[M] The Grand Adventures of Liz and Roxanna! IC (Mary/Wattz)

[Mary Sue]

Quote Wattz: RATED M FOR GORE AND SWEARING AND STUFF!

Liz crouched on the roof of a busy bank, in one of Fortuna Mar's upper rings. The raging wind whipped her hair against her face, and she kept having to push it aside to get a clear view through the skylight of the building.

"Two guards... Means they've got to have an alarm system...and probably a magic detector. Hmm..."

She adjusted her glasses, and pulled a ratty old book out of the bag on her waist. She held it in one palm, and waved her hand over it as she muttered a spell under her breath. The book flew open and the pages flipped wildly, but landed on two blank pages.

"Tch!" Liz breathed and snapped the book shut. She tucked it away and stood, and turned to look at the Magi Tower, the home of the Inner Circle. In just days, Elize Grimoire would stand in front of the Grand Mages and showcase her magical talent. If she passed the rite, she would become an apprentice and one day would watch as young witches and wizards performed before her. But for now...

The bell towers across the city tolled and Liz nearly jumped out of her skin. Holy crap! It was noon! She was late.... AGAIN!

"Crystal balls!" She groaned, and muttered another spell under her breath. She then jumped off the roof of the building...

...and gently glided to the ground.

"Nice feather weight spell," came a very familiar voice.

Liz's blood turned cold and she turned around to stare into the face of Greylin Weldric, in all his guard-like glory.

"H-hey, Greyline!" Liz replied. Greylin smiled.
"Running on rooftops again? You should probably practice more than the basic spells," He said.

He's such a clueless boy... Liz thought as relief flooded her body. She smiled.
"Yeah, well... I can't do that if you keep making me late for class!" She said with a wink, and danced around Greylin until she was clear enough to take off running.

Her heart was still pounding in her chest, both from her close call with Greylin and her run across the city, when she threw open the door to her Grandmother's house and flew inside.

"I'M HERE! SORRY I'M LATE!" She said. Nabilla Grimoire turned from her spot in front of her black board and glared at her grand daughter. Liz froze and shivered, then pouted her lips.
"Again..." She added meekly.

"Take your seat, Elize. I'm very busy and we can't always afford to wait for you," she said, and gestured to the large mahogany table that had two chairs. One of the chairs was already occupied, so Liz sank into the empty one, and nudged the girl next to her in the side.

"I found our next hang out," she whispered. For them, the term "hang out" was a safe word for "target". She winked at the girl, and narrowly dodged an angrily thrown "punishment stone" Nabilla liked to keep on hand specifically for Elize.

Not that she was strict or abusive! But nothing else quite got Liz's attention like a flying object!

"Now as I was saying," Nabilla continued, "When you go through your rite, you must do so alone, while the Grand Mages observe you. You can only showcase one spell, so you'd do wise to choose something you're confident doing. However, basic spells cannot be used. So no feather weight spells, Elize."

Liz rolled her eyes and kicked her chair onto it's hind two legs.
"I know. I know. I've been practicing! I swear!" She lied.

[Wattz]

Ah, yes, Liz was late. This was no surprise, not at all, for she always had been a bit flakey. But when she leaned over and whispered to Roxanna about their next… “hang out.”

“I think our current hang out serves us well enough,” Roxanna leaned over and whispered after Ms. Grimoire was done berating Liz. “Don’t you think we should just… settle there?”

She was tired of all this thieving business. Sure, she promised to help Liz once, then twice, but now it was simply getting out of hand. What reason did they hand to steal? Didn’t they already have everything they needed?

“The current ‘hang out’ is all we need. She's right, you need to just focus on practicing."

[Mary Sue]

(It's Liz. Not Liv. lol ))

Liz frowned. She felt disappointed in Roxanna. Hadn't she learned anything at all from her? If they continued to steal from the same places to often, the magic detectors would start picking up traces of Elize's magic. Which could lead to them getting caught.

Luckily, it hadn't happened yet. Elize Grimoire's magical prowess laid in her ability to cast illusions. In fact, she was just beginning to work out how to drag her illusions into reality which was nearly unheard of for illusion mages. Illusion magic suited Liz and Roxy in their thieving business in that it was incredibly hard to detect, even with magic detecting systems. They could get in and out of a bank or a museum and register as human on the magic detectors' radar. And if witches could never be suspected, then they had nothing to worry about! But it was possible for traces of illusion magic to linger, and if they continued to steal from the same places, it would only be a matter of time before they were caught.

"I think you'd like this one...." Liz whispered, and as her Grandmother ordered them to pull out their potions kits, she added, "But we can talk about it later..."

After their lessons ended for the day, Elize and Roxanna found themselves walking the busy streets of Fortuna Mar's marketplace.
"So the next target I picked out, is the Corinthian Bank of Fortuna Mar's upper west district. From what I gathered, they have three security gaurds making eight hour rounds. Between them is a period of ten minutes each. I'm assuming they'll have an alarm system of some kind then, as well as a magic detector...." Elize stopped when she saw the look on her friend's face.

"Roxy? What's wrong? You're weirding me out...seriously."

[Wattz]

"Well I mean..." Roxanna was having the worst time trying to express how she was feeling to Liz. She always had the hardest time saying 'no' to Liz, but this time she felt things were going too far. Stealing from a major bank now? Illusion magic or not, there were witches far more powerful than the two of them combined. As far as Roxanna was concerned, there was no point in any of this thievery.

"Well, Liz, I mean, we've been doing this for a while now. Don't you think we should... stop or something? That money belongs to other people, and I think we've been doing pretty well with what we have. I mean, it's not like you're hard-pressed for cash nowadays."

Roxanna didn't look at Liz because she knew the answer would be "no," so she just kept her head down at the floor. "I mean, I just don't think I like it as much as you do." She was always nervous about it, always felt anxious, and after every job Roxanna felt as if she was going to be sick. because in the end... "They'll find us sooner or later."

[Mary Sue]

Liz crossed her arms and kicked a stone at her feet.

It was becoming increasingly more difficult, Liz wouldn't lie. But it was part of the thing she loved about it. She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, opened it again and raised a finger, closed it again, then sighed.

"Look, Roxy, I..." She started and bit her lip. She sighed again. "Nevermind." Her reply was sharp and pouty.

"You don't have to do it anymore." She picked up her pace. "I CAN DO IT MYSELF!" Liz jumped and flew into the air. She landed on the roof of a house across the market and jumped again, vanishing from view.



As moonlight filtered into Elize's room that night, the occassional flash of light attempted to drive it back. Sweat beaded on Elize's forehead, but after hours of practice she had only managed to make half of her illusion come into reality. The illusion cat circled the floor in front of Elize and she felt it's fluffy tail as it brushed against her but nothing else. The witch collasped onto the bed exhausted and with a wave of her hand the cat disappeared.

"Why must it be so difficult? It's not technically summoning..." She muttered to herself. Absently, she played with the pony tail at the top of her head.

"UGH! WHY CAN'T I GET IT RIGHT!?"

"Elize Nadia Grimoire!" Came her mother's voice from the floor below. "GO TO BED!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Two days later, Elize had cooled off and was combing the streets to find Roxy and appologise. Only, she couldn't find her anywhere.

As she was checking around the market, Greylin walked passed with a group of gaurds. He sighed and crossed his arms.
"I'm going to get you a calendar one of these days," He said.
"I have three," Elize replied. "Have you seen Roxy?"

Greylin jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Magi Tower.
"Today's the day of the rite," he said. Elize palmed her face and let out a cry of frustration.

"Not....AGAAAAAAAIIIIINNNNNN!!!!!" She cried as she took off running for the tower.

Greylin watched her go and shook his head.
"Let's go, men," he said.

Elize threw open the doors of the Magi Tower and ran up to the registration table.
"MY NAME'S ELIZE NADIA GRIMOIRE REPORTING FOR MY RITE!" She said a bit too loud in the face of the registrar. The man massaged his ears and handed Elize a numbered slip of paper.

"You go after five others," He said.

[Wattz]

Roxanna could hardly sleep that night. She couldn't stop thinking of the look on Liz's face when she turned around and bound off on the rooftops. Liz had always been a fiery one, and was always making Roxanna feel guilty about something or other. She tried to be stubborn in the face of Liz, but she was one person that was very difficult to say 'no' to. The girl paced around her room, reading books, practicing magic, and ultimately deciding over and over again that tomorrow upon seeing Liz she would not utter a word to her friend. The cold shoulder ought to do the trick. Besides, if Liz really cared, surely she would speak first.

Unfortunately, this small fantasy of Roxanna's did not occur.

Liz came bursting into registration so loudly she practically shook the walls. Roxanna was already waiting, having registered quite early, punctual as ever. Roxanna stared forward, trying not to look at Liz, ignoring her even as she came into the line. She wasn't sure if it was judgement she felt emanating from her friend. Anger, maybe? Was she still mad? Maybe she was feeling guilty. Yes, yes, of course, Liz was feeling very guilty and was going to apologize thank you very much and all would be well.

So surely, saying something wouldn't hurt.

So much for her previous plans.

"You're late."

[Mary Sue]

Liz bent double in line with the other wizards, huffing an wheezing quite unattarctively.

"You're late."

Roxanna's voice caused Liz to jump and she looked up at her friend. She couldn't stop the big, stupid grin than crossed her face and flashed her pearly whites to Roxy.

"I was looking for you, checked all the usual haunts and everything. Sorry about before. I kind of lost my cool," Liz rubbed the back of her sweaty head and mussed up her hair in the process. She didn't seem to notice.
"Good luck today, Roxy! I know you'll do great!" She gave Roxy the peace sign, then the line straightened out, and short little Liz disappeared under the height of a tall wizard in front of her.

An old woman stood at the front of the line, holding a clipboard.
"When you're name is called, you will pass through these doors, and perform one spell of your choosing before the council. The rules have already been laid out before you came in today. The spell must be from the intermediate or advanced levels. The council will then judge how well you executed your spell and tell you if you have passed. Fail, and you may come back next year," She said and pushed her glasses up her nose before calling out the first name.

"Silas Wormwort."

And the day of the Rite had officially begun.