by K Dezendorf
"With your permission, Rose, we'd like to see something," Dimitri told her. "I can promise, it won't hurt in the slightest. Is that all right?"
Rose glanced up to Vincent, who smiled and nodded. "Okay," she answered reluctantly.
Addrick stood off to one side of her, while Dimitri stood on the other. Both began circling their hands in a strange pattern. Rose was nervous, but she continued to stay still. Then she noticed something stranger. Beside Addrick, the air rippled and changed. It looked like sparks of energy, but shaped like a large humanoid figure. She looked over at Dimitri and something similar was happening, except the figure appeared translucent.
The two of them held their hands out and there was a burst of blue fire. Right before her eyes, the creature that helped her in the woods appeared in front of her. Rose stumbled back in fear, but she felt a pair of hands steady her. She glanced back to see Vincent holding her.
"Easy does it, little flower," he said comfortingly.
The creature gave a noise between a shout and a roar. It struggled against invisible bonds.
"I'm going to have to ask you to calm down and behave," Dimitri said calmly. "Do you think you can do that?"
The creature glared a flaming blue gaze at him before the light and the flames around it died down. Its body went lax and it released a long sigh.
"Fine."
"Very good," Dimitri said. The restraints seemed to give as the creature was able to move somewhat freely. "Rose, are you aware of who this is?"
Rose looked at the creature and slowly shook her head. "I... I don't... think so? He helped me before, but..."
"You still haven’t figured it out? Oh, now that really hurts," the creature said, its voice like the crackling of a fire. He approached her, but could only move so far due to a shimmering forcefield around him. He crouched down, his voice lowering to a soft hiss. "I've only been with you your entire life. Keeping you company when mom is never around. Causing a distraction whenever Chad gets too violent."
Her eyes widened. "Wait... you're..." Could it be? “My poltergeist?”
"Bingo! You got it right! Guess you do have a brain in that skull of yours." The creature began clapping his hands together. “Congratulations!”
Rose stared in both amazement and disbelief. She always thought him to be a poltergeist who had one day gleefully decided to haunt her. Even then, she never fully believed him to be real, having been told all her life, by so many people, it was all in her head. "You're not a ghost?”
“No, I’m a Shade,” he answered.
"Rose," Dimitri spoke. "This creature is a Guardian. He is a sort of... protector who is bound to you."
"Guardian," Rose murmured. She began laughing, in spite of how her body was still trembling from the shock. Of all the things to protect her, it had to be a terrifying fire demon.
The burning man placed both of his clawed hands on her shoulders. His eyes no longer a blaze of blue but a soft, glowing white. Instead of feeling the chilling fear from earlier, Rose felt warmer and calmer. The nervousness was soothed away and she felt more relaxed and grounded. It was identical to back on Earth. Whenever things became too much, an unseen, soothing presence would help calm her down.
"I'm here to protect you, Rose," he said. "Though if you want, I can do more for you, for a price.”
"You don't want to listen to him, Rose," Dimitri warned her.
The burning man’s eyes turned red for a moment as he glared at Dimitri, before looking back at Rose with white eyes. "Give it some thought, Rose. You know how to get my attention.” His eyes closed and she watched as he disappeared in a burst of flames, and with him, the other two entities vanished.
Once he was gone, Rose's knees gave way. Vincent once more caught her and steadied her on her feet.
"I need to sit down," Rose said, breathing heavily.
Vincent helped her over to a chair where she collapsed into the seat. Her mind was spinning. Just when she thought she was getting used to things, something new was revealed. Magic was real. Magical creatures were real. Having two worlds, two realities, was almost too much to bear.
There was a part of her that wanted to jump up and down and scream with joy. There was another part which was terrified this was all just another fanciful dream, and she'd wake up in her same old bed, in her same old house, and she'd continue her same old miserable prison of a life.
“Well, that was interesting,” Vincent commented, his previous cheer dampened by a thoughtful frown. “And quite unexpected.”
“Little one,” the large man named Addrick addressed her. “How did you come to be bound? What dealings did you make?”
His severe tone gave Rose the impression she was in trouble, like she’d done something wrong. She shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t do anything.”
“She is but a child, Addrick,” Dimitri spoke. “A human child, nonetheless. I doubt that this tether was made with her knowledge.” He looked at Rose. “Tell me, how long has this… creature been with you?”
Rose shrugged. “Forever.”
Dimitri peered at her for a long time. Or, at least, it felt that way. "Everyone, could you give us a few minutes?" he requested. "Rose and I need to have a friendly chat about her visit here."
Rose watched as everyone left. As Vincent made to go, Rose grabbed his sleeve. “Please don’t go.”
Vincent patted her on the head. “You’re quite safe here, and I won’t be far.”
She wanted to argue, but didn’t want to cause trouble or give him a reason to hate her. So she let go, and he exited the room, leaving her alone with Dimitri.
"Would you like some tea, Rose?" he asked her.
"Um... sure," she answered hesitantly.
Dimitri went over to a table where a small tea set was sitting and brought it over. He set it down in between them and took a seat. "If there is one thing I miss about Earth, it's the tea. It's a bit different here in the Umbra, like most things." He poured her a cup and placed it in front of her before pouring a cup for himself. “Would you like sugar? Cream?”
Rose accepted both and took a sip. Even with the sugar, it tasted flowery and earthy at the same time.
"So, I would imagine you have questions," Dimitri said after taking a drink from his cup.
She sat there for a few moments, staring into her cup. Without the crowd, she felt much lighter and could breathe easier. She had so many questions, too many. They all were crowding forward, begging to be asked. In trying to sort through them, she asked the most recent one that popped into her head.
"Is what he said true? Could he do more than just protect me?"
"Perhaps," he said. "However, with Shades, there is always a price for their services. Another thing to keep in mind is Guardians are not required to make their charges happy. Their sole duty is to protect them, nothing more. Don't think of him as a friend, or even an ally. Think of him as a bodyguard."
"You... you're human, right?" Rose asked. Vincent had said as much.
Dimitri inclined his head. "That's correct, as are you."
"What are you doing here? How long have you been here?"
"I've been here a number of years." He took another drink from his tea. "It was the early 1800's in Britain when I came here."
"What?" Rose said. "That's not possible."
"Time functions on a different scale here in the Umbra," he explained. "It can certainly be disorienting for some. And as for your question of what I am doing here, I am... helping to deal with an issue that’s been cropping up for some time."
Rose hesitated. "What sort of issue?”
“Hopefully not one you’ll need to be involved in,” he told her with a smile.
“Okay…” She looked down at her cup again. “So, what do you want from me?"
"Believe it or not, I was actually anticipating your arrival here. After much deliberation, it’s been decided sending you home as quickly as possible is the best solution.”
“Wait… what?” This sudden
development brought Rose up short. No, that couldn’t be. She’d only spent a little time in this world, and only just began to discover its wonders and its people. She couldn’t go back to her horrible life on Earth. Not now. “But why? I haven't done anything bad. Why can’t I stay?”
“I’m very limited to what information I can give,” Dimitri said, his expression somber. Possibly even sad. “All I can say is, the timing is not right.”
“I don’t understand,” Rose said, a quaver in her voice. Tears pricked her eyes. “I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here.”
“You’re in danger if you stay here.” Dimitri released a long sigh. “Trust me, my dear. While I cannot explain why right now, it is the best thing for everyone, yourself included, that you return.”
“No, please,” Rose said, and her hands were shaking. Her stomach was in knots. The tears were threatening to escape. “Please don’t send me back. You don’t know what it’s like. Please don’t make me go back.”
“Rose,” Dimitri said, his voice calm but firm. “This is how it must be. You’re too young. You’re not ready for this place. Not yet.” His tone softened. “But if you can promise that you’ll go back, and not speak a word about what you’ve seen here to anyone, then when you come back here, you will be welcomed.”
“What if I can’t come back?” Rose demanded.
“I promise that you will come back. And here in the Umbra, a promise is far more than words. It is law.”
Her lip was surely bruising under the pressure of her teeth biting down on it. She didn’t like it. She wanted to run. Wanted to escape into the grand new world she’d stumbled into. However, instinct was telling her it would not be smart to go against this man. He seemed kind and genuine, but she hated what he was asking of her.
“So, I just have to keep it secret?” she clarified. “Then I’ll be accepted? I’ll be able to stay?”
Dimitri nodded. “That is so.”
Rose lowered her head. “Can I at least say goodbye to my friends first?”
“I believe that’s reasonable,” he said, standing up. “Wait right here. I’ll bring them up.”
Rose wondered if he somehow read her thoughts and desires of just taking her chances and running off. “Okay,” she answered, not wanting to argue.
Dimitri left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Rose waited for a minute, making sure it was silent. Then she closed her eyes and focused. “Hello? Poltergeist?”
A moment later, a burst of blue flames erupted, forming the skeletal figure of her Shade poltergeist. Her Guardian.
“That didn’t take long,” his crackling voice chuckled.
She stared up at him, still in awe over his appearance. “Well, now that we’re talking, do you have a name?”
“My name is my own, but you may give me a name. That would strengthen our bond.”
Rose thought about that for a moment. She observed the blue flames around him. Though, looking at them, they were more cyan, if she had to be specific. But that was too plain. So, maybe... “How about Kyan?”
He inclined his head. “I’ll accept that. So, did you just call to admire me and give me a name?”
“No.” Rose stared intently up at him, knowing she only had a small window of time. She needed to use it wisely. “Let’s make a deal.”
Chapter 9
After leaving the ravaged village, Rose and Edward walked for some time, skirting the edge of the forest. Edward knew exactly where to go, so Rose followed his lead. Thankfully, so far, they hadn’t come across anyone or anything else.
“So, why can’t you just teleport us to Dimitri’s castle?” she asked.
“Because, teleportation isn’t that simple,” he answered.
“So, explain it to me, please.” She needed to talk about something, get her mind off of the nightmares she experienced.
“I don’t see why I should.”
Rose pulled out a small bag from her backpack and enticingly waved it at him. “I have beef jerky. Yum yum.”
Edward gave her a half-hearted glare, but his eyes eventually drifted to the bag of jerky. “Food first.”
Rose smiled triumphantly and opened the bag, pulling out a sizable piece and handing it to him. Edward took it and bit off a mouthful, giving a soft groan of contentment. It was hard to contain her laughter, but she managed it. She just wasn’t used to seeing someone so enamored with food. Already, she was starting to feel a little better.
“It would help if you told me what you know about magic,” Edward said after swallowing.
Rose nodded. “There’s ten types of magic. Fire, earth, water, air, and matter, which are the Elemental classes. And then you have life, shadow, mind, energy, and time which are the more Ethereal types. You need mana in order to make it work.”
Edward side-eyed her for a moment. “Right, so, teleportation is a form of time magic,” he explained as he took another bite. “Basically, what you’re doing is collapsing time to transport yourself to someplace else. But the thing is, it has to be someplace you’ve been to before. If you try to teleport someplace you’ve never been, there’s no telling where you’ll be spit out.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” Rose commented with a nod. “So, I’m guessing it has a range on it?”
Edward finished his piece of jerky and held his hand out for another. When Rose forked one over he continued. “Yeah, the more power and mana a person has, the farther they can teleport. But even then, teleporting is risky business. It takes a lot of mana, so you’re coming out half-powered. Imagine popping in somewhere and there’s a group of unfriendly giants. That’s why I try to teleport to places I know are safe.”
“So, it’s just a matter of getting close enough,” Rose deduced. She grabbed a piece of jerky and nibbled on it. “How far do we need to walk before we’re a safe distance?”
“A day, at least.” Edward sighed, as though bothered by the notion. “If it was just me, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
So, she was an inconvenience. Lovely. “The man who froze us and brought me here, Billy. The way he talked, it sounded like you two know each other.”
“Oh... That guy,” Edward muttered, his face turning sour.
“Yeah, ‘that guy’,” Rose parroted. “Who is he to you?”
“A nuisance.” Edward scratched a spot above his right ear. “Honestly, he caught me off guard. I didn’t know it at the time, but he’d been trying to hunt me down, and you ended up getting involved. So, here we are.”
Rose let out a soft sigh, remembering the promise she had made to him. “I’m sorry. I promised you I would get you home, but I guess I failed that.”
“You promised you would help get me home,” Edward corrected her. “And you did keep me safe. So, as far as I’m concerned, you kept your promise.”
His words were encouraging, even more so because she didn’t get the sense he was saying it just to make her feel better. From what she’d seen, Edward was the type of person who said what was on his mind and didn’t sugarcoat it.
She wondered how Macklass and the others were doing. Taking her cellphone out of her pocket, she found no new messages. In fact, unsurprisingly, there was no signal, and her phone was at half charge, so she switched it off to conserve the battery.
“So, Billy is a Wayfinder, right?” Rose asked as they continued to walk.
Edward looked at her, his expression curious. “For a human you seem to know a lot about this world.”
Rose shrugged. “I made some elf friends on Earth. They told me things.”
Edward grunted, his eyes returning forward. Rose bribed him with another piece of beef jerky. After a few moments of chewing, he spoke.
“It’s like you said. He’s a Wayfinder. Though he wasn’t when I knew him before.”
“Wayfinders are important people, aren’t they?” Rose asked. “Being able to utilize the portals and all that?”
“Depends on what you mean by ‘important’,” Edward answered vaguely
. “A lot of people rely on them, for good and bad reasons. In this case, people rely on Billy to safely move them from place to place, and a bunch of other things. I don’t know how he deals with it honestly. Glad I'm not one of them, in the official sense.”
“What do you-”
Edward put his arm out, stopping Rose in her tracks. She looked at him questioningly, but his eyes were looking ahead, a little off to the side. “Don’t move,” he ordered, his voice barely above a whisper. “Or you’ll scare it off.”
Rose curiously followed his line of sight. It took her a few seconds, but she eventually spotted it. Several yards away, a plump-looking rabbit was sitting just outside the safety of the brush nibbling on some grass. It was twice as large as the rabbits back on earth, and it had small horns on its head.
Edward took a deep breath and slowly pointed one arm at the rabbit. The metal on his bracers shifted and separated, the metal turning to liquid and reforming into the shape of an arrow. He took another deep breath, and after a few moments released it in a sharp exhale. Rose thought she felt a pulse of force as the arrow shot forward, as if it had been launched from a crossbow. It hit the rabbit dead on, its furry body instantly falling limp onto the ground.
“Looks like we’re having dinner tonight,” Edward said, looking pleased as he went to fetch his kill.
They continued walking, Rose asking Edward how he’d managed something like that. He explained it was matter magic, the school of magic involved with the movement and manipulation of the physical world. He manipulated the metal of his bracers to make the shape he wanted, and when he was done, he reshaped them back onto his arms.
“I don’t suppose you could use that to fix our clothes, could you?” Rose asked, half joking.
Without a word, he reached out his right hand, holding it about an inch from her chest. She felt her clothes moving, first pulling tight and then jerking every which way. She watched the fabric begin to unravel and the threads start to weave themselves and come back together, the blood and icor crumbling away onto the ground. When the fabric settled she saw her clothes were different. More like Umbran attire.
