What could possibly be wrong with incantations?: Day 21, and 37,622 words

Yesterday was not a good writing day, at all! Even though I had a vision for the scene that I had planned, it just wasn't coming out the way that I wanted it to. It's very difficult to write this scene in a way that the Darcy character doesn't come across as totally irredeemable. I hope I succeeded...

As for the rest of the non-magic plot of the novel, I have no idea what is going to happen next. That was more exciting at the beginning of the month, but right now it makes writing feel even more challenging! I am truly going to slow down now and write only what I need to write per day (unless I feel very inspired) and finish on the 31st.

If anyone has any suggestions for what should happen to close out the plot between Nora, Oliver, and Wynn, please let me know. The three of them have spent very little time together so far and they need to get to know each other a lot more in the next 12,378 words!

“I have been struggling with this for months,” he finally said, decisively. “As much as I have tried to deny my feelings, I can’t do it anymore.”

“Feelings of what?” Eliza thought to herself. Feelings of eye pain, one of the first signs of bat bile exposure?

“You must allow me to tell you how passionately I admire and love you,” Wandstein said breathlessly.
As the words started to sink into through all of the fog that surrounded her mind, Eliza looked behind her, expecting to see someone else who he was truly speaking to. None of this made sense.

When no one was directly behind her, except for a confused looking centaur, she turned back to face Wandstein. He locked eyes with her, illustrating that he was most definitely talking to her.

“Wh-what?” was all that Eliza could stammer. “Love? How?”

“I didn’t believe that it could possibly be love for the longest time. At first I found you truly intolerable. I assumed that you were just an especially unendurable person and that the reason that I couldn’t stop thinking about you was because I felt more annoyed than usual with you, your quips, and your strong opinions.”

“What?” Wandstein was not the first man to find Eliza intolerable, but he was certainly the first man to say it to her face. Her eyes narrowed in both confusion and disgust.

“You are a professor at a magic school. Of incantations, no less. You have few prospects for advancement at Spellberg given your position in society, and are thus likely to be overworked to little effect for the rest of your stubborn life.”

“What could possibly be wrong with incantations?” Eliza thought to herself, although she did not give voice to her thoughts.

“You are the most combative person that I have ever met. It’s exasperating. And your activism might very well be the end of my political career, and certainly my good standing within Parliament. My family will certainly not be pleased, although since I am the oldest they will have little recourse when I tell them that I want to enter into a disadvantageous marriage. They will certainly not delight in your inability to properly groom a feline familiar,, and your lack of refinement when it comes to selecting a cauldron.”
Shock and disbelief were quickly giving way to anger. Try as she could not formulate a response that fully accounted for all of her feelings, and was left in silence. This silence seemed to encourage him to continue.

“When I left Spellberg, I tried to expel you from my mind. I did my best to not think about you at all by focusing on this special task force to address issues in international bat bile trade. As stimulating as that was, I so often found my mind wandering back to you. I would wonder about what you were doing, and who was lucky enough to be talking to you and on the receiving end of your attention.
“When I saw you outside of the Minister’s office, I knew that all of the work that I had done to forget you had amounted to nothing. I made excuses to see you again. I have thought about you more than ever. Your wit, your beauty, your charm. While no one else may see these things in you, I do.

“I might very much come to regret what I am saying to you right now. But I’m done trying to talk myself out of this, trying to force common sense to prevail over matters of the heart. But I have to say this because if I don’t, I will regret it even more. I want to be with you forever.”

Was he actually so unwise as to tell her that he loved her despite her quite obvious dislike for him, and even further, to be so fatally foolish as to tell her that he should not love her because of all of her flaws?

“What I’m saying is, I hope that you will accept my hand in marriage.”

Apparently, yes.

He was staring at her eagerly, as if he might consume her whole. She resented his look, his words, him.
Eliza’s face was burning with embarrassment. As he said this, she could easily see that he had no doubt of a favourable answer. He spoke of apprehension and anxiety, but his countenance expressed real security. Such a circumstance could only exasperate further, and when he ceased, the colour in her cheeks rose to an even brighter shade.

“I think that you have said quite enough already,” she asserted. She might have felt guilty about the pain that she was about to inflict in him, if he hadn’t have been such an insufferable fool by insulting her so as he tried to explain to her why she should marry him.

“I’m not sure how I can put this nicely,” Eliza said, knowing that she had far from exhausted all options of kindness, “And I’m sorry to have caused you any pain, albeit unknowingly. I cannot emphasize this enough: extremely unknowingly. But given everything that you have just said, it appears as if niceties have already been dispensed with. You have just insulted me in every way imaginable. Aside from feline grooming, which I couldn’t care less about. How could you have such a low opinion of me as to believe that I would be at all susceptible to your discourteous advances?”

As the colour of Eliza’s face was approaching that of a toadstool, the colour was proportionately draining from Wandstein. It was clear that for the first time, he was considering the possibility that Eliza may not eagerly accept his wand hand.

“But don’t feel too bad about your embarrassing proposal,” her voice rose. “Because I can assure you that there is nothing that you could have said—and I truly mean nothing—that would have ever persuaded me to even think about accepting.”

Eliza could see the pain and anguish in Wandstein’s face, try as he might to maintain every appearance of composure. This hurt, however, soon turned to anger. A storm was building within him, and it was about to crash into hers.

“Can I expect you to offer any explanation at all for your adamant refusal of my affections?” He finally managed to say. “Or was it only your pride that prevented you from accepting me? Did you really expect me to rejoice about all of the ways that we are different and the challenges those differences pose?”

“I have other reasons. You know I do. Even if you had made me an offer that I was in any way tempted to accept you, how could I ever consider trusting a man who has ruined, perhaps forever, the life of my beloved friend?”

Wandstein looked down, unable to meet her eye.

“See, you can’t even deny it. Not that I take your word to mean anything. I know that you encouraged him to stop seeing Jeanette because she was dismissed from Spellberg. Were you also afraid that her activism would ruin Charles’ political career?”

“I won’t insult you by denying that I did everything in my power to separate Charles from Jeanette. It needed to be done. Clearly I have been wiser with regards to his heart than my own.”

“Of course. Because your dreams are more important than the dreams of all of the people who are oppressed by the caste system that you and your aunt have worked so hard to protect? That is another reason that I would never consider being with you. I find your views repugnant. You might think that all I want is to marry someone with a better status but I can assure you that I will never want to be anything like you. I would rather be a Wizard than a privileged, arrogant, and unfeeling enemy of all that is good in the world.”

Eliza had anticipated a fight, and Wandstein had given her the impression that she was about to receive one. But as she looked at him, fuming, he was slowly deflating. Like a balloon.

“And that isn’t even all. From what I know of your character, how could I ever consider to be a suitable partner? After everything that you did to thoroughly ruin George Cauldronbaum’s livelihood, all because he had the audacity to try to marry your sister?”

“You take an eager interest in that gentleman's concerns,'” said Wandstein in a less tranquil tone, and with a heightened colour.

“I take an interest when a friend tells me that a powerful man had his scholarship withdrawn and bankrupted his good name so as to avoid the embarrassment of a sister marrying down.”

“Bankrupted his good name?” Wandstein cried indignantly. “You are crediting me with that feat?”

“After everything you did to him, you are choosing to mock him now?” Eliza’s voice was deadly. “And given all that you know about me, and my tiresome politics, you must be the most conceited man in the entire world to believe that I would consider marrying you.”