Enchantress

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{The moons that obit most planets are small planets themselves, tiny dead planetesimals that reflect the light of the sun thereby giving their planets below the different moon phases. The moon that orbits the discworld is actually a failed micro star. Like the sun that orbits the discworld, the moon generates its own light caused by its passing through the magical field around the discworld. The moon and the sun are roughly the same size, the sun was more efficient in using the magical field to generate yellow light so the sun's light is more in tune with the rainbow of natural hydrogen based stars while the moon's light is closely in tune with a very inexpensive LED bulb.}

Octavia opened the door to their bookstore by the bluish light of the moon and found a few notes from the locals requesting specific titles. Nick will find them for his customers, it's like the people of the village know that Nick and Octavia have access to every book ever printed and quite a few that haven't been written yet. She laid the notes on his desk then set the velum in the out box for Bruce Dinkum. There were two sheets that had spells on them and they were ready to cast, one was marked "For my darling Octavia, open when we're together." The other one was marked The Rite of Prose Mino; she reviewed that spell and realized that Nick was right, they ran from side to side of the Discworld to gather up that spell and it reads like sentimental gibberish. It had better work.

She looked around the bookstore one last time, her nervous breathing shuddered in her chest, what was she waiting for? She looked out the door window one last time and saw no one approaching so she locked the door and headed back for the stacks. She paused in the narrow aisle and looked back at the dusty little store that they both fell so in love with and sniffed back a sob. It probably wouldn't have worked out anyhow... and she was gone.

The trip through L-Space was difficult, the aisles that led to Krull were tight and filled with rolled up scrolls which caused her to wonder if she took a wrong turn and was heading backward in time, but she checked a scroll in the Keluaran Baharu {New Releases} section and one of the scrolls was dated The Year of the Constipated Geode, which was just two years ago. She shrugged and put it back and squeezed through the aisles until she came to the Library of the Grand Observatory of Krull.

She expected the library to be completely empty because she arrived at midnight, but all the royal Astro-zoologists and Proto-diluvian theorists along with wizards from all over the disc were awake and gathered in the auditorium some were in pajamas, some were in robes but all were in an uproar. Someone was lecturing, she couldn't see who, but she could hear the gruff voice.

"This leviathan is the Pétra Trógon Vasiliás, the Rock Eater King." Suddenly every one of Octavia's nightmares appeared at the head of the auditorium. A monstrous winged worm with a maw that could swallow a world, relatively tiny eyes ringed an opening surrounded by rows of teeth that were longer than she was tall ringed the mouth. The beast that her mind could only describe as animated hate glared at her, and she saw that it had no throat, just a round opening that went deeper and deeper into the depths of hell, surrounded by ever more rows of teeth. It was a world eating machine, each circular row of teeth sheared off a layer of the asteroid, moon, or planet that it ate. It looked at her and roared a terrifying call to battle and the thought of those precious baby world turtles being shredded by this hell spawn monster filled her with sorrow and dread.

It's wings unfolded and it bellowed flames directly at Octavia. There was a huge outcry of terror from the wizards and Octavia joined them in her shriek of terror, then suddenly it froze in its attack position even the flames froze. And then the cries of horror stopped and the great minds of the entire disc started to chuckle, then applaud.

"DON'T LAUGH!" came the narrators voice again. "If Pétra Trógon Vasiliás consumes two of the immature world turtles following us, it will absorb enough nutritional and magical energy to threaten our disc. If it eats all eight, IT WILL BE ABLE TO SWALLOW US WHOLE!"

Many of the wizards and Proto-diluvian theorists began to harumph {in unison which multiplies the audacity of the harumph} but the nightmare up on the stage swallowed up its flames and pointed to an Astro-zoologist and the announcer said, "Doctor Stoat?"

The Astro-zoologist walked up to the megaphone stand to speak and Octavia noticed for the first time that the megaphone stand was manned by a dog. A familiar looking wire haired terrier was sitting on a box looking into the cone of a megaphone, from the narrow end. {A sketch artist covering the meeting for The Ankh-Morpork Times sold signed prints of his drawing titled "Echoing His Master's Voice"} The scholar stepped up to the megaphone, a huge cone mounted on an upright pole and said, "Thank you Doctor Stein."

"Don't mention it," said Gaspode.

Gaspode? Octavia couldn't believe it. Gaspode hopped off stage and made his way to Octavia and he sat down next to her. "Doctor Stein?" she asked.

"Don't be silly, Doctor Stein is either you or your husband. I'm your brother-in-law Gaspode W. Stein."

"What does the W stand for?"

"Wonder-dog."

"What is going on here?" she hissed.

"Nick is showing them what we are up against and I'm providing the color commentary."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked in her firmest librarian whisper.

"They were not going to let you walk out on Tähelepanek Point and cast a spell," whispered Gaspode. "When Rincewind and Twoflower screwed that pooch, Krull has cracked down on everything from research to magical intervention. We had to wake them up to the danger we're in. Now the damn thing is so big we may be screwed anyhow."

On the stage the Astro-zoologist, Dr. Stoat was explaining the growth of Pétra Trógon Vasiliás, the planet eater. "Vhen ve first saw ze Pétra Trógon Vasiliás it vas relatifly schmall, but now after eatink several schmall moonz und asteroits, it is now zis tzize."

The planet eater on stage suddenly expanded to three times its original size, terrifying the assembled men of magic and pseudo-science. "It iz now a threat to ze disch vorld, turtle, und elephantz. Zank you Doktor Schtein."

The planet eating nightmare suddenly shrank down to Nick. "Thank you Doctor Stoat," said Nick. "This is not my work, tracking this beast has been an ongoing job of the Astro Chelys department of the University at Krull. I believe our best and only hope is to release the infants into the Nebula where they can hide and be safe from the rock-eater." He pointed to a man in the front who asked a question that Octavia couldn't hear. "Good question, maybe my wife can answer that. Honey?"

The audience turned to the back and saw Octavia standing in the back wearing her enchantress robes. She wore them as a distraction for the occasional nay-sayer, she didn't realize that she would be in an auditorium full of men who were now regretting their vow of chastity.

Nick looked and saw his wife standing naked in the back of the auditorium. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and his hands began to tremble as she walked towards him, he could see her bobbling breasts, her swaying hips, her nipples growing hard as she grew close. He could see the collar of her robes and the hem of them down by her ankles, a fabric hoop attached to nothing, and the thigh high black stockings added to his overall agony.

Octavia could feel Nicks eyes on her as she walked through the crowd, she could ignore their hungry eyes, but she couldn't ignore their voices as they gasped in shock, "Enchantress!"

She felt a large, soft hand take hers and she looked and there was her dad, leading her up to the podium. "Daddy?"

"Ook."

He led her up to Nick and placed her hand in Nicks then returned to the crowd. "He was reading our project notes," she whispered to Nick, "he joined the UU team that is studying this."

"Doctor Stein, what is the process of the rite of Prose Mino?"

"The rite of the Prose Mino is a spell that I intend to cast from Tähelepanek Point as soon as I can, the released young world turtles will dive for the nebula where they will be safe from the planet eater."

"It won't follow them into the nebula?"

"No, the nebula is a dust cloud, it will clog the respiratory tracts of the planet eater and kill it. The planet eater "Breathes" the inner stellar dust, which is very rarified, but the dust inside a nebula is far too compact, in essence it will drown."

A wizard asked, "The Rite of Prose Mino is a lost spell, how did you recover it?"

"We tracked it down in several libraries," said Nick. "The worlds three wizard educational institutions came together to train us and equip us with the knowledge and velum we needed to get the spell ready to cast."

"You found some thaumatin velum?" a shocked wizard asked.

"Found? No," said Octavia. Then wrapping herself around Nicks arm she said, "My husband and I made a hundred and fifty sheets last night."

The auditorium went wild with laughter, they couldn't believe she said something as preposterous as that! "What's so funny?" asked Octavia.

"It's a bit of a secret but the proper way to create thaumatin velum involves marital relations between a wizard and spouse."

"Correct," said Octavia with a saucy smile.

"But that would violate his oath of celibacy!"

"But witches don't take an oath of celibacy," insisted Nick.

"I'M the wizard," insisted Octavia taking Mesquite in her hands as a staff.

Again, the auditorium erupted in pandemonium until the Librarian shouted, "OOK!"

"I wish someone explained it like that the first time!" complained a miffed wizard, but by that time Nick, Octavia and Gaspode were gone.

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Tähelepanek Point

Tähelepanek Point is the one point on the circumference of the discworld where the landmass extends out past the rim, it's the only point where all three marvels of creation can be seen by the inhabitants of the discworld. One can see the circumference of the disk stretching off widdershins and the marvelous rimfall, the incredible waterfall that surrounds the rim. If one is brave, he can look down and see evidence of Great T'Phon, the mightiest of the four world bearing elephants. One can see his trunk far below, occasionally an ear flap is seen by observers to the celebration of all. {The last observed EFE {{Ear Flap Event}} was recorded Grune 5, Year of the Recalcitrant Armadillo} And below that, so far away that optics are needed, A'Tuin's tail is always in view.

Widdershins {counterclockwise} from Tähelepanek Point was the Great Balsamic Nebula, a giant wall made of dust and hydrogen gas, softly glowed an odd, depressing shade of mauve. No one knows if the plan will work, but hopefully that cloud is poison to a planet eating worm.

It was cold on top of Tähelepanek Point, and the only thing keeping them from a long boring fall into hell was a wooden post fence. Nick took Octavia into his arms for the first time in hours and there on the cold windy peak they kissed long and passionately. The work was over, the pain is done, forgive, forget, say the spell and go home to Creel Springs. "What? You're smiling," she said.

I just thought of going home," said Nick. "Home - I've never had a use for that word, my home was a pile of rubble, but right now the thought of our home makes the word so powerful. I want to say it again and again with you, forever and ever."

"Me too," said Octavia. "What a delicious word!" she said as she nibbled his ear lobe.

It's said that a wizard knows how and when he is going to die, and so does a witch but for them that's an acquired knowledge, when you start subtracting all the aches and pains from a healthy body you eventually end up with zero. But a witch knows something else. Every witch that has ever carried a child knew the moment that child became a tiny speck of reality, and that's why witch's children are so precious to them. Nick felt that tiny speck of reality also, in Octavia. He wasn't surprised, ever since their mountain wedding with Nana Partridge life has been a sex extravaganza, even tonight when they were both overwhelmed by feelings of doom, they still had sex.

Since the moment he met her he's been exposed to the ends of the discworld and wonders of the multiverse but now he realizes that they are nothing, a spit in a dry dusty bucket compared to the wonders and amazement in store for them due to that infinitely tiny spark of life growing inside of his enchantress.

"You're smiling again... but I've never seen that smile before."

"Ask me again when this is over ok?"

"Tell me!" but he had ducked down to talk to Gaspode and the Librarian, he asked them both to get Octavia away from the edge as soon as she finished casting the spell.

"Mission Control has given us clearance to start," said an Astro-zoologist and everybody started moving away from the top of Tähelepanek Point.

Nick took two scrolls out of his camouflaged bush robes and tucked one into her belt. He couldn't see her robes, but his fingers could feel them, all he could see was her delicious body, a sexy reward that was waiting for him. "Ok, this won't take long at all," and he opened up a scroll and stepped in between Octavia and the wooden fence and held up the scroll for her to read.

Was this it? Five lines? Easy peasy! She heard Nick call "I love you Façade!" above the increasing wind and she said, "I love you Porter!" then focused on the scroll in front of her.

Elas kord üks mees Nantucketist

She didn't remember reading the line but the words that she had read were floating in the air above Nick written on the wind in octraine fire {which is a good sign if you're a wizard} so she moved on to the next line...

Kes võttis sea tihnikusse persse

The old excitement was setting in, it's been so long since she cast a scripted spell that she forgot the excitement, no wonder why wizards take a vow of celibacy, a powerful spell is like good sex and nothing could stop you, this spell was creating a feeling just like that...

Siga ütles, et sa imelik

The words above Nick's head grew bigger and bolder with every word she uttered. Octavia was no longer reading the spell, somebody or something else was now reading it, but it wasn't her...

Mine mu tagant ära

Her voice was louder, out here on top of a mountain in gale force winds her voice had an echo the words burning and crackling above Nick were huge and hungry, the spell was reading her.

Tule ette ja ma imen selle!

The scroll in Nicks hands burst into flame but the spell wouldn't let him release the scroll. He shrieked in pain as the velum burned his hands, but as promised Gaspode and the Librarian started pulling Octavia back, she was fighting, she wanted to go to Nick and fought so strongly that Mesquite had to join in on pushing her back.

The words of the spell floated over his head and slowly coalesced into a ball of power and fury too bright to look at directly. The assembled men of pseudo-science drew back in terror as the ground began to shake from the soundless power that was throbbing just inches above Nick. The winds howled and threatened to blow Nick off the edge of the disc. Larger and larger the ball of furious power grew until it nearly touched a kneeling Nick then suddenly it shrank to the size of a man's fist, and a seed of power shot out over the edge of the disk in the direction of the infant turtles with a silent but deafening pulse.

Eight times the blazing ball of power grew then collapsed on itself and pulsed out a ball of blazing octarine power into space in the direction of the baby world turtles and with the eighth pulse it was over. The winds continued to howl and the gathered wizards and pseudo-scholars continued to shudder in terror, but their eyes followed the eight balls of light and power that sailed off into space. Then at once the balls flashed in a blinding, silent explosion over each baby world turtle and it was done. The wind dropped so suddenly that the people leaning into it almost fell over.

Nick was holding his burned hands on the frigid rock of Tähelepanek Point, he found that the cold rock helped soothe the burn, but he noticed a small secondary flash of octarine light, way out in space followed by another, and another, and a cheer went up from the control hut. "They're turning!"

The baby turtles were free, one by one they turned and swam hard for the nebula. Nick thought he saw a turtle shaped shadow against the nebula, and he started to get up, it was over! They can go home! That was when his whole world began to fall apart.

The librarian almost let his daughter run to her husband, but hell came to discworld at that very moment. Pétra Trógon Vasiliás, the planet eating worm was so enraged by its loss of a meal that it wheeled on the discworld, and tried to attack, but the worm was too small to take on an enraged world bearing elephant. As the worm attacked, a rebuff from the Great T'Phon's trunk the size of the Amazon River knocked the foul creature off course and the only thing it was able to eat was a chunk of rock that overhung the circumference - the chunk of rock that Nick was standing on.

"NICK!" Shrieked Octavia and Gaspode at the same time. Octavia wanted to run to the last place she saw Nick but it wasn't there, the entire section of mountain was gone, the worm missed grabbing Octavia, Gaspode and the Librarian by two feet. The rock was shorn away as cleanly as butter after a hot spoon scooped out a dollop.

Octavia continued to shriek "NICK!" over and over, her heartbreak silencing the joy of the occasion. One of the Astro-zoologists went to try to console Octavia, he wanted to tell her that all the baby turtles she worked so hard to save were safe in the nebula, and that it appeared that the Planet Killer followed something into the nebula and was currently dying an agonizing death, but she was inconsolable. The orangutan held her as she wept, the ape weeping also, as was the dog.

Several Bush Wizards came and crouched around the grieving family and Mustrum Ridcully, completely out of bluster, asked one of the Ecksan Bush Wizards, "Can you help them?"

As the gathered great minds of the disk respectfully opened a path to their great library for the librarian and his weeping daughter, Bruce scooped up an inconsolable wire haired terrier and said, "No worries mate, we'll get 'em home."

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The librarian carried his daughter one last time. They squeezed through the narrow aisles of the various libraries and book collections guided by her muffled directions. She wanted to go home, maybe their quilt still held his scent, she could lay on the bed and remember last night, their last night together. Her weeping and trembling broke the Librarian's heart as much as Gaspode's occasional mournful howl.

As they journeyed through the maze of gathered knowledge, she realized that she wanted something, she NEEDED something. "Daddy wait, put me down."

"Ook?"

"I have to do something you won't be very proud of... don't worry, it's horrible, but it's not terrible." Before he could stop her, she dashed down a side aisle and was lost to view. Gaspode lay down blocking the aisle and behind him Mesquite leaned diagonally across the aisle blocking Bruce Dinkum and Bruce Bockschecker from advancing also.