The Licensed Mage

17 Importance

        Claire stood in Emily’s bedroom getting a sense of the teenager she was. There was an old fashioned laptop on her desk and textbooks lined the shelf above. Her walls were covered with posters of boy teen idols and her music consisted of only songs from the soft rock band “Unicorn’s Way”. Her clothes were neatly put away in drawers and sorted by color and season in her closet yet her bed was unmade. Claire walked around the room looking at various things, stopping in front of her dresser and picked up a photo with neon letters in the frame spelling “Best Friends Forever!”.

        “That was her 14th birthday.”

        Claire spun around to see Mrs. Brown standing in the doorway. She held wads of tissues in her hands and sniffled occasionally, “She wanted a party and we gave her one. All her friends showed up but only Ashley, the one in the picture, stayed till the end.”

        Claire smiled softly, “She’s a good friend.”

        Mrs. Brown nodded as she walked into the room and took the picture from Claire. She sat on the bed as she dabbed her nose, “She was.”

        Claire was silent as Mrs. Brown studied the picture, tracing a finger along her daughter’s face. Claire softly rubbed her hands together as she gingerly sat down beside her. She was unsure of what to do but she gently placed a hand over Mrs. Brown’s.

        “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m so sorry for the lose of your daughter.”

        Her hand shook under Claire’s as she tried to swallow her tears, “I know it’s not you. Detective Black told us she was found with some kind of black magic.”

        “Yes ma’am she was.”

        Eyes filled with pain pinned Claire still, “Do you know what it was?”

        Claire took a deep breath as she tried to think of how much to say and decided honesty was the only way, “It’s something called Necromancy. Magic of the dead.”

        Mrs. Brown shook even more and Claire brought an arm around her shoulders, “Is that what killed her?”

        Claire slowly shook her head, “We don’t know ma’am. All we know is that magic was present with your daughter. We won't know the full story until further investigation.”

        She let out a shaky breath as she turned back to her daughter’s picture, “She was such a good girl. She did her homework on time and got good grades.” She let out a dry chuckle, “She always loved magic. She was fascinated by it. You know she wanted to go to college and get a degree in magical studies.”

        They shared a smile, “I imagine she would have been quite the thinker.”

        “Yes she would have,” another shaky breath escaped her lips, “She always loved puzzles.”

        They shared a quiet moment as Mrs. Brown gathered herself. Being careful where she tread Claire started asking some questions, “Mrs. Brown…you and your husband said Emily ran away from home before. She seems like such a nice girl, why did she run away?”

        Mrs. Brown was silent as she sighed then heaved her shoulders as she explained, “She was having these nightmares, dreams. They terrified her to no end. She never told us everything but they were always dark and bloody. We’ve tried to take her to a doctor but after a while they stopped, we forgot about them.” She dabbed her nose again as she sniffled, “Then…about 6 months ago she started acting strange. She became depressed and reclusive. We’ve tried talking to her but she refused to. Eventually she started running away. At first it was only a couple of hours. The last time she was gone for a whole week.” More sniffles and new tissues, “She always came back.”