by A N Britton
We headed home as stealthily as we’d left. But the silence was over, various sirens in the distance punctured the dusk. On the way Papa told us he had reached some Yesmin person, and she promised to send someone, soon. I didn’t even bother to ask who that was because I didn’t care. I hadn’t decided to leave yet, and I still thought it was up to me.
Frankly, I wanted to bail and head over to Manolo’s. It was where I had gone every single time anything bad had ever happened for the past several years. My worry wasn’t for him, but I harbored concerns about Alyssa and I needed him to make sure she was okay. I knew that she had probably been in her music room practicing. At worst, she would have slumped to the floor from the piano bench. But I couldn‘t be sure, and I didn’t have my damn cell phone with me which drove me nuts.
My parents didn’t feign shock when I asked to go; they understood my feelings; they were tender, and very, very firm when they told me no.
Once home, I disappeared into my bedroom after retrieving Fiddle. They didn’t grant me freedom but at least they granted me solitude. The sun had set, and the streetlights were coming on. I heard helicopters, and sirens and people. It was a muffled cacophony of confusion. There was no escape from the reality of what had happened. I kicked the discarded funeral garb into the corner of my room as if it were diseased and allowed my earth and shadow colored body to return to its normal Chy form. I pulled on clothes from the clean basket flopped onto my bed with Fiddle. After that, I made a nest for us of pillows and got comfortable. Plucking the strings distracted me from my agitation and calmed me enough to handle my cell.
Oh Lord, the blinking lights. The unread messages. To be honest, I scrolled the names looking only for Manolo and Alyssa. And I saw them. Both of them. My relief was sincere and deep, but naturally, I didn’t answer either of their questions about what had happened. At least, not truthfully. I usurped their fear and spit it back at them so I appeared normal. I created a fake “what happened to me” scenario and shared it with them. Then I promised to see them both the following day. I told them I had to go spend time with my family considering it had been such a disturbing day, just so I could go back to hiding.
I felt like an unclean, lying, filthy wretch of a monster. So I stayed in my room and mourned the loss of everything.
It was several hours later when Mama came for me and explained that I needed to come out to meet some new friends. I chuckled because her discomfort was palpable and she didn’t know what to say, an odd situation for her. I guessed the strangers had arrived to spirt me away.
But I didn’t fuss, I went with her amiably enough because I was fuzzy headed with emotional fatigue. Also, there was a hint of curiosity.
It was odd, following her down the hallway to the kitchen, just as I had trailed behind Nana less than two weeks previous. That feeling only grew stronger as we turned a corner and two Thumbra men came into view.
What were my first impressions? Shaggy and Wary.
The big one. Well obviously he was… big. About 6’4”, broad shoulders, narrow waist and hips. He had long legs, and what looked like a long reach on a short torso. He was one of those guys that tried to take up less space because he knew he was intimidating to most. His placid face and kind eyes went a long way to putting you at ease though. That said, I couldn’t read him. I got no emotional bead on him and it didn’t feel like he was screening me out. I stared at his hazel eyes and took in the dark hair and tanned olive skin. There was a stillness in him, and a hidden wildness as well. I knew he was a Thumbra, but something else seemed to be at the edge of my awareness. Whatever. I was sure he felt okay. A big lug. A softy.
The smaller one. He was Thumbra through and through. He felt, somewhat familiar-but I couldn’t place him. Like I’d passed him somewhere, but had never met. It was clear he had aimed to look like a local who liked to hike up in the mountains and smoke out. He had pulled it off, mostly. But something about his eyes and his posture were just too intense and present. Too rigid. Something told me these two went back a long way, and I pegged them as family members. And something else told me that Mr. Wary was the boss of the two. He was appealing and for a moment I wondered what he looked like in his Emergence skin. That was a short-lived thought. See, the big one I flat out couldn’t read. He was like a foreign language. But Mr. Wary, he had screened me out and pretty effectively too. Still, I picked up a subtle whiff of disappointment, and I was pretty damn sure I was the source. Considering the day I had just had, and that I had never met him before. I was pretty sure I did not like and would never like that judgy bastard.
Mr. Wary approached me like I was a dangerous animal. I swear, when he extended his hand, I wanted to bite it off just to not “disappoint” him further!
“Hello Chymaera, I’m Kai.”
18 - Bitter, bitter symphony
Kai
I’m fucked.
That was all Kai could think when Chymaera sauntered into the kitchen in her Hi Infidelity crop top and mesh paneled yoga pants. He had to believe that someone failed to brief Yesmin about aspects of the situation. Because she’d have no conceivable reason for keeping such important information from him. He regretted his forceful, yet polite, request to meet Chymaera after he and Kels had arrived. He hadn’t known what awaited him.
They could’ve freaking warned me.
Kai wanted to turn and glare at her parents, but there was no point to it. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the heir as she stepped closer and sized them up. He was in awe of her and that was more than tinged in disappointment.
She was beautiful and magnetic. Her essence pulled at him, he recognized her as the presence that had haunted both his dreams and his waking hours. It made him feel as though they shared an intimate connection. Despite that, he marveled at how powerful she was at that moment and how much power she had yet to discover.
Damn it all! She’s at the knife’s edge of childhood!
Thumbras only have two stages of life. Immaturity and maturity. Infant and adult. Infancy was bookended by equally important events, birth and the Emergence. Technically, this heir to the throne before him was an infant which explained so much about the previous week. Kai had arrived prepared to meet an untrained adult who needed to learn to lock down her emotional projections. He realized he was meeting an ignorant child that didn’t have that control because she was close to her Emergence. The rite was an event, a trial by fire that mirrored birth. What birth required was physical cohesion. What the Emergence required was emotional cohesion. The most obvious sign the time for the rite was near were sudden and intense emotional surges.
Why hadn’t she had her damn rite?!
It was a legitimate question. Either prepared loved ones ushered in the Emergence in a controlled environment, or it happened spontaneously and sometimes, shit blew up. The longer they avoided the former, the more likely the latter would happen. And Chymaera seemed, well at the cusp. He wanted to address the issue in a private moment with her parents. But for now, he needed to gain her trust, and if he couldn’t do that - he had to avoid pissing her off.
“Hello Chymaera. I’m Kai.”
She squinted her eyes at him as if she’d already sensed some feeling emanating from him and found it not to her liking. While she lazily ran her fingers through a lush ash brown afro, she also bore down, trying harder to read him, to push past his defenses. He held tight and offered a nonthreatening smile and his hand. Nothing in her face said it was working, at all. He cleared his throat of nothing and turned to face Kels.
“This is Kels. I will escort you… back, but he will stay here for an inquiry.” Kels nodded a silent greeting, per usual.
“What? So I don’t rate two babysitters, a lone scraggly one is sufficient? Hmmph, I guess I’m not such a special snowflake.” She whirled to face her parents who were attempting to be unobtrusive and fade into the background. “Really? You guys think the best thing to do is to send me away? With some rando, to people I don’t even know! I’m not down with th
is at all. And this one (with a jerk of her head in Kai’s direction) he doesn’t even feel right. He doesn’t want me to read him! Why? What do you even know about him? How can you assume he’s safe? Why can’t I go with the other one?”
Chagrin, thy name is Kai.
He didn’t enjoy getting his ass chewed by a little girl but Kai kept a false smile glued to his face and his mouth shut. She had been through way too much. And he was a stranger. And, well-he wasn’t sure it was his place to reprimand a potential future queen.
Simon didn’t exactly rush to his defense, but he stated the obvious. “Chy, Kai isn’t some random person, he is Yesmin’s emissary. She has vouched for him. And I am your father, don’t disrespect your Mother and I by suggesting we would send you into danger! We are trying to get you somewhere much safer than here! Please don’t argue this and obey him as you would obey Yesmin.”
“Papa, great so he is her substitute? You’re assuming I would obey her and I will transfer that obedience to him. But I don’t know this Yesmin and I don’t believe I should obey some complete stranger. I’m over elders running my life just because that is what we’ve always done. Who is she that I should care what she wants?”
“Your Great-grandmother and your Queen.” Kai’s voice was soft, he didn’t even think the angry child heard him. But he couldn’t let her question pass without a straight answer.
She turned to face him again, crossing her arms in a clear display of annoyance because he didn’t know his place. “Queen of what? And crowned by whom? We aren’t a whole other country you know.” Her disdain for him was a frosty squall.
He didn’t blanch or buckle though he wondered how much her primary education was lacking. Kai decided to begin her lessons immediately, albeit gently. “Queen of the Thumbra. And as to how she took office, the Creator anointed her.” The even tone and open gaze seem to discomfit her. Wordlessly she turned to her parents.
“The Creator? Does he mean God?”
“Yes.” They replied in embarrassed unison.
“Bullshit! You’ve never said anything about any of this! If this is real, then how can you justify-”
“Stop it!” Martine spit in a low tone, her voice both ominous and tremulous. She dashed forward and clasped her daughter’s hands. “Chymaera, I loved my mother. Perhaps, I loved her too much or not enough, I’m not sure. But I loved her and I followed her in her deceit and folly and I allowed her to expose you to it all rather than defy her. But she is dead and her lies have to die with her. Yesmin is my grandmother and our Queen. I grew up in her house. She is everything Kai says and more. You will know it the moment you meet her. We’ve kept so much from you children because Duana was vengeful and petty. Please, go and learn all Yesmin has to teach. She will keep you safe. I just lost my mother, I will not lose my child as well!”
Kai stood there contemplating the stone tile and feeling the tension dissipate as Chymaera’s father stepped over to his wife and daughter, murmuring words to them. A moment later Martine and Chymaera clutched each other and Simon wrapped arms around them both. Silence hung over them while they got their bearings.
Another throat cleared audibly. All necks swiveled to Kels. “Well, now that we have clarified our credentials I guess, I need to go over the details of what happened earlier. I’m sorry, but I need to begin tracking as soon as possible.”
Martine held Chymaera around the waist with one arm and used her free hand to lift her daughter’s chin and survey her eyes. “It’s late. We should just do that in the morning.”
Chymaera shook her head, not so much the spitfire anymore, and held her mother’s hand. “No Mama, this is the most important part of what they came for. I might as well do it now. But you don’t need to hear it, again. Stay here with Papa.” Heading back out the way she came in, “Please, follow me.”
Kai let Kels take the lead and trailed behind him. The house was a Spanish Mission style home, but it wasn’t open plan like a lot of the more modern builds. The kitchen, eating nook and the large family room formed the back of the home. A hallway branched both left and right, Kai figured that was where the bedrooms and other private spaces were. Going forward there was a rather long, wide walkway. They passed a glass-enclosed courtyard with faux alfresco dining on the left and a den on the right and several lighted niches showcasing art, mostly sculpture. It opened into a large foyer with a formal living room to the right and a library to the left. The white plaster walls, dark heavy beams on the ceiling and gray stone tile floors provided a neutral backdrop to the family’s eclectic furnishings. Chymaera entered the living room and stood off to the side while she motioned them ahead of her.
Her nervous hand wringing belied the stoicism she forced into her face and voice. She stared straight ahead, into the library while she motioned with her hands elsewhere. Her tone was hard, perfunctory as she relayed the facts. “It was almost 10, and I was already walking to the front of the house when I heard the doorbell. Nana got to the door before I could, but I hung around to see what it was. It was a floral delivery. Nana took the arrangement from the guy and chatted with him for a minute before she tipped him and he left. Then she closed the door put down the vase over there on the hall cabinet and reached for the envelope. The moment she pulled that card out; well, it was like it electrocuted her and then she changed. Became like an old TV image. Stretched out and pixelated, she lost cohesion. Sort of birth in reverse. It got worse and worse, and for a millisecond I saw her true form, her core, she exploded and then she was gone.” By the end of her recitation, Chymaera’s eyes stared at the floor and she’d wrapped her arms around herself.
Kai wanted to comfort her, he’d never be able to forget the terror and pain that was not his own. No one should have to carry such a burden; but he had no clue how to reach out and have it not seem contrived to her. So he studied the scene instead.
Kels had already moved on to stand in the doorway. The floral arrangement was a beautiful lure, all heady exotics and ecstatic colors. The air was florid with their intoxicating scent. Kels squatted before them, seeming to study the vase and ribbons more than the flowers. “I’ll ask around the shop, but the witch probably paid in cash and walked into the store. This is high end, but if this is their normal level of quality, they won’t remember this order.”
In centuries past, witches attached disincorporation spells to personal, preferably organic material belonging to the potential victim. They wove that material into a gift, and that gift required direct contact with the victim to activate the spell. Skin to skin contact with the intended, and the spell played out. The spelled item was benign to everyone else.
“How did she get the spell onto a standard card?”, Kai questioned.
Kels got down on his hands and knees to scrutinize, sniff, and lick the aforementioned greeting card and accompanying envelope. He sat back on his haunches and picked up the card. “Well, Cuzzo - this is not an ordinary card.” With that, he opened his mouth, extended his tongue, and swallowed the card whole. He didn’t eat it, it was more like he analyzed it and internalized it so this witch’s signature would become a part of him. He was a tracker, that was his skill and his talent and this was part of how he did it. The envelope, a brighter shade of white with distinctive lettering, he picked up, read, flashed to Kai, and pocketed.
“That card included strands of Duana’s hair and a few nail clippings. Someone pressed them with botanicals into a homemade card. The witch brought her own card and just inserted it into the florist’s envelope. At least there is a logo and info so I know where the flowers came from. Chymaera, has there been a shedding recently?”
She shuddered and stood unblinking for several moments. When she spoke again, her voice was halting. “Yes, a little over a week ago we had a birthing ceremony. But it all went wrong. The father was human and the mother, Maala, well, she gave birth to a girl. She had to take the child within. I was The Holder of the Circle, but it was my first one, training. Duana made the offering in my place and prepare
d the body for burial. Why?”
Kai locked eyes with his cousin, motioning for him to remain silent. This set off 1000 ringing alarm bells in his head. This bit of news muddied the waters. He needed more information about this birth.
“Do you know Maala well? Is she rebellious or irresponsible? Did she have a girl child out of pride? Or perhaps to prove her strength?”
“Maala is a family friend, she is a few years older than me and Mama used to like me to spend time with her when we were young. Maala didn’t have as much difficulty passing as I did. The girl, well, she was always weak, and milquetoast. She never questions authority. This was way out of character for her. I chalked it up to her wanting to please her husband.” A momentary puzzlement. “But she fought for that baby, it is the only time I can remember her ever showing strength.” Chymaera looked from cousin to cousin, aware there was something they saw that she did not.
“How well is her husband known?”
“He isn’t. Look, like a year and a half ago some college friends of hers talked her into going on a singles cruise. It was supposed to be like a week long booze filled party. It didn’t seem like her thing and I figured they’d conned her into being their designated sober friend. You know, like make sure they didn’t get too trashed or taken advantage of. She met Garrett there. She fell hard, and they have been inseparable ever since. They got married about six months after they got back. He moved from Austin, Texas to be with her. Their wedding was tiny because he doesn’t have a family and she didn’t want him to feel awkward. He’s a loner and like a human version of her. There doesn’t seem much to know about him.”
Yes, a power grab, a well planned one. I’m guessing an older witch- someone acquainted with the ancient ways of doing things.
“Come on! Tell me what’s going on.” Frustration leached back into Chymaera’s voice.
Kai motioned to Kels and made sure his eyes spoke for him.