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“Imagine we got to summon, I don’t know, that dead principal from a few years ago.” Alycja said, while burning a four-pointed star into the grass.
“I always wondered if the story was actually true.” Cheyoria refreshed the sea-green flowers at the end of her braid, some of the petals having fallen out or gone a bit droopy. “You know, if you get the hang of this you should try summon my mother. She’s been gone a long while.”
Her best friend smiled, patting her on the shoulder. “Who’s to say I couldn’t try that tonight?”
Cheyoria let out a single laugh, laced with a sombre tone. She wondered if she should’ve said that, if it made things awkward or made the candle flicker, so to speak.
What if her friend pulled it off? Her mind raced at that. Any time she asked, her dad deflected the topic with firm statements and rawness in his eyes.
Alycja pulled the finishing touches, completing the circle around the star and lighting three candles, one for each of the points expect the one facing the pair.
Cheyoria, exhaled once, as did her friend. She closed her eyes, Alycja’s hand interlaced with Cheyoria’s right.
Silence fell upon them, breached by the rustle of foliage and the breeze whistling through grass. The world grounded to a calm, as if the spirit world was about to arrive upon them.
Alycja exhaled, speaking in her cultural tongue. “To the spirit world, I reach out in good faith. Speak to me as I seek you in earnest, with fervour and dignity I bridge this gap.”
Cheyoria held an image of her mother in her mind, as she remembered it. She had the enthusiasm of hearth-fire, the warmth of a summer’s day and a phoenix’s poise. The few sketches and paintings of her always had her smiling.
“Again.” Alycja waited for the star to lose its silver glow before retracing it.
Cheyoria tried not to move nor bristle her hand from Alycja’s grip, even as it went tighter. She held her tongue, and her heart, hoping for her friend that this would work.
How many weeks now? She knew it wasn’t that long until her friend’s important ceremony drew nigh.
“Here goes.” Alycja breathed, as the star flickered gray and faded.
When the next attempt brought the same outcome, she leaned onto the grass slope behind her. “Damn it!”
Cheyoria stretched her spindly fingers, now free from her friend’s iron-clad grip. “Do you reckon you should try again tomorrow? It might come easier to you then.”
“Maybe.” She sighed, her right hand betraying a slight quiver. “But if I don’t get it right, I’ll only know how to do it wrong.”
“There’s no convincing you, is there?” Twilight’s blue hues drew darker, the stars beginning to show.
“Nope.”
Cheyoria refreshed the burnt patch of grass, before the pair shuffled to the right of it. New marks were drawn, the same candles lit, and Alycja’s hand went back into hers.
“We’re going to get it right this time, I just know it.”
“We will.” She nodded, remembering the first rule Alycja told her of Seldaikan spellwork. Speak firmly and in the positive if a spell is going to work.
Her friend said the verse again. The star glowed silver, lacking its usual waver. Cheyoria shivered with the silver mist tracing around her. It blotted the surroundings away, blurring the grass and leaving the star alone in view.
‘Alycja,’ She said in her mind, knowing not to speak aloud. ‘Look at this!’
Her friend opened her eyes of a shot, her features moving as if she got splashed.
The white star billowed a plume of smoke, curling its tendrils into what Cheyoria could describe as an amorphous white blob.
‘Grandma!’ Her friend’s jaw dropped. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here!’
Soft laughter echoed from the ‘blob’, which reformed into a lady with a fine set of burgundy, featherless wings and a dark face blessed with lines around the edges, an older version of Alycja’s mother almost. ‘The best blessings are the ones you don’t expect. What brings you to see me?’
‘This is practice for my ceremony, it’s in five weeks.’
‘That time already? You have a lot of ambition for it.’
Cheyoria wondered what it was like to be dead, to be on the other side of this veil. She flinched when Alycja’s grandmother turned to her.
‘Of course I should expect this question.’ Gentle laughter filled the mist. ‘It’s nothing like what anyone suggests.’
‘Then what does it look like?’ Alycja asked, the mist blinked away.
Cheyoria furled and unfurled the fingers of her left hand, moving the pins and needles away. The rest of her gradually adjusted to the cool of the night, the grass below her and Alycja’s fingers still entangled in her other hand.
“I hope I didn’t distract you, did I?”
Alycja blew the candles out, standing up to stretch while she picked them up. “Are you joking? The spell actually worked! It worked! If I can do this reliably, my family will get to see her again.”
“Yay.” She smiled, standing up too. “Are you trying this again tomorrow?”
“You bet.”
The two of them picked up their things, intending to head home. She raised her head towards the trees.
“Cheyoria.” Her mother's voice called for her. She looked around the place, not seeing her anywhere.
The voice called her name again.
“Cheyoria.” Alycja spoke at the same time. “Where are you going?”
“Hello? Who’s there?” She headed towards the small plot of woods. The trees bristled with the breeze, their roots whispering to her magic. They had a raspy tone at this hour, as if bound for sleep like people were.
She put her hand to one, and picked up nothing different. Leaves and branches bristled to her right.
Turning the corner, she turned another, and another. It brought her deeper into the darkness, following the sound and the trees’ inky drop of unease.
“Cheyoria.” She whipped around.
A crow flew away once she spotted it.