#shadowspell

Casta hastily activated a teleportation spell and appeared beside the dark spot at the edge of the shield. The shadows wrapped away to reveal Mystacor’s best and only agent. She hunched over a box and her breaths came in clouded pants. Her face was hidden under someone else’s stolen identity.

“Are you alright?” Casta asked, taking the box from her. It was no larger than the cavity of her chest and a small girl sat upright in it. A garbage back had been wrapped around her like a makeshift pancho. Her teeth chattered together and her eyes stared widely at Casta. The rain slid right off it and caused the cardboard to grow soggy. It was heavier than she expected and she used a small levitation spell to assist her.

“I’m fine.” The agent stretched out her back. Several vertabrae crackled from being hunched over for so long. “I’m not used to transporting more than just myself.“ She shivered, “We should go inside, before any of us catch cold.”

Casta was barely able to teleport all of them to the stairs of the academy. They walked the rest of the way to her chambers, leaving a trail of rain water as they went. Several academy tutors and students, up late finishing term projects, nodded at them and offered help for the old mother and her child. Casta dismissed them with a warm smile and gratitude for their offer. It was then that she noticed that Shadow Weaver had taken a visage similar to the girl in the box - blond hair and bright, blue eyes. It clashed with her robes, soaked through and clinging to her meager body.

They exchanged no words until they arrived in Casta’s quarters. Shadow Weaver let the illusion fall from her face.

“No, wait, don’t do that.” Shadow Weaver said, as Casta set up a drying spell.

“We’ll all die from cold if I don’t!”

A warm blast of heat surrounded the three of them and evaporated every last drop of water.

“See, its so much better now - oh!” She giggled, “Oh stars, your hair!”

Shadow Weaver struggled to smooth the mess of frizz on her scalp. Casta decided to give the agent a break but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. Leaving the agent to her own devices, Casta turned her attention to the small girl. She had since climbed out and was playing with the knobs on one of the dresser drawers.

Casta went to pick up the box, so she could dispose of it, when she discovered another, smaller bundle. A hairless cat baby snored quietly, swaddled in a patchy bath towel. She must have been hidden under the other child’s bag pancho.

“What in Etheria is dark, scary Shadow Weaver doing with you.” Casta cooed.

“Cat-ta, Cat-ta!” The small girl babbled, pointing at the baby.

“I was only going to leave with the girl.” Shadow Weaver sighed, “But she wouldn’t leave without the cat and the cat wouldn’t leave without the box.”

“That’s adorable. Do they have names?”

“The older child is named Adora. I don’t have a name for the cat.”

Casta gasped, “You found this adorable baby and you didn’t bother to name her? You know, I read once that children require a name in order to properly forge their identity. They can’t name themselves, so, as the responsible adult in the room, you are obligated to do it for them.”

The agent massaged the bridge of her nose, “I kidnapped two soldiers from Hordak’s barracks - I didn’t exactly have an open schedule. Especially not with that little beasty yowling for her friend.”

“Shh! She is not a beast! Don’t listen to her... she’s just tired.”

“You’re going to wake her.”

“She slept through your terrifying magic and the thunder outside. I’m not going to wake her up.”

Shadow Weaver shifted her eyes away.

Casta squinted at her, “What did you do...?”

“I charmed the towel. She can’t hear anything as long as its wrapped around her.”

Castaspella didn’t bother to hide her disappointment, “I can’t believe you were allowed to teach students at this academy.”

“Teaching and parenting are very different things.”

Casta gently unraveled the towel from the baby and set them together on the bed.

“Watch her while I go find her a proper blanket.”

From her closet, she sifted through the spare garments on the top shelf until she found something that would work. It was one of the first things she had knitted. It wasn’t a perfect square but the yarn was soft and transitioned gently between different pastel colours of rainbow. 

“It’s a little old but I think - oh.” Casta smiled softly when she saw Shadow Weaver at the windowsill, looking out over the Academy court yard. The cat baby was in one arm. Her other hand steadied Adora’s back as she stood against the glass and wondered at the humongousness of the outside.

“Let me.” Casta said, reaching for the baby.

Shadow Weaver took the blanket from her, “No, I can do it. I’ve been doing this far longer than you have.” She let Adora down gently before attending to the baby.

With a gentleness Casta didn’t expect the agent to posses, Shadow Weaver wrapped the child in the knitted blanket. Through the commotion, the baby opened her mismatching eyes and made several noises at the mages.

“Cat-ta!” Adora tugged at Shadow Weaver’s gown.

“Would you like to hold her?”

The child exclaimed, wordlessly.

“Alright, but be careful with her. She’s only a baby.”

“I know!”

Shadow Weaver knelt and made sure Adora’s small hands were secured around the bundle. The girl smiled down at the kitten, “Hi, Cat-ta.” She whispered.

“You’d make a great mother, under different circumstances.”

“Don’t you ever say that.”

“Why not?”

“Motherly I may be, a mother I am not.”

Casta thought for a moment. After some silence she murmured, “Cat-ta doesn’t have a very pleasant ring to it.”

“She’s trying to say Catra. She wrote it out in her crayon drawings a few weeks ago.”

“I must be imagining this, but is that pride in your voice?”

“Of course. She’s my ward. I put in a lot of hard work to teach her.”

Adora handed Catra to Shadow Weaver and climbed up onto the bed. She lay her head on Casta’s lap and the sorceress pet her hair until she dozed off to sleep. Shadow Weaver sat on the other side of Casta.

“Why’d you take them?” She asked.

“Because they refused to leave each other.” 

“Yes, you said that - so I understand why Catra is here. But why Adora?”

“Because Adora is special. You won’t be able to see it but the Obtainment powers showed me - she has something inside of her that will bring peace to Etheria. She’s not from this world. Lord Hordak found her laying just beyond a portal in space. The idiot put her in the nursery with the other children and she unfortunately developed attachments. When I explained to her that I would have to take her away, she cried for hours.”

“What made her stop?”

“I told her that if she didn’t stop crying, she would use up all the water on Etheria and the whole planet would become a desert.”

“That’s a little... harsh.”

“It worked.”

Casta frowned, “We’ll have to find good homes for them. Money is a little short for everyone so I’m not sure who’s going to take them. But we’ll try.”

“Promise me you’ll take them if nobody else does?”

Shadow Weaver hardly ever begged for anything but when she did, she did so without a care for her dignity. Casta had to look away so she wouldn’t have watch the agent’s face fall.

“I can’t do that. I have so much responsibility as the Supreme Sorceress. I can’t take care of two children, let alone one. And what happens when I have to go out there and I get injured in battle? What happens to them if I die?”

“Don’t say that. Never ever say that.” She put a hand on Casta’s cheek, “You will be here for at least one hundred years. Longer than that, maybe.”

“Dearest... that still doesn’t mean I can take care of them.”

Shadow Weaver took a breath.

“I’ll find them the best home, I promise.”