The door to the cabin creaked and groaned as it slowly swung open. A stale, dusty breeze billowed out as if it hadn’t been opened in ages. “Don’t mind the mess, sweetie; it’s been a little while since I’ve been in here,” my mother said as she pocketed the key and went inside.

  I poked my head and in and gazed around. “But aren’t you here almost every other morning? And what about Isa?” I asked as I followed her.

  My mother giggled. Something about this interior didn’t feel right. I kept expecting to see walls, but instead there was only darkness.

  The cabin isn’t that big, I thought. It’s only like a fifteen-by-fifteen space. Surely I should be able to see the edges.

  I rubbed my eyes and looked around once more. Nothing. Suddenly, with a cp of her hands, a bright blue light engulfed the room. I gasped as I shielded my eyes. After a few seconds of adjustment, I slowly lowered my arms.

  This can’t be real.

  Yet it was. The room was magnificent. An expansive space spread out before me, and the circur walls of the room reached up like a tower nearly thirty feet. Decorating these walls were bookshelves, paintings, and items I couldn’t bel. In the center of the room, set in the floor, was a huge metallic disc with a massive emerald embedded into it.

  This is no cabin. Or, well, I think it’s not. This doesn’t make sense. How in hell could something like this be hidden?

  My mother looked over her shoulder at me, a smug smile on her face. “Amazing, isn’t it?” she said.

  “H-How?” I muttered, stepping forward as my eyes soaked in the scenery around me. This was truly a wizard’s tower. Like something plucked from a fantasy novel and brought to reality.

  From what I could tell, this… cabin tower… had a diameter as wide as it was tall, or about thirty feet. Already it had proven much rger than Mother’s cabin. The bookshelves and tables that lined the walls held a visible but thin yer of dust. The purple carpet I stepped on puffed with debris. Clearly nobody else had been here in ages.

  Mother chuckled and said, “With magic, dear.” Her smile widened as she motioned for me to stay close beside her.

  “Aren’t we in the cabin still?” I asked her.

  “Yes and no,” she hummed as I gawked. Mother then reached into her pocket and pulled out the key from before: a fancy golden one with fine line work etched into it. She twirled it in her fingers and said, “We’re in my Vault of Arcanum, we got here with this key. When I became an Ethereal Archon, I was given one of these archeos by the Concilium. Very few of these exist, Luna.” She wiggled the key at me.

  “So, like, did it teleport us?”

  “Not entirely. It’s a bit too complicated to expin right now, but essentially, this key has the power to open doors to another world.”

  Ah, okay, I think I get it now. Funny enough, in my old D&D campaigns, I gave my pyers an item like this.

  “So, uh,” I said as I tapped my chin, “any door you use this key on allows you to enter the tower.”

  If that’s the case, then we could just pack everything up in this tower and leave before war breaks out, I thought, a glimmer of hope blooming within me.

  Mother’s smug smile faded. “Unfortunately, no.” She sighed. “It’s a paired archeo. Meaning that this key…” She wiggled the golden key again. “…only works with other Vault doors made for it. They come in pairs, you see. When I left the Concilium, I thought they’d confiscate the door and key, or one of them, but they never did, for some reason.” She grinned again as she motioned for me to follow her to the disc.

  I thought about this as we went to the center of the room. “If that’s the case,” I wondered, “could we take the door and key with us?”

  Mother cocked her head. “Oh?” She looked at me with an arched eyebrow. “Eborate,” she said, sounding like an instructor.

  “Well, what I was thinking… is why don’t we pack everything up in here, then?” I asked. “If all we had to carry was just one door in the wagon and maybe a little bit of food and stuff, then we’d be traveling pretty light.”

  “That’s a good idea, sweetie. You’re kind of sounding like your father.” I beamed at the praise, though my smile was quickly forgotten when Mother frowned and said, “But that wouldn’t work.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  She nodded towards the door. “When a Vault door is installed, there’s an enchantment inscribed into it and the frame of the building. Think of it like a tether. When the door is removed, that tether is snapped, and the door just becomes a normal door.”

  I groaned. “Darnit, nothing can be as simple as I’d like.”

  Mother ughed lightly and nodded. “I understand your frustration.” She reached out and patted me on the head, humming, “But I like the initiative.”

  I giggled as she rubbed my hair. “Could the door ever be fixed?”

  “Certainly, though the bonding process that reestablishes the tether takes a week or more. So, in theory, sweetie, your idea could work; it would just be woefully inefficient. We could put everything in here, but once we start traveling, we won’t have access to the Vault until we install and bond the door to a building.”

  As we stepped onto the disc in the floor, I grimaced. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound all that useful.” I sighed and looked down at the rge emerald just as Mother looked up at the ceiling.

  Is this like an elevator? A teleporter, maybe? I see no console, chains, or anything. What is this for—

  “Up!” Mother said firmly. I yelled as the circur disc on the floor dislodged with a heavy thud and began to levitate.

  Holy shit, holy shit! I panicked internally as we ascended. No safety rails? No chains or pulleys? This isn’t safe! I hate this!

  Mother pced a light hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, don’t worry.” She hummed as we began to go higher and higher towards the stone ceiling.

  “Uh, uh, we’re going to get squished!” I yelled, but the stonework began to ripple like water before suddenly vanishing into an open hole, which we slipped through. Then we stopped. The disc let out a loud whine as it locked itself into pce, securing us on the second floor.

  “Gets them every time.” Mother winked.

  “That’s a mean joke!” I whimpered.

  My mother patted me on the back. “It wasn’t a joke; it’s a security measure.” She smirked. “And maybe a little bit of a joke,” she giggled before cpping her hands together. “Alright, follow me!”

  This pce was a maze. A non-Euclidean space that made absolutely no sense to the point of being unnerving. I had imagined a wizard’s tower would be something like this in the old D&D campaigns I used to run. Yet to experience one in person… I couldn’t even begin to comprehend it, and when I tried, my mind was assaulted with headaches.

  Don’t think about it, Luna. Just… go with the flow, I kept telling myself as Mother and I walked down a straight hall that broke every architectural rule.

  The tower was round, yet we’re going straight. For how long? We’ve been walking for multiple minutes now—stop, stop thinking about it.

  “Mother,” I asked her as we meandered through more winding halls, nearing a set of stairs, “how long have you had this tower for?”

  Mother hummed, then fell silent for a second as we began to climb. “About forty-four years.”

  Goddamn, despite knowing their ages, hearing them casually throw out big numbers still stuns me.

  I shook my head. “And how come you never told Varis or me about this? Does Father know?”

  She gnced back at me and nodded. “Yep, your father is well aware. We used to spend many, many hours in this pce in our younger years.”

  Welp, I don’t trust anything I touch here now.

  She continued, “I did pn on telling you kids at some point, possibly on your first-century birthdays.”

  Whoa, what? Century?! Come to think of it, yeah… I am an elf now. Boy, this is going to take a while to get used to, but still, a century?!

  “That’s a long way away,” I said as we reached the top of the staircase. My mother pulled out some more keys as we stood beside a metal door.

  “It is, but I wanted you and Varis to live a happy, healthy childhood. Many elves’ first centuries are chock-full of learning and other work; very rarely do they just get to, y’know… live!” She gestured grandly with her free hand. Her tone told me she was speaking from personal experience.

  Other elves? You know, I haven’t seen too many of them around here. I frowned. But that’s also because I don’t go outside often. One trait I still haven’t shaken yet from my past life… ugh.

  “Why would telling us about your past and this pce mess up our childhood?” I asked as Mother slid a silver key into the door.

  Mother gnced at me. “Lots of hard-hitting questions, dear.” She chuckled as she opened the door. “Truth is, not much. Part of me just wanted you kids to see me as a normal, beautiful, and strong mother.” She posed in a silly way, and I couldn’t help but snort at her cringiness.

  Then she took on a more serious look. “And the other part wanted to move away from my old life,” she said, motioning for me to follow her into the next section of this bizarre tower.

  We stepped into a vast room cluttered with tables full of tools and strange, half-constructed archeo devices which y strewn about; machinery for twisting and shaping metal hung on the walls in clearly-not-safe positions. Along the edges were stands holding blueprints and chalkboards cluttered with sketches and mathematical formue. We were in a workshop, one perfect for a wizard or artificer.

  Wow, this pce is just screaming OSHA viotions, I observed, scanning the magical items.

  “Careful, much of this old junk hasn’t moved in ages,” Mother instructed as she began to walk to the far end of this elongated room. “Stay close to me.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel any better.” I ughed nervously as I tore my gaze away from a red orb. It glowed with a raging storm of light inside, mounted on a silver stand. “What’re we doing here?”

  “We’re here to grab some supplies and things I think you’ll like.” Mother hummed as she took a small bag from one table and began to snatch random objects up, then stuff them in. Some of the items didn’t even look capable of fitting, yet somehow, they just plopped in.

  Bag of holding? Marry Poppins? I blinked and gnced around. How many functioning archeos are there around me?

  “Mother, you’re not just a wizard, are you?” I asked her as she reached the back of the room, where rger tables full of alchemical agents and schematics y.

  “I dabbled in a bit of artificery, though your father did most of the actual building.”

  “Wait, Father… builds stuff?”

  “He did…” Mother kept scanning the items, swiping up bits I couldn’t quite name. “Most of his firearms are handmade. As well as his mag rounds. A bit too crude for me, but he gets a kick out of them.” She smirked. “Though this workshop was mostly used by your Aunt Saria.”

  I blinked. “Who?”

  “She’s my sister-in-w,” Mother said. “She’s an archeo engineer: an artificer. She and I used to work on a few projects together many, many years ago. Much of what I know about archeos comes from her.”

  I nodded as I wandered between the tables. “Were you and Father, like, adventurers and stuff?” I asked her as I poked a bronze birdlike thing. The mechanical beast flopped over unmoving.

  Mother didn’t respond right away, but after a moment, she said, “Sort of. Mommy doesn’t really want to talk about that, though, sweetie.” That made me gnce back towards her. She held a solemn look as she gazed over the items.

  Nodding, I chose not to press the issue and turned elsewhere. Yet as I did, something caught my attention.

  I walked over to one schematic on a leaning table. Pictured was a massive cylindrical machine with cogs and pistons lining its sides. What confused me was that the nguage written on the schematic was not one I recognized. The machine looked vast and intimidating, based on the scale shown at the bottom—a silhouette of a man no rger than my thumb beside it. Despite the notes I couldn’t understand, there was one word I did see written at the top in the common tongue.

  Eternity? My eyes shifted to the other unintelligible words. Is the rest of this written in Mother’s cipher? Or is this another nguage?

  I turned back to my mother; she was standing directly behind me. I yelped with shock and bumped into the table behind me, nearly knocking the schematic over. Quickly I caught it, then took a couple deep breaths.

  Mother ughed and bent down. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.” She held up something no rger than a coin purse. “Take this.”

  Blinking, I looked over the small leather thing. “It’s a little bag…” I took it. “Is anything in it?”

  “Not yet, and it isn’t an ordinary bag. It’s an enigma pouch,” she said. “You saw me sticking items away in this bag, right?” She patted the one tied to her waist.

  I nodded. Whoa, receiving a bag of holding? Hell yeah. Whatever god is the DM of this world, you’re amazing.

  “Anything you can fit past this opening will go into the bag. I was meaning to make this next year’s birthday gift, but I think you can take it now.” She patted my shoulder.

  Already pnned next year’s gift. It makes sense. Mother does seem like the kind of woman to start pnning next year’s Christmas gifts on Christmas Day.

  I bounced up and down. “That’s so cool! Thank you, Mother!” I hugged her, and instantly, my mother melted into me.

  “Oh, you’re welcome, cutie!” She kissed me on the head. “I love you!”

  I giggled and let go of her as she patted me on the head. “We’re not done here yet. Just stay close to me while I go and grab a few more items.”

  With a big grin and a firm nod from me, the two of us continued our walk around the workshop.

  The trip through the cabin tower was interesting, to say the least. It wasn’t what I was expecting in the slightest. Yet seeing this pce simply raised more questions than answers. If Mother was once part of this Magus Concilium, why would she leave it? Why would this council be okay with her keeping this pristine tower? Most of all, why did she want to hide her adventurous life from us?

  I felt that if I were a cool, powerful wizard and adventurer, I wouldn’t shut up about it. Yet maybe something terrible had happened. Memories of Mr. Bxen’s visit came to mind. Remembering how Mother told me a friend of hers got killed because of that man made me bite my lip.

  I think I’m sort of getting it now. They must be terrible memories. Anime and books always made adventuring seem cool and fun. That look Mother had when she told me to change the subject… almost reminded me of people with post-traumatic stress.

  But I shook my head at those thoughts as Mother and I stepped onto the lift from earlier. “Down!” Mother ordered. She hoisted a backpack over her shoulder and helped me adjust the bundles of sacks and bags I had loaded upon myself.

  Half the junk we gathered—or, well, half the things I didn’t know the names of—were all stuffed into the regur bags. Most of the items, Mother mentioned, were to help us travel and for convenience’s sake. For others, she just said, “Handle this very carefully.”

  I didn’t know why, but that scared the shit out of me.

  We left the cabin tower in silence. Stepping outside, Mother turned around and shut the door, locked it, then took out a silver key and unlocked it again. This time, it opened to a proper cabin.

  “Okay, what?” I blurted out. “How does that work?”

  “Don’t worry your little head, Luna.” Mother giggled. “You’ll give yourself a migraine.”

  I blinked multiple times before shaking my head and following my mother into the cabin again.

  Inside, we were met with a bakery, with rge bread ovens, long countertops full of pots and pans, and a range on the side, all nice and spotless. “So, this is where you do all the baking,” I muttered.

  “And see how clean it is?” Mother smiled. “As much as I adore you kids, you guys are messy. Upstairs, you’ll find Madam Soza’s quarters. But please do not enter her room.”

  I sighed and nodded as she went further in. “What are we doing in here?” I asked, admittedly feeling a bit bored.

  At least the cabin tower was interesting.

  “Hold on, Miss Impatient,” Mother teased. “I’m getting something for you.”

  My head perked up. She was bent over in some wooden bin. “For me?” I asked.

  Mother grunted and pulled out a tray, careful to keep her back to me and the surprise mostly out of view as she pced it on the counter. “Yep. For you and your brother. It’s something I stayed up st night doing.”

  Curious, I shuffled towards her. Just as I got close, Mother turned around and presented a cute vanil cupcake with pink frosting.

  “Ta-dah! I was just using a little magic to warm it back up.”

  My eyes widened as she held the cupcake out to me, blinking in wonder. “W-Whoa!” The smell of vanil and strawberry made its way to my nose. My mouth watered as I looked up at Mother and asked, “But why?”

  “Are you questioning a dragon’s gift?” She smirked before answering, “It’s because I love you, and I know that I didn’t get to make you a birthday cake this year.”

  I took the cupcake and smiled. Damn childish emotions, I’m about to cry! Sniffing, I wiped my eyes as I held the cupcake close.

  My mother blinked. “Wh-What’s wrong? Do you not like it?”

  Why am I crying? Why do I feel like this, dammit? Why is it now, of all times, that I’m getting shown this pce or learning about all of this? I bit my lip. Why is everything moving and changing so fast all of a sudden? Why do we have to leave? I want to stay, learn more, and hang out with Mother in this cool tower. Or see what Father used to make! It’s not fair. Why is this happening to us?

  I shook my head. “N-No! I—I love it!” My lip began to quiver. “I—I just…” I looked up at her. “I—I don’t want to leave. I want to stay and learn magic with you here.” I tried to wipe my tears, but they wouldn’t stop.

  Mother cooed and reached out to cup my cheek and stroke my tears away. “It’s okay, sweetie. I know everything is scary right now, and so much is happening, but it’s okay. Yes, we’re leaving, but it’s not the location that matters. Just because we’re going away doesn’t mean you’ll stop learning, and that also doesn’t mean I or any one of us is going away. When everything calms down and better days come, we’ll come back here. I promise that.”

  I sniffed. “You promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Shifting a little, I held my cupcake in one hand and held out my pinky. She looked at it, confused. “Pinky promise,” I said. “Isa pinky promised me before. It’s a super promise!”

  Mother snorted and smiled widely, her eyes glistening a little as well. “You’re so cute.” She wrapped her pinky around mine, and we shook. “Okay. Pinky promise.”

  Afterwards, I took a deep breath, feeling strangely relieved. “I’m happy now.” I sniffled and grinned, and my mother ughed.

  “You’re such a goof!” She patted me on the head and stood up. “Help me take the rest of these cupcakes inside.”

  We grabbed the cupcake tray and made our way back to the house. Mother opened the back door and stepped inside, and as I followed suit, we noticed no one was in the kitchen. Mother set the tray down on the table, and I joined her in the living room doorway.

  In my father’s rocking chair sat Varis, and in front of him, on his knees, my father gripped his hand. “Like I told your sister, I’ll do anything in my power to protect you, boy, just as I expect you to protect her and your mother. We men need to fight, but most importantly, we must not break. Do you understand me, young man?”

  Varis sniffed and nodded. “Yessir.”

  “I know things are tough, and they may get tougher, but you need to stay strong.” He tapped his chest. “Those men outside, those soldiers… They’re the real deal, Varis. This is no game anymore. That’s why I need you to take this seriously.”

  Varis nodded. “Yessir.”

  At this point, Father nodded, stood up, and turned to see us standing in the doorway.

  “Are we intruding?” Mother asked.

  “No, I said all I needed to.” He gnced at Varis, who seemed stunned in the chair.

  Father sighed softly. “I told him pretty much everything.” He turned back to Varis and opened his mouth, but Mother stepped forward and pced a hand on his shoulder.

  “Why don’t we take a break?” she suggested.

  Father arched an eyebrow at her. “A break? Cailynn, I don’t think we’ll have the time we have tonight, and tomorrow we don’t have—”

  “A break, Slyran. We have the wagon, we have Ruby, and everything is packed. Tonight is most likely going to be our st night here. Let’s have one final meal before I make my st run and we go tomorrow. Besides, Isa isn’t here.”

  Go tomorrow? I thought. Are we not going with the Hautchkins? And where’s Isa?

  Father bit his lip and closed his eyes. Reaching up, he stroked his goatee before running a hand through his brown hair. “Okay, okay… For now, sure, but when we’re done, we need to finish up.”

  “Dear, we have everything ready,” Momma reassured him. “For now, let’s try to have at least one final dinner, just a normal family meal.” She looked at him sternly, and Father stared back. For a second, I was afraid they were going to fight. They’d bickered before, and Father looked very frustrated.

  After a brief staring contest, Father turned away and relented. “Alright. We’ll have dinner.”

  “I—I… I have cupcakes for us!” I smiled, trying to lighten the mood. Thankfully, this seemed to work, as Father softened a bit.

  “Do you, now?” he asked with a grin. I nodded and pointed to the kitchen.

  “Momma made them.”

  Coming to his senses, Varis perked up and said, “Cupcakes?” I nodded, and he gave me a shaky smile and got up.

  “Where’s Isa?” I said as Mother and Father walked past me. “We should invite her too!”

  Father stopped. “Isa is in town, she said she was meeting up with a friend to get some more information about what’s going on. She won’t be back till tomorrow morning.”

  “All the more reason we should take a break,” Mother said. I gritted my teeth, afraid they would descend into an argument, but nothing happened.

  Father sighed. “You’re right, dear. I’d feel awful leaving without her…”

  “What’s she doing?” I said.

  He gnced at me. “She’s out preparing for the road ahead…” To which he grumbled, “As we should be doing.” Which awarded him a sharp gre from Mother.

  “Slyran, we’re ready,” she hissed. The two of them shared a hard look.

  I don’t know if I’m looking forward to this st meal.

  Vieil ami, I’ve seen this before. This pattern has pyed out many times; it’s written in my book...