by Katie Cherry
As we walk, I find that I’m unsurprised that he’s led us back to the tall building where we had done the majority of our training for the Games. After riding the elevator to the top, we sit in the chairs after turning them to face the view. Watching our breath billowing up in white clouds, I can’t help but think, I sure hope we aren’t out here too long. It’s freezing! “Alright, so how do I start?” I ask.
Thaddeus smiles kindly at me, nostalgia glittering in his eyes. “Well first off, it would help if you stopped thinking about the time passing as we sit up here. Being anxious about leaving will make it much harder to draw into yourself. We have all day, my dear. So get comfy,” he winks, leaning back in his own chair. “It helps to have your body properly aligned,” he begins. “So sit up, put your shoulders back, and lift your chin. Good,” he continues once I’ve done as he instructed. “Now, close your eyes. What do you see?”
“What do you mean, what do I see? You just had me close my eyes,” I huff.
“Meditation is all about mindfulness. Expand your attention through your other senses. How does Zilferia feel to you right now? How does the wind feel, and the clouds above us? Thanks to everything being interwoven with magic, we are able to glean a sense of these things as we let our consciousness release its hold on ourselves.”
Maybe Thaddeus is one of those mountain monks after all, I smile to myself before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, trying to do as Thaddeus had instructed. I start with my body. It feels chilled on the outside, but its still thrumming with life and heat. Thinking about what’s around me, I find that heat, that life-force, inside Thaddeus as well. Deep breath in… deep breath out. Expanding further, I think of the trees. Theirs is much more faint, but they are also very alive- and most of them are all connected, making it seem as though the forest was really only a few trees with multiple shoots. Just as everything living in the forest begins appearing behind my eyes as glowing yellow dots, I begin to get overwhelmed, so I reach out to the skies to see what they have to tell me instead. Deep breath in… deep breath out. The skies take longer to tell me their story. They feel slow, deliberate, and eternal. They were the Life Givers, blessing the land below them with life water wherever they roamed.
I hardly notice when a snowflake lands on each of my eyelids, but when they melt, in my mind’s eye, I picture them running like rivers down my face. The transition is slow, but as the picture develops in my mind, I find myself standing before the pools that I had seen twice before. “The Gift pools,” I gasp, finally giving a name to what I instinctively felt that they were. I walk toward them slowly, afraid to break whatever spell had sent me here. Reverently kneeling where I had before, I gently pry the rocks away. I move slowly, and time seems to become irrelevant. I had no idea if it had been years or mere minutes since I had knelt, but finally, the last obstacle is removed, and the water clears. Leaning forward to find my reflection, I’m startled to see nothing there but the glittering stars above.
Jumping, I find myself back in the chair beside Thaddeus. I look over at him, feeling my eyes bug out and my breathing come rapidly. “What… was that?” I pant, putting a hand over my racing heart.
Looking at me curiously, he says, “Crystal, I just helped you learn to calm your mind and heart. Whatever happened after that had nothing to do with me. …What did you see?”
“Those pools that I saw whenever the Mermaid King used his Trident on me to help find my Gifts,” I slowly explain. “I saw them again. Time seemed to stop or disappear or something… and I unblocked the first pool.”
“What happened?” he earnestly inquires, leaning towards me.
“The water cleared, but… I didn’t have a reflection in it. It was very odd,” I explain, my breathing finally slowing back down to normal. My heart, however, continues to throb, pulsing against my ribcage.
“Hmm.” He leans back and continues to stare at me thoughtfully. Used to him by now, I know to simply wait for his deduction of what had happened. Finally, he smiles at me. “Crystal, how do you feel? Physically, I mean.”
“Uh… alert and awake, I guess. I don’t feel tired anymore. If meditation can erase fatigue like that I should have tried it long ago,” I chuckle.
Thaddeus’s smile grows as he looks at me. “Crystal… you may have gotten one of your Gifts back.”
“Wait… what?” Freezing, I stare at him, waiting for him to laugh and explain that he was joking. My heart, which had finally begun to settle, begins to race once more. A… a Gift? How would I be able to get that back, though? Without the Mermaid King’s magic- which had no guarantee of helping anyway- and with Hunter using my Gifts… that’s just… impossible. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I manage to choke out, “How… how would we know?”
“Try and use it, of course. Just like during your Zilferian puberty when your body was first getting in touch with its Gifts.”
“Okay… okay,” I breathe, trying to calm down and not get my hopes up. Mind racing, I wonder which Gift I should try first. As I flip through the options in my mind, I stop on disappearing and reappearing at will. Taking a steadying breath, I feel the rightness of it settling in my chest. I didn’t have a reflection in the pool. Bracing myself, I prepare to try and turn invisible.
“Crystal!”
“Nathan?” Turning back to the elevator, I find that it had gone down and back up without my noticing. Nathan steps off of it, smiling at me.
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you for hours. What are you doing up here in the cold?” he asks. Reaching up to touch my face, I find it stiff with cold.
“Doesn’t matter,” I say, running up to him, beaming. “I think… I think I might have just gotten one of my Gifts back.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Connections
Nathan stills, his eyes narrowing in on Crystal’s face. “You… what? How?”
“Thaddeus was helping me to meditate, and somehow… I just went back to the pools.”
“Without the help of the Trident?” he gasps.
Smiling shyly, she nods. Taking a deep breath, she says, “Ready for me to try it?” Still stunned, Nathan slowly nods. He had been looking for her to see if she was ready to move on to Quagon… nothing could have prepared him for this.
Lowering her head, Crystal closes her eyes. Her chest rises and falls… once… twice. Just as Nathan is preparing to comfort her for it not working, she starts to flicker. Nathan’s eyes widen as he watches her slowly turn more see-through until her concentration breaks and she snaps back into focus.
Panting, she grins, her face lighting up. “I… I did it! Well, sort of. It’s harder than my other Gifts were to use, but it’s something.” Tears begin streaming down her face as she laughs, the stress of the last year seeming to melt off of her.
Unable to resist the impulse, Nathan rushes forward and pulls her into his arms, spinning her around. His heart leaps with joy. Her Gifts are coming back! Laughing together, they finally tumble to the ground, dizzy. Thaddeus, now back on his crutches, hobbles over to them, looking happier than he had for a long time as well. “Come now, we should get someplace warm before we all freeze to death,” he laughs, gesturing for them to get up. They scramble back to their feet, still all smiles. “And Crystal?” Thaddeus adds, turning back to her. He places a hand on her cheek, a soft smile gracing his lips. “Congratulations, my dear.”
<<
My head feels like it’s still in the clouds as we walk back towards the castle. I can’t believe it. Hard though it may be to use it right now, I had regained some access to one of my Gifts. A little ironic though, I think as we walk, a smile on my face as I recall training with the fake Vlad to figure out the Gifts my body preferred. Back then, it seemed like one of the least likely Gifts for me to eventually have. And now, it’s the only one I have.
Thinking back, I try to figure out what Gifts I had possibly grown into without realizing it. Over the summer I had pondered about it quite a bit, and had come to rea
lize that despite the small amounts of magic lingering in Second Earth, I had managed to get the Gift of befriending animals very early on- even as a child. The Gift of Fighting was one that I had gained while in the Games. This disappearing one… maybe it was easier for my body to choose because of all those years that I felt like I was invisible. I was practically training it to believe that it was true. I had no idea what the other Gift could have been, though, and if I had it or not before the… encounter with the Gift Stealer. It was likely that I had grown into a second Gift over the years as well and not realized it. If I had the Gift since a child, it would be my norm and I probably would have overlooked it making me different from the others. Maybe… logic? If I’m following that train of thought, then I was a dang prodigy at chess. Of course, chess isn’t everything.
As we approach the large doors of the Dragon castle, I push the thoughts away for another time, focusing instead on the simple joy of having one Gift again. The doors are opened by the usual servant boy, and he leads us to the kitchen, where we all sit and wait for my parents and Angela to join us for dinner. As soon as they walk into the room, I’m bursting to tell them the news, but decide to wait for a greater reveal. I’m still too excited, though, so I focus on simply giving Nathan secret little smiles throughout the meal.
As dinner is wrapping up, Pearl turns to me and asks, “How are you feeling, dear? Ready to go to Quagon now that you’ve had a couple of days to… recover?”
“Actually, I was meaning to talk to you about that,” I begin. “I wasn’t feeling good… I was really anxious about going and everything. Being Giftless and mostly without my dragon part… it’s just nerve-wracking, you know?”
Alexander nods gravely. “That’s why you need to go to Quagon, though. Here you’re in even more danger.”
“I know,” I reply. “But I… found something that I think helps a little in both cases,” I slowly say, biting back the smile on my lips. They stare at me curiously, waiting for my reveal. Finally bursting with the secret, I let it out. “I got my first Gift back!” I shout, grinning.
The stare slowly transforms on their faces to disbelief and joy. “Crystal!! That’s amazing!” Pearl gasps, rushing to my side. Alexander sits like a stone in his seat, but his face lights up as well.
“You… I can’t believe… How?” He finally manages to ask.
“Long story short, Thaddeus helped me meditate deep enough, I guess,” I laugh. “Not really sure how it worked out, but it did!”
“Well I’m certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!” he chuckles, standing and pulling me into a hug as well. “Well, show us!” he cheers, pulling me to my feet before Thaddeus, Nathan, Angela, Chet, and my parents. Feeling a little shy in front of everyone, I focus on picturing myself invisible, pulling on the memory of feeling like everyone’s gazes went right through me back in school. This time, I manage to disappear completely before I snap back into focus. Panting lightly, I smile, a little embarrassed, as clapping breaks out around the table. Chet rushes up and hugs me as well. Pulling away, he blushes.
“I’m just so happy for you,” he says, his freckles standing out against the pink of his cheeks.
Smiling back at him, I lean forward and give him a little kiss on the cheek. The pink deepens and he looks at me in surprise. Before he can say anything, though, we’re surrounded by everyone else wanting to congratulate me. Even Matilda, the cook, had snuck in and seen the whole thing. “That was just amazing, my dear!” she beams, pulling me into her apron for a big hug. “I can’t believe it! You’re the first one to get their Gifts back! You’ve been spreading hope since you first arrived here, but I think now it’ll catch on like wildfire,” she winks.
Straightening, I feel a weight lift off my shoulders. Nora may be right. Maybe I am the backbone of the resistance against the Dragon Hunters. …And maybe now, I don’t have to be so worried that I’ll let them all down.
<<
Tap, tap, tap, tap. The sound is persistent. The sound is driving Patrick crazy. The sound was coming from him. Growling, he pulls his gloved hands back from the tabletop before him, curling his fingers into fists to keep them from continuing to rap upon the table. Clenching and unclenching his hands, he watches the firm leather stretch and groan from the movement. Releasing his pent-up breath, he slams the table with his palms, creating a new sound as the leather slaps the wood.
At long last, the sound comes that he had been waiting for- knuckles upon the door to his room, requesting entry. “Finally!” Patrick says, standing so abruptly he sends the chair he was sitting on scooting back from him. Stomping toward the door, he jerks it open, finding the surprised face of the man he had sent to First Earth. “Come in,” he commands. The soldier obeys, hesitantly shuffling into the room. “Report,” Patrick demands, crossing his arms as he stands between the door and the soldier.
Shifting his weight from foot to foot, the man hesitates. “Don’t press your luck,” Patrick growls. “Tell me of the fate of your mission. Nathan’s family. Are they dead?”
“We… we have… dealt a blow to the boy and the girl,” he slowly replies. “They… uh…”
Patrick’s hand now moves to his forehead, rubbing away the headache he can feel returning. “You didn’t even manage to kill the old woman, did you.”
A longer pause comes before the response. “…No. But,” he hastily continues, “we did kill the replacement parents of Angela Dove.”
“What do I care about her? That girl is no major player of this game, soldier, and you know that!”
“Yes, but, ah… Nathan and Crystal… seemed very distraught by their deaths.”
With a groan, Patrick slumps back into his chair. “You’ve failed me. That will not be enough to dampen their spirits and keep them out of our hair! How could you not kill one little old lady?!”
“She… uh… is apparently quite resourceful,” the soldier hesitantly replies. “She’s disappeared. Without a trace.”
“And the rest of the family?”
“Gone as well… but I’m sure they’ll resurface,” he hastily assures him.
“You’d better hope so,” Patrick growls, standing and walking to the door once more. Yanking it open, he turns back to the other man. “Now get out. Send one of your men to keep tabs on this family and to alert me if they ever resurface.”
<<
As soon as night falls, Bryce stalks through the building, his cloak flapping along behind him. Those he passes avert their eyes. No one questions him anymore. He had worked hard, for years, to work his way up in the ranks of the Higher Power. Sure, he was stuck among the Dragon Hunters, the Zilferian off-shoot of the Higher Power, but it was still something.
As he cracks open the door to the cold night air, he sighs and rests his head against it for a moment. Susan better have a good reason for this meeting. Every time we meet, it jeopardizes everything. Which is why we haven’t seen each other for years. As he slips into the forest, opting to go the long way around rather than risk the dragon guard, he sticks to the shadows, moving as silently as only he and Susan could. When he reaches the border of the warding, he hesitates. His insignia protected him regardless, but also because of it, Dravyn would sense him leaving and then coming back. He would have to come up with quite the excuse.
Trusting that it will be worth it, he steps over the invisible line. Pulling up his hood, he stalks toward the meeting place- the boulder by the tree that had grown sideways for a time, creating a chair of nature’s making. Susan’s already there when he reaches it, distractedly tossing and catching a knife. “I’m here, Susan,” Bryce sighs as he stops before her. “Now, what’s so important that you had to call a meeting rather than using a spell to relay a short message like we have been?” he asks, referring to the ‘sey erieh tylnoo tegassem adnes’ spell, which transferred to writing seen only by them as if written on the inside of their eyelids.
“What, you didn’t miss me?” she smirks, finally putting the k
nife away and turning to face him. “Brother?”
Rolling his eyes, Bryce replies, “Susan, you know we can’t risk this because we haven’t seen each other in a while. We have to play the long game.”
She frowns and looks him up and down. “I still wish you would just fight them outright like me.”
“Yeah, well this way I don’t have a target on my back from Dravyn himself,” Bryce groans. “Besides, I have a feeling this meeting is because you need something thanks to me being on the inside,” he adds.
Shooting him a winning smile, Susan sits on the boulder and leans against the tree. “Now, brother, I’m hurt that you would assume that I just need something from you,” she snickers before turning to the matter at hand. “Honestly, Bryce, I just need you to stay in the loop.” Hesitating, she continues. “The Princess has regained one of her Gifts, albeit partially.”
“…What? How is that possible?” Bryce stammers. “I’ve seen it in action myself. Not to mention that her brother is currently in possession of said Gifts. Did she find a way to steal them back?”
“Perhaps that’s why it’s so difficult for her to use,” Susan muses. “Since Hunter retains them. Anyways, that’s not the main thing.”
“What on earth could be bigger than that?” Bryce groans, but joins her on the boulder after she waves him over.
Whipping out a folded paper, she leans toward him and lowers her voice. “This.” Unfolding the paper, she lays it before him. “Crystal found that these Dragon Slayer machines aren’t as indestructible as it seems.” Moving her piercing green eyes up to meet his blue ones, her voice grows more serious. “We’re going to need all the sympathizers you have, but when the time comes, it will turn the tide in the war to take down these machines.”
“And when is that?” Bryce sighs, standing once more.
“I’ll send you a message,” she assures him, following him to the edge of the clearing. “And, bro?” she adds as he steps toward the warding once more. “Good to see you.”