Enchantyon: Welcome Home

Keridwen of Khar Vell

The Old Aureate Wing

Imafenduwell Hall

It took some time, but eventually, the nulliwumps were able to use their nullification powers to reduce the size and some of the sprawl of the magical tree roots so that they could leave the courtyard. Although the nulliwumps tried, they couldn’t entirely dispel the tree, which was a matter of great concern for Lalauri. But in the end, she told Cecil that she would have to defer it for later, and Keridwen overheard.

For the rest of the day, Keridwen stayed in her room, not even coming out when Thumper came by to tell her about dinner later that evening.

“But, Keri,” said Thumper. “My mom went and bought hot wings from Spellburger! They’re one of my favourite things to eat. You’ll love them! You just have to try them!”

But Keridwen wasn’t having any of it. “I’m not hungry, Thumper! Please…just leave me alone.”

And so, much of that evening, Little Keridwen sulked on her bed, trying to figure out why Lalauri just wouldn’t let her use magic. “I can handle it.” She muttered to herself. “I’m big enough! So what if it makes me a little sick? If I can just practice it…I know I can do it.”

Through her bedroom window, she watched the sunset, and the two intersecting rings of lunar rocks and the four full moons of Enchantyon cast a soft, ethereal light in the sky—a mixture of red light from the eldest of the moons, and white from the others. Then suddenly, just as the last rays of daylight had given way to night, the door to her bedroom opened unexpectedly.

“Little One?” whispered Lalauri. “Are you awake?”

With a sigh, Keridwen rolled over and saw Lalauri’s face peaking through the door.

The elf smiled softly as she opened the door a little wider, allowing for more light from the hallway to pour in. “Are you going to stay in here all night? No dinner at all?”

Before she could even answer, though, Keridwen’s stomach let loose a mutinous, thundering grumble. Seeing the growing smile on Lalauri’s face, Keridwen frowned, buried her head under her bed cover and said, “Go away! I’m not hungry!”

At first, there was no response. Then Keridwen heard something being placed on her nightstand.

Then Lalauri sighed. “Alright, Keridwen. I’ll leave you be for now. I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow, I’m going to have you tutor with the nulliwumps. Thumper’s mother, Mrs. Hoppenmieser, is going to be the one teaching you most of the time. She’ll help figure out where you are exactly in terms of your studies compared to what’s commonly taught to kids here in Aureate, ok?”

Keridwen, determined to stick to her silent treatment, gave no response.

Eventually, Keridwen heard Lalauri walk back towards the door. “Goodnight, Keridwen.” And then there was a soft click as the door closed behind her.

That was when Keridwen noticed that something smelled absolutely delicious. Her mouth watering, Keridwen pulled the cover off of her head and saw that on her nightstand was a glass of water and plate full of harpy hot wings and potatoes. Rushing to sit up, Keridwen began chowing down on the scrumptious dinner.

With her face and fingers now covered in the sweet and tangy sauce of the hot wings and her belly filling, Keridwen thought to herself, maybe the elf lady wasn’t so bad after all…

Over the next week or so, Keridwen’s classes began just like Lalauri said they would. Mrs. Hoppenmieser instructed Keridwen and Thumper to meet her in one of the study halls set up for teaching and studying during this time. Rows of bookshelves filled the back of the room, while the front comprised desks and a chalkboard area for teaching and learning.

It was at one of these desks that Keridwen studied at on a Tuesday afternoon. After hours of rain, the cloudy sky finally relented, and the blinding, bright sunlight broke through, revealing the beauty outside. This study hall, where Keridwen spent most of her day, was on the third floor of the Old Aureate Wing. Its open windows provided a picturesque view of the city park down below; the rain had just stopped, and the leaves and flowers still glistened with droplets. The surreal contrast of the mostly overcast sky and the breaking sun was a sight to behold. A perfect day for jumping in puddles…

“Keridwen?” came Mrs. Hoppenmieser’s voice from in front of the chalkboard. “Pay attention, please.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Hoppenmieser.”

“Did you finish the homework that I gave you yesterday?”

Keridwen gave a hesitant nod and got up from her seat to hand her homework to the nulliwump, still unsure if her answers were correct.

“Alrighty then, you two. Before we begin, let’s see what you actually remember from yesterday’s lessons. Thumper, who and what are the Quintessi?”

“Quintessi is an un…an umbrella word for a race of people that look like animals that can be broken down into three sub-races. They are mostly anthro…anthro…”

“Anthropomorphic, dear.”

“Anthropomorphic beings…commonly known as ‘The Anthropogni Tribe’, but it also includes other sub-races like the centaurs tribe—”

“The Equinthians.” Mrs. Hoppenmieser corrected.

“Yea, them. The Quintessi also include them and the Demi-human tribe.”

“Good job, Thumper. And Keridwen? Please tell me what you remember about the…Keridwen? Keridwen? Come on, Keri, the lesson’s happening over here, not through the window.”

“I’m tired of lessons!” Keridwen groaned as she slouched into her seat. She was too tired to learn anything more. She had barely gotten any sleep last night again. Too many nightmares. Too many monstrous versions of her own parents trying to claw her to bits in her dreams… “Can’t we…can’t we just take a break now?”

“No. We only just started a little while ago. And—uh, yes, who is it?”

A knock had come to the door of the study hall. When it opened, in popped the head of Thumper’s father, Mr. Hoppenmieser. “Hello there, children.” Said the nulliwump, smiling. When the children greeted him back, he turned back to his wife and said, “Elara, could I borrow you for a minute or two?”

Mrs. Hoppenmieser looked at Keridwen and Thumper for a second before saying, “Does it have to be right now? Can’t it wait?”

“No, I’m afraid not. It’s rather urgent.”

Then Mrs. Hoppenmieser turned back to glare at Keridwen. “Stay. Put. Both of you.”

And with that, she made her way to the hallway to speak with Mr. Hoppenmieser. When the door closed behind the two older nulliwumps, Keridwen turned and grinned at Thumper and asked, “You wanna go exploring again?”

Thumper met her smile with an uneasy look. “I don’t know…the last time we ditched class, we got in huge trouble.”

“Yeah, but that was only because we made a huge mess last time. This time there will be no messes, promise! But we have to leave quickly, before your mom comes back.”

“…Are you sure this time? Like really sure?”

“Really, really.” Keridwen assured him.

Thumper thought it over. Keridwen would have just gone on her own, but it was so much fun exploring Imafenduwell Hall with Thumper! He knew all the best hiding spots, some of the best jokes she ever heard, and he knew how to navigate the different space-bending wings of the Hall, whereas she was still only just getting the hang of the Old Aureate Wing.

“Come on,” said Keridwen. “There’s got to be another way out of here other than that door.”

Then, after a moment of tapping his pencil on his notebook, Thumper finally said, “Oh, alright then. But no messes this time! My parents will ground me for sure if we wreak another room again.”

When Keridwen agreed, the two of them quietly got out of their seats and made their way to the other end of the study wall and into one row of bookshelves. Thumper then went up to the wall and banged hard on it. The outline of a secret door suddenly appeared, and they couldn’t help but laugh as they scurried inside one of Imafenduwell Hall’s many covert passageways. It was just as the door closed behind that they heard Thumper’s mother return into the study hall.

“Oh no! Eldon, they’re loose again! Thumper! Keridwen! You two get back here right this instant!”

Cecil Bramblefur

The Old Aureate Wing

Imafenduwell Hall

“Wait! Cecil! Don’t forget your cloak!” Isolde shouted after him from the living room of their apartment within Imafenduwell Hall.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, quite right!” said Cecil as his wife brought him the white cloak and helped him put it on.

“Any idea on when you two will be back?”

“Not sure yet. Quite a few things on the agenda, I think. Might not be back till after dark.”

“Well, alright. You two be safe, then.”

“Of course, dear. I promise. I’ll see you later tonight, then.” Cecil gave her a hug and kissed her goodbye as he went out the door.

Both he and Miss Lalauri were planning on heading downtown for a series of errands that the mistress wanted done that Tuesday evening. As Miss Lalauri led the way through the front doors of the Old Aureate Wing, Cecil followed, leaving behind the furnished corridors of his beloved home and the gates of Imafenduwell Hall.

***

The pair made their way towards the North-End Market, avoiding the busier roads and narrow alleyways to make the journey comfortable for Miss Lalauri. Tuesdays were typically the market’s least crowded day, and yet—even after it rained—there were just enough people that Cecil found himself having to bob and wave in-between the legs of the crowd as he did his best to keep up with Miss Lalauri. Sadly, though, he couldn’t quite keep up with the pace of everyone else and tripped over the feet of one of the passing humans.

The nulliwump regained his balance just in time to avoid a nasty fall. He looked around and saw that he was no longer with his employer. Instead, he found himself standing in front of a group of street children with torn clothes. They were all watching him with wide eyes from the edge of a narrow alleyway. Almost all of them had clothes that were too small for them and/or torn. A few of them had black eyes and bruised lips.

“Oh, hello there, children.” When none of them returned the greeting, Cecil continued, “Um…lovely day out today, isn’t it?”

The children again didn’t respond. Instead, they continued to gaze at him; some had their heads tilted as they stared. Most had had wide-eyes and eyebrows raised, while others squinted at him as they leaned towards him from where they sat.

This reaction did not terribly surprise Cecil. Nor did he count them as terribly rude for their staring. Over the past five-hundred years or so, more and more nulliwumps had left World’s Core to venture out into the Overworld, and thus it was becoming more common to seeing others like his own family roaming the world—something that Cecil delighted in. But even so, actually seeing a nulliwump had proven to be an incredibly rare thing for most amongst the other races. There were even places out there—as few as they may be—where people still hadn’t even heard of a nulliwump before. Judging by their reactions, Cecil surmised he was most probably the first of his kind that they had ever seen.

That being said…a good first impression must be made…

Noticing that the group had a few small rubber balls amongst themselves, Cecil gestured to the children to pass the balls to him. After a moment, the children holding the rubber balls simply rolled them over to him, being sure to keep their eyes locked onto him as they did. With the balls in his possession, Cecil pushed the cloak aside so that his four arms were fully revealed, earning a round of gasps from the children. Then he juggled the balls. For the next few minutes, the children rose to their feet and giggled amongst themselves. They watched him juggle the balls with all four hands with relative ease—their faces beaming with giant smiles.

“Cecil?” came Lalauri’s voice from somewhere behind him. “Cecil, where are you?”

Time’s up. Turning back to the children, Cecil gave an apologetic smile and began finishing the routine by walking up to the eldest of the children. Once close enough, Cecil threw the balls high in the air, grabbed hold of the child’s hands, and as the balls came back down, he guided the boy’s hands so that he would help him get in the motion of juggling the rubber balls. Once the boy seemed more confident, Cecil let go of his hands, and the amazed youth beamed at him as he began juggling the balls all on his own. The other children then burst into applause for both Cecil and their friend.

“Excellent job, my boy! Thank you! Thank you, children. You’re all too kind. I must get going now, though. Take care!” He returned their waves goodbye as he made his way back over to the booth where Miss Lalauri was watching him from.

“I see you made some new friends—or fans, I should say.” Said Miss Lalauri, with a soft smile.

“It appears so. Sorry, ma’am.” Said Cecil.

“Oh, no no. No apologies needed. Far be it from me to keep you from cheering up some children. Something tells me they’ll remember you for a long time for that show you just put on for them. Although, I think it’s time we focus on our own home’s newest youth.”

“Yes, I completely agree. Any luck on finding what you were looking for?”

“Some clothes, yes. Not much else, though.”

“Well, allow me to help you get truly started on your search, then.”

***

As the sun came down, both Cecil and Miss Lalauri began making their way out of the market and back towards home. The streets lamps of Aureate were now flickering on and bathed the night world in their warm glow, and the two bundled up again in their cloaks as the chill of the night wind blew through the streets.

“Well, I’d say that was a proper haul!” Cecil was carrying a full burlap bag over his shoulder containing a good chunk of their purchases. “What were you thinking concerning dinner, Miss…um…Miss? Are you alright?”

Miss Lalauri had placed her own sack full of items down at her feet while she propped herself up against one lamppost. It was in that moment that Cecil realized that he hadn’t had a proper look at her until just then; her eyes were bloodshot and her eyelids had a droopy look to them. She had her left hand clutching at her stomach, and Cecil could hear an audible rumbling coming from it. He had a feeling it wasn’t from hunger.

“I’m not ready to go back there…to her…Cecil, I want you to be honest with me.” Miss Lalauri finally said.

“Miss?”

“How is she doing, really? From your perspective. How are her classes going?”

“Oh, well, um…” Cecil sighed. “She’s struggling, Miss Lalauri. Elara has been struggling with her too. We had her start at the third grade level alongside Thumper, but she’s not taking to it well. The only exception to that as far as her subjects go is history—she seems to really like it…I should also note that Elara has reported that the two are still ditching their classes to run off and explore the Hall.”

For a long moment, Miss Lalauri said nothing. Then, with a loud groan, she said, “I wasn’t ready for this…give me a monster and I will hack it to pieces. Show me villainy and I will serve it with righteous annihilation. But instead He gives me a child?! What am I supposed to do with her?! She just won’t listen to me—to anyone! Oh, I wish Mindara were here for moments like this,” she said, referring to her old “friend,” that Cecil had heard of many a time before.

“Oh, yes,” Said Cecil, trying not to sound anything other than considerate. “I’m sure your…old friend, Mindara…would definitely be willing to help you out on a matter like this.” And then under his breath he sarcastically muttered, “Unlike all the other times you’ve been in trouble and she’s definitely rushed to your aid…”

The truth was, Cecil had always seen Lalauri’s supposed friendship with the muse that had saved her life—long before he had ever met her—as simply that: supposed. It was both alleged and wholly questionable. Miss Lalauri had always painted the muse in her mind and to others as someone she could always rely on. But in reality, the muse was the kind of person to only pass by seemingly as the wind blows in or whenever she—or perhaps Lorraullion Himself—deemed appropriate. That is all to say: by Cecil’s summation of the one “friendship” she had, it was very much one-sided. However, he never had the heart to vocalize this belief to her.

“And on another note,” Lalauri went on. “How can one eight-year-old girl cause so much grief?!”

Cecil remained silent, not really knowing what to say to all that.

In the past week or so since Keridwen conjured the magical tree up, the little girl had caused several other magical, as well as a few non-magical, incidents. For example, on one occasion, Keridwen had made a mess in the kitchen while messing around with Thumper. To tackle the mess, she resorted to transmogrification, transforming all the dishes and utensils into creatures with eyes, stick arms, and legs, and even some brooms, in an attempt to make them clean up the place on their own. However, chaos erupted in the kitchen when the utensils created factions and engaged in a magical food fight. The mess they created was so extensive that it took a significant amount of time to clean up when the spell powering them was finally nullified.

In another instance, Keridwen’s attempt to remove the magical tree she had created with nature magic backfired. Instead, it sprouted roses that spread across many of the walls in the Hall. At first, this didn’t seem like a major issue, that is until the roses started producing and spewing spores that caused everyone to hallucinate for several hours.

And perhaps the most lasting damage had been done when Keridwen had decided one evening that—to rid herself of the awful nightmares she had been having—she was going to transmogrify herself into someone that couldn’t have nightmares at all. How she planned on pulling this off at all, no one knew. What ended up happening was that Keridwen had managed to turn herself into not a person, but instead a giant, bearded turkey that rampaged through the halls, creating a mess, and breathing fire on anything that moved.

And ever since, the incident had left Cecil wondering if turkeys really did, in fact, dream or not.

“Cecil…what was it like for you?” said Lalauri, dragging him back out of his thoughts. “When you became a parent, I mean. How did you and Isolde deal with…moments like these? How did you get Elara to listen to you?” Miss Lalauri’s voice was cracking now—a real strain in her voice now as she pleaded for advice.

“Well…it might help if…when you don’t want her to do something, for example, you should tell her why instead of just simply telling her ‘no’.”

“Shouldn’t my no be enough?”

“Perhaps. But children are rarely that simple, Miss. You have to explain why she can’t do a certain thing and why it’s important that she listens to you, or else she likely won’t fully understand. Then she’ll be more likely to find out why you were right the hard way…I’ve made that mistake myself when it came to raising Elara…there is something else that’s worth discussing about her magic though, Miss. Specifically regarding the type of magic she’s capable of, and how naturally it comes to her.”

Lalauri finally opened her eyes and squinting down at him. She didn’t say a word.

“Earth magic, nature magic, transfiguration magic—she has a natural affinity for all three axioms. She’s even dabbled in teleportation magic from what you’ve been telling me. What she did with that tree in the courtyard and even in the instances of magic that she’s used since she’s arrive…it’s all incredibly powerful magic, Miss. Strong and persistent too. My family’s natural abilities of magical nullification, should be sufficient to easily counteract an eight-year-old’s magical abilities. However, the tree remains, and it seems that it may be impossible to remove.”

“…I know, Cecil.” Lalauri said, closing her eyes to lean her head against the lamppost once again. “I know what you’re about to say…”

“That may well be, Miss, but I believe it’s worth having the conversation aloud. I believe it’s worth discussing what steps we should take next in the case our suspicions turn out to be true. I believe that Miss Keridwen may, in fact, be a terraformer. And I—”

Cecil was about to continue when something caught his attention; at the corner of his eye, he caught a glimmer of something reflecting the light of the street lamps. It scurried around the corner of an alleyway just behind them. With his brows furrowed, he called out, “Who’s there?”

Miss Lalauri stood up straight when he said that, turning to look in the same direction he was looking. “What is it?”

“I…I don’t know.” It was then that he saw something moving in the dark shadows of the alleyway: a tiny gleaming claw and the feint glow of a magic crystal.

Without wasting a second, Cecil raised his two right hands in the air and clenched his fists. Instantly, a loud POP came from the alleyway as a flash of red light momentarily illuminated its shadows. Cecil went over to the alleyway and picked up the source of the commotion: it was a small mechanical spider-bot. A drone powered by tiny magical power crystals that Cecil’s powers of magic nullification had drained.

“A spy drone?” said Lalauri. She looked around in all directions. “We need to get home. We may still have people following us.”

“Quite right, Ma’am.”

“…Who do you think sent it?”

“If I had to guess, the peacekeepers. This will be the High Council’s doing.”

“No, not quite.” Said Lalauri, taking the drone from Cecil’s hand. “One specific councillor…Gausswinder. Her and that mutt of hers: Grimshaw…perhaps this isn’t the wisest place to be discussing the members of our household. Come, Cecil. I don’t know why they’re watching us now, but it would be best if we return home. Quickly.”

With that, the two hurried their way back to the safety of home, hoping to leave any would-be stalkers far behind them.