MALADIED

2. The Imperial Mages Association

Dear Father,

This is Lauren, your daughter. I hope you are doing well.

I'm writing to tell you that my graduation ceremony from Truefinger Wizardry Institute will be this week. In this letter, I included the official invitation from the principal.

Just in case you have forgotten I major in Dark Arts Defence, faculty of Defensive Spells. I know you are not interested in anything magic, but I hope you know these five years are not in vain.

I hope you can come and attend the ceremony although I know in your heart this is nothing special but, please do it for me.

In this letter, I also included four twenty-five zins. I hope you spend it wisely.

With love,

Lauren Firstmane.

I signed at the bottom and then reread the letter making sure each letter appeared clear with no skid marks. I reread it, regretting writing the word love but I was running out of paper. The only clean paper I had was the back of a note from my roommate, Albertina telling me that we ran out of milk and she went out to get some.

With a heavy heart, I folded the letter and inserted it in a paper envelope along with the invitation and four twenty-five paper zins before sealing it. I wrote the address to my home in Rye Village, licked the back of a stamp and pasted it on the top right corner of the envelope. The adhesive left a bitter taste in my mouth but I grew immune to it after writing a hundred letters home but never received any in return.

I leaned back in my chair, rocking it back slightly so the front legs were hovering off the floor. I stared at the ceiling as if there was something written up there but I just couldn't see it. As if there was a message written in the form of spiderwebs and long cracks. A spider started to spin its web as it ascended down and got closer to my nose. It was black and the size of my palm, there were purple stripes on its abdomen and it had only seven legs. A smile grew on my face as the spider jumped down on my desk and looked up at me with its eight eyes.

"Hello, Mira. Could please help me put this envelope in the post box downstairs, you know, like always," I spoke in a sweet voice trying to capture the spider's good side.

Mira hesitated, its body turning left and right. I parted the curtains of the window before she made her way to the opposite side of my desk and hopped on the window sill. Mira climbed the glass and peeked outside to look at the post box down on the street where people were walking about.

"It's not a long journey, is it?" I asked the spider. My eyebrows arched to soften my gaze and Mira just stared at me for a moment. She hopped back down on the desk and her two front legs reached up to me. I placed the envelope between her two legs and she made her way back to the window sill.

"I hope it's not too heavy for you, Mira," I said as I pushed the window open for her to exit. Mira didn't respond, not that she could and simply walked out the window and onto the walls. There was a moment where I couldn't see Mira and she reappeared shortly on the ground with the envelope in her grasp. She climbed up the post box effortlessly and threw the envelope inside.

"Great work, Mira!" I shouted with glee and not long a young woman my age extended her hand towards the spider.

"You're putting Mira to work again?" She shouted from the sidewalk overcoming the sound of the bustling street. Her black hair glistened under the strong sunlight above her head, revealing her purple strands. Today she styled it in braids, her usual hairstyle.

"Don't worry, Al, I know Mira likes taking walks!" I shouted back playfully.

"Yeah, yeah, by the way, I brought lunch, come down to the lounge!" Al replied before snuggling the spider in her hands with her face and baby-talking it.