Hometorius : Coming Home

chapter 13 : The Cold Man

Kate POV

Margaret invited us to her beautiful, blue room. It was nice that we didn't stay in the living room. It was much cozier here. We sat at a table and Marylin put the little box with the ink pen in the middle.

"So, what was your idea?" I broke the silence, because none of them apparently intended to speak.

"Exactly," Margaret supported me. "That so-called 'idea' is why we came back home."

"Okay. Listen," said Marylin. "The manual said that in case of emergency... that if we needed help, we should call up their employee, right?"

"Yes..." I said, uncertain and it dawned on me and Margaret so we shouted simultaneously, "Oh my God, right!"

"We'll call up that employee person to tell us how to get out of here," Marylin explained just to be sure we understood her intentions and pulled out a pen from the box.

"Just say this spell correctly," I asked her gently.

"Because we don't want to peel your guts off the walls," Margaret added.

"Helpto- or not!" Marylin panicked. "Magictorius first!"

The silver ink pen burned with a blue flame, just like when Margaret used it in the bar, and then it went out.

"Something went wrong," I summed up and opened the box. The gloves were still there, unused. "And I think I know what."

"Do you think I have to put on gloves to do the magic?" asked Marylin, taking the white material from my hands.

As she did that, she brushed my skin lightly with her palm. It was a little strange feeling. Especially since she was always so cold, and now I felt a strange warmth where she touched. But whatever.

"I think you don't need the gloves for every single spell," said Margaret. "Only for those not related to drawings."

"So most of them..." said Marylin, putting the gloves on her small hands. "Let's try again. Magictorius!"

The pen burned again, but this time it turned into a steel wand as it happened. What a cool toy. I also want to be an Existus or whatever Mary was.

"So cool!" I expressed my admiration aloud. "Can I hold it?"

"Sure," said Marylin, fascinated, and gave me her wand.

I never expected anything to scare me more than spiders. It turned out, however, that the sudden temperature change by hundreds of degrees was even worse.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" I whined loudly and quickly threw the pen into Margaret's hands.

"What, what's wroooo... ?!" she squeaked and gave the object to the rightful owner. - "...wrong?!"

"What do you mean?" Marylin, who apparently didn't understand our exaggerated behavior, now carefully watched her wand from all sides and angles.

"Don't you feel how cold it is?" I was surprised and raised my eyebrows up.

"No," said Mary. "What's more, I feel like if I didn't have these gloves, it would've burned my hands a long time ago."

Weird. My mother once told me stories about elves. When they touched something metal, extensive burns appeared on their skin. Maybe Mary was the same? In any case, Margaret thought quite similarly, apparently.

"Another oddity of your power," Margaret concluded.

"We are still doing magic, or are we talking about my power?" Marylin got annoyed by the attention suddenly directed at her, and whispered another spell, "Helptorius!"

In the exact place where she accidentally directed the end of her wand, a blue tornado appeared. After a while, a pale man with white hair and very bright eyes emerged from the snowflakes swirling in the cool wind. He was dressed in a blue suit and white shoes. I'm not going to lie, that scared me a bit.

"Welcome," he bowed low. "My name is Jack Cold. I am a member of the Finders-Keepers Team and the head of the Greater Value's What Inside Department, and beyond all I am your patron. I come at your call."

"Hi," Marylin smiled at the man she practically conjured up. "I'm Marylin."

"I await your questions," he interrupted her with a mechanical voice.

"Alright. Question one: Who are you?" Margaret asked as I looked at her.

"The question comes from an untrusted source."

"Can you answer questions asked only by the owner of this ink pen?" I tried my luck with the guy, too.

"The question comes from an untrusted source," - he repeated.

"Now my turn," decided Marylin. "Why did you give this pen to me specifically?"

"Because you're a descendant of Katrine Allworld."

"Who's Katrine?" I couldn't stop myself from asking, although I knew he wouldn't answer anyway.

"The question comes from an untrusted source."

"Who is this Katrine Allworld?" Marylin repeated my question.

"Katrine Allworld is the most powerful sorceress in the history of magic and wizardry. She had four daughters. Marylin Freeze: Queen of cold, Zarina Flora: Queen of vegetation, Lynda Keenly: Queen of blaze and Fleur Weather: Queen of weather. Each of them had a name related to their power. They call their descendants by the names given by Katrine, that is their own names. They never changed their family names."

"So, that means now there are four descendants in the world?"

"That is correct."

"And each of them has such a pen-wand?" I pointed at my pen and then looked at his pale face.

"I do not possess such information."

"Do I have to wear the gloves to do the magic?"

"Yes. Gloves do not need to be used only for drawing-induced spells."

"Do I have to wear both gloves?"

"No, although it is recommended."

From further conversation, we learned that with her gloves on, Marylin can cast spells without the wand. The man also told her that the sorcerers couldn't touch steel with their bare hands. So almost like elves. Their conversation was flowing very well, despite the monotonously mechanical and serious tone of Jack's voice. Marylin learned almost everything she wanted to know about her power. I'm not going to lie, both me and Margaret also wanted to join in the conversation and learn something, but he didn't trust us. He was about to disappear when Marylin asked him one more question. The question that actually bothered me from the moment I got here.

"Can you tell us how to get out of here?"

"There is no way out," he answered in a dramatic voice and whispered, "Decamptorius!" And then disappeared.

Marylin turned the wand back into a pen. She put it in her bag and sighed loudly, throwing herself on the bed.

She didn't try to stop her emotions and began to cry sincerely.

And we just stared at each other.