Dark Is Her Nature

by Judith Berens

  18

  A couple of weeks had gone by since the Parents’ Weekend and everything was back to normal. Fall was setting in and the leaves on the trees over the stream were turning bright shades of orange and red. The girls were lying around on the patches of moss talking about the latest happenings. Ethan was perched on a large boulder to the side, whittling a stick with his unauthorized knife. Peter swung back and forth on the tire, grabbing the ropes and leaning back and looking up at the blue sky through the treetops.

  “Claire can’t stop talking about the kemana and her trips to the city.” Kathleen rolled her eyes; she was jealous. “It’s so annoying that idiots like her and Scarlett are allowed down there but we aren’t.”

  “One of the older boys was showing off a new jewelry box he bought for his girlfriend. Every time you open it a new piece of jewelry appears,” Peter shouted as he swung higher. “Then Berens took it away. Apparently the jewelry was being stolen from different magical beings and placed there. He was a bit upset.”

  “Serves him right.” Aya shook her head. “Shouldn’t be buying stuff from the merchants there. Everyone knows they get their stuff from the Willen. Those little creatures steal anything that’s not nailed down.”

  Emma laughed. “I think they’re cute.”

  “Until they steal your stuff.”

  Kathleen leaned back, her hands on the moss behind her. “I just want to go and see all the clothes. I heard there are cloaks there made of unicorn hair.”

  Peter jumped down from the swing with a thud and wiped the dust off his hands. “And the food. I heard you can get any kind of food you would ever want.”

  “What is it with boys and food?” Kathleen wrinkled her nose.

  Across the moss, Alison was almost in a trance. As she stared up at the swaying canopy, she felt almost disconnected from her body. The voices of her friends were just background noise, like she was floating in some sort of dream world. Everything was calm and comforting, and she felt her body recharging.

  “Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s time to bend a few rules.” Ethan jumped down from the boulder and closed his knife against his leg, sticking it in his pocket. “We should go to the city. I mean, what can really happen that hasn’t happened to me living on the streets for so long?”

  Aya’s eyes grew big. “Expulsion, arrest... Death!”

  “Eh.” Ethan waved his hands and stuck them in his pockets. “They won’t find out; not unless we are stupid about it. We can’t just go grandstanding in there, and we can’t come back flashing a bunch of new stuff.”

  Kathleen lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t know. It sounds really risky. What do you think, Alison? Alison?”

  Kathleen leaned over and touched Alison’s leg, breaking her trance. She gasped and sat up, then stretched her arms out, feeling very well rested—almost as if she had slept for an entire night. It was a strange feeling, and she wondered how she had managed to do it. She slowly focused on the others, who were staring at her in amusement.

  “I’m sorry, what did you ask me?”

  “The underground city. Should we go? Ethan thinks we should throw caution to the winds and head down there.”

  “I mean, it’s against the rules buuuut...I’m in.” Alison shrugged, figuring there were worse rules they could break.

  “I’m in too.” Izzie stood up. “I mean, I’m sick and tired of hearing all the stories from the upperclassman and having them dangle their new trinkets and stuff in our faces.”

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Ethan rubbed his hands together and bit his bottom lip. “I think we stand by and wait, watching the ones who are going for the day. We follow them to the entrance, and once they’ve gone in we go in behind them. No one will even notice we’re gone. We can go in, do whatever we want, then sneak back out and be back for dinner. No problem.”

  Everyone was on board and they stared at Aya, who Alison could tell by her energy was having trouble with the idea of breaking the rules. Finally she let her hands fall to her sides.

  “Fine, I’m in. I can’t be the only one who hasn’t been down there.”

  Peter jumped up and down excitedly. Ethan laughed and shook his head at Aya. He liked the idea of her loosening up a bit.

  “Okay, so we should go back to our rooms and get ready.” Ethan grabbed his bag. “Everyone meets behind the mansion. The kemana is in the caves behind the school and stretches out for miles in every direction. That’s where we’ll find the stairway.”

  The girls all stood up and nodded at Ethan, watching him and Peter run off into the woods. Aya looked at them and crossed her arms. Kathleen laughed and walked over, putting her arm around Aya’s shoulder.

  “Relax, girl, this is going to be an adventure. Besides, you don’t want to go your whole high school career and never do anything fun or exciting. I promise you that if you do you will totally regret it.”

  Aya sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I need to live a little. Besides, my mom described a necklace down there and said she was hoping to get it next time she was in town. I’d like to send it to her.”

  “Perfect! All right, ladies, let’s go get ready. Adventure awaits!”

  Peter, Ethan, Emma, Izzie, Kathleen, Alison, and Luke stood at the opening of the caves, all a bit nervous. In the end, Aya had changed her mind, not wanting to get in trouble and really not wanting to break the rules. Kathleen had given up trying to convince her and pulled the other girls along before they too could change their minds.

  “I’ll cover for you if anyone notices you’re gone,” Aya had told the group.

  Kathleen pulled her hair back into a ponytail and took a deep breath, looking down the line at Ethan but stopping at Luke.

  “What’s the dog doing here?”

  Luke rolled his eyes and Ethan patted him on the back. “He’s a good guy and he’s coming along for the ride. Chill.”

  “Whatever.”

  The group moved into the caves, hiding behind several large stones and peering between them as the older students opened the door to the kemana and disappeared behind it. Once they were out of sight, everyone stood up and walked over to the round stone circle on the wall. There were several symbols all with glowing white light behind them. Emma shook her head.

  “If we don’t know the code we can’t get in.”

  Kathleen scoffed. “We’ll guess.”

  “No! Really bad things happen when you don’t use the right code to get into the kemana. Surges of electricity, falling rocks, and I’ve heard even tears in the World In Between.”

  Ethan stepped forward with a smile, waving a piece of paper in his hand. “Luckily I managed to swipe this from Mr. Regency while he was taking a whiskey-fueled nap earlier. It’s the kemana code.”

  Kathleen nodded with an impressed look on her face. “You are worth your annoyance sometimes.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  Ethan unfolded the paper and started to press the stones in order, careful not to make any mistakes. He wanted to go to the underground city, but not badly enough to get one of his friends smashed by a boulder. When he was done, he took a step back and everyone looked around, waiting.

  “Maybe you didn’t press them hard enough?” Izzie wrinkled her nose.

  “No, just give it a second.”

  Not even a second later the ground began to shake, and small pieces of rock and dust drifted down. A large stone door appeared and the sound of scraping stone echoed as the door slid open to reveal a long dark staircase. The wall to the right glowed where the vibrant crystal of the kemana was embedded. Small crystals on the ceiling led off into the darkness, and as Ethan stepped forward the crystal lit up, creating light down the stairs and around a corner.

  “Wow, look at that energy. It’s beautiful.” Alison was amazed at the colors.

  With Alison in the back, they edged down the stone staircase one step at a time. Alison ran her hand over the wall, seeing the bright magical light of the kemana. It
was the ultimate Energizer battery, only instead of mechanical bunnies the thing powered the magical community, including the school. It was beautiful and powerful.

  As they moved farther down the winding staircase, they began to hear the echoes of people talking. Izzie looked back nervously at Alison, but she just gave her a reassuring smile. Alison was no stick-in-the-mud, but she had never really been a rule-breaker. This was exciting; something that reminded her of her old life, which felt like it had been a lifetime ago. She was surrounded by magic, and there was something about the dark tunnel that made her feel like she was home.

  When they reached the bottom, they walked through a large archway with the name “Ruby Falls” etched into the stone and looked out in awe at the bustling little city. There were magical creatures everywhere, all of them in their true magical form. Shops lined the streets and the various fragrances of delicious food wafted through the air. The ceiling was like the one in the mansion, magically created to show night and day.

  “At night the sky looks like Oriceran’s, complete with the two moons,” Emma whispered.

  Izzie was in awe, watching the creatures sweep the floors, barter, and even drink at a small pub to the side. She had never seen anything like that—at least not that she could remember. It didn’t surprise her, though. She had grown up in a non-magical orphanage, so obviously they hadn’t taken any field trips to magical underground cities.

  “Do these people live here?”

  Ethan looked at her. “Many of them do. I heard they got tired of trying to conform to what the humans felt comfortable with, so they moved down here. They don’t have to enchant their skin, they maintain a constant charge of their magic, they are among their people, and they can make the place feel like home. Apparently not all of them found Earth to be all that it was cracked up to be when they came through the portal.”

  “I can understand wanting to be with your own people,” Alison mumbled, ignoring Kathleen’s side glance.

  There were a lot of magical creatures there, but she still didn’t see anyone with Drow energy. She pulled her hair back and twisted the ends under into a messy bun. If the book was right and people were afraid of her kind, she wanted to make sure no one had a clue that she was a Drow. She didn’t need the entirety of the underground city chasing her with pitchforks and torches—not when it was her first time there. She now understood what these upperclassmen were so excited about.

  “All right, guys let’s go see everything. Don’t lose each other, just in case.” Ethan stepped forward but stopped. “Oh, and if you see any instructors or upperclassman, send a ball of light into the sky. Don’t worry, I got you, Luke. And damn, have some fun.”

  19

  The group walked into the town, smiling at the vendors as they attempted to wave them over. They had carts and carts full of trinkets, stones, and old books. On the corner was a café with a large cup of coffee on the sign and the effect of steam rising through magic into the artificially cloudy sky. Ethan stopped in front of an old trading post, a shop with lots of different items all mixed up in the window. A massive rough-skinned Kilomea walked past them grumbling something in another language. Emma jumped and grabbed Peter’s arm and then released it, her cheeks red with embarrassment.

  “This is where you trade your money in,” Ethan explained. “You can’t use Earth dollars here.”

  He pointed to a sign that read, “Trade Dollars for Ruby Coins.” It was the currency of Ruby Falls. The group entered the small store, forming a line behind a large Crystal. His body was made of ice crystals that hung from him. Izzie was the closest to him, and she shivered from the cold coming from his body. You could see her breath puffing from her nostrils as her lips changed color.

  “Did it just get cold in here?”

  “That’s me,” the Crystal replied, looking back at her. “Sorry about that, kids.”

  Izzie smiled nervously. “It’s okay.”

  She turned back to the group with wide eyes and they all had to stifle a laugh.

  Izzie looked to her right, reading a sign out loud. “’Welcome to Ruby Falls.’”

  Alison lifted her chin. “I wonder why they call it that?”

  “Uh, probably because the kemana has bright red crystals like a ruby? Couldn’t you see that coming in?” Kathleen looked at her strangely.

  “Oh, yeah.” Alison chuckled and turned away, the smile fading from her lips. She had seen the energy of the stone, which was pure white light. She couldn’t, however, see what the stone actually looked like. To her, the walls were just an unbroken stretch of shimmering magic. The same went for the crystals on the ceiling of the staircase—they had glowed white as well. She forgot sometimes that not everyone saw the world the way she did, but it was not the time or the place for her to start trying to explain that to the group.

  Everyone but Ethan traded some of their money for the round gold coins with Ruby Falls stamped on them. Alison and Izzie shoved their coins into their pockets, while the others bought small velvet bags from the counter and tied them to their belts. They headed into the street, looking around at all the different options.

  “I want to go to the woodworking shop, I hear they have awesome whittling knives.” Ethan pointed down the street.

  Kathleen looked at a dress shop and smiled. “Come on, Emma, let’s hit that one.”

  Emma grinned and followed Kathleen. Peter had already wandered into a bookstore next to the annex, which left Luke, Alison, and Izzie standing there staring at each other. Luke chuckled uncomfortably and just turned around and walked away, giving a nearby Gnome a nasty look as he left.

  Alison looked at Izzie. “Well, where do you want to go?”

  “I saw a cool general store when we were walking in. We can start there and work our way down.”

  “Sounds perfect to me.”

  Alison and Izzie walked back down the block and perused the shelves of the general store. They both bought small trinkets—a necklace with moving pictures inside its locket, small stones said to be carved from the kemana itself, and Alison picked up a pen that shot magic text out to save your hand from writing so much. They put their prizes in their pockets and moved on, stopping at the café to try one of their cherry tarts. The food was delicious; more amazing than anything Izzie could remember eating aboveground, even that ice cream sundae.

  “I’m sure the chef uses a bit of magic to make it taste that way.” Alison took a bite of hers and cherry dripped down her chin.

  “Yeah, it’s probably all magic. We’re likely eating sawdust and paste.”

  Across the way Peter walked through the bookstore, astonished at all the books on magic. Almost all of them had come directly from Oriceran, unlike the ones his father had given him that had been reprinted on Earth. He ran his fingers down the spines, watching the titles shimmer and move as his energy mixed with the book’s. As he passed a book of spells he stopped, feeling a jolt of energy shoot up his arm.

  “That means the book has chosen you,” the elderly shopkeeper told him, looking over his glasses. “They have minds of their own.”

  Peter nodded and pulled the book from the shelf, flipping open the pages. It had been written by hand, or at least it looked that way. There were spells and counter-spells from the old days of magic, long before Oricerans had brought it to Earth. The book intrigued Peter, so he closed it and walked up to the shopkeeper, pulling out his coin purse. As he waited for his change he noticed Ethan standing just inside the woodworking shop.

  He picked up a knife and read the attached card, “Pour your energy through the knife creating artistic works not seen anywhere but Oriceran. Wow your human friends and decorate your cottage.”

  Ethan flipped the tag over and looked at the price. He didn’t have any money, or at least not enough for the knife. The woodworker walked into the back room, closing the curtain behind him. Ethan looked out at the street and saw Peter watching. He smiled mischievously, tucked the knife in his pocket, and joined Peter in the book
store.

  “Your change.” The shopkeeper handed Peter some coins and the book wrapped in paper and tied with a black string.

  “Thanks.” Peter and Ethan exited and stood to the side. “I saw you take that.”

  Ethan shrugged. “It’s ingrained in me. Besides, I don’t have people to just give me money. My aunt and uncle came to Parents’ Weekend and didn’t leave me a dime. Assholes.”

  “At least you had someone,” Peter said as Izzie and Alison walked toward them.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  Kathleen and Emma ran across the cobblestone walk with several bags of clothes on their arms. “Hey, guys.”

  “When are you even going to wear those clothes?” Ethan rolled his eyes.

  “Whenever I don’t have to wear my uniform, I don’t care if it’s just in the dorm room studying. I’ll take any chance to get out of that hideous thing!”

  “I got a book on old spells.” Peter held up the paper-wrapped book. “It’s really awesome.”

  Izzie cleared her throat, still holding a chunk of her cherry tart. “There’s a spot one of the store owners told me about, right on the edge of the nice part of town.” She pointed down the street. “Down and to the left. Apparently you get a really awesome view of the cavern from there.”

  “Cool.” Ethan waved his arms. “Let’s go see it.”

  Alison looked around. “Where’s Luke?”

  “I dunno, probably with his people planning our destruction.” Kathleen laughed to herself. “We’ll find him before we go.”

  The group walked through the ritzier part of town, where all the houses were separated by white picket fences. Most of them were carved into the side of the cavern and enchanted to look like they all imagined the cottages in Oriceran did, only about three times the size. When they reached the edge of town they stopped, agog at the view. There were stones and rocks jutting up from the ground as far as the eye could see with the ruby red of the kemana shining through. Of course, to Alison, it looked like bright white light coming through the cracks, but it was still beautiful.