Movements
“Okay,” Wanda began, dragging the last syllable out slowly. “Run that by me again?”
“It was because of the Covenant of the Ancients,” Vincent repeated patiently.
“Right, of course,” Wanda murmured. She waved a hand at the clothing in front of her. “And that’s why I have to dress up like Lizzie-freaking-Bennet?”
“Oh, quit moaning,” Jasper sharply said, adjusting his belt. “Just be thankful men aren’t wearing codpieces.”
Wanda shuddered at the image her brother’s words conjured in her head.
After two days of wrangling, the siblings managed to browbeat Nikolai into letting them out of their confinement in Prime Andra’s residence. Another day was consumed with Eden, Vincent and Nikolai taking the siblings through the many differences between Zared and the Prime Plane—or home, Wanda thought to herself.
Although not obvious from where they’re situated, Wanda soon learned—through a viewing crystal Eden had appropriated from the Prime—that what she had thought was just a remote country manor in the woods was much more than met the eye.
Vincent had finished his part of the briefing, and handed the next part over to Eden. Wanda swallowed the instinctive dislike welling up inside of her as the lithe blonde glided towards them. She was still coming to terms with the fact that Eden had now twice bested her; one, during the initial talk in the Prime’s office when she easily overpowered Wanda physically and the other time two days ago when it became apparent that not only was Eden a formidable spellcaster, she was also well-versed in hand-to-hand combat.
Looking back philosophically, Wanda allowed that the first instance didn’t count as the witch admitted to having augmented her strength magically. The second time however, Wanda ruefully admitted to herself—she wasn’t willing to voice it out loud, not yet anyway—that she was overly confident, allowing Eden to outsmart her during their mock combat. Wanda resolved that twice is the limit. The next time they tangled she vowed she will maintain the upper hand. Her quick mind was already replaying the mock fight they had, clinically assessing the blond’s strength—her longer reach due to her height, and any opportunities she could exploit in the future.
As she was ruminating on her fight, she couldn’t help but harken back on the miraculous rescue that Nikolai and Eden had effected while they were trapped in the burning barn.
* * * *
She barely remembered the harrowing rescue Eden and Nikolai had engineered when they were trapped in the burning barn. Her spurious shielding of the massive fireball had blocked their view of the continued salvoes from the other spellweavers. The barn had acquired extensive damage from their magical assault, pieces had started crumbling and were falling all around them. With the fiery wreath of flames surrounding them they didn’t see a beam breaking loose and fall towards them until at the last minute. Only instincts made her look up and reflexively shot out her right hand towards the beam plummeting towards them.
She could still remember feeling a small tingle along her limbs as her heretofore unknown powers reactivated and batted the falling beam away from them. However, in her haste and panic her shield against the raging magical inferno wavered and started shrinking around her and Jasper. She grasped wildly around in her head, trying desperately to once more expand the shield she had unconsciously formed but to no avail. Inch by inch, the flames started moving closer towards them. She could almost feel the flames against her skin—could almost imagine her skin blistering from the searing heat …
She was about to break into a scream of impotent rage when a hazy film started enveloping her, leaving her immaterial and translucent, bit by bit. It started out in little bits and patches, from her tips of her shoes, then slowly moving upwards her body. She turned towards Jasper.
“What’s going on!?!” she screamed in panic.
Her brother was being enveloped as well by the hazy mist, except that he appeared to be ‘eaten’ by it—but there was no expression of pain on his face. He looked at her, their dark eyes locking on each other.
“Don’t fight it,” he warned. “It’s a form of teleportation.”
She looked down and almost keeled over in shock when she saw the hazy film had slowly enacted a similar effect on her person. Her legs looked as if it had been cut out at the knees.
“Oh my God,” she breathed out faintly, “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Try not to puke on me…” was all she heard from Jasper before he disappeared completely.
* * * *
She drew her wandering thoughts back into the room where she and Japer were cloistered with Nikolai, Eden and Vincent. In a space of two days she could feel herself growing more and more displaced. She couldn’t shake the sense of unreality taking hold off her. A brief glance at Jasper showed that her brother was intently absorbing the deluge of information Eden was imparting to them.
Wanda tuned the blonde out.
If the information from the three natives—of a world called Zared, as they called it—were to be believed, then almost everything she had thought was purely fantasy was in actuality truth. Or at least, a bastardized version of it; like a message that was passed verbally through so many people it was hardly recognizable from the original once it reached the terminus.
Eden, Nikolai and Vincent had no reason to lie to them. And even if she were an inveterate sceptic and were to use her knowledge of modern science and technology to rationalise and explain away the incredible happenings of the past month, it still wouldn’t stand against the fact that her brother had demonstrated his paranormal abilities beyond any doubt. And what would such elaborate hoax have benefited anyone?
Magic. Elves. Faeries. Demons. She stopped before she could send herself into hysteria and refocused her attention to what Eden was saying.
She had taken an instant dislike to the witch. Perhaps it was her aloof demeanour. Or perhaps despite her humanlike appearance, and Eden had explained beyond any doubt she is far from being one—and not without some relish, Wanda opined unkindly to herself. The witch was more alien than both Nikolai and Vincent combined. She sensed that Eden was wrapping up her brief and immediately pasted a querying look on her face.
“Sorry, I spaced out at the last bit,” she hedged. “Could you run through the last two points again?”
She allotted herself the small perverse pleasure at being rewarded with a frown forming on the witch’s flawless brow. She saw Jasper glancing at her sharply.
“Don’t bother,” he waved away at Eden. “I have an idea.” Jasper grasped his sister’s hands in his and focused hard. “Don’t raise your shield,” he said.
Wanda concentrated on keeping her mind open to her brother, even as she felt a slight trepidation at Jasper’s unexplained exercise. There was a sharp intake of breath from Jasper and then a quick burst of images flashed in her head. Myriad images of places, buildings and faces swimming in her mind, slowly being absorbed into her consciousness.
“Interesting,” Nikolai commented. He had activated his telepathy, and had caught a quick glimpse of the images Jasper had funnelled into his sister’s mind. “How did you figure out that method?” he asked the empath.
“I’m a librarian, remember?” Jasper reminded him. “Figuring out easy knowledge transfer and usable knowledge base is something I do for a living.”
Nikolai looked at him askance.
Jasper rolled his eyes at the unspoken comment. “I read sensations and emotions, right?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m not a telepath, we’ve already established that. You have to consciously activate your power.”
“That follows,” Vincent agreed, joining in. He motioned Jasper to continue.
“I’m an empath,” Jasper reiterated. “I’m always scanning passively. So I lifted yours, Eden’s and Vincent’s surface thoughts and funnelled them into images she could absorb and understand.”
“Like show-and-tell, condensed version?” Wanda hazarded. “It’s a nifty trick, I think I want to see a rakasta for real!”
The mention of the race of cat-like humanoids brought Nikolai to attention. He looked at the fiery brunette. “So you understand now?”
Wanda shrugged. “Cliff’s Notes version?” she archly commented. “Mirror world, bordering ours. Stuck in what seems to be a close approximation of Regency era. Science is a thing of the past. The dominant force is magic. There’s elves, pixies and God-knows-what. You, Vincent and Andra are mentalists, Eden’s a spellweaver—making all four of you Ilmari, or greater faerie as some call it.” She paused in the midst of her recitation. “How am I doing so far?”
Nikolai smiled slightly in spite of himself. He found himself liking Jasper’s sister and her snappy banter. “There’s more to it actually, but if you’re simplifying, it’s more or less accurate.”
“You forgot the pointy ears,” Jasper tossed in cheekily.
“That brings an interesting point, if you’ll forgive the pun,” Wanda continued her brother’s line of thought. “I thought feys are supposed to have pointy ears?”
Her comment brought a short guffaw from Vincent. His outburst earned a dirty look from Eden.
“Laughs aside,” Nikolai said, after having threw a placating look at the witch. “What you know now as folklore, or fairy tales are misrepresentations of facts.” He paused. “After all, sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.”
“Ingenious,” Jasper commented. He continued, “So, are you telling us that those misrepresentations were in part done from your end?”
Nikolai didn’t answer, but Jasper could practically sense waves of satisfied smugness rolling from the telepath.
Wanda rolled her eyes. “Of course,” she murmured. She stood up and made a waving motion at her outfit. The long, gored skirt, along with the blouse with its bell-like sleeves and a whalebone stomacher didn’t look all that bad, Jasper mused but he chalked it up to some unknown female sense of aesthetics that made for Wanda’s cranky reaction. “Do I have to dress like this? I mean, seriously? What if I need to go to the toilet?” She paused and a look of horror crossed her face. “Oh God!” she exclaimed. “You do have running water, don’t you?”
Jasper’s head swivelled towards Vincent. “Do we?” he asked. “I mean, does Zared have running water?”
Eden sniffed, her disdain markedly obvious at Wanda’s and Jasper’s query. “Why is it that they always ask about creature comforts first?” she wondered out loud.
“It helps with setting expectations?” Wanda retorted. “So, does this place have proper toilet facilities?” She winced, remembering the opulent setting of the Prime’s well-appointed home. “I meant, in general of course.”
“It depends on where you are,” Vincent answered, by way of clarifying her concern. “Huge city centres, capital cities and large city-states should have workable facilities such as what you mentioned. Rural areas, well …” he left it hanging.
“Well, that answers it,” Jasper quipped. “Stock up on toilet paper, Wanda.”
Wanda stuck her tongue out at him.
“While this all very entertaining,” Jasper continued, after returning his sisters action with one of his own. “Where exactly are we? In terms of geography, people, and et cetera, et cetera.”
“You’re on the Arboreal Islands.” Nikolai answered.
“Ooh, that’s a catchy name!” Wanda enthused.
Nikolai smiled slightly at her interruption. Jasper noted the slight warmth in the blond giant’s eyes whenever he glanced at her and made a mental note to observe future developments between the two.
“It is somewhat new in terms of formation as a nation,” Nikolai continued. “Currently ruled jointly by Queen Maya and Queen Ellspeth, who happen to be first cousins.”
“Sister queens running the same country?” Jasper mused aloud with a small grin. “Queens Maya and Ellspeth, huh? That sounds familiar.”
“Eh?” Nikolai interjected, annoyed at having his narrative interrupted.
“Never mind,” Jasper waved off his look. “It’s not really relevant right now.” He didn’t feel that they need a verbal treatise on the history of English monarchy at the moment, nor would it be germane to this particular discussion. “Continue,” he motioned to Nikolai.
“Right,” Nikolai returned to his brief. “The main religion here in the Islands is Shaktamar.”
“Shaktamar?” Wanda interrupted. “What religion is that?”
“They worship Shakti,” Nikolai answered shortly.
“Shakti? That sounds … Indian.” Wanda quizzed, her forehead wrinkling. “Not that I’m biased or anything,” she quickly averred.
Vincent snickered, drawing glares from both Eden and Nikolai.
“Do you mind?” Nikolai shot hotly at him.
“Not at all,” Vincent answered flippantly. “Maybe it’s better to take them out and let them see for themselves?”
“It would help, in a way,” Eden agreed, albeit grudgingly. “There’s only so much a verbal brief could achieve.”
“We can take them out for a short walk around the city,” Vincent suggested. “And since you’re a telepath, you can fill the blanks in so to speak.”
Nikolai mulled it over; weighing the validity of the suggestion against the potential mishaps that could or might occur should they perform such an undertaking. He admitted that Vincent’s idea is a good one. His only concern is bringing an empath of Jasper’s power outside, where all manner of unwanted or undesirable outcomes could happen.
“There’s nothing for it, I guess,” he allowed finally. “We’ll try Vincent’s way for now.”
Wanda was jubilant in her reaction. “Nice!” she crowed. Then she peered demurely at the blond giant as she fingered the fabric of the skirt she was wearing. “Do you think you could score me something else to wear besides this?”
“I suppose we could scrounge up a pair of trousers for you,” Nikolai relented. He muttered under his breath, “God help me from liberated females.”
It was obvious that Wanda caught his mumbled gripe, as she glared daggers at him. “I beg your pardon?” she began hotly.
“Ah, maybe I’ll just go and get those trousers for you,” Nikolai stammered out, beating a hasty retreat.
“Yes, that would be a good idea,” Eden murmured, her lips twisted in her amusement at the exchange between the two.
Nikolai scuttled out of the room, if it is possible for someone with his six-feet-four frame to do so.
“And then an outing we shall go!” Vincent added in lamely.
“Fun,” Eden replied glumly.
“Oh brother,” Wanda gusted out. “Is it just me,” she griped to no one in particular, “Or is he being a chauvinist pig?”
“Maybe it’s just you,” Vincent answered, his eyes filled with mirth. “You tend to bring out the jerk in all of us.”
His reply elicited a snort from Wanda. She glanced at Eden. That glance spoke volumes. “Really?” she asked sardonically. “You don’t say.”
Eden did not rise to the bait, endeavouring instead to convey it in a freezing stare.
“Enough,” Jasper snapped, cutting in before things escalated into a catfight. “Let’s just wait for Nikki to return, shall we?”
* * * *
The man drew his wandering thoughts back in and glanced at the two hooded figures seated nearby. Both of them had paid close attention to the massive scrying crystal in front of them.
“What do you think?” he asked.
The person closest to him—female he could now see—flicked back the hood hiding her face. Her sharp angular features, almond shaped eyes, statuesque built and delicately pointed ears marked her as an elf. “It is exactly as we’ve surmised,” she said softly. “They’ve brought in an outsider.”
“Next course of action?” he asked.
“We eliminate him,” she answered flatly. Her soft voice was at odds with the cold simplicity of her answer.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” he asked. “A mentalist of his power could easily tip the scales in our favour.”
“He is not a mentalist,” the elf insisted, her voice still toneless. “He’s human,” she further qualified her reply. There was an underlying sense of distaste that he could vaguely detect in her flat tone.
Her companion decided to break his silence finally. His voice was guttural, jarring in the echoing silence of the chamber.
“It is as Avana has said,” he agreed. “We eliminate him. End of discussion.”
