Black Ice by Nanesko Watson
Ayaka had thought back on how fascinating Fay and Lucas’ world was.
The way that there had been no need for magic, how everyone travelled by electrical vehicles, how messages hadn’t been sent by paper mail, and how there had hardly been any use of paper and pen to write stories. Not to mention the food that the world had provided! Although they had seemed a bit sloppy and unhealthy, it didn’t change the fact that they had still been delicious; especially the frappuccinos.
Even though it had all still made her feel a bit uncomfortable that she hadn’t been able to sense much magic across the world, it hadn’t been the worst place to come across.
Fay had noticed the fascinated look on Ayaka’s face while looking at how the laptop worked, and smiled a bit in awe at how Ayaka had been so intrigued by something Fay had used almost everyday. Of course, she couldn’t say anything about it since Ayaka had come from another world, after all. “So, Ayaka, what’s something cool about your world?” Fay asked.
“Huh?” Was all that came out of Ayaka’s mouth when she looked towards Fay, as she hadn’t entirely been paying attention.
“Well, you’ve been enjoying our world all day, so what’s your world like?” As Fay had continued to talk, she’d slumped onto her bed and grabbed her kawaii flower pillow and held it to her chest. “Are there any more magic users? Any hybrids? Dragons?”
“Dragons don’t exist in our world.” Ayaka deadpanned.
Fay took the comment as a shot to her heart, feeling a small dream of hers shatter instantly. “Seriously? No dragons?”
Ayaka shook her head in response. “Nope. They’re mythical creatures.”
Fay took another shot to the heart, nearly falling back into her bed. Lucas noticed Fay’s disappointed expression, and let out a small chuckle. “Sorry for your loss, Fay.” Lucas said, halfheartedly.
“Shut up.” Fay said, hitting Lucas with her pillow, and Lucas let out a laugh.
Watching this, Ayaka had also let out a laugh, feeling a bit guilty at the fact that she might have blindly shot down one of Fay’s dreams of what her world might be like. “Sorry, Fay. But you know, there are a good amount of magic users.” Ayaka had explained, hoping it would bring up Fay’s optimism about Erelia.
“There are?” Fay asked, the sparks of joy returning in her eyes.
“There are, believe it or not.” Ayaka said, looking towards Lucas with the statement.
Lucas rolled his eyes a bit with a smirk, whilst Fay kept in a giggle. While Lucas had still preferred to be a man of science, he couldn’t ignore the feeling inside of him telling him that everything that had happened recently couldn’t possibly be explained by science alone. It made him want to go to Erelia and investigate for himself how what was known as ‘magic’ truly worked. “Do a lot of magic users make portals out of nowhere, too?” Lucas joked, though Ayaka held a bit of a stern expression.
“No, they don’t.” Ayaka responded calmly, though with a bit of a firm tone. “To be honest, the first time I’d made the portal that led here had been a mistake.”
Although once Ayaka had admitted to making the portal by mistake the first time, Fay sat confused. “A mistake? What do you mean it was a mistake?” Fay asked.
Ayaka looked towards the Spade twins, suddenly remembering that the two hadn’t known all that much about the world of Erelia. “Oh, I’m sorry. I nearly forgot that you two don’t know too much about Erelia.” Ayaka apologized. “You see, while there are plenty of magic users of all kinds across Erelia, creating portals has always been more of a concept than a skill.” Ayaka explained.
Lucas had suddenly been intrigued at hearing this. “A concept?”
Ayaka nodded once again. “In Erelia, while magic is used in all forms -big or small-, creating portals was never truly a skill.” Ayaka explained, turning her chair to face the twins.
“So then… Is creating portals a thing for stronger magic users?” Lucas asked, trying to process the information he and his sister were being given.
“Even if anyone was highly skilled in using magic, it’s always been just as I said. Portals are a concept, not a skill.” Ayaka explained once again.
“When you say ‘concept’, does that mean people tried creating portals once?” Fay asked.
Ayaka’s eyes widened a bit with surprise. “There were, actually.” Ayaka responded. “Although, it wasn’t much of a group of people as it was just a person.”
Lucas and Fay’s eyes grew wide with wonder, both thinking of who had been the person Ayaka had been talking about. “Who was it?” Fay asked before Lucas could.
Ayaka’s eyes widened with a bit of surprise to see Fay and Lucas so curious about the person Ayaka had mentioned; though again, she couldn’t blame the two for being so curious about anything in Erelia. The mistress hummed a bit so that she could think about the story of the person who Fay and Lucas had been asking about. “Well, this is just a bit more of a myth than a story, but it takes place about thousands of years ago. Before my family had taken the place of being legal law and magic advisors to the royal family.” Ayaka had begun to explain, trying her best to recall most of the myth to tell to the Spade twins. “The reason portals are a concept in our world is because of a woman who was known to be one of the best legal law and magic advisors.” Ayaka recalled, a bit of awe in her voice as she’d said it. “Her name was Hope.”
****
Long ago, there was a young woman who had been best known to be one of the best legal advisors to the royal family.
Her name was Hope.
Hope had been one of the greatest, if not the most powerful magic user in Erelia. While being the best legal advisor and a great magic user, she was also well known for her kindness, bravery, cunning knowledge, and loyalty. It’s said that she had served over four generations of the royal family, as she had found several ways to contain her youth. There are many tales that say that she had been seeked out by many kingdoms across the world, and had been asked several times to work for the other kingdoms instead. Of course, as per her loyalty and oath to the royal family, she had always declined any sort of invitation to work for others.
With having been working for the royal family for over four generations, she had been practically part of the family, which gave her more of a reason to stay loyal and true to the royal family.
One day, Hope had come to the royal family with an odd story. She’d told them that she’d had a vision of another world.
At first, the royal family had been confused, though let Hope continue to explain what she had been trying to tell them. Hope had told them that in her vision, she had seen a world far different from the world of Erelia. A world filled with strange creatures that had been filled with magic; a world where not only had there been a vast amount of magical energy, but what she’d felt had been an extensive amount of knowledge.
Other early stories say that she’d seen the future of the world of Erelia, of course since thousands of years have passed since then, it’s safe to say that Hope indeed saw another world.
Hope had then requested permission to try and learn what it had been that she saw. The royal family had thought that since Hope’s story hadn’t come with anything suspicious, they granted her permission to investigate the strange world she’d seen in her vision.
Days passed, and Hope had continuously searched throughout every library in the capitol -including the castle library-, and she had nearly fallen into a dead end with no avail of her search. When she had been about to give up, one day Hope had found a hidden secret deep in what is said to have been an old journal entry from the early days of the royal family. There are many versions of the story that say that what she had read had been the same vision she’d had, or that it had said something about the vision she’d had, or that it had been the true early concept of a portal.
Whatever had been in it, though, Hope had used it to begin working on the portal. Considering she had been a powerful magic user, she had used it to her advantage for the project. After that, Hope had stayed in her mansion, without making any sort of contact with anyone -not even the royal family.
Finally, Hope had come to the royal family telling them about the results of her long investigation. It was on that day that the first concept of a portal had been shown to the royal family. Much of this part of the story isn’t too well known, though many say that Hope had gathered a team or worked with the royal family to create a working portal, though I believe that she had continued to work by herself without having contact with anyone.
The day had then come when Hope had found how to make a working portal, and she had wanted to show the royal family. So, the royal family had gathered together in the throne room to watch Hope make the portal. It’s said that in the early concepts of the portal, Hope had used an incantation instead of a specific magic pattern, considering that in that time in Erelia, spells were often used with incantations.
When Hope said the incantation, she had been sure that it would have failed immediately, however to her and everyone’s surprise, it worked.
Everyone in the room had been entirely shocked, Hope included.
With the portal having been created, Hope had then asked for permission to travel into the portal to see what had been in the portal. While at first the royal family hadn’t been too sure about whether or not they could simply just send Hope away, the youngest daughter had come up and told her to go and follow where the portal led to. Having been working for over thousands of years for four generations, it was only right for Hope to go and do something for herself.
So, Hope gave her farewells, and promised that she would return to the royal family at the end of her journey. However, once Hope had walked through the portal, something went wrong. Some say that the portal had let out strange noises, though many agree that the portal had started to act strangely and didn’t seem as though it had been functioning properly. Immediately, a blast of magic power erupted from the portal, and a blinding light flashed everywhere.
When everyone had come to, the portal had disappeared, and so had Hope. Many had then tried to recreate the portal, all of Hope’s notes and supplies for studying magic had been taken with her. However, everyone had believed that Hope would be powerful enough to return on her own time, though many years had passed, and Hope had never returned.
Some say that the portal had led to an eternal abyss where she couldn’t escape. Others think that Hope had simply vanished completely after the blast. There are also those who believe that Hope had walked into a place where there had been no magic.
Although whatever the case, Hope had since been known as the first and only world crosser of Erelia, never to be seen again.