by J E Mueller
I rolled over and saw Lydia watching knowingly. “They’re loud again aren’t they?”
Nodding, I adjusted my pack turned pillow. “We’re pretty close to a town. Maybe Brighten?”
“Sounds about right.” Lydia was silent for a moment before whispering to me, “You know I’m coming with you to Reawakening, right?”
There hadn’t been a doubt. “Of course. Don’t know why. You hate this stuff.”
She nodded. “True, but you’re awesome and if figuring out how to help the dead makes you happy, then I’ll see to it you get there safely.”
I almost laughed. “I can outrun anything. I’d be fine.”
“False. You run at the same speed as demons. Which means the first to tire loses.”
“I’d still be fine.” I yawned. “Try and sleep.” Closing my eyes, I pretended I couldn’t hear the voices in the distance and instead tried to concentrate on the crickets and other sounds of the night.
Chapter 2
Home greeted us from a distance. As the trees started to give way to the clearing I could see the peaks of rooftops. My heart skipped a beat as I could finally see the stone wall surrounding my hometown and all the fields that lay before it. We quickly made our way to the well worn road leading directly to entrance. It was a relief to see after traveling so much, but it caused a small flutter in my stomach. I had not left on the best terms with my mother. Part of me was hoping she would finally start coming around to my traveling. It had been two years now! I mentally screamed the facts but knew it made no real difference. I knew that she was not coming to a point of understanding within this century. The one thing I wanted was the one thing she could not accept. I tried to mask my sigh but Lydia caught it.
She raised an eyebrow at me and I shook my head. In front of us, Key and Lee were arguing over things that needed to be done once they got into town while Emmyth kindled the fire on both sides.
“We need to return those stones to Jamie,” Key had started to say.
“But you know Mother will be wanting to see us for dinner first,” Lee replied.
“And we can see her, but not for dinner. She won’t be ready for us, and it wouldn’t be nice to surprise her like that,” Key pointed out.
“Well, Juni is really good at knowing when you’ll be back,” Emmyth mused.
“See?” Lee smirked happily.
“But…” Emmyth continued on, “Jamie does need those materials first, otherwise we can’t leave on time.”
“Ha!” Key stuck her tongue out at Lee. “We have a schedule to keep.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Lee clucked his tongue. “We need more down time.”
“I don’t see that lasting long.” Emmyth chuckled.
“Technically we do have some down time after we check back in the with Black Violets,” Key replied.
“You know something will come up.” Emmyth smirked.
“But I really do have some time off after this,” Lee agreed with Key before glancing over at Emmyth. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me?”
“Gut feeling something else will come up,” Emmyth said as he shrugged.
Lee grumbled loudly, “Is there such a thing as a month’s peace? We’re never going to get anything done with the house.”
I had completely forgotten that several months ago they had built a house on the outskirts of town. It was a slow going project that had gotten a lot of help from Key’s brother, Zarek. It was a very simple and modest building. The kitchen flowed nicely into the living room and branching off that were two cozy bedrooms. A small garden was in the back. The gate around it was fairly simple. We would be passing it on the way into town.
“Well, let’s grab what else we need and meet up with Jamie,” Lee suggested changing direction slightly.
Key turned back towards us. “You can head on home if you want. You don’t have to follow us.”
“Nah, you’re good company.” Lydia smiled brightly. She wrapped her arm around me. “We’re in no rush, and I’ve yet to see your house with all the walls actually up.”
“How did you miss that? I could have sworn you were here for that,” Lee asked as he thought back.
“Tells was.” She nudged me. “I was with my sister.”
“Oh, that must be it. It’s rare you two aren’t together.” Lee nodded.
“That’s because we’re the best team!” Lydia winked.
“I still think that’s us,” Emmyth disagreed, motioning towards himself, Key, and Lee.
I smirked. “We’re the best team because all you need is the pair of us instead of a trio to get things done.”
Lydia laughed. “Yes! We rock!”
Lee and Emmyth shared a look. “Didn’t we just come in and heal you?” Lee asked in a sweet and innocent tone.
“Why yes, I think we just did,” Emmyth agreed.
“Shamed… shamed by our own brothers in arms,” Lydia sighed as dramatically as possible.
Key swatted at them. “There’s no shame in being healed.”
“Oh, all right,” Emmyth relented as we neared the house.
“What’s that up there?” Lee asked curiously.
Key squinted into the distance. “Is that a goat?”
Without hesitating I dashed ahead to see what exactly it was. In the little garden was, in fact, a goat. By the time everyone caught up I was happily petting him.
“Rory, get out of here!” Key tried to shoo him away. “We’re never going to have vegetables at this rate.”
“I can’t even remember who’s he is.” Lee glanced around, trying to find the owner.
“Maybe Danielle’s?” I asked, not quite sure myself. There were several neighbors close by who had goats.
“We’ll bring him back home,” Lydia assured them. “Get rested up, we’ll see you soon I’m sure.” She managed to coax the goat out of the gate.
I waved and went to catch up with her. While this was putting off the inevitable, I enjoyed the little distraction of finding Rory’s owner.
It was over much too soon, and I quickly found myself standing in front of my mother’s house. It didn’t feel like home since our big fight. A part of me respected that she didn’t like me traveling so far from home. But that wasn’t her biggest issue. The heart of our squabble, of the yelling and tears, was about me trying to find answers about this gift I had ignored for so long. Mother didn’t want me dealing with any of it. She hated that I could see them all; the ghosts, the demons, and angels. I knew she hoped if I ignored it they would go away. Years of seeing them no matter what I did proved to me that they weren’t going anywhere, and trying to shove this magic away from me wasn’t going to fix anything. I just wished there was a way I could convince her that ignoring my gift was a bad idea and that maybe, with some proper training, I could do some good with it.
When Key had first appeared in my life, I hadn’t realized she was going through something similar… just more extreme. She had tried resisting but hiding her gift and after she finally accepted and started working with it, so many great things came to light. I wasn’t expecting great things, but maybe with more knowledge, I’d have more control. Maybe I could filter how this gift worked and when I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by the negative side of it, I could shut it off. While that was unlikely, I couldn’t just sit idly and not try to learn more.
I kept hitting dead ends. It was a tiring process, and more often than not I found myself trailing Lydia on her adventures, which had quickly enough become ours. The Blessed were so used to seeing me that they now automatically assumed I was going with Lydia. They didn’t even worry if I was qualified enough. Being trained by them had helped build their faith in me.
Now, if I could find someone again to teach me what I wanted to know, I’d be good to go. I’d catch up in no time. Of course, nothing was that easy. My gift was rarely mentioned, and the whispers of it were spoken like it was a curse. My first teacher had disappeared, which caused my mother even more concern. I hadn�
�t really gotten to learn anything from her, and she had been working with some Blessed… but I doubted the two facts were connected. She was part of the Order of the Black Violets. A demon hunter.
While it was sad she had vanished, it was far more likely she had met her untimely end doing the job she was passionate about. There seemed to me like there was no way seeing ghosts and helping them cross over could have hurt her.
Then again, I knew nothing about spirit guiding.
With a sigh, I knocked twice on the door and pushed it open. “Anyone home?” I called into the silence.
“Just me,” I heard my brother call from across the house.
I entered and shut the door behind me. “How’s it going?” I tried to ask casually.
Marc came into the living room. I noticed he was wiping blood off his arm. “Eh, minor hunting accident. Had a trap spring back wrong and it sliced my arm.”
“Oh, that sucks.” I didn’t know what else to say.
He shrugged. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” We awkwardly stared at each other for a moment before he asked, “So what brings you back to town?”
“We were nearby and I might sometimes miss my favorite brother,” I teased.
Marc rolled his eyes. “I’m your only brother.”
“Guess that means I get to miss you even more, then.” I smiled sweetly. “What have you been up to?”
Marc sat down on the sofa. “A lot of the same old. There’s thankfully nothing too exciting to talk about. We have had a lot more foot traffic. It seems the guards being here so much has spread word of our little town. Don’t know if that means it’ll get bigger, but trade keeps getting better. Did you know Aunt Juni started making her jewelry again? Those enchantments are a big hit.”
“That’s great!” I was excited to hear that. She rarely made them after Lee had become a teenager. “Is she still focusing on luck based ones?”
“Luck is pretty popular, but she’s making a variety. I’d go see her if you’re staying long.” Marc paused and looked around the quiet house. “You’re probably not staying very long though, are you?”
“No,” I confessed. It almost hurt to admit aloud. “I’ll probably be off tomorrow or the day after.”
Marc nodded. “Mother won’t be happy.”
“I can’t help that.” I ran my fingers through my hair while sighing. “There seems to be no happy middle ground here.”
“Well, I can’t argue that. I’d say stop by more, but I think that would just make parting ways worse,” Marc agreed as he checked his injury over. The blood seemed to have stopped. “But I can’t help but side with her. What good is going to come from learning about this blasted magic of yours? I get that it did come in handy bringing Juni back but… Is learning going to help? If not, you’re probably just going to be disappointed. Having to patch things up after that will only be harder.”
“If I don’t find that out for myself this will never stop haunting me. Look, this gift is weird, but good things can come from it. If people like Key can make their magic useful, even after they were Cursed, I’m sure I can do some greater good here.” I leaned on the chair nearest to the door. “We don’t know why I suddenly happened to have this gift. We don’t know what it can do, and even worse, everyone here who knows about it treats it like the plague. I’m still me.” I raked a hand through my hair. “Why does everyone else get encouragement to learn, enhance, and practice their magic and all I get is shhh, it’s okay, we’re just going to ignore it? It’s all for the best?” My frustration was showing, and I couldn’t help but pace around the room. “I need to know at least the basics of this if I’m ever going to be happy.”
“I get that Tells…” Marc sighed. “Listen, Juni mentioned she thought everyone was coming home today. You know her weird magic. Let’s just join them for dinner. We should enjoy some time together.”
I left Marc, letting him finish cleaning up, and headed over to Lydia’s. I knew I had some time before we’d be expected to eat, but not much. I felt a little on edge after my discussion with my brother. I wasn’t sure if he really understood how I felt. Sure, he knew what it was like on a small level to be told, ‘no, don’t practice your magic today’. However, he was never told to hide any of his abilities.
I was done hiding.
The more I thought about what my family had kept telling me for over a decade, the more angry and frustrated I felt. Worse off, no one seemed to know anything about my gift. The few that had heard rumors about it kept acting like it was a curse. The lack of information felt like a curse, but I was not Cursed. My soul was not taken, bartered with, or lost. The Black Violets wouldn’t let someone like that in their hold without an overly special exception.
Key had only received that exception because of her aid in a rescue mission.
I wondered what her life was like growing up. Did anyone ever talk about her curse with her and try to convince her not to learn more, or had she been afraid of it enough on her own that she didn’t seek an answer until everything was already overwhelming?
By the time I arrived at Lydia’s I was fuming. Taking a few deep breaths, I tried to compose myself before knocking, but the door opened before I had a chance.
“Hey crabby face, what’s wrong?” Lydia asked.
I glared at her for a moment but pushed the subject aside. “Anyway, how is your family doing?”
“Wonderful, as always,” her mother called from inside, “Come on in Tella. It’s always nice to see you.” Her voice sounded like honey. The warm welcome almost sang through the house.
Inside I could smell something delicious cooking. Apple pie maybe? Lydia’s mom always seemed to be making something delightful.
“Thank you, Mrs. Lawngale,” I said as I entered and instantly felt more relaxed. “What are you baking today?”
“Apple turnovers,” she replied as I entered the kitchen. Lydia was right behind me.
“I was just filling in Mommy about our more recent adventures,” Lydia said as she skipped over to grab a cooling tart. She split it in two and handed me half. “And you seem to be avoiding your mother.”
I took a bite. It was still much too hot, but it was worth the slight burn on my tongue. “Not true. I checked in at home but only Marc was there. We had a conversation. I’m sure it will be nearly word for word what I talk with my mother about later.” I blew on the tart carefully until it was safe to eat.
“But you haven’t sought her out. That sounds like avoiding.” Lydia smirked.
“I know exactly where she is. I just needed a few moments,” I mumbled. The tart was thankfully worth this harassment.
“I sense your mother is still not understanding your choice to go on adventures?” Mrs. Lawngale asked sweetly. She paused what she was doing to look at me. “If possible, it’s always best to leave things on a high note. I know you girls try to be safe, but it’s dangerous out there.”
We both nodded. Her warning wasn’t simply a mother’s concern. She had lost friends to demons and humans alike. The world was a cruel place at times. Lydia, thanks to all her Blessed adventures, had also lost friends. Thankfully, I had not… yet. Still, I saw enough spirits to know things may not go the way one would hope.
“I know, and I try. It’s just frustrating,” I replied tiredly.
“What seems to be the exact problem?” Lydia’s mom leaned against the counter and wiped her hands on her apron that was already covered in a variety of stains.
“Her taboo magic,” Lydia supplied helpfully.
“Ah,” Mrs. Lawngale said with a sigh. “There is always fear when there is a lack of understanding. Even in a place where magic is celebrated.” She motioned around the room. “At one point, almost everyone in town has been in this kitchen for one reason or another. No one’s without their secrets, and between my healing abilities and my cooking, I’ve heard many people tell tales. There’s no reason to judge because you can see all levels of otherworldly creatures. I’ve worked with angels and slain demons
nearly my whole life. And yet, here I am, also keeping that secret from the masses. I hope you find someone who understands and can help you with this talent. Life is a gift, and the magic we have is an extra blessing.”
Lydia wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “I’m sure there are answers out there. It’s just a little tougher to find in between all this demon slaying and making this world a better place.”
“Maybe if you trained a little more we would get through these missions quicker.” I nudged her jokingly. She had more than enough training under her belt.
“Hey, better idea. Why don’t you join team Blessed?” She nudged back.
I held in a sigh. “It’s a complicated decision and I want to solve my own personal mission first.” Didn’t we just have this conversation two or three days ago?
“That does give me an idea,” Mrs. Lawngale mused. “Have you asked the angels about where this gift comes from and if they can point you in the right direction? I’m sure they must know something.”
“It is a good idea, and I have,” I replied as pleasantly as possible. “They actually aren’t sure where it comes from, though they do know it’s not a curse. But,” I stressed the word, “They also can’t tell who has the gifts either unless they are directly witnessing it being used. For example, me seeing them and talking to them is the only way they were alerted that I have this talent.”
“Fascinating.” Mrs. Lawngale nodded. It was an interesting fact to take in.
“Wait.” Lydia turned to me puzzled. “I thought they could sense every gift? They can enhance just about anything!”
I shook my head. “This isn’t standard magic. It’s not a gift you’re born with.”
“I mean, you did say it came out of nowhere but I thought something just flickered on and you couldn’t turn off seeing all these beings,” Lydia replied, motioning vaguely.
“Well, when we finally find more information I’m sure it’ll all make sense.” I shrugged. “Until then, it’s a cliffhanger and I need to be heading off to Auntie Juni’s.”
