The Tower's Magic ― Chapter Five

I glanced up from my metal hummingbird when I heard the door swing open.

The little missy marched back into the room dripping water from the waist down and clutching her boots in one hand. Despite her ragged appearance, she looked very proud of herself. I almost asked her what she had done, but she looked eager to share, so I let her tell the story herself.

She walked over, sat next to me, and held out her hand. In her palm rested something that looked like a key, but it was the strangest key I had ever laid eyes on. It had intricate carvings along the stem and an amazingly complex bit.

"I need some expertise, and you've been here longer than I have. Do you recognize this key? Does anything about it look familiar?"

In fact, it did look familiar. There was something about the engravings on the stem that I had seen before. Recently, too, though I couldn't immediately recall where.

I racked my memory for anything that I may have seen with that pattern on it. I hadn't been outside the school as long as I could remember, so it must be somewhere in the building. I took the key from Margaret's hand and traced the pattern with my thumb.

"Well? Anything?" Margaret asked eagerly.

I completely forgot to be cocky, so Margaret received a direct answer. "I don't know. I've seen this pattern somewhere in the school, I think, but I don't know where. I definitely haven't seen the key before. Where did you find this?" I asked her.

She laid out the story for me.

"And you just picked it up?"

"Well I had to wade out and get it."

"I see." Actually her explanation made no sense to me. I didn't know what happened to students when I left them in those rooms The locks clicked shut of their own accord, so I just walked back to the bedroom, or sometimes the tower. Some other students had mentioned the pool room, but no one had ever found anything there. How had Margaret made progress pretty much by accident where I had been trying for years? Whatever game the wizards were playing, it wasn't funny, but the idea of solving the school's puzzle was certainly appealing.

I handed the key back to Margaret. "Let me know if you find anything else like this, alright?"
I hadn't been able to find anything about the school as long as I'd been here, but Margaret had something almost right away. I was dubious, to say the least, but for once I let myself have some hope.

I didn't fall asleep right away, and neither did Margaret. Margaret and I talked, not about the key, but about ourselves. It was strange to speak to someone so lightly after so long avoiding conversation, but also comforting.

"So, you never answered me. Is it alright to call you Elena?" The little missy must have been feeling brave today. 

I had already decided that I would go along with Margaret, but I thought about this carefully. Was it okay? It would feel wrong to replace the name that Anabelle gave me. Of course, it would also feel wrong to hear it from someone else. Elena it was.

"Yeah. Yeah, if you insist."

"I do."

"Then it's settled."

A comfortable silence followed.

"How did you end up here, Elena?"

Yup, definitely weird to hear someone give me another new name. 

"I'm not really sure I wanna talk about it."

"Oh."

That wasn't true, though. I did want to talk about these things. I wanted someone to understand why I was here. I think maybe I wanted sympathy, too, but I tried to ignore that feeling.

"I... came from a poor district of an already poor city. It was winter, and I needed somewhere to stay, or some job, or something, so when a wizard came up offering employment to the street urchins, I was a little more eager than I'd like to admit. I got a job here. I can't leave now."

"You don't sound much like a street urchin. No offense, but you're grammar's much better than I would expect from a... you know."

"I was only five or six, and I've spent a lot of time with swanky bluebloods like you lately."

"Er... right."

Another silence, slightly more awkward than the first.

"Is there anyone else here?" Margaret asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Are there any other students? Staff?"

"... I don't know, really." I only ever saw one student at a time. There could be hundreds of students at the school at once. There probably were. They came from all over the world, after all, but I had never seen more than one at a time. One of the great mysteries of the wizards. Right, the wizards.

"I haven't actually met any wizards here, either."

"No wizards?"

"I'm sure they're here somewhere. Who else would teach you ladies magic?"

"I don't know. Maybe the school runs itself?"

I had thought about that before. It was scary to think that the school might act all on it's own. If I believed there was an actual person running the school, whoever they were, it was easier not to sink into despair. I debated hiding my fears about these things. Margaret didn't need to know I was that weak. In the end, though, she had to be just as afraid as I was.

"I try not to think about that," I confess.

We didn't say anything after that. I realized I had started to think of us as "we," not just Margaret and I. I supposed we were kind of a team now, huh?

- - -

It was while Margaret was sleeping that I remembered where I had seen the key's pattern before.

I stayed in the same bedroom whether there was a student occupying it or not, and this meant I spent a lot of time screwing around in that room to fend off boredom. Aside from metal-craft, my favorite activity was to dress up in some of the fanciest clothes the wardrobe had to offer and stare at myself in the mirror. I may have acted tomboyish toward the students, but when I was alone I just couldn't resist that frilly blue dress. I blamed Anabelle for getting me to wear it in the first place.

I had spent a lot of time studying the patterns on that mirror as well. I had used some of the embellishments as inspiration in my metal-craft, but for some reason I hadn't been able to change the designs on the mirror itself. Some sort of enchantment, probably. Wizards are so protective of their toys.

I shifted silently over and took the key from Margaret's nightstand. By the faint rays of moonlight that slipped through the curtains, I studied the engravings on the key next to the ones on the mirror. As far as I could tell, they matched perfectly with the ornamentation that ran along the mirror's frame.
Far more interesting than the adornment of the mirror, though, was the keyhole that sat right in the middle on top of the frame. I couldn't believe I had forgotten it. I had never been able to pick that lock, even with the assistance of metal-bending. 

Before I had really given any thought to the time of night, I shook Margaret awake. She opened her eyes groggily and looked like she was about to complain, but she must have read my expression and noticed something was up.

"I found it, Margaret!" I was so excited that I forgot to call her a stupid nickname.

"Found what, exactly?" She slurred, sitting up and rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Her gaze caught on the key in my hand, and her eyes widened. "Where?"

I led her over to the mirror and tapped the top of the frame, handing the key back to her. She deserved to do the honors.

"How did we not see that?" she asked.

I shrugged, and waved my hands to encourage her to hurry up. We were close now, to finding out something, anything, about this school. I was practically shaking with excitement. Maybe I could finally find out what had happened to Anabelle. Maybe Margaret and I could get out of here. I felt myself grinning at the prospect. I could be free.

Margaret slid the key into the keyhole. It fit perfectly, so she gave it a twist. The lock turned smoothly and easily, as though it had been waiting for this. There was a click, and then... nothing. Nothing happened.

But surely something would have occurred? Why set up all of this if it didn't do anything?

Maybe the mirror was some kind of door? I tugged on the frame, but it didn't budge from the wall. Margaret looked at her reflection and told it step aside. I gave her a weird look, but maybe she knew what she was doing. She was the magic student, after all.

We stood back and stared at the mirror.

"It's enchanted somehow." Margaret said.

"We don't know that."

"It's humming."

I paused and listened. "No it isn't."

"Touch it."

I did. It felt the same as it always had. It definitely wasn't humming. I looked back at Margaret and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I can feel it, and it's definitely enchanted!" Margaret told me defensively.

"Okay, I believe you." I said, holding up my hands in what I hoped was a placating gesture. I couldn't see how Margaret would know if the mirror was enchanted, but there was no reason it shouldn't be. I couldn't shift the metal, after all, and perhaps the keyhole was magic, somehow.

Margaret reached for her reflection in the glass. As she touched the mirror, the reflection rippled, circles spreading lazily from where she had made contact. Margaret quickly yanked her hand away and stared at the mirror. The glass settled flat again, and Margaret's reflection stared, wide-eyed out of the mirror.

Margaret and I looked at each other, then back at the mirror. I held up a hand and put it to the glass. It rippled again, like liquid, but I didn't pull my hand back. Instead, I pushed it farther in, reaching through the mirror. The glass gave only a little resistance, and I pushed through up to my elbow. The mirror was cool, like water, but not uncomfortable. I shuffled through the frame and heard Margaret step up behind me.

The inside of the mirror, if that's what it was, contained a long, narrow stone hallway, not unlike the school's halls. It stretched on until it disappeared in the distance.

I glanced behind me and saw the room distorted in ripples through the mirror, and Margaret carefully stepping over the mirror's frame. Once Margaret was through and the glass had settled, I could see the room clearly, as though through a window.

Margaret stepped up next to me, and I turned back to gaze down the hallway. Margaret didn't say anything, just started walking. I fell into step behind her.

The passage wasn't quite as endless as it had first appeared. It seemed to have been made so that from the entrance it would vanish into the distance, but after just a few minutes of walking, I could see some sort of room at the end. It was still a rather long walk. We took it in silence.