A reflective deerman, Pietro Aifread

Pietro was in his garden, weeding it and tending to the various flowers. It had been a while since he had a chance to do this, to relax and indulge in one of his favorite past times of gardening. While the task was unseemly for a Duke, Pietro didn’t mind getting his hands and clothes dirty once in a while. “What a beautiful day!” he said, while his secretary, a small fairy named Theresea, snoozed peacefully on his antlers as if they were the branches of a tree. 

Then, he caught the scent of a stranger in his garden, and stopped before looking around and speaking.

Pietro blinked at the large sack left on the floor of his office. Especially since one moment, he’d just been doing his Dukely duties of looking over upcoming visits from visiting dignitaries, using his scrying abilities to view his domain of Deerbank, the rest of Fanterra out of Bordeom out of sheer habit before looking at other worlds.

The next thing he knew, a blonde madwoman in prismatic armor kicked open his office door, dropped a large sack in the middle of the floor, and then snapped her fingers to summon a flying sword which she then stood on, and after going through the closed window without even breaking the glass, started cackling like mad as a rainbow followed after her. In fact, it seemed almost like a dream in all honesty.

And that, was when he gave a groan in realization. Especially as his pointed ears twitched and he heard something or someone breathing.

“Oh gods, Rochelia, the Bride of Death, Guardian of Gates, and Knight of Dreams just dropped someone off in my office, and I’m most likely going to get blamed for it when they wake up.” the deer man of a duke then said as he covered his face with his hands, “Though, did she have to just use the sleep sand, or go for a sucker punch... I’m not exactly willing to open up the bag and check for a black eye...”

Um, yes, h-hello there. S-sorry I haven’t been active lately, but there have been some... things going on lately in and out of Fanterra. In Fanerra, would be well, my little Sister’s Wedding. Finally. So, I no longer have to worry about that anymore. Unfortunately.. I now have to worry about getting Deerbank a duchess which may mean... shipping... *sighs.* Worst Case Scenario, I may have to defend my world against the likes of one ‘Rose Potter” and other “Mary Sues” that use magic. Personally, I’m glad I’m no longer effected by magic, because honestly... there are some things I’ve seen thing thanks to my mun that are downright terrifying!

No, for things outside of Fanterra and well, out of character regarding the mun, she’s been dealing with a dead laptop, and using a spare one lying around to work on a fanfic involving the world of Fanterra, myself and a fandom known as Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

The fanfic can be found here. 

Also, because of said story, my mun has asked me to let everyone know that Fanterra is now open to the Jojo Fandom for interaction. 

[ @deerinthemirror ]

It was with a groan that the giant came to. Something had roused him. What exactly something was, he would have to find out. His lashes fluttered open, revealing sea green eyes which looked around. This was not the cave he had fallen asleep in. It was in the woods, out in the open. And the birds… He had never heard this sort of birdsong before.

As he began to push himself up, he noticed his limbs were sore. What had happened to get him here? Why was he here? Where was he? He was lost and confused. As he sat, mulling over his situation, he was suddenly taken from his thoughts as an animal’s tongue brushed over one of his fingers. His surprise was expressed in a gasp, though he said and did nothing. His heart hammered in his chest as he for a moment mistook the odd wolf for a dog, but after determining it didn’t seem vicious nor like it was leading a human his way, he sighed in relief, and tried to pet the animal’s brown back with one of his fingers. the fur on its legs was blue, a color he’d never seen on a wolf before. Maybe it had somehow stumbled upon spilt dye, he wondered?

This land may have been strange, but surely he would find his way somehow. He always did. Maybe he had simply remembered wrong the events of the previous night, and this wasn’t a strange land at all.

Pietro himself had been walking after a few minutes of running across the continent with his pet Alphyn, Alphonse to the Stonehill Barony in order to try and get himself a few bottles of Phoenix Blossom Wine for his sister’s upcoming wedding. While he couldn’t handle any form of alcohol himself and so couldn’t drink it, he still didn’t want that stopping his sister and her future husband from being able to enjoy it themselves.

Especially since the wine in question had some health benefits due to the healing qualities of the flower it was made from.

“A valid point well made, sir.” He said in solid agreement. “Fundamentally speaking, it’s all in nature of people to use these phenomena for either good or evil. Likewise, it’s a question humanity has repeatedly asked itself since the beginning of time. For thousands of years, philosophers have debated, whether we have a basically good nature that is corrupted by society, or a basically bad nature that is kept in check by society. It’s tightly bound into the nature of our developing minds is the ability to make sense of the world in terms of motivations, and a basic instinct to prefer friendly intentions over malicious ones. It is on this foundation that human morality is built.”

Moriarty was amused by the Duke’s mind and how it actually worked, and just waved his hand at this. But, when Pietro offered a journey for Professor Worth to come along with him back to Fanterra, James couldn’t help, but hesitate for the moment. He was able to travel via the magic portals before, yes, and even managed not to lose a leg or a hand somewhere along the way, and since he himself was brought forth by magic, it was an actual miracle. But, that wasn’t the only matter on his list of the concerns. It would be stepping into yet another unknown field beside this world during a short notice. Yes, it would be interesting to see these differences with his own eyes, as long he had a ticket for a journey from one place to another and back again. “I feel deeply honoured by your offer, sir, but I must decline. I must remain here. As it appears, the governors would like to offer me a chair in the Oxford mathematics, but, please rest assured, I’ll do whatever is in my power to take you up on that offer one day.” Moriarty broke in genially.

Moriarty’s gaze was staring at fleeting images of Pietro’s world. It was an idyllic homestead, like something out of a fairy tale. “A chilling vision,” he said. “But one that shall not come to pass in this world, for the age of magic in this world is long gone.”

James then stepped away from the mirror which still showed the Duke’s own memories from his hometown. He straightened his stance, as if on parade inspection, and brought back his attention toward the man standing in front of him. “I do believe that acts of white magic have its purposes to bring about some benefits to oneself, but I also do believe that this magic needs to have some limitations. There’s no reason physical limitations on magic shouldn’t exist.”

“You’ll have to forgive me, sir, but I must ask you.” He blurted out unconvincingly. “Maybe, you were capable of breaking the curses with your touch of magic, but still, why are you so keen on defending magic? After all these bad things that happened to you, your family, and your town, shouldn’t be this magic eliminated as less suitable?”

Moriarty couldn’t leave a room for doubt just yet. He has seen plethora of this magic and what it could do in the hands of maniacs. Not that he minded all the chaos around it as long as he wasn’t stabbed again, he just didn’t fancy things for which, he had a shallow understanding of in this unknown field. Things like that made him easily agitated.

Pietro said nothing at first, having instead conjured up a mirror and focused as he showed James images of his world- which seemed pretty medieval compared to the one James called home. Of course, as he also showed James a male faerie with pink hair and red clothes talking about various plants and even showing a few minor tricks to get an unseen child to laugh, it became clear that Pietro was showing his own memories. From the pink haired fae inspiring Pietro to start his own garden, to a young girl with pale blond hair, blue eyes and pointed ears and a deer tail like Pietro simply healing a younger Pietro’s arm with her golden hands, the duke then decided to speak.

Moriarty had a limited understanding on this Magic, or as he preferred to think about it as undisclosed science. Being helpless like he was in this case made him too antsy, as though he were on the leash and Prospero was his handler again. No matter how far magic extended itself in this world, he would never feel as free as a bird. It was obvious that Prospero’s electrifying bolts has marked this fictional forever.

Professor sifted through the other man’s words before finally speaking up. “Well, in this world, people are fit to govern themselves, to rule themselves through government, where citizens rule through elected representatives.” he said, “However, I think, you’ve made the right choice, sir. It’s not wise to mess with magic and with what you don’t understand.”

“Nor is it wise to study magic traditionally when your family and home has had a horrible history with it.” Pietro said, “Two curses in forty years, the second one being a stone curse that petrified everyone in the town for 185 years. If I hadn’t been able to reflect magic and break curses with a touch thanks to my imprisonment’s side effects, I’d still be struggling to break it even now.”

In what Pietro so clearly failed at was seeing the most meagre of clues that were the most associated with the genial professor. Moriarty — the greatest criminal mastermind of all time, rather ascetic, intelligent man, once gone astray, even mad, because of his desire. But, that was the story for another time. He never felt the need to pull any of his explanations, theories, or deductions out of anywhere. He simply likes to use his genial brain, because he’s really pretty smart and likes to set the standards far too high.

“Maybe magic was once a mighty force in this world, but not anymore. Even if this magic likes to rebel and dictate our lives sometimes, there’s always the way to put a stop to it; with the Librarians protecting an unknowing world from the secret, magical reality hidden all around this world.” He explained again, getting a bit annoyed. He looked deeper into the Duke’s eyes, hoping for the sight of a clear understanding of what he’s been trying to explain about the real state of magic in this world.

Moriarty actually smiled and nodded in agreement. “This world is a marvellous place. Civilization has advanced beyond what any of us could have comprehended in the bygone days. Technology, science, medicine, travel, music, government. Not everything’s perfect, of course, but neither was anything else.”

Pietro frowned as he thought about what Moriarty said about magic, how it was hidden away, and how it could be stopped honestly scared him. In his world, magic was accepted as neither good nor evil, and just those that used it for evil frowned upon.

“Well, despite the side effects of my imprisonment, I don’t really consider myself a magician so... the mechanics behind magic are most likely to go over my head.” Pietro said apologetically. “I guess your world having someone or some group keep magic a secret, while it’s widely accepted as is within my own is just another difference between them.”

“This Magic is like a ten dimensional webwork of space-time at an incredibly small scale, underlying the phenomenon described statistically by quantum mechanics, relatively, particle physics, etc.” Professor held the Duke’s gaze steadily as he tried to explain his beliefs to still extremely confused man in front of him.

Moriarty waved his hand dismissively, making it pretty clear that he did not care to hear Pietro’s chapters of his story. “Well then, this world is not much different from yours, but with some obvious exceptions still. Once upon a time, the magic was indeed all over this world, however the magic got drained off and stored into artifacts as Civilization has advanced beyond, cities were constructed over the Ley Lines and technology began to advance and change ethics… However, not a long ago, magic has returned to this world, and I’ve seen and felt it on a few occasions already, and not always in pleasant manner.”

All Pietro could do was blink as the professor’s explanation about how he believed magic worked simply went over his head. While he was also temped to ask if James pulled that explanation out of his ass to sound smart, he decided not to in case it made him look like an idiot, or worse, offend the man.

“Magic being finite?” Pietro then said more to himself after he heard the man’s explanation of magic in the world, “But, since magic is a form of energy- it can’t be just... sealed away like that where I’m from... I mean, it’s like how the Blue Faerie managed things from what Salvador told me- she limited magic to he point the fae believed that the only way to gain power was to take it or become one of the Godmothers, but in the end, magic found a way to prove her wrong and break away from her control, Puck gaining power without taking it or her blessing is what sparked the rebellion after all, and Salvador was already an... oh my I’m rambling again. Sorry about that.”

He caught this certain look on Pietro’s features, and yet he had totally ignored it. Why give it any credit when he knew how much better it would be if he waited, until the younger male would calm himself down.

“Well then, you’ve got quite a colorful backstory, sir. And I daresay that your story sounds very familiar to the story of Snow White.” Moriarty chuckled in a theatrical manner, but then quickly returned to his look of seriousness when he saw the Duke summoning a small mirror, and immediately marvelled at the wave of such power. “How interesting. I presume that I’ve just seen one of the side effects of your release, hm? But between us, I still think this magic is just a fancy word for some unknown field effect randomizing the quantum properties of matter.”

Moriarty listened in silence, his arms folding over his chest as he was going to try and judge to see if Pietro was really that incapable of lying as he claimed. Luckily for the Duke, he showed no signs of lying as yet.

“Each of the ability has its pros and cons, and it depends on each of us how to expend with it for either good or ill. You’ve a trace of annoyance in your voice that you try to hide rather unsuccessfully. The fact that you’ve used the term; “figurative double edged sword“ suggests that you’ve both sides of it. A gift and a curse — they’re one in the same, two sides of the same coin.” He couldn’t help, but enjoy baffling the other man with his superior deductions.

“You’ve mentioned early that you’ve been trapped in a magic mirror for like two centuries, eh? I’d venture to say you were cursed by some very evil and powerful sorcerer. May I suggest an ancient organization with the team of people, which is focusing on these problems? They’re called The Librarians. They could help you, sir.” Was he actually helping another person of this world? When did that happen? Perhaps helping the Duchess and Mr. Carsen to succeed in stopping Prospero turned him into a big softie in the process.

Professor accepted the profound apologies the Duke of Deerbank offered, and as a proof, he instantly gave the other man his usual charming smile. As expected, Pietro wanted to hear what Moriarty knew about this world, which in some certain ways was still utterly a new to him. “Well,” he said with a sigh. “I was dragged out of mine world to this reality from the nineteenth century. But, I’m getting used to.”

As Pietro listened to James’s deductions, he crossed his arms, frowned and gave a look towards the man that silently said that he was pretty sure he’d said all that already.

“My inability to lie was due to my mother finding out the hard way that my father was turned into a stag, and so asked a fairy king that led a colony near my home of Deerbank to bless me into being an honest man.” Pietro said bluntly, “As for the mirror, that was due to a vile witch queen named Hildegarde asking me if her gown made her look fat. It did. So, I was punished by being made her magic mirror to scry the world for information, pacify her ego and worst of all, be her wardrobe consultant. That... That woman had nothing tasteful as every outfit she owned were outlandish, had colors and patterns clashing together and... well, fifteen years of that would be hell for anyone.”

Pietro then smiled as he thought about what else James said before describing what he knew of the world, before actually laughing.

“You are right that I was cursed, but I wouldn’t be here now if I still was stuck in the mirror. A traveler appeared in the tower I was left in- blame Hildegarde’s security measure she snuck into my prison’s frame that would just absorb whatever touched it- but they were thrown at the mirror itself, smashed it, and freed me. No book keepers were involved though, so... I really don’t see how they can help me. After all, I can go back home whenever I like thanks to one of the... side effects of my release.”