Iyla sat at her computer, bored with her work. She had been working since the morning, typing up a feature design document, but had hit a roadblock. She needed more information to continue, but someone else needed to send her more reference material for it first. She got up from the desk and stretched. It was 11:30 AM, so just a little too early for lunch. She paced her living room, which was also where her desk was located. The living room contained her desk, which faced the window, a three-seat couch, and a TV. There was also a large bookshelf, separating the space from the dining area and the door to her bedroom. After pacing for a bit, she stared at her books and knick-knacks on her bookshelf, wondering if she should pick up a book to read since she had the free time anyways.

But her stomach grumbled. Even though it was early, her muffin from the morning just wasn't enough to keep her going. Sighing, she decided to just take an early lunch and go out for some food.

Iyla grabbed her bag and walked out, making sure to lock her front door. After exiting the building, she wondered which way she should go for lunch this time.

Sun City was a bustling, metropolitan city on the west coast of the Republic of California. The neighborhood Iyla lived in had plenty restaurants and cafes, servicing a few big company buildings in the area. At this time of day, you could spot office workers filing out of their buildings like ants in search of food to bring back to their nests. Iyla was the same, though since she worked from home, she didn't feel the need to dress the part.

I wonder if I should just get something from the deli? But I kind of want something else!

She pondered for a bit, before coming across a sign in front of a cafe that she liked, but hadn't been to for some time. They were advertising new Cuban sandwiches on the menu.

It was a quiet place, not on the main street. On top of that, there was an alley right across from it, so it didn't make for the most scenic view for lunch. Due to that fact, only regulars really ate here, and many of the customers took their food to-go.

She didn't come here often enough to consider herself a regular, but the cashier recognized her anyways.

"Hey, Iyla! I haven't seen you in a while. How's it going?" asked the college-aged girl. She worked here part-time, and the outgoing girl had struck up a conversation with her last time when she recognized the anime t-shirt she was wearing.

"I'm fine! I just got stuck with work, so I figured I'd take my lunch break early. How about you?"

"Ugh, I wish I could do the same! Luckily it hasn't been too busy, so I've been sneaking some assigned reading in between." She held up a novel sheepishly.

Iyla smiled. She ordered one of the Cuban sandwiches and then sat down at a small green tables outside. Although it wasn't particularly a nice view, she couldn't help but enjoy the warm sunlight and clear day. Plus, she liked to people watch, since she spent most of her time inside.

She sat down and looked around. Just like her, many of the other customers had chosen to enjoy the nice weather and sit in the cafe's patio area. If you looked high into the sky, you could see a line of air taxis following predetermined paths, ferrying their passengers to their destinations.

A young woman walked out into the alleyway across from the cafe. Iyla turned, and made brief eye contact. She turned around quickly, and hurried off in the opposite direction.

Huh? Was there always a store there?

Not long after that strange occurrence, the cashier brought her sandwich and juice to the table. Iyla dug into her lunch heartily, suddenly feeling much more hungry than expected.

After finishing lunch, Iyla checked the time on her wristwatch. Her lunch hour wasn't quite over yet, plus since had taken her break early, it was unlikely that her coworkers would have answered her email even when she got back. She had time to kill.

She was curious about the store open towards the alley. Normally, a business would have had some kind of signage to let people know about their existence, but she only noticed the neon sign saying "open" after walking up to the entrance. It only lit up brightly when she walked up close to the store, blinking on from a previously unlit state.

Is it motion-sensing?

There were some various odds and ends in the window display. The store looked to be a retro antique store, carrying various analogue goods from long ago. She recognized one of the items as an old dial-operated telephone.

Curious, but most importantly, bored and free, she entered the store.

Iyla opened the door, and immediately noticed how incredibly packed it was with stuff. There were some rough groupings of items such as music storage devices like CDs, vinyls, cassettes, and most outdated of all, MP3 players. At least with the first three, it was possible to find both vintage and newer devices designed for retro music. But MP3 players were like a roulette wheel of outdated hardware, software, and batteries. Most people just used their implants to access the radio or other music streaming services.

Other than the old tech, there were piles of random books, vintage toys, and old house decorations. Honestly, it was a great place to waste time in, just admiring possessions that were once loved. She scanned over the store, already planning on coming back for a proper scavenge to see what treasures she could unearth.

Sitting behind the front desk (it was another antique table with a laptop on it) was an Asian man who didn't seem much older than her. He had spiky black hair, a mostly black outfit, and a mildly annoyed look on his face. He generally exuded "punk" vibes, and Iyla guessed that he was probably the kind of person who had tattoos too.

"Um…excuse me, the store is open right? I saw the sign lit up outside…" she said politely. Maybe she had intruded on his lunch break?

"Yeah, it's open." He sighed, schooling his face to be more neutral. "Go ahead and shop."

It wasn't her fault that it wasn't locked up properly, or that there wasn't proper signage. She held in her own annoyance and gave a forced smile.

"O~kay! Thank you!"

Iyla glanced around, looking for anything of interest. Other than the old electronics, there were also some old furniture pieces, a cabinet full of knives, daggers, and guns (the kind put up in a room for show), and a table with various glassware.

She headed to the back of the store to see if she could find anything else that might be of interest. There was a large bookshelf there, with various old reference tomes and classics piled up haphazardly. Not all of them were in English or Spanish though, there were also books in German, French, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, and Hindi. She used the translator on her implant to read the titles and summary, but they were simply foreign novels. The reference books had old maps, and some were ancient textbooks. Maybe these books had been consigned or pawned off, and there weren't enough buyers who could read them to clear this stock. Iyla picked a few of them up from the middle shelf, and flipped through the pages. None of them particularly caught her eye.

She squatted, and began perusing the books on the bottom shelf when she spotted something glint at the back. It was dark enough that she could only barely make out the corner of the book, but it stood out against all the other leather and cloth-bound tomes. She reached for it without being able to see it at her current angle, and instantly felt a static shock. Yikes!!

She almost fell backwards from her squat out of surprise, but quickly grabbed onto the shelf to keep herself upright.

What in the world was that?

Determined, she reached for the book again. This time, her fingers managed to touch the front, and she felt its unusually scaly texture. After moving the books in front of it out the way, she managed to finally pull out her find.

It was a beautifully bound tome, with radiant holographic scales on both the back and front. Just running her hand over it felt pleasingly cool to the touch. Iyla stood up from her position, and examined the book further.

There wasn't anything stamped or foiled on either the front, back, or spine. When she opened it up, it revealed nothing but blank pages.

I guess it's a diary? Or maybe a sketchbook?

Either way, it was too beautiful to pass up!

She checked the time again. She had already overstayed by thirty minutes, so it was best that she head back. Iyla headed to the front desk with the pretty, scaled book and set it down on the table.

"This didn't have a price tag on it, how much does it cost?" she asked.

The shopkeeper looked away from his laptop and grabbed his scanner nonchalantly. "Oh, let me check." He then made eye contact with the book in question, and suddenly stiffened.

"You…how did you manage to pick up this book?" he asked warily.

"What do you mean? Oh, you're talking about the static shock right! Yeah it shocked me pretty well the first time, but it was fine afterwards." She said.

"I see… Yeah usually people don't bother after the first time." He used his item scanner, and then looked at the computer screen. "It's 35 bucks."

That's…kind of expensive for a journal but… She felt that if she left it here in the store, someone else would probably buy it. She had only found it by pure luck.

"Okay, I'll take it!"

She paid for it with her card. The shopkeeper put it in a nice sturdy shopping bag with the name "The Corvus". Just as she was about to leave, the shopkeeper spoke up.

"If you have any issues, or if you'd like to return your purchase, please feel free to come back!" He spoke with practiced ease. This must be something standard he said to every customer. It was a pretty generous store policy.

"Yeah, thanks!"

With that, she left, walking back home with excitement, thinking of what she would use the book for.

Iyla hurried back to her apartment. After she got home, she left her purchase on the coffee table, and got to work.

Once work had finally finished, she got up from her desk and threw herself onto the couch. It wasn't a particularly stressful day, but she felt weirdly exhausted, for some reason. Laying on her couch, she saw the shopping bag that she had left there earlier.

She started pondering what she could use it for. Honestly, she had just bought it because the binding had been beautiful. But she couldn't bring herself to just use it for normal notes or diary entries. It felt like the book deserved to have some more meaningful contents written inside.

She grabbed the book out of the bag, and looked it over again. Blank, as expected.

There were no great ideas that came to her, so she set it back down on the table and got up to prepare dinner.

After her evening routine of dinner, TV, and some light reading in bed, she fell asleep, hoping to feel better tomorrow.

Iyla woke up the next day, not feeling any better than the day before. A great fatigue had set in to her body, causing it to feel sluggish.

However, although she had been expecting to find out that she had a mild fever, the thermometer had only shown normal results.

Maybe she just wasn't fully sick yet! Not wanting to take the day off, she persevered and logged in to work. In the rush of her morning, she hadn't noticed that the book she had bought from "The Corvus" wasn't where she had left it last night, but was instead sitting on her bedside table, nonchalantly without a care in the world.

She might have noticed if she had a reason to use it, but currently it was just a decorative piece, blending into the background of her everyday life. That would soon change.

Iyla started work that day, unaware of the changes that were taking place in her body, and her life.

Working until lunch time, Iyla craved sugar. She was feeling so shitty that she felt she deserved the treat, so she popped down to the boba cafe downstairs. It was within the same building, so it was quite convenient.

After receiving her drink, she sat down at the table outside, intending to people-watch a bit. It was a sunny day, but a large shadow passed overhead. She looked up at the sky, and noticed a huge shadow of a bird passing overhead.

It was huge, the size of a large airplane passing low to the ground. But it was unmistakably a bird, with feathery, eagle-like wings and a long, colorful tail with electricity sparking down its length. She barely saw it for a second before it accelerated, leaving only the faint ghost image burned into her eyes.

The contrast from the shadow to the bright electric afterimage blinded her temporarily. Iyla closed and rubbed her eyes, and then looked around at ground level.

A veil had been burned off by the presence of something outside her comprehension, and now, she could truly see.

Among the normal crowds out and about today, she noticed that some people looked just a little off. Horns here, scales there, some a little more transparent when you looked closely. It was like everyone was dressed for Halloween, except that the skill level for the costuming was off the charts. And beyond the odd looking humans, there were other creatures mingling amongst the masses. A fairy, small enough to fit into the palm of one's hand, was flying above carrying a bouquet flowers.

Am I…. going insane?

She wondered if she had somehow developed schizophrenia, and this was merely the result of her delusions, but then she saw a vampire walking what looked to be a small dragon on a leash. (It was flying, but it didn't have any wings!)

There was no way she could have imagined that!

She grabbed her drink and ran back to her apartment. She thought about calling one of her friends for moral support, but there was no way that they would believe her. At best, they might think that she was trying to play a prank on them by "pretending to be crazy".

She ran back to the computer and started searching for any mention of that giant bird in the news. Nothing had come up.

The next thing she tried was "exorcists in my area", hoping to find some weirdo that could maybe say a couple of Latin phrases and scare whatever demon was causing her to hallucinate like this. Funnily enough, The Corvus showed up in the results. Their website claimed that they specialized in "occult consultations".

Remembering what the shopkeeper from The Corvus had said, she decided to go back to that curious little store.

After grabbing her keys, Iyla hurried back to the alleyway where the store was. She tried not to stare too long at the new exciting creatures that she was seeing, but couldn't help but admire them. Above, pegasus’ were flying, some even with passengers. On the sidewalk over there, a man whose upper body was furry, and whose face was like a tiger's, was standing by the crosswalk while chatting away on his phone.

It was like she had been transported straight to a fantasy land where everything was possible. But because it was so unbelievable, she felt more certain that it had to be some kind of dream.

Not too long after leaving her apartment, she arrived at The Corvus. This time, the neon open sign was obnoxiously bright, to the point where she wondered how she had missed it previously, even sitting at the cafe.

She waited a moment to catch her breath, and then entered the store.

The store was same as usual, only this time, there was a hallway leading off into the distance, as well as multiple doors. The same shopkeeper was sitting at the front desk

"Um… excuse me?" Iyla said. He looked up, somewhat startled, and then set down a calligraphy pen. In front of him were a stack of rectangular pieces of paper, some with writing on them.

"Oh…you're back." The man said idly. He got up from his seat, and stretched his arms and neck. "Come with me."

With little explanation, he started walking towards the back of the store, and Iyla reluctantly followed. They entered the uncannily long hallway, and walked past quite a few doors before arriving at a Japanese style sliding door. The man in black slid the door open and walked inside, leaving his shoes at the entrance. Iyla did the same, and stepped up into the room.

It was a small room with wood floors, and a low table with cushions around it. He motioned for her to sit, while he disappeared off into another room, probably the kitchen. She heard the familiar, calming sounds of an electric kettle boiling and the clinking of tea cups. In just a few minutes, he returned with the tea and set it down on the table.

Iyla gently touched the cup with her hands, warming them up. She didn't realize how cold they were until this moment. However, she made no motion of picking it up to drink.

"It's not poisoned, I promise." He said wryly.

She cracked a smile. "I'm just waiting for it to cool down."

He sighed, and then picked up his own cup, taking a sip.

"My name is Jin, by the way." He said. "I assume you're here to consult me about something?"

"Yes!" Iyla took a deep breath, before starting. "I think that book I bought yesterday is haunted!" She explained how she had started seeing creatures that were straight out of a fantasy novel. As soon as she had finished her explanation, she realized that she hadn't even introduced herself. "Oh! And my name is Iyla".

She started drinking her own tea, taking bigger gulps.

Jin rubbed his chin with his right hand, staring at the woman sitting across from him. "You've never seen this stuff before?"

Iyla shook her head.

"Did you bring the book with you?"

"Uh, no? If it's haunted, then I really don't wanna touch it!"

"Hmnn…. okay. Alright, I want you to try one thing." Jin grabbed a scrap piece of paper out of his pocket and scribbled a note onto it, placing it in front of Iyla.

He then held out his hand palm-side up. "Can you hold your hand up like this and say what I've written?"

Iyla copied the movement and glanced down at the note.

"Grimoire of Heaven, Tome of the Earth, Codex of the Unknown, heed my call!"

Just as she finished speaking her command, a bright magical circle appeared on her palms. The circle glowed a violent blue, and then began spinning into the shape of a sphere. Words from an unknown language started circling the sphere, like the rings of Saturn. A second later, the same iridescent book with scaled leather that she had purchased the day before appeared within the sphere, and gently deposited onto her hands.

Jin grinned.

Iyla turned the book around in her hands. It was definitely a physical object, not a hologram.

"What the… how did I do that!?"

"Congratulations. You're now the registered owner of that book, and are now a magus." Jin replied.

Iyla narrowed her eyes at him. "A… magus? Like a witch or a wizard? Someone who can use magic?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Then…" questions started running through Iyla's head wildly. Why did the codex register to her? Does this mean everyone in the world could use magic? Who was Jin, and why was this shop so much bigger on the inside than the outside?

"Jin…does this mean that I can quit my day-job!?"