The Flying Library had not been this clean since the moment that she had bought the wagon. Cirice had spent an inordinate amount of time sweeping and tidying up to make sure that her home was ready to entertain. All the konpetio-lings had been bottled up carefully and stashed away on a shelf behind the protective netting that holds the books in place. Keyps had nearly had a conniption since she let him out of her bag and he fussed around the wagon until it was spotless. 

But it was needed. Someone important was coming to visit today.

A fresh plate of cookies and a basket of muffins sit on the warm kotatsu with soft cushy pillows and blankets stacked in a cozy little pile ready for snuggling. Ars Goetia sits on one of sides of the kotatsu, his pages open to a small doodle of a smile. Crepesculum perches above the book, wingtips tickling the pages. Arestar naps in his cage to the side, whistling quietly. Everything is ready, now all thats left is...

A soft knock sounds against the wood of the door and Cirice hops to her feet and skips over with excitement, swinging the door wide with a wider smile.

"Cashmere! Hello my precious! Come in, come in!" She holds her arms open to him for a hug, her darling apprentice and brother, finally able to come to visit.

Just as expected, the sight that greets her is the face of youthful radiance: a smile so wide that it could catch half the sun's rays and shine just as brightly; and a single golden eye that shines with both excitement and admiration for his inspiring sister. He's wearing his usual, mismatched attire with the usual, archaic imagery. But what isn't expected is that his immense witch-hat is bobbing up and down at an unsteady rate, accompanied by a clip-clopping sound. As Cashmere beams with pride and joy, he rides atop the back of Hitia!

"Sister Cirice!! Look at what I found!" he proclaims with unparalleled joy, leaning down and hugging Hitia's neck warmly. "It looks so scary and cool, but it's so friendly! What should we name him?"

Cirice laughs at the adorable sight, “I don’t know if you found him or he found you, but that’s actually Hitia, my reindeer. He’s a very good boy, isn’t he?”

Hitia comes over, showing his mistress his precious cargo and she scratches between his antlers. “He can fly too. He pulls my library through the skies wherever I want to go! He’s a very strong boy too.”

She giggles and beneath the elbow-length glove on her right hand a rune begins glowing and Cashmere finds himself gently lifted into the air by an unseen force and whisked into Cirice’s arms for snuggles and forehead kisses¹.

“If you waaaaant…. We can take Hitia out for a flying adventure! What do you say?!?”

---

1 Telekinesis 

Cashmere has hardly a moment to absolutely lose his tiny, witch-hatted mind over the idea of a magical flying reindeer before he's spirited into the air. At first, he's as shocked as any young boy would be. But he hasn't been lifted by any rough hand or stranger; he's been lifted by the primordial force of what natural energy that has utterly enraptured Cashmere for much of his minuscule life: magic. And so his startled expression quickly gives way to gleam-eyed amazement.

"Whoa! This is amazing, sis!" Giggling merrily, he twirls once in the air. He might've twirled again, were he not so quickly carried into the warm, silken embrace of Cirice. Part of him wishes his flight had been longer, but the rest of him is pulled into pure bliss as he soaks in Cirice's warmth. His smile grows wider, and his forehead cheek squishes against her shoulder. And as Cirice plants a kiss on his little forehead, he can't help but giggle.

As one looks down at his ecstatic face, it'd be difficult to imagine a happier expression -- that is, until the offer of an adventure through the sky is made, and all limits of joy are shattered.

"Really?!?!? Yes please! Oh my goodness, I'd love to! R-Right now, can we go?"

Even in her arms, he manages to bounce up and down.

His excitement is infectious and as he bounces in her arms Cirice can’t help but melt. Cashmere’s wide-eyed wonder at all things magical is so pure and innocent, the same wonder she had felt upon casting her very first spell and the same wonder and joy that had led her to keep learning more and more.

“Alright, riiiight now. I can't say no to that face.” She walks over to Hitia and sets Cashmere back on his back, hopping up behind him and hugging the little witch tight to her. “Okay hold on tight! If you fall don’t worry, I’ll catch you. I’ll always catch you, promise!”

With a click of her tongue Hitia rises into the air, leaving spirals of ethereal blue energy in his wake. The ride into the air is smooth and seamless, better than any road. And in the span of a moment the pair are soaring through the sky, the wind tearing at their hair and Cashmere’s hat. Its exhilarating, the perfect freedom of the skies and the world stretched out endlessly below them.

There are few words to describe it, save for those that would compare other such moments of wonder. It's like the first time trying candy floss, or the first time seeing a magic trick. It's an instance of true, absolute, blissful wonderment -- a moment in which all other meanings of the future and past are briefly forgotten as his young mind becomes utterly transfixed on what's happening in the very present. It's truly wonderful.

Of course, it isn't his first time flying -- not by a long shot. He's flown on his magical broom many a time before; and while it and other means of flight never cease to be a delight to him, they are far from what would be called a new experience. And yet mystified he still is. In truth, it isn't because he's flying; it isn't because of the wind rushing through his hair and threatening to blow his hat into the sky, nor is it because of all the lights he sees in the city below him; it's the feeling of Cirice at his back, to experience it with him. There are few gifts he could covet more.

He says something -- shouts it, really. But even still, it's indiscernible over the sound of the whipping wind, lost in the wondrous chaos.

“Having fun?” A gentle question in Cirice’s voice forms in his mind¹, “I love the feeling of flying, its the best way to travel. Better than boats by a long ways. But it can be a bit hard to hear up here. So let’s talk like this, okay? Just in our heads.”

She squeezes him gently, adoring the look on his face and the joy of sharing this feeling together as Hitia picks up speed. Cashmere’s hat threatens to fly off and Cirice gently takes it and slips it into the bottomless bag on her hip so it isn’t lost.

“Just tell me when you’re ready to get down, I have a fun spell for that too, if you aren’t scared of falling a little!”

---

1 Message

There's a sudden lapse in the excitement, another inexplicable fright as Cashmere hears a voice in his mind! But this time, the start is even more fleeting, as it is the very same velvet of which Cirice's lovely voice is woven. And once again, fright turns to wonderment.

You can talk with people's minds, too?!?! Oh my goodness, you're amazing! Is there any magic you don't know?

Suddenly, he attains a much broader view as his obscuring hat is removed. He's confused for a moment, but then he looks up -- so far up that the top of his head rests on Cirice's chest, and he can look at her upside-down, violet visage with his singular eye. And from her point of view, she sees an upside-down smile cross his face.

U-Umm, yeah! I'm a little nervous, but I trust you! Let's do it!

“Theres plenty of magic I don’t know, but I want to learn as much as I can from as many people as I can!” She replies telepathically, kissing his forehead again and returning his smile. Goddess he is so adorable and trusting, such a pure and innocent soul. She wants to give him the world and protect that smile at all costs.

“Alright, then don’t be scared!”

Cradling him in her arms she allows herself to fall off Hitia’s back, plummeting through the air with reckless abandon. The ground is coming to meet them quickly but suddenly theres a burst of lavender sparkles as Cirice whispers a word into the wind casting a spell into the air below them and as they fall through it their descent is slowed to more of that of a feather on a gentle breeze¹. They spin and spiral down like leaves falling from a tree and right before they come to rest the runes on Cirice’s arm flash once more and a wall of pure light forms below them, guiding their movement into a slide as they finally and gently touch the ground².

“Well? What do you think?”

---

1 Fairy dust
2 wall of light

Twirling and laughing like a marionette on spun strings, Cashmere descends from high in the sky. Though the stars remain in their rightful places, the lights that shine from below grow closer and closer. It's like falling into a scintillating sea of lanterns. And yet the wind is calm as they descend upon Cirice's cherishing glimmer, which slows their fall to a safety.

On a bridge of gleaming light they descend, until they gently touch the ground again. Cirice need nary ask for Cashmere's opinion.

"That was so amazing!" His smile gleams so brightly that it rivals the moon. "You've gotta be one of the coolest mages in the whole world!"

Unprompted and unhesitant, he tackles Cirice in an energetically loving embrace. His tiny arms cling around her corset as tightly as they can -- still faintly, of course.

Again, with a beaming eye, he looks up at her. "You've gotta teach me all those spells sometime! I wanna know how to lift things, and talk to people's brains, 'n' make slides out of light, an-and not get hurt when I fall!" A smile so pure -- but interrupted by realization. "Oh! But first, you said you were gonna teach me another spell! What is it, what is it??"

“I’m glad you’re having fun!” Cirice beams, giddy with the high of his joy and affection. She hugs him tight to her and spins them around. “I’m not that amazing, there are so many truly amazing mages in the Guild and the Academy! Like my mentor, the Witch of Moonglade and Tsarra who summons turtles and sinks ships with ease! One day I’d love to introduce you to all of the truly incredible people I’ve met, they’re way more amazing than little old me!”

Mussing his hair gently before pulling his hat out of her bag and returning it to its rightful place atop his head, she grins. “Of course I’ll teach you anything and everything I can, all those spells and more! In fact all that fun was a part of the lesson I promised. Think about how happy the fun made you feel? The spell I’m going to teach you is all about spreading that joy to others! Its good for making grumpy people smile and making the saddest people feel better for a little while!”

She lifts him up onto her shoulders and she practically dances up the small stair of her wagon. “The first most important part of the lesson is knowing how you want to make the others feel. You want to hold onto that feeling and gift it to someone else.”

She slips into the wagon and sets him in the nest of blankets and pillows beside her kotatsu. Ars looks as them with the small smiling doodle and a single word on his face. Hello.

"Spreading the joy to others?" Cashmere echoes with a look of archetypalically childish curiosity. But it lasts little more than a moment before he's gleefully pulled onto Cirice's shoulders, hat loosely placed upon his head.

The moment Cashmere and Cirice pass the threshold into the wagon, Cashmere's eye gleams joyfully at the warm atmosphere, the magical eccentra and the seemingly infinite books. He's so enamoured that he hardly notices as Cirice places him under the kotatsu, but quickly becomes amazed -- and exceedingly cozy -- when he realizes that the blanket placed over him is heated!

It's then, and only then, that he bears witness to perhaps the most wondrous thing that he's seen all night: Ars, the being made entirely of literature. He gasps, but not too loudly -- he clasps his hands over his mouth. For some reason, he feels as if being in Cirice's library (and perhaps Ars' strange method of communication) means that he, too, should be silent. Instead, he simply takes a tiny slip of crumpled paper and a pencil, scribbles upon it for a moment, and then presents the following message to Ars:

Hi   : D

“Mmmmhmm. Joy and jolliness!”

Ars leans down and picks up the paper and presses it into his own face. The paper disappears into the book and the writing changes. Hello little human boy. Welcome to the Library, I am Ars Goetia. What books do you enjoy?

“Cashmere dear you don’t have to whisper here, my wagon is a warm and inviting place. Its my home, there are my pets everywhere. You don’t have to do anything so long as you don’t harm my books. I once had a little bird here who exploded a smoke bomb… Ars and Keyps were cleaning the residue up for WEEKS!”

Cirice brings over a teapot and a pair of cups and a small plate of cookies. She sits down under the kotatsu opposite Ars and smiles at Cashmere. “My home is yours too, silly.”

Cashmere is awestruck as he watches the golem take the little page and absorb it into itself. And then, new words! This feels like the new most amazing thing he's ever seen, which is especially incredible after the record had already been broken six minutes ago!

"Whoooaaa!" He leans in closer to take a better look at the books, but his attention's drawn away as he hears Cirice's familiar, melodic voice. Suddenly he feels silly; why did he think he'd have to whisper? A bit of embarrassment washes over him, but it's utterly eclipsed as he Cirice brings him something that fills him with joy.

"COOKIES!!" Indeed, he doesn't whisper.

Immediately, he reaches forward and a delightful cookie, coated in a dipping-shell of dark chocolate, but with a portion of white chocolate that's shaped like the crescent moon. It's difficult to tell whether it's waning or waxing... but Cashmere doesn't care. What's definitely waning is the rest of the cookie -- that is, what's left after Cashmere took a bite out of it, still shaped like a crescent in its own right. Cashmere looks as happy as a bug in a mug, with crumbs and chocolate smears already messing his chin and cheeks.

"Thanks big sis Cirice!"

Oh, but he almost forgot about Ars! At first he panics, thinking he has nothing more to write on. But then he has the idea to use one of the napkins. And so he takes one of the plain-white fabrics and puts pen to napkin, scribbling for a furious moment as he chews before presenting a new message to the golem.

It's good to meet you, Ars!!!! I love books about magic, because I can learn about magic so I can be a better witch! What books do you like?

Cirice watches him eat with a grin. “You’re welcome! I’m glad you like them! You don’t have to write to talk to Ars, he just doesn’t have a voice.”

I have many tomes of magical texts, Ars’ type face says, Studies are a noble pursuit. I do not have a personal favorite, though Mistress Cirice’s favorite is what makes up the majority of my form. It is called “smut.”

“Aaaaaannnd you can read it when you’re older!” Cirice cuts them off before they can talk about smut. “How about that spell? Want to see it in action? Feel for yourself?”