Books and Belladonna

I grasped the gold plated doorknob of the dark green weathered door and stepped inside; the tinkle of a bell rang in my ears. The room smelt of new wood and parchment, but with a faint rotting smell underneath. That was my first clue. I looked around at the copious books filling the mahogany shelves and the familiar tingling feeling washed over my entire body. The feeling that told me one thing. Dark magic was being used here.

 “I’ll be with you in a moment!” a flamboyant voice called from the darkness of the storeroom behind the server’s desk. 

I locked the door behind me with a wave of my hand and proceeded to scan the room for the source of magic. Perusing the shelves, I ran my fingers along the spines of the leather bound books, dust collecting on my fingertips and wafting up into my face making me cough. Healing with Herbs, A Mage’s Guide to Astronomy, Walking Widdershins: Mastering the Art of Spell Reversal. With every book I touched I had the same feeling. 

Upon hearing the shuffling from the back room and then footsteps coming towards me, I made my way through the maze of shelves to the end of the room and stood at the desk.

“I’m coming! I’m….” A short bulbous man, with rosy cheeks and round glasses that looked far too small for his head stood frozen, staring at me, with his jaw almost on the floor.

I grinned through my black painted lips. His reaction pleased me.

“I….I haven’t done anything wrong, I swear!” He stammered. The plump man scrambled out from behind the desk and gestured towards the collection of books. “Look! See! You’ll find no books on dark magic here. Look for yourself!” With his gloved hands, he picked up a heavy looking brown book from atop the nearest tightly packed shelf and flicked through the pages. I glared at him, ignoring the book’s contents. 

“Don’t lie to me Mr Grimsbrook. This is the second time I’ve been dispatched to investigate your…quaint little store following suspicions of overuse of dark magic. And, well, you know what happens on the third time.” I said, grinning from ear to ear. He gulped. Staring at me with wide eyes. 

“But I’m not lying! See for yourself!” I seized him with one hand, gripping his collar, my sharp nails almost piercing the white threads. 

“Enough with your lying!” I hissed. “This place is crawling with dark magic; I can feel it! What are you up to?” I was seething inside. How dare this mage stand here and lie to my face. The audacity of him to think he could deceive a formidable witch and huntress such as myself. I was going to get the truth out of him one way or another, or my name isn’t Milgana Vex. I began muttering a spell that would loosen his tongue a little. 

“What…What are you doing?” He asked, panicked. “No. Stop. Wait!”

No sooner had he began his pleading than a cluster of black, hairy spiders crawled out from my rolled up sleeve and made their way down my arm and onto the collar of the panicked Mr Grimsbrook. He screamed and tried brushing them off but there were too many of them. I began chanting louder and louder, more and more emerged crawling onto his face and down his body, soon he would be covered head to foot in my crawly little friends. I relished in moments such as these. Instilling fear in the eyes of my enemies. Displaying my skill from years of honing my craft in magic and combat. I was strong. I was ready. And I was made for this. But my satisfaction soon waned. I thought, for a moment, I had detected a flicker of a smile on the mage’s face. I tilted my head. What could he possibly be smiling at? There was no way out of this for him. My magic was far stronger than his. Either he told me what I wanted to know, or he would suffer until he did. The flicker of a smile soon gave way to a large grin and then a cackle of laughter. The spiders vanished in a puff of smoke. I looked around, bewildered. Had the mage done that? My magic had never failed me before. The cackling continued.

“What’s funny mage?!” I demanded, still clutching his collar with white knuckles.

“You should have believed me the first time and walked away, Milgana.” He replied smugly.

What was he on about? I suddenly started feeling woozy, my muscles weakening, I could no longer maintain my grip on the mage and released him. 

“Oh, dear dear Milgana! You didn’t touch any of the books when you came in did you?” He said with a grin.

I looked down at the dust on the fingers of my left hand and stumbled back into a nearby bookcase. I fell to the floor, head spinning and books toppling to the floor around me. What was happening to me? How had I been so easily out manoeuvred? This never happened. I was Milgana the greatest witch huntress of my time. I had been in toe to toe combat with countless entities of the dark. My wit, strength, and powerful magic had never failed me. No one had ever defeated me. And now, here I was, barely able to stand, all at the hands of some dim-witted mage who’d not even laid a finger on me. How was this possible? 

My vision was going, but I could just make out the fuzzy outline of the mage bending down to meet my face with his. His retched breath filled my nostrils; I would have dry heaved if I had the strength.

“I’m going to tell you a little secret Milgana. Afterall, it couldn’t do any harm, you’ll remember none of this when you wake up.” He whispered. 

“What do mean?” I croaked. 

“The books Milgana! The books! You were right. I have been dabbling in some dark magic.” He said, obviously pleased with himself. “Every one of the books in my…quaint little store as you put it, is special. I’ve imbued each of them with a powerful enchantment which, upon being read, absorbs the reader’s power and transfers it directly to me. Soon, I’ll have absorbed enough power to bring a new age of darkness to the world. Then perhaps I’ll finally be taken seriously….It is a rather ingenious plan if I do say so myself.” He chuckled. “Oh, and with all of my newfound power, I was able to scry your visit. So, I spread a little bit of powdered Belladonna around the place, hence your, um, current state.” He said, looking me up and down.

All I wanted to do was wipe that smirk off his ugly fat face. But I could only manage a faint groan.

“I am sorry it had to be this way, but after your last visit, I knew you were not going to leave matters alone, so I had to take extra precautions. You won’t die of course, I can’t have the Department of Magical Integrity on my tail any more than they already are, but I also can’t guarantee that you’ll remember anything about who you are or retain any of your power. Hmm, such a pity, really. Anyway, I’m off, enjoy your nap Milgana.” 

I tried using my magic to remove the poison from my veins, but I was too weak. I was slowly succumbing to its will. I couldn’t let the mage get away. I just managed to muster up enough strength to lift my arm and started scratching at my left forearm. Then, everything went black.

***

I awoke to find myself alone in an empty room. The faint smell of new wood and parchment lingered in the air. My head was throbbing, I felt weak, and my arm was stinging. I looked down. My forearm was inflamed and stained with remnants of dried blood. Scratched into it were the words STOP GRIMSBROOK. Where was I? How did I get here? And…what’s a Grimsbrook?