Penny was taken aback and found herself unsure of what to say. “Thanks,” she mumbled.
An awkward silence ensued, and then Professor Arlington gestured for her to follow him downstairs.
Stepping back out into the street, Professor Arlington spoke again. “If I’m going to be completely honest, I need you. I’m unable to perform any sort of enchantment or spell of any kind without you around―I use your magic, remember? The people in this world don’t give off the same type of aura I was talking about earlier―”
“Then how did you cast the tracking spell?” asked Penny with a raised brow.
“I had to wander around until I could feel your magic,” he admitted. “Anyway, I believe our first order of business is to get some proper clothing, a meal, and shelter.”
“And how do you intend to pay for all that? Were you thinking of bartering your sweater vest? I’m not sure if Argyle is in right now, though,” Penny scoffed, gesturing to a nearby man in a purple frock-coat.
Professor Arlington shrugged. “I...summoned some money earlier, when you were still asleep.”
Penny processed this, her eyes narrowing. “Summoned? Like, you―conjured it out of thin air?”
“No, not exactly. It’s impossible to make something out of nothing―surely you must know that. Just because I call it magic does not imply that it can break the rules of science,” Professor Arlington said, choosing each word with heightened caution. “I simply used a spell to summon up a bit of money from the collective source of private funds of the populace and banks of this nearby region.”
Incredulous, Penny laughed. “Oh, so this is just a roundabout way of saying that you stole it!” she cried.
“I know it sounds immoral!”
“—is immoral,” Penny corrected.
“But just think of it as—as a mandatory donation to those who are in need,” he argued, looking a bit troubled himself before breaking down with a sigh. “It was only a little from each person. I doubt they’ll even notice anything is missing.”
“I can’t believe you.” Penny shook her head.
“All right, then, we’ll do it your way. I’ll send the money back and we’ll have to do our best to find a job in a world we don’t belong in, so we can find our way home eventually. How does that sound?”
Penny contemplated this and fell silent. “Okay, I see your point.”
“Keep in mind, I’ve done this all before. I was wrenched from my home world, Nelvirna, to Earth with only the clothes on my back and I somehow managed to integrate my way into your immeasurably peculiar society,” he told her with some assurance.
“You could do with a little more integrating, if you ask me…” Penny grumbled, and he either didn’t hear or chose to ignore her. “Hey, wait…If you’re from a different world, how did you learn English so fluently in just four years?” she asked and he stood up straighter.
“That, Miss Fairfax, is an excellent question. Thank you for reminding me,” he said in a manner that made her feel like she was back in the classroom. Without any explanation, the professor knelt down, pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and began drawing a strange pattern onto the stone. He marked strange lettering and symbols into a circle, then took a minute to inspect it.
“Oh no, that’s not quite right, let me see…” he mumbled to himself as Penny stared down at him. After rubbing out a circular cipher and replacing it with a series of zigzag lines, he stood up and nodded. “There we are.” He grabbed Penny by her shoulders and pulled her into the center of the circle.
“Um, Professor―”
“Be prepared―you may feel a little lightheaded,” he warned.
“Whoa, what? Wait a second―” she protested, but Professor Arlington clapped his hands together and a bright flash of aquamarine light erupted from the ground Penny stood upon. Stars streamed past her eyes and an overwhelming sensation that was akin to being inside a high-powered washing machine swept over her. The lights faded away and she lost her balance, falling to the ground, the bright after-image effect burning her eyes.
“All done! How are you feeling?” she heard Professor Arlington ask, but his voice sounded odd.
“What in the world was that about?” Penny wheezed as he helped her to her feet.
He beamed, kneading his hands together with excitement. “Hah! It worked! You just spoke to me in my native tongue. I can’t believe I remembered how to do it properly.”
“You―wait, how? What did you do?” she demanded.
“I just put a very useful enchantment on you, which also serves as an answer to your previous question. You see, where I’m from, scholars are required to know all the languages in our world, so we developed a universal communication spell―it’s actually quite fascinating. Basically, the magic takes the intention of what the speaker is trying to say, and makes it possible for the listener to understand by having the words come out in the language you need to use―all without you having to learn a thing! You’ll be able to tell the difference between what’s being said and gain control over which language you speak after a while, but as for now, just let it come naturally.”
“So, you’re saying I can speak every language ever now?” Penny gasped, her heart pounding with excitement.
“That’s a very rudimentary way of looking at it. But, yes. What’s even better is that the spell will be effective for the next five years or so.”
“That’s incredible…thanks, Professor!”
“Um, feel free call me Hector from now on. No need for formalities anymore, I suppose,” he said with a shrug.
Hector? Penny realized with a bit of surprise that she’d never heard his given name before. It felt strange to be on a first-name basis with the man she’d only known as her stern professor.
Professor Arlington smudged away the ring of symbols and they set off for a line of shops. Penny stayed close to him as they traversed through the bustling streets. The town seemed to have gotten livelier after dark.
Alongside the gas lamps were luminous balls of different colored lights trapped inside glass orbs, hanging outside shops windows and dropping from eaves. Penny drew closer and observed that the inside of the orbs were tiny clusters of crystal giving off brilliant light. Professor Arlington looked back and waited for her to catch up, then led the way up the road, threading through the stream of citizens in their outlandish clothing. Their attention was stolen by a man with an ornate mask performing a complicated juggling act in the square. Penny stared wide-eyed into a shop window filled with sparkling accessories in the shapes of different beasts and dragons that moved and fluttered around the display.
They wandered around the nighttime marketplace between the glowing lamps of pale blue and misty green until they spotted a shop with an assortment of different clothing displayed in the warmly lit windows. With a sinking sense of disappointment, Penny saw that she could not read the shop’s display sign.
“Hey! Your spell is already broken! The sign’s still in their language,” Penny said as she pushed the door open and heard the tiny silver bell overhead tinkle.
“The spell only functions with spoken communication,” Hector explained.
The problem was forgotten as Penny found herself confronted with several specimens of opulent and striking clothing. Delighted, she browsed through what might have passed off as costumes from a fantastical film and set about admiring flowing silk gowns and parasols until Hector reminded her that they were impractical. The shopkeeper, a curvy woman with ginger-blonde hair and a pair of spectacles, rushed over after seeing Penny’s excitement and ushered her around the shop, prattling on. Penny spotted a sophisticated blue traveling jacket with intricate gold embroidery in the back of the store.
“Oh, this is a fine item, right here! It’s made of the finest filth-resistant, damp-resistant and stain-resistant material―and if you buy it with the other display items, you’ll get a discount!”
Penny smiled as she admired the accompanying items: a white ruffled blous
e, a blue skirt that fell to just above the knee, and black leggings. The shopkeeper asked her if she wanted to try it on and she agreed with a tiny nod. With a wave of a pair of enchanted silver scissors, the entire outfit was swapped with Penny’s clothes. The saleswoman flourished the scissors about to help expand and tighten the material in different places until it reached a comfortable fit.
Penny looked herself over with a shy grin. “I’ll take it!”
Penny picked out a pair of boots and Hector selected a new shirt, a sensible green vest, and a pair of trousers. He milled about the shop, grabbing a few more items here and there and talking in a low voice to the shopkeeper. He found a set of satchels that had been enchanted so that the things placed inside were stored at a faraway location, which meant they could carry as much as they wanted and it would weigh next to nothing. They approached the register with their bags, wearing the new sets of clothes.
“Your total comes to three topaz, and one amethyst Yuebell, sir. We take transfer slips, as well,” the bespectacled woman recited with a bit of cheer as she tallied the price up, using her enchanted scissors as a pen. Penny was enthralled as Hector produced a small sack from his pocket and plucked out a handful of little round stones, each no bigger than a marble. He counted out the correct amount and handed it to the shopkeeper, who gave a toothy smile and thanked them. Penny sauntered out of the store, enjoying the feel of her new clothes and the small relief of fitting in with the crowd that came with them.
“So those little jewels are the money of this world?” she questioned.
“Obviously,” Hector replied with a hint of arrogance. “The color indicates the value. I discovered before that you can combine similar types of a lower value. The stones will draw together and change color. Tapping on it will also break them apart, see?” He showed Penny a handful of the brilliant stones. Tiny star-like points of light swam within the jewels, like fireflies trapped in a jar. Hector pulled a single blue stone out of the sack and rapped the top with his finger. It shivered a little before springing apart into five yellow pieces. Penny watched in wonderment as he squeezed them back together before pocketing the Yuebells and resuming their walk.
They passed through another poorly lit alley where vendors watched them go by with hungry eyes, silently begging them to buy something from their carts. Penny could see more of the amphibian-like men crouched in groups in many of the alleyways.
“I think we passed a tavern a while back. This way,” Hector said as he tugged Penny away from a cart covered with painted animal skulls and flickering candles. The man keeping shop had long pointy ears and cast Hector a dark look as they rounded the corner onto a wider and busier street. Steam-powered vehicles clanked by beside carts drawn by exotic beasts of burden.
They soon located the tavern Hector had mentioned. Hector explained that his glasses had been enchanted to allow him to read text from other languages and translated the sign post, identifying that the tavern was called The Dancing Dragon. Inside, a few grimy lanterns shone through the dimness and guests chatted amongst themselves. Every so often a peal of raucous laughter would rise up from the corner booth like a wave and die down again. Penny watched a tall woman with long chestnut hair and a small scar on the left side of her face wipe down glasses behind the bar while eyeing the crowd like a hawk. The wall behind her was filled with bottles of every shape and color. A faint, warbling tune whined out of a phonograph-like object at the end of the bar.
They managed to pick out meals that seemed remotely familiar from the menu, and the bartender brought them their food with the same cold unflinching look on her face. Penny was pleased with the quality of the meal; it was reminiscent of a pot pie, but full of vegetables she’d never seen or tasted and an unrecognizable meat. She did not care to know what kind of animal it had come from and went on eating, forcing herself to think of something else. Hector finished eating, pulled out a thick strip of paper from his pocket and spread it out on the bar top in front of them. Penny leaned over in the dim light and saw that it was a map.
“I picked this up at the tailor’s,” he told her before she could ask. “It’s a map of this world.”
Penny gazed with a furrowed brow at the map, running her fingers over the creases and studying the unfamiliar territories with interest.
“It’s called Elydria,” Hector read the spindly text aloud.
“El-ee-dree-ahh,” Penny repeated, testing the word out.
“I believe we are currently right―” Hector tapped his slender finger to a tiny dot on a continent on the right of the map, “―here…just north of the river that separates this country from the Nation of Elves. In the town of Dewthorne.”
“Now, the most astute plan of action is to find as much information about Elydria as we can. We need to know how things like magic, energy, economy, culture, and politics work here. Perhaps their knowledge of other worlds is extensive. Our predicament may even be commonplace here. Knowledge is invariably the most important factor of success―and I must admit that I am rather delighted for the opportunity to closely study yet another world and lear―”
“Okay, okay. Got it. So where do we get information?” Penny asked, snapping him out of his effervescent state. She resented him for being so ecstatic about their situation, and then remembered he most likely had no one to miss back on Earth.
“A library, of course,” Hector said with the same smile he used when explaining a new concept in class. “And since there isn’t a sufficient source of public literature in this town, according to my shop-keeping informant, we need to go from here―” he walked his fingers from the dot that was Dewthorne on the map across a painted forest, town, and river to a star at the top of the continent, “―to the capital. That’s where we’ll supposedly find a massive library simply brimming with books just waiting to be read. I’m certain we will find a solution to our problem there.”
Penny thought about it for a while. A few inches on the map were sure to be long, arduous miles of dangerous and untamed territory. “It’s a fair idea, in theory, I suppose. I’m not sure about this, Professor. But I’ll trust you on this.”
“Just Hector, if you don’t mind,” he said stiffly as he counted out several Yuebells in his palm and set them on the bar next to their empty plates.
Collecting their bags, Hector consulted with the bartender about lodgings and then led Penny up to their assigned room. Inside was a single bed, and after an awkward silence broken only by some throat clearing and false starts from Hector, he managed to say he would be happy to sleep on the floor.
Penny retreated to the bathroom. After double checking that the door was locked, she took a long, hot bath, emerging in a cloud of steam and feeling much cleaner, but somehow more worried than ever. She was careful to avoid Hector’s gaze as she scurried into the bed and burrowed under the covers. An overwhelming sense of exhaustion had taken hold over her body, but something prevented Penny from finding sleep. After about twenty minutes she saw the light fade from the room and listened to the muffled sounds of Hector curling up on the floor in a corner of the room. Penny sighed to herself.
The reality of her situation began to solidify in her mind, bringing a gripping feeling of nausea that refused to ease. Penny thought of her mother and her face screwed up as she suppressed a whimper. Thoughts of her warm quilt at home, her stack of unfinished books, and the smell of banana muffins in her kitchen exacerbated the spinning in her head to a state of acute discomfort.
How am I going to get through this? I can’t. I’m not cut out for this; I’m not strong enough. Things like this shouldn’t happen to people like me.
Anxiety fought to keep her awake and alert, but her eyelids grew heavier. The sounds of the night and Hector’s soft breathing seemed farther away. In a half-conscious desire for comfort, her shaking fingers grasped the tiny silver pendant she had taken from her mother’s store. Last night seemed like years ago. Penny drifted away, and for a few quiet hours, left behind the turmoil of feeling lost s
omewhere under Elydrian skies.
The peculiar town came to life again the next morning, and as Penny ventured into the marketplace alongside Hector, she had to admit that Dewthorne was far less intimidating than it had seemed at night.
In the center of the town were a collection of stalls and a row of shops, all sporting a splendid array of goods. Penny and Hector bought some fresh glazed rolls to chew on while they wandered through the crowded aisles in search of useful goods to take with them on what promised to be a long and uncomfortable journey. Hector purchased medicines, cooking utensils, and blankets, as well as several other practical finds, such as bandages and a small knife for cooking. Nearby, a group of musical performers played a jangling tambourine, reedy pipes, and a huge, twisting horn that sang aloud in a melancholy voice. Captivated by their sound, Penny slipped away from Hector as he haggled with an irritable-looking man selling talismans.
“Mom would love it here,” Penny said to herself as a dragon swooped overhead, landed, and went about inspecting some pottery.
Stepping under the shade of the canopies, Penny discovered an object so peculiar and beguiling that it startled her just to behold it. Laid out in a corner of the square on a dirty blanket, a man wearing a fancy turban and a shining sash over his face sat before a collection of wondrous stones, each in a different pearly, iridescent color. They appeared to be filled with vein-like cracks and fibers, and sparkled and hummed. She gathered up enough courage to speak to the man, feeling her usual awkwardness with strangers return.
“Erm, excuse me, sir―what is this stuff?” she asked, pointing at the cluster of stones. The man’s expression grew skeptical, as if he were trying to tell whether she was joking or not.
“Do you not know raw magic clusters when you see them, Little Miss? Or are you trying to imply something about the quality of my merchandise?” his accented voice purred.
The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) Page 5
