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A/N: Check out this quick blog post about where I’m at.

—

It must have been a couple of hour after they had gone to bed that Silver woke them.

“Come on!” she whispered. “Your parents are finally asleep.” She looked over at Sera. “Your father snores.”

Sera snorted at that. “Tell me about it. On a bad night he keeps us all awake.”

“I can believe that,” Silver said. “I don’t think any of them are likely to wake up while we’re gone, but just in case.” She swished her flames at the empty beds. A soft glow engulfed them for a moment before passable illusions of the girls appeared in them. Sera crouched down and peered at the image of herself.

“Do I really look like that from behind?” she asked.

Ophelia had to lean around her to get a good look.

“Yeah, pretty much? Why?”

“Ugh!” Sera pulled a face. “I think I need a new hairstyle.”

“Why? There’s nothing wrong with your hair.” Ophelia frowned at her before turning to Silver. “So how do we get where we’re going?”

“Well I could teleport us,” Silver said. “But it’s something you should learn, so how about you do it and I’ll talk you through it. First, you’ll need the key.”

“Okay.” Ophelia concentrated and the crystal appeared in her hand. “What now?”

“Sera will need to hold on to you. I’ll teleport myself to give you a beacon to follow.” She waited while Sera put a hand on Ophelia’s shoulder. “I’ll jump now. Ask the Key to follow my path.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Ophelia waited until Silver vanished before concentrating and asking it to follow her. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, then the floor dropped out from her feet and she was plunged into a spinning blizzard of rainbow colours. There was no up nor down here and Ophelia felt Sera’s hand on her shoulder tighten into a death grip – a fact which relieved her because it meant that she wasn’t alone in being terrified. Then, just as she thought she couldn’t take it any more, the blizzard of light spat them out again.

Ophelia blinked and staggered slightly before looking around and trying to get her bearings. It was dark, but the soft bristly stuff beneath her feet and the green scent in the air suggested that she was standing on grass. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she spotted a huge twisted shape in front of them. It looked familiar but it took her a moment to recognise it as one of the ancient oaks at the heart of Caredale Park. She frowned at it in confusion and looked around for Silver but couldn’t see her.

“Damn!” she said. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, not at all!” Silver appeared from behind the tree. “My family lives here.” She floated over to the tree. “I know this seems weird, but follow me.” With that, she moved forward and disappeared into the apparently solid tree trunk.

“Okaaaay…” Ophelia raised an eyebrow. “Chalk this up to yet more weirdness.” She walked up the tree and reached for the place where Silvie had vanished but her hand never made contact. Instead, she felt nothing and her hand disappeared into the trunk. “Ah! I think the door is masked by an illusion.” She felt around and delineated the doorway. “We should fit through okay. Come on.”

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A/N: Check out this quick blog post about where I’m at.

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