Moonlight Magic

Chapter 2

Leaning against the heavy front doors back home, I was met with eerie silence. It was just me and this...building. I wasn't kidding when I said mansion. This place might have modern appliances but inside and out, its from another century.
The front doors were made of mahogany. The entrance 'hallway' -or more accurately, entrance 'floor'- had grand sweeping staircases made of marble on the right and left, leading up to the second floor. The walls above the stairs either side were lined with elegant Victorian windows. Dark vermillion curtains draped the glass panes. There were even intricately carved pillars holding up the staircases.
I climbed the stairs and looked down from second floor, getting a balcony view of the entrance floor and front doors. My room was on this floor, off of the west wing. As I made my way to my room, I recalled the many times Talia begged if she could hide and live in my room for the rest of her life. She said it was big enough to be a living room, not a bedroom.
Upon entering my bedroom, I secretly agreed with her. There was a lacey canopied bed with the head board against the right wall. The window seat to the left of the bed was filled with cushions. An enormous en suite bathroom was also included.
However, what both Talia and I thought made me a princess was the walk-in wardrobe. Talia envied me. The wardrobe was able to hold over a hundred clothes. I didn't really care for such luxuries maybe because it's all I've known. This of course didn't help with the followers I had. I did however flaunt this every other time just to tick Tiffmen off.
But no matter how many people pretended they liked me, only Talia was my true friend. At the thought of her, I slumped onto my bed, deflated.

*****

According to the clock on the kitchen wall, it was twenty past seven. I'd decided to use this time wisely.
A week ago, I had found something while exploring the forbidden east wing. Except for the library, the rest of the East wing had an unstable foundation hence the restriction of going anywhere near the place. Why my parents hadn't taken this flaw into consideration before buying the manor I had no idea. But one cannot deny that wing killed even the worst case of boredom.
I couldn't thoroughly examine what I'd found as my parents had the tenancy to not announce their sudden entering into my room, which was lock deprived. I wasn't taking on the slight chance that incase they recognised I had in fact snuck behind their backs, defying their order by just a glance of the thing I uncovered.
The object of mystery was an old leather covered tome with yellowed parchment pages. There was a buckle that kept it closed tight. It was in a drawer's secret compartment in one of the empty rooms. I had puzzled over it. The drawer had a new polished lock. Why would an old building with an old drawer have a new lock that contained a hiding place? I had come to the conclusion that my parents knew about it but wanted to prevent anyone from snooping.
This was another reason that gave me pause on checking the book out when they were around. I had hidden it under one of the loose floorboards covered by a fluffy rug in my room.
Retrieving the tome from its new hiding place, I plonked it down onto the dining table with a thud. I frowned at the book. How could something that looked so fragile feel so damn heavy? It'd taken an effort in lugging it down here.
It was marginally thick but not very big. Obviously, the tome was over a century old indicated by the weathered leather and old fashioned cursive title; Spelling. For something that was hidden away, there was no dust.
I undid the buckle and flipped the tome open. There was more of the cursive writing which was a little hard to make out. I think the first said, The art of spelling is for the gifted. What's that supposed to mean?

*****

After an hour of reading, I had gained nothing but a skull cracking headache from trying to decipher the words.
I realised the book wasn't about teaching one to necessarily spell words. It was about how to cast spells. In other words, it's a spell book.
As I read I couldn't help but have a sinister feeling. I had a feeling not just anyone could read the script let alone understand it. I looked up at the clock again. It was already eight thirty. I was weary and had no appetite and decided to have an early night, after carefully putting the book away.