Marriage In Fillory (Magicians Short Story)

Shit Hit The Fan (Whole Story)

The mood in the room was dismal. The five of us were all sitting at the small, round, wooden table in the kitchen, so silent as if our lips were sealed shut. Eddie, Griffin, Hailey, Emily, and I.  After ten long minutes of keeping my eyes glued to the scratched, old wood, I looked up at my friends, every single one of them looking unkempt and mentally disturbed. Everything had went wrong. Sh*t hit the fan. All we wanted was to save Fillory from The Beast destroying the entire world- but little did we know that his plan was all a ruse. We had no idea that instead of destroying Fillory, he had his intent on using it to become even more powerful than ever.

After a while I got a little antsy- I can't sit still for long. But I sure as heck wasn't going to be the one to speak first- I knew we were all mad at each other, and I was probably the most stubborn one there. Thank God Emily decided to break the silence.

"We can't do this forever. If we sit in silence we're not going to solve anything."
"We obviously can't solve anything anyways." Eddie interjected, looking up at Emily with a cold glare. The tension in the room rose, and I rest my elbows on the table with my chin in my hands, a wicked smile on my face. This was amusing. To try and keep the peace, Hailey's tense composure subsided, and she rubbed her face with her hands.
"Arguing won't get us anywhere either, morons." I turned my head to look at her, since she was sitting to my right. She was my closest friend, and her mood always seemed to affect mine. I sighed and rest my cheek in my hand now, tapping my fingers on the table and looking up at the ceiling.
"Hailey's right... we have to come up with a plan."
"Shut up, Shelby." Eddie shot back, glancing over at me. "You're the reason we're in this mess anyways."
"Really Eddie? Would you care to explain how this is my fault?"
"Yea, I'd love to. Instead of letting Katie get taken away, you could've opened your big mouth and said something that mattered for once."
"What did you want me to say, idiot?!" We were screaming at each other now. "Yea, Beast, I'll marry you! Lemme just go tell my boyfriend that I'm leaving him for a murderous psychopath!" There was a moment of silence after that, just Eddie and I glaring at each other, waiting for the other person to make a move. And suddenly, right after I was debating ripping his head off, he smirked and leaned back into his chair.
"You're not as baleful as you think you are, Quinn." Hearing him call me by my nickname, I relaxed a little. I dropped my shoulders down from their tensed state and leaned back as well, sighing yet again.

"Wait wait wait," Griffin began, "can you all please slow down? This conversation is way too convoluted, and is making my head hurt." He showed unnatural nonchalance, which made me angry. This should have been affecting him the most, and he was acting like he didn't care.

"Are you kidding me?" I spoke up. "Your girlfriend was stolen and is being forced to marry someone who could break her neck with the snap of his fingers. That doesn't freak you out?"

"If I know Katie, I know she'll be fine until we get there to help her." He said calmly, folding his hands and placing them on the table. "Unlike you, I can keep my cool, and not act like a worried child." Unlike Eddie, I knew Griffin was right. I'd rarely ever seen him freak out about anything; it was like he had no emotion. Unlike me, who always felt like she was in a constant state of paranoia.

"Everyone just shut up." Emily ran a hand through her wavy black hair, thinking for a minute. "No one here is infallible- when it comes down to it, we're all at fault. But there's no going back and changing what we've done. Let's just assess the situation, and then calmly," She gave me a glare, "come up with a plan. Okay?" I watched her carefully and nodded slightly, feeling like a child that had just been reprimanded by someone of great authority.

"Okay. So. Here's what we know: Instead of choosing to destroy Fillory, The Beast all along just wanted to steal someone to keep as his wife, so that he can rule over Fillory as king with a queen. Unfortunately, that someone happened to be Katie."

"This wouldn't have happened if Shelby volunteered to take her place." Eddie sang, still teasing me.

"Shut up!" I screamed, and Emily shot Eddie a look that shut him up.
"So..." She continued, "we now have two options. One being that we could not fight back for the sake of Katie's safety, and let The Beast turn Fillory into a massive tyranny..."

"Or we could go back to Fillory and make our best attempt to rescue her, and kill The Beast.. Which.. Unfortunately... did not go too well the first time."
Hailey looked over at me, concerned, and shook her head. "No no no. There's no way I can go back there. The tunnel to get there makes me feel so claustrophobic and is fraught with spiders. I can't do that again." I went to argue with her, but I couldn't deny, I didn't want to do that either. I hated spiders more than anyone in the room.

"Hang on," Griffin interrupted, holding his hand up in a "stop" motion, "is this the kind of wedding where we have to give a dowry? Like, pay him to steal my girlfriend?" Everyone rolled their eyes and ignored him- he wasn't focusing on the bigger issue at hand.

"Even if we were to go back," I chimed in, "it would be nearly impossible to trap The Beast. He'd be difficult to find- he can shift into a motley of different appearances- and we don't even know if it's possible to kill him. We can't just run in without a sure plan like we did before."

"Yea.." Hailey spoke up, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and turning her head to glance at all of us. "We learned the hard way that the way plans go in our heads don't always jibe with the plans that reality has in store."

"Sure, but hey, sometimes we need a little crazy in our heads to give us that reality check. Without it we wouldn't be able to think of a more logical plan." A small smile formed on my face- I could sense the tension in the room beginning to disperse...until Eddie added,
"Oh, please. Stop trying to emulate Harley Quinn with your quotes about craziness." My smile dropped and I gave him the same glare I had before.
"Eddie, I swear on my life, another word and I will defenestrate you."

"I think we should all find a place to keep shelter in Fillory. That way we can map out our battlegrounds and know our playing field- that would be a huge advantage. Also, we should try and make some allies. Not everyone has to like The Beast, right?" Emily looked around the table, hoping to find everyone in agreement with that plan. The long silence in the room confirmed her hopes- unless anyone else could think of something better, that was the plan. After a moment, Griffin spoke up again.
"Sad, I don't want to leave our bourgeois home yet again... but I guess I have to put on my big boy pants and end this tea party." At that he stood up and went to head upstairs, and for some reason, his dry humor caused me to burst into laughter. Maybe it was out of nerves, anxiety, excitement, I don't know- all I knew was that I just could not stop laughing.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I managed to get out in between laughter, "we're going to Fillory."