Stone Cold NV: World of Sin, Book 1

by J. A. X. Mikesell

  While she did that I focused on my own bundle. Maybe I won’t throw it. She always tries to show me up. It’s my turn to be first. She’s so rotten about it.

  “Ew, Az! Stop already.” Cory exclaimed, covering her nose. I looked at my bundle and saw that it had rehydrated and promptly decomposed, emitting a foul odor.

  Gagging, I dropped the bundle and fanned the air, trying to get rid of the smell.

  “What the hell, Az? Are you trying to sabotage me from getting this spell?” Cory raged as she still pinched her nose shut.

  Still gagging, I flipped her off while mom and dad were wiping their eyes. “Of course not. I want to learn arcane or elemental, why would I care if you can rehydrate a plant or not?”

  “You’re just jealous that I can learn spells faster, you little troll, admit it.” Cory smugly slapped her now living bundle of sage down and pointed to the pile of dead plants in front of me. “You obviously couldn’t do it.”

  “Oh whatever, I got my first bundle in less than a minute. You couldn’t even make it blush a different shade of death.”

  Dad slapped the table, making us jump and look at him.

  “Enough! You’re 17 years old, act like it. Cory, it’s disgraceful to be petty and rub your success in others’ faces. Az, look at both your sage bundles before you throw insults.” Dad said, waving his hand to the other side of the table.

  I looked to where I’d set my first bundle, only to see a soggy plant in a puddle.

  “Wait, is that really my first one? Why did it keep drawing in moisture?” I slumped back and stared at both my failed attempts.

  “Az, not everyone gets a spell correct the first time. Your mother and I had issues when we were your age as well. It just takes practice.” Dad gently placed his hand on my shoulder, “Look at Cory’s again, it only took in enough moisture to last a minute. Now it’s drying back up again.”

  Glancing over, I saw her bundle dry up almost instantly as if the moisture didn’t even exist inside of it.

  “It took your father and me quite a while to master this one. You really need to make sure and clear your mind, any stray thoughts will affect the spell. I set a bundle on fire on my first try.” Mom said over her shoulder as she scraped the gourd out into a bowl. “Your father also over hydrated his first one. It does take time, and a lot of practice.”

  Rolling my eyes, I wove my hand over the rotted bundle and slid it over the edge to crumble and disappear before it hit the ground.

  “I hate hearing that. If we’re so powerful, why does it take so long to learn?”

  “Az, some Madgie children can’t get the results you guys did until they attempt the spell many times. It can take some up to a full year to learn a spell properly. You both will most likely learn this spell within a month or less.”

  “But why was I able to grow the orange tree as quickly as I did, but can’t revitalize a bundle of sage? It was obviously a much bigger project.” I said exasperated while flinging my hand toward the backyard.

  “Az, while you did grow the tree, it still grew wrong. You learned how to grow a sapling from a seed a couple years ago watching us, not a full tree. We will need to test it before using the fruit, or even the leaves and bark. But even your sapling spell took you a month and a half to learn. This spell will probably take you about 1 to 2 weeks.”

  Cory tucked her long black hair behind an ear and sighed before standing up.

  “Fine, I’ll have to practice. But I’m gonna go pack first. I’ll need some sensible shoes to do all the walking in Manhattan for the nicer shops, or maybe a cute bikini for Miami Beach.” She said while scrunching her face thinking.

  “Who says you get to pick where we go? I don’t want to go to that crowded of a place. Manhattan is a giant no. And do you want me to be a lobster 5 seconds after we get to Miami? My vote is for Seattle, a little less people and much less scorching sun.” I complained.

  “Ew, no. If I’m going west, it had better be to the Los Angeles camp. I don’t want to go to that horrible humid hole.” She said and touched her hair.

  “How about you guys have a Decision-duel? Whoever wins gets to choose which camp you go to.” Dad started, “Only one duel, no best out of three.” I clamped my mouth shut and sat back as Cory rolled her eyes toward me. With a smirk and daggers exchanged, we accepted the challenge.

  Asril

  I stood on the side of the yard watching Cory painstakingly apply her makeup. Once she was finished with that, she started styling her hair.

  “Oh, come ON. You really don’t need to apply your makeup for a D-duel. It’s not gonna last long. Besides, it only enhances your haggish looks, not diminish them.” I shouted.

  “Suck on a wart, troll. I look good and I need to keep it up.” She continued to primp.

  Water spell to start it is then, I thought.

  “Can we get this over with? I need to practice the rehydration spell. And then pack for Seattle.” I said.

  “You mean pack for Miami. I want to see some new color on you aside from your blue tones. A nice deep red would go perfect with your white hair.”

  Before I could come up with a retort, dad shot a smoke cloud out, the deep green and silver obscuring our views.

  “Enough already. You can bicker more on the way to camp, but for now, shut up. Get yourselves ready and play fair.”

  As the cloud started to dissipate I waved toward my orange tree and the roots shot up and around me, creating a cage with enough gaps for me to see through.

  Once the cloud was fully gone, I started pulling the leftover water from around the tree that hadn’t soaked into the ground yet into a giant ball and shot it at Cory, hitting her directly in the face and arms as she was muttering a spell of her own.

  Wiping her eyes, she screamed and raged, “I just fixed everything! You vile little troll! You did that on purpose.”

  She looked so much like a wet raccoon that I fell over laughing. Until I was hit with a hail of dirt that flew through the gaps in my cage. I threw my hands up and created a shield around the outside of the cage, blocking more from burying me further.

  Once the onslaught of the dirt finally stopped, I swiped my hand and had the excess dirt pile up against the fence behind me. With another swipe of my hand, I made the eucalyptus trees by Cory swing around and smack her with their long branches, scratching and bruising her arms.

  Cory shot her arms up to cover her face and brought all the surrounding rocks to cover every inch of her body except her eyes. I stopped the trees and snaked ivy through the cracks to break up as much as I could. The rocks started radiating heat and changed to a red hue. The vines burst into flame. It looked like a fuse had been lit. Soon, all that was left of the vines was ash. The first thought of defeat formed, and I frantically looked around for an idea of what I could do. My eyes landed on mom and dad's cherry tree, with a carpet of fallen, rotted fruit underneath.

  That would be a great finish, but I need her to drop the stones first.

  I kept looking around as Cory shot her fire toward me. I spun my arms up and forced the dirt that she had shot at me into a wall in front of me, absorbing the fire. After a moment, a wall of glass was all that was left. It warped the image of her across the yard, making it look like she had a real stone suit.

  “You want to wear stone? Fine, be my guest. But how about a little cool down?” I muttered under my breath.

  I tossed my hand to the side and started another cloud of my Madgie mist, making it almost invisible and sending it to hover above Cory. Once it was in place, I spun another cloud and sent it to the faucet by the house, turning it on just enough to send a small trickle of water out of the hose. The new cloud moved from the faucet and latched itself onto the hose end and started to swell with the intake. I looked back at the cloud above Cory and saw it start to grow and darken, pulsing with its silver veins roiling throughout.

  Cory was too intent to notice, and I finally paid attention to what she was doing, realizing that there were wis
ps of smoke floating around me. She had started a steady stream of fire on the glass wall. It’s too thick for you to do anything with that fire in a short time, you dolt. Now I know I’ll win.

  I slapped my hands together and heard the concussion as the cloud above her opened up and poured everything over her, filling the cracks of her stone armor and dousing her flames. Once a puddle started to form under her and no more water could pool inside the stone suit, I took a deep breath pushed my hands out towards the glass wall and knocked it over, parting my root cage and then blew all the air out of my lungs with as much force as I could, snapping another Madgie mist cloud before my face. Cory’s eyes widened once she saw a crow fly into the path of the wind and freezing, falling to the ground to shatter. It hit her as she raised her hands for more fire to block the spell, freezing the gouts of flame in front of her as the ice raced over her, freezing her solid.

  While I waited for her to thaw out enough, I started dissolving the pits in the fallen cherries so they wouldn’t pierce her skin. About half way through, I could see water dripping and running down her armor in rivulets. I switched focus and drew clay from around the yard and caked it everywhere on her but her head since her head thawed and was moving.

  “Packing more clay will only strengthen my armor, that’s common-sense troll turd.”

  Everything built up on her was steaming, and I could see water dripping around her and creating a new puddle by her feet. I waited for a few more seconds before I finally let a smile slowly spread across my face.

  “Normally it would only help your armor get stronger, yes, but you just baked it into every single crack of your suit. You’re nothing but a giant sculpture now.” I flung my hand out and made the eucalyptus tree branches fold and twist itself over her face and mouth, stopping her from spell speak and waited. Her eyes fumed while she tested her movement and found she could only slightly move.

  “You can admit defeat and I’ll free you, all you need is to blink twice.”

  Her response was to vibrate, causing cracks in her armor until it fell completely away, leaving her to stand there glaring at me. I let the branch loosen and pull back.

  As she opened her mouth, my pool of dissolved and fermented cherries flew at her. Rotted juices splattering all over her clothes and in her hair. I tried to keep them away from her face, but unfortunately there were some that flew in her mouth at the end and I just stared at her.

  Her face turning green, Cory bent over and puked before looking down at herself and seeing the stains in her white sundress.

  “Not my favorite dress!” She exclaimed as her face started to turn the same shade as the cherry juice. “I’ll never get these stains out in enough time.”

  She started scrubbing everywhere, trying to clean the stains out, suds from her Madgie mist dripping from her in clumps. Dad was walking into the middle of our wasteland while mom was walking to Cory with a scrub brush in hand.

  “Well, since Cory decided cleaning her dress is more important than a counter-attack, Az is the winner. Let’s go in and look at the pamphlets so you can decide.” Following dad in, I glanced over and got a death glare from Cory, I snickered before catching up to him.

  Corsanna

  “I can’t believe he chose Seattle over LA or Miami. Who wants to go to a place that rains most of the time?” I mumbled while trying to fit the tenth pair of shoes in my bag. “Oh, come on! I wish I could take the car. Why do we have to take the train? Stupid MICAW’s and their regulation on how much luggage we can take on public transport.”

  Flipping the bag over, I dumped everything out and tried folding things differently to fit better. Cussing everything out, I tried again. After the fifth time, I finally looked up at the clock, “Three hours? Ugh! Maybe I’ll just buy new stuff while I’m there.”

  Tossing everything back into my closet, I stalked out of my room and almost ran smack into Az.

  “Still trying to take your entire room with you?” Az snickered.

  “No, just taking a break. I want a drink so I’m going to try the drink spell again. Maybe you should focus on your own packing, troll.”

  “I finished mine yesterday, we’re only going to be there for a month. Why would I want to take my whole closet? Besides, they pretty much have a uniform. Every picture we saw had people with the same shirts on. Just pack some pants, shorts, and a pair of shoes.” Az rolled his eyes while taking a sip of his drink.

  “Ugh, you’re so primitive. Worse than a troll, even. Get out of my way cave dweller, I’m gonna go practice my drink spell.” I pushed past him and started to go downstairs.

  “At least I don’t waste my money trying to impress other people with expensive clothes and disgusting makeup. Seriously Cory, you should stop with the Crayola gang bang look.”

  Spinning around, I shot a ball of energy at him, but Az already had a shimmering baby blue shield up. The ball shattered harmlessly against it.

  “At least I try to do something with myself instead of just throwing on whatever I find off the floor first.” I spun back around and stomped down the remaining stairs.

  I don’t wear that much makeup. He’s just jealous that I’m more popular and he’ll graduate with no friends. Oh well, let’s see if I can do better with the drink spell.

  I walked into the panty off the kitchen and grabbed the berries I’d bought last night and headed out back to the fire pit. I was still fuming over Az’s comment. I threw a fireball into the pit and blew up a log, flinging bits of wood everywhere.

  Breathing deeply a few times, while I picked pieces of wood out of my hair, I forced myself to calm down. I made sure my hands weren’t shaking as I went to the shed and grabbed the cauldron, and dragged it to the side of the pit. I kneeled down and touched a small piece of metal that was barely showing from the side of the pit, sending a spark of my jade mist into it and shooting out around the pit. It hardened and created an intricate stand for the cauldron. Another curl of mist broke away and coiled under the big bowl, lifting it up and over the cauldron stand before settling them together and fading away.

  With the cauldron in place, I grabbed the hose to fill it and put some new logs into the pit. I snapped my fingers to let a few flames start dancing around the logs, creating a flickering green flame. I crossed over to the herb garden and cut a few snips of mint and lavender, carrying them back to the cauldron and using the dehydration spell. They shriveled, and I gave a squeal of happiness. I was so glad to have finally gotten it right. Then I tossed them in.

  Now to turn off the water and add the berries.

  Turning around, I shut off the water and grabbed the broomstick shaped ladle, dunking it in while snagging the basket of berries to add and plopped a few in every third turn. With all the berries in and the brew beginning to boil, I set aside the ladle and dipped in a tasting spoon. Putting it to my lips I took a sip and felt my face scrunch up and pucker. Too sweet, a few more mint leaves should help.

  I turned back to the herb garden and snipped a few more leaves and turned back to the cauldron, focusing on the leaves with the dehydration spell. Curiously, they stayed the same. I focused harder and pushed the dry intent into my thoughts before they finally shriveled up, no liquid at all remaining. I turned back to the cauldron to toss them in, only to find that every drop of liquid was gone, the berries had dried to hard lumps on the sides of the now flaking metal of the bowl.

  Screaming in frustration, I threw the herbs and stormed into the house, slamming the door. Why the hell can’t I get that spell? Az can’t beat me this time. He won the duel. I have to beat him somehow with this!

  “Cory, are you ok? What’s wrong,” Dad asked, striding into the kitchen.

  “I can’t get the dehydration spell. I was trying to make a big batch of my drink, but… Umm.” I hung my head in shame, “I think I killed the caldron.”

  “Killed?” My dad raised his eyebrow, trying not to smile.

  “I don’t know, I just completely messed up the entire spell. I can’t thin
k of what went wrong.”

  “How about we go look at it to see if we can fix it.”

  He followed me outside and I meekly turned to the cauldron, the fire still burning underneath it. As we got closer, he started chuckling.

  “It’s not funny! I completely screwed it all up.” I threw my hands up in frustration.

  “Oh Cory, you were nowhere near screwing up. Look around,” Dad laughed.

  I looked around the cauldron and saw the grass around the pit was dead and brown. The herb garden was looking like it had been neglected for weeks. I could hear the scraping of dead plants in the breeze.

  “You didn’t fail. You just had too broad of a focus. When drying herbs, you have to make sure to only focus on the ones you want dried. Not simply thinking of the word dry.”

  I picked up the last bundle that I had held and looked at it. Not even a bead of moisture glistened anywhere.

  “I drained everything? I didn’t realize I was focusing on more than just the herbs. We can reverse it, right?”

  Dad lightly touched the rim of the cauldron and watched black flecks float away. “Well, we can reverse it in the herb garden and the grass. The cauldron and anything in it are past any help, though. You truly did kill the cauldron,” he said, shaking his head ruefully. “Have you finished packing?”

  “Not yet,” I mumbled. “I can’t decide what to take.”

  “Why not take a little of everything? And I only mean a little. One pair of jeans, shorts, a skirt, sneakers, heels, etcetera. Once you get there, you can decide how you want to dress and buy more.”

  I chewed my lip, considering giving him the same speech I gave Az. I took a breath to tell him I couldn’t when a thought struck. Maybe I really can take a lot, but not over pack.

  “Thanks dad. I’ll go pack after I fix this.”

  Dad held up a hand. “How about I get this for now? It might take a while, and you need to be ready by morning.”