DragonBonds

Origins

It was a regular Wednesday in the middle of April, and Anjelica Colvi had decided that the best place to conduct her research was in the middle of a forest outside her cottage. It wasn't a terrible place, but it becomes terrible when nighttime hit.

Though, after she was through, she wouldn't need to really care about that.

The small fluffy black cat pulled her supplies out of her backpack and set them out neatly in front of herself: three candles, a pile of rocks, matches, and a knife. She then slung the backpack back over her shoulder, ready to take on whatever comes.

Anjelica had been meaning to traverse the ethereal plane for a very long time, often trying and failing to pass through the veil without dying. The experience was a tricky one but one she felt she needed nonetheless. She'd never be satisfied otherwise if she never made it to the other side.

So, she began.

She took her time to arrange the rocks into the symbol shown in her spellbook, making sure her measurements were correct. When she was done with that, she set the candles in three of the corners of the symbol, setting herself in the middle of the symbol.

"I evoke death to travel across," as she lit the first candle. "I evoke life to protect my soul," as she lit the second. "I evoke the spirits to guide me," as she lit the final candle.

She lifted the knife, silver glinting in the light. A family heirloom, given to her by her father, to send herself on her journey.

Anjelica slid the knife blade down her arm and dripped the blood onto the center rock of the formation. A minute passed, then two, then three.

"Did I read the spell wrong?" Anjelica pondered, picking up the book and thumbing through the pages. No, the words were correct, her symbol was right, her blood was on the rock... What did she miss?

She continued to ponder until a bright flash of light engulfed her body and blinded her for a moment. She couldn't feel anything at all- in fact, all of her senses seemed to be paused, she didn't even feel like she could breathe. Though, it was the strangest thing; she no longer felt like she needed to breathe. Or smell, or see, or anything like that.

When she finally came to, her faculties returned to her. She could see again, and hear, and feel, but she didn't have to breathe. Not anymore. And why would she?

She was dead.

The sorceress got up from the ground and just... Looked. Just stared at everything, from the glowing flowers to the spirits of bugs and squirrels and even the trees had a presence here. It was breathtaking, all of it was.

For a few moments, she thought about her cottage, her stores and everything she had made in that little house she built on her own. She ran away from her village, forced to stop practicing magic by her parents. She made a new life for herself out in the woods, and thats where she had remained, and thrived, for 20-some odd years. Time flew by differently without civilization, so to her she still felt like a kitten studying new magic. And new magic she discovered.

Though, however excited she was, she didn't forget the ultimate cost of crossing planes: the ethereal plane is made of it's own magic, and with only itself to cycle magic, it amplifies in strength at all times. Because of this, Anjelica had to deal with the fact that her reverse spell wouldn't work, no matter how badly she tried to study it. No mattter how much she studied and increased her own magic prowess, the ethereal plane would eternally have a larger power than she would.

And so, with an eternity to spend, she walked. And walked, and walked, untill she would find what she had come here for. She encountered so many mysterious things, like flowers that no longer existed on the material plane, if they had existed at all. Creatures that looked like her, but smaller and with four legs instead of two, and two arms. It was a peculiar sight, seeing such primordial critters, and she would treasure every single moment she had in this place. The colors and lights too, those were every bit as worth it as everything else was! She had no idea just how iridescent this land would be, and it only increased every step she took. It looked like she stepped into a dream, one that she wanted to stay in for a long time.