“Okay, time to figure out what I’m doing.”

  Having received answers to her most pressing questions, Mari has returned to the workshop to get back to what she originally set out to do. She can’t get to work on the doll right away though, not with that sad song still pying, so her first course of action is to take care of the doorway leading to the core.

  “She said I just have to focus on the door’s energy and close it with my magic, right? I guess I’ll just…”

  Mari closes her eyes and reaches her arm out towards the door. She’s able to passively feel the energy emanating from the core’s room, but it’s much easier to perceive when she focuses on it like this. It doesn’t take long for her to get a feel for the magic and how it’s flowing.

  “That’s a start, now I just have to actually close it. I wish I could get more specific instructions for this sort of thing.” Mari sighs.

  Lady Eleanor said she has to try closing it without moving the actual physical door, right? Well, considering the fact that she can feel currents of magic flowing out of it, maybe it’s just a matter of stopping that flow with her own magic? She starts sending out some energy to see what happens, only to be met with a surprising amount of resistance. All the spells she’s practised so far have required a decent amount of effort to cast, but having something push back against the magic like this is a first. That being said, it didn’t feel like she was pushing against a solid wall, she could feel the flow slow down, even if just a bit. Mari’s best guess is that the magic she used simply wasn’t enough to close the door.

  “Guess I just gotta give it more juice then?”

  She puts more energy into it this time, and she can feel the flow slow down even more, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to actually stop it. She raises her other arm, and with a grunt she puts everything she has into closing the door. It’s not going to close without a fight though, and a bead of sweat rolls down her face as she continues to cast her magic.

  She just needs to hold out a bit longer, she can feel it, but her practice has usually revolved around using magic in smaller bursts, she’s never tried to hold on to a stronger spell for a long time like this. She can feel herself wavering, and the flow of energy from the door starting to pick up again as her own output decreases.

  Is this it? Is she not strong enough to close the door yet? Sure, she could come back ter and try again after more practice, but how much would she even need? How many days, how many weeks, will she have to keep listening to this music if she can’t take care of this now?

  Maybe… maybe she was right all along… Maybe Mari doesn’t know what she’s doing after all. She’s just in over her head and making things harder for everyone else. Maybe Mari really is as worthless as she said, nothing more than an ungrateful, stupid little…

  “No… Can’t let her get in my head, not after all this time!” Mari yells, shaking her head. “Not gonna let that… that bitch… tell me what I am!” Mari’s breaths are heavy, but her efforts redouble, and the stream of magic starts picking up again.

  “She’s… She’s wrong about me! I’m closing… this fucking door!” The energy Mari’s sending out reaches the levels it was at before, and keeps going. She starts yelling, as if she’s using her own anger to further fuel her magic, and she just keeps going. She feels her legs start to tremble from the sheer force of the spell, but she doesn’t stop, she needs to do this, she needs to prove her wrong. She can do this herself, she doesn’t need help, she just needs to keep pushing herself until it’s done.

  If she can’t even manage this, how is she going to handle even stronger magic? How will she ever be able to make this pce her own? How could she ever help Ca-

  Mari isn’t sure how long it’s been, maybe just a few seconds, maybe she’s been keeping this up for several minutes now, but the resistance suddenly… goes away.

  She did it. The doorway is closed. The music has stopped.

  “I fucking… knew… I could… do…” She mutters to herself, her voice horse, before her vision starts going hazy and she colpses.

  Mari barely manages to catch herself before hitting the ground, only barely able to keep stable on her hands and knees, but she’s struggling to breathe, and doesn’t have a clue what’s happening to her. She’s got a splitting headache, she’s dizzier than she can ever remember being, she can barely see, and her body feels heavy and sluggish. She tries to get her bearings, but it’s not long before her arms lose whatever strength they have left, leaving her helpless on the ground.

  What’s happening…? What… did she…

  …

  …

  Mari starts to regain consciousness. What just happened?

  Right… she bcked out in the workshop. The cold, uncomfortable floor she’s lying on serves as a reminder of that much, but how long was she out, and why did it happen in the first pce? Maybe she pushed herself a bit farther than she should have, but she’s never experienced anything like that before.

  She moves around a bit, feeling sore and exhausted all over, and it’s almost like… something’s weighing down on her chest?

  She slowly manages to open her eyes. Oh, it’s Martin taking a nap on top of her. He must have heard her yelling and came down to investigate, only to decide she was a good pce to sleep. How helpful of him.

  “Urghhh… what’re you doing, boy…?” She groans, but Martin doesn’t respond, he just continues to peacefully loaf on top of her.

  After some effort, Mari manages to sit up and take stock of herself, ignoring the overdramatic screaming that comes from the bck furball who’s now running back upstairs. She’s practically drenched in sweat, and her breathing is still a little ragged, but other than the exhaustion she seems to be mostly okay now, although she’d be feeling even better if she understood exactly what just happened to her.

  She pulls her phone out to check the time, and it looks like she was only out for about 10 minutes or so. That’s something at least, but she’s unable to hold back a sigh regardless. Even if she’s okay, it doesn’t change the fact that this was yet another dey in making the doll, especially since she’s also going to need a shower now.

  Still, she decided she was going to get this doll done today, and that’s what she’s going to do, even if she has to work ter than intended to make it happen. It just means she’ll have to order takeout for dinner tonight. So, with her mind set on her next course of action, Mari slowly gets back on her weary feet, and starts heading upstairs for a quick shower before getting to work. She’ll have to look into what happened to her another day.

  For as exhausted as she is, things are going pretty smoothly now that Mari’s actually making the doll. The experience she gained from the first few dolls is already paying off, and she’s really starting to get the hang of this. It's almost rexing in its own way, or at least it would be if all these blinking Christmas lights weren’t distracting her.

  She’s willing to admit that those decorations weren’t her best idea, there’s really not much point using them to make the basement more welcoming if they’re also making it harder to get work done. She’ll take them down tomorrow and go back to the drawing board to figure out what else she can do about this room. At least it’s not having too big of an impact on the doll making process. Aside from a short break to grab her order from a nearby burger joint, Mari’s making good time compared to her previous attempts.

  Several hours ter, she’s putting the finishing touches on the body before she inserts the core. The night is getting to her, and she’s definitely looking forward to being done with this so she can get to bed, but she’s proud of herself for managing it after everything else that’s happened. She can just give the new doll a quick introduction tonight, and take care of the rest of it in the morning.

  Finally, she’s up to the st step. The body is complete, and once the core is in she’s done! She uses her porcein knife to neatly carve a hole in the doll’s torso, and gently pces the core inside before repcing the carved out porcein and running the other side of the knife through the cuts to seal it back up. Mari breathes a sigh of relief at her work being done, and the doll almost immediately springs to life, sitting up on the workshop bench.

  “Merry Christmas!” It cheers with its arms outstretched.

  Mari wearily blinks a few times. “...Huh?”

  It’s way too te to be dealing with this right now.

  SyntaxSpeedway