The bird had been chirping for a while, but only when the silent leaves fell off of him that Maya opened her eyes. She raised her hand to cover her eyes, because the sun was exceptionally bright. It was a very sunny day, it seems. Sunnier than most. It was probably why the spell works. But it was not where she was supposed to be.

—

Maya Lin occasionally helped her parents on their antique shop, which even though were nowhere near the scale of Sotheby’s, was quite prestigious in its own way. Due to a lot of time spent lingering around the place, for a girl of her age, she was also exceptionally trained in literary and music. Her family was, economically speaking, above average. And thus she had a few tutors of her own for varied subjects ranging from music to language. But what makes her really different from the other girls of her age is that often times she went with her parents to Europe or China, to meet with buyers and sellers of all different kind of things.

She was smart academically, and because of the many trips she had, she had chance to meet a lot of different kind of people. Hence, she was also savvier than the girl of her age. But most of all, she was a fine young lady. She had a small pretty face and long neat black hair, which accentuates her slender body very well.

As her parent valued real life education much more than school’s, she was always on danger of not meeting the minimum attendance needed to graduate. She was fortunate enough to have some friends that thought she was cool, though.

The day started as usual. Maya dressed in her school uniform and was about getting ready to go when her father called her.

“Maya, Mr Li informed us that there is a Forin orb on sale on the Smoke,” said he

The Smoke was a black market in the vicinity of Shenzhen, just a few kilometer from Hong Kong. Mr Li is her father’s agent in Hong Kong.

Forin Orb is a very expensive item, which rumoured to have a magical element in it

“When do you leave?” asked she, “I’m eating Tim Ho Wan. No way I’ll miss it,”

“At three. ANA, Narita. Don’t be late,” said her father

“Sure thing,” said she again, “Is mom coming?”

“She wants Tim Ho Wan as well,” said he

It was a typical school day. A gym for the first two periods, and then math, and then world history. But as she had a three o’clock flight, Maya then took her bag off.

“Where are you going?” asked the history teacher

“Hong Kong,” said she, and then disappeared

Maya arrived at her house, packed her things, and get changed. As she will be going straight to the Smoke, she took her time in choosing which outfits to wear. How you look was very important in the Smoke. As any art dealers were, she had to dress extremely well to impress her sellers that she not only has money but also has class. She finally chose a camel wrap and white dress.

She arrived at the airport, where her mother had been waiting. To both of their surprise, she wore similar dress. Seeing that, they made a small laugh. Shortly after, Mr Lin arrived, and they went inside the airport.

At three they were still in Tokyo. At eight they were in one of China’s largest black market. At eleven, Mr Lin arrived at the hotel with the Forin orb and one million dollar less in bank account.

He then passed the orb to Maya, still sealed in a box.

Mr and Mrs Lin went out again to meet with Mr Li. As it was ‘not a place for a young girl’, Maya stayed at the hotel. With nothing to do, she opened the orb’s box and played with it.

And then she instantly disappeared.

—

The bird had been chirping for a while, but only when the silent leaves fell off of him that Maya opened her eyes. She raised her hand to cover her eyes, because the sun was exceptionally bright. It was a very sunny day, it seems. Sunnier than most. It was probably why the spell works. She still held the orb at her hand — which she was quite thankful as it was expensive. But it was not where she was supposed to be. She was supposed to be at the hotel room.

But there she was, in the middle of the grassland accompanied by a few tall trees. Maya woke up, and saw that there was a circle with complex inscriptions and a lot of geometric figures around where she was. And there was three old man with a long robe and a wooden staves looking at her with relief.

They approached her. They spoke to each other with language that she can’t understand. They bowed to her. And finally they offered their hand to her.

Never in her whole life Maya was as confused as she was right now. She was supposed to be sitting in the bed, in a hotel room in Hongkong. And there she was, in the middle of a grassland, which seemed to be located on a mountain, with a white stoned temple in afar.

The three old men offered their hand once more.

This time Maya accepted it.

They spoke again, in the same language, till finally one of them realised that the communication was failed to be established.

So then the four began communicating with the most basic communication method known to human.

The first old man draw three stick men. The second old man drew three stick men drawing the circle and the geometry and the symbols. The third old man drew the stick men chanting symbols and a what seems to be lightning. Then the first old man drew three stick men, circle, and another stick figure in the middle. Then they began pointing out like crazy.

Maya came to term.

So they do summoning spell, and it seems that I am being summoned.

She pointed at the stick man in the fourth drawing and then pointed at her

They all nodded eagerly, probably happy that finally communication had been established

They made some gesture to ask them to came with them. Without anything else she could do, Maya complied.

And so Maya lived with them for a while. Within the first few days, she discovered several things.

First, the world she was in now was nowhere near as advanced as the current world, with technology probably around medieval age. They do, however, had several tools that can be activated by what seems to be magic, so in a way they are also convenient. The world was also inhabited by animals that she had never seen in the world.

Second, the three men were probably magicians. And the way to cast magic is to draw a circle magic inscription using mana, and then channeled another kind of mana to it. The results seemed to be different according to the shape and symbol of the circle. After being cast, though, the circle gradually disappeared.

Third, the language albeit slightly different is actually slightly similar to old English. Been a multilingual (she can spoke and write in 10 languages), Maya were able to discover the use of the language, and by a week she can start communicating albeit only for the most basic things.

The three magicians were pretty patient in teaching her. As her vocabulary was still very lacking, she was not able to clearly ask why she was summoned there yet. But it seemed to do with a monster or demon lord or dragon — the magicians can only drew stick figures so she was not exactly sure what it was.

As her language skills got better, she was then able to communicate more with the magicians. Dupin, Wimpsey, Alleyn were their name. It turned out that the three of them was exiled arch mages — mages of a high ranking. They failed to eradicate a peon of a demon lord, a monster of some sort after using so much of the kingdom’s resources, and for that failure they were banished.

Being loyal to the humanity, however, they knew that they had to do something about it. And hence they tried to get a hero from other world.

And hence Maya was summoned. As to why her, they did not know themselves. Summoning is a pretty high level magic, and only after half a year of gruesome calculation that they managed to do the drawing. And on that, it took another half a year to finally make it works.

But currently she gave little care to it, as she was busy with something else. Among the things that the magicians taught her was how to use mana. It took her a week just to understand what it was, and then another month to finally be able to cast it and make a circle. It took her another month to be able to propoerly infuse the circle, and from then it was magic. Magic as in it was marvellous.

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Being able to draw the magic incantation and channeled mana into it, she could now casted spells.

What magic comes out of the circle depended on the shape and symbol of the circle. To draw the magic circle, you need to infuse mana to an object, either to a tool or finger, so that it can sent out mana for a short time, which then can be used as ink for the circle. The magic circle has to be fully completed before the mana ink dissipates, so speed and/or endurance is crucial. Magic rod or staves usually channel mana better, so it is one that most magicians preferred.

Then you need to infuse the circle, and the spell that are casts may be different according to it. For example, if you infused certain amount of mana on a thirty cm magic circle with a ‘Fire’ incantation, then a fire will be sparked for a split second. If you modify the magic circle by adding some other runes and drawings, the sparks can get longer, or became multiple sparks. Larger circle created larger sparks, but needed larger mana infused. Smaller but more complex circles may also have same effect as larger circle, depending on the drawing and symbols. Also, if you input more or less mana than required, the spell will also fail, which makes it hard. Different amount of mana infused may also make the different spells came out of the magic circle. For example, if you put a large amount of mana on a 30 cm simple fire spell magic circle, what came out was a pillar of fire.

As if it was not complex enough, the caster’s mana affinity, also affect the results. For example, for a caster with pure fire affinity, he/she needs less amount of mana to cast fire spells, but to casts water spells they needed more drawings and more mana infused. The affinity also affect the circle. If the caster’s affinity is fire, then simpler circle is enough to invoke a fire sparks. It is rumoured that the priestess of fire, a person with a very high affinity in fire, only needs to draw a circle in order to make a fire sparks, while priestess of water needs a complex circle to make a spark.

To complicate things, affinity is not only limited to elements, but also to duration of the spell, intensity, and so on.

Hence, know yourself, draw quick, invoke right. That determines how good a magician can be.

After months of training, according to what little Maya can understand, it seems that she was quite gifted. To be more precise, she was quite gifted especially on magic that needed a precise geometric figures to be made or calculations.

To tell the truth it was not that she was a genius — she was academically gifted, but it was trigonometry and calculus that actually made it all happened. She tried to explain it to the arch mage but because of the language barrier she stopped trying after a day.

Summer turned to Fall, Fall to Winter, Winter to Spring, and Spring to Summer. By the end of the Summer the year after, Maya was already an accomplished magician capable of casting a lot of different spells and memorised few basic ones. It was then she was finally brave enough to ask the arch mages about magic that can teleport herself to back to her world.

Agreeing that Maya should be the one to decide her own future, the three arch mages nodded. Then the four spent three months coming together with design that may take Maya back through dimension portal.

“This is but theoretical,” said the arch mage Dupin as she was casting drawing the magic circle

“I know, Mr Dupin,” said Maya, “Regardless, I am very thankful that you are willing to do this to me,”

“Nonsense. It was us that is at fault, for taking you from your family. We apologize for what we did,” said Wimpsey, “It is us who has to fight the demon, after all. It is but our duty,”

“And finally, if you decided to be back, please use this,” said Alleyn, handing over a magic stone, “imbued on this is the spell to teleport you back to this place,”

Aside from casted spell, there are also pre-made spells. They were magic circle that had been imbued into special stone, and the user only needed to infused mana on it to activate it. It was very practical and commonly used in war, but due to the scarcity and price, few used it for daily activities.

“Thank you,” said Maya. She really appreciated the kindness the three arch mages

“Without further ado, let’s begin,” said Dupin

He infused mana into the circle.

Wimpsey and Alleyn was prepared defense mechanism as well. Dupin had already casted ‘speed’ and ‘reflex’ on him to granted him more reaction speed, but extra safety was always appreciated.

The arch mages formulated a dimensional spell that will lasts for five seconds (unless of course the mana was cut). It was a very complex magic circle, almost as complex as the summoning circle. Theoretically it works, and since it it was based on normal movement magic circle and the previously work summoning magic circle, actually it is not that hard to formulate. The problem was that they do not know yet where will the door open. Forin orb gave them clue as to where they should go. It seemed that it was indeed a magical item with some ability to work like magic stone. After spending time on it, they finally able to distinguish codes that might be the location where it received the summoning spells. So theoretically the dimension door will led to the hotel room in Hong Kong, but they were never certain as small mistakes may changes the place greatly. It can be in Australia or Afganishtan, and can be inside a mountain or under the sea — in which case they ran the risk of being flooded. Worse of all, if the place happened to be outer space or compressed lava, they ran the risk of immediate death.

But they did it nevertheless.

As Dupin began infusing the mana into the circle, a gate was opened.

The arch mages got the spell right.

It was the hotel room in Hong Kong.

Maya was one hundred percent certain that she would rather be dead trying to go home than spend the last of her life in this world. But the arch mages only did it for her. Which is why she was very thankful. So she hugged every one of them before leaving through the dimension door.

And then she went through the dimension gate, which after five seconds closed by itself.

Maya simply walked to the reception office of the hotel to make the world turned into uproar. The hotel manager recognized her right away and almost fainted in delight; he had been in a lot of pressure after a kidnapping happened under his watch. The hotel then contacted Mr Lin. Within hours, Mr Li and a few well built men in suits came. Seeing the man he knew, Maya jumped in joy and hugged him.

Mr and Mrs Lin flew right away to get her, and tears went out as they met as well. Her parents had been looking after her for a very long time. They thought that she was kidnapped.

Hence Maya returned to her normal day at her real house. She was absent for a year, so she had to stay one grade. And because the school term won’t started until Spring, she decided to just wait until new term to enroll back.

After all, she had something else to do. Over a year, she developed a bond with the three arch mages. No days passed without her thinking of how she can be of help to them.

And apparently she can still draw magic circles, albeit for a much shorter duration.

Which, of course, was not bad at all.

—

A year later

The chirping bird was stopped by the sudden appearances of the long haired girl.

After taking a stroll at the grassland and the white stone shrine, she found out that the arch mages were not there anymore. Probably went and fight the monsters, as they had been doing before.

The books were still there though, so they probably would be back again.

So she took out a macbook, several high definition camera, experimented several magic circles for a few hours, then put the book she thought she can use on the bag she brought with her.

She left some cookies and note at Alleyn’s table. Probably the cookies would have gone bad by the time he got it, but she felt a waste not to put it there. Then she opened her ipad, browse through the dimensional gate spell circle, and then draw it.

And just like that, she went back home.