Chapter XXXI

“Okay... can you do it again?” Carrot asked.

Iris pouted very cutely, but she uncast her spell to reset. Between one blink and another, she went from being dressed like a magical girl to being dressed like... well, a non-magical one.

“Gosh, that’s so fast,” Carrot said. She could see the magic at work, the delicate lines of a spell in action, weaving into and through each other and then fading away into nothing, but it was like... it was like when she looked into a bright light for too long, then blinked her eyes quick and saw the outline of the light burned into her retinas. It was there, sure, but she could only catch a glimpse of it. “Your magical girl outfit is so complex.”

“As I have said multiple times,” Iris replied as she crossed her arms. She was wearing a cute blouse under a loose fall jacket. Iris was so fashionable! Carrot was a teeny-tiny bit envious. Maybe she could ask Iris to come shopping for clothes with her? Only Carrot mostly got her clothes from second-hand stores, and Iris didn’t strike her as the kind of girl that bought from thrift stores. “--My Ulvent armour isn’t a magical girl costume.”

“Yeah, but it’s so poofy and frilly,” Carrot said, not for the first time pointing out the blindly obvious.

“It is not poofy,” Iris replied rather sharply. “It is demure and elegant.”

“And frilly.”

“And... decorated with ornamental trim,” she said.

Carrot giggled. “Can you recast it again?”

Iris took a deep breath then let it out slowly. “Will that actually help anything? I’ve used the armour several times already.”

Carrot hummed. “A bit? I mean, someone smarter than me might have figured it out already. But I’m not. The thing is, when I did the Vow thing, my clothes were replaced by a cool costume too. I think that was part of the Vow.”

“Vows are known to create items from thin air. Or rather, from magic itself. Wizards often learn new spells by reverse-engineering the gifted magic of a Vow. Likewise, there are some texts in my family that suggest that some of the earliest Ulvent magics were engineered by observing the items created by an active Vow.”

“Neat!” Carrot said.

“Yes, very. But your Vow creates a costume for you already. Why do you want to see what mine looks like?”

Carrot grinned. That was a smart question! “So, I’ve been working on a spell... or I guess the idea of a spell, for a long time now. It’s called Abyssal Bloom of Moonlight Manifest. It’s meant to create a dark magical girl costume for me. Something to keep me safe, and keep my identity hidden!”

“I... see,” Iris replied. “My own costume, I mean armour, has some of the same benefits. It’s meant to keep me protected, and it’s just useful not to dirty your normal clothes. It also carries a small but persistent amount of protection from certain magical abilities. They need to penetrate through the armour to hit me, and that is a layer of interference that normal clothes can’t provide.”

“Cool!” Carrot said. “So yeah, I want that, as a spell I can cast over and over again. If I have that, I’ll have just about everything I need to be a proper dark magical girl.”

Iris eyed her, then glanced to the side, back towards her very pretty home. “What is with your obsession with being a dark magical girl? I can understand a light fascination with being a magical girl.”

“Because you watch anime,” Carrot interjected.

“Because of cultural norms,” Iris continued as if Carrot hadn’t just been right. “But dark? Why dark specifically?”

“Ah... well... I watched all of the normal shows, and in them, there’s often a magical girl that’s a little different then the rest. Not as pretty, maybe with not as many friends. And I always felt like that was maybe a bit like me? Besides! A magical girl fights for love and justice, sure, but they also fight for the status quo. I want to be more than that. You can’t make the world a better place if all you want is to keep the world the same. That, and... uh...”

“Yes?”

“Well, the normal magical girls always end up becoming friends with the dark magical girl, and I always wanted to be swept off my feet like that. In a friendly way, I mean.”

“Uh-huh,” Iris said. She was giving Carrot a weird look. “You’re strange.”

“Thanks!” Carrot replied. She was about to go on when she was interrupted by music coming from off to one side. Both she and Iris paused to look at her purse, which was sitting on the ground next to the backdoor. “One sec!” 

Carrot moved over and pulled out her old flipphone. The contact info was familiar. She flicked the phone open and pressed it to her ear. “Ahoy-hoy! Carrot here!”

There was a slight pause before someone replied on the other side. “Hello, Carrot,” Silas said. “Are you busy?”

Carrot looked around, then shrugged. “Not too busy, no? I’m hanging out with a friend!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Iris muttered, but Carrot had years of practice ignoring that kind of comment.

“What’s up?” Carrot asked instead.

“I think I found something. I was canvassing the city for any signs of unusual... sounds, when I heard something interesting. From one of the businesses on one of the main roads, of all places.”

Carrot blinked, then something clicked in her head. Talking about magic with normal people was kind of forbidden, and just about anyone could be listening in on their call, so using some sort of code was a good way to keep the conversation safe. 

“What kind of music did you hear?” she asked.

“Something rather grungy,” he said. “I haven’t had the chance to investigate it fully, but I did do a walk-around. It’s loud. I was wondering if you had time to come over? This could be one of the lieutenants. Or the Master themselves. I don’t know if we can handle that, uh, kind of music, but it’s worth investigating.”

“Yeah, okay, what’s the address? Give me a sec, I need to grab a notepad.” She rummaged through her purse for something to write on and a pen, and eventually found both. Then she took note of what Silas said. “Okay! I’ll see you around there in a bit?”

“Sure. I’ll be waiting. I’ll see if I can’t find out more in the meantime,” Silas said before hanging up. 

Carrot clicked her flip phone closed with a decisive snap then looked up to Iris. “Ah, so, Mister Silas found more magic. Maybe one of the lieutenants, maybe the Master?”

“I see,” Iris said, then she pointed at Carrot’s phone. “What is that?”

“It’s... a cellphone?”

“My father had one of those when I was a child,” she said, and it sounded very much like an accusation. “I had a smartphone before middleschool. How did you end up with a flip phone?”

“It was cheaper?” Carrot tried. “It has games! Tetris!”

“No,” Iris said before she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Wait... you texted me once. That doesn’t have a screen for that.”

“Oh, it’s easy, you press the numbers a few times for each letter. See it’s written here.”

“You texted with good grammar,” Iris said. “How long did that take?”

“I mean, a while, but it’s okay. You should make an effort to communicate well with friends, yeah? Good grammar is only polite,” Carrot said. She tossed her phone into her purse. It was a tough one, which helped. “Anyway! Want to come with? There might be a huge fight, and I’d rather have more friends with me than fewer.”

“Where is it?” Iris asked before snatching the page Carrot had written on. “Urgh, this is far. We’ll take a taxi.”

“Those are expensive,” Carrot said.

“It’s not that bad,” Iris said. “I’ll pay for it. But give me five to get changed.”

“Are you coming dressed as a magical girl?” Carrot asked.

“What? No. and my armour isn’t a magical girl outfit. We’ve covered this at length.”

“Right, sorry,” Carrot said, but she secretly wasn’t very sorry at all. She scooped up her bag and followed Iris back into her home, then waited around while Iris got changed. It wasn’t too long before the girl returned, dressed more appropriately for adventuring, with jeans and a nice leather jacket. “Ready?”

“Mhm,” Iris said as she looked up from her phone. “I ordered a car already. It should be here in five minutes or so.” She shifted to the side, and Carrot’s eyes were drawn to a satchel hanging by her side. Not a purse. It was old, well-worn leather, and didn’t fit the rest of her outfit very well.

“What’s that?”

“Tools,” Iris said. “If we’re going to get into trouble, then I want to tools to get out of it as well. An Ulvent is only as dangerous as they are prepared.”

“I think they say that about wizards too,” Carrot said.

“Hmph, wizards wish they were able to be half as paranoid,” Iris replied before slipping towards the front door. “Come on.”

“Okay!”

***