Trueheart 1: The Law of Three Times Three

[LilJennie]

This is an idea I had, and Miki went along with it and added her ideas. I'm not sure how well this is going to work out, but it's only the first story in what could turn into a series of them. We'll see how it goes. -- LilJennie

Tales of the Trueheart School
Book 1: The Law of Three Times Three
by LilJennie and Miki Yamuri

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When I woke up, I was still so tired. The floor of my room was still as hard as stone. Of course, that was because it was stone. I got to my hands and knees and saw the magical symbols that I had drawn on my floor. Of course, at the Lillian Trueheart Boarding School for Young Spellcasters, it was hardly unusual for students to perform magical rituals in their rooms. We did them every night, as homework. But had it worked?

“Oh, my, are you all right, Little One?” asked a kind female-sounding voice, with a concerned tone. I flipped over onto my padded bottom to look up and saw a tall, dark-haired woman with olive skin, pointed ears, a lot of jewelry, and flowing green and blue garments, looking down at me worriedly. “The ritual to summon me must have taken an awful lot of power for such a tiny Gnome.”

“You’re right – I’m really super wiped out right now,” I said. “Are you a …”

“Nana Spirit?” she replied. “Yes. Your spell worked perfectly. And I will take care of you for as long as you need me to. Now, you are a Gnome, so that means that it is likely that you will need care to some extent until the age of some 50 years, as mortals reckon them. But this is not a burden for me, as I am unaging.”

“Yeah, we Gnomes take a while to grow up,” I said. “We’re not considered adults until we’re about 200, you know. But I’m only 25.”

“25!” She sounded surprised. Everyone who I told my age always seemed surprised. “And already acting and dressing so grown up! You must be a little prodigy, Sweetheart!”

“I mean … my parents say I am,” I said. “That’s why they sent me to this school. Normally parents wait at least until their kids are potty trained before sending them to real school. Most Gnome kids my age are still in daycare, if they’re not at home in their playpens.”

“I could tell that you were still in diapers,” she said, “beneath your very mature clothing, for your age. That you are not yet out of them is unsurprising, and of course I can care for you. But … the ritual to summon a Nana Spirit such as myself is very advanced, and yet I can tell you performed it flawlessly.”

“Uh, thank you,” I said, blushing. “It’s just … kind of easy, for me. Magic is, I mean. I guess that’s why my parents sent me here early.”

“But … why would you need to summon a Nana Spirit, Little One?” she asked. “Unless … oh no, doesn’t this school have proper facilities for one so young as you?” She looked around my room. “Where is your crib, your high chair, your changing table, your playpen? Oh, no … and you’re dressed like a grown-up Gnome, too … they’re making you act so much older than you really are …”

“It’s not the school’s fault,” I said. “Well, I guess sort of it is. But … I just don’t fit in! Nobody else here is so little they still need diapers! But my body won’t be ready for potty training for another 10 years at least! I’m so much tinier than the other kids! Well, except for one ones that are Fairies or Pixies. They’re pretty tiny. But not even they are still in diapers!”

“Are you being bullied by your fellow students?” she asked me sternly, her hands upon her hips. “Are there some small children who need to be taught a lesson?”

“No, no!” I said. “Well … maybe. But mostly I summoned you because … I need help! Everybody thinks I can take care of myself! And, well, most of the time, with the amount of magic I can do, that’s true! But … I can’t always!”

“You’re being made to grow up too fast,” she said. “And that’s just not right, by Persephone! We just can’t have that. Please, don’t worry anymore, Sweetheart. I’ll make it all better. What’s your name, Honey?”

“I’m Nimmitie,” I said. “Nimmitie Glittertip. Of the Green Forest Glittertips.”

“What an adorable name,” she said, “for an adorable baby girl. You may call me Elnora, Nimmitie. Or just Nana is fine. But let’s do something about this room, shall we?”

The school had at least made allowances for the fact that I was so much smaller than most of my non-Fairy classmates by giving me my own room, though it was a corner garret – small, but not for me. Elnora didn’t seem to be confined by the small space either, but then, as a magical spirit, she sort of took up space and sort of didn’t at the same time. There was at least a comfortable bed, and a desk, chairs, and bookshelves for my schoolwork. But now Elnora swept one of her arms through the air in a magical gesture – she had a veil attached to one of her fingers – and amid a shower of sparkles my room became far more juvenile looking. There was a soft pink carpet, the walls were white, pink lace curtains adorned the windows, my bed turned into a bejeweled white crib full of plush toy creatures, and there was now a rocking chair, a playpen, and a changing table. Even my desk and bookshelves turned into cute pastel pink and white versions of their former selves, although the books were the same.

“Wow,” I said, “that’s actual transmutation and conjuring, not just illusion!” I could tell.

“Only the best for my Little One,” said Elnora. “Now, we’ll make sure that you’re only wearing clothes that are appropriate for your age –”

“Wait!” I said. “Um, I … uh …”

“What’s wrong?”

“I … um …”

Elnora opened my wardrobe, which was now a jewel-trimmed white, matching my crib and changing table. Most of my clothes actually were very babyish. Only a few outfits looked more grown-up, including what I had on at the moment.

“Oh my, I won’t have to do much at all,” she said. “But … why are you wearing that? I presume these are your dress-up clothes for special occasions. Did you dress up just to meet me?”

“N-no, that’s not it,” I said. I could easily have said yes, but that wouldn’t have been true. “I just … I always try to dress so I look big. I get made fun of enough for being so small.”

“What?” asked Elnora. “You’re tiny and adorable! If anybody doesn’t like it, it’s probable that they’re just jealous. Or … is it that they don’t know you wear diapers?”

“It’s … both. I don’t want people to think I’m a baby. I get so little respect anyway. If they knew I really was a baby, I wouldn’t get any at all. I already get pushed around enough.”

“Why not just use your magic to protect yourself?”

“We’re not allowed to cast spells at each other,” I explained. “It’s in the student handbook there. The rules say we can get punished for that. And they’ve got magic spells to detect it, too.”

“So at least you’re not getting bullied magically – it must be just mundane teasing, not that that can’t be absolutely terrible,” Elnora said, picking up the student handbook from my bookshelves and flipping through it. “Well, I’ve got an idea that I can run past a magical lawyer friend of mine. I’ll let you know. But for now, do you have anywhere to go for this evening? Is your homework done?”

“Well … you kind of were my homework, sort of,” I said. “We were supposed to perform a summoning and bring the summoned creature or being to class tomorrow. Uh … we’re only in the chapter about summoning minor elementals.”

“Ha! So the others will come in with tiny puffs of cloud, self-rolling stones, or floating lights, and you’ll have, well, me!” Elnora laughed musically. “You are exceptional! But that means your homework is done. Perhaps it is time for bed, Nimmitie. But first, one more question. Have you told your parents about the bullying you’ve been suffering?”

“Well, yes,” I said. “I write them a letter every night. In fact, I already sent them tonight’s letter via magical post. But when they write back, they don’t seem to take it seriously. I … don’t think they truly understand what’s going on. They want me to be happy, but … nobody anywhere has ever heard of a Gnome this young going to this school.”

“I see,” Elnora said, picking me up. “Well, let’s get your diaper changed, Sweetheart, and then let’s get you into your pajamas, and I’ll tell you a bedtime story. Perhaps I should see for myself what’s going on, and then I can help you get your parents to realize the whole truth.”

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I had sat and mostly daydreamed in my first class of the day. I wasn’t really interested so much in glamours; to me they seemed more like a party trick than real magic. Besides, they were super easy. What I was more interested in was this book I had found on transmutations.

Professor Parlourweave noticed my seeming lack of attention and without missing a beat in his lecture, walked right up to my desk then tapped loudly on it with his index finger, “Glittertip, can you show me the proper technique for creating the simple glamor garden?”

I glanced up from my very interesting book and saw his slightly miffed expression. I turned over the page in the book I was reading and snapped my fingers on my other hand nonchalantly. A large section of the open space in the class seemed to fog over or something.

Reality bent and distorted for an instant, then this very beautiful garden full of flowering plants, ponds, and many types of birdsong solidified and appeared to become real. So real, in fact, that we could hear the whispering of the water falling into the pools, and smell the wonderful aroma of the many flowering plants that had begun to permeate the room.

The professor stood there stroking his long white beard with a really strange expression on his face, then said, “Very well; you’ve made your point. Now return things to normal.”

I snapped my fingers once again. The beautiful garden vanished as if it had never been there. The only thing left were the wonderful aromas in the air, which made the professor raise an eyebrow.

He pointed out, “That wasn’t merely a glamour, was it? That was the real garden.”

At that point it was I who had the large eyes. I had been positive that I was making a glamour and not a reality alteration, which went far beyond mere illusion into full-on transmutation. Transmutations were usually long ordeals that wore the caster out, but this one had been literally a snap.

I said sheepishly, “I … I thought it looked nice.”

The professor visibly relaxed and smiled, “It was nice. More than nice. What you have accomplished just now in your first year, many in their third year would have serious difficulties with. From what I just saw, you’ll have no problems with that course, let alone this one.” Professor Parlourweave whirled around and snapped his fingers. A chunk of chalk popped in the air and began writing what the professor said, “Take notes everyone, this is what you just observed …”

After class, Professor Parlourweave called me to his desk. “Glittertip – a moment, please.”

I lugged my stack of books down the steps to the front of the classroom. “Yes, Professor?”

“You are in a rather unique situation,” he said. “Your talent is extraordinary. Ordinarily I would suggest that perhaps you might attempt to test out of this class and take Glamours and Illusions 201 instead. However, if you do indeed have difficulty casting a glamour without invoking reality alteration, that might be a concern. If that is the case, then you should stay in this class. You must learn the fundamentals. I suppose what I’m suggesting is that you could attempt the final now, if you choose.”

“Now?” I said, in shock. We were only a little way into the term. I hadn’t studied for finals.

He reassured me, “Not this moment, but sometime this week. Don’t worry. If you fail the final, all it will mean is that you take the rest of the course, then you will take the final exam at the end of the term just as every other student will.”

“Oh! I … but do I really want to do that?” I asked myself and him and the same time. “You said yourself I have to learn the fundamentals.”

“They are so important.” He scratched his cheek with a fingertip, thinking. Professor Parlourweave was one of the few Human professors, a wizard who had overcome the Human lack of natural magic by means of intensive study and training over his long lifetime. “I am dedicated to your education in either case – the choice is yours. You may prove yourself to have mastered the fundamentals of Glamour and Illusion, or you may remain in this class and gain a deep knowledge of them, perhaps deeper than your classmates. Either choice might serve you well.”

I thought about how young and small I was. “Well, Professor, I have to consider the difficulties I already have with being so small. If I advanced to the second-year class, I’d be that much smaller than my fellow students.”

“Oh! I hadn’t considered that aspect. Hmm.” He thought. “Well, the fact is that you still have time to choose. Let me know what you decide. You’ll have to get to your next class. You can always come speak to me in my office at the end of the day.”

“OK, thanks, Professor,” I said, lugging my books back up the stairs and out the door. The books were huge for me. The fairy and sprite students, who were tinier than me even when fully grown, had the advantage of being able to fly and make other things fly too. I could perhaps levitate my books, but that raised another issue.

Stepping out into the hallway and around the corner, I realized I’d have to hurry to get to Summoning class on time. Running in the halls wasn’t allowed, but I walked quickly. I turned another corner and …

I tripped over a stuck-out foot and dropped my books everywhere. “Oops,” said Sherwina Shatterglass. She was one of my main tormentors. Why she did it I don’t know. She was already tall and pretty. I was under three feet tall; she was over five. As a Siren she’d certainly grow her wings and … other attributes soon. I was a long way from anything like that.

I quickly snapped my fingers, my books flying back into my arms. I needed a better way to carry those things, I thought, but I just ignored her and stomped toward class.

“Oooh, little magical prodigy’s too good to talk to the likes of me,” Sherwina said mockingly, following me easily. My small steps weren’t going to let me outrun her. But we were going to the same destination anyway. The halls were mostly empty, because the next class period was about to start. I didn’t want to play whatever game she was trying to get me involved in. And my diaper was already wet. I wanted to get away, just get to class, where I knew the rules.

“What’d you summon for Summoning homework?” Sherwina could easily have outrun me and been in class already. Instead she wouldn’t leave me alone. “Nothing, huh? Summoning not your forte? Not perfect at everything, are we?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t think of what to tell her, nor did I want to give her anything to use. I just made an exasperated sound and kept trudging down the hall.

Eventually we made it to the Summoning classroom. I took my assigned seat beside Ulfdan Blackfang. His name was fearsome sounding, but he was a very young Werewolf boy. He had a puppy look about him that was actually kind of adorable. Most Werewolves lived in the wild and lived a simple village life, but some, like the Blackfangs, had noble blood and lived in castles, sending their children to school to learn more magic than just the self-transformation that Werewolves were born with. Fortunately, Sherwina’s assigned seat was far across the room.

“Oh, hi Nimmitie,” said Ulfdan. “What did you summon? I summoned a wood Elemental.” On the table before him was a small pot containing moist soil and what looked like a little tree seedling with a distinctly humanoid shape.

“Oh wow, that’s great!” I said. “First time I’ve seen one. It’s beautiful.” And it was one of the only beings I’d seen since starting at school that was smaller than myself. “I summoned a spirit.”

“Oh cool!” said Ulfdan. “I suppose it’s staying incorporeal until it’s time.”

“Yeah.” I’d asked Elnora to stay with me out of sight, so she could make herself known when it was time to reveal her during class. “She’s around.”

“Well, let’s get started, boys and girls,” said Professor La Branche, striding into the classroom. Her fine bark like skin and green hair might suggest to some that she was a Dryad, but she was actually half Elemental – the other half being a mixture of various Sylvan races such as Elves and Sylphs. I had no idea what her life was like, but I was fascinated by her, because she was unique. “Your homework was to perform a summoning. Of course, we’re on the chapter about minor Elementals, but anything counts! Let’s go alphabetically. Leonhart Alwin, you’ll go first.” Leo was a half-Elf boy who was also half-Human, but his Elf blood made him an ideal magic student. He opened the felt-lined wooden box he’d carried into class and showed everyone the gemstone Elemental he’d summoned. Seeming to consist mainly of blue and green sapphires, it was beautiful and mainly moved around the desk in front of him, striking poses to catch the light.

Professor La Branche was delighted by Ulfdan’s wood Elemental. “Very good, Blackfang,” the professor said. “She could be one of my relatives!” The tiny tree-like creature looked up and waved to her with one of its branches. “Be sure to keep her watered until you dismiss her.”

Eventually it was my turn. “And, Glittertip, what do you have to show us today?”

“OK, Elnora, now’s the time,” I whispered. And Elnora manifested in the aisle next to my seat.

“My goodness!” said Professor La Branche. Elnora smiled at her. “You seem to have summoned a magical spirit or Genie. That is very advanced. But you’re always full of surprises, Glittertip!” To Elnora she asked, “What do you prefer to be called?”

“Please call me Elnora, Professor,” said the Nana Spirit. “It’s true, Nimmitie possesses a great deal of talent, especially for such a young Gnome.”

“Very well spoken!” the professor said. “Extra credit for an advanced summon, Glittertip! Can you tell me the difference between Summoning and Conjuration?”

Sudden pop quiz! I stammered, “Uh, well, Professor, although they’re related, Summoning deals with the calling forth of a creature or being to do one’s bidding, while Conjuration is simply the transportation of things or people from one place to another.”

“Very good, Glittertip!” said Professor La Branche. “Now, Yorick Gunderson …” She moved on to the next student. Yorick was part Troll, but we’re not talking about the nasty, brutish type of Troll; his people were the tall, strong kind with skin that was nearly as hard as stone. Of course, Yorick was a young one and was only part Troll, but he did have bluish-gray skin.

“Do you want me to make myself scarce again?” Elnora quietly whispered to me.

“Not unless you want to,” I whispered back. “Everyone’s obviously got their summoned beings with them in this class. But in other classes your presence might be disruptive. Professors don’t like disruptions.”

“What about what happened in the hallway earlier?” she whispered. “I wanted to do something to help, but you told me to stay out of sight.”

“No, you did the right thing,” I whispered back. “I summoned you, so if you’d used any magic against her, the rules would call that the same as me using magic against her. I could get in trouble.”

“I have a possible answer,” Elnora whispered back, “but we’ll have to talk to your parents.”

“My parents?”

“I can take you to them tonight,” Elnora whispered.

But first I had to get through the rest of the day. It wasn’t really fair that larger students – and almost all of them were larger – could use their size against me, but I couldn’t use magic against them. It was my only strength.

The rule existed to keep magical wars from breaking out on school grounds, but couldn’t I defend myself? But what was bothering me was the fact that there were students smaller than me. They had protective spells on them that retaliated automatically, usually placed there by their parents with school notification. Why didn’t I have anything like that? Was that Elnora’s idea?

I just wanted to go back to my room and suck my pacifier … or actually I wanted to be able to do it right now.

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That evening, after I’d done my homework, Elnora was giving me a diaper change when she told me, “Now, perhaps it’s time for me to meet your parents!”

“You mean …” I said.

“Yes, it’s time to send you home – and come with you, of course!” She finished up with my diaper and said, “Now, all we have to do is …” She gestured at the door to my room, which sparkled a bit for a moment, but to my Gnomish senses I could tell what she’d done.

“Portal translocation!” I said, impressed.

“One of my many talents,” said Elnora. I knew that all I had to do was touch the doorknob. It was a small door, as the room had been chosen for me because of my size. I reached for the doorknob, and suddenly it opened to show the front doorstep of my parents’ home. I was relieved – she hadn’t portaled us directly into their home, which could have been upsetting. Elnora picked me up, carried me through the portal, and rang the doorbell, pulling on the little chain that caused bells to ring inside.

“Oh! Just a moment!” I could hear my father saying inside. Soon the door opened to reveal my dad, a cheerful-looking balding Gnome fellow with a black and white beard and tiny glasses. “Oh my! It’s Nimmitie!”

“Hi, Daddy!” I said from Elnora’s arms. “Can we come in?”

“Of course, my dear, and who is this? A fellow student? No … I don’t think that’s right … but come in, come in! Gemmadora!”

From another room, I heard my mother’s voice saying, “Did I hear Nimmitie? Oh yes!” She entered the room, with her familiar purple hair with literally glittering tips and her mostly yellow dress. Gnomes do not dress to follow anyone’s fashion norms other than their own, I’ll have you know.

“Mommy!” I said, happy to see her. “This is Elnora. She’s a Nana Spirit I summoned.”

“Goodness!” said my mom. “That’s a difficult summon, or so I understand. But then you’re our little magical prodigy! Come here, Sweetheart.” She took me into her arms, and I was happy to be there. “Is your diaper dry? Well, of course it is; you’re with a Nana Spirit. She probably just changed you.”

“She did, Mommy. But we’re here to tell you something and ask your advice.”

“Oh!” said my father, who had closed the door in the meantime. “You’re not having trouble at school?”

“Not trouble with my classes,” I said, “trouble with … well …”

“Trouble with bullying, Sir,” said Elnora. “She’s so small, and although there are smaller students, they have … protection that she lacks. And what’s more, well, she’s still a baby, but she’s afraid to be the baby she is. By pretending to be so grown up all the time, I fear she’s doing herself harm.”

“What?” said my mother. “Oh no, I was worried that she was too young to start school already …”

“I love school, though!” I said. “I mean, I love the classes. And the teachers. And learning. It’s just …”

“Just some problem students who need to be taught to respect their classmates!” fumed my father, obviously angry. “Tell me who they are and they’ll see trouble soon enough! I have friends on the school board! I’ll …”

“Now, Nils, just a moment,” said Mom. “Didn’t you say that smaller students have protection?”

“Yes,” said Elnora, “and I’d like to talk to you about it, if you don’t mind. I have a few ideas.”

“Oh, then by all means,” said Mom. “Let me just put little Nimmitie in the playpen so we adults can talk it over.”

Soon I found myself left in my special playpen, made just for baby Gnomes, which meant that I couldn’t magic my way out of it. Well actually I probably could have, if I’d made the effort, but it probably would’ve broken the playpen, and I didn’t want to make my parents fix it. So I pouted and tried to busy myself with the toys while Mommy and Daddy talked in another room. But eventually I found my eyes getting sleepy …

What I had forgotten in my poutings was that Elnora hadn’t forgotten the fact that I had technically given her authority to make plans on my behalf. All I do remember is Mommy tucking me comfortably in the playpen, then waking up to the wonderfully loving pats Elnora was giving my bottom after changing my diaper, back in my private dorm room.

I sat up and looked around. It took me a second to realize I had immediately put a thumb in my mouth. I looked down, and all I had on was a very thick diaper and a really cute red pair of plastic lined rumba panties with lots of cute red lace and ruffles.

Elnora rubbed noses softly as she cooed, “I have a big surprise for you tomorrow in school.”

I giggled, “What kinna surprise?”

Elnora had a strange smile on her face. She was a very compassionate spirit, and being a Nana to a very special infant Gnome made her more than aware that forcing me to dress and even act older than I was would become detrimental over time.

Elnora gave me a loving kiss on my button nose. “I found a loophole in the school rules that allows for a lifestyle protection spell to be cast. That’s how insect-sized creaturs can attend and not be harmed. Since you technically are still a crawling infant –”

“But I can walk!” I protested.

“But you’re still the age at which a typical Gnome would still be a crawling infant, regardless of whether you yourself have learned to walk early,” she explained. “With your parents’ permission, I’ve cast a lifestyle protection spell upon you.”

“I’ve heard of those,” I said, “but they can work in many ways. What’s it do?”

“You’ll find out,” she said, “or more accurately, anybody who bullies you about your baby status will find out.”

“Oh no! I don’t wanna cause trouble!” I said. “It won’t cause a disruption, will it?”

“The rules are carefully worded, and the spell works with them. If they choose to bully, the results are on their heads, not yours. You are a baby Gnome; that’s a fact. But being a bully is a choice. If they choose poorly, the disruption is their fault, not yours.”

“Oh.” I felt better about that. I didn’t want to interfere with anyone’s education, but if they chose to interfere with their own, that wasn’t my fault.

“Now, if you don’t like it, we can always try something else, but for the first day, I’ve decided not to allow you to remove the spell.”

“What?”

“You gave me the ability to make decisions for you when you summoned me,” she said, “and this is one. After tomorrow, you can tell me to remove it, and I will, but I don’t think you’ll want to. And … well, after tomorrow, you’ll be able to make many kinds of choices you never had the opportunity to choose before. Nighty night, Baby.” Elnora kissed me once again on my nose, gave me wonderfully tingly hiney pats, turned out the lamp, and left.

I lay back in my crib and continued to suck my thumb. I had even started to feel different somehow, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it, as a warm wet trickle dripped between my legs for an instant. I sat up, slightly perturbed, hoping against hope I wasn’t so wet it would keep me awake. After a very few minutes, though, my eyes grew very heavy, and I curled up in the crib and started sucking my thumb. I fell into a deep sleep and dreamed many wonderful infantile dreams.

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“Good morning, Sweetheart!” said Elnora softly but brightly, kissing me on the head and lifting me out of my crib. “It’s time for the best baby Gnome in school to have some breakfast and get ready for her day! Before I knew it I was in my high chair being fed baby cereal by a master at childcare who knew how to make meals entertaining. “Here comes the dragon, flying into the cave!” she said as she guided the spoon into my mouth. When that was done she gave me a bottle of nice warm milk, and then it was bathtime, and after that …

“What are you doing?” I said, noticing that after a thick diaper, she was dressing me in obvious baby clothes. True, they were Gnomish baby clothes, with many bright pastel colors that didn’t necessarily go together harmoniously, but the dress had short puffy sleeves, a motif with toys and rune blocks, and most of all it was really short and showed my diaper. With just booties on my feet to keep my toes warm, I was clearly not meant to be walking in this outfit. “I’m going to look just like a baby!”

“That’s right, Sweetie,” Elnora said. “Because that’s what you are. Your parents and I agree that you should be just exactly who you are when you’re at school, just like everywhere else. Once you grow up you’ll dress like a grownup, but that’s not yet, Dear!” She did my hair in adorable puffy ponytails and tied them with curling ribbons that draped down behind my head. “I’ll be carrying you to class. And don’t worry about those huge heavy books; I’ll take care of those for you. See? I’ve got your diaper bag all ready.” And she did; she had a bag all prepared that was full of bottles, extra diapers, and a stuffed toy animal or two.

“Petey!” I recognized my favorite plushie Gryphon, giggling for a moment. But then I remembered myself. “They’re all gonna make fun of me!”

“Maybe at first,” Elnora said, “but that’s where your protection spell comes in.”

“Something’s gonna happen to them if they do that?” I asked.

“Something,” she replied, making sure everything in my diaper bag was ready, but of course it already was.

“Umm I heard Fintan Freyleigh – he’s a Fairy – has a protection spell that makes anybody who bullies him turn to stone,” I said, “not forever, I mean, but for a little while, long enough for him to get away and maybe tell somebody …”

“Sounds like young Fintan has parents who care about his well-being just as your parents care about yours,” said Elnora. “But you’ve also got a Nana Spirit.”

“I’m glad I summoned you instead of the Demon of Retribution who was on the next page,” I said.

“I’m glad too! Never summon Demons – they’ll always cause you more trouble than they’ll ever cause for anyone else.”

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Nana carried me into the school and then into my first class of the day. As I was carried into the classroom, I immediately noticed the small and comfy playpen that had been set up near the front of the room where all could see.

Nana carried me in, allowing all the ruffles on my thickly diapered bottom to show as she set me in the soft padded pen among several adorably cute snuggle dolls. The room had become deathly silent as Nana cooed and fussed over me like the toddler I truly was.

Professor Phrygianus Parlourweave came to the edge of the playpen and said, “It’s about time she was allowed the necessary freedom to grow up properly. Just because she has a very large talent is no reason to steal her infanthood away.”

Nana said, “I’m glad you agree.” She removed from her carry pocket a small rolled piece of some kind of parchment bound with a glowing white band of light and handed it to the Professor. “You will find all the proper documentation and proper permissions for Miss Nimmitie Glittertip to have a certain protection spell enabled.”

The Professor took the scroll and removed the white ring, which vanished in a sparkle of silver when he had removed it, and started unrolling the parchment. He read over it, all the while nodding his head with what appeared to be a ghost of a smile on his lips.

He looked up and said, “Thank you for this. It shows all things are in order, and permission was granted by the Board of Trustees.” With this, he turned and said to the class, “Now, if all of you would take out your book on advanced glamour casting, then turn to page 351. I would like all of you to study the procedures on how to create the Party Glamour. I will give all of you about 15 minutes to study the procedures before I call on you.” He turned and looked at me and smiled, “Now, what I would like is to see if you can do that without reading how first.”

Sherwina Shatterglass was outraged. Here was that wimp one more time trying to steal as much attention as she could. This time, she was dressed as a toddler, or perhaps a babydoll; Sherwina didn’t know which. She shouted just loud enough to be heard, but not so anyone near the playpen could recognize the voice, “That wussy little …”

Without warning, a huge bolt of what looked like multicolored lightning struck Sherwina. A huge ball of energy surrounded her for an instant with many large arcs all through. When it had cleared, Sherwina was the very image of a cute little baby Siren, now dressed in what was obviously a super thick diaper and really adorably cute powder puff rumba panties with a matching shorty top with lots of lace, ruffles, and bows.

Now, the class burst out in loud guffawing laughter and made many disparaging remarks. Sherwina was glad, at first, that none knew that she had just wet her diaper. Then, she could feel strange wave like butterflies in her tummy and a sort of pushing. She knew what was happening and tried to stop herself, but all she managed to do was make it happen. She felt it as the gooshy mass oozed into the back of her diaper.

One of the Fairy students pointed at Sherwina and exclaimed loudly, “Look everyone, she gotta poopy face.” More loud raucous laughter, she continued, “Does Baby need a change?”

The laughter had gotten so that the Professor banged loudly on his desk, “Please, let us quiet down some.” He walked over to Sherwina and basically checked her like any other infant, “And, Baby Girl, you definitely need changing.” He turned and asked Elnora, “I know she’s not your ward, but since this is what a Nana does …”

Elnora replied in a soft coo as she picked Sherwina up like the toddler she had become, and took her off to a corner that had magically become a changing room, complete with all the fixings to clean and change a messy baby of any size.

The class roared, and the professor had a huge smile on his face as Elnora brought the changed Sherwina back from the changing room. All she had on was a super thick diaper, a pair of super noisy plastic panties, and a baby T-top with a cute kitten on the front, ensuring everyone knew she was in a diaper. She set Sherwina in her usual seat, where she couldn’t see over the desk, but she didn’t seem to care, sucking her thumb and babbling.

“Annnnd … time,” said Elnora. Sherwina suddenly transformed back to her usual age and her previous outfit, exactly five minutes after her little outburst. Everything was normal … except for her overwhelming scent of baby powder, all the loud laughter from the other students, and the many seriously belittling comments.

“What?” asked Sherwina. “What just happened?”

“I’m afraid, Shatterglass,” said the professor, “that you’ve just managed to be the first to trigger Nimmitie’s new protection spell. I will warn you that any assault on her of any kind, physical, verbal, or magical, will result in the same effect – and each time it happens to the same person, the effect will have twice the duration. Now, if you’re finished disrupting class with your petty grievances, let’s continue. By the way, you won’t get extra time to study the textbook.”

He turned to me. “Miss Glittertip?” I smiled up at him, held up one hand, and snapped my fingers. This time I carefully made sure not to alter reality but to only create an illusion. The room seemed to change shape, and there I was in a high chair with a birthday cake on the tray in front of me, with every student standing around wearing a conical party hat. Balloons hung from the ceiling and floated above every chair, tied with colorful ribbons. A huge banner said, “Happy Birthday, Nimmitie.” The cake had 26 candles, all lit and flickering. I poised to blow them out, then paused, briefly took my pacifier out in the reality that nobody could see, and blew at them, and they sputtered and went out, smoke rising. Then the illusion ended, and all was as it had been.

Professor Parlourweave said, “Excellent work, Glittertip.” He turned to the class, where students were feeling at their heads to make sure the paper party hat was gone – or rather, had never truly been there. “As you can see, the Party Glamour can simulate any type of party – obviously that was more the birthday sort of party, but individual interpretation may vary.”

“Now, let’s see what sorts of chimerical parties you can glamour up,” he went on, turning to the students. “Alwin?” And as the classroom seemed to change into one form of party scenario after another, Elnora whispered to me.

“Well, what do you think of the spell?” she quietly whispered.

“They … turn into babies?” I asked.

“That they do,” Elnora confirmed. “They’ll turn into whatever they looked like as a baby. They can’t help acting like babies, but they’re fully aware of what’s happening to them. The first time is five minutes, but if they do it again, it’s 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, and so on.”

“Oh gosh, soon they might have to spend the whole day as a baby,” I whispered. That was a lot like Fintan Freyleigh’s petrification-based protection spell. Offenders were reportedly aware of every moment they spent as a statue

“Oh dear,” Elnora replied, “I certainly hope they think about their behavior before it goes that far. After all, I don’t have any control over the spell. I can only time how long it’s been and predict when they’ll change back.”

We watched the students practice the Party Glamour and run the gamut of every imaginable kind of party, from fancy dress to formal ball, and each time I greatly enjoyed the funny costumes or fancy clothes they had everybody in. “Extra credit for Fintan Freyleigh for giving everyone a unique costume!” the professor said.

When it came time for Sherwina’s attempt, she snapped her fingers and the result was some type of goth rave, where everything was dark, the music was loud, there were flashing lights, and everyone wore black clothes and pale makeup. “Oooh, that’s awesome, Sherwina!” I said, but I doubt she could hear me over the music – it wasn’t real, in the sense that people in the next classroom wouldn’t be able to hear it, but in the minds of those affected in this classroom, it was very loud.

After that class, things were calm in the hallways; Elnora carried me to Summoning class, and when we got there, she conjured a similar playpen for me to sit in as Professor La Branche lectured on the various summoning techniques for creatures from the realms of Faerie. There were no demonstrations that day.

Next came Magical History, which was a pretty dry class, except for my diaper, and after that was math – no, you don’t get out of learning math, even at magic school. Some spells require pretty advanced calculations.

Soon it was lunchtime, and Elnora was carrying me back to my room so she could feed me properly in my high chair, but of course she had to carry me past where Sherwina and her friends hung out. The boy that Sherwina clearly wished was her boyfriend, Khaeron Stonehoof, saw Elnora carrying me past them and said, “Oh, finally she’s being the little baby we all knew she was,” as Sherwina tried desperately to keep him from talking.

I looked back over Elnora’s shoulder as we walked away to see Khaeron sitting on the floor, a tiny little Minotaur calf, wailing away in his wet and messy diaper. Elnora didn’t look inclined to change his diaper, and we never stopped moving.

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The day passed more or less without incident after that. There were the usual bullies who learned real fast that harassing me was a big no-no as several new infants existed for about 10 minutes before they reverted back to their normal selves. Of course this created many complaints by the bullies’ parents over magic being used in school when the rules plainly stated it was not allowed.

Of course when the School Administrator explained the Lifestyle Protection clause and the fact that it only enabled under very specific circumstances, this created animosity among several of the high-ranking wizards who felt their position exempted them and their progeny from this protocol.

It didn’t matter who their rich and powerful parents were, as one of the snooty Council of Magic members learned the hard way while they sat and messed their diaper good before time expired and they reverted back to their normal mean nasty selves.

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Finally, the last class of the day had arrived. I liked the Magical Self-Defense class and its many spells. Professor McGrinnich came to my playpen and asked, “From what I hear, Gilittertip, you have a great deal of talent. How well can you defend against this?” The professor snapped his fingers, and a large group of nasty-looking Imps appeared and began giggling evilly.

They rapidly gathered around my playpen, and a few started appearing as if they were going to do harm to others in the class. I giggled; this was going to be fun. I pointed my finger at one of the Imps and said, “Inflammie.” The Imp burst into flames and became an ash pile on the floor.

The other Imps took nasty exception to this and started tossing some type of magical burr my direction. I snapped my fingers and said, “Gelo incap.” Instantly something like a blizzard full of many sharp ice shards appeared as a huge swirling mass.

Needless to say, the many Imps and their burrs froze instantly, and the force of the impacting ice shards shattered them. When the swirling blizzard cloud full of razor-sharp ice shards dissipated, the many ice chunks that were the remains of the Imps also vanished.

Professor McGrinnich clapped his hands and said joyously, “Very, very good, Glittertip. I have not seen that type of defense in a year four class, much less in a year one class, and from a wonderfully cute infant. I can see why you’re starting school early for a Gnome.”

I blushed pink and replied softly, “Thanks, Professor, I do study hard and try my very best.”

He reached over the playpen rails and patted me on my head, “Good job. No, not good, great.” He turned and faced the rest of the class, “All right , people, what you have just witnessed is the perfect defense against an Imp attack. Enrika Rottage, lets see how well you do against a Squamish Slinker.” He snapped his fingers. A creature appeared that looked like a large quadruped with three heads, one head a dog’s head, another a lion’s head, and another a crocodile’s head.

The girl looked at the professor with huge eyes filled with fear, then at the creature that was taking specific notice of Enrika. It growled menacingly with a deep rumbling growl. Yes, Enrika was a Ghoul, but she was still a young one.

I felt for Enrika and was muttering, “Think, Enrika, think!” to myself. But I couldn’t tell her the answer, because she had to learn for herself. But I think she heard me, because her expression turned to one of fierce concentration on her greenish face. I hoped she was thinking about the reading homework assignment we’d had. No, it hadn’t covered strange hybrids like what the professor had summoned – not specifically anyway – but it had covered the type of creature they were …

There was no doubt the beast was a carnivore – its heads were that of a lion, a crocodile, and a dog, all of which were meat-eating animals – so the best thing to do, if one could, was feed it. And Enrika had been learning in Conjuration class. She pointed at the ground in front of her and snapped three times, conjuring three huge sides of beef. Well, as we learned in that class, things that were conjured weren’t technically natural – those weren’t really sides of beef, because they’d been nothing but magical energy until moments ago – but they were as close as made no difference.

The three heads each looked down at the floor and saw all this raw meat lying there. They sniffed at it. They licked at it. Then each one started devouring it. And Enrika backed away, keeping an eye on the beast. If she had to, she could keep it busy by conjuring more meat for it.

“Well done, Rottage,” said Professor Grinnich. “In contrast to Imps, which have some intelligence and usually mischievous aims, magical beasts such as this are primarily interested in hunting for food. Give them what they want, and they’ll quickly lose all interest in you.” He snapped his fingers, and the monster vanished, along with Enrika’s conjured meat. In its place were a magically animated mop and pail, cleaning up the floor.

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Professor Grinnich had a ghost of a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye as he returned to the raised platform where his desk and the chalkboard were, sat at his desk, folded his arms into the large sleeves of his robe, and waited to see the reaction of his class to the surprise problem he had just introduced.

The students were all talking excitedly among themselves about the new spells Professor Grinnich had introduced them to and how much they had enjoyed using them against a real creature after they got over their initial fear. They definitely were not paying any attention to the mop and bucket.

The magically animated mop continued cleaning the floor and dipping itself into the bucket. After a few minutes of this, a door opened and several more mops entered each with pseudo arms carrying large buckets of water which they promptly dumped on the floor next to the mop doing the floor.

It wasn’t long before there were many mops dumping large amounts of water on the floor. Professor Grinnich snapped his fingers and sealed all the doors and windows leading out of the room insuring none of the students could get out of this exercise by running away as the water level rapidly rose higher. It wasn’t long before several of the students noticed the water at their desks had reached their ankles and was progressively getting deeper.

Felinda Biralo, one of the girls in class who was of the Catfolk, climbed up on top of the table she was sitting at and began to wail pitifully. She whined in a way that sounded more like a kitten in distress than anything else. “Professor Grinnich!” She pointed at the ever increasing amount of water the mops were dumping on the floor. “They gonna flood us if you don’t stop it.” She wasn’t yet so upset as to shift into her quadrupedal form, but her fur had manifested.

Professor Grinnich laughed, “And just what do you suggest I do about it young lady?”

She whimpered, “Why, stop it before I get my feet wet!”

By this time the rest of the class had become well aware of the rapidly rising water all around them. Several had discovered that there was no way out of the room. All doors and windows had become blocked with some type of crystal clear stone.

Now, the voices of the students began to show a great deal of alarm and several had begun to panic. I had been sitting at my desk with my legs crossed in the chair. I hadn’t noticed the rising water until my diaper and panties started getting wet. By this time, the water level in the sealed room had risen several feet.

I looked around and examined what was going on, then took a look at the professor. I knew immediately this was some sort of exercise from the amused look on the professor’s face. This was a class on Magical Self-Defense, and we were expected to learn how to think on our feet – well, on four feet if you were Felinda, or on our diapered bottoms in my case. We had to learn what to do if we were attacked by a hostile spell, or endangered by a spell that had gone out of control. Of course, Professor Grinnich would cancel the spell if anyone were actually put in danger of drowning, but clearly he had a reason for doing this. I thought back to the reading assignment.

Just as the magical beast earlier had been stopped by giving it what it wanted, the chapter in the book had been all about analyzing threats and finding their weak points. There were students who had figured out that the mops had wooden handles and were trying to attack them using fire magic, because wood burns. But the real problem was that the mops just kept multiplying.

There were spells that could dispel other spells, but they relied on being more powerful than whoever had cast the original spell, and Professor Grinnich was, well, a professor. Maybe I was a prodigy and maybe not, but I didn’t have the amount of experience he had. It was unlikely that a dispelling would work. I tried it anyway, and it didn’t work. The professor saw what I’d tried and grinned at me with a twinkle in his eye. He’d known somebody would try that. I hadn’t really expected it would work; it was too easy. No, this was a puzzle we’d have to solve.

The mops kept bringing in more buckets of water, and each time there were twice as many of them. There wasn’t much time. The desks were starting to float. My playpen was floating too, but water was washing in through the sides. “The spell!” shouted Ulfdan Blackfang. “It’s getting twice as strong every minute!” He was actually very good at math.

I could try to freeze all the water with ice magic … except more mops kept bringing in more water, so that would be about as successful as trying to set the mops on fire. No, what we needed was … wait … we needed another spell that also got stronger with time. It would have to get stronger faster. A counterspell. Fire vs. water …

“Enrika! Leo!” I shouted to my two classmates who had been trying fire spells. “Do the fire thing you were doing, and I’ll add a doubling spell to it!”

Ulfdan caught on. “Make it double faster than every minute!” he shouted. “Or else we’ll always be behind!”

“OK!” shouted Leonhart and Enrika, looking at me and each other. “One, two, three …” and then they each cast fire spells at mops, using different words. Exactly what words you used didn’t matter so much as the meaning those words kindled within your mind. Feeling the energy they were summoning forth, I cast a doubling spell that would cause their spells to burn twice as many mops every half minute.

Professor Grinnich grinned and observed. Two mops burned, then shortly thereafter, four more. It was magical fire, and that was six mops burned to ash, the smoke rising to the ceiling. But then the mops doubled again. But then eight mops burned, then 16. The remaining mops doubled, but soon the burning spell outpaced the mop conjuration rate. 32 mops burned, then … the rest of them. No mops were left. The mop-conjuration spell couldn’t conjure twice as many mops as zero. And the fire spells couldn’t burn any more mops. There was still thick smoke in the air, and the water was deep, but at least the water wasn’t rising anymore.

“Haha!” said the professor. “Well done!” He snapped his fingers, and the crystal blocking the windows vanished, releasing the smoke to the outside. The water vanished, and I noticed that a small rainstorm was occurring outdoors, conveniently over the flower gardens. Everyone’s clothes were dry – including my diaper, I noticed. “Teamwork, and some insight from mathematics. One of many reasons we make sure you study maths.”

“And you never had to call on me for help,” said Elnora quietly to me. “Good job! But then I knew you were a smart little girl.”

The bell rang, and we filed out of the classroom. “You must have recognized my use of Daniken’s Doubling Dweomer,” Professor Grinnich said as I passed by in Elnora’s arms.

“Not by name,” I said. “I just knew what you must have done, so I knew we needed the same thing. Only Blackfang reminded me that it had to double faster. We haven’t gotten to that spell yet in any class.”

The professor raised an eyebrow. “Well, then,” he said. “Definitely something you should remember. And beware of relying on natural talent, Glittertip.”

“He’s right,” Elnora whispered to me. “But don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll teach you everything you’ll need to know in time.”

“Were there other ways to solve that problem?” I asked her.

“Oh, I’m sure he’d thought of many different possible answers,” Elnora said. “He just wanted to know which one you students would come up with – unless you didn’t come up with one in time and he had to cancel the pop quiz.”

“Is that what it was?” I asked.

“I’m fairly sure it counts as that,” Elnora said.

After lunch, there was an announcement. Headmistress Trueheart stood up and said, into a magical megaphone of some sort, “Your attention please, students. Tomorrow we will have school field trips! First-year students will be visiting the Zerzura Zoological Gardens. Second-year students will be visiting the Hyperborean Halls …”

“Oh, the Zerzura Zoo,” said Elnora, picking me up again. “Widely renowned for their collection of magical birds of all sorts from all over the world. Zerzura’s in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Mortals have never managed to find it.”

“Have you ever been there, Nana?” I asked her.

“Once,” she said. “It’s beautiful. But I do have to remind you: your protection spell won’t work while you’re off school grounds.”

“It won’t?”

“No, but school policy forbidding you from using magic to defend yourself won’t be in effect either,” Elnora told me. “Same for me. Your teachers will be trying to keep you all from casting spells at each other too.”

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The day had finally arrived and I was so excited. Zerzura Zoological Gardens was one of the most well known magical gardens. I had even read a book that told of how one of the large Uchek Langmeidong, a once thought mythical creature that is part human and part Pelagornis Sandersi, one of the largest flying birds to have ever lived and sported a wingspan of 24 feet, had actually been captured and was on display. Having an avian body and a human head, it was one of the most famous creatures in the aviary.

Nana had me up before the sun, bathed, and dressed me in a thick diaper and an adorably cute Snuggle Bug Romper. It, of course, had candy cane stripes, and the pink ruffles and lace made me look like a piece of confectionary delight more than anything. Of course the pony tails tied off with pink red and white stripped ribbons helped a lot with this appearance. But even with all this …

“What’s wrong, Sweetheart?” Nana asked, having finished with my hair and noticing that I wasn’t smiling.

“Well, Nana …” I said with trepidation, “I’m kinda worried that the protection spell won’t work.”

She smiled. “Don’t worry, Honey. I’ll be there, and … well, the fact is, you’re without a doubt the best magic student in your class. You can protect yourself – not that you should have to, at your age, but you can.”

“But …” I started. “But what if I can’t?”

“Then I’m here, as I said. I’ll protect you, if you need me to. I would never let my baby come to harm.” I felt better.

Nana packed the diaper bag with all the items she would need to care for me for a day. She also packed other items in the carry rack on the stroller. Nana lifted me in and fastened the harness to insure that a certain infant wouldn’t squirm her way out of the seat and hurt herself with a fall. We were off for another adventure, only this time, there was no denying that I was an infant Gnome on an outing with her Nana.

We arrived at the entrance after an uneventful trip. The Elfette at the gate bubbled over when she saw me in the stroller. I was shocked to discover that I was unable to respond to the Elfette in a normal manner, but only as a very young toddler.

Nana leaned over, pretending to check my diaper, and cooed so only I could hear, “I’m sorry about that, Sweetheart. It’s just, I didn’t want the fact that you’re as gifted as you are to get back to her father. He’s a real mean one, and it’s even rumored that he led the revolt centuries ago against Humankind in their own realm. It’s not that he has anything against Gnomes – just against anyone who might be more powerful than himself.”

That revolt had invoked the higher orders to defend. When the dust finally settled, many realms had been remade into something entirely different, including Earth, where they would claim that an asteroid impact had caused the global calamity that the geological record shows as the K/T boundary.

First stop were the magical Lunar Moths. They were as large as me and actually had a slightly green/ yellow aura about them as they danced and cavorted over the Fountain of the Moon.

Within the Fountain’s pool were a species of marine angelfish, Pomacanthus imperator, normally a reef-associated fish native to Earth’s Indian and Pacific Oceans, and were there in large teeming swarms. These fish were obviously magically enhanced, as their beautiful blue stripes would glow brightly, then dim down for a bit before repeating the cycle.

Unfortunately for Sherwina Shatterglass, she met us just as we were about to enter the aviary. Her haughty, nasty voice rang out loudly, “There you are, you little diaper messing creep. I swore I would get back at you for what you did to me and my boyfriend.” She quickly, with practiced grace pulled her wand from its pocket in her dress. Some magic users used wands; they claimed that it focused their power or concentration or some such. Gnomes never messed around with that kind of junk.

Without warning, from the cage of the Uchek Langmeidong, a shrill, screeching kind of voice said plainly, “You ... you’re a real Shatterglass. I cannot tell you how long I have awaited one of your ilk … and then for you to make the mistake of launching an unjust attack against a helpless individual!”

Nana unfastened my harness and held me protectively in her arms. The Zoo Administration had been quite adamant about the magical abilities of the creatures being nullified. You couldn’t have proved it by us as magical lightnings pounded Sherwina. Her clothes sort of became some sort of mist as her hair fell out in large clumps.

By the time she had fallen to the ground, she was unable to walk bipedal, and over the next few seconds she transformed into some kind of truly abominable slimy, mucus spurting … lump, for lack of a better description, that smelled like an open sewer. Neither Nana nor I had had anything to do with it; it was all somehow the doing of the Langmeidong, who had defended me by somehow doing the seeming impossible and overpowering the null-magic spell. Perhaps it would have been better for Sherwina to have accosted me at school rather than out in the wilds.

“Oh … oh dear,” said Professor La Branche, who was chaperoning. “Err … is that Sherwina?” Several classmates and other bystanders explained what had happened.

But Elnora just held me in her arms and walked slowly toward the Langmeidong. “It sounds as if you have a real vendetta against her family,” she said casually.

“It’s not her kind,” said the huge avian creature. “It’s her clan in particular that has always poached our eggs – the only Siren family with the audacity to feel entitled to do so.”

Enora replied, “Oh my. One hopes that someday they’ll learn.”

“Are you trapped here in a cage?” I asked.

The huge creature smiled at me. “No, my dear,” she said. “When I met some of the scientists who came to study our people, they offered to give me free housing in exchange for allowing them to observe me. I’m free to go home to visit my family whenever I want, and I do so from time to time. I may have ruffled a few feathers by doing this, though. But I just couldn’t let it stand!”

“Will she be all right?” asked Elnora. “She’s just a child.”

"I certainly hope not,” said the creature. “But I assume someone will be able to undo it.”

Well, the rest of the day involved seeing the various creatures, mostly birds, at the zoo, but I couldn’t help thinking of Sherwina, who had been taken back to the school infirmary for treatment.

An offensive transformation like that was just the sort of spell that one might cast against one’s opponent in a magical duel, but as a first-year student Sherwina had hardly learned anything about dueling. That was an advanced topic. One wonders just what she would have cast at me.

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Back at the school infirmary, several of the most powerful magical healers known who were masters of Dispellation, muddled over the particular spell the Langmeidong had used. It hadn’t taken long for them to discover the Langmeidong might not be entirely responsible for the young Princess Shatterglass being transformed into a gross xoggoth, an almost shapeless being made of a form of thick gelatinous membrane that oozed slime as protection for its skin. Besides the fact that the slime had an odor that would stop a herd of charging rhinos at thousand yards, it also attracted a great many types of insects, both flying and crawling.

Dr. Blathwing Hoth, Dispellation professor, said with worry, “I’ve not seen a baleful transformation quite this complex before. It shows a synergic union with another type of spell cast by some unknown party.”

Dr. Francine Mcdovetail, a Dispellation expert Dr. Hoth had called in for consultation, said, “The power of this spell is also of an unusual order. From the best I can determine, its base power foundation is based on neither Light magic nor Dark magic.”

Dr. Hoth turned his gaze towards Francine with a raised eyebrow, “ I was not aware there was a middle ground. Either the magic comes from the source of Light, or it is empowered by Dark; they cannot be mixed. In the history of our peoples none have ever discovered a third source.”

Dr. Francine said softly, “It would sort of make sense.”

Dr. Hoth asked, “How so? I can’t even fathom something founded in … what? Grey magic?”

Francine snorted a laugh as she waved her arm. A cloud appeared with a very clear image within it that looked as if it were real. She said, “We all have been taught the rule of three times three, but none has ever properly explained what the third is. We all know two of them are Light and Dark, but no one has asked what the third might be.”

The small group of magical experts watched the image within the cloud as it proceeded through the repercussions of a judgment of three times three. Within their mind the question grew: what was the third power, and how do they find its source?

Francine turned and looked sideways at the huge mess Sherwina was making. She felt a disgust growing in her stomach as she watched Sherwina, in her current form, take great pleasure in snapping up the many insects with her lightning fast tongue and eating them.

Dr. Tollerium, the Potions professor, who happened to specialize in dispellation potions, said, “I think I might have a cursory explanation over what happened to the young Princess, although I’m not real sure what her family might do.”

Dr. Hoth said, “Let us hope they leave it lay. The individual Miss Shatterglass was going to attack, according to many eye witnesses, was a crawling infant in a stroller out with her Nana. What do you think caused this?”

Dr. Tollerium replied, “Think about it. The princess was using a Light based magic to basically attack an infant. Timing had to be almost perfect, but what I feel happened is the spell the Langmeidong cast happened at as close to the same instant as possible as the one the Princess cast towards the infant Glittertip. The law of three times three clearly warns older magic wielders not to use their powers against an individual below a certain age.”

“Ahhh, yes, now I see.” said Dr. Hoth as he nodded his head. “The spell the Langmeidong cast was utilized by the punishment dictated by three times three into that.” He turned and pointed at the disgusting nasty smelling blob Miss Shatterglass had become as she snatched up a large slimy slug from one of the potted plants and consumed it with what appeared to be great pleasure.

All knew, however, no matter what the external body appeared to act like, the individual upon whom the spell was cast was helpless to control anything and would only do as the transformation for that spell would normally do.

“Then the Langmeidong cast a Dark spell,” Dr. Francine said, “which combined with the Light-based spell Miss Shatterglass was casting to produce … this. But Dark and Light magic normally cancels out. Instead they combined. Can that happen, and what does it produce?”

“Unfortunately, we’re all experts in Dispellation,” said Dr. Hoth. “We need an expert in Theoretical Thaumaturgy. Perhaps we should talk to Professor Ergolect.”

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Elle Ergolect, professor of Magical Theory at the school, was in her office working on her latest research paper when a knock came to her door. It was actually me. “Yes, please come in?” she said. Elnora opened the door and carried me inside.

“Well, goodness me, a baby Gnome,” said Professor Ergolect. “Unless I miss my guess, you must be Nimmitie Glittertip. I’ve heard about the youngest Gnome student to ever enroll. But why could you be knocking on my door? First years don’t take my classes. Although you’re clearly an advanced student. You’ve summoned a Nana Spirit.”

Professor Ergolect was also a Gnome; she was white-haired and very distinguished, clearly at least 400 years old and thus very wise. Because she was a Gnome, though, her office was scaled about the same as my room, so I felt comfortable there. I said, “Well, it isn’t about classes, Professor. It’s about another student, Sherwina Shatterglass. She needs help.” I told her the story about what had happened. “So, you see, the spell that rebounded on her was probably part Light and part Dark. I don’t know what happens when you do that. You’re the Magical Theory professor, though, so I thought you might know.”

“Well, I’m sure they’ve got Dr. Hoth in the infirmary,” said Professor Ergolect … and that was precisely when Dr. Hoth came hurrying down the hallway.

“Professor Ergolect,” said Dr. Hoth, “we’ve got a problem that may require your expertise …”

“This is about Miss Shatterglass? Miss Glittertip here has been telling me about what happened.”

Dr. Hoth was surprised. “Yes, precisely,” he said. “Then you know we seem to be presented with the Dispellation of a spell that is neither Light nor Dark.”

“This is very rare, but not entirely unheard of,” said Professor Ergolect. “It’s mentioned in the Book of Erebus – Volume Three –” She snapped her finger, and a heavy, though Gnome-scaled, tome came floating off one of her bookshelves onto her desk. Leafing quickly through it, she found a page containing several diagrams. “You see here, Light and Dark are merely two extremes. Normally, Light and Dark don’t combine, but if you can manage to get them to bind together without canceling out, you could theoretically end up with something in the realm of Nature.”

“Realm of Nature?” asked Dr. Hoth. “That’s a realm of magic?”

“If you can call it magic,” said Professor Ergolect. “But its users wouldn’t be Wizards or Mages. They would be Druids or the like.”

“Druids?” Dr. Hoth asked. “Would we need to get one of them to break the spell? Where could we find one of those?”

“That’s not really my area of expertise,” Professor Ergolect replied, “but I will say that there are several of them among my people. Many of us are quite close to nature, and can speak with animals. You might try asking Elspeth Endor.”

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And so it was that we were in a deep, dark forest glade, talking to a green-haired Gnome Druid with literal leaves and flowers growing in her hair. Dr. Hoth, Dr. Francine, and Dr. Tollerium had brought the xoggoth who was Sherwina, and Professor Ergolect and I were there to introduce the rest and to try to convince Elspeth to help. And Elnora was carrying me, of course. I was getting used to not walking on my own.

“Ha ha,” said Elspeth, smiling at me. “This young one is very cute. But I can feel it – very powerful. For good or ill. But … this one is good, I feel.”

“Aww, thank you, Ma’am,” I said. “But we need your help. She’s supposed to be a Siren.” Among us, we told the story of what had happened.

“Mmm. I see. Nature is all magic, you know,” said Elspeth. “The thing you call magic is just Nature colored Light or Dark. But you’re right to come here. To undo Nature, you need Nature. Maybe you could try to do it again – Light and Dark, somehow prevented from canceling – but that would be very hard. Best to use Nature.”

“Can you do it?” asked Dr. Hoth. “We humbly offer our assistance, if you require it …”

“I need these leaves,” Elspeth said, holding up a single heart-shaped leaf. “If you could gather some, it would help. I’ve only got this one left. They grow all around here. Shouldn’t be hard to find some.”

“Right away!” Dr. Hoth said. “Come on, the more, the better, right?”

“Yes, of course,” said Dr. Francine. Dr. Tollerium joined the search.

“You two, bring her over here,” Elspeth motioned to Professor Ergolect and Elnora. The two of them picked up the opened crate containing Sherwina. “Right there, in the center of my ritual space.” I could sort of see it, but more than that, I could feel the lines of natural energy focusing in the spot she pointed out. They placed the crate right where the lines all met. A boiling cauldron sat over a fire nearby.

“Did you put your ritual space where the lines meet,” I asked, “or did you move the lines to your space?”

“Nature works best if you bend to it,” Elspeth said as she sprinkled herbs and lit some other bundles of herbs on fire, filling the glade with aromatic smoke. “Moving the lines? That’s something Wizards do. Forcing magic to do what you want – not natural. Me? I’m just returning Nature to its course.” She said to Sherwina, “You’re not supposed to be one of those. Just have to make you what you are supposed to be.”

She picked up a gnarled staff that was adorned with many different types of leaves and flowers, all of which seemed to be alive, all growing from the same staff. “We just … follow the flow of the lines,” she said, pointing the end of the staff at where I could sense one of the lines and tracing along its path. There was a bright glow along the staff as she did this. Then she did it again with another line, and the tip of her staff glowed even brighter. There seemed to be no fewer than six ley lines that met at this point; I knew that made this an extraordinarily powerful nexus. No wonder Elspeth chose to work her rituals here. When she had traced all six, each of them passing right over Sherwina, she touched the brightly glowing tip to the foul-smelling creature. “Now … be what you’re supposed to be!”

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There was a huge flash, but instead of the expected transformation, a very beautiful woman appeared. Her very delicate outfit seemed to be woven from spider’s silk. Her hair was adorned with flowers. Many flowers began to blossom in the grass that grew about her feet.

Elspeth gasped as her eyes grew large and she brought one of her hands to her mouth. The woman nodded to Elspeth and said softly, “Hello, my child. This day I do hope finds you hale, and all’s well in the realm.”

Elspeth sputtered a bit before she regained her voice, “W... w … welcome, Gaia. I must say it is more than a surprise and an extremely high honor to have Mother Nature herself come to visit.”

Gaia smiled as she turned and seemed to glide over to where the gross xoggoth was making a huge mess and attracting many types of insects. Gaia looked at the disgusting heap of squirting bug attracting goo and said softly, “So, at last, one of your ilk has crossed the Nine in such a way that they punished you.”

Professor Ergolect and Elnora had been standing in a state of almost total shock before Professor Ergolect gathered her wits about herself and asked, “Gaia? Mother Nature herself? I cannot believe I have the privilege and honor of meeting you in person. Who are the Nine?”

Gaia smiled as she replied softly, “They are who are behind the Law of Three times Three …”

Professor Ergolect replied, “I get it. Three times three is nine. But – wait, why isn't it called the Law of Nine instead?”

Gaia replied, “There’s more to the immutable law than just nine beings. There are many rules on what constitutes the proper usage and the total punishable misuse of magic. I know it isn’t obviously apparent, but the reason there are so few real dark wizards, and there are many more of those who are demon empowered with darkness, is the severity of the magical reprisals.” Gaia glided over to Elspeth and placed her hand on the top of her head, “My beloved child. Know you not who the Siren Clan of Shatterglass is and how many loopholes they have weaseled their way out of punishment through? The powers that be have waited long for one of them to commit this severe a violation. I’m not so sure it can be undone until the time of the curse passes … that is, if a limit was placed at the time it occurred.”

Elspeth asked, “Is there nothing we can do to restore this child?”

Gaia smiled, “This child is Princess Shatterglass of the Kingdom of Shatterglass. Her father is Lord Crystal Goth, and her mother is Lady Peisinoe. They are king and queen of the kingdom. All Sirens are the sons and daughters of the river god Achelous, but there are regular Sirens, and then there is the Shatterglass Clan, the breakers of every rule, simply because they think they can.” She turned and looked at Elspeth. “I’m not so sure, after all the times they have managed to slip out of their punishment, that it can be undone.”

“Excuse me, Ma’am …” I said. “What if I, the one she was trying to hurt, forgave her?”

Gaia turned to me and smiled just seeing me. “Precious little one, you are too innocent to be part of this, and that is why the backlash was as puissant as it was. But are you saying that you would forgive her? Has she not hurt you in the past? Do you even know what spell she was trying to cast on you?”

I looked at her from Elnora’s arms. “Yeah, she has hurt me. No, I don’t really know what she was going to do with her wand. But I do know that I was going to deflect it, and if I didn’t, Elnora here would have. I knew she was trying something, but I also know I know magic better than she does. But anyway, I never wanted her to be turned into … that.”

“And you are aware that her clan has caused endless pain and harm throughout the ages?” asked Gaia.

“I didn’t know that until recently,” I replied. “But yes, I do now. But Sherwina didn’t do any of that.”

“Now, that is true,” Gaia said. “The vast majority of the clan’s offenses were committed by her ancestors, not by her."

“All I know Sherwina did was some bullying, of me, and this time when she tried to attack me magically,” I said. “And it didn’t work.”

“Then in that case, let the curse be ended, and let Sherwina Shatterglass be what she is meant to be,” intoned Gaia. The disgusting xoggoth creature vanished. In its place stood Sherwina … or rather a much younger Sherwina, an adorable baby Siren.

“Wha?” asked the confused Sherwina. “Wha happen? Was at tha Zoo an’ then …?”

“And then you were about to attack this young Gnome with magic,” Gaia reminded her.

“Oh yea! Was gonna …” Sherwina patted where her pockets would have been, if she were wearing her former outfit. But all she was wearing now was a really adorable pair of plastic lined powder puff rumba panties and a thick diaper. “Hey! Where my wand go?”

“Your spell rebounded upon you thanks to the Law of Three Times Three,” said Elspeth. “The young Gnome here forgives you, though.”

“Oh! That nice! Thank you!” she said to me. It wasn’t clear she remembered who I was.

Why was she a baby? I knew that Sirens lived longer than Humans, but not as long as Gnomes. It was likely that she was about 10 years old, though still in diapers, for the same reason that I was; her species wasn’t yet ready for potty training at that age.

Serwina began to feel really nice, although strange, butterflies in her tummy that slowly built to a push. It dawned her her suddenly what was going on as the nice feeling the pushing waves created grew stronger.

She tried hard to stop the inevitable, but in the end all she managed to do was make it happen. She trembled in the knees a bit as she helplessly felt the strangeness of the mass oozing into the back of her diaper. It felt so … strange … and nice.

Gaia clapped her hands together and said joyously, “OH! Look! Her first of many poopy faces. How totally adorable.”

Professor Ergolect asked, “First of many, you say? How long is this spell to last?, if I might enquire?”

Gaia replied, “Why for the next 9 centuries, she will be this adorable little baby girl. The punishment has not been removed, only the form in which it has taken changed. It was reasoned that since Miss Shatterglass had such strong reservations, shall we say, against children young enough to be in diapers that she should be a baby for long enough for her to see the major error in her ways. I mean, if that realization is actually possible within her once her mind recovers.”

Professor Ergolect asked again, “She is to be an infant for nine hundred more years? Whatever will her parents say ... what will the king do now that his entitled daughter has had judgment passed against her?”

All Gaia did was smile as she summoned a help sprite to tend to the new infant and insure she was cleaned and a new diaper was put on her.

Dr. Hoth came running in with a basketful of leaves. “We brought these!” he said, panting. “I hope they’re OK!” Dr. Francine and Dr. Tollerium weren’t far behind, each with their own baskets.

“Oh!” said Elspeth. “Excellent. You need to put them into that cauldron of boiling water over there.” They quickly did so, emptying their baskets into the cauldron. A lovely aroma spread throughout the glade.

“Wait,” said Dr. Francine. “Is that Miss Shatterglass?” She looked with astonishment at the baby Siren.

“Err, yes,” I said. I explained.

“Well, I suppose that’s better than being a xoggoth,” said Dr. Tollerium.

“So what were the leaves for?” asked Dr. Hoth.

“I was going to make tea, but I was almost out,” said Elspeth. “You can all have some.”

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We were back in my room at school. Elnora quickly but caringly changed my diaper and set me in my playpen. “Elnora?” I asked.

“Yes, Sweetheart?”

“Sherwina’s parents are a king and queen, right?”

“Yes, Honey, they’re king and queen of the largest Siren clan.”

“They aren’t gonna like what happened to her, are they?”

“I doubt they are,” said Elnora, “but what happened was a reaction by the Laws of Magic to what she did, combined with a vengeance spell cast by a Langmeidong. It wasn’t anything you did.”

“But … they are gonna be mad, right?”

“Most likely,” Elnora said.

“What are they gonna do?” I wondered.

“I can’t say,” said Elnora. “I can only guess. But I suppose you could find out.”

“Oh right, I can look at them,” I said. “I just need a thing to look into. A focus.” There was a toy on the side of my playpen, a box with all kinds of spinners and squeaky or rattly noisemakers, but it also had a mirror. I cast a spell on that mirror, drawing around its outline with my little finger three times and whispering the appropriate words. “Aperi oculos meos ad videndum quod ultra me est.” The image in the mirror changed.

In the remotest, darkest, most icebound craggy mountain range imaginable, a large stone fortress stood amid the howling gale and blowing sleet. Within, a male Siren, complete with wings adorned with many gilded ornaments and a gold diamond studded crown on his head, stood and bellowed his rage, “What? They turned our little Pookie to what? For using her wand, you say?”

The imp trembled to his very soul as he knelt and replied, “Yes, Yur Majesty. From tha best tha magic grape vine anna fly onna wall say, she gotted zappteded and punished for attakina infant in a strollers. Tha rigional punishment was lifteded and thisun put in it place. Nine Hundred years, no debates or time off.”

“NO!” The king stormed, and a huge lightning bolt flashed out and slammed into a visible peak through the arched casement. The far off peak exploded violently and created a massive landslide that obscured the view through the casement.

Through another large window came a massive horde of winged creatures, all screeching louder along the way. Those who could see all knew that war had just returned to the land.

A mighty Siren, with gray hair and beard and wearing lacquered armor, flew into the throne room. “Your Majesty, your armies await. What are the battle plans?”

“General,” said the king. “My daughter has been insulted – transformed! Into an infant! For nine centuries! This shall not stand!”

“Understood, Your Majesty,” said the general. “Whom shall we attack?”

“We – we shall –” The king paused. “Imp, who cast the spell?”

“Huh?” asked the imp, who hadn’t been paying attention.

“Tell me at once who cast this curse upon my daughter, worthless cretin!” the king roared.

“Aaaa! Am sorrys Yur Majisty! There was this bird thingy … a Lang May Dong? I think?”

“A Langmeidong!” the king bellowed. “So, they declare war on my daughter, do they? Well, it shall be war upon the Langmeidong, then!” He turned to the general.

“Sire, we shall fly against the territory of the Langmeidong at once!” the general said, saluting the king.

“As I have commanded it, let it be done!” the king ordered in a fierce roar, and the general left.

I turned away from my scrying glass and said to Elnora, “Oh no! There gonna be a war now because of me!”

“Not because of you, Sweetheart,” said Elnora. “Because of the Langmeidong’s vengeance … because of the Law of Three Times Three … the only reason she’s a baby and not a xoggoth is because of your intercession with Gaia."

“I guess,” I said, “but I still wish it wasn’t happening.”

“Well, the only thing you could do would be to somehow remove the curse,” said Elnora, “and that’s a 900-year curse brought on her by the powers of magic themselves … or to somehow calm down Sherwina’s parents. Especially her dad. Talk about anger problems.”

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“In light of the hostilities going on on the other side of the world right now,” said Professor Breliand Bellitempus, who taught us Magical History, “we are going to learn about the Langmeidong today.” He went on to explain that the Kingdom of Shatterglass only knew of the Langmeidong as very large pretty blue sweet-tasting eggs, or very small very wonderfully tasting fledglings. In all the many years they had eaten the Langmeidong as a delicacy, they had been very fortunate, or perhaps well planned, and never met up with an adult.

The adults had winged feather-covered bodies and feet with a raptor’s sharp talons. They also had arms and hands that sported three inch razor sharp retractable talons that were usually kept tucked away in a pouch at their bellies.

Another art the Langmeidong had developed over the many years was the ability to make an excellent weatherproof glue and extremely powerful composite bone belly sinew backed warbows. Several of the clan had also exclusively learned how to make excellent arrows from the many apple trees that grew wild in abundance. Fletching was no problem as the entire clan would molt twice a year, and there were many who donated their flight feathers.

None of them had ever learned to knap stone due to their easy access to molten metal that oozed from a fire mountain not so far away. Many years in the past, one of the more thoughtful Langmeidong had figured out how to make a mold for spear heads and arrow heads from chiseled stone. Not only were their warbows of superior quality, so were their arrows. The fact that the bows were only 4 feet long made them easy to handle, as the Langmeidong did many of their aerobatics in combat.

Professor Bellitempus said, “It is very difficult to follow a war in real time, but with the proper spells we can at least catch glimpses of what is going on there. I warn you that what we see may be quite violent, but perhaps we can learn from it.” He used the very same spell I had used and enchanted the huge glass wall behind him for use as a scrying window. We saw an ornately-decorated throne room, the walls and columns lacquered over colorful enamel art showing mountains and trees, and scenes some of us recognized from history.

A Langmeidong scout hurried into the throne room and took a knee. He laid his warbow and full quiver in front of him and said, “Sire, I bring news most urgent. It would seem our plans to attack the realm of Shatterglass are no longer necessary.”

The king raised his eye fluffs and asked, “What would ever make me want to not attack those evil vile creatures?”

The scout looked up at the king and replied, “An entire Shatterglass war party is rapidly flying this way. From the looks of it, if we wear our flight armor, their puny inferior bows will do little damage.”

The king stood and proclaimed loudly, “To arms, my faithful! Our worst of enemies are on their way. Make sure the Glofts and the Beigers are well fed in the valley this day.”

A Langmeidong dressed in red very ornate battle armor and a short four-foot bow across his back took a knee momentarily, “Aye, my lord. We mobilize immediately.”

The huge black mass that rose from the keep looked as if a tremendous fire had broken out. Many hundreds of Langmeidong warriors flew with extreme speed towards the approaching Shatterglass hoards.

Exactly where the two armies would meet, a very dark ominous cloud began to form filled with lightning and fire and took on a slow swirling action that became swifter as it grew larger.

Over the top of one of the cliffs that had the sun behind it, came the first Langmeidong warriors. With graceful acrobatics that would put an albatross to shame they looped, swirled, flopped, and rolled through the oncoming Shatterglass Siren warriors, shooting their short bows with deadly effectiveness.

Many Sirens fell, impaled all the way through, and every now and then, two were pinned together by the seriously hard hitting bone/sinew bows that penetrated the Sirens’ armor as if it were linen.

The same could not be said for the Sirens’ arrows. Their bows were far inferior flat bows made of some kind of cured hardwood. Their arrows were of the same quality, but the Langmeidong armor was more than they could handle, as they mostly broke or bounced off on impact.

By the time many of the Siren warriors had fallen into the valley far below and become food for the large beasts that roamed there, the sky had become black as sackcloth, lit only by fierce branching arcs of lightning.

The shattering booms of thunder rolled across the valley as the swirling rapidity of the storm began producing extremely high gale force winds that had absolutely no effect of any kind on the Langmeidong warriors. The same could not be said of the Siren army as many began to be swirled away in the massive maelstrom.

Professor Bellitempus explained, “It would seem that the Langmeidong were already preparing for a war of vengeance against the Shatterglass Clan, who launched a hastily thrown together attack, and although neither seems to have anticipated this storm, it is clearly having a much more pronounced effect on the Siren force than on the Langmeidong. Why might this be?”

Ulfdan raised his hand and was recognized. “The fight’s in their territory, so maybe they know the weather better?”

“Defenders’ advantage. Quite possibly, Blackfang,” said the professor. “Any other thoughts? Freyleigh?”

Fintan had his hand up, and the professor had seen it, as small as Fintan was. He said, “The Langmeidong are obviously more agile flyers. Just look at them. Sirens can fly, but Langmeidong are just built for it.”

The professor nodded, “That is so, but that fact doesn’t answer the basic question. Glittertip?”

I had raised my hand. “The … the Law of Three Times Three,” I said, having learned a lot about it recently. “They’re acting in retribution for something that happened because of the Law. The Sirens are in the wrong. The Law is against them.”

“And that is quite clearly also a factor,” the professor explained. “That storm is quite obviously more than a natural phenomenon. Its cause probably lies in the Law of Three Times Three, as Glittertip mentioned. The Shatterglass king may be furious at what has happened to his daughter, but he should know that the Law cannot be circumvented and that he is in the wrong in this. Can anyone think of any other examples of this that we’ve studied recently?”

Hands went up, and students mentioned various other poor choices that had been made in the Early Natural Era, which we had been studying in that class. Even back then, thousands of years ago, the Law of Three Times Three had governed magic used by one against another, even though the only magic that had yet been discovered had been manipulating the very basic elemental forces of fire, wind, and water.

It seemed clear that the Siren army was soundly defeated in the battle we had observed. The Langmeidong had lost a handful of troops, but the Siren battalion had suffered near total losses, and the survivors limped back home, flying slowly. The Langmeidong didn’t pursue to continue the battle; apparently their sense of honor didn’t permit them to attack retreating foes. But they did follow, ensuring that the Siren survivors left Langmeidong territory.

Whether there would be further attacks would have to wait, because it was time for maths. Multiset theory was fascinating, but I wanted to know what would happen next, not to mention if Sherwina was all right. I mean, I was still a baby, so being a baby wasn’t that bad. Was she going to be sent back to her family, or was she going to continue to study? That would depend on whether she could.

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Math class had ended and Elnora came and checked my diaper before lifting me into her arms and carrying me off to my dorm room, which was basically my nursery now. The school Administrators agreed that I was still an infant, regardless of how far advanced I was, and that I would be on an infant’s activity schedule, which now included snack times, changing times, nap times, and regular meal times.

This was being classified as a snack/nap time. I guess this would be thought of as a baby’s study hall. Anyway, first Elnora cleaned me up and put me in a super thick diaper and a really cute and ruffly Fairy Princess romper.

I was slightly self conscious about the loud crinkles the plastic lining made, but no one seemed to pay it any more attention than how cute they thought I was.

Elnora fed me several fishsticks and chicken strips all dipped in honey mustard for my snack. Before she gave me a large bottle of strawberry flavored juice, she washed my face and hands with a warm and very soft cloth. Elnora placed me in a playpen, covered me with a blankie, propped the bottle on a pillow, then kissed me on the nose.

I was just about to be lost in an infantile dream fantasy when another infant toddler came up and plopped beside me. She said in a very cute voice, “Hi ... I Shawweeenies. Am this manys.” She held up three fingers and started sucking the thumb of the other hand.

It took me a minute to shake off the babyness I had just awakened from. I realized this extremely adorably cute toddler Siren was Sherwina. What the curse had finally stabilized into appeared to be a toddler even younger than I was. I knew Sherwina could toddle for a few steps, but, unless she was holding onto something, she would soon fall down on her thickly diapered bottom. I actually had developed the same problem and had to be extremely careful or I would fall down go boom. I’d been able to walk before, but only after causing myself a lot of stress trying to be older than I really was.

I really suddenly had a strong need to see what was happening with her father. Her father had a real problem with anger; by now it was well known. After what I had seen in the scrying wall. I was positive the King was going to do something else rash. I knew her mother been heard by a minion say she had been wondering when all of the rule breaking would catch up and how glad she was that her little dimples will be a baby again.

Sherwina giggled and said, “Ken we bees fwends? I pwomise will bea goo fwend.”

I patted her on the knee, “Yea, we bes fwends fo ebers n ebers!”

Sherwina’s eyes got big, “Weally? Baby no ever members …” A really strange expression came over her face as her eyes grew large as saucers. She held her arms out and looked down at herself. She looked around the playpen, then squeaked softly, “No. I … can’t be a baby again … I jus can’t!”

I said softly, “Relax, Sherwina. Beina baby isnt so bad. Jus think … everyone does stuffs for us. Now, I need to know what your father is doing. He has a real anger issue and striking out will only make things worse, especially if he uses magic.” I crawled over to the play center hanging on the side of the playpen and again used my scrying spell on the mirror in the center. While Sherwina watched with big eyes, I outlined the mirror with my thumbs and intoned, “Aperi oculos meos ad videndum quod ultra me est.” The image in the mirror changed.

What I saw in the image was the king of the Shatterglass clan in a total fit of rage. He had completely destroyed most of his own throne room’s foyer and taken much of the castle with it. The raging maelstrom of below freezing sleet and snow blew all through the throne room, creating huge piles of slushy snow.

The next image contained nine very bright flashes, and nine bright spheres of white light. The maelstrom seemed to vanish as the bright spheres approached the king. He immediately reacted in extreme fear, leaping quickly across several tables, only to find that the hidden door he was trying to reach was now severely obstructed by the fallen debris from his fit. He was trapped in a corner of his own making as the spheres gathered in front of him. He turned to face them, massive fear showing in his wild eyes and expression.

A small soft voice said, “Lord Crystal Goth, king of the realm of Shatterglass. If you are so arrogant as to refuse and disallow one of our judgments, then more powerful than we must you be.”

Another soft voice intoned, “Indeed, it did my spirit good to hear an infant forgive a tormentor as horrible as a Shatterglass. It was only that heartfelt infant’s plea that made us soften the judgment and remake her.”

Another voice spoke. This one was not soft and held a resonance and depth to it that brought the king to his knees. “Know this. Insignificant mortal, we, the Nine, are magic. It is we who created all magic and shared it with the lower orders, and is therefore we who determine its usage.” The other eight brightly glowing spheres of light seemed to assemble behind the ninth. “You may not subvert our judgment. Know this: we have finally determined a fitting punishment for you.”

The spheres rearranged themselves to surround him in all directions, and the voice said, “We remove from you the gift of magic.”

“What? Nooooooo …” cried the king as streams of energy left his body, drawn into the glowing spheres. His body changed from that of a Siren into nothing more than a Human, and not even a gifted one such as a wizard or shaman. His wings were gone, as were the talons that were now hands. He collapsed to the ground.

“Our punishment is complete,” said the voice. “There will be no need to punish you again, as the seed of magic cannot take root within your heart. You will live the rest of a Human lifespan and die a Human. There is no appeal, no reversal. Accept it, or not; that makes no difference to us and will not change your fate.” The nine orbs flared up in brightness and were gone.

“A … a Human?” the king said. “I … cannot … live like this …” He staggered out of the remains of the throne room. He tried to summon the winds and snows, but absolutely nothing happened. He felt a chill and tried to wrap the tatters of his royal robes around himself. He staggered down a hallway and out of sight.

I said to Sherwina, “Ooo, wow. Never make the primal forces of magic mad at you.”

“I not do it,” said Sherwina. “Nebber again. I ‘member.”

I told her, “They said you gonna be a baby for 900 years. I dunno what happens then. I guess you start to grow up after that. But that is longer than a Siren usually lives, I think. A lot longer. That’s about as long as a Gnome usually lives.”

“I hope my Daddy gonna be OK,” said Sherwina. “He get mad a lot. But he only get mad ‘cause he love me. No wanted me to be cursed.”

“We can check on him if you want,” I said. “We are at magic school. You’re supposed to learn magic. Like that scrying spell. If you learn it you can look in on him whenever you want.”

“Can you teach it to me?” she asked.

“I can try,” I said. “It depends on how much the curse limits your magical abilities. There’s also spells to transport you home but I haven’t learned them yet. Elnora knows one, I know.”

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Fortunately Sherwina’s magical abilities didn’t seem too badly limited. I wasn’t an expert on Sirens, but it seemed to me that she’d probably be able to learn about as much magic as any average Siren over time, and more if she wanted to apply herself. In 900 years she could be the most magically talented baby Siren there ever was.

I didn’t voice my worry, which was the other possibility of what might happen when the curse ended, 900 years from now. She might simply age to 900 instantly, which for a Siren meant being long dead. She’d crumble into dust. I didn’t think the powers of magic would do that to her, but I could be wrong, and that worried me. Once I learned enough Divination I’d try to find out. Then at least we’d know.

The next week the school contacted my parents and decided that they’d put me through tests to figure out exactly what level of classes I should be taking in all areas. Now that I was actually being treated as a baby, there was no need for me to pretend I was an ordinary student.

“Oh, hey, it’s the baby Gnome,” said Khaeron Stonehoof as Elnora carried me to my Evocation class. Nothing happened to him; he was just stating a fact. “I guess Sherwina’s joined you in the playpen. Well, I’m not risking it, but I want you to know you aren’t better than the rest of us.”

“Don’t bother,” Elnora whispered to me.

But I responded, “I’m not royalty or anything.” It was true. There was a Gnome royal family, and my family wasn’t even distantly related. I had a fourth cousin once removed who was a Marquis, and that’s as close as we Glittertips got. “Sherwina is, but I’m not. I’ve got talents, and I bet you do too, if you’d spend your time looking for them instead of wasting it trying to tear others down. If you think I’m thinking I’m better than you, I’m not. I just don’t sit around worrying about who’s better.”

Elnora carried me away then, before he could say anything, and as she did she whispered, “Although what you said was wise, I doubt he’ll listen or change. Let’s get you to your test.”

Evocation is of course the control of magical energies such as fire, ice, air, sound, lightning, and so forth. The test had both theoretical and practical elements. Let’s just say it’s a good thing the testing room was reinforced with evocation in mind. I was placed in a fourth-year Evocation class. I’d tested very well.

And that was when the Langmeidong from the Zoological Garden chose to visit the school.

“The Siren,” she was croaking as Elnora carried me down the hallway, past the school’s entrance atrium. “I must speak with her.” Professor Grinnich was holding her off. She looked … unwell. “My blood burns in my veins. I cannot rest.”

“Madam,” said the professor, “you attempted to cast a powerful curse. Of course it rebounded upon you. Such is the Law. It matters not that you were taking rightful vengeance for what the Shatterglass Sirens had done to your people. Magic does not allow itself to be used in that way. It is for constructive and defensive purposes only.”

“I know that! …” the Langmeidong replied in a voice laced with anguish. “I know it so very well now …” I caught a glimpse of her face. She was beautiful, but now her veins were visible beneath her skin like lines of glowing orange fire. Had the curse turned her blood to molten lava? Was that what she’d tried to do to Sherwina? “My only hope lies in seeking the Siren’s forgiveness …”

“Oh dear,” said Elnora to me in a whisper as she tried to swiftly carry me away. “I doubt even that would help. The poor creature.”

“You!” cried the Langmeidong in my direction. “You’re the Gnome who was there that day! I remember you, the Gnome with the childcare spirit! Where is the Siren?”

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The Langmeidong followed as Elnora carried me down the hall to the nursery for my scheduled play break. All along the way, the Langmeidong whimpered and whined pitifully as she begged us to allow her an opportunity to apologize to the Siren.

Elnora carried me to the padded play area and checked my diaper before she sat me next to Sherwina. The Langmeidong broke off in mid whine as she realized who the baby Siren was.

The Langmeidong came to Sherwina and knelt supplicatingly in front of her, causing Sherwina to giggle a little. Unfazed, the Langmeidong begged for forgiveness for her rash attempted act of retaliation. “Siren … Princess Shatterglass … I have been cursed by the Law, for I attempted to exact retribution. Yes, your people have wronged mine, but I know now that revenge would have served no purpose other than to cause more harm.”

Sherwina giggled, placed one of her infantile hands on the Langmeidong’s head, and said, “Silly birdie. Baby forgiveded ya.”

To everyone’s surprise, there was a huge white flash, and where the adult Langmeidong had been standing there was now an adorably cute little Langmeidong chick.

I had heard the voices of the Nine, so it was unsurprising to me when a similar-sounding voice resonated through the room, though I couldn’t sense its source. In an ephemeral, soul-rattling tone that hadn’t really come across when I’d heard it via the scrying mirror, it said, “The judgment was passed and approved long ago; however, in light of this act of forgiveness, it can be reverted to another, less severe form. As the Siren is, so shall you be. Nine hundred years is the verdict. You shall be her companion and cuddle pet. No arguments, no other reprieves or any possibility of a parole.”

The voice ceased with the finality of a judge’s gavel. Apparently the case was now closed. I could tell instantly that Sherwina and her new cuddle pet were going to get along famously as I watched the two of them interact in a very cute way. “Cuddle pet?” said the baby Siren, crawling to the Langmeidong chick.

“I guess it ok,” peeped the chick as Sherwina grabbed her with her chubby baby arms, which had only fuzz on them and no feathers yet.

Professor Lillianne La Branche had been the one who had set up the nursery room once there were two baby students at the school. “Well,” she said as she approached, “it appears we have three babies now. Hmm.”

Elnora sidled over to her and said, “I’m not allowed to make any specific suggestions, but there are things you could do.”

Professor La Branche looked at her and raised her eyebrows. “You’re right, Elnora. You’re certainly right.” She was, after all, the Summoning instructor.

It had been sort of hard on me, because Professor La Branche had asked me to keep an eye on Sherwina for those times when her mind slipped fully into infancy. I could relate to that … it happened to me a lot. But then Professor La Branche started a new summoning ritual. I knew exactly what she was doing; the circle she drew on the floor was one I’d drawn myself, and the incantations were exactly ones I’d performed not that long ago. But there were slight variations, because of course the professor wasn’t summoning a Nana Spirit to take care of herself …

“You have called, and I have come,” said a beautiful green-haired woman, materializing seemingly out of thin air in the center of the summoning circle. Her multi-layered diaphanous attire shimmered in the nursery’s magical lights. “Where are the little ones in need of my care?”

“This Siren and this Langmeidong, O Spirit of Childcare,” said Professor La Branche. “In their past lives they made poor choices and were cursed by the Law, but forgiveness has granted them a second chance. But it will be 900 years before they will be allowed to grow up again.” She explained the story of what had happened.

“I see,” said the new Nana Spirit, smiling. “900 years is but a short time for one such as I. They will have the best of care and protection.”

“So let it be,” said the professor, releasing the circle with a tap of her foot. “What may we call you?”

“Please, call me Aspasia,” said the spirit, who then noticed Elnora in the room. “Ah, Elnora, we meet again. So this young Gnome is your charge today. Quite adorable.”

“I am fond of her,” Elnora said, smiling down at me. I smiled back up. “I may not let her grow up.” She whispered to me, “Don’t worry. I’m not actually allowed to do that.”

“But let me meet you two,” said Aspasia, smiling and kneeling down to talk to Sherwina and the Langmeidong. “I’m going to be your Nana.”

Sherwina had been deemed capable of continuing in her studies, although her class schedule had been modified to be more compatible with a toddler than her original schedule. Also, special arrangements would have to be made for her extremely rare and special cuddle pet, none other than a real live infant Langmeidong chick, complete with the fuzz feathers the young were known for.

And this was only the beginning of my time at the Trueheart School. You can’t even imagine all the adventures I’d have before I graduated.

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