Stardust reverie

“It’s weird, Magus. You’ve never really taken the initiative with hanging out like this… so I guess this must be really important, huh?”

Onigiri nodded with a sense of understanding as he approached Magus, carrying the two’s order from the cafe.

Magus looked… troubled.

“Yeah, it’s just… man.” Magus sighed.

“I don’t know! I’ve tried looking everywhere, but I’m not picking anything up…”

“Everywhere?” Onigiri asked.

“I thought you said you didn’t leave the house for a week...?”

Magus sighed and buried her face in her hands.

“Well, not everywhere, I guess. We have different definitions of it.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it!” Onigiri snickered.

“You tried your best, it didn’t go far, and so you’re asking for help! Nothing wrong with that.”

While Onigiri was all smiles, Magus just seemed embarrassed.

“So…” Onigiri started.

“Whatdid happen, exactly?”

So, Magus explained. About the dream, about the woman in the dream, about the rainbow-colored lightshow…

She was worried Onigiri would think it was crazy – that it had to do with the mushrooms, or something else that Magus was to blame for.

But…

“Hmm… a purple-clad woman? With some sort of scarf over her head?” Onigiri asked.

“Mhm, yeah. Why do you… say it like that?” Magus replied, her voice… confused.

“Well… it’s just that…” Onigiri started, but paused for a moment to think out his words.

“I mean, I bet there’s a lot of purpley women around here who have some kind or scarf, so it could be some kind of dreamy recreation of a passerby… but…”

“But?” Magus inquired further, seeming anticipatory.

“I do know someone like that! And she’s sort of into the whole… uh, magic-y stuff that you’re into!” Onigiri nodded.

“She’s kind of a lone wolf, but I sometimes visit her when I feel I could use some really good advice. Her name is Nocte!”

Onigiri explained a bit more, and ultimately gave Magus an address.

Suddenly, Magus’s attitude had completely turned around – her welled-up doubt sprouting into a new, confident drive.

She did find it a bit hard to focus on the rest of her meeting with Onigiri after this, busy formulating her game plan in her head… thankfully, Onigiri noticed, and offered to cut the meeting early and escort Magus to Nocte’s place.

It was an out of the way place, in an area that was much more thickety than its surroundings. The house was visibly dated, to the point where Magus wasn’t sure if anyone even lived there.

“Well, here we are! I got other plans, unfortunately – but I’m sure you can handle this, Mags! Just tell her Onigiri sent ‘ya!”

Before Magus could protest much, Onigiri waved goodbye and made his way back towards the main road. She’d wished that he would at least make some kind of personal introduction, but Magus knew she’d be capable of handling the situation on her own.

Up the creaky front steps she went. Magus took a deep breath, and went to knock on the front door… but before she could, it opened.

“Hello. I’ve been expecting you.”

It was indeed the figure from her dream – Nocte. The woman had a bit of an imposing presence, being much taller than Magus. 

While Magus usually found herself able to get quick control of introductions… this was different. All she could do was look on to the purple woman in awe.

There was a pause, and Nocte’s neutral expression slowly broke as she cracked a smile.

“Heheh, what a look on your face! You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Nocte snickered.

“I could just hear Onigiri with someone outside – he’s quite a noisy chatterbox, is all.”

Though Magus wasn’t consciously holding her breath, she felt she was able to let it go.

“Oh! Haha, yeah, he kind of is.” Magus replied, scrambling to recoup her composure.

“My name’s Magus! I’m just an ordinary magician… or, at least, I was. But I had a really weird experience the other day, and Onigiri said… you may be able to help?”

“I’ll see what I can do – come on in.” Nocte nodded.

The interior of the house was just as dated-looking as the exterior – and it smelled strongly of old books. It was dimly lit, which certainly created an ambiance as mysterious as the woman who lived there.

Nocte led Magus over to a living area, and gestured for her to take a seat on the couch positioned opposite to the comfy-looking living chair that Nocte herself sat down in.

“So… tell me, what was your… ‘weird experience’?”

As she did before with Onigiri, Magus recalled her day that led up to the rainbow-colored shower of illusory sparks she summoned. But be it because of knowing Nocte seemed to be ‘in the know’, or simply the atmosphere, Magus was a lot more excited in her explanation – she felt like she was going somewhere.

Nocte was nodding along to Magus’s explanation, watching intently – because as Magus’s infodumping about it all became more detailed, she could feel the odd feeling in her cheeks again… and it looked like Nocte could tell she was feeling it, too.

Magus concluded her story with a grand gesture of her hands, and it happened again. Though it was less powerful this time, the seven-colored sparks erupted brilliantly again – before quickly fading into nothing.

The display was quickly followed by great surprise from Magus.

“See! See!! It happened again, what the heck?!”

Nocte smiled and nodded.

“I can see it at clear as day… you do have quite a knack for illusions!”

“Illusions?” Magus asked, cocking her head.

“Yes. It seems Onigiri did have good intuition to lead you my way!” Nocte nodded.

“How keen are you on reading?”

“Oh! I read plenty, I have a library card I use pretty much every day and everything.”

Nocte nodded again, and got up and moved towards a bookshelf that was against the wall of the living room. She scanned it briefly, before grabbing a hefty-looking book from off the shelf.

She brought it towards Magus, and plopped it on a tray table in front on the couch Magus was sitting on with a thunk.

“Magus!” Nocte said with a confident and empowering air.

“Your guided study session begins now. While your power may be small and unpredictable now, the words written of those before us will help you hone it into much more!”

This was it!

Magus gave Nocte a huge grin and nodded, staring at the large book she’d been given in awe.

“Of course, Ms. Nocte! I’ll do my best!”

Nocte gave a chuckle.

“Please, no need for that formality, even if I’m to be your teacher. Just call me Nocte.”