by Nixon, Diana
The rest of the day passed quietly, except, of course, for our common anxiety over the complete lack of news. Evan didn’t call back. Neither did Darcy. Later early evening I decided to call my father, and ended up getting his voice mail.
“Are we going to get some sleep today?” asked Amanda. “Eileen and I don’t need it as much as you do, Christian. You need to get a good night’s before tomorrow.”
“She's right,” noted Eileen. “You can sleep on Evan’s bed, and we will wait for someone to call. If anything happens, we'll wake you up.”
“You shouldn’t wait all the night,” I said. “Go get some sleep on the couch. I’ll give you my cell phone, just set a vibrating ring. But if someone calls...”
“We will let you know,” replied in unison, Amanda and Eileen.
“Good,” I said, smiling both of them.
A few hours later I open my eyes and the clock showed already half past six in the morning. Since I wasn’t woken up no news was reported. I quietly got up, walked to the couch and picked up my phone lying next to Amanda’s pillow. She and Eileen were still asleep. Since the Festival wasn’t to begin until ten, I decided not to wake them yet. Again I tried to contact my father, but again got his voice mail. The same thing was with Evan’s phone. Darcy was generally unavailable. I started to get really nervous. My show was one of the last, and I was hoping before that to hear some news. Even though Evan’s room was safe, I decided not to leave the girls alone. There was enough time to dress and take everything I needed for the show. I made a cup of coffee, and went to the balcony so that I wouldn’t awaken them accidentally.
I've always liked the down in Dever. The sun's rays illuminated the peaks of mountains with the soft warm light. The view was simply stunning, even magical. It seemed like in the ordinary world such a beauty just couldn’t exist. The morning air was always a bit chilly, but refreshing enough that it would make the remnants of sleep go away. I loved waking up at dawn. The energy of the morning light gave me more strength. At least it did until this duty passed on Eileen…
Despite my own reassurances that there wasn’t anything to worry about concerning my show, it was just the only thing all my thoughts were on at the moment. No, I didn’t worry about a possible lack of energy. I was worried more about Eileen, feeling my weakness, and her desire to help me. Although we tried as much as possible to convince her that she couldn’t help me, I felt sure that if anything, she would definitely help. That’s why in order to prevent this, I needed Evan to be here now. Previously we had agreed that as my show would go, he would look after Eileen so that she didn’t do anything reckless. First, we didn’t want her to hurt herself, and secondly, we still were not sure if someone could be aware of her powers.
Balcony door opened quietly behind me.
“Good morning,” said drowsily Amanda. “You woke up early.”
“Couldn’t sleep, actually. Besides, I got enough rest.”
She sat down on a nearby chair, pulling the blanket over her body.
“I could hardly sleep all night. I kept waiting for someone to call. So I feel exhausted and awful. Will you share your coffee, please?” she asked.
I handed her my cup, and she took a few sips.
“Perhaps, I will make one more cup for myself,” I said, seeing she wasn’t about to give up my coffee.
“Sorry, it’s too cold today,” Amanda replied apologetically.
I made myself another cup of coffee and returned to the balcony. Eileen was still asleep.
“I'm afraid you'll have to keep an eye on her, since Evan is not back here yet,” I said in a whisper. “I'll be busy, but she can’t be alone.”
“Of course. I already figured that out. Do you think they will get back before the beginning of the shows?”
“I hope so. I don’t think Alexis was aware of our secret operation, but their absence may cause suspicion. And that is not good, considering the circumstances.”
“Yeah, you are right.”
Balcony door opened again.
“Hey,” Eileen smiled. “It looks like I slept longer than either one of you.”
“We woke up just a few minutes ago,” Amanda said, giving Eileen seat next to her.
“I'm afraid I won’t be able to drink coffee today,” I said, holding out my second cup of the untouched coffee to Eileen.
“Thanks,” she said, “just what I need.”
“You're welcome.”
“It’s so beautiful here. I’ve never woken up this early since I arrived at Dever,” Eileen said.
“That is because your regular activities haven’t started yet. If Evan was a stricter teacher, he would make you get used to the early morning schedule,” Amanda pointed.
“So I should be grateful to him for being such a good-natured professor,” Eileen chuckled.
“If you ever oversleep and are late for one of my father’s classes, he will in detail lecture you on how he feels about students that are late,” again, Amanda said. “He won’t allow it ever again! It is a million times worse when it concerns his own children,” taking another sip of coffee, she added.
“He only does what is best for you,” I said. “It will get much easier. Trust me. Besides him, there are many teachers who have the same view when it comes to being late. Each of them believes that his subject is the most important. So you need to get used to it.”
“Thanks Christian, I got your point!” said Amanda with dissatisfaction.
My sister is a real workaholic. At school she was always a good pupil, even excellent. Before going to the university she carefully studied the brochures and websites of the most interesting ones. So to get up at dawn wasn’t a problem, but she also couldn’t hide her temper, therefore was constantly mimicking the rigorous training methods of our father.
“What time do we have to be on stage?” Eileen asked.
“At ten, but I think we should go there earlier. There will be a lot of people, so you will take your seats, and wait for me... Or Evan, depending on which one of us is doing his performance. His show comes before mine, so if I have an opportunity to be with you before the beginning of my show, I'll be there.”
“First, we all need to take a shower,” said Amanda, touching her messy hair. “A lot of visitors come to Dever today and some will be staying in our dormitory, so there should be no danger of going back to our room, right?”
“I have something to take in my own room too. Let’s go first to mine, and then I'll go with you, and wait until you are ready. Later I’ll take you to your seat, and will go to prepare for the show. Okay?”
“Okay. Just don’t hurry us until we are ready! We had a horrible night with no sleep, so we need time to get beautiful,” Amanda smiled pointing to her face.
Eileen shook her head and went after her. Going first to my room, we went to their own dorm. At the door, to our great surprise, Lucas and Anna were waiting for them.
“Finally!” she cried, seeing us. “We have been trying to reach you! Did you forget we are sitting together? There are so many people here already! We must hurry so that we don’t lose our seats!” she babbled, waving her hands with abandon.
“Have you already been on stage?” I asked, looking at my watch.
“Yes, there was so much noise this morning that it was just impossible to sleep. So I decided to go and see if everything is ready. I just didn’t expect the crowd to practically trample me. Lucas helped me get out and offered to go and find you.”
“So your seats are next to ours, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Lucas smiling charmingly to my sister.
“Come in then,” Eileen said, opening the door of the room. “You are going to have to wait for us though. As you can see we are not nearly ready.”
Amanda frowned, hearing those words. She seemed so excited to see Lucas that she had completely forgotten about her appearance, that left much to be desired. Her clothes were wrinkled and her usually smooth hair looked as if had been dragged through a hedge
backwards. The traces of a sleepless night were evident by the dark brown bags under our eyes.
“Where did you go so early?” Anna asked.
“We uh... were helping Christian,” Eileen came with an excuse, pulling out of the closet some things.
“Make yourself at home guys, we will soon be ready,” Amanda said. She and Eileen went to the bathroom.
“So, you are performing in the Festival today?” asked Lucas.
“Yes. Although this is not my first time, I’m still nervous,” I said. My heart was racing from all the anxiety and I had a horrible headache torturing me since the moment I opened my eyes.
“Personally I would be worried too. I heard that every year you have been chosen as one of the best students of your faculty.”
I nodded silently.
“You are lucky man! I hope that next year the fortune will smile to me too,” Lukas said optimistically.
Anna was admiring one of the bouquets on Eileen’s table.
“These will look perfect in my exposition of exotic plants,” she wondered aloud. “How could I forget about them?”
“Anna, do you recognize every flower in the world, or are there some that you still don’t know?” Lucas asked, smiling.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know all of them,” Anna replied disappointedly.
Amanda and Eileen had to have broken their own record getting ready in less than ten minutes. Today Eileen was wearing the same flowing blue dress that we choose together before the welcoming party. She often wore her hair up, but today she left her hair down. I didn’t hide how much I really liked it. My eyes were saying everything, which was good since at that moment I couldn’t find the right words to describe my admiration.
“You look amazing,” said Lucas. Turning around, I realized that his words were addressed to my sister. She looked really good. Amanda was a beautiful girl, so she didn’t need tons of makeup to accentuate her natural beauty. She was wearing black pants and dark green zephyr matching the color of her eyes.
“Everyone’s ready. So let’s go then,” Anna said. She went ahead with Amanda and Lucas. And I purposely stayed with Eileen a few steps behind.
“They are sitting next to you, so I will be less worried,” I said. “Still, the extra eyes and powers won’t hurt us.”
“I hope that we won’t need any extra power,” Eileen replied.
“Amen.”
We came to the area where the audience was sitting, and I left them in a friendly company. We didn’t even notice how much time had already passed. There was only half an hour left before the first performance.
Behind the scenes there was a complete chaos. Alexis was running from student to student, giving final instructions.
“Christian, have you seen Darcy? I really need her help at the moment!” she cried desperately.
“Sorry, I haven’t seen her. I’ve just got here,” I said.
I turned as Alexis was already heading in the opposite direction. I didn’t know what she was excited more about - the Festival or Nora.
I went into the training area. All the participants, teacher and students gathered there. Embry were working out the final traits of their show, over and over again touching the edge of the tent, with their creations. Judging by the wet floor, the students of Feta had also been recently training there. The only ones, who didn’t participate in the preparatory bustle, were Wizardy. They, unlike all of us, didn’t have to worry about their skills. In addition to Evan, two more students of that faculty were about to take part in the festival’s shows. Elena Rosembry and Stefan Kane. It wasn’t Elena’s first time here, so it was interesting to see what she has come up with this year. Stefan was a first-year student of Wizardy, so his talents were still unknown.
A loud applause started at the tribunes, meaning that Alexis was ready to announce the beginning of the Festival. Each year, it was the head of Dever, who opened the Festival. First participants, as a rule, were graduates, whose shows were estimated by the Commission, followed by a discussion of the successes and shortcomings of each of them. After every five students' performances, was a single exponential show, during which the Commission rated the already made ones.
The second part of the Festival took the shows prepared by the groups of the best students, and in the final part one of the faculties granted in the sum the greatest number of points during last academic year, was demonstrating its own show.
From the first sounds of music heard through the thin fabric walls behind the scenes, it became clear that the first graduate was one of Embry. Once they have always chosen so melodious music. Students of the remaining departments preferred for some reason something more rhythmic or no musical accompaniment at all. I personally liked it a lot more to work in silence without being distracted by extraneous sounds. This helped to focus better.
The first performance was followed by a second, and third, and fourth, and fifth. When the first exponential show began, Evan still wasn’t there. His performance was supposed to be the next…
Shows of each graduate student took about ten minutes, meaning that my friend had at least another fifty minutes to get here. Before my own show there were still a couple of hours, so I left everything on the site allotted to me and decided to join Eileen and others. It wasn’t so hard to find them - all the spectators were focused on the shows, so I easily recognized a few pairs of anxious eyes on the tribune, exchanging worried glances at each other.
“He hasn’t arrived yet, has he?” Eileen asked when I sat down next to her.
“He hasn’t. Neither have my parents nor Darcy. Have you seen anyone of them?”
She shook her head in response.
“But Alexis wanted to see Darcy.”
“She asked me about her too.”
“Christian, pipe down!” Amanda hissed. “There are people who are still watching the show. And I have noticed some disgruntled faces of those who are sitting around you.”
The next five performances of graduates flowed faster than I expected, or had it only seemed that way to me? Then Alexis went out there to announce the next participant, calling Evan’s name, but he was nowhere around.
“Mr. Murray? Has anyone seen him?” she asked irritably, poorly covering up the microphone with her hand. Everyone started to look around to find Evan. Eileen, Amanda and I got nervous even more.
Suddenly the lights went out, and it became so dark, as if it was late night outside. All gasped in surprise. Then, a small ray of light appeared in the sky. The lower the light was coming down, the more distinguished was his shape. As close as fifty meters above the arena, everybody was finally able to make out a star - a bright, white star. It was followed by others, and then more and more of them appeared there. The sky above us was lit by millions of tiny star-shaped lights. Then it became as light as during the day. Above the stars, a silver moon was shining, complementing the already magical spectacle of its mystery.
The next moment, the stars began to fade, one by one, disappearing in a stream of blue water. Where the water had already vanished, they lit up again, flashing like the lights of red flame. When all the stars lit up the sky again they froze just for a moment and began to crumble to the ground, as if someone was pulling strings from below. Once every star was on the floor of the arena, they soared upward again, but this time no one pulled them up - they were flowing with the wind, each in its own direction. Only later I realized that their direction wasn’t accidental - all the stars lined up in a pattern to form a beautiful flower sage - a symbol of wisdom. In an instant, the flower was gone, and the spotlights lighten the arena.
The magic was over.
In the center of the arena was a man in a black cloak. Only when he took his hood off, we recognized Evan there. We couldn’t hide our joy, admiration and finally coming relief. We all applauded loudly, jumping up from our seats. Tears were glistening in Eileen and Amanda’s eyes. Feeling all the emotions that Eileen was filled with at that moment, I realized how much she worried
because of Evan’s absence, and now simply couldn’t hide her joy at the sight of him, safe and sound.
“Let's go down to him,” I said. Even Anna and Lucas followed us, impressed by the beauty of Evan’s performance.
“He wasn’t kidding when he said that it would be a surprise,” Eileen admired.
“That's Evan for you,” I said.
As soon as we get down to the exit, my friend was running to meet us. Without saying a word, he embraced every one of us, and even our new friends.
“Never thought I'd be so glad to see you guys!” he said, trying to catch his breath after running.
“It was just awesome!” without hiding her delight, Amanda said.
“Ah, even just for the sake of hearing those words from you, it was worth racing back to do it!” laughing, replied Evan, locking his arms around her.
“You were lighting the stars,” quietly said Eileen. We didn’t immediately realize what she was talking about, but Evan seemed to be well aware of what that meant.
“It's not just magic, right? This is her magic,” she added.
Evan nodded silently.
“And you can rule it... just like me,” she said, taking a deep breath.
It seemed that no one but me and Evan were paying attention to Eileen’s words. Just as she wasn’t paying attention to the present strangers, still being in utter shock from the newly revealed power.
“Oh, God! You did just what was written in the legend!” I said when I finally got the meaning of Evan's performance. It wasn’t just a show. He repeated all of what was stated in the legend of the Black Lake. And not just repeated - he gave Eileen an opportunity to feel his magical power, so that she could feel her own as well...
“I thought it would be better if you knew about that from the very beginning,” said Evan. “I have suspected long ago that you can possess magic as well. I just didn’t know how to confirm it. But then I decided that, having shown all my power, I could transmit this knowledge to you. However, I’m not sure you'll be able to fully replicate all the things I’ve just shown,” he added with a self-satisfied smile on his face.
