Reverse Chronicles

The Headmistress

     “My name is Keith. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the mage spoke as he headed towards the castle that looked like Neuschwanstein. He looked like he was walking but I couldn’t hear his footsteps. His red cape was covering his feet from the back. “Franz told me about you beforehand. He says you are a damsel in distress and you wish to seek answers for questions beyond our reasoning. Tell me, do you belong to an endangered people who are undiscovered?”

     “I do not belong to an endangered people. The truth is that I came from another world.” I replied while following him. A gust of wind suddenly blew our direction. It blew the cape that covered his feet. He wasn’t walking at all. He was hovering with his magic. His boots glowed yellow and the space between his boots and the ground emanated a strange aura.

     “Interesting!” He quickly stopped and looked at me. “We should go to the headmistress at once.” Suddenly, he grabbed me by my left arm and Franz on his right arm. Then, we flew high up. Flying was faster than walking.

     “You’re crazy, Keith,” Franz cried. “I hate it when you suddenly do this.”

     “Come on now, walking gets too boring when you learn how to fly. Soar high up beyond the clouds to the stars,” he got even faster. I could feel the wind battering against my face. My clothes were freely swaying with the wind. Speaking of clothes, I was wearing a skirt. Upon realizing it, I held it down immediately and crumpled one of its edges clenching my fist on the crumpled edge so that it would stay down. Is this how skirt insecurity feels? It sure is not easy.

     We were headed towards ten windows on the castle’s right side. At a closer view, it looked like a balcony. There were five windows on the upper balcony and the other five below them. We were coming in too fast. I could calculate in my head that we were going to crash.

     “We’re too fast!” I yelled and squirmed.

    “No, we’re not.” Keith continued on with his speed flight carrying us along. We were going to crash on the balcony. My flight response activated and I squirmed as much as I could to get off, ignoring the fact that we were high up in the air. At the last moment, we stopped and as we landed, Keith dropped me and I squirmed on the floor.

     “It’s alright now, Josh. Keith is reckless and crazy, but he won’t put anyone’s life in danger.” Franz reached out his hand to help me up. These two are friends? Franz is the chivalric and honorable type of guy, while Keith is the reckless and adventurous type.

     “Let’s go,” Keith called us as he went, “the headmistress’ office is just beyond this hall.” Chandeliers hanged from the ceiling. The ceiling was painted gold and blue with floral patterns that danced with the colors. On the sides were pillars that resembled classical architecture from my world. On both sides of the hallway, windows let the sunlight in and allowed a majestic picturesque view on the surrounding lieu. Near the windows are tables and chairs for four. There were students who were studying in the hall, some were reading, while others experimented with bizarre magical objects. The floor had wooden tiles fastened in geometrical and alternating patterns.

     At the end of the hall, a shabby looking door awaited. It was quite distorted and contrasted the extravagance of the entire room. “This is where the headmistress is,” Keith opened the door which led to a forest. “Oops, wrong location,” he closed the door and opened it again. “Here we go,” the door now led to a grand library that had shelves reaching to the ceiling. The room was cylindrical and the books and the shelves circled the entire room. There were no windows and doors, only the door that we came through was the only exit. In the middle of the room, floating up above surrounded by books that levitated was a black woman.

     “Headmistress, I brought someone who is really interesting.” Keith floated forward pointing to me.

     “I know. I saw ‘him’ when he was about to enter. He seeks to find answers to his questions that greatly boggle his mind.” The woman went down gracefully. She did not land on the floor but floated. She had brown black skin, golden irises, and a black hair. She wore a witch’s hat colored blue and yellow with floral designs. She also had earrings that sparkled like the stars on the night sky. Her left earring was moon-shaped while the other star-shaped. Her long dress was bizarre and had seven colors flowing down to her ankles. It reflected the different biomes having varied textures and colors on different sides.

     “Listen, Josh,” she began to speak. “You are an Outsider, from another world. I know this because of your class and because of the great magical disturbance around you. The true owner of that body is in this world.” She approached and touched my forehead. “She is at Xanvaldrea, the capital city of the Sarcen Empire, at the other side of the world.”

     “So she is here.”

     “In order to go back to your world, you will need her help. But as to how to return you, I don’t have an answer. All I can do to help you is to tell you about your class.”

     “Are you going to cast that spell again, headmistress?” Keith got suddenly excited. “Don’t worry, Josh,” he turned to me and pat my shoulder. “You are in good hands. The headmistress is the most powerful arch sorceress in the Siane kingdom.”

     Suddenly, the headmistress snapped her fingers and pointed her right index finger at my forehead. She opened her left palm enchanting a small ray of light. In an instant, she clenched her left fist and flicked my forehead with her right hand. At that moment, I knew everything there is to know about my class and of this world.

     “What was that?” I asked looking at my hands because they felt funny.

     “That was Insight, an incantation that allows a person to examine another person. I also cast Render, to make you see what I see through you,” the headmistress replied.

     “You see,” Keith excitedly explained, “the headmistress is able to cast multiple spells at once in a second. She can cast a hundred spells with just a wave of her arm.”

     “You must go and begin your journey. You must head east until you reach the land of the dragons, from there travel to the Sarcen Empire. The journey will be perilous. However you have Keith, Franz, and Daniel to accompany you in this journey.”