by S. B Terra
A wave of fear swept through Alice as the woman took a step closer to her, she knew that something wasn’t right.
Alice turned and looked back at the man who was still standing in the same position and hadn’t moved, and as she again turned her head back towards the woman, a bright flash of dark orange light appeared in her prereferral vision.
The light suddenly flew past Alice’s head at lightning speed, striking the woman in the chest with a loud crack and sending her flying through the air, her body smashing violently into the tree behind her and then falling lifelessly onto the ground.
Alice stumbled back in shock, she looked back to the man and he was gone, when suddenly another figure emerged from behind a tree in the direction that the flash had come from, it was another woman.
Alice’s heart raced as the woman stopped and looked at her, the moonlight was shining directly upon her, making her clearly visible, she was wearing a modest, hooded, long sleeved black dress, she had a beautiful face and seemed to be in her late twenties.
Alice stared nervously back at the woman and noticed that she was holding something in her hand, and as she looked closer, she realized that it was a black, wooden wand.
The woman looked shocked and confused as she raised her wand and pointed it at Alice.
Alice’s senses suddenly heightened drastically.
“Who are you?” asked the woman in a serious but curious voice.
Alice still felt shocked and nauseous and now had feelings of nervousness and fear churning around inside her as well.
“Alice Teller” responded Alice, her voice was slightly shaky.
“What are you doing here?” the woman asked as she slowly took a few steps closer, her wand still raised and pointed directly at Alice.
“I just crossed, I was supposed to meet people here” said Alice nervously.
The woman’s face changed to a look of serious concern, and a few seconds later, she lowered her wand and rushed over to Alice, reaching out and proceeding to check Alice’s eyes and her pulse.
“You just crossed?” the woman asked in slight disbelief.
“Yes.”
“And you landed here?”
“Yes, just over there” said Alice as she pointed to where she had vomited.
The woman stared at Alice for a moment, seemingly investigating her.
“How do you feel?” the woman asked in a concerned tone as she continued analyzing Alice.
“Just a little nauseous” responded Alice, her nervousness and fear had slowly started to settle.
“My name is Bella, we must get you out of here, we must get you back to – “
Bella was suddenly interrupted by a loud, chilling scream that echoed through the forest followed by several loud explosions coming from the direction that the drumming had been coming from a moment before.
Bella grabbed Alice by the arm and started moving quickly in the opposite direction, there were loud bangs and bright, red flashes that sporadically lit up the forest behind them as they dashed through the trees.
Alice felt like throwing up again but was managing to contain herself as they quickly moved along, and after what seemed like ten minutes had passed, Bella stopped and looked around.
“Make sure you stay by my side, we are almost there” she whispered as they continued through the trees, there were no more loud bangs or flashes behind them.
The trees seemed to be getting larger the further that they made it through the forest, and after roughly five more minutes had passed, they abruptly stopped in front of one of the larger trees. Bella raised her wand above her head and pressed it against the tree, and as the tip of her wand made contact, the part of the tree surrounding Bella’s wand dimly lit up with a natural, dark green color and a small door started to transform in the trunk in front of where Bella stood.
“Quick, inside” whispered Bella as she gently kicked open the small door.
Alice knelt down and quickly made her way through the door, there was a small space inside with a stone staircase leading down to another area. She walked down the staircase and entered a small, stone room, the room was dimly lit with candles and there was nothing but a large, triangular shaped space that that was built into one of the walls.
Bella shortly followed, walking down the staircase and making her way straight over to the triangular space.
“How did you do that?” Alice couldn’t help but asking.
Bella looked at Alice with a slightly mischievous smile as she took off her hood, she had long, black hair similar to that of Alice, green eyes and was beautiful.
“Magic” said Bella, smiling back at Alice, “this is our entrance point for this place, it’s only known to us.”
There was a short moment of silence as Bella curiously looked at Alice’s clothes, she was wearing blue jeans and a black sweat shirt that was now stained with mud.
“Who’s us?” asked Alice.
“I’ll explain everything to you when you are safe and resting” said Bella, her demeanor had suddenly turned serious again.
Bella removed a tiny, black glass bottle from her dress pocket and placed her hand gently on Alice’s shoulder.
“When the flames appear, walk through, the flames will not hurt you, this is nothing like crossing worlds, don’t worry, you will be fine” said Bella.
Alice felt anxious at the thought of walking through more flames, she was still feeling slightly nauseous from the crossing.
“Ready?”
Alice nodded her head nervously.
Bella then smashed the bottle onto the ground inside the triangular pit, and as the glass smashed, large violet flames erupted and came to life.
Alice stared at the flames for a moment, she had never seen a violet fire before, and then without any hesitation she stepped into the fire, disappearing from site.
After a second or two of what seemed like being in a strange space, she again felt her feet standing on solid ground, there was no hard landing like that of the crossing.
She appeared inside another large, triangular pit and as she stepped out, she saw that she was in a different, larger, circular room much nicer room than the one she had just been in a moment before. The floor and all the walls were tiled with elegant black marble and there were roughly twenty different triangles built into the walls around the room.
Bella appeared a few seconds later, and as she walked out into the room, Alice saw that above the large triangle there was an engraved silver plate that read ‘Wild Lands’.
“What’s Wild Lands?” asked Alice.
“The place where we just were, as I said, I’ll explain everything to you when you are resting, come” said Bella as she walked past Alice, heading towards the entrance of the room where there was a giant, wooden doorway.
Alice followed Bella through the room, there were four people in robes standing at the entrance door as if they were guards, two of them were standing inside the doorway facing the room and the other two were facing towards the hallway outside and were all holding wands.
“Welcome back, Bella” said the only woman of the four guards in a chirpy voice as she gave Alice a curious stare.
Bella smiled at the woman as they made their way past and continued down the hallway, the hallway was approximately ten meters wide and there were framed portrait photos of people, young and old, that hung along the walls on either side.
Alice looked back towards the room as they made their way down the corridor, there was a sign next to the entrance that read ‘WARNING – RESTRICTED AREA. SECURITY CLEARANCE ONLY’.
As they came to the end of the corridor, they reached a large elevator that automatically opened as they approached.
“Transportation room” said Bella as they walked inside, the doors quickly closing behind them.
The inside of the elevator was also made of elegant black marble and was big enough to fit at least fifty people inside, and after only a few seconds of going down, the doors opened again.
; Alice followed Bella out of the elevator, they were now in an even larger room that was at least twice the size of the room upstairs. The room was similar in shape and was also tiled with black marble throughout, there were a few people walking around inside and there were at least forty empty triangles built into the surrounding walls.
Alice looked around in amazement, she had never seen anything like it before. There were large window counters on either side of the elevator with a few people sitting behind and a large, black, pyramid shaped fountain in the center of the room.
Alice followed Bella as she walked over to one of the windows.
“How are you, Bella, my dear?” asked an old, Asian looking man that was sitting behind the window, he had a shaved head, a thin, grey beard coming down from his chin and a rather funny sounding accent.
“Good, thank you, Alfred. How are you tonight?” responded Bella.
Alice was impressed by this mysterious woman Bella, she had an amazing confidence about her.
“I’m good, my dear, good as always, how many flasks do you need?”
“Four flasks, ten scrolls and a single scroll please.”
“Certainly, my dear” said Alfred as he noticed Alice and gave her a funny look.
Alice looked around as she saw a speck of violet in her prereferral vision and saw an elderly woman disappear through one of the triangles half way across the room.
“Seven dollars, thank you, Bella” said Alfred as he placed four small, black glass bottles, a clear cylinder container filled with scrolls and a single rolled up scroll under the window, the bottles were the same as the one that Bella had smashed inside the triangle in the Wild Lands.
Bella unrolled the single scroll and pressed her wand against the paper. Alice could see writing appearing on the scroll but couldn’t read the words from where she was standing.
“Only to be opened by Darius Bane” Bella stated, her wand still pressed on the scroll.
As Bella lifted her wand, the scroll flung up into the air, wrapping and sealing itself as a very fine, dark blue energy circled and disappeared inside.
Bella grabbed the scroll out of the air and placed it under the window.
“Please get this to him immediately, it’s urgent” said Bella in a serious tone.
“Of course, my dear, I will get it to him right away.”
“Thank you, Alfred, keep the change, have a nice night” said Bella as she slid a silver coin with a circular piece of gold in its center under the window.
“Thank you, Bella, safe journeys to you and your friend” said Alfred as he shuffled into the back room behind the windows with the scroll.
“This way, we won’t be long now” said Bella before making her way across the room.
Bella handed Alice one of the sealed, glass bottles as they stopped under one of the triangles.
‘Rose Garden’ the nameplate read, the triangle to the left read ‘Student Village’ and the one to the right read ‘Alora’.
“Are you ready to use your first transportation flask?” asked Bella with a big smile on her face.
Alice carefully examined the small black bottle.
“It’s been made with magic, they are specifically for the T.Ps, it’s very hard to break one outside a T.P” said Bella.
“What’s a T.P?” asked Alice curiously.
“These triangles are transportation pits, we call them T.Ps, they are each magically linked to another pit in another location. You need a transportation flask to travel, it’s one of the main sources of income for the Magic Council, the glass will vanish upon impact after it’s smashed” responded Bella, smiling.
“I see.”
“You go first, just do exactly what I did, smash it onto the ground inside and then walk through the flames, easy.”
Alice was still slightly nervous at the idea of walking through flames as she stepped up to the T.P.
“Just smash it inside and walk through?” asked Alice, making sure that there wasn’t anything else to it.
“Yes, it’s as simple as that, it’ll be just like last time, no need to be nervous” said Bella patiently as she waited for Alice to go through.
Alice raised her hand and then smashed the flask onto the stone floor, and as the violet flames appeared, she walked straight through.
She appeared in a smaller room, there was only one T.P inside, however there were no doors in this room.
Bella appeared out of the T.P and walked straight towards the other side of the room where there was nothing but a wall.
Alice followed, and as Bella reached the end of the room, she didn’t stop and walked straight through the wall, disappearing from site.
Alice stopped still, staring at the wall.
“Did she really just walk through a wall?” Alice mumbled to herself as she stood there not knowing what to do, her beliefs and automatic assumptions about reality were slowly being broken apart.
Bella appeared back through the wall a moment later.
“Sorry, this wall is the entrance, to get through the wall you must walk at it with no doubt or hesitation, you must believe that you will walk through, if your faith wavers you will hit the wall.”
“Okay.”
“After you” said Bella with a mischievous smile.
Alice took a deep breath and walked at the wall, slamming straight into the hard marble nose first, she then took a few steps back holding her face in pain and tried to regather herself.
“Are you okay?” asked Bella as she walked over to inspect Alice’s face, trying to hide her smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine” answered Alice as her and Bella both laughed, both finding what had happened rather amusing, it was the first time that Alice had smiled or laughed in over three days.
“Don’t use the mind, if you are thinking about doing something before you do it, that is the analytical mind at work, and that will only take you away from your connection with the present. Don’t calculate and analyze, that is the way of the material souls, you must instead completely trust your intuition and awareness in the present moment. The analytical mind is a great hindrance in this world, it is extremely habitual and is one of the greatest threats to your power, it will obstruct you and limit your greater comprehension. You must keep your mind disciplined at all times so that your spirit can shine through freely and guide you, for in this world you must always be in the present to be connected to your power, it is too dangerous not to be. You will learn all of this when you start your education” said Bella seriously as she looked deep into Alice’s eyes.
Alice’s stomach slightly sank, these people really were different to the people she had previously known, she was starting to understand that there was going to be a lot that she would have to adapt to.
“Ready? We will go together” said Bella as she turned and faced the wall.
“Okay.”
“Now.”
Alice and Bella both walked at the wall and went straight through, appearing outside.
“Well done” said Bella as Alice looked around.
The moonlight gave the surrounding area a dim visibility, and as Alice looked back, she saw that the room they had just walked out of was in fact a small, black pyramid that was slightly reflecting in the moonlight.
Surrounding the pyramid was a colorful garden filled with roses, Alice could barely make out the colors but could see red, yellow, blue and darker ones that looked as if they were almost black.
The roses were moving as if they were slightly blowing in the wind, however there was no wind. There was a small staircase leading down to a cobblestone pathway that was dimly lit by lanterns leading out through the garden to another larger cobblestone road.
“Come, we’re almost there, I know you must be tired” said Bella as they made their way down the stairs and along the pathway.
“Where are we going?” asked Alice as they reached the road outside the garden.
“To my house, you can rest there, the watchers will be there soon to asse
ss you before you sleep.”
Alice followed Bella up the road and noticed that there were now houses scattered around them, the houses were surrounded by trees and plants, making them private and hard to see. Some of the houses that Alice could see had plants and vines growing on and wrapping around them.
After walking for a couple of minutes, Bella took a turn into one of the entrances to the left, there was a small pathway that lead through an area of trees, and as they walked through, they came to an opening. There was a nice two-story, wooden house that was also surrounded by a large, colorful garden, this garden had more species of flowers and plants and the surrounding trees completely blocked the house from outside view.
“This is your house? This is beautiful” said Alice as she looked around in admiration.
“This is my house” said Bella in a chirpy voice, walking up the stairs and onto the porch.
Bella tapped her wand on the front door and less than a second later it swung open.
“Welcome, come and sit down while I make some tea” said Bella as she walked inside.
Alice walked up onto the porch and inside, there was a large living room with three big, black couches and a nice-looking fireplace that lead to another room. The second room had large windows leading out to a balcony, there was an office table on the right-hand side of the room and a paint stand setup facing the windows looking out at the trees. Opposite the living room was the kitchen, which had a nice, long, wrap around kitchen bench with stools placed around for people to sit on.
The wood inside the house looked perfectly varnished and was in immaculate condition and the layout of the rooms gave the house a homely, cozy vibe.
Alice walked over and sat down on one of the kitchen stools as Bella poured the tea that she had prepared impressively quickly into two silver cups.
“The watchers should be here any minute, you will be able to rest soon” said Bella, walking around the kitchen bench and placing one of the silver cups down in front of Alice, she then proceeded to check Alice’s eyes, pulse and forehead again.
Bella then sat down on the stool next to Alice.
“Drink, it will make you feel better. How do you feel?”