Chapter 1.1 | Chapter 1.3

Caizey held her train ticket in sweaty palms, and watched the train pull up to the station. She couldn’t believe that this was what she was going to do… and her stomach was tied in empty knots. Once she got on that train, there was no turning back. She had already determined that there was no way she could afford a ticket back to Oasis Springs once she got to Glimmerbrook. Turns out trains were expensive. She had already placed a call to the Gallery where she had been working, and quit her job.. and her last hundred bucks was still in her pocket. This just HAD to work out.

The train whistle blew, and, with a heavy sigh, Caizey walked to the train, and pulled herself aboard. Turns out the ticket really was valid.. and she was on her way. She absent-mindedly found a seat on the train, and looked out the window. She wondered what the rest of the day would be like, and whether she would ever see Oasis Springs again. Tears appeared at the edge of her eyes, and she fought them back. Hopefully, this was a good thing, right? She was going to have her very own home. Things just had to be looking up… because there certainly couldn’t be any way for them to still be going down.

Before she knew it, the train had arrived in Glimmerbrook, and she was deposited, mostly alone, on the station platform with her battered luggage. Based on the hand-drawn map on the back of the letter, she should be able to walk to her new home… and, at a loss for what else she could do.. she picked up her bags and started walking.

An exhausting hour later, she walked up to a huge house. If you could call it that. No windows, no wall paint.. But the guy was right, it did have doors. And a roof. Hardly able to believe her eyes, she dropped her bags, and walked up to the front stairs. The mailbox flag caught her attention, and she pulled down the door to the mailbox to find another aged envelope with her name on it. Inside, she found a key. And nothing else. Grasping the key, she walked up to the door, and tried it out. It worked! The door squeaked open, and the smell of dust and cobwebs assailed her senses.

Stifling a sneeze, she walked in, and simply stared. In the darkness inside, she could JUST make out a pile of things in the front room. A bundled-up tent, a box that said it contained an Easel, a set of paints, brushes, and some canvasses, and a tube like you would store posters in. Curious, she drug the  tube out to the front porch where there was more light. Inside, apparently, were the house’s blueprints. Well, at least it was supposed to have windows. Apparently they’d never gotten quite that far.

Sighing in frustration, Caizey drug her bags inside, placed them by her new tent, and pulled out the letter to re-read for the thousandth time. The bit about the portal and the person to contact drew her attention, and, for lack of anything else to do – she didn’t have a flashlight, and the house was too dark to explore without one – she dumped out her backpack on the floor. After re-packing it with the tent and painting supplies, She locked up and pocketed the key.

The path the letter talked about was easy enough to find, and it led on towards the sound of rushing water. Following it, eventually she stepped out on to a huge cliff at the top of a waterfall. The portal the letter mentioned was right there – and – with her heart in her throat, Caizey stepped up to it. Reaching her hand out to it tentatively, she could feel rushing air and a spinning sensation appeared in her head. Resolutely, she took a deep breath and stepped into it.

She nearly ended up on her face with dizziness in a twilight world, and she was immediately sure that those portals were going to take some getting used to. Looking around herself, she righted her clothes, and walked towards the immense building in front of her. Someone was coming out the door as she reached it, and making quick inquiries, she was pointed in the direction of the basement steps to find this L Faba person.

L Faba turned out to be a light-skinned, lilac-haired woman with a welcoming smile. Caizey introduced herself, and L Faba said that she had been expecting her. She went into a long explanation about what was expected of a “Spellcaster”, and Caizey tried her best to listen.

After a few minutes, she broke into L Faba’s monologue.

“I’m confused.” Caizey started. “I’m not a Spellcaster – how am I to do all these things expected of me without being one?!”

“Oh – of course.” L Faba replied, “I forgot the most important part.”

With that, and a quick wave of her wand, L Faba flung some purple bits of light into Caizey’s face.

“Go outside, and find me seven motes. You’ll know them when you see them. Bring them back to me.”

Feeling even more queasy, Caizey climbed the stairs, went outside, and immediately noticed the “motes” that she hadn’t been able to see before. They were little balls of light, and they were scattered around the lawn. Quickly, she went about picking up seven of them, and before long, she headed back down the stairs with the globes of light.

L Faba seemed delighted, took them from her, and asked her to step back.

Caizey stepped back, unsure of what was going on, and watched L Faba begin to wave her wand again. This time, a blue light emanated from it, and Caizey felt herself pulled off the ground into the air.

A tingling sensation travelled the length of her body, and settled in her fingertips as her feet again touched the floor.

“There.” L Faba said, “Now you’re a Spellcaster. You have much to learn, though, and I suggest you get to it. Don’t forget all I told you, and, above all, follow your heart. When you’re ready, come back to me, and I can teach you spells and potion recipes.” And with just that, she abruptly turned and headed upstairs, leaving Caizey standing alone near the huge cauldron, more than a little bemused. Shaking herself to get rid of the lingering tinglies, she followed L Faba up the stairs, and immediately began exploring her surroundings. After finding all the rooms in the main building, she went outside, and found some more portals.

Going through one of them, Caizey found herself in a marketplace of sorts with a beautiful fountain in the middle. It seemed mostly deserted, though, and she wondered where everyone was.

Out of curiosity, she approached the stores, and talked to the ghosts behind the counters. Of course, everything was far too expensive, but it seemed there were wands, brooms to ride, familiars, spell and potion supplies, and even magical tomes to buy. Everything a Spellcaster might need – and then some.

Caizey stepped back from the stores, and thought for a moment. What next? Clearly, she was going to need money. And the best way to do that was painting. She set down her backpack, and pulled out the easel. Quickly, she found out that it wasn’t very hard to set up, and before long, she was hawking her wares like any street artist.

Before long, she had gotten her first commission, and she set to work.

People practically appeared out of nowhere, and watched her curiously as she did her work. It was terribly distracting, but at least she was able to make a little bit of money as the evening progressed. At least – she thought it was evening. It was very hard to tell in the perpetual twilight around here. After a while, she realized she was going to have to head back to the main building and find a bathroom. She quickly packed up and headed back through the portal.

Thankfully, a bathroom was easy enough to find, and Caizey was quick to make use of it.

With everything that had happened, her stomach was growling quite loudly, so she made use of one of the cauldrons placed around the building, and made a huge pot of mac and cheese. Several other Spellcasters came and joined her meal, and before long, she felt so much better.

She explored the bookshelves, and found a history of Spellcasters. Out of curiosity, she sat down and began reading. She didn’t get too far into it, however, before she realized just how tired she was… and she re-shelved the book, and headed outside to find a place to set up her tent.

After trying out another portal, which sent her to a lovely garden house with no one around, she decided this was probably the best place. Exhausted, Caizey set up the tent, struggling a bit with the rods and material for a while before the whole thing came together. Unsure how to feel about the whole day, she climbed inside, rolled out the sleeping bag, and crawled inside. Before long, she was blessedly sound asleep, in a dreamless twilight world of lights and spells.

Chapter 1.1 | Chapter 1.3