KLEO:
Kleo finished lighting the candles around the classroom that they had checked out for their study group. Technically, spellwork wasn’t allowed and, usually, Kleo was someone who followed the rules but--well, where else were they supposed to attempt this?
They weren’t doing anything too dangerous. If this worked, they’d be pulling a pen that could become a sword from the book that was laid out in the center of the table. Nothing too big. Or even dangerous.
And it was going to work. Kleo was sure of it.
The final candle was lit and Kleo rejoined everyone at the circular table in the middle of the room. On it, five jars of memories faded in and out, like they were breathing. They were nothing more than smoke, but if you looked carefully, you could catch flashes of that strange, Grecian world. The one where Linnet had been her sister. Strange. Untrue.
“Okay, are we all ready?” she asked as she took up her place in front of her jar and reached to take the hands of those standing next to her, closing the circle.
In which the Magnifiques confront Magnifico...[takes place: May 2]
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AMITY:
Amity’s heart roared with nerves yet her chest still felt hollow like each beat was the echo of the real thing without her second heart alongside it. For a long time now, she’d gotten used to the strange emptiness. She had even enjoyed it. She was calmer and more focused. It hadn’t hurt to think about the Boiling Isles, her parents, her siblings, or her loneliness.
But she wasn’t alone. She had the Magnifiques and they had a mission. She just had to suppress her nerves a little longer, long enough to lure Magnifico into their trap. And if the spell worked…
It had to work. Or else Swynlake would cease to be Swynlake and Amity would lose the first place that had actually accepted her. The closest thing she had to a home.
“They told me to meet them in the observatory,” she told Magnifico. They walked up the winding stone staircase. “Did you want me to go in first?”
please see below the cut for links to all paras associated with this plot and summaries of all paras…
Multiple Threads Throughout the Summer/Spring Semester
Magnifico creates a summer class to decide who will be part of his special year long class to help him do research for the upcoming final installment of his beloved series, A Plot of Wishes and Words. What they don’t know is that he is not Salvador Sanchez, the author, but King Magnifico--the antagonist of the series--who was spelled out of the book and killed Salvador to assume his identity.
Amity, Ariel, Devyn, Giselle, and Kleopatra are chosen to become the students who will attend his exclusive year-long research class to help him make it “realistic” when pulling magic from the book within the book…
Throughout the first semester, the Magnifiques, as they take to calling themselves, begin to bond and do research together. They become very close and their other friends start to take notice…
The Tale of the Haunted BOOOOOOOOk [The Magnifiques][Halloween]
The Magnifiques try to find a book in the restricted section of the library, breaking in while everyone else is celebrating Halloween. When they are caught, they say that Professor Sal told them to fetch the book. He vouches for them.
Someone Praise Me for my Benevolence [Magnifico and the Magnifiques] [January]
In which Magnifico checks in with the Magnifiques about their research project. He explains he is unhappy with their progress and tells them he expects more of them. Chastised, the Magnifiques double down on their research efforts.
After being chastised, they meet for a brainstorming session where they realize that their shared dreams could be a place to pull magic out of a book from. They decide to attempt this using their most recent dream: Percy Jackson.
A Simple Solution [Magnifico + Kleopatra]
After unrest in the Boiling Isles, Kleopatra’s mother wants her to come home…she decides to ask Magnifico for help and finds out that he is a price sorcerer. She makes a deal with him…
The Maze of the Minotaur [The Magnifiques + Magnifico][February]
They attempt to pull a pen out of the Percy Jackson books, but instead, a minotaur appears and chases them. Magnifico appears at the last minute to save them…and compliment them on a job well done!
And A Prince I am Hoping Comes with This [Magnifico + Giselle][February]
Giselle, after talking to Kleopatra, about her deal, decides to make a deal of her own…
The Plot Thickens [The Magnifiques] [March]
After pulling the Minotaur out of the Percy Jackson series, they realize in order to control the magic, they must write their own story…
The Final Assignment [Magnifico + The Magnifiques][March]
After they summon the minotaur and explain their process to Magnifico, he assigns them their final assignment: to write the ending to a Plot of Wishes and Words…one where Magnifico wins and is the hero instead of the antagonist…
A Wish Your Heart Makes [Magnifico + Amity][March]
After their new assignment from Magnifico, Amity decides to make a deal…
I’m Wishing (For the Ones I Love) [Magnifico + Devyn][April]
After a fight with their family, Devyn makes the decision to make a deal…
ARIEL’S WISH [Magnifico + Ariel][April]
After everyone else has made a deal with Magnifico, Ariel decides to do so as well...
Cliffhanger… [Magnifico Self Para][May 01]
Using the Magnifiques final assignment, their inspiration, and their spell--Magnifico brings everyone in Swynlake into the world of Rosas.
Open the Book [The Magnifiques + Magnifico][May 01]
Once inside Rosas, Magnifico reveals himself to the Magnifiques, offering them a spot on his court, but it does not go as he planned…
Ah, Rosas. How he had missed it. His fine clothes, his jewels, his wife. All these pretty, familiar things were back with him and he was so glad. While there was certainly things in that other world that he appreciated (social media, hello?!) -- now that he had brought the town into the story, they could create it. Surely someone in that stupid town understood how the internet worked! Could get them cell phones. And if not, Magnifico would discover a different, more magical way of doing things.
Maybe that was the way to go anyway…
What was he talking about?
“Ah, my Magnifiques,” Magnifico purred as his students filed into the classroom. He had found their choice of nickname hilarious, considering. They hadn’t even known. But oh, they were smart. There had, probably, been some part of them that realized it.
“Please, sit. I am sure you have many questions but let me answer a few from the start: yes, Salvador was just a facade.” No point getting into the whole “murdered and stole his identity thing.” That was a messy business, Magnifico did not want to talk about it. “You can refer to me as King Magnifico, or Your Majesty. Unfortunately, we can no longer go by an affectionate nickname. It would undermine me to my subjects, you see. But don’t fret, you five still hold a special place in my heart.”
He put both his hands over his chest and smiled softly at them. “After all, you helped make all of this happen.” He spread his arms out to gesture, abstractly, at all of Rosas.
AMITY:
Amity’s head felt like it was filled with broken glass.
The feeling had started as a weird fuzz around her face during Professor Sanchez’s speech as if her ears were stuffed with cotton. Then, her heart rate had steadily risen as the rest of her muscles became leaden and heavy. She had clenched her fists, digging her fingernails deep into her palms, unable to uncurl them. By the end of it, she couldn’t tell what Professor Sanchez had said at all. But the details didn’t matter.
The point was– he thought they were failing him. Half a semester, wasted. He was losing faith.
And Amity couldn’t lose this.
So she sprung into action, booked the study room, and told everyone to be there during the appointed time. No time to panic. They could still fix this, they could turn it around– they just needed a plan.
Now all the Magnifiques were assembled. Amity hadn’t sat down. She was gnawing on the side of her thumb, staring at a whiteboard she’d brought into the study room.
“We need ideas,” she said. “Any ideas– all ideas. Good ideas.”
MAGNIFICO:
Things were not going as planned, which was making Magnifico impatient.
There was a reason he had come to a specifically magical town, with a specifically magical college. Yale had had brilliant scholars, but they were almost too smart. They got hung up on hypotheticals. They weren’t creative enough. They weren’t magic enough. So, Magnifico had changed tactics.
Magical problems needed magical solutions.
So, as the Magnifiques (it was very cute they were calling themselves that, they didn’t even realize! Sweet things), filed in for their first day back at school after the winter holidays, Magnifico sat in one of the chairs in their small classroom, his lips pursed. A magical fire was crackling in the hearth, the room full of a few plush chairs and a small round table. There was a window with frost clinging to the edges.
“Sit down,” Magnifico gestured, waiting for the kids to get settled before he leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I hope you all had a good, restful holiday. We are going to need to have rested up for this semester. We are coming up on our deadline with little progress.”
AMITY BLIGHT:
In the restricted section of Pride University’s Library at the top floor, there were a ton of magically inclined books. Some of those tomes were grimoires donated by well-respected scholarly witches and wizards. Some were travel accounts about magical creatures from around the world. And others might not have magical content themselves but were enchanted– spells that made the books speak their content out loud, conjure pictures, or even, it was rumored, take hold of a person’s mind.
Apparently, one of those books was a diary of a witch who had claimed to have invented a spell that let her travel into a book. No one knew if her stories were true– in fact, loads of people called her a fraud. But for the purpose of Professor Sal’s class, Amity knew they had to get a hold of that diary and explore the witch’s story for herself.
And look, she’d tried to go through the proper channels. She asked if she could visit the section with supervision during the appropriate hours. But that specific diary was off-off limits. The librarians refused to say why. It was ‘confidential information’ that only the archivists were privy to.
Sketchy as fuck if you asked Amity.
But it wouldn’t stop her.
So– what else was there to do but break in? Amity had run the idea past Ariel first– she seemed to have guts. Then together, they proposed the idea to Kleo, who agreed that they had to get a hold of it somehow. So they’d go after hours and use spellwork to cloak themselves. Somehow the idea got around to Dev and Giselle (ugh) too– well, Ariel told Dev who told Giselle (ugh) so yeah, yeah whatever– as long as Amity got the book, she didn’t care.
So here they all were, huddled in the shadows of the library.
“Okay everyone, give me your hands– I’ll draw on our cloaking rune,” she said. Kleo would help too.
