Entering the Night

 Adelyn darted back and forth across the library in the mansion, she needed to have everything set up for today. At least, before they came.

Two chairs, check. Magical compendium, check. Makeshift stage with curtain, check.

The young girl had been working overtime. She had promised two very important people, Rumia and Mr. Svector, that she would show them her magical progress today in a big and fancy show. It was REALLY important that she was going to impress them.

Adelyn never really went outside of this mansion, after all. The books here called to her too much. She learned to read before she could learn to walk, even. That was when she learned about magic.

And she thought that it was the coolest thing ever.

Imagine, being able to move objects with your mind, being able to ask the world to do what you want, and just looking awesome while doing it! Those heroes in the stories always had the right idea.

But what is a hero without someone to share how cool they were? That’s why she needed to make a great impression. Plus, she’d get showered with compliments and praise, and who doesn’t like that?

Though, it obviously was not just that. A little voice in the back of Adelyn’s mind nagged her a little bit. She has been living in this mansion for her entire life. Mr. Svector and Rumia always took care of her for all of that time and everything had been very simple until this point. Rumia always played with her and kept her happy, while Mr. Svector watched her grow up, taught her magic, and kept her safe.

She was twelve now, going to turn thirteen in a few months. It felt like it’s been a long time since she’s done anything nice back for them. That would change today, she reckoned. She had a perfect gift for them.

Or well, a perfect work-in-progress gift. But that was besides the point.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

“Can I come in?”

Adelyn’s attention snapped to the door. She realized that she had been caught up in her mind for too long. In a brief moment, she rechecked to make sure everything was ready.

Luckily, she did prepare early. No last minute changes for this young magician.

“You can come in!” Adelyn walked towards the door and opened it, revealing the person behind it.

“Hello, Rumia!” Adelyn said.

“Hello, Adelyn,” Rumia responded.

Rumia glowed. She literally glowed. A quiet golden light shimmered through the opening of the door from the other girl’s body. Her hair, her dress, and even her red eyes glowed as she appeared in the hallway. It was certainly a strange characteristic, and both she and Mr. Svector didn’t exactly know why it happened. Adelyn never questioned it either. When they were growing up together she just got used to it eventually.

Though, that did leave one thing on her mind.

“Where is Mr. Svector?” Adelyn asked, as she was hoping he would show up.

“Work. The bar keeps him late,” Rumia responded. “You're probably going to have to catch up with him later.”

“Ah,” Adelyn was a little bit disappointed at that mention. This wasn't the first time that work had kept him late, and going all the way out into the city from the mansion was a long trip anyways, but she was hoping that he could make it.

“Hey, hey,” Rumia said, putting a hand onto Adelyn's shoulder. “You still have me, of course! Plus, I’m sure he’d love what you’re doing here anyways.”

Adelyn looked back at her, and smiled. That was right. At least she had one pair of eyes on her. She ought to not waste the show.

“That's right!” Adelyn said before pushing Rumia inside. “I'll actually just do a special show for him later! But now, this one is just for you.”

Rumia was dragged by Adelyn into the chair, being sat down as the only guest of honor in the theater. Adelyn then walked up to the stage, dusted herself off, and spoke.

“Welcome to Adelyn Conteuse's Monthly Magical Report! This is volume 1 of my monthly thoughts, experiments, and findings from the wonderful world of magic!”

Adelyn spun around on the last sentence, and that led to a clap from Rumia. She appreciated that, but now was not the time.

“Please save your applause until the end!” Adelyn said. “We all know the basics of magic, yes? The channeling of your internal energy to manifest from your body, blah blah blah… It makes cool things happen! So, we can probably skip that and get to what exactly I’ve been learning! These meetings are an open discussion, so! Rumia, our guest of the hour, any questions?”

Rumia sat for a moment and thought but then she snapped her fingers and pointed back at her.

“Telekinesis magic, you're not very subtle about that when we're reading together.”

Adelyn was a little bit embarrassed at being called out like that, even if she was hoping Rumia would bring it up. Though, it was not like she kept her desire to learn that magic a secret or anything.

“Yeah! You know how much it sucks to have to ask for Mr. Svector to get a plate from a tall drawer or find a stool to stand on?” Adelyn said.

“Yeah, cause you're short.” Rumia playfully jabbed.

“You're not that much taller!” Adelyn retorted. “Regardless, considering that fact. You would be happy to learn that I'm a telekinetic genius!”

Adelyn puffed her chest out in pride.

“Really? I remember Mr. Svector warning you that telekinesis is one of the harder kinds of magic to learn.” Rumia said.

“That is true. But luckily, I'm not one to back down from a challenge,” Adelyn said before she snapped her fingers. At that moment, multiple books from the library shelves came floating around her, spinning. “With this versatile magic, all shelves are within my fingertips and none shall escape me!”

Rumia giggled a little bit at Adelyn's display. That made Adelyn happy, she was having fun with this after all.

“Well,” Rumia said. “Outside of destroying tall shelves, what about that other thing? The summoning magic, yeah?”

“Yes! I was just about to get to that,” Adelyn said as she dismissed the flying books, but keeping one. “I think this is better shown than talked about.”

Adelyn put her hand in the book, and opened it. From her hands, a glowing energy manifested as she began to speak a chant.

“Bring the ground and bring the sky, let the spirit of nature come to life!”

Adelyn did not need the chant, but she knew from reading heroic stories that it was necessary for the factor of cool. As she spoke, leaves began to flutter in the air around the two girls as a gust of wind blew through their hair.

As everything settled, a girl in a green dress and a glowing white aura spawned in the room.

“Hold on a second…” Rumia got out of her seat. “Is that…?”

“Yup! It's the Spirit of Nature, Viridia! Remember when we read that story about the Seven Great Spirits of the World? With a little bit of summoning magic, I can call them to us!”

“Oh, wow… I never thought I'd actually see something like this in person! It's so realistic too!”

“It's like a projection of the story, she can even do the things Viridia can do!”

“So she can shoot vines? Control plants? That's so awesome! Do you have more, I'd love to see Ignis… or Eira… or…”

Rumia began listing off a bunch of spirits. Adelyn responded with a smile and a wave.

“I do have the other spirits, though only them. It took a lot of study of this one book just to get them, I'll show you the rest later,” Adelyn responded. “There is still ONE more thing I need to show you!”

“Oh, okay!” Rumia nodded and sat back down in her seat. Adelyn went behind the curtain to take a breather.

This is going great! she thought. Rumia was both entertained and interested, she got to show off her cool magic, and then she could surprise her with the final gift. The coup de grace, so to speak.

“Please bring your attention!” Adelyn loudly spoke from behind the curtains, before dropping them and revealing her final display. “To the greatest magical development of our lives!”

“Adelyn, that's an empty door frame,” Rumia said.

Adelyn proudly walked in front of the doorframe and smiled.

“It may SEEM like an ordinary door frame, Rumia. But it's way, way better than that. If you were to let me explain.”

Adelyn leaned back onto the doorframe, before beginning to explain.

“So, you know how we don't really travel that much?” Adelyn said. “Cause, we kind of live in the woods and all. Don’t go out of here.”

“Yeah?” Rumia said.

“What my theory is, this door could fix that all for us!” Adelyn explained. “With just a little bit of magic and a little bit of science, I believe you can travel anywhere you can think of! Think about it, Mr. Svector can go to work easily without taking forever. Or maybe we can travel to an amazing castle or something!”

“Really? That’s amazing! If that’s the case, how did you make the door?”

Rumia’s interest seemed piqued.

“I… found it. Between one of the shelves when I was practicing my telekinesis. But, I figured out how to make it work! Kinda! A bit!” Adelyn said.

Obviously she didn’t actually make this door. In fact, she barely knew how this door functioned. But, she figured that it would be best to make a good impression regardless.

“How does it work then?” Rumia inquired once more.

“Well, as I said it’s kind of a prototype. I… can’t actually make it travel anywhere I want. But, I’m working on it! Right now, I’ve gotten to the point where it can display the place I want to go. The transport probably has something to do with spatial magic, which I’m not too good at yet. But- but- but-! I can show you the prototype function!”

Adelyn rambled on a little bit, but she shook her head out of it.

“Do it, then. I’m curious,” Rumia said. “How about you make a nice beach! We’ve read about those beautiful sunsets before, I would love to see it myself.”

“You got it!” Adelyn said. “Come up here and I’ll show you.”

Rumia nodded and got up, before standing in front of the doorframe alongside Adelyn. Adelyn was preparing herself. This was probably her biggest project here, and if it worked then it would probably be the best gift ever.

One deep breath in, then another came out. Adelyn closed her eyes. Magical energy flowed out of her hands and into the door, and she imagined a beautiful beach that she read so much about. A relaxing and calm location.

It went into the door, and then Adelyn opened her eyes. Inside the doorframe, an image appeared. However, there was no beach. It was an image of pitch black.

“Hm? That doesn’t look like a beach to me,” Rumia came closer to examine it.

“Huh…? Wait, I swear it was working earlier. What happened this time? I thought I did it perfectly!” Adelyn said.

“Hey, it still worked. Kind of, just not in the way you thought. It’s a work in progress, I’m sure you’ll get it working soon!” Rumia tried to encourage Adelyn. She was about to respond before suddenly she was cut off by a loud noise.

RUMBLE- RUMBLE-

Suddenly, everything shook. Books fell off the shelf and the two of them caught their balance and began looking around.

“Hey, Adelyn. You felt that right?” Rumia asked.

“Yeah… I’m not sure what happened-” Adelyn said before turning back to the door, and suddenly she stopped. The image that was once contained within the door began leaking out, causing the space around them to turn black.

“Hey, Adelyn. Can you stop it?” Rumia said, backing away.

“I…I’m not supplying it with magical energy! I don’t know how it’s doing this!” Adelyn said, in a panic. She grabbed a nearby book that fell off the shelf, seeing if she could quickly glean an answer.

But the ground kept on shaking, and suddenly what felt like a strong force began pulling the two girls towards the door. The force dragged at them, as they struggled to hold on.

“Adelyn…! Do something!”

“Rumia!”

Eventually, the two girls were swept off their feet, and dragged away towards the darkness. Adelyn saw Rumia’s glowing light fade into the distance, as the two of them had lost each other.