“Donna and the Waters of Ignition”
(A tale of small cars, big secrets, and very wet elegance)
Deep beneath the quiet stone walls of an ancient house, Donna knelt before a plastic box that most would overlook. But not her.
Inside lay hundreds of miniature vehicles—each one a dormant vessel from the old realm of Tyracar, a land once ruled by sentient machines and their chosen human allies. The people of Tyracar believed that every machine had a soul… but the magic that powered them had long dried up.
Until now.
Donna, a descendant of the House of Sparkgear, had found the lost container of prophecy in her hallway. Carefully, she lifted a red fire truck—its chrome trim dulled by time, its wheels stuck from centuries of silence.
This was the one.
She held it up, eyes narrowing slightly. It twitched.
A spark had answered.
She continued her search, summoning others: a white scout van, a rugged dune crawler, a blocky yellow digger. Each one hummed faintly at her touch. But none of them would awaken fully… not without The Waters of Ignition.
That meant the ritual.
Donna rose. Still, in her elegant pale pink blazer and black satin dress—she never dressed down for magic—she stepped into the tiled chamber. No chanting. No candles. Just a tub and a steady hand.
With serene precision, she turned on the water and began to pour it over herself, piece by piece. Her dark outfit clung to her like sleek armor; her stockings glistened, catching the light like circuit paths awakening beneath a motherboard. The ritual required total saturation—only then would her energy flow freely into the toy machines.
As her hair soaked and her skin tingled from the spell’s embrace, her thoughts quieted.
The water was doing its work.
She shampooed her hair, a final cleansing. The contract of the Sparkgear was now sealed.
When she returned to the toy box, damp from crown to heel but fully radiant, she reached for the white scout van again. It rolled forward — just a little.
The fire truck’s lights flickered—no batteries involved.
The cars of Tyracar were coming to life.
And Donna? She just smiled, placed the car gently on the floor, and gave it a nudge. This was her piece in the story; the cars will take it from here.