Chapter 24: Story

Shiori found a clean, dry spot to sit atop a pile of rocks. The cave entrance was a sunken hole in the ground surrounded by trees.

Sunlight trickled through the leaves, warming her face as she sighed.

Time to read. Time to think. Shiori opened the book and set aside the small note that said, 'From Masahiro Motohara'.

She read her story, but she wasn’t the same girl anymore. In the last few days she had grown and changed.

She read about her attempts to reach out to Motohara as he fell through the portal, a boy aiming to deceive her. He had pushed her away from a portal to another world, perhaps to make sure she didn’t fall into enemy hands.

She remembered the headache as his spell faded from her, the same spell Otonashi had used to disguise himself and take on Motohara’s fake persona as a foreign transfer student that had all of the girls enamored.

But Motohara was actually Mores Praetor. Otonashi was actually Symphon.

It made sense now. The spell over Tsubame had been particularly strong, since Mores needed her to set him up with the Princess. Like all mind magic, the spell broke once the target knew of the spell’s existence.

The Reversed Mirror opened, letting her see Mores. As the spell over Tsubame broke, the mirror absorbed the energy and vibrated powerfully. It went black when Mores cast a spell through it into her world, sending shadows, the Umbrae, to attack.

He must have planned to have the shadows capture her, and somehow bring her to Kryptopeda, to Duke Praetor. Portals between the worlds weren’t easy, unless one was a powerful Royal.

Shiori hadn’t known about her power when she had unwittingly spoken a spell to stop the shadows. Symphon had found and saved her because her spell in the playground had given away her location.

It all seemed fairly obvious now, reading about the events days later.

Had Symphon fallen in love with her in the playground? He had drawn her in a book of his personal secrets. She almost thought his name and reestablished the connection, but feared feeling his pain at her betrayal again.

She left the barrier up and kept reading.

As she read, she understood the Reversed Mirrors better. Absorbing a little power let them connect. Reading a book did that. More power made them vibrate, and allowed Speakers to cast magic into the other world, or open a portal.

She had given Mores power when she wrote him words to read through the narrow Reversed Mirrors. Only Mores had read those words, so their power was his alone. That power had been enough to tear open a portal using the Reversed Mirrors.

Each time a spell was cast through a Mirror, it went black. They had gone black during each shadows attack, but also when Shiori had said “Come back to me.”

Another unintentional spell she had cast. She heard Mores climbing the cave’s sloped stone floor. She could feel the spell she had cast on him now. “Come back to me,” it beckoned to him.

The spell he cast on her when giving her the book had been what Ribald felt before opening another portal, the portal into which Mores fell. The spell he had cast was also simple, “Would you go out with me?”

The spell had made her yearn to be with him. It was obvious now that she was reading the book instead of living those moments.

Symphon had sacrificed everything, even his loyalty to his people, to help her. Mores was under the control of Duke Praetor, a powerful Narrator known for using mind control magic.

She could feel that in Mores. She could feel her spell controlling him, and over a dozen other spells on his mind. She felt spells that must have been from Duke Praetor controlling him. He was a puppet, and he was completely unaware of those other spells.

Now she was stuck in Kryptopeda, a realm of imagination locked in eternal war and cursed by a word spoken by the last Princess. And she was the next Royal.

Mores was a Praetor. She needed to avoid Duke Praetor. The Praetors were dangerous enemies who loved to manipulate, capture, and enslave.

Should she have let Symphon kill Mores? Her mind said yes, but she couldn’t watch someone die like that. A week ago she was a simple girl starting high school. She wasn’t a killer.

But in protecting Mores, she had betrayed Symphon. And it was a deep betrayal. He had lost his mother to the Praetors. He hated them, and they wanted to kill him and regain the power he had stolen.

It was a mess. She closed The Last Word and looked up.

Mores stepped from the cave’s darkness into the sheltered light under the trees. The forest floor had sunken and collapsed to reveal the cave, and the mouth was at least two meters below the level of the trees.

Mores’ arm was healed. The cuts and scratches to his body and face were healed.

“How did you know?” he asked after an uncomfortable silence.

Shiori looked at him, but didn’t answer.

“I was taught pain was a peculiar and useful tool for controlling others. A weapon in a fight. I didn’t know pain could heal. How did you know?”

Shiori ran a hand over The Last Word’s cover.

“How do you know so much about Kryptopeda and the Praetors?” he paused, stepping closer to her. Her spell commanding him to come back to her drawing him forward. “How do you know so much about me?”

She should hate him. He manipulated her, sent shadows to capture her, and pulled her to Kryptopeda. But she could feel the spells that warped his mind. The spells on Tsubame and herself had vanished when they became aware of them. He was an unwitting victim.

She had no time for hate or regrets. She needed to act. “Was I not supposed to know about you, Mores Praetor? Your mission was supposed to be secret?”

He winced. “I had no choice.”

“I believe you,” she said.

He stepped closer and she stood.

She wasn’t a match for him yet. Perhaps as a Princess, a Royal, she’d master incredible power some day but she was worse than a novice in magic now.

“How did you know?” he asked again.

“Do you want the answer?” she held out a hand.

He looked at her hand, confused, and stepped forward. She lightened the pull on her ‘come back to me’ spell, and he stopped.

“Emporia,” she said simply, nodding to her outstretched hand.

“You know what an Emporia is? How?”

She smiled. “That sounds like a question for an Emporia, right?”

He considered her hand. Emporia were a way for Speakers to exchange information, but they weren’t completely safe. There were tricks, and the Praetors were among the most tricky and untrustworthy of the warlord tribes.

Mores narrowed his eyes. He could fight her and likely overpower her. But he had just opened a portal, cutting down his already low power. His remaining power had been recently expended when healing himself.

What was more, he might harm Shiori if he tried to overpower her. He looked from her hand to her eyes.

Shiori strengthened the ‘come back to me’ spell to entice him to follow her lead. She felt bad manipulating him. He had done the same to her. She was desperate and needed to know more.

He nodded and grabbed her hand. His hand was warm and strong.

After a moment to focus, she said, “Emporia.” Even as she said it, she wasn’t sure if she had managed it right. Magic was still new to her, and she had only been involved in an Emporia once before.

But the magic worked. Power rang out from her voice and surged through her like water through a fire hose, or air through a trumpet.

Mores frowned, then smiled. “Emporia.”