Story: Middle Part 8
[[Continuity Note: Why, I do believe I cut out in the middle of a scene
last time. Guess where I'm picking up?]]
Jessica wouldn't be accompanying them as under eighteens were generally
not allowed to council meetings, even in the viewing gallery which was
soundproofed. That is, when there was a viewing gallery. The council
meeting changed location every time to liven it up, but mostly to avoid
calling attention to themselves in the nons world. The change in
location was always conveyed via a magical noticeboard each family had.
If they didn't have a charmed noticeboard, it was a diary or simply a
piece of paper fridge magnetted to the refrigerator as people do. But
regardless of whether you knew where you were, you could always get to
the meeting via the magic mirror.
Alf had been introduced to the magic mirror or 'mirror portal' by
Jessica on Tuesday and he was very interested in how it worked. It
looked like your average full length mirror, there were no elaborate
swirly designs and when he asked if the frame was made from the wood of
a magical tree Jessica had merely stated that there was no such thing as
a magical tree, and then gone on to define how all trees could perhaps
be thought of as 'magical'. The frame was ordinary, the glass was shiny
and it reflected what was currently in the room. If playing "which of
these things is not like the others" and choosing between the mirror, a
magic wand and a top hat he would pick the mirror as the non-magical
item. It turned out that the magic portals were a relatively new
invention of the magical folks'. Prior to its invention, the equivalent
means of transport was stepping into a pool of water. It caused people
to become very disoriented as they would step into a puddle and end up
falling feet first out of it as though they'd travelled through the
centre of the Earth (quite hilarious to watch actually when the going
and coming puddles were right next to each other). It was also
difficult to transport and it took a long time to cast the spell over it
that would allow it to transport correctly.
"So how does this thing work again?" Alf asked Mrs Aldus.
"You just say where you want to go - in our case, 'council meeting' -
and step straight through."
"And it doesn't know where I want to go automatically?" Alf asked.
Mrs Aldus smiled. "Well, it should, but sometimes what you're thinking
of isn't actually where you want to go. The mirror portals are a little
funny. They're only supposed to take you between the sixteen mirrors,
but if its not sure where you want to go, it sometimes creates a mirror
for you. Which is a bit of a nightmare because that mirror doesn't stay
long enough for you to go back."
Alf gulped. So perhaps magical travel wasn't as safe as he'd first thought.
[[And I promised that I'd go to bed now so I'm gone... despite the fact
that I'm still in the middle of a scene.]]
posted by Cedric @ 9:40 pm
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