Photo by Sérgio Rola via Unsplash
It was October 15th 2072, a nice calm day with barely any wind. The twins, Phonex and Ember were off school that day and were meant to be studying. Ember had convinced Phonex to stop for a bit and go outside. They both went into the forest about twenty minutes away from the study hall.
“What’s up with all these books everywhere?” Phonex said.
“I thought you liked books,” Ember said jokingly.
“Maybe we should start heading back now. All the books everywhere in the middle of the forest is kinda off,“ Phonex said.
“Aww c’mon, just ten more minutes, then we can start heading back,” Ember said.
“Fine, but ten minutes only. We’re meant to be studying,” Phonex said.
A few minutes later, Phonex pointed out a tall dark brown library covered with moss and vines. The twins both decided to enter the building. Phonex wanted to, so that she could see all the books while Ember just wanted to get out of studying more. Before they entered, they realized a sign didn’t look overgrown anymore. Nothing was overgrown, now; you could clearly see the texture and pattern of the wood. The door knob looked slightly worn out, but not enough to have been consistently used.
Then, a girl with white hair that fell right below her chin walked by. The twins, confused and curious, followed behind. Phonex was half way through the doorway before she stopped in her tracks. She looked up to see thousands upon thousands of books. They were all lined perfectly in order, just like everyone needs. However, there weren’t any books that could help at school.
As they were exploring the building, they ran into the same girl.
“Ah, I’m incredibly sorry. I wasn’t paying attention,” the girl said genuinely.
“Hey, ya no worries, you’re all good,” Ember said.
“I’ve never seen you guys here before. Are you new to town?” the girl said.
“Actually, we live live near the convenience store about 30 minutes west from here,” Phonex said.
“That’s weird, I should recognise you guys then,” the girl said.
After a bit of silence, “I like your eyes. They’re so pretty,” Phonex piped up.
“I agree, your eyes are unique. They’re Green like the grass and brown like the dirt to help the grass grow,” Ember said.
“Thank you, I have heterochromia. Also, if you don’t mind me asking, what are your names?” the girl said.
“My name is Phonex and that’s my twin sibling Ember. What’s yours?” Phonex replied.
“My name is Glass. I like your pronoun pin, Phonex, ” Glass said.
“Thank you,” Phoenix replied as Ember looked up at the ceiling without responding.
“Ember?” Phoenix nudged Ember, who was still not paying attention to the conversation on hand.
“Ember goes by all pronouns but mainly She/They,” Phoenix said.
“Hey, Glass, you’ve been here before. What’s up on the ceiling?” Ember finally speaks, glaring at their sister.
“I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been up there before and I don’t really plan on it. However, I can take you to people who have,” Glass said.
“Sure, why not, if it gets us a chance to go up there,” Ember replied.
“I’d be down to go up there also,” Phoenix said.
“Alright, the people who I am bringing you to are Sapphire, Axel, and Tegan, just so you both are aware,” Glass said, gesturing to follow her.
The twins walked with Glass all around the library. It felt like forever before they got to Glass’ friends. Once they all got to that corner, Sapphire introduced everyone.
“Hey guys! This is Ember and Phonex.” Everyone waved.
“That’s Tegan,” said Glass, pointing to the guy with red hair who was messing with a book about nature.
“That’s Axel.” Glass pointed to a person with strawberry blonde hair, who smiled nervously at them.
“Lastly, that’s Sapphire.” A girl with piercing blue eyes and black hair waved.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” Ember said.
“Glass said you would be able to take us to the ceiling?” Phonex said.
“Ya, we are able to take you guys up there,” Tegan replied.
“Thank you. Me and my sister appreciate it,” Phoenix said.
The group took another massive walk that felt like forever up about nine flights of stairs to the ceiling, and with minimal pit stops. Halfway up the stairs, they met someone new again. He had short blue hair and red eyes, with a very different aesthetic and style than everyone else was used to. He introduced himself as Jem, and joined in on the journey. Once they got to the top of the stairs, there wasn’t anything there besides a single book on a pedestal.
When the twins touched the book, it started to glow. The cover was hard and didn’t have a title or an author.
“I don’t remember this being here last time, do you guys?” Axel asked.
“No, I don’t, it’s strange,” Sapphire said.
“I don’t remember it either,” Tegan said, as the twins opened the book to a spell:
——————————————————————————
WHITE MAGICK REVENGE
What was brought down upon me
Be returned but times three
Head to toe, skin and nerve
May you get exactly what you deserve
Mama Pagan
——————————————————————————
“Whoa! This could be dangerous if it wasn’t white magic,” Phonex said.
“Ya, but it’s not fun like that Phonex,” Ember said.
“Ember no, we need to use it for good,” Phonex responded.
“I don’t care. Revenge against everyone is better and more fun,” Ember said.
“I’m going to say the spell, and everyone will watch so that it’s used for good. Ember!” Phonex said, trying to not get backlashed on how stupid her sibling sounded.
“No, I’m not letting you do that. You just want to make this boring,” Ember said, not caring.
There was a slight pause between the twins arguing.
“Uhh guys? Someone appeared out of nowhere. I’m sorry, I said the spell and turned around and this guy was just standing there,” Jem said, shaking in fear.
There was definitely a guy there, about 5’7, just standing. He had red crimped hair, brown eyes, and the utter most random clothes.
“Shouldn’t he be moving? Why isn’t he?” Axel whispered to Ember cautiously.
“You expect me to know? Go ask Phonex,” Ember said.
“I asked you because you didn’t want to use the spell for the best. Shouldn’t you know what you’re dealing with?” Axel said, still whispering.
“I should say yes, but I don’t know. Now I’m trying to figure out how to use this,” Ember said, disregarding what Axel had already said.
“Rude,” Axel mumbled, walking over to Phonex and asking the same question.
“I haven’t seen any spell that involves summoning someone, however, since I work with white magic, I could find and check out a book that deals with summoning humans,” Phonex said.
“That sounds like a good idea, but be quick, we don’t know if this ‘Person’ is dangerous,” Tegan said, messing with his ponytail.
Phonex asked if anyone wanted to join her, and the only person who decided to go was Sapphire. Little did they both know that Ember had actually studied the topic, but didn’t want anyone knowing what they had planned. As the two were nearing the bottom of the stairs, they ran into Glass again. They found a book relatively quickly called ‘Academic Magic: The Home Of Demons and Angels’ by Deertail.
After checking out the book, Phonex and Sapphire scanned the pages while walking up the flights of steps. When they got to the top, everyone was freaking out because the person was now following Ember’s commands. Sapphire went through the book again to try and figure out what was going on.
“Hey, you would have had to have been saying the spell with Jem to command the person. You would have had to add a bit of extra wording, and have the intention of summoning someone!” Sapphire said, trying to hold back and control their anger.
“I’m well aware of what I did, and I am going to use Dakota to get what I need. They will be paid a lot more than minimum wage. My morals aren’t that bad,” Ember said.
“You stated that you had no clue about the topic and told me to go ask your sister!” Axel said, furiously.
“What can I say, when I want something, I’ll do anything in my power to get it.” Ember said.
“It’s not right that you lied to us. You could have been putting everyone in harm’s way!” Phonex, also furious, wiped tears from her eyes.
“And..?” Ember said with a blank expression.
“They’re people!” Phonex said, screaming.
“To make it worse, there’s no way to unsummon Dakota, or the spell. So I guess Ember won the argument.” Tegan said, flipping through the pages of both books.
Ember just shrugged and stood there with an evil expression in their face.
