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-  Circles of Time:                              -
-  http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/9897/ct.html   -
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        I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!  I
know!  I said I’d released a story earlier, but how can you write when
you’ve been sick and had exams and tests?  --;;  Why me?

        Oh well! ^_^

        Here it is: My very first Circles of Time story.  Not the story I
wanted to enter the "round table of noble authors" with, but I think
it’s a good entrance.  Many thank you’s go out to M-chan for putting up
with my ramble and endless questions.

PS- I have NO idea when new parts to "Bishoujo Senshi The Legacy" and
"Wanting to be Together With You" will be out.  I used most of my hiatus
on this story and my BIG story and two other stories; this one another
one.  And I hardly got any of it done.  I’ve been in what a writer would
call a slump.  --;;

So don’t go expecting much from me, okay?
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Circles of Time: The Sorcerer's Daughter
By: Masked Maiden
maskedmaiden@bishoujosenshi.com

        November 28th, 1619
        (Or I least I believe that’s the date.)

                To smell the lunar roses when in bloom.  To see the
                water fountains in front of the moon palace.  To feel
                the spring breeze.  To talk to me dear friend.  I miss
                it dearly, the Silver Millennium.

                My memories of the old days are still very lucid in my
                mind.  And one thing I clearly remember is the magic.
                I remember when magic was used as a tool in everyday life,
                to sustain life in the peaceful balance it bore.  A
                higher, more prestigious magic was constantly used by all
                the royalty.  I shall include myself in this category,
                 being a very close friend to Serenity.

                And so my next mission assumes me.  Where I am going
                magic is feared.  It’s almost like the people believe
                it is evil.  They probably do believe that.  Oh, how
                they fear it; beyond a capability that I am not able to
                comprehend.  What threat do they see in it?  Is it
                because it’s different?  They should accept change as
                a way of life and learn to live with it.  Magic has
                helped people in so many ways.  The users of magic have
                been able to heal the sick, rid their homelands from
                evil;   temporarily of course, but evil did flee.  And yes,
                there are some who abuse the privilege, but you will
                find that everywhere, no matter what it is.

                Things change I suppose.  People change.  Even the time
                changes.

                I know that too well.

                I shall close this entry in my time journal now.  Maybe
                one day I’ll look back at this and ponder over my own
                thoughts.

                                                                Meiou
Setsuna

------
1619
London, England

        Ophelia.  Ophelia Wolfe.

        She was named Ophelia after her mother's most favorite
Shakespearean character.  She a sweet, quiet child, who kept to herself
mostly.  Her big, bright chocolate eyes and long, shimmering ebony hair
hid her shyness well with their childish beauty.  She was well behaved,
cultured, and educated.  The child was certainly a fair young lady, at
such a young age.  Her mother's joy and her father's pride.  She was
given everything she wanted, and even more.

        But there was one thing Ophelia wanted that no one could give her.

        Ophelia wanted to be a sorcerer.

        Her father was a sorcerer, and he did not wish for his daughter to
follow in his footsteps.  It was too much responsibility for anyone,
and too risky.  The world hated magic.  And if a bearer of the feared
power was found, they were either hanged or drowned.  He did not want
his daughter to live her life with such a heavy burden on her; it was
the same cost he paid many years ago.

        He looked up from his desk and stared at his little girl.
"Ophelia, darling," he said, "Being a person of magic in this period of
time is nothing but a wish to live in the shadows the rest of your life.
Don't make the same mistake as I did."

        The little girl looked at her father with determined,
chocolate brown eyes and said, "But you do so much good with your
magic!"  Her lips pooched out and her eyes became heavy.  She looked
like a small puppy begging for attention and affection.

        He picked her and sat her in his lap.  Her eyes softened and her
tension drifted away.  "You don’t need to know magic to do good," he
said.

        Ophelia knew that, but it wasn’t the same.  She wanted to bring
good to the world the same way her father did.  Even if it did mean
her life.

        That night, carrying an oil lantern, she walked into her father’s
study and closed the door behind her.  The light from the lantern
illuminated the door, giving off a dull, yellowish light that relieved
shadows and shelves of thick books filled with spells and incantations
of all sorts.  The candles her father used for light were still glowing,
barely out of wick.

        Ophelia walked over the wall-sized shelves, looking for a
particular spell.

        A love spell.

        Not for her, of course.  Her neighbor’s lover had left her a
couple of days ago.  Her first good deed was going to be bringing them
together again.

        But there was an unwritten rule in the sorcerer world.

        Actually two.

        The first rule was not to mess with people’s emotions unless it
was desperately necessary.  Ophelia had heard her father talk about
that one many times.  But for this, she felt it was necessary.  So she
ignored it.

        The other rule was more of a grammar rule.  It was the one rule
she was not aware of.

        Words could have more than one meaning.  Know ahead of time what
you were getting yourself into; you might have to pay the consequences.

        Ophelia picked a heavy book from a low shelf and placed it on her
father’s desk.  She pulled the chair over and sat down.  She winced.
She found out she was too small, too short for the chair.  She grabbed
a couple of books from the same shelf and placed them in the seat.
Finally, she could see the top of the desk.

        Her fingers quickly thumbed through the aging papers of the book
and the fading words until she found an incantation that interested her.

        Quietly, she read the title to herself.  "New Beginning; For
people who want a change in their love life."

        Ophelia's smile gleamed in the dull light of the lantern.  It was
just what she was looking for.  No question about it.

        She squinted her eyes to make out the faded words on the yellow,
crackling paper.

        Turn world.
        Fast!
        To the pace I want to go.
        Let me be loved;
        The way I want to be loved!
        Breath new life into me.
        And let me start over!

        Ophelia recited the small phrase and waited for something to
happen.  Something usually happened after her father recited a spell or
an incantation.

        She got nothing in return except for the silence that was
already there.  Why didn’t anything happening with her?

        She became cross; all of that for nothing.

        She was ready to slam the book shut and put it back on the shelf,
but something other than the lantern began to give off light.

        The book itself was glowing.

        The light expanded through the room with its presence.  The
brightness illuminated intensely, blinding Ophelia.  She covered her
eyes to block its brightness.  She screamed.  The scream cut through the
silence like a knife and filled the whole room.

        She didn’t expect THAT to happen.

        Soon, the light withered away.  The book dropped to the floor,
closing as it hit the floor.

        And Ophelia was no where to be seen.

        A woman with deep, magenta eyes was hiding the shadows of the
room.  She had watched the scene, knowing what was to happen.  She knew
about it before it even happened.

        Setsuna had a funny way with things like that.

        "Ophelia’s drowned . . . and is not coming back."

        The spell Ophelia picked was not a love spell.  It was a rebirth
spell.

        But who would have known?

------

Present Time: 1967
Bunkyo-ku National Library

        Megumi tapped her pen on the table, reading a passage in an old,
thick encyclopedia.  Her note pad was already full of notes for her
research paper, but she wanted to make sure she had enough information.
Her research paper for World History was due by the end of the week.  It
was Monday.  She could have it done the next night.

        "Setsuko, what are you doing your paper on?" she asked.

        She got no response.

        "Setsuko?"

        She looked up from the thick book and saw her best friend reading
a much thinner book.  It was a magazine from the periodical shelf.

        "Megumi-chan, tickets for the Baishou Cheiko concert go on sale
Friday!  Let's get some!"

        "Setsuko, the date on that magazine is 1966!  Baishou-san hasn't
had a hit since Medieval times!"

        Setsuko looked up and pointed to the page she was looking at.  "I
know!  I'm reading an article on Minky Momo.  I heard about the concert
of TV!"

        Megumi's head hung.  She heavily sighed and rested her chin on her
intertwined fingers.  She stared at her friend apathetically.  "I can't
believe you get As with your school habits . . ."  She sat up and stared
at the encyclopedia again.  She closed it, deciding she had enough notes
for her paper.

        Setsuko laid the magazine aside and picked up the book she picked
out for her research paper.  Then she took at what Megumi had gotten
out.  Two encyclopedias and several other books.  She knew Megumi was
more studious than she was.  Sometimes she believed she was too
studious.

        "What are you doing yours on, Megumi-chan?" Setsuko asked.  "I'm
doing mine on the American Civil War.  Heh, I think everyone's doing
their paper on that!"

        Megumi replied to her friend’s question.

        "Sorcerers . . . I don't know why . . . the topic just came to me
for some reason."

------
fin

To be continued in the story "The Letter".

Don’t cha just hate that?  ;)

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