Magic Born (10 page)

“
Y
ours is
the strongest talisman I’ve seen yet. Have you been able to unlock much of its power?” Sadie asked before she took a bite of salad.

After Casper’s tour of the Armory, we’d met up with Sadie and Mikael in a dining room that matched the decor of the living area I’d been confined to. Analise had decided to continue working instead of joining us, and I couldn’t say her absence disappointed me. Casper and I sat across from the siblings at a table that could comfortably sit eight.

“Not intentionally or with any control.” I chose to continue eating rather than elaborate. The white fish and risotto tasted just as good as everything else I’d eaten here. The salad wasn’t bad either. Casper must have a chef on staff.

“Meglana placed defensive charms on the stone. So far, that’s the bulk of the magic she’s experienced except for the spell from the game, which she’s become somewhat proficient in.” Casper expanded on my answer, giving me more credit for the frost spell than was warranted. He conveniently left out that I’d accidentally shot someone with it.

“Given the way it’s reacted so far when I’ve been threatened, I don’t understand how my mother could have been killed.”

“My guess is she was cursed,” Sadie said. “It’s the only thing that explains it. It would’ve been a slow death, and she got away to increase the talisman’s defenses before dying and passed it on to the shifter who brought it to you. I’d love to know how your mother found it, the history behind it. Once you’re able to take it off, I’d like to study it.”

“Sadie, don’t be offensive,” Mikael said.

She hadn’t offended me at all, but according to Mikael's tone, he was offended enough for both of us.

“I wasn’t offended.”

“As I knew you wouldn’t be.” Sadie shot a look of irritation at her brother, an indication of the kind of sibling squabbling that was universal.

“That’s only because you don’t know enough to be offended, my dear. What Sadie suggested is very offensive. You never talk about removing a mage’s talisman, not unless you’re a filthy sorcerer that is. Make a suggestion like that to Analise and you’d quickly find yourself on your back or worse. She won’t even tolerate jokes about being separated from her wand.”

My ears perked at that. “Wand?”

Mikael smiled at my obvious interest. “We’re wand-wielders.”

He reached into his left sleeve and pulled out a wand with his right hand. It was small, no longer than his forearm. It looked similar to a thick twig, worn smooth from use.

“Most mages use wands. They’re made from enchanted wood that we get from the fae.”

“The fae? Is everything in the game real?” I directed my question to Casper. As if wands weren’t cool enough, I find out that another mythical species actually existed.

“No. It’s safe to say that Elustria inspired the game, but it’s not a replica. There are many magical species in Elustria, and some of them are presented in the game, though not accurately. The fae in Elustria are much different than the ones in the game. You can read about them in the library.”

“So if I went to Elustria, could I get a wand?” My fingers fidgeted in front of me, eager to reach out and touch the wand that lay on the table. Only the recent discussion of how offensive that could be restrained me.

“You could,” Sadie said, “though I don’t know why you would want or need one other than as a learning tool in the beginning. That talisman acts like a wand, and I dare say you could spend your entire life studying it and not plumb the depths of its power.”

“Yeah, this magic thing doesn’t seem suited to me. I think I’m too old.” I took a bite of fish and tried not to think about how cool it would have been to be raised with magic.

“That’s nonsense. We’ve trained mages older than you before. No one’s ever too old to learn magic.” Sadie smiled at me in what I’m sure was meant to be an encouraging way, but I didn’t think she realized just how bad my attempts had been so far.

The Illuminator that floated above Sadie's head drifted down to eye level. Then it grew to the size of a grapefruit and Analise's face appeared.

“I have a possible hit on a sorcerer. You might want to come check it out. Bring me some food while you’re at it.” Analise didn’t wait for a response. Her face disappeared and the orb shrank back to the size of a marble and resumed its place above Sadie's head.

“Guess somebody’s cranky and lonely.” The smile vanished from Sadie's face in favor of an irritated scowl.

“You better go, I don’t want to have to deal with her later,” Mikael said.

“Oh, but I get to deal with her?”

“You know she’s having a tough time right now. It wouldn’t kill you to be a little understanding.”

“But I suppose it would kill you.”

“Exactly. Or, more accurately, she’d kill me.”

That put Sadie's affable smile back on her face, and she stood to leave. “It was great meeting you, Kat. I look forward to talking with you more.”

Even her change in demeanor couldn’t mask the tension in the air. I had the distinct feeling that I was the cause of Analise's sour mood.

Once Sadie left, Casper tried to assuage my fears. “Don’t worry about it. Analise is very devoted to the cause, more than most. She admired your mother greatly, and the news of her death hit her hard. I think meeting you has brought up a lot of feelings for her.”

Even though he didn’t say so, something about the way he danced around his words led me to believe that meeting me was actually a disappointment. The great mage Meglana had produced a child who was more girl than woman and couldn’t so much as remove her own talisman. I decided not to worry about it. I could simply avoid Analise altogether.

“So, Casper’s mentioned you want to learn more about Elustria. I can help you there. My area of expertise is history. I usually focus on the history of travel between our two worlds, but I’d be happy to answer any questions you have,” Mikael said.

“How many different kinds of magical creatures are there in Elustria?” Since discovering that
Wizards and Fae
struck a passing resemblance to reality, I wanted to know just how much of it was true.

“How many different species are there on Earth?” Mikael's expression lit with the glee of someone who delighted in educating another.

In my mind, I’d always assumed that there were just mages and sorcerers. But now he put it like that, the idea of life in Elustria being exactly like Earth except for humans who could do magic seemed ludicrous.

“That’s a fair point. How different is it there than here? Are there other human-type races?”

“You’ll find that things in Elustria are quite similar, just different. There is a new trend I’ve seen among some human entertainment—I believe it’s called steampunk? Elustria is similar to that in look and feel. As far as technology goes, we haven’t advanced as far as the humans on Earth have, largely because we haven’t needed to. Everyone in Elustria has some form of magic. There are fae and elves. Then there are hybrids such as shifters or centaurs and merpeople. None of these groups individually have much need for advanced technology. We trade amongst each other. For instance, the mages and fae have a close relationship because of our use of their wood in our wands.”

“I gather there’s tension between mages and sorcerers, but do the different species in Elustria live together?” I liked the idea of walking down the street and seeing an elf or a centaur.

“That’s a complicated question,” Casper said.

“Yes, and it always has been. We go through phases in Elustria. In general, you’ll find that our species like to stick together. There has been mixing between sorcerers and mages, and that’s led to some problems.”

“Yes, sorcerers can’t mind their own business and let us tend to ourselves. They hate that we have blood running through our veins instead of pure magic as they do, and yet we’ve managed to rival their mastery of magic through sheer hard work.” Casper spoke with passionate disdain I hadn’t heard from him before. He and my mother were the people sorcerers hated. And now that I was a mage, I supposed they hated me too.

“I don’t understand how anyone could kill another person. I certainly can’t make sense of a sorcerer killing someone simply for trying to learn more. That’s what happened, isn’t it? That’s as much as I’ve gathered from what I’ve been told.”

Mikael looked to Casper to answer my question. Clearly, it was more complicated than my simplistic view of things.

“Sorcerers are elitist snobs who have tried to deny us our birthright for too long. There was no good reason to kill your mother. She left you her talisman because she wanted you to continue her work, otherwise she would’ve had it brought here. She wanted you to lay claim to your birthright.”

My hand curled around the amber stone on my chest. The necklace was so much more than an heirloom: it was a legacy. The grave expression on Casper’s face elevated it to the level of a mantle, one I felt ill-equipped to bear. More than ever I wanted to take the thing off, to give it to Analise or Sadie or Casper, anyone who could advance my mother’s work, ensure that her death wasn’t in vain. Yet deep down, I wanted to be her daughter. I wanted to be part of something. Maybe this was the reason I had never found my place after my parents died. Maybe subconsciously I knew my path lay not just somewhere else, but in a completely different world.

“I think that’s enough for tonight,” Casper said, breaking into my thoughts. “I need to go check on whatever it is the girls are tracking. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Now that Alex is gone, we can enlist the help of Sadie, Analise, and Mikael in figuring out how to remove the talisman.”

“I’m happy to help in any way I can.” Mikael accompanied us to the teleportation ring and stood aside for me and Casper to go first.

As I stepped out of the circle in the living area, Casper disappeared to the tracking room. Ever since leaving the library earlier, I hadn’t thought of Alex once, not until Casper mentioned him. I had made the right choice; this was where I needed to be. But I couldn’t help wishing Alex could be with me.

When I entered my room, my eye went to my phone sitting screen-side up on the table. I couldn’t resist checking it, just in case there was a message from him. Instead of a message from Alex, all that waited for me was a missed-call notification from Bethany, a girl I had barely known in a life a million miles away from here. She probably wanted notes from the international relations class we shared. I didn’t want to think about school and the life that I’d felt unsuited for.

I swiped the missed-call notification off the screen, not fully appreciating how my two worlds were about to clash.

T
he mystery
of the magically-appearing food needed to be solved. Buttery croissants, fruit, and yogurt were waiting for me when I woke.

My phone rang as I stuffed another spoonful of yogurt in my mouth. The display showed Bethany’s number, so I sent the call to voicemail. I couldn’t talk to anyone right now, not without running the risk of saying something I shouldn’t. Less than a minute later, a voicemail notification appeared. If she did want notes from me, I should find out so I could at least text her to get them from someone else. I grabbed a croissant then put the phone on speaker and pressed play.

“Kat, where are you? I’ve been calling and haven’t gotten an answer. Some guy named Marcus came looking for you. He acted like he knew you, but he clearly doesn’t, and the guy just creeped me out. I went by your apartment, but I didn’t see your car. I hope you’re okay. If you want me to, I can call the cops the next time he comes around. Let me know.”

The croissant fell from my hands. Any appetite I had fled as my stomach turned to stone. Up until now, the man hunting me—and I’d always assumed it was a man; I don’t know why—had been a nebulous thought, a concept more than an actual person. The thought that he had found my friends, or friend, sickened me. My problems were spreading themselves to the people around me. I didn’t know if this Marcus would leave it at questioning, but I wasn’t inclined to think the best of someone who had murdered my mother.

Casper needed to know about this new development. He would know what to do. He would also be better equipped to predict what this Marcus character would do next. But before I could find Casper, I had to respond to Bethany. Nothing about this situation was fair for her, but I certainly couldn’t leave her waiting for a response, worrying about me when I was as safe as I could possibly be. Talking on the phone with her would be impossible in my state of mind. She might be able to read something in my voice, tell how scared I was, or I might do something stupid and tell her more than I should. A simple text message would do the trick.

Should I put that there’s nothing to worry about? It seemed people only actually used that phrase when there was something to worry about. I decided not to.

I didn’t relish the thought of Marcus having my phone number, but I’d rather have him calling me than hounding my friends.

The phone rang the moment I set it back on the table. I glanced at the display and saw a number I didn’t recognize. My heart sank. I wanted to believe that this was Alex, but I still had his number programmed in from the last phone he had used. A chill ran through me, and I knew that Marcus already had my number. I could do nothing but stare at the phone, its display asking me to accept or decline the call. The harsh trill of the digital ringer sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet room.

It stopped, and I held my breath, waiting to see if he’d done what I thought. The pleasant
bing-bong
of a new-voicemail notification sounded, and I pressed the play button.

“Hello, Kat Thomas. I’ve been looking for you. I see you’ve enlisted the help of a shifter, just like your mother. You can’t hide forever. I will find you. It’ll be better for everyone if you just agree to meet me. It doesn’t have to be like it was with your mother. I just need to talk to you, that’s all. You can reach me at this number. That shifter friend of yours already got hurt attacking my orb. No one else needs to get hurt, including you.”

A click signaled the end of the voicemail, and I ran to the bathroom. Buttery croissant, fruit, and yogurt all came up as my stomach convulsed. The force of my heaves crushed my ribs as I threw up until nothing remained but the burn in my throat.

After I rinsed my mouth and threw some cold water on my face for good measure, I picked up the little marble on the side table that Casper had said was a communication orb. I hadn’t yet seen anyone initiate a call with one, so I held it in my palm and whispered, “Casper.”

“Yes?” Casper was looking off to the side. When his eyes focused through the orb onto me, he said, “You’re paler than the snow outside. What’s wrong?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“I’ll be right there.” I nodded and set down the orb. A few seconds later, Casper strode into the room and sat next to me on the bed. He placed a hand on my knee, which under normal circumstances would have made me uncomfortable, but in my current state, the physical touch grounded me.

“I checked my phone this morning, and I had a message from a friend. She said some guy named Marcus was asking around about me.” At the name Marcus, Casper stiffened. “She was worried because I haven’t been answering my phone, and she came by the apartment, and I wasn’t there. I didn’t want her to get worried and call the police or anything, but I also didn’t want to talk to her and risk saying too much, so I sent her a text telling her everything was fine.” I decided to leave out the part about telling her to give Marcus my phone number. It seemed inconsequential now. “But as soon as I finished sending the text message, I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize. He left a voicemail, this Marcus guy.” In my head, I could hear Marcus’s smug voice, and my stomach turned.

“May I listen to the message?” Casper asked.

I nodded, and he grabbed the phone from the table. The ease with which this assassin had found me, had invaded my home, and now called me, shattered my sense of safety. My phone was an extension of me, and he had called it just as if he were a friend. I couldn’t fight back, and even if I wanted to give him the necklace, I couldn’t. All I could do was rely on Casper’s protection. I didn’t even have Alex anymore.

“You’re going to be all right. Marcus can’t find you here. I promise.”

I heard what Casper said, but his words didn’t register; they didn’t feel right. I would never truly be safe until I could take care of myself.

“When I said his name, it seemed like you knew who he was.” I turned to Casper in time to see a flicker of something more than recognition pass across his expression. He hated this man.

“I know him by reputation. I had suspected he’d been the one to kill your mother, but to have it confirmed gives a bit of closure.”

For years I’d escaped into a world of make-believe that Casper created. I had battled pretend monsters and formed relationships with people I’d never met in real life. Meanwhile, that world had been real for Casper, for my mother, for an entire race of people I belonged to and didn’t even know. The danger that hunted me wasn’t pretend. If I removed the necklace and handed it over, that danger would not go away. At the most, I could hope that it would no longer be targeting me. That provided little satisfaction after meeting Sadie, Mikael, and Analise. Their parents had been killed just like my mother had, but instead of trying to keep themselves safe, they fought on in the work they believed in. I may not have been raised by my mother, but she had done what she could to pass that belief onto me in the form of a talisman. She had protected me by making sure that I couldn’t be targeted while she was alive. And now that I was the target, she’d also given me the power to defend myself, but maybe that power was meant to be used for more than a defense. That was what my mother would have wanted.

“I want you to teach me magic.” Conviction steadied my voice, overriding the fear and turmoil in my gut. “I don’t just want to learn how to get the necklace off. I want to learn how to use it. And I want to learn what my mother was working on. If it was important enough for her to die for, it’s important enough for me to learn. I don’t want to rely on your protection. I want to be able to stand on my own two feet.” I waited for Casper to tell me how silly I was for thinking I could follow in my mother’s footsteps.

“It would be an honor to teach Meglana’s daughter magic. Go shower and eat something, and then we’ll get started. There’s a lot to learn, but I have every confidence you’ll honor your mother’s memory.”

I hoped so. More than my own life depended on it.