Legend has it, if you stand in front of a mirror, shuffling an enchanted deck of cards, you can open a doorway between dimensions.
***
Prince Teodric of Springport remembers the promise he made his father: to *not* try to reenact the legend of dimen...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Arden's words weighed heavily in my head as I hurried out the door and into the castle's courtyard.
"Gwenore is here, and something is after her. Something I can't identify. It's strong, it's cryptic, and I worry that it's the same type of magic that mystifies me about the mirror, too. It's something I can't analyze, Sym. And it shot through me, hot and angry and painful."
Moments after he'd conveyed this worrisome knowledge to me, I received a message from Gwenore, written in her hand—summoning me. I huffed, I scrunched the note, and as I threw a cloak over myself and fastened the hood over my ponytail, I grimaced. She was, in reality, the queen, the true heir to Hendry's throne. Which meant she could summon me anytime she wanted, wherever she wanted.
Even if that suggested leaving the safety of the castle.
I rarely ventured beyond the castle's facade, preferring to remain where I knew I was protected. Out in the streets of Acewood, mages weren't safe. Less so the official, certified Aces like myself. There were apprentices who assisted us, most of whom lived and studied at the Mage Library and Academy; that location was highly secured, but getting there in one piece was a different story.
Since the riots, it was perilous for anyone with magic in their blood to be on their own out in the town. Citizens hadn't fully recovered from the effects, and their hatred for magic still ran deep. Not all of them, of course; a majority resumed their lives as normal, leaving us be. But there were still those who despised us and who wouldn't hesitate to ambush us on the street to slit our throats and claim victory over us. This could happen anywhere—at the doorstep of an elaborate mansion in the nobler end of the city; or in a back-alley near the farming community. Nowhere in Acewood was safe for a lone Ace.
Magic or not, the citizens were enraged, and if they wanted to kill a mage, they would.
But if I showed up to meet with Gwenore with guards in tow, she'd be furious with me. They were her guards, and should have been around to protect her, not me.
So I went alone.
I kept envisioning Arden in their lair, receiving the knowledge that she was here, and panicking over the nefarious black clouds they'd described to me. What could I do against misty beings that Arden, the strongest of us all, wasn't able to handle?
Energy flared up and down my arms, bursting through me in anticipation. I'd hold the creatures off as long as I could in order to save Gwenore, but it was likely I'd have to run away. There were enchantments over the castle grounds, spells that'd keep such nefarious beings out. If I could convince her to enter, to pass the ramparts, we'd be out of danger for a little longer.
Until those things found a way to creep in, anyway.
I reached the gate and the guards noticed me, waving at me. I pushed through in haste, my breath rushing up to clog my throat.
