Blarney landed with a familiar whoosh and a familiar nausea as he brought himself and the two brand new baby Pages to Blarney Castle. He only barely had time to confirm that, yes, they were both here and nobody had lost any limbs or anything before his stomach turned, he stumbled, caught himself on his stick, and wretched.
He was going to have to stop throwing up on his Wonder. Surely that went against the Knight Code somehow. It had to be - disrespectful, or something. He just hoped against hope that Sabia, the former Blarney, Knight of Earth, hadn't seen or somehow felt it, because he somehow did not think that it would endear him to her whatsoever.
Before he could fall down into a pit of ghost-related anxiety, though, he felt Mad--Edam's hands on his back, soothing him, and the trembling stilled after a few moments.
"Sorry," Blarney croaked, more to Green Chapel than to his sister. "It--it takes a lot out of--to bring guests along," he explained, "but don't--don't panic. It doesn't hurt, or anything. It'll--I'm fine," he said, giving a slightly wan smile as he wrapped his arm around Edam's shoulders, letting her carry some of his weight.
"This is Castle Blarney," he said, pride evident in his voice, in spite of the slightly tremulous note, as he gestured to the castle - to his castle. It was beautiful, and it got more beautiful every time he saw it. Even M--Edam seemed slightly impressed, staring at it with her mouth open in a little 'o'. "When I got here, it was--it was literally nothing," he said, finally heaving off Edam's shoulders to land on a nearby boulder. "Just, like, a faint outline of what had been a building. I guess not all Wonders are quite like that, but...the point is, the more time you spend doing this stuff, the more time you spend at your Wonder, the more it sort of - grows. Changes. Returns to its former glory, whatever that might look like for your specific Wonders." His eyes were still on Castle Blarney, taking in the changes he could see, even from here.
The outer wall, which had been more of a suggestion when he'd last visited with Joy, was complete, now. Beyond the wall, he could see that at least the front-facing wall had grown and spread to cover more of the second story, and it looked like it might be considering spreading up further, which excited Blarney--he had no idea how high it might go, or how wide it might get to be, but he couldn't wait to find out.
After a few more moments of rest and a few small sips of water to settle his stomach, he looked back at the girls, a grin on his face.
"You guys wanna go see my castle for real?"
Magic was so cool.
Well. Mason really hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said that the castle - his castle, he always said - was a lot more to look at now than it had been the first time they'd come. It existed, for one thing, which it certainly had not, the last time Madeline had seen it. It was - remarkable, she had to admit. Especially because she knew that Mason couldn't have actually built the thing himself; she knew he'd gotten all hyperfocused on castles as a concept for a little bit there, but even still, she would have noticed if he'd suddenly invested in old-world stones and lumber and whatever else went into building an entire castle. Plus, it was simply too much work in too short a time, especially for just one person.
This was, truly and literally, a magic castle.
Her brother had his own castle building itself, nearly right before their very eyes.
Life was so unfair, Madeline almost couldn't stand it.
But, as per usual, Madeline swallowed the latent flare of jealousy - everything came so easy to Mason, friends, magic, castles, everything - and looked back at her brother, who was staring adoringly at the structure, as if he had built it with his own two hands. He looked so - happy, she realized with a soft sigh. She couldn't really resent him for that, could she?
Well. Not much, anyway.
"Sure," Madeline said, looking back at the building for a moment before she glanced at Green Chapel. "I mean, I don't mind, but if you'd rather not, that's okay too," she said quickly, though frankly she couldn't think of a non-petty reason why someone wouldn't want to explore a literal magical castle...
"Oh, yeah, we don't have to actually go inside, if you don't want to," Blarney said, clearly very much wanting to actually go inside. "We're in--it's sorta like a--like a little secret magic pocket? Other Knights, like--well, like you, Edam, probably, I'd think--their Wonders are on their actual--planets or asteroids or whatever. Like, not here on Earth. But because we're Earth Knights, they're here. They used to be in the real world, I guess, and then when the real baddy bad guys started rolling up, they went--" here Blarney made a sucking sound and gestured with his hand, then made a popping noise, "--and hid themselves here in this...extra dimension, sort of. No bad guys of any kind can come here. Actually nobody at all can come to your Wonder without you. You can't come super often, especially as a baby Page, 'cause it takes a lot of--of magical juice, but--I really recommend going as often as you can. Your Wonder is where your magic comes from, it's as much a part of you as your weapon or your name, and if you give it some love, it'll give you the same back and then some."
elfstar89
in which mason infodumps about wonders for 600+ words
