“Elementals do not typically speak to you. Not that they can’t. They just aren’t especially chatty,” Oggie said. “Respect the blade, and wield it honorably. It will respond to your intentions.”
“So how do we do this?” I asked.
“Well, the first time you summon your blade, you must journey into the ether yourself. After that, you’ll need to practice. Attuning your will to the ether will eventually become second nature. Mikah will help you practice that this afternoon. Once you have it down, you should be able to summon your blade at will.”
I nodded. “How will I know when an elemental has chosen me?”
“You’ll know. There’s no mistaking it. It will choose you, and you must yield to it. Only then will you be allowed to return to your body.”
I nodded and took a deep breath. “You ready, Isabelle?”
As ready as I’ll ever be…
“Okay, we’re ready.”
Oggie waved his hand in front of my eyes. A purple powder seemed to explode from his fingertips. It smelled sweet, covering up the cornucopia of herbal scents that filled the gymnasium.
Once the haze cleared, I no longer stood in the gymnasium at all. I looked around, trying to find Oggie—but Isabelle stood where he had. She looked as she always did when she projected, but she possessed a green glow. An aura, perhaps.
“Isabelle?” I asked.
“Hi, Annabelle,” Isabelle said as her wide eyes scanned our surroundings.
“You’re glowing green,” I said.
“My aura… perhaps it’s my magic.”
“Not your magic,” a high-pitched voice spoke from the ether. A short humanlike figure appeared. He was barely two feet tall. In truth, I couldn’t tell if it was a “he” at all. No features betrayed any conventional gender markers. The short figure had green hair, long relative to its short body. It matched the color of Isabelle’s aura.
“I’m Annabelle,” I said, greeting the figure as I knelt and extended my hand.
“And I’m Isabelle.”
The creature cocked its head sideways, perplexed by our greetings.
“There are two of you,” the creature said. “But you are nonetheless one.”
“Our souls are fused,” I said.
“The magic of a Loa,” Isabelle clarified.
“I see,” the creature responded. “I am a gnome, the elemental figure of earthen magic.”
“Are you the one who will choose us?” I asked. “Do you have a name?”
“A name?” The gnome looked perplexed. “No names. We simply are. I was drawn to this one.”
The gnome approached Isabelle, grabbing her hand.
“But I cannot align myself with her,” he said, “since you two are as one, and this one alone has an affinity for earth.”
“Your aura,” Isabelle said, looking at me intently. “It’s pink.”
“Pink…” I wasn’t displeased by the color that surrounded me. In truth, I was pleased by it. Little did I know that the word decorating the butt of my Victoria’s Secret pajamas also corresponded with my aura.
“Curious,” the gnome said. “I have yet to see such a combination of affinities.”
“Affinities?” I asked.
Before the gnome could answer, two other creatures appeared. One appeared as an over-sized salamander. It likely eclipsed my own height several times over. On all fours its head was nearly level with my own. I couldn’t tell where it had come from, it simply appeared. Its skin was mostly black, though it was riddled with red spots. It analyzed me with its dark, beady eyes.
Atop the salamander’s head, however, was perched a small figure, a dainty frame, though perhaps only six inches in height. She had wings but wore no clothes. While her features were feminine, her hair was long and blue as the sky.
The fairlylike creature took to flight as the salamander analyzed me. Her wings fluttered rapidly. She buzzed around me like a hummingbird, poking at my cheeks.
“What’s happening?” I asked, glancing toward the gnome.
“The elements of fire and wind are both drawn to you,” the gnome said. “It is not common, though not unheard of, that one might possess an affinity for two elements.”
“But since I’m bound to her, doesn’t that mean we bring together three?” Isabelle asked.
The gnome nodded. “Two elements might combine to serve a single soul.”
“But three?” Isabelle asked.
“I suppose it is possible,” the gnome said, scratching his scalp. “We must attempt it.”
The three elemental spirits—the salamander, the pixie, and the gnome—all retreated and looked at one another. There was an understanding between them, though they spoke no language. It appeared they were having a sort of debate, perhaps a disagreement. Though it was impossible to tell. Looks of confusion, even frustration, fell on the faces of the pixie and gnome alike. The salamander was more difficult to read.
After what looked like a few moments of tit for tat, the three elementals nodded at one another.
“It has been decided,” the gnome said. “We will attempt to bind ourselves as three in one. Since you will become one, yourselves, we cannot bind ourselves to you in any way other than in unity.”
Isabelle nodded.
“I’d say I understand, but I’m not sure I do,” I admitted. “Nonetheless, I accept.”
“Very well,” the gnome said. “We must unite in a particular order, one which parallels your nature.”
With his words, the salamander and the pixie separated several paces. At once, they charged each other, colliding in a shower of red and white energies.
I shielded my eyes—the collision of elements creating something that resembled the sun.
As my eyes adjusted, the energies coalesced into a single figure.
The salamander had grown in size, now sprouting wings that resembled the pixie’s, though larger and covered in a skin that matched the salamander’s.
My eyes had barely discerned the figure before another explosion of energies—this time, pink combining with green, as the gnome collided with the creature.
As my eyes adjusted a second time, a single creature stood there. Its skin was still black, though with both red and green markings. There was no mistaking the creature—though I’d never seen one before. Who had? It was a dragon.
Smoke poured from its nostrils. There was a fire within it, but as it expanded its wings, a breeze filled the space where we stood. It held the wind. With its claws, the creature clenched at the ground below. Though we were not standing on ground, it was as though earth itself had formed beneath it.
Isabelle and I exchanged glances. Something within me compelled me to reach out my hand to hers.
Isabelle and I interlaced our fingers. I’d never felt her skin before. Her soft hand gripped mine tightly. Together, we approached the dragon, each of us placing our free hand upon its snout.
“What’s next?” I asked.
I felt a sensation… again, not words, but a message of sorts. The words appeared in my mind even as Isabelle spoke.
“We have to give it a name,” Isabelle said.
Again, the name appeared in my mind. Isabelle must have felt it, too.
“Beli,” we said in concert.
As we spoke the name upon the dragon, the whole world around us vanished in a single flash. I squinted my eyes.
I felt my hands burn… one connecting me to Isabelle, the other to Beli. It was not a painful burn, though. It was a comforting heat. Intense, but full of life rather than destruction.
Again, my eyes adjusted as the light faded. I was back in the gymnasium.
OGGIE STOOD THERE, staring at me wide-eyed in anticipation. I couldn’t help but blush when my eyes met his. I hated that he had this impact on me, even while my body seemed to crave it.
“This is unique,” Oggie said. “Usually I can tell which element has chosen an initiate, but with you…”
“It is a combination of three,” I said.
/>
“Of three?” Oggie asked, raising both eyebrows in surprise.
“A salamander, a pixie, and a gnome. They combined to form a dragon.”
“Fire, wind, and earth,” Oggie said. “Did you give it a name?”
“Sort of,” I said honestly. “It was more like the name just came to me. Came to us, really.”
“Speak the name,” Oggie said. “Try to recall the sensation you felt in your palm when you named it.”
I nodded and extended my hand, staring at my palm. “Beli,” I said.
Oggie gasped. “That can’t be…”
I was too distracted by the sensation to give Oggie’s words much thought. As I spoke the word, a blade began to form in my hand. The hilt burned against my palm. Not painful, but the burn of life itself.
A blade formed from the hilt, one that glowed in the red, white, and green energies that had coalesced when the dragon formed. It looked almost festive… like Christmas. The blade, however, continued to grow until it reached a length of almost three feet. It was sharp on both edges. Beneath the energies, it glistened like silver. I could see my reflection in it, clear as day.
“I knew that your spirits combined would manifest uniquely, but I never anticipated…”
As I lost my focus and looked to Oggie, the blade disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.
“Dammit,” I said. “What happened?”
“To hold the blade will require practice and focus,” Oggie said. “Though I must admit that given the uniqueness of this particular blade, even I am amiss to know how it might be wielded.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Beli was amongst the three original spirits, the spirits that were called forth by God when he created the world… it’s a spirit older than Guinee itself. I’d thought it only a legend until now.”
I shrugged. “Cool.”
“Very cool,” Oggie said. “You said this name simply came to you?”
“It came to both of us,” I said. “Isabelle seemed to know the name, too. We spoke it together.”
“For now, try not to do anything with your blade.” Oggie was staring into space pensively.
“So that’s what I’m doing with Mikah today… just summoning this thing over and over?”
“And trying to hold on to it, not letting it dissipate with the first distraction.”
“But don’t cut anything with it? Not even cheese?”
“Definitely don’t cut the cheese.”
I had to admit, that’s one I should have caught before I’d said it. I was simply thinking of something soft and harmless to cut, but I was willing to play it off like I’d intended the joke.
“I honestly have no clue where that saying comes from,” I said.
“Then you haven’t ever attempted to cut cheese in the middle ages. If you had, it would make perfect sense.”
“Why are we talking about farts anyway?” I asked, somewhat embarrassed. Usually you don’t talk about things like that with guys you’re attracted to… and if you do, not until you’ve been dating a while. And you certainly don’t let any loose. I once held my farts for seven hours straight on account of a guy. We had a date at a Mexican restaurant, grabbed coffee and ice cream after. Try eating those things in rapid succession and see how long you can hold out. It was painful. And not worth it. He turned out to be a dick. I should have just let them rip. I might have saved myself a lot of trouble later on.
“You’re the one who asked about using your soul blade to cut cheese,” Oggie said.
“Fair enough.” An awkward silence followed my statement. Not really long. Just long enough that I felt the need to quickly change the subject.
“So, Mikah will be tutoring me?” I asked.
“Sort of,” Oggie said. “In truth, Mikah needs the practice as much as you do. It’s just the way we teach, here. Learn it, teach it, then master it.”
I nodded. “Makes sense.”
“You’d better get heading to class. First period begins in ten minutes.”
I checked my clock on my phone—that’s about all it was good for down here. That and keeping my calendar.
“Sure thing,” I said, heading for the gymnasium door. I stopped as I began to press my way through it. “One question though… why did you choose me over Nico?”
“I think I told you when I gave you the invitation… you’re a one-of-a-kind find.”
“So, it had nothing to do with him?” I asked.
Oggie cleared his throat. “Why do you ask?”
“He just seems a bit… put off by me, that’s all.”
“College Samedi is a better fit for him,” Oggie said. “Once he realizes that, I’m sure he’ll come around.”
11
“HOW THE HELL am I supposed to sit through a bunch of lectures after that?” I asked Pauli, having briefed him on my morning session with Oggie.
He rolled his eyes. “All we did is sit around a big bowl of Skittles and talk about snakes while a giant python slithered its way around my feet. Aida-Wedo is intent on convincing me that snakes are cute and cuddly creatures… misunderstood.”
“Skittles for breakfast?” I asked, trying to focus on the more pleasant aspect of his morning experience.
Pauli shrugged. “Taste the rainbow, honey.”
“I don’t remember the last time I had Skittles.”
“The first few nibbles are delicious, don’t get me wrong, so long as you’re eating one at a time and you limit yourself to the reds and purples.” Pauli raised one hand as if to emphasize the importance of his seemingly trivial point. “But then I get impatient and start shoveling them in by the handful. At that point, it’s like a fruity explosion in my mouth…”
“Can’t eat just one?”
“Honey, my appetite is insatiable… especially when it comes to things fruity.”
“We’re still talking about Skittles, right?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m addicted to Skittles, too!” Pauli said, pinching his side. “But I can almost feel the love handles growing from my side with every bite. It’s disgusting!”
I shook my head. “You have like three grams of fat on your whole body. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“That’s always how it starts,” Pauli said, sighing. “One skittle… next thing you know I’ll be the size of a walrus.”
“You’d make a fabulous walrus,” I said, grinning.
“Flab-ulous, honey. At least in my college I’d have extra rolls to keep my snakes warm at night.”
“That’s the most disgusting image I’ve ever pictured in my mind.”
“What can I say, except, you’re welcome?” Pauli sang, doing his best impression of a Tiki god.
The door to our classroom swung open, and Nico came busting through, clearly frustrated. Sauron followed closely behind. Ellie was already in the room, sitting in the front row, her pen in hand, ready to scribble down whatever our teacher might tell us. Philosophy of the Arts… Ellie looked nervously over her shoulder as Pauli and I, sitting in the back row, bullshitted about our morning experiences. It was like she wanted to interject something but was too shy to let whatever was on her mind fly.
When Nico came in, though, any pretense of her being anything more than a wallflower went out the window.
Nico and Sauron selected seats in the middle of the room. In truth, if every class here had only five students, it was a bit odd that a classroom would have so many seats to choose from.
“She’s a fraud,” Nico said to Sauron. “Not half as powerful as he would have been.”
Sauron just shrugged. “Your college has presided over each of the last three years’ classes. She can’t be that bad.”
“You don’t have any idea,” Nico said. “Half the morning was spent talking about how dead people are people, too… I mean, I thought half the point of raising zombies was so that they could be your slaves, do whatever the fuck you want them to do. What is this aspect good for if I can’t even do that?”
; I rolled my eyes. “Well, would you want someone raising your corpse postmortem and forcing you to be their slave?” I asked.
Nico turned toward me, staring at me as if death itself filled his eyes. Given his aspect, it probably did. “Who are you to speak? Aren’t you a Mulledy?”
“What of it?” I asked, feigning ignorance over the relevance of his question.
“Your family ran the harshest plantation in New Orleans, everyone knows it.”
“I’m not my ancestors. You don’t know me at all.”
“It’s in your blood,” Nico said, looking me up and down. “And based on your appearance, you’re still benefiting from great-great-granddaddy’s wealth. The money he made on the back of people like me. Face it, you don’t belong here.”
Anger bubbled up inside of me. I wanted to rip his face off. I was chosen to be here… and no one hated my family’s past more than I did.
Let it go…
When I get angry enough that Isabelle can feel it, you know it’s intense. She can’t read my mind, but she can certainly feel the heat rising to the top of my head when I get pissed.
I turned and coughed twice over my right shoulder.
“The cold never bothered me, anyway,” I said, grinning. I couldn’t help but follow up Isabelle’s comment with an obvious Frozen reference… in spite of the fact that I was well aware no one else in the room would get it. After Pauli had effectively serenaded me with a Disney song already, I was primed to follow suit.
Nico looked confused. “What a weirdo,” he said, nudging Sauron, who obediently chuckled as though she were obliged to conform to Nico’s dick-headedness.
“The past is in the past… let it go,” I blurted out, trying to make some sense of my comment by quoting more of the Disney number.
Nico turned around, daggers in his eyes. “Let go of your trust fund, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Pauli put his hand on my arm. “Just ignore him, he’s not worth it.”
I nodded. Though a part of me was irked by the truth of what Nico said. Was I benefiting from my ancestors’ wealth? Money they’d accrued through slavery? I mean, not technically. Most of that money was lost a century ago during the Great Depression. Still, my grandfather had benefited from the family name and went to medical school… used his money earned as a surgeon to invest in tech. That’s where most of the family’s wealth came from today. Still, I’d never really thought about it that way. If my family hadn’t owned the plantation, would my grandfather have ever been in the position… I mean, it isn’t like he didn’t work his way through medical school and make a smart decision on his own. Suddenly I felt pangs of empathy for Nico. I didn’t know his background, I didn’t know why he was so bitter. I suppose there’s no excuse for acting like a dick. At the same time, I didn’t feel guilty about being a Mulledy. You can’t control what you’re born into. And I’d had my share of sorrows in life, too. No trust fund could compensate for the loss of my parents… the loss of my childhood.
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 59
