Greysons of Grimoire

by Tpaul Homdrom

  So many visitors to the bay were preoccupied with swimming or fooling around on the beach that Fae could almost always have the spot with the tree to herself. She used to sit there for hours, drawing while she listened to music, or just the sound of the tide. Drawing there was impractical — it got quite windy that far out — but Fae loved the feel of the air, the sounds of the breeze through the leaves and the water lapping against the edge of the island. She hadn’t been in a long time, and she couldn’t remember why.

  It’s so easy to let time slip away. I didn’t think it had been that long, but… I haven’t been out there in over a year, have I?

  Where did all the time go?

  Up they climbed, until they reached the Bay Overlook. It seemed awfully high when looking out across Grimson Bay, but turning around to look back at the city of Grimoire, its height was diminished. Grimoire Academy on its hill sat higher than the Overlook, as did several other buildings, and the mountains that surrounded Grimoire towered over them in the distance.

  This was a strange spot to teleport to another world, Fae thought. There wasn’t much here — a small stone bench sat near the edge of the rocky cliff, and a simple sign marked the location, but that was it.

  “Two at a time,” Mercury said, taking a seat on the bench. “Fae, why don’t you come with me? Neptune and Jupiter won’t be far behind.”

  “Sure,” Fae said, sitting next to the blonde. The girls were all thin enough that the bench was spacious enough for three, but Fae didn’t mention it. Maybe there was a specific rule of two? Plus, adding a third might force Fae to squeeze into the middle. Personal space was too valuable to risk that.

  “Now, when I say so, you need to close your eyes,” Mercury said. She pulled out her guitar pick Talisman and Conjured an acoustic guitar from magical space. “And when I say so again, you’ll open them. I’ll handle getting us through.”

  “Midnight’s here in ten seconds,” Jupiter announced.

  “Right,” Mercury said. “Fae, close your eyes. It’ll be over in a flash.”

  Fae did as she was told, clutching her bag full of sketchbooks with the precious magic-induced drawings to her chest. Mercury started to play. She picked individual notes on the strings, forming a sad sort of ballad, ringing out into the silent night. “Music is more magical than people give it credit for,” Mercury said as she played. “It is, in fact, the key that helps connect our worlds. You can get from Earth to the Enchanted Dominion without it, but…”

  “That is a terrible idea,” Neptune finished.

  “Right,” Mercury said, chuckling. “Music is how we get there peacefully, with no struggles at all. And… here we go. Just stay calm, Fae, and keep your eyes closed. That’s the best way for first-timers.”

  Fae, curious at the hints dropped by Neptune and Mercury, still kept her eyes closed. Mercury’s song was sad, but beautiful, a nostalgic melody filled with heartache, yet retaining small gasps of hope. It made Fae want to cry, but also made her smile, just a little.

  The dark inside of her eyelids suddenly lit up with yellow light. Fae kept her eyes closed against the glare, as more colors melded into the brightness — pink and blue, red and green, purple and silver. Fae felt weightless. Mercury’s song grew louder, unnaturally echoing wildly, folding back in on itself, adding layers and layers to the song played with just a single guitar.

  The lights swirled, coalescing into one white light, dimming in brightness until it seemed more like Fae was closing her eyes on a cloudy afternoon. Mercury’s song faded away, and she told Fae to open her eyes.

  Fae looked out over a very familiar sight. Cartographer’s Waystation, the drawing she’d made through magic the day Mercury had come to her, was right in front of her, as real as anything she’d ever seen. The strange architecture, with spiraling steps going from indoors to outdoors, walls curving and then straightening, it was all there. Clotheslines all around the rocky island held paper of all different kinds blowing in the wind, each displaying maps of locations far and wide.

  “It’s really real,” Fae said, breathless at the sight before her.

  “It sure is,” Mercury said. Her guitar was sent back into magical space, and she stood next to Fae, grinning. “Pretty amazing, huh?”

  Fae nodded. “You said it,” she said.

  A few moments later, Neptune and Jupiter appeared. Neptune had been playing a guitar as well, and she sent it away as they joined Fae and Mercury.

  “So, wanna go inside?” Jupiter asked, wrapping an arm around Fae’s shoulders. “Seems about time you met the Cartographers.”

  “It is indeed,” came a reedy voice from ahead of them. Looking up, Fae saw, standing on a rocky ledge a bit ahead and above them, a small man with wispy white hair and beady eyes peering at them from behind half-moon spectacles. He had a small smile on his lips as he surveyed the group. “It’s good to see you again, Star sisters.”

  “Good to see you, too, Meister Roderick,” Mercury said. “We brought a guest.”

  “I can see that,” Roderick said, adjusting his spectacles. “And it’s been a long time coming. We’ve been expecting you, Fae Greyson. Welcome to the Waystation, and welcome to the Enchanted Dominion. I’m simply delighted to meet you.”

  Chapter 20: The Cartographers

  — G —

  “You’ve been waiting for me?” Fae asked.

  Meister Roderick walked down from his rocky perch, following a path to the low spot by the ocean where Fae and the Star sisters stood. He really was a small man, not even coming up to Fae’s shoulders. “We have indeed,” he said, smiling. “Your connection to the Enchanted Dominion is remarkably strong for one of Earth.”

  “Do you know why?” Fae asked. She felt nearly breathless, so close to answers she’d sought for years.

  Meister Roderick shook his head sadly. “I apologize, Fae Greyson,” he said. “I can provide you with clues, but I do not have anything close to complete answers. But it is good that you are here, and good that the Star sisters found you. We Cartographers can give you guidance and point you in the right direction, and once you are out there within the Dominion proper, the sisters can keep you safe and on the right road.”

  “I…” Fae started, gathering her thoughts. “I have many questions. But I also need to know… two of my siblings are here. I need to know if they’re safe.”

  Meister Roderick nodded knowingly. “Of course,” he said, turning towards the Waystation itself. “Come, come. Let us find your siblings and see what we can do for them.”

  As they followed Meister Roderick up through the rocks, Fae was able to take in more of the world around her. The Cartographer’s Waystation was truly an island, with ocean stretching out in every direction as far as the eye could see, and no other sign of land. The water was sort of green, and looked more solid than ordinary water. And the sky above… where was the sun? What Fae had thought was just a cloudy day turned out to be the sky itself. Not a cloud in sight, a field of white made up the celestial veil overhead. Occasional lights — yellow, orange, red, and blue — flickered through the white, but what were they? Fae, so captivated by the strange sky, was startled at Neptune’s hands on her shoulders, steering her along the path.

  “The ground’s quite uneven here,” Neptune said. “I know everything’s quite strange and interesting, but you’ll have a chance to survey it all when you’ve stopped. Best to focus on keeping your footing right now.”

  “Thanks,” Fae said, focusing on the path up to the Waystation.

  Their group passed close to several of the clotheslines with maps hanging on them, and Fae got closer looks at them. Some she recognized — there was a map of North America, and one of Grimoire — but many were total anomalies. Many, but not all, were labeled: things like “Moon — Dark Side,” “Io — Western Quadrant,” “Hall of Reflections — Chamber of the Key,” “Library of Solitude — North Station” and so on.

  Winding around a large rock jutting out ahead of them, they came up a set of stair
s to a porch and walked through a doorway that didn’t have a door. Inside the Waystation, many men and women were hard at work. Some were slowly drawing fine details on maps, while others were painting in broad strokes. Some hustled to and fro, carrying maps to be dried outside, and carrying in dry maps from outside to be organized. Others were checking written documents that seemed to be changing as they read them — words were appearing and disappearing by the second. The entire area was wide open, with tables everywhere and hardly any chairs at all. The Cartographers worked standing, and all of them were of a smaller stature like Meister Roderick, though none were as old as he was.

  “We’re always hard at work here,” Meister Roderick said, ushering the girls out of the doorway just as a Cartographer woman came rushing in with stacks of dried maps in her arms. “You’ll have to excuse the lack of a proper welcome.”

  “You’ve done that yourself already,” Fae said, smiling at the sight. Watching Cartographers navigate the strange architecture of the Waystation was fascinating — lofts were here and there, a central spiraling staircase rose up to an open-air balcony, and there were several other balconies and porches around and above that offered perfect spaces for those Cartographers who wanted to work outside.

  It may be a brand new place that Fae had never been to before, but it felt nostalgic to her. One of her favorite things when she was younger was drawing maps of made-up worlds and places, something she and Madeline had spent countless hours working on together.

  “Well, have a seat over here,” Meister Roderick said. He led them to a small round table in the corner with chairs around it, and the girls sat down while he wandered off to gather some things.

  “What do you think?” Mercury asked, watching Fae expectantly.

  “It’s fascinating,” Fae said, continuing to watch the constant hustle and bustle of the Cartographers. They even ate on the job, grabbing sandwiches or donuts and carefully holding them in one hand while painting, drawing, or carrying important items with the other. She spied several grabbing quick powernaps, usually standing while holding onto a wall or leaning on a table, though one young lady was laid out under the busiest workstation, spread out and snoring away with a contented smile on her face.

  “The Cartographers are all about work,” Neptune said. “And the work never slows down. The Enchanted Dominion is constantly changing, and it’s their job to observe those changes and map out new routes. Individual routes will last for days at best, though more often they’re only reliable for hours, and sometimes only minutes or mere seconds.”

  “So they never run out of things to map or reasons to map them,” Fae said, smiling. Their work was one that Fae couldn’t quite understand — drawing for the sake of practicality, rather than for creating and imagining — but the fact that they would always have a reason to do it, that they’d always have new things to draw, and that they’d always have people counting on them… that warmed Fae’s heart.

  “Here we are,” said Meister Roderick as he returned. He spread out several maps and documents on the table, as well as four plates with sandwiches, which he passed around to each of the girls. “Eat. You must keep your strength.”

  “That’s why we don’t eat before we visit, Meister,” Jupiter said, grinning as she took a huge bite. “You always have the best food.”

  Fae had to agree. Assembled between two thick, fluffy slices of a light brown bread, the sandwiches had four slices of different colored cheeses, and three slices of different types of meat, with a smattering of leafy veggies. Biting into hers, Fae recognized some flavors — there was cheddar and Colby jack cheese in there, and salami — but there were others that were hard to distinguish in the medley of cheese and meat. Still, it was delicious, so Fae didn’t need to know exactly what was in it.

  “So, you’re looking for your siblings?” Meister Roderick asked, taking a seat with the girls. Fae nodded — he’d caught her with her mouth full, so she didn’t reply with words.

  “Caleb and Delilah Greyson,” Mercury said. Fae had explained things to her on the walk to her dorm, so she was able to chime in when Fae’s mouth was occupied.

  “It appears they’re in separate places,” Meister Roderick said. He opened a ledger filled names followed by locations. She spied her sister’s name, with the location “Hollow Island,” and below her were the names of Chelsea and Lorelei, the two Hunters Jacob Crowley had mentioned were missing, along with a few other names.

  “Hollow Island…” Meister Roderick pulled out a map of said island, spreading it out and running his finger along it. The map flashed with light, rather like a Talisman, and then names appeared. There were seven in the island’s center: Delilah, Chelsea, and Lorelei, along with names Fae didn’t recognize: Isabelle, Gwen, Anastasia, and Rothus.

  “They’re in the center, so probably just fine,” Mercury said. “Hey, wait — they’re moving.”

  “Seems the ship is leaving,” Meister Roderick said.

  “Ship?” Fae asked.

  “There’s a ship at the center of Hollow Island,” Meister Roderick explained. “It’s the only way off the island, so it’s a good thing they went there. Only now… let’s see where it’s taking them.”

  “The currents around Hollow Island shift and change,” Neptune said. “And the only safe route for the ship is to follow those currents.”

  The Enchanted Dominion is constantly changing.

  “They’ll land at Wood of the Wisps around 243:54:67,” Meister Roderick said. “You could wait for them to arrive, and we’d send you with guidance so you could bring them back here.”

  “What do the numbers mean?” Fae asked blankly. She’d never heard anyone talk about time in such strange values.

  “Universal time,” Mercury said, eyes glittering with excitement. “Rather than bother with time zones or different planetary times, in the Enchanted Dominion they use universal time. Bigger numbers, but once you learn how it works, you’ll wonder how you ever got on without it.”

  “They’ll land about four hours from now,” Neptune said.

  “As for Caleb…” Meister Roderick had to scan through four more pages of names before finding him. “Ah, there we are: Caleb Greyson. He’s… on a URS train.”

  He said that simple statement like it was something astonishing, and the Star sisters reacted in kind.

  “Has Caleb been to the Enchanted Dominion before?” Mercury asked.

  “I dunno,” Fae said. “What’s so weird about a train?”

  “It’s not just any train, but a URS — Universal Rail System — train,” Meister Roderick said. “They’re very complicated trains to board. There are only four stations for boarding throughout the Enchanted Dominion, and a dozen total throughout the entire physical universe. Not only that, but to board any URS train, you need to have special clearance, and a tidy sum of chronal.”

  “Chronal?” Fae asked.

  “It’s a monetary system used only for URS and in the three Chronolytical Locations,” Mercury said. “Time’s Birthing Cry, Time’s Twilight Hour, and Time’s Last Breath. Caleb… is he a time mage?”

  Fae nodded. “Yeah, the only one alive,” she said, trying to keep the snark out of her voice. That dubious distinction had been the talk of Grimoire’s magical community ever since Caleb started studying Time Magic. She’d been sick of hearing about it since she was twelve.

  “Using Time Magic accrues chronal,” Meister Roderick said. “And… my word, it looks as if he boarded from Chronoshin. And he’s en route to Midnight Bridge.”

  “You make it sound like things are really crazy and important,” Fae said, “but these words don’t mean anything to me. What’s the big deal about my brother?”

  “To get to Chronoshin — that’s Time’s Last Breath — things have to be really dire,” Neptune said. “So him arriving there means that something horrible happened to him. And yet, if he’s on a train now…”

  “Then he’s fine,” Jupiter said, her mouth full. She didn’t have Fa
e’s manners. “But Midnight Bridge is a weird destination.”

  “And if he got on that train, he chose that destination,” Meister Roderick said. “Very curious. Well. Your siblings are split up, and unfortunately, unless you want to wait…” he shuffled his papers, running his finger down what looked like a very elaborate and complicated time table, “fourteen years, they are not very close in a physical sense. If you are incredibly fast, you could make it to the Wood of the Wisps and then to Midnight Bridge, but there are twelve different Locations to pass through, and not all of them are safe zones.”