Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Vampire Affairs (The Bagsy Chronicles 4)

An Analogy

Professor Starrett sat at her desk at the other end of the classroom, flicking through scrolls of homework. She tapped a long red wand with a white tip to certain parts and muttered incantations.

Bagsy's feet echoed in the room, her eyes checking the rows of benches towering high above her in case Starrett had hidden some nasty magical traps.

Starrett pushed her chair back and stood, the click clack of her heels joining the air in their own echoes as she walked around her desk, placing the scrolls neatly in a drawer. She flicked her wand and a table appeared in the centre of the room, a purple cover hiding what was on it.

She arrived next to the table and waited with a cold expression for Bagsy to join her. 'Previously I told you I would be teaching you Artifisiary, and that your goal was to stop me,' Starrett began, gently taking some of the purple material into her hand. 'Clearly, my methods were not effective. We're going to start from the beginning. You'll need to listen closely, and you'll need to work hard. Do you understand?'

'Y-yes.'

'Say it with conviction, Miss Beetlehorn.'

Bagsy took a second, hoping her stutter would leave. 'Yes,' she managed.

Starrett frowned. 'I said with conviction. That does not mean lacking a stammer, Miss Beetlehorn. It means, quite simply, with conviction, stutter or not.'

Taking an even longer second, Bagsy thought about that. Her nerves were making her tremble, a stammer was becoming unavoidable.

'Do you work hard?' Starrett asked.

'Yes,' Bagsy confirmed.

'There we are. That was conviction. Now try again. You'll need to listen closely, and you'll need to work hard. Can you do that?'

'Y-yes,' Bagsy answered firmly, nodding her head.

'Good.' Starrett pulled the cover off the table.

Sitting innocently on it was a wooden contraption with moving parts that circled in satisfying rotations, while pullies and levers aided their movement. It let out little sparks from metal tips attached to different joint and a faint blue glow surrounded it like a bubble.

Also on the table was a glass of water with an hole on its rim, a chalice of a tar-like liquid, a few pieces of thin rope and a hammer.

'Artifisiary is a notoriously undefined subject. I'm going to show you one element. Watch closely.' Starrett pointed one skeletal finger at the moving mechanism. 'This device has protective charms cast upon it.' To prove her point, Starrett pressed her fingertip to the wood, only to find the blue light on that side strengthening and pushing her back. 'An enchantment protects this device. If I want to stop its movement, I'll need to be clever and make use of what I have.'

'What do you have?' Bagsy couldn't help asking, interested.

'A good question, and one I hope you'll learn to ask yourself as often as possible.' She moved her hand to rest on the glass of water. 'We have water, we have thickening sludge, some twine and a mundane hammer. My objective is to stop or destroy this device so that it no longer gives off sparks.' Starrett took the hammer in her hand and held it above the device. 'I could destroy it using the hammer, but,' as Starrett weakly tapped the hammer onto the device, the blue protective light flared in response, rebounding the weapon. 'Evidently, that won't work. Now, I could–'

'Wait!' Bagsy cried out, her eyes widening as an idea struck her. 'The protective enchantment,' she said, pressing her own finger to the wooden device. 'When something attempts to interact with the device, the blue light moves to the location the interaction is being made. But!' Bagsy was on the balls of her feet now as she leaned forward to peer closely at the thing. 'When it does that, the blue light on the opposite side grows visibly weaker. I'd guess that, with enough pressure on one side, the other will become venerable.'