Round 1 – Part 2 Prompt for the Fabulous Spec-Fic Smackdown 2024: At the age of seven, Lily was looking forward to witches' school. But now, at twenty-one, she has to find her place in the world, and that's a challenge no one prepared her for.

Word count = 2377

Icy fog enveloped the swamp, chilling Lily to the bone, despite thick leggings and jacket. Backlit by a full moon above, twisted moss-draped branches clawed at the night sky, creating an ominous, surreal mood. Her rubber boots sloshed in the sloppy marsh. Malicious tales abounded of the Black Swamp, of hungry, evil spirits that fed on unlucky trespassers, and the dark mud that erased all traces.

Nobody in their right mind ventured here. But Lily knew well this path.

A normal person would never see the rustic cottage with its rounded roof of thatched reeds, nor the lazy smoke rising from a cobblestone chimney. But a witch might detect the spell that concealed it like a hidden pocket.

Extending arms and crossing wrists, Lily peeled back the folds of reality as if parting curtains, revealing her destination. The faint golden-yellow light that showed through small crosshatched windows invited her onward across the flat stone path to a covered porch. At the rounded, weathered oaken door, she paused, then let out a long breath to calm a pounding heart, watching the condensed moisture lazily curl around on itself.

The door creaked open before she knocked. Lily squinted against the bright light that silhouetted the old woman. A long dress, green and brown like the swamp, covered a slender figure while a black bandana held back long silver hair. A welcoming smile brightened a face creased by long life. "My dear granddaughter," the woman said. "I knew you'd come this day."

Lily collapsed into welcoming arms that never failed to comfort. Long ago, as a little girl, Lily lost her parents to a raging mob. Under her grandmother's advice, she moved into a magic boarding school at age seven, like most young witches. It provided a kind of stability, but she suffered exclusion. Because of her mother's rogue power and rebellious defiance of established order, even to the governing Council of Witches, her parents were vilified, and Lily became pariah by extension. She was often excluded from social groups, taunted, and sometimes bullied.

Loneliness left a thousand tiny scars upon Lily's heart, but she learned to cope, to find her way. A loving grandmother became her lighthouse, a guiding beacon across dark social waters. She learned to find solace in solitude and to cultivate what friends and mentors she could along the way. 'Open your eyes to what is good and pure, my child,' Lily's grandmother had advised. 'We tend to find that which we seek.'

Now at age twenty-one and free from school, the uncertainty of finding her way within a human world that despised witches shadowed her spirit. Having to hide her true identity did not help, and Lily's tiny studio apartment was even more lonely than the school. As if not enough, a relentless calling, nearly irresistible, invaded her mind.

"Does the Key still call?" Lily's grandmother asked, sensing an uneasy aura.

"Yes," Lily responded with a single sob, trembling. "First, my night dreams, now as waking visions."

"Come, I've made some tea. Let's talk."

They sat in twin comfy stuffed chairs before a crackling hearth. The grandmother twirled a hand, dimming the werelights floating above until the flickering fire provided a comforting illumination.

While clutching a steaming pottery mug, Lily bent her head forward, allowing long, dark hair to tumble before her face as tears emerged from large, doe-like honey-brown eyes. "I don't know how long I can take this."

"The Cosmos Key senses your good heart and chooses you, my dear granddaughter," her grandmother said after a moment of silence. "But unfortunately, it does not accept rejection. So, it was with your mother."

"But it killed her, and my father with her."

"No. Witches with dark hearts and simple minds enraged by irrational fear killed them. We magic-blessed are sometimes no better than the humans who would persecute us." As Lily looked up, challenging with moist, narrowed eyes, her grandmother held up a hand. "But I understand. The Key precipitated their fate. The Cosmic Key is magic beyond powerful, and many are the jealous and fearful, even within the Council. It is both honor and curse."

"What should I do?"

"Child, what you cannot avoid, embrace."

*****

"Come," the Key whispered within Lily's mind. "Destiny awaits."

In the early morning before first light, Lily followed, trudging through grimy, dark city alleys near the university and immersed in thought. Attempts to find suitable employment had been fruitless thus far for her. "Perhaps," she thought, "I will enroll in the university and seek work-study opportunities."

Three men eyeing her from within the shadows pulled Lily from introspection. Leaning against a brick wall beside overturned metal trash-barrels, they smoked rolled joints. This wasn't the safest part of town, particularly for a lone woman after dark, but then, she was a witch.

A tall man with a scruffy beard and wild eyes smirked. "Hey babe, you lookin' for us?"

Lily stopped, turning toward him, and huffed. "No. Definitely not that."

With a guttural growl and a hand motion from the first, the three ruffians surrounded her. All equally unkempt, their expressions carried the same drug-induced wildness and disdainful smirks. And they stank of smoke and body odor.

Wrinkling her nose, Lily said with an even voice, "Get out of my way."

The first threw back his arms and dropped his jaw, laughing in mock offence, then put on a lecherous grin. "We'll show you a good time, pretty babe. You'll like it." Stepping closer, he reached out with a dirty open hand toward her cheek.

Lily batted his hand away. "Stay out of my space, scruffy," she warned with narrowed eyes.

Scruffy laughed, inducing chuckles from his companions. "Or what, bitch?"

"You were off by one letter." As the man wrinkled his brow in confusion, Lily lifted her hands, allowing glowing blue streamers of magic to circle around. With a bright flash, a pressure pulse sent him flying and crashing into the trash-barrels, piercing the quietness with tumbling clatters. His eyes rolled up, and he slumped down among the spilled rubbish, groaning.

She again lifted hands, letting out the blue streamers, and glared at the other two men. "You boys want the same?"

Wide-eyed, both held up surrendering hands and backed slowly. Once five paces away, they turned and ran, sprinting around the corner. An amused grin rose on Lily's face as they nearly tripped over each other in panicked retreat.

Telekinesis was the most basic of witch-magic, but even revealing that was risky. Because the world today was little better than the old societies that persecuted witches, the Covens went to great lengths to keep themselves secret and enforced a rigid code of ethics prohibiting public magic display. But even if these low-life drug addicts said anything, Lily reasoned, no one would believe them.

"Come," the voice said again, this time louder.

The calling led her onto campus, and she wandered between bricked classroom buildings, not encountering another soul. Finally, in the darkness behind the Physics Labs building, beside a row of rusty white dumpsters, Lily came to a stop, pivoting in the long shadows. The key was near — somewhere.

"You came," the voice said, startlingly close.

With a gasp, Lily spun around to find an old-style skeleton-key floating before her at eye level. Seemingly made of dull metal, it also emitted an other-worldly green glow. Space folded strangely around it, warping and refracting the views behind. Of all places, she wondered, why did the key lead her here and now?

"What do you want of me?" Lilly asked through the mental link.

"To join. To be together."

"For what purpose?"

"To protect. To serve. To arbitrate."

Advice from her grandmother came to mind: 'what cannot be avoided, embrace.' Gathering courage, Lily sucked in a breath and reached for the key. Upon grasping, it dissolved into her hand with an electric tingle that made her jerk. For a moment, with breath held, nothing happened.

Then a tsunami of knowledge crashed into her mind. Staggering back, Lily grasped her head and moaned. "Too much... Too much..." But the flood continued unabated in discordant symphony. Heart racing, Lily's neurons rebelled at the onslaught, igniting debilitating terror. Far overwhelmed, Lily tilted her neck back and screamed to the cosmos.

Space warped and distorted in odd patterns around her. Jagged blue-white sparks arced into the air, hissing and painting the building wall in bright strobes.

"Stop! Stop!" she begged, while collapsing to her knees.

Secrets of the cosmos beyond human understanding forced themselves into her mind — the undulating fabric of reality, threads of probability that weaved cause to effect, the scale emergence of time, and the celestial background energy that was the source of all magic. In a way, the universe was alive and aware, but incomprehensibly. A kaleidoscope of colors blazed across her inner eye, a hiss roared through auditory channels, and sparks prickled her skin. Then the spirits of all keyholders before rose as a murmuring crowd, including Lily's mother.

Primal evil also lurked in the cosmos, she now knew, shattering presumed innocence of the stars. Malevolent, vengeful spirits prowled the deep darkness, threatening all things good.

"I can't..." Lily sobbed. "Too much..." She slumped to the dirty asphalt, shaking and whimpering in a curled fetal position.

"We are one," the Cosmic Key announced to a fading consciousness.

Overcome and trembling, Lily barely sensed the gentle arms that scooped her up and carried her away.

She awoke with a gasp in a brightly lit room as eternity's echoes faded within her mind. But there was more than her within her brain, two separates, but somehow joined. It was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. As Lily's eyes regained focus, she took in a man's face gazing down at her. Bushy sandy-brown hair framed a gentle oval face with at least two days of whisker stubble. Round wire-framed glasses surrounded hazel eyes that expressed nothing but concern.

"Are you alright?" the man asked.

Lily laid on a couch within a cluttered office. Paper stacks cluttered a scuffed wooden desk with a keyboard and computer monitor shoved to one side. Crumpled paper, drink cups, and snack wrappers overflowed from a wire-wicker trash can. The first rays of morning sun filtered through partially open window blinds beside a metal coat-tree on which her dark jacket hung.

With a deep breath, Lily rose to a wobbly sitting position. "I think so," she replied in a weak voice. But as she tried to stand, dizziness overcame her, and she staggered.

With gentle hands, the man helped her sit again. "Easy now. Just rest for a bit. What is your name?"

"Lily."

"Well, hello, Lily. I am Noah Dunn, assistant professor of physics. I came in early today and heard you scream."

"Thank you, Dr. Dunn," Lily said, putting on a weak smile.

"Call me Noah." He picked up a paper cup from his desk and handed it to her. "Some water if you're thirsty?"

"You are kind, Noah." Lily said, accepting the cup and drinking half the water. "I'm not on drugs or anything like that."

"I believe you. What you did — the outward physical manifestations — that was no drug. What happened?"

"I'm not sure myself," Lily replied, intentionally cryptic. "Magic, I guess."

A grin appeared on Noah's face. "Well, magic is merely science we don't yet understand."

"I suppose so," Lily said, examining her hands. She understood the truth of his words.

A kind of pressure built up within Lily, and with a yelp, blue streamers of magic burst from her hands, swirling around her and Noah in turbulent spirals. He gasped as space distorted in waves, warping back and forth like quivering bubbles. In a dizzying snap, a wave deposited them in a dimly lit hallway several meters away, then another teleported them back in the office.

Tumbling onto the couch, Lily's eyes rolled up and she slumped sideways. The cup laid sideways on the carpeted floor, having spilled the remaining water. Noah rushed in, catching her and gently guiding her back up and leaning her head back against a propped pillow.

After a few moments and deep breaths, Lily regained composure and straightened up. "I'm sorry, Noah."

"It's okay." With a hint of glee, Noah sat down beside her and extended his hands. "What you just did — bending local space like that — that should not have been possible. That kind of dimensional dilation should have required an enormous gravitational point source, like a black hole. If you don't mind, I'd like to do some tests on you and--"

"No," Lily replied, scooting away and hugging herself. "You don't understand, Noah. I am... a witch, and humanity has never been kind to us." She examined her hands again, biting her lower lip, hoping the new magic would not burst out again so uncontrolled. "With power comes responsibility, and I understand my purpose now. The universe is a dangerous place, and I am charged with protecting our world."

Waving a hand in a circular motion, gentle blue streamers emerged, wrapping around the paper cup. It rose and placed itself upright on the desk edge. Then beads of moisture lifted from the wet thin carpet and coalesced into a floating sphere of water, as if weightless. With a fluttering of fingers to direct the magic, the water returned to the cup as if never spilled.

"You see," Lily said, "magic."

Noah shook his head. "What you call magic, I call bending probability. It is not a violation of statistical thermodynamics as long as the system entropy balances. Do you draw energy from somewhere?"

"Yes. From the aether, the fabric of reality." Lily looked up into Noah's eyes, holding his gaze. "I would like to learn more of your science."

"I could teach you," he said, smiling, "as you teach me. And perhaps I could help you control your magic."

Lily nodded and returned the smile. "I would like that." A portion of destiny's weight lifted from her shoulders and warmth glowed in her heart. What she needed most of all was a friend. Somehow, the Cosmic Key had known this.

"Alright, then," Noah said, standing, then helping Lily stand. "I think our first task should be breakfast. Are you hungry?"

"Famished."