Spirit Speaker

Three hours later, I sat on a wire chair in a pavilion on the west side of the gardens. I asked a servant to bring a second chair before the princess arrived. 

And it looked far more comfortable than mine. 

I contemplated stealing the cushion for a few moments. Then thought better of it. 

Ten minutes passed, then another twenty, then an hour. 

I sat patiently. This had happened the last time, too, though my view was infinitely better than it was in the stuffy lecture room I asked her to attend in my previous life. 

That was why I brought a book. 

Another hour passed. 

"What are you reading?" A soft voice asked curiously above my left ear. 

I turned my head in surprise. 

A pixie, dressed in simple woven clothing, a small knife on his hip, floated in the air above me. 

"It's boring," I replied. This didn't happen last time. "It's a treatise on the taxation system of the eastern city-states."

"Then why are you reading it?"

"It's the only book I have." 

"Why not get another one?"

"I'm waiting for the princess."

"The human princess?" 

"That's the one."

"I like her."

"I do, too."

"Is that why you came back?"

I blinked. "Came back?"

"You know. Back." The pixie flew around my head. "To now. To the before." 

To now…

"You know I'm from the future?" I asked, shocked. 

"Who are you talking to?" 

I looked around, and the pixie was gone. 

In its place, wearing a simple white dress and a wide-brimmed straw hat, was the princess. 

She tapped her foot impatiently. 

I smiled, unflustered. "A pixie. He seems to have made his home here in the gardens."

I watched her expression change from annoyance to curiosity to wonder. 

"There's a pixie in the garden? Can I meet him?"

I shrugged. "The Fairfolk are capricious, Highness, and they only owe their allegiance to the Spirit King," I indicated to the chair across from me. "But I can show you something else."

The princess sighed, her face annoyed again. 

"Show me what?" She trudged over to the chair and sat down heavily. 

"Magic." I placed my hand palm up in between us and concentrated for a second. 

A small pale white orb appeared in the air between us. 

"This is a simple summoning spell. It's the spirit of this place."

"The palace?" the princess asked, her eyes wide with wonder. 

Got you. I thought. 

"No, no, this pavilion. I would imagine the palace spirit would take a lot more energy and dozens of mages to summon."

"Does everything have a spirit?"

The spirit flickered in and out of sight, bouncing and teleporting around the pavilion. I pointed at the princess, and the orb darted to her and settled on her upturned hand.

"Everything has a spirit. If it exists, it has a soul attached to it."

"There must be lots of spirits then."

I nodded again. "That's true. And they are the basic component of all magic."

"Really?"

"Yup. All magic is, is manipulating spirits to do what you want. This one isn't very strong because this pavilion has only been around for a hundred years or so, but if I concentrate, I can tell it to do something."

In my mind, I pictured fireworks. 

The spirit darted back to my upturned hand and began to vibrate. It glowed for a second, and then little explosions began to erupt above it, all different colours.

The princess gasped as the lights exploded into different pictures. A rose, a horse, a chair. 

"See? The spirit only knows how to do things it's seen. A horse must have passed around here sometime in the past."

"And it created roses because it's in a garden." 

 "That's correct. You're getting it." I let my palm drop. The spirit vanished. 

"Can I do it?" She asked, leaning forward excitedly. 

I adopted a sad expression. "I'd love to teach you, highness, but I'm going home tomorrow. The king said that you didn't want a new tutor." 

Her brow furrowed. "Tomorrow?" 

"I would have gone tonight, but I couldn't leave until I said goodbye." I let my head drop in a bow. "That's why I called you out here." 

I kept my head down, but I knew her expression. I knew her. 

"What if you didn't have to leave?" The princess asked eventually. 

I raised my head. "Highness?"

Her brow furrowed further, her mouth pursed in thought. 

"I could talk to Father, have him offer you a position in the court? That way, you could stay here and teach me magic, and I can still have Miss Rita teach me the other stuff."

I shook my head. "I'd love that, my lady, but it doesn't work that way. Magic requires your full attention. I need to build a foundation, and I can't do that if you have another teacher ripping it up when you leave me."

"So if I want to learn magic, I can't have Miss Rita teach me anymore?" There was sadness in her voice, not anger. Not irritation. Just a sad acceptance. 

"I'm afraid so, ma'am." 

"But…she's served me so well. I don't want to see her go. She's my friend."

I smiled. There's my queen. 

"What if I spoke to the king for you, highness?" I said, snapping my fingers as if I had just had the idea. "I could ask him to appoint Miss Rita as your etiquette teacher. That way, you can still learn magic and keep Miss Rita around." 

The princess raised her eyebrows. "That could work! Thank you, Master…?"

"Lukas. Just Lukas." I said with a smile. 

"And you can call me Anna."

I bowed. "As you wish, Lady Anna. Would you like to go and tell the king your decision?"

The princess pouted. "Not Lady Anna. Just Anna."

"Well, Anna, would you like to tell the king your choice?"

Anna nodded. 

"Would you like me to go with you?"

She nodded again. 

"Then let's go."