The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 (2 page)

Her parents asked Lucy about her day. Lucy told them about going through the want ads and not finding anything much. She mentioned she might make a good secretary. Her dad thought this was a capital idea. It was a practical job that he could understand, and she could make a modest living. They all agreed that her attention to detail would make her an excellent secretary. She did not mention Wizard Works, Inc. Not so much because she was afraid they would not approve, but because she did not remember it. Lucy went to bed that night again debating a secretarial position.

Everything in Lucy’s life continued in the normal way. She sent out applications for jobs she did not want and continued to look through the want ads. She helped out with housework. Since she was not working full time, her parents thought it was not unreasonable to expect her to mow the lawn, weed the gardens, sweep the floors, and do laundry. Lucy did not mind the work. It kept her busy, made her feel useful, and kept her from constantly thinking about her lack of decent post college employment and the fact that she was essentially freeloading off her parents.

She was beginning to feel worse about the job thing. She had sent out a few applications to jobs she did not really want, but she had not received any communication back from any of them. It was as though they were lost in the mail or something. At least a letter of rejection would have showed someone read one of her applications. She was almost beginning to feel insulted because she was overqualified for most of the jobs she had applied for. They would be lucky to have her. Someone should have jumped at the chance to employ her by now, or at least made her an offer.

One sunny afternoon, just like any other, Lucy took her daily stroll down the driveway to the mailbox. On her way back to the house, Lucy always flipped through the letters. There was rarely anything for her, but she enjoyed doing it all the same. Then Lucy reached the last letter. Her heart gave a little leap. It was addressed to her. Well, sort of. All the letter said on the outside was:

Lucy

Her name was written in beautiful blue ink, but that was all that was there. There was no last name, no formal address, no return address, and most perplexing of all, no stamp. Who was the letter from? How did the postman manage to deliver it? Part of her wanted to rip the letter open that second. The other part of her felt that this could be important, not to mention the most interesting thing she was going to do that day so she restrained herself. She pondered these things as she took her shoes off at the door, put the rest of the mail on the kitchen counter, drank a glass of water, and walked upstairs to her room. She sat cross-legged on her neatly made bed and carefully opened her letter. As she read, her eyes widened. She could not believe it.

Dear Lucy,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to our school. We shall do our best to train you to become a wizard. If you disagree with our training or prove to be unteachable, your memory will be erased, and you will be returned to your world. You need not bring anything. You will be outfitted and equipped upon your arrival. Your room is already being decorated in various shades of blue. I will pick you up tomorrow at noon. I look forward to meeting you.

Eric

Lucy was not sure what to do or believe. At first she had no idea what the letter was referring to, but upon her second reading, she remembered the ad. Was it real? Was she truly accepted to this school? Or was this still part of some elaborate joke? It seemed odd to her that this school did not have a name. What was this about her world? Her room was being decorated? This was turning into either a very scary situation, which could at some point end up involving the police, or the most wonderful opportunity in the world. Skeptical though she was, the more Lucy thought about it, the more excited she became about the possibility of this all being real. Either way, she would know tomorrow at noon.

Momentarily she wondered how the letter sender, Eric, whoever that was, knew when she would get the letter as to know when tomorrow was. Then, she figured, if she was really dealing with wizards, it probably magically appeared there at the perfect time. Tomorrow at noon. Tomorrow was Sunday and Lucy’s parents would still be at church at noon. What should she tell her parents? They would be bound to wonder if she suddenly disappeared. Lucy decided to stop worrying about this. She figured she could ask Eric tomorrow. A valid Wizard school was not about to kidnap students. Or so she hoped.

Lucy also wondered about the part in letter about being unteachable. This idea worried Lucy very much. What if after all this, she turned out to be unteachable? She would have failed. Lucy did not fail at very many things. Her parents expected that she try her best. When Lucy did her best, or even moderately tried she succeeded if not surpassed expectations. She was unaccustomed to failure. She set her mind to the fact that if all this was real, she was going to try her best, and she was not going to be sent back with her memory wiped clean. For someone whose memory was much better than average, that thought was terrifying.

Suddenly, it seemed a very long time until noon tomorrow. It was a good thing she did not get the letter weeks in advance or she would have gone nuts. Lucy wondered if they arranged things like that on purpose. If Lucy would have had something to pack, shop for, prepare, anything to keep her busy, it would have been less agonizing. She didn’t really have that long to wait, but every minute seemed to take three times as long to pass.

She did all the housework she had been putting off doing. That way it would be done if she could not come home for a while, and it also kept her from checking the clock every couple of minutes. Normally she was efficient when it came to chores, but today she found ways to make every task take longer for fear of running out of things to do. She dusted twice, emptied the dishwasher, swept and mopped the floors, vacuumed (her least favorite job) and even cleaned the sinks in the bathrooms. She was not in the mood to do the toilets no matter how bored she got. Lucy took the family dog, Merlin, of course, for a walk. She would miss Merlin. She wondered if Wizards were allowed pets at school. She supposed they weren’t. Lucy had lived in dorms at college and even though she had missed having a dog there, the idea of the packed dorm also having a variety of dogs and cats running around was not a pleasant one. That was assuming all the dogs and cats managed to get along. Tensions among roommates could be high enough without throwing in the possibility of one person’s pet attacking or eating the others. Lucy even managed to involve her parents in a rip-roaring game of Trivial Pursuit, but still the seconds crept by.

When it was finally time to go to bed, Lucy found she could not sleep. This was ridiculous. She was going to meet the head of a Wizard school, or whoever this Eric person was, with bags under her eyes. Then, as he explained things to her she would be trying not to yawn. This was not the impression Lucy was hoping to make. She tried harder to fall asleep. Of course, everyone knows that when you try harder to fall asleep, it becomes almost impossible to do. Lucy tossed and turned until almost 4:00 am finally falling into a fitful sleep full of confusing dreams.

Lucy opened her eyes the next morning and yawned. She felt groggy and slightly confused. She knew she was supposed to be awake for something today, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what that was. She looked at the clock. 11:00 am. Then she sat bolt upright in bed remembering. That Eric person would be here in an hour. She jumped out of bed and ran to the shower. She may be tired, but she would at least be clean before embarking on this journey.

Lucy sat on her bed. She was showered, dressed in jeans and a green sweatshirt, her reddish brown hair French-braided, and she was ready for anything. Well, maybe not anything, but as ready as she could be under the circumstances. Lucy started to watch the clock on her bedside table. 11:57, and Lucy wondered if Eric would be on time. 11:58, and butterflies began to fly around in her stomach. 11:59, what if this was all a joke? At 12:00 precisely, there was a knock on Lucy’s closet door. Lucy frowned. How could there possibly be anyone in her closet? She stood up, walked across her room, and opened the closet door. Out stepped Eric.

“Eric?” asked Lucy.

He nodded.

“Lucy?” asked Eric.

She nodded.

“Pleasure to meet you,” they both said at once and laughed as they shook hands.

Lucy took a minute to study Eric. He was tall, but then Lucy was only about 5’3” herself, so many people seemed tall to her. Eric was slender and if Lucy was not mistaken, he was also an Elf or part Elf. He had long black hair, tied in the back, pointed ears, piercing blue eyes, delicate features, and eyebrows that lanced upward on his head. Despite seeming somewhat aloof, he also seemed kind. Lucy decided to trust him, perhaps an odd thing to decide about someone who stepped out of your closet.

“I am in charge of admissions at the school. If you would follow me, I will explain everything, or at least, some things.” Eric said nonchalantly and motioned to the door.

“In my closet?”

“Through this doorway,” affirmed Eric

“I hope you don’t mind the question, but how are we to fit into my closet with all my clothes?” wondered Lucy confused, but trying to be accepting at the same time.

Eric smiled. “First lesson then. Doorways lead to places. They are merely a device. They do not determine the destination. You believe that is your closet because it has always been your closet, and it is your closet because you believe it is your closet. Any doorway can lead to any place. You decide what’s on the other side of a doorway each time you open a door and walk through it.”

Lucy nodded, more to show she was listening than actually understanding. It made sense and yet it didn’t. Eric made it sound much more simple than it probably was in practice.

“That door there,” Eric pointed to her bedroom door, “Where does it lead?”

“Normally I would say the hallway,” started Lucy. “However, if what you say is true, right now it could lead anywhere. It only becomes the hallway when I push it open expecting it to be there.”

“Exactly,” Eric smiled. Some students had a lot of trouble with this one.

Lucy understood the words and the concept, but to believe this she would have to see it in action.

“There is much to explain, and I usually do those explanations in my office. If you would be so kind,” Eric motioned Lucy towards the closet door.

“Why not?” shrugged Lucy, pretty much ready to believe anything at this point. She took a step towards her ‘closet’.

Eric opened the door and more to Lucy’s amazement than surprise, she found herself looking into another room rather than her closet. Lucy stepped through the doorway and into the room. It felt completely normal. Lucy had been nervous that traveling that way would leave her dizzy or with other less appealing side effects. Eric stepped lightly after her and closed the door.

Lucy looked around the room. It was a pleasant room. There was a fireplace to Lucy’s left with two squishy looking armchairs in front of it, but it was not cool enough for a fire so the grate was empty. There was a window opposite the fireplace letting in sunlight. Under the window was a plant stand with three different plants on it. One looked like ivy, but was flowering, so Lucy assumed it had to be something else. Directly in front of Lucy was an oak desk with a chair on either side. Behind the desk hung a tapestry, depicting an outdoor scene complete with unicorns. The floors were wood. The walls were lined with bookcases. There was only one door in the room, and that was behind them. Eric motioned her towards the desk. He sat down with his back to the tapestry, and she took the other chair.

“Welcome to our school.”

“Thank you,” said Lucy, not sure what else to say. She had so many questions swimming around her head that it was hard to focus. “Can I ask, does this school have a name?”

“You may ask anything you like. No, the school does not have a name. A name can give something power, but a name can also give others a power over it. People call this place many names and that helps keep it safe. The School, The Wizard School, The Academy, The Hall of Mages, The Druid Association of Learning, you can take your pick. We also do not have an official address. Your letter was sent to a rented post office box. We check it daily and review applications,” Eric explained.

“My letter was only addressed to Lucy.”

“Yes. That is an important topic to cover. There are no last names here. Last names show lineage. You now have none. You are not from any specific town nor have you attended any specific school. We prefer students here to associate with others based on mutual learning and interests rather than forming clubs based on the colleges they once attended or on being from the same home town. You are all on equal footing here.”

“What about professors?” asked Lucy focusing on keeping her questions simple and familiar.

“There was a debate about that a long time ago. Everyone here has a degree of some type. Some students have doctorates in your world. Do the teachers here address them as such? It was decided that everyone either had to use titles or not. The vote was to not use titles. Everyone goes by their first names only. In class you may call one of your teachers ‘professor’ if it suits you, but out of class we stick to first names. I am Eric.”

“Why are we required to be college graduates?”

“What we teach is important and requires a special type of person with some basic qualifications. We are not here to teach children how to read. We assume that by the time you finish a college degree you can read a syllabus, show up on time for classes, and do the level of homework necessary to become a Wizard. You’ve probably had some type of part time job by now, know how to budget your time, and are not afraid to work. By responding to our ad, we know you are willing to learn more and that you are looking for something you cannot find in your world. Some are ready for this after high school, but we feel another four years or so of college can’t hurt them any and generally increases their desire for something ‘other’.”