the Twilight Crystal

◇Three: A Wizard and Her Fairy◇

"And you just agreed to this?"

Silus nodded at the little nazulite, Paci. Paci was created by Silus several years ago for more of an assistant, and she was quite good at her job. She looked like a very smaller version of any normal girl, with big dark eyes, a black bow on her head and a little blue dress (which Silus made herself).

"Do we know anything about her?" Paci asked, sitting on the windowsill besides the bed. "That magician - Friday - she offered a reward, correct?" Silus could tell Paci was worried by the fairy's nervous attitude towards Friday. The wizard intended to calm her down. In her sleeping gown, (which wasn't a gown at all, but more of a tunic with her casual clothes under) sat on her crooked bed and sighed.

"Yes, she did," Silus answered. Paci smiled, which she didn't do as normally as she could. "But I had no interest in riches or fame or anything like that. I just agreed because I'm kind like that."

"Indeed you are, Silus." Paci flew up to sit on the wizard's shoulder. She was gifted with wings smaller than her body. Silus just didn't want the nazulite to feel uncomfortable with large wings. "I think you did the right thing. You're still going to take me, right?" A hopeful looked sparked her eye.

The wizard laughed, picking Paci up and cupping her gently in her hands. "Yeah, of course. You're my navigator and first-mate." Paci mustered the cutest smile possible, her tiny hands clasping together with joy.

Suddenly, the door was busted down, and Friday barreled in. Her pink hair was slightly ruffled, but that didn't matter as she shot up to her feet. "Hey, you just left me alone down there! Goddamn, you have so many doors in your house it's unbelievable-!" Her eyes landed on Paci, who recoiled in Silus' hand. "What's that?"

Protectively, the wizard cupped her hands around Paci. Paci shivered in fright, trying to make herself as small as possible. "This is my familiar, Paci," she responded. "She isn't an object, so don't try to address her by 'that', 'it', or 'thing'. She's what I call a nazulite; I made her."

Still a bit wary, Silus let Friday examine Paci, who was now curiously observing the magician. They both locked gazes, one bright and the other beady and dark. Nervous energy climbed the walls of the room, which mostly emitted from the wizard.

"So, what's a nazulite?" the girl asked, still staring at Paci, but with a bit of amazement now. "I mean, she sorta looks like a fairy, only..."

"That's almost precisely what she is. Paci possesses a different but powerful magic than a normal fairy or sprite," the wizard explained, setting the fairy on her shoulder. "They're like mini-sized people, only...cuter."

"I see." Friday tore her eyes away from Paci and looked up at Silus. The wizard was only a mite taller, but even in boots Friday was shorter. "We need to bring her then."

"We were just discussing..."

"So if we're in a serious, desperate, situation, we can just eat her."

The nazulite and wizard's eyes got as round as plates. Paci hid behind Silus' ear. "Please don't eat me, Silus!" she squeaked. "I-I don't wanna be eaten! I'm your best friend!" She quivered, now and forever petrified of Friday. More like Friday the 13th.

"I'm not," the wizard assured, stone cold. "As for you, Ms. Linchen, I think we should rest for tomorrow's journey, hm?" She dearly wanted to change the subject.

Again, Friday was shoved out the door by an impatient Silus Keetone. Never has she felt so offended, but the magician would brush it off. She'd have to, anyways.

"Paci, what am I going to do?" Silus sighed, sitting in the plush comfort of her bed. The wood of the house creaked if it was quiet. Thoughts trembled in the back of Silus' head, begging to escape in an oral fashion. Instead of worrying if Friday stole her magic tools and supplies, Silus only sighed.

"Just endure each hardship," the little fairy answered. She then hopped of the shoulder of her tired friend and scurried to a bed Silus made out of a jewelry box. Snuggling under the soft handkerchief blankets, Paci layed there, thinking. Silus switched the oil lamp off and quickly fell asleep. Except for her nazulite.

For her, this adventure was going to be scary. Frightening. It was a big, big world out there for a small nazulite. But if the tenacity of the three was strong, they were sure to endure anything in their paths. But one thing was a mystery.

What exactly is a Twilight Crystal?

That thought didn't occur to her, and as if Silus' mind linked with her small fairy's, the light was back on in the room. "What exactly is a Twilight Crystal?" she said aloud, sitting up straight in her bed. "I never heard of it before, and I'm always studying. There must be a mistake; I cannot believe a magician knows something I, an expert wizard, don't."

The oil lamp was lit and Silus shuffled out of bed, almost tripping on the massive clutter that obscured the actual hardwood floor. "All these years, I've read practically every wizarding book that's ever been written," she murmured, waddling to her personal bookshelf. She picked a random book, leafed through the pages, then tossed the literature behind her when her search was unsuccessful. "Twilight Crystal?" Another book, pages flipping, a thunk. Book, flipping, thunk. Silus' eyes frantically scrambled about with every book, sweat beading on her brow. "There must be something on it, right? Do I really not know of its existence?"

Book after book was tossed across the room, and Paci was having to avoid being a target two times. "Maybe it's a new...thing?" the nazulite suggested, ducking behind the oil lamp at an incoming hardcover. Solis swiveled around, her dark hair falling over her face to give a horrifying look. "There's no such thing as new in the magic world." She placed her hair behind her ear. "You don't count; you're a closed species."

"For sure," Paci sighed. She hopped down from her place on the bookshelf, opening one of the books and flipping through. Silus recognized it as The Elements Through Magician Stones: volume 4. "Maybe it's here."

Silus failed to agree, but was a little curious, for she hadn't checked that book; it was already on the floor before she started her search. "To no avail?" she guessed with a bored tone towards Paci, already beginning to look through the bookcase on the opposite side of the room.

There was a tiny gasp and the wizard looked to see what the commotion was. "This looks kind of like it," Paci stated. Silus picked the book up, with her familiar still on it, and placed it in the bed where there was better lighting. Her friend was right; the picture in this book did look like the illustration in Friday's journal. This one, however, was more of a square shape, and the rings surrounding it were only vertical and weren't elliptical around each other.

"I don't know what I'm getting myself into, then." Silus sighed, then picked Paci up by her shirt collar so they can meet at eye level. "Whatever happens, I'm sure it won't be so bad."

Watch, karma is going to bite me in the posterior. This is foreshadowing this stupid situation.