Knowledge: The Fifth Division Saga: Book 1

by Kira Stüssy

He spun all of the way around to look at me, surprise lighting up his features, “Beautiful?” He scoffed, “Just wait, soon enough the rumors will reach your innocent ears and you’ll be avoiding me at all costs.”

  “What rumors? I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  “Nothing.” He muttered, “Let’s just get on with the tour.”

  I trailed behind him, back through town, my eyes absorbing every sight they could manage. Once again, I observed the surrounding Elementals and noticed something that warranted disrupting Ash’s grumpy silence.

  “Why are the Knowledges on guys feathered and the ones on girls aren’t?”

  He lifted his hand to his chin wonderingly, “Human girls wear makeup while human boys do not, correct?” I nodded and he continued, “Which genders’ Knowledge do you think to be more beautiful?”

  I glanced at a couple passing by, observing both the woman’s iridescent sky colored wings and the man’s earthy feathers, “The girls.”

  “Now, whose do you find more attractive?”

  I couldn’t stop my eyes from flickering to Ash’s coal colored feathery Knowledge that hovered regally above his shoulders like a dark angel. “Guys.”

  “Right. So women have a more lovely style of Knowledge sort of like how human girls wear makeup: it differentiates the genders. The girls have the more delicate and shimmering butterfly-style Knowledges while the boys receive the more masculine style with the broadness and the feathers.”

  We reached the bridge that led back to the enormous castle doors. He held up the bright purple fruit that he purchased back at the market. “Try this, we call it Sweet Violet. I promise its edible.”

  I hesitantly reached for the fruit, wondering if it was a trick. But something about the way the sunlight glistened in his dark eyes told me he was being earnest. I brought the Sweet Violet to my mouth and inhaled the pleasantly sugary aroma, reminding me of honey and a type of candy I could not quite name. I took a big juicy bite of the wonderful syrupy flavored treat. I pictured the nectar and ambrosia that I always read about when studying Greek myths and figured that Sweet Violets were as close to the food of the gods as you could possibly get.

  “You like it?” Ash’s voice brought me back down to earth, or wherever Nostos was.

  “Now that’s an understatement. This is amazing, it’s so…so…”

  “Sweet?” he chuckled and I rolled my eyes. The look he wore made me squirm awkwardly where I stood, “I thought you might like it, I noticed that you put a lot of syrup on your pancakes this morning and saved your fruit for last. So I figured you liked sweet things.”

  I stared at him, taken completely by surprise, “You were studying my eating habits?”

  “What? Too much?”

  “A little creepy, but it was a nice gesture.”

  He grinned devilishly, “Well, don’t go getting the wrong idea about me now. You mustn’t forget that I am a tricky, mischievous fiend that will stop at nothing to annoy and pester you.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. In my eyes you are still terribly evil. And it doesn’t matter how many delicious fruits you pass my way.”

  I met his fiery gaze with confidence and saw myself reflected back at me in his dark eyes. My heart thumped uncomfortably in my chest in an unfamiliar way. He broke the hold on me by shifting his eyes away and clearing his throat. Suddenly in a hurry, he charged forward to the palace and did not look back.

  Chapter 6

  The rest of the week passed by in a blur of vibrant colors and pure craziness.

  When Ash and I first returned to the palace we immediately encountered Erion and Caspian who had apparently just arrived from a tour of their own. It turned out that Caspian was a water Knowledge, to nobody’s surprise considering his eternal love for the sea and his bright blue-green eyes. His Knowledge shimmered with watery blue feather’s that rippled like disturbed water. He seemed none too concerned about my lack of identifiable Knowledge, saying that in a land full of magic it couldn’t be that weird that something odd occurred. But the looks on Erion and Ash’s faces as he said this to me led me to think otherwise.

  My mom and Bram traveled back to Lincoln City a couple of days after my arrival in Nostos. My mother tried to give another explanation for keeping the secret all those years but I simply could not hear her out. Maybe this makes me immature, but I didn’t care. They left without a word from me, I truly cannot say I regret that decision.

  Every morning, Ash came in with my gourmet breakfast (now with an extra large syrup saucer and additional fruit tray) and chatted about the goings on in Nostos, assuring that it paid off to be up to date, even though he lost me as soon as he mentioned the uneasy peace treaty or how the occasional Shade broke the law and ate a human. From what I heard, Shades were the least pleasant of the Nostosian residents and I made a pact from the first day to try and avoid them.

  Not only did he bring breakfast but lunch and dinner as well. He reminded me constantly that I was welcome to join everyone at the daily palace meals and that Caspian took advantage of this opportunity, but I enjoyed sitting in solitude, listening to Ash talk about Nostos and the current events. It was equivalent to reading a new bedtime story during every meal, full of magic and conflict and intrigue. Only this was real life and I was living it. In between meals I explored the castle, which was so large and vast that I never ran out of places to investigate.

  On Friday morning after breakfast, I prepared to venture down one of the corridors I had not yet explored when a sharp rap sounded from my door. I smoothed down the blue silk dress that I wore and answered, “Yes?”

  Ash’s black hair, followed by his strikingly handsome face, peeped through the crack in the door, “Miss Mirabelle? You have a visitor, shall they be permitted?” A small smile played at his lips, confusing me further.

  “Uh, can I know who…?”

  But I never finished my sentence.

  “Mira! Can you believe this place?” A high-pitched familiar voice bubbled from the opening in the door, spilling childlike excitement into the room. At the first sound of the bell-like voice, my heart leaped with joy and bafflement. I hurried towards the door, not wanting to waste another moment. Ash pushed the door open further, grinning widely now, to reveal a delicate young girl with fierce lavender eyes and long sandy hair that swayed behind her as she bounced up and down.

  “Iris?!”

  She beamed up at me and rushed into my open arms, embracing me tightly and nuzzling her chin into the crook of my neck. I squeezed her back, so full of happiness and shock at the sight of her that words weren’t coming to me. I finally managed to reluctantly release my death grip on her. I had so many questions to ask. How did she get here? Did Bram and my mom know she was here? I opened my mouth to start listing off my inquiries, but she beat me to the punch.

  “You’re a faerie?” She goggled at my Knowledge with round, awestruck eyes. “Mira, you should be playing Tinker Bell!”

  Ash snorted from behind her, “Faerie? Now that’s just plain offensive.”

  Iris now stared over at Ash, his looming black feathers rustling uncomfortably, “Are you an angel?”

  “Why yes I am! How in the world did you know?”

  “Ash, don’t…” I started.

  “It’s okay Miss Mirabelle, she should know the truth. And yes,” he grinned at Iris, winking in that way that would even charm the socks off Hitler, “falling from Heaven really bruised my tailbone.”

  I shot him a dark glare before turning back to my little sister, “We’re called Elementals. You’re one too, you’re just not old enough for your Knowledge yet.” I pinched part of my silky Knowledge in my hand as a gesture.

  “Wow.” She stared at it as if seeing civilization after being stuck in the wilderness for a month.

  “Gorgeous isn’t it?” Ash remarked from his place leaning against the wall. “Not every Knowledge is as pretty as your sister’s, you know.”

  I felt a rush of hot blood flood my cheeks.


  “I believe it,” she breathed and then, totally unfazed by my discomfort, as if without really thinking about it, she said, “she’s the most beautiful girl in the whole world.”

  Ash muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t hear but my heart beat faster under his intense stare.

  Ash left the two of us to catch up, stating that he would be right back. I showed her around my room, displaying my wardrobe and enormous bathroom to her immense enjoyment. She babbled on and on about who did what in her class back home and how all of the girls had been jealous of her part in the school play. I brushed her hair with the comb on my vanity as she fired off question after question concerning Nostos: where it was, who lived here, and did I know any magic.

  “I don’t know. Magical people, I guess. And not yet.” I glanced back at my Knowledge and wondered for about the millionth time what my powers were and why nobody I had encountered could figure out what the indistinct Knowledge meant. I ran my fingers through her hip length hair, marveling at the smoothness of it. I didn’t have to take a peek in the mirror to know that my own mane of bright red hair was a mess of spiral curls and knots. I felt a dull pang of jealousy. “Anything else?”

  A devious smile spread across her face and her lovely eyes took on a mischievous glint, “Who was that boy that brought me here?”

  “Who? Ash? Oh, he’s a…” Friend? Protector? Constant pain in the butt? How could I even begin to explain Ash to Iris when I truly did not know myself?

  “That’s what I thought. He’s cute.” Her tinkling laugh filled the room.

  Before I could even open my mouth to refute her, my door creaked open without a knock and Caspian’s black hair and brilliant aquamarine eyes poked into my room, his expression grim. “Hey Rissy. I thought I might find you two in here.”

  Iris dashed towards Caspian and hugged him, “Yeah, Mira’s friend brought me.”

  Something suddenly clicked in my mind, “Wait, Ash brought you to Nostos? Like, from the human world?”

  She rolled her eyes in clear annoyance, “Duh, I’ve said that like a trillion times.”

  Caspian and I shared a look before returning our attention to our little sister. Ash had brought her to Nostos? Why would he do that? Did he even think to ask my mom and Bram first? Iris gazed up at us in admiration, her large innocent eyes full of love. When I looked back at her, it was difficult to be upset that she was not safe at home or that Ash had brought her here possibly without permission. I decided to worry about these factors later and focus on Iris for now. Iris peered over Caspian’s shoulder, her eyes obviously searching.

  He lifted the shimmering blue-green wings that had been folded down onto his back. Unlike mine, which resembled the wings of a faerie, his looked like they had been taken from a predatory bird, large and much more masculine then I could have ever imagined a Knowledge to be. Not dainty or lovely as many people had commented on mine, but strong and beautiful in its own right. Iris stared with her mouth open and reached to touch his Knowledge.

  “You guys are so cool!”

  I snorted and patted her head while Caspian rolled his shoulders and maneuvered his Knowledge in such a way that they folded in against his back. I distantly thought of Ash and Erion and the way they always kept their Knowledges up for everyone to see. Like they were proud of them. It felt so right to be sitting there with them, like we were back home just hanging out like nothing had changed.

  Only everything had changed.

  I looked at Caspian and sighed. Iris’s head had slumped onto his lap and her breathing steadied, indicating she had fallen asleep. “Cas, why do you think he brought her here?”

  “I dunno. But I don’t trust him.”

  Caspian was right. For whatever reason, Ash brought Iris here from the human world and we had no clue as to why. After the Rezza and Wiley fiasco and the fact that my mother had been keeping a huge secret from me since birth, I wasn’t too keen on trusting people. But there was something in me that hoped I could trust Ash and Erion. They were the ones who broke me out of the farmhouse and Ash had shown me around Nostos. I knew they were still keeping things from me, but at least they had shared some information.

  “Maybe the Council forced him?”

  “I wouldn’t bet on it. I crossed paths with him on my way up, you didn’t see his face.”

  “His face?”

  Caspian was solemn as he spoke, “He looked worried, like really worried.”

  I combed Iris’s hair mechanically, my mind wandering elsewhere, unsure of what this meant. Then again, I wasn’t sure of what anything meant nowadays. Caspian’s blue eyes were steely and distant, so I figured he was doing the same thing I was: trying to figure everything out.

  Another quandary passed through my mind, “Cas, why doesn’t anybody know what I am?”

  “Because you’re a crazy redhead with anger issues? Not many people can handle that, you know.”

  “I’m serious!”

  He sighed and shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know, Mira. This whole thing is so weird. I don’t even know what to think anymore.”

  “I just want to know what’s wrong with me.”

  He reached over and laid his arm across my shoulders comfortingly, “We’ll figure it out. I promise.”

  I wanted to believe him. But I knew he was just as lost in this situation as me. I closed my eyes, my hand still massaging Iris’s thick locks, and drifted off into a blissful sleep.

  Chapter 7

  “What about this one?”

  “No.”

  “Iris, you don’t have to get everything in pink!” Caspian moaned, throwing a blue sundress back down onto the counter.

  “Yes I can! Who are you? The color police?” She shot back and I stifled a laugh.

  The three of us had decided to go shopping the day after she arrived. It was my first time walking through the marketplace without my body guards and I was enjoying every second of it. Iris oohed and awed at everything we saw and her jealousy of our Knowledge’s had reached an extreme level.

  “Besides,” she sassed, “I don’t need those pretty dresses because I don’t have wings! Maybe I should just get a bunch of turtlenecks!”

  I shifted uncomfortably under the stares of a few fellow customers at her word choice of “wings”, clearly a touchy subject. A couple of nervous glances flickered to my unusual Knowledge before they continued on with their shopping. I placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered, “Rissy, you’ll get yours when you’re our age. Now just grab a pink dress so we can move on.” She shot Caspian a look of victory and snatched the pink dress from the table. The seller held out her hand impatiently, her brown earth Knowledge loomed over her shoulders.

  Before we left the castle, we had run into one of the maids, who handed us two brown satchels of strange silver pieces when we told her we were going shopping. She explained the silver was their currency and that the two bags she had given us were gifts from the royal family themselves. We accepted the gift but I couldn’t help but wonder about this ominous family of nobles. We had lived in the palace for eight days and had yet to meet, or even see, them.

  I reached into my brown bag and handed the lady three pieces of silver, glancing at the price sign placed beside the dress. She nodded after a quick inspection and ushered us on, annoyed with our delaying her business. But as we started to walk away, a small notebook placed on the edge of her counter caught my eye. I picked it up and examined the leather cover, decorated with multi-colored flowers and jewels. The blue sapphires and green emeralds glistened in the early sunlight and the intricate embroidery was impeccable. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the design, everything jumbled together. Yet the beauty exuded by it could not be matched. I stared in awe.

  “Pretty,” Caspian said and handed the lady a couple of pieces more from his own bag.

  “You didn’t have to pay for it.” I said, still admiring the notebook as he placed in into my hands.

  “I wanted to.” He nudged me a litt
le and we headed down the cobblestone road, “I know you don’t think anything of it, but you can sing. Maybe you could use it to write songs.”

  I flipped through the blank pages, already composing lyrics in my head.

  *

  Ash crouched low in the dense brush that surrounded the enemy country.

  Erion unsheathed one of his lignum knives and tensed, ready for an attack. Ash mimicked him, clenching the smooth wood of the weapon’s grip to his hands perfectly, like it was made for him. He lifted his head ever so slightly and scanned the perimeter, checking for the black gear that marked Hartrainians.

  In hindsight, Ash wasn’t sure why he had volunteered him and Erion to be the Scouts from now on. It wasn’t an especially time consuming job considering they were only required to Scout Hartrain, the enemy territory, once a week. But the danger level was considerably high. When he told Erion that he had signed them up for the job, his friend had simply stared at him for a second and nodded, consenting to the task.

  That was why they were best friends: Ash did something crazy and or stupid and Erion dealt with it one way or another. Erion was one of the only people, Laurel being the other, that could handle Ash’s impulsive behavior. He realized the stress he placed on those two as being unfair, but there was nothing he could do about it. It was in his nature.

  Ash flashed back to the day before when he had flown to the human world to retrieve Mirabelle’s little sister. It had felt so freeing to spread his Knowledge out wide again, something he had not been able to do in far too long. The sensation of the wind billowing through his feathers had to be the most marvelous feeling he could conceive.

  When he arrived on the wooden entry of the Daily home and informed Mirabelle’s parents that he was required, by order of the Nostosian Courts, to bring Iris back with him, Rain Daily explained her concerns and made it clear that she would not be having her baby taken away. She implored Ash as to whether he had been informed as to why he was sent to retrieve Iris. Of course, the Council had told him nothing. He was a Legion soldier, he did what he was ordered to do, no questions asked. She proceeded to explain her situation and the reasoning for the Court wanting Iris in Nostos. Ash scoffed at first, disbelieving of what she claimed to be true. But when the child emerged from within the depths of the house and he saw her piercing lavender eyes, he understood. He knew why Rain hesitated to permit her child to go with him to the land from which she had been banished. But rules were rules and it was his job to uphold them. He informed the worried mother of this and flinched at the sight of the tears welling up in the corners of her aqua blue eyes. Rain forced him into swearing not to tell Mirabelle or Caspian about Iris’s condition, not yet, and he relented to her wish.