped, drawing an embarassed but pleased look from the child.
"Hello?!"
"There someone else here?" asked Naruto.
"Ah, one of the books in the travel library must have opened," said Azuth, ghosting through a table in order to go take a look. There was a loud thump indicating that Naruto had tried to do the same thing and failed. "I suspect that we're talking about the same thing but using different terms. A sorcerer would be a specialist in spells like you just used."
"It's not a 'spell' it's ninjutsu," said Naruto as he hurried along behind the ghostly old man.
"Well, a sorcerer is someone who specializes in flashy ninjutsu then," said Azuth. "Fireballs, lightning blasts, cones of frost, flight spells, all sorts of things like that."
"That sounds cool," admitted Naruto as they entered another room. Sure enough, there was a book on the floor and it was glowing white.
"Why is this book glowing?"
"She won't be able to hear me," said Azuth. "So, if you repeat after me - you can explain the situation to her."
"Who are you?!" asked Naruto of the book.
"There IS someone there?! Ah. I'm Anna. Hello. Uhm. Who are you?"
The maids and butlers, the senseschal and guards, the handymen and the cooks - all had heard that unwritten rule that the help did NOT get friendly with the royals. It simply wasn't proper or done.
A couple had tried, but the current regent had snipped that off and sent them away soon enough. He was the sort to seek to run a tight ship, in fact he'd been a Captain in the Mercantile Fleet and a distant friend of her father. He was very good with numbers and figures, but didn't exactly know how to deal with people in anything other than a gruff manner.
So she spent time not in lessons alone, rather than let anyone see what she could do.
Ah. Here came the daily thumping down the stairs as her dear if somewhat scatterbrained sister came rushing to her door. Probably to sing the same things she always did.
"Do you want to meet a ninja?
Another world close to here!
There's a magic book I found,
I heard it make a weird sound!
There's a little boy over there,
A ninja-wizard type to play!
This magic stuff is hard to say!"
Elsa blinked. "Wait. Magic?"
"I'll be over there if you want to come!"
White light flared under the door, and when Elsa opened it - there was simply a book there glowing with a foxfire radiance.
Carefully she looked closer, trying not to touch the book.
[And so Princess Anna went into the book to the Library where Naruto Uzumaki was learning to become a powerful Sorcerer - so as to advance his ninja career.]
"'Ninja'?" asked Elsa. "What's a 'ninja'?"
More text and pictures appeared, fading into being on blank pages.
[Princess Anna plays 'ninja' with Naruto Uzumaki, looked over by the Library's seneschal Azuth.]
"Magic?" asked Elsa, knowing full well how much magic could screw up one's life.
"Why did you lock the book up?!" asked Anna.
"Orders from the Regent, per advice from your sister Elsa," said the butler, checking the chains holding the book closed.
"But but but..." Elsa tried, pointing at the book.
"She believes that magic is going to hurt you somehow," said the butler. "I don't understand it, but that's the orders."
Anna offered a wordless complaint to that.
Naruto read the pages of the book that had just faded into being, then his shoulders slumped. "She's not coming."
"No, it appears not," agreed Azuth. "Yet they didn't try to destroy the book. So perhaps it can be opened in the future."
Naruto frowned thoughtfully, then slid the book into place on a shelf.
His gaze went to another book as a telltale glimmer appeared.
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(Posted Tue, 27 May 2014 08:30)
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