A very inviting summer sun was shining on the bustling streets of Virginia Beach. Masses of people were strolling around, many on their way too enjoy the seaside fun of Chesapeake Bay. But one backpacker had other plans today, a young black hornless bull, with a paper note in white coated hand, was browsing around on the street. He seemed to be looking for something, a certain shop. He walked from window to window, until he stopped in front of an old book store. He looked up at the façade of the building, and read the shop's banner:


CHARTER BOOKSTORE
Books & Rarities For All Your Needs, since 1826


He checked the note in his hand again. This was the very same address he got recommended by a fellow traveller last night in the hostel. They mentioned this was one of the most interesting stores they had ever seen. With a bit of hessitation, he went through the door. The door bell rings as he entered the very cosy looking bookstore. It looked like this place really hadn't changed in two centuries. The interior was dark, but with enough light to be able to read something. There were many meticulously carved wooden bookshelves, and in the middle of the shop there were a few wooden tables with some antique wooden chairs surrounding it. He lacked the words in English to do justice of the vibe of this place. Only the word “gezellig” from his native Dutch tongue came close to it.
“Wow, this looks lit!”, he said. “Why isn’t this place in the ‘Lonely Planet’ guide?”
He browsed around through the corridors of bookshelves, looking if he’d find something particularly interesting. He was not alone in the shop; the shop’s owner, a vixen, dressed in a leather jacket and a long navy blue skirt had taken note of the traveller who had entered her shop, and approached her new customer.
“Hello, how can I help you today?” she said from behind one of the bookshelves.
“Oh, hello! A fellow traveller told me about this place. You’ve got some old books as well, right?” the bull boy asked.
“Old books, new books. We have what you need,” the vixen said, walking around the corner
“Great! I’d love to see if you have some old atlases. I love maps from the ages gone by. Especially the bad ones.”
The vixen smiled, feeling the store shift subtly, “Of course, have any time period in mind?”
“Pffft,” the young bull struggled with that question. “At least before the 20^th century. Maybe something around the 17^th or 18^th century.”
“Come with me, I think we have something that’s you’ll like,” the vixen said, motioning the bull to follow her. The bull couldn’t resist his curiosity and followed the vixen. He noticed she had an unusual amount of tails.
“What’s up with those three tails, miss?” he asked.
The vixen smiled. “My, aren’t you forward. Normally one would ask a girl for drinks first.” She swished her tails, “But to answer your question, I’m a Kitsune. As we age we gain tails and magical prowess.”
“Fascinating,” the young bull answered, “I’ve never met a... Kitsune, you say?” He blushed and laughed nervously. “Forgive my ignorance. I... umm... before I went on on this trip around the world, I’ve never gone much further than my home town.”
The vixen giggled, “Don’t worry about it, my name is Dust by the way, what's yours?”
“My name is... umm...” the bull said nervously, “it sounds weird in your language. Promise you won't laugh?”
“Oh, with a name like Dust, I have little room to laugh at other people’s names.”
The boy blushed for a moment. “Well, I’m Harm. It’s a traditional Dutch name. Perfectly normal at home, but not so much in the English speaking world... People have made fun of it every now and then since I’ve come to this country.”
Dust nods. “Nice to meet you Harm. And don’t mind all the teasing about your name. They just don’t know any better.” They stop at a grouping of display cases containing maps and charts of all sorts.
“Here we are, Maps from the Ages, while we won't have museum pieces, my family has been around the world and have collected these trinkets.”
Harm’s eye fell on one of the world maps. It was a bit damaged and stained but still readable, looking like it was at least two centuries old
“Wow, this is what I'm talking about,” he said, as he took out and rolled open the map.
“Ah yes, my Uncle bought that map in Dorset back before the Kitsune War in 1863, its still one of his favourites, but its horribly out of date now.”
“Look at how many blank spaces there are! So many places unexplored! Man, I wished I was an explorer back in the age, surveying these new lands. And look at this,” the tapped on the West coast of North America. “They still thought California was an island back in the day!”
“True, it was a true Age of Exploration, my Uncle has many stories from that time, he was still young and enjoyed the feel of the sea on his face.”
“Wait, what’s this?”
Harm’s eyes were drawn towards the Atlantic Ocean, and his finger slid towards an island group in the middle.
“They marked this group of islands as Atlantis... but it's not like any interpretation I’ve seen before... I wonder where they got this idea from. This looks like an interesting story.”
Dust looked at the map, “Not sure, you know these old sailors, adding in myths and legends to the maps. My Uncle has a map that shows Lumeria off the coast of Africa!”
“Maybe there’s a book about this. Just look at the names they marked on the islands, all in Portuguese, while this map seems to be made right here in America. I don’t think the map makers came up with those themselves.”
Dust looked surprised and checked which map this was again, “Umm, let me go and check our inventory, be right back.”
With that the Kitsune ran into the back of the store. She pulled out her phone as soon as she was out of hearing range, “Sabrina, I have a problem.”
Sabrina answered her, the noise in the background clearly sounded she was on a train. “Hmm, what’s up Dusty? Everything OK?”
“I messed up, I have a map of Atlantis in my store inventory and someone found it!”
“Oh, and? What did he say,” she asked, sounding somewhat unconcerned.
“He wants a book detailing the ports listed, my store is magical and I have no idea if there is one in my inventory! There is a reason Atlantis is hidden.”
Sabrina chuckled. “Breathe for a minute Dusty. Here’s a question for you. You get a reading on him at all? Is he a good person?”
“He’s a bit naive, but so far he’s a good person. Why?”
“How fast can you portal to my own library at the Tower?”
“I have a portal arch set up downstairs that I can activate in five minutes, why.”
“I have a National Geographic Guide to Atlantis there. Grab that and a small red mana crystal I keep with it. I’m on the Acela home from Boston now, approaching Trenton in 20 or so minutes. Stall ’till you can portal me home then when I get off the train.”
“OK,” Dust hung up the phone and leaned back into the store, “I’ll be a few more minutes, take a look around and see if you find anything you like.”
“Right, will do,” he said, and started browsing again.


Dust ran downstairs to her workshop and started to run magic into the portal arch she had set up. Within a minute the space in the arch flashed and twisted, showing a courtyard at one of the Battlefield Towers in downtown Yorktown. She jumped through and locked the spell so only she could reenter it. She waited in the elevator leading up too the penthouse.
“Vix, can you make sure the ‘National Geographic’ on Atlantis is available?” she seemed to speak to no visible audience. “I’m sure Sabrina let you know I'm here to pick it up.”
“It is,” a computer voice sounds through the speakers. “I’ll bring it to the door if you want. Dare I ask what this is about.”
“Someone found a map that has Atlantis ports on it.”
“Ah. And he doesn’t think it’s a map of fiction?”
Dust sighed, “I already told him it’s real, my Uncle Theo bought it nearly two hundred years ago.”
“Oof! Well, I’m surprised he hasn’t heard something about it yet. In the Age of the Internet secrets tend to not last long. I’ll have the book at the door though. Still find it odd myself National Geographic has a guide to Atlantis.”
“Same, but honestly I didn’t want to waste time with questions.”
“Well, I’ll be waiting at the door when you get here so you can get back. Sabrina will be at Trenton in 10 minutes for you to pick her up.”
The doors on the elevator opened, and she was greeted by a robotic vixen, standing next to a table with a yellow and black magazine on it.
“Here you go, Dust,” Vix gestured at the magazine.
“Thanks Vix!” Dust grabbed the yellow and black magazine from the table before heading back down. The android suddenly remembered something that they were missing something.
“The crystal dust!” Vix shouted, running for the elevator, holding a red mana crystal.
“Right, sorry, thanks!” Dust called. She took the crystal from Vix, and waved goodbye.
“Send my regards to Sab!” Vix said.
“I will,” Dust answered, as the elevator doors closed, and she descended back down tower.

In the meantime, Harm looked around in the store, scanning the spines of all the books on the shelves. Many of these books had hand-crafted hard covers, the kind they don’t make any more these days. This place was a treasure trove. One book caught his eye. It was a book with a strikingly purple cover. He knew this kind of purple dye used for the cover was from before the invention of mauve and must’ve costed a fortune. He read the title of the book, which was pressed in golden letters: ‘Introduction to Basic Magic and Illusions’. He picked it off the shelf. Maybe this book would reveal some tricks illusionists would perform. He was always fascinated by them, seeing them perform mind-blowing tricks on TV. Harm flipped through the pages. This older English was a bit tricky to decypher for someone for whom English isn’t their native language, but he found out that this book wasn’t about illusion tricks; this was about actual magic! He could hardly believe it, yet, he couldn’t stop reading; his curiosity was just too great. He was looking through some beginner spells. If this was a real magic instruction book, these spells might work. He saw one spell about creating a candle flame illusion, and decided to try it out. He waved his hand and recited the incantation as it was written down as instructed.
Nothing.
He tried again, making sure he did exactly as instructed, but nothing appeared. Harm sighed. Maybe he was too much looking at the instructions as written in the book and following them precisely. He could’ve been taking the wrong approach to this. Perhaps knowing the gestures and incantations was not enough; you had to feel it, be convinced by your own capabilities.
He took a deep breath. Once again, he cited the incantation and repeated the gestures, but this time trying to will the flame into existence... and in his hand, a tiny flame appeared. He stared at it in disbelief. There was a tiny magic flame dancing around in his hand. He reached with his other hand and felt no heat coming off from the flame. Even touching it didn’t burn his fingers. It was truly an illusion. One he just willed into existence.
“It’s real...” he stared at the flame, with his jaw dropped. “It’s all real.”
Harm quickly tried to put out the illusion, and found it much easier than summoning it, by just wishing it gone in his mind. If this was possible, how much more was there that worked in this book?


Dust ran back to the portal and through to the bookstore. She paused and reset the entry and keyed it to Sabrina before sending a text to her. She ran a hand through her hair before walking back upstairs. “I think I found something you’ll like,” she said into the store
“Oh, you did?” Harm replied. He quickly put away the purple book on the shelf. But Dust had caught what he had been reading, and glanced at the book
“Did you find something you need?” she asked.
“I ummm... didn’t find something in particular," Harm stuttered. “Just something that looked interesting.”
Harm started to blush. He knew he was bad at lying. Dust placed the NatGeo on a display case before pulling out the purple book “‘Introduction to Basic Magic and Illusions’, by R.K. Nine. Haven’t seen this one in a long time.” She handed it to Harm, “The store knows what’s needed, first time doing magic on purpose?”
“I didn’t know it was a real thing,” he said. “I thought it was just legends, some tricks.”
Dust smiled, “Would you like to see more?”
Harm's jaw dropped. “There’s more?”
Dust held out her hands, illusions of fire, ice and crackling lightning hovered around her, “So much more than you could possibly imagine.”
The simple backpacker couldn’t believe his eyes. He knew he’d see some magnificent things during his trip around the world, but this was something he didn't even dare dreaming of.
“This... I .... Wow... it's like... it's calling me,” he stuttered. “The don’t have this back at the farm in Drenthe...”
Dust let the illusions fall and held out her hand, “Come with me, and I can show you a world of pure imagination.”
Harm was entranced. He didn’t think twice about following her.


The purple book floated behind the two as Dust used her magic to lock the door and flip the open sign to closed for lunch. She then led him into the workshop. Dust turned on a light, showing a room that had a well used couch, a comfy looking armchair, an old wooden cabinet, a desk cluttered with books and stacks of paper and some strange devices, and on the floor was what looked like an intricately designed tile pattern.
“Welcome to my magical workshop, please don’t touch anything or you might end up as a blueberry.”
“You remind me of Willy Wonka,” he said. “I... umm... think I get the impression I should follow your warnings...”
Dust waved her hand dismissively, “Don’t worry, I’m a mage, not an insane chocolateer.”
“Someone is having way too much fun with the Wonka references,” a feminine voice said from behind them.
Harm turned around, and saw the grey wolftaur standing in the doorway. He had seen taurs before, even some cowtaurs in his home town, but this one... this one was somehow different; she had two tails...
“W-who are you?” he stuttered. “And where did you just come from?”
“From a personal portal in the basement to always give me access to Mrs Wonka here’s workshop,” she teased, sticking her tongue out at Dust. The taur stepped forward, holding out her hand and smiling. “Sabrina Dalton at your service.”
“Harm Dijkstra,” he shook her hand. “I... umm.... I’m a bit overwhelmed by it all.”
“I'm sorry about that hon,” Dust said, pulling a chair out for herself and gestured to a large soft couch, “Take a seat if you would, Harm Dijkstra.”
Harm sat down and took a moment to take it all in. This day had just turned into a very weird one in ten minutes, possibly something that would change his whole perspective on life...
“I’m really not in Drenthe anymore...” he said to himself...
“Heh, nice Wizard of Oz reference,” Sabrina teased, walking up to Dust and rubbing her shoulders gently. “Where’s Toto though?” The taur feels a light but firm bap on the nose from the fox, wincing. “Ow!”
“I don't have a dog,” Harm said. “We do have cows... like... 150 feral dairy cows on our farm.”
“So nobody in your town used magic? Not even a hedge wizard or local witch?” Dust asked
“Not that I know of,” Harm said. “Or it must be an old forgotten art. Everything is done with machines nowadays.”
“Ever been to Amsterdam or Rotterdam,” Sabrina asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No,” Harm said. “Furthest I went from home was Zwolle... That was until I went on this backpacking trip. To be honest, I rarely went further than my own village. Only for middle school I had to go out of town, but that’s it. I always had to help my parents on the farm. Those cows are quite a lot of work... Doesn’t make a difference if you’re one yourself...”
“And probably made for some, annoying, situations when cows smelled a bull.”
“Oh, umm, yeah... things get awkward when I’m in heat,” he blushed. “Before you know it you have 150 heavyweight ladies waiting for you to give them a go... and one grumpy bull that doesn’t want to see you.”
The three of them chuckled.
“Anyway, the only way I could travel was in books. I dreamed of travels, far away from home, into the world. My body rarely went far from the farm. But in my mind, I’ve crossed many of thousands of kilometers across the world... and in other worlds!”
Dust smiled, “Well, do you want to know more about magic? Or would you like to follow what brought you into my store in the first place?”
“Well... err... both, I guess,” Harm stuttered. “But the magic is calling me... You’re not going to tell me that Atlantis is real too!”
“It is, and it’s tied in with magic.” Dust said, nodding. “Sabrina, do you mind turning off the lights? I want to show our new friend the Lattice.”
Sabrina nods, walking over to the switch and hitting it, the lights flicking off. Dusts tails glowed a soft blue in the darkness as she wove a complex illusion, her hands glowing blue, she then spread her hands and a multicoloured orb expanded into the air. The image quickly started to rotate and resolved into a wire frame image of the globe.
“Does this map live up too your expectations Harm?”
Harm was dumbfounded. He didn’t know what to say. These illusions just baffled him.
“It’s interactive too, go ahead and use your fingers to zoom in on your hometown.”
Harm walked up to the map, and zooms in on Europe and then the northeast of the Netherlands.
“Anything you can imagine can be shown as an illusion.” Dust said, pointing at Amsterdam. A bright dot appeared over the city. “This is what’s known as a Wellspring. A gathering of magical power in one spot. Most capital cities have one or two of these nearby.”
“Looks like most of them are far away,” Harm said. “I do see one in Groningen,” he pointed on a dimmer dot. “But it’s not as bright as the one in Amsterdam.”
“No, not all Wellsprings are as strong as others.” She twitched an ear and lines spread from the nodes, connecting them in a massive lattice of power. She pointed at Groningen, “These are called Ley lines, think of them as rivers of power to the Wellspring lakes, as you can see Groningen has only three Ley lines, whereas Amsterdam has five.”
“And then Paris has nearly 10, with some dashed ones that aren’t active. Paris is as big as they get,” Sabrina added.
“It’s an entire network,” Harm said. “I live here,” he pointed at the east of the Netherlands. “It looks like these Ley lines aren't even coming close to my town.”
“In a country that small, anywhere should be close to a Ley line,” Sabrina said, looking at the map. “Every Ley line is like a river, but it has many, many streams that branch off of it and feed it. No matter where you are in the world, you have access to some magic ability.”
“I guess I could do some magic at home then,” Harm said.
“Yes, you could. But I must warn you, as much as these Wellsprings are a great source of magic, it also makes them targets. Wellsprings have been fought over nearly as much as oil or land. And that’s left scarring.” Dust zoomed the picture out and showed Harm Europe. Across the middle of Germany and across the content were shattered Ley lines, drifting in the sea of power
“Many scars lay across our world, this one is from the Cold War.”
Dust moved the map in further, “Seems your county has some old damage, look here.” She pointed at the map where a Ley line ended, “There should be a Wellspring here, looks like it was either stolen or destroyed as some point.”
Harm looked in horror, recognising the exact location. It was quite close to his hometown. “That's... former Camp Westerbork... Did the Nazi’s destroy it?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Sabrina said. “The Nazi’s were insane about magic. Particularly the Führer himself.”
“Possibly,” Dust said. “Europe is a place where magic can still go wrong. Most other places are stable, though China...” Dust zoomed out and showed a image of China, and how the entire country was separated from the Lattice and was dark to their sight. “... has cut themselves off from the entire world, magically speaking. The Iron Curtain and Soviet Russia looked like this when I was learning magic.”
“I’ve read many books about the Cold War, and the World Wars,” Harm said. “But I didn’t know it went this deep.”
“Sadly it’s worse than you think, these powers play with Ley lines and nodes like they are just tools, they are hurting our world and can easily kill us all.” Dust said, her blood pressure rising. Seeing Dust getting angry, Sabrina raises her muzzle to her, a non-verbal signal of what she can see is happening to the fox. Dust took a deep breath,
“Sorry, I’ve just seen so much harm done to the Lattice over the last sixty years that it's a bit of a sore spot for me. And sadly I don't have the skills or temperament to heal the damage.”
“Hey you wouldn’t be my fire foxy if you didn’t have your temper,” Sabrina teased, nodding to Harm and half whispering. “You want to know where Mozilla got their name from? Look no further,” she giggled, pointing a thumb to Dust. The vixen just rolled her eyes at the bad joke.
“Any questions?” she continued.
“Umm... yeah. Is there some sort of magic school? Or... can I learn it at home? I’m not sure if my parents are gonna like it, though...”
“There are schools, many with an online curriculum. As for your parents, they’ll probably be fine once they find out what it can do for them. Speaking of which, Sabrina can you get the lights again and grab the clear orb from my workbench?”
Sabrina, lost in a daze looking at the map and studying every intricacy of it, just shakes her head. “Huh? What?”
“It’s time to test our new friend for magical potential, can you get the lights and the testing orb from my desk?” Dust said, letting the illusion fade.
“Oh sure,” the wolf replied, blushing heavily, walking over to the lights. “Heh, sorry Harm. Dust knows how easily I can get lost in that map. Not very often do I get to see it.”
“You don’t see it because I get pissed at Europe anytime I look at it.”
“Tell that to my family,” Harm said. “I’ve heard my late ‘opa’ tell stories about the Occupation that make you lose your fur.”


Dust took the series of seven orbs on a wooden plate and handed it too Harm.
“So... what am I supposed to do with these?” Harm asked.
“Just hold onto it and focus on the orbs, as they light up focus on the next one.”
Harm picks up the first orb. He holds it in his hands, and fully focused on the first orb. The orb lit up instantly, showing a dark green light mixed with a lighter green. The other colors shown briefly like it was a cloud thundering in the distance.
“Good job, looks like Life and Healing are among your strongest affinities.”
“Healing? So... I'm destined to become some kind of doctor?”
“Perhaps. Focus on the next orb.”
Harm continued with the next orb, again focusiong on it fully. The next orb lit up just as fast as the previous one, “There is no predestination, this just shows the kind of magic you have an affinity too, the magic specialities you’ll likely learn faster than the others.”
“So... it tells me more about who I am inside...” Harm said. “They may be right. It does feel nice when I’m helping out my mom and dad with the cows at the farm... So... is this orb telling anything special?”
Dust smiled, “Keep on focusing on the next orb when it lights up, Sabrina only got to the next orb herself.”
Sabrina just stuck her tongue out at the fox, getting the joke. “I’m a techie, not a mage.”
Harm picked up the next orb, repeating what he did the first two times, and this one too lit up.
“Good, you're showing Journeyman levels of potential power. Keep it up Harm!”
Harm picked up the fourth orb, and that one too lit up... How long would this go on?
“Keep going ’till the orbs don’t light up fully anymore.”
He picked up the fifth orb. This one too lit up like the others. He was surprised he already got this far. Never in his life he had experienced magic, and yet, it was closer than he could’ve imagined. On the sixth orb something happened that Dust wasn’t expecting. She was excited to see someone reach this number of orbs and remembered her test and how excited she was to get a nearly full seventh orb. But what was happening made her envious of Harm; as the sixth orb finished lighting up and the seventh shown very weakly, the other orbs flashed a brilliant golden colour. Dust stared at the results and whispered:
“Living Earth affinity.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen?” Harm wondered.
“Yes, but no, but yes...” Dust shook her head, “I’ve only heard of this affinity in theory, only a few magi have ever been found with it.”
Sabrina perks up, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Seeing Dust this excited or confused was definitely different for her.
“Remember the map and the Lattice? How it was damaged? Living Earth Mages, or Healing Masters as the are sometimes called, can repair the damage of those foolish enough to mess with the Lattice.”
Harm sat down. “This... this is so much bigger than I can imagine... So you’re telling me I can repair the Lattice?”
“Not yet, but with proper training and learning your power eventually yes. This is just a test of potential, it’s up too you to fill it.”
“I must do something with it,” Harm said. “I mean, if this is something that's rare... it would be such a shame to waste...” He sighed. “You know the line... ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ At least I don't need to have a dead uncle to teach me that...”
Dust smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “Though you do have a Tony Stark to help you. I’ll make sure the Council knows about you and they'll be thrilled. So thrilled I'm sure they would send teachers to you instead of making you go to them.”
“Really?” Harm said. “I’m almost feeling embarrassed about it. What would my parents think of it?”
“Hey! You’re more like Doctor Steven Strange. I’m more the Tony here,” Sabrina teased.
Dust waved her off, “My family has nearly as much money as you do.”
“And I thought I was just a mere tourist passing by...” Harm said.
“And I was just worried that you had found out about Atlantis when you shouldn’t have.” Dust said.
“It almost makes me start to believe in destiny...” Harm sighed.
Dust hands Harm the purple book, “Take this, you’ll need a textbook to practice with before we arrange your first teachers.”
Harm smiled. “Thanks. I’ll have something to read on my backpacking tour around the world.”
“Where you off to next? Cause I have a fun idea,” Sabrina grins. “And if you need a backer…”
“Well, I’ve already done the West Coast and the Sun Belt, and I already got from Philadelphia up to here. I was heading North to Boston, and later making a final stop in Montréal to take a flight to Scotland. I would’ve wanted to go to Iceland, but I don’t have the budget to stay there...”
Dust pulled out a card and handed it too Harm, “Go where you like. That card will let you do whatever you want, within reason of course. I would also like too start a scholarship for magic students and want to have you be the first to receive it. You want in on this Sabrina?”
“Let’s just say you beat me to the card,” Sab teases.
“Don’t worry about me overspending,” Harm joked. “I'm still a cheap Dutchie by heart.”
“Heh, well this little foray into Dust’s shop definitely didn’t go as planned, and gained you two new friends and allies,” Sabrina joked, standing up and grabbing his arm in a tight arm shake.
“I think I’ll need all the help I can get,” Harm smiled.
“Heh, yeah. Don’t hesitate to call us either,” Sabrina winks, handing him both her and Dust’s cards. “Though, now for the reason I showed up. Dust said you saw a map showing Atlantis and it’s ports?”
“Umm... yeah,” Harm said. “I thought it was just a silly map mistake based upon a legend and hearsay.”
“Heh, not exactly.” Sabrina winked, walking over to the lattice, zooming in on Atlantis. He could see two large Wellsprings, both with several Ley lines leading into them, but one with a few more marking it as a Major Wellspring. “You ever hear of Grande Ilha do Meteoro, or Great Meteor Island,” she asked the bull.
“No... never heard of it,” Harm said puzzled.
“It’s a Portuguese island state, similar to the nearby Azores and Madeira. That’s the part of Atlantis everyone knows. It has a population just shy of three hundred thousand, mostly clustered in the area of a caldera on the north side of the island.” She moved a bit north. “This is Atlantis. A chain of several dozen or hundred islands, some volcanic others not, but all with magical properties too great for the rest of the world to see. A select few of us have access, usually through connections there,” she glanced at Dust, nodding to the red crystal.
“My Uncle Theo got shipwrecked there back in the 1860’s, really threw the locals for a loop when he was unaffected by the magical fields on those islands.” Dust said
“Yeah. Most people just see a wall of fog, so thick that even modern captains don’t go near. Anyone who gets close gets thrown off by weird currents that circle the islands.”
“And people don’t question what’s behind the fog?” Harm asked.
“All the time. But the Terran Council and Kitsune Councils both keep them at bay. They are far more powerful technologically and magically than the rest of the world combined, and are not to be messed with.”
“It sounds like an amazing place,” Harm said. “Man, I wish I could go there...”
Sabrina just grinned. “Do you want to?”
Harm's jaw dropped. “You... you can take me there?”
“Easily. It’s what that red crystal is for. It serves as a sort of passkey for mages to be able to open portals there, as well as boost their range if needed. I have a few close friends there, and my sister adopted two…you might call them handtaurs…from there.”
“What are handtaurs?” Harm asked.
Sabrina grinned wider. “Pretty much what they sound like. So I have access. Dust?”
Dust opened a portal, “Before we go through, you need to explain what happens in Atlantis, Sabrina.”
“Might want to grab that magazine Dust grabbed. And, be ready for a couple transformation fields. Like those found around Reunion and Bermuda.”
“Mom and dad are never gonna believe this,” Harm whispered to himself in Dutch. “Bring it on.”
The three stepped though, the portal closing behind them once they fully get to the other side, on to an adventure that Harm never could’ve imagined just an hour ago. He felt like he had just become a part of a story he once had read in his books...

___________________________________________________

This story was written in a private roleplay session, and has been edited for consistency and with some introduction text added to fit a prose form better for better readability. It is part of a still running storyline. I like the way to develop stories this way, and it turned Harm, who was first just a throwaway character at first, into a main staple of this universe. Roleplay does have a risk of meandering storytelling with no clear goal, though.

There are more stories coming in this form on here, so stay tuned for that! I'd like to thank my co-writers for working together on this story.

Participants:
 mandelsoft as Harm Dijkstra
 sabrina-taur as Sabrina Dalton, Vix
 dustcharter as Dust Charter

Edited by  mandelsoft

The illustration was drawn by the wonderful  elke, who brought the scene with the magic test in Dust's workshop to life. Many thanks for that!