Back to Human

Chapter Nine

Through the hole in the wall, was a garden. The sun shone brightly on the garden, the light reflecting off of the brightly coloured flowers and the small pond. A woman sat on a bench in the garden and looked up as we peered in through the opening in the wall.

"Hey Flora." Charlie greeted the woman.

"Who's she?" I asked. The woman walked through the garden over to us.

"She is the original. She pioneered this." Charlie said vaguely. I looked in curiosity at the woman. Her hair was fair, like her freckled face.

"Hello Charlie. I have some messages for you." Flora said. She conjured a couple of pieces of paper out of thin air and held them out towards Charlie. Charlie reached in and THROUGH the wall and grabbed the letters. Where her arm disappeared into were the wall was, a ripple occurred, distorting the portion of wall like a rippling lake. Charlie pulled her arm out and the rippling disappeared.

"Thanks." Charlie said while flipping through them briefly. "That will be all." Charlie said before making a swiping motion. The woman and the garden disappeared, leaving a blank, slightly smudged wall.

Charlie walked out of the office and I followed her to the couch were she sat down. "These letters are similar to emails, in a sense." Charlie explained. "Flora lived around a hundred years ago in London. She was a witch who had a dream to be able to contact people other witches and wizards near instantly through a way only people of magic can use it. She worked for years, enchanting books and mirrors until she realized that she needed a consciousness for it to work.

"Shortly after, she found she had a devastating disease. It has mostly been wiped out over time but rare cases appear every couple of years around the world. It's called Edax Animae. It translates literally to "soul eater" in Latin. The disease starts to slowly sap away at a warlock's power. When the warlock is finally powerless, they die within days.

"As soon as Flora knew she had the disease, she made arrangements. When the time was close, she had someone close to her bind her soul, much like what happened to yours, to a large piece of obsidian. Before she was weakened, she carved complex runes into the surface of the obsidian. These runes allow any warlock to summon her spirit to a designated space."

Wow, this was a lot to take in. "So Flora is basically Google?" I asked for confirmation.

"Pretty much. Some other people and I are working on expanding her abilities and making her accessible from phones and other mobile devices. Even more people are dedicated to giving her information, sort of like uploading books to Google if you will."

That's so cool, but at the same time, it would be incredibly lonely.

"Does she have any surviving family?" I asked. Charlie purses her lips.

"No one knows, her family and her death are both well known to be off limit questions." She pushed some of her red hair out of her face. Charlie held up the letters. "Do you mind if I read these?" She asked.

"Of course, go ahead." I said. I watched her as she read through the letters. There were three of them. Her expression got more disappointed with every minute. Finally she came to the last letter. Charlie suddenly sat up, holding the paper close to her face with both hands.

"Juan, my friend from Mexico, knows someone who might be able to help us. A vampire named 'Ai'. She's lived for centuries and knows about familiars. Juan said that if I want, she would come to Australia to talk to us."

"Yes, I'd like to talk to her, but vampires exist?" I asked. I guess it made sense, witches and wizards did so why no vampires?.

"Yes, vampires, ghosts, what you humans call fairies, demons, angels and werewolves all exist." Charlie told me.