Chapter 220: Avalon

21st March 2012, Avalon

(Rose Potter POV)

Jasmine laughed, “By agreeing to become my heir, you are essentially becoming the Queen of the Magical World. And while you’ll probably not wear a crown, a queen must have a kingdom to rule. This is yours.”

Jasmine summoned a key out of nowhere. It was a beautiful golden key, filled with rubies and small sapphires. Rose could sense the power emanating from it. This wasn’t a normal key; it was some sort of a very powerful artifact.

Jasmine grasped the key and put it near a wall. Somehow, a golden keyhole appeared out of nowhere. The Key fit the hold perfectly, and glowing golden lines started appearing in a rectangular shape in the wall, before opening as if it was a door. Jasmine gestured for her to go in.

“Welcome, Rose, to Avalon.”

Rose stiffened at her sister’s words, “Avalon is real?”

Jasmine just grinned at her and nodded. Rose continued, “As in the land of the fae, the ever distant utopia, the land of pure magic?”

The older woman snorted and pointed at the golden entrance, “Why don’t you go and take a look.”

Rose took a deep breath and walked through the golden door. The sight that met her took her breath away. She could see an ever expanding field of flowers of every single color she could imagine. The field spread towards the horizon. She looked around and looked at the insects that she had never seen before. They thrummed with the magic of nature.

Far away, Rose could make up some non magical animals, and even then, they had this magical aura to them, a peaceful one. Everything around her was magical, from the plants to the light of the sun itself. Far away, Rose could see a lake, and even its water had a glow to it.

But what took her attention the most was the castle that sat upon a floating island. Its walls looked high and solidly built. The white brick gleamed in the flickering light of the sun from above, and the glitter of golden lines that held them together made them appear to sparkle like jewels. They looked strong, they felt strong, as if they could withstand the most powerful spells and not be scratched. Upon their fronts, runes that Rose had never seen before were traced in sapphire, ones that probably made the walls even stronger.

The castle’s towers though, stretched up towards the sky, and were roofed with tiles of lapis which shined in the sunlight. And at the center of it all stood the monolithic circular keep. It was by far, the largest and tallest part of the building, stretching up above the clouds themselves that seemed to evade the tower somehow, probably a spell of Jasmine’s design.

This was magic on another level, on a higher order. It was inconceivable that a mortal could ever imagine, let alone build something this spectacular, this marvelous, this magical. Rose had travelled the world, she had seen fortresses as imposing as Durmstrang, she had felt Hogwarts’ magic, she had seen the luxury of Beauxbatons, she had visited the fortresses and mansions created by muggles as well. Of all the countless buildings she had seen, old and new, magical and not, nothing could ever compare to the sight before her. This was a castle fit for a god, for a Queen of Magic.

“Wow!”

That was the only word she could utter at the sight in front of her. It was just too much to describe, too much to process. Especially the magic of it, it was like she could taste it with every breath she took, with ever step she walked, with every word she said.

Jasmine chuckled behind her, “I guess ‘wow’ is an appropriate response. Unfortunately, this is not the land of the fae, but I guess you’ll have to settle for this.”

“You made this place?” the idea was inconceivable. There had to be some sort of divine intervention. Such majesty just wasn’t natural.

Her sister chuckled, “I guess I did. It started when I noticed that magical creatures started getting hunted down. To avoid their races perishing, I created a small haven on Earth, but with the large number of creatures that thrive in different environments, things were getting a bit tight. I wanted them to live on their own, to grow as if humans didn’t exist. So, I created this place. An entire dimension to house them, and for them to grow and live under my supervision, a true realm of magic. It took centuries to actually built the thing, and the adjustments I kept making to house different magical creatures didn’t speed things up. This is one of the few things that I am truly proud of, my greatest accomplishment not tarnished by death and misery.”

Rose just stood there speechless at her sister’s words. She created an entire world, a magical haven, just for magic to prosper. Jasmine always looked like an educator or a fighter. She was dark in nature, and that was fine. But to see this aspect of her sister, the beauty that she could create, was breathtaking. Rose had always thought that she was catching up to Jasmine’s skill with magic, but this had shown her that she had barely scratched the surface of Jasmine's skill.

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“How did you add magic to the dimension?”

Jasmine gave her a proud smile, “A very good question, Rose. As you know, creating a dimension only means creating a blank magicless space. Every single atom in this place was taken from Earth. The truth is that this world, while large, is a lot smaller than Earth. It’s around the size of Great Britain, I’d say. The realm is not spherical. You see, the sun is artificial, connected to the the realm of light itself. As for the magic, I was able to create an artifact, in the core of the realm, that was able to absorb energy from external dimensions and supercharge some artificial ley lines I made. The ley lines spread ambient magic to the world, meaning that ambient magic started to appear on the surface. It is, by far, one of the most complicated pieces of magic I have ever created.”

This was amazing. Jasmine created magic, inside a realm. This was the stuff of stories, of legends.

Jasmine didn’t seem concerned with the impossibility she just shared with her sister and summoned a piece of marble from somewhere. Slowly, a floating staircase assembled itself in a spiral towards the top of the floating castle.

The younger witch raised an eyebrow, “Seriously, we’re climbing all the way up. We couldn’t have teleported there?”

Jasmine asnwered her question with a smirk, “Well, it’s your first time here. So, we’re taking the scenic route.”

They walked up and Rose had to ask, “Why didn’t you get wizards to just move here. You once told me about how you were responsible for the Statute of Secrecy. Why didn’t you get them to come here without creating a veil between the muggles and the mages?”

Jasmine had a bitter smile on her face, “What do you think would happen if wizards and witches moved here? They would hunt down the other magical creatures without batting an eye. They do not respect magic, so they do not belong in a kingdom of magic. It’s as simple as that. And, even if I could, what would I do about the Muggleborns that will keep appearing on Earth, what would I do about squibs. I will not kidnap magical children from their parents, and I will not remove non magical children from Avalon. No one would end up happy, and the mist was the best solution I could find for the problem.”

Rose nodded. She had seen the ugly side of humanity during her travels, and especially during her missions with Jean and Wanda. Humans are greedy, manipulative, traitorous, and power hungry. They could be understanding and kind, but those people were rare and had to experience cruelty to actively oppose it.

With nothing else to say they walked up the stairs. With a high enough altitude, Rose could see the lake and watch as merchildren played in the sparkling water, next to what looked like the giant squid. Rose, even with her years in Hogwarts, had never seen mermen be so happy and act so carefree. Then a thunderbird seemed to fly by, taking a small stormy cloud with it. Rose took another glance behind her and gasped, “Is that?”

“Oh yeah, nine tailed foxes. One of the most playful magical creatures around. They used to live in Japan, a long time ago. I took care of them a few centuries ago. They’re not the only population I have taken from Earth entirely. The dwarves and gnomes asked me to take them here as well. That’s not mentioning the griffins, the shadow ravens, the sirens and the Nemean lions. I don’t even know how many species are in this place. Even the entire wingless Chinese dragon population asked me to leave Earth the moment that it was possible. Not that I blame them, with heroes with delusions of grandeur wanting to hunt them down for glory or something as asinine. And even now, whatever dragons remain are barely shadows of what they used to be and are being constantly imprisoned by wizards in their ‘reserves’ to be used as potions ingredients when they inevitably die.”

Rose didn’t have anything to say in response to that and just kept moving forward. Somehow, they were higher than she thought would be possible by walking up. They had almost reached the stairs by then, “How did we get up here so fast?”

Her sister gave her another smug grin, “I added a special effect to the stairs. Every step you take is far bigger than you realize. I didn’t want my visitors to walk up here for hours, after all.”

Huh, it made sense. But spacial distortions of this precision were something Rose had never even thought to be possible. And she didn’t even feel the space around her being bent.

A couple of minutes later, they had arrived at the entrance. Jasmine stood there dramatically, “Welcome, my young heir, to the castle of Avalon.”

With these words, the giant gate in front of them opened by itself, letting them enter the castle. Jasmine started describing the castle, “This is where you control everything in this realm, from the biomes of every section of the dimension, to even the weather. You could do anything you want in here. You can also see the population of every species that lives in here, their living conditions and health. It’s a good way to monitor if a species is overhunting another one, or if it is overpopulating. In the end, most of the creatures here are animals, intelligent animals, but still animals, nonetheless. I didn’t do the same for the races that are intelligent enough to create small civilizations, but I do keep count of their numbers to avoid overpopulation, and to avoid them taking over the entire dimension. In case of overpopulation, do not hunt them down or something as stupid as that, there are fertility wards all over the dimension, meaning that you could just limit the population and stop them from conceiving until they are under the quota you decide.”

There seemed to be a lot of complications to make sure that the ecosystem is stable, and there are a lot of factors and projections whenever she adds in a new species from Earth.

As they walked through the keep, the thing that took her breath away, wasn’t the absurdly powerful artifacts, or the priceless pieces of art, or even the precious stones that were used to decorate pretty much everything in the castle. It was a single room, the grandest room.

Rose gaped at the entrance of the room in question. Unable to contain her curiosity, she pushed the door open and gasped in amazement. The room was as large as a small city. The power of the spacial extension charms must be absurd.

As Rose stood in disbelief at the sight before her, Jasmine chuckled behind the young witch, “I see you’ve found the library.”