Alice into Darkness

Snowstorm

At first the storm was nothing out of the ordinary for November, but as the hours passed the wind became even stronger and soon the visibility outside was quite limited and dangerous... What should have been a white evening transformed into a creepy darkness very similar to night, and the temperature descended to shivering levels not seen since the January storms.

All types of public events were cancelled at the town, most of the shops closed and the families took refuge inside of their homes while the snow covered everything and the wind continued to howl...

Albert soon ignited every fireplace in the entire house, Alice spent some time at the kitchen preparing hot tea and biscuits for everyone, fortunately for the Snowflakes they counted with loads and loads of lumber piled up at the basement and all that they could do was to hope that the storm would be over soon.

"Fascinating" Alice would say over and over again, playing with those magical sparks that simply emerged from her hands- "That's so beautiful... Wow, just look at that... Fascinating!"

The window showed nothing but severe wind and heavy snow outside, so Alice was just resting on her bed as she enjoyed her magic and the privacy of her personal room. The bed was soft and comforting, the fireplace provided enough heat to keep the cold at distance and those sparks continued to fly and swirl around her hands.

The dazzling sparks were sometimes white, but other times they were red, green, orange and blue and they could be even violet and silvery... Alice discovered that she could create them in any color that she wanted, and she could feel that they came from all of those colors that she had absorbed during that day.

It felt like the stolen colors were concentrated inside of her, like they were electricity and she was a battery cell...

"Let's see if I can do that flames trick again" Alice whispered to herself, and then she concentrated on creating some fiery red sparks- "Come on, Alice... Think of it! Flames... Flames! Elsa Stallgren burning like a torch between the trees... It's all inside of you... You can do that again!"

It took some time, but eventually the same magical fire that had reduced the Stallgren girl to ashes was created from the beautiful sparks. The flame was all red and dazzling, it emitted a low and macabre sound and even though it was powerful enough to burn through solid rocks there was no heat being released from that flame into the air.

"Fascinating!"

Alice quickly learned how to ignite the magical fire whenever that she wanted, soon she was turning it on and off at pleasure, that eerie sound coming from the flame made a particularly sinister combination with the howls of the wind and then somebody knocked her door seven times...

"Alice, are you in there?" Grace asked, her voice a little hoarse thanks to the cold- "What is that sound?"

"Hello Grace!" Alice was fast to reply, and the supernatural flame vanished as soon as she wanted it to happen- "My fireplace is acting a little weird, sorry... What do you want?"

"We are gathered at the living room, come and join us!"

"Fine..."

Grace departed back to the lower area of the house, and after that Alice took some time to stretch her arms and legs before abandoning the bed. She then spent some time choosing a book from her shelves to take with her, and after making sure that the fireplace was burning safe and nice she finally walked downstairs to join the Snowflakes.

The living room looked dark and yet pleasant thanks to the light from the fire and candles, Eileen was playing with her Skaellyn plushies beside the main fireplace of the house, Grace was drinking tea as she looked outside through the window and Albert was playing a Witches match against Logan...

Alice sat on one of the orange couches, she covered herself with a dark blue blanket that Eileen had abandoned there and then she spent some time watching Albert and Logan as they moved the Chess-like pieces all over the checkered board... The game of Witches looked quite similar to Chess, except that the leader was the Queen and she was guarded by an army of witches and knights.

The wooden board was a yard long at each side, it was surely very expensive and the crystal pieces in orange and green were far larger than any Chess set that Alice had ever seen at England...

"You know, I still do not get all of the rules of that Witches game" Alice commented, perplexed at the way that Logan was maneuvering four Knights in order to fight off Albert's latest offensive- "Why are the Witches so important, if the Knights can do everything? What happens to the Queen if you lose the Princess?"

"It's all very complicated indeed, Alice" Albert replied, coughing a little after having moved one of his witches- "However, do not feel bad about always losing to my son! Logan here is the Witches Champion of Surrey, and he is going to participate at the Wander's Land Tournament at Seaside Creek, next March."

Logan smiled at the words of his father, and then the Witches Master blushed a little when he realized that Alice was paying loads of attention to whatever move that he would perform next. At that point of the game there was little that Albert could do to stop Logan's witches, and the match was indeed over just a few minutes later.

"So you shall fight to be the champion of all Wander's land! I am sure you can win it, Logan..."

"Thank you, Alice!"

Albert began to prepare the board for a new match, but Alice decided to open her book and start reading more about the Fantasy world in which now she lived. After all, Geography of Wander's Land was one of her favorites since she had discovered it that day at her house, and she still had loads and loads of important information to learn from it.

It turned out that Seaside Creek was a famous town at Surrey's beautiful coast, the great city of Landon was some thirty miles to the Northeast from Sparks Hollow and Allynhayl Castle was a great and legendary fortress located at a huge elevation at the Raven Mountains of Northern Ayngland...

The drawings depicted an eerie and yet beautiful castle made of amethyst and marble, its seven sharp towers seemed impossibly tall, there was only one road that could take you there and the entire structure was surrounded by unnatural gardens and trees that grew by magical means against the wind and the cold.

"Allynhayl Castle is the oldest and most admired fortress in all of Wander's Land" Alice read, distracted only by the constant howls and cries of the wind- "Legend says that Queen Amethyst built it herself, by virtue of Magic, after she followed Jonathan Wander here all the way from the Aetherland War. The castle is defended by Celestial Magic at its highest power, and its Guard..."

"Please, help!" a little voice cried outside, screaming in order to be heard above the storm- "You have to help us, please!"

Somebody was knocking at the main entrance of the house, Eileen looked worried, Albert forgot about the Witches game for a moment and Alice looked up from her book to see that Grace was already on her way to open the door.

"Please, we really need your help!"