The moment Kara got off of her bus, she ran up the stone walkway of her house. Her dad appeared inside. He offered her a slight smile. "Hi, Kara. Did you have a good day at school?" Kara nodded, smiling back. "Yeah. Is it alright if Foster comes over today to hang out?" He nodded. "Yeah, okay." He seemed a bit distracted. Kara decided to tell him about what she planned on doing. "Um, me and Foster were, uh...going to go up in the attic." "What?" Her dad looked scared suddenly. "You can't go up there!"

Kara was instantly puzzled. "Why not? I-" "You just can't!" he cried. "It's...it's dusty up there, and you could get hurt, what with all of my old workout equipment in storage." Kara was annoyed now. "Dad, you're lying to me. What's up there that you don't want me to see?" Her dad put a hand to his forehead and only sighed. "Nothing that I can keep you from getting to. Be careful with whatever you find up there. Foster can come too, but promise me that you'll stay safe." Her father's eyes held so much emotion that Kara felt as if this was as dangerous as fighting in some sort of war. "Okay," she told him. "I will. I promise." She hugged her dad tightly, and he hugged her in return, holding on to her like he'd never see her again. The two let go of each other, and her father left. Kara went to call Foster, running upstairs to get her phone. 

Foster came in after Kara unlocked the front door of her house for him. His blue eyes were bright with excitement. "Alright, Kara. Lead the way." Kara laughed at his overly eager expression. "Okay, okay. Let's go, then." She walked with him there. Her attic had a small staircase that led up to it. After scaling the stairs, they finally entered the room. The attic itself was small, jam packed with old things, and a bit cramped, with a musty smell. Kara had never really been in it before, but she had known where it was because that her dad constantly went in it. She saw a big teddy bear in the corner of the room near a dusty window.  Its right arm was torn but it was still pretty cute with its shiny bead eyes and round felt nose. She recalled fond memories of running around with that same bear when she had been  a little kid. She smiled, turning away to look at other things. Kara noticed some old piles of filed paper in another corner and walked over to them. The top one said "Emily May Tilling." Interested, she opened the file and read the papers inside. Her mom had been a lawyer once, according to the files. One paper mentioned her quitting. Most of it was unimportant, but when she got to the last case, it was described as "fraternizing with the faerie folk" and "dabbling with the dark arts". The person on trial was her mother herself. Her father was listed as Caleb Harvey Tilling, and was mentioned for siding with his wife on the case. It didn't say what had happened to her mother, but Kara was too shaken by the other parts to notice or really care. Having illegal involvement with fairies? Messing with evil magic? That didn't sound like something her mom, or anyone else for that matter, could have done. All that stuff only existed in stories, right? This couldn't be real...

Foster moved things aside, trying to find something mentioning Kara's mom. He found a paper discarded on a table that mentioned that details of her funeral. Almost overwhelmed with sadness, he put the paper back where he'd found it. He couldn't show that to Kara. It would just upset her. Straightening his glasses for the second time that day, he searched even more, but didn't uncover anything else. Narrowing his eyes in frustration, he turned around to see a bookcase. It was full of all sorts of books. Books on law school, books on planting, books on baby names, adult novels and picture books, and some of Kara's fantasy books. Seeing nothing useful, Foster decided that he'd go to see how Kara was doing. But before he could, be nearly tripped over a book that had been thrown by his feet. Becoming angry, he was about to kick it across the attic floor. Suddenly, light streamed up from its cover, shining like miniscule spotlights on the low ceiling. Confused, Foster picked the book up, closing it properly and fixing its bent pages the best he could. It was a cookbook, with recipes for different kinds of cake. As he closed it, the light disappeared from the ceiling, but came out from between its pages like trapped sunlight. Foster's eyes widened wuth curiosity as he studied the slightly faded cover. The picture of a lavish, grand blue and white cake vanished as a dragon with glowing purple eyes and golden scales appeared instead to replace it, along with a title written in purple cursive. "Legend of Faerie," he read aloud. He opened the book up to the first page. A table of contents was there, indicating what spells were on what pages. Wait, spells? "Kara!" he shouted. "Kara, I found something!"