Chapter 1
Anna ran to her room, her footsteps echoing through the hallway. She glanced behind her again, right in time to hear the front door closing. Yet still, Anna shut her door and turned the lock. While her parents had just left, she still needed to ensure total privacy for what was bound to happen any minute.
Without pausing, she ran to her closet and urgently pulled the sliding door aside. She grabbed the large suitcase she had purchased a few days prior—an object that earned her a fair amount of mockery from her friends—and threw it haphazardly onto her bed.
She began throwing in any article of clothing that caught her eye; it was packing time. It may have been overly large, but a lady had to be fully prepared!
Today was the day!
The day she would be introduced to magic and the day all the roads paved for her were replaced by an obscuring fog. Her ordinary, replaced by the unordinary—mystery.
Her excitement and boundless energy went into throwing as much as she could into the suitcase, like filling it up faster would accelerate their arrival.
Nobody could blame her for her rush! After all, she was told a year ago that a few weeks after she turned 18, she could attend Bastion Academy, a Magic school!
It was a reality straight out of fiction! But not only was it true—it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt. When the sun had just fallen, a looney mage woman seemingly teleported straight into her home, a highrise condo, and froze time just to offer her the opportunity.
Before the magic even happened, she felt a light, vibration-like tingling sensation across her body. Immediately after, time froze.
That woman timed it so well that there was even a frozen bird mid-flap outside her window! And, as if that weren't enough, her game froze, and every clock in her room stopped. Mix in a violet hue that blanketed the room like an almost unnoticeable thin haze, and it'd be weirder to not believe it!
The only thing missing from the theatrics was an actual mage. At least, someone who dressed like one! The purple-haired woman who came for her wore black jeans and a simple hoodie with a Metallica logo on the front. Well, she did have a face-covering mask. But Anna assumed that was to hide her Earth identity or something like that.
The silver mask did have a marking, a small symbol on the left side beneath its ear. Then, the blue eyes. Those eyes were the most powerful Anna had ever seen - in a different way than her parents - who controlled political and economic power. Finally, the mage was taller than Anna by at least two heads—not that it was hard to be.
With how quick the invitation was handed and how rushed the mage was, Anna didn't get to ask any questions; after the mage delivered
the verbal invitation,Anna was forced to answer right away. Once she tentatively accepted, the mage just snapped her fingers and knocked Anna out. That was it. Just like that, she was invited into a life-changing, reality-breaking, fantastical scenario.
When she awoke next, it was to the embarrassment of her parents scolding her for falling asleep playing a stupid computer game. For that, equal blame could be distributed between the looney mage and Anna's friend Sarah for forcing her to try the game.
Anna would have thought the whole thing was a dream had it not been for the letter underneath her blanket that night letting her know the looney mage would be back in a year.
The wait was agonizing, and she pretty much paused her life for that year. She stalled her parents from forcing her to enroll in a College they wanted and didn't pursue anything else. Her excuse was that she wanted to work for a while; it worked because it was true.
Luckily, she could spend the year working at a family friend's obscure, cozy cafe tucked away in New York City. Nothing else supernatural or fantasy-esque happened during that time. Disappointing.
She stayed relatively lowkey, working and playing with friends as she always had.
But it was finally time—7 days after her birthday. Anna didn't get any sleep the prior night due to how excited she was!
Her suitcase quickly filled with clothes and various necessary items for a trip away from home.
She worried about what was likely unnecessary things, such as the types of clothes she packed. Stuff like whether she needed something more formal or maybe less formal.
The purple-hair mage certainly didn't try to look her part, so she probably didn't need to pay her dressing much heed.
Not that she would settle for boring clothes.
While she agonized over that, a familiar tingling feeling swept her body for only a second before fading. As the feeling faded, a purple hue layered the room.
She glanced at her computer, where the video she ingeniously left playing froze.
"Punctual, aren't you?" Came the soft, light British voice of the purple-haired mage. Her tone, though mature, carried a lilting, almost sing-song quality with a playfulness that made it seem like she took nothing seriously—arrogant. Her soft steps came from Anna's door like she had just walked through naturally. "Though, I suppose you would be quite excited for something like this."
"Of course!" Anna's smile was as wide as her face, and her eyes practically shined. "I've been looking forward to this ever since you broke into my home last year!"
"Broke into?" She nodded with a slight chuckle. "That's definitely a way to look at it." The purple-haired mage still wore a pair of jeans and a hoodie, only it was grey pants with a plain black hoodie this time. She had the same unmarked silver mask as last time. "Don't look at me like that, princess; I don't have to care how others perceive me. These are comfortable!"
Anna froze mid-way into throwing a skirt into her suitcase. "Don't call me— wait, how do you know that nickname?"
She definitely didn't say it like it was just an observation! But her friends were always careful; the only way for her to know that would be if she went around and questioned them. A background check. However, none of those she was close enough to allow that nickname would haphazardly hand it out to a weirdo with dyed purple hair. If they did, others would pick up on it and use it to demean her; it had occurred a couple times, but those people were promptly put in their place.
The looney woman was stalking her!
"Don't look so suspicious of me!" she said, approaching the bed and picking up one of Anna's skirts. "I've done my due diligence…" She waved the skirt around. "...and this certainly doesn't help." She sardonically chuckled.