Something was missing from Reina's life, a dark feeling of emptiness always cursed her. That was until one day, she saved a cat from drowning and was led into a strange shop she had never seen before, leading to a series of events that transported h...
"Where's Pretty? Is she hyper again?" Gloria looked in the cupboards, under the tables and chairs, under the carpet. Soon there was a big mess of toys all over the floor in the shop. She gave a sigh of defeat, "I can't find her at all."
"I wonder whose fault that is," Arthur gave a quick glance at Reina who looked away as she remembered the cat-cats.
"Okay never mind. Arthur I'm taking Reina with me, you take care of Aldric while I'm gone," She wrapped herself in her scarf and jacket and dragged Reina to the door.
"Wait who's going to clean up this mess?" he complained.
"You will," Gloria quickly closed the door before Arthur could say another word.
This time, they started walking behind the shop, following a narrow path through a forest. They had been walking for a while and Reina soon found herself trekking up a hill, towards a beautiful tree. Gnarled branches intertwined with each other, leaves with different shades of green, yellow and orange shining in the sunlight.
"This is the tree of Eldor," Gloria said as she put her hand in the tree, small pixie-like creatures fell into her head as she did so. She simply smiled and ignored them as they flew past her. "You're going to have your first lesson here."
Reina gave a quick nod, giving out a nervous smile.
"Don't be nervous," she told her, "it's not going to be too difficult."
They both sat underneath the tree and Reina quietly listened to her speak.
"There are three main principles of magic."
Gloria took out a notebook and started writing, jotting down three circles next to each other, "working of the mind, heart and soul."
She paused for a second and looked at Reina to make sure she was paying attention.
"I'm listening," she reassured.
"The mind has to be clean from impure thoughts, the heart has to have pure intentions and the soul is cleansed through good deeds. Nobody can have it perfect all the time, that's why the quality of magic fluctuates."
"I see..."
"Can you guess what links all these three together?"
Reina thought for a while before shaking her head. She wasn't too sure how any of this had to do with magic. Although, she wasn't sure what she was expecting.
"Imagination," Gloria wrote in big bold letters, "to be the best magician, you need the best imagination."
Reina's heart fluttered a little but continued listening.
"Another principle which is central to magic is the Higher Power," Gloria stopped making notes and places the piece of paper on Reina's lap, "This is going to be a bit of a long history lesson, please bear with me."
And so Reina listened. Each and every word sent dopamine into her brain as Gloria explained how everything worked. The words flowed like water and her heart was dancing. She had never felt more interested in anything before. Gloria explained how all magic was sent down to Azelrya from the Higher Power and how Azelrya was once part of Earth but got separated from it centuries ago.
"We were revealed ten books, that taught us everything. About potions, spells, shapeshifting, healing, using it for good and bad. So people learnt it all and passed on that knowledge to the next generations."
It turns out, Azelrya wasn't so much different from Earth after all. At least not at first. Not until people started using dark magic and causing corruption. Once the first person died from magic, the world collapsed and broke away from Earth before it could spread further. Creatures of magic were born and prevailed the land. The memories of Azelrya were erased entirely from the rest of the world and a new land of magic was created. The people who were once humans became known as the people of magic. Wizards, witches and students of magic spent their lives learning and searching for magical knowledge.
Gloria took a deep breath before continuing, "it was all going great, we had kings and queens ruling our lands and due to...Let's say political implications, magic became less and less common. There's not as many witches and wizards left now."
"Oh," was all Reina could say.
"According to the books, it says that all magic belongs to the Higher Power and if used as a weapon, the soul becomes corrupt. Remember the three principles?" she explained.
"Heart, mind and soul. Yup."
"Good. And the last rule," she lowered her voice and looked straight at Reina with complete seriousness, "you must never use dark magic in the human world."
"Dark magic an in..."
"The ones used to kill people. There are certain conditions for it to be used, otherwise it eats away your sanity."
"What happens if you use it anyway?"
"Then the world has its way of restoring balance."
Reina wasn't sure if she understood what that meant but nodded regardless, "and what is the Higher Power exactly?"
"It's...Hard to explain. Nobody really knows who the author of the books are, if they were human or another being."
Reina sat in the grass and started processing all the information, playing the conversation in her head a few times. She couldn't believe such a thing as magic even existed, the way she talked about it like it was nothing and the fact that if she hadn't met Gloria in the Gremlin's toyshop that day, she would have lived the rest of her life completely oblivious of this entire world that exists.
"Are you okay? Did I say too much?"
"No no," Reina shook her head, lost track of her train of thoughts.
"Good. One last thing," Gloria stood up, stretching her arms and legs, "the Eldor tree is used to make wands. You have to pick a twig from it."
"I'm going to need a wand?"
"At the beginning, yes."
Reina stared at the tree. She leaned her hand forward, slowly approaching it until a small branch lowered itself for her. She broke a small piece that grew bigger in her hand and adjusted itself to her grip. She stared at it curiously, it didn't have the normal texture of wood. It was smoother and almost soft to the touch.
"We'll give it to Montgomery who will mend it for you."
So the wand went inside Gloria's bag and they started heading back to her room, leaving Reina with a lot to think about. She twisted and turned in her bed, staring at the piece of paper with scribbled notes all over the place. Studying each point slowly and carefully. That was until she remembered the book she was going to read before she was interrupted that day. She stood up in excitement and made herself comfortable in her bed. Soon enough, there were sounds of flickering pages and among the beautiful ink that filled her eyes, a small map caught her attention.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
