The Magic Shop

Homecoming





Soot and dust settled around the room.

“Is it really you?” Winston asked, wasting no time getting to Caleb and wrapping his good arm around him.

Before Caleb could answer, Anabell rushed to him and embraced him too.

“It worked, honey,” she said as she sobbed. “You’re here! I can’t believe it. We had no chance until you… came back.”

“Son,” Charlotte added, her lower lip quivering, and her voice sounding equally unstable. She, too, had gotten up and made her way to Caleb. She didn’t wait for Anabell to let go of him though; she just wrapped her arms around both of them.

Marcus swallowed. He was trying to sort out all the different feelings he was experiencing at that moment. He was astounded to see his formerly drooling uncle now fully functioning and handling himself like he was some kind of heroic force in the magical world. Anabell looked like a new woman. Charlotte and Winston hadn’t appeared so happy in ages. And at their feet was the most confusing thing of them all: their mother. Marcus had barely met her, and really didn’t know anything about her. Then their father…

“How did Sol just disappear like that?” Marcus asked. “He’s never done that before.”

“I don’t know, but, more importantly, what do we do with her?” Ellie asked, pointing at Mirella.

A heavy silence filled the room, and all of the attention they had showered on Caleb fell awkwardly to the floor, to Mirella.

“She should die,” Anabell said. “She and Sol have been trafficking magic and enslaving magical creatures, not to mention how many times they almost killed us… and Caleb. She’s of no worth to anyone.”

“Hey, that’s my mother you’re talking about,” Marcus said sharply.

“Yeah,” Ellie said. “You have no right to sentence her.”

Caleb put his hand on Ellie’s shoulder, and then on Marcus’s too, and pulled them in close. “Don’t judge her too harshly,” he said softly. “She’s upset because of what they did to me. But I’m better, as far as I can tell, and this decision can be made later when we’ve all had time to gather our wits. We should leave. It’s not safe here anymore.”

“We should visit Elba,” Winston said wearily, “she’ll know what to do.”

Caleb hesitated. “Elba? As in—”

“Pat,” Charlotte said, “do you think you can get us to the restaurant so we can find Elba?”

“It will take some extreme concentration and quiet,” Pat said, “but yes, I think so.”

Pat got up and gathered some things and returned to the room where Caleb had come from. The rest followed.

What before had been a very clean, even sterile, operating room had now become a certifiable dump. The walls still gave off smoke and steam, fragments and debris from the procedure Caleb underwent littered the ground, and almost everything was blackened in soot and ash.

Cupping her brim, Pat closed her eyes.

“Gather round,” Charlotte said, waving her arm. She pointed at Mirella. “Caleb, her too.”

Caleb dragged Mirella towards the rest of the group as everyone filed into the operating room and formed a circle around Pat.

As Pat began mumbling like they always did when they were trying to pull off a spell, Marcus wondered what it was that they said. He was quickly distracted, however, when a wall of flames surrounded them, just like with the dragon.

Holding his breath, Marcus waited for the nausea to kick in, but in a moment, the flames had vanished, gone before he felt sick and disoriented. Marcus looked around and saw a restaurant. He wondered how long it had been since he had been here the first time. The red carpets, and chairs, and other Chinese-style decorations were just as he remembered them, and he could still smell the soothing aroma of licorice in the air.

Then he remembered the underground passage and a chill ran down his back.

Elba appeared, as she always did, as if she had known they were coming. “What’s the matter?” Elba asked, “I came as soon as—”

Elba stopped, swallowing hard. Her eyes fell upon the addition to the group.

“Caleb…” she whispered, then paused for a moment, her eyes shifting to Pat. “It actually worked, then? Fascinating.”

“What do you mean?” Pat asked. “I got the recipe from you, Elba.”

Everyone gaped at Elba. “The spell made perfect sense on paper. I just hadn’t had a chance to test it quite yet,” she explained.

“You say that like you’ve got no dead test subjects lying around this place,” Marcus said, and as quickly as he did, Ellie slapped his shoulder.

“No mention of me?” Mirella asked as she slowly got to her feet and waved a hand sardonically. “How rude.”

In a flash, Elba grabbed Mirella by the back of the neck and jammed her brim against Mirella’s forehead. “Welcome,” she said through gritted teeth.

Raising a hand, Caleb said, “Easy there, Elba. We’ve come for your counsel, not for your… other services.”

“Counsel?” Elba asked. “Why?”

“We need a clear head to help us decide what to do with her,” Caleb said, looking sharply at Mirella. “If Anabell had her way, she would kill her. Furthermore, we need to make the Kabbahl aware of what they have been doing, and you’re the only one that knows how to contact the Kabbahl.”

“It’s not possible,” Elba said. “We’ve already exhausted all of our means.”

“But you did it before,” Ellie said. “Why not now?”

“You already summoned the Kabbahl?” Caleb asked, astonished.

“Of course we did,” Elba said. “There was no choice. Mirella and Sol had stolen the Phoenix skull we had set aside to heal you, not to mention that they were trafficking magic to humans.”

Elba snapped her fingers and a manservant appeared. “Go prepare a table for us at once,” she commanded. “We some need privacy before the celebration.”

“Celebration?” Marcus asked.

“It’s not every day that someone evades me in death,” Elba said, eyeing Caleb with interest. “I always thought that this one was special.”

Anabell snarled.

Moving in close to Marcus, Ellie’s eyes widened. “That must have been how she knew we were coming.”

“Isn’t anyone worried that Sol will come for Mirella?” Anabell asked. “We should just leave her here with Elba and be done with her already.”

“He’s injured,” Caleb said, “so he will need time. Plus, I’m here, so no, I don’t think he will come any time soon. He’s shown a history that he’s willing to leave his loved ones behind. We will need to find him, though.”

Marcus patted Ellie on the back, and he took a deep breath. “Do you think we could ask Mirella,” he paused, “I mean, our mother, some questions?”

At that moment the manservant returned and informed them that their table had been prepared.

Without answering the question, Caleb guided Mirella forward, following the manservant, who led them to a private room. Mirella complained, mumbling something about Chinese food, domestic animals, and food poisoning.

Silky red and gold material adorned the tables and walls of their private room, and thin paper globes of various colors hung down from the ceiling, barely shading their light.

They each took a place around a long wooden table. Elba took her place at the head and Mirella sat beside her, facing the children. Charlotte and Winston sat on either side of Caleb, and Anabell sat across from him where she could look at him.

“You must be famished,” Elba said to Caleb. “Why don’t we get you some—”

“We want to talk to our mother,” Marcus said bluntly, and then, thinking better of it, added, “please.” He felt something move in his pocket.

Caleb considered him a moment and then seemed to forgive this impropriety. Without another word he nodded, albeit begrudgingly.

“How could you abandon us?” Ellie asked. “All these years, we thought we were alone.”

Marcus put his hand in his pocket and removed his brim, but kept it under the table. He stared at the black wisps, rotating it in his fingers. “And I want to know why you hurt people,” Marcus said before she could answer Ellie’s question, “hurt my family.”

Mirella’s countenance softened a little as she gazed at Ellie. “You don’t really think that, do you? Why would I want to leave my children?”

“Maybe it was too hard? I don’t know. Abandonment happens all the time though,” Ellie said. “We watch the news.”

“Be honest with us,” Marcus said, examining her face, still coddling the sphere in his hand.

“I’m your mother,” Mirella said, “and I would have never let anything come between us if I could have prevented it. What do you think I’ve been doing all this time, why I keep popping up?”

“What about Sol?” Marcus asked. “Would he?”

A look of shock flashed across Mirella’s face. “Of course not,” she said, as she slapped the table. Tension ran across the table as the rest of the group stiffened.

“Well, he left you for dead, didn’t he?” Ellie asked.

Marcus began to feel intrigued by the shadow magic he held captive in his brim. He wondered how it could have imprisoned a powerful, ancient beast for so long.

“Oh, stop your dribbling,” Winston said, giving Mirella a disgusted look. “If you cared so much, you wouldn’t have allowed the way of your precious Dun-Bhar to jeopardize the lives of our grandchildren.”

At that moment several servants appeared beside the table, their arms bearing trays of strange food and drink. The aroma was sweet but pungent, and the warm steam lifting off the food was inviting. Marcus wondered when he had last eaten.

No sooner had the servants placed the food on the table than they were gone. Everyone at the table, including Mirella, began eating without hesitation. Marcus found the food immediately satisfying.

“Well then, I can see that the food was a good idea,” Elba said a few minutes later, taking a deep, satisfying breath. “Now, let’s broach the matter you’ve come to discuss.” With a wave of her hand, the last servant left, closing the door to the private chamber.

“We appreciate your hospitality, Elba,” Caleb said. “What do you think we should do with Mirella? We can’t seem to agree.”

“If we aren’t going to kill her,” Anabell said sadly, “then I say we at least use her as bait.”

“Are we supposed to sit here and listen to this?” Marcus asked. “Couldn’t we use another room, you know, to have some time to talk to our mother?”

Charlotte started to rise up from the table.

“You could leave someone outside the door,” Ellie said, “if that will make you feel better.”

“I suppose we can’t deny you that,” Winston said, “but I want to be there to make sure you’re safe.”

“You want to be there to listen in,” Elba said. “Let the children have some time with their mother. They will see for themselves who she really is.”

“But we haven’t even had a chance to explain,” Winston said. Elba clapped her hands, and a servant opened the door to the room. “Very well,” Winston said. Charlotte folded her arms and looked away.

Marcus couldn’t believe they were going to allow them to spend some one-on-one time with Mirella. He wasn’t sure how to feel, but at least it was something. They could finally get some answers. Maybe they would even get to know their mother.

The servant examined Mirella as she stood up. He ran a rod of Uribrim along her body. When there was no disruption, he nodded and led them across the hall to a small room that looked like a barren holding cell. There was nothing in the room but a window and two benches.

Mirella sat down on one bench alone, and Marcus and Ellie took their place opposite her.

“So,” Mirella said with a faint smile, “you have questions.”

“You say you didn’t leave us,” Marcus said, “then what happened?”

Mirella took a deep breath and looked out at the sky, blinking hard. “That’s a big one. A painful one.”

“We’re listening,” Ellie said.

“Simply put? You were taken from us.”

“Taken?” Marcus asked.

“Your father and I, we… We weren’t perfect; no parents are. We had always relied on Sol’s parents—your grandparents— or on your aunt and uncle to watch over you whenever we had to travel for business.”

“What kind of business?” Marcus asked.

“Magical business,” Mirella said. “We had come home after a long trip to your grandparents’ house to pick you up like normal, and it wasn’t there anymore.”

“Wait, the house wasn’t there anymore?” Ellie asked. “You expect us to believe that?”

“It was just gone,” Mirella said. Then tears filled up in her eyes. “You were all gone. Vanished.”

“So where did we go?” Ellie asked.

“I don’t know, but we searched for you, tried every spell we could think of. We tried to trace your grandparents, but we could never find them.”

“At first we thought it was an accident, or maybe even an attack. We had lost our whole family. But then a thought crept into our minds. What if you had been stolen?”

“We knew that our family didn’t approve of our lifestyle. The Dun-Bhar embrace their magic, and it leads them to seek more. It’s a life-long mission. As you know, the Shar-din approach magic very differently. We knew your grandparents didn’t approve of our ancient ways, but Caleb and Anabell were the most vocal.”

“As the time went by, we questioned what happened. At some point, we began to suspect foul play. The natural conclusion was that Caleb and Anabell had taken you.”

“Our own family stole us?” Ellie asked incredulously.

Mirella nodded. “Years later, your father and I decided to double our efforts, so we split up to seek you out. While we stayed in constant communication, we figured we would cover more ground that way, and find you faster.”

“It was during that time of separation when Caleb found your father.”

“Wait, if they stole us and were in hiding like you say, why would Caleb go looking for Sol?” Marcus asked. “Sounds like a death wish.”

“It almost was,” Mirella replied. “Apparently Caleb had been spying on Sol for some time. He saw something he didn’t agree with, and he confronted his brother.”

“What did he see?” Marcus asked.

“That they were handing out magic,” Ellie said, shaking her head disapprovingly.

“They had a horrible fight,” Mirella said, gazing at the wall, “and Sol nearly killed Caleb, but not before Caleb did some damage of his own.”

“So that’s why Caleb was a virtual vegetable…” Marcus said.

“And why you needed the skull too,” Ellie said. “Sol was hurt.”

Mirella nodded, eyes still glazed over, ”It’s ironic, really, the way they hurt each other. They’ve never really agreed on much, and they have had fights over the years, but that time Caleb obviously got the worst of it.”

“What then?” Ellie asked.

“We kept looking for you. We searched and searched. It was only recently, though, that we learned that it wasn’t, in fact, Caleb and Anabell that took you from us like we had initially thought. It was your grandparents.”

Marcus swallowed. Was this why his grandpa was so quick to change the subject when pressed about their parents? This must have been what Sol meant when he said grandpa wasn’t as good a man as we thought he was.

“But enough about me,” Mirella said, blinking herself to attention. “I want to learn about you. Tell me about yourselves.”

Mirella asked about the children’s hobbies, what their friends were like, and a slew of other pleasantries.

It feels strangely hollow, Marcus thought. He didn’t know this woman, and she didn’t know them, yet she was supposed to be his mother. He had always wondered what she would be like, and now he would finally know.

“Marcus,” Mirella finally said, “I saw you at the table gazing at your brim.”

“Yeah, so?”

“May I see it?” Mirella asked, slowly reaching out.

Marcus hesitated. If he handed that over, he could imagine a thousand things going wrong. This whole adventure started because he sold the skull. He wasn’t going to make another mistake like that. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Mirella nodded. “We could escape, you know,” she said, her eye twinkling at Marcus. She snapped her fingers. “Just like that. We could get away from all this confusion and start over. A little magic in the proper hands can go a long way. There’s so much I could show you,” her voice slowed, “if only you’d let me hold it for a moment.”

Without realizing it, Marcus reached into his pocket and removed his brim, swirls of black tendrils intermingling with the blue wisps that had been there before.

Surprised, Mirella recoiled slightly, a confused expression on her face. She began to raise her hands as if to shield herself, but then didn’t. It was like she had caught a whiff of a horrible smell for the first time.

“Where did you—”

The door swung open, and Marcus quickly buried his brim in his pocket.

“Everything okay in there?” Charlotte asked, her eyes fixing coldly on Mirella after giving the children a once-over. “Time’s up.”

“Yes,” Marcus said. “We’re fine.”

The children stood up and started going out the room.

“You be careful with that, Son,” Mirella whispered, her eyes narrowing. “Very careful.”

“I will,” he said. “Thanks.”

In the private room, the rest of the family stood waiting.

“We’ve come to a decision, Mirella,” Caleb said. “All of us here are too close to the matter. We fear that the betrayal and spite that we feel toward you would cloud our judgment against you, and that wouldn’t be fair to the children. But there is no question as to your intentions. Even now you would have used your own children for your own selfish desires.”

“What do you mean?” Mirella asked.

“We were listening to your conversation with the children, of course,” Elba said. “It was the final test. After all, this has always been a question of the children, hasn’t it?”



“You were eavesdropping? Marcus asked, balling his fists. “We told you we wanted time alone with her.”

“We will summon the Kabbahl and let them decide Mirella’s fate. Hopefully we can convince them to use the magic at their disposal to find Sol and stop him from whatever madness he is plotting.”

“The Kabbahl?” Mirella asked. “But they’ll kill us. They’ve warned us all before.”

“Oh we know,” Winston said. “We’ve already summoned them recently. And—”

“But you’ll endanger the children…” Mirella said.

“We’ve already met them,” Marcus said, “and yeah, it wasn’t so pleasant.”

Mirella scoffed at Winston. “And you were worried about their safety under our care.”

“Take her away,” Elba said. “We need to make proper preparations this time.”

A pair of servants appeared and escorted Mirella out of the room.

“Does everyone have a brim?” Elba asked as she waved her hand in front of an ornate cabinet inlaid in the wall. The doors swung open, lighting the room aglow with jade-colored shadows.

Each of them visited the cabinet. The shelves were stocked with seemingly ordinary items of various shapes and sizes, but they were actually all made of Uribrim and alive with magic.

“Children,” Elba said, “let me check your brims.” Ellie handed Elba her brim, who turned it over and examined it closely. With a nod and a smile she returned it.

“And yours Marcus?” Elba asked, reaching for his.

A sense of awkward dread came over Marcus, and he hesitated. Based on Mirella’s reaction, he wasn’t sure how this would go.

“What’s gotten into you?” Elba asked, sensing something strange. “Let’s have your brim.”

Marcus removed his brim timidly, slowly exposing the black shadows that seemed to ominously overpower any magic that had been in his brim previously.

Elba looked down at the brim in silence and considered it for a moment. Then she put her hands on Marcus’s shoulders, and bent her knees slightly so she could meet Marcus’s gaze. “I don’t know where you got that, Marcus,” she whispered, “but you had better be awfully careful with it.”

Funny, Marcus thought. That’s what his mother had said.