Chapter 18: Glowing

Shiori felt the shadows struggling to pull free and stand. Her mother’s quick thinking in reading aloud had resisted their attempts to pull Shiori and Tsubame from this reality into a more accessible one.

It was early evening. Shadows pooled on the narrow street of their sleepy neighborhood. Each shade pool was a portal for things trying to enter.

Shiori’s thoughts cleared as her racing heart was due to running, not panic.

Otonashi was getting close, but he approached through Shiori’s bedroom window. He couldn’t see them on the other side of the house, and they were quickly running down the street and about to turn the corner.

Her mother knew about Kryptopeda. She had a copy of The Last Word. Shiori had searched for months, and there was a copy with her old baby things?

A thought burned through her mind: Kryptopedian Princesses were always born in Kryptopeda.

They turned the corner. Otonashi was still at her house, looking for her. He must not feel her location through her connection to his true name. That was good. She could hide from him.

Why was he coming to her house, if not to get revenge for his stolen Grimoire? Did he detect her communication with Motohara through the mirror?

Thinking of Motohara made her want to be by his side, but her headache also spiked.

They ran around another corner. The shadows grew inevitably darker. Things struggled against reality’s borders. Red eyes opened in the shadows.

Tsubame’s house was one block further.

Motohara. She wanted to be next to him. Tsubame didn’t remember him being at school until recently. Shiori knew he was popular. All the girls talked about him. But she couldn’t remember actually seeing him until about a week ago.

Another thought burned through her head with a spike of pain: the shadows had attacked only after she’d spoken to Motohara in the mirror.

Motohara knew about magic in Kryptopeda. How had Motohara learned so quickly?

They rounded a corner and Shiori sped up upon seeing Tsubame’s house. But the shadows were waiting. Shadows circled around the three. They were surrounded by sharp claws attached to inky black bodies with vicious red eyes.

Shiori tried to think, but all she could focus on was her headache and the Speaker at their school weaving spells that Otonashi had used to complete his disguise as the popular new transfer student.

Why did the spells Otonashi took over make him a popular transfer student?

The shadows quickly closed their circle, holding long claws forward to fence in Shiori, Tsubame, and Shiori’s mother.

They sprang forward.

Shiori inhaled and focused. She yelled “STOP!” and the word echoed off every soul within earshot. She put everything into the spell, like in the playground.

Only now she knew what magic felt like. She used it intentionally. Symphon was right, a spell had been cast in the playground that alerted him to where she was her presence. It had been cast by Shiori.

The shadows stopped, perfectly still, like black statues.

Shiori’s mother gasped

“You did that in the playground,” Tsubame said in amazement. “That was magic?”

“I guess so,” Shiori said.

Shiori collapsed just before the steps to Tsubame’s house.

“Shiori!” her mother said.

But her mother’s voice was distant. The headache grew until there was no room for her thoughts. She tried to stand, but failed.

She was so tired. So confused. And she was glowing.

Shiori looked at her hands in confusion. She was glowing, at first with a subtle light but it grew stronger.

She had seen this before. She struggled through the headache and remembered when Tsubame glowed as the spell over her mind broke.

Shiori’s mind shattered. Tsubame had trusted Motohara, but couldn’t remember why. Motohara had… Shiori cried out at a spike of pain. She glowed brighter.

The last thing she remembered of the light was seeing shadows were obliterated by it, just like the light Otonashi had used in the temple. The last to be eaten away by the light were the hateful red eyes.

When Ribald tried the first portal, Motohara was pulled through instead of Shiori. Motohara had the presence of mind to grab the Anchor and run.

How was Motohara so prepared to survive Kryptopeda?

Ribald told Otonashi there was a Speaker near the Princess casting a spell.

Shiori closed her eyes against the brightness of her own skin.

She remembered Motohara, leaning in with a lopsided smile. “Would you go out with me?” he said. His words had reverberated in her, striking her like a hammer might strike a bell. She remembered a cool calm filling her mind.

She hadn’t known about magic then. She knew better now. She could recognize a spell being spoken. A spell making her to want to be with him. As she remembered Motohara’s spell, it shattered.

Shiori collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

She awoke coughing. Her mother was shaking her shoulder. Disoriented, she recognized the entryway foyer inside Tsubame’s house.

She wasn’t glowing. How long had she been out? It felt like seconds but she couldn’t be sure. There were no clawed shadows. She reached out to Otonashi, thinking ‘Symphon’ in her mind.

He was outside, searching the street, but didn’t know which house was Tsubame’s.

Shiori sat up with Tsubame’s help. Shiori needed time to think. The world had gone crazy in the last few days.

“Oh, you’re alright!” her mother exclaimed upon seeing Shiori’s confused look.

“Shh,” Tsubame shushed, “they might still be out there.”

“They aren’t, I don’t think,” Shiori said. Her mouth tasted funny. “But Otonashi-senpai is out there.”

Shiori turned to Tsubame as the dizziness and weakness faded. She felt clearer and more awake than she had in days. “Tsubame, you were right. Motohara is a Speaker. He has to be from Kryptopeda.”

Despite knowing something was off, Tsubame looked surprised.

“He spoke a spell on me when he gave me the book. How did he find it? How did he know to survive Kryptopeda and learn magic so quickly? You didn’t give me to a guy you couldn’t trust, Tsu-chan. He cast a spell on you too. That spell broke right before the first shadows attacked. That’s why you glowed.”

Tsubame sat back on the floor, knees folded under her. “So, there was a spell on you too then?”

Shiori tried to stand but felt a touch dizzy. “He called magic users Narrators instead of Speakers.” Her mind raced through Kawamura’s books. “Some clans of Speakers call themselves Narrators. They prefer mind control magic. They’re dangerous.”

Shiori finally stood, looking at her mother.

Her mother didn’t look back, but reacted by clutching The Last Word. “We wanted to tell you, Shiori. Your father hadn’t told me he’d been to that place before we married. He thought he’d left that part of his life behind when he returned.”

Shiori felt like sitting down again. “Wait, father was one of the heroes taken to Kryptopeda?”

The woman nodded, eyes locked on the book. “Your,” she emphasized the next words, “adoptive father. One day you wrote him a note that stirred powers he hadn’t touched in decades. Your powers had awoken. Everything you write is imbued with power. It all started when you found that first damned book.”

Shiori leaned back. She wasn’t used to hearing her mother swear.

“Shiori, we meant to tell you. We were afraid. Your father told me how terrible that world can be. We never managed children of our own, and then that woman came.”

“Your father knew her from Kryptopeda. She offered us a child, and twelve books. The last one was blank, including the cover. No title.” She held up her copy of The Last Word. Wait, could her mother not read the cover? “We promised to give them to you as soon as you could read.”

“After we talked on the couch today I checked and found your story written inside in the blank book, Shiori. The woman swore that you weren’t her child, but I saw the tears she tried to hide as she let you go.”

“Mom?” Shiori asked.

The woman broke down in tears at the word.

Shiori noticed too late that Otonashi had found them. He was at the door when a knock sounded.