Young Writers Society

In one reality among many, a sorceress desperately craves company. But her close friends are all busy with other things, so she has to turn to a more unusual source of company: strangers. And while she does love all of her friends dearly, there's just something special about hanging out with other girls. She comes up with a plan. Use the vast variety of magic at her disposal, she sends out invites to women and girls across the multiverse - all they have to do is think that they want to go when holding onto the invitation, and they're brought to her reality.

Nothing about this incident is high stakes. It's just a chance to relax - and maybe make some new friends along the way.

Schadel was bored.

Like really bored.

Everyone was away. Liz was off visiting family a few states over, Claire and Edward were off on the west coast checking on Claire's family, and Blanx and Rekune were off in Europe vacationing in between jobs. She could Skype and call all of them if she wanted to, but they were all busy.

At first, it had been easy occupying herself. She ran some tests in her lab, binged Buzzfeed Unsolved again and finished an entire season of Elementary. When she got bored with that, she reread Sherlock Holmes and cracked open some of the new books she had gotten from the library. And, since it was her guilty pleasure, she even watched the new episode of Lingering Spirits.

But that could only occupy her for so long.

So when the invitation suddenly popped into existence on the kitchen table during breakfast, she had no qualms about doing it. She made sure everything was tidied up around the house - since she had no idea when she'd get back from this - and grabbed onto the note.

There was a burst of warmth, and then a jarring transition as the room suddenly switched around her. She wasn't in the too tiny kitchen of the agency anymore. She was in absolutely enormous room, one that could have easily been double the size of her house. There wasn't anything the room. It just looked fancy and modern and new; Schadel couldn't help but grin in excitement at the thought of what it could hold.

But then her smile faded, since she didn't have the slightest idea what the sender of the invitation was like.

"Hi."

Schadel nearly jumped in surprise at the sudden noise. As it was, she spun around and stared at the speaker, eyes wide and clearly startled. The woman who had spoken was far smaller than her, though her witch hat made her appear taller than she was.

Schadel took a deep breath to steady herself.

She gave the woman - was she the one who had brought her here? - a warm smile. "Hi," she replied. "I'm Schadel H. Kueper, owner of Schadel's Necromancy Agency-Is this place yours?"

The woman looked around, then nodded. "For the next few days it is," she confirmed. She gave her a grin of her own. "I thought I'd borrow it to have some fun. I do have a little apartment near here, but there's so much more I can do with extra space~"

She gave a little twirl as she spoke, then leaned forward so she was closer to Schadel.

"You can call me...Kate," the woman said. She nodded to herself and straightened considerably, almost like she had been contemplating the name. "I'm glad you're here, Schadel - it's always nice to find someone that appreciates the dead. You do, don't you?"

She stared, then gave a hesitant nod. Even though she was used to inferences in her line of work, she rarely was the one being inferred about; it was almost always the other way around. "I do. How did you...?"

Kate crossed her arms in thought.

"It's just a feeling," she finally decided. "You remind me of someone I know. He really respects the deceased - you can tell it the moment he walks into a room and starts talking. If his outfit didn't give it away, that is."

The brunch had been extremely mundane until then.

With Taber out of the castle to visit his brother, Eremia had invited a few old friends for some conversation and reminiscing. The war hadn't been too long ago, but the idea that Marisol and Arlais wouldn't be around most of the time still stung. Visits like these - hanging out in one of the smaller kitchens, breaking bread and sampling the pies left on the windowsills - made it a little easier to forget just how far apart most of Eremia's war buddies were.

And then they'd found the invitation in the back of the cupboards.

Eremia hadn't known what to expect when she'd picked it up. It had been nice enough - cordial, friendly, respectful. Eremia hadn't been sure what to make of the fact that it had been addressed to her and her friends. The idea that somebody had been watching them, or had known that Marisol and Arlais would be visiting in the first place, disturbed her, but it had been such a sweet invitation that Eremia had almost imagined accepting it.

Which she suspected had something to do with why she found herself in a large, empty room.

"What is this?" Eremia said, trying to hold back the anger in her voice as she stared down the other two people in the room. Katerina stood to her right, the usual grin replaced with a worried frown that almost matched Marisol's, who was now peeking through the space between Katerina and Eremia.

To Eremia's left, Marisol wiped the pie crumbs off her mouth and crossed her arms. "And what's with the hat?" Marisol said, nodding in the direction of the obscenely large hat the shorter girl wore.

Samira was alone for the first time in months. Amerys and Seth were taking a weekend off to get to know each other better, and they’d taken the shuttle with them. Which left her alone on the Thanatos with most of the crew.

Well, okay. Maybe she wasn’t completely alone but at least she didn’t have Amerys or her brother in her head all the time. That got old, fast. It was also really annoying. Seth still had no control. It’d been months since his barriers had broken and he was doing better but, well. Seth was struggling to connect with Amerys. To bond. They had something but the black lines that crept up Seth’s neck and across his face... That was clearly causing issues. Sam had never had that issue when she was bonding with Amerys.

Samira sighed, pushing back from the archive holoscreens. Still nothing except the Baqiran texts and no one could read those. They couldn’t even be translated into any other languages and especially not one she could read. It was a pity, really. They’d never figure out what was up with her brother at this rate. And they couldn’t even go back to Kavia or Anshar. Not without being arrested or kidnapped or something.

Which was why they were headed to Baqir. The planet was deep in the no-fly zone of no man’s land. It was risky and it was deep space and there was nothing else out here.

Sam turned to peer out the window. They were currently orbiting a small, Earth-like planet with a breathable atmosphere. It was just painted in shades of red, blue and purple. Amerys has thought it might be good for Seth to get some fresh air and she’d agreed, so they’d gone down to the planet. It didn’t even have a name or designation. And if it had had one before, it was lost long ago. She thought it was a pretty planet and a good place for Seth to explore. They hadn’t found anything large on the scans so hopefully they were having a good time planet-side.

She stood up and crossed to the window, placing a gloved hand against the glas, and sighed again. They’d only been gone a few hours and already she missed them. At least the rest of the Thanatos’s crew were leaving her alone. She’d told them she’d be either here in the archives or in her room and she’d meant it. But she was lonely and bored. There was only so much a girl could do before she got so bored that she’d go bother her brother and their partner while on their own little break.

Sam shook her head, beads clicking together, and turned away from the window. She glanced towards the door and then around the room. Everyone else on the ship was far enough away from her that she barely felt them, and that was good. She didn’t want to accidentally broadcast anything and bring everyone’s mood down. That was definitely the last thing she wanted to do. Being an telepathic empath sucked sometimes.

A glimmer of white caught her attention and Sam glanced towards the holoscreen. There, resting just in front of her seat, sat a small, white envelope. She frowned. The holoscreen light up a soft blue, not white. And that was a paper envelope. Paper was rare in space. Of course, it wasn’t just Earth that had come up with it, but still. A lot of planets had quickly developed beyond the need for paper. Everything was digital nowadays, displayed on holoscreens and datapads.

Sam took a cautious step towards the blindly white paper. What was a paper envelope doing on a spaceship? Where had it even come from? She edged a little closer and gave it a nudge with a knuckle. It slid a few inches to the left with a light hiss. Sam frowned deeper.

“This is so weird,” she muttered and picked it up. Her name was written across it in elegant, flowing script. And not just her Earth name, but her full name; Samira dyrs Haverj ora Gaia. How the hell did someone get the letter into the archives without her knowing? And how did whoever it was know her true, full name? She only ever used Sam Pearce.

With a small shrug, she picked it up and opened it. Inside was more elegantly written script. It was an invitation. To where, she wasn’t exactly sure but well. It was worded very formally and very politely, and Sam was awfully bored and awfully lonely. What could it hurt to accept? Just this once?

As soon as the thought of accepting the invitation crossed her mind, there was a slight shift around her, the edges of her vision warping. And when she looked up, she was staring at six other girls of various ages, heights and races. Sam blinked at them all and then focused on the short one with the pointy hat.

“What the hell?” she exclaimed in Kavian, dropping the invitation and reaching for one of her sword hilts. She gestured at the group sharply, gaze narrowed dangerously. “Explain yourselves! Now!”

"A letter for Shan," said the postman, the bell on the tavern door jingling as he stepped inside.

"So late?" murmured Galen, his voice slightly muffled by the scarf wrapped around his lower face. Shan felt the warmth of his presence next to her fade as he lifted his arm from around her shoulders and stood to accept the letter. "Who's it from?"

"I don't know," said the delivery man, "but I was told it's urgent. G'night." The bell rung again with his exit.

"A letter for Shan?" She let out a huff of disbelief and amusement as Galen walked back to her side and sat down. "Who would send blind old me a letter when I can't even read?"

"Shan," said Galen, in that tone of his that normally indicated an upcoming lecture, but he didn't say more. Instead, there was a rustling of paper as he broke the seal and opened the envelope. There was a prolonged silence as he read the letter, the only noise being the two's soft breathing. At last, the paper rustled again. "This must be some sort of joke," said Galen, puzzled.

"Why?" asked Shan, straightening and turning towards him. "What does it say?"

"It's some sort of invitation," he replied, "to some sort of meeting. Women and girls only. 'Just hold on to this invitation and wish to appear in my world.' Doesn't that sound unrealistic to you? There's really no power like that as far as we know."

"Hmm," said Shan, grinning. "You and your intellectual ways. I'll keep this anyways to amuse myself for a while." She found the invitation with her fingers, plucking it out of Galen's hands. "Anyways, thanks for reading it to me. It made my day a little more interesting." She reached out to tug his mask down and leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek, right next to his extended, beautiful smile.

Almost immediately, his skin grew hot and he stood. "I--I've got to go," he stammered. "It's getting late." His footsteps were quick as he hurried towards the door and pushed it open. "Good night!" And then he was gone.

Strange, thought Shan, Galen hasn't quite been himself for a while. He used to be so comfortable with us pretending to be siblings. She shrugged to herself and went to lock the tavern for the night before heading to her bedroom. A thought hit her.

Maybe the invitation wasn't a joke. What if it were possible for there to be magic like that? Shan never did much of anything interesting, not since she and Galen had escaped from the circus and he had brought her to the Wheatleys, who had taken her in. So, even though she felt a little silly, she held the letter in her hands and wished to appear somewhere else.

At that moment, a barrage of female voices, some shouting, crashed into her. Something felt different about her surroundings as well. Shan gasped. Had the thing worked after all? She was starting to wonder if it had been a good idea to trying wishing. How would she get back? In an unfamiliar environment, how would she get around without any help?

She stood there, feeling a little lost. Then she shook her head and raised her voice. "Excuse me!" she said, turning her head about as though she were looking for someone. "Is the person who sent the invitation here?"

The room had quickly fallen into chaos, and Schadel was struggling to keep track of everything that had happened. She was used to chaos; living in the same house as two ghosts who acted like siblings meant there was always some shenanigan going on. But Edward and Claire's antics were nothing compared to what had just transpired.

First: four girls had shown up, two of them being bipedal otters. That last part completely threw her off. She vaguely remembered Blanx mentioning running into similar people before, but it was one thing to hear a story like that and another to see them in person.

And now one of the girls was getting mad - she could try to hide it all she wanted, but Schadel knew how to read body language - at both Kate and Schadel, for reasons Schadel was just beginning to comprehend.

Second: another girl showed up, and she promptly threatened them with a sword when she did. She also spoke in another language - Schadel didn't know what the language was, but her soul instinctively translated into what language she knew best.

And third: another girl showed up. Thankfully, there wasn't any anger. She just seemed lost and confused. There was something else about her, too, but Schadel couldn't put her finger on what that something was.

Kate looked around the room at the various people questioning her. There was a brief flicker of confusion in her eyes, only to be replaced by understanding a few seconds later.

"You didn't read the whole invitation, did you?" she slowly said. That would explain it.

As Kate continued to study at the threatening girl and the angry one, Schadel turned to the confused one. "She is," Schadel informed her. She still didn't know why she felt this way, but Schadel felt like she didn't want to speak too suddenly or too loudly around her. "She's the one who just spoke."

Her gaze wandered back in Kate's direction.

"You accepted the invitation," Kate said. "It's not legally binding, or anything like that - the spell involved made it so thinking about accepting it would have you appear here. I didn't kidnap you, and I don't plan to harm you. And, if you really want, I can just send you back."

She readjusted her hat.

"And my hat's a witch hat," Kate added. "It's symbolic - I never go anywhere without it."

The offer ran through Schadel's mind as she continued to watch Kate. She didn't know as much about general magic as she should have, but she knew that more powerful spells came at a cost. To bring people from different realities and then send them back in the same amount of time must have made Kate absolutely exhausted, but she seemed unfazed by the immense amount of magic she had to perform.

"I am a little disappointed, though," Kate admitted. "I thought I did a good job on those invitations. I made sure to include everything - I even gave you the address, in case you wanted to do things the old-fashioned way and walk here. I guess I should have expected not everyone would read the whole thing."

She turned to Schadel.

"What would happen was clear to you when you read it, wasn't it?" she asked.

Schadel nodded. "It was."

Kate crossed her arms and thought for a moment. "Then again, you are a detective. You have a knack for paying attention to details, from what I've heard."

"You know that I'm a d-"

"My boss has mentioned you before," she interrupted. "Our line of work involves working with death, so your agency's come up from time to time. I just didn't remember its name until you mentioned it earlier."

"I see," said Shan, even though whoever had spoken to her already diverted her attention to the one who, apparently, had sent the invitation. Either way, it was good to know that she could go home whenever she wanted. Only . . .

She stifled a yawn as she angled her face towards where the sound of the magician's voice was coming from. Another question had floated to the front of her mind, one that was continuing to nag at her.

Though she realized that she didn't even know the woman's name, Shan began, "I don't mean to interrupt, ma'am, but I was wondering if people back home would, you know, realize I'm gone if I stay here too long. It's nighttime right now, but I don't know what my guardians would do if I'm not there in the morning. And my . . . brother . . ." Her voice trailed off. "My older brother would be scared out of his mind."

Kate thought for a moment.

"I guess it depends on where you're from," she finally said, looking at the faces of the girls gathered. She wasn't going to lie to herself - she was just a bit disappointed at how there wasn't more of them there. But it was still something, so that made her feel a little better. "If you're from another reality, I can return you at a time very close to when you left. But if you're from here, the amount of time that passes is the same."

She paused, gaze wandering to Schadel again.

"I think you're the only one from here," she said.

"That's okay," Schadel replied. "I'm home alone right now - I really do need to kill some time."

She raised an eyebrow at the strangers who had popped into existence beside her. The woman with the sword yelling in a language that Eremia couldn't understand didn't seem like much of a threat - people like that generally had a bark worse than their bite, and the woman's darting eyes told Eremia she was nervous. The other woman, if her calm tone was anything to go by, wouldn't be a problem either. Eremia found no reason not to jump into the conversation.

"Of course I read the invitation," Eremia said. "It would be impolite of me not to. I had simply no idea that it was valid - it had appeared at an odd spot, and sounded a tad far-fetched."

"How much magical ability do you have to have to do something like that?" Katerina piped up. "And how do you work with death?"

Marisol, who had been whistling and looking away when Eremia glanced at her, now pointed to Kate's hat. "Can I get one of those?" Marisol said.

Kate shrugged.

"I work here and there," she said. "I don't really have a particular job, though customer service might be a good way of describing it - you could say that I work for a group of mediums and deal with the deceased, though I do my own consulting work here and there on other magical things."

She spun around and faced the last of the three speakers. "And I could definitely make you one, once we finish up with this conversation," she concluded, giving the girl a smile.

Schadel, meanwhile, couldn't stop staring at Kate. Her explanation felt wrong. She had her own secrets, but it was disconcerting to know that their host was trying to hide something. After mulling things over, Schadel decided follow her hunch and get a glimpse of her soul. Maybe they had the same secret?

She let the world fall away around her as she stared at where Kate's heart resided, watching the throbbing of the glowing, cartoonish heart in her chest. She wasn't like her in the slightest - the design reminded her of-

"She's a god," a voice suddenly said from the corner. Schadel - and Kate - both turned to look at the girl leaning up against the wall. The detective was horrified to realize that she hadn't even noticed that she was standing there. No matter how long she thought, she couldn't figure out when the girl had shown up.

The girl's arms were folded as she looked over the group, straightening when her arrival had been noted. She left her corner and approached the group. She came to a stop in front of Kate, easily towering over her. "You're Hecate," she plainly said. "The Greek goddess of magic, death and the crossroads. You work for Hades in the Underworld."

"...That was surprisingly on point," Kate - Hecate - admitted, an impressed tone to her voice. "You're not another one of us, are you? You look too young, but age has never meant anything to immortals."

She shook her head. "I'm not like you. I just...know things."

While Marisol pumped her fist, more than a little happy at the prospect of getting a witch hat, Eremia raised her eyebrow. "A goddess of death?" she said. "I would rather hope that I am not on my world, lest I need to apologize to a few certain individuals. Or ask you a few, rather impolite questions."

Katerina cast a few nervous glances in Eremia's direction, but still smiled at Kate. "And how does the whole goddess of magic business work? Eremia and I can use magic, but I'm guessing that's something you had already picked up on?"

"And what does crossroads mean?" Arlais said.