Way of The Wand

When the door opened, the assistant who answered threw her head back in surprise. The Tartian Mansion wasn’t accustomed to receiving visitors this late in the night, much less one drenched in the rain and wearing a face like she was going to skewer somebody.

Jira peered down at the assistant. “You might want to fetch Arron.”

The assistant disappeared, practically racing down the hallway to get Arron Tartian.

She soon reappeared with Arron, clad in his night robes and having clearly just been woken from his slumber.

He motioned for the assistant to take off and tramped into the living room with his face masked with a mixture of horror and dread.

“Jira,” he greeted, summoning his best smile. “I—”

Jira took one intimidating step forward, positioning her body square in his path. “What? Surprised to see me?”

She added another step, shortening the distance between them to less than a foot. “I’ve never seen someone less excited to see their date. I take it you weren’t expecting me to show up.”

“Oh, I’m very…very glad to…see…” Arron backed away as he stammered, but even as he strived to put some space between himself and Jira, his beating heart filled the entire room with the rhythm of his fear.

Jira drew out her wand slowly, levelling it off at Arron’s chest.

He flinched, scared to death at what spell Jira might cast to punish him for his misdeeds.

As Jira moved forward, he stepped backward, hands raised in surrender until he tripped over himself and fell on his buttocks.

Arron looked up at the Model 25 crystal wand trained on him. Would he be killed with the very wand he given to her as a gift?”

He winced, closing his eyes as an alternative to screaming and cowering in fear, and just when he expected to hear the word that would be his death, he felt something land in his laps.

Arron opened his eyes to see that Jira had simply dropped the wand on him. He regained some sense of composure, now realizing she hadn’t come to hurt him.

“You can have your stupid wand back,” Jira said, the rage in her eyes gone and replaced with satisfaction. “Our partnership is over. I don’t ever want to see you near my students again.”

She stormed off, and Arron didn’t dare return to his feet until he was completely sure she’d left the compound.