Background

Rhiannon was in the foster care system for as long as she could remember. Although young girls were usually adopted quickly, somehow she fell through the cracks. For whatever reason, the bureaucracy kept moving her about despite several foster families expressing a desire to keep her. The experience made Rhiannon somewhat slow to form lasting connections. Though she would engage and seem at ease there was always a wall, preventing her from ever feeling a part of whatever family she was with.

As she entered secondary school, Rhiannon was finally placed with the Kerrigans. Rhiannon immediately felt comfortable with them, and insisted to her case workers that if she was moved again, she would run away and disappear. Whether that was the reason or not the Kerrigan's were allowed to eventually adopt her. To the Kerrigan's three sons, Rhiannon was an intruder. They didn't like having a girl suddenly in the house, and the youngest, Seamus, truly resented her. Though he was a year younger, she was still newer and in his eyes, she stole some of his special status.

Rhiannon's relationship with her brothers did eventually stabilize. They eventually accepted that she was there to stay and did acknowledge her as a sister, they never really got close. Rhiannon would have preferred to be a little closer, but she was used to be on her own in that regard.

Another life change occurred for Rhiannon just after she moved in with the Kerrigans. She learned that she could create magic images that could transport her to the location depicted. It became an obsessive hobby, but one she kept secret until revealing it to a friend with disastrous consequences just before she left for university.

Rhiannon excelled in school, always earning top marks. While still in 6th form, she applied for and won a scholarship to Harvard University in the United States. She was younger than the other students, but she continued to do well academically, progressing through her classes faster than expected.

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Rhiannon loves to paint and sketch, and was always very talented with both pencil and brush. She was inspired by the classic artists who could almost bring their work to life. She also liked the works of street artists who use perspective to create illusions like holes in the street or portraits that look alive. Her own work became increasingly more realistic. One night while still in secondary school, she was putting the finishing touches on a painting of a pond she had visited a few days prior with her foster parents. As she caressed in the last few strokes, she could suddenly smell the breeze coming off the water, and the sky looked much darker than she remembered painting. A moment after, the sounds of the water lapping on the grassy shore reached her ears. It felt like she was right there. On an impulse, she stepped forward, immediately slipping on the et evening grass and splashing into the water. When she finally coughed her way to shore in her soggy pyjamas, her room was gone and the nearest lights were from the little pub at the top of a nearby hill.

After her incident with the pond, Rhiannon was nervous to go near the painting. As a precaution, she covered it with a linen sheet, and wouldn't go near it for over a week. Eventually though, her curiosity overrode her fear and she pulled the linen from the canvas. She'd forgotten how well the painting had turned out. But for the brush strokes, it was almost photographic in quality. She was proud of her work but still confounded by the event a week earlier. She'd have thought she had imagined the whole thing except for the fact that her fosters had to drive thirty kilometres to Kilbride to fetch her. The anger, the worry and the severe admonishment was very real.

Now back in full view, Rhiannon inched towards the painting. It was a painting. It didn't take her long to grow weary of the caution and run her fingers down it. Maybe it was a painting but it was so cold to her touch. While it was strange, at least her hand didn't pass through it, taking her back down to Kilbride. She was relieved, but befuddled, and the mystery effectively erased her fear. Over several days she tried to recreate that magical transportation. She even went to far as to keep a bus ticket in her pocket in case she succeeded. Ultimately she gave up, theorising that it only worked because she had just finished painting it and if she wanted to make that happen again, she would need to start a new painting.

The bathroom was a great target. It was simple to paint, and if it worked she wouldn't need a bus ticket. Her first attempt failed. She really didn't think it was going to work anyway. She painted it way to fast and it didn't have the quality of the pond picture. The second was much better, but still it ended up being just a really good render of the loo. By her sixth try she was just too flummoxed to continue.

Before endeavouring on her next attempt, she went back to the pond picture. It was still cold. There was something there. Something she did made that painting special. Was it the paints? Maybe it was the pond itself. But if it was the pond, why did it stop working? Or did it? It was still cold, but she just couldn't make become a door again. She decided on a different tact. She wrote out everything she could remember about painting the scene with the pond. What she was thinking, what she was feeling, what paints she used. Why she chose that particular subject. What style and approach she chose to use. Whenever she remembered something else she added it to the journal. Three weeks later and after several days of coming up with nothing new, she organised everything she wrote down into categories and studied it over looking for anything that stood out. It took another week before she came to the conclusion that it was her focus on the realism and the excruciating detail. She obsessed over every colour and every line. She pictured the original scene in her head so vividly before and during applying her brush. Even the underlying sketch she made sure was absolutely perfect.

The bathroom scene just didn't have the detail that demanded the focus so she had to choose something new and complex. It took her some time to find something interesting enough to put the effort into, but she eventually decided on the Palm House at the National Botanical Gardens. The building was absolutely beautiful and the landscape was simply fabulous. It was also in the city and the city bus could take her back him if she got it to work.

The pond painting was a piece of inspiration, so for this painting, she couldn't just see the scene, she had to feel it as well. That Saturday she went to the place and studied it intimately by walking around and taking note of the textures, the sounds, the smells and of course the grand scenery itself. She took photos with her phone and sketches and even wrote down small details that she thought were interesting. When she found the vantage point for the scene, she closed took it in and then closed her eyes, imprinting it in her mind. On Sunday during church hours, she went back and set up her sketch pad, tearing off several practices before setting it to the canvas. Of course she would have to finish it at her home, but she took ample photos and repeated her study through the day. By dusk, she was truly exhausted, but the painting was well along its way.

Obsessing over the scene, Rhiannon finished it by Thursday. Her foster mother had come in and observed it on Wednesday to remark on how real it looked, but it was the following evening when she felt she had succeeded. The canvas was cool to her touch, but she still wasn't getting it to become that window. Finally, she just decided to close her eyes and imagine everything she could of the place, recalling her close study.

When she opened her eyes she projected that clear picture in her mind to the canvas, and she heard the chirping call of the Tuirne lín. The smell of the grass filled her nostrils and the cool night air brushed over her skin. She reached out touching the print with her fingers and stepped forward.

"For the love of God, lass! You startled me!"

Rhiannon turned to see a vagrant shuffling away, looking very agitated.

"Ya shounna be sneaking up on people like that. Go home." And he rushed off.

Rhiannon stepped out into the lawn, performed several twirls with her arms wide and laughing in glee. She didn't know by what magic she could do what she had done, but it was exhilarating and wonderful. Falling onto the grass and looking up at the twilight sky she thought to herself, what do I do next?

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Rhiannon's success with the Palm House and the Pond paintings not only excited her, it left her hungry for doing more. She thought she had a winning formula for making scenic magic pictures, but her next target wasn't cooperating It was so perplexing because her own bedroom was the target she knew the best. At first she was determined to make it work going, through a dozen canvases. She wished there was a way to know sooner if it was going to work, but the last two successes weren't apparent until the end. Her younger foster brother, ever curious and in her business, teased her about making twelve identical paintings of her own room. It was as perplexing as it was infuriating. To make matters worse, when she tried to reassure herself by visiting the pond, the painting no longer worked and had lost its cold sensation to her touch. The Palm house worked, though, at least for one more go, and then it went warm on her as well.

Over the next weeks, Rhiannon drove herself crazy trying to make another magic picture to no avail. Her foster mother was concerned at first for all of Rhiannon's groaning and crying, but when she realized it was just Rhiannon obsessing over her not being perfect the concern became annoyance when the volume spilled out of Rhiannon's bedroom.

Rhiannon needed a break. She decided to just put aside drawing or painting anything for a while. It was after several months that Rhiannon had the whim to paint just for fun; to paint anything but a magic picture. Looking out her window, her eyes fell on the big old oak in her back yard. It was nice the way it shaded the centre of the yard and protected the flowering bushes underneath. Perfect. It was easy, devoid of extraneous detail and familiar enough that she could be more relaxed about it.

First came the freehand sketch. It turned out to be a bit more complicated than she first thought. The hang of the lowest branches and the great old knot in the side captured the character, while the bushes around the base made it a scene and not just a shade tree. Of course, the grass was also thinner under the tree than around it, and she noticed that the back fence had some cracked boards. She marvelled at how much detail she could find in such a simple scene, but by the end of the sketch, the truly magical suprise came.

The cold tingle was already there.

Even without colour, she went through the process of staring and visualizing. It wasn't coming like she expected, so she picked up teh sketch to feel it too. There it was. The image shimmered and came to life, but as she started to get excited it began to flatten. Obviously, it needed a bit more work. Some colour maybe? Rhiannon just went with it. She feared that if she started obsessing, all the magic would flee. Instead she continued on to put down the paints with more of a feel for the scene than an eye for perfect detail. She even added some artistic flair to the lighting and the colours. At the end of the painting, she already knew she had created another.

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Rhiannon had three weeks before going off to Harvard University in the United States. She was ready, but there were one or two other experiments she wanted to try before leaving. Once she was at the university, she would be able to make cards so she could travel back and forth without taking a plane or fighting through customs lines or paying airfare. Still, it wasn't all about the utility. It was about being able to do more.

The first experiment was easy. Instead of using the card to just appear in the destination with a step, she wanted to see if she could hold the connection so others could step through instead or perhaps even from the other side. She felt like she already did that or something like it when she first made the painting of the pond. The second was she wanted to see if she could paint a person and go to wherever they were. Both experiments required a confidant, but who could she trust. Sure there were strange things that have happened in the world, but if she revealed that she could create magic paintings to transport her to other places, the reaction could be disastrous. She needed exactly the right person. Her foster brothers were a non-start. The older two tolerated her at best, and the younger downright resented her. Seamus, the younger of the two older brothers would be the only one of them inclined to help her with anything, but he could just as easily go off and run his mouth to Sean, the eldest. Not only that, the lot of them had a penchant for mischief and she didn't relish the idea of popping in on them in the midst of something she'd regret witnessing. Of her two closest friends, Morrigan was way to into herself to keep a secret and learning that magic was real would blow up her pink little world. Rhiannon's best candidate was Katy. Katy was always eager to have a special relationship with either Morrigan or Rhiannon. This was exactly the kind of secret she would live for.

Rhiannon's plan was simple. Invite Katy over, show her the cards, and then demonstrate by going through one and then returning. Then see if she could take Katy with her by holding her hand. If that worked she would try to open the way and send Katy alone. Whether or not that all worked, she would have Katy sit for a portrait and try experiment number two.

As far as plans went, part one was fairly successful, but for one little issue. When Rhiannon had Katy over and confessed her secret skill, Katy laughed at the absurdity, insisting that Rhiannon was gone mental. Until, of course, Rhiannon used a card to go to the back lot of their school, taking Katy's phone. When Rhiannon returned, she brought back the phone with several selfies of her sitting on the school benches making funny faces. It was overkill. When Katy saw Rhiannon disappear in a shimmer, she almost had a meltdown. She would have screamed had Rhiannon warned her not to. After that, it didn't too much convincing to get Katy to come along, and that worked perfectly as expected. She was even able to teach Katy how to use the card herself. Of course she used the one that went only to the back yard.

The problem came with step three of experiment one. It had never occurred to Rhiannon that she could have practiced opening the way without Katy. While the first two steps happened in just a few minutes, it took Rhiannon several days before it looked like it might work. Katy was present each time, because she was too fascinated to be left out. Rhiannon was concentrating; her eyes flicking back and forth between her card and a blank wall as her imaginary canvas. Katy stood by watching. It was the fourth attempt of the afternoon when Katy noticed what looked like a glimmer. When she shouted out, Rhiannon lost her concentration and whatever she saw evaporated. It could have wishful thinking on Katy's part, but on the next try, Rhiannon saw it also. By the seventh, it appeared that a doorway opened, almost two meters high and a meter wide. The concentration required to hold it was enormous, and it closed before either of them decided to try and traverse it. The breakthrough finally came the next day, when Rhiannon managed to hold the portal open long enough for Katy to enter and come back. Right after Rhiannon repeated the process for herself and Katy one after the other.

After the success, Katy was excited for the next experiment, and she gladly sat for a sketch. There were actually several sketches as Rhiannon wanted some practice drawing Katy before applying the magic. Also, because she wanted to set up the card first, with a reverse and proper border, she made sure she could execute it right the first time.

When Rhiannon finished the portrait of Katy, she knew it was going to work. The coldness was there, and she could almost feel a sense of her friend in the card. The plan was simple. Katy was to go home and text Rhiannon, informing her that she was ready in a safe place. With everything set, Rhiannon picked up the card and regarded the image of her friend. There was a contact, but while the picture shimmered to life, it was Katy herself that filled Rhiannon's senses and not the room she was standing in.

All at once, the whole of Katy's mind spilled into Rhiannon's head, just as she knew all of her memories and experiences flooded Katy's. It was an overwhelming mixture, a deluge of thoughts and emotions that blended with her own, threatening drown out her identity. Just as she felt like she would be lost, the world faded to black.

Rhiannon awoke to her chiming phone. Her head was still a whirl of thoughts and emotions. Katy was still there. She could see her whole life; every experience and reaction. It was maddening, and she screamed to shut it out. Her parents came in to find her thrashing and rolling, holding her head as if to prevent her own mind from escaping through her ears. Her father, as big as he was, needed the help of her brothers to restrain her. Her mother, distraught at the entire scene was also screaming. Eventually, it became too much and succumbed again to the darkness.

When Rhiannon next awoke, she was in a hospital surrounded by nurses and medical staff. A doctor was next to her bed, speaking reassuringly, but asking her to tell him her name. Her parents were nowhere in sight. After the doctor was satisfied that she was sane and cogent, he revealed that she had been there for three days under sedation. He, of course, probed for any possible cause for the breakdown, but Rhiannon knew better than to reveal any of it. She simply told him that she had a massive headache, unlike anything she had ever experienced and couldn't remember any more than that. Of course, she did remember. She remembered every moment, and poor Katy was still a resident in some part of her mind. Though it took her several more weeks to feel even close to normal again, she lied to her doctors, effectively forcing herself to act as if nothing had happened so that they would release her in a few days. During that time, she learned that Katy had also had an episode from which she had yet to recover. Rhiannon wanted to go see her but even the mention of Rhiannon's name sent Katy into a frenzy, and so she was forbidden to go near.