Artists Curse

Maddie just stood there a few moments, watching the portal with wide eyes. She wondered what kinds of things could be up there.

"Where does that lead?" she asked him as she wrote her phone number and Skype information on the writing pad. She held the pen and pad out to him. "Are these illusions?"
She made a quick indication toward the pad she had given him and said, "That's my phone number and Skype. Erm, if you didn't realize."

Maddie shamelessly tried to sneak a glance through the portal before it could disappear on her. She wondered, logically, how such things were made? Was it a black hole of sorts? Could one get lost through those portals? If one did get lost, would it be in space or some other dimension?

She whistled just as her phone buzzed with a light jingle bell tune suitable to a cat commercial. She took her cell from her pocket and unlocked it, looking at the smiling emoji. She quickly named the contact and returned the phone to her pocket.

"Do you ever travel through those portals? You've never gotten lost, have you? Getting lost in a void like that seems like it would be chilly."

Again, Maddie peeked into the portal. She seemed to relax at this explanation. It sounded a lot safer than she had thought it would be, but then Maddie had heard about dangerous magics from where she was from.

By way of explanation, she said, "My sister used to tell me everything she knew about magic, which wasn't a lot and wasn't pleasant. She said there was a lot of kinds of magic, but that most of the powerful stuff was vicious and had some pretty scary rules and effects. I've been learning here that the information I thought was correct isn't always the case." She shrugged some. "It's hard for me to imagine magic without scary guidelines."

Maddie looked at her feet, face thoughtful but not quite sad.

"Our mom dealt in dark magic. My sister remembers it, but I don't. She's quite a bit older than me. She always told me magic has rules, and she warned me that most of it dealt in blood and sacrifice." Maddie shrugged and forced a smile when she looked at him. "She used to read me old folklore about the fae and other ancient creatures. Some of their magic was pretty spooky, but so long as you respected most of them, they wouldn't bug you.

"I remember one story about a fae who would steal children and turn them into dolls. But they were still alive and usually died of starvation or dehydration. I heard a lot of stories of the fae eating children."

"Sort of," she corrects when in reference to her mother. "My mom is probably alive and okay. I can't speak for her magic myself; I never met the woman. My sister, Sariah, would understand it better. From what I got, she possessed magic, but she dabbled in channeling as well."

Maddie looks distant as she watches over Laetus's shoulder rather than looking directly at him.

At his last statement, her attention immediately snaps to him. She meets his eyes and grimaces at how harshly the words sound.

"I know not all fae are bad," she says softly, "and not all of them eat children. Some do, and some are nicer. That could be said for any group..."

She pauses, realizing she's getting off track. "I didn't mean to offend you, but when you have such weak magic as mine, you gotta watch out for all the things that could kill you before you could blink."

Maddie looks down, breaking eye contact. Bandit licks her hand, and she runs her fingers over his snout.

"Please don't be mad. I shouldn't have even brought it up."