The Mage and the Magpie

> An invisible girl. A missing mage. A world in need…
>
>

**The Mage and the Magpie** is the first book in the Magemother series. It was published on June 11, 2015, by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. The book follows Brinley Archer, who is summoned across dimensions to embark on a quest to find her mother, and is dedicated to the author's wife.

## Synopsis

Brinley has spent most of her life lost in her own imagination, teaching bullfrogs to do gymnastics and pretending to be invisible. Now, when a magic bell from another world summons her across time and space on a journey to find her mother, she will discover real friendship, face true evil, and overcome her greatest fears in order to save the ones she loves. When Brinley arrives in Aberdeen, she finds that all is not well. The Magemother is missing, and Hugo, a reluctant prince, is on a quest to find her. Together, they team up with an eccentric young birdkeeper and set off on a journey to solve the mystery of the missing Magemother. Just maybe, Brinley will find the answers to her own strange past along the way.

## Plot

Brinley Archer wakes up in the middle of the night with the sound of a giant ringing bell. She hurries to her father's bedroom to tell him about it, but he is too sleepy to pay any attention. However, as they eat breakfast next morning, he advises Brinley to tell him if she hears that sound again, revealing that he too had once heard a "nighttime bell", on the same night he found her, as a baby, inside a basket on the steps of the abandoned Morley Church. It was ringing so loudly he couldn't hear himself think, but, once he got to the church, the ringing stopped. Brinley retorts that Morley Church doesn't have a bell, and then asks what it sounded like, to which her father replies it felt like it was from somewhere else. Brinley lits up when he invites her to go check on Morley Church together that Saturday.

Seven days prior to this, Animus, the Mage of Wind, follows a idris through the night, across the bridge to the Wizard's Ire. He turns himself into a "wisp of night mist" and advances into the forest alone, not falling for the idris' trap. Not long later, Animus finds an unconscious woman laying on the mud. He changes back into a human and moves to help her, but Peridot attempts to kill him, mistaking him for an attacker. After she recognizes him, Peridot ushes the mage towards Lewilyn and orders him to take her away. Immediatly, a dark man appears, and Peridot charges on him, while Animus turns into wind and carries Lewilyn through the nightsky, towards the moon.

For the next days, Animus is not again seen on Aberdeen, where the people are suffering due to the lack of wind (since it prevents the cycle of water, thus affecting food production). Not only that, but the Mages of Wood, Water and Fire have gone missing many years ago, and the elements of nature are slowly getting out of control. Eager to know what is going on, the prince of Caraway, Hugo Paradise, follows the king's advisor through the castle, using its many secret passageways to remain unnoticed. He almost bumps into the castle's mage, Lux, but he dodges Hugo by turning himself into light. Once Hugo gets to the the king's library, he hides behind a crate of ledgers and listens, as Archibald and his father discuss the envoy's shocking news: the Mage of Wind has resigned. His tower was empty and Animus's apprentice had been dismissed weeks before, now working at the Magisterium. The king orders Archibald to find the Magemother, as she surely knows the whereabouts of the missing mages. Archibald suggests Hugo accompany him on that quest, promising to not take him outside of Caraway, and the king accepts.

Archibald calls on Hugo to meet him at the castle's doors in one hour, then goes into the Magemother's old room to search for clues on where she is. Finding a small silver bell sitting over a desk, Archibald is overwhelmed with memories from the day Lewilyn bought it with him, when she told him it was *her* bell: no matter how far away they were, if he rang it, she would hear. Archibald rings it and puts it in his vest pocket, hoping somewhere far away she has heard it.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, Brinley devotes her summer break to her special talent of "being invisible". She stucks some drawing pencils on her bun, and goes off to the mountain side, to the old mining town of Morley. Besides drawing, she plans on searching for answers to the mysterious ringing bell while she's there, so she walks faster than usual. Brinley gets there just before the sunrise, and looks up inside the church's bell tower; just as she thought, there is no bell. She sits to draw and sketches the church's steps, a basket sitting on the ground and her mother turning away, but then changes it into her father coming to find her. Then she sketches various birds, including a magpie that she had never seen before. After eating lunch, she falls asleep, and wakes up to the sound of a magpie (she is not sure if it is the same she drew), peeking from over a nest. Brinley's memories flood her mind, as she muses over who her mother might be and why did she abandon her, wondering if she even had a mother at all. Suddenly, she hears a woman's voice saying *All things have a mother*. Scared, she goes inside Morley Church, but doesn't find anyone. The bell she heard the previous night rings again, and Brinley's heart races. Telling herself it is all in her mind, she returns home.

## Chapter List

1. **In which there is a pool of drool**
2. **In which someone is very nearly eaten**
3. **In which Hugo spies, sneezes, and walks through secret passageways**
4. **In which Archibald has a very important flashback**
5. **In which scolds a bird and teaches frogs to do gymnastics**
6. **In which Archibald gets Hugo to recite a poem**
7. **In which there is a team of oxen**
8. **In which Hugo is bitten by a monster**
9. **In which we meet Tabitha**
10. **In which a door is closed**
11. **In which a door is opened**
12. **In which Cannon shows off, jumps to conclusions, and throws dust in people's faces**
13. **In which Brinley pretends to be a boy**
14. **In which there is a mighty roar**
15. **In which there is a flying carpet**
16. **In which there is an astonished goat**
17. **In which Hugo is foolish**
18. **In which there are witches**
19. **In which Archibald fights a giant**
20. **In which there is a plan**
21. **In which something amazing happens**
22. **In which Hugo is tempted**
23. **In which Brinley cuts a deal with a shady character**
24. **In which Hugo has an earache**
25. **In which Brinley kicks a bucket**
26. **In which Brinley flies to the moon**
27. **In which there is a mage and a magpie**
28. **In which Brinley grows up**
29. **In which there is a very reluctant witch**
30. **In which Brinley feels the weight of the world**
31. **In which Hugo takes the chicken stairs**
32. **In which Brinley has a brilliant idea**
33. **In which there is a fluffy bathrobe**
34. **In which there is a herald**
35. **In which there is a mother**

## References

1. ↑ The Mage and the Magpie, Dedicatory
2. ↑ The Mage and the Magpie, Chapter Two
3. ↑ The Mage and the Magpie, Chapter Two
4. ↑ The Mage and the Magpie, Chapter Six
5. ↑ The Mage and the Magpie, Chapter Three
6. ↑ The Mage and the Magpie, Chapter Four
7. ↑ The Mage and the Magpie, Chapter Five