Chimerical Realities 🇬🇧

Those on the other side

Prompt-based story for The Fabulous Spec-Fic Smack Down Contest

Round 1, part 2: At the age of 7, Lily was looking forward to witch's school. But now, at 21, she has to find her place in the world, and that's a challenge no one prepared her for.

Wattpad word count: 1741

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In a humble house in one of the most marginalized neighborhoods of the city, a little girl named Lily Orthom was born to a couple of incompletes. The kingdom where they lived, nestled in a vast and lush forest, was a closed society divided into castes. "Incompletes" was the name given to those who had barely enough magical power to open a door or slightly levitate a small object. They didn't possess enough strength to contribute value to the kingdom and were therefore constantly discriminated against by the other castes.

Contrary to expectations, Lily was born with high levels of magical power and, from a very young age, displayed great skill in its use. Her parents celebrated their daughter's birth as a miracle since she was their only hope of ascending in the caste system. At seven years old, Lily passed the entrance exam for the witch school with the highest score, earning her a scholarship. Thanks to this, her parents were granted the title of "honorary contributors", and the rest of the kingdom's citizens began treating them more kindly. In fact, the magical power of the new generations had been weakening over time, and it had been ages since there was such an abrupt resurgence of magical power as in Lily's case.

The prodigious girl diligently attended classes, and thanks to her curiosity and innate talent, she gained the recognition of her peers and teachers at the academy. Years passed, and by the age of twelve, she was the second most skilled mage in the school, only behind her best friend.

"What is that, Sarina?" Lily asked her companion curiously.

"It's a book from the other side," Sarina whispered in her ear while making sure their teacher wasn't watching.

"Really?" Lily's eyes lit up with curiosity. "Where did you get it?" she asked in a low voice.

"My father is an explorer. The other day, he came back with a shipment full of interesting things. I managed to snag this book using imitation magic, replacing the original with a board."

"Isn't that illegal?" Lily looked at her with a mix of concern and excitement.

"Not if no one finds out. Would you like to read it together after class?"

Lily hesitated for a few seconds, but her curiosity won out.

"It'll be our secret," she smiled conspiratorially.

They headed to an area filled with lush nature, far from the city center, and used elemental magic to shrink one of the trees and perch on one of its branches. Sarina undid the spell, and the tree returned to its original size. From there, they could read the book together without anyone noticing.

"Wow! Why are the letters so straight and uniform?" Lily said in amazement.

"My father told me that on the other side, humans developed an incredible machine that doesn't need magic to work, yet it can produce thousands of identical books."

"That's incredible. But I don't understand what's written, and we haven't learned the translation rune yet."

"Correction: you haven't learned the translation rune yet," Sarina looked at her with a hint of superiority. "I asked my mother to teach it to me since I was interested in reading books written in ancient drevni. Watch and learn."