Chapter 1: Redhead
“Dreams are all in your head. You can’t dream without them. That’s why tyrants behead people who dare to.” – Tamaki Tamaki.
*
For the sake of oversimplification, there are three elements that we need to understand in order to understand magic: magic, the human mind and the universe. One could imagine a triangle with one of these three elements representing one point of the triangle, each one of the three interlinked with the other two.
Here is how the trio works. Hypothetically, someone having an amount of magic approaching infinity, and in perfect magical equilibrium would find themselves understanding, no, feeling how the universe works around them. Her mind, magic, and the universe will feel inseparable. She will feel every atom, detect the flow of every nanomana of magic and at the same time can think of how to utilize all these as she wills it. It is like temporal, unearthly knowledge, a moment of epiphany. The caster can feel the movement of every stream of magic in her vicinity. Upon touching a leaf, she can discern every vein, every cell and every molecule as they make their way in the vestiges of the vegetative life form. She will be trapped in a state of enlightenment beyond the limitations of the human mind.
But if she loses all this magical energy, she would find her consciousness reduced into the mortal she was before she came into contact with magic. She will forget how every leaf cell felt, the existence of the capillaries, and so on. It’s like trying to remember everything in a vivid dream that has slipped out of memory.
The redhead girl snapped the book shut, heaving a great sigh. “Boooring! I wonder when that old hag is going to come home?” she spoke aloud.
The way she made me spent my entire life, one would think whether books are the only things in existence! I know it’s not. I know there’s a bigger world out there! And here I am, forced to be cooped in this little corner, burning away my lifespan on… books! And boring ones at that!
Holly knew that even without having the books and her guardian telling her. She had dreamt about it many times.
The library bathed in golden light had been her world as far as she remembered, since she had learnt how to talk. Lanterns hung in brackets on the bookshelves had been her sun and moon for as long as she had remembered. She was sure that the place was underground; that was what her guardian told her. The problem was that she had never experienced life above ground so she couldn’t compare much. But she had dreamt about it.
Holly was just slightly less than five feet tall; had straight red hair that fell like a curtain of water behind her, just short of reaching the small of her back; and a pair of brown eyes that rarely blinked. Her expression was solemn, bordering on naïve innocence. Her mouth was usually a straight line, but at the slightest emotional incitement, would unconsciously hang open like a half-closed door. Her lank frame was hidden in a loose-fitting pajama with long sleeves, white like a pale curtain.
Standing up from the study table, she went to the edge of the library. Her four poster bed waited like an old friend, looking as welcoming as ever under the golden glow. She looked at the antique clock ticking on the wall.
It’s already past twelve midnight.
She opened the book and lied on her belly on the bed.
She closed it again, pressing her face against the cold cover of the book. She would not force feed Magic’s Knowledge-like Properties: A Theoretical Study of Magic and Data Correlation into her mind right now. Besides, the title was in bad taste, she thought. No one in their right minds would blame her. She had been reading for seven hours straight, and the worst part was, the books she had to read were all academic. Who in the world likes them?
Dear diary, my guardian is not so right in the head, she thought with sarcasm. Firstly, that old witch expected me to…
She fell asleep amidst running thoughts.
*
“Mary, please eat before playing,” the mother said.
“But I wanted to try my kite! What if the wind dies?” the girl protested.
“Listen to your mother, Greta,” the father jumped into the conversation.
“But, Papa…”
“We’re a family, Jenny,” the father cut short sternly, yet gently. “Families eat together. Your mother made you sandwiches. You should be thankful.”
“And your father took all the trouble to bring you here when he could have spent away his weekend on the couch watching the Super Ball,” the mother chided, relaxing the tension.
“Oh, shut it, Martha,” the father frowned, but his lips indeliberately formed a faint smile.
The family of three was having a picnic on the crown of a green hillock. The-girl-whose-name-changed-every-time sighed. But then she smiled contentedly. She sat down, picking a sandwich from the basket and admiring the view.
The city was spread out like a model so vast that its edges lay outside the range of vision. Buildings high and low poked out like metallic blades of grass.
She chewed. The sandwich was still warm. She found that olive and scrambled eggs made a weird combination, but not unpleasant. The summer sun felt gentle and the breeze soothed her feelings.
*
“HOLLYYYYY!”
Holly sat up abruptly. The voice woke her up from her dream. Rudely. She was quick to instinctively give the owner a good slap. There was an indignant “Ow!” and then a thud.
“That was rude alright!” Holly and the owner of the voice scolded in unison.
Holly was speaking to a floating head.
It was a girl’s head with short red hair, twinkling black eyes and a childlike expression. Under its chin was a thick woolen scarf held together by a bow-shaped brooch. The two ends of the red scarf dangled behind her like esophagi. Over her head was a thin golden ring that looked as if it was embedded into her skull, not unlike a handle, amidst a large bow ribbon.
“You threw me against the wall!” the head complained. “Do you have any idea how unpleasant it is having a bump on your head while having no hands to massage it?”
“Tamaki…” Holly stifled a yawn, her mind still blurry. “Of all the ways to wake me up!”
“When you’re a floating head, you don’t have much choice,” Tamaki snapped back. “I’ll rather not lick your cheek or bite your ear, no thanks.”
“Ew…” Holly winced. “Oh yeah, that witch took your body with her.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And let me guess, you’re here to scold me for sleeping before finishing this bloody book?”
“Ugh, no curse words please…” Tamaki shook her head profusely, even momentarily closing her eyes. It was a weird gesture for a floating head. “Yes, it’s part of the deal, you know, every time she goes out, you’ll finish two books a day. Other than that, you can do anything you want anytime you want.”
“I know. Except going outside.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Give me a break, coincidentally today’s books total something like 1500 pages,” Holly retorted.
“1396, actually,” Tamaki corrected smugly.
“I’m not a floating head, okay!” Holly sighed and rested against the headboard. “15 years of information force-feeding is not how a girl should grow up.” You want something that stores knowledge and talks, ask a homunculus, not a girl like me.
“Ten, actually.” If Tamaki had shoulders right now she would have shrugged. But her scarf somehow twitched a little. “You started reading when you were five years old.”
“You know giving that kind of comeback is not making me feel better, especially after you yelled in my ear like that.”
“Sure, I’ll lick your cheek next time.”
“Eww, just no!” Holly protested, knowing too well that Tamaki was just pulling her leg. “I mean, you just woke me up in the middle of the night! Let me pull myself together first, okay?”
Holly sighed. Tamaki bobbed continuously midair like a cork floating in the sea. The floating head was one of her guardian’s creations. Tamaki was a homunculus made through magic, and upon her master’s twisted whim, she was created with an extra feature: her head could detach and float around. Holly remembered reading on Nukekubi, a monster from folklore that had a detachable head that could fly around.
Tamaki had been Holly’s only friend whenever her guardian left her alone in the Library. Sometimes she would take Tamaki’s body with her, leaving Holly with less than half a friend, but Holly would prefer that over complete loneliness anytime. Sure, Tamaki could be a little bit eccentric, but who isn’t?
Her friend was a big help in staving off boredom. But she also acted as a substitute caretaker whenever her guardian was not around. For a floating head, she could be quite helpful sometimes. Well, sometimes.
Holly rubbed her eyes. “Um, Tamaki?”
“Uh-huh?”
“You know, I had a dream again.”
Tamaki turned herself upside down. “Uh-huh.”
“I saw my parents. We were picnicking on a green hill. The view was… was beautiful, there were… glass buildings everywhere. But… that can’t be real, right?”
“Uh-huh.” Tamaki nodded in agreement while staying upside down.
“Glass buildings are all destroyed before I was born, right?”
“Yeah, Master said she found you in a ruined city. You were just a baby then,” Tamaki explained in a low drawl. “How old are you in the dream?”
“I don’t know, maybe… ten?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Yeah, I know, it’s silly, right? It’s just impossible. But the dream felt like a real memory, like something I had really, really experienced before, something like a déjà vu.”
“Aren’t all dreams like that?” said Tamaki dreamily.
“What do floating heads know about dreams?” Holly allowed herself a lopsided grin.
“You can’t dream without a head.”
“That’s beyond obvious, dummy.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But somehow it was blurry in its own way… like… why did my name change? Why did I feel like every second I was talking as a different person? And, come to think of it, my parents’ faces, in the dream, were blurry. I can’t remember them anymore. Even their voices changed every second.”
“You still have to finish 300 pages,” Tamaki changed the subject.
“Oh you, you, you troll!”
Thwack. “Bweh!”
Holly had thrown a pillow in Tamaki’s face. It hit its target all right. Luckily it didn’t send her against the wall this time. “I know, I know! Duty or not, be a good listener, okay?” Holly half-yelled.
“Uh-huh.”
“And why were you yelling in my ear at…” Holly turned to look at the time, “two in the morning? Can’t you just force me to read tomorrow?”
“Uh… huh…” at this, Tamaki’s large bows actually drooped a little, like fox ears. “I… woke you up because… Master is home. She’s waiting at the door.”
“That old ha-she’s home?”
“Uh-huh, and she forgot the key.”
But Holly had already sprung onto her feet, bolting away like lightning. And you let me chitchat? Not stopping, Holly shouted, “If she kills me for making her wait, I’ll kill you!”
“Uh-huh.”
“I mean it!”
“Lol.”
*
Author's Note: Media: fanart of Holly and Tamaki by MebiusBrave. Sugoi na! Send him lots of love and troll reviews for me!