Within the Crystal

by Kat Blak

  Moving my head to the side, I’m able to stretch out my neck muscles. I do a few rotations of my shoulders and I’m ready to go.

  Letting out a deep breath, I bring my head back up. “Ok, what you guys have just watched is me doing my pre-ritual stretches. Each Seer will have her own way of winding down and helping to open their minds. I find by loosening up, it helps me access my power more.” I see none of them are taking notes of my process. They are just staring at me like I have an extra head growing out of my shoulders.

  Running my hands over the crystal ball, I release a tiny bit of power. It’s already going haywire, so I fear if I add much more it will go full on crazy and I won’t get any clear pictures. The orb begins to glow in my hands and starts showing me different types of crystals. How strange. After the glow has begun to dim, the sudden realization of what the crystal ball was trying to show me clicks into place. I stand up from my chair and head over to the table with all the different types of crystals on. Picking up the four different types of crystal that the orb has shown, I walk back towards the table and all the men that are still staring intently at me.

  Holding each crystal in my palm, one after the other, I learn each hum the crystal has before I place one down in front of each guy. Heading back to my seat, I sit down and glance up. Each guy is holding the crystal I gave them and running their fingers over them.

  “Do you know what these crystals are?” I ask, looking around. They all shake their heads.

  “Ok,” I say, looking at the guy sitting to my left with the African Turquoise eyes and black rimmed glasses. “You are holding Nuummite,” I tell him. He nods his head back at me, with eyes the size of saucers. I think he is impressed.

  Moving on to the guy sitting to his left, I say, “You are holding Tektite.” Before turning to the guy next to him, I inform the holder, “you are holding Honey Calcite,” and finally I land on the man sitting to my right. “You are holding Jasper.”

  All the guys are looking at me speechless.

  “If I had to guess from your reactions, those are also your names. Well, nice to meet you all. My name is Alexandrite, but you can call me Alex for short.”

  I release the breath I was holding. Sometimes when reading the crystal ball it's difficult, as it only gives you the images. It's up to the Seer to interpret those images. At the end of the day, we are only human; we make mistakes too. But by the look on their faces, I’m spot on.

  Side note, it’s very strange that they all have names of crystals, just like I do. The Fates can be twisted bitches and I suspect they may have something to do with this.

  Chapter Three

  “So, I know your formal names, but what are your nicknames? I’m assuming you all have one as your given names are a bit of a mouthful.” I ask because most of the stones’ titles are too long and confusing to be used as names. Starting with the guy sitting on my left, as it seems they no longer have the power to talk, I ask him. “So, do I call you Nuummite?”

  “Um, no, my friends call me Nunu. Is this really a stone called Nuummite?” He asks, raising the stone up to his face to inspect it further.

  “Yep, the stone also has its own properties. I want you to hold it in both hands and try to feel the stone. Feel it’s temperature; does it feel hot or cold in the palm of your hand? Try and find its vibrations.” While I talk, Nunu closes his eyes and grasps his stone. I watch his eyelids flutter as his eyes move underneath them. I’m glad he is doing as I asked. I’m hoping the others are just as respectful towards my craft as he is being.

  Looking closely, I give Nunu a once over, and I let my eyes take in the details of his face while his attention is elsewhere. The black rims of his glasses match the natural angular shape of his jaw. He has styled his hair with a sort of side parting and long comb over on top. I’m not that down with men’s hairstyles, but it suits his light brown hair. It looks so soft, making my fingers twitch, wanting to run them through his strands. I bet it would feel like silk. The soft stubble around his jawline looks neatly trimmed, telling me he takes care of his looks. I would put him down as the slightly nerdy one of the group. He has a cuteness to him that almost makes me smile.

  Moving to the next guy, Tektite, I can see that his eyes are already on me. He has a slight smirk resting on his face, I can just see it hiding behind his beard. His brown hair is sticking up in all different directions, either from running his hands through it or its just his regular bed hair. He has a careless look on his face like no shits are given. Judging by the sleeves of tattoos he has on both arms, as well as his nose, lip, and ear piercings, I would guess that his personality matches his given stone. “So, are you called Tektite?” I say, arching up an eyebrow.

  “No, my lady. They call me, Tek,” he responds with bedroom eyes staring straight at me, while lazily running his tongue from his lip piercing, along the length of his bottom lip, moistening it as he goes. I think I may have just seen a glint of metal from a tongue stud too. Wonder what the cold metal would feel like against my hard nipple. He has that bad boy look that is making me clench my legs together.

  “Hmmm,” is the only response I can articulate back to him right now. I can feel he is going to be the cause of much mischief today. Dragging my eyes away from Tek, they are met by bright yellow/orange ones. The owner of these uniquely beautiful eyes seems to be studying me as much as I am him.

  “You’re Calcite...I guess, Cal for short?” I say. This guy is the one that throws me off the most. His face is all angled cheekbones and jawline. He has a face that looks as if it is made out of marble and that could have only been crafted by a God. His eyes look at me like they can see into my soul, but it’s his pillowy lips that have me captured. I can picture those lips kissing soft trails from my ear lobe, past my collar bone and down between my boobs. Each kiss would cause a small shudder and a soft moan. Just looking at him I can tell he would know how to make me scream his name and that thought has tingles running down my back. I’m not even going to mention how badly I need to change my panties after these thoughts.

  “Correct,” he answers, short and sharp. He’s really giving nothing away. It kinda irritates me that he has such a hostile approach. I hate when I think dirty thoughts about someone and they turn out to be a jerk, it ruins the fantasy. I have the sense that he is the leader of this band of misfits. I move my eyes over to the last one.

  “You are Jasper, Jas?” I ask.

  “Wow, three out of four is good! I will give you that,” he answers back.

  Fuck, did I mess one up? Did the crystal lie to me? I start to panic, looking between him and the Mookaite Jasper crystal in his hands. I picked that version of the Jasper stone as it was the one the crystal ball had shown me. I assumed it had shown me that one as it best matched his personality. Even looking at him now I can see he has a slightly cocky, funny sense about him. Wait…is he fucking with me?

  “You’re fucking with me. That is your name, right?” I say holding my ground. He lets out a full belly laugh that strangely causes my breath to catch. He is so happy and carefree, plus the way his face lights up is breathtaking. Between his laughs and wiping his eyes of the tears now running down them, he manages to spit out, “Jasp.”

  “Dude, I was one letter off,” I responded with a humph, I hate to be wrong. “Ok, so now that we are all introduced, we can get started with reading your future and getting your asses out of my shop so I can get on with my day.” I feel like the more time I spend with these guys, the further our lives will become entwined. There is just something in their auras, in their energies that seems to be sucking me in like a magnet. I think once I have a small taste of them, I will be hooked for life. I can see these boys becoming my addiction. but I don't really want them in my future. Don't get me wrong, they are nice to look at, but with guys like these comes craziness. Plus, they are all so different, I don't think I would ever be able to choose between them and dating four guys isn’t exactly the norm. Not that I would be against it though.

 
Reaching out, I pull the crystal ball back in front of me. I like to move it away, so it won't try and show any images to me while I’m not looking. Unless there is some distance between us, my power will still seep in and activate it. Taking one last glance around the table, I release my breath, find my zen, and let the power trickle out of my fingers and into the ball once again. The fog starts swirling straight away, but the images that appear look blurry and disconcerting.

  What the ball is trying to show me just doesn’t make any sense. The images don’t follow any type of pattern. I decide to release more of my power in the hope that the orb gives me something to work with, and sure enough the images start to slow down. I can see me and each guy individually and then together. Sometimes we are doing mundane things, other times our arms and legs are wrapped around each other. Seeing these types of images causes me to rub my thighs together. The visions of us all wrapped up together is kinda hot, but there doesn’t seem to be any location or even a specific timeline. Wow, this is the first time I have seen images with nothing to really go on.

  Once the crystal has looped around all the images, it starts again at the beginning. I can feel my eyes flying over all the different images, trying to pick out any detail I can find. There seems to be some that I missed before. Slowly releasing the hold I have on my power, it feels like something is different with them this morning. It's as if my power has a mind of its own today. Normally we work in perfect harmony, but today it's acting like an unruly child, desperate for control and to do it’s own thing. I will have to speak to mom about this later, it’s like all my power is being drawn into the crystal ball. Almost as if it wants to be inside the ball and mixing with the swirling fog. I was always taught to trust my magic, trust my power, but this is full-on scaring me. It’s never ever happened to me before, I have always had great control over my powers ever since Mom and Grandma started showing me how to use and embrace them. Never have they been this crazy. I can hear the pounding of my heart in my ears. My hands are starting to shake and become really hot where they are resting against the crystal. I need to pull back, but when I try to stem the flow of my power, something seems to be blocking me.

  Before I know what is happening I feel electric bolts travel through my arms and across the rest of my body. I close my eyes, as I don’t want to scare the guys by letting them see the pain I’m currently feeling. Once my eyelids have closed, the images start up on a loop again inside my mind. All the images flashing and the pulsing of my power is too much. I can feel the darkness creeping into my mind and I welcome it with open arms.

  Chapter Four

  “Honey, can you hear me?” I can hear my mom's soft but muffled voice, it sounds miles away, as if I have cotton wool between the ears. Oww. God, I feel like I have been hit on the head by a baseball bat with nails sticking out of it, several times. I don't remember meeting my lady crush Harley Quinn, but I do feel like I’ve been in a ring with her and her best friend, The Bat.

  “Hmmm,” is all the response I can manage right now. Every bit of my body feels extra sensitive. Even the smell of lavender and sage that my mom uses daily seems to be overpowering today, and it’s making me want to sneeze up a storm.

  “Honey, can you open your eyes?” she responds to me in a cooing voice, like she is talking to a child. Cracking open one eye, I see the lights have been dimmed, but everything is still in its place. “There you are,” she says with a smile on her face.

  “Who did you expect to see?” I snark back. I’m feeling a bit tender at the moment. I’m not normally this thorny towards her, but first with her new ‘assignment’, and now this...it’s all just too much. I should have known working with all four guys at once would be too much, but i didn’t want to prolong things.

  “The guys called me and told me you blacked out. What happened, honey?” I think she already knows what happened, if the look on her face is anything to go by, but I’m guessing she wants to hear it from the horse's mouth.

  Trying to sit up, I can feel the hardwood floor beneath my back. Before I even have the chance to struggle, two hands are grabbing mine and helping me to a sitting position. Glancing up, I find myself looking into Nunu’s eyes. His african turquoise eyes are taught with tension as if he is trying to tell me something with his stare. He keeps glancing around the room before bringing his eyes back to meet mine. As I follow his gaze, I glance around and see that I’m sitting in a circle surrounded by their individual crystals, and next to each of their crystals is a lump of Alexandrite. I think my mother and I need to have some words.

  “Ok, I think I’m ready to stand. I can't stay down here all day,” I say with a hint of humor in my voice. Nunu reaches down and places his hands under my armpits and lifts me like I weigh nothing. I'm surrounded by the smell of herbs and incense. The fragrance causes a memory to jolt into the outer recesses of my mind, but it seems just out of reach for me to grasp it. For the life of me, I can't even place the individual smell. Growing up with a mom like mine, who has a love of herbs, I'm normally able to name over a hundred different herbs. But this mixture seems to evade me. I start to wonder why I can’t remember something that feels so important, but my thoughts are dragged away worrying about the current mess I’m in. Once I’m back to a standing position, I glance over at the table and see that the crystal ball is in thousands of tiny little pieces scattered all over it. “Shit on a stick, did I do that?” I say, looking over at my mom for confirmation.

  “I did,” Tek says looking sheepish, while raising his hand. “You slumped over in your chair, your eyes rolled back into your head and you started mumbling something. It was the only thing I could think of.” For someone who looks so badass and like he doesn’t answer to anyone, he is looking rather embarrassed now. He keeps running his hands through his hair, which I can only assume is a nervous gesture. He sounds like he was genuinely worried about me.

  Meeting his eyes to try and convey my gratitude, instead I hear my mother say proudly, “It's ok, Tektite. You did good.” It’s clear from the way she looks at these boys that she likes them, and she knows more than she’s telling. “Anyway, who wants tea?” she asks, looking at each of the guys. The way she is acting you wouldn't think she’d just found her daughter on the floor unconscious. It's not normal for a Seerer to pass out from using too much power, our magic comes from nature and there is always nature around us, from the air we breath to the wooden seats we sit on. Everything stems from nature in some form and so the magic should always be available.

  We can only take that energy, we can’t manipulate it. Not like the Warlocks used to be able to. Grandma would tell me stories about the great Warlocks and the powers they had, before the hunters came and killed them all off. Warlock’s were able to create fire from the ends of their fingertips. They could even manipulate the weather; turning a simple gust of wind into a full-blown tornado, with just the tips of their fingers.

  “I think we should be leaving to head back to the school,” Cal responds while glancing over at the other guys for confirmation. I watch as each of the guys nod their heads in agreement. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve had enough crazy for one day.” The last part of his statement is directed at me. I can tell when he turns his bleak eyes towards me that he wanted to emphasize his use of the word crazy. Damn, the walking wet dream just called me crazy. That hurts. There he goes again, ruining my fantasy by being a dick. In future if he can just stand and look pretty but never actually speak, that would work.

  The tension in the room is now stifling, it seems to have escalated since Cal called me crazy. I hate tension and decide to use my strange sense of humor to defuse it, by trying to joke with the guys.

  “That’s probably wise, you don’t want to be drinking Mom’s tea. She will only try and read your future and possibly the results of your assignments. That way she won't actually have to read them, right Mom?” I say over my shoulder to her with a slight chuckle, trying not to offend her and hoping that she understands my motives
. With a knowing smile on her face, I watch her leave heading for the backroom, where we keep the kettle.

  I can tell I have caught the nerd’s attention when I catch him from the corner of my eye sitting back down at the table. I knew that by saying she would know the results of his assignment just from him drinking the tea, it would pipe his curiosity. Nunu definitely matches his stone; drawing information from the world around him and self-development. I bet his room is full of books and that he thrives on knowledge.

  I have to give it to them, these guys are enthralling. I want to know everything about them, maybe I can read their tea leaves without them seeing. I should try and read my runes… they have never led me wrong yet. I ought to have known something was going on with that crystal when it started acting strange this morning.

  Standing from the table, I walk over to the shelf that holds all my tools for seeing. Running my hand over each one, I feel the slight hum that comes from each object. When I reach the runestone, the humming becomes more of a vibration through my hand. Grabbing the leather brown pouch that contains all the stones, I head back to the table. Stopping dead in my tracks, I can see all eyes on me. Every single guy at the table is staring holes into me. Looks like all thoughts of leaving have been replaced by ones of curiosity. I sit in my seat with my legs crossed over in the lotus position. I know it's not very ladylike, but it's more of a relaxed position and with all the tension the guys are throwing around right now, I need to ooze calm.

  Placing my palms face up on the table, I reopen my mind to the universe. This time I make sure to keep a tight hold on my power. I could do without a repeat of what just happened. Taking my leather bag that holds all of the artifacts, I look over at Nunu, place my hand inside the bag and take out a rune. I sit it on the table in front of me. Next, I make eye contact with Jasper, put my hand back inside the bag and pull out another rune. Once I have four runes in front of me, I think about myself and take one final item out of the bag and place it under the other four. Each rune is a smooth black stone with an etched symbol on it painted with gold. Each symbol represents a letter in the runic alphabet.