Life Beyond the Temple

by Nikolai Joslin

  “CASEY!” REGAN shouted, yanking me from the dream.

  She was straddling my hips and pinning my hands to either side of my head. Her eyes were wide, and she was breathing heavily as she looked down at me—and I noticed water streaming from her hair and that her shirt was soaked through.

  “What happened?” I felt dizzy, and I was pretty sure I had been sweating in my dream. My throat felt hoarse, which probably meant I had yelled or screamed or something.

  She slowly released my hands and climbed off of me. Cinder was panting heavily as well, and his eyes were wide in what I could only describe was fear. I had it too. His voice was quiet and strained in my head.

  “You had a nightmare. You cried out and were kicking and thrashing in your sleep. I went to hold you down so you wouldn’t hurt yourself, and before I could wake you up, you decided to spray water everywhere. What happened?” She was facing away from me when she pulled her wet shirt over her head and let it fall to the ground.

  I averted my eyes, a blush creeping onto my cheeks, while she pulled on another one. “I dreamt of a city burning.” I didn’t want to go into it any more than that.

  She ran a hand through her dripping hair and then crawled into bed. She didn’t say anything; instead she pulled me against her. I was facing her now, well, I was facing her collar bone at least. I slowly relaxed into her and let my head rest under her chin, and she held me even closer and whispered, “I’m here, Casey. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

  I suddenly realized what I had been searching for in the streets. Regan. I had been looking for Regan.

  “It’s not me I’m worried about,” I whispered back, almost hoping she couldn’t hear me.

  If she did, she didn’t say anything. After a while of being afraid to go back to sleep, I finally drifted back into it with Regan’s arms wrapped tightly around me.

  Chapter 6

  I DIDN’T have any more dreams that night, which was a good thing. I was so tired of dreaming. It only seemed to make my days a little worse. I hoped it was just a nightmare and not a message like my dream with Cinder had been.

  I knew it was morning. It was that feeling of warmth and knowing the room was well lit without even opening your eyes, but you can’t get yourself to go back to sleep. Instead I snuggled into the warm body I was facing. It took me a couple moments to remember it was Regan who was there.

  I slowly opened my eyes and noticed I was still buried in her neck with my hands gripping her shirt. I let go of her and pulled away, and this time Regan let me. She smiled at me when I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “Morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

  “Shut up,” I grumbled, and I stretched my arms up over my head and got out of bed, feeling her eyes on me. I hid my smile as I grabbed clothes and walked into the bathroom.

  I showered and got dressed, and then Regan did the same. When she came back out, she sat down on the bed with Cinder. I was leaning against the wall by the door, a small smile tugging at my lips while I watched her scratch Cinder between the ears.

  “I’ve got to mail those letters and start job hunting. Try not to get into too much trouble while I’m gone. I won’t be able to help you,” she said, raising her eyes to meet mine.

  I frowned. “I can protect myself you know. I only lived in a place that teaches me dangerous magical spells for my entire life.”

  “Still.” It was nice that she wanted to protect me, but I thought she would need to start realizing I wasn’t completely helpless.

  “I’ll be alright, Regan, I promise not to take on anything I can’t handle.” I smirked playfully when she narrowed her eyes. “Plus, I’ve got Cinder. I won’t go anywhere without him. Now, go out there and make us some money.”

  She sighed heavily, realizing that would be the best she would get from me, and walked over to the desk and picked up two letters. I wondered if she told her family about her brother. “Meet me back here at noon for lunch. Don’t be late.” She gave me a stern look. If I was late, she’d probably go crazy and start a shooting spree looking for me.

  “I’ll be early,” I said with a smile, and she just nodded.

  She walked over to me and stopped for a minute. She stood next to me, her shoulder touching my own, facing the opposite way. I didn’t look at her. I just stared straight ahead. We just stood there like the opposites we were. She finally reached her hand up, and I felt the ghost of a touch on my shoulder, like she wanted to rest her hand on it but didn’t think she should.

  And then she left without a word, leaving me standing there with a frown etched on my face and confused. Thoughts were running through my head too quickly for me to catch one and hear what it had to say. I caught fragments of thought, and even they didn’t make sense.

  Why?

  Where?

  When would—?

  Who was—?

  Why didn’t—?

  Regan.

  Are you okay?

  I shook away the almost-thought and smiled at my oversized wolf, who looked at me curiously. “I’m fine. Now come on, we have a city to explore. I want to know more about the weird stuff that has been going on around here.”

  Regan had left money on the dresser for me, not a lot, but I didn’t mind. I didn’t really plan on buying anything, but it was nice to know I could if I found something I needed.

  The bar and lobby of the inn was a lot less crowded now, but there were still a few dark elves roaming about that cast strange looks at Cinder and me. I wondered if having him would be more of a burden than anything, but I had promised Regan I would take him, even if I didn’t need him.

  He padded beside me as we strode down the sidewalk, everyone giving us plenty of room. Some of the kids pointed at Cinder. Most of them didn’t know I was a mage, but he pulled a lot of unwanted attention. He seemed happy, though, his tongue hanging out like it always was, and he paused to sniff at everything he deemed interesting. After trying to sniff the fourth child and being screeched at by parents, he stopped trying.

  He must’ve been feeling gloomy because I didn’t hear anything from him for a few hours. I knelt down and rubbed behind his ear and asked, “Would you like to go back to the room?”

  He lay down and looked at me pitifully. You promised Regan….

  “I’ll be back before she even notices. I’ll be okay. I’ll probably be safer without you dragging all this attention to me,” I joked, and he just let out a heavy sigh.

  Alright….

  “Come on.” I stood up and patted my leg. We took the short way back to the hotel. We hadn’t gone far, but we had walked slowly and stopped a lot. It only took about twenty minutes to get back, and Cinder just flopped down miserably on the bed. I felt bad for him. He was a good… cinderwolf. He was young, naïve, and curious. He was misjudged by everyone here. In a lot of ways, Cinder and I were the same. Curious, young, trying to find our way in a world that hated us because they didn’t know us.

  I walked faster and didn’t stop nearly as much, but I had to be back at the hotel in a little less than two hours, so I didn’t go far. People didn’t avoid me, and I thought it was strange that people just thought I was another regular person.

  I was thinking about how I needed to go back and meet Regan when I felt someone bump into me, and I turned to smile and apologize to them, like I always did, but they were walking away quickly, slipping their hand in their jacket pocket. It made me feel uneasy, and my hand drifted to my pocket, just to reassure myself.

  Empty.

  Shit.

  “Hey!” I shouted and started running after the thief, but they just sped up. “Hey!”

  They looked over their shoulder, and I faltered a little. She was beautiful: short blonde hair spiked up every which way and light blue eyes. Her lips twitched into a smirk, and she broke into a run.

  I started running after her, but I wasn’t fast enough. I wouldn’t catch up to her. I knew that Regan would be pissed if I lost the little money we had, but I couldn’t catch up to her. I cou
ld only chase her to a less populated place and, well, work my magic.

  As luck would have it, she took a turn down an alley, and I followed her, already tugging on my leather gloves and pulling at the Life Force surrounding my heart. I pulled a large amount down the pathways and to the palm of my hand and snapped the button shut just before I stretched my hand out, fingers splayed.

  “Stop!” I shouted as I let it loose and closed my eyes, not wanting to see the ground beneath her freeze and watch her slip and fall.

  I heard a thunk and a groan and opened my eyes to see the blonde lying on her back with a dull look in her eyes, silver-blue ice beneath her, almost the color of her eyes. She blinked and struggled to sit up as I ran up to her and held my hand out. “Give it back,” I growled.

  “What the fuck?” she yelled as she reached a hand behind her head and touched it gingerly. When she pulled it away I saw traces of blood, and I felt a chill run through me. She reached into her pocket and tossed the wallet at me. “Take the damn thing,” she snarled and reached back to touch her head again.

  I bit my lip. “Let me help.”

  “I’ve got it, Temple lover.” She glared at me accusingly and pressed the palm of her hand to her head and took a deep breath with her eyes shut tightly.

  I felt a surge of Life Force. I had been around mages all my life. Being around them felt normal, and I didn’t even notice it anymore, but that flash of power I had also experienced every day. It was magic. “You’re a mage,” I gasped.

  “What of it?” She stood up carefully, and I stood up too.

  “You called me Temple lover, and you must have lived there for your entire life. Who are you?” I was shocked. I had never seen her and nobody had left the Temple in years. At least not mine. Maybe she was from one of the other six and moved here later.

  “I never went to that hellhole. My mom raised me here. She cared enough to keep me with her instead of throwing me away,” she sneered. I wasn’t hurt; I knew my parents were scared like most other people were. They couldn’t handle it, and that’s exactly what they had done, just handed me off. I’d made my peace with it years ago.

  “How did you learn magic if nobody could teach you?” This was probably what Regan meant by doing something stupid.

  “My father was a mage. He left the Temple. He didn’t want his kid going somewhere like that.” She seemed uneasy, probably wondering why I was asking so many questions. I had never heard of mages not living in the Temple. I wondered if it were really allowed.

  “You must be close.”

  “They died four years ago.”

  “Oh….” I didn’t say sorry. I don’t think you can say sorry for something like that to someone like this. She would just tell me to not be sorry even if I did say it.

  “You got your wallet, now get out of here,” she mumbled and brushed off her jacket.

  “Wait! I can help you.” It just came out of my mouth before I could stop it.

  “What do you mean?” She eyed me warily, like she didn’t really trust me. I should be the one who didn’t trust her.

  “Your parents died, probably before your father finished teaching you. I can help. I could feel your Life Force waver when you healed yourself; you’re not in full control. I can teach you.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Why would you do that?”

  “We’re mages, and worse yet, we’re out here alone. We need to stick together.” I looked down at my feet and shifted back and forth uneasily.

  “What are the gloves for? You didn’t have them on earlier.” I was right; her father hadn’t taught her everything.

  “They’re like amplifiers for magic. You can focus your magic easier when you have them on. They’re enchanted, of course, but I could make something for you. I learned it a while ago at the Temple. My friend had an earring instead, but he wanted to have a bunch so he could switch them out, so I ended up doing it a lot. I actually helped come up with it, so your father may have never heard of it. Well, they had them, but nobody used them because they didn’t work well. I just found a better way to do it is all.”

  “It can be anything?”

  I nodded. “It makes it easier to channel your magic. You have to be touching it, though, which is why it works better as jewelry or gloves or other things you might wear. I can help you.” She was a mage, but she was an untrained mage. She didn’t know what she needed to know, and she couldn’t control her magic fully. I couldn’t just let her roam around and possibly get herself killed or something because of that. I had to at least try.

  She didn’t say anything for a while; she just looked at my gloves and stood there lost in thought. “I was thirteen when they died. He couldn’t teach me everything.” She bit her lip in a way that seemed like a nervous habit. “Fine. Three days. If it doesn’t work, then that’s it. Anything to get you to leave me alone.”

  I smiled and then remembered that I promised to meet Regan for lunch. I looked down at my watch, and I felt my heart stop. “Shit!”

  She jumped back like I had surprised her. “What?”

  “I have to meet Regan for lunch.” I groaned and rubbed my temples. “I really have to go.”

  “How will I know where to find you for this trial run?” she asked as I started to leave in a hurry.

  I looked over my shoulder and said, “Come with me. You’ll have to meet her anyways.”

  “Who is she?” she asked as she jogged to catch up to me. I wasn’t running, but I was speed walking and keeping an eye out for Regan in case she was looking for me, which she would be. I was half an hour late.

  I thought about how to answer it while I scanned the crowd. “My knight. She was sent with me to protect me on my Proving Journey,” I mumbled.

  “Proving Journey?”

  “The Elders don’t let just any mage leave the Temple. They have to make sure that we have the ability to survive in a dangerous world. We live sheltered lives, and not all of us are cut out for the world out here. A few of us choose to take the Proving Journey when we turn seventeen. The Old Ones give us a mission to complete to prove to the Council that we can fend for ourselves.” I wasn’t really paying attention to the blonde; I was too busy looking for Regan.

  I heard a loud bark, and I ran toward it, not even checking to see if the blonde was following or not. “Cinder!” I shouted, and he barked again. I saw people parting, and I knew that I was getting close.

  I wasn’t ready to get barreled into by a large cinderwolf a few seconds later, and was knocked flat on my ass. “Ow,” I grumbled as he licked my face excitedly.

  “Cinder, back,” a familiar voice said, sounding quite pissed, might I add.

  He backed off, his head lowered as Regan stepped into my view. She glared down at me. “Whatever happened to being early? And Cinder? Did you decide to ignore everything?” She held her hand out to me, and I took it. She yanked me up, and I fell into her. She just wrapped her arms around me tightly and said, “Dammit, I was worried about you. You keep doing this to me, and I keep wondering if you ran off or if you’re getting mugged in a back alley somewhere or worse.”

  “I just want to say, I didn’t mug her, and she attacked me in the alley.” The blonde’s cool voice came from behind me. Regan suddenly let go of me, and I turned around to see those light blue eyes watching Regan and me.

  “Who is this?”

  I realized I didn’t know her name and was about to answer when she spoke. “I’m Cameron. You can call me Cam. And I would be the girl who tried to steal from shorty over there.” I frowned. I wasn’t that short. I was five three. Just because Regan was probably five eight and Cam was about five seven didn’t make me short. I was just surrounded by giants. Then again, I’d always been surrounded by giants. “Don’t worry, though. She’s going to be my teacher instead.” Cam winked at me playfully. I think it was some sort of joke about being her teacher, but I didn’t really get it. Regan looked like she did, though, as mad as she was.

  Regan looked at me with
an angry glare again, and I felt myself shrink. “Case, tell me what happened,” she ordered, and I was not planning on disobeying this time.

  “Well, Cinder was feeling down, so I took him back to the room because he was miserable out here with everyone looking at him with a mixture of fear and hate. When I came back out, I was just walking around when Cam stole our wallet, and I ran after her because that was all we really had, and I didn’t want you to be mad.”

  Regan interrupted by saying, “I’m a little more pissed right now than if you had lost our money.”

  I just continued my story, ignoring what she had said. “So I chased her into this alley and I used some magic and she hit her head and I got the wallet back, but then she healed herself, which means she’s a mage because she’s definitely not a dark elf.” I noticed I was talking loud and fast now, but I thought I heard Cam mumble about how I could take a closer look at her Life Force if I wanted, but I ignored it, still not really getting what she meant. “She isn’t from the Temple,” I whispered excitedly.

  Regan’s gaze shot from me to Cam and narrowed instantly. “Where’s she from?”

  “Here! Her dad taught her what she knows, but he couldn’t finish before he died, and I offered to help her out.” I was practically vibrating with excitement.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Regan said cautiously, watching Cam.

  I felt Cam rest her arm on my shoulder, and I looked at her to see the two of them in the middle of a staring match that could probably kill someone. “Too late, she already promised to help me out. What? Don’t like the idea of her being with someone else? She can handle herself, you know.” Cam had this strange smile on her face, like she was playing a game with Regan. I didn’t understand what was going on at all.

  “That’s not it at all. I’m supposed to protect her from dangerous people, and you seem pretty dangerous.” I noticed Regan’s hand on her gun, and I wondered how long it had been there.