Magic is real, but casting spells requires reciting the whole word. The longer the word, the more powerful the spell is. The strongest spells can take hours (or even decades) to cast, and the strongest wizards are either really fast speakers or have great foresight. [link to post]
Jenny’s eyes fluttered open. While her mind got its bearings she heard a groan and thud. She looked around and saw a head of neatly combed, silver hair laying on the top of a desk. She was on a bed. She moved to get out of the bed, but struggled. Her body felt stiff. She needed deliberate effort to move her arms and legs.
“Hello?” She asked the silver head of hair while she moved one limb at a time. She hoped she could stand. The head did not move or indicate it heard her. She managed to swing her legs over the side and placed both feet on the floor. She looked around for some support and discovered a cane near her bed. Intricate geometric patterns were carved into the wood around the handle.
Jenny reached for the sturdy wooden crook and paused at the sight of her own hand. It appeared to be made of solid gold, but moved easily. She wiggled her fingers, and then looked at her other hand. It was also golden, and she wiggled all 10 fingers easily. Her strength was returning quickly, but she still reached for the cane.
She stood and walked to the desk. She prodded at the person’s body with the cane and it did not move. She stared at the face of the old man. His eyes were closed and she now knew he was dead. He looked familiar, but her memories felt like they were all bundled together, tossed into a chest and hidden in an attic. Everything was there, but digging it out and untangling her memories would take time. More time than she wanted to spend at the moment. She looked at the desk under the old man’s head and found an open book. It looked like a handwritten journal. Jenny gently moved the man’s head out of the way and took the book. She did not know who he was, but she felt a great respect for him. She flipped to the front of the book.
“My Dearest Jenny,” the first line began. Jenny did not think of her name until that point, but upon reading it she knew it was for her.
“I have no idea if this will work, but you are too important to not try. I will bring you back to life, and/or die trying. If I fail, you will never know. If I succeed, my life is a minor trade for yours. After your death, we thought we defeated the Demon Queen. She survived, and is gaining strength again. You are the only one that can defeat her. We failed because you were not there the first time. Gain your strength, master the magic here.” Jenny reached the end of the first page and sat back down on the bed to rest. She continued reading on the next page.
“Words are power here. Focus on the language, I know you’ll pick it up easily. I am writing this letter to you before I begin to transfer my lifeforce into you. I’m sorry I’m not as young as you were when you died. I will use the rest of this journal to keep track of how much time it takes. ~ Regal.” Jenny’s heart sunk when she read his name. It registered on an emotional level. Whomever he was, she respected and idolized him greatly.
Jenny flipped the page and found a legend with different variations of tally marks for different time periods, hours, days, weeks, years, decades. Three decades.
“He spent 30 years trying to bring me back to life?” Jenny said to herself. She looked around the room and found a mirror. She rushed to it and found an older, beautiful woman with purple eyes staring back at her. Her long, straight, dark black hair reached her waist. She looked at her golden hands and pulled the sleeves of her shirt up. More gold. She kept moving it up until she found the change from gold to flesh at her elbow.
“Words are power,” Jenny repeated to herself. That phrase sounded familiar. She stared at herself in the mirror and tried to settle on a focus. Water was the first thing that came to mind. She held her palm out and focused on the center of it.
“Water.” she said simply and quickly. Nothing happened.
“WATER!” she yelled at her hand. A single drop of water formed in the air above her hand and dripped on her palm. Jenny closed her eyes and pictured raging rivers and powerful waterfalls. She felt a powerful calmness in the back of her head while she concentrated. She opened her eyes. The small room appeared brighter to her. In the mirror her eyes, and the top part of her dark hair shined with blue glowing light. The blue of her hair faded to black partway down her head.
“Water.” she said again, focusing. A ball of water, like a water balloon without the water, plopped on her hand. It only wiggled slightly, but held its shape. She brought it to her mouth and bit the glob of water like an apple. Water flowed into her mouth and the ball of water shrunk. The water tasted cool and delicious, she finished it quickly.
Jenny still felt her strength returning to her, and she decided to check on the outside world. She walked out of the house and looked around. The sun was setting, scorching the sky with orange on the way down. The small brick cottage was the only house within view, and it was a great view. Regal’s home was on top of a hill surrounded by flat plains in all directions. Fields of green were dotted with brilliant and varied colors of wildflowers.
Jenny buried Regal without using magic. Her strength had returned, and enjoyed being active, even if it was gravedigging. A light blue crescent moon hung high in the sky when she finished covering his grave, she sat down nearby and a song started somewhere in her memories. She sung for him. Her emotions came out in the words of the song. She did not feel sad. It was not a sense of lost. She was alive now. She could not remember the details, but everything inside her convinced her that Regal made the right decision. It was a new beginning.
A sense of hope and life filled her words. Golden flowers bloomed out of Regal’s grave, and Jenny smiled. Emotion was the key to her. She now knew how to defeat the Demon Queen. She looked forward to using song to save the world.
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