by Susan Harper
“Didn’t you already find all that out, though, when you met your dad and his family?” Brian asked. “Monica was telling me something about it the other night.”
“Yes,” Holly said, instantly brining her voice to a whisper as they began walking. “I’m something called an Ibeji. It’s apparently thought to be extinct.”
“Ibeji are twins that are born when a mystic has a child with an immortal. But the immortals were wiped out during the wars that followed the Split, when our worlds were divided in two. But apparently, Holly’s grandfather was the last immortal, and he impregnated Holly’s grandmother. Holly’s father is half-immortal, and since Holly’s mother was a witch, they created Ibeji twins.”
“So you’ve got a twin out there somewhere?” Brian asked.
“Exactly,” Holly said. “Ibeji are twins, but they have only one soul shared between them up until they reach adulthood, when the souls mature into two separate entities. Thing is, most Ibeji, when they still existed, rarely made it into adulthood because one is supposed to be destined to die at the hands of the other before the souls can split. My mother, though, separated us by worlds. She sent me with my father, who put me up for adoption in the mortal world, and she took the other twin, my sister, and raised her in the mystic world. I’m doing research. I’m trying to find out who Morgan was so that I can find her and my sister.”
“You think this ancestry test might help?” Brian asked.
“It might,” Monica said. “It will also prove that the Sorcerer’s Council lied to us when we asked for their help.”
“Speaking of which…” Holly pointed ahead.
A group of witches and wizards were gathered around a herbology shop that sold various plants. On the outside of the building was a ridiculous amount of graffiti written in a language known as Cinur. Monica cringed. “Not again…” she said. She spotted Madam Imelda, a member of the council, as part of the cleanup crew. The shop windows were smashed, and from what they could tell, several shelves were knocked over inside.
The goat-woman hybrid who owned the shop was sobbing and repeatedly straightening her apron with her hooves. She kept bleating while trying to give her statement to the authorities. “It’s an easy fix, Bets,” Madam Warz was consoling the goat-woman. “They didn’t use a permanent spell on the graffiti. It’ll come off with a simple spell. You’re not going to have to replace a whole door like that shop owner last week. They must have been in a hurry this time to get off scene.”
“Yes. Because I chased them off!” the goat-woman said.
“What is all this?” Brian asked as they stood at a safe distance from the shop and the cleanup crew. “Why would someone attack her shop?”
“It’s this group called Remembrance,” Monica said bitterly. “They’ve been cropping up around here lately. It’s this old, cult-like group that believes in a hierarchy of magical and non-magical creatures. Naturally, they put witches and wizards up top, and the less humanoid they consider you to be the closer to the bottom they think you are. It’s terrible.”
“Sounds like racism,” Brian said with an angered grunt.
“It’s exactly like that,” Holly said. “We were hanging out at some hobbit holes a while back when they ruined someone’s front door because one of the hobbits moved too close to a town that was made up of mostly witches and wizards.”
This seemed to make Brian very angry. “That’s not right.”
“It’s not,” Madam Imelda said, approaching them. “This must be the gentleman for whom you fought so hard to get a license for, Ms. Montoya.” The elderly witch held out a hand, and Brian took it and shook gently.
“Officer Brian,” he said. “Of Bankstown.”
“Yes, we know all about you,” Madam Imelda said. “Welcome to Wysteria. I am Madam Imelda of the Sorcerer’s Council.” She looked at Monica’s bag of potions she had just purchased. “Making something, Ms. Montoya? I’m told you’re quite the potions expert.”
“She’s making an ancestry test,” Holly said, seeming as though she could not help but spit this out in a bitter tone.
“Oh?” the woman asked, looking nervous. Monica started to elbow Holly in the side, but the woman’s eyes darted toward Monica. “You all know, don’t you?” Madam Imelda whispered.
“Well…” Holly started to say, but before she could, Madam Imelda grabbed Holly by the arm and waved them all off, escorting them further away from prying eyes and down an alleyway where they could speak more privately.
“Holly, I must insist you stop searching for your family,” Madam Imelda said.
“And why on earth would I do that?” Holly asked.
“Because you might find them,” the woman replied. “You must know what you are, then?”
“I do,” Holly said, and this made Monica all the more nervous. Holly looked angry. “I came to you for help, and you all lied to me, didn’t you?”
“We did,” Madam Imelda said softly. “And for good reason.”
“Because the council of the past wiped out all the immortals,” Holly said. “I’ve gathered that.”
“That was a decision made a long time ago under dire circumstances,” Madam Imelda said. “You need to stop before you get yourself into trouble. Have you…found your father?”
“Why? You going to kill him too?” Holly demanded.
“We are not concerned with a half-breed immortal,” she said. “But you need to be careful. I’m glad you’ve found your father, Holly. But you don’t need to make things worse than it already is. You being an…an Ibeji…” The woman shuddered. “Who knows what…what might happen. If the world finds out about you, about what you are, it could mean serious trouble.”
“For you, you mean,” Holly said.
Madam Imelda straightened herself up. “Just tread lightly, dear. You never know what might happen otherwise.” Madam Imelda strutted off, heading back to the shop to finish up with cleanup.
“I think she just threatened us,” Holly said.
“Sounded that way,” Brian said. “So, government is a little screwy on this side as well?”
“It is everywhere,” Monica said. “Come on, let’s head back to the shop.”
They turned around and began walking back toward Backroom Books. They passed an open field where they saw a number of small podiums, about four feet off the ground. It was a children’s Romp-A-Roo field. “Whoa,” Brian said, watching enthusiastically as a young wizard launched himself off one of the spring platforms with the ball and passed it in midair to a young witch who then threw the ball into the opposing team’s hoop. “Impressive.”
“That’s Romp-A-Roo,” Monica said. “Except in the professional leagues, it’s played hundreds of feet up in the air, and there are witches flying around beneath to help out if anyone falls.”
They stood around watching the game for several more minutes, and it was clear that Brian was intrigued. “Any chance we can go watch the tryouts?” Brian asked. “They’re coming up, right?”
Monica smiled. “I think I could arrange that.”
3
Monica and Brian arrived at the Romp-A-Roo field just in time to hear the last of Deimus’s serious talk with his team. “And I don’t want to hear any one of you making crude comments toward anyone trying out who is less than…impressive. And, while I know we’re a little desperate, let’s try not to lower our standards too much. Remember, we only have to fill two spots.”
“Yeah…two pretty big spots,” groaned one of the werewolves.
Monica and Brian sat on the edge of the field. She had brought sandwiches, thinking they could make tryouts a picnic date. “So, this the Wysteria Werewolves?” Brian asked, eyeing the players dressed all in red as several mystics arrived on the field, signing their names up at a small table for tryouts.
Deimus approached them, smiling. “Brian, come to check out the world’s greatest sport, I see.”
Brian smiled, setting his half-eaten sandwich aside. “I caught a glimpse of a children�
�s game the other day, but this looks way more intense than what I saw.” He looked up at the enormous podiums towered high over their heads. “You guys play up there for real?”
“That’s what the safety witches are for. They make sure we get a soft landing if we misstep. And trust me, mystics misstep all the time,” Deimus said laughed. He whistled at his team, and they emerged immediately. “Guys, you all remember Monica, I’m sure. This is her new guy, Brian.”
Ida crouched down uncomfortably close and gave Brian a large sniff. Monica snickered as Ida jumped back in surprise. “You ain’t no warlock! He’s mortal, guys!” she said in surprise.
“Whoa, nice,” Bolt, another werewolf on the team, said.
“Um…” Brian’s face turned slightly pink. He stood up, as did Monica, as Deimus introduced him to everyone.
“Name’s Ida!” Ida said, shaking Brian’s hand. “This here is Bolt, and that’s Gale. We’re the actual werewolves on the Wysteria Werewolves team.”
“What, er, position do you play, Ida?” Brian asked, and Monica smirked, knowing he had no idea what positions were what.
“Oh, I play blue podiums,” Ida said. “Bolt is obviously a green podium, and Gale is our goalie.”
“And a pretty good one at that,” Gale said, bragging slightly. “How long have you, um…known about…mystics?”
“Still pretty new to me,” Brian said honestly.
“This is going to be a real treat for you then,” Gale told him.
“Ahem!” a voice down below said, and Monica and Brian looked down to see Trixie, the dwarf.
“Name’s Trixie. I play blue podiums with Ida, Rosemary, and Clowdia.”
Monica pointed out Rosemary the witch and Clowdia the selkie. Brian’s eyes lingered on Clowdia a bit too long, and he instantly slumped his shoulders and looked like a puppy dog. “Wow, you’re so beautiful,” Brian said, and everyone laughed. Monica had to nudge him, and Clowdia looked away embarrassingly. “Oh…um… I’m sorry, I don’t…”
“I’m a selkie,” Clowdia told him. “You’re not supposed to look directly at me.”
“I’m sorry… I’m…a little confused…” he said.
“Stare too long at a selkie, you’ll get an infatuation charm on you,” Monica said. “She can’t exactly help it.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Deimus said, blushing and reliving some past embarrassment.
“Must help out when you’re playing if everyone on the other team has to avoid looking at you,” Brian teased to try to break the tension.
“No, there is a magic suspension spell on all the players once the game starts,” Clowdia said. “No cheating with magic—even selkie magic.”
“So what positions are you guys looking to fill?” Brian asked.
“We need two more green podium players. Those have to be guys,” Deimus said. “In Romp-A-Roo, teams are split evenly male and female plus a goalie. We lost two green podium players, so we got to find two guys to fill the spots who can keep up with Bolt and I.”
“Looking forward to watching the tryouts today,” Brian said. “Sounds like an interesting game.”
“You do any sports on the other side, Brian?” Bolt asked curiously.
“Yeah, actually,” he said, smiling. “I did a lot of hockey when I was a kid. Got into football during high school. I was on a small-time rugby team a few years ago. Mostly just work out these days, though.”
“I have no idea what any of that is,” Bolt said. “Heavy contact sports at all?”
Brian laughed. “Definitely.”
“We should totally take the mortal up on the podiums,” Bolt said. “Kind of want to see how he does on the springs.”
Deimus started to say what a bad idea this was, but Brian’s face lit up. “I’ve kind of been dying to try it out ever since I saw those kids playing around the other day.”
“You think you could?” Monica asked curiously. Truthfully, she wouldn’t mind seeing if Brian could handle a Romp-A-Roo field.
Deimus rolled his eyes. “Fine, but don’t goof around too long, Bolt. Tryouts are about to start.”
Monica packed up the little picnic and snatched her broom to fly up into the stands. She could see Bolt and Brian waving at her from one of the green podiums. Though she couldn’t hear what they were saying, she was fairly certain Bolt was explaining the springs and about how each team got to pick where their springs went on their play side. Then, suddenly, Brian was jumping from podium to podium with very little difficultly. The next thing she knew, he was zooming across the field and landing on his feet and shooting her two thumbs up as he stood proudly at the center of the field. Monica laughed excitedly and clapped, cheering for him.
“Who is that?” a squeaky little voice said near her ear, and she turned to see Coach Joanne-Jo, a winged pixie, fluttering around her head.
“Oh, that’s Brian,” Monica said. “He’s my…my boyfriend.” She blushed slightly when she said this. “He’s from the other side.”
“You mean he’s mortal?!” Joanne-Jo exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Monica said, not sure how Joanne-Jo would feel about this. “He’s really sweet.”
“And athletic,” Joanne-Jo said. “Is he…trying out?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that,” Monica said. “He doesn’t live in Wysteria.”
“Does he live in Bankstown?” Joanne-Jo asked.
“Well, yeah.”
“Then he can try out if he wants. It’s Wysteria’s border town. That automatically makes him a legal resident if he knows about the mystic world. I’m assuming you got a reveal license, right?”
“Right…”
“That flip he did on the springs was impressive. That’s the hardest part of the game to master is those springs,” Joanne-Jo said. “Hardest part to teach. You think he’d want to try out?”
“Well,” Monica said slowly, not really sure if he would or not. “He might would… I don’t—”
Coach Joanne-Jo flew off. “I’ll ask him!”
The next thing Monica knew, she and Brian were by the signup tables. “I need some extracurriculars in my life,” he was saying. “And I’ve had my share of all kinds of sports over the years. Time I tried something new.”
Monica had to admit the prospect of watching Brian in Romp-A-Roo games was enticing. Especially if he was on Deimus’s team. Her sister Mona was working the signup tables, and she grinned excitedly as well, whispering to Mona that it would be fun if their boyfriends were on the team together.
The tryouts got underway, and Monica and Mona watched and cheered Brian on as he went toe-to-toe with a few locals who thought they could make it in the professional leagues. Deimus and Coach Joanne-Joe drilled the players hard, but Brian was holding his own quite well. He was certainly among the more impressive people trying out.
At last, as it was growing quite late, Coach Joanne-Jo called for a team huddle. There was some intense deliberation for about an hour, during which time Mona and a few other volunteers handed out dinner to everyone who had tried out. At last, the Wysteria Werewolves all came to the center of the field. Deimus spoke loudly to the crowd. “Our team’s come to a decision. Our first new member…” He pulled out a jersey that he pointed his wand at, casting a spell to enlarge it quite significantly. “We’d like to welcome our first troll to the team, Urrgah!”
A large, burly green troll standing not too far from Monica and Brian clapped his hands and jumped once in excitement, nearly knocking everyone over when the ground shook beneath him. Urrgah hurried over, and he was greeted with great excitement by the team. Bolt howled, which started off every other werewolf standing around. “Congratulations, Urrgah,” Deimus said. “You totally killed it. Next, and this I believe is going to be a first in Romp-A-Roo history, we’d like to welcome Brian, the mortal, to our team.”
There was a long, silent pause. No one was cheering. Evidently, the others who had tried out had not even realized there was a mortal among them. Brian froze, looking suddenly an
xious in the uncomfortable silence. But, as the information sunk in, the crowd suddenly started cheering wildly. Brian stepped forward and took a jersey from Deimus. “Seriously?” Brian asked.
“I haven’t seen anyone that natural on the springs in a long time,” Deimus said, shaking his hand.
Monica and Mona both clapped wildly. Everyone was going nuts in excitement. A mortal playing on a professional Romp-A-Roo team? That was some groundbreaking stuff. But, before they could get too excited, there was a loud bang and the emergence of some purple smoke. Stepping out of the smoke was a witch, two warlocks, and a vampire—all with very serious expressions and wearing suits and ties. The vampire was carrying a clipboard. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Joanne-Jo groaned. “Why is the RAR brigade here?”
“Who are they?” Monica whispered to Mona.
“The international Romp-A-Roo officials,” Mona said anxiously. “They’re not fans of the Wysteria Werewolves and their progressive choice of team members.”
“Oh no,” Monica said. “They’re going to have a field day about Brian, aren’t they?”
“Undoubtedly,” Mona said. “Must have gotten word about our tryouts.”
“Zora,” Joanne-Jo said, approaching the witch with a bit of hesitancy. “Always a pleasure.”
“I see tryouts are over,” Zora hissed. Monica watched her curiously as she glanced around the field, judging everyone with a smug gaze. She flipped her hair back, revealing a pair of shimmering green earrings that perfectly matched the necklace and bracelet she wore. She looked like the type of person who would get all decked out just to come out and insult people. “You remember Bowman, Chip, and Monte.” She waved her hand at the three men behind her. Monte was the vampire with the clipboard. “Just wanted to get all the paperwork straightened out before semi-finals start. Knew you had tryouts tonight. So, who are we adding to your roster?”
“Since when do the RAR officials do this?” Joanne-Jo asked.
“Just doing our due diligence,” Zora said, eyeing the crowd.