by Oxford, Rain
“Edward? You really enjoy this?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low-pitched.
“Yes.” His voice was too calm to argue with. After a few more minutes, I fell to the side with my legs still crossed. Edward didn’t respond so I tried again to focus.
I realized that I could feel something around me, like air, but not. It felt new, and also familiar. I couldn’t compare it to anything I knew because it was like nothing else. This was a sense in itself, a sixth sense; it wouldn’t fit into any of my others.
I sat up, stuck my feet back into the water, and imagined again that it was fish pee. As I did, I made sure to focus my mind both on that energy and keeping the water off my skin.
I wanted it to keep the water off me. That was its job; to do what it was told. And then my feet were dry. I pulled them out quickly and examined them. I wasn’t just imagining it; the energy had done as I wanted it to. I looked at Edward, who didn’t seem surprised at all. I felt sudden joy at my success a second before a large amount of water burst out of the middle of the springs to form a ten foot wave in the air. Then it came down and soaked Edward and me.
“Did I do that?”
“Yes,” Edward said with irritation.
“Sorry. How come I can huff and puff and barely move water, but when I don’t try, I blow something up? I didn’t want to do that, or imagine it.”
“You allow your mind to gather energy, but you don’t know how to let it out. When you don’t think of it, you’re not controlling it, so it responds to your emotions wildly. People can’t just take in any amount of energy. Your mind and body has to be able to handle the energy you take in. You can kill yourself by trying to use too much magic. However, gradually, you can become very powerful. Your natural threshold for how much power you can take in is very high, you just need to learn to control it. Of course, how powerful you are also depends on how magic reacts to you and how well you are able to control it.”
“Divina said that I would be more powerful if I signed other books.”
“Every book you sign gives you a little bit of its power. It makes you able to handle more energy, but it doesn’t make you automatically able to control it. When you became a Guardian of your book, your threshold grew greatly. You then signed my book and became slightly more powerful. I can’t stress enough how much you need to gain control of your emotions before we go to Anoshii. I told you that they don’t tolerate magic there; they won’t let you slide on by with it. I worry you will not be able to control your magic if Divina comes with us.”
“How does she know about Vretial and the books?”
“She has the tendency to be in the right place at the right time to overhear everything. She also has a knack for tricking men into telling her anything she wants to know. That, and she’s very smart. When Guardians visit, she always senses it and comes over. Her territory is not far from mine. Divina has signed four books that I know of. She’s very good at staying out of danger and covering her tracks, and she always has an escape plan.” I looked at his bag, wanting to look up her signature that I knew would be as beautiful as her voice. “She has not signed the book for Earth or Duran.”
“If she doesn’t write her name in your book, how does she get back here when she travels to the other worlds?”
“She doesn’t travel. Signing the other books is part of her escape plan, and as far as I know, she only signed them for emergencies. If she ever needs a quick escape, she has four worlds to choose from. Divina isn’t her real name, either; it was a nickname she acquired. Most wizards who are extremely powerful, or exceptionally arrogant, will take a nickname to protect themselves from magic.”
“It sounds like she fits into both categories. You don’t have a nickname?” I asked.
“I do. My name is Kirosado, but I give the name Kiro. I have gone by Kiro for so long that it would have the same power as my original name. However, I am a Guardian, so I am too powerful to be controlled by my name.”
“Do I need a nickname?”
“That is a very low priority right now. You need to learn Sudo and how to become a functioning Guardian. More importantly, you need to worry about holding yourself together in front of Divina. You may not have any information she wants, but she obviously wants something from you.”
I had a few suggestions for her. “Was she serious about giving me a kiss?” I asked foolishly. Edward sighed. I stuck my feet back into the water, no longer imagining it as fish pee.
“Yes, she is serious. Ever since she kissed an apprentice of mine and he blew up a building full of rotten snervs, she believes every one of my apprentices need of a kiss of luck. She’ll not give up until she does. Try not to pass out when it happens.”
What the Hell is a snerv? “It’s best to get it over with.”
He laughed. “Get it out of your head? It won’t be that simple. She can be very addictive.” That wasn’t hard to believe. “We should go back now. Tibbit’s probably home and will want to get inside.”
“Whenever Dorian came home, he always wanted food,” I said.
“Tibbit hunts for himself, which is good because he eats only live food, and a lot of it. I assume you’ll need more food today.”
“Yeah, humans do normally eat more than one meal a day.”
“Well, we have enough. Later, you can learn how to preserve meat.”
“Sounds lovely,” I said dryly. I heard of those people on homesteads who had to hunt and preserve food, and had outhouses. I never thought I’d be one. Of course, I never thought I’d be a wizard, either.
Chapter 4
The last thing I expected when Edward and I emerged from the forest and saw the cabin was to be ambushed. A huge black bird swooped down as if to attack, but when Edward raised his arm, he landed on it. Tibbit was a raven; in every way, a normal Earth raven. And he stared at me like Edward wasn’t even there.
“What?” Edward asked me when he saw my horror.
“That’s your housemate? You sleep around that thing? You’re not terrified it will eat your eyes while you sleep? Or that it will turn into an evil man who will spread a disease that causes a war? Or eat your eyes while you sleep? Or taunt you about your long lost loves. Or eat your eyes while you sleep? Pick, pick, pick…”
Edward’s eyes were wide. “What kind of birds do they have on your world?”
“We have Tibbits. Tibbits that eat eyes out of your sockets while you sleep. We’re going to need to have a movie night.”
“I don’t think I would enjoy that type of movie. You know, you’re a little paranoid.” He turned and took the black bird of death inside.
I followed cautiously as Edward poured himself a drink. When he put the clay-like bottle in a cabinet, I saw several other carafes. I couldn’t imagine how that cabinet supported the weight. The crow perched on the back of the reading chair, which gave the entire cabin a more mystical atmosphere. The more closely I scrutinized the jars and books, the more I realized it screamed “old wizard in the woods.”
“If you want anything to drink, there is water, tea, and juice. Help yourself whenever, just let me know if you empty one and don’t touch this one,” he said, pointing to a particular carafe, identical to the others. “This is a juice from milwyd berries. They are a good source of antioxidants and very gentle on weak stomachs, but you threw them up and your fever increased when I gave them to you. Other than soup, there was really nothing I could get you to keep down.”
It occurred to me for the first time that Edward had worked really hard to take care of me. He was probably worried and doing everything he could to keep me alive for two days. Hell, my mother never even took care of me when I was hurt.
I wanted to thank him, but it felt awkward to do so. Instead, I focused on Tibbit, who was staring at me intently… with death in his beady black eyes.
“He’s just trying to freak you out. He’s curious about you,” Edward said, moving to sit in the red chair beneath his pet, who paid him no mind. I went to sit on the stool acro
ss the room. “Tibbit isn’t usually friendly to visitors, except for Divina. Everyone loves her; including the animals. Tibbit’s an interesting and intelligent companion. He listens when you talk and sometimes there’s no doubt that he understands.”
“Do you ever get bored here, alone?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I get the occasional friendly visit from a neighboring wizard who wants to trade ideas. Divina comes whenever she feels like it, which might be every few months to every few days. Once every few decades or so, I might go visit another Guardian to see what they have been up to. I’ve lived for a long time and spent most of it alone. It has gotten to the point that I hate being around many people. I don’t usually wish for company, but I also don’t usually turn down the occasional visit.”
“Do you think you’ll get sick of my company?”
“I never get tired of the company of an apprentice or child. And you? Do you think you’ll get ‘sick’ of my company?”
I looked down at his drink. “I have the habit of getting frustrated with authority figures. I don’t like them. Mother treated me with very little respect, gave me a lot of responsibility, and gave me very little opportunity.”
“The line between responsibility and opportunity is very thin.”
“Mother had a knack for not crossing it. Also, I’ve had three horrible stepfathers. Two were drunks, two were druggies, and all were abusive. The on-again, off-again stepbrother liked to torture smaller things, such as little brothers. Oh, and the dreaded boarding-school teachers. Talk about false hope. Trade Mother in for fifteen better-than-everyone-else governesses on power-trips and a school full of stuck-up bullies. No matter where I went, or how old I got, or how far I got, it seemed almost everyone thought they were better than me and could push me around.”
“I can see how that would be very irritating.”
“Have you ever had that problem?”
Edward smirked. “I’m older by far than the oldest person on your world and the oldest person on my world put together, and I still meet people who think they’re bigger and badder than me. I never had parents, though; Ronez and I lost our parents at birth. We grew up on Duran and were separated when we were old enough to become Guardians. It took thirty years before we learned to travel and were able to reunite.” He shrugged again, clearly trying to shake the emotion that made his voice grow quiet.
“Were you two identical twins?” I asked cautiously. Even though I didn’t want to upset him, I wanted to hear about Ronez, my predecessor. I inherited his book, his responsibility. I felt like I should at least try to live up to his name, especially when his brother had to teach me from scratch.
“Yes. We were very close. At times, at least.” He tried to keep his face neutral, but failed. “About three years ago, we got in a bad fight. He left and I never saw him again. When he was killed, I didn’t understand at first. I felt his death, but didn’t know what I was feeling. Of course, the gods already knew of it and I was furious they didn’t tell me when it happened. I shouldn’t have been so shocked.” There was resentment in his tone. “I kind of always felt that the gods were running the game and I was their disposable pawn. Anything I do is for them and they don’t even have to tell me when my brother has been murdered. I asked to hunt down his book myself, and at least they granted me that.”
“Are you alright?” I asked. He was fighting anger and pain. He closed his eyes, breathed, and drank down the rest of his drink.
I wasn’t good with emotional people, especially emotional men, but I did know when someone needed to talk, and I knew there was nothing wrong with that. It was the feedback I had trouble with. Since I was getting a degree in psychology, a lot of my friends expected me to offer them sound advice. In reality, I loved psychology, but I didn’t want a job in it. Me, trying to help others get their lives straight after my screwed up childhood? Talk about the blind leading the blind.
He opened his eyes and gave me a neutral expression, almost a sad grin. “Yes. I’m fine,” he answered. I was surprised by his sudden change in tone. He stood up and set his cup on the table. It was clear that the conversation was over.
“What are we going to do now?”
“I’ll go put the firewood away. You should practice what you learned today.”
“You want me to go down to the haunted lake by myself?”
“It’s important that you practice the lessons you learn without me there to affect your concentration. And I thought you might want to take a bath,” he said.
I blinked and looked down at myself. “I’m not that bad.”
“I came very close to throwing you into the springs at least twenty times. I’m very sensitive to odors,” he insisted. “Besides, you’re not going to impress Divina much if you stink.” Seeing his point, I huffed and went over to the trap door. I tried to lift it, but ended up on my knees. Edward came up beside me, pushed my hand away, and lifted it with no trouble at all. I tried to ignore his smug grin. “Again; you’ll get used to the gravity.”
I went down the stairs, stopped in front of the dresser beside my bed, and opened it to find my last outfit folded neatly in the first drawer. After gathering the green t-shirt and blue jeans, I climbed clumsily back up to the empty cabin. Edward had moved very quietly out the door and was already gathering wood. Tibbit was perched inside his cage with his door wide open and, not to my surprise, he gave me his death stare.
I hurried out, not eager to have my eyes melted. Edward didn’t pay any attention as I started off into the forest. However, when I almost instantly tripped over a rattle weed, I saw him smirk. I stood up, annoyed, and stomped off, only to fall again four steps later.
It got easier to walk soon and my trail of blood thinned. After passing the same tree with dark orange bark for the third time, I changed directions and soon came across the springs. The waters were very calm and, without insects, very quiet. I set my clean clothes on a rock by the water and peeled the bandage off of my arm. There were definite teeth marks, but they looked months old, with ugly scabs instead of welling blood. I could see where each cat sunk their teeth, as well as other scratches where they didn’t have a deep grip, but at least it wasn’t bleeding out and it didn’t look infected. For the fact that they were only a few days old, that was pretty amazing.
Next, I stripped my sweaty, bloody clothes off and realized they did stink quite badly, to the point I considered burning them before getting into the water. I had nothing to burn them with, though. On the other hand…
I sat down a few feet in front of my clothes and concentrated on the energy. I imagined it like a cloud around me that I could push into the clothes with my mind. Trying to envision the energy in the clothes becoming hot only made me dizzy. I started to recall memories of fire and pushed more energy into the clothes, only to become very nauseous and when I felt a sickening heat growing in my chest, I immediately stopped. The heat faded within a few minutes but the dizziness took longer to subside.
I didn’t think the best thing to do when I was very dizzy was get in a large body of hot water, so I waited for a while. The air had become slightly cool, which was more comfortable, and the sun was low enough in the sky that I no longer had to worry about getting sunburned. It was a very good chance to think about everything that had happened to me.
Pretty soon, I wasn’t nauseous anymore, so I got in the springs, carefully testing my footing.
The water was very hot, and though it stung the scrapes all over my legs, arms, and palms, it felt great on my sore muscles. In most places, the water level reached my shoulders, but there were spots that were deeper or shallower. The bed of the springs was made up of smooth pebbles. I rubbed the dirt out of my scratches, but then realized they would get dirt in them again. With a plan in mind, I grabbed my filthy clothes and scrubbed at them until they smelled more like the water than myself, then rung them out and set them on rocks to dry.
When I was laying out my shirt, I saw someone from the corner of my eye. I turned to disc
over a girl watching me, sitting crisscross on a very large, flat rock about six feet away. Luckily I was still in the water. She was seven or eight and wore a white, lacy nightgown. Her hair was long, white-blond, with very light blue highlights that went well with her very dark blue eyes. Her skin was inhumanly white and seemed to sparkle slightly in the sunlight. She frowned with curiosity, but didn’t seem to see me; it was more like she was deep in thought. I was frozen for at least a minute; neither of us moved at all.
Then she gazed up at something far behind me and out of reflex, I followed her gaze. There was only forest. I looked back at her and she was gone. There’d been no noise nor movement, but she was not there. She’d disappeared. Or perhaps she was never there at all. “Maybe I’m going crazy from lack of air pollution,” I said aloud. “I’ve got the ‘talking to myself’ thing down.”
I stayed as long as I dared without knowing when or how quickly the sun would set. I would never have been able to find my way back in the dark, and I didn’t know if Edward would come to find me or make me learn to fend for myself. I decided he would search for me; I would make a lousy Guardian if I got lost and went delirious on my first day. I have to hold out at least until my second day at my new home before I start doing things like talking to myself and hallucinating little girls. Hallucinating people who sparkle… in a haunted springs.
I quickly got out and dressed in my clean clothes. Then I wrapped my dirty clothes, now dry, around my legs and injured arm. It was uncomfortable, but I really didn’t want to get cut up anymore and the padding would help. Then I started off through the forest. Despite my determination not to get lost, the sun was very low by the time I found myself back at the house. Edward wasn’t in sight and I was glad of it; I was a mess and didn’t want him to know I had such trouble. I took off the dirty clothes and walked up onto the porch, then stopped. I didn’t know whether to knock, go in, or both. I stood there for five minutes trying to decide what I should do when Edward opened the door, looking somewhere between amused and annoyed.