Value is in the eye of the beholder.

‘It says here you have to give up your most valuable possession for the spell to work.’ Naja looked from the book in her hands up to princess Amani. In the candle light she looked almost unreal, the golden headscarf loosely framing her face made her look like an angel, an angel like the ancient artists painted them. They were sitting in a small, dark room just off the castle library, surrounded by books about ancient magic, the only light source being the small candle placed just in between the two girls, who were sitting across from each other in the middle of the room.

The spell in question, if it worked, was to take Amani out of this world, and put her in to another, hopefully better world. Amani’s father wanted her to marry a prince from a neighbouring kingdom, a prince who Amani had never met, who was rumoured to be cruel, selfish and arrogant to the extreme. Amani had tried everything she could to convince her father that this was a bad decision, that the alliance it would form with the Esmen kingdom wouldn’t be worth selling his daughter to this prince, but he wouldn’t listen. It was always ‘You have to make sacrifices for your country, Amani.’ or ‘I’m sure he is not as bad as people make him out to be, Amani.’ or ‘The Esmen royals are very respectable people, Amani.’ he never even seemed to listen to anything Amani tried to tell him and she was sick of it. There was no way she was going to marry the prince, but how could she ever escape that fate if her father wasn’t going to listen to her? She would never be able to escape and hide in this world, everyone in the country knew her face, the officials of any other countries knew her face and as soon as she would go missing, a big search would be held and she would never really be able to escape. Except if she could somehow escape this world completely.

Magic was the logical option, though these days magic seemed non-existent and was believed not to exist, believe in magic had always played a big role in history all over the world. Believe in magic was so deeply ingrained in the culture and history of Escana, that even those most sceptical of magic respected the impact it made on our daily lives. Books about magic were still to be found if you knew were to look, and if magic did exist, anyone should be able to do magic. So, they found some magic books, they studied them, trying desperately to find a spell that could help Amani, and after three weeks of sneaking away whenever they could, sneaking Naja and the books into the castle at just the right times and spending any and all time they had going through the giant, old books, they finally found a spell. A spell that promised to transport someone to another world, all that was needed was someone to say the words, that could even be the person being transported as well, and the person’s most valuable possession.

‘I think that’s my tiara, the one made for my birthday last year?’ in truth, Amani had no idea what her most expensive possession would be, she never bought anything herself and all her possessions were expensive, her father cared a lot about how she looked and he always said looking cheap when you could look expensive was the worst thing a woman could do.

‘Lets try that, and hope there aren’t any consequences if it isn’t the right object. Do you think you could get a hold of it for tomorrow?’ Naja asked hopefully but she couldn’t quite hide the hesitation in her voice. For one, sneaking the tiara into their hiding spot would be a challenge, but then preforming a spell that they knew nothing about to send her best friend and the princess into a world they know nothing about absolutely terrified her, but she never could say no to Amani. Even back when they were just children, playing together in the forest by the castle, the forest Naja wasn’t allowed to be in, but when had she ever played by the rules, even then, when Amani asked her to come back the next day, she couldn’t say no, not even after they got caught and Naja’s mom got mad at her, she never said no, she always came back. Nothing changed, Naja still wasn’t allowed in or around the castle, yet she still came back every day, Naja still couldn’t say no to anything Amani asked of her, and so, when Amani asked to help her use magic to escape this world, Naja said yes.

-

‘Alright, don’t ask me how I did it, but I got the tiara’ Amani’s eyes sparkled in the candlelight, she looked so proud of herself sneaking the tiara into their hideout, it stunned Naja for just a second, and she thought once again, how could I ever disappoint her. Naja pushed her own worries aside and tried to match Amani’s excitement.

‘Are you ready to leave? Do you have everything you need?’ Naja wasn’t ready for Amani to leave, but if she had to leave, the least she could do is ensure that Amani had everything she needed to survive in this new world. Amani had never left the castle grounds except while under heavy surveillance on some official royal trip and she had zero experience in the real world. Naja did have that experience and she knew surviving could be hard, so she helped Amani pack for the new world. Amani now had a bag filled with food, clothes she could travel in, and anything else she might need, until she could hopefully find someone to take her in.

Pronunciation is key when trying a spell, so Naja had been practicing the pronunciation all night, everything was set for the spell, the only thing left to do was to find out if the spell actually worked.

Amani stood in the middle of the room, in the middle of three candles put out in a triangle formation on the floor, in her hands the handle of her bag and a fourth candle. Naja stood as far away from her as was possible in the small room, with her back against the wall and the book open in her hands, the room had a slanted roof so she had to stand slightly bend over and the light from the candles just barely reached her. She tried to read the spell from the book but the light was so weak she could barely read the small letters, luckily she had read the sentence often enough, she didn’t really even need the book at all, still, she kept it open and looked at the page, where the tiara was carefully placed so as to not obstruct view of the words she didn’t even need.

‘I’m ready’ Amani’s small, nervous voice seemed to fill the entire room, as well as Naja’s head, even though they were only whispered. Naja didn’t respond, she couldn’t, all she could do was take a deep breath and start saying the spell, she still looked straight at the book, not because she needed the text, but because she couldn’t stand the thought of looking at Amani when she disappeared. As she started talking a golden glow surrounded Amani, the glow made Naja look at her, now she really did look like an angel. As their eyes met, the glow surrounded the tiara as well and started lifting it from the book, but Naja barely noticed, she was lost in Amani’s eyes and the world around them disappeared. Naja closed her eyes as she said the last few words, she couldn’t bring herself to keep eye contact as the spell did its work. The last words had been said, the spell was done. It took Naja a couple seconds to work up the courage to open her eyes again, but when she did, she looked straight back into Amani’s eyes.

‘It didn’t work.’ Amani sounded out of breath as she said it, ‘The tiara must be the problem, it must not be worth enough.’ They looked at each other and laughed, all the worry and stress that had filled Naja’s mind just seconds ago, left her all at once. They decided to meet again and try with a new object the next day, and the day after that, as long as it would take for them to find the right object, Naja thought it wouldn’t be too bad if it took them forever.

-

‘Maybe, we have to give up.’ After a month of trying the spell with a new object every day, without luck, Naja felt that maybe the spell just didn’t work, and if it did, how could they ever find the right object? They had tried all of Amani’s most expensive possessions and none of them were right, Amani said maybe it could be something in the castle that was worth more that wasn’t necessarily hers but was her family’s possession, but then how could they ever find the right object.

The wedding was just two weeks away, after those two weeks Amani would be forced to marry prince Azrael and she would be taken away. Either they found the object and the spell would work or Amani would get married, either way there was a big chance Naja would never be able to see her friend again. So, they kept trying.

-

‘We’re not going to get it before the wedding.’ Amani sounded defeated, the wedding was in two days and they hadn’t gotten any closer. They had tried just about any expensive item they could find but none of them were the most valuable.

‘What is your most valuable possession, Naja?’ they were sitting against the wall of the room, side by side, looking at the expensive jewellery lying all around them, none of them valuable enough apparently.

‘My ring.’ Naja didn’t have much of value, and to be honest she had no idea how much the ring had cost, but it was worth more than anything else she could ever have.

‘The one I gave you?’ years ago, when they were still playing together in the forest outside of the castle, Amani gave Naja a simple, gold ring, Naja had said she was jealous of all the jewellery Amani had, so Amani took the ring of her finger and gave it to Naja. The ring had meant nothing to Amani, she had so many, if that ring made Naja happy, she deserved to have it.

‘Yeah, because you gave it to me, I think.’ Naja had never really thought about it but it really meant so much to her, it was priceless.

Wait.

‘Maybe the spell means the object that means the most to you, not necessarily the object that is worth the most money!’ Naja was so excited about having figured it out she didn’t even think to worry about losing Amani.

‘Naja, you’re a genius!’ hearing those words and seeing Amani’s face lit up, knowing she caused it, made Naja realize that even though she hated the idea of losing her best friend, she would do anything to make her happy, always, after all, she never could say no to her.

‘What do you care most about, Amani?’ maybe losing her was worth it if it meant Amani could be happy somewhere else. They looked each other in the eyes and time seemed to stand still, Amani was thinking, she always bit her bottom lip when she was thinking and as always Naja’s eyes were immediately drawn to her lips. Before she could draw her eyes back up, Amani moved, she came closer and closer and before Naja knew what was happening, she was close enough to kiss. Amani seemed to hesitate, but it lasted only a second before she finally closed the gap between them.

‘You.’ The kiss was over but Naja was in a sort of trance, and she didn’t immediately understand what Amani said.

‘I care most about you, Naja. Run away with me, please, to another world, we can make it work, your ring and the necklace you gave me when we were twelve, they will work.’ Amani was talking very fast and Naja was struggling to keep up but when she finally realised exactly what Amani was asking her to do she could only say ‘yes’, after all, she never could say no to Amani, and this time she really didn’t want to either. As they stepped into the triangle of candles the next day, her ring and Amani’s necklace laid out on the book that they held together, Naja, for the first time, felt joy while saying the spell, instead of worry, and she knew, they would be alright, together.