Spell 25 - Glyph One

Kagami turned around and began walking again, with her tail swaying lightly behind her. She said nothing at first, only moved toward the corridor with the floating platforms they were supposed to cross.

Ren figured she was amused by something.

"What?"

"Nothing," she replied, glancing over her shoulder.

"He was just starting to piss me off."

She didn't answer with words after that. Her ears twitched back a bit, and just for a moment, Ren could see a bit of a smile on her face.

"And by the way," Ren added, catching up beside her, "you still haven't told me what the backstory is here. I'm basically running blind."

"I already promised you'll know by the end of it," she said shrugging. "But right now, we have this thing to cross."

They both came to a stop as they reached the threshold of the vast corridor chamber again. The floating platforms stretched forward like a broken trail hanging over the abyss. The faint purple glow of the glyphs slightly lit the way ahead as if waiting for them to make the next move.

Kagami turned to him.

"You think you can manage it?"

Ren looked down. The darkness below them looked infinite. The distance between each platform wasn't impossible to cross, but he couldn't help but consider how many mistakes he might make in the process. One slip. One wrong step. And he would die like an idiot in this place without ever having understood a thing about it.

"I'll try not to die," he replied.

A faint growl slipped from Kagami, playful like she was entertained but couldn't be bothered to laugh.

Ren approached the edge even more, targeting the platform nearest him. Its glowing symbol kept pulsing, turning into glowing mist at the edges. It was almost as if it was staring at him and taunting him to give it his best shot. 

"What does the first symbol mean?" he asked while studying the shape of it.

Kagami was already crouched on a stone ledge nearby, anticipating the path ahead. But at his question, she turned to him again. 

"You sure you want to know?"

"Yeah," Ren replied straightforward, meeting her gaze.

"It means: You keep saying it wasn't your fault. Why do you keep saying it?"

The words hit him like a punch. Kagami had already warned him that those symbols targeted him and his memories, but this was just too personal. More than he was prepared to take in.

"Right."

He stepped back, adjusted his shoulders, and prepared to jump. Then, without giving it any more thought, he balanced his weight forward and leapt.

The platform stood still as he landed on it, taking in the weight with no apparent imbalance. The glyph beneath his feet pulsed as soon as he was on top of it, then lit up in a sharp burst of violet light. That light expanded fast, engulfing his body before he had time to breathe in.

Then everything around him seemed to just vanish. It kept like that for a few moments, until the light receded into sound. He could hear distant wind and the familiar buzzing of the city he used to live in, which was awkward considering he should be nowhere near something like that.

But no, much to his surprise, he was indeed sitting on a metal balcony somewhere that resembled a grated fire escape. It took a moment for his mind to catch up to that.

His hands were tiny, that's how he realized he was younger. He could also tell by the way his knees were all bruised up, and by how high the edge of the balcony seemed when he approached it. Haruki, his brother, was sitting next to him with his legs crossed, admiring the view in front of them.

Below, the city stretched far and wide, blinking with its tiny dots that resembled fireflies.

Haruki's voice came through that memory as something gentle yet profoundly heavy.

"People always seem to think witches are so different from us, and that makes their world so divided from ours. That they're somehow unreachable and we're unreachable to them."

"Aren't they?" little Ren asked, looking at him.

Haruki smirked. "They're just humans with add-ons. They have bodies just like us, and most of them still have the same basic needs as we do. But it's true that they can become dangerous if we ask the wrong things of them."

"Will we ever meet one?" Ren asked, blinking hard at his brother's explanation.

"If we're lucky, no."

Haruki's tone changed slightly when he said it. It was something Ren hadn't seen back when he was little, but could notice now with a more mature eye. Something had happened. Something that made him better understand the dangers, and know better than to interfere with them again. Ren could see that clearly now behind his brother's eyes, even when he smiled.

This memory was from before things started to change, before the long nights in hiding.

Suddenly, the balcony and the city lights faded slowly. The wind stilled. The violet light took over once more, until it too disappeared into nothingness.

Ren found himself standing alone on the platform again, and as he slowly got used to the idea of it, he let out a shaky breath, trying to release the weight still pressing down on his chest.

Kagami had already leapt ahead on another small ledge protruding from the right wall, closer to where he was. She was waiting for him to come back to his senses as if she already knew what that glowing sigil would do. 

"This place sucks," Ren almost whispered, not caring if anyone heard or understood what he meant.

But Kagami smiled amused, and maybe a little too pleased by his honesty.

"That's what most people believe, too."

Ren looked forward toward the path ahead, attempting to get a general idea of how many of these platform-like floating... things... he would have to go through. The path was long, and the end of it was shrouded in darkness. He sighed a little at that fact, but he was determined to continue. There was no going back at this point anyway.

He rolled his shoulders and prepared for the next platform.