Lydia awoke the next morning hoping that everything she had seen the night before had been a dream. She got dressed and went downstairs only to be severely disappointed by the sight of Hallast, sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of what looked like tea. He had a book in one hand and sipped his tea with the other. The pages of the book gently turned themselves as he read.

  “So,” Lydia began, catching Hallast’s attention, “You’re still here…”

  “Yes,” Hallast replied with a forced smile. “If you were hoping that you imagined last night, you’re out of luck.” Hallast’s book slapped itself shut and floated away from his hand, landing softly on the table.

  “That’s really cool,” Lydia couldn’t help but praise his magic. Hallast smiled at this, saying nothing, choosing instead to take a sip of his tea. “Any sign of tall, dark, and disturbing?”

Hallast chuckled at Lydia’s description of Jack.

  “No,” he replied, putting down his tea as Lydia joined him at the table. “But I’m sure he hasn’t given up yet.”

There was a long silence between the two. Lydia had so many questions for Hallast, but she didn’t know quite where to begin. Why the sorcerer said nothing was a mystery to Lydia.

  “Hallast,” Lydia went out on a limb to begin the conversation, “was my mother really what you said she was?”

  “No,” he replied, with a widening smile, “she was better than that. She did beautiful things for others, and she never broke any laws doing it.”

  “Magic has laws?” Lydia asked with a short, surprised laugh. Hallast shrugged and shook his head slightly.

  “Lets say that the universe has laws,” he explained. Hallast sat back in his chair a little and looked down, thoughtfully. “But your mother always found balance. She never wanted anything in return or any kind of recognition. She was… is a beautiful person.” Hallast sat forward a little, and Lydia caught a moment of sadness behind his eyes, before he forced another smile.

  “Why can’t she do magic, like you?” Lydia couldn’t help but ask. Hallast’s expression deepened and his brow furrowed. The question seemed to make him uncomfortable.

  “That’s a sensitive subject,” he finally replied. “I think Jess should be the one to tell you that, whenever she’s ready.”

  Lydia was sure that it would be a long time before that happened. Her mother had done a wonderful job convincing Lydia that she had only ever aspired to work in the world of finance, for as long as Lydia could remember. Not once had she ever seen anything even remotely magical.

  “Do you think I could ever be as good as she was?” Lydia hesitated to ask.

  “Honestly,” Hallast stated, “I don’t know. But, if I were you, I would try.”

  Lydia, for the first time in her life, felt the sudden weight of her mother’s legacy. It was a Legacy she never knew existed, but now it was there, very tangibly on her shoulders.

  “I want to learn…” Lydia stated, resolutely.

  “You really do?” asked Hallast skeptically, before he took a sip of his tea.

  “All of my life,” Lydia explained, “I have never felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. I have always felt like a piece of me was missing. When I see you do what you can do, I feel connected to it… I feel like it’s a part of me already. I don’t know if that makes any sense.”

  “It does,” Hallast said, smiling. There was a warmth in his voice. “You are actually a little like your mother.”

There was a sudden release in Lydia’s chest and her eyes blurred with tears, which she hadn’t expected.

  “Thanks,” she smiled as she spoke.

  “I may be willing to teach you what I know,” Hallast said. Lydia couldn’t help but give a small squeal of joy. “But, I want you to do me a favor first.”

  “Anything!” Lydia replied, without thinking.

  “If you commit yourself to learning magic,” Hallast took on a more grave tone, “your life will never be the same. Please, take some time think about whether or not you’re ready for that. It’s a big world out there, Lydia.”

  “I will,” Lydia said, honestly. She understood that learning magic would be a serious undertaking. “Can we talk more about this after school?”

  “Of course,” said Hallast, taking a final gulp of his tea. “Don’t want you to be late.”

  Lydia left the kitchen and picked up her blue denim backpack, from the hallway. She threw it over her right shoulder as she went out the front door and on her way to school. As she walked along the familiar streets, she felt joyful and excited. She wondered how it be, if she became a sorcerer. She thought about whether or not she would have to keep taking classes in high school. Would she eventually go to college? Did things that weren’t magical matter to sorcerers? Questions filled Lydia’s head, and before she was aware, she had arrived at her school.

  The front of her school had its usual morning buzz. Some students were being dropped off by their parents, some were socializing out on the front lawn, and some were filing through the large wooden front doors, beneath a stone archway and its facade.

  Lydia walked to join her classmates, but as she crossed the campus lawn, the world suddenly stretched and seemed to turn inside out. Up, for a moment, was down. The bright morning suddenly changed to night.

  Lydia dropped her bag from her shoulder. She looked all around in a panic. She began hyperventilating as her mind raced to make sense of what she was seeing.

  Streetlights were illuminated. The school’s windows were mostly dark. The sky was black. Nothing was wrong with her vision; she was sure that it was actually night and that she had missed the entire day. But how? Why?

  “Oh no…” the now familiar voice of Jack sent a shiver down her spine. Lydia turned to see him standing behind her, blocking the way home, wearing his usual terrifying grin. “Late again, are we?”

  “What did you do to me?!” Lydia couldn’t help but scream at him.

  “Not much, actually,” Jack said with a guffaw. “All I did was a little path-crossing spell to keep you from going to school. You compensated in a really interesting way and now… Well here we are.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!” Lydia said angrily. “What do you want from me?!”

  “To make you part of something wonderful,” Jack spoke more candidly, as he began to walk in a circle around Lydia. “I want to give you something Hallast and Jessica will never give you willingly.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How about your true destiny,” Jack almost whispered as Lydia watched him walk closer. “If you only knew what I know.”

  Without warning, Lydia threw her hands into the space between her and Jack and yelled: “Isa gar!”

  Nothing happened.

  For a moment there was silence before Jack absolutely exploded with laughter.

  “Uh oh,” he continued to laugh as he spoke. “Someone doesn’t know what they’re doing. I’m sorry, dear, but the first rule of magic is: Don’t use other people’s spells.”

  Effortlessly, Jack waved a single hand and dark energy encircled Lydia, freezing her in place and sending pins and needles all over her body. She cried out as she tried to fight it, but she couldn’t free herself.

  “If I have no power,” she yelled, “then leave me alone!”

  “Remind me to thank your mother,” Jack said with a smirk. “I’m so glad that she didn’t prepare you at all.”

  A loud crack shattered the night air and Lydia turned her head to see two long, ribbons of golden light snake violently through the dark. They quickly wrapped themselves around Lydia and then exploded outward, banishing Jack’s spell.

  Lydia collapsed to the ground, but immediately fought to stand and regain her balance. Finally on her feet again, she looked to the source of the spell that had saved her.

  Lydia’s mother stood, under the glow of a streetlight, with one arm raised, looking calm and determined. From her raised hand hung a single gold chain. At the end of the chain was a small glass vial. Lydia couldn’t tell what was inside the vial, but she thought it looked like a lock of black hair, tied in a knot.

  “Mom,” Lydia gasped, amazed by the sight of such a powerful woman. “You have your magic again!”

  “That’s not her magic,” spat Jack. His tone made it seem as if he had just been insulted somehow. “It makes me sick to see the great Jessica Johnson cling to a reliquary; a shadow of your former will. Could you sink any lower?”

  Lydia’s heart sank, for a moment. The thing she was holding must have been helping her cast a spell.

  “You’re one to talk,” Jessica retorted, calmly. “Get away from my daughter.”

  “Or you’ll do what, exactly?” Jack called out, raising his hands in feigned supplication. “You’ll have Hallast sneak up behind me and do all of your fighting? Yes, I know you’re there!”

  From behind Jack, Hallast stepped into the light. Lydia was disappointed that Jack seemed to still have the upper hand, but she felt relieved to see that Hallast had come.

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  “You’re outnumbered, Jack,” stated Hallast, calmly.

  “I think you said that last time,” Jack replied, grinning darkly. “And look: I’m still here.”

  Lydia saw a flash of fear in her mother’s eyes, as Jack spoke. Hallast began waving his hands and symbols appeared in the air around him. Clearly he was done talking.

  Jack set his spells into motion as well, however this time Jack was slightly faster than his opponent, or perhaps more prepared for a real fight. Lydia couldn’t tell the difference.

  Jack traced two circles in the air and, immediately, a pair of black wolves emerged. The horrifying animals wasted no time in going after Hallast, who quickly changed the spell he was casting, and began throwing balls of fire at the wolves.

  Keeping his enemy effectively busy, Jack wheeled around and set his sights on Lydia. He stretched out his arms and dark red energy seeped out of his chest enveloping his hands. Blood-red snakes appeared and lunged toward Lydia. Lydia quickly turned to brace herself for the attack, but before the snakes could reach her, Jessica stepped in front of her daughter, raised he reliquary high, and produced a beautiful bubble of blue light around the two of them.

Mercilessly, the snakes bit and pummeled the shield. Lydia watched in terror as her mother’s reliquary began to crack. Jessica seemed to also notice this and her face showed her panic.

  “You can’t hold him off!” cried Lydia. “Hallast! Help!”

  Hallast was fighting his own battle. Lydia could barely see through the chaos all around her, but it looked like Hallast had destroyed one of the wolves and was entirely focused on defeating the other.

  “You have to run, baby,” Lydia’s mother finally said, as a tear ran down her cheek.

  “Mom, no,” Lydia said, understanding what her mother intended to have happen. Lydia’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m not leaving you!”

  “Go!”

  “You can’t make me abandon you!”

  Snap!

  The reliquary shattered with a thunderous echo and the shield fell in the blink of an eye. One of the lashing serpents whipped violently around and sank its fangs into Jessica’s back, then dissipated, as if it had been nothing but a red cloud.

  Lydia caught her mother as she fell to the ground. Jack looked at them for a moment, seeming to marvel at his own work. Slowly he broke into an manic cackle.

  “You know what that was for, Jess!” He shouted at the unconscious woman. “I hope you live to remember it!”

The pained howl of the other wolf pierced the air, which Lydia knew meant Hallast had won, but it was too late. Her mother’s form was limp in her arms and she wasn’t breathing.

  “Mom!” screamed Lydia, as loudly as she could. “Mom please no!”

Hallast ran over and huddled over the two. He looked as horrified as Lydia felt, and his brow was furrowed with rage.

  “Hallast,” Lydia sobbed, ”is she dead?”

  “Lydia,” Hallast spoke in a calm but hurried tone. “I need you to concentrate for me, okay? I need you to do this for your mother.”

  Lydia had no idea what Hallast was talking about but she decided to just listen and trust him. Jack seemed to be in the processes of casting another spell, and she had no desire to find out what it was.

  “Lydia,” Hallast continued, placing a hand on her shoulder, “I need you to focus on being far away from this place…”

  “But I—”

  “No,” he persisted, ”Just want it, need it, feel it, then I want you to see it. I’ll do the rest… It’s going to be okay. Just focus.”

  Lydia looked at Jack casting the spell and put every ounce of her focus into being far, far away from him. She could feel her chest tighten, and her body tense with the urgent need to leave. She then focused on seeing Jack as a far away object and, to her total surprise, the world around her stretched as she watch Jack vanish into a tunnel of streetlights, trees, and houses. Everything stretched into lines of infinite length. Everything warped and twisted, and then came back together around the three of them. Instead of sitting on a darkened school lawn, Hallast, Lydia, and Jessica were all sitting in a beautiful grassy glen, surrounded by trees, in broad daylight.

  Lydia felt Jessica stir in her arms, and suddenly where they were didn’t matter.

  “Mom!” cried Lydia. “Oh my god, please be alive!”

  “You’re…” Jessica struggled to speak. “You’re safe.”

  “You’re not doing that again, Jess,” Hallast smiled as he wiped a tear from his own cheek.

  “Couldn’t… If I wanted to,” she whispered, forcing her own fatigued smile. Hallast placed an affectionate hand on her head, as she closed her eyes.

  “Will she be okay?” Lydia asked.

  “Yeah,” Hallast replied, seeming very at ease. “She’ll be fine. We got her here in time.”

  “Where is here?”

  “Fewer questions,” Hallast said as he picked Jessica up out of the Lydia’s arms. Lydia stood up with him. “Let’s get your mother inside and then we can talk.”

  Lydia followed Hallast up a path, through the surrounding forest. It wound back and forth slightly until there were no more trees. Lydia gasped as the path became a natural bridge of rock and grass, which was suspended over nothing but clouds. From the moment the three left the forest, Lydia could clearly see that the path they were on encircled an enormous floating island. The island was beautiful and green. Sitting atop the island was a large palace, which looked like it belonged in an Asian country. It had swept tile roofs, which sat above high, red walls. Everything seemed to be supported by thick wooden columns.

  Hallast, still carrying Jessica, led Lydia further along the path. Lydia was pleasantly surprised by the presence of flowering vines, which flanked them on either side, and formed a natural archway. The flowers were a beautiful white-pink, and it warmed Lydia to see them.

  “Are we in heaven?” Lydia asked, as the three finally arrived at the palace’s large front doors. The doors opened by themselves, seeming to welcome them in.

  “My heaven,” Hallast said with a chuckle, “in a way, I guess.”

  They enter a main hall, which was a huge, square room with a very high ceiling. There were doors leading in every direction and a wide winding staircase at the far side of the hall.

  Without hesitation, Hallast took Jessica through the last door on the left side of the room. Lydia followed him into a beautiful bedroom. This did not seem to belong to him, as there were no personal effects anywhere in sight. The walls lacked decoration of any kind.

  Gently, Hallast laid Jessica on a circular bed, with red silk sheets. He felt her forehead, and then covered her with a fuzzy red blanket. Approaching Lydia, he beckoned her to follow him out of the room. Lydia hesitated, not wanting to leave her mother’s side.

  “Come on,” Hallast softly reassured her. “She’s safe here. She just needs rest.”

  Reluctantly, Lydia obeyed. She followed her host out into the main hall and through a door on the opposite side of the palace. The door led to an expansive balcony, overlooking a breathtaking sprawl of clouds. All around the balcony tables tables had been set with pots of tea sitting on each.

  “You must really like tea,” Lydia commented. She didn’t know what else to say.

  “I do,” remarked Hallast with a smile. “Welcome to my own personal world, Lydia.”

  “You can make worlds?!” Lydia said, genuinely impressed.

  “Well,” Hallast spoke with what seemed like embarrassed modesty, “just one world, and this is all there is here… I didn’t do it alone either. Planning took ages and a very wise sorcerer helped me out.”

  “So my mom will get better here?” asked Lydia.

  “Oh yes,” Hallast answered with a confidence that comforted Lydia. “This isn’t Earth and Jack currently has no influence here. This place is——”

  “Magic,” Lydia finished his sentence for him. “Yeah, I’m learning to just go with that.”

  “You know,” Hallast said, “you’re a really wonderful daughter.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Lydia, suddenly feeling put on the spot.

  “Standing by your mother, like that,” he elaborated. “Even when you knew she couldn’t protect you, you didn’t leave her side. I’m impressed.”

  “I mean, she’s my mom,” Lydia said.

  There was a short, thoughtful silence between the two. A light breeze floated through the tea balcony, filling the air with the sweet sent of flowers.

  “Have you put any more thought into your training?” Hallast asked, as he wandered over to a table and sat down. He gestured for Lydia to join him. She took a seat on the opposite side of the table.

  “I still want to learn,” Lydia stated plainly. ”I want to be as good at magic as my mother.”

  Hallast smirked, as if he were amused by the idea. He waved his hand and the teapot on the table slowly rose into the air. A small golden triangle appeared below the tea pot, which then turned into a flame. The water in the pot began to boil. Lydia smiled in wonder as she watched this happen.

  “I have a feeling that you will be.”