Do We Have A Deal?

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Raising The Innocent || Hayley & Ridley

Ridley had whisked them away from the crumbled fossils of the Manor in a plume of silver and golden smoke. She teleported them into the liminal space her self-named Ever Home was rooted in. It was in this pocket of reality and void that she had made her own retreat, her personal, tiny world.  There were lots of liminal spaces, but this one was hers and no one came by it unless she willed them to. Only Amanar and Ash were admitted entrance without request... and now, she supposed, Hayley, too.

“Home sweet home.” She had said when they first landed at the Ever Home. Hayley’s feet sank into lush, blue-green grass just outside of a massive mansion that looked as though it had been reclaimed by nature. But it was far from dilapidated... The vegetation that overtook the house wound in and out of boards and crevices beautifully, flowers springing up in all shades and assortments. Parts of the mansion looked as though it had been hewn from grey, smooth stone that had moss furring its surface, while other sections were visibly carved wood. Towering trees stood in some sections, completely alive and intertwined with expansive abode. The winds blew and rustled the trees that stood around and the rustling of the leaves sounded like wind chimes tinkering. Birds could be heard singing off in the distance and the rushing over a forest stream was just within hearing distance.

She dared a sweet smile over at her double. “Isn’t it beautiful?!” She jutted her hands out and spun around, motioning at everything. It wasn’t often when she could show off her years of hard work. “The trees were seedlings from the Iron Forest in Underhill, and there!” She pointed over at the picturesque mansion, “the rocks came from the Singing Mountains.” She tilted her head in nostalgia as she took it in. “The giants that lived there had become my friends, and they gifted me the HearthStones that lay the foundations and stands several walls.” Her hands came up to clasp together as she pressed them against her chest.

In that instance her mundane glamour melted away and her elfin nature shown through. The golden light of the sun light shafting through the canopy of the tree tops caught in her large eyes.  “I don’t come here as often as I should...” She looked over at Hayley. “I don’t know if this will be easy for you, being here.” She offered. “Everything that is me is sewn into the creation and keeping of this place.” A gossamer dress took the place of her mundane clothes and a silver circlet twisted through her hair and crowned her forehead. 

“Come, then.” She moved forward and the doors opened wide as she advanced on them.

****

Ridley gave Hayley a room that was ever bit as spacious as her own, for she had much space and few guests. The house could shift and mold to her bidding. Where Ridley’s personal chambers were earthy and cool, the one she had prepared for Hayley was smooth and grey... A blank slate, as it were. Ridley would let her do with her space what she wished.

A few days after letting Hayley explore the Ever Home to her liking, Ridley had decided it was time they began their lessons. She brought her into the library, a grand space that was round.

“This is a one of a kind.” Ridley patted one of the shelves. “It is a descendant of the Tree of Knowledge, and this chamber has been hollowed into. Its roots run deep... they reach into all sorts of realms and touch the books there, gleaming something from them.”  She smiled wistfully as she ran her hand across a row of ancient tomes. “It is a place crafted acutely for learning.”

“Here,” she said deftly, turning over an upturned palm toward a table. A storm of books exploded from all around the library and gathered on the table. “The first learnings I had were of witches and their crafts. The Le Fays are the most formidable witches in Midgard, and it will do you well to know how their - and some of our- magicks work.” She turned and walked out of the Library and latched the door behind her with a snap of her fingers.

****

Weeks later, and after Hayley had read so many books she might die if she touched another she was summoned outside. Ridley sat on a chase couch in the courtyard drinking from a crystalline cup as Artemis clutched an ornate perch to her left. The moon had just risen to its apex and a few yards from the couch, an ornate, round sigil reflected the moons silver light as if it were traced in quicksilver.

“Ah!” Ridley cooed as she bounded to her feet and gingerly sat the cup down. 

“Don’t be cross, dear.” She said to the glare that was pointed at her. “I thought you might like learning this spell. It’s time to summon your Familiar.” A wide grin broke out across Ridley’s face. Even if the other did not know what it meant, having been given a Familiar was the single most unique and  powerful thing she had ever been given. The Mirror her father had given her was a powerful tool, but she would be the one that was shattered without her Artemis.

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Mirror, Mirror On The... Wait, You’re Not A Mirror || Hayley & Ridley

[hayleylefay]

Keep reading

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

“Hayley?” Ridley echoed. She didn’t know what magic her Father had woven into that name, but conceded that there must have been something special about it. A Fae’s true name gave and took power from its wielder.

“Then guard its truth well, Hayley Le Fay. Your name can be your undoing, spoken from the right lips.” She stood up and dusted the dust of the Manor away. “It is both a blessing and a curse, to be True Named.” 

She strode over to her double... to Hayley.

“And of our mother...” She crossed her arms over her chest and gave Hayley a good once-more-over, reveling a little at the woman that was exactly everything that she was.

“First I need to teach you a thing or two. Though you have my natural power, you do not have my learnings...You do not have my wisdom, and accrued power of three centuries.” 

“I will take you to my Ever Home. There you will stay until we have figured out some of the specifics of your creation and I am certain I can keep Magdelena’s claws out of you.” 

She reached up and stroked the breast feathers of her familiar. 

“I will summon up a Familiar for you, that will be a link between you and myself, as Artemis is a link between me and my Father.” She cut her eyes back at Hayley.

“I will train you, and teach how to wield the craft you possess, and when I deem it time, we will kill Magdelena.” 

“Take my hand.” She jutted out an upturned, open hand.

(((If Hayley take her hand they will be taken to Ridley’s Ever Home and we can plot the next para... if not the current para will contiune)))

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Mirror, Mirror On The... Wait, You’re Not A Mirror || Hayley & Ridley

[hayleylefay]

Keep reading

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Keep reading

[hayleylefay]

Keep reading

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

RIdley placed a hand to her head and massaged her temples, trying her best to release the tension that had collected behind her eyes.  The tension deepened when the other woman couldn’t give her a definite answer on how long she had been in the mortal coil.  Or immortal coil, in their case.

Spellwork was delicate, and timing was crucial. Were any astronomical events harnessed?  There had been an eclipse this year, as well...  Snow on the ground. RIdley pondered it, but resolved to not rely on that fact alone. She could have been on that slab of a  table for months before she found her freedom.

But RIdley did remember the exact moment her Mirror had started acting strange, and when she began having weird senses of deja vu.  Those events had started two months and some change ago...

RIdley was brought out of her reverie when her double said Magdelena’s name. She gave an incredulous look, stunned for some reason. This copy of herself didn’t know Magdelena. She knew one atrocity. One singular event this woman had endured by that poisonous wench. 

“It wasn’t good enough,” Ridley spit out. “Obviously.” She motioned in the other’s direction. “I should have killed her. All these years I’ve thought her bargain was an adequate punishment...” Ridley was looking in her copy’s direction but she was unfocused, watching memories of the past, her expression becoming more and more bleak by the second. “She’ll never stop coming for me.... not as long as she draws breath.”

Suddenly Artemis swooped out of the shadows and dropped a rolled up leaf sealed with golden wax that RIdley snatched out of the air. The owl came to rest on her shoulder as she broke the seal and unfurled the huge frond. An elegant, silver script was scrawled across the green skin of the leaf.  Artemis turned her head toward the other woman and peered at her from her perch. Artemis’ eyes were colored the exact same her charge’s. Pools of green and gold, tendrils of silver swirled about the irises as the creature took in the sight of her. She looked back and forth between Ridley’s face and the other’s as RIdley read the letter with wide eyes.

She sighed. Amanar’s letter chronicled the event, and how he had been cautiously optimistic about her new found double. He had had several powerful Fae members of the court examine her, and none of them found anything that would cause Ridley harm laying dormant within her.

“Treat her with kindness, my Daughter. She is of yourself. I do not like when my Daughter is treated with unkindness.” 

She rolled her eyes and made the letter disappear. She stood up, and faced the woman squarely. 

“I’m RIdley Le Fay. Me.” She pointed at herself. Then she pointed at the other and asked, “What I am to call you, since there can only be one Ridley.” 

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Mirror, Mirror On The... Wait, You’re Not A Mirror || Hayley & Ridley

[hayleylefay]

Keep reading

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Finally, Ridley let the dagger slip away into its hiding place as she crossed her arms, becoming as annoyed as she was perplexed by the situation.

“Well, I don’t know if you are who you say you are.” She shot her a sardonic look and quirked up a singular eyebrow, “And this is me trying to find out.”

She began to slowly circle the other woman as she finally entered the circle. She flexed her power and let it fill the bounded field to the brim, completely encasing her so called copy in an invisible tank of probing, truth-seeking magic. Glimpses of shattered images assaulted her mind.

She winced as she felt emotions that weren’t hers... but not entirely not hers. She saw memories that weren’t hers, but felt like hers. Then.. then she saw the sneering hag in all her boastful glory.

The flames around them surged. 18 years she had suffered at the hands of that woman and 300 more hadn’t made up for it. Cold terror seized her heart and squeezed as anxiety fueled sweat beaded across her forehead. Despite all of this she kept a hard look on her face, trying her best to not show any weakness in her body language. She straightened and closed her eyes, resolved to finish her spellwork. She delved deeper and let her magick loose, letting just a sliver of her truest power flow through the woman. She felt it settle into the other her, finding it was just at home in that woman as it was within her own self.

She sighed and let the field fall and took her magic back into herself. Magick like hers wouldn’t have reacted that way if it was anything other than herself  or Artemis.

“My grandmother.” Ridley corrected her. She was feeling overly defensive and vulnerable at the same time.

“Now?” Ridley echoed, only half-mockingly. She huffed and waved a hand toward the cellar door’s direction. Roots and vines sprang up from the ground and hastily twisted into a staircase of vegetation. The flames snuffed out and Ridley strode forward. “ What I’m going to do now? I’m going to get out of this wretched pit, that’s what.”

In her probings she had felt nothing particularly malicious about the copy, but she did not let her warding spells dissipate. She kept walking until she found herself back in the open air of the sun room remnants. She turned around to see the woman standing back a ways, hovering next to the shadows of what was left standing of the Manor. She glared at her then turned.

“Artemis!” She called out and the owl appeared suddenly. A silent communication passed between them. The familiar flapped a few times and then zipped off into the rubble of the house, looking for a window or door frame that was still in-tact to use a liminal space to cross over into Underhill. She would need absolute clarification from her father if she was to truly let herself believe this was all really happening.

She turned and squarely faced the woman that held her every feature, pristine and crisp just as if she had walked out of a mirror. 

“How long have you been... alive?” Ridley asked as she slowly sat down on the dirty ground, finding that she was tired with anxiety and shaken to her very core with questions and troubling scenarios her mind wouldn’t cease to supply.

It would be a while before Artemis returned.  She had to fill the silence with something other than her own thoughts.

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Mirror, Mirror On The... Wait, You’re Not A Mirror || Hayley & Ridley

[hayleylefay]

Keep reading

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Ridley narrowed her eyes at the woman. It was a glamour. It had to be. But who was she, really? Then she said that name and Ridley’s breathing hitched and her grip on the dagger tightened. It had been just a few years since she had last seen her mother. She had showed up at the dingy breakfast joint that Magdelena worked at in the deep south to rub her beauty and eternal youth in the woman’s face.

“That’s... impossible.” Ridley said to her. “She has no magick and she can’t use any magical items. I made sure of that a very long time ago.” But... there was only one person that she could have taken magic from, and that was herself.

No. It just couldn’t be. It was unfathomable. Ridley then thought of all the glimpses she had caught of herself in the Mirror... her, but not her.  Had her father been trying to communicate his findings to her? No, no... he would have told her directly.

“Hada wouldn’t have suffered such a thing to live.” Ridley said assuredly.  The elf-lord had always been her closest and truest ally, besides just being her father. 

no, no, no, no she kept saying to herself over and over. The other her wasn’t making any moves and she felt no swelter of power so she stood up straight and dropped her defensive stance, but the flames continued to dance around them.

“If what you say is truth,” she poisoned the word with sarcasm, “then you won’t mind stepping into this circle...” she waved her hand and a white glowing circle etched itself into the floor between them.  “I give you my word that no harm will come to you by entering the circle. No lies may pass my lips. If you are who you say you are, then you know that is true.”

The circle was a bounded field that Ridley would use to cause her magick to survey this woman and to divine from her some truths.  She did not let the dagger fade away, though, as she held it by her side, still gripping it tightly.

“My grandmother has been dead for 3 centuries, so I hope that you do not find it rude that I ask this of you... Why would she only show herself, now, to a copy of the granddaughter she died trying to save. You must understand my skepticism.”

She jutted out her chin, motioning to the circle. “Now. If you’d please.” She wanted badly to speak to her father, but she wouldn’t excuse herself from the threat that presented itself so openly and daringly to her. She was a powerful being not to be trifled with, and open displays such as these troubled her to her core.

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Mirror, Mirror On The... Wait, You’re Not A Mirror || Hayley & Ridley

There was something off about her, lately, and she couldn’t put her finger on what was causing it. 

She coalesced into form from a burst of silver and gold smoke. She grunted out an annoyed sigh and crossed her arms defiantly as she glared at the rubble of the Le Fay rubble. 

That was troubling, she thought. The Manor was spelled by ancient Le Fay magic and it should have stood the test of time. Her mother had been a proficient witch before she had cursed her to live an immortal, mundane life. That thought made her smile only slightly… She still relished the moment centuries ago when she came into her own and destroyed everything her mother had ever worked for in one night.

Malyk had left the mortal coil years ago, telling her he was tired of this world and was ready for a new adventure. Her hand pressed into her chest, hoping to assuage the ache that still throbbed there when she thought of him. 

She remembered that night like it was yesterday, when she took Malyk’s hand and they sauntered out of the Manor and left Magdelina thrashing about on the floor, full of immortality and mundane-ness.  It was the first bargain she ever struck, and remembering it made her feel warm inside.  It was her truest nature, and that the first of that magic she wove was so wonderfully cast upon a woman so deserving of its consequences.

So, why, now, after so many years and lifetimes ago was she finding herself drawn back to the one place she had absolutely no care for?

For two months now she had been seeing flashes, glimmers in her mirror that were strange and unbidden… feeling emotions and strangeness settle around her that had no business in her life.

Artemis lit silently upon her shoulder as she continued to stare forward. Absent-mindedly she reached up and stroked her familiar’s breast feathers.

“What’s going on here, eh, Artemis?” she asked her familiar. She clucked and ruffled her feathers. “I agree.” Ridley replied, feeling her own unease of the dilapidated gothic structure before them. After a few moments of continued staring and pondering magical implications that might have caused the house to fall to ruins, she strode forward. She kept walking until she stood in the middle of what was once the grand sun parlor. The piano was a heap of trash, its ivory teeth strewed about haphazardly. 

She nudged one of the keys with a toe when a cold breeze washed over her entire being and she shuddered. Not because it was cold, but because it harbored the feel and smell of lingering magic.  She spun around in a circle, frantically looking for whatever had caused the disturbance.

There, next to the crumbling staircase she caught sight of a shimmer. When she acknowledged it, it flared up in a cold blue light that made Ridley blink and lift up her hands to shield her eyes from the great emittance of light. When she lowered her hands and her vision acclimated she gasped and her breath caught in her throat.

A translucent, shimmering image of her grandmother stood staring at her with a small, smug smile. 

“Althea?” She asked incredulously. The image shimmered in and out of focus as Ridley heard the eerie echo of her laughter.

Althea turned and began to float away.

“Grandmother!” Ridley called out and dashed after her. The visage moved quickly and easily through the rubble and cracked floors of the Manor, and Ridley’s emotions caused her to be clumsy as she struggled to keep up.

Althea stopped abruptly and Ridley’s attempt to keep up caused her to momentously charge right through the spectral vision of the matriarch and she tumbled through a door that led to the cellars. She fell several feet, as the stairs had not been saved from the decay of the Manor.

She let out an “oof” as the air was forced from her lungs upon impact with the cellar floor. As quickly as she could she sat up and looked up at the door way to see Althea staring down at her.

“Play nice,” the spectre said before she evaporated into blue, glowing smoke.

“Althea!!” Ridley pleaded. “Come back!!”

She stood and kept her eyes on the doorway above her, waiting with baited breath, hoping she would reappear. 

She waited a long moment before she dared even moving, wondering if movement would some how dissuade the skittish spirit from coming back together.

A rustle caught her ears and she turned around to face the dark of the cellar that had been behind her.  From her pocket she fished up a smooth, white stone that fit snuggly in her palm. She lifted it up and, cool, white light leapt out from the stone and shone in shafts from between her fingers.

“Althea?!” She called hopefully into the receding darkness.

The light fell over a corporeal figure. Blonde-white hair reflected back the light from her witch-stone’s light.

“Who-” she began and then gasped when she took in the sight of the person who had been hiding in the shadows.  Her eyes widened and her mouth went dry.

[hayleylefay]

Standing amidst the hollowed out shell of the former Manor was turning out to be quite the surreal experience, she had to admit.

“Here I am.” Hayley took a steadying breath as she stared at the entrance of her former home and prison, shaking her hands out in case there were still some surprises in the old house. Finally gathering the nerve to enter, she slowly stepped over the rubble and ventured further inside when nothing immediately leaped out at her.

As her eyes roamed over the dilapidated interior, she began to feel a piercing headache starting in her skull, her hand coming up to rub at her temples in an attempt to ward it off. She let out a groan when her attempts didn’t seem to work, grabbing her head with both hands when the pain became nearly unbearable, Hayley feeling like somebody was splitting her head open from the inside. She gasped then, mouth open to scream, when the destroyed manor around her disappeared and was replaced by a manor that seemed to be completely restored.

Caught off-guard by her sudden, new surroundings, she was unsure of what exactly was going on when she saw herself walk in, followed by a male just behind her that looked strikingly similar and vaguely familiar to Hayley. She immediately recognised Ridley, even without the vastly different bearing that only Ridley had. It was hard to mistake the genuine article when compared to the cheap imitation, Hayley had to admit.

She realized she was experiencing a vision of some kind, possibly a memory of Ridley’s brought forth by the magic of the Manor, when neither Ridley or the boy so much as glanced at her. She was a silent observer in the events that unfolded, even suddenly finding herself outside when the townsfolk gathered against Ridley.

She witnessed Magdelena’s greed and her fall, finally recognizing the woman that had held her prisoner in the cellar. She was equally glad that Ridley had dealt with her in a fitting manner and viciously unsatisfied when she wasn’t punished further. She closed her eyes to take a moment to reflect on what she had seen, however when she opened her eyes she realized the vision had faded and she was still in the same position she had been before.

Unsettled, Hayley shook off the chills that skated down her spine and squared her shoulders, unwilling to let mere visions frighten her away. Moving deeper into the skeleton of the Manor, she skimmed her hands over the walls she remembers in her nightmares, letting the memories flow over her but banishing them when they begin to creep into the edges of her vision.

“I lived through it once. I won’t let it consume me again.” She murmured, reassuring herself and feeling some of her own fear disperse. What was this place to her, but shadows and ghosts? She may only be a copy of Ridley, a pale shade in comparison, but she had strength in her own right. Shaking off the rest of her unease, she strode forward into the cellar where she’d been held.

Landing with a low huff of breath, she carefully picked her way through the now charred cell, spotting the stone slab she’d been held on for what had felt like eternities. Just when she had almost given in, she remembers seeing the spirit of her… of Ridley’s… grandmother, giving her the strength and determination to cast off her bonds and escape. Reaching out for the stone with a trembling hand, she stopped short in hesitation, taking a calming breath before finally bridging the distance and laying her hand on the stone.

As she did so, not entirely sure what she had been expecting, a blue light sprang to life in the corner of the dim cellar, nearly startling Hayley from her thoughts. Glancing up, she was taken aback by the spirit of her grandmother, watching her with a sad smile. Stunned from the surprise, she was unable to speak before the spectre held her hand up.

“She comes now. Do not be afraid, my child. I will be watching over you, both of you.” Hayley was given another wistful smile before the woman slowly faded from her sight, the cell returning to its dim state as the blue light also disappeared. Hayley ran her hands over the stone she’d been restrained on for so long, feeling a sense of calm and rightness settle over her as she toyed with a single leather cuff.

“I’m not afraid anymore, Grandmother.” She murmured to herself, meaning it for the first time since she’d awoken. She knew she was meant to come here, to meet Ridley, if she was ever to come into her own. She was ready, now that she had faced the source of her fears.

When Hayley could hear the sounds of approaching footsteps and a white light fell over her where she stood next to her former cell, she turned to face Ridley head on, dropping the glamour that slightly altered her appearance to mortals to look her identical reflection straight in the eye.

“Hello, sister. I’ve been waiting for you.”

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Ridley’s mouth gaped open at the sight she saw standing before her in the dank and grimy cellar. It was... herself? Standing there, motionless.

“Sister?” Ridley echoed back to the impostor, her tone flat and without emotion. No. Definitely not. There was no fathomable explanation to explain how she couldn’t have known about a sister... a twin? No.

“Incindia!” Ridley spoke the simple spell and fire leaped up around the perimeter of the room they were in and she pocketed her witch-stone, never once taking her eyes off of the woman in front of her.  Behind the doppelganger she saw a stone slab that had burn marks across its surface. She saw that the stranger was holding what looked like a leather manacle. She chanced a look around the room and found three more scattered about, one of which was close enough for her to pick up. She turned her eyes back to the woman and slowly stooped down to pick it up. She gave the other her a hard glare that was half a warning as she brought the manacle up to study it.

Ugly, hideous, black magick runes were etched into the leather.  She gasped when she began to put the runes together in her mind.

“Blood magick...” she whispered, a thumb running over the dark runes. Le Fay, blood, to be exact... her blood. The manacle flashed away in a poof of silver smoke as Ridley hid it away for future, further study.  

She hastily clipped out a spell of warding, and intricate circles and sigils blazed to life around her in the air and circled her before dimming into invisibility. She wouldn’t leave herself open to attack, not here in this place with this impostor and the remnants of magical restraints that were meant specifically for herself.

“You are not my sister.” A dagger flashed into her hand, one that Ash had made for her many moons ago that would cut aggressors down to their souls. “And whatever traps you have laid for me will not work.” Her mind was racing... who was the orchestrator of this trickery? Viktor? 

Maybe, but a far colder thought prickled at the back of her mind and made the hairs on her neck stand on end. But she couldn’t - not after that bargain some 300 years ago... but the Manor’s magic had been drained, it held nothing of what it used to... She could have told someone how to do that...

Ridley’s face settled into an aggressive expression  as she took a defensive stance and put the dagger between the two of them. “Tell me who you are, and what you’re doing here... and why you would lure me here with such a heartless bait tactic of my grandmother’s ghost?!”

[riddledfaemagic-blog]

Mirror, Mirror On The... Wait, You’re Not A Mirror || Hayley & Ridley

There was something off about her, lately, and she couldn’t put her finger on what was causing it. 

She coalesced into form from a burst of silver and gold smoke. She grunted out an annoyed sigh and crossed her arms defiantly as she glared at the rubble of the Le Fay rubble. 

That was troubling, she thought. The Manor was spelled by ancient Le Fay magic and it should have stood the test of time. Her mother had been a proficient witch before she had cursed her to live an immortal, mundane life. That thought made her smile only slightly... She still relished the moment centuries ago when she came into her own and destroyed everything her mother had ever worked for in one night.

Malyk had left the mortal coil years ago, telling her he was tired of this world and was ready for a new adventure. Her hand pressed into her chest, hoping to assuage the ache that still throbbed there when she thought of him. 

She remembered that night like it was yesterday, when she took Malyk’s hand and they sauntered out of the Manor and left Magdelina thrashing about on the floor, full of immortality and mundane-ness.  It was the first bargain she ever struck, and remembering it made her feel warm inside.  It was her truest nature, and that the first of that magic she wove was so wonderfully cast upon a woman so deserving of its consequences.

So, why, now, after so many years and lifetimes ago was she finding herself drawn back to the one place she had absolutely no care for?

For two months now she had been seeing flashes, glimmers in her mirror that were strange and unbidden... feeling emotions and strangeness settle around her that had no business in her life.

Artemis lit silently upon her shoulder as she continued to stare forward. Absent-mindedly she reached up and stroked her familiar’s breast feathers.

“What’s going on here, eh, Artemis?” she asked her familiar. She clucked and ruffled her feathers. “I agree.” Ridley replied, feeling her own unease of the dilapidated gothic structure before them. After a few moments of continued staring and pondering magical implications that might have caused the house to fall to ruins, she strode forward. She kept walking until she stood in the middle of what was once the grand sun parlor. The piano was a heap of trash, its ivory teeth strewed about haphazardly. 

She nudged one of the keys with a toe when a cold breeze washed over her entire being and she shuddered. Not because it was cold, but because it harbored the feel and smell of lingering magic.  She spun around in a circle, frantically looking for whatever had caused the disturbance.

There, next to the crumbling staircase she caught sight of a shimmer. When she acknowledged it, it flared up in a cold blue light that made Ridley blink and lift up her hands to shield her eyes from the great emittance of light. When she lowered her hands and her vision acclimated she gasped and her breath caught in her throat.

A translucent, shimmering image of her grandmother stood staring at her with a small, smug smile. 

“Althea?” She asked incredulously. The image shimmered in and out of focus as Ridley heard the eerie echo of her laughter.

Althea turned and began to float away.

“Grandmother!” Ridley called out and dashed after her. The visage moved quickly and easily through the rubble and cracked floors of the Manor, and Ridley’s emotions caused her to be clumsy as she struggled to keep up.

Althea stopped abruptly and Ridley’s attempt to keep up caused her to momentously charge right through the spectral vision of the matriarch and she tumbled through a door that led to the cellars. She fell several feet, as the stairs had not been saved from the decay of the Manor.

She let out an “oof” as the air was forced from her lungs upon impact with the cellar floor. As quickly as she could she sat up and looked up at the door way to see Althea staring down at her.

“Play nice,” the spectre said before she evaporated into blue, glowing smoke.

“Althea!!” Ridley pleaded. “Come back!!”

She stood and kept her eyes on the doorway above her, waiting with baited breath, hoping she would reappear. 

She waited a long moment before she dared even moving, wondering if movement would some how dissuade the skittish spirit from coming back together.

A rustle caught her ears and she turned around to face the dark of the cellar that had been behind her.  From her pocket she fished up a smooth, white stone that fit snuggly in her palm. She lifted it up and, cool, white light leapt out from the stone and shone in shafts from between her fingers.

“Althea?!” She called hopefully into the receding darkness.

The light fell over a corporeal figure. Blonde-white hair reflected back the light from her witch-stone’s light.

“Who-” she began and then gasped when she took in the sight of the person who had been hiding in the shadows.  Her eyes widened and her mouth went dry.