It was bedtime. The sky outside of her window was dark, though not yet pitch-black; a brilliant few sparkling lights shone in from above: the stars, bringing in their peaceful music of night. Starlight fell asleep on her bed, cuddled in her warm blanket, waiting for the onset of the dreams that she loved. Sleep dulled her senses quickly, before she even knew that it had happened, and suddenly, she was reeling away from the real world, losing contact, faster and faster, dizzy with the excitement of exploring another figment of her dreamscape, falling helplessly into the twilight realm of dreams...

Dawn rose. It creeped up, a bit at a time, and light streaked in from far away toward the horizon. A thin streak of crisp, golden light shone in through the window and formed a growing line of light on the opposite wall. Brightness began to effuse throughout the room, and night, tired of its hours of dominion over the sleepy home, began losing its cosmic battle against the day. Gradually, it dispersed, giving ground, unwillingly, knowing that as she left, as Night left, and Day took over, the people in this cozy home would be awakened, against their will, to rise up and do the chores of living that they would have to do. Yet she could not turn the tide; in time, as time continued to turn its inevitable cycles, Day became stronger and Night became weaker. She did not abandon the ground to him immediately; yet it was inevitable, it would soon end, and nearby Starlight was still dreaming in her world as her body felt around, eager for more rest, despising the dawn of another day, yet her spirit groaned the opposite; it wanted to become active, to do something meaningful, some action, no matter how tiny, that, with its completion, would signify her manifestation in the world.

She opened her eyes. With that one action, the last vestiges of hope and reason for continued existence of Night dissipated, as she realized that Starlight was awake, and could not fall asleep again; the battle was over, and lost. She departed peacefully, and as Day remained victor in the battlefield, all was silent. Starlight remained in her bed, tranquil and blinking her eyes to adjust to the brightness, which was with every passing second growing brighter and brighter. The moments of idleness passed, dropping away into the past slowly, slowly... Her mind cleared. This home looked different from what it was last night--could it be the play of the lights? The place seemed changed, yet she knew where she was, and how she had gotten here; she was familiar to this place, if no one else was. Realizing, at a final moment, that so much time had elapsed and no one had awaken her from her false slumber, Starlight aroused herself yet once more, and pulled herself from her comfort in her bed. Twirling around, she stood up, lazily pushing her long hair aside as if it didn't matter; she was, in a way, still dreamy, not knowing what exactly she was doing; the action came naturally, as it had for the thousandth time. Life was going on. She was awake; she would now participate fully in this greatest endeavor.

Time was dripping on. Starlight changed her clothing, then walked from the bedroom to the hallway, and looked to both sides, half expecting something to happen. Dressed, as usual, in her bed robes, she treaded softly to the bathroom, attempting not to disturb anyone in the house who may be sleeping, and went there to comb her hair. It took here a mere few strokes to get it just right; the mirror reflected her face, but she barely paid any attention to that; she went through her daily ablution and then returned to her room, enjoying the serene tranquil of the home, still and silent. It would not last long.

[edit] Fehu

[edit] A Facade

[edit] Starlight ponders her studies

Her room was not decorated; there was a single door, a single window, and a single bed. Beside her stood a wooden table, on which were placed her books. They were stacked two feet high: her parents had felt the need to pressure her into studying by showing her the amount of material she needed to cover within the next four years. Otherwise, if she failed her examination, there would be no chance for her to participate in the community as a priestess.

Her parents obviously had made a poor decision, as it was very likely that in those four years at least some of the books they had bought would become outdated or too worn for much effective use. Sometimes she fancied taking a match to the books and letting them simply burn...the fresh air from the window would blow it into a firestorm, and even so, it couldn't match with her anger at being given this hefty task to achieve while her parents were--where were they?

From off in the distance, she could hear feet walking over the carpet grass. Two pairs of them. The sounds became slightly louder as they approached the house; from inside, Starlight knew that they were probably coming in to prepare breakfast. She heard bits of the conversation:

"I hope she's studying..." "All that work..." "Repay her debt..."

[edit] Starlight prepares to meet her parents

Starlight quickly sat down in her chair, opened the nearest book on her table, and began to peruse through it, though probably not knowing what she was reading, as all the words were, to her blurry and just-awakened mind, the characteristic nonsense of studying that she was being made to do. For she wanted what all the others wanted, or so she thought: to have fun, to enjoy life while still young, and not work so hard in youth only to enjoy the bittersweet victory of success at old age, when one would be too old to do what one wanted to do but never could while still a child.

The door to her bedroom opened without a creak; she could sense her parents entering, their breathing suddenly changed as they saw how seemingly diligently she was studying. But if they knew that she was merely pretending, the punishment that they might levy on her... But the time for that had yet to come.

As her parents prepared breakfast, they also acknowledged, somewhat too happily: "Good work, darling. It's good that you realize how important these years are to your long-term success in life..."

Silently, Starlight sighed. She turned around and looked at them meekly, resigning herself to the adult-sounding monotony that they would repeat all over again:

[edit] Her parents instruct her

"Yes, with that kind of hard work, there's no way they won't accept you. You'll be a fine priestess, I assure you. Village priestesses have the best life. They don't have to do much, and are so very well respected, and get all that they ask for, especially recognition in the village. There would be no career better suited for you than this one. Four years! Four years more, that's all it takes--we know it's incredibly difficult on you, but this is something that we're sure you can bear it through, and when you do, you'll be so happy that you did it...

"But such a lifetime-scale success must be worked for during your early years. You're still young; you don't know how rough the competition out in the real world may be. But we're not; we're adults, and we can tell you this: that if you study as hard as you can, and put your mind and body into it, you're going to be rewarded in a way that few others in the village could, and in a way something we certainly couldn't."

At this point her mother raised her plow. "You see what we have to do every day. We've given this room for you, so that you'd see, whenever you looked up and out the window, us toiling in the heat of day, working to provide a living for you and to allow you time to study these books, so that when you grow up, you won't have to face the same difficulties and hardships that we had to. You would be able to buy similar books for your children, and still have money left over to journey to distant places, while when we bought these books for you we didn't have anything left over, nothing except some notices of the loans that we had borrowed and must someday repay.

"You're only ten. You should listen to us when we tell you of all the good things that will come in life. No worries... just the next four years, until your examination at age fourteen. Then after that, life is just a free ride sponsored by everyone in the village. It's an opportunity you can't miss..."

Starlight let the parents alternate their speaking roles, while concentrating on drinking her milk (quite a bit of it, as the family was relatively well-off despite her parents' claims to the contrary) and tuning out of their conversation almost entirely. She paid just enough attention to give a meaningful nod every once in a while, knowing that she didn't care a whit about what she said and that she had been studying for the priestesshood for the past three years just to please them. It didn't matter, however, whether they were pleased; she would more likely than not simply fail the examination anyway. Then what would they say? Seven years wasted, and nothing else to turn to at age fourteen, with maybe the possible exception of marriage to some man some two years further down the road--not a particularly heartening proposition.

[edit] Uruz

[edit] The Status Quo

[edit] Starlight thinks of burning her books

The nearly daily ritual over, her parents departed, ready to do some more farm work to keep the family alive and 'keep Starlight doing her studying rather than wasting her precious time farming'. Starlight turned around a few delayed moments later, looked at the book she had opened and barely read a word of, put it away with a sigh, and fingered the collection until she found the one she was actually reading:

The first one. She had made practically no progress, which was why she thought that it would only be horrors, not heavens, that would come to her once she had finished her exam. Why am I doing this, she thought. There must be something better to do in this world, something that I haven't been able to find because I'm effectively locked up in this house, at least until I turn fourteen--and by that time, it would probably be too late to go looking for something to do. I would have to begin looking for it sometime soon.

The match. I want a match. And a coarse surface, too, so that the first swipe will ignite the wood. Then the entire collection that my parents had so painstakingly collected will go down in ashes...and when they come back to check on me, I too will have vanished, and their dreams for me as village priestess will have vanished into the ashes as well.

The matches and matchbox were right under her bed. They had been there for almost a month now. Someday soon, she thought. Someday I will free myself from this mental captivity, and run away from home, to go live the life that I love...the life I want to live in my dreams. But then, as she looked back at her parents through the window, with the sun streaming in, and the sweat on their skin, she wonderered, if not for the thousandth time, how she could do this--how she could destroy their one hope for her and indirectly for the salvation of their souls, their greatest dream yet her greatest nightmare...

No. I won't light the match. That would come later. As I have said to myself for the hundredth time: today isn't the right time; wait for tomorrow. And so on. And so on.

[edit] Starlight falls asleep while reading

Starlight turned back to her studying, and tried to read the text yet again. But, try as she might, the material would not click: I don't have the talent to become a village priestess, she thought. If everyone could do it, then the position wouldn't be so great a trophy for anyone. And then she gradually zoned out, re-entering the world of her dreams, falling asleep onto the book as the hands propping up her head collapsed, and she nestled in the comfort of the two sides of the book, losing track of time, as the dawn evolved into morning.

She was in the beautiful countryside of Bahasa, her home village; the sky was a beautiful shade of blue with fluffy golden and pink clouds racing across. A strong wind was blowing her way, and she was running. She turned back, and saw nothing; but knew that there was a darkness approaching, something that she could sense yet not sense, and it frightened her. She kept on running, further and further in the gleaming yellow grain-fields, as fast as her slippers could carry her. The decorative ring she had gotten for her seventh birthday came flying off as her hand scraped a bunch of leaves, and so she halted. Looking around, she groped for her lost prize, the ring that meant so much to her, but couldn't find her. The time was ticking away: she sensed a darkness lurking, coming closer and closer with every moment. The winds were blowing, fiercely now, so that the ring could have rolled far away; she cried out: "My ring! Where's my ring? Come back to me!"

But no answer from the ring. So she stretched out her hand, tried to sense where it was, knowing that the magic of her own belief in herself was enough. She raised her outstretched hand back in the direction from where she had come rushing, where the darkness loomed.

She was running out of time, she realized. There was a menace approaching. And she knew that it was the truth. As the elders always said, dreams never lied. They always came true in the end, though it may be far away and hidden in the murky water.

[edit] Starlight's magical vision

Something's got to let go. And I can't let myself fall apart. Something's got to give, to change. Things can't always stay the way they have been for so long. That was what my dream is trying to tell me. Maybe I can find it out on my own, she thought. Maybe I should go exploring the world, the way I explore the world of the dreams. Only now, the real world is catching up with my dreams...

She tensed even harder, imagined a silver thread connecting herself with the ring--knowing all the same that the time was dripping away--and as she saw a bright glow shine in that direction, she heard a deafening boom; something had let go, something that had been inside her had at last started to give way; now all she had to do was bring it to its conclusion.

Meanwhile, in her soul she could feel that she had linked back with her ring, and so she strained, contorted herself so that the very force of her mind would pick up the lost object.

And from far away in the golden stalks of grain came rushing forth toward her outstretched finger, the gold, glistening.

It was magic.

[edit] Thurisaz

[edit] Final Visit

[edit] Starlight visits the village

When she came back to attention of her self, she jolted, for some not so apparent reason. Wide awake now, she took up her hand to look at it carefully, and coddled the tiny ring on her finger. It was still there. But of course it was there. Was the dream true? Was there something dangerous headed toward her?

She stood up, and looked out the window. Her parents were toiling far away, following their work-animals and tilling the fields, so she could slip away. After changing into a more appropriate dress to wear in the village, she took off for the nearby village of Bahasa.

The sky was empty. The breeze was calm. There were people milling about, but not many, or at least not until she got to the village. She walked for half an hour before she saw the clutter of houses protruding from the earth--the village. There, things were bustling, people were chatting, and working together at their crafting jobs. There were several hundred houses in the village, and although the next settlement was several day's journeying away, she still had yet to know this nearest village inside and out.

The people looked at her, and were surprised by her appearance. They muttered to each other: "My, she's a beauty." Or: "She's a fine lady. I wonder who her parents are?" Or still: "Haven't seen her kind around here so often." They continued to chat about her until she had passed them. Nearby, a wheelbarrow rolled past, filled with produce to take to the market, and pushed by a man with his children about him; they must live around here for the children to come as well. There were tables and stalls scattered about in the village forum; various places to do whatever one wished to do, whether it be selling, buying, learning, teaching, crafting, smithing...

[edit] A reunion with friends

"Hi there, Starlight," spoke an old man in a clear voice, amidst all the chattering and clanging going on in the background. The place was busy and noisy from dawn to dusk. "You here to find someone?"

Starlight whirled around, rather shocked, until she saw who it was: Old Randy, who had been her friend for years. "Oh, it's you," she half-answered, rather shyly. "I wouldn't have guessed. And yes, I'm here to find someone, of course...I'm here to find everyone!" She slightly raised her voice at the last few words to stress her point.

The old man looked at her, half-suspiciously, half-mockingly, and definitely a bit slowly: "Oh I see. Well then, I guess you'd want to stop by the village wishing well, I hear that's the only place where you can see yourself in your reflections."

Starlight smiled. She knew that the old man was just playing with her. "All I'll see in the reflection is myself, and my ancestry, which is pretty much everyone here," she said, delighted at having solved the riddle. "But no, I'm looking for something...deeper. Hidden away inside my soul."

"Really? Well then I suggest you play with your friends right there." At that, almost as if on que, two eleven-year-old children came bounding up to greet her, with smiles on their faces.

Starlight greeted in kind. "Hey Sam, hey Phae, nice to see you here. What's up?"

Sam answered. "Not much, just following my dad." Meanwhile, the old man departed on his walking stick, a smile still stuck on his face with the knowledge that his protege Starlight was gaining knowledge by the moment.

[edit] Starlight tries to break her bonds with home

Starlight nodded. She would have to part with them soon. You're just an irritation, an obstacle, she thought. If you weren't here I would be more easily able to break apart from this world, and go somewhere else. You're all keeping me in here, in a realm where I have no reason to stay in, have no love for. And when I do leave? Will you have forgotten me by the time I return? In ten years, will we still be friends? It was a rhetorical question, as she knew the answer: No.

She withdrew, even while nodding at every bit of talk that her two dear friends had to say, even as they hugged each other. She could not allow herself to become emotionally attached to anything now, or leaving would be impossible. That was why I had paid a trip here, she thought. I can't spoil my chance.

Starlight looked toward the old man, who was walking away now. You too are just an anchor holding me here, she said. You're old, and I'm young. We'll have to go our separate ways sooner or later. Why not sooner?

She turned to look at the other people she recognized who were speaking to each other and having a merry time working together, out in the village's main street. Why, this must be the same at dozens of other places in the world, she told herself. Why must I stay here? What does it all mean?

[edit] Upon the steps of the village temple

Starlight continued to walk forward until she reached the village temple, one of the few stone buildings in a settlement of wooden structures. She counted the stone steps. Twenty-four, leading from the base to the peak, arranged in three groups of eight each. She walked up to it, up the first step, then the second. She knew that there were other people looking at her as she stood, alone now, facing the great stone temple which stood out of the ground in all its majesty, dwarfing her by far. From this giant building exuded a powerful aura, one that spoke of ancient times, and, even more so, of power.

No, she could not take the third step. She was not ready for that yet.

Maybe I'll come back, she said. But I can't walk up these stairs just now. So she backed down, and walked away. Just as she turned around, it seemed as if the others, who had been watching her, also relaxed, and averted their gaze from her. They too had trouble getting the nerve to rush to the top of the temple, felt the symbolic significance of its twenty-four steps. They looked once again at the little girl walking away from the temple in defeat. Someday, some of the elderly residents of the village thought to themselves, someday, little girl, you too will be able to arrive at the apex. But not yet. Not yet. Right now you have other things to do.

So Starlight departed from the village, and walked home. Along the way, she disregarded everything that she saw as just an obstacle that she had to leap over. There were ever so many, she realized. And sooner or later, she would have to take the final step.

The sky overhead had its first clouds now; nothing major, just a change in the weather, that was all. And before her stretched a seemingly endless expanse of road, leading off into the horizon, into infinity, into eternity.

[edit] The Winds of Change

[edit] Starlight's birthday

When she returned to her house, it seemed different from what it had been before; her tiredness evaporated as she turned around, looking at the decorations that had been placed on the walls. An assortment of bedazzling ornaments, of all colors, created a sparkling glitter throughout the room, and the light from the window bespoke a different tint: it was nearly evening, and her parents, upon discovering her asleep, must have assumed that she had just taken a midday nap. They hadn't guessed the truth, that she had slept since morning.

It's my birthday, Starlight remembered. My eleventh birthday. Today ends the last cycle of my years, and begins a new one. Today is a day of change. May it be for better...

The sound of knocking on the door. Starlight sat up abruptly, and walked forth to open it. A handsome boy of twelve years peeked in, forming a smile on his face as soon as he saw Starlight. Starlight smiled back, almost shyly; no doubt Andrew had come to wake her up from her slumber and welcome her to her own birthday party being prepared in the hall outside. She pulled the door open completely, and in a jejune, mutual embrace of knowing each other for years as friends, the two hugged.

"How are you? This last year's been a long time. I've missed you so much!"

"Me too! Hopefully your life this past year has been more interesting than mine."

"Why, what's the problem, Star?"

"I've got so much to study for," she replied, as the two walked out into the hall of her house. "I'm preparing for a test. You know, the village priestess exam. And I'm having trouble at it." She grimaced, knowing that this birthday party was both unmerited on her part for her lack of studying this past year, and because it would delay her studying yet again.

[edit] Celebrating Starlight's birthday

The others were waiting outside: Starlight's parents, her friends Grace and An, and the parents of all three guest children, sitting on the chairs around the dining table, with a cake set alone in the middle, and the dancing light of the small chandelier above scintillating around the room. Eleven candles were flickering among the cream, their glows exuding a warmth that she recognized immediately and cherished.

"Happy birthday!" they all shouted in unison. Then they proceeded to sing the happy birthday song, as they had on every one of her birthdays.

"Why thank you! Thank you all so much for coming! Oh, this is going to be fun!" Starlight had practically forgotten all about the work that she had ahead of her. She hugged the other children as well; they were her dearest friends. The four of them had known each other since several years back.

"All right kids, let's cut the cake!" declared Starlight's father as he handed the cutting knife to her. "You're ten years old--it's about time you cut the cake on your own." Starlight gleamed with excitement as she sliced the cake obtusely several times, and pulled out the biggest piece of cake for herself. The spoons were being passed around, and the children greedily plunged into the delicious delicacy. Cakes didn't come around all that often, especially for the children of farmers. Starlight was, as customary, the first to ask for another slice, and within a few minutes the plates were all empty. The birthday party would now begin for real, and they were all tingling with excitement and bursting with anticipation.

[edit] The four go out into the fields

The children had the rest of the day to themselves. Instinctively, Starlight avoided her own room, dreading the return to her studies which she would eventually have to do, and led the others outside into the farms, where the tall grains grew to the height of their heads. It didn't matter that none of them were dressing farmers' clothing; didn't matter that their parents would be displeased when they saw them again with dirt and mud all over; didn't matter what the others would think of them. For now, all that mattered was that they have their share of fun as far away from their parents as they could easily go.

Now, out in the fields and hidden by the tall grains, the children rested. It felt wonderful to be away from their parents, to be with others their own age and who understood them as no others could. The four were now, for however fleeting an instant, making their own choices, in charge of their own fates. It was a freedom and an attunement for nature and companionship that they held dearest to them. So, even though such occasions were not all that common, yet they appreciated it for what it was worth to their young and innocent souls, which could not stay so young and innocent indefinitely.

After they had regained their breath from running for so long, they sat down in the shade of the grains and chatted: about their families and friends, what they had done recently, what rumors they had heard... A person listening in on their conversation would have figured that they lived around a local village named Bahasa, one of the few settlements in the kingdom of Karabala; that various strange tales were to be heard at the local tavern, of mysterious happenings occurring far from their homes; about the guards of the village and surrounding countryside, which were believed by most of the villagers to have magical powers; of great spells that were cast in epic battles, and others so insidious they could never be noticed... the whole gamut and range of childhood stories these four friends told each other.

[edit] The four have thoughts on magic

They were good friends, they all knew, and the four of them--Starlight, Andrew, Grace, and An--drifted through the eaves of time, the eves of nightfall. Before they knew how much time they had spent, night had returned to do battle with the tired day. They looked up, into the violet, pink, and silver sky, the copper clouds and the golden groves surrounding them. They fell silent. From the west blew the common westerlies, carrying with it the scent of mists which would rain the next day somewhere far away, somewhere they wanted to explore; the world was immense to these youngsters, and everything was possible; they wanted to strive for their destinies, and above their relaxed forms as they wasted their time away nestled on the ground, high above them, there the stars watched, twinkled at them, and beckoned.

"You know, Star," Grace began. "It would be nice to have some magic to play with, right now, when the parents aren't watching, and we're here just by ourselves. We could teach each other magic!"

"Great!" exclaimed Andrew. Then he and his hopes dimmed. "We don't have any such magic, though," he spoke out unwillingly. The others all calmed down.

Grace spoke next. "Isn't it strange, that there's so much magic, as the rumors say, but that we haven't encountered all that much magic ourselves?"

"Strange indeed," replied An, all to eagerly. "I really want to learn how to cast some powerful spells. It could be of much help when I get driven in a tight corner."

"I suppose so," Starlight agreed with them, still dreamy with the dimming night sky. "We've got our whole lives to find it, too. Or at least you all do. Maybe you'd all want to go explore the wide world someday, and bring me back some of that magic, will you?"

The others were silent in thought, thinking about the possibilities that magic could provide them. How much easier their world would suddenly become!

But that world seemed a lifetime away.

[edit] Ansuz

[edit] The Culling

[edit] Starlight admits to having troubles

Andrew abruptly sat up. "Star, was there something else you wanted to tell me?"

Starlight was confused. What had she said to him, or had tried to say to him? "I don't think so."

"No, I think you did want to tell me something. Didn't you? About your work and the village priestess?"

She remembered, and blushed. "Oh yes, I did..." It was no point keeping it a secret; it would become obvious knowledge a few years down the line of time anyway. She might as well tell them now, just in case they had some suggestions for her. She sighed. "I'm having trouble with my studies."

Andrew watched, obviously upset for this turn of events for his friend. "How come? Haven't you been studying this stuff for the last three years, and aced those tests?"

"I did'... but the fact remains, that I've started to hate the job I'm trying to get." Three years of hard work to get the position was beginning to catch up on her zeal for achieving that goal. "I don't like it at all. Even if I do get accepted, I won't want to become priestess. Besides, I probably won't be accepted. It isn't meant for me. But I can't back out now, or I will have wasted those three years--"

"But if what you've just said is true, then you've already wasted those three years. If you keep doing what you've been doing, you'd only waste more!"

[edit] Upsetting Starlight's emotional balance

Starlight shook her head. "But I can't displease my parents!" She looked down, despairing of a solution.

"You know, Star, you're going to anger them some day. Either they will find out that you don't know what you're doing, or you will fail the next exam."

He let the truth sink in. She turned around and faced him, longing for an answer she could accept: "What am I going to do?"

"I don't know! But I don't like having to watch you for four more years as you make no progress at all. Life isn't for wasting. You've got to enjoy it. There's no way you are going to enjoy what you've been doing so far, now or later."

"I would like to be something else for a change." But her voice quivered; she did not dare frustrate her parents, and she did believe in their promises of a joyful life as village priestess...

"You have to find a job you would like, or your life's going to be horrible," said Andrew, as the others listened intently. "They say that people who don't like the jobs they're given can always abandon society and go live with the rogue clans. Why not do likewise?"

"They scare me," she answered promptly, then turned away from him, brushing. Even though she was a girl, she still didn't want to appear weak to her friends. Then she added: "I don't want to go out alone. I don't even know where they are. I don't know if they're going to accept me. I don't even know if they exist for real!"

"Oh yes they do. My father told me so, even after I questioned him on their being real," declared Grace.

"Parents can say all sorts of things," Starlight retorted matter-of-factly.

[edit] The four plan to run away

"But Star, that doesn't change the situation. You can't keep on going the way you are, and there's no place you can run to for food and shelter without the adults noticing and telling your mom and dad. The only place you can go, if you are going to run away, is to one of those rogue clans." Andrew stated it as seriously as he could be, and Starlight took the point.

"So you're telling me to run away?"

Andrew looked at her half-incredulously, but it was An who noted, "I've run away countless times."

"Well, you're a boy." To Starlight, that seemed enough of an explanation. Boys could run around all they wanted, but girls were supposed to stay at home and follow the rules that society had set for them.

"So?" said An. "That doesn't change the fact that I did run away, and that you can too. I'm going to become a spellcaster, see? My parents look down on that kind of stuff, and want me to grow up just like them, a farmer. But do I? NO! And when I run away, I go into the forest. There's all kinds of queer happenings in there, and sometimes you get the most unusual inspirations. It's said that some spirit shards of Tyrael still reside there, waiting to be discovered. Who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky."

Starlight was baffled. Maybe her friends were right. Maybe she should run away with the rest of them, if only she could.

The others saw that she was wavering. An kept the momentum going. "There's so many things that you can do in this world, if only you would go explore them. This world is large, Star, and if you aren't good at something, try your hand at something else. There's bound to be something just right for you. I know it."

[edit] Andrew reveals some magic

"How can you be so sure?"

"I had the same problem, once. I hated being told that I was to be a farmer, because I didn't want to do all the hard work I saw my parents do. So one day I ran. I ran so far into the woods that I was afraid I was lost. But I didn't turn back. And that was when I realized that you could either stay where you are, or you could go somewhere else. And I found what I was looking for, something that clung to my soul. It's something I still hold with me, only I don't show it to others."

The others all came closer, and whispered, "what is it?"

An ignored the others for the moment. He held out his hand to a nearby paper-tree growing in the farm, and closed his eyes. He muttered some cant, made a clean slicing move with his outstretched hand, and became tense for a split second.

Then, with a fiery glow and a crackle, a branch split apart from the tree, and some hidden hand pulled it toward him. The others watched agape as the branch, its twigs, and their paper-leaves were sucked into the palm of An's open hand. It came to a stop just inside his palm with a gracefulness that could only be admired.

An looked at the amazed Starlight. Even though he was only thirteen, he appeared much more grown-up, much more forceful in what he had to say. "Star, when you see something that you want to strive for, you must go for it. It's the only way to live as a human being. Who knows? Maybe it just will succeed someday. Maybe you'll get lucky, and find the quest of your dreams."

He then plucked off a sheet of paper, a pristinely blank white leaf from the fallen branch. He held it up close for Starlight to see. "Your life is like this sheet of paper. It is completely empty, and lacking meaning. You can write something on it, and you have the quill of your spirits. But this is all the space you get to write on, the space on this leaf of paper--no more, and no less. What will you write on it, what will you do with your life?...

"The ancient sages have a word for this. It is Thurisaz, meaning obstacle, choice, and work."

[edit] Divine Intervention

[edit] Starlight falls asleep

Darkness had descended, the party was over, and it was time to go home. Even though they didn't have much fun, Starlight didn't think of it as a day wasted. They returned home in mediocre spirits, as they realized that the day was gone and that the next time they would meet all together like this would likely be a month from now. The adults said good-bye, and they departed for home, walking in three groups into the growing darkness. The cycle was complete; night had triumphed over day; and it would be only a few hours before the cycle would begin all over again. She had better get some sleep, so she proceeded to her bedroom, looked at the open book on the table with a disparaging glance, shuddered, and fell into bed.

Sleep dulled her senses quickly, before she even knew that it had happened, and suddenly, she was reeling away from the real world, losing contact, faster and faster, dizzy with the excitement of exploring another figment of her dreamscape, falling helplessly into the twilight realm of dreams...

Her parents, telling her to keep working so hard as she had never done, for great good must come out of it; her own hatred of the books sitting on the table; the match under her bed and only an arm's length away; Andrew telling her that she had to fulfill her dreams; An telling her to take a chance; An striking the branch of the paper-tree with ease from yards away; her failing the examination at age fourteeen; her parents crying as she had never seen them do before, and even more childish than she was; marrying at sixteen with someone who valued her for her body and not for her soul; watching tranquilly as the stack of paper-leaves were consumed by fire in front of her; falling into a spiritual abyss, the grounds of no return. The images swirled through her sleepy mind, telling her about the past, the present, and the future. What path she had to take kept flickering in her mind; she probed as she explored into the various futures open to her, yet with no avail; none of the options seemed attractive, not yet...

[edit] A new day, another hope

She seemed to awaken from the swirling images with an immensely dissatisfying yet vague sense of deja-vu:

Dawn rose. It creeped up, a bit at a time, and light streaked in from far away toward the horizon. A thin streak of crisp, golden light shone in through the window and formed a growing line of light on the opposite wall. Brightness began to effuse throughout the room, and night, tired of its hours of dominion over the sleepy home, began losing its cosmic battle against the day. Gradually, it dispersed, giving ground, unwillingly, knowing that as she left, as Night left, and Day took over, the people in this cozy home would be awakened, against their will, to rise up and do the chores of living that they would have to do. Yet she could not turn the tide; in time, as time continued to turn its inevitable cycles, Day became stronger and Night became weaker. She did not abandon the ground to him immediately; yet it was inevitable, it would soon end, and nearby Starlight was still dreaming in her world as her body felt around, eager for more rest, despising the dawn of another day, yet her spirit groaned the opposite; it wanted to become active, to do something meaningful, some action, no matter how tiny, that, with its completion, would signify her manifestation in the world.

For that was what she had to do. She had put off the inevitable long enough; now was the time for the fateful decision. It was the first morning of the first day of Starlight as eleven years old, a most unusual number; what she had been told was right for the previous ten years had fallen apart in the last one year, and the ten and one were now equal, both being equally viable (or un-viable) options. Would she be able to summon her inner strength to break free, as Andrew and An had advised? At least now, even she didn't know. Yet if she didn't do so now, she would have to do so later.

[edit] Starlight qualms over the status quo

For Starlight had not run away last night, but had instead succumbed to the need to respect the status quo: to remain, and keep on doing what she had done for the years before: obeying her parents, continuing the age-old tradition of respecting one's elders. But what about her peers? Where they to be discounted, were they nothing in anyone else's eyes? The god of the law would soon decide.

One day more had passed; another twenty-four hours of indecision. That translated to yet another day and twenty-four hours of wasted time, when she could have been doing something better, something that she could more closely connect to; something she could cherish, and enjoy. Instead, the day of the next examination was arriving swiftly, and she had used up another day. Time was dripping on. Time was dripping on, despite her lack of consent.

But what would she do, if she decided to abandon her home, her parents, and her current way of life? Now, at least, she had her Fehu: something valuable to live with, if not the best; something to keep her alive, to sustain her, if not to satisfy her. Out there, in the wilderness, an empty nothingness pervaded; the Uruz of lacking and abandonment, of a driving for change at once both self-destructive and indeterminate. The situation, the overwhelming Thurisaz, was not communicable by words; yet there was no avoiding it; it was a choice she would have to make. All three of these glyphs seemed to conspire against her. It was much too uncomfortable for her; once again she felt the need, that primordial instinct, to manifest her presence in the real world.

[edit] Starlight wakes up once again

She opened her eyes. Starlight remained in her bed, tranquil and blinking her eyes to adjust to the brightness, which was with every passing second growing brighter and brighter. The moments of idleness passed, dropping away into the past slowly, slowly... Starlight aroused herself yet once more, and pulled herself from her comfort in her bed. Life was going on; she was awake.

This time, however, things would not be the same. She had grown by too much for that much-hated past to stay.

The next few minutes found her reading the books in front of her once again, in preparation for when her parents would come back and check on her. She looked at the books one more time: just the covers and then skimming through the pages, looking for anything of interest to her. Thousands of pages of text to read. So much to learn. Three years to cover the material and attempt to win the game, or lose it, and be left with nothing. That didn't leave much choice, except that she didn't have to play the game. Nothing. There was nothing interesting in that entire body of several works, absolutely nothing to capture her interest; she was tired out just from scanning the material. Maybe I could actually learn this material, she thought, if only I had a demonstration of how powerful this knowledge could be.

[edit] Starlight decides not to be a priestess

It certainly couldn't compare with the magic that An had showed her last night. That was what she wanted to do when she grew up. The rest was just distraction. A great diversion that had lasted three years, and drained her of much of her childhood. The time of reckoning was come. She would strike out from what was accepted, and forge her own being; she would break from the established pattern and create her own way of things. No god ever said that the current way of existence for her was the just one; there were many opportunities that she could try out.

And she knew just what she wanted to do. And it certainly wasn't to become village priestess. No, the visit last night and the demonstration by An showed her what the world held, what was achieveable. In a single action, it had blown away all the aged and time-worn statements and beliefs that her parents had tried to pound into her. Now, at least, she could be free.

Starlight stooped down under her bed and retrieved the small matchbox. It was nearly full. Taking one in her hand, she looked around to make sure that her parents weren't about to return. Assured that no such thing could happen, she carried the books outside the rear door into the open and dry air and scrambled the pages and books so that it would burn easily. She couldn't simply leave the books unrazed, or otherwise she would be enticed to return, to please her parents. It had to be all-out, or nothing.

[edit] Starlight sets her books aflame

She had changed into her favorite dress, a flowery one featuring lotuses; aside from her clothing and her shoes, she wore nothing else, no decoration. In her purse she had placed the necessary items for immediate survival: some bread, a gourd filled with water, and some assorted coins that she had managed to accrue as her allowance. Soon it would be time to venture forth, out into the open; she did not want to leave without everything she needed. Satisfied, after checking her materials over and over again, she took the match and matchbox, lighted the books with one of them, and stashed the box into her purse.

And here was the first, most primordial of magics: the creation of fire, both the first and the last, the ability to create, and the ability to destroy; the power of life imbued into the visible world, first among the majestic achievements. It was the first, uncertain step that she took; yet it was the most important one. The fire grew steadily, gradually scorching first a few pages, then engulfing the books altogether. The flames flickered red and orange and yellow in front of her bedazzled eyes; she was attracted to its lively dance; she knew not how long she was there, but it did not matter; she watched intently as the licks of flame bore through page after page, turning each and every one of them into a fine, black crisp.

There was no turning back.

Yet I didn't need to. I had, with this action, freed myself from the captivity that had held me here for so long. Now, I could venture out into the open world, with the stars beckoning over the sky and the horizon the possibility. My future is a clean sheet of paper-leaf, and my destiny whatever I choose to write on it from now hence.

[edit] The Departure

[edit] Starlight looks into the river

Starlight gazed out toward the horizon, where the water was glistening with the hope that she had within her that she was doing the right thing. Behind her was the village; there were the people she had known, some for all of her life; there were those places that she knew, that she trusted, that she could call home.

Before her, and still so far away that they were invisible, were others that she had not yet seen and who she may not want to see, and maybe those she did want to see after all. There were also those places which were foreign to her, in which she would not be welcome, and which may or may not try to repulse her.

And she was on the top of a cliff protruding into the great river before her, overlooking the nearest waters; she could see land on the other side, and yet knew that those places were still too close, that she had to venture farther, beyond them, then farther still. The winds of change were indeed blowing here; here lotus dress was blowing wildly around her. The winds carried the edges and folds of her clothing forward, and attempted to move her; yet she stood. A gust blew by, and with it carried Starlight's long dark hair up and straining forward, wisping by her face in a frenzied dance of excitement.

[edit] Starlight pays the boatman for a ride

Never had she felt so free. And freer still she must become, or she would be a slave to her past again.

She stepped down the cliff, looked back upon the beckoning village, and approached the local boatman. She tapped the boatman on the shoulder, and while she brushed her flowing hair aside, the boatman glanced over his other shoulder, before discerning that Starlight was actually on the proper side and whirling back to greet her.

Starlight held up a solitary silver coin toward the sky so that it sparkled and shone.

When the local boatman realized that Starlight meant to go practically alone, with only the boatman to accompany her, he began to sputter protests, but she cut his words off by shyly taking out a silver coin. Then in an alluring voice, she proclaimed to him, almost in a whisper, while holding out the silver coin: "If you would take me up to Lads, I'll give you this silver coin, and another one to keep quiet about what I'm doing here."

"Erm... well, you see,.. well, all right, all right, I'll take you there." In reality Starlight wasn't even expecting any doubt at all. Silver coins weren't easy to come by, especially not for a three-day trip to Lads. It was an offer that the man couldn't refuse, and they both knew it.

[edit] They travel up the river

After paying him the silver coin, Starlight entered the boat, and the boatman began to row her upstream. During that time, Starlight looked back upon the settlement where she had stayed for almost all of her life as it receded into the distance, becoming smaller and smaller but never fully vanishing...

On both sides, the lush greenery of the bush grasses and carpet grasses was immediately apparent, enclosing the two travellers from the hills on the river banks. Soon the banks rose higher and higher until Starlight, from her low viewing point on the boat, could no longer see the tops of the hills. Steep cliffs soon hung on both sides. Through this long voyage, an attempt to quickly get as far away from her home as possible so that she could not return even if she could, Starlight watched as the bright white clouds sailed overhead, as the waters passed her underneath. A small, turbulent but nearly silent wake trailed behind their wooden craft as they sailed upstream. At several points they stopped to take a rest on the river banks; each time the shadow cast by the banks became longer, as the sun steadily rose into its apex and then sank back down, exuding the life-force of Viva and the brute-force of Orsinius.

[edit] Morning turns into evening

Starlight had already pondered where she was going. She would seek out a mage clan from the north, and become a part of their organization, away from society so that she would not be discovered. It was likely that the recruiters would be at a town like Lads rather than a village like Bahasa; there wouldn't be quite as many people to recruit at the latter. But for the moment, she kept the thought to herself.

The golden sun touched the lavender horizon, and steadily began to sink below the surface of the world, casting enormous purple shadows across the river and its banks. On both sides, grasslands were replaced by maple and oak trees, enormous beings rising up and groping for the sky. Starlight felt minute beside the immensity of the verdure that ensheathed the flowing river. Beside her, as she leaned over the edge of the boat to look below, a similar, beautiful face looked upward at her, toward the darkening sky, and shimmered in the water.

The river darkened, as did everything else around the two. Even so, Starlight's hopes warmed; she was, with every passing moment, inching closer to her first destination outside of Bahasa. She would like to entirely forget the latter, and as the sun set at last to her left, she laid down in the boat and watched the stars twinkling above. "I came out here because of your guidance," she told them in a whisper; "And now I'll need your guidance yet again." She continued to gaze upward, toward the sky, which had turned entirely black, waiting for some signal.

[edit] Starlight wonders about her parents

She received none. "Maybe the stars didn't hear me," she thought to herself. "So I'll tell them again." Fixing her gaze on the stars yet again, she whispered, this time louder than before: "I came out here because of your guidance, and now I'll need your guidance yet again as I search for a mage clan to join." The boatman turned to face her, half expecting something unusual to happen--these people were still superstitious, even though the existence of magic was proven by many--but upon seeing, and remembering, that Starlight was merely a child of eleven, he turned back to his work.

Starlight wondered what her parents must be thinking of now. They would have realized that she had been missing, but then they would have seen the books that they had so painstakingly bought for her, turned into ashes, and would have blamed her for all their travails and the failure of their hopes and dreams. They would have deemed her unworthy of being their child, unworthy of being associated with them; they would have regretted holding that birthday party, which was so crucial to her understanding of her situation; they would have cursed her for abandoning them so, after all the plentiness of food, loving, and shelter they had provided her; they would...

Starlight shut out such thoughts immediately; it was too hard for her to bear them. She thought of the other responses that her parents could have had: relief, that she had left them; happiness, that they understood her need to go visit the rest of the world and find her true place, her niche; and anguish. It all came back to that utter anguish of knowing, after it was too late, that one's only child had sought to abandon one's family, to flee from home, to imply no matter how indirectly that somehow, they were at fault for not making their home as welcoming and as bearable as they should have, as almost every other family has been able to do. Frustrated, Starlight steeled her concentration to the fact that what she was doing was necessary, and far more important than any emotions that her parents were to experience; that this was her destiny, and, as An said, she had to stretch out for it, to pull it toward her no matter how hard it would be. So she shut out the thoughts of her parents' sadness and anger, broke her empathic connection to them, and strengthened her resolve to push onward, knowing, as she knew for certain, that there was now no turning back, whatever was to happen afterward.

[edit] Song of the wanderer

Starlight, in her relaxed position in the boat, and looking up to the stars, began to sing:

Oh what path should I take?
Oh what will I do now?
There was a time when the answer
Was shining up high.

But now there seems to be no answer,
No guiding light to follow at all--
And when I ask to the stars high above,
They too give no reply at all.

Well then what do I do next?
I pose this to any who know--
Whether it be what I've done before,
Or something different,
It would be a joy to try it out,
To know that someone knows what to do--
And when things go well, as they should,
Then my soul and I would be at peace.

But now there seems to be no answer,
No guiding light shining the way.
No reply to my earnest question,
Nothing to hold on to.

It seems so simple to those who know;
It seems so hard to those who don't;
But when all's said and done,
There must be a way,

And all I have to do is find it.

[edit] Raido

[edit] The Wanderer

[edit] Starlight decides to land ashore

It may have been just her imagination, but the stars in the sky seemed to smile at her. They arranged themselves into the shape of a smile composed of many twinkling stars, and then into an arrow pointing down to a river bank. Starlight's gaze followed the unusual shape of the stars, thinking to herself that it must be that the stars were answering her hopes now; she traced out the stars with her hand--how bright they were! They cast a gleam upon the dark waters of the Oraganta River at night, sparkling dots both above and below, in the sky and in the streams. Starlight took it on faith and told the boatman in half a whisper, yet breaking the half silence of the stream: "Let us go there to take a break."

The boatman readily consented. He had been paddling onward that entire day, and as soon as Starlight spoke, he was eager to reach land. Then he could rest and not fear the boat going back downstream. He could sleep. And here the river banks were gradual, not cliff-like as they were earlier that evening. It would make a prime time to take a break. Thus, he gradually changed the path of the boat, arcing toward the side of the river and preparing to land.

Even before they landed, Starlight was convinced that it was destiny that told her to temporarily stop her journey here. It was pitch-black outside, with nothing but the stars and the bright round orb of the moon lighting the way; yet it was enough. The boatman didn't know, but then he shouldn't; such messages were only for those who felt it deeply to notice. There, surrounded by the darkess of the night and by the shades of the nearby forest, was a young boy. He was smiling. Starlight couldn't see that, but she could feel it, so she smiled back. The boy waved his hands silently. It's Andrew, Starlight realized. What's he doing here?

[edit] Starlight reunites with Andrew

The boatman was eagerly making a fire with the help of a firestone. He did not notice that Starlight had disappeared... or more specifically, went to the edge of the forest where Andrew was waiting. The two looked at each other. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Same as you're doing, I guess. Running away from home."

"You too?" Starlight could scarcely believe it. Whereas she had a dismal future ahead of her, Andrew was prepared to be a mage.

"Well, after we went home I decided that I couldn't simply let you leave like that, and never see or hear from you again, so I ran to An's house. He was worried too, and had been expecting me, you see. So then we departed for Grace's house, to tell her about what we were thinking of. She too agreed, and so it was arranged that we'd all run away, but not together. I was to run away first. So early this morning when my parents and I went to the stall to buy some trinkets, I slipped away and told a stranger to tell my parents that he had seen the local guard abduct me." He chuckled. "I wonder what they'll be thinking now, if they asked around and the stranger told them my story."

[edit] Andrew confesses his plan

Starlight smiled. "Very charming move right there, Andrew. I'm very happy that you've thought about me last night."

"Not just last night, today and tonight as well," Andrew replied. "I've had to get going in a rush, and carry as few belongings as I could. But this will be exciting, won't it? The four of us, exploring the wilds like this, with no care in the world except ourselves and each other."

"Of course it is! ...But when will the others be coming?"

"Two days from now, An is going to disappear. He's going to--and this is interesting, all right--going to make it appear as if he's abducting Grace. Then that way it'll be three incidents, rather than four, which will be more suspicious."

"Wow, you guys have got it all figured out."

"Of course. We're not children any more, you know. We're teenagers."

[edit] Starlight bades the boatman farewell

"An is. You're not." Starlight gave him a meaningful look, but one that said, "I'm just playing with you."

"What about the boatman?" Starlight asked.

"Oh, he's heard our conversation all right, at least some parts of it. You had better send him off soon, with the possibility of getting another silver coin sometime in the future when you're 'done', so that he doesn't spill his secrets out."

Starlight looked overhead. The trees covered the sky in a great canopy, so that the stars were barely visible. But that didn't matter: she had her best friend with her, and that was a star in itself. And, she added, brighter than the others, for he was closer.

After paying the boatman off, Starlight and Andrew sat down by the riverside fire that the boatman's firestone had lighted. They both had brought some food with them, and so they proceeded to eat their dinner. "So what's my parents been saying, once they realized that I had left?" Starlight asked.

[edit] The two chat alone in the forest

"Well, actually I had left before you did, I figure. So no, I didn't know what your parents were doing."

"You're teasing me, aren't you?" Starlight nudged him, and Andrew smiled.

"Well, if I did lie, then I'll still be keeping it, won't I? I guess it'll just have to be a mystery for now."

"Uernnn," Starlight said as she nudged him again, this time a bit harder, but still playful. "Tell me!"

"No really, I don't know, Star, so quit asking!" Andrew moved over slightly, obviously discomforted by the tone of Starlight's voice. "But we only have to keep waiting for two days, that's the good part; after that, Andrew and Grace will have caught up with us, and we can hear the full story. Then we can depart for Lads."

"Okay, but what are we going to do in the meantime?"

Andrew looked at her, more than half-seriously: "Hope that the wolves don't get us, keep this fire going, have a good sleep, and build a raft. We can't swim upstream all the way to town."

Starlight looked away, blushing. She wanted to know the answer, but didn't really want it to be that. It was too harsh, too explicit. After all, this place was wolf country.

[edit] Into the Darkness

[edit] The two friends bicker

"Don't blame me! I came here to get you so that we could wait for the others!" answered Andrew, defending himself from Starlight's accusation.

"Don't blame you? We're children and this is wolf country and we're going to get killed!" Starlight was vehement.

"Hey, it's just as much your fault that you didn't recall that fact until just about now!" Andrew replied angrily.

"Oh so it's my fault. Right!" Starlight stormed away from him, and in about ten steps realized that she was walking straight at the nearby overhanging cliff. She turned around, face gone completely pink: "You think that was funny?"

"What, almost walking into a cliff? Of course it's funny." He said it with no glee, only with a resounding anger in his voice.

Starlight came back to him, eyes angry and watery at the same time. "How could you--Andrew--you--I thought we were friends! How you've changed in so short a time--"

"Well who asked you to get so angry at me??"

"Oh that's right, still my fault. Gerr!"

[edit] The friends resolve their anger

Andrew stopped speaking for a moment. He sat down beside the fire, even though he was getting very hot. He looked, nay, stared, intently at the fire, but kept his thoughts on his friend--his best friend. What had happened? He couldn't go on arguing like this, but he didn't want to give in, either--it was not his fault, so he had no reason to take the blame for it.

Starlight was still standing, on the opposite side of the fire, looking at him intently, fire in her eyes, waiting for him to make a move or say anything so that the words that she had formed at the tip of her tongue could come flying out and lambast him.

But he refused to speak. Suddenly, things seemed so much quieter. Aside from the gushing water at the edge of the river bank, and the steady crackling of the fire that separated them, there was only the sound of the occasional insect and rustling breeze.

Starlight took a deep breath, and tried to let her anger go. The person before her was her best friend, and if she were to lose him, then the rest of the world wouldn't matter quite as much any more. How she longed for Andrew to still be her friend!

[edit] The friends return to peace

Gradually, their excited breaths became softer and slower. Their heads became cleared out of their charged emotions and the passion of their anger toward each other. So they were still friends. Neither had harmed the other; the shouting was all. Things could maybe get better. Starlight took a tentative step forward, closer to the fire. Andrew, still sitting on the other side, tried to formulate something to say. "Am I okay?" he asked.

Starlight paused; she did not know how to reply. "I... guess so," was all that she could produce. But that was enough, however scant in wording it was; it meant most of a world to them. The two were friends once again, and this time, nothing could pull them away from each other. Andrew stretched out one hand to her, beckoning that she come closer. "I'm sorry," he said. "It was my fault. I should have stopped you from letting the boatman go."

"No, it's okay. It was the right thing to do. We were supposed to be with each other and no one else was supposed to be here." She looked at him quietly, then took a soft step around the fire, toward him. "Don't feel bad. It was my fault. I'm sorry, too." Andrew looked at her and her change of tone appreciatively, and opened both arms wide.

They hugged, and as they did so it were as if they had squeezed a lemon, and the sharp and acidic tears coursed down their cheeks. "We'll stick together from now on," they promised to each other silently and inwardly; "we've gotten through this, and it has made our bond stronger."

[edit] Starlight ponders on friendship

A few minutes later the two were busy at work gathering more twigs and branches to fuel the fire. They kept some spares, just in case the fire was about to die down without their noticing. "Wild beasts are afraid of fire," Starlight's parents had told her. "To them, holding a torch is like pointing a loaded bow at them." Now, such statements were being put to the test. Now, those words held an importance. The two kept a look-out for each other, which was hard in the depth of night, when the two should have been fast asleep; but the power of having company, and of working toward a common goal with another soul, and the power to keep going, to not quit at the first moment, drove them on beyond their normal strength, and hardened their resolve to push further.

"We come to each other, in peace, not in anger," Andrew stated at last.

"Yes. We'll always be best friends, won't we, as we have ever since we first met each other" Starlight replied. Then she just remembered: "How did you come to me anyway? I mean today."

[edit] The two muse about the stars

"Well, erm..." Andrew paused, confounded. How did he? He had come to this place by the river because he had followed a strange pattern in the stars. "The stars."

Starlight looked surprised. "You saw them too?"

"Yeah, er.. wait a minute, what do you mean, the stars were what brought us together?"

"That'll be pretty, won't it?"

"But... I was in the forest, and so supposedly I shouldn't have been able to see any stars in the sky, because the trees would have been in the way." Andrew was even more confused. "Come to think of it, the stars were flying right over me, all the time, though the place was so dark I couldn't have noticed the difference. Well,... That's strange..."

"It is indeed. Listen. Did you bring anyone else with you? Could anyone have followed you?"

"Erm, no, not that I would have known."

"But then that's the strange part, isn't it? Why would we be brought together by stars? Even if it was magic, and we were just pawns. It's queer, all right."

[edit] The two suspect a spellcaster is near

Andrew was at first startled, but that quickly turned into a snaring look on his face as he whispered to Starlight: "Magic? Why, that must be it... It seems like we're going to be visited by someone besides wolves."

He took up the nearest torch, and whirled around to face the forest, the burning branch bright in his hand.

Nothing. Nothing but the shadows of himself and of Starlight.

Starlight was afraid now. "I wish I had some of that magic with me," she uttered, a bit unsettled, just as her friend beside her was.

The darkness seemed to respond in kind; it may have grown darker, but the youngsters were concentrated at the expanse of wood.

"Who's there?" Andrew called out into the pitch black darkness.

[edit] The Awakening

[edit] They meet with a mysterious man

"A wolf," replied a rather deep, manly voice from within the nearby trees.

Starlight chuckled, even though the forest was just as scary, just as dangerous. It was a point that she could not allow to pass. "You're not a wolf, you're a man!"

"No I'm not," the voice replied. "Though yeah, I do sound like one, don't I?"

Meanwhile, Andrew was looking at Starlight, both startled and wondering if she had gone crazy. Starlight caught the look and turned around, asking, "well, what's the problem?"

"Who was not a wolf?"

"The guy in the woods, duh!" Starlight answered in her innocent, young voice.

"What guy in the... What are you talking about?" Andrew was getting more perplexed by the moment.

"Oh come on, out with it!" Starlight demanded of Andrew. Andrew remained frozen where he was, so then Starlight turned back to the forest. "Come out, show yourself," she called out cheerfully. "No use hiding. Or, I'm going to use my magic on you!" she added cheerfully.

"Really? Well, it just happens that I'm looking for people who know a bit of magic. And uh, did I just hear you, about a few minutes ago, that you wish that you had some of that magic with you? If I'm not mistaken, that must mean you don't have any on you. Am I correct?"

"No, you're wrong," declared Starlight. Beside her, Andrew's hold on the torch was shaking. He had no idea what was going on. He still hadn't heard a word of the conversation, so the well-spaced, well-acted little dialogue that Starlight was holding seemed a very intriguing yet totally implausible bit of stageplay to him.

[edit] A mysterious conversation

"Are we done yet, Star?"

"Hold on, Andrew. I need to lure him out into the open first."

"I guess I was correct then, you don't have magic with you, do you?"

"No, that's enough!"

"Out with it! Come out of it!"

"Don't you know? Don't you see?"

"You can't lie like that, you know, you're pretty bad at it..."

"--Says who? You think I'm--"

"No kidding, get out of that--that queer--"

"Lying?"

"Yes, I knew it all along!"

"No you couldn't, because I wasn't!"

"Pour some cold water over your head and wake up!"

"No this is serious, man! I--"

"--need to wake up!"

"--am looking for someone who knows some magic and--"

"And I want magic! I want magic! I want--"

"Peace, you're driving yourself mad!--"

"You can cast magic--"

"No, no, it's the truth, it's the truth!"

"But that's so only in the widest definition!"

"How can it be, there's obviously two people talking or not..."

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? I am who I am!"

"Are we going to have to go through that entire argument again?"

"You're not yourself! I see it!"

"No I don't want to go through that argument either..."

"What argument? Which one are you tal--"

"--What are you talking about?"

Silence.

[edit] Starlight confesses her wish for magic

Starlight looked around her. There was still Andrew, face perspiring with sweat and silhouetted by the licking flames; but the voice in the woods was now gone, and she still hadn't seen him. Was this all a dream? Starlight asked herself. If it was, then I must be going crazy. Or did the man just leave? The forest is dark...

Andrew spoke again, after his breathing had calmed down. "You really want to have magic, don't you?"

Starlight nodded.

Then she turned around, and looked straight at Andrew, and realized what the acceptance of that fact meant.

Then Starlight spoke with a voice that seemed not to be her own, for it seemed like what an adult would say. "I want magic. You want magic too. In fact, we all want magic. All that is preventing us from having it, is what we don't know. So let us come together, let us share the same soul, let us breathe the same world, let us view the same angle, let us explore the same soul, let us challenge the world, let us bring back the grail, let us..."

When she awoke, she fell asleep. That was the way it would be.

[edit] Starlight becomes thoroughly confused

And now she awoke, so necessarily...

But it wasn't the same. Out of a surreal world and into a different, but just as surreal, world.

The spinning was nauseating. Where am I?

Then the lights came into focus, and they were left in a desolate landscape.

What is this? There were trees everywhere--but the tree I am looking for is not here.

What?

Am I still dreaming?

Shake out of it! A pail-ful of coldness came crashing down. Wet. So that was what it was. The reality. Now I am slipping once again into the netherworld.

[edit] Starlight returns to consciousness

But the netherworld was dark. As Starlight pondered, waited, she came to realize a startling presence near her. Back! "Andrew!"

"Star? What is it? Are you all right?"

"What happened?"

"Nothing." The boy said it so innocently, that it was hard to believe.

"What did I say to myself?"

"You said that you had to bring back the grail, or something."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Are you asking me? I thought that was one of the few words that you had learned before I did."

Starlight was immensely distraught. "Are you crazy?" She thought she heard, "as much as ever."

"How many people are here?"

"Two. Not including you."

"Did anyone cast some magic on me?"

[edit] Starlight muses on possession

"If I did, would you be asking that question?" replied a dark, somber voice. But it was Andrew's mouth that was moving.

Convinced that she was either being possessed or seeing things, Starlight refused to accept what the other person had just said. But then she thought: just the fact that I'm denying this means that I'm not possessed. So I can take what he just said for real. Though that still didn't make much sense...

Then: but now I'm accepting what I'm experiencing. So in the end that comes back down to being possessed, and my mind being as messed up as it is...

How can I be thinking of all this, if I'm possessed?

But isn't that just how possession works? I end up convincing myself that I'm not possessed? So am I, or am I not?

Starlight refused to ponder the situation. In a hurried attempt to knock whatever she thought was possessing her out of her mind, she ran into the nearest tree, and knocked herself out.

[edit] The Realization

[edit] Starlight in the dreamy realm

Starlight turned toward the light. It burned itself away, but brightly, enjoying its own dismal yet shining bright to the fullest. There seemed to be nothing else there; only darkness, a blackness so profound that Starlight for a moment doubted her own existence. The place didn't seem familiar at all. Where was she? For the moment, she wasn't able to ponder this question. Just this was enough to overwhelm her senses.

When she next fell out of that realm, she was speaking to herself, and again possibly in that foreign, manly voice: "...Let us bring back the grail, let us scope out to the far edges of the earth for all..." she lost the word for a moment, and was deep in thought. I got it! she thought. But it wasn't so, and it was futile. At last she gave up, and bordered on leaving the realm again. But this time she didn't.

As the blurriness cleared, Starlight was left laying in the midst of a cave. "Where are we?" she thought she had asked, her voice having returned to normal. But the reply made no sense:

"Ew era erehw..."

[edit] Starlight finds herself in a cave

"Are you okay?" Starlight pulled herself together, and stood up in the dimness.

"Wow, that's some garbled language," replied Andrew.

Starlight laughed slightly. "I knew I was correct," she said. "You're just fooling me." To which Andrew looked very perplexed. Was he really?

"I don't know what you're talking about, actually," he answered in kind. "Now, you want to tell me about the 'being who wasn't a wolf', to me now?"

Starlight thought back, but couldn't recall anything. "Erm, not really," she replied. Then she added: "But I really don't want to talk about it, and I don't want to think about it either, so can we just talk about something else? Like... where we are?"

Andrew consented, or gave in, and said, "We're still somewhere in the forest between Bahasa and Lads, though of course where we actually are in is a cave. This is the meeting place that we chose to meet up again once we've left Bahasa, so that's why I brought you here. You've been out cold for two days now. The others should be coming."

Starlight lay back down on the cave's floor, with all its limestone and stalagmites, and thought about what she should say, and what they'll say, when An and Grace showed up.

[edit] The two are approached by two strangers

But the people who showed up next were not An and Grace. Two men, both adults, came into the cave entrance and blotted out the only light left inside so that she couldn't see the color of their robes. Starlight was just about to rush up to the children when she realized her mistake. The adults were not disturbed, however.

"Where's the mage recruiter?" the first one asked in a forceful tone that bespoke of power.

Starlight had nearly forgotten about it. "I don't know, I thought he was in my dream or something..."

The man became angry. "Well what did he tell you?"

"I... uh, sort of don't remember," Starlight replied.

"Look at me, girl. You really think that I'm an idiot?" There was wrath in his speech now. No telling what he would do if she didn't give him the information he asked for...

"She really doesn't," Andrew added in, now that he had realized what was going on. "So--" He became quiet. The man was leaning closer, and the darkness was total. Not a single streak of light penetrated into the cave.

"You tell me then," was all that he said, and he said it slowly and clearly and with a deep voice.

"Well...something happened two days ago, and frankly, we don't understand what happened, we're still trying to figure it out..."

"I'm not laughing..." the loud voice echoed around the chambers.

Andrew was perspiring now. He had to think of something to say, and quickly. "If you really want an answer, even if it's not accurate, I'm saying that the mage recruiter you're looking for is in my head."

Pause.

[edit] The language of the baffled

Andrew continued. "So it's very likely that the mage recruiter is controlling my mind right now. But it's also possible that I'm speaking the truth. Why not do something to fix it? You're so impressive-looking, can't you find out what the problem is without having to resort to threats?" Andrew was now worked up, and his hands were clenched in the darkness. He had no fear for the adults now. "If you're so dangerous, then why not catch the mage recruiter on your own? And if he's bad, why are you trying to scare us, because it's so not working!"

"You children think you're so smart, aren't you," the man continued, not the least distraught. "You think that I should be able to figure it out on my own, without your aid, because I'm an adult. But through all your hard thinking haven't you come across the idea--even once--that my magic may be at work already, and that what you are saying is part of my scheme of things? It's about time that the irritating old fool go back into the Outside from whence he came."

And no, Starlight and Andrew hadn't thought about this. "How many layers of complexity does this get?" Starlight asked to herself.

Then the two old people departed. The sudden influx of light into the cave caught the youngsters by surprise. "What the...?" was at the tips of their tongues.

Then Andrew chased after them, out of the cave and into the forest, fists ready to strike, and a question formed on his lips. There were indeed the two people outside.

[edit] Reunion with An and Grace

But they weren't men any more. It was simply An and Grace. An knew some magic... and Andrew and Starlight could both feel a bit of magical residue in the air...

An and Grace both burst out laughing. "Oh, that was hilarious!" declared Grace.

"Yeah, we had them fooled," said An, now in his teenager voice. "So, Andrew and Starlight, you two ready to meet the real mage recruiter?"

"Who's that?" asked Starlight, still half dazed by the light.

"Me, naturally," replied An.

Andrew cut in, driven by his anger: "WAIT! How do we know that the two men who just left, dropped you two here to foil us, and that you two are their minions?" He said this swiftly, so fast that Starlight didn't catch it.

An seemed all too happy. "Well," he began, as he rubbed his chin as if he had a beard (which he didn't, of course), "It certainly could have. In fact, now that I'm thinking of it, that seems much more likely, doesn't it, Grace?" She nodded, quite happy with An's way of talk.

But Andrew wasn't. "Just prove it to me in a way that I'll believe!" he shouted at them, fist raised.

An half stepped back and raised a hand in mock defense. "Well, that'll just have to wait, now, won't it?"

Andrew became angrier. Hadn't he said the same thing to Starlight shortly after meeting her? "You two..." he managed to growl.

But already, the four were at peace with each other, in their souls if not in words.

[edit] Kenaz

[edit] The Gift of Magic

[edit] An confesses his little joke

"So, you two've been enjoying yourselves, I see," began Starlight, still rather dreamy with getting up so early in the morning. "Want to tell me what it is you've been having fun doing?"

"Nah, I think that can wait," replied Grace. "It's not all that important. But An here is promising to teach you some magic."

An turned toward her immediately, with a awkward glance. "Says who?"

Grace faced him innocently. "Won't you?"

An couldn't refuse. "Of course I will. How can I refuse, with you pushing me on to it?"

Andrew joined in again. "I thought you said that you're the mage recruiter," he wondered.

"Yeah, that's a position I gave myself," replied An.

"You mean you don't have a master? You learned your magic on your own?"

"Quite right," An answered. "It's not that hard, though of course it'll be so much easier if someone were to teach you."

[edit] The four trek out into the woods

Starlight leaned over toward him. "So," she asked with an alluring expression, "Aren't you going to make life easier for us?"

"Oh all right, all right," An replied, attempting to hide his happiness at the prospect of becoming their teacher with displeasure at being made to do what he 'didn't' want to do. "Come on then, let's go off into the woods."

From the mouth of the cave, the four youngsters walked through the dense woods. The sun was bright overhead, still colored with the tint of the morning, its rays shining bolts of light piercing the woods and lighting the forest floor below. The light scattered across the ground in spots where the leaves did not block them; overhead, the leaves were light green, with the sun's light streaming through them, on the brink of proving them transparent. All types of flora surrounded them; everything seemed alive; the very forest and its minions felt the joy of life. It was another day, and now that they had found each other, it was a day to enjoy, just as Starlight's birthday party was, but now so far away from their parents, and without the lurking gloom of having to return home. Now, they were in control.

They were listening intently for what An would say next. For his part, he was a bit disconcerted, having never taught anyone before and not wanting to appear as an irritating adult teacher (even though he was only thirteen and barely older than the others). "Okay, so--Introduction to magic. I guess I must have given you all a rough intro, and that includes Grace--" An turned around to look at her, and his face had a slight but noticeable pink tint. "Yes, even you. But mostly to Andrew and Starlight," he continued, turning toward the other two: "So I should apologize, but I don't feel like doing so, so you'll just have to live with that, okay?"

[edit] An teaches the others a spell

The others were still waiting for the real talk, so he continued. "You all have heard plenty of rumors about what magic is, haven't you? So tell me something that you've heard about the spellcasters."

Starlight answered first. "Don't they say something, and then that's how they cast the spell?"

An nodded. "Indeed, that's what they all say. In fact, that's what even the spellcasters say, the way they spread rumors and stuff. So here, learn this spell. Diffindo branch!"

A loud boom, mixed with a crackling sound. A burst of light not too far away from them, at the limb of a tree branch, and as Starlight jumped out of the way, the broken branch came hurtling past her with dizzying speed, crashing only after it had been blasted some twenty yards and knocked down plenty of smaller twigs.

Starlight was laying on the forest floor, stiff with amazement. As she was regaining her breath, Andrew added in, "Sounds familiar. You got that from somewhere, didn't you?"

"Yes I did. Making that spell wasn't hard at all. So, Starlight, do you want to give it a try?"

"Wait, you mean I can just say what you said, and the spell will work for me too?"

"Yes, it should," An replied. "So give it a try."

[edit] An casts magic without a sound

Starlight was only now regaining her composure. She stood up, brushed off some fallen leaves from her dress, and recalled what An had just said, the spell-word, diffindo. She took a deep breath, and prepared herself for her first attempt at magic.

"Dif--" she began, but was cut off as a white cloth appeared from right beside her and gagged her, pulling her backward. She fell onto the ground from the pressure of the cloth, and tried desperately to pull it off with her hands, but it wouldn't let go. All that the others could hear from her were muffled sounds.

The others looked at An with awe. "Wow," said Andrew. "That's some cool stuff right there. Allow me." Andrew turned to Starlight, still fighting the animated gag, and spoke out quite clearly: "Diffindo cloth!"

There was a bright flash where the cloth was, a booming sound; Starlight felt like being pressed further into the ground; the white cloth flew off away from her, fast as a blur. Once again, the blast stunned them, except for An. He turned to Andrew and nodded happily. "Learning something already, I see." Andrew gleamed.

[edit] An as the groups' teacher

Starlight pulled herself back up, panting from being so stifled and tired from fighting so ineffectually against the gag. "How'd you do it? You didn't even say any spell!"

"Of course not," An replied. "Who's going to have time to say words when fighting another spellcaster? That's why they have you believe that they need to say chants to cast spells. That's why they spread those rumors. To make you--you who are budding magi--think that in fighting them, all you'd need are fast reflexes and a handful of verbal spells." He shook his finger so that they could all see he meant it. "That's not gonna fly. Magic isn't straightforward at all." He took a breath. "Oh, and I just remembered," he seemed to apologize, "I was supposed to be giving you an introduction to magic, and one that wasn't rough, at that. Well, I guess I had too much fun with this, and spoiled it all for you, didn't I? I guess I ought to take a break from teaching you all, let you experiment, you know... And as far as a smooth welcome, I guess you'll just have to settle with what I've given you already." An walked into the forest again, and the others, perhaps a bit more unsettled, followed.

An was their definite leader now.

[edit] First Encounters

[edit] The four play hide and seek

Before long the four youngsters had wandered far into the woods, following An and hoping that he knew where he was going. The trees had become denser once again, and all the trunks and branches and leaves made it hard to see very far away. An turned around to face the others. "We've been having so much walking recently, why not do a bit of running?" The others looked at him in a weird way, so he continued: "Let's play hide-and-seek. And I'll promise you that it'll teach you a bit more about magic, because I'll be bringing some of my spells into play, okay? So now, off you all go! And I'll be the seeker."

So the other three went their separate ways, running as far away as possible from An, who began counting to sixty...

Starlight was now lost. She had rushed through the woods for a whole minute, and had not found any of the others. Not that she should--it wasn't the object of the game--so she found a suitable place to rest. But then she had an instinctive feeling not to rest here, so she stood up again and began running once again.

There was no one there. There were plenty of trees, but none of the other three were anywhere in sight. Of course, she thought to herself. So she ran, first one way and then another, always going on a hunch, checking the best places to hide, rushing through the woods as the tree leaves and bushes rushed past her. She was running again, and it felt so good. So she ran and ran.

And, as An didn't find her, she kept running.

Deeper and deeper into the woods she ran. She couldn't stop. There was a euphoria in her, something that said that she should keep going.

[edit] Starlight encounters a cloaked figure

She ran smack-dab right into the side of a tall, cloaked figure. She didn't know what had happened, but before she could she found herself staring into the scariest pair of eyes she had ever seen. The face was covered in decaying strips of flesh; it looked as if it had just risen from the grave.

Which it had, incidentally, though not just before.

Starlight stopped running, and just stared at the being. And stared a bit more. The figure meanwhile was looking back at her, with the meanest appearance possible. Starlight was horror-struck.

Then Starlight remembered what An had just taught her. "Diffindo arm!" she called out. Boom! The figure just stood there, dazed and stunned by the pain of having its entire right arm suddenly, magically wrenched off. The bloody appendage flew past Starlight as she stepped out of its way. The cloaked figure toppled backward, and collapsed on the ground like a thrown rag-doll, and the whole where its arm had been was bubbling with blood coming out.

[edit] Starlight assumes responsibility

Starlight stood looking at it, dazed. She didn't know that her spell would have been so powerful. So powerful, so simple, and even... so flexible. She had always dreamed of having magic, but never thought that it would come out this way, so potent, so deadly. For the cloaked figure lying on the ground was already stiff and pale with death.

I must be more careful, Starlight thought. With my type of magic comes great responsibility. But then, this creepy figure was definitely a monster, no human; it looked like something risen out of the grave, and probably had been. If I hadn't done what I did, would I have met that fate then? The magic seemed so easy, it was hard to imagine that horrible fate not happen.

Starlight sighed. Something had to give. And of course she had to preserve her own life. Wasn't that the way of things?

She reached down to the corpse, and flapped the cloak aside. In rigor mortis, the abomination was still holding a beautifully decorated glass vase in its hands. It hadn't shattered with the impact.

I'll take this, she said to herself. It'll remind me of what I had done today.

She reached for the vase, and touched it.

[edit] Starlight gets taken captive

The next moment, she felt herself being wrenched, being squeezed; the entire world, and everything in it, seemed to magnify, grow larger within seconds; she tried to let go of the vase, but couldn't, and instead was being sucked downward; she couldn't escape, there was nothing she could do, nothing had prepared her for this; and the opening of the vase seemed to grow larger, herself to minimize, until she fit inside the opening of the vase, and dropped inside. Then a huge cork seemed to descend on the vase, and bottled it.

Starlight fell, collapsed onto the glassy floor of the vase, still more dazed. As she regained her composure, she saw a beautiful Sylfly fluttering outside the vase. She recalled that they were about the length of your little finger. But this one was no smaller than she was. In fact, everything, except for Starlight, had seemed to grow to colossal proportions.

Which of course meant that Starlight had shrunk to minute proportions.

Now how would she get out? The glass was completely slippery, and there was no way she could break through the class or pop open the cork.

[edit] Starlight is spirited away

Then there seemed to be several earthquakes at regular intervals. A giant-seeming figure appeared from behind a tree trunk--a hooded figure, with the same pair of scary eyes she had seen on the monster she had felled; the same cloak, the same body, probably, and a wrath that seemed even greater. It reached for the vase with its giant hand.

Starlight cringed, and gritted her teeth. There was nothing else she could do.

This time the vase did not swallow up the figure. The dead-looking abomination picked up the vase, with Starlight imprisoned within its seemingly impenetrable glass walls, made the nearby identical corpse vanish with a wave of its hand--just like that, so simple, it seemed--and walked off, through the forest.

With every step, the vase shook up and down; Starlight simply resigned herself to closing her eyes and protecting her head from hitting anything.

After a few minutes, the bumping stopped. She cautiously opened her eyes, and looked around.

She and the vase were propped on a desk, and around her the brilliant rays of the sun streaked in through the windows of the wooden cottage. "Wow," she whispered to herself. Everything was still immense, albeit not Starlight herself; and her giant captor now sat down on a luxurious seat, watching her.

Starlight looked to her sides. To her left, inside a vase, was Grace, also imprisoned and shocked to find Starlight imprisoned so as well. Starlight half-knew what she would see next, and willed in vain that it not be so. She turned to her right and saw Andrew inside a third vase. He muttered, "You too?!"

[edit] Starlight faces her captor

Starlight didn't even bother to nod. She faced her captor, who was looking at her eagerly, almost excited with its three captures.

Starlight then spoke to the abomination: "Why have you caught us? What do you want from us?" The terror was apparent in her words.

The abomination stared at her, and stated something seemingly off-topic: "There's a fourth one..."

"What??" Starlight didn't know what else to say.

"You're not worried enough. You think someone is out to save you."

Desperate, Starlight called out in anger, "Let us go! Let us go or our big brother An is going to capture you!"

"Ah yes, your little friend An. Haven't you wondered who he might be working for, if not for me?"

Starlight froze, and stared. Now she was beginning to feel doubts about An's purposes for his actions. After all, wasn't he the mage recruiter? Didn't that mean he had to be recruiting people for someone? Even though he had said that he was recruiting to form his own clan, that didn't mean it was exactly true...

"Of course An doesn't work for you!" Starlight almost hissed at him. But her face had gone pink. She knew that recently things had been going weirdly.

"No? You children always think that you know so much," the abomination replied. Starlight was beginning to have her doubts about this abomination, too. It talked too easily.

"Who are you?" Starlight ventured, this time softly, afraid of the answer that she had in mind.

[edit] The Teacher

[edit] An confesses to a nasty joke

"An, come to me," the abominative, hooded figure called out to nowhere in particular. Then he added, "I've got them."

A whooshing sound, and both Starlight and Grace screamed as the vases seemed to shudder and shake forward to the edge of the table, and about to fall. Starlight had shut her eyes, willing that death not come so swiftly.

When she opened her eyes a few seconds later, An was standing right beside the hooded figure, still dressed the way he was when he had called for the hide-and-go-seek game. "Ah, it seems that I've found you three after all, so I win!" An stated, rather elatedly.

But the other three weren't laughing. "You sold us out!" shouted Andrew from inside his vase. "How could you!"

An took a step back. "Me sell you out? What!?"

"You did, didn't you?" Starlight challenged. "We thought you just wanted to have some fun. I guess this must be your sadistic sense of fun!"

An remained calm. "No, I didn't sell you out. Didn't I tell you that the game of hide-and-go-seek we were to play was going to involve some magic? Well, I had to deliver on that, didn't I?" An explained. "It's just the next step toward your learning what magic is."

Now apparently satisfied that his explanation would be good for the others (which it wasn't), An turned to the abomination, still sitting comfortably in his chair. "All right, master, you can reveal your identity now." An prodded.

[edit] Starlight discovers Old Randy

The abomination covered his whole body with his dark cloak, but only for an instant. Then he took off the cloak, and behind it was--Old Randy, the same old man she had met back in Bahasa.

Starlight blinked several times. Was this possible? But then, with magic, what wasn't possible? She just stared at the two: Old Randy, and his niece An.

"Well, that was fun," said Old Randy to An. "I would particularly like to commend you on advising me to turn into an abomination, and then create three duplicates of myself, so that they'd be scared out of their wits. You know, I think it really worked..."

An was nodding, and rubbing his chin, rather happily. "Yeah, it gave them a bit of experience with fighting spellcasters."

Meanwhile, Andrew was looking around and, seeing the open window and the pebbles and leaves on the ground outside, thought a bit, and then realized: duh!

"They'll need it," agreed Old Randy. "It was another good idea on your part to have me play the part of the bad guy, wasn't it? Only you're not playing the rescuer right now..."

"Yeah, I...kinda got tired of that storyline a long time ago..." An answered, musing to himself.

"So, are going to free us?" Starlight interjected.

[edit] An unexpected emancipation

An turned around. "Oh yeah, the captives. Allow me--"

Just then a white piece of cloth materialized out of nowhere and flew forcefully into An's mouth, gagging him and pressing him into the ground. He struggled to get free for a moment, and the gag disappeared.

When An stood up, he was face to face with the other three youngsters, back in their normal sizes and not inside their vases anymore. "How did--" An began, but cut off his question.

The vases were scattered all over the floor, broken shards everywhere.

An turned to face Old Randy (who had a smile on his face and was looking at An disapprovingly), with his mouth open. "How--"

Andrew cut in: "It seems like we got the last laugh."

An whirled around to face him, just in time to see a rock fly in through the open window extremely quickly toward his face, and ducked as the rock crashed into the wooden wall behind him. An was dazed.

Andrew continued, this time not quite so innocently: "So, you don't get to play the part of hero today, because you don't deserve it!" Starlight and Grace, who were standing right beside him, nodded in agreement.

"You still have a long way to go," Old Randy added, turning toward Andrew.

[edit] The three accuse An of being childish

He nodded. "Forgot how fragile a vase was, having for so long used magic to prevent them from falling onto the ground. Nice one, Andrew."

Andrew barely noticed. He was flushed with the excitement of having used what he had just learned from An to free himself.

An was irritated. "Hey, come on, I was just playing with you all, but none of you are laughing! What's this?"

Starlight replied, "well, that's because you joke around too much with your magic. So childish."

An could only hold his mouth agape at what Starlight had just said. Then he blinked. "Me?" He pointed to himself. "Childish? Are you kidding?"

"Yes you are childish," Starlight retorted. "Even though you're older than us, you still fool around too much."

"Oh, forgive me," he replied. "I was just trying to give you the fun that I thought you would like."

"Yeah, well, we had grown out of playing hide and seek some time ago," replied Grace. "It's not exactly fun any more. Especially now that we've seen some magic."

"Aww,..." began An. "Maybe I should never have shown you my magic..." He was trying to taunt her, and they knew it.

[edit] Old Randy commences his teachings

"Whatever," Grace quipped. "You're not all that important to me anyway. I was wrong about you..." She opened the door of the cottage, stepped outside, and without turning back even once, closed the door with a slam.

Exasperated, An turned around to face Old Randy, and gave him a look as if he was asking: "Aren't you going to make her come back?"

The old man just stood their ambivalently, and raised an eyebrow when he met An's leer. "Boys," was all he cared to say. Then he got off his chair--swiftly--and walked over to Starlight and Andrew. "Care to learn more magic? This time from me, if your friend An has got you too scared to take lessons from him." He looked at the two youngsters with a cool look, implying that it was just the simple question it appeared to be. "Well? Do we want to learn?"

And the eagerness that Starlight and Andrew both had within them was enough to convince them to agree. "We'll learn," Andrew declared first, though with a longing glance to the shut door. "Shouldn't we call Grace back?"

"No, of course not," replied Old Randy, in a calm tone and speaking both moderately and clearly. "We'll just show her what new magic you learn today, and next thing you know, she'll be pleading to come back in."

And behind him, An nodded slowly, as if in thought. Then he smiled. Then his smile got a bit wider. Old Randy smiled too, and Starlight could just imagine that Old Randy could see An's expression off to the side of his eyes. After all, this was a world of magic, wasn't it? Who's to say what's not possible?

[edit] Infinite Possibilities

[edit] Everything is possible

"Who's to say what's not possible?" began Old Randy, sitting back down to his chair and beckoning the other three to sit beside him on the other chairs around the table. The same table where the youngsters had been incarcerated within glass not long before. The cottage was small after all. It was meant as an introduction to magic, which he would now be teaching in the place of An.

The others sat down, so that they made a diamond shape around the table. So Old Randy began his talk, slowly yet forcefully, so that those around him could easily understand.

"All it takes is an open mind, and a creative spirit. A sage once said, that 'wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.' And so it is." The youngsters were now listening intently, so Old Randy continued. "The study of magic is a lifelong endeavor, and those who will succeed are those who are wise, knowledgeable, creative, and cunning. You all have a bit of each within you, or that's what your dear friend, and my niece, An, has been saying.

"Now, just how good you are at it won't be obvious just yet. But you all have the interest, and a lively spirit, or else you wouldn't have managed to get here. Do you still remember, that it was An who in the first place encouraged Starlight to find something else that would be of greater interest, and that it was An also who convinced Andrew to venture into these parts looking for Starlight? That An then crafted a false story telling the villagers back at Bahasa that he himself had abducted Grace? Well, the fact is that he couldn't have moved you all if you didn't already have had the seeds of change buried deep inside of you. You all understood that your destiny was not to remain where you were or even where you were headed, but somewhere else, something that could satisfy your souls. That urge is quite common, yes, but most have stopped their souls from seeking for what they want. On the other hand, you two, as well as Grace, have demonstrated that your desire is somewhat greater than those of most, as you have all abandoned home, knowing that in doing so, you could not return.

[edit] Old Randy commends An

"So, I must commend An, yet again, that he has done a fine job and is a brilliant teenager. He's managed to awaken the sleeping spirit of adventure inside you, and that's what matters. So, that time in the woods when he told you that he was 'naturally' my mage recruiter, and that you were the recruits--you didn't know it then, but I believe that you do now--he was right.

"He was just right, he was your friend, he could motivate you all. And so you were. And that is what makes me continue with this talk right now, knowing that with every bit of magic that I teach you, I am making myself more vulnerable--I, with the help of An, have peered into your heart, and found the grains of truth within you."

Old Randy paused. Had he heard something? "Grace," he called out, louder than he had been in speaking to those sitting next to him. "You don't have to stay out there, holding your hear to the side of the walls and attempting to eavesdrop on me. I know why you're doing what you're doing and refusing to come back; you don't want me to make you look bad by requiring that you need to come in begging to be accepted. Well, I'll just give you that invitation now: you can come in. I figured you've learned your lesson by now."

Off to the side, An contorted his face into a frown. He wanted to see Grace coming in supplicative, and now Old Randy was denying him that pleasure. But the next moment he had put it aside.

[edit] Grace returns to the others

The door opened again, slowly, and the shy girl of twelve walked back in on tiptoe. "Didn't want to disturb your nice chat there," was the excuse that she gave.

Old Randy obviously saw right through it, realized why Grace had said it, so he didn't press the matter. "All right then, since there's five people here now, I'll ask that you all back your chairs and yourselves away from the desk for a moment," stated Old Randy pacifically. The youngsters did so, and the next moment the table suddenly changed from having four edges to having five--one for each person, as was customary.

Grace took it as an invitation to sit down, so she did.

Old Randy continued. "The possibilities are endless. Take, for example, the spell that An has just taught you recently, diffindo. You could, with that one spell, break a tree branch, snatch away a gag, or even rip off a limb from a person. You could also, with slight alterations to that spell, cut bread into loaves; blast through a locked door; pull fish straight out of the water without needing a rod; grab an item that you otherwise may have difficulty reaching. You could then combine that spell with other spells; you could cast it in different ways. Then consider all the other spells, which could likewise be as flexible. That's why magic is so interesting, and yet so hard to master; that's why it's an open world to discover, for you to find what you like about it. As spellcasters, your duty is to learn the magic that others have found before you, and add on to that body of knowledge with what you learn over the course of a lifetime. And that, my friends, is the introduction to magic that An should have given you."

[edit] Old Randy treats the four to some food

An winced. Then he thought of something. "So does that disqualify me? Do you want to disown me as your apprentice?"

Old Randy took it lightheartedly. "You still have much to learn, as you can see from our age difference. But each generation is going to be better than the previous, as long as the young aren't insolent toward the old."

Starlight smiled. That answer had in effect said "no, you'll be better, but you ought not to think that way, or you'll really find yourself behind."

An didn't give up. "Fine then, let's eat lunch now." He went to a nearby cabinet, took five plates, and laid them on the table.

Old Randy nodded, and got up to go to a closet, walking rather fast for his age. "Okay, time for lunch, everybody." He pulled out a small black silken bag, seemingly laden with something, and brought it over to the table.

"What's that?" asked Starlight, inquisitively. The bag could easily fit in her hand. If that was what they were going to eat, they would still be starving. She could have eaten all of whatever was in it all by herself, and still hungered for more.

[edit] Old Randy demonstrates cornucopeia

"It's a Secondary Inside," replied Old Randy. "I'll get to that later. But look." He tilted the bag upside down so that its opening pointed downward, then gave it a little shake.

Out plopped several loaves of bread.

He shook it a bit more. More bread, this time of all different sorts: some with an assortment of berries mixed in, some with a layer of mouth-wateringly sweet mlitk syrup on top, some toasted, some already prepared into sandwiches. He kept shaking it, and now a small bottle rolled out, filled with iridescent little round particles, shining in all its various colors. And as Old Randy kept shaking, more food tumbled out... It seemed to be an endless container.

Andrew gleamed. "Could that be sylfly eggs?" he asked Old Randy, his eyes wide open in amazement.

Finally Old Randy tilted the bag right side up. "I think that ought to do," he said to them. Everyone's plates were filled with an assortment of dazzling foods. He replied, happily. "Yes, it's sylfly eggs all right."

The children had not had such a feast since the duchess of Bahasa gave birth to her first son and invited everyone to celebrate...

Grace looked at the bottle in astonishment. Then, as she was sitting right next to Old Randy, she grasped him and hugged him, with her eyes closed in bliss, as if they had been old friends for a long time. "Oh my, but that's a delicacy! How come you're giving any of that at all to us? You're so kind--" It seemed that the only one who wasn't surprised was An, who had been Old Randy's apprentice for quite a while now.

Old Randy replied, rather matter-of-factly: "Oh thank you! Well you don't have to all hug me like this--I won't be able to stand it! One thing you'll learn when you become a spellcaster is that you enter a priviledged class, and that rarities in the mundane world can be quite common around here. It's all part of what I had been saying about infinite possibilities..."

[edit] Beyond the Portal

[edit] Old Randy reveals his picture portal

Old Randy's demesne.

After everyone had finished eating, the plates floated, hovering slowly in the air, magically back into the cabinet, seemingly even without a command being given. Old Randy turned to the others. "Now, you don't suppose that I do my magic in this little cottage?" He smiled, as the others obviously hadn't thought about this before. "Well then, I guess it is time that I show you into my demesne. Follow----"

Old Randy stood up, and produced a scroll from his robes. Starlight watched, in suspended animation, as Old Randy showed the youngsters the intricate crafting that this scroll had. Then he threw it upward toward the ceiling, rather absent-mindedly. Just as it reached the apex of the throw, the light scroll came to stop--it had attached onto a hook in the ceiling.

Then the rest of the scroll fell down, revealing more and more of a magnificent piece of art hidden within as it did so, draping toward the ground, as the wooden cylinder came to within a few inches of Starlight's feet, then abruptly stopped. The jolt caused a shimmer to appear in the face of the scroll, and suddenly the image seemed three-dimensional, and light streaked from within it into the little cottage. The paperwork swayed softly to and fro, seeming to beckon a light whispering music from the static air.

Starlight blinked. Not once, but a few times, as Old Randy put his hand through it, seemingly into another world, one that continued where this one left off. Could it be...?

[edit] The group enter Old Randy's demesne

Old Randy looked at the others, with an understanding look. "This is a picture portal," he introduced. "So... Welcome to my demesne." Then the next moment, he walked right into the three-dimensional image, and was inside.

Starlight jumped out of her seat and inspected the back of the picture portal. From behind, it seemed to be a window leading to the other half of the beautiful room that Old Randy called his "demesne". So it was indeed a channel between two different worlds. She stepped through it, from behind.

She felt a slight breeze come past her as she took her first step to the other side, and heard the faint murmurs of music. In front of her, what she was seeing seemed to open up: she was in an immense chamber, paved with marble tiles and mahogany wood on all sides; over and above her was an enormous rotunda, letting the brilliant noon light streak in with all its glory, reflecting, scattering all around, throughout the giant gothic building. High above were several colossal archs, reaching upward to the sky; under each dome hung great colored windows, scintillating in the sunlight; great stone buttresses supported curtain-like folds high up on the wall, and beautiful decorations hung suspended from a hundred feet above. One side had rows upon rows of chairs, enough to fit nearly a hundred. It was an almost rectangular room, and Starlight's senses told her that it was a hundred feet wide by four hundred long--how much it was actually, she could not have guessed.

She slowly turned around, examining the intricate stonework; her slippers gave resounding echoes from the shining, reflective marble tiles below. Behind her was the picture portal through which she had passed; now it was a window back to the cottage. Then suddenly it seemed to close up; and the next moment she was looking straight at Old Randy, who was rolling up the scroll in his hands. Right beside him were An, Andrew, and Starlight, all gazing around, speechless.

It didn't take the light breezes flowing through the gigantic hall, nor the softly singing music, for her to sense a beautiful, living presence floating, flickering all about her.

[edit] A welcome to the mage clan

"So, what happens now?" Starlight asked, fully enchanted by the wonder of this great spectacle, and not really looking at Old Randy as she asked.

"Welcome to the mage clan," declared Old Randy, in a formidable yet soothing voice, his voice echoing through the colossal hall.

And suddenly, Starlight realized that this was the introduction to magic that had been promised. Yet she was at a loss for words, as were the other children.

An broke the astonished silence. "It's just us five. The other students had graduated years ago. We won't need all this space to practice our arts, but it's quite a luxury, isn't it?" he asked.

Starlight nodded, though her mind was elsewhere, pondering what this place must have been like when Old Randy had taught hundreds of students simultaneously. There would have been quite a lot of activity, with children milling about, casting and perfecting their spells, learning from each other, each given a personal place to practice, and all under the supervision of this master. Sighing, she wished for those others to be with her, to have more company. Her home-sickness was catching up with her. "But then, I have to live with that," she thought; with experience and independence comes an overwhelming loneliness. There would not be anyone else to confide in, to ask for help with; her four friends were her only companions now, except for her buildings and a little voice that called out to her from within, "go on! This is the day you have been waiting for all these past years; it's here at last!"

[edit] At ease in the arcane demesne

So engrossed in her own thoughts, and looking down to her feet in mild depression, that Starlight did not notice when Andrew and Grace had gone over to a wall, not even when he had told them about where they were. When she finally snapped to attention, the others had already walked down to the side of the hall where the rows of mahogany chairs stood beckoning. Starlight realized that she was all alone, and was not comfortable being away from company, so she chased after them. When she had halfway caught up, An noticed her coming, and with a grin on his face, rushed off away from her, inviting her to chase after him. She wouldn't, and so as soon as she got back with Andrew and Grace, she halted, and listened eagerly as Old Randy explained:

"...yes, and so this division is why we are able to make objects appear, move, change, and disappear, among other effects..."

However, Starlight wasn't paying attention to him anymore; she was only faking it, while focusing attention on An, who was mischeivously trying to get her to play chase. She watched him wave and do his best to gain her attention, from the corner of her eye, while still retaining her posture and remaining still.

[edit] Starlight is caught not paying attention

"...Cool! Star, did you know that?" Andrew exclaimed, turning around to ask Starlight, and Old Randy broke off his explanation to watch her response intently.

"Huh? Uh, I didn't quite get that part--"

Andrew's expression of explanation quickly dissipated, and it was replaced by one of disgust. "Starlight! This is some very cool stuff that Old Randy is explaining to us! How can you find that annoying An to be more interesting?"

Starlight blushed at this accusation. "Oh well, I'll listen, but An over there sure is planning to play a prank."

Andrew brushed the matter aside, saying, "You ought to know better than to think that guy's up to anything. He just knows all this stuff that Old Randy is saying, so he can afford not to pay attention." Then in a whisper, he said to Starlight, "Just watch. Someday I'm going to whup him in magic, and then he will start to pay attention."

[edit] A confrontation between An and Andrew

Andrew had barely finished speaking than An suddenly appeared right beside them, and with his appearance sucking the children nearly off their balance for a split second, as if a hand of wind were pulling them all toward him, just as a whooshing sound of wind blowing past reached their ears. "What did you say?" he interrogated, with such a forceful expression that the other children quickly decided that he was not at all the typical prankster.

Andrew gulped. "I didn't say anything," he replied, doing his best to appear innocent, though they all knew that An would not believe such a reply.

"I'll be watching out for you," he declared, then turned to Old Randy. "Maybe it's about time we give these youngsters a break. Otherwise they'll get too many ideas."

Grace turned around to face him, wearing a not-so-happy expression on his face. "Why, An? I find this stuff so interesting," she asked tranquilly yet meaningfully.

"Er..."

"That's what I thought," declared Andrew, while taking an aggressive step forward, having regained his composure. Just as An fixed his glare back on him, possibly even getting ready to strike his friend out of sheer rage, a white piece of cloth materialized out of thin air and crashed into the older boy's mouth, knocking him onto the ground.

[edit] The Great Experiment

[edit] Purity of unity

Old Randy becan his explanation. "For quite a few years, I had taught students, some of them as parts of some very large classes, and for which I created this demesne. I had by then been taught by my own master that there are a multitude of other spellcasters extant in this world who also teach their students. I was likewise aware that all too often, their pupils fought among themselves, often leading to deadly battles that occasionally disrupted society and definitely prevented their masters from achieving their dreams of having pupils acting in unison. So in the end, at the end of every generation there were scarcely more spellcasters than in the previous.

"Therefore, I was determined to break this vicious cycle. I endeavored to create large classes, and to teach my students of the necessity of cooperation in order to accomplish the great feats that I had hoped since my youth. My teachings were thus focused on educating them about the benefits of working together, the ability to specialize in certain aspects of magic. I gave my first classes of students a purity of unity. At first, things went well. I watched joyfully as these students--who I considered my own children--became knowledgeable about the ways of magic. In time, I pronounced them graduated, and they left to go their own ways to become master of their own turf beyond these woods. But that alone did not satisfy me, as I had for them a greater goal. I had grown used to seeing large groups of people--spellcasters, my pupils all--to construct in unison, and I had taught them so, and I knew that this seed, a sense of belonging to a greater group, existed in them all. I was mistaken. Although they cooperated, they each expected the others to do more than they did themselves. When the apprentice spellcasters of other masters challenged them in battle, my pupils either waited for others to take action, or fled from the scene. They were soon defeated, and vanished from sight.

[edit] Purity of ability

"I surmised that the problem here was that each worked too little, and that the spirit of the collective had driven them to each become particularly lazy and expectant of others to do their work for them, and that this was why they had failed. In my next few classes, therefore, I expounded to my pupils the need to work hard, and to be able to sustain themselves in various situations, and thus avoid the disastrous result that had befallen my first experiment. I thus gave the students of my second experiment a purity of ability. At first, things went well. I watched happily as this new batch of students became expert in the ways of magic. In time, I pronounced them too as graduated, and they thus left to go their own ways. I had grown used to seeing them perform independently while still respect each other's abilities. I was mistaken. I had not recognized the effect of the environments on their capabilities, and while some became strong very quickly, others became weaker, and before long splits had emerged between them. Despite my efforts to intervene, the bond that had held them together while under my tutelage soon evaporated. The apprentices of other masters then worked together to eliminate their power, and forced them too into hiding.

[edit] Purity of essence

"And hence I arrived, years later, to where we are now. I have realized that the problem was quite possibly with my mode of teaching, which had ingrained into them a certain inflexibility and incapability which the other apprentices lacked. After abandoning my teaching for a decade, I have now returned, fueled by this newfound revelation, which I hope will cure this problem once and for all: I shall teach you four children as little as possible, to have you find things out for yourself. You will discover most of magic on your own, and respond in the ingenuitive ways that nature has bestowed on you--for she has, and I have searched for a little while before finding such an optimal group as you. You shall be my third and greatest experiment, holders of a purity of essence."

Starlight sighed. She had not known that Old Randy - seemingly a normal villager back in Bahasa - could actually have been through so much interesting, elite experiences in his very long life.

"And now," continued Old Randy, "I plan to start teaching you the basics of magic come tomorrow morning. Until then, you should enjoy yourselves, because things are going to get quite a bit different in a very little while."