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The witch known as Adylena has been said to have a certain unsettling feel to her. The air around her is changed, somehow. Strong, potent, fearful. Not in the way that would make you feel afraid, but instead you feel the power radiating from her.
She is a planeswalker.
You planned to learn from her, if she’ll have you.
You had come to her in the light of day, having found her cottage just off from the town she placed herself nearby. The door opened on its own, as if she knew you would be there.
“Stranger,” she greeted. “What is it?”
She went straight to business.
You stammered, suddenly intimidated by said air around her. Her eyes stared intensely into yours, and you squirmed beneath her gaze. Even your own familiar, your quite fearless feline companion, cowered and jumped from her perch on your shoulders. Rather, she was hidden behind your legs.
“Out with it,” she sighed, the seemingly inhuman posture she kept now relaxing. But it didn’t help to make you feel more equal to her.
“I wish to learn to planeswalk,” you tell her.
Her expectant gaze turned… bored? “Of course you do.” She began muttering, waving her hand as it touched her head. She looked exasperated. “Maybe I should just join that school my sister loves so much.”
Yes, her sister, Gajalina Sokyrin-Burran, was another powerful magician. But she was a wizard, and a busy, fleeting one at that. Finding counsel with her was difficult when she was nowhere to be found. No one knew where she was, and if they did, they never disclosed that information.
“Jeker?” Adylena called back into her house. A very large bird approached the door, it’s attention turned up to her. This must be her familiar.
It’s eyes were just as terrifying as her own. The bird cooed in acknowledgement. It was nearly half her height. “Tell Amyt and Terū to get off the furniture, will you?”
The bird — Jeker — nodded as it then flew off deeper into the cottage, which was bigger than you had expected. Adylena followed it in.
You lingered behind the door, lifting your familiar into your arms, unsure if she were inviting you in until she returned. “Get in here already,” she said, leading you inside.
The inside of the home had a different feel to it as well. It wasn’t similar to Adylena’s aura, or Jeker’s, it was just its own… place. It had its own feeling. It had its own magic.
Two dogs came running at Adylena, friendly, but not too excited. One looked elegant, regal — a dog that would be a noble’s. You suppose that may have been a pet she had from her sister? The other dog looked almost bear-like, but also expensive. Perhaps a hunting dog?
“Amyt, Terū,” she greeted, giving both of them pets. “We have a student.”
She turned to you, and you nearly felt like prey. Not for the dogs, but more for her. Adylena was a creature to be feared.
“Sit,” she commanded to you, and gestures to the couches she had. You obeyed.
She sat in front of you, laid back in her seat. She didn’t even look at you as she began talking. “Just because I have traveled to sama Gaja does not mean I am powerful. Never call me that. I merely have an understanding of interplanar magic.”
You nodded, and she was satisfied enough to keep going.
Adylena spoke as if she’d done this a thousand times before. Perhaps she has, if her reaction earlier had to mean anything. “Planeswalking is so easy, most animals do it. Average magicians can do it. My own children did it. There’s more than one method, and more than one door. My sister could force her way through if she wanted. She has enough power to create herself a personal door.”
Suddenly, she turned to you and grinned, wide and dangerous. “Me? I slip my way through.” Her eyes were alight with magic and amusement. She reminded you of a coyote. A wise trickster with twisted words and endless knowledge.
“The doors I take are never the same. I always close them behind me, and take care to make sure that nothing ever follows me.”
You hung onto her words, taking them in. She had much to know, and much to share. “That is your familiar?” Though she stated it more than asked. Your cat was a bit calmer in your arms, but even she knew just how much magic radiated from everything in here.
“I— yes, yes it is,” you nodded, scratching at her neck to calm her.
Adylena smiled, as if she approved. “Do you know where your familiar comes from?”
“The… Uh, sama Gaja?” You guessed.
“Exactly. You have opened a door to sama Gaja before. Everyone can do it.” She whistled, and her hawk perched on the armrest of her own seat. “Jeker came from there. My dear sister’s Ixi came from there. They will serve as our guides there.”
“Are— are we going there right now?” You asked.
“Only if you believe you are ready.” Adylena purred. Her eyes turned to the bookshelves she had, and the piles of books that littered over her home. “If you think I have books on sama Gaja, I do not. Well. Not any published ones, that is. And none I’d enjoy sharing with the public. Personal journals, study journals, memoirs. I have pages, you may see, but not at all touch.”
“I’m. I,” You pause and try to gather yourself. “Do you think I’m ready?” You ask instead.
She turned back to you, light dancing in her eyes. She seemed to like that question. “We’ll have to find out.”
-
“I’ve taught countless magicians in these lands. They all take me to different planes.”
That caught your attention. She had been to multiple different planes of sama Gaja? “You don’t go to—”
“Never. You never see the same plane twice. You’ll learn of it soon,” Adylena waved her hand flippantly. “Make your way in.”
You blinked at her. “But I still don’t know how.”
She laughed at you, not unkindly, just in amusement. “Oh but you do. You just have to open your eyes.” She may as well just be an onaja herself. How well she did she know sama Gaja?
In one moment, she was right there in front of you. And in the next, she was gone in a flash of blinding light, only leaving behind soft simmering smoke.
“Perhaps you could learn to use the planes as a means of travelling,” she suddenly spoke, right behind you. You screamed, startled by her appearance. She looked amused, almost, if not menacing.