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The Magic Box, Wednesday

All things considered, as much as Elsa would like to, she knew she couldn't just lock herself in her dorm room and never come out again. For one thing, there were classes, and she had a roommate, and Canute needed space to run and play. She suspected that getting her out more had been a bit of an ulterior motive for Eleanor and Joker to get her a dog, but she wasn't complaining, really. At least, she wouldn't have been, if Anna hadn't arrived.

Beyond that, of course, she had jobs to do. Here at the Magic Box, and also at the library on the weekends, and it wouldn't do for her to miss more work than she already had over the break.

And that was why she was in the Magic Box now, with Canute dozing at her feet, reading books about spirits and sorcery mostly out of curiosity, as one of her teachers this semester seemed to be... well... a ghost sorcerer.

It was surprisingly dry reading, but it was keeping her mind off of her sister, and that's all she really needed it to do today.

[OOC: Open, OCD-free!]

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Anders didn't often visit the shop on days when he wasn't on the schedule, but he had some spare time and a bit of restless energy that took him there today.

"Hi," he said, as he wandered in and unbuttoned his coat. "What are you reading?"

"Oh, hello!"

Elsa gave Anders a smile as she held up her book for his perusal.

"It's about ghosts," she explained, "and the magic that they're associated with. I don't know how much of this actually pertains to Sir Hrothbert given how drastically things can vary between realities, but I thought it probably couldn't hurt to learn as much as I can if I'm going to be his assistant this semester."

"I can't believe he picked his assistant without even seeing who in class could do magic," Anders groused, before shaking it off. "Not your fault he liked your look, though, is it? And that's a good idea. I've never heard of a ghost you could have a conversation with -- at least, not outside stories. Find anything?"

"I'm fairly certain all he really wanted an assistant for is a pair of tangible hands," Elsa offered. If Anders wanted to presume she couldn't do magic, she certainly wasn't about to correct him. "Though I'm still an odd choice for that."

Given her aversion to touching anything important. She was getting better at that, at least.

"And I haven't found much, really. I'm still in the process of trying to find a description of a ghost that's anything like he is. I mean... he looks as though he should be as solid as you or I. This book keeps talking about rags and chains."

It was possibly not a good book for this.

Even if Anders had known, there was a difference between having power over ice and being a wizard or mage. ~~And also I can't remember whether Anders knows or not, so let's go with 'not.'~~

"Well, you certainly do have hands," he offered, with a tiny smile. "So he got that much right. And that's the difference I meant -- the solidness. The ones at home are more like wisps or memories trapped in a loop. I don't have a word for whatever he is."

He wished he did.

"I think at this point, the best word he's given us for what he is... is 'Bob,'" Elsa replied with a wry smile of her own. "I'm sure we've got ghosts and spirits in my world as well, but I always sort of pictured them more as... I'm not certain. Mist? Clouds, maybe..."

Bob was certainly new and unique.

"I didn't even really get to see any of the ghosts who were attacking the island, besides him. Mostly I spent my time in the library. And then out in the preserve, hunting for sticks."

"The ones at home look like mist," Anders nodded. "And I didn't see much of anything during the ghost invasion, either. Even when we went over to the other island to fight there weren't visible spirits. We were mainly fighting dolls and trees." He frowned, tugging on his ponytail. "Why were you hunting for sticks?"

Elsa sometimes contemplated wearing her hair down so that she could fiddle with it, too. Something to do with her hands that wouldn't involve a risk of freezing everything in sight. But fidgeting was terribly unladylike.

At her feet, Canute stirred, flicking an ear toward Anders at the mention of sticks.

"There was a book in the library with instructions on how to make a dowsing rod," Elsa explained. "To point toward the source of the evil. I'm not certain that it did much good, since Ingvar revealed itself as the culprit anyway, but for a few minutes I felt like I was actually contributing. It was nice to be able to take matters into my own hands, for what it was worth."

[Sorry! There were celebratory lunches with the roomie to be had!]

It could be argued that half the reason Anders kept his hair longish was that it gave him something to do with his hands. (The other half was a possibly inaccurate conviction he looked silly with short hair.)

"Hi, puppy," he said to Canute, with a slight, silly grin. He wasn't much of a dog person, but he had no animosity towards well-behaved ones that belonged to someone else.

he turned his attention back to Elsa soon enough. "And no, the dowsing rods helped. We used them over on Ingvar to track the forces to their source. I would wish you had come with us so you could have seen them in action -- but I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

[OOC: NP! YAY ROOMIE!]

It was okay-- Anders didn't have to be a dog person. Canute was a people dog, which made up for it nicely! He gave a silly puppy smile right back, tongue lolling out of his head and tail wagging.

"I don't think I would have been much use over there, anyway," Elsa admitted. "But I'm glad to hear that they were helpful, after all. And... thank you, by the way, for being one of the people who took the fight to them."

"You never know," Anders said. "We had to sing at the end. You do that better than I do. But you're welcome anyhow."

He stooped and offered a hand for Canute to sniff. Even an avowed cat person could only resist a silly puppy smile for so long.

"He's a friendly one, isn't he?"

"Very friendly," Elsa agreed, ducking her head a little and smiling at the compliment. "I think that's why I ended up getting him. Joker and Eleanor both insisted, and they looked into what breed would be best for me."

So... which one she was less likely to freeze to death accidentally.

"Friendly was definitely an important requirement."

"Rapunzel and I picked out Lachlan because he seemed to have a good sense of humor," Anders confessed. "That's very important in a cat. Almost as important as being friendly is in a dog."

He glanced over. "How is Eleanor, anyhow? I haven't seen her in a bit."

"An excellent reason to pick a cat," Elsa agreed, smiling a little more warmly. "And Eleanor..."

Okay, now it was her turn to wear a silly smile.

"I need to talk to her, I only found out yesterday in class, myself... but she seems to be introducing herself as Eleanor Holloway these days. So it seems to me as though she's doing quite well."

Anders beamed. "That's fantastic. Grace is more a mother than Eleanor's actual mother ever was, far as I can tell. I'll congratulate her when I see her."

"She seemed absolutely thrilled about it in class yesterday," Elsa replied with a nod and a smile. "I think congratulations are absolutely in order, yes. And how have you been, Anders? Was your break pleasant?"

"I'm all right. Break was a bit boring but nothing bad," Anders said, finally drawing his attention away from Canute to lean on the counter across from Elsa. "There is a new student I should probably warn you about, though -- somebody from home who's not so fond of mages. She's not doing anything yet as far as I can tell, but I'm not sure how she'd react to the shop."

Ah. That got Elsa's smile to fade pretty quickly.

"Do you think she'd do anything to put the people working here in any sort of danger?"

She could handle somebody coming in and being loud and obnoxious. Physical threats, on the other hand, would end poorly. Probably mostly for the person coming in to cause trouble, if Elsa could wrap her head around the concept of defending herself.

"I want to say no," Anders said. His own smile had already faded. "And honestly I wouldn't expect it. But I've seen Templars pull out swords first and ask questions later when they felt threatened. I don't know that this Cassandra would be any better."

Elsa's jaw clenched, just slightly, and she nodded.

"I... want to think I don't look threatening," she ventured, "but heaven help her if she comes in here to cause trouble and Rinoa catches wind of it. I almost feel sorry for her."

Not that Rinoa struck Elsa as violent, but she was very much a woman who didn't take any crap from anybody.

"Oh, she'd get the worst of it if she tried bullying us," Anders confirmed, with a grim grin at the idea of Cassandra having to take on Professor Starsmore and Rinoa. "But I'm hoping she won't even try. I put some of the more ... demon-y books in the storage room for now, so she can't make this place sound like a den of maleficars."

"Probably a smart move, on top of the fact that any books with any actual power have been pretty carefully moved to the back for now, too," Elsa mused. "Rinoa had me translating the runes in a few of them for a while, back in the spring. It's almost amusing how many of them had nothing to do with magic at all, but were here because futhark looks the part."

She smiled faintly, in spite of the situation.

"On the plus side, I found an excellent recipe for stew in one of them."

"So we should be safe here, at least," Anders nodded, with his own faint smile.

The situation with Cassandra still had him a little jittery, but it didn't seem to be anything unmanageable -- at least,not compared to being in the Circle. "Though now I want to sort through the books in the back and see if there's anything I could use. And I don't know what futhark is, but I'm not surprised. Dwarven writing looks incredibly ancient and enchanted and they can't use magic at all."

"There were a few books that did look like legitimate magics," Elsa noted. "The translations should still be in them. You'd have to ask Rinoa if you can use them, of course, but maybe there's something in them that you could find useful? Most of them seemed fairly simplistic. You're more likely to find an excellent cure for warts than a spell to turn straw into gold. But simple is still something."

"Simple's something and I like seeing the way different enchanters write things up even when it's not anything I could use," Anders nodded. "I'm trying to keep up with my group at the Tower -- as best as I can, anyhow. I don't want to be too far behind if I get thrown back there someday.

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The Magic Box, Wednesday

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