#alther mella & marcia overstrand

[meganelixabethh]

Ok so we all agree watching the violent murder of your mentor and best friend while trying to save your friends baby and prevent yourself from also being murdered is a rough time. We also all agree that Marcia had to get over that very quickly because she had the tower to run and the Heaps to keep safe and the Supreme Custodian to keep in check. But here is what I think the run of events was like from the moment she leaves the palace to the moment she goes to bed that night

She absolutely pegs it down wizard way, pressing Jenna against her front so not to jostle her too much, and taking full advantage of her very long legs. When she bursts through the doors of the wizard tower all the wizards are gathered there, excited to see Alther and Marcia back from visiting the the Queen and the baby. Marcia bursts in, her hair is wild, she’s holding a crying baby, the amulet is hastily thrown around her neck and she is COVERED in blood. I’m talking soaked into her robes, splattered on her face, smeared on Jenna’s swaddling; she looks like she dressed up as Carrie for Halloween. All the wizards immediately think she’s done something to Alther; they can’t help but think about what happened to DomDaniel and wonder if it will become tradition for the apprentice to kill the master to supplant them. Marcia tells them what’s happened and who the baby is in a quick and panicked voice. She stopped crying on the run down the way, and she can feel the tears drying into her cheeks and making her skin feel stiff. The wizards immediately feel bad for doubting her and horrified at what she witnessed, they know how close she and the Queen were.

The wizards begin to cast protection spells around the tower and Endor, who is older than Marcia, comes over and gives her a bottle for Jenna, who is crying the entire time while Marcia rocks her and gently tries to shush her. She’s not called Jenna yet, and Marcia calls her Mattie, because Cerys was going to call her Mathilde after her mother. When Jenna goes to sleep, she thinks about putting her down but can’t face it, opting to hold her instead. When the spells are cast, the wizards reconvene around her. She’s sat on a chair looking at Jenna sleeping, and she looks up, a splatter of Cerys’ blood still on her nose, at the expectant faces of the wizards, and realises that it’s her that has to deal with this now. She’s in charge. It’s her. She looks down again and, even though she always imagined Jenna would grow up with her near, she knows she can’t stay here. She thinks of who can have her and her mind leaps to Silas. He did over half of the apprenticeship she just completed, and he left it all behind to look after his children. She knew Jenna had lost so much that day, but Marcia couldn’t bear the thought of her losing all the love she was going to have too- because this baby was going to be so very loved. She told the wizard she was going to take the baby to a safe place and got up to leave. Endor stopped her and reminded her that she looked like she had just witnessed a double murder and that she couldn’t just walk to whoever she was leaving the baby with and pass them over, it would be too suspicious. Marcia told her who she was was going to leave the baby with and Endor set off to find a way for Marcia to pass the baby over covertly.

When she left, Marcia took the stairs up to the rooms her and Alther had lived in so happily. She walked in and placed Jenna on the sofa, awake now but contented, and squarely ignored the door to Althers room and the bowl of half eaten porridge he’d left on the table. When she looked in the mirror, she startled at the sight of herself, and in panic performed a QuickClean spell. She knew she wasn’t meant to use Magyk for comfort, but Silas would never take a baby off her if she looked like that. She also needed to wear the ExtraOrdinary robes. If she was wearing her green robes Silas would 100% insist on talking to Alther and she wasn’t going to have time to explain everything that had happened today. She knew that the robes appeared on the wizard when they accepted their role as ExtraOrdinary. She looks in the mirror and says ‘I accept the role of ExtraOrdinary wizard’ but nothing happens. She tried to think it to herself, say it out loud like an affirmation, look at her exam results, but nothing happens. She’s still wearing her green apprentice robes. While she tries, she feeds Jenna again, who promptly falls back to sleep and Endor comes back. She tells Marcia that Silas has gone into the forest for herbs and will be back around when it gets dark, which is soon. Marcia knows nobody will be on the forest path that late, and that she can leave Jenna by the side of the road and Silas should Sense her. Endor makes it clear she needs to go now, and Marcia knows she’s right. The acceptance of her role sweeps through her and her robes change to the deep purple robes of her new position. She’s never worn Althers robes before, and they feel deeply powerful around her.

She hurries to the gate to get out to the forest path, her robes drawn around her and Jenna tucked out of sight inside. Dusk is just falling as she finds a bush and leaves Jenna there. She double checks that she can Sense her heartbeat clearly from the path, and she definitely can. Feeling as though she is ripping her heart out of her body, she walks away from the baby and goes to wait in the shadows of the lane she knows Silas will take once back in the castle, distractedly pressing a half crown into Gringes sticky palm as she passes. She waits longer than she would like, worrying about Jenna more and more every passing minute. Maybe she’s expecting too much of Silas, and Jenna will die of hypothermia by the side of the road. Cerys would come back from the dead to kill Marcia with her bare hands if that happened, and Marcia can’t quite bring herself to complete any thought that begins with her vibrant friend being dead. Just as she’s about to scurry back out the gate herself, she sees Silas hurrying down the lane, cloak pulled protectively around something and she knows it’s going to be okay. As he approaches her spot she sweeps out in front of him ‘tell nobody you found her, she was born to you, underhand?’ Is the best she can come out with before Transporting herself back to the tower. She couldn’t bear him asking questions.

When she gets back to the tower, everyone is in bed, even Endor, so she steps onto the stairs and unfocuses her eyes for a moment as the stairs lazily curl upwards on their slow night time mode. Her arms feel odd and empty without Jenna. She realises she forgot to tell Silas that the baby was called Mathilde. Another way she failed today. When she gets into her rooms she walks to her bedroom door in a daze, desperately tired and dreaming of falling into bed and never waking up. She walks straight into the door and no matter how hard she rattles, it won’t open. As she’s pushing at the door, Althers door opens with a creak, and Marcia realises that her new role isn’t just a set of robes, it’s a room too. There is no longer an apprentice, so the apprentice room is locked. She will not sleep in his bed. Not tonight. Not when he’s lying cold on the floor of the throne room. She casts an UnLocke on her door and rattles it again, nothing. She tried a different UnLock. Nothing again. She cycles through every spell she knows that might help and then makes some up and the stupid door will not budge. She tried a thunderflash, it doesn’t even dent it, she tries to shapeshift the door into an ant, it just stares back at her. She loses her temper and screams that she won’t sleep in his bed while she beats the door with her fists and her palms. She sobs, she screams, she throws the porridge bowl at the sofa and splatters the nice cushions with oats. She eventually ends up on the floor, laying on her side, tears sliding straight over her nose and onto the floor without her even blinking. She fuzzes out of the world for a while; the table legs blurring out of focus as she settles into the pleasant feeling of nothing mattering. She’s not sure how long she stays there but there wasn’t light when she left her mind and there is when she comes back. Her limbs feel heavy and she doesn’t want to move even though she knows she must. Endor will knock on her door soon and nobody can see this. Endor will knock on her door and patiently wait to be called in. If Marcia never says ‘come in’, Endor never will. Alther is gone. Cerys is gone. Milo is gone. There is nobody coming to pick her up off the floor and she doesn’t have the luxury of dying of thirst right in this spot. She heaves herself up and pick up the jagged parts of the broken bowl she threw earlier. She performs a Clean spell on the sofa but the stain won’t come out. She’s going to need a new one.

I warned you @septimus-heap

[septimus-heap]

Once again thinking abt how Alther was lucky enough to die on a day where he had put a lot of effort into his appearance and so he gets to appear put together for his entire ghosthood, when in reality when he was alive he was kind of messy looking. And how Marcia (who was at risk of assassination basically every day for 10 years) puts so much effort into appearing perfect all day every day. I do think she's just someone who likes to look good because she's Like That but there's a difference between wanting to appear professional for your important job, or wanting to look nice bc u like to, and having to look your best every single day because while your predecessor got lucky, you might not

[wizardbracket]

Round 1: Match 22 of 64

Why they deserve to be the ultimate wizard according to YOU:

Alther:

“goofy old man wizard ghost my beloved”

Marcia:

“It's her literal title: She is The ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Other qualifying factors: She wears purple python skin boots. She's also impatient and scares people with her presence easily (without meaning to). A true HIBC.”

“She's the ExtraOrdinary Wizard in the book series, which means she's the Wizard In Charge!  Trains the main character, fantastic at magic, has purple crocodile boots, I went as her once for halloween. 10/10 excellent wizard“

[sepheapcharacterstournament]

EXCITING NEW TOURNAMENT.

I collect every single named character in septimus heap and make them fight and u all get to participate <3 just submit any character as long as they have a name. I don't care if they're a main character or not. If they have a name then put them in the poll <3

There's going to be ideally a bracket for every book + one at the end where all the winners get to fight. That's why I need u to say what book they were introduced in in the form it's so I can sort them like that

Propaganda not only allowed but HIGHLY encouraged this is the dumbest idea I've ever had I need smth to make it even sillier

Rules r in the form but also extra rule. U have to be super niceys to me or I'll cry <3

[bubbles-txt]

So I decided to record the amount of times each character appears/is mentioned in Physik

I suggest you click on the image if you want to see what's going on down there...

And I also made a pie chart (appearances only)

There are 143 characters in Physik if you count Etheldredda's servants and the fishermen as one character

Also, this was heavily inspired by this post ⬇️ in which something similar is done with the characters of magyk

[flyteofthenoldor]

I'm back! It's been a while 😅

Rereading Septimus Heap as an Adult™ Part 3: Magyk, Chapters 29-42:

Stanley

I'm a lot more salty about Stanley witholding the truth about who sent the letter to Marcia than I was the first time. At least he didn't tell the Supreme Custodian where Keeper's Cottage is.

Marcia

She asks Boy 412 to be her Apprentice!!!

I'm also not sure how neither Silas or Aunt Zelda thought to inform Marcia that timepieces never work properly at Keeper's Cottage. She did leave without telling anyone, but I'm not sure how they spent so long there without it coming up.

Aunt Zelda

She was being very vague about Jenna's parents. She definitely knows who her father is.

Aunt Zelda throwing shade:

Also the Marsh Python having a tendency to swim to the right after being frozen in a circle is peak comedy.

Meanwhile at the Castle...

Some amusing notes:

DomDaniel has frequent banquets. Who does he invite? Who actually attends? I would like an entire chapter on one of these banquets.

"Operation Compost Heap." That is all.

The Supreme Custodian viewed Simon as a companion? What kind of Lima Syndrome shit is this 😂

Also Simon just walks tf out? Hahaha

The Hunter

Damn it Gerald, why did you have to shoot Boggart?

How can he hear Jenna's, Nicko's, and 412's heartbeats? I know he was trained for hunting, but that seems a little too superhuman.

It's a shame all the Shield Bugs died so quickly, with the exception of the one holding a grudge against Boy 412.

I feel like brainwashing the Hunter into thinking he's a clown should be a much more difficult spell 😅

Boy 412

I love how this kid finally decides to talk and he's immediately the most sassy 10 year old in existence.

The Apprentice

What a little shit

Get him, Bert! 🦆🐈

I love how unconcerned the Magog is so unconcerned with every aspect of this mission. It doesn't get paid enough for this.

The Vengeance

There's no way Alther really thought Jenna, Nicko, and 412 were just going to go back to the cottage 😅

You can't mention the great Wizard Inquisition and not give me more details!

[jadescribbles]

"Alther? Is that you? Really?" // "It's been a while, hasn't it?" // "A year and a day."

@septimusheapevents for the 2022 Septimus Heap Big Bang

My art piece for @niamhous's wonderful fic Visiting Hours. I had so much fun making this, I'm honored to have partnered with you :D

[Image ID: A digital scan of a comic-style watercolor art piece. The top half depicts the Wizard Tower and two grey birds. A small panel in the top left corner shows a teary green eye framed by wavy brown hair. The left middle panel has Marcia with papers falling from her hands, the right has Alther with a window visible through him and a noticeable blood stain. Both are in a purple room, and speech bubbles with the the quote above are handwritten in black. The bottom panel is drawn intentionally without detail or the background, and has both of them facing each other. The artist's signature (Jade) is in the bottom right corner. /End ID]

[qwillreign]

Septimus - alther - marcia

Soldier - poet - king

(in that order)

Chapter Six: The Battle of the Castle

The Extraordinary Apprentice rose above the city, fighting for his family, his friends, and his Castle. He fought fiercely, smaller than the other, a small speck of green on the back of an only slightly larger Green Dragon. Dwarfed by the Darke One, the Apprentice fought bravely to kill the dragon. He was killed in the process. The people said that he would have been a Great Wizard, but they were thankful that he was such a Good soldier. (The poor boy.)

Accidentally banished to the Darke Beyond, the people of the Castle left nothing but praise in their books for the Extraordinary Past. He spoke wisely, they said and left nothing but encouragement behind him. It was a pity that he couldn't be saved when that horrid one had interrupted the Extraordinary Wizard. But at least he helped from within. At least he had been able to tell them what happened.

The ExtraOrdinary Wizard had been great and powerful. She had been fierce and strong when she lost all others. The Castle has in its records her accomplishments and her failures. The Extraordinary records are the most reliable documents from the period, so modern historians would do well to be thankful to Marcia Overstrand. As a Ruler, Marcia Overstrand expanded the reach of the Tower. As a person, she made sure everyone else was remembered. Perpetually standing to the right of the Queen, Madam Marcia spoke only of others' accomplishments. It is a sad thing indeed that we do not know of hers.

Read it here on ao3

[lovelyisadora]

Can't remember if I've sent this ask before. I probably have. But I want to put apprentice alther marcia septimus and tod in a room together purely so marcia can be like wow im so glad none of this horrifying bullshit that u all went through happened to me lol and sep and tod can be like. 😬. This is incoherent bc I am v tired but I think it would be funny

ok I didn’t realize you said apprentice everyone together in a room so I interpreted it as in all four of them get together regularly, and end up talking about fucked up things that happened to them as apprentices.

tod and septimus start it, because sep’s like, you think that’s bad listen to this. and alther’s like, okay come on I was domdaniel’s apprentice im pretty sure that’s worse. and marcia is just kicking back like man, I am so glad nothing bad has happened to me ever.

and yeah all three of them just look at her like 😬 who is gonna tell her

[probably-bad-fandom-ideas]

Alther: how long has it been since either of you slept

Marcia: three or four

Alther: three or four what

Septimus: maybe five

[workofthediesel]

If fic requests are still open then marcia and alther having an argument (apprentice marcia maybe 👀)

fic requests are open! send me an ask!

“Alther!” Marcia called through the door. “Please, just open the door.”

“Never!” Alther called back. “I know what you’re planning!”

“I’m not planning anything!” Marcia told him for what must have been the hundredth time that day.

Alther barked out a derisive laugh before he took to mumbling. Marcia couldn’t quite make out all the words, but she was able to catch a few phrases, like “trickster fiend” and “been biding her time” and “too ambitious for anyone’s good.”

Marcia sighed. Alther hadn’t been at all himself since he got back from the Fumigation. She’d had been trying her best to help, but that was hard when Alther refused to be in the same room as her. If it were up to him, Marcia was sure he wouldn’t even be in the same building as her. Unfortunately for him, though, his home was her home, and she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Look,” Marcia said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. She didn’t quite succeed, but the attempt was better than nothing. “I made some lunch for you. Can you UnLock the door?”

“Oh, you’d like that wouldn’t you,” Alther said lowly. Marcia couldn’t tell if he was talking to her or to himself. “The second I let my guard down, you’ll strike. Well, you won’t fool me.”

Marcia took a deep breath. It was a struggle to keep calm, but she knew that if she got mad, it would only confirm whatever delusion he was under.

It wasn’t his fault, she knew. He’d been bitten by a Darke spider and it had left him all out of sorts. It would wear off eventually--at least, she hoped it would--so in the meantime, she just needed to wait it out. It didn’t make dealing with it any easier, though.

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll just leave it here for you. You can open the door once I’m gone.”

“Liar!” Alther shouted. “I know you won’t leave. You’re just trying to trick me!”

“I’m not, Alther! I promise I’m not.”

“As if I’ll believe you.”

Marcia closed her eyes and slowly counted to ten. “Alther,” she said with a forced calm, “you need to eat.”

“Say whatever you want, I’m not opening this door!”

“You’ll have to come out at some point!” Marcia snapped.

“And you’ll just be waiting for that, won’t you?” Alther said, his voice bordering on a taunt. “Well, the joke’s on you: I Barred the windows!”

“Wha—?” Marcia was confused for a second before it clicked. That’s what Alther was all worked up about. He thought she was trying to toss him out a window! She bit back a groan. This was utterly ridiculous.

Marcia didn’t have the patience for this. “Fine,” she said, throwing a hand up, “you win. I’m leaving the Tower. You’re free to come out whenever you want.”

“It’s no use trying to trick me!” Alther shouted to her. “I won’t ever believe you.”

Marcia shook her head. “Believe what you will,” she called back as she started off down the hall. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

She didn’t have a complete plan for what she was going to do tonight. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to find a room in the Ramblings to rent out for the night, though. If worst came to worst, she might be able to beg her way into the Heap’s room.

Hopefully, Alther would be back to normal in the morning.

[septimus-heap]

Marcia whenever silas does anything remotely irritating in her vicinity:

ID: the "mr electric, kill him" meme, edited to say "alther, kill him" /end ID

[wizardbracket]

Round 2: Match 11 of 32

Why they deserve to be the ultimate wizard according to YOU:

Ged:

Vanquished (so far): Raistlin Majere

"Ged breaks your heart in a good way every book"

"Ged didn't become archmage and then quit to go herd goats to lost a poll bracket"

"Ged is a POC queer protag ... he's arguably one of the most powerful beings IN Earthsea and he learns wisdom above all else which tempers him"

“The mix of pride and wounds. The gentleness and power. The greatness and the goats. I love my boy so much.”

“He is simply a little wizard guy who goes on little wizard adventures and journeys of self-discovery.”

“This man went to wizard school and beat up his own shadow”

Marcia:

Vanquished (so far): Alther Mella

"every day. EVERY DAY! i think about that paragraph in either darke or fyre that was like 'yeah she was a really weird kid"

"vote marcia she's the coolest bitch everrrrrr"

“It's her literal title: She is The ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Other qualifying factors: She wears purple python skin boots. She's also impatient and scares people with her presence easily (without meaning to). A true HIBC.”

“She's the ExtraOrdinary Wizard in the book series, which means she's the Wizard In Charge!  Trains the main character, fantastic at magic, has purple crocodile boots, I went as her once for halloween. 10/10 excellent wizard“

[lirulii]

If Angie Sage won't speak it into canon I will:

Alther= Shiny Metallic Platform Shoes

Marcia= Light-Up Sketchers

Sep= Neon Crocs with Heel

Tod= Sparkly Heelies

That is All.

[thetrashqueeeen]

Okay so I’m rereading Magyk

And I’ve just been reminded that Marcia saw Cerys get shot and immediately die, leapt forwards and caught Jenna before she hit the floor, watched her mentor die, run out the room knowing there was a possibility of her being shot on the way out and run all the way back to wizard tower to convene with the other wizards about what she should do. This didn’t really hit home as a kid, but can you even imagine the trauma of that? Just imagine Marcia, charging through the wizard tower doors and everyone turning around to see the ExtraOrdinary apprentice covered in blood and tears, holding a crying baby with the amulet hastily thrown around her neck, all tangled up in her hair. Everyone is looking at her and she remembers all of a sudden she’s in charge now because of that thing that just happened that she can’t even begin to think about. Imagine her awkwardly rocking Jenna to make her stop crying, and wiping her own tears away while she built a wall around the terror and horror waiting to engulf her mind. Imagine her after she gets back from talking to Silas and letting herself into the apartment that’s now hers. She didn’t have Alther for a year and a day, she didn’t have ANYONE. Just imagine her sleeping in her apprentice room because it just hurts too much to move into Althers room. Imagine her spending nights locked away in the library, studying to try and beat these terrorists because the nightmares were just too bad tonight. It makes so much sense that Marcia truly despises both DomDaniel and the Superme Custodian and not just because they’re persecuting her and her people, or because they’re power hungry and misogynistic, but because the worst thing that has ever happened to her was because of them. Can we just take a moment to realise Marcia would have likely been a completely different woman if this hadn’t happened to her? That even though she’s okay, and the woman she became is pretty great, this likely shaped the entire course of her life? Angie please write the whole 10 year jump from Marcia’s perspective pls and thank you.