The ice cream parlor was on of the nice things about exam week. Helena sat outside the quaint old fashioned shop, her wrought iron table laden with heavy books whose age rivaled that of civilization. The evening sun danced over the city, who in the true fashion of small towns was already asleep. Her metal spoon scraped the bottom of the bowl, searching for the final few drops of ice cream. She stared at it for a moment, the runes cut into the glass side preventing her from summoning more, and the emptiness of her pockets preventing her from buying any. With a sigh she pushed the bowl aside and rested her head on her hands looking around at the ancient buildings. It had been a city once, long ago, when the world still needed magic. When the university was famed throughout the world. Now it was a footnote in history, magic abandoned for technology. A place where the real-estate market consisted of people choosing an abandoned house and setting up shop. Her eyes fell upon the flower box next to her, perfect flowers that always were in bloom. She picked one and watched as the stem crumpled and faded. She twisted the flower between her fingers as she traced a spell circle on a spare piece of paper. She placed the flower in the center then placed three fingers of her left hand along the edge. For a moment nothing happened. Then the flower began to float. She added three symbols to the edge of the circle and the flower began to spin. Then she added a line around the entirety of the outside. A shimmering field appeared around the line. She added three more symbols and three circles each containing and intricate pattern that to a trained eye was the pattern of the great constellations. The flower began to dissolve, its' petals turning to clustered pinpoints of light, the stem following soon after. She watched as her personal constellation spun slowly in it's jar of light. Then crumbled the paper. The effect vanished. She stood up, holding the paper and threw it upwards as hard as she could, then snapped her fingers. At the apex of the papers arc it exploded and the shower of lights danced across the sky painting the flower constellation for a moment before the fragments of light fell slowly like glittering snow.
Helena closed her book. She could study at home. Besides, it wasn't like she could fail the exam anyways.
YOU ARE READING
Fragments on the Road to Death
FantasyA child, long ago, played in the sand And fell into a world once lost Help came not And in the dark she found the Ring of Ancient, The Fallen Child then rose again and brought misfortune to all her friends
