At last we found a door, simple and wooden, nestled between a large bookcase and a glass cabinet filled with trinkets hidden in the night. The moon had risen away from the windows and I could barely see the floor, so Fen had felt her way along the last stretch.

  Fen’s grip was tight on me again as she fumbled with a key, then eased in relief as the door opened, and she slipped in and locked the door behind her.

  Here I could see nothing at all, and winced as Fen shuffled and thumped her knee into something hard. She scrabbled with her free hand, knocking things over until at last she took hold of something. There was a loud click, a shower of sparks, and a flame flared to life in the glass chimney of an oil lamp.

  Fen slapped her hand against her face in frustrated disappointment, "Augh, of course... Stupid! What was I thinking? Here, you stay right there.” She swept free a space on the desk and gently lay me down, then turned away with her arms outstretched and grumbled, “I’m going to try to pack some stuff, if I can even find anything… Ouch, damn it!”

  The oil lamp’s flame flickered and loomed over me suspiciously, and I scooted away from it.

  Wait, scooted away from it? Yes, I’d moved across the desk! But how? My covers, they’d wiggled, a faint undulation. I tried again and this time pivoted, then slid towards the desk’s edge. Now with some distance from the flame, I took in this new place, and saw it was Fen’s room. There was a poster bed, and a clothes dresser, and thick curtains behind which I supposed was yet another window. Fen was rummaging through a trunk, feeling for items and stuffing them into either a sack on the floor or in a small pouch slung to her waist. She held up a different set of robes, darker and thicker, embroidered with delicate patterns, then stood and started to undress.

  I felt unexpectedly uncomfortable then, and pivoted away to avoid intruding on her privacy, though I was somewhat curious to see how one dressed themselves. But then, as I turned, something else caught my attention: a book, thick and leather-bound, just there on the table’s corner. Captivated, I wormed my way towards it, and nudged around its corner to see its spine. There, in the second segment between the raised bands of its cord binding, was a golden writing shimmering in the flame’s light. And so, for the very first time, I read.

  The Magic Initiate

  Excitement surged through me, and I admit my next actions were largely devoid of forethought. I slid back around towards the volume’s corner, and marveled at its size, at least a hundred times my own! Its page-edges were marbled in marvelous red, black, and gold, and its black leather binding was speckled with golden flakes. I absolutely had to open it, to see its writing, to read just a little bit…

  I propped my corner beneath its front cover, and pivoted on my spine with all my strength, swinging its heavy cover over so it fell open. In the same movement I twirled and found myself standing before it, my pages facing its own, and looked across its wide cover page.

  The Magic Initiate

  An introduction to forces

  By Masters

  K.L.P.W

  B.M.C.Q.R

  B.P

  &

  O

  To justify what happened next, I should explain that I’d never considered hunger, never imagined that I might need nourishment. But at that moment, I realized that I was famished. If I had a mouth it would have been drooling a puddle. If I had a stomach it would have been growling like something waking from a long winter. I had no control as I leaned forward, opened my pages slightly, and read that book.

  There was a sound like a pack of cards being shuffled between hands, then a puff of golden light, and I was flying and spinning through the air until I poofed onto soft, downy, pillows.

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  It should be noted that, for the briefest instant, a peculiar writing flashed in my mind. However, its meaning was, at that time, entirely beyond my grasp.

  Library System Initiated

  Books catalogued:

  One

  “What was that?” cried Fen, “what’s happening? Book, where are you?”

  I couldn’t answer, couldn’t think. I felt so heavy, so full. My mind was still spinning, trying to understand what had happened. Still, I tried to speak. “I… I…” But then, hazily, my attention fell on yet another book. It was resting on the nightstand in an inexplicably sultry kind of way, smaller than The Magic Initiate, but still at least ten times my own size. I drowsily read its cheap paper cover.

  Passion on the Dunes

  Even the coming tides

  Shall never wash away

  What we did on the sand

  A novel by

  Fecilia Harness

  Author of Tender Waves and Find me in the Orchard

  It seems to be a law of gluttony that, no matter the excess of a great meal, there always remains some room for dessert. I don’t even remember how I did it, but suddenly I was on the nightstand, breathing in a strange way as I looked upon this book. I knew it wouldn’t be good for me, that I needed no more nourishment, that I was already much too full and that no particular benefit would be obtained with this book, but still, I couldn’t resist. I nudged at its cover, and Fen’s hand closed over me, pulling me up into her arms.

  “There you are, what are you doing? How did you get all the way over here? Come on, answer me, speak!” she said, relieved and worried and angry all at the same time. She took hold of one of my pages menacingly, reminding me of our deal with the threat of being ripped.

  “I - I read a book!” I spluttered, coming to my senses.

  “You what?” said Fen, her hand falling away, “what book?”

  “A book, I’m sorry! I was over there, where you put me, and there was this big book, and I’ve never read a book, and I couldn’t help myself, and I opened it up, and then-”

  “You read The Magic Initiate?” she asked, incredulously.

  “Yes, I’m sorry, I didn’t know what would happen, I just had to, and next thing I knew I was on your bed, and there was that other book, Passion on the Dunes, and it was so tempting-”

  Fen flushed and moved so quickly it was hard to believe she was blind. Passion on the Dunes disappeared into her nightstand’s drawer with a clack.

  “You’re telling me all that noise was you, reading the entirety of The Magic Initiate in seconds, and then flying across the room to my bed?”

  “Well, yes,” I mumbled, “it just sort of happened. You don’t know what it’s like, that was the first time I’d ever had a chance to read another book!”

  Fen huffed and held her temples in exasperation, “You don’t get it, Book. That’s one of the densest, most challenging books to introductory magic. I’ve been reading it for years, and I’m still… Augh… was still only on chapter four. But I guess I won’t be able to continue it now anyway.”

  For a moment she was silent, then asked curiously, “Did you actually understand any of it?”

  I thought, trying to remember anything. But there was only a strange sort of ponderous gurgling, as though my mind was still digesting it all.

  “Um, I’m not sure?” I answered, as close to the truth as I could be, “I think I might, later maybe?”

  Fen tilted her head, “How did you even manage to open it, that thing is huge, I can barely - wait a minute…” She frowned, then hefted me suspiciously “Is it just me, or are you a little heavier than before?” Fen turned towards table where The Magic Initiate sat and quirked her brow. “Did you… what did you-”

  The doorknob rattled and the door shook, and there came from the hallway the sound of a key ring being searched for the right one. Fen’s breath caught and she clutched me tightly, looking about in panic. “Oh no, there’s no time, I’m not ready - my bag! No, we have to go.”

  Fen dropped to the floor, opened the small door beneath the drawer of her nightstand, and began entering feet first. I was baffled and could only watch as we went further in, fitting impossibly into a space that wouldn’t even have accommodated The Magic Initiate. It was a tunnel, a downward slope which made it easy to slip in. As the room’s door was keyed open, Fen reached out, shut the nightstand’s entrance, and down into the darkness we slid.

  And all I could think about, with some shame, was that tempting paperback, just beyond my reach, trapped in that lonely drawer.

  One day, I promised, I would free it. And then, I would read it.