The Queen Of All Strange Things

38

The first place that came into my mind was home and that was the first place that the veil opened up to. Andrew must have guessed that it was the first place I would go to and followed me.

Home... there was no better place than home when you were imprisoned in a Egyptian tomb themed prison cell, chased by ghost hounds and being shoved around London.

But seeing how messy it was didn't improve my state of mind.

'Perfect,' I mumbled and started to clean the living room. Andrew helped a bit too but he seemed to be so exhausted that after fifteen minutes, I found him snoring on the couch with Cleo on his lap.

I then turned on the TV, which still miraculously worked. I was not fond of news but I needed to know what was going on in Sightless. Then I went to the kitchen to fetch something to eat. The leftover food was stale and spoilt and the fridge smelt like carrion. Well, we were gone for three months, so I ordered pizza from Dominos (for some reason was still open at midnight).

I woke up Andrew when the Pizza arrived.

'Er.. what?' he said.

I shoved him a box of pizza. 'Here.'

He blinked and sort of took a while to realize where he was. Soon, both of us were eating pizza and drinking orange juice (which fortunately had a week before its expiration date) while watching Sightless TV. It felt very awkward not having fairies around to poke at my hair and Tyke to scream and shout something really stupid.

'We will not rest until the Outlaws are captures,' said bird-man in a press conference. 'Please be cautious around suspicious Seers for enchanters can be dangerous.'

'Your grace,' said a journalist. 'What action do you plan to take on the children?'

'They will be grounded.'

Andrew and I exchanged glances.

Then again I noticed his staff. Quickly forgetting about my pizza, I dug out my Mystica book from inside the bag.

'Look,' I said, shoving the cover page to Andrew's face.

'What's about it?'

I pointed at the scepter that the cloaked girl in the cover was holding. 'It's the same as bird-man's scepter.'

Andrew turned his attention to the TV. 'You got to be crazy. There is a slim chance those two are related.'

I turned off the TV. 'Even the magic he uses is the same as in the book.'

'That's mage magic,' said Andrew. 'I've seen enough of it to recognize them. It's probably influenced by the magic seen in most Anime.'

'So the writer adapted real magic to his book?'

'It can be coincidence,' said Andrew. 'Even if he did, what do you suppose?'

'If the two scepters are related, we can ask the author about how to defeat it,' I said. 'We already know he isn't an enchanter. Exposing that will be enough to kick him out of the throne, but what if he isn't a mage as well.'

'Only a mage can use mage magic,' said Andrew.

I sighed. 'According to the book, the main character is a mage who pulled out her source of magic and stored it in a scepter. It's called a magical core. Anyone can use her magic if they get hold of the scepter, even a non-mage.'