Darkness.

That was all Astara could see after she jumped into the portal. Time seemed to be frozen. She felt as if she were floating through a black hole. She felt calm. More relaxed than she ever remembered being.

Fog seemed to cloud her mind. Why was she here again? Who took her here? Where was here anyway? A wave of calm passed through her body and she smiled. She didn't need to worry about all those silly questions. She didn't need to worry about anything ever again.

Astara closed her eyes as she floated through the black oblivion. Everything was silent until a soft snap echoed throughout the vast space. She opened her eyes to see a thousand stars lighting up the darkened place.

"Wow!" Astara exclaimed. Or at least she thought she did, it was hard to tell with her mind so clouded.

She reached out to touch one of the stars but quickly pulled away. The star was white hot and had left a small burn on her hand, disrupting her peace. She was blowing on her palm when she heard a faint voice calling out to her.

"Astara..." The voice called out. Astara looked around her and squinted into the distance. Her dark blue eyes weren't quite adjusted to the darkness, even with all the stars. But she could make out a large dark figure floating towards her.

"Come here Astara, I need your help." The figure crept closer and panic clawed at Astara's chest. She desperately tried to run away but it was almost as if she were running in place! Her breathing became quicker and her panic rose. The peace she had first felt when she arrived here disappeared. Astara clutched her heart, she didn't know how she had gotten here but she wanted out!

The mysterious figure came into view and Astara was surprised to find that it looked somewhat familiar. The figure was a man. He had long, dark hair and wore an indigo cloak. But the most striking thing about him was his violent, purple eyes.

The man held out his hand to her. "You are the brightest star of them all Astara. Let me help you. We could do many things together! I can teach you marvelous things if you come with me. Come here, take my hand. Come home with me!" He extended his hand even further.

She was so, so tempted to take his hand and leave the once peaceful place. She was frightened and confused and this man seemed to know all the answers, like how to get out of this never ending darkness.

Astara reached out to take his hand. The man smiled, clearly pleased, and stretched his arm out even further. His purple eyes gleamed with triumph and...wait, purple eyes? She'd seen someone with purple eyes before, but where?

"It's okay dear child, you have no reason to be frightened." His smile grew so much wider it was almost sickening. The tip of her fingernail touched his thumb and she gasped.

Bright, blurry images flashed in front of her: A murder of a king, a queen falling to the ground, a crying baby in her arms. The man with the purple eyes was racing towards a portal that was slowly closing. He was close, too close: the portal closed right in front of him with a bright flash of light and a loud explosion.

The man was thrown back. A long scar had been created right above his left eye. A loud, shrill, terrifying sound came out of his mouth and everything around him crumbled to ashes. But when he looked around at all the destruction and death he had caused, he didn't mourn, he smiled.

A whimper escaped Astara's mouth as she frantically tried to back away. She finally knew where she had seen him before: he was guy calling out to her in her strange dreams! And here he was, in person, calling out to her again.

The man laughed. "Poor, poor Astara, she doesn't even know, does she." The man seemed to be speaking to himself. But then he directed his gaze to her. "You are confused my little star, that I can tell. Come with me and I shall give you all the answers."

Astara realized that he must not have known what she had seen. Maybe he didn't know how afraid she was of him, hopefully he didn't, she hated being afraid (though the images she'd seen gave her many reasons to be). And she really, really, really did not want to take his hand. But she knew that if she didn't, she would probably never get out of this darkness.

After taking a deep breath, she shakily reached for his hand and...

Nothing happened.

Nothing happened because two strong arms grabbed her from behind and pulled her away from the man with purple eyes. She thrashed and fought the arms but another wave of peace passed through her and she stopped. The man's eyes lit up with anger and lunged towards Astara.

Naturally, even when she was feeling incredibly calm, she screamed as loud as she could. In some weird way she found it fun. But this time something was different. For instance, her scream had never thrown someone ten feet in the air before.

Well that's new! She thought, shocked at herself.

The two arms were still locked tightly onto her body but they had slightly loosened when she did her awesome screaming thing. They pulled her farther and farther until a large, bright, gaping hole appeared among the starry darkness. The arms held her tight as together they leapt headfirst into the brightness.

                                      ***
"Astara? Astara can you hear me?"

Oh she could hear all right, they were speaking right in her ear, she was just too tired to respond. She seemed to be laying face first on something soft...grass maybe?

"Wait I think I've got this! Stand back Sorcerer Moon! Vis Elecricae Fulmenious!" A higher voice shouted.

"Leo no-!"

A sharp jolt of electricity zapped Astara's body, which felt like she was being electrocuted. The pain made her sit bolt right up.

"Sonofapixie!" She yelped. The hairs on her arms were sticking straight up and she was sure the hair on her head wasn't any better.

She looked up and in front of her was an old, dark skinned man with blue velvet robes on.  He had brown eyes that twinkled.

Mr Daniels

Beside him was a teenage boy around her age with tousled brown hair and a freckled face. There was a sheepish look on his face and a wooden stick, which Astara took as a wand, was in his hand. It wasn't hard to tell who'd shocked her.

Mr Daniels rushed over to her. "Astara, are you alright?" Concern was heavy in his voice.

She rubbed her head. "Slightly crispy, but otherwise fine. What exactly happened?" The last thing she remembered happening was being pulled into a bright light.

Mr Daniels sighed. "You got stuck in between worlds. Which has never been done before, but you somehow found a way to do it. I showed up in Cornacapia without you, figured out what happened, and brought you to safety." He explained.

Something felt off. His body seemed too tense and his face looked far too panicked. Then she realized what had been missing from the explanation.

"There was a man, with purple eyes. He was trying to get me to come with him, he said that he needed my help...who was he?"

The boy behind Mr Daniels moved forward.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You never said anything about a man! Who was he? What happened?" The boy asked curiously.

He seemed far too excited about a man that seemed so dangerous. But then again he hadn't seen what Astara had saw when she touched the mans hand.

A crease formed between Mr Daniels eyebrows. "That man isn't any of your concern! I don't want either of you to ask about him or even think about him, especially you Astara. Am I clear?" He said firmly.

Astara knew that she shouldn't argue but she couldn't ignore the fact that she had seen this man twice. Both times he had been calling out to her. What did it mean?

"But I need to know what he wants with me! First I kept dreaming about him and then he shows up floating in a portal calling my name! I think I deserve to know why he wants me!" She exclaimed.

The crease grew deeper. "You've seen this man before?" Astara nodded. Mr Daniels massaged his temples and then turned to the boy. "Leo I have to get back to the Sorcerers Tower to do some...work. Please give Astara a full tour of Cornacapia."

Confusion crossed her face. "Wait Cornacapia? Were in...wow!"

She'd been so focused on the mysterious man that she hadn't even noticed her magical surroundings. The grass was so green it was practically glowing! She had never seen a sky so blue and the clouds looked so fluffy you could mistake them for cotton candy!

She saw a flock of fairies fly by and a gnome was hobbling behind them. The smile on her face was the biggest it had ever been. This is what she had been wanting her whole life. This is what she had waited for: Magic!

She turned to Mr Daniels and the boy, who she guessed was named Leo, and saw that they were in the middle of an argument.

"I'm ready for magical emergencies! I shouldn't be playing tour guide with an Earther! Please, let me help you." Leo's eyes were pleading but Mr Daniels merely shook his head.

"You are not ready my dear boy. You are only an apprentice, you are far too young for this kind of responsibility." And with that he flicked his wrist and poofed away.

Leo stomped his foot and growled with frustration. Then after about five minutes of pouting, he turned to Astara.

"Hi my names Leo Wyatt and I'll be your "magical tour guide" for this evening." The words dripped with sarcasm and Astara was having none of it.

"Listen if you're going to be moody this entire tour, I'm going to go explore this beautiful town myself." She stated firmly. She started to walk away but Leo grabbed her wrist.

"Okay first of all it's not a town, it's a kingdom. Second of all, your one to be talking about being moody Miss "I will never, ever believe"!"

Astara pulled away from him. "How do you know about that?" Even she had to admit that it wasn't one of her best moments.

He smiled. "Believe it or not Sorcerer Moon actually tells me some things." His face turned bitter again. "Come on lets start the tour."

They walked a little farther and then Leo stopped again. "Wait what's your name? Astra? Constellation?"

She rolled her eyes. She was already fed up with this boy. "Astara. A-star-a! Astara Knight to be exact."

He giggled and kept walking. "Astara, that's a weird name."

"Excuse me?"

"Excuse you. I'm going to call you Asta! Yeah Asta sounds good!"

"Um no, that sounds worse. Not that my name is bad in the first place. Do not call me that." She made it perfectly clear that she hated the nickname Asta.

But of course he didn't listen.

"So Asta—"

"Astara!" She snapped.

Leo shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever Asta. Anyway, our first stop is Lilingale!" He gestured in front of him.

Lilingale was green and lush and was filled with creatures and flowers and trees with fruit that looked too good to eat. Unicorns grazed in a field nearby and small gnomes were tending to the garden.

It was breathtaking. Like out of a fairytale.

Leo knudged her shoulder. "Go ahead, geek out over the unicorns, all girls love unicorns."

"Not all girls love unicorns! And I'm not going to geek out, though how can you not be amazed? They're beautiful!" Astara marveled.

Leo smiled a little. "Yeah I guess they are, I never really noticed. Guess I'm just so used to them."

"You should really pay more attention, back in Queens you hardly get a breath of fresh air." Suddenly she realized that she'd teleported to Cornacapia without telling anyone. Then again, who would she tell about teleporting to a magical world? Certainly not her parents.

They probably didn't even notice that she'd left for school this morning.

Leo shook her out of her thoughts. It was time to move on from Lilingale, though Astara really didn't want to leave. They were walking away when she noticed a small, quaint house tucked behind all the greenery.

"Who lives there?" She asked pointing at the house.

Leo squinted. "I'm pretty sure that's Wanda and Graham Dove's cottage. They own Lilingale, at least I think they do, they're kind of mysterious. I've heard that they haven't left Lilingale for almost five years!" Leo exclaimed.

Astara nodded. "Good to know. Beautiful place, mysterious people, got it. Anyway, what's next Wizard Boy?"

"What did you call me?"

"Wizard Boy. If you get to call me Asta then I get to call you wizard boy. Though I'd probably call you that either way." Astara shrugged.

Leo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay fine. But just to be clear I am NOT a wizard! I am a sorcerer...apprentice!"

"Same difference."

"It really isn't."

She groaned. "Wizard, sorcerer whatever! Just come on!"

Leo rolled his eyes. "Okay lets go! Gosh! Who's moody now?"

"Still you."

"Come on." Leo walked ahead of her and she quickly jogged to catch up.

He took her to all kinds of magnificent places like The Village of Damond (a hearty village named after the first king of Cornacapia), Fairyhollow (the land of the fairies), Cherrygrove (the best harvesting grove in the kingdom), and so much more.

After they finished up at The Toadstool (an ogre hangout that Astara thought looked a lot like a bar), Leo announced that they had one last place to go.

"Where is it?" Astara asked curiously.

Leo smiled at her. "You'll see."

She was an impatient person so there were many "Are we there yet?" questions throughout the walk. But when they finally got close enough, Leo told her to close her eyes. So she let him guide her to their final destination.

"And...open your eyes!"

Oh. My. Gosh. Astara thought as she looked up at the massive, magnificent, breathtaking white and blue castle.

That's right castle.

She probably should of guessed that there was a castle when Leo told her that Cornacapia was a kingdom, but right now she couldn't think at all because the castle was so. Darn. Gorgeous!

Leo smiled smugly at her. "I live there you know."

She gaped at him. "You could not possibly live there! I thought you were the sorcerers apprentice!"

"I am. The sorcerer and their apprentice both get to live in Castle BlueBay." Leo explained smugly.

"Castle BlueBay." Astara repeated, still in awe of the castles beautiful exterior. She wondered how it looked on the inside.

"Do you want to go inside?" Leo asked grinning.

Her eyes lit up. "Do I?!"

Leo led her to the entrance where two guards stood.

"Going in for the evening Leo?" The one on the right asked.

He nodded. "Yes sir I am. Now if you'll excuse us." He started to walk to the large doors but the guards blocked him. Or more specifically, they blocked her.

"Uninvited Cornacapians are not allowed in Castle BlueBay without the kings order. Especially one with such weird clothes. You may go Leo but the girl cannot pass."

"Weird clothes?! What about your clothes?! I mean who wears—"

"Okay!" Leo laughed nervously. "I'll just be going then." Again, he started to walk towards the door but this time she hit his arm and stopped and sighed. "Fine! I'll wait out here with you until Sorcerer Moon comes back."

They waited outside the castle walls for a LONG time. Eventually they sat down on the soft grass and talked a bit.

"So Asta, what was your life like back in your kingdom? Your queen must have a big head if she named her kingdom 'Queens'!"

She laughed. "First of all it's not a kingdom, it's a city. Second of all, my life wasn't that exciting. Most of it was just serving detention, reading, and skateboarding down the streets."

Leo scrunched up his nose. "Is serving detention like serving time in prison?"

"Pretty much."

"Wow then, what'd you do to have to serve time in detention?" He asked, almost sounding impressed.

Honestly she'd done a lot of things that caused her to get detention. Like replacing all the toilet paper in the school with ducktape, filling Mrs Harmond's office with geese (don't ask how she managed that), and her most common cause, being late for school.

But the only thing she said was: "Lets just say that I'm not the easiest person to get along with."

He snorted. "Yeah I got that."

"That's a lot coming from you Wizard Boy." She shot back.

"Yeah well if your such an evil genius that you got yourself thrown into detention, then I'd really love to hear your idea about what to do now because I'm bored out of my mind." He didn't seem to actually expect her to think of anything...but she did.

And boy was it a doozy of a plan.

But what's life without a little mischief?

Or maybe a lot of mischief.

She turned to Leo. "We're going to sneak into Castle BlueBay!"

Hope you liked that chapter! Please vote and check out my other two books!- Vanna✨