Synopsis: Sophia Judith Blake is having a ruff time. She feels less like a person and more like...
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Sorcerer Girl: The Grey Fairy
- Thread starter 5power
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Chapter 1: The Shadow
Synopsis: Sophia Judith Blake is having a ruff time. She feels less like a person and more like a corpse wandering through life. Her father barely acknowledges her existence and her school life is slowly disintegrating. There only two real bright spots that keep her going, her best and only friend Carol Westwood and her regular metal work lesson. After one participial bad day Sophia a chance and strange encounter that will change her life forever.
A/N: The following work was edited by Neph Champion and Serna Myers.
The girl was drowning. There was no denying that, as her body was slowly dragged downward by the thick wall of water filling her lungs. Her vision became a blurry haze of dark blue before turning pitch black. She began to feel very tired perhaps she should sleep.
No! If she gave up now she would die, she didn't want to die, she didn't want to leave her family behind, she still hadn't accomplished anything yet. With renewed vigour, she began to pull herself from the water slowly reaching the surface; each inch feeling like a tonne of lead was being dropped on her.
But just when it looked like the last stretch might be too difficult. Something reached into the water and pulled her out. For a moment, the water in her eyes made it difficult to see but as it was wiped away she got a clear glimpse of her saviour.
He was a humanoid figure hidden beneath a veil of shadowing darkness, which was vaguely male shaped. The only features that the girl could make out were a small lipped shaped hole where his mouth should be and his eyes, silver grey miserable eyes.
The figure was smiling. It was genuine yet it was the saddest thing the girl ever had seen. It annoyed the girl greatly for reasons that were completely unknown to her.
She wanted to thank the stranger and then punch him the face. But her strength was spent to the point that she could barely muster the power to speak. The shadowy stranger asked in a featureless voice, "Hey kid, are you okay?" The girl nodded.
"What's your name?" The stranger asked.
"Sophia" the girl responded with great pain, "Sophia Judith Blake."
Sophia Blake awoke from her sleep with a jolt. Throwing the bed sheets off her and touched her forehead. She had that dream again the one of the shadows and the lake. She had been having that dream on and off ever since that incident.
She had been eight years old at the time her parents had taken Sophia out on a trip to a lake. Unfortunately, she fell in the lake and almost drowned when suddenly a man dived into a lake and rescued her.
After that, the man just asked Sophia for her name, checked if she was ok and then ran off and disappeared, like a puff of smoke. What made incident even stranger was how little Sophia actually remembered about her saviour. In fact, the only reason she was certain it was a man was because parents had told her so and they couldn't remember anything else apart from that.
Regardless experience had clearly left some kind of impact on her life, otherwise, she wouldn't still be dreaming about it even after so many years has passed, but try as she might Sophia couldn't say what it actually was. It had something to do with those silver eyes that were so thick with misery. Sophia should have felt sorry for him and she was, but every time she thought about that expression she also found herself feeling extremely irritated. She could never really put her finger on it, but something about that expression seemed to offend her in some way.
Lost in thought, Sophie allowed her eyes to gaze around the room aimlessly until finally, they settled on a dusty old picture resting in a wooden frame on top the bookshelf that was directly across from Sophie's bed.
It was a couple, a man, and a woman. The woman's silky hair was a dark chestnut brown and went all the way down to passed neck, her eyes were also chestnut brown. The man had bright orange hair and hazel eyes. In between the happy couple, smiling brightly was a girl of the age of nine, she possessed the same orange hair and hazel eyes as her father and her overall body looked like small versions of her mother. This Sophia had looked like five years ago; it felt more like a lifetime.
However, even after all this time that picture still found a way to put a smile on her face, which was kind of ironic since this picture has been taken right before everything started to go wrong.
As much as she would love to sit around reminiscing about the past to herself, Sophie still had to go to school, so with great reluctance, she forced herself out of bed. The first part of the morning preparation was to put on her school uniform, a simple white shirt with the school's insignia on the right breast, a plane long black skirt, long grey socks and brown slip on shoes. Not the most exciting of uniforms but it was comfortable.
As she turned to leave the room Sophie caught a glimpse of herself in the small mirror that hung off the wall just left of the door. Her appearances were very similar to how it looked in the photo, of course, she was bigger now but still pretty short for a girl her age, her body had a slim but muscular build, her orange mane of hair was messy and untidy.
The Blake household of number 39 New Lane, to be blunt, was very ugly and cheap looking. With its cruddy plastic windows, walls covered in bland yellow wallpaper that smelled like week old coffee and a grey carpet that was ugly as a donkey's ass. The electrical appliances were mediocre not cutting edge but still too young to be called outdated relics.
Sophie entered the kitchen; it wasn't any different from the rest of the house. It's light brown tile floor was a very simple uninteresting square pattern, the wooden table, and chairs in the centre were starting to show signs of wear and tear. Off to the left was a large wooden island, which had a toaster and microwave resting on top of it. To the right was a large cabinet covered in faded green paint, next to the cabinet was a couple of drawers and directly opposite the table was a large fridge.
Sophia opened the cabinet and pulled out a bag of white bread, grabbed two slices from the bag, placed the bread slices into the toaster and put the bag back in the cabinet.
While she was waiting for the toast to be finished she noticed a small yellow post-it note lying on. Sophia picked it up. There were words scribbled on it in black marker ink. They read, "Gone to work early."
Sophia gave the noted irritated glare, "typical," she muttered dismissively before dropping the post-it note back on the table.
It was that moment the toaster made a teeny ding sound followed by the noise of bread sliding upwards.
After finishing her toast off Sophia headed right back upstairs to brush her teeth. Following that, she rushed back downstairs, grabbed her school bag and left the house.
She walked down the long quiet street of New Lane; a messed up and poorly maintained street filled with tiny pot holes, flanked by the house that was equal as cheap looking as number 39, the grey sky and clouds completing the dull picture.
At the end of the street, there was by far the most colourful landmark, a yellow and black bus stop sigh. It was here that Sophia waited for the school bus to come and take her to school for the past year and just like it always had without fail, it reached the stop at eight am. Its doors slide open, the bus driver a short slightly overweight man asked Sophia for her bus card and just like always, she produced it and then headed inside to find a seat.
The inside was pretty packed, filled with students aged from ages thirteen to eighteen, all doing a typical teenage thing. Messing with their phones to text friends or to play games, listening to music or discussing trivial gossip. A mist all this came a familiar voice, "Hey Sophia! I saved you a seat!"
Sophia turned around to find her friend Carol Westwood, sitting on a bus seat, an empty space right next to her. A girl with black hair styled in a ponytail, with bright blue eyes, Carol was what one would describe as a very energetic person.
Sophia sat down on in the empty space Carol had provided. "So how is Miss Gloomy doing today?" Carol asked.
Sophia rolled her eyes, "Miss Gloomy. Are you still using that nickname, come on Carol I thought you were more original than that."
Carol chuckled slightly completely unfazed and then put her arm around Sophia's shoulder. "But it suits you so well!"
Sophia slowly removed Carol's arm and smiled slightly, "I guess you're right," She agreed.
"Anyway," Sophia said her face becoming rather gloomy, "To answer your previous question, fine, I guess."
"You're Dad, still avoiding you?" Carol asked Sophia promoting her to sigh with frustration.
A disposed, "Yeah," was the best answer she could give.
"You want to vent?" Carol asked with a sympathetic smile.
Sighed Sophia again and shook her, "no thanks." Carol simply nodded in responses.
From that point, the conversation beloved into things likes the weather, lunch, memes, TV programs, and boxing, Carol was a big fan of the sport.
Just like always the school bus came to a stop and the students got out of the seats, off the buses onto the car park directly in front of the school.
Sir Vicente's school had been around since the 60's. It wasn't the best school around but it wasn't the worst either which considering how bad West Crown could get was saying a lot.
The school itself was made up of six buildings. The main building was a large rectangle structure, made of brick and concert. Its entrance was a larger tinted glass automatic door. Directly above the door, was the school symbol a purple shield, a black mouse in the centre the school's name written in a fancy font.
Next to the main building was a more modern one made of steel and white plastic. This building was the library, originally Sir Vicente's library had just been one small room but over years, more students had come so the school needed to expand. So they built the current library, and the old library had become a glorified storage closet.
The other buildings were a small gym and two classrooms that were separated from the rest of the school.
"So here we go, another day of school, how thrilling," Carol said with sarcasm.
"Don't get too excited Carol," Sophia said pretending to be oblivious to the sarcasm, "it's Friday morning which means our first class of the day is geography."
Carol smile was completely flattened, "oh I forgot," she groaned.
Geography was by far the most universally hated class by every single student at the school. Because the teacher of that class just so happened to be Mr Brown, a man who one student described as being the most boring man on the planet, which was accurate given that he seemed to be able to suck out anything that was interesting and enjoyable about any given subject. Today would be no different.
When the hour of the dread lesson finally came, Sophia sat at a desk in the middle row, while Carol sat in the back row next to another friend of hers. Mr Brown started drawling on and on about something….to do with New York. No one really cared enough to pay attenuation.
Since Mr Brown seemed completely oblivious, to everything outside of his own words, many students started quietly started chatting with their friends or doodling stuff on their notebooks or whatever pieces paper they happened to have on their person.
Sophia for her part just let her eyes wander around the room. She quickly focused on the four maps sellotaped to the wall above the whiteboard. They had been laid out in what Sophia thought was a pretty creative way. Too creative for Mr Brown, so Sophia guessed that there were placed that way by a student or previous teacher. They arranged in a way similar to comic panels zooming in on a subject. The first map was a map of the world; the next one was of Europe, then Britain and finally the Western Isles.
The Western Isles were a collection of islands off the coast of Great Britain. The islands were called West Stone, Humbler Rock, Fishermen's Eye, Monmouth's Island and Pebble Step AKA the "ghost island."
West Stone was largest of the islands and was home to West Crown, which was something of an unofficial capital city for the Western Isles. Built fairly recently in late 1800th century West Crown was mostly known for its massive dockyard and port. The rest of West Stone was a collection of small towns and villages scattered across the countryside.
Before she could continue Sophia looked around the room but she was interrupted by the sound of the school bell ringing, signal the end of the lesson and the start of morning break.
"Thank god, I thought we would never be freed of that torture!" Carol said with slight exaggeration.
"Torture?" Sophia pretending sound offended in most obvious way possible, "you were one who chatted with friends through the whole thing, while I was stuck by myself."
Carol smiled, "Well that's your fault for been such a….."
"Hey! Thomson! Don't ignore me when I am speaking to you!!!" Sadly the girl's banter was interrupted by a familiar and unpleasant voice.
Sophia and Carol turned around to see Alan Thomson; a small short skinny kid was being set on by no other than Jason Trent.
Jason was a very mean looking fellow, with short brown hair and dark green eyes and athletically impressive body that did little to make up for his less than charming personality. His uniform jacket perfectly reflected his character, what would have been a fashionable looking black button jacket that had been worn down by a lack of care, covered in small holes and tiny bits of dried food on the wrist.
Jason was infamous for been disrespectful to staff and fellow students, smelling of what might have been alcohol and acting like a typical bully. Alan was one of his favourite targets hence the current harassment.
Sophia scowled, her eyes alight with anger. She started approaching Jason, only to have Carol grab her arm. "Sophia don't…." before Carol could complete the sentence Jason shoved Alan to the floor, causing him to drop a pair of books he was carrying and creating a loud noise heavy that grated on the ears. Alan raised his hands and closed his eyes, dreading a painful beating.
Sophia pulled Carol off her arm and marched up to Jason like a lion ready tear into its enemy. She grabbed Jason's wrist as tightly she could her nails almost digging into his skin. "What do you think you're doing?" Sophia said in a low cold threating voice.
Jason turned around having seemly forgotten about Alan who quickly swiped his things off the floor and ran. The bully flashed a pained smirk as he tried to wiggle his arm free unsuccessfully.
She didn't look it, but Sophia was strong which when combined with a furious rage made her quite scary to the average student, this was best illustrated when someone tried to bully her. They probably thought it would easy to pick on the moody lonely kid. The fight that came rightwards ended with the guy cowering on the floor with a broken nose, nobody bothered Sophia after that.
"What do you want freak?" Jason asked angrily as he tried to get free of Sophia's grab now giving her an irritated glare. Before Sophia could respond a man with ginger hair, dressed in a professional combo of a light grey suit and blue button shirt came walking up the hall.
"Sophia, Jason," Mr Flint said sternly, "My office now." Sophia and Jason both gave each other ugly looks before Sophia let go of the boy's arm.
A few minutes later Sophia was standing outside Principle Flint's office staring quietly at the cream colour wall as if she was trying to direct her anger at it. She was waiting while Jason was getting a lecture which would be followed by a punishment of some sort. Sadly Jason would just shrug it all off and go back to bullying people and been a general jackass. But that wasn't the main thing about Jason that got under Sophia's skin; no what really bothered her was the fact Mr Flint let him stay at school, even though he should have been kicked out time long ago. She just couldn't understand it; Mr Flint was otherwise a good and fair head teacher, so why didn't he do anything!
The wooden oak office door opened with a very light creak as Jason stepped out of the room. "Your turn Blake," Jason probably would have added freak if the principal hadn't been in earshot.
Sophia entered the room were. Head Teacher Flint's sat in the large black leather armchair behind a polished wooden desk, behind the table, was a large window with the blinds drawn. Opposite the window were a couple certificates hanging from the wall. The wall was coloured cream like the rest of the school's interior making it contrast with the emerald carpet. On the desk, itself was a picture of a family member encased in a black frame. On the other side of the desk was miniature version one of those weird, ugly abstract art pieces that people wasted thousands of pounds on. In front of the desk was a folding plastic chair.
Sophia sat on the plastic seat. Head Teacher Flint sighed, "Sophia, why did you this?" Sophia clenched her hands into fists,
"Jason he was the…" The Principle raised his palm in stopping gestured which remind Sophia of her manners.
"So you decide that getting violent with Jason was the best course action, you didn't think to get a staff member?" The Head Teacher asked.
"He was going to beat the shit out of Alan!" Sophia slammed a fist onto the table, "I didn't have time to go look for someone else."
Principle Flint sighed again, "Sophia claim down,"
There was slightly shifted in her eyes, she sat back in her chair. "Sorry," Sophia said, with a look of shame on her face.
"This outburst of yours is just the latest of number incidents." Principle Flint picked the phone on his desk and started dialling a number, "I afraid I'm going to have to call your father."
"I understand, "Sophia said shamefully, 'not that it would do either of us any good.'
The phone started ringing, it lasts for about thirty seconds until it was suddenly halted by someone picking up the phone on the other end.
"Hello Mr Black," Principle Flint voice took on a sober tone, "I 'am calling to talk about your daughter, she has been in the fight again." The voice of Sophia's father came out from the other end, but it wasn't loud enough to make out what he was saying. Not that it was hard to guess, probably some lame promise about how he would talk to Sophia about what happened.
"You know he isn't going do anything, right?"
"You may go now," Head Teacher Flint said. Sophia got up from her seat and left the office.
The following lesson went by uneventfully, which in turn started the lunch break.
Sophia like all the other students immediately headed towards the cafeteria. It was a very simple large room, brick walls painted cream white, huge windows meant to maximise the amount of sunlight coming in was absolutely filled with tables far more than what were actually needed and had a very typical kitchen set up at the very end where students could buy school meals.
Sophia normally sat alone but today Carol had been able to persuade her into sitting with a group of her friends.
"So have you heard about all those criminals that have been collapsing?" A blond hair girl by the name of Cindy asked.
"Yeah, it's really scary," A brunet net by the name of Julie respond, "It started a couple of days after those weird lights in the sky."
"Maybe there is some kind of connection!" Cindy theorised with a great deal of excitement.
"Like aliens?"
"Exactly!" Cindy excitement double.
Sophia remained silent the whole time, just working her way through her salad. That didn't fit into Carol plans at all.
"What do think?" Carol directed the question at Sophia, who turned her attention away from her meal for the first time since she sat at the table.
"They probably have nothing to do with each other, I think maybe we should be more worried about the fact that people have been collapsing," Sophia responded with all the energy of dry towel.
"I don't see why we should be worried; I mean it's only happening to criminals so I don't see the problem, if you ask me it is too good for them, my dad say they should be hanged."
Sophia body language changed ever so slightly, her eyes lighted up with irritation. Carol took one look at Sophia and immediately moved to halt the argument.
"Did anyone watch that really corny drama film last night?" Carol spoke the sentence in such way it was obvious what she was trying to do, thankfully everyone decides to play. So Carol and her friends spent the rest of lunch talking about a corny film, while Sophia kept eating her salad.
Lunch hour came to end and like always, the students got up from their chairs.
"I screwed up again, didn't I," Sophia asked with a look of embarrassment.
"Well, it could have gone better," Carol admitted.
"Sorry," Sophia apologised while starting.
"Apology accepted!" Carol gave that bright warm smile that made impossible to dislike her.
"Well don't worry! I'm not giving up on you anytime soon!"
Sophia's face brightens up slightly; she could never express how lucky or grateful that she had a friend that was willing to put up with her.
The school day ended at three thirty pm, just like every other day, the teacher doing the last lesson said a few things about homework before letting their class go. Everyone immediately and eagerly got out of the sheets and started heading to the school gates where parents, taxis, and buses were waiting for them.
Sophia and Carol were among the first to get the school bus so they had plenty of seats to choose from, they picked the ones at the back.
"Hey, Sophia would you like to come over to my place, tonight?" Carol asked, "It's just that you have had a rough day and I thought you might want to get away from the house. I'm sure my parents won't mind."
"Sorry, I would love to but I promised Mr Graves that I would come over to his shop this afternoon."
Carol shrugged her shoulders and smiled, "Well it can't be helped, would tomorrow be more convenient."
Sophia took a moment to think it over; she couldn't really think of a reason not to. Outside of this week's homework which wouldn't 'be too difficult, she didn't have anything do over the weekend which was sadly true of most of her weekends.
"Yeah, that would be fine."
"Good, its date then," Carol said jokingly.
Half an hour later the bus stopped at the end of Bright Lane and opened its door allowing Sophia to exist. She said her goodbyes to Carol and got off the bus.
She headed straight home and she pulled out her house keys from her school bag and opened the door. She was immediately greeted by the sight of her father; he was very different from the man the photo in Sophia bedroom. While the man had been a picture perfect example of a happy energetic family man, Sophia's dad looked tired and drained of spirit, his skin was a great deal paler and he had bags under his eyes.
"How was school?" Jack Black asked his daughter while taking a great deal of care not to look her in the eyes.
"Not great," Sophia replied coldly.
"Dinner will be ready in about half an hour," Jack turned around and headed in the kitchen.
Since she still had some time to kill, Sophia headed upstairs to her bedroom. She looked at her modest collection of books that were currently gathering dust on the shelf resting on the west wall. The collection included a guide book on blacksmithing and metal work, a science book about metal, a copy of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, a children's Bible, a beaten book about European myths and legends, a couple of history books and half dozen corny fantasy novels. Sophia had read every book on this shelf at least once. Some she had read so many times she had lost count.
She considered reading the guide book on blacksmithing and metal work; she had already committed every single fact and tip to memory but since was Sophia about to go into a lesson, reading the guide might put her into the right mindset. On the other hand, it might be more productive to check the news.
Sophia turned around to the computer which rested on the desk in the right corner of the room. It was very cheap, had already been used for about year when Sophia's parents bought it at a garage sale so that their daughter wouldn't have to share their computer. Despite its age, the computer still worked well enough, sure it was bit slower than most other computers but only enough to be a middle nuisance rather than a deal breaker. It wasn't powerful enough to play games or use any fancy software, but Sophia didn't play games and only needed the computer to browse the web and write word documents.
Her mind made up, Sophia pulled the chair and sat at the computer and opened the web browsers. The first thing she did was check the news. It was pretty slow news day, some politician had been fired for an offensive comment he made, a harmless fluff story about cats, an interview with the officer in charge of the criminal collapsing case which bolide down to 'We don't know what's happing, so please stop asking' and finally an annoying article were some jerk went on some stupid rant why hanging should be brought back.
She was about to watch a video about metalwork when she heard a knocking at the door.
"Sophia it's time for dinner," His voice just barely audible over the barrier created by the door.
Sophia put her computer on sleep and opened the door her father was at the bottom of the starts.
The meal that followed was uncomfortably quiet; the only sound that was present was the noise of knives, forks and spoons tapping the plates and bowls. Every so often Sophia would gaze up from her spinach, to look at her father who eyes never left his meal. It was so bizarre normally a patent would lay into their kid after getting a call from the principle well into the afternoon and beyond.
But Sophia's father didn't say anything, acted as if the phone call and the spat that lead to it never happened. Even stranger unlike most teenagers she wished that he would say something, anything.
Fifteen minutes later Sophia finished her meal, placed her spoon on the table and got out of her seat.
"I am going to my metal work lesson," She headed towards the front door.
A few moments later the silence of number 39 was broken by the sound of the front door being pushed open and then slammed shut, leaving Jack Black along with his thoughts.
Shoppers Walk was the complete opposite to New Lane in every single conceivable way. While New Lane was a place of depressing muted colours, every building was decorated in bright coloured signs made to tempt passer-by into entering the stores as paying customers. This gave the street an energetic carnival feeling, enough to almost make one forget about the other parts of the city.
This was just one of the many strategies employed by the local family business to stay competitive at a time when supermarkets and shopping markets dominated. Another strategy they employed was quality, for example, the average freshly baked bread from the bakers was far more satisfying than mass produce stuff you would get from a supermarket.
Besides the bakers, Shoppers Walk also offered other shops including but not limited to a butcher, a grocery store, a sweet shop, a clothing store, a comic shop, a book shop and the blacksmith shop called Miracle Metals.
Like many times before Sophia approached Miracle Metals, its appearance was still just as grand as the day she first laid her eyes on it. She had been five years old; Shoppers Walk was brightly lit with festival lights and the streets were filled with people celebrating.
The Blakes were enjoying the Great Hero Festival when Sophia spotted Miracle Metals, the shop name was written in royal purple and brilliant gold. The shop windows displayed a couple of metal statues of horses and soldiers from the 18th, a couple of golden rings, a replica of a Barbute helmet from the 15th and in Sophia's opinion the most beautiful of the objects, a finely crafted medieval long sword shining in the light created by the bulbs above it, stored in valet case.
Sophia immediately began begging, that her parents to buy the sword; they walked out with a horse statue. For next three years, Sophia constantly visited Miracle Metals to browse the wonderful works that the store had on offer. Then after a certain trip out of town, Sophia started asking for a lesson after the shop's owner did some negotiating with her parents Sophia was allowed to learn the art of blacksmithing.
At first, she learned how to do the job safely, what protective clothing she needed to wear, how to use tools safely and other important safety habits needed to do the job. After that Sophia was allowed to start hammering and shaping the metals into form, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she was really damned good at it!
Back in the present Sophia pushed the shop door open, causing the tiny bell above it emit a pleasant ring. The interior of the shop was filled with glass displays proudly showed the various items that had been handcrafted by the store's owner. Most of the items were a jewel, statues or pieces of armour with swords being the rarity; this was due to the fact that the UK had restrictions on the selling of swords, with some exceptions being made for the blades that were forged for museums and re-enactments. The most impressive of the swords that could be sold in the shop was inside bulletproof glass case blow the till a katana forged by the use of using traditional methods.
Standing behind the front desk was a Jessica Graves, the nieces of Miracle Metals owner and Sophia's teacher Mathew Graves. Jessica was three years older than Sophia, had a mane of long light brown hair, green eyes and wore a dark blue and pink shirt with a pair of tight jeans to match. She was a reading a slightly beaten up magazine about photography, once the bell's ringing reached her ears, Jessica put the magazine down and looked up to greet Sophia.
"Hello Sophia, how are you?" She asked with the usual polite courtesy before a big uncontrollable yawn escaped her mouth.
"You are ok?" Sophia asked.
"I had a rough night," Jessica explained while rubbing her forehead, "My Uncle is waiting for you in the back room," She said while pointing at the steel door behind her.
The door itself was made of black steel and was rather plain looking lacking any features beyond what was necessary, a door handle, a very large and heavy lock that was currently disengaged and hinges so that it could the job of both opening and closing. What was interesting was the object that was hanging above was a wooden a faravahar, a small sign of Mr Grave's faith. Sophia pulled the door open and stepped into the workshop on the other side.
The workshop was significantly larger than the main shop. A necessary feature gave that it needed to store, a work bench, an anvil, a forge, an electric grinder, vines, and water trough.
Near the centre of the room, Mr Grave stood; he was a man in his late thirties with a green eye very short dark brown hair and very strong muscle body that was built after a year of working at the anvil. He wore the standard equipment of brown leather smithing apron, a pair of black gloves to protect his hands and a pair of working boots.
Upon seeing Sophia enter the room, he smiled warmly like the kindly uncle she never had, "Hello, Sophia how has your day been?"
Sophia smiled sadly, "Not good, I tried to stop Jason from beating someone else up, got in trouble with principle Flint, made an ass of myself when Carol tried to get me out of my shell and my dad is his usual self."
"Sorry to hear that, well I hope this news helps cheers you up, today we are going to be forging a bronze Celtic sword."
The girl's expression brightened into one of excited childish glee. Now, this was going be awesome. Sophia loved making bronze, the way it glowed bright red when exposed to extreme heat, the beautiful green flame created by the remnants of copper at the bottom the forge, the brief brilliant flashing sparks that were created as coral was dropped into the mixer, the way red and white glowing metal liquid flowed from the ceramic jug into the preheat mold and then watching the effect of the glow fading away leaving behind a blade that was ready to be modified into a beautiful weapon.
Not wanting to waste a single moment Sophia immediately started putting all of the necessary protective gear that was prepared for her, resting on the workbench like it always was. A pair of tight gloves to protect her hands against cuts and burns, a pair of working boots that were designed to protect the feet when heavy object fell on them, a leather apron to keep clothes and body from being burned, a pair of earplugs to protect her hearing from being worn away by the loud noise created while smithing and finally goggles to guard the eyes against sparks. With that the only other action needed to prepare was to, wrap her hair into a bun so that it wouldn't get caught on some loose sparks and set on fire.
Now that she was kitted out and ready, Sophia dived straight into the magical process of shaping metals into tools. Now she was in her element, all of the terrible garbage she had put with jerks like Jack, her terrible social skills, her 'descent into delicacy', her mother's death, the fact that her father barely acknowledges her existence. All that was pushed away, all that mattered was the wonderful task before her.
The process of making a bronze sword wasn't simple it couldn't be done over just one afternoon. This was meant be a long project, designed to get Sophia use to each stage of the process so that she would be fully prepared when she had both the time and skills to make one by herself, but Sophia wasn't bothered. The act of watching a bundle of copper and tin been purified over green flame relaxing in the same way that some people found the idealness of fishing relaxing.
Once Sophia was certain that all impurities that would weaken the metal had been removed and Mr Grave's gave the go, Sophia lowered the copper and tin into the forage, so it could metal. After two of them started setting up the soapstone model, pin both sides so they perfectly lined up so that swords shape would not be distorted when the liquid metal that made it was poured inside.
After a short time, the gas supply was removed from the forage causing the flame to turn from the strange green to usual red and orange. After some ground coral was added to deoxidize the metal causing a brilliant orange flash of sparks to burst forth from the forage. Then metal was removed the red hot jar glowing wonderfully. Now it was time for the main event, grasping the jar with metal pincers, Sophia poured the jelly-like mixer into the mould. It flowed into the mould as if it were glass cup, creating pleasant pattering sound the effect was mesmerising, the bronze cold rapidly, its red glow fading away with dignity.
Once the glow was gone the metal was cool enough, the blade was removed. It was grey and dull as the colours on a day of weather lifeless; the edges encased in a fine brownish white ugly crust and caused Sophia's heart to sing with pride.
Mr Grave inspects the blade "Perfectly done, just as expected," He smiled.
Sophia shook her head while grinning, "No offence I think you are overselling it. Without your guidance, I would have messed up the entire process."
"I highly doubt that," Mr Grave's put the blade on the work bench, "Anyway tomorrow we will start trimming away the extra bits of metal and make the handle unless there is something I don't know about."
Well, Sophia had already promised Carol that she would come to her house that day. But there wasn't reason Sophia couldn't make the lesson, on the other hand, while unlike something could turn up that would limit her and she didn't have anything that needed to be done on Sunday.
"To honest, I would prefer Sunday afternoon, is that ok."
Mr Graves considered for a moment, "I'm ok with that how about three pm."
"That will be fine with," Sophia said.
It was dark when Sophia left Miracle Metals; the pavement of Shoppers Walk was illuminated by the orange and yellow light of its many store windows. They were still people around but fewer than earlier and many of stores were being closed up for the night, it wouldn't be until the holiday season that stores would be open until nine o'clock.
Sophia kept walking until she came to the entrance of West Crown Park. It was typical of a city park, a well-cared for lanes of grass cut across with stone footpaths, lots picnic benches for families that wanted to enjoy pleasant weather when it came, small flowers carefully placed to make the area look as appealing as possible, at the centre, was a large pond so that folks could feed the ungrateful "duckies."
Every evening Sophia would reach this point, she would choose either to go straight home or take a short detour through the park, sometimes she wanted to have some extra time to admire the scenery. Before her mother died Sophia would only take the detour on the rear occasion and always called to let her parents know and would only do it during the day.
But now the detour was common, she had given up on trying keeping her father up to date and it didn't matter whether the sun was up or not. The reason for it was simple. Sophia couldn't bare see the shell that her father had become, the fact that he always avoided looking her in the eye, the constant atmosphere of soul crush misery that followed him everywhere, the stubborn refusal to be part of her life outside of the minimum effort. It just made her angry and she really didn't need more of that. At first, she tried constantly to reconnect but each attempt failed at the first hurdle, not say she still didn't try every now and again but it was becoming less frequent, Sophia wondered how long it would be before she gave up entirely.
On a count of the mostly bad day she had, Sophia decided to take the detour through the park, in hindsight, it was funny how such small mundane decision could change everything.
The park was ghostly silent, no one was around not surprising given that was a chilly night in early autumn. That suited Sophie just fine; some peace and quiet were just what she wanted.
She looked up and started at the full Moon which was hanging in the sky like a silver peal. Sophie had always loved the Moon, its glow always giving the celestial body an aura of mystery. It's was little wonder why the ancient man was so fascinated by it. It was as if, when Sophie stared at the Moon, she was forming a spiritual connection to those storytellers from far of times pondering the mysteries of life, the same ones that created those old myths and legends that Sophie read in those happier years.
In fact, she was so satisfied that she decided to cut her walk short and…. "What hell?" Sophie shook her head as she snapped out her weird trance. She began looking around the park, searching for a clue that might reveal what happened.
When she didn't find any the girl stubbornly continued on her path. Still, she couldn't shake the sense of unease that had formed in the pit of her stomach. What was up with that trance, it was as if someone else had been inserting their own thoughts into her. Like cutting a bit of a roll of film out and then sellotaping a bit of another reel onto it, maybe she was just tired? No, she felt perfectly wide awake.
Then the tree closest to Sophia was shattered into thousands of tiny splinters, as an unknown object burst through it and slammed into the footpath, creating a large fog dust. The impact was strong enough that Sophia was knocked over had to use her hands to avoid slamming her face first into the concrete.
Sophia pulled herself up, her body was covered in small starches and bruises, her head ringing like mad and her clothing drenched in dust. She turned to look at the small dust cloud. A grey house cat limped its way out of the cloud; its body was pretty beaten up. Its coat of fur was messy, covered in dirty and bruises. On its left cheek was a strange scar, a circle which was decorated in small notches, at the centre of the circle was the sliout of a wing with an x through it.
Before she had a chance to process anything just happened, a terrible scream echoed around the park. It was both horrifying and bizarre, like a goat cry being filtered through a damaged record player. Then there were footsteps, massive intimidating footsteps. Sophia turned around in the direction of the sounds, as something emerged from the darkness.
It was huge, dwarfing the trees in the park, pulsing blood red it looked a humanoid gazelle with an absurd muscle build, wielding an equal huge two-handed axe, it also didn't look a creature of flesh instead but made up of the strange mist like substance, with pitch black slits for eyes.
The monster roared again and charged forward, at an alarming speed. It raised its vicious axe above its head and then brought it crashing down. Sophia jumped to the side just barely avoiding the blow but the resulting shock wave sent her flying through the air, she fell to the ground. There was an uncomfortable cracking sound as her left leg took the brunt of the impact.
The monster turned and raising its axe once again, Sophia tried to move but was prevented by a sharp pain coming from her leg. She shut her eyes and instantly raised her hands as she did what little she could to prepare for the fatal blow.
It didn't come instead, there was an anticlimactic thud. Sophia opened her eyes, she found herself inside a see-through white glowing bubble. Standing directly in front of her, with a defined posture its coat shining the same white light as the bubble was the cat. The monster undeterred slammed its weapon against the bubble, creating ripples like a stone being tossed into the water.
The cat turned it, no he spoke, "Listen, I'm sorry I got you into this mess but maybe there is a way we can help each other out."
A beam of silver light shot out of feline's back, which flew to the ground next to Sophia, it then abruptly transformed into a solid object. It was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen.
Glittering beautifully in the light of the protective bubble was a silver coloured sword. The length of the blade was somewhere in between that of a longsword and a roman gladius, leaf shape in design and had an edge that looked like sharp glass. The guard was arc shaped and decorated with simple but elegant line patterns, the handle was painted black and had a spiral design, and finishing off the hilt was a crescent moon pommel. Overall the design gave off the impression of a craftsmanship of someone, who was infinitely more skilled than Sophia's or anyone else for that matter.
"Hurry up and grab the sword, I can't keep it up forever!" The cat's urgent yelling shaped Sophia back to reality. Well, she didn't have much of a choice.
Without any hesitation, Sophia grabbed the sword and her life changed in a flash of light.
A/N: So that was the first of what I hope will the first of many chapters of Sorcerer Girl: The Grey Fairy I hoped you enjoyed it and if you see any errors please let me know.
A/N: The following work was edited by Neph Champion and Serna Myers.
Sorcerer Girl: The Grey Fairy
Chapter 1: The Shadow
Chapter 1: The Shadow
The girl was drowning. There was no denying that, as her body was slowly dragged downward by the thick wall of water filling her lungs. Her vision became a blurry haze of dark blue before turning pitch black. She began to feel very tired perhaps she should sleep.
No! If she gave up now she would die, she didn't want to die, she didn't want to leave her family behind, she still hadn't accomplished anything yet. With renewed vigour, she began to pull herself from the water slowly reaching the surface; each inch feeling like a tonne of lead was being dropped on her.
But just when it looked like the last stretch might be too difficult. Something reached into the water and pulled her out. For a moment, the water in her eyes made it difficult to see but as it was wiped away she got a clear glimpse of her saviour.
He was a humanoid figure hidden beneath a veil of shadowing darkness, which was vaguely male shaped. The only features that the girl could make out were a small lipped shaped hole where his mouth should be and his eyes, silver grey miserable eyes.
The figure was smiling. It was genuine yet it was the saddest thing the girl ever had seen. It annoyed the girl greatly for reasons that were completely unknown to her.
She wanted to thank the stranger and then punch him the face. But her strength was spent to the point that she could barely muster the power to speak. The shadowy stranger asked in a featureless voice, "Hey kid, are you okay?" The girl nodded.
"What's your name?" The stranger asked.
"Sophia" the girl responded with great pain, "Sophia Judith Blake."
Sophia Blake awoke from her sleep with a jolt. Throwing the bed sheets off her and touched her forehead. She had that dream again the one of the shadows and the lake. She had been having that dream on and off ever since that incident.
She had been eight years old at the time her parents had taken Sophia out on a trip to a lake. Unfortunately, she fell in the lake and almost drowned when suddenly a man dived into a lake and rescued her.
After that, the man just asked Sophia for her name, checked if she was ok and then ran off and disappeared, like a puff of smoke. What made incident even stranger was how little Sophia actually remembered about her saviour. In fact, the only reason she was certain it was a man was because parents had told her so and they couldn't remember anything else apart from that.
Regardless experience had clearly left some kind of impact on her life, otherwise, she wouldn't still be dreaming about it even after so many years has passed, but try as she might Sophia couldn't say what it actually was. It had something to do with those silver eyes that were so thick with misery. Sophia should have felt sorry for him and she was, but every time she thought about that expression she also found herself feeling extremely irritated. She could never really put her finger on it, but something about that expression seemed to offend her in some way.
Lost in thought, Sophie allowed her eyes to gaze around the room aimlessly until finally, they settled on a dusty old picture resting in a wooden frame on top the bookshelf that was directly across from Sophie's bed.
It was a couple, a man, and a woman. The woman's silky hair was a dark chestnut brown and went all the way down to passed neck, her eyes were also chestnut brown. The man had bright orange hair and hazel eyes. In between the happy couple, smiling brightly was a girl of the age of nine, she possessed the same orange hair and hazel eyes as her father and her overall body looked like small versions of her mother. This Sophia had looked like five years ago; it felt more like a lifetime.
However, even after all this time that picture still found a way to put a smile on her face, which was kind of ironic since this picture has been taken right before everything started to go wrong.
As much as she would love to sit around reminiscing about the past to herself, Sophie still had to go to school, so with great reluctance, she forced herself out of bed. The first part of the morning preparation was to put on her school uniform, a simple white shirt with the school's insignia on the right breast, a plane long black skirt, long grey socks and brown slip on shoes. Not the most exciting of uniforms but it was comfortable.
As she turned to leave the room Sophie caught a glimpse of herself in the small mirror that hung off the wall just left of the door. Her appearances were very similar to how it looked in the photo, of course, she was bigger now but still pretty short for a girl her age, her body had a slim but muscular build, her orange mane of hair was messy and untidy.
The Blake household of number 39 New Lane, to be blunt, was very ugly and cheap looking. With its cruddy plastic windows, walls covered in bland yellow wallpaper that smelled like week old coffee and a grey carpet that was ugly as a donkey's ass. The electrical appliances were mediocre not cutting edge but still too young to be called outdated relics.
Sophie entered the kitchen; it wasn't any different from the rest of the house. It's light brown tile floor was a very simple uninteresting square pattern, the wooden table, and chairs in the centre were starting to show signs of wear and tear. Off to the left was a large wooden island, which had a toaster and microwave resting on top of it. To the right was a large cabinet covered in faded green paint, next to the cabinet was a couple of drawers and directly opposite the table was a large fridge.
Sophia opened the cabinet and pulled out a bag of white bread, grabbed two slices from the bag, placed the bread slices into the toaster and put the bag back in the cabinet.
While she was waiting for the toast to be finished she noticed a small yellow post-it note lying on. Sophia picked it up. There were words scribbled on it in black marker ink. They read, "Gone to work early."
Sophia gave the noted irritated glare, "typical," she muttered dismissively before dropping the post-it note back on the table.
It was that moment the toaster made a teeny ding sound followed by the noise of bread sliding upwards.
After finishing her toast off Sophia headed right back upstairs to brush her teeth. Following that, she rushed back downstairs, grabbed her school bag and left the house.
She walked down the long quiet street of New Lane; a messed up and poorly maintained street filled with tiny pot holes, flanked by the house that was equal as cheap looking as number 39, the grey sky and clouds completing the dull picture.
At the end of the street, there was by far the most colourful landmark, a yellow and black bus stop sigh. It was here that Sophia waited for the school bus to come and take her to school for the past year and just like it always had without fail, it reached the stop at eight am. Its doors slide open, the bus driver a short slightly overweight man asked Sophia for her bus card and just like always, she produced it and then headed inside to find a seat.
The inside was pretty packed, filled with students aged from ages thirteen to eighteen, all doing a typical teenage thing. Messing with their phones to text friends or to play games, listening to music or discussing trivial gossip. A mist all this came a familiar voice, "Hey Sophia! I saved you a seat!"
Sophia turned around to find her friend Carol Westwood, sitting on a bus seat, an empty space right next to her. A girl with black hair styled in a ponytail, with bright blue eyes, Carol was what one would describe as a very energetic person.
Sophia sat down on in the empty space Carol had provided. "So how is Miss Gloomy doing today?" Carol asked.
Sophia rolled her eyes, "Miss Gloomy. Are you still using that nickname, come on Carol I thought you were more original than that."
Carol chuckled slightly completely unfazed and then put her arm around Sophia's shoulder. "But it suits you so well!"
Sophia slowly removed Carol's arm and smiled slightly, "I guess you're right," She agreed.
"Anyway," Sophia said her face becoming rather gloomy, "To answer your previous question, fine, I guess."
"You're Dad, still avoiding you?" Carol asked Sophia promoting her to sigh with frustration.
A disposed, "Yeah," was the best answer she could give.
"You want to vent?" Carol asked with a sympathetic smile.
Sighed Sophia again and shook her, "no thanks." Carol simply nodded in responses.
From that point, the conversation beloved into things likes the weather, lunch, memes, TV programs, and boxing, Carol was a big fan of the sport.
Just like always the school bus came to a stop and the students got out of the seats, off the buses onto the car park directly in front of the school.
Sir Vicente's school had been around since the 60's. It wasn't the best school around but it wasn't the worst either which considering how bad West Crown could get was saying a lot.
The school itself was made up of six buildings. The main building was a large rectangle structure, made of brick and concert. Its entrance was a larger tinted glass automatic door. Directly above the door, was the school symbol a purple shield, a black mouse in the centre the school's name written in a fancy font.
Next to the main building was a more modern one made of steel and white plastic. This building was the library, originally Sir Vicente's library had just been one small room but over years, more students had come so the school needed to expand. So they built the current library, and the old library had become a glorified storage closet.
The other buildings were a small gym and two classrooms that were separated from the rest of the school.
"So here we go, another day of school, how thrilling," Carol said with sarcasm.
"Don't get too excited Carol," Sophia said pretending to be oblivious to the sarcasm, "it's Friday morning which means our first class of the day is geography."
Carol smile was completely flattened, "oh I forgot," she groaned.
Geography was by far the most universally hated class by every single student at the school. Because the teacher of that class just so happened to be Mr Brown, a man who one student described as being the most boring man on the planet, which was accurate given that he seemed to be able to suck out anything that was interesting and enjoyable about any given subject. Today would be no different.
When the hour of the dread lesson finally came, Sophia sat at a desk in the middle row, while Carol sat in the back row next to another friend of hers. Mr Brown started drawling on and on about something….to do with New York. No one really cared enough to pay attenuation.
Since Mr Brown seemed completely oblivious, to everything outside of his own words, many students started quietly started chatting with their friends or doodling stuff on their notebooks or whatever pieces paper they happened to have on their person.
Sophia for her part just let her eyes wander around the room. She quickly focused on the four maps sellotaped to the wall above the whiteboard. They had been laid out in what Sophia thought was a pretty creative way. Too creative for Mr Brown, so Sophia guessed that there were placed that way by a student or previous teacher. They arranged in a way similar to comic panels zooming in on a subject. The first map was a map of the world; the next one was of Europe, then Britain and finally the Western Isles.
The Western Isles were a collection of islands off the coast of Great Britain. The islands were called West Stone, Humbler Rock, Fishermen's Eye, Monmouth's Island and Pebble Step AKA the "ghost island."
West Stone was largest of the islands and was home to West Crown, which was something of an unofficial capital city for the Western Isles. Built fairly recently in late 1800th century West Crown was mostly known for its massive dockyard and port. The rest of West Stone was a collection of small towns and villages scattered across the countryside.
Before she could continue Sophia looked around the room but she was interrupted by the sound of the school bell ringing, signal the end of the lesson and the start of morning break.
"Thank god, I thought we would never be freed of that torture!" Carol said with slight exaggeration.
"Torture?" Sophia pretending sound offended in most obvious way possible, "you were one who chatted with friends through the whole thing, while I was stuck by myself."
Carol smiled, "Well that's your fault for been such a….."
"Hey! Thomson! Don't ignore me when I am speaking to you!!!" Sadly the girl's banter was interrupted by a familiar and unpleasant voice.
Sophia and Carol turned around to see Alan Thomson; a small short skinny kid was being set on by no other than Jason Trent.
Jason was a very mean looking fellow, with short brown hair and dark green eyes and athletically impressive body that did little to make up for his less than charming personality. His uniform jacket perfectly reflected his character, what would have been a fashionable looking black button jacket that had been worn down by a lack of care, covered in small holes and tiny bits of dried food on the wrist.
Jason was infamous for been disrespectful to staff and fellow students, smelling of what might have been alcohol and acting like a typical bully. Alan was one of his favourite targets hence the current harassment.
Sophia scowled, her eyes alight with anger. She started approaching Jason, only to have Carol grab her arm. "Sophia don't…." before Carol could complete the sentence Jason shoved Alan to the floor, causing him to drop a pair of books he was carrying and creating a loud noise heavy that grated on the ears. Alan raised his hands and closed his eyes, dreading a painful beating.
Sophia pulled Carol off her arm and marched up to Jason like a lion ready tear into its enemy. She grabbed Jason's wrist as tightly she could her nails almost digging into his skin. "What do you think you're doing?" Sophia said in a low cold threating voice.
Jason turned around having seemly forgotten about Alan who quickly swiped his things off the floor and ran. The bully flashed a pained smirk as he tried to wiggle his arm free unsuccessfully.
She didn't look it, but Sophia was strong which when combined with a furious rage made her quite scary to the average student, this was best illustrated when someone tried to bully her. They probably thought it would easy to pick on the moody lonely kid. The fight that came rightwards ended with the guy cowering on the floor with a broken nose, nobody bothered Sophia after that.
"What do you want freak?" Jason asked angrily as he tried to get free of Sophia's grab now giving her an irritated glare. Before Sophia could respond a man with ginger hair, dressed in a professional combo of a light grey suit and blue button shirt came walking up the hall.
"Sophia, Jason," Mr Flint said sternly, "My office now." Sophia and Jason both gave each other ugly looks before Sophia let go of the boy's arm.
A few minutes later Sophia was standing outside Principle Flint's office staring quietly at the cream colour wall as if she was trying to direct her anger at it. She was waiting while Jason was getting a lecture which would be followed by a punishment of some sort. Sadly Jason would just shrug it all off and go back to bullying people and been a general jackass. But that wasn't the main thing about Jason that got under Sophia's skin; no what really bothered her was the fact Mr Flint let him stay at school, even though he should have been kicked out time long ago. She just couldn't understand it; Mr Flint was otherwise a good and fair head teacher, so why didn't he do anything!
The wooden oak office door opened with a very light creak as Jason stepped out of the room. "Your turn Blake," Jason probably would have added freak if the principal hadn't been in earshot.
Sophia entered the room were. Head Teacher Flint's sat in the large black leather armchair behind a polished wooden desk, behind the table, was a large window with the blinds drawn. Opposite the window were a couple certificates hanging from the wall. The wall was coloured cream like the rest of the school's interior making it contrast with the emerald carpet. On the desk, itself was a picture of a family member encased in a black frame. On the other side of the desk was miniature version one of those weird, ugly abstract art pieces that people wasted thousands of pounds on. In front of the desk was a folding plastic chair.
Sophia sat on the plastic seat. Head Teacher Flint sighed, "Sophia, why did you this?" Sophia clenched her hands into fists,
"Jason he was the…" The Principle raised his palm in stopping gestured which remind Sophia of her manners.
"So you decide that getting violent with Jason was the best course action, you didn't think to get a staff member?" The Head Teacher asked.
"He was going to beat the shit out of Alan!" Sophia slammed a fist onto the table, "I didn't have time to go look for someone else."
Principle Flint sighed again, "Sophia claim down,"
There was slightly shifted in her eyes, she sat back in her chair. "Sorry," Sophia said, with a look of shame on her face.
"This outburst of yours is just the latest of number incidents." Principle Flint picked the phone on his desk and started dialling a number, "I afraid I'm going to have to call your father."
"I understand, "Sophia said shamefully, 'not that it would do either of us any good.'
The phone started ringing, it lasts for about thirty seconds until it was suddenly halted by someone picking up the phone on the other end.
"Hello Mr Black," Principle Flint voice took on a sober tone, "I 'am calling to talk about your daughter, she has been in the fight again." The voice of Sophia's father came out from the other end, but it wasn't loud enough to make out what he was saying. Not that it was hard to guess, probably some lame promise about how he would talk to Sophia about what happened.
"You know he isn't going do anything, right?"
"You may go now," Head Teacher Flint said. Sophia got up from her seat and left the office.
The following lesson went by uneventfully, which in turn started the lunch break.
Sophia like all the other students immediately headed towards the cafeteria. It was a very simple large room, brick walls painted cream white, huge windows meant to maximise the amount of sunlight coming in was absolutely filled with tables far more than what were actually needed and had a very typical kitchen set up at the very end where students could buy school meals.
Sophia normally sat alone but today Carol had been able to persuade her into sitting with a group of her friends.
"So have you heard about all those criminals that have been collapsing?" A blond hair girl by the name of Cindy asked.
"Yeah, it's really scary," A brunet net by the name of Julie respond, "It started a couple of days after those weird lights in the sky."
"Maybe there is some kind of connection!" Cindy theorised with a great deal of excitement.
"Like aliens?"
"Exactly!" Cindy excitement double.
Sophia remained silent the whole time, just working her way through her salad. That didn't fit into Carol plans at all.
"What do think?" Carol directed the question at Sophia, who turned her attention away from her meal for the first time since she sat at the table.
"They probably have nothing to do with each other, I think maybe we should be more worried about the fact that people have been collapsing," Sophia responded with all the energy of dry towel.
"I don't see why we should be worried; I mean it's only happening to criminals so I don't see the problem, if you ask me it is too good for them, my dad say they should be hanged."
Sophia body language changed ever so slightly, her eyes lighted up with irritation. Carol took one look at Sophia and immediately moved to halt the argument.
"Did anyone watch that really corny drama film last night?" Carol spoke the sentence in such way it was obvious what she was trying to do, thankfully everyone decides to play. So Carol and her friends spent the rest of lunch talking about a corny film, while Sophia kept eating her salad.
Lunch hour came to end and like always, the students got up from their chairs.
"I screwed up again, didn't I," Sophia asked with a look of embarrassment.
"Well, it could have gone better," Carol admitted.
"Sorry," Sophia apologised while starting.
"Apology accepted!" Carol gave that bright warm smile that made impossible to dislike her.
"Well don't worry! I'm not giving up on you anytime soon!"
Sophia's face brightens up slightly; she could never express how lucky or grateful that she had a friend that was willing to put up with her.
The school day ended at three thirty pm, just like every other day, the teacher doing the last lesson said a few things about homework before letting their class go. Everyone immediately and eagerly got out of the sheets and started heading to the school gates where parents, taxis, and buses were waiting for them.
Sophia and Carol were among the first to get the school bus so they had plenty of seats to choose from, they picked the ones at the back.
"Hey, Sophia would you like to come over to my place, tonight?" Carol asked, "It's just that you have had a rough day and I thought you might want to get away from the house. I'm sure my parents won't mind."
"Sorry, I would love to but I promised Mr Graves that I would come over to his shop this afternoon."
Carol shrugged her shoulders and smiled, "Well it can't be helped, would tomorrow be more convenient."
Sophia took a moment to think it over; she couldn't really think of a reason not to. Outside of this week's homework which wouldn't 'be too difficult, she didn't have anything do over the weekend which was sadly true of most of her weekends.
"Yeah, that would be fine."
"Good, its date then," Carol said jokingly.
Half an hour later the bus stopped at the end of Bright Lane and opened its door allowing Sophia to exist. She said her goodbyes to Carol and got off the bus.
She headed straight home and she pulled out her house keys from her school bag and opened the door. She was immediately greeted by the sight of her father; he was very different from the man the photo in Sophia bedroom. While the man had been a picture perfect example of a happy energetic family man, Sophia's dad looked tired and drained of spirit, his skin was a great deal paler and he had bags under his eyes.
"How was school?" Jack Black asked his daughter while taking a great deal of care not to look her in the eyes.
"Not great," Sophia replied coldly.
"Dinner will be ready in about half an hour," Jack turned around and headed in the kitchen.
Since she still had some time to kill, Sophia headed upstairs to her bedroom. She looked at her modest collection of books that were currently gathering dust on the shelf resting on the west wall. The collection included a guide book on blacksmithing and metal work, a science book about metal, a copy of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, a children's Bible, a beaten book about European myths and legends, a couple of history books and half dozen corny fantasy novels. Sophia had read every book on this shelf at least once. Some she had read so many times she had lost count.
She considered reading the guide book on blacksmithing and metal work; she had already committed every single fact and tip to memory but since was Sophia about to go into a lesson, reading the guide might put her into the right mindset. On the other hand, it might be more productive to check the news.
Sophia turned around to the computer which rested on the desk in the right corner of the room. It was very cheap, had already been used for about year when Sophia's parents bought it at a garage sale so that their daughter wouldn't have to share their computer. Despite its age, the computer still worked well enough, sure it was bit slower than most other computers but only enough to be a middle nuisance rather than a deal breaker. It wasn't powerful enough to play games or use any fancy software, but Sophia didn't play games and only needed the computer to browse the web and write word documents.
Her mind made up, Sophia pulled the chair and sat at the computer and opened the web browsers. The first thing she did was check the news. It was pretty slow news day, some politician had been fired for an offensive comment he made, a harmless fluff story about cats, an interview with the officer in charge of the criminal collapsing case which bolide down to 'We don't know what's happing, so please stop asking' and finally an annoying article were some jerk went on some stupid rant why hanging should be brought back.
She was about to watch a video about metalwork when she heard a knocking at the door.
"Sophia it's time for dinner," His voice just barely audible over the barrier created by the door.
Sophia put her computer on sleep and opened the door her father was at the bottom of the starts.
The meal that followed was uncomfortably quiet; the only sound that was present was the noise of knives, forks and spoons tapping the plates and bowls. Every so often Sophia would gaze up from her spinach, to look at her father who eyes never left his meal. It was so bizarre normally a patent would lay into their kid after getting a call from the principle well into the afternoon and beyond.
But Sophia's father didn't say anything, acted as if the phone call and the spat that lead to it never happened. Even stranger unlike most teenagers she wished that he would say something, anything.
Fifteen minutes later Sophia finished her meal, placed her spoon on the table and got out of her seat.
"I am going to my metal work lesson," She headed towards the front door.
A few moments later the silence of number 39 was broken by the sound of the front door being pushed open and then slammed shut, leaving Jack Black along with his thoughts.
Shoppers Walk was the complete opposite to New Lane in every single conceivable way. While New Lane was a place of depressing muted colours, every building was decorated in bright coloured signs made to tempt passer-by into entering the stores as paying customers. This gave the street an energetic carnival feeling, enough to almost make one forget about the other parts of the city.
This was just one of the many strategies employed by the local family business to stay competitive at a time when supermarkets and shopping markets dominated. Another strategy they employed was quality, for example, the average freshly baked bread from the bakers was far more satisfying than mass produce stuff you would get from a supermarket.
Besides the bakers, Shoppers Walk also offered other shops including but not limited to a butcher, a grocery store, a sweet shop, a clothing store, a comic shop, a book shop and the blacksmith shop called Miracle Metals.
Like many times before Sophia approached Miracle Metals, its appearance was still just as grand as the day she first laid her eyes on it. She had been five years old; Shoppers Walk was brightly lit with festival lights and the streets were filled with people celebrating.
The Blakes were enjoying the Great Hero Festival when Sophia spotted Miracle Metals, the shop name was written in royal purple and brilliant gold. The shop windows displayed a couple of metal statues of horses and soldiers from the 18th, a couple of golden rings, a replica of a Barbute helmet from the 15th and in Sophia's opinion the most beautiful of the objects, a finely crafted medieval long sword shining in the light created by the bulbs above it, stored in valet case.
Sophia immediately began begging, that her parents to buy the sword; they walked out with a horse statue. For next three years, Sophia constantly visited Miracle Metals to browse the wonderful works that the store had on offer. Then after a certain trip out of town, Sophia started asking for a lesson after the shop's owner did some negotiating with her parents Sophia was allowed to learn the art of blacksmithing.
At first, she learned how to do the job safely, what protective clothing she needed to wear, how to use tools safely and other important safety habits needed to do the job. After that Sophia was allowed to start hammering and shaping the metals into form, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she was really damned good at it!
Back in the present Sophia pushed the shop door open, causing the tiny bell above it emit a pleasant ring. The interior of the shop was filled with glass displays proudly showed the various items that had been handcrafted by the store's owner. Most of the items were a jewel, statues or pieces of armour with swords being the rarity; this was due to the fact that the UK had restrictions on the selling of swords, with some exceptions being made for the blades that were forged for museums and re-enactments. The most impressive of the swords that could be sold in the shop was inside bulletproof glass case blow the till a katana forged by the use of using traditional methods.
Standing behind the front desk was a Jessica Graves, the nieces of Miracle Metals owner and Sophia's teacher Mathew Graves. Jessica was three years older than Sophia, had a mane of long light brown hair, green eyes and wore a dark blue and pink shirt with a pair of tight jeans to match. She was a reading a slightly beaten up magazine about photography, once the bell's ringing reached her ears, Jessica put the magazine down and looked up to greet Sophia.
"Hello Sophia, how are you?" She asked with the usual polite courtesy before a big uncontrollable yawn escaped her mouth.
"You are ok?" Sophia asked.
"I had a rough night," Jessica explained while rubbing her forehead, "My Uncle is waiting for you in the back room," She said while pointing at the steel door behind her.
The door itself was made of black steel and was rather plain looking lacking any features beyond what was necessary, a door handle, a very large and heavy lock that was currently disengaged and hinges so that it could the job of both opening and closing. What was interesting was the object that was hanging above was a wooden a faravahar, a small sign of Mr Grave's faith. Sophia pulled the door open and stepped into the workshop on the other side.
The workshop was significantly larger than the main shop. A necessary feature gave that it needed to store, a work bench, an anvil, a forge, an electric grinder, vines, and water trough.
Near the centre of the room, Mr Grave stood; he was a man in his late thirties with a green eye very short dark brown hair and very strong muscle body that was built after a year of working at the anvil. He wore the standard equipment of brown leather smithing apron, a pair of black gloves to protect his hands and a pair of working boots.
Upon seeing Sophia enter the room, he smiled warmly like the kindly uncle she never had, "Hello, Sophia how has your day been?"
Sophia smiled sadly, "Not good, I tried to stop Jason from beating someone else up, got in trouble with principle Flint, made an ass of myself when Carol tried to get me out of my shell and my dad is his usual self."
"Sorry to hear that, well I hope this news helps cheers you up, today we are going to be forging a bronze Celtic sword."
The girl's expression brightened into one of excited childish glee. Now, this was going be awesome. Sophia loved making bronze, the way it glowed bright red when exposed to extreme heat, the beautiful green flame created by the remnants of copper at the bottom the forge, the brief brilliant flashing sparks that were created as coral was dropped into the mixer, the way red and white glowing metal liquid flowed from the ceramic jug into the preheat mold and then watching the effect of the glow fading away leaving behind a blade that was ready to be modified into a beautiful weapon.
Not wanting to waste a single moment Sophia immediately started putting all of the necessary protective gear that was prepared for her, resting on the workbench like it always was. A pair of tight gloves to protect her hands against cuts and burns, a pair of working boots that were designed to protect the feet when heavy object fell on them, a leather apron to keep clothes and body from being burned, a pair of earplugs to protect her hearing from being worn away by the loud noise created while smithing and finally goggles to guard the eyes against sparks. With that the only other action needed to prepare was to, wrap her hair into a bun so that it wouldn't get caught on some loose sparks and set on fire.
Now that she was kitted out and ready, Sophia dived straight into the magical process of shaping metals into tools. Now she was in her element, all of the terrible garbage she had put with jerks like Jack, her terrible social skills, her 'descent into delicacy', her mother's death, the fact that her father barely acknowledges her existence. All that was pushed away, all that mattered was the wonderful task before her.
The process of making a bronze sword wasn't simple it couldn't be done over just one afternoon. This was meant be a long project, designed to get Sophia use to each stage of the process so that she would be fully prepared when she had both the time and skills to make one by herself, but Sophia wasn't bothered. The act of watching a bundle of copper and tin been purified over green flame relaxing in the same way that some people found the idealness of fishing relaxing.
Once Sophia was certain that all impurities that would weaken the metal had been removed and Mr Grave's gave the go, Sophia lowered the copper and tin into the forage, so it could metal. After two of them started setting up the soapstone model, pin both sides so they perfectly lined up so that swords shape would not be distorted when the liquid metal that made it was poured inside.
After a short time, the gas supply was removed from the forage causing the flame to turn from the strange green to usual red and orange. After some ground coral was added to deoxidize the metal causing a brilliant orange flash of sparks to burst forth from the forage. Then metal was removed the red hot jar glowing wonderfully. Now it was time for the main event, grasping the jar with metal pincers, Sophia poured the jelly-like mixer into the mould. It flowed into the mould as if it were glass cup, creating pleasant pattering sound the effect was mesmerising, the bronze cold rapidly, its red glow fading away with dignity.
Once the glow was gone the metal was cool enough, the blade was removed. It was grey and dull as the colours on a day of weather lifeless; the edges encased in a fine brownish white ugly crust and caused Sophia's heart to sing with pride.
Mr Grave inspects the blade "Perfectly done, just as expected," He smiled.
Sophia shook her head while grinning, "No offence I think you are overselling it. Without your guidance, I would have messed up the entire process."
"I highly doubt that," Mr Grave's put the blade on the work bench, "Anyway tomorrow we will start trimming away the extra bits of metal and make the handle unless there is something I don't know about."
Well, Sophia had already promised Carol that she would come to her house that day. But there wasn't reason Sophia couldn't make the lesson, on the other hand, while unlike something could turn up that would limit her and she didn't have anything that needed to be done on Sunday.
"To honest, I would prefer Sunday afternoon, is that ok."
Mr Graves considered for a moment, "I'm ok with that how about three pm."
"That will be fine with," Sophia said.
It was dark when Sophia left Miracle Metals; the pavement of Shoppers Walk was illuminated by the orange and yellow light of its many store windows. They were still people around but fewer than earlier and many of stores were being closed up for the night, it wouldn't be until the holiday season that stores would be open until nine o'clock.
Sophia kept walking until she came to the entrance of West Crown Park. It was typical of a city park, a well-cared for lanes of grass cut across with stone footpaths, lots picnic benches for families that wanted to enjoy pleasant weather when it came, small flowers carefully placed to make the area look as appealing as possible, at the centre, was a large pond so that folks could feed the ungrateful "duckies."
Every evening Sophia would reach this point, she would choose either to go straight home or take a short detour through the park, sometimes she wanted to have some extra time to admire the scenery. Before her mother died Sophia would only take the detour on the rear occasion and always called to let her parents know and would only do it during the day.
But now the detour was common, she had given up on trying keeping her father up to date and it didn't matter whether the sun was up or not. The reason for it was simple. Sophia couldn't bare see the shell that her father had become, the fact that he always avoided looking her in the eye, the constant atmosphere of soul crush misery that followed him everywhere, the stubborn refusal to be part of her life outside of the minimum effort. It just made her angry and she really didn't need more of that. At first, she tried constantly to reconnect but each attempt failed at the first hurdle, not say she still didn't try every now and again but it was becoming less frequent, Sophia wondered how long it would be before she gave up entirely.
On a count of the mostly bad day she had, Sophia decided to take the detour through the park, in hindsight, it was funny how such small mundane decision could change everything.
The park was ghostly silent, no one was around not surprising given that was a chilly night in early autumn. That suited Sophie just fine; some peace and quiet were just what she wanted.
She looked up and started at the full Moon which was hanging in the sky like a silver peal. Sophie had always loved the Moon, its glow always giving the celestial body an aura of mystery. It's was little wonder why the ancient man was so fascinated by it. It was as if, when Sophie stared at the Moon, she was forming a spiritual connection to those storytellers from far of times pondering the mysteries of life, the same ones that created those old myths and legends that Sophie read in those happier years.
In fact, she was so satisfied that she decided to cut her walk short and…. "What hell?" Sophie shook her head as she snapped out her weird trance. She began looking around the park, searching for a clue that might reveal what happened.
When she didn't find any the girl stubbornly continued on her path. Still, she couldn't shake the sense of unease that had formed in the pit of her stomach. What was up with that trance, it was as if someone else had been inserting their own thoughts into her. Like cutting a bit of a roll of film out and then sellotaping a bit of another reel onto it, maybe she was just tired? No, she felt perfectly wide awake.
Then the tree closest to Sophia was shattered into thousands of tiny splinters, as an unknown object burst through it and slammed into the footpath, creating a large fog dust. The impact was strong enough that Sophia was knocked over had to use her hands to avoid slamming her face first into the concrete.
Sophia pulled herself up, her body was covered in small starches and bruises, her head ringing like mad and her clothing drenched in dust. She turned to look at the small dust cloud. A grey house cat limped its way out of the cloud; its body was pretty beaten up. Its coat of fur was messy, covered in dirty and bruises. On its left cheek was a strange scar, a circle which was decorated in small notches, at the centre of the circle was the sliout of a wing with an x through it.
Before she had a chance to process anything just happened, a terrible scream echoed around the park. It was both horrifying and bizarre, like a goat cry being filtered through a damaged record player. Then there were footsteps, massive intimidating footsteps. Sophia turned around in the direction of the sounds, as something emerged from the darkness.
It was huge, dwarfing the trees in the park, pulsing blood red it looked a humanoid gazelle with an absurd muscle build, wielding an equal huge two-handed axe, it also didn't look a creature of flesh instead but made up of the strange mist like substance, with pitch black slits for eyes.
The monster roared again and charged forward, at an alarming speed. It raised its vicious axe above its head and then brought it crashing down. Sophia jumped to the side just barely avoiding the blow but the resulting shock wave sent her flying through the air, she fell to the ground. There was an uncomfortable cracking sound as her left leg took the brunt of the impact.
The monster turned and raising its axe once again, Sophia tried to move but was prevented by a sharp pain coming from her leg. She shut her eyes and instantly raised her hands as she did what little she could to prepare for the fatal blow.
It didn't come instead, there was an anticlimactic thud. Sophia opened her eyes, she found herself inside a see-through white glowing bubble. Standing directly in front of her, with a defined posture its coat shining the same white light as the bubble was the cat. The monster undeterred slammed its weapon against the bubble, creating ripples like a stone being tossed into the water.
The cat turned it, no he spoke, "Listen, I'm sorry I got you into this mess but maybe there is a way we can help each other out."
A beam of silver light shot out of feline's back, which flew to the ground next to Sophia, it then abruptly transformed into a solid object. It was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen.
Glittering beautifully in the light of the protective bubble was a silver coloured sword. The length of the blade was somewhere in between that of a longsword and a roman gladius, leaf shape in design and had an edge that looked like sharp glass. The guard was arc shaped and decorated with simple but elegant line patterns, the handle was painted black and had a spiral design, and finishing off the hilt was a crescent moon pommel. Overall the design gave off the impression of a craftsmanship of someone, who was infinitely more skilled than Sophia's or anyone else for that matter.
"Hurry up and grab the sword, I can't keep it up forever!" The cat's urgent yelling shaped Sophia back to reality. Well, she didn't have much of a choice.
Without any hesitation, Sophia grabbed the sword and her life changed in a flash of light.
A/N: So that was the first of what I hope will the first of many chapters of Sorcerer Girl: The Grey Fairy I hoped you enjoyed it and if you see any errors please let me know.
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Chapter 2: Blade against Beast
A/N: The following work was edited by Neph Champion, Serna Myers and Prue Charlson.
Chapter 2: Blade against Beast
Only temporary blinded, Sophia's vision returned quickly. She didn't look different but she felt different. She felt re-energized like she had just woken up from the best night's sleep she ever had, the pain from her damaged leg was gone it was if her limb had never been injured. She pulled herself up easily.
She grasped the blade with two hands and pointed it at the monster who was still hammering inside the bubble, "Ok, somehow you healed me and gave me a weapon, what do I do now?"
The monster slammed the bubble again, a small crack formed.
"I don't have time to tell you everything so here is the gist of it. That thing is made of magic, it is designed to attack anything it sees, it's not a living being so no need to feel squeamish and the best way to get rid of it is to strike it in the torso," The cat explained with urgency.
The monster kept pounding the bubble, causing the cracks to grow.
"I can't keep the shield up much longer, prepare yourself!"
The monster's axe made contact with the shield, smashing it into pieces like a glass window, its fragments vanishing from existence. The axe kept moving, raging towards the cat. Sophia charged forward so fast that she could feel air rush through her hair.
The girl's sword and the monster's axe crashed, crackling like electricity; a shock wave caused both combatants to stumble backwards.
It took half a second for Sophia to process what had just happened, "Holy sh….."
The monster roared and as it charged forcing Sophia to jump to dodge the blow but she didn't just jump she launched herself flying right over the giant beast. She was so startled by this sudden superhuman agility; she almost tripped over herself as she landed. She had jumped at least fifty feet probably much more than that.
The monster turned around, and made another swing with its axe, Sophia jumped again dodging the blow by the smallest of margins.
'Ok that was close, Sophia, there is a giant monster trying to kill you can worry about your new found superhuman powers later,' Sophia thought, as she put her mind to the task at hand.
She knew a thing or two about sword fighting. She had no actual training but she had read books and watched enough videos online to get a general idea of how it was supposed to work. Right now was a good time to put that knowledge to use. So where to start? Well, the monsters swings were wide, much too wide.
The monster's axe appeared right in front of her face; Sophia lifted her sword just in time to block the strike, the force of the blow pushing her back. Oh right, she had to come up with a strategy while avoiding getting cut in two. The monster's attacks were too wide which meant there was an opening Sophia could exploit, the cat said its weak spot was in the torso.
The monster charged straight at Sophia, the axe held high above its head. This time Sophia made no attempt to dodge, this time she lunged straight at it! Moving so quickly the world around turned blurry as the chilly night air blew through her hair. Sophia swung her sword; it struck the monster in the torso, the blade edge cutting through the strange red substance, like a knife slicing up jelly. As the blade passed through the monster's body the area around it distorted and turned from blood-red to mustard yellow until it hit something. The monster made one last short roar before breaking and shattering like glass, the fragments disappearing like those from the bubble.
There was a tiny tapping noise as a small red crystal appeared and fell at Sophia's feet.
The cat raised his paw bejewelled with a band, "By my power invested in me as a member of the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge, I reclaim this fragment!" his voice turned into a strange and otherworldly echo. The red crystal was bathed in green light, and then flew into the green gem like a shooting star and disappeared.
With the danger now passed Sophia let the feelings of emotional exhaustion overwhelm her, she dropped the sword which disappeared in a flash of silver light and sat down on the stone cold surface of the cracked and damaged path. Strangely while she felt emotionally drained, physically she felt more energetic than ever.
The cat turned to Sophia, with a warm and concerned expression.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"A little shook up, but otherwise I'm ok," Sophia stood up and brushed off some of the dust that had accumulated on her clothing during the fight.
"What's your name?" the cat asked.
"Sophia Blake," she answered before wiping some dust out of her hair.
"Well, Sophia would you mind waiting just one moment I need to do something," the cat turned away.
He looked around for few seconds at the damaged park, his body glowing silver. Then suddenly every bit of cracked stone began to glow in the same sliver that bathed the cat and in an effect similar to watching film footage in reverse, the cracks sealed themselves and the missing pieces re-joined the whole. In a matter of seconds, the park looked just like it did before a red monster had rampaged through it. The exceptions were the splinters of wood that littered the ground.
"I assume you want me to explain what is going on?" The cat asked.
"That would be nice, but first I would like to go home and clean myself up."
"Very well, lead the way," The cat said.
Sophia raised an eyebrow; it probably wasn't a good idea to just let some random stranger into your house, "How do I know I can trust you?"
The cat sighed with frustration while rubbing the back of his head with his paw, "You're a cynical one aren't, you?" He muttered before looking Sophia right in the eye, "Look I know most of my, kind are a bunch of arrogant, assholes with a completely deserved reputation of being manipulative and dangerous tricksters, but I'm on the level."
For a moment Sophia locked eyes with a cat, he did not falter which was just enough to convince her to invest some trust in a grey feline, "and what are you exactly?"
"A fairy," The cat explained bitterly.
Chapter 2: Blade against Beast
Only temporary blinded, Sophia's vision returned quickly. She didn't look different but she felt different. She felt re-energized like she had just woken up from the best night's sleep she ever had, the pain from her damaged leg was gone it was if her limb had never been injured. She pulled herself up easily.
She grasped the blade with two hands and pointed it at the monster who was still hammering inside the bubble, "Ok, somehow you healed me and gave me a weapon, what do I do now?"
The monster slammed the bubble again, a small crack formed.
"I don't have time to tell you everything so here is the gist of it. That thing is made of magic, it is designed to attack anything it sees, it's not a living being so no need to feel squeamish and the best way to get rid of it is to strike it in the torso," The cat explained with urgency.
The monster kept pounding the bubble, causing the cracks to grow.
"I can't keep the shield up much longer, prepare yourself!"
The monster's axe made contact with the shield, smashing it into pieces like a glass window, its fragments vanishing from existence. The axe kept moving, raging towards the cat. Sophia charged forward so fast that she could feel air rush through her hair.
The girl's sword and the monster's axe crashed, crackling like electricity; a shock wave caused both combatants to stumble backwards.
It took half a second for Sophia to process what had just happened, "Holy sh….."
The monster roared and as it charged forcing Sophia to jump to dodge the blow but she didn't just jump she launched herself flying right over the giant beast. She was so startled by this sudden superhuman agility; she almost tripped over herself as she landed. She had jumped at least fifty feet probably much more than that.
The monster turned around, and made another swing with its axe, Sophia jumped again dodging the blow by the smallest of margins.
'Ok that was close, Sophia, there is a giant monster trying to kill you can worry about your new found superhuman powers later,' Sophia thought, as she put her mind to the task at hand.
She knew a thing or two about sword fighting. She had no actual training but she had read books and watched enough videos online to get a general idea of how it was supposed to work. Right now was a good time to put that knowledge to use. So where to start? Well, the monsters swings were wide, much too wide.
The monster's axe appeared right in front of her face; Sophia lifted her sword just in time to block the strike, the force of the blow pushing her back. Oh right, she had to come up with a strategy while avoiding getting cut in two. The monster's attacks were too wide which meant there was an opening Sophia could exploit, the cat said its weak spot was in the torso.
The monster charged straight at Sophia, the axe held high above its head. This time Sophia made no attempt to dodge, this time she lunged straight at it! Moving so quickly the world around turned blurry as the chilly night air blew through her hair. Sophia swung her sword; it struck the monster in the torso, the blade edge cutting through the strange red substance, like a knife slicing up jelly. As the blade passed through the monster's body the area around it distorted and turned from blood-red to mustard yellow until it hit something. The monster made one last short roar before breaking and shattering like glass, the fragments disappearing like those from the bubble.
There was a tiny tapping noise as a small red crystal appeared and fell at Sophia's feet.
The cat raised his paw bejewelled with a band, "By my power invested in me as a member of the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge, I reclaim this fragment!" his voice turned into a strange and otherworldly echo. The red crystal was bathed in green light, and then flew into the green gem like a shooting star and disappeared.
With the danger now passed Sophia let the feelings of emotional exhaustion overwhelm her, she dropped the sword which disappeared in a flash of silver light and sat down on the stone cold surface of the cracked and damaged path. Strangely while she felt emotionally drained, physically she felt more energetic than ever.
The cat turned to Sophia, with a warm and concerned expression.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"A little shook up, but otherwise I'm ok," Sophia stood up and brushed off some of the dust that had accumulated on her clothing during the fight.
"What's your name?" the cat asked.
"Sophia Blake," she answered before wiping some dust out of her hair.
"Well, Sophia would you mind waiting just one moment I need to do something," the cat turned away.
He looked around for few seconds at the damaged park, his body glowing silver. Then suddenly every bit of cracked stone began to glow in the same sliver that bathed the cat and in an effect similar to watching film footage in reverse, the cracks sealed themselves and the missing pieces re-joined the whole. In a matter of seconds, the park looked just like it did before a red monster had rampaged through it. The exceptions were the splinters of wood that littered the ground.
"I assume you want me to explain what is going on?" The cat asked.
"That would be nice, but first I would like to go home and clean myself up."
"Very well, lead the way," The cat said.
Sophia raised an eyebrow; it probably wasn't a good idea to just let some random stranger into your house, "How do I know I can trust you?"
The cat sighed with frustration while rubbing the back of his head with his paw, "You're a cynical one aren't, you?" He muttered before looking Sophia right in the eye, "Look I know most of my, kind are a bunch of arrogant, assholes with a completely deserved reputation of being manipulative and dangerous tricksters, but I'm on the level."
For a moment Sophia locked eyes with a cat, he did not falter which was just enough to convince her to invest some trust in a grey feline, "and what are you exactly?"
"A fairy," The cat explained bitterly.
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Chapter 3: Pact with the Grey Fairy
A/N: The following work was edited by Neph Champion, Serna Myers and Prue Charlson.
Chapter 3: Pact with the Grey Fairy
Sophia stepped into the house and looked around, it was empty. Normally around this time, she could find her father sitting in the kitchen. Today he wasn't there, that meant he had gone out, probably to a crappy pub to get drunk.
"You can come in, my dad is not here," Sophia held the door open for the cat as he walked in.
"What about your mother?" the cat asked.
"She died a few years ago," Sophia replied bluntly.
The cat lowered his head in a sad and awkward manner, "I'm sorry."
Sophia shrugged, "No need to be, you didn't mean any harm by it," she said, trying to sound less offended than she actually was.
"I know this probably doesn't mean anything, coming from a complete stranger, but I know how it feels to lose someone a lot of someones in fact."
Sophia smiled sadly, "Well at least we have one thing in common."
The cat returned the gesture, "Pretty crappy thing to have in common."
Sophia didn't argue that point, "Would you mind waiting in the kitchen while I clean myself up and get changed?"
"Seems fine to me," The cat headed into the kitchen, while Sophia walked to the opposite room where the washing machine was kept. Hanging on a rack, resting against the wall were drying clothes. On the opposite side of the small box room were two piles of clothing that had yet to be cleaned, one for Sophia, the other for her Dad, there used to be a third one for her mother but now that was gone, just like so many other little hints that a third person used to live at number 39.
Sophia undressed, dumped her filthy clothing into her pile then grabbed a pair of clean light blue pyjamas off the radiator at the back of the room.
She walked into to the bathroom across from her bedroom. The bathroom was pretty much like every other room in the house in terms of style, cheap and unappealing. An ugly floor covered in small dark browns tiles and a wall painted in the blandest cream colour imaginable. The sanitary ware consisted of a sink, a toilet and a shower.
Sophia placed her pyjamas in the corner, stepped into the shower and turned it on. The water flowed from the nozzle, washing away the dust and dirt that gathered on her, the warmth creating a feeling of purification as it made contact with her skin.
Now that she was truly alone, Sophia could finally process what just happened. As she reflected on the fight she came to an odd revelation; she hadn't been nearly as scared as she should have been. Not that she had been completely lacking in fear, but that had been eclipsed by a thrill, the same thrill she got when she was working at the forge. Was that a bad thing? Sophia couldn't be certain, at least not yet.
Then there was the matter of all the weird supernatural stuff that was going on, a red energy monster, a magic sword and a cat talking who claimed to be a fairy. Over the course of the shower, Sophia came up with several theories; each one as random and unsupported as the last. Regardless one thing was clear, no matter what happened from this point, Sophia's life for better or for worse was going to be different.
After taking just a little bit longer than she normally did, Sophia turned off the shower, dried herself and put on the pyjamas.
When she returned to the kitchen, the cat was resting on the kitchen table. Sophia looked at the table, then the cat, "You don't have fleas do you?" she asked.
The cat stared at Sophia, trying to figure out why she had asked that question, a second later the answer clicked into place, "Don't worry I used my magic to remove any dirt from me before I got onto the table, I don't digest food like you do and I am very clean, last I checked, I didn't have a single flea on me, so no, you're not going to get food poisoning from me."
"Now, I think you owe me some answers," Sophia stated.
"Yes, you're free to ask whatever you want."
"Ok, then," Sophia said in an effort to prepare herself for whatever crazy revelations the cat had in store, "Back there you said you were a fairy, by that do you mean like, Avalon and Oberon and Puck, and all that kind of stuff?"
The cat nodded, "you hit the nail right on the head, I am Oberon the younger, former prince of Avalon but I prefer that you call me Exile," He stressed the last part with pride.
Sophia gave Exile a suspicious look, "so you were kicked out of Avalon, why?"
"Because I got fed up with both the King's and my 'peoples,' callous attitude and indifference towards the suffering of mortals," Exile's face tightened within disdain, "I tried to stop it and as punishment I had my powers weakened, was trapped into the form of a cat and banished from Avalon for all eternity."
Okay, so the guy was apparently kicked out for trying to do the right thing. But that still left a lot of questions unanswered.
"What was that thing that attacked me? Was it after you?; does this have anything to do with your banishment?"
Exile raised his paw and shook his head, "No, that construct has nothing to do with Avalon, I was just trying to stop it," the fairy cat licked the fur on his right back leg and looked at Sophia, who was still utterly clueless about the situation.
"I suppose it would be best for me to start from the beginning," Exile held out his right paw and a small green orb made of light appeared just above it. The orb kept growing in size, the interior becoming more detailed as it did. It stopped when it was about the size of Sophia's head. Within the orb, tiny dots grew brighter and dimmed at random.
"This is the universe, it contains everything from rocks to gas, to living beings like you and me," The orb shrunk into a tiny point, then grew back out, this time taking the form of a skyscraper, "What you are probably unaware of is that the universe is actually made up of many, many different realms or plains like Avalon and Earth, each realm is like different floors on this building, each of them separate but part of the same whole."
"So, it's a multiverse?"
Exile shook his head, "No a multiverse would be more like a city made up of multiple buildings," the tower then fell apart and reformed into two different objects, a staff with a huge gem on top of it and a leather bound book with some bizarre symbols cut into the cover, "anyway each realm has its own form of magic, each one capable of producing great wonders." A hand appeared and grasped the staff tightly and shook it, causing a beautiful flower to bloom, "and great tragedy," a small earth-like planet appeared above the book, the menacing tome open its pages and a column of light shot out of it and struck the world-obliterating the planet instantly and leaving nothing behind.
The objects transformed into a green mist which shaped itself into a symbol, a blood red eye surround by a square, next to each corner of the square was one of four pitch black shield-shaped locks. "Given the magic's potential for both good and ill groups throughout the realms have formed, made up of spirit and mortals, each group wants to gather magic for many different reasons ranging from trying to discover miracle cures to using it as a tool of war and conquest. I was a member of one of these groups, the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge, an order dedicated to finding dangerous magic and locking it away."
As the fairy explained everything, Sophia sat there quietly listening as her understanding of the universe was both expanded and crushed at the same time. Most people would be overwhelmed. Yet Sophia felt excited by the revelations, they seemed to further brighten the fire within her that had emerged back at the park.
"You said that you used to be a member of Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge, what happened?"
Exile's expression became grim as the hologram faded away, "It was a day like any other, and I was doing the usual patrol around the third wall of the fortress as I did every single day, then the entire building began to shake, the walls started to explode and crumble. We were completely overwhelmed. People I had known for longer than you have been alive were cut down right in front of me. Eventually, we rallied a defence but it was far too late, our defeat and extermination were inevitable. By the end it came down to just two of us, Grand Master Wake and me, trapped in the vault with nothing but a crumbling door separating us and from the attackers, the A.M."
"Who are the A.M?"
"A group of opposing magic users."
"Why were they attacking you?"
"Because they wanted to steal something from the vault."
"What was it?"
The fairy paused to catch the emotions that were about to run away with him, "It was called The Great Ritual Crystal an artefact that could amplify the power of any ritual."
"I'm going to assume that's bad?"
Exile nodded his head, "imagine you have created a ritual which fired a lightning bolt strong enough to completely vaporise this house and then activate it with the Ritual Crystal. That lightning bolt would become powerful enough to destroy an entire city."
A haunting image flashed through Sophia's mind, of a pillar of lightning bursting out from the kitchen and reducing everyone and everything in the West Crown to dust leaving nothing but a massive crater behind.
Exile continued, "A group of archaeologists discovered it while exploring some ancient ruins after they found it we were called in to lock it away from anyone who would misuse it," Exile expression gained a grain of anger, "Obviously at least one of them must have tipped the A.M off."
"What makes you say that?"
"The Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge are, or rather were a pretty well-known order, but the location of our fortress was a heavily guarded secret and we always tried to do everything in our power to avoid being noticed when we retrieved dangerous objects, according to Grand Master Wake, the only other group that knew about the Ritual Crystal were the archaeologists who found it."
"Why would they betray you guys?"
Exile shrugged his shoulders in an angry fashion, "For the money, to save their own skins, I don't know or care, to be honest," he spent a moment stewing in his anger before continuing.
"Anyway right before the door fell apart the Grand Master teleported me outside so he faced the enemy all by himself, when I returned the vault had been completely trashed, the enemy was gone, the Grand Master was dead, but next to his body I found this," Exile raised the arm which had the green gem attached to it.
"This is called a storage gem, it's a neat little magical item used to store small objects, this one, in particular, is a special type used by the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge to track down any artefact that goes missing from our vaults, the Master used a magic rune to record his last orders to me," Exile tapped the storage gem with his paw, a strange mark appeared on the gem and glowed, a second later a light green small holographic image of an old man appeared. He possessed a very impressive build, he was very tall and muscular; his grey hair was wrapped up in a short ponytail. He wore a set of white monk-like robes.
But what would normally have been an impressive appearance which showed wisdom and strength, was destroyed by the gaping, bleeding wound just below his chest. He was laying on the ground, the back of his head resting against a fallen pillar like a pillow.
"Exile," The Grander Master spoke, his voice weak "There are many things I need to tell you and I don't have much time, I have shattered the Ritual Crystal into fragments and sent them to a different realm, I have been able to convince the A.M that I sent the fragments to Scelus but in truth they have been sent to Earth," The dying man stopped allowing himself to cough some blood from his mouth.
"I don't know exactly where they fell, but I was able to get a rough idea I've carved some coordinates on the back of my storage gem, so you can get started," he coughed again this time fiercely, "listen carefully Exile, you are the last surviving member of the Order, please gather the fragments of the Ritual Crystal before they can be miss…," He belched and a large amount of blood forced its way out of his mouth.
"To help on this task I have given you this storage gem and this message, I will leave it up to you to decide where the fragments will go after you have collected them all" the next unpleasant minute was dedicated to uncontrollably painful coughing, it was horribly unpleasant to watch. Eventually, he regained control of himself, but the shaking of his body made it clear he was struggling to hold on.
"The A.M will eventually realise that they have been tricked, after that, it won't take them long to find the true location of the fragments, be prepared for when that happens," "I have…. One... Last…. Thing…. I need to….tell you," his body suddenly stopped shaking, a moment later the hologram abruptly crumbled away.
For what felt like a significant amount of time the kitchen was completely silent, a cold grim miserable feeling dominated the room. Eventually, Sophia decided to break it, "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thanks, your condolences are appreciated," Exile took a moment to compose himself, "After hearing the message, I cremated the master's body and then opened a portal to earth, I ended up landing in the middle of the sea and had to swim my way to shore."
"Wait," Sophia raised her arm as if she were trying to ask one of her teachers a question, "So are you are telling me that all the weird stuff that's happening in this city, the strange lights in the sky, the collapsing criminals, that weird trance I slipped into in park, that monster which attacked us, is all because of these fragments?"
"The strange lights were probably the fragments falling to earth through the portal, as for the collapsing criminals I still need to investigate but they are probably connected to the fragments, the trance was definitely my fault."
Sophia raised an eyebrow, she crossed her arms and gave the fairy a hard look, "What do you mean by that?"
Exile suddenly looked a little nervous, "Hey I don't like to do this stuff, but it's important revealing the existence of magic to the general population of a world where magic is unknown, can have very serious…."
Sophia slammed the table with her fist causing it shake violently and creating a small crack in it, her eyes displaying a cold rage that was beginning to brew, "Stop beating around the bush!"
"Ok, ok, I will explain, I used my magic to set up a concealment field."
Sophia really didn't like where this was going, "What's a concealment field?"
"I used a magic rune to create an invisible magic field that does three things, one it implants a hypnotic suggestion inside those located within the field to immediately leave the area, while those outside of the field are given suggestions that force them to totally avoid the area, and finally, it blocks sound that is created inside from escaping so no one can hear what is going on."
"Ok, please explain to me why it's so important to use magic to control the minds of innocent people!" Sophia gazed angrily at the fairy, this time more controlled.
"Right then, as I have just explained. Magic is extremely dangerous and earth already has enough problems as it is without throwing mystical super weapons into it, all it takes is some idiot warlord deciding to use an artefact of doom to destroy his enemies and then the whole planet is engulfed in one big inferno."
"Is Earth the only place where magic is hidden?"
"For every world where magic is well known and simply a part of everyday life, there are two where it is regarded as a myth, anyway we're getting off track," Exile said the last part hinting that he was eager to get to the main point, "You were aware of the effects that the field had on you which means you were able to resist it, which can only be achieved by an ordinary person if they are both strong willed and have a magical heritage, that means you are an ideal candidate!"
"Wait; slow down," Sophia raised both her hands stopping the fairy and giving her time to process what she just heard, "I have a magical heritage, what does that mean? I'm descended from Frost Giants or something?"
"That is possible, but more likely one of your great grandparents was from a family of mages, what is really important is that you have great magical potential you can't do anything with it of course because you haven't been taught anything."
"Are you volunteering to teach me magic?" Sophia asked sounding more excited than she wanted to.
"If you wish me to, but I'm going to offer you something far more valuable," There was a sudden shift in mood, "It's clear to me now that I can't gather the fragments by myself; I'm far too weak, so if you are willing to aide me in my quest to gather the fragments, I will transform you into a Sorcerer!"
"So this is a sales pitch," Sophia observed bluntly.
Exile expression become demure, "Yes, I suppose if you want to put things cynically."
Sophia had to give Exile credit; he wasn't pulling any punches, and he had piqued the girl's curiosity.
"Ok, I will bite how is this supposed to work?"
"In laymen terms, we will form a pact where in exchange for your help to gather the fragments I will perform a ritual that will transform you into a Sorcerer who is the perfect mixture of spirit and mortal being, an artificial demigod," As Exile dived into the explanation, he became energized, his voice becoming more and more passionate as he went on, "you will possess strength capable of smashing stone, be able to move at incredible speeds, you will be able to withstand assaults that would destroy an ordinary person, you will even be able to halt the ageing process at will."
Sophia stood there just taking in all the implications, gain super powers and then using them to fight evil, it was like something out of those fantasy novels that filled up space on her bookshelf, but there was one thing that still nagged at her.
"Wait didn't you already give me super powers back at the park?"
"We were in a life or death situation, so I performed an incomplete version of the ritual, at the moment you are a sort of proto Sorcerer, you're far weaker than the weakest of true Sorcerers and what power you do have will vanish in a few hours if the ritual is not finished."
"Right, so without the ritual, I will lose my powers. Will anything else happen if I don't accept your offer?."
"Normally I'm supposed to erase your memories of anything magical but I don't like doing that so I will just leave and look for someone else to help me.
If you're worried about the city don't be, I have a mission to complete and nothing is going to stop me!" Exile declared.
"So either I agree to this pact and become part of a dangerous scavenger hunt or spend the rest of my life knowing about these dangers and fantastical things and never been able to tell anyone," Sophia summarised both points glumly.
"Well there is the third option, you refuse the power and give me permission to erase your memories so you don't have to deal with the knowledge of magic."
So it had come to this, a crossroads, Sophia could return to a normal life like nothing had happened or plunge into a world of madness and danger, it was almost funny how easy the choice was.
Sophia took one determined step forward, "I accept your deal, Exile."
The fairy was almost shocked, "Ok if you're that certain," he regained his composure and began. "Let me explain how this ritual works. There are two methods, one where the spirit grants the mortal a power of their choosing, often taking the form of a magical item since I'm just a random exile with nothing to my name that isn't possible for us, so we will use the second method."
"And that involves?"
"Quite simply, while I perform the ritual you picture a concept in your head, focus on that idea and then you will get a power with that idea at its core."
"So if I think about water I will get the power to control water."
Exile scratched his chin with his front paw, "Probably, but unfortunately the downside of this method there is no way to tell how exactly the powers will manifest, granted the amount of uncertainty depends on what the core concept is but either way you're still left with a lot of unknowns no matter what you pick, and one more thing, becoming a Sorcerer sometimes results in minor side effects."
"What do you mean by 'minor' side effects?" Sophia asked sceptically.
"When the ritual is finished, you become part spirit as result, you take on some characteristics of that spirit since I'm a fairy who uses magic from Avalon, your eyes will have a slight glow in reaction to an extreme emotion."
"If that's the worst thing then I'm still willing to go through with the ritual," Sophia spoke with a determination so strong that Exile was a little taken aback.
"Huh, I thought you would have hesitated a little bit after hearing that fact, most people certainly would have," The grey feline smiled, "You are definitely not a normal person, anyway enough talk let's get down to business, just tell me when you have decided on a concept and I will begin the ritual."
Sophia's mind immediately began flicking through various ideas. First, she considered something simple, straight forward, something like fire, but that was too dangerous and uncontrollable. No, she needed to stick with something that she knew, something that she already understood that would make it easier to learn how her powers worked. There was only one idea that fitted the bill; it was not only a passion of hers but it the one thing that she truly excelled at, smiting the art of shaping and changing metals.
"I have picked one," Sophia informed Exile.
"Right close your eyes, and focus on the concept while I perform the ritual," The fairy instructed.
Sophia shut her eyes and began picturing the idea of smiting, the different hot flows of metals, the sound of steel and iron been hammered into shape and the warmth of the flames.
Exile raised his right paw dramatically, while at the same time his entire body was covered in lines of silver and gold.
"Sophia Blake," Exile's voice suddenly changed, becoming distant otherworldly, "Do you swear to help me honour the memory of Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge by gathering Ritual Fragments, in exchange I will grant you all of the powers of Sorcerer." As each second passed Exile's body crackling with strange energy as a thick mist of silver and gold began to emerge from the floor, rising like steam until the entire room was filled.
Sophia veins suddenly began glowing a fiery orange, she held up her hand arm so that her hand was parallel to Exile's paw, she opened her eyes now narrowed and focused with the determination of a mountain resisting a tidal wave. "I accept the terms of this pact, I'm the Forage Knight!"
Sophia's body began crackling with its own energy in unison with Exile's energy.
"Then by my right as a child of Avalon, I call on its magic and bless you with its power!" With that final declaration, the kitchen became filled with a flash of orange, silver and gold.
Chapter 3: Pact with the Grey Fairy
Sophia stepped into the house and looked around, it was empty. Normally around this time, she could find her father sitting in the kitchen. Today he wasn't there, that meant he had gone out, probably to a crappy pub to get drunk.
"You can come in, my dad is not here," Sophia held the door open for the cat as he walked in.
"What about your mother?" the cat asked.
"She died a few years ago," Sophia replied bluntly.
The cat lowered his head in a sad and awkward manner, "I'm sorry."
Sophia shrugged, "No need to be, you didn't mean any harm by it," she said, trying to sound less offended than she actually was.
"I know this probably doesn't mean anything, coming from a complete stranger, but I know how it feels to lose someone a lot of someones in fact."
Sophia smiled sadly, "Well at least we have one thing in common."
The cat returned the gesture, "Pretty crappy thing to have in common."
Sophia didn't argue that point, "Would you mind waiting in the kitchen while I clean myself up and get changed?"
"Seems fine to me," The cat headed into the kitchen, while Sophia walked to the opposite room where the washing machine was kept. Hanging on a rack, resting against the wall were drying clothes. On the opposite side of the small box room were two piles of clothing that had yet to be cleaned, one for Sophia, the other for her Dad, there used to be a third one for her mother but now that was gone, just like so many other little hints that a third person used to live at number 39.
Sophia undressed, dumped her filthy clothing into her pile then grabbed a pair of clean light blue pyjamas off the radiator at the back of the room.
She walked into to the bathroom across from her bedroom. The bathroom was pretty much like every other room in the house in terms of style, cheap and unappealing. An ugly floor covered in small dark browns tiles and a wall painted in the blandest cream colour imaginable. The sanitary ware consisted of a sink, a toilet and a shower.
Sophia placed her pyjamas in the corner, stepped into the shower and turned it on. The water flowed from the nozzle, washing away the dust and dirt that gathered on her, the warmth creating a feeling of purification as it made contact with her skin.
Now that she was truly alone, Sophia could finally process what just happened. As she reflected on the fight she came to an odd revelation; she hadn't been nearly as scared as she should have been. Not that she had been completely lacking in fear, but that had been eclipsed by a thrill, the same thrill she got when she was working at the forge. Was that a bad thing? Sophia couldn't be certain, at least not yet.
Then there was the matter of all the weird supernatural stuff that was going on, a red energy monster, a magic sword and a cat talking who claimed to be a fairy. Over the course of the shower, Sophia came up with several theories; each one as random and unsupported as the last. Regardless one thing was clear, no matter what happened from this point, Sophia's life for better or for worse was going to be different.
After taking just a little bit longer than she normally did, Sophia turned off the shower, dried herself and put on the pyjamas.
When she returned to the kitchen, the cat was resting on the kitchen table. Sophia looked at the table, then the cat, "You don't have fleas do you?" she asked.
The cat stared at Sophia, trying to figure out why she had asked that question, a second later the answer clicked into place, "Don't worry I used my magic to remove any dirt from me before I got onto the table, I don't digest food like you do and I am very clean, last I checked, I didn't have a single flea on me, so no, you're not going to get food poisoning from me."
"Now, I think you owe me some answers," Sophia stated.
"Yes, you're free to ask whatever you want."
"Ok, then," Sophia said in an effort to prepare herself for whatever crazy revelations the cat had in store, "Back there you said you were a fairy, by that do you mean like, Avalon and Oberon and Puck, and all that kind of stuff?"
The cat nodded, "you hit the nail right on the head, I am Oberon the younger, former prince of Avalon but I prefer that you call me Exile," He stressed the last part with pride.
Sophia gave Exile a suspicious look, "so you were kicked out of Avalon, why?"
"Because I got fed up with both the King's and my 'peoples,' callous attitude and indifference towards the suffering of mortals," Exile's face tightened within disdain, "I tried to stop it and as punishment I had my powers weakened, was trapped into the form of a cat and banished from Avalon for all eternity."
Okay, so the guy was apparently kicked out for trying to do the right thing. But that still left a lot of questions unanswered.
"What was that thing that attacked me? Was it after you?; does this have anything to do with your banishment?"
Exile raised his paw and shook his head, "No, that construct has nothing to do with Avalon, I was just trying to stop it," the fairy cat licked the fur on his right back leg and looked at Sophia, who was still utterly clueless about the situation.
"I suppose it would be best for me to start from the beginning," Exile held out his right paw and a small green orb made of light appeared just above it. The orb kept growing in size, the interior becoming more detailed as it did. It stopped when it was about the size of Sophia's head. Within the orb, tiny dots grew brighter and dimmed at random.
"This is the universe, it contains everything from rocks to gas, to living beings like you and me," The orb shrunk into a tiny point, then grew back out, this time taking the form of a skyscraper, "What you are probably unaware of is that the universe is actually made up of many, many different realms or plains like Avalon and Earth, each realm is like different floors on this building, each of them separate but part of the same whole."
"So, it's a multiverse?"
Exile shook his head, "No a multiverse would be more like a city made up of multiple buildings," the tower then fell apart and reformed into two different objects, a staff with a huge gem on top of it and a leather bound book with some bizarre symbols cut into the cover, "anyway each realm has its own form of magic, each one capable of producing great wonders." A hand appeared and grasped the staff tightly and shook it, causing a beautiful flower to bloom, "and great tragedy," a small earth-like planet appeared above the book, the menacing tome open its pages and a column of light shot out of it and struck the world-obliterating the planet instantly and leaving nothing behind.
The objects transformed into a green mist which shaped itself into a symbol, a blood red eye surround by a square, next to each corner of the square was one of four pitch black shield-shaped locks. "Given the magic's potential for both good and ill groups throughout the realms have formed, made up of spirit and mortals, each group wants to gather magic for many different reasons ranging from trying to discover miracle cures to using it as a tool of war and conquest. I was a member of one of these groups, the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge, an order dedicated to finding dangerous magic and locking it away."
As the fairy explained everything, Sophia sat there quietly listening as her understanding of the universe was both expanded and crushed at the same time. Most people would be overwhelmed. Yet Sophia felt excited by the revelations, they seemed to further brighten the fire within her that had emerged back at the park.
"You said that you used to be a member of Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge, what happened?"
Exile's expression became grim as the hologram faded away, "It was a day like any other, and I was doing the usual patrol around the third wall of the fortress as I did every single day, then the entire building began to shake, the walls started to explode and crumble. We were completely overwhelmed. People I had known for longer than you have been alive were cut down right in front of me. Eventually, we rallied a defence but it was far too late, our defeat and extermination were inevitable. By the end it came down to just two of us, Grand Master Wake and me, trapped in the vault with nothing but a crumbling door separating us and from the attackers, the A.M."
"Who are the A.M?"
"A group of opposing magic users."
"Why were they attacking you?"
"Because they wanted to steal something from the vault."
"What was it?"
The fairy paused to catch the emotions that were about to run away with him, "It was called The Great Ritual Crystal an artefact that could amplify the power of any ritual."
"I'm going to assume that's bad?"
Exile nodded his head, "imagine you have created a ritual which fired a lightning bolt strong enough to completely vaporise this house and then activate it with the Ritual Crystal. That lightning bolt would become powerful enough to destroy an entire city."
A haunting image flashed through Sophia's mind, of a pillar of lightning bursting out from the kitchen and reducing everyone and everything in the West Crown to dust leaving nothing but a massive crater behind.
Exile continued, "A group of archaeologists discovered it while exploring some ancient ruins after they found it we were called in to lock it away from anyone who would misuse it," Exile expression gained a grain of anger, "Obviously at least one of them must have tipped the A.M off."
"What makes you say that?"
"The Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge are, or rather were a pretty well-known order, but the location of our fortress was a heavily guarded secret and we always tried to do everything in our power to avoid being noticed when we retrieved dangerous objects, according to Grand Master Wake, the only other group that knew about the Ritual Crystal were the archaeologists who found it."
"Why would they betray you guys?"
Exile shrugged his shoulders in an angry fashion, "For the money, to save their own skins, I don't know or care, to be honest," he spent a moment stewing in his anger before continuing.
"Anyway right before the door fell apart the Grand Master teleported me outside so he faced the enemy all by himself, when I returned the vault had been completely trashed, the enemy was gone, the Grand Master was dead, but next to his body I found this," Exile raised the arm which had the green gem attached to it.
"This is called a storage gem, it's a neat little magical item used to store small objects, this one, in particular, is a special type used by the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge to track down any artefact that goes missing from our vaults, the Master used a magic rune to record his last orders to me," Exile tapped the storage gem with his paw, a strange mark appeared on the gem and glowed, a second later a light green small holographic image of an old man appeared. He possessed a very impressive build, he was very tall and muscular; his grey hair was wrapped up in a short ponytail. He wore a set of white monk-like robes.
But what would normally have been an impressive appearance which showed wisdom and strength, was destroyed by the gaping, bleeding wound just below his chest. He was laying on the ground, the back of his head resting against a fallen pillar like a pillow.
"Exile," The Grander Master spoke, his voice weak "There are many things I need to tell you and I don't have much time, I have shattered the Ritual Crystal into fragments and sent them to a different realm, I have been able to convince the A.M that I sent the fragments to Scelus but in truth they have been sent to Earth," The dying man stopped allowing himself to cough some blood from his mouth.
"I don't know exactly where they fell, but I was able to get a rough idea I've carved some coordinates on the back of my storage gem, so you can get started," he coughed again this time fiercely, "listen carefully Exile, you are the last surviving member of the Order, please gather the fragments of the Ritual Crystal before they can be miss…," He belched and a large amount of blood forced its way out of his mouth.
"To help on this task I have given you this storage gem and this message, I will leave it up to you to decide where the fragments will go after you have collected them all" the next unpleasant minute was dedicated to uncontrollably painful coughing, it was horribly unpleasant to watch. Eventually, he regained control of himself, but the shaking of his body made it clear he was struggling to hold on.
"The A.M will eventually realise that they have been tricked, after that, it won't take them long to find the true location of the fragments, be prepared for when that happens," "I have…. One... Last…. Thing…. I need to….tell you," his body suddenly stopped shaking, a moment later the hologram abruptly crumbled away.
For what felt like a significant amount of time the kitchen was completely silent, a cold grim miserable feeling dominated the room. Eventually, Sophia decided to break it, "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thanks, your condolences are appreciated," Exile took a moment to compose himself, "After hearing the message, I cremated the master's body and then opened a portal to earth, I ended up landing in the middle of the sea and had to swim my way to shore."
"Wait," Sophia raised her arm as if she were trying to ask one of her teachers a question, "So are you are telling me that all the weird stuff that's happening in this city, the strange lights in the sky, the collapsing criminals, that weird trance I slipped into in park, that monster which attacked us, is all because of these fragments?"
"The strange lights were probably the fragments falling to earth through the portal, as for the collapsing criminals I still need to investigate but they are probably connected to the fragments, the trance was definitely my fault."
Sophia raised an eyebrow, she crossed her arms and gave the fairy a hard look, "What do you mean by that?"
Exile suddenly looked a little nervous, "Hey I don't like to do this stuff, but it's important revealing the existence of magic to the general population of a world where magic is unknown, can have very serious…."
Sophia slammed the table with her fist causing it shake violently and creating a small crack in it, her eyes displaying a cold rage that was beginning to brew, "Stop beating around the bush!"
"Ok, ok, I will explain, I used my magic to set up a concealment field."
Sophia really didn't like where this was going, "What's a concealment field?"
"I used a magic rune to create an invisible magic field that does three things, one it implants a hypnotic suggestion inside those located within the field to immediately leave the area, while those outside of the field are given suggestions that force them to totally avoid the area, and finally, it blocks sound that is created inside from escaping so no one can hear what is going on."
"Ok, please explain to me why it's so important to use magic to control the minds of innocent people!" Sophia gazed angrily at the fairy, this time more controlled.
"Right then, as I have just explained. Magic is extremely dangerous and earth already has enough problems as it is without throwing mystical super weapons into it, all it takes is some idiot warlord deciding to use an artefact of doom to destroy his enemies and then the whole planet is engulfed in one big inferno."
"Is Earth the only place where magic is hidden?"
"For every world where magic is well known and simply a part of everyday life, there are two where it is regarded as a myth, anyway we're getting off track," Exile said the last part hinting that he was eager to get to the main point, "You were aware of the effects that the field had on you which means you were able to resist it, which can only be achieved by an ordinary person if they are both strong willed and have a magical heritage, that means you are an ideal candidate!"
"Wait; slow down," Sophia raised both her hands stopping the fairy and giving her time to process what she just heard, "I have a magical heritage, what does that mean? I'm descended from Frost Giants or something?"
"That is possible, but more likely one of your great grandparents was from a family of mages, what is really important is that you have great magical potential you can't do anything with it of course because you haven't been taught anything."
"Are you volunteering to teach me magic?" Sophia asked sounding more excited than she wanted to.
"If you wish me to, but I'm going to offer you something far more valuable," There was a sudden shift in mood, "It's clear to me now that I can't gather the fragments by myself; I'm far too weak, so if you are willing to aide me in my quest to gather the fragments, I will transform you into a Sorcerer!"
"So this is a sales pitch," Sophia observed bluntly.
Exile expression become demure, "Yes, I suppose if you want to put things cynically."
Sophia had to give Exile credit; he wasn't pulling any punches, and he had piqued the girl's curiosity.
"Ok, I will bite how is this supposed to work?"
"In laymen terms, we will form a pact where in exchange for your help to gather the fragments I will perform a ritual that will transform you into a Sorcerer who is the perfect mixture of spirit and mortal being, an artificial demigod," As Exile dived into the explanation, he became energized, his voice becoming more and more passionate as he went on, "you will possess strength capable of smashing stone, be able to move at incredible speeds, you will be able to withstand assaults that would destroy an ordinary person, you will even be able to halt the ageing process at will."
Sophia stood there just taking in all the implications, gain super powers and then using them to fight evil, it was like something out of those fantasy novels that filled up space on her bookshelf, but there was one thing that still nagged at her.
"Wait didn't you already give me super powers back at the park?"
"We were in a life or death situation, so I performed an incomplete version of the ritual, at the moment you are a sort of proto Sorcerer, you're far weaker than the weakest of true Sorcerers and what power you do have will vanish in a few hours if the ritual is not finished."
"Right, so without the ritual, I will lose my powers. Will anything else happen if I don't accept your offer?."
"Normally I'm supposed to erase your memories of anything magical but I don't like doing that so I will just leave and look for someone else to help me.
If you're worried about the city don't be, I have a mission to complete and nothing is going to stop me!" Exile declared.
"So either I agree to this pact and become part of a dangerous scavenger hunt or spend the rest of my life knowing about these dangers and fantastical things and never been able to tell anyone," Sophia summarised both points glumly.
"Well there is the third option, you refuse the power and give me permission to erase your memories so you don't have to deal with the knowledge of magic."
So it had come to this, a crossroads, Sophia could return to a normal life like nothing had happened or plunge into a world of madness and danger, it was almost funny how easy the choice was.
Sophia took one determined step forward, "I accept your deal, Exile."
The fairy was almost shocked, "Ok if you're that certain," he regained his composure and began. "Let me explain how this ritual works. There are two methods, one where the spirit grants the mortal a power of their choosing, often taking the form of a magical item since I'm just a random exile with nothing to my name that isn't possible for us, so we will use the second method."
"And that involves?"
"Quite simply, while I perform the ritual you picture a concept in your head, focus on that idea and then you will get a power with that idea at its core."
"So if I think about water I will get the power to control water."
Exile scratched his chin with his front paw, "Probably, but unfortunately the downside of this method there is no way to tell how exactly the powers will manifest, granted the amount of uncertainty depends on what the core concept is but either way you're still left with a lot of unknowns no matter what you pick, and one more thing, becoming a Sorcerer sometimes results in minor side effects."
"What do you mean by 'minor' side effects?" Sophia asked sceptically.
"When the ritual is finished, you become part spirit as result, you take on some characteristics of that spirit since I'm a fairy who uses magic from Avalon, your eyes will have a slight glow in reaction to an extreme emotion."
"If that's the worst thing then I'm still willing to go through with the ritual," Sophia spoke with a determination so strong that Exile was a little taken aback.
"Huh, I thought you would have hesitated a little bit after hearing that fact, most people certainly would have," The grey feline smiled, "You are definitely not a normal person, anyway enough talk let's get down to business, just tell me when you have decided on a concept and I will begin the ritual."
Sophia's mind immediately began flicking through various ideas. First, she considered something simple, straight forward, something like fire, but that was too dangerous and uncontrollable. No, she needed to stick with something that she knew, something that she already understood that would make it easier to learn how her powers worked. There was only one idea that fitted the bill; it was not only a passion of hers but it the one thing that she truly excelled at, smiting the art of shaping and changing metals.
"I have picked one," Sophia informed Exile.
"Right close your eyes, and focus on the concept while I perform the ritual," The fairy instructed.
Sophia shut her eyes and began picturing the idea of smiting, the different hot flows of metals, the sound of steel and iron been hammered into shape and the warmth of the flames.
Exile raised his right paw dramatically, while at the same time his entire body was covered in lines of silver and gold.
"Sophia Blake," Exile's voice suddenly changed, becoming distant otherworldly, "Do you swear to help me honour the memory of Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge by gathering Ritual Fragments, in exchange I will grant you all of the powers of Sorcerer." As each second passed Exile's body crackling with strange energy as a thick mist of silver and gold began to emerge from the floor, rising like steam until the entire room was filled.
Sophia veins suddenly began glowing a fiery orange, she held up her hand arm so that her hand was parallel to Exile's paw, she opened her eyes now narrowed and focused with the determination of a mountain resisting a tidal wave. "I accept the terms of this pact, I'm the Forage Knight!"
Sophia's body began crackling with its own energy in unison with Exile's energy.
"Then by my right as a child of Avalon, I call on its magic and bless you with its power!" With that final declaration, the kitchen became filled with a flash of orange, silver and gold.
Chapter 4: Forge Knight
A/N: The following work was edited by Neph Champion, Serna Myers and Prue Charlson.
Chapter 4: Forge Knight
Sophia's head was spinning like crazy, for a few moments all she could see was a massive blur, it was only by pure luck that she was able to find the kitchen table and stop herself from falling over.
"Are you alright?" Exile said, as Sophia's vision refocused and her balance returned to normal.
"Do all Sorcerers feel like they have been shoved into a wall and spun around after making their pacts?"
"Yes, it is completely normal," Exile smiled in oddly cherry manner.
"Did it even work, I don't feel different?" Sophia asked while checking herself to see if anything had changed.
"Ninety, ninety percent sure, just try to use your power and see what happens."
Right, check to see if she had powers. Sophia had chosen smithing as a core concept so she needed to find a piece of metal to test it on. She walked over to a kitchen draw and pulled out a fork.
The moment she touched the fork she felt something flow from the fork to her hand, though her body and into her head. Suddenly she possessed knowledge; she knew everything about the forks' composition, down to the smallest detail.
The average modern metal fork was made of stainless steel which was composed of different elements, there was the basic iron which was mixed with carbon to make steel, there was chromium to give the steel resistance against rust, then there was nickel to add resistance to abrasion and molybdenum to keep the metal from been scratched, it also contained copper, titanium and vanadium to help improve its overall quality.
Sophia already knew this, but now something was different; it was like she could feel each metal. She could even pick out the tiny impurities like the minuscule amount of zinc located on the edge of the handle. She could also see the structure of the fork in her mind's eye, like how one its tips was slightly weaker than the other ones.
"I see the fork's structure I know everything about," Sophia said in a mystified way.
"So you have the power analyse metal: that makes sense a given the concept you chose," Exile observed.
The ability to analyse metals might not seem like much of a power to the average person, to Sophia, someone who loved the art of smithing and dedicated many hours trying to master it, the power was a godsend. Been able to see weakness in any metal object you were forging would make it easier to correct the problem before it became unsalvageable and the object needed to be discarded. On the other had if she was going into battle against an insane supernatural force, then this power would have limited use at best.
"Sorcerers normally have more than one power, try to send some magic into the fork."
"How do I do that?" Sophia had lost count of the number of questions she had asked today.
"For sorcerers like you, it is easy, just focus your will onto it and then the magic will flow."
Just will it? It seemed like a simple explanation; in fact, it felt too simple. But Exile had been right so far, so it was worth a go. Sophia closed her eyes and concentrated, she could feel something sleeping inside her body, like a dormant volcano. Sophia ordered it to flow and then the power burst into life.
The veins in Sophia's right arm and hand glowed a bright orange as she felt magic flow from her body into the fork. Then she understood, it was like she already knew and had just become aware of it.
She ordered her power to change the fork, to double in size. The mystical energy immediately began to convert itself into the matter and which then incorporated itself into the existing structure without comprising it. It even made sure that ratio of materials was the same as the fork expand.
Visually the fork was bathed in golden light, it grew in size like a balloon having air blown into it. Until it reached a certain point then it stopped.
Sophia stared at the fork, surprised but not as much as she would have been if weren't for the energy monster, the talking cat that was actually a fairy and other shocking revelations about the world. Granted, she had probably just violated several laws of physics, but she didn't know enough to fully understand how absurd the act of changing the fork's size was.
"The abilities to analyse and manipulate metal objects, a fitting power for someone called the Forge Knight, This is your magic title from the magic name system," Exile said.
"Forge what?"
"Oh," Exile's face flushed as if he just remembered something, "I forgot to tell you about titles: when the Sorcerer System was first created there were unexpected problems, ranging anywhere from Sorcerers destroying things because they couldn't control their strength to being so overwhelmed by their mental abilities they went insane within days, so a new feature needed to be added, The Magic Name System which restrained a sorcerer's power until they said a certain magic word."
"And this Name System are the magic titles?"
"Yes, although I personally find that a lot of these titles to be rather over dramatic."
"Actually I like it," Sophia admitted, it was coo,l like she was a superhero fighting evil by the moonlight.
The conversation between the newly dubbed Forage Knight and the exiled fairy was brought to a sudden halt by the sound of front door been pushed open and the creeping of wooden floor boards underweight leather shoes.
"My Dad is home," Sophia spoke with urgency mixed with irritations.
"Don't worry," Exile tapped his forehead, a ring of silver appeared above him moving downward until it went passed his feet, where it disappeared. When it was done Exile's body had taken on a translucent ghost like quality.
"Sophia," Jake Blake's voice was tired, as always.
Sophia turned slowly around in a vain attempt to give her more time to come up with an explanation as to why there was a cat in the house. The best she could come up with was a lame story about finding it abandoned, hopeful he hadn't heard Exile talking.
"Dad I…" Sophia stuttered while she tried to throw a convincing story together.
"I'm using glamour spell, your father can't see or hear me," Exile explained as quickly as possible.
Sophia felt a rush of relief wash away her previous stress, lying was one thing she definitely was not good at.
"Sophia?" Her father's voice took on a strange tone, stuck somewhere between a rare fatherly concern and the typical washed and tiredness that was normal for him. Sophia stared at her father's face trying to decipher what he was feeling, the attempt failed.
Sophia shook her head, "It's nothing Dad," She began walking towards the staircase, Exile jumped off the table and followed, "I'm going to bed."
Thirty seconds later Sophia shut the door to her bedroom, created a barrier between her voice and her dad's ears.
"Is he always like that?" Exile asked.
"Walking around like a corpse and speaking with all the passion of a dry lemon, yes he has acted like this all the time, ever since Mum died," Sophia said coldly.
"Do you think he will be a problem, assuming you want to keep your magic a secret from him?"
Sophia shrugged her shoulders, "No, on both counts the man can't even summon the strength to be angry because he got a call from the head teacher, there is no way he is going to bother investigating what I do in my spare time and why should I tell him anything, if he can't be bothered to share his own secrets?"
Exile didn't comment on what Sophia had just said, which she appreciated.
"Anyway, I had better get some sleep, wait, do I even needed to sleep now?"
"Well in order to live, no you don't need to sleep but it does do wonders for your sanity."
"Then I better get to it," Sophia stretched her arms upwards and reached for the light switch.
"In the meantime, I will do some research on the fragment we collected, I have some suspicions I need to conform," Exile turned his paw over and tapped the gem on his wrist; the red fragment popped out floating above its container.
Sophia flicked the switch and the room instantly turned black, the only illumination coming from the moonlight shining through the window and the tiny red glow from the fragment. Guided by this light, Sophia lay down on the mattress.
Sophia couldn't sleep. For awhile she just stared at the ceiling, thinking. To think just a few hours ago, she was just going through her normal everyday routine, her biggest worries on her mind were getting called to see the head teacher and letting her best friend down. Now she had much bigger, more dangerous things to worry about, yet, despite all that, she felt far more alive than she had in a long time.
Eventual her mind calmed down and Sophia slowly drifted off to sleep.
------She was drowning just like many times before. Just like all those other times, Sophia struggled to the surface. The shadow reached into the water and grabbed her like she always did and then it pulled out her out of the water.
However, this time, when she was pulled to the surface, instead of being cuddled in the arms of her mysterious rescuer, she found herself standing in the desert at night.
Scattered across the sandy ground, weapons of all kinds, swords, mace, spears, axes and hammers, were embedded in it. Buried alongside the weapons were fragments of armour, the bits that were sticking out under the sand shined in the moonlight.
Sophia turned slightly and saw a shadow standing on top of a sand dune, facing away from her, his head tilted upwards, staring at the moon, the silver light caused his outline to glow in strong contrast with his dark body. From where she was standing the shadow of her rescuer seemed to be a giant towering.
Very slowly Sophia climbed her way up the sand dune until she stood at the same level. The girl reached her hand out towards the shadow.
Chapter 4: Forge Knight
Sophia's head was spinning like crazy, for a few moments all she could see was a massive blur, it was only by pure luck that she was able to find the kitchen table and stop herself from falling over.
"Are you alright?" Exile said, as Sophia's vision refocused and her balance returned to normal.
"Do all Sorcerers feel like they have been shoved into a wall and spun around after making their pacts?"
"Yes, it is completely normal," Exile smiled in oddly cherry manner.
"Did it even work, I don't feel different?" Sophia asked while checking herself to see if anything had changed.
"Ninety, ninety percent sure, just try to use your power and see what happens."
Right, check to see if she had powers. Sophia had chosen smithing as a core concept so she needed to find a piece of metal to test it on. She walked over to a kitchen draw and pulled out a fork.
The moment she touched the fork she felt something flow from the fork to her hand, though her body and into her head. Suddenly she possessed knowledge; she knew everything about the forks' composition, down to the smallest detail.
The average modern metal fork was made of stainless steel which was composed of different elements, there was the basic iron which was mixed with carbon to make steel, there was chromium to give the steel resistance against rust, then there was nickel to add resistance to abrasion and molybdenum to keep the metal from been scratched, it also contained copper, titanium and vanadium to help improve its overall quality.
Sophia already knew this, but now something was different; it was like she could feel each metal. She could even pick out the tiny impurities like the minuscule amount of zinc located on the edge of the handle. She could also see the structure of the fork in her mind's eye, like how one its tips was slightly weaker than the other ones.
"I see the fork's structure I know everything about," Sophia said in a mystified way.
"So you have the power analyse metal: that makes sense a given the concept you chose," Exile observed.
The ability to analyse metals might not seem like much of a power to the average person, to Sophia, someone who loved the art of smithing and dedicated many hours trying to master it, the power was a godsend. Been able to see weakness in any metal object you were forging would make it easier to correct the problem before it became unsalvageable and the object needed to be discarded. On the other had if she was going into battle against an insane supernatural force, then this power would have limited use at best.
"Sorcerers normally have more than one power, try to send some magic into the fork."
"How do I do that?" Sophia had lost count of the number of questions she had asked today.
"For sorcerers like you, it is easy, just focus your will onto it and then the magic will flow."
Just will it? It seemed like a simple explanation; in fact, it felt too simple. But Exile had been right so far, so it was worth a go. Sophia closed her eyes and concentrated, she could feel something sleeping inside her body, like a dormant volcano. Sophia ordered it to flow and then the power burst into life.
The veins in Sophia's right arm and hand glowed a bright orange as she felt magic flow from her body into the fork. Then she understood, it was like she already knew and had just become aware of it.
She ordered her power to change the fork, to double in size. The mystical energy immediately began to convert itself into the matter and which then incorporated itself into the existing structure without comprising it. It even made sure that ratio of materials was the same as the fork expand.
Visually the fork was bathed in golden light, it grew in size like a balloon having air blown into it. Until it reached a certain point then it stopped.
Sophia stared at the fork, surprised but not as much as she would have been if weren't for the energy monster, the talking cat that was actually a fairy and other shocking revelations about the world. Granted, she had probably just violated several laws of physics, but she didn't know enough to fully understand how absurd the act of changing the fork's size was.
"The abilities to analyse and manipulate metal objects, a fitting power for someone called the Forge Knight, This is your magic title from the magic name system," Exile said.
"Forge what?"
"Oh," Exile's face flushed as if he just remembered something, "I forgot to tell you about titles: when the Sorcerer System was first created there were unexpected problems, ranging anywhere from Sorcerers destroying things because they couldn't control their strength to being so overwhelmed by their mental abilities they went insane within days, so a new feature needed to be added, The Magic Name System which restrained a sorcerer's power until they said a certain magic word."
"And this Name System are the magic titles?"
"Yes, although I personally find that a lot of these titles to be rather over dramatic."
"Actually I like it," Sophia admitted, it was coo,l like she was a superhero fighting evil by the moonlight.
The conversation between the newly dubbed Forage Knight and the exiled fairy was brought to a sudden halt by the sound of front door been pushed open and the creeping of wooden floor boards underweight leather shoes.
"My Dad is home," Sophia spoke with urgency mixed with irritations.
"Don't worry," Exile tapped his forehead, a ring of silver appeared above him moving downward until it went passed his feet, where it disappeared. When it was done Exile's body had taken on a translucent ghost like quality.
"Sophia," Jake Blake's voice was tired, as always.
Sophia turned slowly around in a vain attempt to give her more time to come up with an explanation as to why there was a cat in the house. The best she could come up with was a lame story about finding it abandoned, hopeful he hadn't heard Exile talking.
"Dad I…" Sophia stuttered while she tried to throw a convincing story together.
"I'm using glamour spell, your father can't see or hear me," Exile explained as quickly as possible.
Sophia felt a rush of relief wash away her previous stress, lying was one thing she definitely was not good at.
"Sophia?" Her father's voice took on a strange tone, stuck somewhere between a rare fatherly concern and the typical washed and tiredness that was normal for him. Sophia stared at her father's face trying to decipher what he was feeling, the attempt failed.
Sophia shook her head, "It's nothing Dad," She began walking towards the staircase, Exile jumped off the table and followed, "I'm going to bed."
Thirty seconds later Sophia shut the door to her bedroom, created a barrier between her voice and her dad's ears.
"Is he always like that?" Exile asked.
"Walking around like a corpse and speaking with all the passion of a dry lemon, yes he has acted like this all the time, ever since Mum died," Sophia said coldly.
"Do you think he will be a problem, assuming you want to keep your magic a secret from him?"
Sophia shrugged her shoulders, "No, on both counts the man can't even summon the strength to be angry because he got a call from the head teacher, there is no way he is going to bother investigating what I do in my spare time and why should I tell him anything, if he can't be bothered to share his own secrets?"
Exile didn't comment on what Sophia had just said, which she appreciated.
"Anyway, I had better get some sleep, wait, do I even needed to sleep now?"
"Well in order to live, no you don't need to sleep but it does do wonders for your sanity."
"Then I better get to it," Sophia stretched her arms upwards and reached for the light switch.
"In the meantime, I will do some research on the fragment we collected, I have some suspicions I need to conform," Exile turned his paw over and tapped the gem on his wrist; the red fragment popped out floating above its container.
Sophia flicked the switch and the room instantly turned black, the only illumination coming from the moonlight shining through the window and the tiny red glow from the fragment. Guided by this light, Sophia lay down on the mattress.
Sophia couldn't sleep. For awhile she just stared at the ceiling, thinking. To think just a few hours ago, she was just going through her normal everyday routine, her biggest worries on her mind were getting called to see the head teacher and letting her best friend down. Now she had much bigger, more dangerous things to worry about, yet, despite all that, she felt far more alive than she had in a long time.
Eventual her mind calmed down and Sophia slowly drifted off to sleep.
------She was drowning just like many times before. Just like all those other times, Sophia struggled to the surface. The shadow reached into the water and grabbed her like she always did and then it pulled out her out of the water.
However, this time, when she was pulled to the surface, instead of being cuddled in the arms of her mysterious rescuer, she found herself standing in the desert at night.
Scattered across the sandy ground, weapons of all kinds, swords, mace, spears, axes and hammers, were embedded in it. Buried alongside the weapons were fragments of armour, the bits that were sticking out under the sand shined in the moonlight.
Sophia turned slightly and saw a shadow standing on top of a sand dune, facing away from her, his head tilted upwards, staring at the moon, the silver light caused his outline to glow in strong contrast with his dark body. From where she was standing the shadow of her rescuer seemed to be a giant towering.
Very slowly Sophia climbed her way up the sand dune until she stood at the same level. The girl reached her hand out towards the shadow.
Chapter 5: Vision of the Unknown
A/N: This chapter was edited by Neph Champion, Fish and Prue Charlson
Chapter 5: Vision of the Unknown
Sophia's dream shattered like glass as she quickly sat up and placed a hand on her sweaty forehead. She definitely hadn't been expecting that, which was something of a running theme recently. Then again, she shouldn't be too surprised; she had just crossed the threshold of the mundane to a mad world of magic and fairies, naturally, it would bleed into her dreams.
Casting her thoughts aside, Sophia got out of bed. Exile wasn't in the corner he had been in when she had gone to bed, and the door was open. He was probably downstairs.
As she headed towards the door Sophia's eyes just happened to wander to the small horse figurine on top of her bookshelf, the one her parents had bought her from Miracle Metals all those years ago. Suddenly a thought crept up on her if she could change the size of metal objects maybe she could completely convert one metal into a different metal.
She grabbed the bronze statue from the bookshelf and focused her power on it. The object began to glow as the electrons and atoms that made up the statue rearranged themselves. As they did, the statue's colour shifted from the light brown of bronze to the bright yellow of gold.
Sophia couldn't help but smile a little. For aeons, the human race had sought to instantly create gold, and now that ability had ended up in hands of someone who didn't have a strong desire for wealth. Sophia turned the statue back into bronze and replaced on her bookshelf.
Sophia walked down the staircase and turned into the kitchen. Exile was sitting on the kitchen table, in front of him an open can of spinach glowing silver hovered off the ground like a balloon, the can turned over, causing its green contents to flow into a bowl.
"Exile, isn't it bit reckless to use magic out of the open like that, and shouldn't you have your glamour spell on?"
"Relax, your Dad, already left. Keeping the glamour spell on would just be a waste of magic."
Sophia couldn't argue with that. Her concerns settled, Sophia opened the fridge. The food stored was not of high class, mostly cheap microwave stuff; it was about the only stuff her Dad could cook. She grabbed a carton of milk and took a box of cereal from a nearby cabinet, got a bowl, and that was her meal.
She sat down at the table, across from Exile. The fairy was already slurping up the spinach.
"Do you even need to eat?" Sophia asked.
"It helps me replenish my magic, same goes for you," Exile explained, "and after what I just learned, we're both going to need it."
Sophia swallowed her mouthful of cereal. "Something tells me I'm not going to like what you have say."
Exile nodded glumly. "Before our fortress was attacked, we suspected that something was wrong with the Ritual Crystal. But then A.M destroyed our home and killed all of our researchers before we had a chance to investigate. Now that I've had a proper look, I'd say we were right on the money."
Exile tapped the gem on his arm and the fragment popped out. Sophia noticed something she hadn't before: the crystal was omitting an unnerving ghostly presence, which made her skin feel as cold as early morning winter.
"You see that dark purple dot?" Exile pointed a claw at the fragment. "That's not natural. That's the result of contamination from a malevolent ghost."
Those last two words ramped up Sophia's dread.
"Sometimes, with enough ego and power, a ghost can, over a period of time, alter an object; embody a part of their essence into it."
"So you're saying the Ritual Crystal has been tainted?"
"Yes, and the taint is one of pure unquenchable rage, made fluid by uncompressing hatred, wrapped in a cloak of spite."
The breakfast table became horribly silent as Sophia tried to process the grim news.
"That is obviously very bad but what does this taint do exactly?"
"It means that fragments are way more dangerous than I originally thought; at first the biggest worry was people accidentally activating the fragments' defences and getting hurt or killed, but now the fragments can actually corrupt any person that they come into contact with, effectively possessing them and altering their minds. Any amount of anger will become a murderous rage, the tiniest amount of selfishness will become all-consuming greed, and mild lust would become something unspeakable."
Sophia dropped her fork into the cereal bowl creating a tiny splash; she stood up and glared at Exile.
"So let me get this straight. Your order suspected that the Ritual Crystal was tainted, then got attacked and destroyed by a group who wanted steal it, and your benevolent and wise master decided to keep it out of the wrong hands by dropping this corrupted super weapon into a populated city!?" Sophia's voice raised sharply becoming more much aggressive.
Unlike before, Exile didn't flinch. Instead, he locked his eyes with Sophia. "Well, girl, I would like to see you shatter an incredibly powerful artefact, send it to another realm while bleeding to death while fighting an entire army by yourself. If anything, he probably meant to drop it into the ocean or the middle of the desert."
Exile's reasoning did nothing to shackle Sophia's rage. "The Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge are supposed to protect people against the dangers of magic, right? Maybe if you people had done a better job of keeping your base a secret, my home wouldn't be at risk!"
The righteous anger in the cat's eye was reduced to sadness as his body dropped and lowered in shame. "You're right. We should have done better. We failed you, and I have no right ask you to fix our mistakes. I'm sorry. If you don't want to help, then you don't have to."
A part of Sophia was tempted to take the easy way out just to spite the fairy, but as hard it was, Sophia took a moment to calm herself and think in a rational fashion. Whether or not the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge messed up didn't really matter at this point. The important part was that these fragments were in West Crown, and people would die because of that unless someone could gather them. And Sophia was the only one in the right position to do anything about it.
"As long as you promise to treat me as an equal, I will accept your apology. Does that sound fair?"
Exile smiled. "Thank you. ''
Being called kind felt weird for Sophia; it just wasn't a word that she would use to describe herself.
With the current issue settled, the two went back to breakfast. Then Sophia remembered something that had been bothering her since last night. "You said that the Guardians were destroyed by A.M, but you have never explained who the A.M are."
"Oh," Exile said, voice dripping with embarrassment, "Right, I should tell you about them. Well, the A.M are a group of mages, Sorcerers and various other types of mortal magic users, whose goal is to acquire magical knowledge and artefacts. Nobody knows why."
"How come?"
"Well, they're a very tight-lipped group, and their members are fanatically loyal, choosing to die rather than reveal any secrets. The few that have tried to leave the A.M are hunted down and brutally murdered. They are so good at keeping themselves shrouded in mystery that no one even knows what A.M stands for."
Suddenly the task that lay before Sophia seemed a hell of a lot more daunting. Whoever the A.M were, they were ruthless to a frightful degree and powerful enough to destroy the Guardians. But the worst part was that they were desperate to keep their motive a secret. There was only one reason that Sophia could come up with to explain this behaviour. Whatever the A.M was trying to do, it was so messed up that if it got out, everyone in the cosmos would immediately gang up on them.
"You do have a plan to deal with the A.M, don't you?" Sophia asked hopefully.
"Right now, the plan is to gather all the fragments before they reach the city," Exile stated.
"So, what will happen if the A.M reach the city before we can gather all the fragments?"
Exile lightly scratched the right side of his forehead. "Let's see, if I remember correctly, the A.M do respect the unwritten truce of secrecy. So rather than invade the city with a massive army they will send a small group of agents, though the odds will still be against us."
Blots of uncertainty formed in Sophia's mind. "Do you really think we could win?"
"It won't be easy, but if we act smart and train you well, I'm confident we can win."
The declaration did reduce the amount of dread Sophia was feeling, but she couldn't help but detect signs of forced confidence in Exile's voice.
"Well enough strategic talk, let's finish this yummy breakfast." Exile quickly went back to slurping up the cheap spinach from his bowl.
After that was finished, it was time to start experimenting with Sophia's new powers.
"If we're going to do any kind of experimenting, it will have to be done somewhere other than this house. There aren't enough metals, and it would be a waste of magic to have to keep fixing this place."
"Don't worry, I already have a place in mind," Sophia said as she finished dressing and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
It wasn't a school day so Sophia didn't have to wear a uniform. Instead, she wore what she would normally on her days off: a plain white hoodie, a pair of loose jeans, and pair of a black and white trainers. Clothing that looked very scruffy and common in appearance, but was both comfortable and practical, the only two qualities that Sophia cared about.
"What is this place exactly?" Exile raised an eyebrow.
Sophia grabbed the door's handle and pushed it open, creating a small, aged creak. "I think it would be easier just to show you."
After a thirty-minute bus ride, the two of them found themselves at a place that made New Lane look like a royal garden by comparison. While Sophia's home was definitely cheap in appearance, the houses in this part of the city looked depressingly dilapidated, cracked and broken windows everywhere, the masonry falling to pieces, the gardens overgrown to a grotesque degree, tiny bits of animal remains scattered around, and there was the lingering smell of other unpleasant things in the background.
There was a homeless man fast asleep on a bench, wearing a ragged coat, his long grey beard was filled with leftover food, and his few teeth looked like they hadn't been cared for at all. Under the bench were empty dirty beer bottles.
"Care to enlighten me on why we are in this less-than-charming place?" Exile asked.
"It's the closest spot to our experiment ground we can reach by bus," Sophia explained, "I didn't think you would be bothered by a place like Watchmen's Eye."
"Bothered? Please, when compared to some of the places I've lived in, this Watchman's Eye is downright paradise! It's just surprising, given what I've seen of your city so far. West Crown looks like a well-developed, modern city. How did it get to be so bad in this particular place?"
"The same thing that happened to this entire city," Sophia said, as she started heading towards the power testing site, "During the late seventies, the local government made some really bad decisions that completely ruined the city's economy. Lots of businesses closed down, people lost their jobs and they moved away or lost their homes. It got so bad that Parliament had to bail the city out before everything fell apart. When the dust settled, West Crown was left with an usually large crime rate and scarred with a lot of abandoned buildings, like this one."
Sophia stopped in front of a very tall chain linked fence. Attached to the fence was a big yellow warning signing saying, 'Condemned site keep out!' On the other side of the fence, there were heaps of metal lying around, rusting away.
"Joe and Johns used to be a boom scrap yard until the crisis; it was closed down leaving tonnes of good metal just wasting away."
"Seems like a criminal waste of resource," Exile observed.
"Criminal is a bloody understatement, the copper alone could be used to make at least over a hundred thousand wires!" Sophia declared in a way even she felt was little too passionate.
After pushing past her brief feelings of embarrassment, she continued explaining, "Anyway since this place is deserted most of the time. The chances of someone discovering us is almost nil, and since this is going to be torn down eventually we don't to worry about damaging anything. There's more than enough metal to experiment with."
Exile looked up at Sophia with surprise. "You put a lot of thought into this; normally new sorcerers are so focused on their powers that the spirit has to preserve the masquerade of normality.''
Sophia shook her head and placed the water bottle on the ground. "Not really, all I did was remember some old scrap yard that Mr Graves told me about."
Sophia reached out her hand to grab hold of the chain linked fence and climbed over it; then, she remembered that she could now jump over fifty feet. Sophia pressed her feet against the ground and then leapt over the fence with such ease that a professional athlete would be jealous. She turned around to see that Exile was pressing a paw against the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm setting up a concealment field," Exile explained as his paw began to glow.
"Is that really necessary?" Sophia inquired, even after hearing what Exile had just said, the idea of messing with people's heads just didn't sit well with her.
"We need to keep the existence of magic secret for the sake of everyone's safety. Even if you don't believe the idea of magic is too dangerous for the general public, there are other groups out there that have and will kill, torture, and even wipe out entire populations down to the last man, woman and child to hide the secret."
Sophia's widened with horror. "Why would they go that far? Isn't the idea of keeping magic hidden to protect lives?"
A large, thin white wave expanded outward. Exile removed his paw from the spot where the field had been activated. "Because they think that will save more lives in the long run. Because they believe a certain type of magic is evil and that anyone who knows about it must be destroyed in the in name of purity. Because they just want to hoard the power for themselves. Why does it matter?"
Sophia clenched her fists in disgust and rage. The idea anyone could do this made her blood boil.
Exile jumped over the fence and walked to Sophia's side.
"Let's get started on your training. It will help to wash the distaste from your mouth."
Sophia pushed the angry thoughts to the back of her mind. Exile was right, she needed to focus on the task at hand; if nothing else, it would give her some means to vent.
"Right, then, you're the expert here, Exile. How are we going start?" Sophia said, stretching her arms.
"Let's go with something very easy. Summon the sword you used last night; will it to your side."
'Will it to your side.' That probably meant that summoning the sword worked like activating her magic. Sophia reached out her hand and then commanded the sword to appear. There was a flash of silver light and the sword appeared within Sophia's grasp.
She was immediately rendered awestruck, not by the blade itself, or the design, which was crafted with a skill that was far beyond hers or even Mr Grave's; no, what really set her soul on fire was the metal. Its properties were both incredible and nonsensical. Every metal had a strength to weight ratio which simply meant how much weight a metal could support in comparison to its own weight. This ratio was determined by the metal's atomic bond: the stronger the bond, the stronger metal, which also meant that it was harder to melt the metal. What made this material so impossible was that in order to melt it you would need to use fire as hot as the sun's core!
"Where did you get it, this sword and who made it?" Sophia asked as she made a few small a practice swipes with the blade.
Exile rubbed the back of his neck. "It was a present for my thirteenth birthday, made by the greatest blacksmith on Avalon at the time. I was a noble prince, son of the great warrior King Oberon that defeated Queen Mab and her Unseelie Court, bringing peace to Avalon."
Exile talked about his father with contempt as if he had just stepped into something foul.
"Were you at good sword fighting?"
Exile shook his head firmly. "No, despite King Oberon's many attempts, I was never anything above average. After I lost my thumbs, the sword became completely useless to me. I have no idea why he didn't sell it for a bowl of Asgardian ale."
Exile then began to look up at the sky as if he was trying to find something, before looking back at Sophia. "In hindsight, it was a good thing that I kept it otherwise you would have had to fend off the construct with your bare hands, and that would have gone badly."
Sophia tapped the blade multiple times. "How was this sword even made? The metal used to it make is so unmalleable that it should have been impossible to make anything out of it."
"They apparently use specialised magic forges that could produce flames hot enough to even melt Avalonia steel. Unfortunately, I never really bothered to learn anything beyond that. Sorry, I was more interested in poetry than blacksmithing."
That was disappointing and annoying, but Sophia really couldn't expect everyone to be interested in the metal work.
"Anyway let's move to the next phase. Speak your magic name, and break the limit on your power!" Exile commanded in a dramatic way.
Sophia took a deep breath. "Forge Knight!!" Her clothes were engulfed in blinding golden light; in the next moment, the light was blown away revealing that Sophia's mundane clothing was now something much more fantastical.
A skin-tight black suit with silver covering the chest and shoulders, her feet were protected with boots that had the same colour scheme. Completing the look was a snow white hood that contrasted strikingly with the darker colours of the suit. The actual material looked like leather but strangely felt slick.
Sophia's traced the strange fabric with her hands. "Exile, what the hell is this, and where did my normal clothes go?"
"This, my young pup, is your Sorcerer Cloth. Whenever you speak your magical name, whatever you're wearing will transform into this light armour, which is made of fairy fabric. These magical threads are serval times stronger than mundane titanium."
So it was another bonus for mortals who made pacts with supernatural beings. It was kind of ridiculous how many advantages Sorcerers got for making a pact. Super strength, invulnerability, superior speed, another unique power on top of that, and a kick-ass costume, all in exchange for one task. It seemed very one sided.
"Well, thanks for the awesome gift, now to…" as she spoke, Sophia turned her head to look at the pile of scrap and rust, and immediately her mind was bombarded with information. Extremely detailed blueprints on every single metal object in her line of view were crammed into her head all at once. Her mind began bursting at the seams as a painful headache took hold. She held on for few more seconds until the urge to vomit became too much. Sophia dropped her sword stared at the ground, and the blueprints stopped flowing and faded from memory.
"What happened?" Exile asked.
"It was like when I touched the fork but it was two hundred times stronger, it's too much for me," Sophia explained, grasping in her forehead, which felt a little sore.
"What you just experienced was sensory overload. This was the reason why the magic words were created. Don't worry I will teach you how to get around it. I assume you're still willing to go on?"
Sophia smiled, her face becoming less pale. "Like I'm going to let a little sensory overload stop me."
"Okay then, currently your mind is trying to absorb information on every metal object in view. Unfortunately, that is more than you can handle right now, so I'm going to teach you a little trick: the best way to deal with this drawback is to focus your attention on a single object, that will cause the flow of information to slow down and filter out what you don't need. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I do." Sophia nodded.
"Okay, so when I say 'go' look at the pile of scrap and try to focus all your attention on just one object."
There was a short period of silence, then, "Go!"
Sophia looked up and was immediately met with a vicious onslaught of blueprints. Thinking fast she searched for an object to focus on and settled on a small tyre iron that was resting on the ground, a tiny bit away from the main pile. Her eyes became fixed on it, causing everything else to blur slightly. At the same time all the other blueprints were pushed aside so that the tyre iron could take the forefront; and just like that, the bubble of stress in Sophia's head deflated.
"Are you alright? Did it work?" Exile questioned.
"Yes, it did," Sophia answered, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the tyre iron.
"Good. Lock down your power again so that we can take a break." Exile was just about to walk off then he remembered that Sophia didn't know how to put the lock back on. "Nothing fancy, this time just will it, and your restriction will come back."
Sophia did as she was instructed and her suit turned back into normal clothing, the sword disappearing at the same time. She grabbed the bottle of water, unscrewed the top, and poured the cool water down her throat. She kept drinking until the liquid was halfway gone.
"How long will it take before I will be able to use my full power reliably?" Sophia asked.
"In your case, it should only take a couple of days before you have enough control over your metal sense that you'll be to use it in a combat situation. Though, even then, using that focusing technique will put a tax on your mind if you do it too long."
"Does that mean that until I master my metal sense I will get headaches after using my max power for any longer than a few seconds?" Sophia asked while grasping in her forehead
"Sorry. But if it makes you feel any better, I can use my magic to dull the pain slightly," Exile offered.
"Thank you. Is there anything else you need to warn me about?"
"I should probably tell you about your magical reserve," Exile said as he held up his paw and created two objects; one was a small globe, the other a tiny replica of Sophia.
"Every living being and object produce magical energy. The rate at which magic regenerates and the maximum amount that a being can hold is what we call magical potential." The replica glowed slightly.
"When I performed the ritual two things happened. First, your body was magically linked to Avalon." A green line appeared connecting the sphere and Sophia. "The second thing was that your body altered so it could hold a much larger amount of magic." The Sophia replica glowed even brighter.
"When these two changes are added up, you have way more power than a normal magic user. However," Exile placed an emphasis on the 'however.' "You still have limits. If you deplete your magic faster than either your body or Avalon can produce it the backlash will force your restraints back on and leave you with extreme fatigue."
So it wasn't just a case of knowing how to use your powers, you also need to use it in the most efficient way possible.
"I'm ready for the next test," Sophia said as she placed the water bottle on the floor and summoned her sword.
"What are you planning?" Exile asked.
"Just as we were talking I realised that if my max form version of metal sense is so powerful that I get a detailed blueprint of every metal object I see, what would happen if I tried to get a blueprint through direct contact?"
'Go for it! But be careful!' responded Exile.
Sophia turned the blade downward and plunged it into the earth. "If you suspect that something is going wrong, Exile, use your magic to blast me away from the sword."
"Don't worry; even I couldn't mess up something like that!" Exile replied.
Sophia willed it and just as before, the sword's blueprint appeared, however something else did too. It was small, like tiny pieces of string waiting to be pulled. The impulse to 'pull' was irritating but something that could be ignored, however, Sophia was here to learn about her powers so she grabbed hold of the string.
Suddenly Sophia was no longer in the junkyard; instead, she was in some kind of field. But something was different; the world around her was completely grey, the only exception was the silver sword. The weapon was the only object that retained its detail; it was being wielded by a silhouette, with pointed ears and long hair.
It was trying to perform some basic sword techniques and doing a really poor clumsy job, every attack so wide that it made even a complete novice like Sophia seem like a master swordswomen. The embarrassing display ended when the figure somehow tripped over his feet and fell face-first into the dirt. Another, much taller figure seemed to sigh and then pulled the clumsy fool to its feet.
The scene ended abruptly, and Sophia found herself in a workshop. The blade was now a red-hot lump of metal, resting on an anvil still needing to be shaped into a weapon.
Standing nearby was a tall muscular figure with a large hammer in his hand. He walked over to the anvil and brought it down on the red-hot chunk of metal, the calculated strikes creating red and orange sparks.
The scene changed, and Sophia was no longer in a world of grey. Instead, she was floating above an endless ocean of raging red and orange lava. The ocean faded away to make room for the vast black starry void of space and Sophia watched as the forces of gravity slowly moulded the stardust into a planet. Another shift and Sophia found herself at the beginning of the universe, watching as a single point suddenly silently exploded spewing out mind-boggling amounts of mass and energy that blinded her.
Sophia watched as an army of superhumans clashed against a god.
She saw a massive a cosmic whirlpool.
She saw a massive machine clashing with alien beings of incredible power.
She saw a man struggle against fate.
She saw a rebel swear to destroy the empire that had abandoned him.
She saw worlds filled with darkness and despair.
She saw worlds filled with light and hope.
She saw worlds that were even more mundane than her's, while others were so bizarre they defied human understanding.
She was now falling very slowly; she looked beneath her to see something breathtaking. A colossal web of starry orbs, each of them connected by thin white ghostly lines and in the centre of this network was a pure white orb. Tiny dots of every conceivable colour could be seen travelling from one orb to the next. Directly below the web was a thick indigo mist, which had many strange towers darting around it, at the top of each tower was a yellowish glow making them look like lighthouses. The speed of Sophia's fall then abruptly increased at an alarming rate.
As she got closer to the web, Sophia found herself being pulled towards the white orb at its heart, until she touched the walls. For a moment she felt resistance before she was allowed to pass into the orb which felt similar to being lowered into a swimming pool. Everything went fuzzy.
Sophia stood in a white void, in front of her was a massive door; it was so unbelievably huge that at least an entire city could have fit through it. *TAP* the sound echoed through the silence of the void, like a lance piercing armour. Sophia slowly turned around and saw something; it was an orb of silver energy with a ring of golden light hovering around it. At the centre of the ring was a single, light-blue eye. For a moment, Sophia could only stare at this strange being.
"Who are you?" Sophia spoke, as she reached towards this strange, powerful being. It looked at her…
Sophia dropped her sword and fell to the ground in shock, her head feeling dizzy as memories of the visions began to blur together.
"Sophia, what happened?" Exile asked with great concern.
"I saw something… powerful," Sophia said, half dazed.
"What do you mean by powerful?"
Sophia, with some difficulty, got to her feet. "It's hard to describe."
"Start at the beginning, and hopefully I will be to explain."
"Well, after I looked at the sword's blueprint I felt something at the back of my mind. Out of curiosity, I used my magic to 'grab' it, and then I started having this vision about someone trying to use the sword and falling face first into the dirt."
Exile cheeks suddenly turned scarlet. "Okay, now it makes sense. What you were seeing was a vision of the sword's past."
"So, in other words, the guy that fell into the dirt was you," Sophia said.
Exile's face turned even redder, and he started scratching his ear with his paw. "The point is, you clearly have the ability to look at the history of an object."
"So what I saw was the past. That makes sense for the first few visions, but what about that strange thing?"
Exile looked at Sophia with confusion. "I'm afraid that I don't know what you are talking about, could you give me a few more details?"
"I was… in…" Sophia tried but her visions had now blurred together, to the point where the only thing she could remember was the being with the blue and how it scared the crap out of her.
"Sorry, it's too much of a blur."
"Well, at least we now know about another aspect of your powers that we need to work on. Let's have a break." The moment Exile finished his sentence, the green gem wrapped around his leg began glowing, which could only mean one thing.
"A blood gem is nearby and it has just been activated."
"We need to collect it," Sophia stated, as she walked over to the large pile of junk and grabbed a metal pipe.
"You still haven't fully adjusted to your powers !" Exile yelled while jumping slightly.
"I was able to take down a construct last night, and I wasn't even a full sorcerer at the time." As Sophia applied magic to the pipe, the rust burned away and the light brown of the copper shifted into the silver of Avalon metal.
"I guess we really don't have a choice," Exile said gloomily before his face becomes more determined.
Nothing else needed to be said. The pair rushed off, the green storage gem guiding their way.
Chapter 5: Vision of the Unknown
Sophia's dream shattered like glass as she quickly sat up and placed a hand on her sweaty forehead. She definitely hadn't been expecting that, which was something of a running theme recently. Then again, she shouldn't be too surprised; she had just crossed the threshold of the mundane to a mad world of magic and fairies, naturally, it would bleed into her dreams.
Casting her thoughts aside, Sophia got out of bed. Exile wasn't in the corner he had been in when she had gone to bed, and the door was open. He was probably downstairs.
As she headed towards the door Sophia's eyes just happened to wander to the small horse figurine on top of her bookshelf, the one her parents had bought her from Miracle Metals all those years ago. Suddenly a thought crept up on her if she could change the size of metal objects maybe she could completely convert one metal into a different metal.
She grabbed the bronze statue from the bookshelf and focused her power on it. The object began to glow as the electrons and atoms that made up the statue rearranged themselves. As they did, the statue's colour shifted from the light brown of bronze to the bright yellow of gold.
Sophia couldn't help but smile a little. For aeons, the human race had sought to instantly create gold, and now that ability had ended up in hands of someone who didn't have a strong desire for wealth. Sophia turned the statue back into bronze and replaced on her bookshelf.
Sophia walked down the staircase and turned into the kitchen. Exile was sitting on the kitchen table, in front of him an open can of spinach glowing silver hovered off the ground like a balloon, the can turned over, causing its green contents to flow into a bowl.
"Exile, isn't it bit reckless to use magic out of the open like that, and shouldn't you have your glamour spell on?"
"Relax, your Dad, already left. Keeping the glamour spell on would just be a waste of magic."
Sophia couldn't argue with that. Her concerns settled, Sophia opened the fridge. The food stored was not of high class, mostly cheap microwave stuff; it was about the only stuff her Dad could cook. She grabbed a carton of milk and took a box of cereal from a nearby cabinet, got a bowl, and that was her meal.
She sat down at the table, across from Exile. The fairy was already slurping up the spinach.
"Do you even need to eat?" Sophia asked.
"It helps me replenish my magic, same goes for you," Exile explained, "and after what I just learned, we're both going to need it."
Sophia swallowed her mouthful of cereal. "Something tells me I'm not going to like what you have say."
Exile nodded glumly. "Before our fortress was attacked, we suspected that something was wrong with the Ritual Crystal. But then A.M destroyed our home and killed all of our researchers before we had a chance to investigate. Now that I've had a proper look, I'd say we were right on the money."
Exile tapped the gem on his arm and the fragment popped out. Sophia noticed something she hadn't before: the crystal was omitting an unnerving ghostly presence, which made her skin feel as cold as early morning winter.
"You see that dark purple dot?" Exile pointed a claw at the fragment. "That's not natural. That's the result of contamination from a malevolent ghost."
Those last two words ramped up Sophia's dread.
"Sometimes, with enough ego and power, a ghost can, over a period of time, alter an object; embody a part of their essence into it."
"So you're saying the Ritual Crystal has been tainted?"
"Yes, and the taint is one of pure unquenchable rage, made fluid by uncompressing hatred, wrapped in a cloak of spite."
The breakfast table became horribly silent as Sophia tried to process the grim news.
"That is obviously very bad but what does this taint do exactly?"
"It means that fragments are way more dangerous than I originally thought; at first the biggest worry was people accidentally activating the fragments' defences and getting hurt or killed, but now the fragments can actually corrupt any person that they come into contact with, effectively possessing them and altering their minds. Any amount of anger will become a murderous rage, the tiniest amount of selfishness will become all-consuming greed, and mild lust would become something unspeakable."
Sophia dropped her fork into the cereal bowl creating a tiny splash; she stood up and glared at Exile.
"So let me get this straight. Your order suspected that the Ritual Crystal was tainted, then got attacked and destroyed by a group who wanted steal it, and your benevolent and wise master decided to keep it out of the wrong hands by dropping this corrupted super weapon into a populated city!?" Sophia's voice raised sharply becoming more much aggressive.
Unlike before, Exile didn't flinch. Instead, he locked his eyes with Sophia. "Well, girl, I would like to see you shatter an incredibly powerful artefact, send it to another realm while bleeding to death while fighting an entire army by yourself. If anything, he probably meant to drop it into the ocean or the middle of the desert."
Exile's reasoning did nothing to shackle Sophia's rage. "The Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge are supposed to protect people against the dangers of magic, right? Maybe if you people had done a better job of keeping your base a secret, my home wouldn't be at risk!"
The righteous anger in the cat's eye was reduced to sadness as his body dropped and lowered in shame. "You're right. We should have done better. We failed you, and I have no right ask you to fix our mistakes. I'm sorry. If you don't want to help, then you don't have to."
A part of Sophia was tempted to take the easy way out just to spite the fairy, but as hard it was, Sophia took a moment to calm herself and think in a rational fashion. Whether or not the Guardians of Forbidden Knowledge messed up didn't really matter at this point. The important part was that these fragments were in West Crown, and people would die because of that unless someone could gather them. And Sophia was the only one in the right position to do anything about it.
"As long as you promise to treat me as an equal, I will accept your apology. Does that sound fair?"
Exile smiled. "Thank you. ''
Being called kind felt weird for Sophia; it just wasn't a word that she would use to describe herself.
With the current issue settled, the two went back to breakfast. Then Sophia remembered something that had been bothering her since last night. "You said that the Guardians were destroyed by A.M, but you have never explained who the A.M are."
"Oh," Exile said, voice dripping with embarrassment, "Right, I should tell you about them. Well, the A.M are a group of mages, Sorcerers and various other types of mortal magic users, whose goal is to acquire magical knowledge and artefacts. Nobody knows why."
"How come?"
"Well, they're a very tight-lipped group, and their members are fanatically loyal, choosing to die rather than reveal any secrets. The few that have tried to leave the A.M are hunted down and brutally murdered. They are so good at keeping themselves shrouded in mystery that no one even knows what A.M stands for."
Suddenly the task that lay before Sophia seemed a hell of a lot more daunting. Whoever the A.M were, they were ruthless to a frightful degree and powerful enough to destroy the Guardians. But the worst part was that they were desperate to keep their motive a secret. There was only one reason that Sophia could come up with to explain this behaviour. Whatever the A.M was trying to do, it was so messed up that if it got out, everyone in the cosmos would immediately gang up on them.
"You do have a plan to deal with the A.M, don't you?" Sophia asked hopefully.
"Right now, the plan is to gather all the fragments before they reach the city," Exile stated.
"So, what will happen if the A.M reach the city before we can gather all the fragments?"
Exile lightly scratched the right side of his forehead. "Let's see, if I remember correctly, the A.M do respect the unwritten truce of secrecy. So rather than invade the city with a massive army they will send a small group of agents, though the odds will still be against us."
Blots of uncertainty formed in Sophia's mind. "Do you really think we could win?"
"It won't be easy, but if we act smart and train you well, I'm confident we can win."
The declaration did reduce the amount of dread Sophia was feeling, but she couldn't help but detect signs of forced confidence in Exile's voice.
"Well enough strategic talk, let's finish this yummy breakfast." Exile quickly went back to slurping up the cheap spinach from his bowl.
After that was finished, it was time to start experimenting with Sophia's new powers.
"If we're going to do any kind of experimenting, it will have to be done somewhere other than this house. There aren't enough metals, and it would be a waste of magic to have to keep fixing this place."
"Don't worry, I already have a place in mind," Sophia said as she finished dressing and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
It wasn't a school day so Sophia didn't have to wear a uniform. Instead, she wore what she would normally on her days off: a plain white hoodie, a pair of loose jeans, and pair of a black and white trainers. Clothing that looked very scruffy and common in appearance, but was both comfortable and practical, the only two qualities that Sophia cared about.
"What is this place exactly?" Exile raised an eyebrow.
Sophia grabbed the door's handle and pushed it open, creating a small, aged creak. "I think it would be easier just to show you."
After a thirty-minute bus ride, the two of them found themselves at a place that made New Lane look like a royal garden by comparison. While Sophia's home was definitely cheap in appearance, the houses in this part of the city looked depressingly dilapidated, cracked and broken windows everywhere, the masonry falling to pieces, the gardens overgrown to a grotesque degree, tiny bits of animal remains scattered around, and there was the lingering smell of other unpleasant things in the background.
There was a homeless man fast asleep on a bench, wearing a ragged coat, his long grey beard was filled with leftover food, and his few teeth looked like they hadn't been cared for at all. Under the bench were empty dirty beer bottles.
"Care to enlighten me on why we are in this less-than-charming place?" Exile asked.
"It's the closest spot to our experiment ground we can reach by bus," Sophia explained, "I didn't think you would be bothered by a place like Watchmen's Eye."
"Bothered? Please, when compared to some of the places I've lived in, this Watchman's Eye is downright paradise! It's just surprising, given what I've seen of your city so far. West Crown looks like a well-developed, modern city. How did it get to be so bad in this particular place?"
"The same thing that happened to this entire city," Sophia said, as she started heading towards the power testing site, "During the late seventies, the local government made some really bad decisions that completely ruined the city's economy. Lots of businesses closed down, people lost their jobs and they moved away or lost their homes. It got so bad that Parliament had to bail the city out before everything fell apart. When the dust settled, West Crown was left with an usually large crime rate and scarred with a lot of abandoned buildings, like this one."
Sophia stopped in front of a very tall chain linked fence. Attached to the fence was a big yellow warning signing saying, 'Condemned site keep out!' On the other side of the fence, there were heaps of metal lying around, rusting away.
"Joe and Johns used to be a boom scrap yard until the crisis; it was closed down leaving tonnes of good metal just wasting away."
"Seems like a criminal waste of resource," Exile observed.
"Criminal is a bloody understatement, the copper alone could be used to make at least over a hundred thousand wires!" Sophia declared in a way even she felt was little too passionate.
After pushing past her brief feelings of embarrassment, she continued explaining, "Anyway since this place is deserted most of the time. The chances of someone discovering us is almost nil, and since this is going to be torn down eventually we don't to worry about damaging anything. There's more than enough metal to experiment with."
Exile looked up at Sophia with surprise. "You put a lot of thought into this; normally new sorcerers are so focused on their powers that the spirit has to preserve the masquerade of normality.''
Sophia shook her head and placed the water bottle on the ground. "Not really, all I did was remember some old scrap yard that Mr Graves told me about."
Sophia reached out her hand to grab hold of the chain linked fence and climbed over it; then, she remembered that she could now jump over fifty feet. Sophia pressed her feet against the ground and then leapt over the fence with such ease that a professional athlete would be jealous. She turned around to see that Exile was pressing a paw against the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm setting up a concealment field," Exile explained as his paw began to glow.
"Is that really necessary?" Sophia inquired, even after hearing what Exile had just said, the idea of messing with people's heads just didn't sit well with her.
"We need to keep the existence of magic secret for the sake of everyone's safety. Even if you don't believe the idea of magic is too dangerous for the general public, there are other groups out there that have and will kill, torture, and even wipe out entire populations down to the last man, woman and child to hide the secret."
Sophia's widened with horror. "Why would they go that far? Isn't the idea of keeping magic hidden to protect lives?"
A large, thin white wave expanded outward. Exile removed his paw from the spot where the field had been activated. "Because they think that will save more lives in the long run. Because they believe a certain type of magic is evil and that anyone who knows about it must be destroyed in the in name of purity. Because they just want to hoard the power for themselves. Why does it matter?"
Sophia clenched her fists in disgust and rage. The idea anyone could do this made her blood boil.
Exile jumped over the fence and walked to Sophia's side.
"Let's get started on your training. It will help to wash the distaste from your mouth."
Sophia pushed the angry thoughts to the back of her mind. Exile was right, she needed to focus on the task at hand; if nothing else, it would give her some means to vent.
"Right, then, you're the expert here, Exile. How are we going start?" Sophia said, stretching her arms.
"Let's go with something very easy. Summon the sword you used last night; will it to your side."
'Will it to your side.' That probably meant that summoning the sword worked like activating her magic. Sophia reached out her hand and then commanded the sword to appear. There was a flash of silver light and the sword appeared within Sophia's grasp.
She was immediately rendered awestruck, not by the blade itself, or the design, which was crafted with a skill that was far beyond hers or even Mr Grave's; no, what really set her soul on fire was the metal. Its properties were both incredible and nonsensical. Every metal had a strength to weight ratio which simply meant how much weight a metal could support in comparison to its own weight. This ratio was determined by the metal's atomic bond: the stronger the bond, the stronger metal, which also meant that it was harder to melt the metal. What made this material so impossible was that in order to melt it you would need to use fire as hot as the sun's core!
"Where did you get it, this sword and who made it?" Sophia asked as she made a few small a practice swipes with the blade.
Exile rubbed the back of his neck. "It was a present for my thirteenth birthday, made by the greatest blacksmith on Avalon at the time. I was a noble prince, son of the great warrior King Oberon that defeated Queen Mab and her Unseelie Court, bringing peace to Avalon."
Exile talked about his father with contempt as if he had just stepped into something foul.
"Were you at good sword fighting?"
Exile shook his head firmly. "No, despite King Oberon's many attempts, I was never anything above average. After I lost my thumbs, the sword became completely useless to me. I have no idea why he didn't sell it for a bowl of Asgardian ale."
Exile then began to look up at the sky as if he was trying to find something, before looking back at Sophia. "In hindsight, it was a good thing that I kept it otherwise you would have had to fend off the construct with your bare hands, and that would have gone badly."
Sophia tapped the blade multiple times. "How was this sword even made? The metal used to it make is so unmalleable that it should have been impossible to make anything out of it."
"They apparently use specialised magic forges that could produce flames hot enough to even melt Avalonia steel. Unfortunately, I never really bothered to learn anything beyond that. Sorry, I was more interested in poetry than blacksmithing."
That was disappointing and annoying, but Sophia really couldn't expect everyone to be interested in the metal work.
"Anyway let's move to the next phase. Speak your magic name, and break the limit on your power!" Exile commanded in a dramatic way.
Sophia took a deep breath. "Forge Knight!!" Her clothes were engulfed in blinding golden light; in the next moment, the light was blown away revealing that Sophia's mundane clothing was now something much more fantastical.
A skin-tight black suit with silver covering the chest and shoulders, her feet were protected with boots that had the same colour scheme. Completing the look was a snow white hood that contrasted strikingly with the darker colours of the suit. The actual material looked like leather but strangely felt slick.
Sophia's traced the strange fabric with her hands. "Exile, what the hell is this, and where did my normal clothes go?"
"This, my young pup, is your Sorcerer Cloth. Whenever you speak your magical name, whatever you're wearing will transform into this light armour, which is made of fairy fabric. These magical threads are serval times stronger than mundane titanium."
So it was another bonus for mortals who made pacts with supernatural beings. It was kind of ridiculous how many advantages Sorcerers got for making a pact. Super strength, invulnerability, superior speed, another unique power on top of that, and a kick-ass costume, all in exchange for one task. It seemed very one sided.
"Well, thanks for the awesome gift, now to…" as she spoke, Sophia turned her head to look at the pile of scrap and rust, and immediately her mind was bombarded with information. Extremely detailed blueprints on every single metal object in her line of view were crammed into her head all at once. Her mind began bursting at the seams as a painful headache took hold. She held on for few more seconds until the urge to vomit became too much. Sophia dropped her sword stared at the ground, and the blueprints stopped flowing and faded from memory.
"What happened?" Exile asked.
"It was like when I touched the fork but it was two hundred times stronger, it's too much for me," Sophia explained, grasping in her forehead, which felt a little sore.
"What you just experienced was sensory overload. This was the reason why the magic words were created. Don't worry I will teach you how to get around it. I assume you're still willing to go on?"
Sophia smiled, her face becoming less pale. "Like I'm going to let a little sensory overload stop me."
"Okay then, currently your mind is trying to absorb information on every metal object in view. Unfortunately, that is more than you can handle right now, so I'm going to teach you a little trick: the best way to deal with this drawback is to focus your attention on a single object, that will cause the flow of information to slow down and filter out what you don't need. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I do." Sophia nodded.
"Okay, so when I say 'go' look at the pile of scrap and try to focus all your attention on just one object."
There was a short period of silence, then, "Go!"
Sophia looked up and was immediately met with a vicious onslaught of blueprints. Thinking fast she searched for an object to focus on and settled on a small tyre iron that was resting on the ground, a tiny bit away from the main pile. Her eyes became fixed on it, causing everything else to blur slightly. At the same time all the other blueprints were pushed aside so that the tyre iron could take the forefront; and just like that, the bubble of stress in Sophia's head deflated.
"Are you alright? Did it work?" Exile questioned.
"Yes, it did," Sophia answered, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the tyre iron.
"Good. Lock down your power again so that we can take a break." Exile was just about to walk off then he remembered that Sophia didn't know how to put the lock back on. "Nothing fancy, this time just will it, and your restriction will come back."
Sophia did as she was instructed and her suit turned back into normal clothing, the sword disappearing at the same time. She grabbed the bottle of water, unscrewed the top, and poured the cool water down her throat. She kept drinking until the liquid was halfway gone.
"How long will it take before I will be able to use my full power reliably?" Sophia asked.
"In your case, it should only take a couple of days before you have enough control over your metal sense that you'll be to use it in a combat situation. Though, even then, using that focusing technique will put a tax on your mind if you do it too long."
"Does that mean that until I master my metal sense I will get headaches after using my max power for any longer than a few seconds?" Sophia asked while grasping in her forehead
"Sorry. But if it makes you feel any better, I can use my magic to dull the pain slightly," Exile offered.
"Thank you. Is there anything else you need to warn me about?"
"I should probably tell you about your magical reserve," Exile said as he held up his paw and created two objects; one was a small globe, the other a tiny replica of Sophia.
"Every living being and object produce magical energy. The rate at which magic regenerates and the maximum amount that a being can hold is what we call magical potential." The replica glowed slightly.
"When I performed the ritual two things happened. First, your body was magically linked to Avalon." A green line appeared connecting the sphere and Sophia. "The second thing was that your body altered so it could hold a much larger amount of magic." The Sophia replica glowed even brighter.
"When these two changes are added up, you have way more power than a normal magic user. However," Exile placed an emphasis on the 'however.' "You still have limits. If you deplete your magic faster than either your body or Avalon can produce it the backlash will force your restraints back on and leave you with extreme fatigue."
So it wasn't just a case of knowing how to use your powers, you also need to use it in the most efficient way possible.
"I'm ready for the next test," Sophia said as she placed the water bottle on the floor and summoned her sword.
"What are you planning?" Exile asked.
"Just as we were talking I realised that if my max form version of metal sense is so powerful that I get a detailed blueprint of every metal object I see, what would happen if I tried to get a blueprint through direct contact?"
'Go for it! But be careful!' responded Exile.
Sophia turned the blade downward and plunged it into the earth. "If you suspect that something is going wrong, Exile, use your magic to blast me away from the sword."
"Don't worry; even I couldn't mess up something like that!" Exile replied.
Sophia willed it and just as before, the sword's blueprint appeared, however something else did too. It was small, like tiny pieces of string waiting to be pulled. The impulse to 'pull' was irritating but something that could be ignored, however, Sophia was here to learn about her powers so she grabbed hold of the string.
Suddenly Sophia was no longer in the junkyard; instead, she was in some kind of field. But something was different; the world around her was completely grey, the only exception was the silver sword. The weapon was the only object that retained its detail; it was being wielded by a silhouette, with pointed ears and long hair.
It was trying to perform some basic sword techniques and doing a really poor clumsy job, every attack so wide that it made even a complete novice like Sophia seem like a master swordswomen. The embarrassing display ended when the figure somehow tripped over his feet and fell face-first into the dirt. Another, much taller figure seemed to sigh and then pulled the clumsy fool to its feet.
The scene ended abruptly, and Sophia found herself in a workshop. The blade was now a red-hot lump of metal, resting on an anvil still needing to be shaped into a weapon.
Standing nearby was a tall muscular figure with a large hammer in his hand. He walked over to the anvil and brought it down on the red-hot chunk of metal, the calculated strikes creating red and orange sparks.
The scene changed, and Sophia was no longer in a world of grey. Instead, she was floating above an endless ocean of raging red and orange lava. The ocean faded away to make room for the vast black starry void of space and Sophia watched as the forces of gravity slowly moulded the stardust into a planet. Another shift and Sophia found herself at the beginning of the universe, watching as a single point suddenly silently exploded spewing out mind-boggling amounts of mass and energy that blinded her.
Sophia watched as an army of superhumans clashed against a god.
She saw a massive a cosmic whirlpool.
She saw a massive machine clashing with alien beings of incredible power.
She saw a man struggle against fate.
She saw a rebel swear to destroy the empire that had abandoned him.
She saw worlds filled with darkness and despair.
She saw worlds filled with light and hope.
She saw worlds that were even more mundane than her's, while others were so bizarre they defied human understanding.
She was now falling very slowly; she looked beneath her to see something breathtaking. A colossal web of starry orbs, each of them connected by thin white ghostly lines and in the centre of this network was a pure white orb. Tiny dots of every conceivable colour could be seen travelling from one orb to the next. Directly below the web was a thick indigo mist, which had many strange towers darting around it, at the top of each tower was a yellowish glow making them look like lighthouses. The speed of Sophia's fall then abruptly increased at an alarming rate.
As she got closer to the web, Sophia found herself being pulled towards the white orb at its heart, until she touched the walls. For a moment she felt resistance before she was allowed to pass into the orb which felt similar to being lowered into a swimming pool. Everything went fuzzy.
Sophia stood in a white void, in front of her was a massive door; it was so unbelievably huge that at least an entire city could have fit through it. *TAP* the sound echoed through the silence of the void, like a lance piercing armour. Sophia slowly turned around and saw something; it was an orb of silver energy with a ring of golden light hovering around it. At the centre of the ring was a single, light-blue eye. For a moment, Sophia could only stare at this strange being.
"Who are you?" Sophia spoke, as she reached towards this strange, powerful being. It looked at her…
Sophia dropped her sword and fell to the ground in shock, her head feeling dizzy as memories of the visions began to blur together.
"Sophia, what happened?" Exile asked with great concern.
"I saw something… powerful," Sophia said, half dazed.
"What do you mean by powerful?"
Sophia, with some difficulty, got to her feet. "It's hard to describe."
"Start at the beginning, and hopefully I will be to explain."
"Well, after I looked at the sword's blueprint I felt something at the back of my mind. Out of curiosity, I used my magic to 'grab' it, and then I started having this vision about someone trying to use the sword and falling face first into the dirt."
Exile cheeks suddenly turned scarlet. "Okay, now it makes sense. What you were seeing was a vision of the sword's past."
"So, in other words, the guy that fell into the dirt was you," Sophia said.
Exile's face turned even redder, and he started scratching his ear with his paw. "The point is, you clearly have the ability to look at the history of an object."
"So what I saw was the past. That makes sense for the first few visions, but what about that strange thing?"
Exile looked at Sophia with confusion. "I'm afraid that I don't know what you are talking about, could you give me a few more details?"
"I was… in…" Sophia tried but her visions had now blurred together, to the point where the only thing she could remember was the being with the blue and how it scared the crap out of her.
"Sorry, it's too much of a blur."
"Well, at least we now know about another aspect of your powers that we need to work on. Let's have a break." The moment Exile finished his sentence, the green gem wrapped around his leg began glowing, which could only mean one thing.
"A blood gem is nearby and it has just been activated."
"We need to collect it," Sophia stated, as she walked over to the large pile of junk and grabbed a metal pipe.
"You still haven't fully adjusted to your powers !" Exile yelled while jumping slightly.
"I was able to take down a construct last night, and I wasn't even a full sorcerer at the time." As Sophia applied magic to the pipe, the rust burned away and the light brown of the copper shifted into the silver of Avalon metal.
"I guess we really don't have a choice," Exile said gloomily before his face becomes more determined.
Nothing else needed to be said. The pair rushed off, the green storage gem guiding their way.
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Chapter 6: Taint of Ancient Malice
A/N: The following chapter was edited by Neph Champion and Pure Charlson Chapter 6: Taint of Ancient Malice
"Are sure you this is the place?" Sophia asked. The place in question used to be a block apartment of flats, but after West Crown's economy imploded it was just another abandoned building that was so unsuitable to live in that not even most desperate squatter would want to sleep there.
"There is no doubt, the blood gem is here," Exile said as he set up a concealment field.
"Let's head inside!" Sophia declared as she effortlessly kicked down the rotting front door.
Sophia was immediately hit by the foul strong smell, of human urine. Apparently, someone had decided to use the floor of the building as a toilet. Shaking off the unpleasant odor, Sophia looked down the long empty hall.
"Is it on this floor?"
"No, it's at least two floors above us," Exile ran towards the staircase with Sophia following.
They rushed passed many rooms until the storage gem's glow grew even more intense, Exile stopped running and turned to the door closest to him.
"It's in this room."
Sophia nodded and approached the door her hand tightly gripping the handle.
"Remember the blood gem's guardian could activate at any moment be ready for a fight."
"Duly noted," Sophia slowly pushed open the door, its old rotten frame creaking as it moved. The fairy and the sorcerer took a peek into the room. It was empty, long stripped of any signs that anyone lived there, only one thing stood against the grimy dusty floor and that was the blood gem, crackling with red and dark purple light.
Exile sighed with relief, "We made it in time, now I just need to deactivate the gem and store it away."
Then as if to mock him, at that very moment a pigeon flew through the window and, trying line its nest picked up the fragment with its beak. A pulse of red energy surged into the bird's body, its eyes glowing a dark purple. There were horrible, painful cracking sounds as bones and muscles stretched, grew and contort.
The pigeon's neck stretched out until it was half as long as Sophia's body, sharply pointed teeth grew inside its beak which lengthened out into a long murderous narrow hook. Meanwhile, the rest of the body started expanding until it was the size of a small car with a wingspan as big as a jungle cat. The overall monstrosity reminded Sophia of those mutant animals that were born disfigured due to radiation.
The bird turned monster glared at Sophia and Exile, then it opened its beak, a black and red orb formed in its mouth which it launched right at the pair.
Sophia scooped Exile off the ground and rolled out of the way, a second later there was an explosion of noise and dark purple lightning as splitters of wood, concrete, glass and chunks of metal were scattered all over the place.
Sophia pulled herself up to see that the walls and room that had once been behind her were gone, now replaced with a giant hole overlooking the street below. The temperature dropped as cold windy air entered the building.
"So, Exile do you have a plan to deal with this?" As Sophia asked that question, the pigeon monster unleashed a foul shriek and began lumbering towards the hole. It was heading outside if it escaped the building it would go on the rampage and people would die!
Sophia needed to stop that monster now! She looked down at the pipe she was holding, she then gazed at the monsters leg. If she could manipulate metal then maybe.........
The monster began flapping its wings ready to take flight. Sophia didn't have any more time to think about it, she thrust the pipe forward like a spear and as it moved, it started stretching towards the monster's right leg, wrapping itself around the limb and all the while gaining a snake like an appearance.
The monster launched itself off the ground expecting to swoop upward into the air only to find itself halted by the force of Sophia pulling on the makeshift shackle.
It seemed Sophia's idea had paid off; the only downside was that stretching any material weakened it; however, Avalon metal was strong enough to compensate. No, the real problem was the fact that Sophia was losing her grip. Sophia's muscles screamed as the monster struggled to escape. She needed more strength and a better restraint.
"Forge Knight!" Sophia shouted her magic name. Her clothes changed to her sorcerer outfit, the tug of war against the monster became much easier, however; she could make it easier still. She concentrated her power onto the pipe, for a second it was bathed in golden light and when the light dispersed the pipe was transformed into long chain complete with a strongly reinforced shackle.
"Hold it in place for a bit longer…" The monster began thrashing in a vain attempt to escape, it shrieked in rage while firing off orbs of purple lighting. One of the orbs went flying directly towards Exile, he threw up a magic barrier, and the two magical constructs annihilated each other creating an explosion that sent Exile flying backwards into a wall.
A second orb blew up the floor that was directly in front of Sophia creating a large hole. The monster thrashed forward, Sophia's feet skidded causing the sorcerer to lose her footing and fall into the hole and, as she did so she lost her grip on the chain, the monster started flying into the sky as Sophia fell towards the ground.
Sophia's hands reached out towards the chain, her first hand missed the second one just barely grasped the very edge of the chain. Sophia felt the pressure as the monster tugged on the chain.
This was bad, she couldn't hold on forever. Sophia took her free hand and touched the final link in the chain and from it created a long tube with a solid ball made of iron attached at the end, the ball then began expanding like a balloon, its weight increasing exponentially.
The moment the ball reached the size of a large car, the chain started falling to the ground taking the monster and the girl with it. The combined weight was too much for the rotting floor boards and they broke apart instantly, the same thing happened to all the other floorboards in between.
Before she even knew it Sophia was lying face first on the ground floor in the middle of a thick cloud of dust, she turned and looked upwards towards the long drop from where she had just been standing. There was something surreal about falling from a height that should have at least broken several of Sophia's bones but instead failed to even scrape her knee.
The dust cloud was suddenly blown away as the mutated pigeon flapped its huge wings; it opened its mouth and fired a lightning orb at Sophia. She summoned her sword and struck the orb. The ball of magical energy exploded and Sophia was blown back into a wall, the impact causing the wall to crack.
The monster fired another orb of lightning at her, as the orb approached, a green barrier appeared, and the objects destroyed each other.
Sophia turned to the stairs to see Exile.
"I need to distract that thing for just a little longer!" Exile's body glowed green as he prepared a spell.
The mutant bird seemed instinctively to know what was going on, it fired an orb at Exile. Sophia charged at the orb and slashed it with her blade, once more the force of the explosion knocked her back.
Sophia grunted in frustration as she pulled herself up. This wasn't going to work if Sophia was sent flying back every time she stopped an orb. No!, if she was going to buy the time she needed Sophia needed to get close to the monster.
The monster shrieked and prepared to fire once again this time, Sophia stood up looked at her blade and charged straight at her opponent, the moment the monster fired, Sophia took her sword and tossed it at the purple orb. The orb exploded sending the sword spinning through the air and leaving it embedded in a wall. Sophia kept rushing forward as the pigeon began charging up yet another orb.
The purple lighting gathered within the monster's beak forming a vortex of sinister power as it reached critical mass, the tainted bird pulled its neck back ready fire directly at her, at that same time, Sophia brought her fist down on the monster's head, causing the flow of energy to be disrupted and the orb to fizzle out into nothingness.
Sophia didn't stop there she threw another punch into the monster's face then a third one into its neck. The bird shrieked only for Sophia to force its' mouth shut with her hands, the monster then began to buck like a mad bull trying to force Sophia to let go.
As the two struggled, a green rune appeared beneath them, it started off dim then escalated into brightness. At the same time, an identical rune appeared above Exile head.
"I Exile, A Guardian of Forbidden Knowledge, command you to separate," The moment Exile spoke a green beam of light shot out of the rune and struck the pigeon monster.
The mutant bird shrieked as the blood gem in its beak was ripped away and fell to the ground. Its body then started shirking, its teeth vanished completely and it's neck returned to its normal size.
In a matter of seconds, the mutant had been transformed back into an ordinary harmless pigeon. The fat little bird's head jolted around in confusion for a few seconds, then it effortless slipped out of the shackle that was now too way big to hold it, the pigeon flew away as if nothing happened.
Exile raised the storage gem on his right leg, "I reclaim this fragment!" He cried. The blood crystal floated into the air and then disappeared into the storage gem.
At the same time, Sophia dismissed her sword and locked down her full power turning her sorcerer suit back into her normal hoodie and trousers.
"Are you ok?" Exile asked Sophia.
Sophia yawned and wiped some dust from her hair, "A bit tired but otherwise, I'm fine." She took her phone out of her pocket and looked at the time.
"Shit! If I don't move I'm going to be late for my visit to Carol's place."
Sophia put her phone away and started running out of the building at max speed.
"Wait! What about the…." Sophia was out of sight before Exile could finish his sentence, he turned to the battered and wrecked building, the feline groaned in frustration.
"I will clear up later," Exile said before rushing after Sophia.
Meanwhile, standing on the roof of a nearby building, a man with binoculars observed the partners leaving the battle site. He pulled out a phone from the pocket of his pitch black coat.
Chapter 7: A Game of Checkers
Chapter 7: A Game of Checkers
Sophia looked at the digital clock on her phone; she was late but only by a minute, Carol wouldn't mind. Greenery Park was very different from either New Lane or Watchmen's eye; for one thing, the architecture of the house was much sleeker and modern in design, which made sense given that most of the houses were only built ten years ago at most. In contrast to Sophia's house that was much older.
Another difference that Greenery Park had compared to New Lane was that as its name suggested it a lot more foliage, lots of small trees tightly organized, well-groomed hedges and very neat gardens that were heavily decorated. This gave the neighborhood a much more colorful and joyful feeling, in complete contrast to New Lane which was gray, dull and just felt lifeless on a bad day.
Carol's house was just down the street from the bus station. It was at least double the size of her house, had three floors, a big garage and fairly big front lawn with a small garden out back.
A loud humming noise could be heard as a lawn mower began cutting the grass, the man pushing it was pretty old somewhere in his late sixties. He was very big, while also being fairly short, the muscles on his arms looked like he could break a python's neck with his bare hands. His short hair and beard were a mixture of white and gray as to be expected from someone of his age.
"Hello, Mr. Mazza," Sophia's greeting caused Mr. Mazza to turn off the lawnmower and look at her.
"Hello Sophia, I assume you are here for Carol, she is in the garage."
"Thank you, Mr. Mazza."
"Who is he?" Exile asked from beneath his glamour spell.
"Mr. Mazza is Carol's grandfather, he lives nearby and often comes over to help out." The moment Sophia finished explaining, she reached the red heavy garage door, pulled it open and stepped inside.
The moment Sophia was inside, her ears filled with the sound of seventies rock music which was projected from a sound system in the corner of the room. Just off the center, Carol was hitting a punching bag; her boxing gloves creating heavy impacts as she hit the bag. Sweat was flowing down her forehead, her eyes fixed single mindedly on the bag.
"Sorry, I'm late."
Sophia's voiced caused Carol attention to shift away from the bag, she smiled and removed her gloves. "No problem you only missed the deadline by a few minutes," Carol started to give her friend the critical eye, "Why do you have dust in your hair?"
It was only then that it dawned on Sophia that she had been in such a rush that she had forgotten to remove all the sawdust that had gathered on her when she fell through the floor. Sophia's resolve kept swinging from telling Carol all about her magical adventures or keeping it secret, the reason being, if she told Carol then she would try to help which would put her life in danger.
After what was probably only ten seconds at most but felt ten weeks to Sophia. In which Carol kept critically analyzing Sophia, while Sophia just sort gazed back like a deer about to be struck by a car. Eventual Carol sighed and shook her head.
"Ok, if you really feel that uncomfortable, I will drop it for today but really you should tell me." Carol's look of disappointment, turned into her usual warm smile.
"So you want to play a game of checkers? we're still tied, from the last time." Sophia grinned at Carol's challenge, "Gladly."
It had become a sort of tradition for the two girls to play a game of checkers. There wasn't any special reason behind its origin, it just so happened that on the day Sophia first visited the Westwoods, they found a board lying around and Carol on a whim asked if Sophia wanted to play a game, she accepted. Sophia barely won, it was so close Carol strongly demanded a rematch, that round ended in Carol's victory. Since then every time Sophia came over, the two of them play would game of checkers.
With the challenge accepted Carol, walked over to the music player and switched it off, after that the two of them left the garage into the house.
Ten minutes later, Sophia was sitting on a comfy leather brown seat; across from her, Carol sat on an identical chair. Between them was a wooden table on which the checker's board lay, Sophia was red and Carol was black. Invisible to Carol, Exile sat on the table watching the game.
Sophia moved her first piece, "Your parents don't seem to be around today."
Carol moved her first piece "My mum is currently visiting a childhood friend on the mainland and my dad is working at the bank as he usually does."
"I guess that explains why your grandfather, is mowing the lawn outside." Sophia moved another piece forward.
"That's him my always reliable granddad," Carol smiled probably thinking back to some old childhood memory. "Anyway, how are things at home, are you in trouble because of that phone call from Mr. Flint?"
Sophia moved one of her pieces and groaned, "No, as usual, my dad doesn't even have the will to scold me."
"It's funny, most kids would be glad not to be scolded by their parents, but I guess in your case it is just another sign that your dad doesn't care about you."
"I guess, but sometimes it just hurts be around someone that miserable." Sophia took several of Carol's pieces in one move.
"So in other words, everything is same old, same old at the Blake house." Carol took the piece that took her pieces.
"Actually I met someone new, yesterday."
Carol's face suddenly burst with energy, "Really who is she?"
"Actually he is a guy." Sophia moved one of her pieces and turned it into a king.
Carol gave Sophia a look of intrigue, "when did you meet this guy, who is he?"
"I met someone I was walking home last night from my metal work class, he needed my help so I helped him and now I have a part-time job," Sophia said trying to get as close the true as she possibly could without outright giving it away.
"And what does this job involve?" Carol asked.
"I do errands for him; if he needs me to collect I go get for him." Sophia used her king to take a piece now Carol was down to only four.
"Why, is he really old?" Carol questioned as she took another of Sophia's pieces.
Sophia pushed her king forward, "I don't his exact age, but he is pretty damn old."
"Hey!" Exile yelled in minor outrage while shaking his paw.
Sophia started chuckling as Carol moved one of her pieces, "Why are you laughing?"
"Nothing just thought about something funny, also you fell for my ploy!" Sophia then causal took out all of Carol's remaining pieces.
"Darn, I fell right into that one," Carol buried her face into her hands. She then smiled and relaxed in her chair.
"Want to play again?" Carol's eyes glowed with a competitive fire.
"Sure I don't mind," Sophia said as the two friends reset the board.
After the second game ended in a draw, Sophia and Carol spent the rest of the afternoon watching a corny Sic-fi film from Mr. Westwood's collection, after that the sun started going down so Sophia decides to head off.
"Thanks for having me over," Sophia said.
"Glad you enjoyed it," Carol responded.
For a moment there was silence between the two, Sophia looked at the ground with uncertainty.
"Sophia is there something you want to tell me?"
For about minute Sophia wondered if she should tell Carol the truth. She hated lying to the only real friend she had in years, not that Sophia was good at being dishonest. Up until today day Sophia had always worn her feelings on her sleeve and wasn't afraid to make her opinions known, often getting into trouble for doing so. But was it a good idea to do something that might drag Carol into this dangerous mess?, Sophia turned to Exile, they needed to have a talk.
"Is there something wrong?" Carol asked with concern.
Sophia looked up at Carol and smiled, "Nothing, just thinking about something, see you on Monday."
"Ok then," Carol closed the door.
With that Sophia returned to the bus stop. Apart from Sophia and Exile there wasn't anyone else around and she still had a few minutes before the bus showed up, this was the perfect time to ask Exile the question that was bugging her.
"Hey, Exile do you think I should tell Carol about what happened?"
Exile scratched his ear as he pondered the question, "If she can be trusted to not go around blurting the existence of magic, I don't see anything wrong with it, but that isn't why you are hesitating."
Sophia nodded, "Knowing Carol if I told her she would try to help and that would meaning putting her life in danger."
"Maybe you should give your friend a little more credit, despite been pretty damn competitive, she seems to have a good head on shoulders and isn't the kind of person to act without thinking."
Sophia opened her mouth to give a counter argument, but then stopped when she began to fully consider Exile words. "You know what, you're right," Sophia finally said, "I should trust Carol."
When Sophia put her worst fears to the side, Carol was actually very level headed person. Or at least level headed enough to sometimes keep someone like Sophia out of trouble so it was unlikely that Carol would throw herself into danger. It was actually pretty stupid to think that Carol would act in such a way; maybe Sophia was just making up excuses out selfishness.
"Thank you Exile, I have made up mind," Sophia said as the bus turned around the corner.
A/N : Thank you for reading, please give feedback if you want
Chapter 8: Runes
Chapter 8: Runes
Sophia was once again standing in the desert, the man was shrouded under a wall of shadow. He stood on top of a small sandy hill gazing up at the moon, deep in thought.
Sophia slowly took a step forward; the man in response turned around and held out his hand. He whispered something, there was a flash of magic energy and a long sword with a golden hilt appeared in his grip. Suddenly Sophia's eyes began flashing repeatedly with images of the sword. Sophia focused her mind, a sharp intense pain flared in her arm as unstable magic ran through it, for a moment it felt like every vein in her arm was going to explode. Then the pressure was released as a sword identical to that of the shadowy stranger came into being.
Sophia's achievement did not go unnoticed by the shadow man, he raised his sword and pointed at her, he then said something but the words were too distant and echoey for Sophia to make them out. Despite that she got the general message, he was challenging her.
Sophia gripped her blade with both hands and moved her body into a fighting stance; the shadowy man mirrored her action. They took a moment to size each other up and then both charged, there was a clash of steel….
Sophia pulled herself out of bed; she had another strange dream last night, the third in a row. At first, she had just dismissed it as a result of her mind trying to process all this weird magic stuff, but now Sophia was starting to get the impression that there might be more to these dreams. That was it, if Sophia experienced another she would have to tell Exile about it, hopefully, he would be able to clear things up.
"Did you sleep well last night?" Exile asked.
"Well enough," Sophia said before yawning and stretching her arms.
"That is good because today I'm going to teach some Rune Magic!" Exile declared, with a wide childlike smile, similar to how Sophia would get if given the opportunity to express her passion for metal work.
Sophia for her part was pretty eager to add some new abilities to her arsenal.
A couple of hours later the skin on Sophia's head was covered in sweat as she tried to hold back the pressure that was trying to escape and overwhelmed her mind. When she had started the exercise the blueprints that were trying to force their way in were just a minor annoyance, no worse than a little needle pricking her finger. But now it was more like a vast wave of water, threatening to smash apart the dam that was her willpower. At this point, it would only take a slight slip in attention to fall apart.
"Ok, Sophia I think we should stop here," With permission granted, Sophia dismissed her full power causing her clothes to return to normal in a flash of light, her head ringing as she sat down.
"Congratulations, you were able to triple your record from the previous day," Exile commented as he wandered over to heal Sophia's budding headache.
"Thank you," Sophia grunted as the pain hit her.
Exile placed his paw on Sophia's arm; it started to glow, green with magic and that began to reverse the pain brought on by the exercise. Sophia for her part felt the pain in her head melt away like chocolate ice cream on a hot day.
After a few minutes of painkilling, Exile took his paw off Sophia's arm, "Ok that should do it, time for your next lesson." Exile made a wide toothy grin while rubbing his paws against each other.
"What do you like about rune magic so much?" Sophia asked as she stood back up.
"When I was being groomed to be Oberon's glorified backup, rune magic was one of only three subjects that I looked forward to learning, at first it was probably only because it the closest thing to drawing and painting but after a few years I started to love it for it own sake," Exile gazed off for a moment , thinking of a nostalgic memory, it quickly passed and the fairy was back to his eager joy.
"Enough about the past, time to make some rune magic," Exile used his paw to draw a symbol in the dirt. It was a perfectly round circle, with five jagged lines coming inward from the side until they met in the middle of the circle. In terms of quality, it was very good; it looks like something you might find in an art gallery.
"The one defining the feature of rune magic is that it is based upon taking symbols and applying magic to them in order to cast spells, for example, the symbol I have just drawn is the Avlonen symbol for lighting so when I apply magic to it." Exile touched the symbol and his paw glowed green, the glow spreading to the symbol, Exile moved his paw away. Then a tiny blast of lightning crackled outward into the air before disappearing.
"That was little underwhelming," Sophia commented.
"I only applied a tiny bit of magical energy because it would just be a waste for a demonstration, but if I were to apply more then the lightning bolt would have been way more powerful, of course, rune magic is a lot more complicated than that, you have to factor the size of the rune, the surface you are drawing it on, if you have chained it with other runes, etc, but for now let us focus on the most basic points, the first step is to replicate the symbol I just drew."
Sophia bent down and tried to replicate Exile's rune, the results were, to put it gently pretty terrible, Sophia looked at her creation feeling embarrassment; drawing was a subject she always sucked at.
"Well that is certainly interesting," Exile commented.
"You don't need to lie Exile I know that my drawing sucks."
Exile seemed to be relieved, "OK then, in that case just touch the symbol and try to apply some magic to it, I don't think it will work but is worth a try."
Sophia touched the scribbles she had drawn in the dirt and willed some magic into it, there was a faint orange glow and nothing happen.
"Unfortunately if we are going to progress with rune magic you are going to need to improve your drawing skills."
Sophia rubbed the back of her neck in frustration if only there a way to get an around her crappy drawing skills, a flash of inspiration stuck Sophia.
She turned around and approached the large pile of scrap metal and pulled out a discarded car hub, she then used her power on it. There was a tiny flash of orange light and rune identical to the one Exile had drawn in the dirt appeared on the rusting chunk of metal. Unlike the dreadful drawing that Sophia had created in the dirt, the rune carved into the metal by magic looked like it had been carved by a master artist, or at the very least of a better quality than Exile's rune.
"Well that was outside of the box thinking, but I can't argue with the results," Exile said.
"So it will work?"
"Certainly, I have no doubts; now apply a small bit of magic to rune."
Sophia pressed her right index finger against the metal rune and willed her magic to flow into it. It glowed and then a small bolt of lightning fired upwards creating a tiny crackle.
Exile smiled with pride, "You just cast your first rune, congratulations at this rate we just might make a mage out of you yet."
After that Exile spent the rest of the lesson teaching her some more basics of rune magic. Like how to control the amount of magic being placed into the rune, how to direct the effect of the rune and finally how to activate it while only touching the object that the rune had been drawn on.
After the lesson Sophia looked at her phone and checked the time, it was two pm if she didn't go now, she would be late for Mr. Grave's lesson.
"I have metal work class in an hour we need go now if I want to make it in time."
"That's fine, we have made a lot of progress," Exile purred and smiled as the duo left the junkyard.
Sophia pushed the front door of Miracle Metals and stepped inside, Mr. Graves was standing at the front desk his cell phone resting against his ear looking apprehensive.
" I hope you feel better soon, Jessica," Mr. Graves waited a couple of seconds to let the person on the other end finish speaking before hanging up and placing his cell phone back into his pocket.
"Hello, Sophia are you ready to start?"
"Whenever you're ready, Mr. Graves," Sophia said, her eyes being drawn to the pocket that contained her teacher's phone, "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing much, Jessica was calling to say that she is feeling poorly and wouldn't be in for the next two days."
"What is it?"
"Nothing serious," Mr. Graves said while shaking his head, "Just a bit of flu, anyway let's finish making your bronze sword." The smithing master headed into the back room, with Sophia and unknown to him the fairy Exile hidden by a glamour charm.
The wailing sound of metal being grounded away by a mechanical grinder flowed outward from its source to fill the room. Sophia put all her focus on her task, while Mr. Graves watched closely. This was the final step of forging her bronze sword, removing all the unnecessary extra bits that caused the sword to look rough and ugly.
With her new power over metals, she could easily have removed the extra metal instantly using any number of methods, but Mr Graves would immediately notice and more importantly, would ruin the fun!! Sophia loved smithing and was determined to master the craft with her skills and not to cheat through magical means.
Eventually, most of the extra material had been ground away allowing the bronze blade to shine under the light from the bulb above. It was by far the best thing that Sophia had made with her own two hands, in terms of quality it was still greatly inferior to any object created by her magic but that did nothing to diminish the pride she felt upon seeing the result of her hard work and effort.
Mr Graves removed his protective see-through face guard and checked the sword, he smiled, placing it back on the table. "This is brilliant work, you should be proud, all we need to do is scrape away the last bits of impurity, give it a good polish and it will be ready to be sold in my shop."
Sophia beamed with pride, "Thank you, Mr Graves."
"Well it has been a pleasure to teach you, anyway it's getting late, we will put the last touches on your blade next lesson which will be the usual time."
With that Sophia started removing her protective gear. While Mr Graves gave his student ponderous look.
"There is just one more thing before you go."
Sophia stopped and turned to look at her teacher, "What is it?"
"Today, I noticed...Well for lack of a better term, you had certain spring in your step, one that I hadn't seen in years, did something happen.?"
"Yeah, something great," Sophia said as she glanced at the corner where Exile had been watching the whole lesson while occasionally checking storage gem.
"Really what happened?"
Sophia stopped, choosing her words carefully, "Sorry but I promised that I would keep it a secret." As much as Sophia would like to tell Mr Graves her secret, she was already going to tell Carol and despite her own personal misgiving about lying and half-truths, she had to draw the line somewhere.
"Ok, then but if anything goes wrong please let me know," Mr Graves spoke sternly.
"I will keep that in mind, anyway better get going, see you on Friday," Sophia removed the last of her gear and left the shop, with Exile.
They were just outside of Shopper's Walk when Exile stopped.
"Back at the shop, your teacher observed that you looker happier than you have had in years, am I correct in assuming this is linked to our recent partnership."
Sophia halted; there was a short silence which was broken by the sorcerer's sighing as she turned to gaze at the moon which was starting to appear in the evening sky.
"After my mum died, I fell into a sort of emptiness, I just drifted my way through life without purpose or meaning, day after day, month after month, year after year," Sophia's voice took on a sorrowful quality. "I had the occasional respite when I was with Carol or at work at the forage but after that those moments passed I returned to that pit."
Sophia turned away from the moon to Exile, "Then two nights ago I meet you and we formed a pact, now I feel alive like there is more to my life than just killing time." As Sophia kept speaking, her eyes began to water up, she wiped the tears away and took a moment to force herself to calm down.
"The truth is, in spite of the danger and high stakes, I haven't felt happier in ages, is that bad thing?" Sophia stared in Exile, hoping for an answer because she honestly didn't have one.
Exile's face tensed up as he went into deep thought, his right paw scratched his chin uncomfortably, "If you keep taking this seriously and honour the terms of the pact, then I suppose there isn't anything wrong in viewing this situation as a blessing," The former fairy still seemed greatly troubled.
"Alright then, where should we start patrolling?"
"Patrolling," Exile said with surprise, "Shouldn't you be heading home."
"My dad isn't going to care and we need to start looking for the other fragments," Sophia explained.
Exile, rather than trying to argue like he clearly wished to, held out his paw and summoned a large green emerald holographic diagram of the city.
"Not long after entering this realm, I used my knowledge of portals and a map of the city to narrow my search down to several different locations," Exile tapped the hologram and a group of five yellow rings appeared around the city, "These are the areas where I believe multiple fragments have most likely fallen."
"Those are some pretty wide areas."
"Unfortunately that was the best I could do and even then there will be plenty of fragments that aren't in any of these ranges, but I thought it would be better to have a starting point rather than just wandering around and hoping to stumble across a fragment by accident."
Exile tapped the ring closest to Shopper's Walk, the rest of the map faded away as the air that the fairy had touched grew to take its place. It was an area that covered around five neighbourhoods, which were mostly made up of shops and other small business, with a few house and apartments here and there.
He took his other paw and swiped it along with an area near the edge of the map leaving it glowing yellow. "This section is the closest to the fragment I found in the park, this is the best place to start to increase our chances of finding some fragments."
"Right then," Sophia turned around smiling with determination while whispering her magic word.
Chapter 9: Malice
A/N: Special thanks to noveltealover for beta reading this chapter.
Chapter 9: Malice
After several hours of jumping around rooftops, searching empty alleyways and walking across the pavement in normal form, the duo had nothing to show for it.
"Are you sure this is the best area to check for fragments?" Sophia asked with frustration.
"It was the best I could come up with," Exile said scratching the back of his head.
"The magic energy of an inactivated fragment is so faint we have to be very close for them to be detected, which makes them really damn hard to find."
"Bring the map up again, maybe there is a place we haven't checked yet."
In response Exile opened the map, he spent a few moments inspecting it intently before tapping a small area on its very edge, as he did so the rest of the map faded away and the small area expanded to take up the space. Now they were looking at the area in fine detail. It was made up of four two-story buildings and a maze of alleyways, there was a Chinese takeaway, a pawn shop, a chemist and dry cleaners that Sophia's mother used to drag her to when she was little.
"I know this area quite well we should give a thorough look before calling it a night."
"I guess that is our best options for now," Exile said, as he turned away the map vanished.
The dry cleaners hadn't changed much since the last time she had been there, years ago now, Sophia couldn't pin down the exact date. Sophia was about six or seven years old, she remembered trying a bit too hard to convince her mom that her father's best suit didn't need cleaning and complained during the entire trip. It was funny how an embarrassing memory could make you smile.
"Sophia?" Exile's voice yanked her away from her past to answer her fairy companion.
"I'm fine Exile, did you find anything?"
The feline shook his head, "No, if there is a fragment in this area it is not on the ground, which means it is time to head to the rooftops."
Exile's body glowed as he used his magic to create a perfectly square platform just big enough to fit them both on. The magical platform elevated upwards until it was level with the tallest building, they both hopped off and the storage gem started glowing as the platform vanished.
"Finally we got one," Exile smiled with delight.
Sophia's eyes darted across the ground, a few seconds later she spotted it. A tiny red crystal no bigger than the tip of her pinky finger, its dark striking colour stood out against the grey concrete rooftop.
"Found it!" Sophia pointed at the fragment, causing Exile to fix his eyes on the fragment. He raised his storage gem, and it glowed.
"I reclaim this…"
Sophia's eye felt an unpleasant familiar crackling of magic energy, followed by a rush of air, as a bolt of red and purple magic flew right past her and struck Exile. There was an explosion, and the fairy was sent flying into the air.
"Exile!" Sophia ran, leapt upwards and grabbed Exile before he fell off the roof. Once Sophia's feet were back on the roof, she checked Exile's condition which wasn't good. His body was a mess, even worse than the night she met him, bloody and bruised with bits of fur burnt off.
"Thanks," Exile moaned in pain.
Sophia looked away from Exile and gazed in the direction from where the blast had come from, there, standing on the opposite rooftop was a shadowy figure that reeked of malice. It was vaguely humanoid in shape with massive claw-like hands which were attached to bizarrely small arms.
"What are you!" Sophia demand as she felt her rage begin to boil.
The shadow either didn't or couldn't respond with words, instead, it pointed to the concrete street below and fired five beams of magic. They struck the surface creating five pools of purple energy which released five concrete beings.
The concrete beings lacked any features with the exception of tiny red cracks which covered their hands and feet, with hollow glowing purple eyes. In a display of incredible strength, they leapt upwards, their fists raised.
Sophia jumped backwards but even with the speed of a demi-god, she couldn't avoid all five attackers at once. A fist of enchanted concrete impacted Sophia's body, she was sent flying across the roof just barely being able to keep hold of Exile as the surface cracked with the force of her fall.
Sophia quickly pulled herself to her feet and smiled, her body was aching but she could take it.
"Put me down!" Exile yelled.
"Exile you're in no shape to…"
"I can still stand, focus on the golems!" Exile jumped from Sophia's arms and charged towards the fragment as quickly as he could given his injuries. As a golem moved to stop him, Sophia summoned her sword and slashed it in half.
The other golems didn't seem to care too much about the fate of their other, they started to swing their fists widely at Exile. Sophia moving fast as she could stopping each blow with her blade and forcing herself between the dark creations and Exile.
"If you want to stop him you will have to get through me!"
The golems attacked en mass, one aimed at Sophia's head, another at her chest, another at her right hip, another her left leg. Just like before Sophia couldn't stop all the attacks at once so she needed to prioritize, first ducking to avoid the blow which was aimed at her head which also caused the attack against her chest miss, then taking advantage of the fact she was now lower to the ground, she swiped at the fist that was going for her leg and blocked it. But immediately afterwards, the fourth golem's attack landed its mark.
Sophia grunted with pain and jumped back to put some distance between herself and the golems. This was getting to be too much. She needed to quickly thin out the number of opponents. Perhaps it was time to put some of her new knowledge to use.
Sophia pressed her hand against the face of the blade, there were several sparks of light as a rune was magically carved into the weapon. The golems charged at her in a small mob. Sophia willed her magic into the rune, through her metal vision she could see the magic lightning flow through the sword like water through a stream. The power built up and unleashed a bolt of blue lightning which erupted from the blade. It made contact with the closest golem and there was a thunderous crackle before it was blown to pieces!
The remaining golems kept charging. Sophia turned her blade onto the next closest golem and repeated the process. It blew apart as well.
The final golem closed the gap and took a swing. Sophia swiftly stepped to the left as the blow hit only air and a single stroke from the girl's sword cut the monster in two, leaving nothing but crumbling concrete remains.
"I reclaim this fragment, in the name…...!" Exile's second attempt to get the crystal was interrupted as a dark red energy gathered within the shadow's right claw, the red magic was sent streaming forward towards Exile who quickly summoned a silver force field. The two forces clashed. From what little she had seen, Sophia expected one of two things to happen when the stream hit the shield, either the two magics would destroy each other, or the shield would repel the attack.
But instead as the red magic made contact, the barrier's bright beautiful radiant silver glow faded into an ugly lifeless brown, while Exile looked on in shock and horror as his defences collapsed into nothingness around him. Before either Exile or Sophia could grasp what just happened, Exile's body sparked with red lighting, he screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
"Shit!" Sophia rushed over to Exile. His body was barely moving while quivering with desperate pained breaths. It was really bad. The best she had was basic CPR but that was completely useless in this crisis and she didn't know a single thing about healing magic. Sophia mentally slapped herself for not having the forethought to learn about life-saving magic.
The shadow reached out to grab the fragment with one arm while the other pointed at Sophia and started gathering magical energy for an attack.
"Stop, right there," A stern familiar voice said, snapping Sophia out of her panic and causing her to turn her head towards its source. She recognized him, Sophia had spent many mornings sitting at the back of the class tuning out his bland words, but now Mr Brown was different. Instead of his normal bland green shirt, he wore a black shirt and gloves under a brown trench coat. In his right hand, he wielded a large steel handgun which had numerous runes carved into it.
Mr Brown pointed the gun at the shadow monster and fired. A bullet was launched from the barrel, and it flew right towards the monster and exploded into a blinding white light. The power of the light caused the shadow's form to be blown back like dust. Sophia for a short moment could see something that had been hidden by the dark purple mist, a human mouth.
The shadow monster let out an ear piercing scream before jumping into the air and floating away at an extremely fast speed, down the street and disappearing behind the corner.
"Are you alright?" Mr Brown asked as he walked over to Sophia.
"I'm fine, help Exile," Sophia demanded impatiently.
Mr Brown bent down and touched Exile's head. His hand gained a glow which transferred to the fairy causing most of the injuries to recover.
"How are you?"
Exile groaned as he got to his feet, "Very sore but I will live."
Good, now that is settled, it is time for the three us to have a little chat," Mr Brown said.
Chapter 9: Malice
After several hours of jumping around rooftops, searching empty alleyways and walking across the pavement in normal form, the duo had nothing to show for it.
"Are you sure this is the best area to check for fragments?" Sophia asked with frustration.
"It was the best I could come up with," Exile said scratching the back of his head.
"The magic energy of an inactivated fragment is so faint we have to be very close for them to be detected, which makes them really damn hard to find."
"Bring the map up again, maybe there is a place we haven't checked yet."
In response Exile opened the map, he spent a few moments inspecting it intently before tapping a small area on its very edge, as he did so the rest of the map faded away and the small area expanded to take up the space. Now they were looking at the area in fine detail. It was made up of four two-story buildings and a maze of alleyways, there was a Chinese takeaway, a pawn shop, a chemist and dry cleaners that Sophia's mother used to drag her to when she was little.
"I know this area quite well we should give a thorough look before calling it a night."
"I guess that is our best options for now," Exile said, as he turned away the map vanished.
The dry cleaners hadn't changed much since the last time she had been there, years ago now, Sophia couldn't pin down the exact date. Sophia was about six or seven years old, she remembered trying a bit too hard to convince her mom that her father's best suit didn't need cleaning and complained during the entire trip. It was funny how an embarrassing memory could make you smile.
"Sophia?" Exile's voice yanked her away from her past to answer her fairy companion.
"I'm fine Exile, did you find anything?"
The feline shook his head, "No, if there is a fragment in this area it is not on the ground, which means it is time to head to the rooftops."
Exile's body glowed as he used his magic to create a perfectly square platform just big enough to fit them both on. The magical platform elevated upwards until it was level with the tallest building, they both hopped off and the storage gem started glowing as the platform vanished.
"Finally we got one," Exile smiled with delight.
Sophia's eyes darted across the ground, a few seconds later she spotted it. A tiny red crystal no bigger than the tip of her pinky finger, its dark striking colour stood out against the grey concrete rooftop.
"Found it!" Sophia pointed at the fragment, causing Exile to fix his eyes on the fragment. He raised his storage gem, and it glowed.
"I reclaim this…"
Sophia's eye felt an unpleasant familiar crackling of magic energy, followed by a rush of air, as a bolt of red and purple magic flew right past her and struck Exile. There was an explosion, and the fairy was sent flying into the air.
"Exile!" Sophia ran, leapt upwards and grabbed Exile before he fell off the roof. Once Sophia's feet were back on the roof, she checked Exile's condition which wasn't good. His body was a mess, even worse than the night she met him, bloody and bruised with bits of fur burnt off.
"Thanks," Exile moaned in pain.
Sophia looked away from Exile and gazed in the direction from where the blast had come from, there, standing on the opposite rooftop was a shadowy figure that reeked of malice. It was vaguely humanoid in shape with massive claw-like hands which were attached to bizarrely small arms.
"What are you!" Sophia demand as she felt her rage begin to boil.
The shadow either didn't or couldn't respond with words, instead, it pointed to the concrete street below and fired five beams of magic. They struck the surface creating five pools of purple energy which released five concrete beings.
The concrete beings lacked any features with the exception of tiny red cracks which covered their hands and feet, with hollow glowing purple eyes. In a display of incredible strength, they leapt upwards, their fists raised.
Sophia jumped backwards but even with the speed of a demi-god, she couldn't avoid all five attackers at once. A fist of enchanted concrete impacted Sophia's body, she was sent flying across the roof just barely being able to keep hold of Exile as the surface cracked with the force of her fall.
Sophia quickly pulled herself to her feet and smiled, her body was aching but she could take it.
"Put me down!" Exile yelled.
"Exile you're in no shape to…"
"I can still stand, focus on the golems!" Exile jumped from Sophia's arms and charged towards the fragment as quickly as he could given his injuries. As a golem moved to stop him, Sophia summoned her sword and slashed it in half.
The other golems didn't seem to care too much about the fate of their other, they started to swing their fists widely at Exile. Sophia moving fast as she could stopping each blow with her blade and forcing herself between the dark creations and Exile.
"If you want to stop him you will have to get through me!"
The golems attacked en mass, one aimed at Sophia's head, another at her chest, another at her right hip, another her left leg. Just like before Sophia couldn't stop all the attacks at once so she needed to prioritize, first ducking to avoid the blow which was aimed at her head which also caused the attack against her chest miss, then taking advantage of the fact she was now lower to the ground, she swiped at the fist that was going for her leg and blocked it. But immediately afterwards, the fourth golem's attack landed its mark.
Sophia grunted with pain and jumped back to put some distance between herself and the golems. This was getting to be too much. She needed to quickly thin out the number of opponents. Perhaps it was time to put some of her new knowledge to use.
Sophia pressed her hand against the face of the blade, there were several sparks of light as a rune was magically carved into the weapon. The golems charged at her in a small mob. Sophia willed her magic into the rune, through her metal vision she could see the magic lightning flow through the sword like water through a stream. The power built up and unleashed a bolt of blue lightning which erupted from the blade. It made contact with the closest golem and there was a thunderous crackle before it was blown to pieces!
The remaining golems kept charging. Sophia turned her blade onto the next closest golem and repeated the process. It blew apart as well.
The final golem closed the gap and took a swing. Sophia swiftly stepped to the left as the blow hit only air and a single stroke from the girl's sword cut the monster in two, leaving nothing but crumbling concrete remains.
"I reclaim this fragment, in the name…...!" Exile's second attempt to get the crystal was interrupted as a dark red energy gathered within the shadow's right claw, the red magic was sent streaming forward towards Exile who quickly summoned a silver force field. The two forces clashed. From what little she had seen, Sophia expected one of two things to happen when the stream hit the shield, either the two magics would destroy each other, or the shield would repel the attack.
But instead as the red magic made contact, the barrier's bright beautiful radiant silver glow faded into an ugly lifeless brown, while Exile looked on in shock and horror as his defences collapsed into nothingness around him. Before either Exile or Sophia could grasp what just happened, Exile's body sparked with red lighting, he screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
"Shit!" Sophia rushed over to Exile. His body was barely moving while quivering with desperate pained breaths. It was really bad. The best she had was basic CPR but that was completely useless in this crisis and she didn't know a single thing about healing magic. Sophia mentally slapped herself for not having the forethought to learn about life-saving magic.
The shadow reached out to grab the fragment with one arm while the other pointed at Sophia and started gathering magical energy for an attack.
"Stop, right there," A stern familiar voice said, snapping Sophia out of her panic and causing her to turn her head towards its source. She recognized him, Sophia had spent many mornings sitting at the back of the class tuning out his bland words, but now Mr Brown was different. Instead of his normal bland green shirt, he wore a black shirt and gloves under a brown trench coat. In his right hand, he wielded a large steel handgun which had numerous runes carved into it.
Mr Brown pointed the gun at the shadow monster and fired. A bullet was launched from the barrel, and it flew right towards the monster and exploded into a blinding white light. The power of the light caused the shadow's form to be blown back like dust. Sophia for a short moment could see something that had been hidden by the dark purple mist, a human mouth.
The shadow monster let out an ear piercing scream before jumping into the air and floating away at an extremely fast speed, down the street and disappearing behind the corner.
"Are you alright?" Mr Brown asked as he walked over to Sophia.
"I'm fine, help Exile," Sophia demanded impatiently.
Mr Brown bent down and touched Exile's head. His hand gained a glow which transferred to the fairy causing most of the injuries to recover.
"How are you?"
Exile groaned as he got to his feet, "Very sore but I will live."
Good, now that is settled, it is time for the three us to have a little chat," Mr Brown said.
Chapter 10: Agent Brown
A/ N: Thank you to noveltealover.
Chapter 10: Agent Brown
First thing of note about Mr. Brown's apartment was that it was both small and untidy. The most gracious example was a huge and messy stack of files and folders, resting on a table next to a laptop. On top of the heap, there was a yellow post-it note which labelled the stack as 'teacher work.'
The most interesting object was a grey file cabinet at the back of the room because it was decorated with various runes.
"Now that we are all here, let's get straight to the point," Mr. Brown said he put his left hand into the top pocket of his coat and pulled out a dark brown leather wallet. He flipped it open to reveal a badge. It depicted a sizeable golden union jack under smaller symbol which was a cyclic shield with a brilliant flame within its centre. Below the union jack were the letters, D.M.I.
Sophia looked at the unfamiliar badge, which didn't answer a single question. After a couple of seconds of waiting in vain, Sophia turned to Exile, "Does that badge mean anything to you?"
"It stands for the Department of Mystical Investigation. It's an organisation that was formed by the UK government to investigate supernatural events and protect the public," Exile explained.
"That's correct I'm agent Richard Brown of D.I.M assigned to spend my entire career watching over this little backwater island," Mr or Agent Brown spoke in a very harsh bitter manner that was very different from how he usually acted before. When he was at school, he was incredibly dispassionate. Most of the time he barely put much effort into his lectures, gave out only the bare minimum of information and paid no mind to the students that blatantly ignored him. So to hear him speak so passionately about anything even in a negative light was more than a little jarring.
"Could provide a bit more context, Mr. Brown?" Sophia asked been so caught off guard, that she didn't even feel offended that her hometown was being called a backwater.
"Well to make a long story short I used to work in the main D.I.M office in London then I made one little mistake, and I got transferred to West Crown, a minor city with no major mage families or magical beings. But it's in the strange limbo of not being important to be worth committing a lot of resources, but is also a Mythical Location, so someone has to watch over this place."
"A Mythical Location?" Another term that Sophia was unfamiliar with.
"A Mythical Location is a place created by magic," Exile started to explain, "Back in ancient times when magic was stronger, and gods could freely interact freely with mortal plans, they could use their magic to create or enter land masses and then retroactively incorporating it into the planet's history." At this point, Sophia had utterly lost count at the number of times she had been shocked or surprised. Even if they weren't interested in mythology (did that word hold any mean anymore) or local history, almost everyone who lived in West Crown knew of ancient stories where the old pantheon created the Western Isles. It was the type of tale that parents told their children as bedtime stories.
"As a result, the Western Isles is a land where ancient magic is woven into the very ground, which means this reign sometimes gets visited by mages wanting to study the islands," Mr. Brown explained.
"And when I say mages, I mean it is almost a bunch of teenagers trying to write a fancy to impress their master or to pass their Magical Academy course and aren't planning on doing anything horrible, but there is that one per cent that might. So I have to spend hours watching a bunch of privileged teenagers doing mundane crap, then when I get home, I need to waste even more hours watching boring footage of the same stupid kids doing the same dumb crap."
As Mr. Brown spoke each and every word became increasingly more bitter and spiteful, to point out that Sophia was starting to feel more than a little uncomfortable and concerned about her teacher's mental wellbeing.
Mr. Brown would have ranted further, but thankfully Exile decided to cut him off, "As much as I like to hear details about your job, we need focus specifically the on ghost we just encountered."
Mr. Brown gave Exile an annoyed glare, "You two clearly know more than I do so, please fill me in."
So Exile and Sophia explained all the important events that had happened until then. "So after over a thousand years The Gardens of Forbidden Knowledge are now gone, this will definitely…"
For a moment Mr. Brown seemed to be lost in his own world, but then he suddenly remembered Exile was in the room and immediately reconsidered finishing his sentence. "Um, anyway since we are now caught up I think we should work together."
"And how would that help?" Sophia asked.
"As an agent of the D.I.M, I have authority to command the police to handle clean up after a fight and will also be able to give access to police records which no doubt will help with tracking down the ghost."
Sophia considered Mr. Brown's offer, it sounded pretty good and was probably better than trying to gather fragments by wandering around and hoping to find something. However, she was still a newcomer to this strange hidden world of magic, so maybe Mr Brown's deal was actually garbage, and he was ripping them off.
"Can we have a moment to talk about this in private?" Sophia asked.
Mr. Brown shrugged, "Sure you can use my bathroom."
He pointed to a white door off to the left where he was currently sitting. Sophia and Exile walked over to the door, and two of them stepped inside as Sophia closed the door tightly behind them.
"So what do you think?" Sophia asked.
"You mean the offer, well, to be honest, we need the aid, and from what little we know about the D.I.M the organisation is trustworthy, however, there is a slight issue."
"What do mean?" Sophia questioned though she had a pretty good idea what the problem was.
"I'm not sure about Agent Brown, he just seems little too bitter about his duties and doesn't seem invested in actually protecting the city."
"I think of understanding where he might be coming from, up until I meet you the last few years of my life have mostly been a long metronome loop before Carol came along. I had put a lot of effort just keeping myself invested in the world around me, maybe something like this crisis will help Agent Brown."
"So, in other words, you can relate to his situation, and you trust based on that?"
"Is that a stupid reason?" Sophia asked with uncertainty. "Not necessarily, regardless we're partners. If you think this man can be trusted, then I will support your decision." With their partnership reaffirmed, the sorcerer and her fairy companion re-entered the main room.
"We decided to accept help from D.I.M," Sophia announced. "Excellent, all we need to do is exchange contact information, and then I can inform my superiors."
After a few minutes of exchanging phone numbers, Sophia and Exile headed home. One quick meal later, Sophia was in bed and started drifting off to sleep. The weekend had been so damn crazy that Sophia had almost forgotten that she had school tomorrow.
Chapter 10: Agent Brown
First thing of note about Mr. Brown's apartment was that it was both small and untidy. The most gracious example was a huge and messy stack of files and folders, resting on a table next to a laptop. On top of the heap, there was a yellow post-it note which labelled the stack as 'teacher work.'
The most interesting object was a grey file cabinet at the back of the room because it was decorated with various runes.
"Now that we are all here, let's get straight to the point," Mr. Brown said he put his left hand into the top pocket of his coat and pulled out a dark brown leather wallet. He flipped it open to reveal a badge. It depicted a sizeable golden union jack under smaller symbol which was a cyclic shield with a brilliant flame within its centre. Below the union jack were the letters, D.M.I.
Sophia looked at the unfamiliar badge, which didn't answer a single question. After a couple of seconds of waiting in vain, Sophia turned to Exile, "Does that badge mean anything to you?"
"It stands for the Department of Mystical Investigation. It's an organisation that was formed by the UK government to investigate supernatural events and protect the public," Exile explained.
"That's correct I'm agent Richard Brown of D.I.M assigned to spend my entire career watching over this little backwater island," Mr or Agent Brown spoke in a very harsh bitter manner that was very different from how he usually acted before. When he was at school, he was incredibly dispassionate. Most of the time he barely put much effort into his lectures, gave out only the bare minimum of information and paid no mind to the students that blatantly ignored him. So to hear him speak so passionately about anything even in a negative light was more than a little jarring.
"Could provide a bit more context, Mr. Brown?" Sophia asked been so caught off guard, that she didn't even feel offended that her hometown was being called a backwater.
"Well to make a long story short I used to work in the main D.I.M office in London then I made one little mistake, and I got transferred to West Crown, a minor city with no major mage families or magical beings. But it's in the strange limbo of not being important to be worth committing a lot of resources, but is also a Mythical Location, so someone has to watch over this place."
"A Mythical Location?" Another term that Sophia was unfamiliar with.
"A Mythical Location is a place created by magic," Exile started to explain, "Back in ancient times when magic was stronger, and gods could freely interact freely with mortal plans, they could use their magic to create or enter land masses and then retroactively incorporating it into the planet's history." At this point, Sophia had utterly lost count at the number of times she had been shocked or surprised. Even if they weren't interested in mythology (did that word hold any mean anymore) or local history, almost everyone who lived in West Crown knew of ancient stories where the old pantheon created the Western Isles. It was the type of tale that parents told their children as bedtime stories.
"As a result, the Western Isles is a land where ancient magic is woven into the very ground, which means this reign sometimes gets visited by mages wanting to study the islands," Mr. Brown explained.
"And when I say mages, I mean it is almost a bunch of teenagers trying to write a fancy to impress their master or to pass their Magical Academy course and aren't planning on doing anything horrible, but there is that one per cent that might. So I have to spend hours watching a bunch of privileged teenagers doing mundane crap, then when I get home, I need to waste even more hours watching boring footage of the same stupid kids doing the same dumb crap."
As Mr. Brown spoke each and every word became increasingly more bitter and spiteful, to point out that Sophia was starting to feel more than a little uncomfortable and concerned about her teacher's mental wellbeing.
Mr. Brown would have ranted further, but thankfully Exile decided to cut him off, "As much as I like to hear details about your job, we need focus specifically the on ghost we just encountered."
Mr. Brown gave Exile an annoyed glare, "You two clearly know more than I do so, please fill me in."
So Exile and Sophia explained all the important events that had happened until then. "So after over a thousand years The Gardens of Forbidden Knowledge are now gone, this will definitely…"
For a moment Mr. Brown seemed to be lost in his own world, but then he suddenly remembered Exile was in the room and immediately reconsidered finishing his sentence. "Um, anyway since we are now caught up I think we should work together."
"And how would that help?" Sophia asked.
"As an agent of the D.I.M, I have authority to command the police to handle clean up after a fight and will also be able to give access to police records which no doubt will help with tracking down the ghost."
Sophia considered Mr. Brown's offer, it sounded pretty good and was probably better than trying to gather fragments by wandering around and hoping to find something. However, she was still a newcomer to this strange hidden world of magic, so maybe Mr Brown's deal was actually garbage, and he was ripping them off.
"Can we have a moment to talk about this in private?" Sophia asked.
Mr. Brown shrugged, "Sure you can use my bathroom."
He pointed to a white door off to the left where he was currently sitting. Sophia and Exile walked over to the door, and two of them stepped inside as Sophia closed the door tightly behind them.
"So what do you think?" Sophia asked.
"You mean the offer, well, to be honest, we need the aid, and from what little we know about the D.I.M the organisation is trustworthy, however, there is a slight issue."
"What do mean?" Sophia questioned though she had a pretty good idea what the problem was.
"I'm not sure about Agent Brown, he just seems little too bitter about his duties and doesn't seem invested in actually protecting the city."
"I think of understanding where he might be coming from, up until I meet you the last few years of my life have mostly been a long metronome loop before Carol came along. I had put a lot of effort just keeping myself invested in the world around me, maybe something like this crisis will help Agent Brown."
"So, in other words, you can relate to his situation, and you trust based on that?"
"Is that a stupid reason?" Sophia asked with uncertainty. "Not necessarily, regardless we're partners. If you think this man can be trusted, then I will support your decision." With their partnership reaffirmed, the sorcerer and her fairy companion re-entered the main room.
"We decided to accept help from D.I.M," Sophia announced. "Excellent, all we need to do is exchange contact information, and then I can inform my superiors."
After a few minutes of exchanging phone numbers, Sophia and Exile headed home. One quick meal later, Sophia was in bed and started drifting off to sleep. The weekend had been so damn crazy that Sophia had almost forgotten that she had school tomorrow.