Omnitranyl (Ben 10 Alien Force)

Charmcaster extends her arms upward and tries to stretch the muscles of her spine. A pop is heard from one of the vertebrae. Now it is the turn of the neck. She rotates her head from side to side. Two more snaps. Sitting in her chair for hours, studying one book after the other, made her muscles tense after a while.

She looked at the old clock stuck on the wall. It's so late already! She almost misses dinner.

The sorceress got up from her chair and headed for one of the corridors formed by the bookshelves. Every six meters, a space appeared between one bookcase and another, forming a new corridor that cut through all the others. And it was while passing through one of these intersections that she saw her archenemy.

Gwendolin was standing in front of a huge bookcase. Behind her, two stacks of books floated, waiting to be read or re-read. Another three books lay open, levitating in front of the young woman's face. She looked up to the top shelf of one bookcase and pointed to a book with a green cover. The object moved from its position and joined the other floating open books.

Charmcaster stopped looking at the teenager, with the disinterest of someone who gives up watching a TV show, and continued walking between the bookshelves to the back of the library ― restricted to authorized personnel only ― in search of her dinner.

The sorceress had always been in the habit of going to bed late. Many times, because she was wrapped up in her studies and in the knowledge that her uncle's library could offer her, she ended up going to bed a few hours before the sun woke up. Several times she only went to bed because her body practically forced her to.

He also had the habit of checking all the library's security systems before lowering his guard for activities that expose such fragility as sleeping. He checked the two alarms, the three magical protective barriers, the time clamp and the lock on the front door. It may seem like overkill for all this energy and equipment used in protecting a place like a library, but the presence of the lock made all the difference.

Everything being in place, Charmcaster headed down the upper corridor towards her room. With a mug of hot chocolate in hand, she blew the smoke that came out and drank it in small gulps to test the temperature. From the parapet of the corridor, it was possible to observe the many bookshelves that spread out like a great labyrinth. And in the middle of it, Gwen, standing, reading five books at the same time. The stacks of books that followed her were now three in number.

Go to sleep, girl, and get the hell out of my library! she thought. And she made her way to her room, taking slightly bigger sips of her chocolate.

As soon as she woke up from the little sleep she had managed to get, Charmcaster went towards the common area of the library. Her hope: to prove to herself that this story of determination was bullshit and that sooner or later, everyone had to give up at some point.

But no...

Gwen stood in front of the bookshelves, with five stacks floating behind her and two more open books in front of her. The young woman used her right index finger to follow the reading through the pages, being careful not to get too close and end up crossing the object.

How! thought Charmcaster.

How does she manage to stay out of her body for so long?

For what?

For whom?

Charmcaster didn't even pretend to herself anymore.

Every half hour, she would go to her arch-nemesis and check if she was still there, always taking care not to be seen. And even if she wanted to be seen, I don't think she could get Gwen out of her almost absolute concentration.

On one of the occasions ― it would be maybe the fourth or fifth, I had already lost count ― the Charmcaster focused her attention on the books that accompanied her: Human Anatomy; Charms of Rurquart; Physiology; Surgical Magic; Neuroanatomy; The Tharkiniol; Neurosurgery; How to invade the mind and convince people to obey you in 47 illustrated steps; Psychobiology; The Scientific and Magical Basis of Sleep...

Suddenly, Charmcaster began to notice that Gwen's image started to fade slightly. He looked at the girl's face and saw her eyelids begin to make a progressive falling motion, like a ball dropping and bouncing on the floor. She was beginning to doze off!

She looked around for something that might catch Gwen's attention, make some noise, whatever! Then she realized that she was surrounded by books. Charmcaster picked up a thick hardcover and threw it hard to the floor. The noise echoed throughout the library.

Gwen was startled. Her heart raced and, above all, her astral image returned to the definition it had been before.

Charmcaster took the book in hand and strode down the corridor, beside Gwen, with a look of disdain. When she realized that she was being followed by the young woman's gaze, she turned and said:

"What's wrong girl? The book just fell out when I went to pick it up." And she continued walking with the young woman's confused look following her.

Why the hell did I justify myself to her! he thought.

Gwen looked away from the open books and watched Charmcaster approach, walking down the corridor with her staff in one hand. When she was at a sufficient distance for a polite handshake, she stopped.

Standing still and silent, she remained so for a few seconds.

Gwen, not understanding anything, just stared at her. Would she kick her out of the library again?

"Here," said Charmcaster. In her hand was a blue-covered book with the word Somnus in silver letters.

"You know I can't touch it," replied Gwen.

Charmcaster let go of the book, which floated away, and stood in front of Gwen.

"Maybe it will help you with what you're looking for."

Gwen pointed to the book, which opened, and the pages flipped with the invisible help of the library. On the pages were exactly what she had been looking for all this time.

"For the Ebhardy civilization," said Charmcaster, "coma is seen not only as a consequence of neurological damage, but is sometimes the way the person's mind finds to force the individual to deal with his fears, anxieties and afflictions."

The young woman lifted her gaze from the pages and said smiling:

"Thank you, Charmcaster."

"If you say that again, I'll kill you."

"One question: how did you know that this is what I was looking for?"

The Sorceress bangs her staff on the floor. A violet light fills the room, forcing Gwen out of her spell.

When she opened her eyes, she was back in the Medical Ward companion chair. In front of her, Ben was still unconscious, hooked up to various devices. In his lap, the sorceress' blue book.

Gwen felt tired, but at the same time, something was taking over her being and made her forget the tiredness, at least for the moment.

"Hope", an old friend who had not appeared for some time.