Stephanie sighed after looking for a few minutes through Pinterest, seeing few ideas in the feeds or anyone else's profiles.
She turned her phone off and put it into the pocket of her blue jeans, rambling through her mind about what kind of key style she could do.
…But then she thought about the keys she found while searching around that room with the cauldron where she had put her handmade drawer inside.
She reached into her bag and took out the worn-out box where the keys were inside, but the box fell apart in her hands, and the keys clattered on the ground, scattering around her.
"Aw, dang it!" Stephanie exclaimed before kneeling to pick them up.
She picked up the keys from the ground before pausing when she picked up a blank vintage key, knowing that it was not in the box when she put her hand inside.
More vintage keys looked the same as Stephanie picked them up, seeing they were the same mold as the others.
"Weird," Stephanie remarked as she sat down after gathering the last key. "Why do these keys match the others?"
She looked back at the scroll of pictures, and the pile of vintage keys, and an idea popped into her head after looking at the pictures.
What if she could use a vintage key to follow the exact description of the pictures in the scroll?
Stephanie picked up one of the vintage keys from the ground and looked at the scroll on the ground in the last picture, seeing she needed a book to do the enchantment.
But what magic book did she need to enchant the spells onto the keys?
Then she remembered the book of spells hidden in a tree, snapping her fingers after remembering the book she had stored in her bag.
Stephanie opened the book and placed it on the ground, holding the blank vintage key in her hand and looking at the words on the page.
Suddenly, the book itself lifted from the ground to Stephanie's head, causing Stephanie to be startled, but she stayed calm as the blank vintage key in her hand lifted, hovering over the book's pages.
Writing appeared underneath the key across the book's pages, and Stephanie pushed her glasses into place, watching a single sentence appear on a page before starting to speak the words out loud.
"Gemma Verto." After saying the words, Stephanie watched as the vintage key before her slowly transformed into an iron key with an emerald gemstone for a head.
Stephanie stared with amazement after witnessing the vintage key transform into a different key, taking it into her hand and staring at it.
"Wow!" Stephanie remarked as she looked at it before looking confused. "But what does it do now?"
She stared at the key in her hands with a somewhat confused expression before noticing something on the back of her hand.
Stephanie pushed her sleeve up, thinking there was grime on the back of her hand, but was surprised to see a keyhole on the back.
She yelped and dropped the key in her lap, rubbing the back of her hand with the other, feeling freaked out after seeing a keyhole on the back of her hand.
But it had disappeared after she dropped the key after being startled to see the keyhole on the back of her hand.
Curious, Stephanie picked up the key from her lap while staring at the back of her hand, seeing nothing had appeared after picking it up.
…Could it have been something in her mind?
Yet again, when she looked at her palm, there was the same keyhole on the back of her hand.
Stephanie put the key in her mouth and curiously felt the keyhole in her hand, shuddering when she could feel everything through the keyhole.
She removed the key from her mouth and looked at the keyhole in her palm, wondering if it could be connected to the keyhole.
It would be dangerous, but Stephanie's curiosity was nagging at her to try it out.
It is magic, so why not try it since it could benefit her to practice magic across Sodor?
Slowly, Stephanie inserted the key into her palm, and she shuddered at the feeling of it, as it felt like someone was poking her with a blunt object, but it was not hurting her.
She slowly turned it to the left, and Stephanie felt her toes scrunch at the feeling of the insertion of the key, and even when it turned, it made her squirm a little.
A click came from the 'keyhole' in her palm, and the key magically disappeared, transforming into a ring around the ring finger of her right hand.
Suddenly, Stephanie's long hair transformed into the color of tanzanite gemstones, even becoming translucent, which confused Stephanie as she looked at the strangely solid strands in her hands.
Her skin became pale from the fingertips, and her eyes were still azure blue, causing her to look more confused at what had happened to her body.
Stephanie felt her fingers with confusion, noticing her skin had a somewhat solid touch to it, and even when she knocked her knuckles against her arm, it made a clinking noise.
"Huh," Stephanie remarked after knocking her knuckles against her arm before reaching into her bag to get something to look at her reflection.
She soon took out a small two-handed mirror and peered inside, seeing her long, somewhat solid tanzanite hair with pale skin and feeling her face with her hand with curiosity.
"I've transformed into a humanoid gemstone." Stephanie softly muttered.
She looked at the ring on her ring finger thoughtfully, wondering if the power was coming from the ring itself after seeing it transform.
Stephanie carefully removed the ring from around her finger and watched it transform into a key in her hand, and the color of her skin turned back to normal, along with her hair.
After her skin and hair turned back to normal, Stephanie knocked her knuckles against her skin, and instead of hearing the clinking noises, she heard just normal bone noises with her flesh.
"Wow," Stephanie remarked after testing herself. "So these keys can share magical abilities with people?"
Stephanie looked back at the pile of vintage keys and the book of magic, having the idea of making more magic keys.
"Hmm," Stephanie hummed with a slight smirk. "What other spells are there to make?"
Stephanie placed the key onto the key ring and picked up another, watching it hover over the book's pages as she read the next words.
"Piscis Verto." After saying the next magic spell, the key turned into iron, and the head became a fish symbol with ocean themes.
Once the transformation was complete, Stephanie took the key into her hand and looked at her palm for the keyhole but paused when she noticed the keyhole was not showing.
She looked at the back of her hand, but there was no keyhole there when she looked around her left hand, even not on her right hand when she looked at it.
"That's weird," Stephanie muttered in confusion. "Did I say the wrong spell?"
She shrugged after looking for a keyhole and placed the key onto the key ring of keys, deciding to move on to the next and figure out what was wrong later.
Stephanie picked up a blank vintage key, and it hovered over the book. Stephanie looked at the pages and saw an invocation appear on the pages instead.
Pushing her glasses into place, Stephanie read the invocation, "Here and now, I reach out to embrace all that possesses life. Here and now, I invoke Spirit. I call on that which flickers within that dances, stumbles, searches and feels in this world. I call on that which rises from beautifully realized intention. I call on art and ingenuity, all our ancestors, and the love that sparks in our eyes. Will and myth, experience and story, Spirit, I call to thee."
After reciting the invocation, the key twitched a little before transforming, turning into gold with the head in the shape of a circle with eight slices, looking almost like a pie but with Lepidolite gemstones.
"Wow," Stephanie remarked before looking at her hand and seeing the keyhole in the palm of her hand. "And it works on me!"
Instead of trying it out to see what kind of power it holds, Stephanie puts the key on the key ring with the others, feeling excited that her collection is growing.
So she picked up the next blank vintage key from the pile and allowed it to hover over the spell book, reading the next spell that glowed.
She watched the blank vintage keys transform into different kinds, ranging in shapes, shades, colors, and ornaments.
Stephanie wanted to try them out to see what kind of powers they had, but not wanting to exhaust herself with using the keys' powers, she decided to save them until she had the choice of using them in her spare time.
Or if something is going on and she needs to use the keys' power as a last resort to get herself out of trouble.
Stephanie soon used the last blank vintage key and read the spell, watching the key transform into a different ornament with a metal color, landing in her palm as she looked at it.
With a satisfied nod, Stephanie placed the key onto the key ring and closed the book of spells before putting it into her bag.
"...phanie?" Stephanie's ears moved upward after hearing her name spoken, and she glanced around curiously as her ears twitched slightly. "Stephanie?"
She looked confused after hearing the whispers and stood up, walking away from her spot after gathering everything and putting it into her bag.
"Hello?" Stephanie called before listening closely to the voices.
"Where are you, Stephanie?" It sounded like Notches' voice, which perked up Stephanie.
How could she have forgotten about Notches?
Stephanie flicked her wrist, and her bracelet transformed into a paintbrush, drawing a door in front of her before opening it and peering into her room.
Notches were awake and sitting on Stephanie's bed, looking slightly groggy and confused, while Lucy glanced over from her shoulder.
"There you are!" Notches perked. "Where were you?"
"I was inside a different dimension," Stephanie smiled. "And I found something new!"
Notches and Lucy looked at each other with confusion after Stephanie smiled and watched her take out a massive ring with keys attached.
"What is that?" Lucy asked.
"Magic keys!" Stephanie beamed. "Watch this."
Stephanie took off a random key from the key ring and walked up to the two, showing the key to them as it had a ruler on the side with a diagram of a person with a smaller one between the legs.
She showed her left palm with a keyhole on it, which perked Notches' and Lucy's attention after seeing the keyhole.
Stephanie inserted it into the palm of her hand as she shuddered from the feeling before turning it, and a click came from the lock.
The key disappeared and transformed into a ring around her right hand, but Stephanie suddenly felt woozy and watched everything grow, causing her to land backward on her bottom.
"Stephanie?" Stephanie looked up after the woozy feeling disappeared, seeing that the bed had grown.
Lucy carefully moved over from the ledge of the bed and jumped down, landing perfectly on her feet before standing up, almost around Stephanie's height but still taller than her.
"Are you okay?" Lucy asked, kneeling slightly and holding out her hand.
"I'm fine," Stephanie slowly responded, taking Lucy's hand and gently tugging her to her feet.
After being up to her feet, Stephanie looked around her surroundings and saw that everything was massive, even Notches, when he jumped down and sat in front of them.
"Wait a minute." Stephanie looked at the ring around her finger before perking up and saying, "Oh! It's a shrinking type of key!"
"You're not scared that you're small?" Notches asked.
"No, I've gotten used to it," Stephanie responded. "I've been transformed into a pika many times and shrunken down too."
Notches nodded after Stephanie calmly responded before Lucy asked, "But how are you going to revert back to normal?"
"Easy," Stephanie smiled, showing her ring finger to the two. "I just take this ring in my hand and pop-" Stephanie took the ring off and reverted back to her normal height. "I grow back up."
She knelt carefully and scooped the two into her arms, holding them as she held the key in her hand, saying, "It's so much easier getting into places at a small size without having to get stuck in."
"But be careful," Notches warned. "With great power comes great responsibility."
Stephanie looked a little confused and gently placed them back on the bed, asking, "What does that quote mean?"
"It means that if you can do something, make sure that you do it for the good of others," Notches explained. "For instance, your magic staff. You can do incredible spells that can revert things and grow plants within minutes. You can use those spells for good things, like helping someone with their plants or healing someone. But if you use them for your own purpose, like cheating out of things or taking advantage of things, your powers will go out of hand, and you won't do anything to get out of trouble, and it will come to you."
Stephanie looked thoughtful as she looked at the bracelet around her wrist before Lucy gently put her hands on hers, causing her to look up from her bracelet.
"Exactly." Lucy nodded. "As my twin sister Emerald would say, 'The warnings come after the spells.'"
Stephanie softly smiled after Lucy agreed and said, "I'll remember what you two said to me. I'll take into consideration my spells and magic abilities."
"Good," Notches nodded. "Now, what were you doing in your dimension, Stephanie?"
"Well," Stephanie began, picking Notches up from the bed and sitting comfortably as Lucy climbed into her lap. "I found a lot of new things while in my dimension."