Crow

by Vishnu Pinnaka

  Mr. Hale answered worriedly, “I didn’t see them, but there was this time when I took the children to the zoo. One of the four, Olivia, told me that she saw three men in black coats. I don’t know if they are the men you are talking about, but she said that they were looking at the children and not at the actual animals. I know that this isn’t real evidence, but if these men are following the children, finding the crown will be much more perilous.”

  The rest of the people in the room nodded.

  “Wanda, do you have any more information on these malefactors?” Skylar asked the lady.

  Wanda replied, “I am afraid not. Like I said, we don’t exactly know what these men look like, where they are right now, or even if they are truly seeking the crown. All we know is that they all appear wherever the children and information on the crown are. This is not a coincidence.”

  Benjamin then started speaking, “We can’t keep focusing on the malefactors. For all we know, they might not even be looking for the crown. What we need to focus all our attention on is finding the crown without anyone knowing. We also have to know how to destroy it when we do find it. Along with that, we must keep in mind that the crown isn’t whole anymore, it’s in pieces. We need to find all the parts for us to destroy the crown. However, the pieces are hidden well. So far, there is no hope in finding any information on where the crown pieces are since most of the files and books on the crown have been stolen. However, none of the books had any information on where the crown pieces were hidden so we are lucky because this means the terrorists don’t know where the pieces are either. The prophecy states that the children will help us find the crown parts. We don’t know how this will happen because the four don’t know about the crown yet. However, they will have to know in time. They will have to know they are in danger too and you will have to tell them, Preston.”

  “I know, but they aren’t ready for the truth yet. They still haven’t even finished their training yet,” Hale pointed out.

  Benjamin answered, “I know that the four are still innocent, but they are our last hope. We need to tell them why they are here. They are about to go on the most fatal missions A.S.H. has ever seen. We don’t have much time left. The children don’t know anything about what’s happening and we can keep it that way until it is time. When it is, you must tell the children about the crown, Preston.”

  Hale nodded.

  Benjamin then spoke, “So it’s settled, we must start preparing for the missions at once. These missions will be the most restricted secret of A.S.H., no citizen is to know about this and only those in the agency who are consequential to the missions can have distinct intelligence. The four must be kept obscure. We will start the search for any information on the crown that can help us find the pieces. We will also maximize security in the agency and keep a lookout for any suspicious behavior from citizens or three men in black coats.”

  Everyone else agreed.

  “Skylar, as head of the Technology and Science Unit, you will create gear and tools for the missions. We will keep you updated on what we will need once we find out any more information.”

  Skylar nodded.

  “Wanda, as head of the Research Department, you will look out for information on the crown and the three men. Do anything it takes. Search the archives thoroughly and don’t leave any page unread,” Benjamin instructed to Wanda.

  Wanda nodded.

  “Preston, you have one of the most important jobs. Protecting the children. Show them around Crow City, it will help them learn about their surroundings, but make sure nothing happens to them. The children’s safety is one of our top priorities, along with secrecy. Continue teaching the children and train them for self-defense. When it’s time, tell them about everything,” Benjamin said to Mr. Hale.

  Hale nodded.

  “As President of A.S.H., I will make sure things seem normal with the public and increase security of the headquarters. From now on, we will do all we can to control who comes in and out of the agency. After the children finish their training and we have the information needed to find the crown, the missions start,” stated Benjamin.

  The rest of the attendees nodded.

  Because of this Benjamin declared, “This meeting is now over. Everyone, stay safe.”

  They all got out of their chairs and walked out of the room.

  Once Mr. Hale left the agency’s headquarters, he drove off to the sidewalk where he left the four.

  To his relief, they were waiting for him there.

  “Why did you take so long? We were waiting for half an hour on this sidewalk. We were starting to think you had forgotten about us,” Vanessa said with a smirk on her face.

  “Sorry about that, I hadn’t realized I was so late. The meeting went on longer than expected. Hop in,” Mr. Hale apologized.

  Vanessa answered as the children got in the car, “It’s all right, but I saw some people who were looking at us strangely.”

  Once everyone was in the car, Mr. Hale stammered, “A-a-are you sure they were looking at y-y-you? How many were there and what were they w-w-wearing?”

  Vanessa responded, “There were three of them and all were wearing black coats.”

  Mr. Hale’s face froze with terror.

  “From now on, I won’t leave you unsupervised ever again,” announced Hale.

  The four nodded.

  Olivia then whispered to Vanessa, “You aren’t alone, I saw three men in black coats too.”

  “Who do you think they are? And why was Mr. Hale so worried?” asked Vanessa.

  “I don’t know, but I think those three men could be spying on us,” answered Olivia.

  “But why us?” Vanessa continued to question.

  “For the same reason we were brought here in the first place,” responded Olivia.

  Vanessa nodded and all of the four quietly sat in their seats.

  After they had reached the penthouse and entered the living room, Mr. Hale notified, “It’s now time for another magic lesson. We will have it tomorrow.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Magical Creation

  Mr. Hale led the four into the lesson room once the day came. Unlike the other lessons, the room was empty.

  Hale spoke, “Today, we are going to move away from simple magic and start on something a little more demanding. We will be magically creating objects of nothing. Creating objects is very difficult so you probably won’t get it on the first time. Valuable elements such as gold are almost impossible to create like I said in our first lesson, so just focus on something created with a common material. Remember to close your eyes and imagine how the object will look once finished. However, this time hand motions are obligatory. You must move your hand based on the contour of the object so you can create shape. If the object is triangular, move your hand up and then down. If the object is circular, move your hand round. The first object I want you to create is a pocket watch.”

  “Finally we are doing something a little more challenging,” exulted Vanessa.

  “Yeah, but I’m kind of anxious. What if I don’t do so well?” worried Olivia.

  “Don’t worry, I know you will do great,” encouraged David.

  The four got to work. They all closed their eyes and spun their hands into a circle slowly. Nothing happened the first twenty times like usual. When they reattempted on their twenty-first time, purple lights actually came out of each of their hands. However, as soon as the lights came out, they all disappeared.

  “I will never get used to this,” grumbled Vanessa.

  They all took a deep breath and tried again. Once the purple lights came out of their hands, each light spun in a circle and started changing shape. The lights were slowly becoming palpable items. Once the transformation was complete, the lights disappeared to reveal four pocket watches. However, there was something wrong with them. The watches were colorless. T
here was no way to explain it. They weren’t plain white, or invisible, but there was no color on them.

  “I know it’s weird, but I am so exhausted,” confessed David.

  “Me too, and I can’t believe that these pocket watches don’t even have color,” whinged Olivia.

  Indeed, all of the four were very tired. It was like as soon as they created the pocket watches, their energy flowed through a drain.

  Mr. Hale smiled and walked over. “Congratulations! You have created your first object. However, you might have noticed that they have no color to them. Creating just shape and structure is hard, but color and details are much more difficult. This is why even though there is no color, you are all still very tired. So, what I want you to do now, is to try again to create the watches, but imagine every single detail the finished watch will have as you do. Brace yourselves though, it’s going to be much more exhausting.”

  “It’s going to be more tiring than this, now I see why magic is so difficult,” Vanessa complained.

  “Again, magic isn’t easy. I learned that when I had my own magical lessons with my magic tutor. Try your best, I know you will do great,” uplifted Mr. Hale.

  The four nodded and tried again. They closed their eyes and slowly spun their hands as they imagined every single detail on what their watches looked like. The purple lights came out of their hands and created four pocket watches. This time each of the watches had details, however they were all different. Olivia’s was wooden and dull. David’s was clear glass. Vanessa’s was made of shiny steel. Eric’s was white ceramic. The making of the watches greatly tired the four and they truly were exhausted.

  The pocket watches looked fine, but there was something wrong with them. They weren’t ticking. The children picked up their pocket watches and saw that indeed, the pocket watches didn’t work.

  “Great, know we truly are weary and these blasted things won’t even work,” Vanessa huffed.

  “Yeah, what’s the point in creating something detailed if it doesn’t even complete it’s task?” Olivia uttered, exasperated.

  Mr. Hale shook his head, smiled, and explained, “You have all gotten the appearance of the watches mastered and they are all different because each of your imaginations are different. However, as you have noticed, your watches don’t work. In order for your object to function properly, you also have to imagine the object fulfilling its purpose. I must warn you though, this will be the most tiring part of all.”

  The four took a deep breath, getting ready for the exhaustion they were about to experience. They spun their hands. The purple lights came out and created the watches which were detailed and looked the same as they had before. However, this time the watches were ticking and functioning properly.

  “Well done! You have created your first functioning object with magic,” Mr. Hale congratulated.

  The four couldn’t hear anything Mr. Hale had said however, because as soon as they had finished their pocket watches, they had fainted.

  Once they had all gotten up, the four tried many more simple objects such as a small water pitcher, bifocals, and socks. However, they soon tried doing more complex items such as furniture, a step-stool, and a working television. None of the four managed to create on their first, second, or tenth try. Eventually though, they did succeed. They were even getting used to the energy it took to do this. At the end of the day, the room was cluttered with all sorts of items which the four had created.

  In the following magic lessons, the four had masterfully created many more objects. Mr. Hale was very proud of them, but more importantly, they were proud of themselves.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Soulstead

  A couple of months had passed by and autumn came. The season had repainted the landscape. The leaves had now changed color and were starting to fall. The streets of Crow City were covered with burgundy, brunette, citrus, and amber colors. Along with that, magians were starting to prepare for their own holiday called Soulstead.

  The four had learned that Soulstead was very similar to Halloween, but also very different. Like Halloween, Soulstead came on October 31st and had its own rich history.

  Thousands of years ago, the holiday was celebrated by the first magians. The magians had met Death himself. Death had spoken to them. He said that he controlled all life and that magians were different than mortals. Mortals were beings that were liable to die. However, unlike mortals, magians had a choice. He said that magians could live forever if they weren’t killed off by disease or anything unnatural. However, once they reached their hundredth birthday, they would be able to make a consequential decision. They could either remain on Magia and live, or depart life and go to the Soulscape. The Soulscape was Death’s home and the place where all souls came from. If a soul departed life and entered the Soulscape, it is said that the soul would only feel happiness and no pain. If magians died of unnatural causes, they could either remain on Magia as ghosts, or go to the Soulscape. If the soul remained as a ghost, they would be unable to feel physical pain, but would still feel other emotions such as despair. This is why most people would choose to go to the Soulscape. The ghosts that do stay back, however, are ignored by magians most of the time because of the unacceptable choice they had supposedly made. On Soulstead, however, magians celebrate with ghosts and dress up in macabre costumes to make them fit in. They also carve impish-figs, giant red fruits, and give them life. These living fruits are called figies. Figies dance, play, and cause mischief with spirits. Children also play with ghosts and figies. Many traditions have been created for Soulstead, such as scare-or-treating where ghosts, figies, and kids run around collecting candy and scaring people. Soulstead is a widely celebrated holiday in Magia and many people look forward to it every year.

  “This is my new favorite holiday,” Vanessa chirped when she heard the story.

  She had always loved Halloween back in New York and Soulstead seemed very enjoyable.

  All of the four had much fun preparing for Soulstead the day before with Mr. Hale and Ivy. Vanessa and David went with Hale to pick up impish-figs to carve. Eric and Olivia helped Ivy carve them. Mr. Hale showed the kids how to enchant them.

  “This is kind of like a mini-lesson for magic,” Hale explained. “It’s very simple. All you need to do is wave your hand around the fig, close your eyes, and imagine the fig coming to life.”

  “If it’s that easy, why don’t people try this on every single fruit?” queried Vanessa.

  “Impish-figs are the only fruit that can be brought to life,” Mr. Hale answered.

  “Aww, I really wanted to try this on the watermelon in the kitchen.”

  The four then did what was asked. Like many of their magic attempts, none of the children succeeded at first. But after many tries, they did it. Small purple lights came out of each of their hands and surrounded the figs. The purple lights disappeared into each fig. The impish-figs then sprouted green arms and legs. They then blinked their eyes and smiled. Each of the figies laughed and ran around the room.

  “Come back here right now,” hollered Ivy, grabbing each one back. “Behave yourselves.”

  “Sorry.” The figies mischievously cackled.

  “I like these figies.” Vanessa grinned.

  Mr. Hale then brought out a box filled with eldritch decorations. The four helped him and Ivy put them around the penthouse. As the four put up the frippery, they realized that they were also magical. The faux cobwebs that Vanessa was putting on the Spiritus Fountain, changed color as the water did.

  “Freaky,” Vanessa remarked.

  The fake spiders that Eric scattered on the ground laughed when they fell on the floor.

  “It’s almost like these things have a mind of their own,” Eric commented.

  The plastic skeleton that Olivia put on the piano seat, pressed on the keys and played a spooky song.

  “That’s not alarming,” O
livia reassured herself.

  The embellishing ghosts made of cloth that David tried to put up on one wall, flew out of his hand and laughed as they soared across the room.

  “I guess I’ll just leave them.” David shrugged.

  To finish of the whole haunted look of the penthouse, Mr. Hale hung a morbid mirror on the wall. It was an oval shape with a dark green frame embedded with black diamonds. The mirror did indeed look ghastly, but the four wondered what magical thing it did.

  “This thing looks like an antique that my stepparents could have sold,” Vanessa shared.

  “It looks ancient,” David replied.

  As the four walked closer to the mirror, they found out what it did. Once they looked at the glass, they saw that the mirror didn’t show their reflection, but what they would look like if they were dead. Or rather undead. The mirror showed what each of the four would look like if they were zombies. All of them had pale eyes along with ghostly green skin which was cut like their clothes. Along with that, their hair was now white.