Heavy incense filled the room. It mingled with the smell of the old tomes surrounding me. My mother's old library was the most comfortable place in the world. It was massive- due to magic enlarging the interior. Rows upon rows of wooden bookshelves filled the massive room. Dusty tomes and spell books filled the shelves. A large, dark, marble fireplace nearly took up an entire wall. My mother's portrait hung above it. My grandmother would often say that we could've been twins. She had beautiful, dark brown hair, and sparkling blue eyes. The portrait accentuated her sharp features and high cheekbones. I always ended up thinking of her funeral when I was in here. I was only 14 at the time. To me it looked as if she was merely sleeping. "To think it's already been 6 years."
Sighing I tore my eyes from my mother's. I needed to finished the preparation for what I was about to do. I found myself thinking back to the hag. The pure audacity! To say the Fates themselves would "deal me a bad hand"!
I slammed my fist down on the large mahogany desk. The tiny Book Dragons lazily looked up from their nooks and crannies before slowly growing back to napping. Small puffs of smoke occasionally coming from their noses.
"If you wish to ever find your love, you will need to leave this world behind." Her words rang in head over and over. Hardly giving me a moments rest. Joy had tried to comfort me on the drive back but, my frustration only grew.
"What does she even mean! Everyone I know and love is here!" I shouted my arms crossed.
"I know," Joy nodded along letting me vent.
"She's basically saying I'll never find love here!"
"If you think about it, you've never had an actual boyfriend." Joy said casually.
"If I wanted a boyfriend, I would go get one!"
"Hey, you're the one who wanted to know who the guy in your dream was." Joy gripped the steering wheel in exasperation.
"...I know." I felt like crying suddenly. To think my soulmate doesn't even exist on this world.
"Listen Kara... life isn't fair. Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands and force your fate to change."
"But, leaving this world would mean leaving you, and my grandmother." I said quietly. "If I leave, I can never come back. The Covenant would imprison me at the very least."
"Which is why you wouldn't come back." She said with a strange sense of finality.
We hardly spoke the rest of the way home. The next morning Joy left to visit her parents for the weekend. "You know I love you," she said as she hugged me. "I want you to be happy." She let go of me and picked up her bag. Somehow I had a strange feeling I wouldn't see her for a long time.
That was two days ago now. After hours of searching I found a blank, leather bound spell book in my mother's library. The rituals inside seemed to be hand drawn with notes written in a flowery, cursive text on the sides. Most of it was in Latin. Thankfully, as a witch, it was practically a requirement that I know Latin.
I spent the entire night studying and reading about the methods and necessities. Constantly I would stop and wonder if this was all worth it. Was a soulmate really so great?
I began preparing for the ritual. Permanent runes were already burned into the floor. It was how I connected them that would matter in the end. I took a blackened piece of chalk and began to draw the lines and circles. The sun had already started to set on the horizon. It's last rays danced across the floor. With the circle completed I stood and stretched. My back popping as I did. "Finally." I said as I clapped my hands together.
I stepped into the middle of the circle. A duffel bag slung across my back with everything I thought I'd need. I held the book I needed to reed from open in my hands. I glanced around the library one last time. The book dragons still snored lazily, some curled around tiny nests they had built out of paper, and small scraps of leather. The fire had burned down to the coals but, still warmed the room. My mother's portrait stared down at me. I swear I could almost see a sadness in her eyes.
I took a deep breath and began the incantation. Almost immediately I felt a large wave of mana hit me. The power surged through me and into the runes on the floor, igniting them with a blue flame. I felt rooted to the ground. My mouth seemed to form the words on its own. I couldn't stop now even if I wanted to. All the lights in the room brightened and then flickered out. The room itself began to twist and morph. Slowly it wasn't my mother's library at all but a large forest. The flames and the runes vanished. Replaced by grass and pine needles.
My stomach lurched as the spell finally took its toll. I bent over vomiting what little I had eaten. My head felt heavy and my vision spun out of focus. I collapsed on the ground, looking up into the sky. It was night and two moons filled the sky. I smiled realizing I had actually made it, before I passed out.