Anniversary

In this world magicians exist. They have existed for centuries upon centuries upon centuries; since the beginning of time, since the beginning of man. They have been called by many names, taken up many roles, and led people for all the time they have existed.

Yet, as the world grew older - as mankind grew older - they begin to push away from them. They labelled them as monsters, demons, creatures that shouldn’t exist. They shunned them, burned them, feared them. Feared them for what they could do, feared them for what they, themselves, could not do, and feared them, most of all, because they could not understand. They did not want to understand.

Magicians were �" are- no different from other humans. They are human. They were born from humans and give birth to humans. The only difference between humans and magicians was one thing: magic. Magicians understood magic and used it; humans could not understand it and thus could not use it.

Yet they blamed their faults on the magicians. They persecuted them to the point of even killing other humans. Humans that truthfully did no have anything to do with magic, yet because of one reason or another, they were burned at the stake, labelled a witch or warlock; a magician.

Those times sparked a revolution. The magicians could not lead in the open any more. They had to change; they had to lead in the shadows, hiding their nature while acting as other humans. They had to hate themselves.

From that point on, to the future, and even now, that revolution still holds true. The magicians still lead from the shadows, but more indirectly now. Some choose to follow that path, working in the military or such, creating small miracles on the battlefield, while other choose to proclaim their nature to all. As ‘magicians’ they create simple tricks and illusions and show the world their magistry. They proclaim not to lie to themselves, to try and change the revolution from long ago.

Yet, despite such, nothing has changed. Humans are humans, mages are mages. The only difference now is that there are more humans than before and less mages. Mages are on a decline; the knowledge being passed on to others has become fewer and fewer. Many begin to think that they should give up; that perhaps giving in to the current world and throwing away the past is best. But there are still traditionalists. Traditionalists that pass on their knowledge no matter what, even on their death bed.

Yes, Marie thought back, there were those still dedicated to passing on their knowledge. Still those that wished to exist, that wanted to prove that they weren’t some form of myth, and wanted to change this world.

Marie starred at the ceiling above her head. For some reason she had decided to think back on the history of mages. Was it because it was that day? Or was it just one of those days? For whatever reason, she sighed and rolled over, plunging her face into the side of the couch.

It had already been a decade. A decade since her mother died, since her father had drowned himself in work and a decade since she had learned the truth of things. Since she had learned that her family was a family of magicians and everything ‘mysterious’ was now clear.

Marie rolled back over, clutching a small pillow against her chest. She starred across her small apartment, looking at the wall of books that blocked her view of the proper one.

She breathed in, the smell of old papers and books, of antique furniture and coffee, filled her mind. She could see the dust glitter in the sunlight of the setting sun. Was it already that late?

Marie rose up, sitting on the antique couch, pillow still clutched. She looked to the giant stained glass window that took up one entire wall of the small apartment. She could see the sun through it, the light causing the various colors of the glass to create patches of yellow and blue and red and white all about the room.

She breathed in again, savouring the smell. Books had been her parent’s most favourite thing. She remembered being in their own small library at home before everything changed, when she was still a child, and having them both read to her. Stories of princess and princes, of witches and wizards, of fantasy. Books that caused her imagination to go wild, books that caused her to cry, books that caused her to laugh, books that had happy endings.

Marie buried her face into the pillow and grunted as she rubbed it more and more against the rough, yet soft worn-out fabric. She stopped after a minute and raised her head out of it. Her nose and forehead were red.

Marie looked about the room before her. Books upon books upon books lay across the room. Her parents had loved books, she had loved books and even now, she still loved books. She couldn’t be without them.

She had long since run out of room on the books shelves and had begun to pile them up. Yet she had so many that over the years the small apartment had become nothing more than a pile of books. Other than the couch she sat on, a small desk with a coffee maker, a cup, a single set of cutlery and a plate, and a small path leading from the door behind the couch to the couch itself, the room was covered in books; some piles even reached the ceiling.

Marie leaned forwards slowly and stood up. She placed the pillow back on the couch, making sure that she’d be able to find it later. She turned back to her desk and did a quick hop over books as she headed over. She ended up squeezed right against the desk and did a quick turn around before sitting down onto it.

She sighed and leaned back, looking over her shoulder at the window. She couldn’t see anything beyond the sunset and felt like she was the only one in the world. She couldn’t see the buildings of the city she was in, a city out of the many in the world that denied her existence. She only saw the light, the light shining brightly, waiting for her.

Marie smirked and turned back to the coffee maker at her side. It was as if she waiting for a prince to come and save her. For something to happen that she always knew would, but never knew when. For something fated to happen. But, she thought, she had been reading too many fairytales lately.

She heard the machine stop and she pulled the pot out, pouring herself a cup and placing the pot back. She sipped at the black coffee in her mug. She placed it down beside her after a moment and leaned back. She reached over to the other side of the desk and pulled open a small drawer. Her hand rummaged around until she found the proper sized object and pulled it out.

She looked down to the small mirror in her hand. She could see her reflection in it. A young twenty-four year-old, with perfect skin, bright blue eyes and long wavy brown hair starred back at her. She smiled to it; if it was one thing she was grateful for today, it was looking more like her mother than her father.

She leaned back, her other hand supporting her weight and tossed the mirror forwards. The moment it was in mid-air, she quickly snapped her fingers and the small piece of mirror became a large full-length one, spanning from the floor to the ceiling and somehow missing the piles of books scattered about.

In it Marie could see herself well. She sat on her old, dark-wood desk, her legs crossed as she leaned back. She wore nothing more than a pair of short shorts and a simple tang top. She snapped her fingers again and the piles of books between the mirror and the desk moved off to the sides, causing a small pathway to be formed.

She hopped off the desk and looked at herself in the mirror. Now that it was much bigger than herself she had trouble seeing the details in it. She sighed and snapped her fingers again. One from her right hand, causing a large curtain to form in front of the window, and the other from her left hand, which caused balls of light to float about the room illuminating it completely.

Now that she could see better, she scrutinized herself. She hadn’t been out of her home for the past few days, and thus she hadn’t been exercising at all and living off of delivery pizza and instant noodles. She could see that she had gained some weight. She pinched her stomach; it wasn’t too bad but- she still didn’t like it. She wasn’t a very… robust person either, so it showed easily.

“Well,” she suddenly stated to herself, “I suppose I should change.” She paused. “Though into what? Hmmm…” She thought hard for a moment, crossing her arms and pacing back and forth in the small area. Suddenly she stopped and smiled. She turned to her right and looked over to a pile of books. She quickly snapped her fingers and a pile lifted up into the air. Something flew out from underneath the pile and dropped onto the ground by her feet.

She bent down and flipped open the clips of the suitcase that had come over. She rummaged through it and pulled out a few articles of clothing. She quickly changed into them: a simple white blouse, a black skirt, and some black pantyhose. She shoved her previous clothes into the suitcase and shut it. Snapping her fingers one more time, the suitcase flew back to where it was originally and the pile of books floated back down gently.

Marie admired herself in the mirror a bit. She ran her hands through her hair, over her skirt and smoothed out wrinkles in her blouse and pantyhose. Nodding her head, she snapped her fingers a final time. The mirror became its original size and dropped gently onto the floor. Marie picked it up and hopped back up onto the desk. While she put it back into the drawer and shut it, the books went back to their original position.

Marie sat back up onto the desk and picked up her mug. The coffee had cooled down quite a bit and she quickly drank it all. Just as she was finishing it off and taking her last gulp of it, her cell phone rang.

She placed the cup down, a small smile across her face. She let the phone ring a couple more times before she picked it up from beside her and flipped it open.

“Good evening.” She spoke calmly, aware of who was on the other end even without asking. She paused. “You’re calling about that right? What will it be this time?” Marie ran her fingers through her hair and played with it as the man on the other end spoke to her.

She suddenly stopped. “Oh my. That’s quite a big job.” She smirked. “But it’s also terribly difficult.” She played with her hair again. “I’ll do it for three million.”

 She paused and flipped her hair back as she snapped her fingers and had the curtain drop away and disappear.

“You know it’s a steal. Ask any one else and it would be much, much more. You are aware of that right?” Marie jumped off from the desk and landed in a small clearing between books. “So we have a deal then right?” She smirked. “The job will be done by tomorrow night. If not, you can deduct half a million, ‘kay?”

Marie didn’t wait to hear a response. She quickly murmured “Same account as always,” and “bye, bye” before hanging up.

She shoved the phone into a small pocket in the side of her skirt and gave a small stretch. She glanced towards the window, seeing the glow of the city and dark night sky. The sun was long gone.

“Well then,” she mumbled to herself, snapping her fingers and turning the lights out, “Time to head out.”

She didn’t snap her fingers this time. Instead Marie closed her eyes and was perfectly still for a minute before a small light suddenly emerged from her feet. A red glowing circle of light surrounded the floor where she stood. Strange runes in a specific pattern surrounded the circle and seemed to be a part of it as well. A moment later, the light intensified and then, Marie was gone and the apartment was left in the darkness of the night.

Author's Note

Please be as honest and detailed as possible; I really want to improve.

Reviews

[Arsenic Nemesis]

A very interesting piece of text here, I really like it and I look forward to reading more. There are one of two common errors here and there, such as at one point you said "tang top" and I assume that you meant "tank top". Also, I think you need to try using a wider variety of sentence starts, here most of the time you start them with "She" quite a lot and it can be a bit irritating at times. Try not to focus on what there character is doing as much, perhaps (I know it isn't that bad in this case) and just try to use different means of starting, use a variety of techniques and such as it makes it more interesting than reading "She then...", "She...", "She..." you know what I mean? Other than that though, a good read and I look forward to the upcoming chapters. Marie seems like a very interesting character too and I look forward to seeing more of her in the future. Until then, farewell, mortal~