---Hubris---

The last true calamity unleashed upon a world too weak to fight against it was one of hubris.

Proof some might say humanity was not ready to handle the power or consequences of the sea.

This calamity stemmed from a similar origin to previous calamities but was birthed through more combined purpose than incompetence. The birth stemmed from the idea of taking advantage of what the sea offered – of defaulting on payment. On attempting to “trick” the powers that be.

Some might have called it an attempt to fight fire with fire – literally. Most would call that foolishness.

The idea was simple. Make a monster capable of consuming the other monsters.

This calamity started in a lab. It started in farmed nests and artificial breeding of both flora and fauna. It was made to spread and replicate itself – made to exist passively – striking only those that attacked it first with dozens of redundant traits and genes its creators hoped would survive the seas unchecked refinement.

Codename: Forest. The final calamity was very roughly a self-replicating, self-spreading, field of nature. Something that consumed the blight of the nuclear storm – purifying it through a food chain.

Centered on it was a tree – or maybe a monster – with a nest embedded deep within its flesh. As a lab experiment, the core of the forest was…not the strongest or stablest of creations. It was a prototype you could confidently say. Something that did everything its creators wanted but worse. Like all true works of art, its creators weren’t even sure how the prototype did some of what it did – maybe if they had more time we wouldn’t have gotten a fourth calamity.

None who created this, felt confident enough to refine this monster themselves and so the attempt at cheating appeared.

Dumped into the sea and unleashed upon the world with the equivalent of a lit grenade being tossed as the perpetrators fled…

Well, the forest did exactly what it was supposed to. It spread. It consumed. It “purified” everything into itself. Itself being an entire ecosystem of plants and animals. Something much more beneficial to humanity than nuclear wasteland – at least presumably.

It even worked exactly how its creators had hoped in the initial phase. It stayed relatively still to start. A passive forest creating a ring around the sea that had birthed it – as if its source was the one place it respected… but then, days into its passive existence the storm passed nearby and vaporized the outskirts. Like a bull seeing red, the forest turned and gave chase – growing visibly and with violence in a kilometer wide line of manic vegetation.

Following along behind the storm, the forest grew. Towering trees shot up far behind the shrubbery line and animals seemed to appear fully formed from deep within – all according to plan. It was uncontrolled by humanity but that was fine. The goal had always been to combat the other calamities specifically the storm.

All across the world, the air quality noticeably changed for the better.

Of course we all know that plan fell apart quickly. The forest stayed behind after it grew – and slowly the space available to humanity shrunk. If the second calamity sought to remove humanity's water and air and the third sought to poison the environment…well the 4th “merely” sought to steal the space humanity could live on.

Even if we had left it alone, soon humanity would be kicked off the planet. It could not be ignored...and yet it was the lowest of the current threats.

The forest was passive near the beginning, but as soon as humans decided to try and “harvest” the “bounty the forest provided” the calamity turned on us all – faster than it should have. More indiscriminate than any of its traits should have allowed…but maybe its initial passivity was a miracle on its own?

To start. Splinters spilled out from the main line – wild beasts stampeding toward cities and running against turrets and plasma fences without a care in the world.

Where each beast fell, trees burst. Corpses unfurled as seeds within the wildbeast’s stomachs roared into growth with audible cracks. Like miniature trojan horses turned into nesting dolls, each level of the forest was yet another. Another creature. Another seed. Another level of horror. Beasts or plants endlessly spawned as if from nothing – consuming dirt and stone and turret without care, the raw materials seeming to have no influence on the forest being created.

Trees fell to flamethrowers and moats of molten metal but birthed new creatures – each building in their own self sustained cycle. Wafts of ash floated across moats – alighting on surfaces and kickstarting flashes of new growth. Animals burrowed under and through solid stone and concrete barriers. They died quickly only to burst apart in waves of spiders or vines or rapidly growing boars. Waves upon tireless wave – the sound of dying animals, a constant, haunting scream.

The first of these early cities fell within three days. Their defenses overwhelmed bit by bit. Their infrastructure consumed and torn about by the forest as if chomped on by some great beast.

Most who fled survived. Most who stayed existed long enough to live stream their own deaths.

The second city fell not long after. The third city only escaped by becoming mobile – supposedly the first city to rediscover gravity reactors, this city had enough collaborative pylons and a long enough warning time to start building itself a large chassis and directing most of its power generation into fleeing.

That was its own miracle in a way. The feats humanity could accomplish with a deadline.

Nature’s fury did not fade with time. Many blamed the missing demon king and yet…deep down we knew this was not his doing. This was ours.

Still, as stupid as this creation was. As much as it proved we were creating our own problems – as much as it proved we as a species were “doing this to ourselves”…the forest did buy us time. Enough time for uneasy truces to form. Enough time for humanity to band together for survival in a way we just wouldn’t have otherwise.

Maybe it worked after all?

---Crossing a divide---

It had been an incredibly rocky few weeks for team friendship. James had tried, he really had…but his interference had seemed to make everything worse. James would be the first to admit he wasn’t good ‘at people’.

The easy answer was just…keep his two friend groups separate. They were obviously clashing – James could visit each of them back and forth.

And yet no one made the move to separate on their own. Despite the constant fighting…Richard stayed. Maybe because they had fought together? Through days of defense for the still forming sea?

James hadn’t noticed at first, but even as they fought the bite seemed to have left nearly immediately. Richard…really really didn’t care if he was insulted. He almost welcomed being told he was wrong and personal attacks were more like friendly banter to him.

Which led to this. The first case of true bridging that James had witnessed.

Richard stood in the middle of their camp, levitating a coin up and down between his hands.

"Look at my magic trick! Wooohhoooohhoooo" he called waving his arms around in all sorts of shapes while wiggling his fingers vigorously inwards and outwards.

"Oh, you can do magic now. Neat." Jess called from her position on a golden hammock.

...

"...Doesn't anyone want to know how the trick works?" Richard asked after a while dropping his hands and allowing the coin to bob a bit longer.

"Magic innit" Troy called with a grin.

"...I'm wrapping one connection arm around my shoulder and the other up from between my legs. The coin is held by tension between the two..."

"So...magic?"

Richard groaned and wandered over to flop down on the open worktable he and Maddy currently shared.

"Why are you so certain any power you use is not magic?" Maddy asked after a while.

Her body currently had homochromatic eyes - one vibrant purple the other a deep black.

"Because that’s not how science works..." Richard looked even more put out than normal.

Maddy looked to the side. "Look, a basketball". When Richard turned to look, he saw she had in fact conjured a ball. "Seems like magic to me." Maddy nodded. "Works better if I do that in a place you can't see due to how aggressive your domain is, but I promise I formed it from mana – not had someone wander in and place it to prove a point."

Richard nodded.

"I believe you 'conjured' that. I don't know how it works so I'll agree it’s 'magic'...but I'm not going to admit the answer to everything is just 'oooh a wizard did it oooooh it’s an impossible thing that just happened without a reason oooohhh'. Aether can do that too and aether is not magic. Just because we can't explain how your magic works doesn't mean it doesn't fit in reality...But all of that is just words. What do you mean when you say magic? What definition are we even arguing over?" Richard began playing with his coin again floating it up and down.

"Magic...is magic. You know it when you see it right? Seeing is believing?" Maddy seemed to seriously consider his question for a moment before responding. "You know, for someone who claims to follow a scientific process, you seem awfully quick to dismiss magic. You seem to be believing what you've been told pretty quickly – doesn't seem very scientific to me. I believe your science is real after all. Why can't you believe my magic is 'real'?"

Richard didn't respond right away. He began shifting tools about – soldering two crystals together with a third…could it still be called soldering? He rubbed the sides smooth, then dropped his creation in a bath of clear liquid that appeared to constantly boil without a heat source. Finally, when his crystal was done – seemingly nothing had happened but he was satisfied with the result – Richard turned and responded.

"Of course, aether has revealed dozens if not hundreds of gaps in earth understanding and corrupted aether or mana is even more confusing by design...it’s so improbable it feels impossible! But the idea of 'magic' and 'science' cannot coexist the way you want them to Maddy. The reason this is always an argument and not just a discussion is because we aren’t on the same wavelength at all. We aren’t talking about the same thing. I don't fully see a reason why ‘mana’ and ‘aether’ can't coexist – as far as I'm aware R's involved in some Wack politics with different foreign entities wanting us to fight or koombaya as friends and every conflict is manufactured...or maybe there’s a more scientific reason for their incompatibility? I'm not sure.

"We arn't talking about mana and aether though. Science and magic are fundamentally incompatible worldviews. It’s right there in the question you asked me.

"Do you want to know the difference as I understand it? Your mana is magic because you 'believe' it’s magic. My aether is science because I 'know' it's science. Magic is the lazy way of describing anything you don't understand. Computers are magic. Fuck – Fire and Lightning are magic if you go far enough back into human ignorance. Science is science because it works no matter what you believe. It’s not some random nerd flavor of voodoo-shit with beakers and Bunsen burners and pspspsp-quantum-pspspsps-nano-pspspspsps-bitcoins. I don't have to ‘believe’ in science for it to work. What I think doesn't really effect science any which way. It just is." Richard took a deep breath and then continued.

“If something I thought turns out to be wrong that doesn’t mean it’s not real and it doesn’t mean science broke. It means my theory was wrong. If something I thought was impossible turns out to be possible in a different situation…that doesn’t mean I’m going to dismiss it as ‘magic’. Why would I just wave my hands at it and continue on my whole life without figuring out how it works? I want to study it! I want to know the rules it follows and why it follows those rules. Science is a worldview. It’s not a thing to believe or dismiss. It’s a process. A way of interacting with the unknown.

"As I’ve been told, your mana is a randomized version of my aether that hides itself from observation. That might be a lie – but as a truth it holds up. Maybe…maybe the definition of magic is something I’ll never understand and the reason I haven’t wanted to ‘believe’ in it is arrogance. I know your power has a built-in obscurer…and yet some part of me thinks I might one day be able to crack it. You ask why I haven’t just ‘believed’ in magic? That’s why. The only reason I haven’t wanted to just ‘believe’…is because I ‘believe’ one day I’ll figure out how it actually works. I guess…I guess if that ever happens it won’t be magic anymore, will it? If I figure out how to crack the obscurer on mana it will just become aether? How about this. I’ll believe in magic being something I’ll never fully be able to describe or prove... if you ‘know’ my science is not tied to whatever frequency of aether I’m on or some arbitrary set of tools… it's just the way things are.”

Maddy nodded slowly. “You know…I think If I hadn’t already solidified my domain, you might have broken it a bit there. It’s my turn now, okay? Magic has always had rules…and yet those aren’t the rules you are talking about. I’ll agree with everything you’ve said about worldviews – and add in the part you seem to be missing. Magic isn’t just me handwaving something I understand. I don’t ‘believe’ in magic because I’m ignorant and don’t care to figure out the ‘Truth’. The truth of faith is simple. I want to believe in magic. I want to believe the world is more interesting than it is. I want to believe there’s stuff I don’t understand. I want to believe fantasy is possible. I want to believe the wonder I had when reading fantasy books as a child is true. Learning we are all brain scans trapped in an alien video game? Learning this fantasy is a lie? Just a dream? Doesn’t that sound so unsatisfying? That’s always been my least favorite plot point in movies.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I want to believe in magic. I know it has rules and I know it’s hiding some of those rules. That’s okay. I can live with that. As long as I can keep chasing my fantasy, I’ll be happy. I’ll even defend it being ‘cracked open’ if that means killing the wonder that exists inside of it. What about you? Do you even want to ‘know’ in science? Will that make you happy in the end? Will you knowing everything there is to know bring the same kind of excitement that magic brings me or…will you be bored in the end?” Maddy finished.

High above James was able to witness the silent change as Richard stood up and walked around the table to sit beside her.

Nothing more was said that day.

---Maddy---

“My second wish is for mystic power. I want magic – not a magic tool that can be stolen or a cursed ability or anything like that. I want to be a wizard like the heroes of old! Someone who can shape the world with my thoughts! And no tricksy business with my power shortening my lifespan or trapping me in your cage as we swap spots or anything.” The child asked and Maddy watched as the oasis shimmered revealing itself to be further away. A reflection on the sand – Maddy collapsed in dismay. Was it just an illusion after all? No! There are trees there! Mirages can only fake water, can’t they? Maddy stood up and began struggling towards it once again.

“Okay…What do you want your power to do? Would you prefer a strong power you can use right away or a weak ability to grow?”

Please. Please let me just make you a spell. I think…I think if I embed a spell into you that’s not a tool…

“I want magic…it feels like you are trying to trick me into accepting something lesser. I want to be magic. I want a magic that can grow.”

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmiiiiiitttt. Maddy internally groaned. Something about her demeanor seemed to have alerted the child who seemed satisfied to know he had ‘chosen correctly’.

“I knew it! I don’t want a crippled power. Growth is much better than instant power – I’m still young. I have plenty of time to grow into a proper archmage! I want to be able to control the forest – to ride great sherbeks and control vines like limbs! Finally, because I’m sure you’ll try and trick me somewhere…I want happiness. Not magical forced unnatural happiness. I want to make sure nothing you’ve done will act against me. Money, Power, Happiness. My happiness is a wish that you won’t turn around and undo what you’ve done. That you haven’t snuck anything past my other wishes. That you won’t try and do anything sketchy before, during or after. If you’ve already done something…stop that. If you were planning on doing something…nuh uh. I’ve thought about it a lot, and this seems like my best chance at winning.” The kid seemed proud of his final wish.

…kind of a wasted last wish? But…actually that makes things harder. You know generating mana creates monsters as well…I’m not sure how I was planning on doing it, but I thought maybe I could give him a life affinity and link it to a death affinity monster far away…

Maddy slowly nodded. Outside of her sight the words the kid had wrote slowly shifted gold to match the gold fairy he was bargaining with.

Gold is easy. I already have it in the gold crystals and conjuring more is simple especially if I convert the powerful feeling crystals into more mundane metal. Gold is more meaningful than something like stone but it’s a simple sort of meaning…the meaning people think it has. It's not complicated.

Not working against him…well I just have to do nothing. Easy wish.

Magic though? How…how the heck can I even start doing that?

…

Maddy fell deeper into the perception of the wish giving space. She was in the empty sandy stone clearing of her birth – the tools of control and manipulation she had broken and tossed aside. Kid was standing in front of her, hand outstretched and waiting for his prize – the one real wish he had burning in his mind’s eye.

That…that was the key to her changing perception. It was obvious in this moment – fae instincts blaring and external ‘want’ so solid across from her.

Maddy could dimly feel the wish. The burning desire. The want.

By staring at it – by allowing her sight to flow towards that wish she could ‘feel’ the surroundings change. As if the environment bent over backwards to accommodate her ability to grant this wish. As if the ‘world’ was trying to help her ‘see’ how she might grant it.

The answer didn’t just appear. Maddy had to almost not quite brainstorm to get answers. A fleeting thought became an indistinct shape and the focus of her wish-sight seemed to fill in the gaps and clear away the swirling chaos.

Maddy could…secretly follow this kid around for the rest of his life. She could bind herself to him in a way that let her see when he wished to cast magic – then perform the magic he expected. She could…”become” his magic – a tireless 24/7 job. A solution that would be broken if he were ever to discover her position. A solution that “worked” and yet felt…flimsy. Pulling her vision back slightly, Maddy could see this wish painted upon a cardboard cutout. Propped up with tiny eyed blurry versions of her.

This felt…safe and yet “bad”. Maddy knew the reason she didn’t like this option was the way it felt like it might invalidate her own…was R in the background casting all her magic? Was someone behind him? Was it puppets all the way up?

Maddy…disliked this option because it felt like it invalidated her own. It “worked” as a solution for the kid and yet it was weak. It would give a low return of meaning. It…it was cheating in a way? The kid might never know the difference and if she committed enough, she might be able to trick herself into thinking she had followed the letter of his wish…but not the spirit. Not the true wish he asked for.

Maddy moved on. She tried to imagine just…forcing the shape of magic into his soul. Just “doing” it. Indistinct shapes kept appearing and melting away. It wasn’t enough – deeper and deeper Maddy ‘sank’ into the wish. She felt the way it resonated with her own – and the way it sort of bounced off her own linking off to hundreds of thousands of billions and trillions of similar ones. The wish for magic was the wish "I could have power like you”. “I want your power”. “I want to be like you”.

The solution appeared rock solid moments later. Maddy just needed to give the kid her power. She just had to gift him her power…for as long as he lived.

This solution was rock solid. A mountain of certainty that this would work.

Maddy didn’t like it for obvious reasons. Screw this kid! Why should I have to give up my magic just because I’ve been trapped? 'Puppetmaster in the shadows' Maddy sounds awfully tempting right now.

Maddy tried to brainstorm a third option. Magic likes three’s – right? Where’s my final option? My final choice that doesn’t suck?

…

She couldn’t find it. Nothing she had – nothing else she could give had enough “meaning” to fulfill the wish. Magic – True magic has a cost. You can’t get something for nothing. That idea of cost was probably the truest rule of all. The most unbreakable rule in the universe. The most fundamental.

As much as she wanted option one. As much as she wanted to almost rule lawyer herself into cheating…it felt like it went against the third wish. It felt like it went against a deep part of her.

Finally she relented.

This option. This cursed option.

…

As soon as Maddy committed to the second option it seemed to expand – no, she was merely moving towards it. Her vision entering the shape the environment changing to facilitate her enactment of the wish.

She saw herself – similar to the view in between zones where she could observe her body, mind and soul. She saw…the way she herself was split off from the collective that was her – how her choice here was Her choice – and not that of her sisters.

She saw the shape of magic. Two hands curled around each other and unfurling into the trifecta of her body/mind/soul. A pair of hands fractaled off from her main body – fractaled off from something even higher.

Nine digits had simple singular self-reinforcing and refined power. Wisdom, Intelligence, Clarity. Strength, Agility, Endurance. Spirit, Wisper, Stability. The Tenth finger had…her affinity. It should have been life and death but instead it was her light+creation affinity. Some of the fingers seemed to have power from her “main body” or collective but also stats that were hers specifically. Stats for this “eye” and no other.

Following the fractal of hands backwards she saw the way her two additional “full affinities” had been built overtop of the fingers she had “sacrificed”. The 5 fingers now holding a group of fingers that represented her new pools.

Maddy did not want to touch those – she didn’t want to take the magic of her ‘sisters’. It took an effort of will to return to the first shape. To her. Just her – not the other her’s.

The one with 10 fingers – some sickly looking due to the way their “parent” had been affected – the five fingers representing strength, agility, endurance, spirt, whisper…this was what she had to work with.

Maddy saw how the fingers that represented stats could grow quite easily – new stats were easy enough to add even if they came from something else. From a position the fingers couldn’t control.

The finger that represented her affinity however…well it couldn’t grow easily. It had power – and breadth. A massive amount of widespread potential in comparison to the fingers…but an unstable one. It required something from the environment – it leaked. Her stats gave her strength and nothing else. Her mana pool gave her a mystical resource but also leaked away and created monsters – far away and easy to ignore…but directly linked.

If she tried to give them an equivalent ‘meaning value’, her affinity was a hundred times weaker than her stats? No. it was obviously not weaker – magic was the strongest part of her…it was just different.

If she…tried to see their power in terms of size – the fat stat fingers were like bars of iron while her magic finger was an entire room full of air. Air that leaked out of the open window and filled with dust and junk…but still a greater overall mass.

You know what was unfair? Maddy saw the way her fingers “cost” created monsters outside of the dungeon. When she gave this finger to the kid his cost would never seem to appear – it would create monsters outside of this dungeon as well. Maddy was the one paying the cost – everyone outside of this stupid dungeon would pay the cost not him…

…Maddy was stalling.

She looked around for a tool – for a way she might transplant what was before her…and found nothing.

Finally Maddy sighed and moved towards the hand. She reached out towards her magic finger – not thinking too hard about what she was reaching with…and then began to bend the finger back and forth.

It cracked way too easily – a sharp nauseating feeling of ‘wrongness’ permeating Maddy’s body.

Are you sure you want this? Her body seemed to ask.

No. I’m not sure. Want doesn’t come into this – sometimes we have do do things we don’t want to don’t we?

Maddy twisted the broken finger – each twist and crackle of bones causing pain to wash across every ounce of her being. Finally the finger was off and she turned to the child.

He was far away. “Come over here” Maddy called dimly aware of her ‘true’ body asking him to let her out of the cage so she could fulfill his wish.

With some hesitation the boy complied.

As she looked at the boy and the finger in her hand…she realized she was holding an eye. An eye that was a pool – and empty pool without her affinity and concepts...

Maddy could see the kid in front of her. Could see the two slots he had – the very obvious place to put this eye.

Reaching out Maddy gently pushed the pool of potential into the kid's skull – where it had been a painful unnecessarily violent removal, this gift was quick and painless. The kid's empty eye socket seemed to suck her gift into it becoming more whole in the moment.

…so that’s it? That’s all?

Maddy stared at the second empty eye socket and knew she wasn’t done.

Turning back to her existence, Maddy reached in and began breaking a second finger. A complement. The pool she had given was a multiplier that couldn’t grow well…she needed a base that could grow. Maddy crinkled and broke her intelligence finger – her “mind speed” finger. The second time was easier than the first.

Turning back Maddy gifted her second eye watching as a part of her was sucked into the second slot. Most of the stats she had gained…weakened and remained with her – they were like fingernails held by her mutilated hands. She had gifted the ability to grow the kid's mind and the ability to grow his magic.

She could…be happy with this result. She was going above and beyond to fulfill the wish. Someone should recognize that.

The world seemed to recognize that at least – a wave of reality density seemed to rush towards her as soon as she accepted she was done.

Reality density that immediately began to fade as her mana did – as her magical sight weakened.

The three fingered hand in her existence was bleeding.

…

Maddy wandered through the forest feeling more vulnerable than she had in a long while. After gifting her magic to the kid she had used some of her increased strength to melt a tree – borrowing her sisters dark-void to refine the tree and a bit of the surroundings into a very real feeling concept of nature. That had been added to the kids pool gifting a nature affinity. She’d melted the gold crystals as well – converting the potent “investment” into a stack of gold coins higher than the kid was tall…

And then left.

Now here she was – vulnerable and reeling from her experience.

It was hard not to feel a primal sort of fear for every sound and errant shadow – especially when you were the size of a small mouse.

Her magic…was gone and with it a good portion of her “skills”. She needed mana to teleport after all even if it only cost a miniscule amount regenerated between micro seconds. She needed mana to translate…Her special perception – her instinctual sense of what was possible…was all due to her mind upgrades and without mana being run through those pathways, her unique perspective was gone as well.

She needed mana for everything.

Technically she needed mana to move and talk with air vibrations but…at some point she had grown arms and legs and a mouth however rudimentary.

No. For all intents and purposes Maddy had lost her magic and with it…everything. The world was dull as light faded from shifting sand and the “meaning density” her creation affinity sewed through everything vanished from her sight.

In exchange, she had a weight to her. A sense of potential. Of stored ability to break the rules…of liquid miracle...That was a wrong way of describing it. Her reward was not some resource – not some physical thing she could move about…

But she was different. She had something – a guarantee. Enough she could access her other bodies pools for a moment maybe. Enough she could continue existing…because without mana to give form to every part of her current body, her very existence now fed microscopic drop by microscopic drop of nothingness from her pool of miracles.

Maddy had wanted to know what the dungeon expected of her and found…her situation could be seen as her in a pit. Her gathered “miracle juice” was…like a ladder. Or maybe a stack of boxes?

She had a bunch but not enough to stack and get out of the pit – all that and she hadn’t gained enough to leave?

This had been the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals!

Jokes aside, Maddy felt awful. The world felt dull. The absence of her passive magics made small pains return, and her current body's entire head was very clearly a large eyeball without an eyelid.

It felt like her face was dry. It felt like she needed to blink but someone had cut off her eyelids.

...

She was also gold! Bright gold in a forest! Incredibly visible for anything that might want to eat her - and probably desirable for any demon greedy enough to try and capture her again.

She would not be captured! She didn't have anything to give anymore!

…

There was only a single debatable positive to her situation.

For quite a while now, reality had felt weaker and weaker. With how much control Maddy had had over the surroundings. Existence had long started to…feel tenuous. She had felt like an observer to her own life. She had felt like she was lucid dreaming – her reality sight showing just how little meaning most of the surroundings had made it feel like nothing mattered.

…and her dying insanity had made those feelings even stronger as the fae trance made everything feel like a story.

Well. No longer. Not in this moment at least. Maddy felt mortal and grounded – the dreamy calm that had pervaded her every thought nothing more than a memory.

She brushed past a bush and flinched as a branch whipped back smacking her head.

This…sucked.

…

As Maddy moved through the forest her need – her re-kindling need to survive began rearing its ugly head.

Her emotions felt like they fed into the need – her fear, her anger and being forced into this, every sensation doubled back and bolstered her need. As if tipping over a point Maddy felt something – her fae body sucking ever so slightly deeper on her liquid miracle and suddenly the forest was gone.

She was still here. Dimly she could see the tree in front of her a bush to her left. Surrounded by wilderness in truth.

In lies however…instead of an expanse she was looking at a maze. A hedge maze lit by dim balls of light that floated about leisurely.

High above a mirror lay – reflecting quite a bit more of the surroundings and showing if she continued down this path, she would reach both a dead end and a toothy maw.

Maddy backtracked slightly coming to a fork in the path. She followed the new path for a bit before coming across a new fork and a new decision.

The mirror high above – though hard to see in the dark and hard to wrap one’s head around, showed enough. There was something dark and covered in pulsating sickly fur around two bends to the left. Her right extended into the distance unimpeded.

Maddy was vaguely aware she was staring at a single hair on a bush in the forest before turning to the side and walking in a new direction.

…

Bit by bit, Maddy traversed the maze – never coming upon a monster no matter how improbable that felt. At no point did she use mana – no sound pulse tuned to life perception. No swarm of perceptive eye points.

And yet…this was magic was it not?

Soon she arrived at her destination. A house in the middle of the woods – half of it smashed.

It looked abandoned – why had Maddy found herself drawn this way?

Maddy kept turning as if to leave…but something drew her eye. A need. A burning need. Somewhere within this smashed structure…there was a wish.