Vala Heritage

by J. F. Jenkins

  “You shouldn’t ever give up on friends. Sometimes people don’t know what they have and what’s special until later. Maybe he has to learn you’re special, too. He should be nice and accept your apologies.”

  Or he needs to get his head out of his butt and see what kind of a jerk he’s being. “If it’s meant to be, it’ll come back, right?”

  “Yeah!”

  Teague didn’t understand, but he was good at rooting for her. The encouragement was nice to have. She knew Zes wanted them together, but his brother came first. She couldn’t hold it against him.

  The soft pitter-patter of rain interrupted their tender, yet awkward, moment. As soon as he heard it, Teague clung to her tightly like his life depended on it.

  “It’s here!”

  “What is? The rain? It’s not a storm.” Jewl peered out the window. What could be so scary about some drizzle? It was light and sounded refreshing. One of the last rainfalls they would have before it became cold enough for snow.

  “Yet.”

  “Yet? Is it supposed to become a big scary storm?”

  “It’s dark rain. Dark rain is always scary.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can you let go? You’re suffocating me.”

  He let out a quiet whimper, then pulled away from her to curl up in a corner of the couch.

  Jewl pulled out her reading assignments for the day and shook her head. “Do you have a book or something you can focus on?”

  “No.”

  She dug around in her bag, looking for anything that he might like. Settling on her World History III book, she handed it over to him because she thought he would love all of the pictures. “This is a good one.”

  She hoped it would get him to calm down and shut up long enough so she could go back to her own place to work in peace. He took it and paged through it. For a few minutes there was quiet. That is, until there was a rumble of thunder.

  Teague jumped, about to leap on her again, but thankfully was able to contain himself. “It’s—”

  “Nothing, relax, you’re fine. We’re inside. Storms can’t hurt you when you’re inside.” As the thunder got louder and the storm moved closer, she could feel her hair begin to stand on end with anticipation. It may have only been his words or his cryptic way of knowing the storm was coming despite the otherwise perfect-looking sky or his over-reacting, but it was all making her feel unsettled.

  The louder the thunder became, the more he shivered and the closer he moved toward her. It didn’t take long for him to snuggle up to her side with the book.

  “Can you hear them?” he asked her, his voice barely more than a whisper. “If you close your eyes and listen, you can hear them outside.”

  She did it to appease him and waited. “Hear what?”

  “Listen more.”

  Drawing in a deep breath, she waited being sure to sit perfectly still. She cleared all thoughts from her mind. “I still don’t—” But she stopped when she did notice something different. She couldn't decipher what the noise was exactly. At first, it sounded like the rain. Then it mutated into patterns and those began to take on different tones, sounding almost like music. Finally the music began to sound like words, a language she could not understand.

  Just my imagination? Have I entered into his psychotic world? “Okay, I’m hearing it now. What is it?”

  “It’s the Dark. It lives in bad things.”

  “And what exactly does the Dark want that it would come down in rain drops? Doesn't it manifest in the form of demons and evil spirits or whatever?”

  “It wants to eat me.”

  “Eat you?” She didn’t want to, but Jewl couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t want to be mean or anything, but maybe you should, I don’t know, tone down your imagination. Rain can’t eat people. And the Dark, if they’re in the rain…” she trailed off, trying to find the right words. Then said, “I don’t know anything about it, but I don’t think it’s trying to eat you. Do you want me to open the window and prove to you that you're safe?”

  “Don’t open the window and let it in. Why do you think it’s storming now if it’s perfect clouds?”

  Perfect clouds? “What are you talking about?”

  Teague shook his head. “Just don’t let it in.” He held onto her tightly, then gasped. “I think I left the window to my room open.” He was about to leap from the couch to go take care of this issue, but Jewl kept him down.

  “If it’s dangerous, don’t go near it. I’ll do it.” She stared at him, shaking her head at his wide eyes.

  “What a nut case,” she muttered under her breath as she stepped into his bedroom. Dodging around the boxers, jeans, and t-shirts laying on the ground, she made her way to the window. Sure enough, it was open a crack and a small puddle was starting to form on the floor.

  “Afraid of the rain.” She closed the window tightly and for good measure locked it. His room was ground level, and the rain hammered his windows. It poured much more fiercely in his bedroom than it was in the den. Maybe it was just her imagination buying into his crazy story, but it was as if the rain were trying to get into the room.

  “I got it. See? Everything is fi—” The water around her feet began to change colors. “What…”

  The strange, melodious pattern of the rain from before got louder while the voice hidden inside of it became more distinct.

  “Acquired. The lost one is found,” it said.

  “I’m going crazy,” she whispered, backing her way out of the room, too afraid to turn her back to a puddle on the floor. A puddle, of all things.

  “I hope you’re happy. You’ve made me paranoid,” she said, sitting down on the couch. She folded her arms in front of her.

  “Did you fix the window?” Teague asked with a shaky voice.

  “Yes.”

  “Did it get inside?”

  “Only a little bit. I think I heard it say something? The lost one is found?”

  He gasped. “They were looking for you, too? Maybe that’s why she told me to find you because we’re in this together.”

  “She?” Jewl began and then paused. “Oh right, the other woman with the curly hair.” Mom, the manipulative beast. “I don’t know because I don’t know what you’re talking about.” And it was driving her mad. She threw her hands up in frustration and picked up her book again.

  “I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

  “Well, you did. So unless you can give me a straight answer, stop talking about it so I can get my homework done. The window is closed, there’s nothing to worry about . It’s just a puddle for crying out loud. It’s a completely normal thunderstorm. It sounds like it’s finished and finally passing over us. So shut up.” Jewl said, taking deep breaths to keep all of her anger and frustration from being taken out on him.

  Teague blinked at her a few times before picking the history book back up. “Okay. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said with a huff then returned to where she had left off in her reading. The behavior of wolves in the wild was not something holding her interest though. Nothing was keeping her attention in place.

  I need to not be paranoid. But all she could think about was the puddle. Her mind would not let her rest until she knew it was cleaned up.

  “This is all your fault,” she grumbled, getting up. She moved into his bathroom to find a towel or something to clean up the mess on his floor. Grabbing one of his hand towels by the sink, she began to mop up the pool of water. Suddenly, she felt her hand burning.

  Cursing quietly, she dropped the towel and dried her hands on the nearest object she could find.

  “You are coming with me. Now.” She yanked him off of the couch.

  “Where are we going? What did I do?”

  She didn't bother responding. The only thing she wanted to do was cuss him out. Rather than being harsh, she bit her tongue while dragging him down the hallway to the twins’ room. They were the closest neighbors in the dorm she trusted and she w
as not going to go outside in rain that just burned her. She knocked and waited. Anj answered, making her horrendous day complete.

  “Who is it?” he asked with a grunt. Then he paused, taking in a deep breath through his nose and, no doubt, caught her all too familiar scent. “Oh, it’s you. I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “I’m not here for you, so don’t worry about it,” she snapped. “Where’s your brother?”

  “In here,” Zes called from the den. He then appeared over his brother's shoulder. “What can I — What happened to your hand? Are you okay?”

  “What?” Anj asked. His tone changed from angry to concerned. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine.” She pushed her way past them to enter. “I need you to do something for me,” she said to Zes, avoiding both of their inquiries. “This is Teague.” She shoved the frightened boy forward a little. “He lives three rooms down from here. Something… something spilled in his room. I tried cleaning it up and it burned me a little.”

  Anj swooped in by her side and took her hurt hand in his. Magic flared through his eyes to see it for himself. “This is not a little. This is deep and—”

  “And it’s fine.” She tried pulling herself out of his grasp, but he was just as stubborn as she was and wouldn’t let go. “Anyway, can one of you please go over there and take the rag I was using over to the teachers ASAP?”

  “It burned you and you want me to touch it?” Zes asked. He stood up, slowly shaking his head. “The things I do for you guys.”

  “It shouldn’t hurt you,” she said, hoping to provide him with some comfort. Jewl felt guilty for asking him. Either one of them could have done the task really. Given the state of things between her and his brother, though, she didn’t want to ask Anj.

  The last thing Zes needed was another burn. The one on his arm from his attack was still not healing. While he pretended it didn’t bother him most of the time, there were moments where he massaged it with a rather pained expression on his face.

  Zes nodded, and left. His brother meanwhile continued to stare down at her hand.

  “What is this? It feels like magic.”

  “What it is,” she said with another rough tug to try and get away from him, “is none of your business.”

  “Of course it’s my business. You’re my…” He stopped and let go of her hand. “You’re my friend. It will always be my business.”

  “Not when you say you don’t want to talk to me.”

  “I said at this moment. I didn’t mean never again.”

  “Well, at this moment then, you don’t need to care,” she said, sitting down on the armrest of the couch. “Actually, I should be getting back. I don’t suppose you feel like being babysitters until the storm passes?”

  The rain was just beginning to let up, so she hoped Teague would not have a meltdown if she headed for her own room.

  Anj raised an eyebrow and directed his gaze toward the boy. He took a moment to look at him before returning his eyes to the ground and turning off his sight spell. “As long as it doesn’t involve changing diapers or feeding, it should be fine. Who is he?”

  She snorted. “I told you earlier. That’s Teague.”

  “Yes, but who is he?”

  “Just some kid I met. He’s new.”

  “I see. I will have to ask him more thoroughly then, I suppose.” Anj was jealous. She could see it all over him with how he stood so tensely, his arms crossed over his chest, and his eyes narrowed. It served him right. He had used Cheyenne to make her jealous on purpose and now he was getting a taste of his own medicine. Even if it was unintentional, Jewl was enjoying a bit of karmic return.

  “You do that.”

  He let out a slow breath and kicked at the ground. “At least let me take care of your burn. You shouldn’t walk around with it in that kind of condition. Seeing as how it’s your dominant hand, I don’t think you’ll be able to bandage it on your own.”

  “Watch me,” she said. Her hand was the worst of her worries anyway. “Just make sure Zes brings the rag to the professors.”

  “Fine, I’ll be sure to do that. I request for you to take your leave.”

  “I was already going.” She nodded at Teague, wanting him to sit and stay there and not follow her around anymore like a lost puppy. He did so, but it was clear he didn't want to with the pathetic frown he wore. Finally, she could be alone, after making one more important visit.

  Chapter Six

  “Yes, that hurts too.” Jewl winced as her long time friend, Zacheus, touched her burned hand. She would go as far as saying, he was her best friend, whom she had known since she was five or six years old. Being four years older than she was, he used to be her bodyguard and constant companion growing up. Zacheus was also dead, and had been for two years.

  That never stopped her from talking to him, though. While her magical abilities had their pathetic aspects to them, the ability to teleport to the underworld and back on a whim was a nice skill to have, as long as she had the right supplies.

  Zacheus continued to examine her hand with a furrowed brow. He couldn’t do much for her besides look at it and offer his advice. He was nothing more than a soul, after all. In the underworld, his spirit had a physical-like texture allowing him to touch and hold things. But he could not feel much and he had no magic or supernatural abilities. Not that he had any when he was alive, but if he had they would be useless for her at this point.

  Had he taken a job in the Gardens, the one place where souls lived as they had on Earth, he might have been able to help her more. The Gardens were reserved for the most pure and the good-dwellers of the underworld. Zacheus hadn’t been bad by any means. He was loyal, brave and lived well during his time. But he had opted to take a job to guard one of the many gates for one hundred years. Why he wanted to do something like that, she didn't know. And he refused to talk about it.

  “You said you tried all of your healing stones? It still didn’t do anything?” he asked.

  “Anj said it was a magic burn. Like what happened to his brother. They don’t know how to cure it. The new boy kept rambling on about how it was the Dark,” she said. Zach didn’t like talking about Anj, but he knew a lot about magic and demonic things. She trusted his judgment.

  “Oh, I’m pretty sure what burned you is not what burned him.” But he wasn’t allowed to share the gossip of the demons. He was never allowed to share any information from the great beyond that she didn’t already know. All he could give her were mind triggers. It was an aggravating rule. “If it’s dark though, what do you use to kill darkness?”

  She shook her head as the metaphorical light bulb in her head clicked on. “Light.” She smacked her head with the palm of her hand. “Duh. I’ll try a different spell when I get home. Hopefully it will do the trick. I wonder if it will do anything for Zes?”

  She was doubtful if it wasn’t the same kind of magic, but it was worth a try. The doctors most likely already tried something similar. Their catalog of magic was far more diverse than hers.

  Zach gave her a weak smile, but it was enough to discourage her from giving it a try. She knew that look well.

  “You have a raw diamond to use? You must have hit the jackpot with that box the witch doctors gave you.” His smile widened.

  “I know. Halyn's parents gave me a lot of useful gems. Not sure why since I'm not exactly friends with their daughter. They said it was a thank you. Who am I to complain? I wonder how they knew what I needed? I have a bunch of teleporting stones now, though. I can stop by more often.”

  “Aw, how sweet. Coming to visit your dead buddy and mingle with us poor tortured souls in Hell?”

  “You chose to be here.”

  “Kind of, if you’re referring to the fact that I’m actually in Hell and not the place where all of the good kids go. But if you’re talking about me choosing to be dead, no, I didn’t.”

  “I was talking about the former one. I was teasing you anyway.” Jewl laughed. His death was another one of
those subjects they didn’t talk about often. She blamed herself. He died because he chose to protect her. A duty he should have abandoned while he still had the chance. No one would have held it against him. She would rather he be alive.

  He nodded. “I wish I could do more for you. I hate being stuck here knowing you’re being attacked by the Dark. I’d stop them if I could, but I can’t halt demons who have orders.”

  “So it’s an order?”

  “Demons only go out to the world when they’re ordered to. Maybe you’ll find out whom you pissed off down here. Until then, I guess carry around an umbrella all of the time.”

  “Funny, only not. I can’t walk around with an umbrella. People will think I’m a lunatic. There isn’t anything else I can do?”

  “Wear a diamond piece of jewelry. The raw magic in the stone will seep out and provide a covering over you. You should know that. It’s only what you do all of the time.”

  She rested her chin in her good hand, feeling dumb. How many classes had she taken on the art of magic summoning? She'd been at Vala for two and a half years. Then again, Jewl wasn't the best student. More often than not she struggled trying to remember everything.

  “I can go out and get one. Aunt Eyde did give me a good amount of spending money this year. I hate using anything she gives me, though,” she said.

  It was no secret Jewl hated her aunt. It was also no secret Jewl hated the vast majority of her entire family outside of her father and Rachel. Then again, most of the members of her family were trying to hurt her and her father.

  Aunt Eyde was one of those individuals, and she was on the verge of succeeding. She had all of his heirs under her wing. They’d all be dead if Jewl weren’t of the Divine and Eyde didn’t have to keep her at least somewhat happy. The gods would have surely sought their wrath against her aunt had she murdered one of their own. She hated seeing her half-sister, Sonnet, being manipulated. Hopefully, she wasn't beyond saving.