by Ruby Brown
Her feet instantly sunk into the plush, light blue carpet of the room, lit by the sunlight streaming through the open windows. A gentle breeze carrying the scent of spring brushed through the space and played with the thin white curtains. On the right side of the room was a large, neatly organised desk with a jar of flowers resting on its surface. Lining every wall were bookshelves that reached the ceiling and were packed full of colour-coded books. In the centre of the room was a small wooden table with plush purple chairs arranged around it. Curled up on one of these chairs was an angel.
She was wearing a long, white dress with her curly blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. Her bright blue eyes were focused on reading a book with a red leather cover that she was holding in her left hand, and her right hand was stroking the purring grey cat resting on her lap. The bottom of her wings hovered just above the floor, and the curve at the top of each wing arched above her head. The feathers were the dark, magnificent blue of the night sky, and they shimmered and rustled when she moved her slender body.
She looked up as Mal and Blaise entered the room and her soft pink lips curved into a gentle smile. “Hello, Mal.”
“How do you know my name?” Mal demanded. Her voice came out a little weaker than she would have liked. She was struck by the indisputable beauty of the creature in front of her.
“Before you were brought in, I was studying your story in the newspapers. I like your name, by the way. It suits you.”
“And your name is Cass, right?” Mal asked uncertainly.
“Yes. I’m the leader of Tenebar. Blaise is my brother, and he’s second in command.” The sweet smile slipped from Cass’s face and she turned her head to look at Blaise. “Why have you brought her here?”
“She doesn’t know why she’s here. I thought it would be best if you explained it to her.”
“Thomas didn’t tell her?” Cass sounded surprised.
“They were coming. He didn’t have time.”
“Ah. Of course.” Cass gently slid a hand under her cat and tipped it onto the floor. It mewled in protest as it thudded onto the floor, and then stood up and was gone in a streak of grey. Cass stood up, brushing the fur from her dress. Mal couldn’t drag her eyes away from Cass’s wings. When she was standing up, they were even more imposing, shadowing her body like a cloak. “Thank you, Blaise. I think I can take it from here. Mal, take a seat. Would you like some tea?”
“Um...okay.”
Cass turned and left the room through a side door into a kitchen. Mal watched her go, and then sat awkwardly by herself, fiddling with a loose thread on her jeans. The cat came and jumped up on her legs, sniffing her hand curiously. Mal stroked its soft fur and scratched behind its ears, playing with the golden bell that hung from its bright red collar.
“He likes you,” Cass chuckled as she walked back into the room, carrying two steaming mugs of tea.
“What’s his name?” Mal asked as the cat settled onto her lap.
“Remi,” Cass said, placing the cups of tea on the table with a soft clink. Mal cradled her cup for a moment, letting the hot cup warm her hands, and then took a sip. It helped to calm her nerves.
“So, you really don’t know anything about why you’re here?” Cass asked curiously as she settled into the chair across from Mal. She picked up her own cup and drank deeply, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the tea was scalding.
“No,” Mal admitted. “What exactly is here?”
“This is Tenebar. It’s one of the many refuges across the world for people who can control magic. This building in particular is for Elementals, people who can control earth, fire, air or water. Blaise and I were chosen to establish it about three hundred years ago.”
“So you’re three hundred years old?” Mal asked in surprise.
“Give or take,” Cass said, smiling.
“Who chose you and Blaise to be the leaders?”
“One of the alphas,” Cass said absentmindedly.
“If Blaise is an angel, why doesn’t he have wings like you?”
Cass’s face darkened, and Mal felt shivers run down her spine. Her wings expanded, casting a dark shadow across the room. She looked like someone who could make the world burn. “Blaise’s wings were ripped off during the last war. He doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...” Mal said, her voice getting softer with each word. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say. Cass just looked down at the floor and didn’t say anything.
“If this place is for people who can control magic, why am I here? I don’t have any powers,” Mal stuttered, desperate to break the awkward silence.
Cass’s face closed off and she fell silent, considering her answer. She put her cup down, and folded her hands in her lap. “Mal, do you know what killed your attackers at the mall?”
“It was a fire, wasn’t it?”
Cass shook her head. “It was magic energy. Pure, undiluted magical energy. Usually you have to consciously activate your powers, but I suppose that if you’re inexperienced and placed in such a high-pressure environment they would have come forward themselves.”
“So which element can I control?”
“That’s the real mystery here,” Cass said. “Usually there would be some kind of tell-tale sign of what magic was used, especially if it was Elemental magic, but none of us could figure out what type of magic you used, despite the fact that the area was giving out strong signs of residual magic energy after the attack. Our best guess is that you can control fire, because of the scorch marks, but at this point no one knows for sure.”
“How do I control fire?” Mal asked eagerly, raising her palm and inspecting it, trying to imagine bright red flames dancing across her palm.
Cass laughed. “I doubt you’d be able to right now. You don’t have a Memoriam on you right now, do you?”
“A what?”
“Memoriam. That’s what we call an object that the magic user has an extreme emotional attachment too. It’s the source of your magical abilities. People who can control magic basically have incredibly delicate souls that can pick up the emotional energy around them and manipulate it.”
“I didn’t have a...Memoriam...at the mall though,” Mal began, but then stopped. “No. Wait, yes I did. I was wearing my dead brother’s t-shirt.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Cass said “I’m sorry about your brother.” Mal didn’t respond. It was still painful to talk about him. Briefly, she wondered what he would make of all this, what he would think if he was in her shoes right now. He would probably be completely ecstatic at the prospect of being able to control fire. He was always a bit of a pyromaniac.
Cass continued talking. “It’s unusual for people to discover their abilities when they’re your age. They usually start showing signs of magic when they’re very young. At your age, it’s compulsory for all magic users to become registered with the Council. You have to prove that you can safely and accurately control your magic, and then you’re given permission to continue using your powers for the rest of your life. If you fail, you get your magic taken away, your memory erased and you’re cast out to live in the human world.”
“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”
Cass shrugged. “The next test is in three weeks. You have until then to learn to use your magic well enough to pass.”
“Um...okay. I can do that. Totally. No problem,” Mal said, sounding a little breathless.
Cass smiled. “Don’t worry, Rose is a good teacher.”
“I don’t think she likes me.”
The smile fell from Cass’s face. “Since her parents were killed, Rose hasn’t been the same. She refuses to let herself get close with anyone anymore, and she can’t bring herself to trust anyone except for Thomas and Dallas.”
“What killed her parents?”
“An Aril.”
Mal thought for a moment. “You mean the things with the black blood?”
“Yes. Th
at’s what we’re fighting against.”
“What are they, exactly? Some kind of demon?”
Cass sighed and rubbed her temples. “It’s kind of complicated. Basically, there are two kinds of magic in this world: Praethen and Akraansir, named after the only two mages in the world who could control Light and Dark magic, but of course they’re just myths. Depending on how you use your magic, your soul either collects the residue of Praethen magic or Akraansir magic. If an Akraansir mage dies and their soul enters another body before it is destroyed or simply withers away, the victim becomes known as an Aril. The pain of having two souls battling for dominance often drives them mad. Of course, your soul can enter a recently deceased body once their soul has left, and that way you don’t have to constantly compete with a second soul, but you have to do it at the right moment and if you’re in the middle of a battle that’s very difficult to do. Akraansir is very fond of having Arils fight for her, they fight with no mercy and no fear.”
“What if a Praethen soul enters another body? What happens then?”
Cass looked repulsed, and instantly Mal knew she had said something wrong. “We would never do that,” she said angrily. “Arils are vile, twisted things. A Praethen mage knows that when we die, we should stay dead.”
“Sorry. So what was an Aril doing in my room?”
“Whenever new magical talent is discovered, the Aril are always keen to try and take them to Baratrum, their headquarters. That way, it’s easier to get them to use Akraansir magic.”
“What about those bracelet things?”
“They’re called Spatiums. After you register as a magic user, you get one surgically implanted into your skin. It’s compulsory, of course. Basically, when you use your magic you get a build-up of magical residue in your body, and if there’s too much of it, then your body will start to mutate. If your Dimension has green on it, then you’re safe. If it’s in the orange zone, you have to be careful, if it hits the red area then you should stop using magic, and if the strip goes black and the bracelet starts beeping then you’re dangerously close to mutation. If you don’t use your magic for a while, the magical residue goes away and the Dimension slowly goes back to the green zone. Of course, the tolerance level is different for everybody. If you’re an experienced mage, you can use your magic for a lot longer than someone who’s just started. That’s why it’s important for a mage to be skilled in weaponry as well as magic.”
“Why don’t you and Blaise have one?”
“When you’re an angel, you don’t get access to magical powers until you’re an Alpha. Blaise and I are just Beta angels.”
Mal thought about this quietly for a moment. She didn’t know what to say. She still had a hard time believing that she wasn’t going to wake up in a few hours, tucked underneath the blanket on her bed. Maybe this was some kind of hallucination from the drugs they gave her at the hospital. But when Mal pinched her arm, she didn’t wake up.
“Are you sure your parents don’t use magic?”
Mal tried to imagine her shy and scientific parents using any form of magic. “Yeah, I’m sure. Well, my adopted parents, at least. I never knew about my real parents.”
“I’ll see if I can get someone to find out who your real parents are. It might give us some clues as to what element you can control.”
“Thank you.”
“As for your adopted parents, I’ve been talking to Blaise and we think it’d be best for you to stay living at home, but come back here as often as you can, so you’ll have to start coming up with some creative excuses to be out of the house for a few hours,” Cass said.
“My parents! They must be so worried right now!” Mal started to panic. She felt incredibly guilty for not asking sooner, but she’d been focusing on other things. She didn’t know how on earth she was meant to explain her absence.
“Relax. Thomas placed a decoy in your room. Your parents will just think that you slept in late.”
“And you think that’ll work?”
“You better hope so,” Cass laughed. Mal didn’t appreciate the joke. Her parents were going to kill her.
“I need to get home as soon as possible,” Mal said anxiously.
“Okay, come with me then,” Cass said, and she rose from her seat.
Mal carefully tipped Remi from her lap and followed Cass out of her office and into the crowd outside. They all parted to make way for Cass’s wings, so Mal just stayed behind her as they walked through the corridor and down the staircase.
Cass led Mal to the exit of the building and they stepped outside. The sky was cloudless and a bright, beautiful blue. The sunlight weaved itself through the branches of the forest around them and cast spindly shadows onto the verdant grass. Mal turned around, interested to see what Tenebar looked like from the outside, and was met with a crumbling husk of a building. The ceiling was almost completely gone, the rooms were desolate, the walls were only just standing upright and one of them had half of it missing, and the whole sordid structure was surrounded by chunks of stone and viciously tangled bunches of thorns that looked capable of stripping the flesh straight from your bones.
Cass caught sight of Mal’s puzzled expression, and she smiled. “It’s just a simple spell. Unless you have powers, the inside is just as ruined as the outside and you can’t see anyone inside. That way, we don’t get too many people bothering us. Sure, sometimes we get some stupid teenagers sending each other in for dares, and if we’re bored we get to scare them senseless.”
“That’s not nice.”
“It’s funny though. You know, it’s strange how easy humans are to scare. All we have to do is move a few things or whisper a few words and they’ll run away screaming.” As Cass spoke, she moved in behind Mal and snaked both of her arms around Mal’s waist, gripping her tightly.
“Um...Cass? What are you doing?” Mal asked uncertainly, squirming in Cass’s grip, but she didn’t let go.
“It’s the fastest way to travel,” Cass said, and with a powerful beat of her might wings, the two of them were airborne.
Mal screamed when her feet left the ground, but Cass kept flying upwards, bringing them higher and higher, and she didn’t stop until the trees were little more than a carpet of green and the ruined building looked like a dollhouse.
“Did I mention I have a fear of heights?” Mal cried.
“It’s a bit too late now!” Cass said back, and she started flying Mal back towards the town. Mal had Cass’s arms in a death grip and her jaw was tightly clenched. They passed the boundaries of the forest and flew over the grey streets, watching the brightly coloured cars drive past. Mal called out when she saw her house; a long, rectangular structure with a green roof, and Cass landed safely amongst the trees in the secluded park a street away.
“That was terrifying,” Mal gasped when Cass let her go.
Cass laughed. “You can make your own way home, right? But be careful that your parents don’t see you.”
“Yeah, okay. Thanks,” Mal said shakily, absolutely breathless.
Cass launched herself upwards again, almost knocking Mal over with the gust of wind her wings produced. Mal watched her go and then started walking home, trying to stop her hands from shaking. Her legs were like jelly. She felt like she’d been on a really intense rollercoaster.
Once Mal got to her house, she opened the back door using the credit card in her purse, and snuck around to her bedroom. She could hear her parents talking in the kitchen. The ‘decoy’ that Thomas had left turned out to be a pile of Mal’s clothes and pillows in a vaguely human-like shape underneath her blanket. Mal silently gave thanks that it had worked.
She walked outside of her room and found her parents in the kitchen, discussing something they’d seen on the news. When Abigail saw her, she said “Mal! It’s about time you woke up. It’s past lunchtime!”
“Sorry Mum,” Mal said. “I was just really tired.”
Mal spent the rest of the day in a haze that her parents put down to the aftereffect
s of the drugs she was given at the hospital, but in reality her mind was a labyrinth and she was wandering through it in a state of total confusion. She tried several times to summon her powers, and even though she could feel the sparks of her magic igniting in her veins they always seemed to hit some kind of barrier. Frustrated and with her anxiety mounting, Mal gave up. She couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened over the past forty eight hours, and pondering what would transpire in the days to come. Whatever it was, she hoped she was ready for it.
Chapter 5
The next morning, Mal woke up to an insistent tapping sound coming from outside her window. She groaned and then sat up, pulling back the curtain to reveal Remi, Cass’s cat, sitting on the windowsill and tapping at the glass with his paw, regarding Mal with inquisitive golden eyes. Tied to his collar was a folded square of parchment with Mal’s name written on it.
Mal opened the window and Remi jumped through, and then padded his way across the bed to Mal. He sat down expectantly in front of her, his tail curled around his front paws. Mal reached forward and untied the parchment from his collar, opened it and read the message while absentmindedly scratching Remi behind his ears. It was from Cass, and it was asking her to come to Tenebar at nine o’clock that night with Memoriams so she could begin her lessons. Included in the note were instructions on how to get from her house to Tenebar, so Mal took a photo of it with her phone and then used a pen to write a response on the back of the parchment before retying the note to Remi’s collar.
“Take this to Cass, okay?” Mal said, and then she lifted Remi out of the window. He looked back at Mal one last time, and then left. Once he was gone, Mal started packing a bag for her return to Tenebar. She was so excited; she could hardly wait for night time to arrive. She collected any items in her room that had the potential to become a Memoriam, as well as a change of clothes just in case, and then she spent the rest of the day in silent anticipation. She went to bed early, claiming that she had a headache, and then used Thomas’s trick of stuffing pillows under her blanket to make it look like she was sleeping. She changed into dark clothes, pocketed her phone and slung her bag over her shoulder, and then crept out through the window and quietly darted down the stairs.