Tulipelle pulled out her wand and held it out, concentrating as she drew a circle of glittering mist in midair, with the center of the circle showing the hole in the ceiling. The view through the circle revealed a crackling disc of energy in the hole.
“That’s the portal?” You ask.
“Yes, it’s definitely not normal, but I must get a better view.” Pushed ahead by her wand, as if it were a magnifying glass, Tulipelle flew closer to the portal.
“So,” Sandra began, “what do you call yourself now?” The very question made you and Tulipelle almost flinch. “Ha! Just kidding; I know full well fairies can’t just give their names away like that.”
You felt relieved and Tulipelle just flashed Sandra a look as she went back to her examination. “Still, she continued, I gotta call you something. How about Thumbelina?” She said with a smirk.
“Okay, no!” You say with your hands crossed.
“Call her Iris,” Tulipelle suggested, flying back to the two exes; “and you can call me, Tulip.”
“Isn’t that a little too close?” You whisper in a voice barely audible to even a fairy’s ears.
“It’s a common practice when dealing with humans;” Tulipelle whispered back; “after all, sometimes the best place to hide something is in plain sight.”
“… Fair enough.”
“So, I’ve finished my examination.” Tulipelle said to you and Sandra. “I believe the portals are being tampered with.”
“I suspected as much, but I couldn’t be sure.” Sandra said. “I wasn’t about to go back through it, let me tell you.”
“How do you know?”
As if replaying footage, Tulipelle brought up the mist ring and pointed to some floating bits inside, which were changing between pure white to pitch black. “See these particles? That’s Chaos Magic.”
“Ah, of course!” Sandra said. “Well, this just got interesting.”
You were completely confused. “Yeah, I probably would agree if I knew what that was.”
“You really are new at this, aren’t you?” Sandra said.
“Well, I guess it’s time for your first lesson in magic.” Tulipelle said. “Most magic is elemental, derived from one or more of six sources: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light and Dark. The first four are the Anima or ‘Nature’ group; the other two are the Spiritual group. Now Chaos magic is something else entirely, it’s neither Light nor Dark and neither Anima or Spiritual; and yet, it’s all these at the same time.”
“It’s also highly unpredictable and forbidden to use it.” Sandra added. “Too unstable.”
“Okay, I think I follow you.” You said. “The question is, who’s using it?”
”That would be me!” Came a voice at the entrance of the cave. The three of you turn to see…