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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 1 year

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Prompt: Witch!Virgil helping out one of the other sides when they need a potion or spell?

Potions of Persuasion

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Roman goes to Virgil for a little magical assistance in making his relationship with a prince from another kingdom possible. How can Virgil possibly say no?

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| Ao3 |

Warnings: none (that I'm aware of, but please lmk if i need to add any)

Pairings: background roceit.

Word count: 1974

Notes: Thank you so much for the prompt, Storm! This was super fun to write :)

As always, anyone is welcome to send me prompts!

Honestly I have no idea where any of the lore in this came from I thought none of it through before I started writing.

I may post another fic later today if I get round to finishing it :)

Tags: @full-of-roman-angst-trash @reptilianrapscallion420 @your-local-random-dino @cutebisexualmess (if anyone wants to be added let me know1)

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“No.” Virgil said as soon as his door swung open, banging against the wall in a way that told him everything he needed to know about the intruder to his cabin. Just as he had thought, when he turned away from his cauldron, Prince Roman was standing in his doorway.

“Oh come on, Virgil, you don’t even know what I’m going to ask!” Roman cried, he didn’t look disheartened in the slightest.

“If you’re about to ask me to curse your brother for what feels like the fifteen-thousandth time, I will push you into my cauldron.” Virgil said, turning away, to pick up a small shaker and adding a few pinches of salt to the soup he was making, it bubbled menacingly and Roman jumped, making Virgil snicker, “As I’ve told you every time you’ve asked, I don’t work with curses, and even if I did, I’m not cursing a prince.”

“Spoilsport,” Roman huffed, walking in and shutting the door, “But that’s really not what I was going to ask this time, I swear.”

Virgil stared at him for a long moment, long enough for Roman to start shifting uncomfortably.

“...what exactly is it that you want, then?” Virgil asked, narrowing his eyes skeptically as he returned to his soup, grabbing the shaker of paprika and beginning to shake a little bit into the mixture.

“I need you to make me a girl.” Roman said, firmly. Virgil turned back to Roman so quickly that he accidentally chucked half the pot of paprika into the potion. The now slightly orange mixture coughed up a cloud of smoke that made Virgil’s mouth tingle with spice when he breathed it in.

“...what?” Virgil asked, standing in front of Roman with two long steps, Roman had the nerve to look sheepish, “I did hear that right, didn’t I?”

“...yep,” Roman nodded, “I need you to make me into a woman.”

“Why?” Virgil asked, throwing up his hands.

“Well you see,” Roman started, and Virgil already knew he was in for a wild ride, “I’m in love with Prince Janus, from our neighbouring kingdom, you know him?”

“Of course,” Virgil rolled his eyes, he might live in the forest but both brothers visited him often enough to keep him updated on just about everyone, “You rave about him often enough, I sort of figured.”

“Well yeah, You know there’s that law that says a prince has to marry a princess?” Roman prompted.

“So you want me to make you something that’ll turn you into a woman,” Virgil said, “Despite how horrible the consequences of that could be, not only with the magic but also political consequences, problems for yourself because as far as I know you are a cis man and gender dysphoria sucks?”

Roman looked even more sheepish, rubbing the back of his head with a hand, “Well I- when you put it like that…”

“Exactly,” Virgil said, “And besides, everyone already knows you’re a man, if you suddenly came back from the forest as a woman everyone would know something happened and they would come after me, it’s not like they’d suddenly think you’d always been a woman.”

“Unless you could-”

“I can’t change the memories of an entire kingdom, Roman, I am literally just a forest witch, I’m not even powerful enough to curse people! What the hell makes you think I could alter even one person’s memories??”

“Then… what am I supposed to do?” Roman said, the expression on his face making Virgil do a double take, he really was worked up over this, wasn’t he? Virgil suddenly realised that this wasn’t just some crush, he really wanted to be with this other prince, “My parents are already trying to marry me off to some princess I don’t even know, you know- what-”

“Roman, deep breaths, ok?” Virgil said, gently resting a hand on his arm. Roman stopped and took a deep breath (a little coercion magic to calm him down wasn’t bad, was it?) and then another until he was calm again, “It’ll be alright, ok, I- well I’m not sure right now what I can do, but I’m sure we can work this out somehow, ok?”

“...alright,” Roman said, looking up at him, for goodness sake, Virgil hadn’t been able to say no to that face for years.

“Sit down somewhere,” Virgil said with a sigh, waving a hand in the direction of a corner of his small cabin filled with beanbags and overstuffed armchairs, “I’m gonna grab my books and we can… we can have a look, ok?”

“You got it, Virge!” Roman said, grinning, his energy seemingly restored as he flopped into one of the armchairs.

Virgil sighed, flicking his fingers at the contents of his cauldron that began to mix itself as he moved over to another bookshelf and started pulling down battered looking spellbooks. He had no idea, not really, what he would be able to do for Roman, but… he had to try, didn’t he?

Roman and Remus- the human princes- had been coming to see him- a loner elven hermit who happened to know a little magic- in his little cabin in the woods ever since they were barely able to talk, having chased each other too far into the woods. Virgil had needed to help them then and ever since he hadn’t had a moment of peace that wasn’t shattered by one of the two barging into his little cabin and insisting they spend time with him.

Really, he had no idea how he, a low level witch who’d defected from the elven kingdom when he was barely a hundred years old and ever since had lived alone in the forest, had ended up with a pair of princes practically treating him like a father figure. He didn’t know their situation, not really (neither of them liked talking about their parents). All he knew was that if he could help the pair, he would.

But, as he had mentioned more than enough times by now, Virgil was only a low level nature witch. He could make potions, do a few basic spells, he could understand the trees and plants he lived amongst, he had been able to coax the trees into twisting together to form even his little house. But he couldn’t do curses, he was barely capable of spells that even needed a little more energy, let alone the high level ones he’d barely touched. It’s not like he could somehow change the law so that Roman could marry his prince, or change their memories so they never knew the law in the first place, but maybe there was something…

“Alright,” Virgil said, placing the stack of books down on the small table between all the chairs and sitting down himself before reaching for the book on top of the pile and opening it, beginning to flip through the pages, “no, no, no, that’s useless, can’t do that one…”

“Do you want me to look as well?” Roman asked, leaning forward a little, “I can help?”

“You don’t know what spells I can’t do,” Virgil said, before continuing to mumble. After a few minutes of flicking through the pages, he put that book to the side and picked up the next one.

“But I can find ones that sound like they might be helpful?” Roman suggested.

“Fine,” Virgil rolled his eyes, pushing the next book on the pile towards Roman, “Look away.”

—-

“What about this one?” Roman said, lifting the book he was holding and turning the page to face Virgil. They were four books down in the pile now and Virgil had needed to pause his search to make sure his soup (that he was pretty sure was already botched because of the paprika, but he’d see it through anyway just in case) didn’t overmix itself. Virgil kept hold of his staff that he’d been shamelessly using to stir the pot whilst he leant over to peer at the page Roman was offering.

“That… might actually work,” Virgil said, narrowing his eyes to look a little closer, “It seems… doable, and I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t…”

“So, you’d just have to cast this spell on me, and I’d what, be able to persuade anyone of anything for however long?” Roman asked, tilting his head a little, Virgil went back to mixing, “So I could get father to change the law? And that me and Jan getting married is a good idea?”

“Not exactly,” Virgil said, “First off, it’ll be easier if we make the spell into a potion, because then we can control it better- and I trust myself with potions much more than spells and I really really don’t want to mess this up. Second, depending on the amount of each ingredient we add, you’ll have a number of tries, so think carefully now about how many you’ll need.”

“Alright,” Roman said, marking the page with the ribbon attached to the book and standing up, “What do we do?”

“I will make the potion for you, it shouldn’t take… long,” Virgil said, frowning at his cauldron, “Can you help me lift this?”

“Of course!” Roman said, moving around to the other side of the handle. Together they lifted it and placed the full cauldron of ruined soup off to the side.

“Great, so, I’ll get everything ready here, if you really want to do something-”

“Yes! Yes I do!” Roman interrupted, Virgil sighed.

“Don’t interrupt me.”

“Yes, O’ Great Potion Master!” Roman said, though he looked to be suppressing a giggle. Virgil couldn’t help but chuckle too.

“You are unbearable,” Virgil snickered, “Go over to that shelf over there and find me the allspice, betony, clover, sandalwood and… some nutmeg, for good measure.”

“It doesn’t say nutmeg on the ingredients,” Roman protested.

“Who’s the witch, here?” Virgil said, shooting Roman a look. The prince sighed and trudged over to the cupboard, coming back with an armful of jars and bundles and dumping them on the side.

“I think this was everything?” Roman said, gesturing to the pile, Virgil looked it over for a second before nodding and grabbing a bucket of water and dumping it into his smaller backup cauldron that he’d now set over the fire, “What will the nutmeg do?”

“A bit of extra luck,” Virgil said, “In both the effects of the potion itself but also for your relationship with Prince Janus.”

Roman stopped still and Virgil only cast him a second glance before grabbing the book and propping it up with one of his more sturdy jars on the shelf. When he turned back to begin working, though, he found himself wrapped up in a tight hug.

“Hey?” Virgil said, trying to keep his voice softer whilst he tried to cool his confusion. He knew Roman was unpredictable just like his brother, Roman could easily switch from emotions like the click of a button, carefully, Virgil put a hand between Roman’s shoulder blades, “What’s up, buddy?”

“I- I just- thank you, so much, for- for everything,” Roman said, squeezing Virgil a little tighter, “I can’t believe you’re willing to do something like this for me, Virgil.”

“Of course I am,” Virgil huffed, “What, did you forget that you and Remus practically inserted yourselves into my one-elf family? How am I supposed to turn you away over something this damn important?”

“I assume we’re just going to ignore the fact that you just called us family?” Roman said, chuckling, Virgil couldn’t resist bapping the back of his head.

“You jerk,” Virgil said, “You’ve got me being sappy, don’t tell Remus he’ll throw a fit and never cease bothering me for a moment.”

“You love us really,” Roman said, pulling away from the hug and grinning at him.

“Shut it, Princey, now we have a potion to brew.”

#sanders sides #virgil sanders #sanders sides fanfiction #roman sanders #rowans writings #witch!virgil

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