Rise of Xavia

by Tara Chau

  “Why don’t they just break a window or something?”

  If it weren’t for the circumstances, I think everyone in the room would have been in laughing fits, joking at how easy the idea is, then Daniel speaks, and it isn’t so easy anymore.

  "Lucien somehow created a spell that acts as some kind of shield; they describe it as a solid bubble surrounding the entire building. They first need a warlock to figure out which spell it is, then get him or her to undo it. After that, they need to somehow find a way to move the fallen pillars blocking the exit. That way, they can reach the keypad to disable the lockdown."

  "Why would you need to get in through the rear exit when you can just smash a window or break down a wall?" I ask obliviously.

  "Because Lucien triggered the lockdown, that puts up another spell that means no one in or out,” Jess answers.

  I fight the urge to let out a big groan. A question blooms in the forefront of my mind. "How do you know what's happening inside? How do you know how badly Gabe was hurt?"

  "Because, even through two spells, we can still hear them by the open windows,” Daniel says, relief lingering in his tired features.

  “How long will it all take?” Ty asks stiffly.

  “Considering all the steps?” Daniel huffs a burdened sigh. “A month.”

  Not caring about anything anymore, I let go of my groan. It turns out that it was more like a scream.

  “Send us in,” Anne says after everyone’s eardrums had recovered enough to hear at least a sentence clearly.

  “No,” Is all he says. Maybe his ears are still recovering. Why not?

  "You need all the people you can working on clearing those pillars. I've seen them, there at least fifteen metres tall and carved from stone, it's going to take more than a month,” she argues.

  “We have twelve Protectors assigned to work on it, shifting out every few hours with a new crew. They'll work through the night. Having more than that will make things go slower. Stay here, track Lucien, find out what he's planning."

  Remembering that Lucien had given me some kind of riddle to deliver to the Sanctuary, I hesitate. Find out what he’s planning. I will. I’ll find out everything first, gather evidence, then present it to Daniel.

  “How are they going to survive a month?” Hayden asks worriedly.

  "They'll use the food stashed there for emergencies; the hall always has extra in case demons break the boundaries. The food was packed to feed hundreds over a month. It's just the ten of them in there. It could last a whole year,” Daniel reassures.

  "But Gabe is hurt. If he's been stabbed or something, he's gonna need medical treatment,” I remind.

  "They are Protectors. They'll hold out till we can get to them."

  “What if-” I protest.

  “Dismissed,” he barks.

  “No…” I beg, “there has to be something else we can do.”

  “Daniel, we can-” Anne begins desperately.

  “Dismissed,” he repeats harshly.

  Both Anne and I have to be yanked out of his office and dragged down the hall. We end up in Anne's room; apparently, all of them have one. With me curled up and pressed against the bed head, Anne sitting on the floor beside Jess, Hayden sitting at the desk, and the only sound being Ty's endless pacing, we make for a pretty depressing group.

  “So, what, we're just gonna sit around doing nothing while they all suffer?" Ty asks impatiently.

  “We’re going to do what Daniel told us to do, find Lucien,” Jess replies. I will have to say that she’s the most level-headed out of all of us at the moment.

  “He’s the biggest threat we’ve faced so far,” I murmur. When everyone looks towards me expectantly, I take a deep breath. “Lucien has somehow gotten warlock abilities, joined forces with the Xavia, and now has perfect access to the Book of Beings. The Xavia alone is a huge threat, add Lucien into the equation, and you better tell me that we have an army of Protectors ready."

  Ty shakes his head slowly, confirming that the Protectors are unprepared for this. "All we have is a bunch of teenagers, who are completely outnumbered, completely outmatched, and quite possibly out skilled as well,” he says in a peppy voice.

  “Loving the enthusiasm,” Anne says sarcastically.

  “We have to be able to help somehow,” Hayden says, steering us back to the previous topic.

  "I would love it so much if we could. But I think we just have to stick to solving the problems around here, keep on top of things so when Gabe does come back, he won't drown in the mess we've left. They'll get him out. They'll get them all out,” I assure.

  “Why did Lucien attack anyway?” Jess questions. “He didn’t kill anyone from the Counsel, didn’t destroy the city, didn’t steal anything…what was the point?”

  “Because he wanted to stop the Counsel from announcing the search for him and the Xavia, but he also wanted them to suffer, not just them though, us too. Lucien knew how worked up I'd get. He also knew that you guys are also very close to him. He wants us distracted. I don't know why,” I lie. He wants us to be looking the other way as he makes and performs his plan, while all of us would be scurrying around trying to get the Counsel and Gabe free.

  “Just stay focused, remember, Lucien first,” I say sternly, ignoring the other part of my head that screams for the opposite. Everyone looks disappointed and somewhat pissed, but we all nod in agreement. One by one, everybody leaves until it’s just Ty, Anne, and me.

  “We’ll get him back, even if I have to go there myself,” Ty says determinedly.

  “He’ll be okay,” Anne says softly, more to herself than any of us, “Gabe can take care of himself. Plus, his parents are there with him.”

  The three of us sit on Anne's bed in silence, all staring at the blank wall, racking our brains for some better and more efficient way to help. I remember Gabe once told me that Anne and Ty are like his siblings, raised together. As much as it hurts for me to be sitting here doing nothing, it must be torture for them.

  Returning home, I spend the next hour with Dad, showing him my new arrow trophy and telling him about camp before retiring to my room. Unpacking is a long, tedious task, though it gives me time to think about what Lucien had said to me.

  Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride - the seven to rise.

  My thoughts are disrupted by the ding of my phone. Throwing the last of my dirty clothes into the hamper, I walk over to my bed and pick up my discarded phone.

  T: Can I ask a favour?

  D: Sure.

  T: I’m following up on a lead Sunday, not Lucien, I promise, but I need someone to look after Ronnie. My mum will be at a teachers’ meeting. It won’t take longer than two hours.

  D: What time?

  T: 1 o’clock?

  I take a deep breath and quickly run through the things that I have planned for Sunday. Besides training… nothing. I am supposed to do some extra studying for the exams next week, but I can do that on Saturday. Looking after Ronnie last time was a piece of cake. Two hours should be fine.

  D: Alright.

  T: I’ll give you $20

  D: Don't worry about it. I'm agreeing because I like her…and I have nothing better to do.

  T: That’s slightly depressing, but I guess I should be glad that you don’t have a social life.

  I let out a spiteful laugh. Maybe I should charge him.

  D: You might want to put down your phone before I change my mind.

  T: Right, thanks. Have a good sleep!

  D: Yeah, that would be good.

  T: See you Sunday.

  Closing the window, I reach to tap on Gabe’s contact, a habit. Remembering that he is stuck in the great hall in Maline, injured, makes me want to vomit. Plunging the charger in, I leave it on the desk.

  Saturday spins by in a whirl of training and studying. Apart from going out to a fancy Mexican restaurant for dinner with Dad, it is a pretty dull day. Waking up on Sunday,
I am fidgety from the urge to do something other than kicking the living sand out of the punching bags. I am sick of training, and that’s something that I have never ever experienced.

  I pace around my room for twenty minutes straight, desperately trying to think of something to do with a lethal six-year-old for two hours. The day is unusually hot, and I know that Anne has an abnormally large pool.

  Swiping my phone from the desk, I text Anne quickly, begging her to allow Ronnie and me over for a swim. Once she has made me call her and beg dramatically, I pack my backpack with two towels, sunscreen, and slip-on swimmers underneath a semi-see-through white dress. Putting on my sunnies and sandals, I walk swiftly out the door.

  Striding up Ty's driveway, I marvel at how normal I feel, just a regular teen about to go swimming with her best friend and a sweet little girl. I knock confidently on his door, taking half a step back, not quite feeling like getting a big face full of door. Hearing muffled shuffling behind the door and urgent speaking, I pull on a genuine smile. Ty opens the door; his eyebrows raise as he takes in my outfit. I suddenly felt very self-conscious about my blue two-piece. My short, clear dress does nothing when it comes to covering up. The only thing it really does is shelter my bare skin from the cool breeze. I instinctually cross my arms tight to my upper body, giving him a small, shy smile.

  "Why do you look like you're on holiday?" he asks as a greeting.

  “I thought that it would be fun to go swimming in Anne’s pool. Ronnie might like it,” I say, trying my best to sound confident.

  Ty nods slightly, his mouth quirking up into a grin. He stands aside for me to enter. I don't feel too confident with turning my back on him, especially when he looks like he might cause some trouble. I walk through, though, my only reassurance being the small six-year-old girl on the other side of this door. I spot Ronnie sitting on the couch with a rather complicated-looking picture book. She glances up at me and beams. Shutting her book, she walks calmly over to Ty and me.

  "I was hoping you would have your daggers. Ty's rather boring. I never have any fun these days,” I say cheekily.

  Ty glares, and Ronnie giggles. She turns around to show me a small dagger holstered at her waist. She flings her hair in an annoyed fashion behind her shoulder. It flies out behind her, waving slightly. Today she's wearing a yellow jumpsuit with spaghetti straps and ruffles at the top. Adorable.

  "I thought that we could go hang out with Anne at the pool, that sound like a plan?”

  In response, Ronnie squeals and runs off somewhere, presumably going to pack. Turning back to Ty, I smile, forgetting that I’m in a rather brave outfit.

  “Her bedrooms down the hall and first door to the left,” Ty says.

  “Alright, go track down that lead,” I say smiling, "Be careful. Gabe would kill me if he knew I let you go yourself."

  Ty smiles softly, a shadow of a memory flashing in his eyes. It's gone within a second and replaced with a glimmer of sadness, hidden deep.

  Ty walks over to the door and takes his coat from the hook; he gives me a thumbs up and calls out a goodbye to Ronnie before walking through the door. Wandering down the hall, I peek into Ronnie's room. She has a light blue feature wall, a single bed pushed into the left corner against the wall, a white bed frame with the same-coloured blue sheets as the wall, and a wooden side table with a rainbow-coloured lava lamp. A grey painted desk on the right wall, facing a window that looks out into the garden.

  The back wall has two doors that opened and lead into a small walk-in wardrobe where Ronnie's crouches. Making my way over, I sit next to her and look down at the three swimsuits she’s laid out in front of us.

  “Which one?” she asks, truly troubled.

  Looking between the plain purple, black and white striped, and floral one-pieces, I point at the floral one. Ronnie gathers up the other two and puts them neatly back onto a pile of clothes. She pulls out googles from a black cubical, grabs a white beach towel, and shoves them into a small black and pink duffel bag.

  “Ready?” I ask.

  Ronnie turns to face me. We stand. I walk over to the bed and swipe the pale green material woven sun hat from the bedpost, placing it gently onto Ronnie's head.

  “Ready,” she nods.

  We walk hand in hand a few streets over to Anne's house. She greets us both warmly and leads us through the gate into the back garden—perfect green law stretching for metres, decorated with orderly flower beds.

  The huge pool was separated from the garden by a grey fence. We walk into the pool area; Ronnie and I dump our bags on the white plastic chairs a few steps from the water. The entire thing must be about twenty-five metres in total, a cluster of rocks gathered on the edge at the deep end, a slow trickle of water weaving through them and into the pool—a bloody mini waterfall. Slipping off my sandals, my feet meet the damp marble tiles. Anne takes Ronnie to the outdoor bathroom to change into her bathing suit. I take a seat and smile as I see a handle to lower the back of the chair. Ronnie runs back out and over to me, giving a small twirl, beaming.

  “Come here,” I say softly, “Turn around.”

  Ronnie turns obediently, her feet reaching to touch the water. Halving her hair, I tie it into pigtails, drawing her hair from her eyes. Ronnie turns back around and smiles brightly at me. Can I go in? She seems to ask silently.

  "Can you swim?" I say cautiously. I should have asked Ty before we came.

  She gives me a foul look, indicating that she is insulted that I even have to ask. I roll my eyes and nod, confirming that she can go swim. Ronnie laughs softly and runs to the edge of the water in the deep end.

  “Watch!” she shouts.

  “Careful,” I say in distress.

  Ronnie uses her extra strength to boost herself off the ground, the height giving her enough time in the descent to do a front flip and dive perfectly into the clear water. Ronnie emerges moments later, laughing gleefully. I let out a breath, pleasantly surprised.

  “That was amazing Ronnie,” It is sometimes hard to remember that she is only six. How she’s learned all these things boggles me.

  “Are you gonna go in?” Anne asks.

  I look over to see her standing in a black one-piece, the front dipping fairly low. Removing my sunnies and dress, I run towards the pool edge. Before I dive into the cool water, I see Anne flying next to me, grinning madly. The impact is soft, a good dive, then the water a stark wake-up call. It is freezing at first; the water is lashing harshly at my bare skin, soaking into my hair. After dunking my head under a few times in an attempt to escape Anne's purposeful splashes, it becomes more refreshing than cold.

  I bite back a squeal as something alive brushes the bottom of my feet. Ronnie emerges from under the water, laughing, taking in about half a litre of pool water. Before I can say anything to her beaming face, she's a whole head taller than me, giggling madly. She grapples desperately for the hold of Anne's outstretched hands, legs wrapping tightly around her neck. Ronnie gasps as a gust of wind ruffles the back of her head. She shivers slightly atop Anne's shoulders.

  "How's the view from up there, Ron?" Anne asks.

  “Not much different from down there,” she replies smartly, “Na-Na.”

  “I see it’s not just Gabe who calls you that,” I say, smiling through the fear and pain. Speaking about Gabe right now is harder than any of us expected it would be.

  "Yeah, and she also knows that whenever he calls me that, he earns himself a great big ass-whooping."

  “No, if you can be bothered to get up, the worst he gets is a weak punch,” she says, smiling proudly.

  I can't help the snort that escapes my lips as I behold this headstrong young woman being showed up by a cute lethal six-year-old.

  “You sure you want to stick around to find out if I’m gonna be bothered to kick your ass?” Anne asks, swaying slightly, making Ronnie tighten her grip so much that her knuckles bloom white.

  “You wouldn’t be able to catch me; m
y brother says that I’m going to be a better fighter than all of you by the time I’m eleven,” she says with a grin.

  “Honey, first of all, your brother’s an ass, second, you’re not eleven yet, and third of all, you’re the one that’s currently sitting on my shoulders.”

  Ronnie Renalds had exactly three seconds to fly and two seconds of free fall until she hit the surface of the water with a huge splash.

  “If you killed Ronnie, I'm gonna have a whole hoard of Protectors coming after me,” I complain, wading over to where she went under.

  Ronnie floats to the top and pops her head out, glaring at Anne.

  "You alright?" I ask, grabbing hold of her right hand. I hoist her onto my back and swim back to the shallow end.

  Ronnie sticks her tongue out at Anne, who just smiles broadly and swims to the edge of the pool, hopping out and going to sit on one of the chairs.

  “You alright to swim by yourself for a while?” I ask.

  Ronnie smiles, nodding her approval. I brush my thumb over her cheek and pat it gently, Ronnie swatting me away playfully. Sitting in the chair beside Anne, we both bake in the warm sun for a few minutes before I break the silence.

  “What happened with you two?”

  I know that Anne understands who I'm talking about. She tenses and closes her eyes as if recalling undesirable memories.

  "I know that Ty is a lot closer with you than me. He can probably read the signs better. He went absolutely berserk when we spoke about Liam, well… mention him. Why?”

  I wait patiently for a while, and just as I am about to push her further, she sighs and begins to explain what had happened. As she tells the story about how he hadn’t wanted her, but merely her body, I go ridged and fight the urge to hunt him down this minute. Anne closes her eyes halfway through the story, whispering so only I can hear.

  “Stop, I can’t listen to the rest of this story, even if it does end with you punching him bloody, which I know you didn’t.”

  "But I didn't let him do those things either. I got out and severed any connection with him. Without violence,” she says slowly. I know that it must be a horrible thing to be saying all these things out loud. Her shame and fear practically screams and taunts me.