ALiCE in WoNDeRLaND
-23-
"Whoa! Hang on," I cried, gaping at them. "Mages? As in magic people?"
The three mages-in-training nodded.
"But I thought only magic people could use magic. How are you guys..."
"Maybe we *are* magic people," Zione snapped. "Ever stop to think about that?"
"What?" Did he really just snap at me?
"Isn't it a little prejudiced to assume we can't be mages just because we're guys? True, most of the magical people are women, or older and supposedly wiser guys, but still, we could have been born... that... way," he trailed off, after seeing the looks that Zale and Aurick had given him.
"What Zione's trying to say," Zale began, "is that males can have magic, too. It's just much rarer to be born with it than it is for a female to be born with, you know, magic potential and all. Males usually have to spend a good deal of their lives training to achieve their magic powers, hence the really old mages Zione was just mentioning."
Zione wasn't pleased with Zale's explanation, but by the looks of things didn't seem to want to get into an argument about it. I filed away a mental note to ask one of them about it later, after we got to the...
"Wait, so, back to the mirrors," I decided, shaking my head as if I were shaking away the previous argument. "So, how did they get ours to theirs? I mean, don't you have to go through the mirror to get to the other world? So how could they have taken it with them?"
Aurick seemed to really be considering that. The others seemed bored. "We've thought it over a hundred times, ALiCE," Miyka'el said with a sigh. "We don't know, okay? Can we just let this go and get to the castle?"
I made a face, but had to agree. After all, I felt about as tired as they all looked, and who knew how much walking we were in for? We started up again, and I was almost about to ask them about this walking business when a certain noise rang out once more.
"Mmm?" I murmured, not immediately registering the sound's origins.
"Your phone," Nam whispered.
I stared at the bag over my shoulder and reached for it once more. "Fiore?" I asked.
There was a pause on the other end. "ALiCE?"
"Yeah," I replied, confused. "Fiore?"
No reply. I stared at the phone, which had begun to make a new type of noise at me. I looked at the others.
"Speakerphone," Zione told me with absolutely no emotion at all.
I pressed some random button, hoping it was the right one. It was. As I watched, the phone's screen lit up and produced a tiny holographic image of a tall, goofy-looking guy. "Permission to initiate hologram?" he asked.
I stared. "I guess..."
Next thing I knew, the concrete was totally gone, and we were all standing in a familiar-looking workshop, covered with mechanical toys and weapons, more than you could possibly imagine. I was in awe, but of course the guys had seen this all before, and reacted no differently than they did to the concrete scenario.
"Fiore?" I asked again.
The goofy-looking guy made a face, and adjusted his strange cap a bit to scratch his head. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
I expected to hear a response from the guys, but none came. "You aren't... Fiore?"
He laughed, surprised. "Fiore? How the hell could you mistake me for... she has amnesia again?" He ran the two statements together so well that it took me a second to understand what he had said.
The guys just shrugged.
"Again?" the capped one asked, more to himself than to anyone else.
I stared at him. "Where's Fiore then, and who are you?"
He stared back, and then replied quietly: "Fiore's gone."
* * *
-23-
"Whoa! Hang on," I cried, gaping at them. "Mages? As in magic people?"
The three mages-in-training nodded.
"But I thought only magic people could use magic. How are you guys..."
"Maybe we *are* magic people," Zione snapped. "Ever stop to think about that?"
"What?" Did he really just snap at me?
"Isn't it a little prejudiced to assume we can't be mages just because we're guys? True, most of the magical people are women, or older and supposedly wiser guys, but still, we could have been born... that... way," he trailed off, after seeing the looks that Zale and Aurick had given him.
"What Zione's trying to say," Zale began, "is that males can have magic, too. It's just much rarer to be born with it than it is for a female to be born with, you know, magic potential and all. Males usually have to spend a good deal of their lives training to achieve their magic powers, hence the really old mages Zione was just mentioning."
Zione wasn't pleased with Zale's explanation, but by the looks of things didn't seem to want to get into an argument about it. I filed away a mental note to ask one of them about it later, after we got to the...
"Wait, so, back to the mirrors," I decided, shaking my head as if I were shaking away the previous argument. "So, how did they get ours to theirs? I mean, don't you have to go through the mirror to get to the other world? So how could they have taken it with them?"
Aurick seemed to really be considering that. The others seemed bored. "We've thought it over a hundred times, ALiCE," Miyka'el said with a sigh. "We don't know, okay? Can we just let this go and get to the castle?"
I made a face, but had to agree. After all, I felt about as tired as they all looked, and who knew how much walking we were in for? We started up again, and I was almost about to ask them about this walking business when a certain noise rang out once more.
"Mmm?" I murmured, not immediately registering the sound's origins.
"Your phone," Nam whispered.
I stared at the bag over my shoulder and reached for it once more. "Fiore?" I asked.
There was a pause on the other end. "ALiCE?"
"Yeah," I replied, confused. "Fiore?"
No reply. I stared at the phone, which had begun to make a new type of noise at me. I looked at the others.
"Speakerphone," Zione told me with absolutely no emotion at all.
I pressed some random button, hoping it was the right one. It was. As I watched, the phone's screen lit up and produced a tiny holographic image of a tall, goofy-looking guy. "Permission to initiate hologram?" he asked.
I stared. "I guess..."
Next thing I knew, the concrete was totally gone, and we were all standing in a familiar-looking workshop, covered with mechanical toys and weapons, more than you could possibly imagine. I was in awe, but of course the guys had seen this all before, and reacted no differently than they did to the concrete scenario.
"Fiore?" I asked again.
The goofy-looking guy made a face, and adjusted his strange cap a bit to scratch his head. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
I expected to hear a response from the guys, but none came. "You aren't... Fiore?"
He laughed, surprised. "Fiore? How the hell could you mistake me for... she has amnesia again?" He ran the two statements together so well that it took me a second to understand what he had said.
The guys just shrugged.
"Again?" the capped one asked, more to himself than to anyone else.
I stared at him. "Where's Fiore then, and who are you?"
He stared back, and then replied quietly: "Fiore's gone."
* * *