Meet parents, learn the spell of bonding.

Escape the seiged city and head north to the imperial capital to find the portal to the Fae.

“It is a long and dangerous journey to imperial city and the roads will be well guarded. How will you be able to get there?” asked the Watch Captain.

“Have you forgotten? I’m a MAGE. I can fuckin’ FLY!”

“Oh, right. Awesome.”

Fortify the city with mana

With our wounds mended, we made our way south to the gates of Denali. Denali was a much larger city than our own, and well fortified to boot. The empire would be hard pressed to take this city the way they took ours. Nontheless, preperations were obviously underway to defend against invasion.

“Halt! State your origin and purpose!” yelled a rather jumpy looking archer from atop the closed gate.

“We are refugees from the destruction of Altar! We seek our families!” I yelled back.

The guard vanished over the edge of the wall. I could hear some indistinct yelling, then the massive gates slowly opened. A tall, heavily armored woman walked out, accompanied by two body guards.

“Many Altarians have sought shelter here. We will take you to there camp. However, you will have to remain under guard and you will not be allowed to enter the city proper until we can confirm your identity. The empire is devious and a saboture inside our walls could mean the loss of our city and our lives. I’m sure you understand.” She gestured to one of her body guards, who broke formation and nodded at us.

“Follow me.”

The camp was… smaller than I had hoped. Most of the city must have been killed in the fighting. However, that made it easy to find Michael’s parents and my uncle. They had survived! They had escaped! They were here! Joy washed over me as an enormous weight of worry was lifted.

“Uncle!”

“Jenna! Oh thank goodness you escaped! I was so worried!” We hugged.

“Jenna… Oh, I have been remiss. There’s something I must tell you.” he said.

“Yes?”
–
“Your parents dedicated their lives to investigating why magic had gone from this world. Much to their own surprise, they found out. When most people use magic they do it by drawing on ambient spiritual energy known as ‘mana’. This force naturally diminishes with use. However, there are some people who are able to use magic without drawing on mana. These people are known as ‘mages’. Mages are born with a spiritual tie to the world of the Fae and draw their energy from across the worlds. When mages cast spells, instead of diminishing ambient mana, they supply it.”

“You were not destined to be born as a mage, Jenna. There is a place where it is possible for humans to travel between our world and the world of the Fae. Your parents traveled to the world of the Fae and made a deal with the spirits there.”

Amidst the rubble of my former home stood a tall man in dark clothing.

“A mage was here. And he escaped. Conduct a mana purge and get a squad together. I’m going into the forest.”

“Yes, liege.”

–

As luck would have it, no other animals attempted to make a meal of us during my watch. I looked through the spellbook for other spells it might be useful to learn. This volume appeared to contain mostly spells intended for combat. I couldn’t find anything that would allow me to conjure water, but I did pick up a spell that allowed for the healing of wounds attained in battle. I cast it on Michael as he was sleeping and smiled with satisfaction as the few minor cuts and bruises he had acquired escaping the castle vanished before my eyes. He would wake up feeling pretty good. Then I cast it on myself, hoping to rid myself of the bruise on my shoulder that I had acquired when Michael had dropped me to fight off those soldiers. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

“Fuckin’ shitty useless over-specialized magic.” I grumbled aloud. Michael would have recognized my tone as stealthily silly if he were awake, but he was sound asleep.

I tried to look for more spells, but at this point even looking at the book was making me sleepy. I had to stay awake so we didn’t both get mauled, so I elected to walk in circles for a while instead. It was strange that I had been so tired recently, as I was usually a very light and short sleeper. On the other hand, finding out you can do magic and having your home destroyed would probably wear out anyone.

When the moon was high I had long since been tired, so I nudged Michael’s shoulder with my foot. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

“Muh… guh… but I don’t wanna go to school today, mommy! I wanna stay home and bake cookies with youuuu!”

“I ain’t your mommy, boy. I don’t even like kids. I do like cookies, but that’s beside the point. Get up and watch for monsters so I can sleep.”

“Roger wilco.” said Michael, now sitting upright. “Anything big comes though, I’m waking you so you can roast it.”

–

Michael spent most of his shift tending to the fire, as he couldn’t relight it if it went out. Soon the moon was low again and signs of the sun were starting to break over the horizon. In fairness, the time I was entitled to sleep was probably up by the time the monster came.

Michael saw movement in the distance. Then he saw a large biped with one eye and a club step out into the clearing.

“Hey, Jenna. Wake up, your services are required.”

I did not stir.

“Jenna!” he just about rolled me over with his foot. Nothing. The ogre charged.

“FFUUUUUUUUUU-”

–

I woke up with a sharp pain in my leg.

“So, ” said Michael “a monster came but you wouldn’t wake up. I killed it the old way. He crushed one of my arms and one of my feet before I could take him out, and he probably broke your leg, too. That had me pretty depressed until I found this.” He held up the spellbook with his remaining arm, opened to the page of the healing spell. “All I had to do was hope you would eventually wake up.”

I cast the spell from memory, and the results were miraculous. Within seconds Michael was healed as good as new. I cast it on myself and my leg mended flawlessly and the pain went away.

“WOO-HOO!” hollered Michael. “Jenna, that’s AWESOME!”

Neither of us well remember the details of our escape, but we must have gotten to the forest because that is where we wound up.

“I got a little bit of food and water when I was leaving the castle, but not much. We’ll have to get to a city soon.”

“A good plan in any case. There’s dangerous animals in these woods.”

“Not so dangerous when you can do magic, eh?” said Michael jovially.

I wasn’t as convinced. “Well, we’ll see when one tries to maul us, I suppose.”

The question didn’t remain up for debate for long though, as a silver wolf walked out from the brush and spared only a moment to eye us hungrily before charging. Michael was, to simultaneously my happiness and chagrin, proven correct as a single fireball not only killed the beast but also started a small fire in the otherwise very moist plant debris on the ground.

“Hey hey! Dinner and a show! We could make a proper cooking fire out of this. Only two spells and you’re already a walking utility kit.”

I admit, I had a pretty big grin on my own face at that point. I mean, I could do MAGIC! That’s AWESOME! I didn’t know why, but for now it seemed to be serving me pretty well.

After we both hauled the carcass out of the immediate fire, I cleared a circle around what was burning and Michael collected fuel to build it up. Once that was done we took turns using his sword to cut a piece out of the wolf and cook it. The meat was tough, but satisfying.

Once we had both had our fill we just sat together on the lea side of the fire, staring in to the darkness beyond.

“Did your parents get away from the city?” I asked.

“I don’t know. They weren’t in their rooms when I got there and I couldn’t find them afterwards. They wouldn’t've fought against that kind of force, though. My mom has family in Denali. That’s where they’d go if they escaped. It’s the closest place we could go, too.”

“Mm…” I said. I was worried about my uncle. He was an old man these days, and even when he was young he was more of a noble than a labourer or soldier. He couldn’t have gone to battle even if he’d been foolish enough to try. He was all the family I’d ever had.

“Hey, I saw the kings entourage heading south while I was still looking for my parents. I bet your uncle was with them!” said Michael. He wasn’t a very good liar though, and I could tell he was just trying to cheer me up. Still, even if he had not seen any such entourage one had probably happened. If my uncle had gone anywhere it would be Denali. Seeing as how that’s where we were going anyways, there didn’t seem to be much to be gained by fretting.

“Yawn!” Michael said aloud. Not, like, he yawned: he simply said the word “Yawn”. “That’s not how yawning works!” I told him.

“Yeah yeah yeah. I’m gonna sleep. You roast any more big bad wolves that try and attack me. Gimme… I guess we don’t have any clocks anymore… Well, wake me when the moon is high and you’re tired, and we’ll switch watches.”

“Roger wilco.” I said. “Sleep tight, Michael.”

Actually, it hadn’t. At least, not as such. But I didn’t know that yet.

“Michael!” I yelled, wild-eyed and disheveled. “Michael! Wake up!” I shook him by the shoulders and he began to wake.

As soon as he was awake enough to take stock of his surroundings, he began to move very quickly. He grabbed his sword from under his bed and jumped to his feet.

“The empire is attacking!? How close are they?”

“No, no, nothing like that. We’re safe for now.”

He blinked, then flopped back down on his bed. “Oh… Jesus, Jenna. You scared the shit outta me.”

“Yeah, sorry ’bout that. I’ll buy you some new pants later. This is important.”

He sat up and cocked an eyebrow.

“I can do magic!”

“Bullshit. Nobody’s been able to do magic for 100 years.”

“Come on, I’ll show you!” He stood up, but just as he’d gotten to his feet, I said “Actually…”

I closed my eyes and tried to visualize the symbols from the page. They came intto my mind preturnaturally easily and clearly. WOOSH! The spell went off, knocking Michael back into his bed for the third time since I had so rudely barged in.

“Woah.” said Michael in what neither of us were able to appreciate as a perfect Keanu Reeves impersonation. “I wanna try.”

I handed him the spellbook. “Gust of wind, page 32. All I did was concentrate on the symbols.”

He opened the book, found the page, stared at the symbols and… nothing happened. “It’s not working” he said.

“Here, lemme try.” I took back the book, and as soon as I layed eyes on the page, WOOSH! Michael’s personal belongings were thrown into even further disarray than after the first time. “Uh… I dunno. Try a different spell?”

–

Michael tried every single spell in the book, to no avail. I tried one other spell, Fireball, but after that inadvertently destroyed his wardrobe he wouldn’t let me look at the spellbook anymore in his room.

“We’ve got to tell the king.”, said Michael.

“The king’ll be asleep right now… come to mention it, I’m incredibly tired myself. I never got to bed with all the guards clomping about.”

“Very well. We’ll seek an audience first thing in the morning. Try not to destroy anything else before then.”

“Mm… sorry ’bout that. See you in the morning.” I walked back to my room and fell asleep the moment I touched my bed.

CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK

A guard outside my quarters. There was had been a lot more military presence in the castle since Guardia had fallen. The Empire wouldn’t have attacked us while they stood. We were a small kingdom, not worth anyone’s time. There were no roads that lead here from empire lands that did not pass through Guardian territory. With Guardia’s defeat, however, we were simply the next plot of land on empire borders and we were ripe for the picking. That said, I have no idea how a guard in the middle of the basement of the castle would be able to do anything to fend off invasion. But that wasn’t my problem. My problem was that I couldn’t stay asleep with all the noise they were making.

Silence. Perhaps the guard had left. Perhaps it had occurred to them to go patrol somewhere there was actually a point in guarding. I closed my eyes and drifted back to sleep.

CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK

Damn. Well, if I couldn’t sleep, I may as well do something entertaining. I decided to go to the library. It was the only thing that would be available this time of night.

When I got there the room was empty. Well, except for the books. The usual librarian must’ve been pressganged to help build the walls that were going up outside the castle. He had been a construction foreman before retiring to the easy life of sitting in a chair and watching people read the books. That’s alright. I liked the privacy.

By some fortune, I found myself browsing through the old spellbooks that were archived there. Magic had once been very prevalent in the world. People traveled across the sky in enchanted carriages. One man with a pile of rocks and some free time could build a castle with naught but his mind. Commoners conjured their own food when they were hungry. Until, (slowly, very slowly) magic began to fade. Carriages flew slowly, and landed before their destination. Enchanted rocks tumbled along the ground instead of whizzing into the sky to form magnificent spires. Conjured food became bitter and unfilling. Eventually, magic vanished altogether. The few people who still used carriages fell to their deaths. The many people who lived in magically constructed buildings were crushed as rocks piled on top of each other without mortar realized they had no incentive to continue to support heavy ceilings. Massive famines killed most of those who survived as what little agriculture had been developed was abruptly called upon to feed the entire populace of the now much hungrier world.

But that was a long time ago. Before I was born. Before my parents were born.

Still, the old spellbooks had an allure to them. They smelled of dust and a kind of paper nobody even knew how to make anymore. I pulled one off the shelf at random.

Most of the book was written in old Alternian, which I could mostly read. The spells themselves however were written in arcane symbols the likes of which I had never seen before. I stopped to look at the symbols for a spell that the description told me would cause “a blast of wind”. They were mesmerizing…

CRASH! In front of me, a bookshelf fell over.

“Shit!” What just happened? I ducked behind another bookshelf to hide. … After the rubble had settled there was silence. It couldn’t have been empire soldiers. There was no one else in here. Had *I* done that? No, it was impossible. The shelf must’ve just been off balance before and taken a while to fall. I decided to clean up the mess and go back to bed.

But… No, I couldn’t not check. I grabbed the spellbook and another book and took them out into the hall. I stood the other book on its edge and sat a few paces back. I opened the spellbook and concentrated on the same runes from before.

WOOSH! The other book tumbled down the hall. One of the torches that lined the walls went out. I didn’t bother to relight it. I didn’t even bother to pick up the mundane book I’d knocked over. I just ran upstairs as fast as my legs would carry me.

Magic had returned to the world.