Multiverse of Magic & Mistakes (Completed)

2.3.25 - Epilogue

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, USA, Earth, May 2025.

It was a bright and sunny Tuesday morning on the east coast.

Vi pulled her battered sunglasses down over her eyes as she meandered through the botanical gardens heading towards the very familiar location where the San Francisco 'equivalancer' machine was hidden among the thick trees.

She had visited these gardens hundreds, of times over the past five years, sometimes accompanied by Middy or another Guardian, sometimes by Rho, and often, as today alone, but each time she was overwhelmed by the beauty and tranquillity of the park.

It was a very welcome perk of her job, that most of the 'equivalencers' had been left in such beautiful locations.

Vi swerved round a group of dawdling tourists, who were photographing everything in sight, and headed down a narrow path. It was empty. Good.

Drawing up a tiny bit of her precious magic reserved, Vi carefully cast a concealment charm upon herself. Just in case anyone happened to come down this way. It wouldn't do for any of the locals to see what she was up to.

There had been several close calls over the years, but as far as the Guardians knew, everyone on Earth remained oblivious to the existence of magic, the parallel realms, and to the Guardians never-ending work in maintaining the balance.

Lily had gathered a small team (many of whom thought she was an insane conspiracy theorist) to help her trawl the web and find anything that came close to the truth. Anything they did find, and anyone, had been dealt with.

The secret was safe. All was well. Vi made an effort to see Lily, whose 'official' job was a museum archivist, whenever she was in the area.

Violet reached for the 'equivalencer', her fingers moving to the right spots by seared-in muscle memory. As always, she closed her eyes and concentrated upon the charging crystals and made a note of which ones were full, or nearly full, and then replaced them with empty crystals, that she had recently collected from the corresponding machines scattered across Azuhelm that emitted the collected energy at a steady rate.

She worked swiftly, expertly replacing six charged crystals with the empty ones, and updating her logbook in a matter of mere minutes.

It was such a beautiful day, and she wasn't due to give a lecture at the Skylark University, for several hours, so Vi decided to check out the city. Out of all the places she had to visit regularly across the globe for work, San Francisco was definitely Vi's favourite.

Although nothing could beat her home near Skylark beach. Vi and Rho had moved early in the year. The new place was just a short walk to the academy where Rho taught, and not much further on to the newly built university where they were both often asked to give guest lectures. The hall was always full, as Azuhelmians from across the archipelago came to hear the Stryder's tales of the realms.

It was funny really. For people with the ability to travel anywhere within a realm, or into another realm in an instant, they preferred to walk when they could. The journey, Rho often said, was the best part.

Vi left the botanical gardens and continued on past the joggers and cyclists on the park's main boulevard, heading towards the beach. Despite now living by the coast, she still loved to visit the beaches of other worlds. That's how she thought of things now. Azuhelm was her home. Earth was the other realm that she frequently had to visit.

She paused for a moment, taking in the great ocean views, then continued along a narrow, winding coastal trail cliff-top path that felt like it was overlooking the edge of the world. The famed golden gate bridge, more a rich orange, than gold really, loomed on up ahead. She passed yet another group of tourists with their big cameras. One of them asked if Vi could take their photo, and she did, surprising them by responding in their native language. She helped them with directions, then continued on her way.