The Seal of Oblivion (10 page)

“You sure you don’t want to come?”
she asked. “Something’s bound to happen at this rate.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“You do know who you’re talking to,
right?” Laqiya asked. “When I say something’s going to happen it does.”

Chasity Pearl sighed, but picked
herself up off the wall and started to follow behind them.

“So where exactly are we going?”
she asked.

“Fossil hunting… outside, in the
dirt, where it’s hot, and there’s no shade!” Sakura grumbled with her arms
crossed, a pout on her face.

“There’s some type of stream and
digging site up ahead on the grounds where we’re supposed to get the feel of
what it’s like to dig up fossils,” Adria said when Chasity Peal raised her
eyebrows. “Roselyn’s one of the most beautiful cities on earth but it really
needs to re-evaluate its educational system. This stuff is third grade.”

“I so second that,” said Sakura as
they followed the guide, Valon, down a dirt path through the forest. As usual
Sakura’s whines and complaints began not long after they started the hike to
the site, and when they got to the site and started to work, she found
something else to complain about.

“I swear I’ll kill the teacher who
suggested this trip. My nails are getting dirty and this digging is hurting my
wrist.”

Finally, Nightshield snapped,
“Would you just shut the hell up?”

Sakura abruptly stopped
complaining, but glared at Nightshield muttering, “So rude!”

Nightshield shrugged, and Isis shook
her head. Laqiya on the other hand kept tilting her head at odd angles as the
tingling feeling persisted, urging her to go to back to the forest. She started
to say something about it, but Sakura chose that moment to throw her tantrum.

“That’s it. I’m tired, hot, wet,
and don’t want to be here. I’m going back to the building,” Sakura exclaimed as
she stood up, walked right past Miss Carmel, and ignored the woman when she
asked where Sakura was going.

“Hmm…” Chasity Pearl said from
where she was lying in the stream. “I wondered when she would get tired of this
and throw a fit. She lasted longer than I bargained.”

Adria laughed tossing her shovel to
the side. Laqiya too put her shovel down. This was pointless.

“Has she always been like this?”
Isis asked Adria.

“She’s gotten better. She was much
worse when we were younger.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much. Once
she matures, she’ll grow out of it,” said Chasity Pearl.

But Nightshield was much more
skeptical as she said, “And you all are the first of the White Rose’s inner
circle…”

 
Isis and Adria looked at Nightshield
indignantly, and Laqiya shrugged her shoulders. She would rather have her best
friends as her trusted confidences than people she couldn’t stand, because when
it came down to it, she was positive Sakura would hold her ground and
persevere. Laqiya wasn’t sure how she knew that, but she did.

“You worry too much Nightshield,”
said Laqiya

“Someone has to,” Nightshield
replied.

Laqiya started to lie in the stream
next to Chasity Pearl, but her senses went off again and this time, she
couldn’t ignore it.

“Alright.
Alright,” she said, finally giving into the demands of her powers, muttering
the excuse that she was going to check on Sakura.

“Should one of us go with her?”
Adria asked starting to go after Laqiya.

Nightshield shook her head. “It’s
okay,” Nightshield said glancing to where Laqiya had gone.

“Not being all protective?” Chasity
Pearl asked.

“I have a sixth sense too you
know,” Nightshield said, tone making clear she wasn’t saying anything else.

Laqiya followed behind Sakura, sure
that she wasn’t too far behind the girl. But the girl was nowhere to be found,
not that she minded since she wasn’t out here to find Sakura, but still… Sakura
didn’t move that fast.

Something rustled in the trees, and
Laqiya saw light streaming from the forest, very strong sunlight perhaps?
Something in the trees rustled again, and Laqiya began to wonder if Sakura had
gotten distracted by something she had seen in the forest. But Sakura was
easily frightened and there was no way she would go investigate something that
may have scared her. More likely she had run away. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt to
check though, Laqiya crossed into the edge of the forest, calling Sakura’s
name.

Laqiya hadn’t gone far, in fact she
couldn’t have gone far, before she shrugged and decided to leave, but found she
wasn’t sure which way to go, especially since it was all of a sudden a little
foggy.

“I know I didn’t go more than ten
feet. There’s no way I’m lost,” Laqiya said to herself. But she was. That much
was apparent after only a few minutes of walking around. Something else that
was apparent was that she wasn’t in a normal forest. More and more she was
getting the nagging feeling that she had crossed through some kind of veil
unknowingly, similar to the one leading to Al-Rana Lake. She should have
brought Nightshield.

Something slithered, and Laqiya
jumped, then tripped over a stump and fell flat on her back.

“Ow,” she said rubbing her head as
she sat up. Then she heard something, like yelling coming from everywhere in
the forest at once.

“Alright,” she muttered. “I know I
didn’t hit my head that hard…”

The distant yelling persisted and
against her better judgment, Laqiya yelled, “Who’s there?”

The yelling came back, but this
time Laqiya was able to make out the word “anyone.”

“Who is it?” Laqiya yelled back.

“I’m lost!”

She wouldn’t be any help if that
was the case, and Laqiya began to say so until the person yelled again. She
knew that voice.

“Sakura?” she yelled.

“Laqiya?”

“Keep talking,” Laqiya said trying
to figure out where the sound was coming from. But Sakura’s voice seemed to be
coming from everywhere.

“Laqi—” Sakura screamed, and Laqiya
ran in the direction it seemed to be coming from the most.

“Sakura where are you?”

Her only response was another
scream, this time much closer and louder. Laqiya ran faster. Blinded by the fog
though, she ran into hanging vines and screamed herself, then again when they
seemed to be touching her. Sakura screamed too, this time in Laqiya’s ear.

“Sakura,” Laqiya said grabbing the
girl’s arms when she untangled herself from the vines.

“Laqiya!”

“What are you doing in here?”
Laqiya asked removing the vines from Sakura.

“I don’t know. I heard something in
the forest. It sounded like something was hurt and…
 
I don’t know,” Sakura whined.

“What happened? Why did you scream
earlier?”

“Something’s alive in here.
Something tried to grab me,” Sakura said with tears in her eyes as she latched
onto Laqiya’s arm. “Laqiya let’s get out of her. Do you know the way out?”

Laqiya shrugged. “I’m just as lost,
but I think we may have accidently crossed a veil.”

“A veil?
Now what?”

Laqiya took a deep breath and then
tried to zone in with her sixth sense. Feeling something, she pointed to her right
and said, “I think something’s that way?”

“Something?”
Sakura asked. “You mean the way out right?”

Laqiya shook her arm loose from
Sakura’s grip and ducked under a branch. Sakura followed. They kept that way
for a while, but then it got darker and foggier, the light from before almost
non-existent.

“Laqiya, I don’t think this is the
way!”

“Neither do
I
,”
Laqiya admitted. “But there’s something this way.”

“Laqiya!”

“Don’t be so scared,” Laqiya said
rolling her eyes. “There’s nothing in here. I would have sensed it.

“We’re lost in some other dimension
because we crossed a veil, and you were supposed to be finding an exit, but got
us more lost instead. Excuse me if I don’t have that much faith in your powers
right now,” Sakura snapped.

Laqiya rounded on Sakura. “Well if
you—
What’s
that?” Laqiya asked looking at something
behind Sakura.

Sakura turned around. “What’s
what?”

Laqiya pointed to an unusual
looking warped tree with vines wrapped all around the trunk and in the
branches. But what made it even more unusual was an odd pattern its bark,
approximately a feet in diameter. The only reason she could see was because the
sun seemed to shine solely on it. She walked towards the tree, despite Sakura
trying to pull her back in silent protest of the idea.

“I’ve seen that before,” Laqiya
said pulling her arm away from Sakura.

Laqiya stopped right in front of
the tree. She recognized the Aramaic characters immediately;
The White Rose
.

“I was right,” Laqiya said moving
her hand across the characters. “Something is-”

Sakura screamed as branches
suddenly sprung to life. Laqiya leapt backwards out of surprise, right into
Sakura.

“I really thing we should leave,”
Sakura whispered as the vines that were wrapped around and in the tree began to
move like snakes.

“I totally agree with you.”

Just as they were about to run,
tree branches lashed at them. Both of them screamed and jumped out the way.

“This is just like that movie about
the boy who goes to school to learn magic,” Sakura yelled in terror.

“You mean—” Laqiya screamed again
as she ducked out the way of one of the branches, movie forgotten.

“Laqiyaaaaaah,” Sakura screamed
trying to make distance between
herself
and the thick
vine that lashed at her. She fell in her effort and one of the branches grabbed
her by the leg, hanging her in the air. Sakura screamed in terror. Laqiya
backed out the reach of the tree trying to find a way to help.

“Sakura!”

“Laqiya,” Sakura screamed as she
pulled herself up to try to
unwrap
the branch wrapped
around her leg. She let go and fell again to avoid a branch slapping her.

“Laqiya!”

“Hold on!”

“I am!”

Sakura screamed trying to knock
vines away from the nearby brush that was now joining the attack.

Laqiya ducked tree branches and
crawled under the vines. Maybe is she touched the characters again she could
stop this attack. Something pulled on her leg and she looked back. The root she
climbed over had grabbed her. Another in front of her cuffed her hands
together. She screamed as it pulled her up and the vines started to lash at
her.

“Laqiya”

“Sakura watch that vine,” Laqiya
yelled as one went for the older girl’s heart like a dagger.

Sakura screamed louder and the vine
hit an invisible barrier.

“You control nature. Use your
powers!”

“Control wouldn’t exactly be the word,”
Laqiya yelled and used her free leg to knock away a large rock that the roots
had disturbed.

Sakura screamed as the tree let her
go and she fell into the vines below her. They began to wrap around her body.

“Sakura,” Laqiya yelled pulling
hard against the vines wrapped around her wrist, determination setting in. They
snapped, and she reached down to grab hold of the vines restraining Sakura. She
had to let go with one hand when one tried to wrap around her neck.

In her effort to move her head out
the way, she caught a figure out the corner of her eye. Someone was
manipulating the vines.

“Stop this!” Laqiya yelled at the
person. “You’re going to kill her!”

He ignored her and in that moment,
Laqiya saw red.

“Darn it, I said stop it!” she
screamed as fire literally rose out the ground around them.

The tree caught fire and spread to
the rest of the branches and vines. The vines released her and Sakura, both of
whom wasted no time running from the blaze. Laqiya turned to the man who
appeared to be ready to spring the tree back to life despite the blaze.

Laqiya picked up a long broken vine
and yelled, “Earth.”

A vine lashed out and wrapped
itself around the person’s neck. Laqiya pulled on it tightly.

“What are you doing?” she yelled.

“Mind telling us why you tried to
kill us!” Sakura added angrily.

He only choked, and it was then
Laqiya realized she still had the vine wrapped around his neck in a death grip.
She released her hold, and he collapsed. Laqiya and Sakura ran to him.

“Hey,” Sakura said as they held the
man up. “It’s the guide. What’s his name? Valon! I think you killed him.”

“He’s not dead,” Laqiya said but
checked to make sure anyway.

“Why do you think he tried to kill
us?”

Laqiya shook her head. “I don’t
think he was trying to kill us. I think he may have been guarding something and
whatever it was I sensed it.”

“The tree,” Sakura said turning the
burnt remains.

Laqiya got up and began to dig
through the burnt bark and ash, finding the remains of the twisted trunk
underneath. She untwisted it and began to break away the branches and saw a
flash of something shiny within it.

“Sakura.
I
found something,” Laqiya said as she worked to remove and break the wood.

Sakura came to kneel next to her.

“What is it?”

“It’s… It’s… Oh wow,” Laqiya said
as she held the now free item in her hands.

“It’s the second staff piece,”
Sakura breathed.

Laqiya twirled it a little between
her fingers and judged its weight. It was just like the first piece except
there were no roots extending from the bottom and around halfway to the top
were two round pointed gold leaves on either side.

“He wasn’t trying to kill us. He
was trying to protect the staff piece,” Laqiya said to Sakura.

“As my entire family has done so for
centuries,” Valon said regaining conscious and approaching them from behind.