by Rain Oxford
As his magic settled into place, his normal disguise came over him. A sense of confusion clouded his appearance. Although nothing about him actually changed, I could no longer tell what he looked like. I stared directly at his face, which was not concealed, and his hair, which was uncovered, yet I couldn’t say what color his eyes or hair were, if his features were angular or soft, or even what length his hair was. I couldn’t tell if he was short or tall, or if he was fat, skinny, or muscular.
This is not going to end well,” Keira warned.
The Painter crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me.
“Hello, Brother.”
He remained silent.
“I need your help.”
“Why would I help you after you imprisoned me?”
I stood and matched his glare. “Imprisoned you? I sent you somewhere where you could have everything you wanted, but you couldn’t hurt me.”
“I would never hurt you!”
“You killed my parents!”
“And Rose,” Keira added helpfully.
We both ignored her. “I did what was best for you,” Painter argued. “If you don’t believe that, then why did you free me?”
I hesitated. If I told him I needed him, there was a chance it could push him over the edge. Painter had been used by everyone who was supposed to love him. He never gave me the chance to be better to him. “Do you want to go on a quest with me?” I asked instead.
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve always worked best together. The gods want us to go and retrieve a magical weapon on Kradga. It shouldn’t be any different than what we used to do on a daily basis.”
“Except it’ll be real,” Painter interjected.
“But we’ll be doing it together, so there’s no way we could lose, right?”
After a moment, he nodded. “I’m in. As long as it’s only the two of us.”
Although he didn’t look at Keira, she shrugged. “I can’t go to Kradga anyway on account of my body dying.”
“There’s just one thing you have to do first,” I said, holding up the amulet.
Painter looked like I slapped him. “You’ll never accept me for who I am, will you?”
“You made Luca instead of letting me get to know you. Now I can’t see you over him. If you agree to become Luca again, I will drop everything you’ve done. I won’t bring up you killing my parents again. I’ll trust you. We can go back to the way you were.”
He nodded and reached for the amulet.
I didn’t give it to him. “But it has to be permanent. I can’t be afraid that you’ll take off the amulet and kill anyone I care about, or that you’ll lie to me.”
“That’s part of trusting me.”
“Would you agree to be Luca permanently?”
He hesitated. “I can’t protect you as Luca.”
“I can protect us both.”
“If you really can’t accept or trust me, then yes, I agree to become Luca permanently.”
“Anubis, Anubis, Anubis.”
His eyes widened as the god appeared. The god grabbed my brother’s arm before the Painter could escape. “Hold still, Painter, and this will hurt less.”
“You can’t take my heart,” Painter said desperately. His eyes darted to me, silently begging me to help.
“He’s not taking your heart,” I promised, handing the amulet to Anubis. “He’s making you into Luca.” Anubis pressed the amulet against Painter’s chest. Painter looked at me rather than the god. “Are you afraid of losing your magic?” I asked.
“I’m afraid of losing you. Luca isn’t your twin.”
Before I could say anything to reassure him, there was a deep pulse of magic from the amulet and the Painter gasped. The amulet and Anubis vanished, leaving me alone with Keira and my brother.
Painter collapsed to his knees, gasping for air, but when I stepped towards him, he shook his head. His features slowly formed into those I knew as Luca. His face was young enough that he was still carded without being so young that he didn’t fit in at the university. His hair was light brown and his eyes were aquamarine. He was wearing the same thing I had last seen him in, which was a tan tunic and dark brown slacks with boots. The tunic and slacks were given to him by the priests.
He stopped panting and I held out my hand. He let me pull him up, and then as soon as I tried to let go, he hugged me. “Thank you,” he said.
“For taking away your power?” I asked incredulously.
He stepped back. “I was never happier than when I was Luca. The Painter’s mind is chaotic and his heart is full of anguish. He believes power is the answer to happiness. He believes he has to be all powerful for you.”
“I never wanted that.”
“The Painter created me to be the man he wanted to be, and the person you needed me to be. I am Luca now and forever. Please let me be that. Don’t hold the Painter against me. I want to go back to how we were. I don’t need magic. I don’t want it. Magic did the Painter no good.”
“It’s going to take me some time to get used to it, but I won’t think of you as the Painter. You’re my brother.”
He smiled brightly and gestured to Keira. “And I see that you brought home a stray kitty. You know that tomcats have spines on their---”
“I know!” I interrupted.
“I was just asking if she likes pain with---”
“That’s none of your business. I forgot what a pain in the ass you are.”
He shrugged. “I’m not trying to be nosy; I just want to know what I’m going to have to listen to from my bedroom at night.” He scowled. “Unless you converted my bedroom into a sex dungeon, because that’s not cool with me.”
Keira laughed. “The room wasn’t large enough.”
“Don’t encourage him,” I scolded. “Now, they’re giving us time to prepare and I don’t think we should waste it.”
“What exactly are we after?” Luca asked.
“The Sword of Draskara, which can apparently kill gods.”
“And us,” Luca said.
“Right. We have to get it from Maori, the ruler of Kradga.”
“Okay. Let’s go find someone who can teach you to fight a god.”
“Can’t Keira do it?”
“I’m not a fighter,” Keira said. “I can protect you while you’re here or on Syndrial, but fighting is not my method.”
I turned to Luca. “I thought you could teach me all the magic I would ever need to know.”
“The Painter could. I know the magic, but you can learn all that from the books. What Painter could have taught you was more interactive.”
“We’ll go to the priests, then.”
“Yeah, because they were so much help last time,” Luca said.
“I don’t think we have endless choices. We’ll go to them and if they can’t help us, we’ll go to the sand people.”
“Great. How are we going to get there?”
“Show me how to make the portal.”
“It would be easier if I send you there,” Keira said.
She was right, but I wanted my brother to feel needed. “I don’t want to be reliant on the gods,” I said instead.
She nodded, whether she believed me or not. Keira would never push.
I grabbed some chalk and started to make the base of the portal before Luca took it from me. “You’ve got absolutely no talent when it comes to painting or drawing,” he said. “You insult art.”
“I’m an author now. Writing is an art form.”
“Fine, you’re right,” he conceded. “You were always awesome at writing, but you should at least learn to draw a circle.”
I wanted to argue, but he drew a perfect circle which made mine look more like a “u” than anything. Once he was done, I went into the kitchen, grabbed a box of Brew-Chews, and filled my pockets.
“What are those?” Luca asked.
“After last time, I’m not risking being separated from my coffee again.” I tossed
one to him and he checked it over. “No chocolate, no sugar, just chewable coffee squares. They have a chocolate texture, but the taste is pure coffee.”
“So instead of taking the opportunity to break your addiction, you figured out a way to feed it.”
“I’m not addicted to coffee. You can’t be addicted to something like that.”
He sighed with frustration. “You’re contemplating making a cup right now, aren’t you?”
“No,” I lied.
We returned to the living room. “I learned this from books, not the priests. It’s getatago, so there aren’t any words you have to use. What Painter does is paint the portal and the magic is infused with it. All he has to do is touch it after he paints it. Since we don’t have his magic, we have to do this the hard way.”
“You’ve done it before, right? I mean, Painter has?”
“Before he got his Painter powers, yes. This is easy compared to most magic. The hard part is drawing the portal, and since it determines when and where you go, I would take a couple art classes before trying it alone if I were you.”
“You weren’t exactly Picasso before you were revealed to be the Painter.”
“I faked it. Painter couldn’t hide that talent even with the best spell, so I had to pretend I couldn’t paint worth shit.”
“That’s… horrible. I get it; I might have figured it out after meeting him if you were an amazing artist and his power was art.”
“Actually, it was because he wanted you to feel protective of me. With my talent, I could be famous and rich, but I didn’t want that. I wanted you to keep me close. As Luca, I now realize that was wrong. I realize it would have been better to improve your quality of life with it. Painter doesn’t see it that way. He doesn’t see it as manipulating you.”
“That’s beside the point. You shouldn’t have to hide your talents from me. I’m your brother; I’m supposed to be proud and supportive. Instead, you had to hide something so important.”
“Not any more. I’m not hiding anything. I have no secrets from you.” Then he thought about it and shrugged. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, but I’m not keeping them from you. I just can’t think of everything right now. Let’s get back to work.”
I nodded.
“Calm and clear your mind. Visualize the lines of the portal glowing, including the sigils. When it’s strong enough, you will be able to close your eyes and still see the portal. At that point, imagine that the lines are glowing at the mouth of a well. The portal is a well to another world.”
“We should get a black light.”
“You can’t cheat in magic,” Luca said.
It didn’t take long to clear my mind because I had a lot of practice. It took longer to imagine the lines were glowing, especially since the room was dimly lit. As if she read my mind, Keira flipped on the light.
We ended up pulling chairs around to the portal. It took me about an hour and a half before I was ready. Trying to concentrate on one thing for so long was mentally exhausting. Finally, when the lines burned bright enough in my mind that I could see it with my eyes closed, I imagined the space between the lines dropping. This was actually easy. I just let everything but the lines fade away.
And with it, I felt my power being pulled into it. “Oh, I don’t like that.”
“It’ll take a few times to get used to it,” Luca said, sitting up straight. He knew the portal was activated, even though nothing had actually changed about it.
“Do I have to keep up the visual?”
“No. I doubt you even can. It’s active, so you don’t have to think about it anymore. It just won’t let your magic go until you use the portal.”
As I pushed the chair away from the portal, Keira took my arm. “I wish I could help.”
“I know. I like knowing you’re here for me.” I kissed Keira goodbye.
“Be safe,” she said, “or I’ll tear out your heart and put it in a jar to keep you close to me. Then I’ll shift and eat your entrails to punish you for getting yourself killed.”
I laughed. “I know you will.” Then I faced Luca across from me. “Here we go again.” We both stepped into the portal and the world faded away.
Chapter 3
Luca and I were standing in the middle of a city that was very different from our homeland. We were on a busy cobblestone road. Many people shouted, but they were shouts of surprise, not terror.
“Damn it! I forgot my bathrobe again,” Luca said.
On Syndrial, robes were important. Commoners (or non-casters) could wear whatever they wanted. Priests wore black robes, apprentices wore red robes, and stewards of the gods wore silver robes.
The Egyptian-esque, sand-colored stone buildings were massive homes, each containing a dozen families. This was the high-class part of the city. It was night, so there were torches alongside the roads and lanterns inside the buildings. Syndrial didn’t have electricity. A huge, Jupiter-like planet in the sky made it blaringly obvious that we were not on Earth, and Kradga, the small, molten moon next to it, didn’t help.
Also, the five-hundred-foot-tall pyramid could be seen from anywhere in the city.
The cobblestone street covered most of the ground and continued as far as I could see in both directions. The only dirt paths were the rare ones between the buildings. People watched us from the safety of the windows while everyone who was on the street gave us a wide berth.
One of the voices shouted over the suspicious whispers. “They’re casters! Call for the priests!”
“We’re going already!” I responded impatiently. I considered eating one of my coffee squares, but I had to use them sparingly.
“This is way too familiar,” Luca said.
“I was thinking the same thing.” We traveled north, knowing from memory how to get to the temple. Before we could get far, however, three priests intercepted us. The hoods of their robes covered their heads and masks concealed their faces. The black masks were painted with a white pattern, which reflected the light of the torches and looked like evil skulls. This was standard whenever the priests left the temple.
Two of them pointed their staffs at us, so I pulled Luca behind me and prepared myself for a fight. The metal staffs were five feet tall with the heads of an animal that best represented their magic. They also had sharp spikes on the bottom.
“Wait! Nathan! Luca!” a familiar voice said. The priest who wasn’t aiming his staff at us lowered his hood and mask. He was eighteen with dark brown hair, light brown eyes, and a soft face. His ears were almost too large for his head, making me take him for a nerd type. Instead, he was actually a rebellious guy. I knew this because he had followed Luca around like an overeager puppy when we were in the temple.
“Katok?” Luca asked stepping out from behind me.
Katok smiled, ignoring his comrades, who were demanding he cover his face. “I knew that was you! Come with us back to the temple!”
“We were planning on it,” Luca agreed readily. “Lead the way.”
The other two priests didn’t move. “You two aren’t from the High Temple?” I asked.
“We are,” one of them argued.
“I’m the Writer, and this is my brother, Luca. We were here six months ago as stewards of the gods. If we weren’t from here, we wouldn’t be able to speak the language.”
Syndrial was so dependent on its gods that the native language was based on magic. It was actually a gift from Thoth; every native of Syndrial could speak, read, and write the common language automatically. It was probably the strangest trait of the population.
After a moment, the priest on the left nodded. “Then we apologize for the cold welcome. We had been told of you two.”
“I plead the Fifth,” Luca said immediately.
“You’re not a witness,” I told him.
“Oh, right. I have the right to remain silent.”
“I wish you would.”
“You’ve gotten taller,” Luca said, looping his arm around K
atok’s and heading for the temple as if I wasn’t there.
“Oh, it’s the shoes,” Katok said, stopping and lifting the bottom of his robe just enough to see the six-inch platform sandals. “All priests wear them; that’s why we’re taller than everyone else.” Syndrial natives were all shorter than five-nine, which made me stick out at six-one. Keira had explained it was because I was the son of Set.
With his special sandals on, Katok came right up to six feet tall.
We continued towards the temple. Although people called for the priests, most commoners were afraid of the priests and scattered when they had arrived.
“You passed your trials!” Luca said encouragingly.
“Yes. I’m now the Scribe.”
“I thought there was already a Scribe.”
“He died and a new one was needed,” he explained nonchalantly.
“So tell me, now that you’re management, have you changed the rules oppressing the apprentices?” Luca asked.
“Some, yes. We can’t change a lot, but considering how many priests were killed by the Painter, we suggested change was necessary. We have since tried easing the transition for children when they enter apprenticeship and---”
“What about their parents?” Luca interrupted.
“What?”
“Their parents. Are the apprentices allowed to see them?”
“No, of course not,” one of the other priests said. “We cannot be devoted to our commoner parents and the gods.”
Luca opened his mouth to release a rant of hellish proportions, so I cut him off. “The reason we’re here is because Thoth wants me to retrieve a weapon from Maori.”
Katok blanched. “That’s unfortunate.”
At that point, we reached a wide lake that was surrounded by trees and flowers. While the trees were identical to Earth’s, the huge flowers were obscenely colorful. Across the lake was a beautiful park that didn’t fit in on Syndrial, but getting to that park was not going to be an easy feat.