Disappearance of Roselei Hawthorne

Chapter Twenty

Gideon may not be as talented with magic as Lillia or StellaLuna was, but he was certainly skilled with a sword. The beast clawed and snarled at him, but Gideon was able to easily evade its furious swipes. Once he saw an opening, he charged towards the monster with all his might, thrusting his sword into its chest.

Except... nothing happened. The beast didn't wail out in pain, or recoil from the piercing of Gideon's sword. In fact, Gideon didn't even pierce it at all. There was nothing to pierce. The beat may have looked like a real thing, but it was nothing more than a cloud of smoke taking on the form of a terrifying monster.

Confused, Gideon stepped back, watching how the beast thrashed and whipped its tail. It lifted up its huge paw, preparing to slam it back down upon Gideon, but he didn't even move. He frowned, and let the beast stomp on him. And just as he had predicted, he couldn't even feel it.

"It's an illusion." Kallen, who had been watching, declared.

"That certainly explains why I can't hurt it. And why it can't hurt me." Gideon stepped away, regrouping with the others. They all stood for a moment, watching the monster continue to writhe around in anger. But it never moved from the center of the map.

"Okay, so its an illusion. But why?" StellaLuna raised an eyebrow. "Why is it here? And why did it suddenly manifest now?"

"Kallen, you're the expert on illusion magic. Do you know anything?" Lillia turned to him.

"Well... let me think." Kallen furrowed his brow, thinking over all the possible explanations. "I doubt there's another witch on this island. Besides, it takes incredible talent to be able to cast an illusion that big. The only way is for the illusion to come from something else."

"Care to elaborate?" Vulcan asked, still staring at the beast. It seemed that nobody was able to take their eyes off of it.

"It's kinda hard to explain, but I'll try." Kallen frowned. "Think about it this way- imagine a... let's say a cloth."

"Why a cloth?" Celty raised an eyebrow.

"Because I'm still holding the dish towel that StellaLuna stole, and its the first thing that came to my mind." Kallen sighed. "Anyways, just imagine a cloth. If I repeatedly cast magic on it, enchanting it over and over, I would be... let's say... storing magic in it. If I stored a lot of magic in there, then when it was released, it would be capable of doing things that I couldn't do with just a single spell."

"That's right. A magic trigger. All forms of magic have those." StellaLuna nodded.

"Yeah, but I think they're the most handful with illusion magic. A single witch can only go so far with the size and realism of their illusion before they wear themselves out. By using a magic trigger, they can create enormous illusions." Kallen explained.

"So you think there was a magic trigger involved?" Gideon asked.

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Kallen shrugged. "And I'm willing to bet that its that crystal that Fenris pulled out of the map."

"A-are you blaming me for this?" Fenris stammered defensively.

"No, I'm just saying that removing the crystal form its place in the map released the magic stored inside it, therefore casting this illusion." Kallen said, giving Fenris a small pat on the head to make them feel better.

"I guess that makes sense. But its like StellaLuna said earlier. Why?" Lillia stared up at the beast in confusion. "Why is it here?"

"Do you suppose it was some kind of trap? Perhaps to scare people away?" Gideon suggested.