Anansi's Web
Shadow Magic

At first glance I thought the inside of the shadow magic shop was just a store for Goth people, but when I looked at the items I noticed that they sold some strange magic supplies. The walls of the shop were painted black, and so was the ceiling. The floor was carpeted, and black as well. There were silver bats hung around for decoration, and old, yellowed skulls sat on shelves, covered in real looking spider webs. Metal music played form speakers that were in side of huge skulls of who knows what.

The items in the store were things like energy absorbing chalk, and black sticks with white strings at the end labeled wands, and there were wand stands made of wire, and here was magic absorbing tape, and paint, and all sorts of energy absorbing items. The books on shelves read things like: Guide to transportation spells, shadow people, and, a guide to taking energy.

“Hello, welcome to Lazlo’s shadow magic store, how can I help you?” asked a man behind the counter, wearing black clothing, with a green Mohawk, and silver nose piercings.

“Yes, can you show us to the items on transportation spells?” Ember asked.

“Yep, right over here.” The man showed us to a room with a big symbol on the floor. The symbol was circular, and connected by a bunch of strange lines.

“Anything else?” He asked.

“Well,” Vince began, “Does this circle work?”

“Yes, but it only carries the amount of people that match the circles on the inside. There’s four circles, and four of you. But it will be a fee to use.”

“I got ya.” Cara said, pulling out a few astrexium coins. The man smiled, taking two coins he said, “If you need more help let me know.”

We were alone in the room, and I stood on top of this big circle made of white paint. I had no idea how it worked, but I knew that somehow it would help us get to the mountains.

“So how does this thing work?” Cara asked.

Ember walked around the circle like she was examining it. “I don’t know for sure, we’ll have to read about it in one of these books around here.”

The room was circular, and black just like the rest of the store. Several candles burned on book shelves, but their fires were black rather than red.

Vince took down a book form a shelf, and began to read. Ember did the same, and I just kept looking at the circular shape in the center of the floor. It was so intricate, I was almost mesmerized.

“Guys,” Cara said.

Everyone turned to her. “What is I Cara?”

“What’s this?” Cara stood on the right side of the room, across from Ember and Vince. Her bracelet jingled a bit as she held up a small stone. I walked towards her from near the front entrance.

“It looks cool.” The stone was half the size of Cara’s palm, but it was green, like a gem stone. Inside of the small green gem looked like the silhouette of some kind of animal, maybe a lizard.

Vince walked to Cara, and looked at the stone. He looked awestruck. “This’s a serpent stone. I’ve only seen one before. It’s supposed to summon a sea serpent to work for you. Kind of like a stone that can hex a sea serpent.”

Cara’s eyes gleamed as Vince handed it back to her. “Can we keep it?”

“We could use it sometime. You can pay for it while we figure this circle out. How much is it?”

Cara shrugged. “I think it was misplaced. I’ll go ask.” She said on her way out.

Ember and Vince went back to their reading, and I continued looking around the room. Eventually I picked up a little red leather book called the journal of Claude Fitzroy. The pages were styled to look old, and yellowed. The writing inside was black ink, and in cursive. It was cool, but hard to read, and decipher the terms inside. I put it back, and kept walking around.

“I got it I think.” Vince said.

“How does it work?”

“We have to stand in one of those small circles, and in the middle circle we put an object from where we wanna go. We hold hands, say a spell, and boom. Pretty easy.”

I looked back at the circle. I felt like there was more to it than that. “Is there anything else?”

Vince read some more, and showed me the diagram. “The only other thing is putting candles on the outside circles for north, east, south, and west.”

I rubbed my arms, and shifted around. This stuff made me a little uncomfortable, it was scary how we seemed to be sucking energy from the earth, and the book Vince was reading said that we need directional energy. According to the book, the directions held different elements, like water, air, earth, and fire. I wondered how that was possible. It reminded me of the four original gods from the myth of Terra. There was a dragon, a mermaid, a goblin, and a genie, and they all represented different elements.

“Where do we get candles? I have a feeling these black ones won’t work.” Ember said.

“I’ll go up there, and ask the man for some.” I said.

Vince nodded, and I walked out of the room, to the front desk where Cara was. She was handing the man all kinds of coins, and even offered him her bracelet, but he just kept looking at her sternly, his fist clenched on the table.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He won’t let me buy the stone.” Cara said. Her hair was ruffled, and sticking up from her playing with it. Her eyes gleamed with desperation.

“Not for sale.” The man said, “You can’t buy it, do you understand?”

Cara moaned, and slumped, her arms on the counter, holding out everything she had.

I thought about how to get the stone for her, while I asked the man for four candles. He went to the back, serpent stone in hand.

“Why is it in your store if people can’t buy it?” Cara called after him.

The man came back with four candles. He lit each one with a lighter, and turned to Cara. “If you don’t leave I’m going to kick you out.”

Cara left the front counter, and I could almost see the rain cloud above her head as she slumped away, defeated.

We came back to the room, and Vince was going into more detail about how to use the circle, but it just sounded like background noise to me.

“Maybe some luck will help us.” I whispered.

She looked at me. “My bracelet didn’t work.” her perky voice had become thick with lost hope.

“I was thinking about something a little stronger than that.”

Cara reached into her bag, and pulled out one of the golden necklaces. “You sure ’bout this?”

I nodded, “Just don’t use the one I did last time.”

Cara dug into her bag, and slipped on the golden necklace with a vase pendent. She nodded at me one time, and walked to the counter. I watched as she asked the man for the stone back, and he rejected her harshly. Her face got red with anger, or embarrassment, and she started to walk away when the man got a phone call. Cara turned around.

The green haired man went into the back, and after a minute another employee came out. She looked just as dark as the other guy.

Cara walked up to the counter, and asked her about the serpent stone. The woman who was wearing a trainee tag went into the back, and gave Cara the green stone back, saying that she would have to look the item up for the price. When she didn’t replace anything, she shrugged, and let Cara keep it.

Cara walked back to me with a grin on her face as she slipped the stone into her pocket. We both walked back into the room, where Vince was still going on about how it works. I thought back to the griffins, and wondered who would watch them while we were gone. When I asked Ember she said that she went with the male MOD member to release the griffins from her curse the day Vince, Cara, and I went to replace the informant. When I asked her about my griffin, she said he wouldn’t leave, but he’s been eating, and seems healthy. I didn’t like that I probably wouldn’t see Joseph again, but who knows, maybe I could visit him when this was done. I still felt bad about it though.

When Vince was done explaining, and the candles were carefully placed, we made sure we had everything. Cara’s brown leather bag was full of alchemy stuff, and our extra clothes. Ember brought a hand bag, and put some little snacks inside as well as some extra clothes she could fit in. The stone necklace from the mountains was in the middle of the circle, ready to take us away. Vince had a small backpack around his shoulders, in which was some clothes, his gun, some alchemy stuff, and his sword that Ember had shrunk for him before we left.

We reached out, and grabbed each other’s hands. Across from me was Ember. I was next to Vince, and Cara. Vince’s hands felt rough, and strong, while Cara’s hands felt soft, yet her grip was tight.

Vince then began to recite some spell. Ember joined him, and Cara and I echoed the words like Vince told us to do. Our voices worked together, and I watched the black candles go out, and the chill air in the room increased. Goosebumps spread over my arms as the cold soaked into my bones, but I didn’t stop chanting.

The white painted circle began to glow lightly with a silver energy. The stone in the center rose higher, and higher, and it began to glow. My voice repeated the alien words that felt weird in my mouth, yet I could also feel their power. Everything else but the circle melted into black, and I felt like I was standing in the middle of a dark pit, surrounded by glowing silver lines. I started to hear extra hushed voices take up the chant, and my heart began to race. I gripped Cara’s hand tighter, and she did the same.

The silver light became brighter, and brighter until it rose up front he ground, and tried to swallow me. As the light touched my skin I felt tingly, like I did in Neptia when I teleported. I looked at my arm as it dissolved, and reformed in an instant, and I felt it happen to the rest of my body until in one big flash of light, I was standing on solid ground again, except I was not inside of a small shop in Sraff.

The first thing I noticed was the bright sun that flashed its light in my face. When my eyes adjusted, I looked around, and saw that I was standing in front of a cave. I was in the mountains, with everyone surrounding me in a circle. The chalk circle hadn’t come with us, but the rock that Ember wore as a necklace was on the ground in the middle of our circle. It was steaming, and I could hear the sound of smoke hissing from it.

Vince was smiling, and began walking away from the spot where we landed. “Here we are. I almost can’t believe it.”

“What do we do from here?” Cara asked.

“Well, from here we go to the island Fortri, the sea isn’t too far from here if we can walk.”

“Alright, then, we should get moving.” Ember said.

I nodded, and Vince agreed, and he started to lead us away from the dark cave. We were on a flat surface, and I don’t think we were very high up on the mountain. The ground was orange and dusty, and littered with large rocks. The upside was that the sun was hot, and I was able to shake off the chill that gripped me so tight while we were transporting. I still felt a little scared from the trip here.

We walked for a while down a path that twisted around the huge mountains. The place had a very earthy scent to it. Vince seemed to know where he was going. As we continued along the path we would duck behind boulders, and hide in cracks to avoid trolls that lumbered around this area. Vince was very cautious about being seem by even one of those huge brutish monsters.

“We used to camp around here when I first came to the mountains.” Vince explained. “I washed up from the sea right at the spot we’re going to. I was coming on a boat from Fortri.”

“Are you positive that you still know the way?” Ember asked.

Vince nodded. “This place we’re going to was famous, it’s called the dragons tooth, and I went there a lot before the trolls started attacking.”

We traveled around boulders, and sometimes we took a short cut through a dark crack in the mountain. Very few plants grew around here, and when they did they were parched, and they grew at weird angled form the walls. Once and a while I would see a wooden club lying around, and Vince was make us hide, and listen for any sign trolls are still in the area. Even when we kept moving he waked slowly, and only spoke in a whisper.

We moved carefully down hills, and at some points we would have to climb down a short shelf of rock. The booming sound of huge ogres caused the rocks to quiver, and the ground to shake. The boom of the footsteps echoed in my ears, and I remembered my last encounter with an ogre, and I wanted to stay as far from them as I could.

I wondered what time it was, and if the MOD members had woken up yet. They must have by now, it feels like late morning. And they’ve probably called the S-MOD to discover where we went. Maybe they’ll replace out.

“I can’t wait to use the stone.” Cara said as she creeped with the rest of us around a boulder.

“Only someone with magic can use the stone.” Vince said, “You have to know the right spell to activate it. I’ll let Ember do it.”

Cara sighed, but didn’t seem as upset as I thought she would be. Ember was silent as she watched for any signs of danger lurking around. Her violet eyes never seemed to stop searching.

I discovered that thinking while trying to walk a long distance wasn’t helpful. Thinking about the general, and if he’s won or not made me more tired than if I were just walking, and taking in what was around me, so I stopped paying attention to my mind, and started watching the environment.

We made it to the end without meeting a single troll. I now stood at the edge of Zirea, on a flat space of land that had the sea lapping onto the shore just a few yards away. I turned and saw the huge mountains that I had passed through standing stoically, the sun still bright in the sky, glinted off of the tall peaks. The sky stretched farther than the sea, the clouds were traveling, drifting off the edge of my world.

“This is where we stop,” Vince announced.

“I feel like I’m at the edge of the world.” Cara said, awe saturating her voice.

“We’re not.” Ember said, “We’re only at the beginning of the world.”

“So how long are we going to stay here?”

“Until tomorrow, I’m tired.” Vince said, taking some matches from his bag, and searching around, I guess for some fire wood.

Cara took out the serpent stone, and looked at it with one eye open. The waves seemed to calm themselves a little until Cara pocketed the stone again.

Ember walked out, and looked at the sea. The ocean spray left beads of water laced into her black hair, and on her face. The deep water that stretched far into the horizon made me feel like there was no going back the moment we start to cross. The lazy water slithered, and squirmed in a huge mass that had begun to erode the land I was standing on.

Vince had gathered some wood, and placed it away from the water, but not too close to the mountains. Cara sat on a large rock near the shore, and had her feet exposed, letting the water wash over them.

“Ember,” I said.

She turned around, and wiped the moisture from her face. “Yes?” She said in her smooth, almost surreal voice.

“Can you teach me some more magic?”

She nodded. “I know exactly what I’ll teach you. A shield spell.”

“Wait,” Vince said, “we’re not in the most secure place. If anything happens, we need to be protected. We have to set up some traps around our little camp.”

“Like what?” I asked, irritated.

“Spikes, alchemy traps, maybe some magic would be nice.” He looked at Ember with curious eyes.

“I can do that.” She said, “Some charms might work.”

“Alright, let’s start.”

Vince and Ember, the two adults began to work on protecting our camp while Cara watched the waves. Her rough hair was being tossed by the wind, and it was kind of pretty. She must be nervous; I should go and talk to her.

“What’s up?” I asked.

Cara was silent for a few heartbeats. “Nothing, just thinking.”

“Are you scared at all?”

She shook her head. “You?”

“A little bit. I’m not surprised you’re not scared though. You’ve always been rebellious.”

“That was different.”

“How was it different?” I asked, leaning against the rock, and struggling to make my voice loud enough to cut through the waves.

“I don’t know, it didn’t feel so…big. But I’m still not scared, I’m just, err, nervous.”

“Hmm, what’s the difference?”

“I don’t know, scared is when you’re, well, scared, and being nervous is just being a bit jittery.”

“They’re basically the same thing.” I proposed.

“Whatever, I just need to think.”

I sighed, and walked towards the pile of sticks. Ember and Vince were talking, and setting up traps. I sat down, and watched the sea. We were leaving in the morning. I was going to make history. The thought that I was going to go down in history for this was almost scarier than actually doing it. I tried to swallow the situation, but I found myself choking on everything that’s happened. To calm down I cleared my head, and closed my eyes, and listened.