The Keeper of Callister Space
By Shakrya Dunn
NORMALLY, KAELAIRE Hume was bound to wands and warlocks in the safety of her fairytale stories and the occasional visit from her rather precocious older sister Lunesa. But the day that her sister brought home a pointed black hat and called herself a witch, Kaelaire was inclined to believe that the woman had finally cracked, and it was time to call in a second opinion.
Imagine her surprise when Lunesa snapped her fingers and a spark of a flame ignited from her nail. Kaelaire could never forget the smirk brimming on Lunesa’s face.
“I told you that I’m a witch,” Lunesa reiterated after locking her focus on her pinky nail. So much energy conjured into just one hand. Kaelaire could only sigh as she threw herself back into one of her fables. She supposed that she would have to invest in more spell-books.
Four years pass and Kaelaire hadn’t gotten around to it for herself, but Lunesa fell into the art of destruction and wistful banter as one of four local mages in their city of Alure. At eighteen, life was bound to be complicated in the shadow of a self-proclaimed witch, but Kaelaire found her solace as a shop-keep for a local bookstore, where the only magic for miles was within concealed pages while she curled up during her downtime with a fresh cup of Mulligan’s Brew. It always went cold, but she could still smell the hazelnut and cinnamon as though it was still on the fire.
There were many historical stories that took up space in the story’s library, and Kaelaire was left to feed the information over to her sister, her coffers empty due to the lack of proper work within the town. Not many were able to fund her rates, and even if they could, there were more professional witches that weren’t limited to either a single element or knowledge from hearsay. That left Kaelaire to pick up the pieces and make ends meet.
“Kae!” The door to the bookstore flew open, and in stepped Lunesa, her long scarlet hair drifting along an untamed wind, her magical energy draped around her like an elegant gown. “I think I finally found it!”
The enthusiasm in her voice immediately caused Kaelaire’s eyes to roll. “Oh boy, what now?” she said, her voice devoid of care or even of tone. Lunesa marched across the bookstore, her flat-soled heels tapping the wooden-planked floor like a conductor preparing to direct an orchestra and shook her sister by the shoulder. “What?!”
“Just wanted to make sure you were listening,” Lunesa began as she noisily dragged a chair to her sister’s table, the scratching akin to someone being pulled across a block of wood by their teeth. “I found what could be our ticket to easy street!”
“What is it this time? A fleet of electric eels to power a station so we don’t have to use oil lamps anymore?” Kaelaire answered callously as she refused to turn from her book. The passages of Warlords and the theories of discord was worthier of her time than another scheme. Other patrons chuckled and snickered, and Lunesa’s violet cheeks bled a noticeable beet-red.
“Of course not!” the witch snapped as she fought to hide the embarrassment in her voice. “That was last year. But this...” Lunesa leaned closer; Kaelaire raised an eyebrow when she noticed her sister motioning for her to come close. “Have you ever heard of the Witch of Callister Space?”
Kaelaire slowly closed her book, and Lunesa was met with the slightly curious gaze of her sister. “Where exactly did you hear this from? It better not be from the lips of some lager-filled loser down at the pub, Lune.”
“Oh, ye of little faith,” Lunesa noted as she sat back in her seat and placed her hand on top of her sister’s. In her free hand, she produced a small tattered journal, the edges slightly ruined by wear, tear, and exposure to water. “I found this when I was scouring the local guilds to see if anyone responded to my ads. It was there on the floor.”
“Maybe someone lost their diary,” Kaelaire rationalized as she took the journal and examined it. She opened it and read the inscription on the inner cover: “Property of the Witch of Callister Space. Sounds pretty straightforward, but that still doesn’t mean it’s the witch I’m thinking of.”
“And what makes you such an authority on witches? Need I remind you—” Lunesa began before Kaelaire interrupted her by sharply raising her hand.
“No, you don’t. I’m reminded each time you snap your fingers. Besides, I need to stay on top of these things or else we’ll be out on the street and forced to push stone.”
Lunesa rolled her eyes and sighed callously. “All right, sis; what do you know that I don’t?”
“Just that she’s on top of the Blackjack Book. So many passages on her but no defining trait or clue to her identity.” The Blackjack Book was a small tome of information on every rogue witch, wizard or mage compiled by the kingdom’s high-ranking magicians. The warnings range from moderate to flee-on-sight, a danger granted only to the Witch of Callister Space.
Kaelaire lowered her voice before she continued and told, “The previous king ran afoul of her, and the Witch retaliated by targeting his daughter. For years the king searched, and each time he got a lead on the princess, the witch was there, taunting him in disguise. It seemed that not only did the king fail to deal with the Witch, she murdered him in front of the princess.”
“Well, I guess Howling Day makes a lot more sense now,” Lunesa commented. It took Kaelaire all her strength not to slam her own head through the table in frustration. “Now, what I read in this journal, the witch wrote this right up until something stopped her.” She turned to the last written page in the book and showed a message that read “I have only one regret—” before the words scrawled off into chicken scratches of ink and blood.
“Meaning?” Kaelaire looked at the page herself.
“Meaning that if we follow the clues in this, we can find her castle.” Lunesa lowered her voice this time and leaned closer. “We can find the Witch of Callister Space’s power for ourselves.”
Kaelaire shook her head. It seemed too easy – a powerful witch’s diary suddenly appears in front of them? She could smell the dung staining the entire conversation, and she needed to rinse her own mouth out.
Lunesa saw the wavering expression build upon her sister’s face. She groaned under her breath; she couldn’t lose her now. “There’s even a passage in here about how she looted the coffers of the last king. She said she decorated an entire dungeon with the gold and silver.”
“I never thought you’d stoop to lying, sis. You think you’re gonna—” Kaelaire’s words were cut short as Lunesa held up the diary in front of her face. Sure enough, the Witch had written an entire two pages about how she’d never need money again with the amount of gold she’d stolen and stashed away. There were mentions of mechanisms to keep looky-loos out if they ever got close enough to her biggest treasure.
They can cross that bridge when they get there. Lunesa stifled a pleased smile. Kaelaire grunted in her decision and shook her head. This had bad news written all over it. There was an ugly pause from the latter as she sat for what felt like an eternity to Lunesa. Kaelaire’s eyes switched back and forth, from the rear of the store to her sister, who waited in silence for further instruction.
“We’ll need a map. Since you know where we’re going, you go to the cartographer.” Kaelaire dug out two silver pieces from a pouch inside her clothing. “I’m digging into our reserves. Please don’t let this be another pipe dream.”
“You won’t be disappointed, sis!” Lunesa ensured as she departed, a newfound pep in her steps.
“That’s what you say each time! Every single time...” The last comment was subdued as she gathered her stuff and approached the counter, the book she was reading in her hand.
Kaelaire laid the book before the store’s proprietor, an elderly woman with reading glasses, her sterling silver hair braided into a bun, and a cynical look affixed to her eyes. “Y’know, you still owe me from the last book and cup of coffee you bummed off me.”
“I know, I know...” Kaelaire took out a small stack of silver. The gold was for dire situations, so
she left it alone.
The old woman slid the coins towards her and counted them. She flashed a look of disapproval. “This covers last time and your coffee, but not the book.”
Kaelaire furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to call for Lunesa. She stopped short when the memories of the last five minutes hit her in an awful wave. “Damn it,” she uttered under her breath and walked towards the door.
“Hey, come put this book back!” the old lady called.
Kaelaire bothered not to look back as she opened the door. “I’m pretty sure you know where it goes better than I. And I bet it’ll fit too.”
/—-/
The brilliant red glow of the sun gleamed through the trees as Kaelaire approached her shared flat. Situated underneath a hollowed tree, it looked as though it had once been a large two-story schoolhouse, but extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and somewhat disjointed, an issue fixed by magic. Six chimneys were perched on the rooftop, and it continuously belched smoke out and into the bottom hole of the tree.
A lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance read, “PENSIEVE HOUSE, NO OCCUPANCIES OPEN.” Around the front door lay a jumble of broken broomsticks and a rusty cauldron that held a flame, despite it looking like it was prone to erosion. Several children played in the yard, then scattered when a window was broken. Their window. Kaelaire sighed, her cheeks a beet-red.
Once she opened the door and stepped inside, she immediately swept up the glass from the broken window and situated planks of wood over the hole. The kitchen was small and rather cramped. There were a scrubbed wooden table and two chairs in the middle, and Kaelaire sat down on the edge of one, her eyes dancing over several items in the kitchen.
“Provisions. Whatever we’ve got left in the cupboard, if anything,” she mused quietly.
As Kaelaire stood to do so, a sudden cold sensation gripped her chest as if ice had laced her spine. Her body had gone rigid and collapsed to the floor; her eyes were bone white, unfocused and her mouth sagged. Inside her own mind, her new prison, Kaelaire panicked. She looked as if she was having a seizure but couldn’t signal anyone for help.
Within the darkness that engulfed her, a new world laid itself before her feet. Nature was there in all its splendor, but within the span of a thought, it had gone from spring to summer, autumn to winter. Within the frozen tundra that grew harsher by the second, the ground clinked as she took a couple of steps.
Kaelaire dug her hands into the snow. She pulled them up; it was gold. Bushels and bushels of gold! The ground was littered with riches and her eyes welled up. Footsteps from behind caught her attention and she whirled around. “Lune? Lune!” she called but there was no answer. The footsteps crunching the snow continued.
Another moment passed and as Kaelaire kept track of the footsteps, an older woman appeared in the snow. She extended her arm as if she uttered a silent call to the girl, and soft humming traveled along the winds. A butterfly, lavender with dust shimmering from its wings floated around the woman. The dust crafted a fog that obscured the woman, and it forced Kaelaire to keep her distance.
“Mom?”
Kaelaire watched the butterfly rise higher than she could trace her eyes over, realization and momentum clouding her normally vigilant demeanor. Her mother always did have an affinity with the beautiful creatures that seized the skies and took flight. But Kaelaire herself despised them—they always left behind others in their grace. This time would be different.
She held up her arm in front of her face as she took well-paced steps towards the fog. The thick miasma burned her eyes, and every breath she took in seemed to constrict her lungs, but she pressed on as though life and death were dancing through a candlelit ballroom on a never-ending eve.
“Mom!” she shouted. “Where have you been? We’ve waited! We waited so long, and you never came back home!”
There was so much that Kaelaire wanted to tell her, so many memories that her mother wasn’t a part of that she could never truly understand.
And then, she woke up.
Kaelaire’s world shattered faster than she could process, and she felt grateful that she was left to her own devices, alone in their tiny abode for at least a few minutes while Lunesa scraped up some supplies in town. She could still recall her mother’s smiling face, even though the woman took off at least ten years ago when Kaelaire was about eight years old. Her two daughters, both unable to care for themselves at a young age, neither of them able to provide necessary support throughout working or freelancing. Their mother abandoned them.
All to chase fairytales.
And Lunesa embodied that same mindset.
Still, it was a sign, seeing that shadow of a woman she deeply admired, the butterflies carrying her beyond a broken sky. Kaelaire and Lunesa never heard another word from her after she took off. They never knew if she was alive, dead, missing, anything. And that alone left them both confused and crestfallen. They were on their own from the beginning.
“I found you some books from the bargain bin that were donated to me!” Lunesa chimed as she walked through the door, holding up a small stack of paperbacks. Kaelaire was still agonized by the unforeseen vision, but she couldn’t help smiling at the consideration her older sister blessed upon her.
“What’s with the books?”
“I had to make it up to you somehow,” Lunesa stated, setting the books on the wooden table. “Consider this my down-payment for coming on this journey with me. So, why are you on the floor?”
“Oh, I was just looking for something,” Kaelaire responded on the fly before quickly getting to her feet. “Thought I lost a lick of silver we’d need for food on the road. Ended up finding it rolled under the table right before you showed up.”
“And the drool on your face?” Lunesa joked, to which Kaelaire quickly wiped it away with her sleeve. Lunesa was smirking at her, hands resting on her hips. “Daydreaming again, sister dear?”
“Only when reading, never when living.”
/—-/
The long road ahead left the sisters struck with wanderlust, and their first steps out of their humble village brought many visions of what their future would hold... if they could live long enough to prosper in one. Still, Lunesa was clearly excited about having some real work ahead of the professional witches, and that was more than enough for her to look to the great beyond. Kaelaire decided to compare their adventure through the woods to one of the fables she brought along and neglected to read until she was sitting properly. She chronicled every instance spent in walking, from the crimson leaves falling from the trees and striking Lunesa in the face to the blades of grass drifting in the light breeze. She hugged her thin coat to her chest, chewing some dead skin off her bottom lip. She was used to cold air, but she didn’t want it to reach the point of frigid despite it being early autumn.
Lunesa was too busy peering over her notes to acknowledge the cold, full of glee. “How about we try the next town over, see if we can line up some more news relating to this wand?”
“I think it would be wise to stop for the day in general.” Kaelaire pointed a finger to the west. “The sun is beginning to set, and the air is cooling. We’ve been walking for hours with no true destination despite following a map. We have about twenty gold pieces and ten of silver—that should buy us some decent food and a night at an inn.”
The closest town was a fair-sized city called Estrella, where more witches than Lunesa could pinpoint and name hung their hats. They were bound to have more experience in freelancing than she did, and something was better than aimlessly wandering around the city. That’s pretty much what they’ve been doing, but neither wanted to admit it, at least out loud.
Estrella had about a hundred stone houses belonging to humans and nestled on the hillside with windows that faced west. On that side, a deep dike ran more than half a mile from the hill and back, and it bore a thick hedge on the inner side. Over this, the road crossed by a causeway, and where it met and p
ierced the hedge, it was bordered by a great gate that possessed magic as a makeshift sealant. The gate was closed past twilight, and the sisters were glad to have gotten inside in time.
As they moved, they felt as if eyes bore into the back of their necks, and a chilling tremble quaked their spines. Kaelaire’s eyes danced about while Lunesa gave her a curious glare. “What is it?”
“Nothing. Just felt like we were being followed or something,” Kaelaire answered.
Lunesa glanced about at their surroundings this time; they weren’t being followed, but instead, they received curious and unsavory looks from Estrellian locals. The place was a melting pot of magic, for lack of a better term, as every witch, wizard, soothsayer and fortune teller thinking they’re worth their salt flocked to the town square to peruse a conjuration of updates and listings for potential job offers. It stretched as wide as the city, which made it visible to everyone at any possible time.
When the sisters laid eyes upon it, they both craned their necks slightly and took in its sights. “They call it a Job Board,” Lunesa informed and pointed. The information shuffled sharply like a deck of cards, and details about a rich family seeking a new mage to be on-call 24/7 caught many eyes. Even Lunesa was entranced.
“I’m gonna...go see if there are any spots left!” Lunesa announced as she prepared to break into a dash.
Kaelaire grabbed her collar at the last moment and dragged her closer as Lunesa squirmed to break free. “Oh, no you don’t. You got me on this damn journey; you stay put.”
The Magical Book of Wands Page 29
