8 Realms of Magic

by AzuraKeres


EP 1: Where Destinty Lies|CH 5

The bright night fell upon the realm of Sollothus. Despite a time meant for darkness, the light continued its supremacy. The shadows were fated to crawl within the furthest crevice, never to flourish in the realm.

Star stored as much darkness her room could spare. Her basement was its sanctuary from the everlasting light. However, a single beam of light would trespass through a small window.

Piles of shelves of tomes and relics littered her room. The pitch blackness gave the room an eerie aura found nowhere in the Realm of Light. A chamber that would frighten the hearts of Sollotheans.

Lune Star idled on her bed with stacks of books around her. She read through them to pass time, reliving stories across the realms.

Star wished to be like the protagonists. To venture into the unknown and experience a world unlike her own.

And her chance may come once she was given confirmation.

As if on cue, Star heard her small window slide open. She saw a figure descend into the darkness and hop onto her bed.

“You know,” Ratty began, crossing his arms. “I don’t like these errands you have me doing. Don’t you think I get enough from my job?”

Star closed the book and set it atop a stack. “Did you invite Yuki and Yori?”

“Yeah, they said they’re in. But Yuki would like a week of free drinks in compensation.”

“Good.” Star hopped from her bed, knocking a few of her books onto the floor. She then harnessed her magic to strap her purse onto her.

“So, do you like, have a plan on getting out of here?” Ratty asked. “Cause I don’t know if anything will fly through mom.”

“Then I’ll move like a ghost,” Star said. She pressed her hoof onto her black choker strapped to her neck. Her next words lit markings of golden light from its surface. “Thurisaz1, elhaz2, ansuz3.”

Her words echoed through the room with a soft cadence. When her incantation ended, the yellow light encroached upon her body and consumed her. The light lifted without a trace of Star in sight.

“Invisibility, huh?” Ratty said. “You changed the runes on your choker?”

“This is too important to let my mom mess with,” Star remarked. “There’s no way I’m going to pass on this chance.”

“Guess there’s no stopping you from trying. But if it doesn’t work out, don’t expect me to save you from the fall.” Ratty hopped from Star’s bed and climbed onto the small window. “By the way, mom is sulking in the study room.”

“Thanks. I’ll meet you outside.”

“You’re going to need luck to get out of here unnoticed,” Ratty said. “You better hope fortune is on your side.”

He exited through the window and disappeared from Star’s sight. She had considered it as an escape route. If she could somehow figure a way through, it could make her endeavor far simpler.

Unfortunately, she had nothing to alter her size, and terraforming the window might alert her mother.

If Star wanted to escape home, she would have to elude the eyes of the mightiest valkyrie in the realms. No big deal, right?

Star clapped her hooves to cheeks. “I got this,” she said. “You’ve been around her all your life. You know what makes her tick.”

Star made for her door and gently opened it. A narrow stairway led outside her basement and onto the first floor of her home.

Ratty mentioned Hild was in her study. The room began on the first floor and stretched wide and tall onto the second floor, next to Hild’s bedroom. In hindsight, Star should have snuck through there yesterday instead of passing through the balcony.

Regardless, Star had to pass through her study if she wished to get to the front door. Her mother was comfortable with the room’s absence of doors, making Star’s invisibility an integral part of her plan.

It fell upon Star to assure her mother’s ears did not find her.

Star stalled the lump in her throat and honed her ears for any movement above her. A moment of silence convinced her to proceed up the stairway.

She trod slowly, cautious for a single sound to arise. But nothing struck her ears and eventually she made her ascension.

Star now stood within a hallway where the front door laid many feet within her sight. A one straight path leading to her freedom. However, between her and the door was a piercing light that led into Hild’s study.

Star prowled through the low-light hallway, careful not to touch any furnishings set in her way. She stopped before the brimming light and peeked inside.

There she was.

Hild’s study was filled with long bookshelves across the walls. Tomes of ancient times, essays of regaled scholars, fictions of wondrous adventures.

Star became an avid reader in this room. Her mother welcomed Star to all its stories and knowledge as a foal. She gleefully fed Star answers to many of worldly curiosities.

But nowadays, Hild was prone to lock her into an oblivious mind.

Star found her mother sat before an ivory desk adorned with gold ornaments. A wave of anger seethe3d in Star when she noted the obsidian cube in Hild’s grasp. Her mother lamely observed its construction.

Settle down. You can’t let her see you.

“The things that fascinate my daughter baffles me,” Hild said. She opened a drawer in her desk and dropped the cube inside. “Just what do I have to do to make her understand?”

Nothing. I know what I want and refuse to let anyone stop me again.

Hild took a sip from a cup on her desk. Her eyes drifted to a burning fireplace in her study. ​Her face was sullen. “Doesn’t she understand that I’m trying to protect her?”

Protect me? From what? I’m just a normal mare that happens to be the daughter of a valkyrie. What could possibly be out there that you need to protect me from?

“I wonder what you would do, Queen Bertha?” Hild sighed. “I thought I would know how to be a mother after all these years. But there seems to always be something to learn.”

You always talk so fondly of her, yet you never share much about her with me. Why is that?

Hild sighed and rose from her desk. Star watched Hild dim the light of the room. Her mother disappeared into the second floor of the study as Star listened to her hoofsteps fade away.

This is my chance!

Star pressed forward through the hallway. Her hoof steps were slow and light, careful not to elicit a single sound.

But then she stopped.

The entrance to Hild’s study stood behind her. All she had to do was move onward and she would be out in the bright night.

But something inside her urged Star to look inside the room.

Her eyes laid upon her mother’s desk. It stood brightly in its lonesome. Nothing was there to deter Star from touching.

She then recalled the obsidian cube her mother had inside of it.

Star contemplated whether it was a good idea to take it back. Doing so would risk her exposure if Hild came back for it.

However, if the spirit could foresee fate, then perhaps it could peer into the secrets of the obsidian cube. Not only would she know of its history, but she would also validate Gilfred’s credibility as an adventurer.

I’ll put it back when I return. Besides, she’s already gone to bed.

Star took a breath and entered the study. The redolent of raspberry ravaged her snout.

Star remembered falling asleep to this scent. When Star was a filly, Hild would always read books to her. She would always demand to be read to in this room, finding the sparkling bookcase a fantastical setting to stir her imagination.

Hild’s voice would drift Star away into a dream of mysteries and adventures. It never ceased to charm Star as a filly. But now, Star yearned for the real thing.

Star snuck before Hild’s desk and noted the drawer where Hild placed the cube. There was a lock attached to it.

Great.



Star phased it inside the drawer. She rummaged through the drawer's contents, waiting for a sharp prick to alert her.

And when Star felt it, she knew she founded. Star gleefully grabbed the object and pulled out of the drawer.

Yes, got it!

And just as she celebrated, a bright light flashed in the room. Star was appalled to find her mother back in her study. Her magic had thankfully dissipated in time to hide herself and the cube, but any reckless movement would mean the end of her.

Star backed away slowly as her mother descended from the second floor. She hid behind a bookcase and watched Hild land before the desk.

Star’s body shivered. Her breathing was becoming ragged. She tried to hold them back, but she anxiety was getting the best of her.

As long as her mother did not check the drawer, Star would be safe.

Hild collected a cup from her desk. “Can’t leave you,” she said. Before she left the desk, her eyes looked upon the drawers. Whatever thought was going through Hild’s mind, it sputtered Star’s to panic.

Star clamped her mouth shut to contain her breath. She hoped and prayed that her mother wouldn’t look inside. Star couldn’t accept this be her end.

And to Star’s fortune, Hild turned away from the table and walked out of the room. She flicked the lights off and then disappeared from Star’s sight.

Star loosened her tensed body and collapsed onto the floor. That was a close call. Much too close for her liking.

After collective breaths, Star picked herself up and placed the cube inside her purse. She peeked her head out of the study and searched for a sound of her mother’s whereabouts.

Star heard the sound of a running faucet.

Their kitchen was connected further back in the hallway. Her mother was likely washing her cup. A moment Star would immediately capitalize on.

She used the sink to cloak her hastened steps to the front door. In small moments it took for her mother to clean the cup, Star had managed to be inches away from her exit.

Star waited a moment for Hild’s movement to pass. She needed Hild in her bedroom when she began the final phase of her escape.

She found her mother walking through the hallway. But why? Hild could have simply taken the stairs to the second floor.

Star’s confusion was inevitably cleared when Hild stopped before the stairway into the basement.

What are you doing! Star felt her heat tingle wildly within. If Hild went down, no decoy would ever go past her.

Star knew her mother to speak face-to-face to others. When Hild peel away the sheet on Star’s bed, her mother would know Star’s intention this night.

This would be the end for her.

Please, just go back. Don’t go, Star pleaded. She hoped for the whims of any mystical force, be it good or evil, to turn the tides of this predicament.

A yawn escaped Hild. She instinctively tried to cover it with a hoof. Hild then entered the study, and eventually her hoof steps faded away.

Star sighed in relief, but her mind rattled with annoyance. She wondered how much more of this must she endure until she got her way.

She stored the thought away and pressed onward to accomplish her escape. The door before her was her pressing issue.

Hild had enchanted it with an alarm and attached a bell to alert her of visitors. A firm interaction with the door would activate the alarm, and the bell was reactive to the slightest touch.

But Star planned a way through this.

Star withdrew a paper embroidered with cosmic sap. She glanced behind her before she pressed it onto the door and began her chant of the rune language, “Nauthiz4, Elhaz.”

Star hid its golden light within the press of her hoof. She had designed it to deactivate the rune attached to the door for a brief moment. Within that time, Star would coat her entire body to phase through the door.

The paper would wither upon completion, an insurance that her mother would never know of its existence. She had prepared two for her journey. One to get out of the house and another for her return.

Star waited for the runes to wither, a confirmation that its magic took its course. Everything would be smooth sailing from henceforth. She would be free to scour for the spirit and finally learn of her fate.

She then felt something odd. A creepy crawling feeling on the back of her neck that beckoned her turn around. That feeling was quick to scatter across her skin when she saw the pony before her.

Her mother.

It took colossal mental energy to steel her body not to flinch. There was no way she could see. Not as long as she held her invisibility and did not make a sound.

But none could stop her heart from pounding heavily within.

How long have you been there!? By the Cosmos, please tell me she didn’t hear me?

Star felt electricity sputtering throughout her veins when Hild reached for the door. Her hoof was a mere distance away from touching Star. And that would spell her doom.

But then Hild stopped. Her face contorted in contemplation. “What are you doing, Hild?” she asked herself. “Mother would be asleep at this time.”

Do you mean Grandma Ilda? Why’re you looking to talk to her at this hour? Just go back to bed!?

But Hild remained before the door. This was an unnerving predicament. If the paper withered, Star would have a small moment to make her escape. But that required a full coating of the phantom spell, which would no doubt reveal her to Hild.

The moment felt endless. Star felt a sharp pain pulsing in her head. She bit her lips to command her body to still itself. Star could not falter for a second.

She needed to get out of the house. She needed to find her answer.

Just please, let me go.

Hild frowned. She bore the same sullen face. “Tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll go tomorrow.” Hild finally headed back, disappearing up the stairway where she would rest in her bedroom.

When Star felt certain Hild had gone away, she heaved a hard breath. She had nearly suffocated from the tension.

Star wondered what in the Cosmos was going through her mother’s mind tonight. So many close calls, so many moments of Hild looking conflicted.

But when she felt the paper wither in her hoof, she pushed those thoughts away. She hurriedly coated her body in red and jumped through the door.

Finally, she was free.

Star rushed down the cobblestone road of colonial houses guarded with glossy gates. She galloped as fast as she could until she could no longer see her home within the distance.

She then leaned upon a nearby wall and rescinded the rune on her choker. She let out a ragged breath as her body became visible to the light.

“Dear Cosmos,” Star said. “Why did that have to be so hard?”

“There you are.” Ratty descended from a gate and approached her. “I can’t believe you actually pulled it off.”

“I won’t lie, I think I was really lucky tonight.”

“You have to be. Lady fortune must really be on your side.”

“I don’t think that was it. Mom looked pretty distracted…”

“Well, who cares about that?” Ratty shrugged. “Now that you’re out, how about we get this dumb little venture over with, huh?”

Star narrowed her crimson eyes at her brother. “Whatever.” As she stood back on her hooves, Ratty climbed atop her back. “You better had told Yuki and Yori of the right spot to meet up.”

“Hey, I do this for a living,” Ratty retorted. “Don’t go questioning my competence.”

“As long as we make it before the sun rises, things will go fine.” Star galloped through the bright night of Illuma.