1. Bewitched Frames

Rain droplets smacked against the glass, the pavement was stomped upon and soaked while the winds whistled through the dark green cedar branches outside of the clinic. Inside, where combinations of soft amber lights in the waiting area and sharp incandescent lights above mirrors next to the eyeglasses on display, it was warm, quiet since the last patient left and the clinic was closing up. The warm coloured lamps in the corners made the gold glisten and black soften in the cursive script on the large window facing the storm; Dr. Selkirk's Optometry: Bewitch your eyes with more than clear sight.

Before a young auburn haired woman walks out the front door she calls out to the back, "Liyah! I'm heading out. I hope you have a good night and a safe drive," she pauses to point at the doctor, "don't work too hard, okay? See you tomorrow."

"Yes, thank you Trudy. You too, take care." Liyah smiles and waves at Trudy as she walks up to the front and flips the sign. Through the screen of the rain Liyah watched Trudy's ponytail sway, and waited for Trudy's toyota prius pull out from the parking lot and zip away from Liyah's eyes. Then Liyah glanced over at the other businesses in the strip mall, making sure that the parking lot was empty and the traffic was starting to slow. Liyah turns away from the windows, snaps her fingers as she walks back to her office. Except no one can see her walk from outside and her red audi was nowhere in sight.

The office door clicks as she closes it, and she opens the box sitting on her desk. The lights flicker against the green walls, wooden desk and cabinets. Something appears to be flittering around the room, and rustling paperwork.

"I'd stop right there and leave that alone since its unrelated to why I've let you out," Liyah points with her wand. She leans against the door, her blonde bun messy and upturned eyes focused on the small figure. "I don't know why you're here, but it is better to come here after hours than to show up unannounced while I am in an eye exam with a patient. You're lucky it was an old man who could barely make out the chart. So-"

"Are you saying you've lost your touch and couldn't glamour these people if they happen to see me? Well, well," the sprite chuckled to themself. They shake their head and facepalms, "the day a Selkirk loses their touch and can't handle a mere teachtaireacht of Goodfellow Services… I can't believe it.

I'm here to deliver this parcel and get me coin then go and finish the rest of me deliveries. So here is your parcel, Missus Liyah Selkirk and that'll be 2 gold dusters." The little person had wiggled out a brown paper package wrapped up in many yards of twine onto the desk, with their hip shifted to one side and an expectant hand out, "c'mon, what are you waiting fer? We don't have all day."

Her eyebrows raised while the rest of her face still looked unimpressed, "since you're from Goodfellow Services, you should know that the Selkirks are to only receive their packages after sundown, Monday to Thursday. Since this is Goodfellow's procedure for clientele who live amongst the unfocused. And if you remembered that, you'd know that I get 90% off my delivery. So here are two copper dusters," Liyah leans over and drops the coins into their hand, "and now I'll have to let you go on with the rest of your deliveries."

The sprite's eyes bulged, their face reddened, the mouth was barely open when Liyah lifted her wand, "tell Morley I say hi, and they ought to give me a call when they're free. Bye" and her wand spread a warm blue glow over the sprite to send them outside of the clinic.

Liyah let out a sigh, as if her day filled with eye-exams, eyewear education and chatty patients wasn't a lot. More like her exhaustion was from being on low mana for reasons unknown. A month ago, Liyah collapsed at work right after the last patient left. Trudy was the one to see it happen and immediately called 911, she rode with Liyah to the hospital then stayed until Liyah's IV drip was finished. Since then, Liyah had gone through many tests with mainstream medical doctors and traditional doctors. The only thing that came up was that she had low mana, something has started a leak within her and she can't hold in her mana like before.

When she told her great aunt Eugenie, she said, "if you would just learn about your ancestors, we could find out what is wrong with you. Oy vey! Samuel get out of this room! I'm on the phone with my niece! Sorry, Liyah, but do come out to Miami and visit me at geriatric delinquency centre. Mwah! Love you darling! *doot* Now Samuel…" Liyah remembered her mental note about getting her great aunt a cordless phone with bigger buttons on it, even though she gets a good laugh out of Aunt Eugenie's technology problems.

Liyah didn't want to go on a journey to discover her ancestry. She had just opened up her own optometry clinic to practice in, had mortgages to pay off and a student loan. That alone was enough work for the young magician, and she didn't want to add more work on top of it. Liyah felt like she had no time to spare, and could get around to it later… After selling her practice to another optometrist maybe.

Liyah consumed a potion before continuing to move her wand, lazily emitting different colours as to tidy up, fill out paperwork and unravel the package. By the time the other spells were finished, the twine was still unspooling from the package and has filled the chair across from her seat. She cancels her spell, but the twine kept going, spilling onto the floor. Liyah gets up from her seat to get out of the office before slamming the door shut. She quickly utters a hex, "gaene gae ae fuddlin faeliterache, lucia carpe."

She pulls out her phone, presses it to her ear, "heeeey… Yeah, that's great, but I need your help right now. Mhm, totally. I have a package that is taking over my office right now and I need you or a spell to stop this madness"

"Ohhhh, why didn't you say that first?" Yelled the sparkly blue-haired chick, Julien, as she leans into the phone and plugs the empty ear, "I hope you've hexed the office already."

"I sure did." Liyah watched the shadows of strings piling upon more strings behind the blinds.

She had hustled from the dance floor to get inside the washrooms. Once in a stall, she says, "okay, who sent you the package?"

Liyah flushes pink, "I didn't check. I totally didn't think to do it," ending in a groan.

"It's okay, it's okay. Girl, could you describe the package to me over text? I'm going to pick up some necessities and be on way. Just to let you know if I can't answer my phone," Julien shimmers in her pearl scale mini dress, walking away from the neon lights into the street.

Liyah nods, "sure thing. See you soon."

"Do some box breathing. We got this! Byeeee," Julien adds before hanging up. She heads towards a quiet alleyway and dissipates into thin air.

Liyah's fingers fly across the cellphone's keyboard, jotting down the colour and appearance then her fingers pause. A memory of the blue stamp on the one corner that wasn't covered in twine, a fleur-de-lis pattern around a perched bird. She quickly types that in and hits send. She calls Julien, "I've figured it out who it's from. Its a package from Des Corbeaux and it must be-"

A loud crash came from the office, then a person-like shadow moved behind the blinds and the door knob started jiggling.

Liyah silently prayed the hex will stay, "the package is now a person. Please tell me that you're on your way."

"It's Fleur isn't it?" Julien cackled then added two blue-green potion bottles.

"Yeah, and I don't think we had that bad of a breakup. It was years ago."

"If last year is years ago, by all means Fleur should let that nonsense go," she throws in a purple box inside. "You know that even if you breakup the right way, some people can hold onto the pain of letting go of a paramour. Sounds like she's having a very traditional French protest." Julien snapped her fingers to change her clothes, "and I totally called it. She's cray cray!"

Inside of her apartment Julien dissipates into thin air to reappear again inside of Dr. Selkirk's Optometry. She comes over and hugs Liyah, "I see that you did a pretty good hex over here and I'm djinn. So I know when that stuff is gooood," she purred.

Liyah smiled at her friend and relaxed a little. "Thanks Julien. So what now? I'm seriously not equipped for that, and my mana is still down."

"Well, lucky you gets to try my new invention, the Pause for a Cause; the name is still in the works. This right here will freeze someone when you say their name before opening the box," Julien hands Liyah one, "and they will remain frozen in a purple case until they agree to whatever the spell-caster wants. Then the spell breaks, but the purple residue goes away once the agreement is fulfilled. Wanna give it a go?"

"Have you already tried it out? Is this our only option?" Liyah's light purple eyes expressed concern. "I'm open to trying new things, but I don't want to accidentally curse her just because you think it's fun."

Julien waved off the thought with her hand, "it has already passed during the second trials. This should be fine." Julien gets by the door and is about to grab the handle, "ready?"

Liyah takes a deep breath, "let's go."

"3… 2… 1… now!" Julien's hands twist open the door.

"Fleur Des Corbeaux," Liyah said in the same breath as she tore open the box, releasing a cloud of purple smoke.

Once the smoke settled, they saw a case formed around a twine and paper person resembling Fleur's short, pixie-like figure and fluffy hair. The twine-paper person had it's mouth open with a note sitting upright in the mouth.

Liyah got closer to the note, and read it aloud, "Run, run, run, away, run Liyah run before gorfs casts an arcane on you. Gorfs is after you next."

Julien looks at Liyah and back at the note with a funny expression. Her face twists into a question, "who is gorfs and what does this mean? Do you think it's a sick prank?"

Liyah pauses for a second, "I can't think of what gorfs is at this moment, but I know that this is Fleur sending me a warning. We must go now. We've gotta leave Vancouver and seek out my great-aunt." Liyah grabs Julien's hand and pulls her out of the clinic. She throws in a device before pulling out her wand and casting a hexes over the clinic.

Liyah opens the door to shotgun and remarks, "looks like Aunt Eugenie is getting what she wanted for me, and Trudy is getting a vacation since she has no clinic to work at," She lets out a long sigh and looks over to the driver's side, "so Julien, let's get going."

With the keys dangling from the ignition, Julien is looking at Liyah. She had pulled back her ocean blue hair, exposing her steely, serious ice blue eyes but her face is expressionless, "what about that hot mess in the clinic? Who's going to clean up that?"

"It's okay. I threw in a timed flare for the local majick officers to see it before the unfocused wakeup. It should be fine," Liyah says assuringly.

"Now let's get out of here, and on a plane to Miami quickly."

"No, we're not going anywhere until we've sorted out what is going on. Are you seriously ok? Normally you're flapping your wings like a headless chicken in a situation like this. Are you feeling alright?" Julien grabs one of Liyah's hands and holds it. "It's okay to tell me the truth, you know I'm probably a millennia older than you. I've seen stuff."

Liyah sighs, contemplating, "are you sure you don't know who gorfs is?"

"I have a few ideas, but none of them concrete."

Liyah looks around carefully, "I can't say anything about them aloud or they'll be alerted. As far as I know it's a syndicate that is probably much younger than you but is older than me. Julien, I can tell you more when we get to a safe house but we're running out of time to be able to tie up loose ends and go."

Julien lets go and brings her hands to the steering wheel, "well, we'll ditch this ride somewhere and you're going to tell me what you can on our way out of here." Julien shifts gears in the sports car, "don't leave anything out because I am sure I can think of sources who can help us out."

Liyah starts to share what Aunt Eugenie wants her to do as Julien pulls into the street.

The red audi zips off under the streetlights and trees, leaving the parking lot empty, save for the well-lit laundromat where a man walks out from behind the machines.

He unlocks the door and walks outside, sniffing the air, playing with the switchblade in his left hand. His flip-phone rings and he picks it up with the other hand. His silver-grey eyes sparkle from beneath his dark hood.

"Yeah, the package has been opened. I'll check that glasses shop… yeah, it could be in there. She did hex the place before leaving… no, just a tall blue-haired chick… yeah, as if I know anything. I just go in and get it and get paid." The man tucks away his knife in the back of his jeans, "nah bro, you know we live for the hunt." He snaps the phone close with a sharp smile on his face; silver-grey eyes glinting.