The Magician's Home

by R Corona

  The words energy and power were used interchangeably in the House and mostly they were used to describe Dez and his abilities. Because Dez had frozen himself in a dimension different from where my parents had been taken to, the task of bringing them back was greatly ambitious, even for Dez; especially for Dez. The man had been asleep for half a century or who knows how many years. How was he to know of the present world? What connections would he have, other than the House? Would he still have possession of his so called powers? The return of my parents gravely depended on the state of Dez' abilities after his awakening.

  There was much about his life which interested me. Why Dez had frozen himself, continued to be a mystery, as was the reason why the members appeared to be so attached to him. I feared that none of them truly knew him. They did not understand why or how he disappeared from the House. Yet his return to the House was enough to keep them breathing, knowing that one day, no matter how far into the future, Dez will once again command the House.

  “What made you believe that I would be the one to bring Dez back?” Dez had known that the combined energy of the members was not enough to bring him back to the House. He was sure I, would one day, join the members.

  “Aside from the fact that you need Dez to help your parents? Well, June, Dez has many friends outside the House and they get things done. He is able to, briefly, communicate with those whom he chooses.”

  “You mean like Granny? She had everything to do with me moving here…moving to town and to the House. Are you friends?”

  “No, but Dez knew her very well.” Ms. Baynes explained. “Rose, was also a resident of Fexorrous.”

  “–Are we there yet?” I changed the topic, eager to exit the darkness of the Hall.

  “Almost there, be patient, June.”

  “I’m doing my best, except we’re walking in total darkness. Are you sure we’re going the right way? The walls feel so far apart, it’s impossible to balance on them.”

  “That’s because there are no walls. I’ve walked by here many times. It takes time and energy for one to master this room, but it is possible.”

  “No walls? What kind of hall is this?” Carefully, my feet moved to the sound of the keys jiggling around the Housekeeper's neck.

  “It does not belong to a kind,” she responded. “But many kinds are in this hall. You see, June, this hall leads to places of different kinds, of all kinds. That’s why we must be cautious. You don’t want to end up where you don’t belong.” The dangling stopped. “–Oh, here we are.” Ms. Baynes stood to the side, letting me walk in front to take in the view of the room.

  Slowly, the light glided into my eyes. There was an open area in the center; silver staircases ran on both sides; purple carpets covered the middle portions. The ground was soft, accommodating my footsteps as I walked. The floor looked similar to a checkers board. A golden, colossal chandelier adorned the middle of the ruby-red, fluffy ceiling. Columns stood on the far side of the room, each incrusted with deep-green emeralds. Exposed halls were visible from the bottom, where I stood. There was a series of upside-down doors along the sidewalls. The room was glorious and full of life.

  “You must pick a room, all the members have one. Here is where you will sleep, on this side of the House.” Ms. Baynes pulled up her orange dress and placed her foot on one of the silvery steps. “What are you waiting for, dear? C’mon.”

  Once we had made it to the second level, she lightly grabbed me by the arm and said, “Any door that’s not taken can be yours. Through the door you will find a safe place, one that can contain your energy. The place can be altered as you wish, once inside you’ll understand what I mean.”

  “All the members sleep in there, why are they upside down?” The doors had the focus of my attention.

  “Not sure,” Ms. Baynes admitted, “They are similar to any other room, however the architecture is different. Still, I'm uncertain as to why Dez decided to twist them downwards.”

  “So can I just pick any door? How do I know which one is taken?”

  “The door will pick you, it will sense your energy. But, June…” she paused. “There are things you must know first.” The Housekeeper walked in front, murmuring.

  “–Ms. Baynes, these are beautiful.” The dark wood glistened as we moved past them. Dez was a brilliant craftsman, an artist. He had created a habitat for his kind by embellishing every detail of his House. Still, startled by the sparkling wood, I remained behind, caressing it. Its warmth conducted steam through my skin.

  “June?” Ms. Baynes looked back. “Why have you done that?” Her voice rose and the air turned crispy when a hint of panic oozed through her stare. “Before touching any door there are a series of steps that must be followed.” The Housekeeper's hand covered her mouth to hide the horror in her face, “Oh dear.”

  A ticklish feeling took hold of the palm of my hand. I pulled it back away from the door, but it was stuck. A second attempt at freeing my hand resulted in a magnetic pull. “What is happening to me?”

  “The door will suck all the energy out of your body and store it inside.” After her words, shocks were delivered to my hand, they were short and sharp, penetrating the skin like glass fragments.

  “Make it stop. Please.” Begging was of no use. The Housekeeper was not willing to help. She had lured me here to be killed. They would steal my energy!

  “It will hurt, June. Like nothing you’ve ever felt before. Your body will lose you, it will die.”

  “Help me!” My voice broke out, in between breaths. The pressure became heavier and heavier. A revolting feeling took over my brain. I summoned what was left of my strength and pulled once more in desperation. This time, my balance was lost and the free hand fell on the door. Seeing the way my body had been trapped, the Door became a monster, a demon. Determined, I kicked it repeatedly until it shivered and rocked but it wouldn't budge. Then, in a cry, I understood.

  “June, stop fighting it!” She spoke from a distance. Her expressions were hard to decipher, but by the tone of her voice I assumed she pitied me.

  “How can you let this happen to me? Do something, please. I’m begging.” The pain intensified. Electricity exploded through my fingers. Instantly both my hands began to turn purple. The dark color spread quickly, reaching the top of my arms in seconds.

  “There’s nothing to be done now.”

  “Someone, someone please. Help! ” My screams were not enough. No one would save me. The electrifying ache in my hands had evolved into numbness but the sensation of life being drawn out of me, remained. Powerless, I closed my eyes in a struggle to escape the House, to be free and feel the rough wind of the Plains flow through my hair.

  The House was stronger than any of us. We couldn’t escape, all of us were trapped in. For a moment, it granted me the wish to dream as my hair was being caressed. However, it wasn’t the wind. To my horror, two metallic, skinny creatures stood by my side. The identical creatures were as thin as a piece of thread, almost invisible. Light reflected brightly off their bodies.

  “Ms. Baynes?” I called, hoping she was still around witnessing my misery. “What, what are those…those things?” A silent moment passed and I feared she had left me alone, to die. Death had never scared me before, at the moment it was terrifying. Its cold face approached and I wouldn't look at it. There was much needed to be done, and many things left unaccomplished. The world would never know that June Corpelle existed, that I had lived a life…that I, somehow, mattered. So it was my decision to turn my face away from her. She wouldn’t take me, not now, not until the purpose of my life had been validated. “Ms. Baynes, Ms. Baynes! Did you leave? Why did you leave me?” Not that it would make a difference if she had because Ms. Baynes wasn’t going to help me. She and the members must have known this would happen. Their betrayal didn’t hurt as much as this, nothing could. These people did not care about me, they had no compassion. They were all monsters. What could be expected from strangers whom pretended to be my friends?


  “Strings of light,” her voice answered. “They are energy transporters. The strings will carry your”—Ms. Baynes cleared her throat— “lifeless body into the room and then try to infuse it with the energy collected. First they have to rid you of the energy left.”

  The Housekeeper had mentioned death before, but lifeless? Lifeless was different. Without a life, empty. “No, but, no. I cannot die,” My voice was soft, weak. It had given up; unrecognizable and distant. In my mind, I could push the strings away with my hands. “Aunt Marcelle and Leev…” Why was my body giving into the pain? This was how weak I was, a mere human able to surrender all rights to life, because of pain. Weakness, weakness was now the only thing making up what remained of me. But not even weakness would keep me from living, not until my life was worthy of death. My life had to be remembered; a legacy to be revered. In my time of dying it was these selfish and disgusting thoughts which disturbed my soul. How dared I think my life was finer than another’s?

  “June, your body will die. I said it before, there’s nothing to be done now. Without energy there is no life and what’s left in you isn’t enough to support you. This is what must be done, for the House, for Dez and for your parents. Once the energy is returned to your body the House will receive you again. But the body must be dead or else energy cannot flow into it. The process will be, relatively, quick.”

  The middle portion of the strings began to split. A yellow beak-looking thing stretched out from the opening. The beak unwrapped and a five-petal, red flower bloomed. The five moist petals, which looked like tentacles touched my skin, causing my body to shake uncontrollably. The force wore me down until my eyes finally closed.

  ***

  A sweet humming stimulated my senses. A woman sat on a chair close to the bed where my body rested. “Goodness, oh goodness you’re awake!” Quickly, she stood up and sat next to me on the bed. “Thank the heavens!”

  “Is it over. Am I alive…with energy, or whatever?”

  “Alive yes, but you need to recuperate, honey. We thought you wouldn’t make it.”

  “Why wouldn’t I make it? Haven’t you guys done this kind of procedure before? Was there a problem with the strings?”

  “No, June, but it’s been a month since you entered the room.”

  “A month? I’ve been asleep for a month?” A whole month gone by! Ms. Baynes had said it would only take seconds, what had gone wrong?

  “For starters, let me remind you that, honey, you weren’t asleep, you were dead. When the strings carried your body in, the energy inside overheated not only the room, but the entire House. Our barrier had to expand greatly because of the energy imbalance. Once the energy equalized, the strings slowly infused your body with life.”

  “How is all of this possible, Netania?” The House and Dez and the energy, it was all too much. I couldn’t believe that all of this was real. I wished I were dreaming, maybe even dead; yes, dead. Being dead proved to be a little addictive, it left behind a comfortably, sweet taste. Why should I have to deal with this, why couldn’t I have the privilege of being normal. I had never chosen to be a hero and I didn’t want to be one. It was easy to drop everyone’s problems on me and to name me their savior. Only you can do it, not just for your parents but for us, the members, and our world too. How about for the whole universe while I’m at it, or for existence itself? Then my life would mean something. Something? My mind had changed as it often did, a happy, simple life was my desire now. Why should my life mean something? Something was overrated anyways.

  “June, calm down. This has never happened before but it is only because your energy is precious and potent. The House only needed to adjust to it.” She grabbed my hands, “everything is fine now, the plan to bring back Dez can safely continue.”

  Fine? Had she no concern for my life? The House and its members had murdered me! If the strings hadn’t been able to re-energize me, my life would have been a petty casualty. They had never been honest with me, barely explaining how the House worked, or who they were, or even how in the world I was going to help Dez come back. They only kept me in the loop because they needed me. The bunch of them were manipulators, stuffed with greed, reckless and without care for anyone but Dez.

  “All of the members, myself included, have been in this position. Our bodies were laid lifeless just like yours was. The only difference is that we did it willingly and would gladly do it again because what is at stake is bigger than any of us. A lost life is nothing compared to the sacrifice of others.”

  “But Netania it isn't just a life lost, it is my life. To me, life is everything I have; otherwise I have nothing because without it I am nothing”—obviously, if you’re not alive you’re dead— “All I had was on the line, all I could sacrifice. So please do not speak as if I did not help.” Maybe I, too, would have given my energy willingly had I known why it was needed. Anyways, the House would have taken it from me, so there was no use in refusing.

  “Yet you do not understand. The members did not sacrifice anything because we had faith in the power of the House and knew it could sustain us. Our lives weren’t lost and neither was yours and because of the fusion formed with the House we too have gained greater abilities.” She smiled slyly.

  “What does that mean?” It was undeniable that the House and its members were different. They weren’t from this town, or country. Sure, they weren’t even from this planet because they had all been residents of Fexorrous at some point, else why the interest in saving that pesky, summer-destroying land. By modern standards the members and the House shouldn’t be real. They weren’t even part of fictional, modern society; witches, wizards or shape shifters. Well, in truth, I had never asked, so my aunt and the others, could be vampires for all I knew. But they were real; they had to be because I had become one of them.

  “For now that mustn’t worry you, because you and the rest of us have greater concerns.”

  “There’s more?”

  “You should know that Marcelle and Leev came a couple of times to visit while you were in bed, of course they could not enter your door because you were very delicate back then.” It was funny how an adventure could cost so much. This one had cost me an old life. Even if none of it had been real, as it had been a life of deception, it was a happy life. I was a blissful ignorant back then. Not much had changed, for I was still living a life of ignorance, however, misery now ruled my mind. So quickly, I had traded my old life, without thinking twice, just to see the House, feel its walls, to live in it. It was my prison now. The three of us would never be the same again, never to be happy together.

  “When will I be able to see them?” The moments before I had asked that question were cherished forever. From then on, as Netania spoke, the world changed drastically as every word was uttered.

  “Last week, June—” Netania’s face hardened and her eyes glistened as she looked away. The sweetness of her voice had been saturated with melted agony. “Last week your cousin Leev was taken.” She lowered her head and became silent.

  Leev had been taken! Who had taken her, why? “How was that possible? Aunt Marcelle’s house was protected, that’s why I came here, so that their barrier wouldn’t disintegrate. Was it the Patrol? Who took her? Why Leev? Answer Me!” But my questions were empty questions because I knew.

  “The Prymm Patrol of Fexorrous took her. Marcelle said Leev was trying to leave the city. Rose and your cousin had an argument and Leev packed her belongings and left with a friend from work. After hours of tracking her down, Marcelle and Rose found Leev in the process of her being drained.”

  It wasn’t like Leev to leave on her own, to run away, to abandon her mother, to abandon me. “We’ll find her, right? Just like we’ll find my parents. Dez will go through that dimension place thingy and find my cousin. He will, he will! Right, Netania, he will? He'll find Leev!” Trembled hands positioned to the side of my head tried to disguise the fear in my glance.

  “Yes, everything that is within his power he will do. But you mu
st understand that most of your cousin’s energy was drained before she was taken. It’s a new practice which they use to keep their prisoners compliant. Your grandmother saw the change of color in the energy flow as Leev’s body was discarded. The change in color only comes through when last drops of energy are close to extraction.”

  “What does that mean?” The world had become a blur, “Netania, just tell me.”

  “Leev probably deteriorated quickly after her capture, odds are she is…dead.” She is my cousin she cannot be dead. She was gone, but not dead, not dead. Not Leev, no. Why was this happening to my family, what had we done to deserve this? “June, stop moving like that. Sit down.”

  “Tell me, why this is happening, all of it.” Netania walked behind me trying to explain. “She can’t be.” Leev had been a sister to me, trying to protect me always and I was blind, so blind, not to see she was the one needing my protection. I had failed. What would I do without her? I had no one left now. I was so alone.

  “The Royal House has been trying to collect as many of our kind as possible. Our family is part of a special kind, powerful energy runs within us. Energy that can be harnessed and converted into power, magic, potions, spells. We are Carriers. For a long time our kind ruled the land, while some thrived others perished, as it is the norm. When our government was overthrown we were banished and everything about us was deemed sinister. Some of us fled but those who couldn’t were hunted down and destroyed. It is rumored that the most powerful ones are kept as slaves for Seb Creat.” Netania had sat on the bed, I watched her while still pressed against a corner in the gray room.