Amara thought she was alone in the school library when she heard a soft thud behind her. Turning around, she saw an old woman shrouded with wrinkles. Amara was taken aback. The woman’s ornate floor length gown and cape suggested that she was from ancient times. She also bore a striking resemblance to Amara.
“Who…are you? And how did you appear out of thin air?” Amara’s voice was shaky.
“Amara! I am a Mage. You just opened up a portal by chanting those verses from the book you found in the forbidden section. You too belong to a lineage of mages,” she said in a raspy voice.
“Whoa! Seems so surreal.”
“Amara! The rise of evil on the Super blue moon day is imminent. We have to prevent it. But first the curse upon the mages has to be lifted. Only you possess the power.”
“Power… power? What power?” Amara’s voice trembled.
The old woman’s words struck something deep, and a strange heaviness pressed on Amara’s chest. She tried to pull away, but the woman’s hand gripped her wrist firmly. Then, the old woman began chanting in a low, guttural voice, enveloping Amara like a shadow. Her knees buckled, and darkness claimed her.
“Oohhh… uuughhh…”
Amara’s eyes fluttered open as she coughed. Her head throbbed, and the smell of tobacco filled her senses.
“Who… who are you?” she whispered.
The figure laughed. “You wanted to know about power, didn’t you, Amara?”
A chill ran through her, she forced herself to hold her gaze steady, even as the darkness threatened to pull her again.
Fighting her failing strength, Amara tried to call out to the nearby students, but her voice was in a vacuum. Everyone carried on, oblivious to the happenings around.
Apparently, Amara was the only one who could see the mage. She held a lanky, gnarly specter made of primitive wood that clutched at a sinister gem in its claw shaped top, beaming rays that seemed to hypnotize her.
Even on the verge of collapsing, Amara was quick to sense that the mage was a malevolent entity and not who she claimed to be.
“You imposter! You can’t fool me into aiding you in your misdeeds”, she asserted even as a wicked cackle rang out.
The edges of the portal simmered, and the gnawing void started closing in on itself. The Mage tightened her grip on Amara’s wrist and pulled her towards the portal with ease. She is quite strong for her frail form, Amara thought trying desperately to halt her. As soon as her fingers crossed the portal, she felt numb.
Amara opened her mouth to scream but no words came out.
‘Welcome to Silentia!’
Amara looked up but the old Mage stood silent, her lips never moved.
‘Where is the voice coming from? ‘
‘Amara, you can hear us. We are the Mages of Silentia – a land where no one speaks but can only be heard.’
Holy Cra…! Amara swore in her mind.
“Beware of this old witch for she’s not who she claims to be! Make your lineage proud. Godspeed.” The voices rang in Silencia.
The mage raised her sceptre. Blue smoke blew from it and arranged itself in letters. “Ask them the way to stone of opulence.”
Amara bent down and picked out a nearby lying stick. She traced an “Ask who?” in the sand.
If looks could kill, Amara would be dead at that moment. The mage’s stare stabbed daggers into her soul. She wrapped her bony fingers around Amara’s arm and threw her down. Amara’s knees sunk in the sand as she looked up at the witch, disgust dripping from her face.
“Don’t you play with me, girl” the letters in smoke rearranged.
Amara’s quick thinking and resilience shone through in the face of danger. The Mage’s attempts to intimidate her into submission failed as Amara stood firm, showcasing her inner strength. Recognizing that survival depends on strategy, she feigned cooperation while concealing her mistrust.
Using a stick to write “Why the stone?” allowed Amara to probe for answers cautiously, avoiding direct confrontation with the Mage’s power. This demonstrated her resourcefulness and determination to uncover the truth.
The Mage’s cryptic response — “The stone will lift the curse. Without it, your kind will perish” — heightened the stakes, deepening the mystery and distrust surrounding the stone’s true purpose.
Realizing the stone’s importance, Amara did what was necessary, although she found it quite illogical to ask for it to be placed on the stone.
Lost in her thoughts, she attempted to speak but later realized, “Here, no one can speak.” Helpless, she picked up another piece of stick and carved her question on the sand. She paused to think about how to notify the stone about the question. She picked up another pebble and hit the stone to indicate her question. Amara observed a shift in the position of the stone like we humans respond when our name is called out.
The wait was set almost to kill her, but then a camouflaged door opened.
When the door opened, it was engulfed in blue smog, and for a few minutes, Amara was blinded by a strange light. In that light, she saw a bizarre creature that looked like an alien. Strangely, Mage was unable to see it. Using telekinesis, the creature communicated to Amara that it belonged to the planet Xenical and that Mage wanted to steal their powerful stone, called Kryptonite. This stone had the superpower to capture all the galaxies. On a blue moon day, it became supercharged, and the creature instructed Amara to follow its orders silently.
As Amara stood trembling, the creature used telepathy to give her clear cut instructions.
” Amara, the portal feeds on confusion and fear. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and focus on something that grounds you — a memory of warmth, a loved one, or a place of peace. This will weaken the portal’s hold on your mind and keep the mage from manipulating your emotions. The portal is not infinite — it has a weak point. Look around you; the swirling energies form patterns, like cracks in glass. Follow the faintest threads of light you see. These are fragments of the portal’s structure, leading to an exit, the mage overlooked. Step out carefully, to find the stone which shall respond only to purity of intent. “
An atrophied and disconcerted Amara found it mammoth to absorb all legerdemain of this portal in a day. But her conscious mind admonished her that she had to accomplish her task on time. She closed her eyes to focus and amidst all conundrums, the smiling visage of her best friend Rosell sprang before her eyes instilling her with tranquility. Her watchful eyes succeeded to trace a fragile luminescence. Some unseen gravitation compelled Amara to follow the trajectory of the faint ray in successive steps. To her delight, suddenly she found herself standing at the magical entrance which would lead her to ‘Stone of Opulence’ and help her to emancipate her fellow mages from the curse of Silencia. “Eureka! I’ve done it”, exclaimed an euphoric Amara.
As she approached the magic stone closer and closer, she felt some metamorphosis happening inside her. Amara acquired the atmost clarity of her thoughts.
“The mage is an imposter.
No curse nothing! She had tricked me by changing her appearance to resemble me. I don’t belong to their lineage. No, not at all!” – Amara thought!
Amara was now completely out of the hypnosis. She gained courage and picked the “Stone of Opulence”. Suddenly, the alien whom she saw before appeared and activated the superpower of the stone. To her surprise, she travelled along with the alien to planet Xenical!
“You’re so naive, little girl,” said the alien, laughing.
“You’ve given us the stone, and now we’ll rule the world!” said the mage, who had suddenly appeared behind her.
“We?” the alien snickered. “Well, I’ve already activated its powers.”
“I was supposed to do that, you stupid creature,” snarled the mage.
While the two were arguing, Amara quickly grabbed the stone from the alien and jumped into a portal that had materialized behind her.
As soon as she entered the portal, the stone in her hand shone brightly and vanished.
“You’ve lifted the curse,” said a mage beside her. “You came just in time, and now Silentia’s mages can finally speak again.”
Amara blinked and found herself in the library. Had all that happened, or had she been dreaming?
Author Credits
Beyond the Box is the first platform in India to have conducted an Online Write-A-Thon which encourages collaborative story writing. In the months of Nov-Dec 2024, 48 participants made Season 4 of this exciting event a memorable one. They were divided into 4 groups and each participant in the group contributed to the ongoing story in 100 words approximately. The 12 writers of Team 3 (Adults) who came up with this story are: (Names mentioned in the sequence allotted to them for the Write-A-Thon. A line has been used in the story to indicate change in the writer.)
| Sequence Number | Team 3 |
| 1 | Gowri Bhargav |
| 2 | Avni Katakkar |
| 3 | Sangeetha Kamath |
| 4 | Mithila Peshwe |
| 5 | Sheena Gupta |
| 6 | Janaki Balasubramanian |
| 7 | Nilshree Damani Yelulkar |
| 8 | Soma Mukherjee |
| 9 | Lalita Vaitheeswaran |
| 10 | Indrani Chatterjee |
| 11 | Padmapriya Suresh |
| 12 | Gayathri Achar |