The summoning chamber, which had been so crowded in the hours prior, was now empty, save for one lone magus girl. Elizabeth was left behind to continue investigating the failed summoning ritual. She knew nobody expected anything of her, but still, she tried her best to find evidence of what had gone wrong.

Try as she might, she couldn’t see any flaws or blemishes in the circle itself. The carved pattern had survived the eons no worse for wear. Elizabeth wasn’t present at the time, but she received a description from others that the dozen magi had all placed their hands in exactly the right places during the ritual. The Grand Magus had, appropriately, led the group to increase mana levels quite slowly. By all accounts, his incantation was perfect, too.

Despite the summoning ritual sounding well-executed, the hero had not appeared. Well, something appeared, but it must have been some type of mistake. Apparently, there had been a delay. Only while everyone argued did droppings fall to the floor, right at the center of the summoning circle. They were taken away by someone else, and the floor was already well-scrubbed.

Perhaps the kingdom was unworthy of a hero, and the ‘gift’ they received was a mere mockery of their efforts. If so, the alliance wasn’t long for this world. As terrifying as that prospect was, the girl resolved herself to redouble her efforts and try that much harder to learn something—anything that could point the Grand Magus in the right direction when he returned.

She stepped back to the center of the circle for the umpteenth time, looking around in all directions. Turning her attention from the summoning circle itself to the rest of the chamber, she rotated her body slowly, gazing at the periphery of the room, looking for some evidence of an anomaly. After several minutes of this, she completed a revolution, closed her eyes, and sighed softly.

Elizabeth took a blow to the head. It was so sudden, she didn’t have time to arrest her descent as she fell down. She slammed into the stone floor hard, knocking the wind out of her and even banging her head. In her fading consciousness, she looked up, spotting something unusual in her fading vision. If she wasn’t mistaken, was that a butt floating in the air?

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Liam thought he was feeling better, but perhaps his celebration was premature. He was still so out of it that he didn’t notice the toilet seat was up as he sat down. He also lost his balance and slipped, falling butt-first into the toilet bowl.

He wiggled left and right, flailing his arms as he rushed to lift himself back up. “I’m never drinking again!” he declared as his hands finally caught the rim and supported his efforts to lift himself. Once back on his feet, he thought back to the strange experience of a moment ago.

Not only was he not wetted, but he thought he felt his butt momentarily smash into something round. “What the heck…?” His chain of thought was broken by his desire, no, need to use the toilet. He was still too out of it to piece much of as thought together anyway.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

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“Beth!”

The magus girl opened her eyes to the sight of another magi, her colleague and friend, calling out to her.

“Beth, how do you feel!?”

Elizabeth groaned. “My head still hurts. What happened?” She looked up and saw she had been moved to a different room to recover.

“I went to check on you, and you were passed out on the floor. Right next to…”

“That’s right! Something hit my head! Ugh…” She wasn’t able to handle shouting yet.

“Do you remember anything else?”

“There was… a butt.”

“A what?”

“I looked up when I fell. I think I got hit in the head by a butt?”

“Just a butt?”

“My vision was blurry, but that’s all I could see.”

“Well, that would explain…”

“Explain what?” Elizabeth tilted her head.

“Oh… there was another… no never mind. I’ll report what you saw to the others. Stay here and rest.”

Elizabeth’s head was still pounding, so she didn’t mind waiting by herself quietly.

After what felt like an hour, several knights entered the room.

“Magus Elizabeth?”

“Yes?”

“We’ve searched the chamber, but have found no evidence of any human body parts.”

“Oh…”

“Are you sure you’re not making up or imagining the part about seeing a backside?”

“I…”

“Elizabeth, you must realize how important this issue is. If you are being dishonest or holding anything back, rest assured that your head will roll.”

“No! I’ve been honest! It’s just… it’s hard to remember exactly what I saw. I hit my head…”

“Well, try to remember as best you can. Was it a man’s backside? A woman’s? A child’s? Are you sure it was human? Could it have been from another race? Did you spot a tail? What was the color of the skin? Did it appear to be the source of the bowel movements found twice on the summoning circle? Did the impact seem accidental or targeted? Did you receive any messages or revelations? Did you do anything immediately preceding the appearance which may have caused it to appear?”

“Um…” She tried to decide how to address so many questions at once. “I think it was a man’s? I can’t remember exactly. It looked human, though, I think. I didn’t do anything. I was just standing at the center of the circle thinking…”

“Very well, I will report this to the king. Remain here.”

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“Sire… I have an incredible report to make…”

“Oh!? Finally, something! Captain, go ahead.”

“After questioning Magus Elizabeth, we investigated the chamber further.”

“I can’t imagine her story is true, but did you find anything?”

“Yes. We brought in some wood and constructed a small platform in order to elevate our search above the summoning circle.”

“And?”

“I personally climbed atop the platform and carefully inspected the area just above where Elizabeth’s head would have been when she was struck. I believe she was telling the truth.”

“What did you see!?” the king asked frantically.

“When I raised my head in just the right spot my vision went dark. Only, it was not completely dark. Although my body was still standing on the platform, it was a though my head was in an entirely different room.”

“What?”

“Though it was dark, I was able to make out some unusual furniture in the room. The room was similar to a garderobe, I’d say.”

“A garderobe? That would explain the droppings, but… It truly was like an invisible door to another place?”

“Yes, Sire.”

“What did you do next?”

“I lowered my head and ordered the platform guarded. Nobody else should have investigated yet. I came straight here.”

“Good work, Captain. Things are starting to make a little bit of sense. Bring the Grand Magus. We must plan what to do next.”