by W. M. Martin
The narrator wiggled his lips, making his strange mustache dance on his face. He then flourished his hand and bowed with great exaggeration before introducing himself with dramatic flair.
The thespian announced loudly, “Greetings fellow town members and a warm and special welcome to our visiting First Years. My name is Sapka Strato and I will be your guide into the realm where fantasy and reality collide!”
“This should be interesting,” said Nigel sarcastically to his friends while the surrounding crowd erupted into cheers of adulation.
“It’s entertainment while we eat. Don't be a crybaby,” snarked Stephanie trying her best to cut through the cacophony of thunderous applause.
Sara agreed with Stephanie and took a few bites of her lunch, and then she gazed across the square and saw Kylie, Klaus and Oliver entering an artifacts shop and Lucy walking out hurriedly and rubbing her eyes.
“Hey, I just saw Lucy walking out of that artifacts emporium, and I think she may have been upset about something. I'm gonna go and check to see if she's okay. Do any of you want to come with me?” Sara asked her friends.
Nigel flippantly responded, “Nope, but knock yourself out. I'm staying right here to watch this show and enjoy my lunch. I’d rather kiss a shark right on the mouth than mess with Lucy if she’s upset enough to be crying.”
Callum muttered something under his breath with his mouth full of food, and Sara understood it as his agreeing with Nigel’s sentiment. Stephanie pretended that she had not heard Sara’s question. Sara rolled her eyes and groaned a little louder than was necessary to voice her displeasure with her comrades and their total disinterest in checking up on a fellow Kindred, even if that Kindred was Lucy Min.
“Fine, I'll go and see if she's alright all by myself,” Sara complained.
Callum and Stephanie never even looked up from their meals to acknowledge her, and Nigel stated rather tersely, “I repeat, knock yourself out, Sara.”
*
Maggie and Alice had just finished their second round of Secarn skewers with cold, Kindred cocoa and were about to get up and leave when in walked Thomas, Lester, and Jax. The trio grabbed themselves some chairs and sat uninvited with their fellow First Years.
“Hello, Les,” Alice almost sang.
Lester’s cheeks flushed a little. His cheeks always seemed a little more red than usual whenever Alice was around. It was obvious that Lester was in love. Everyone who Lester counted as his friends had their own thoughts on the matter. Alice appeared to find Lester’s infatuation endearing. Thomas found it completely hilarious. Lucy thought it was nauseating and everyone else more or less ignored it.
“Hey, Alice,” Lester responded with a sheepish grin.
Thomas made a gagging gesture and pretended to vomit. Jax and Maggie laughed while Alice and Lester ignored Thomas as had become their custom.
“I'm famished,” Jax stated and he waved a server over to take his order.
Alice was not very keen on the prospect of waiting on Jax to devour his upcoming, no doubt very large, meal or series of meals. Maggie, on the other hand, did not mind in the least because she felt that she had just enough room left in her stomach for one more tankard full of cold, Kindred cocoa. After two very large three course meals, Jax sat back in his chair, took a deep breath, belched and sighed happily while rubbing his full stomach. His classmates were always shocked at just how much food Jax could eat in a single sitting, even though the spectacle was a daily occurrence. After every meal his friends sat in awe of his appetite. Jax took a single long draw on his mug of Kindred cocoa, slammed the empty vessel onto the table, and wiped his mouth on his muscular arm.
Jax looked at Maggie and asked, “Do you and Alice want to go check out this play that's going on in the square with us? There's a pretty big crowd, so it’s probably gonna be good. What do you say?”
“Sounds fine to me,” Maggie answered.
Alice agreed and said, “Yes, I think it would be wonderful to take in a show on such a lovely day.”
Lester leaned in towards Jax and whispered, “I love her English accent.”
Jax in turn leaned in to tell Thomas what Lester had just said.
Thomas snorted and said, “Good grief, let’s get going.”
Jax postponed the group’s exit and said, “Wait just a minute, everyone.”
He raised his hand to call their server over one last time, and he made a final request of the beleaguered worker.
“Can I get two more of those Secarn skewers, a dragon filet steak, two cups of firefly fritter fries, and a Plimpkins’ pumpkin pie milkshake to go please?” Jax asked.
His classmates’ collective jaws dropped to their laps.
*
Klaus and Oliver had had their fill of the dusty, old artifacts shop and were begging Kylie to leave. Both of the boys had been griping from the moment that they had walked inside of the artifacts emporium. The growing chorus of their complaints had reached a crescendo, and Kylie had officially reached her limit. She would not suffer one more second of their insults to the precious, albeit dusty, artifacts shop that she had discovered.
Kylie, having had enough of her friends’ whining snapped, “I told you both that I'm staying here until Ms. Decker calls us back to go to the academy. I don't care about watching some silly play. I'm perfectly happy in here. As a matter of fact, I'd enjoy myself a whole lot more if you two wet blankets weren't in here trying to rush me out.”
Klaus shrugged his shoulders in defeat and said to Oliver, “Let's go, she’ll catch up later.”
Oliver followed Klaus out of the artifacts shop and in to the square to watch the show. Kylie, finally alone and at peace, took a great sigh of relief. She had grown to love her friends, but she relished her time alone to study the different kinds of artifacts that held the promises of true and great power. Some were inherently more malevolent than others, but she took to heart Mr. Akiyama’s words about how “The wickedness was in the user and not the artifact.”
A less than elegant stone, which was encased towards the rear of the shop, caught Kylie’s attention. She walked over to the display and placed her hands on the glass. Kylie marveled at how the flickering candlelight, which pocked the unique store in strategic spaces, danced across the odd little trinket.
Kylie looked at the description of the stone jewel on the front of the case. It read: Float Stone. Circa 1463: Properties Include: One Dragon Stone, Two Sapphires, Seven and One-Half Nightshade Petals, Six Eagle Talons Ground Into Dust, One of the Baron of Vasiley’s Toenails and a Single Butterfly Wing Dipped in Yellow Blood-Resin. Incantation Unavailable. Kylie continued reading about how the Float Stone had granted its creator, Florian Brightondale, the renowned Kindred enchanter, the ability to float away from a province which had been engulfed in a years-long war, with his family, to the safety of a small mountain village known as Larus. Kylie was so entranced by the little artifact that she was completely unaware of the person who had crept up on her in utter silence like a malefic shadow.
“Lovely isn’t it, my dear?” came a dark and emotionless lady’s voice from behind her.
Kylie was startled by the previously unnoticed stranger, and as she began to turn around to see who it was that had just raised the question to her, the lady whispered, “The time has come, fulfill your Dark Queen’s orders.”
Kylie felt a sharp quick flash of white-hot light cloud the walls of her mind, and suddenly, the world around her fell away and everything faded to black.
*
Sara had followed Lucy’s path behind one of the many buildings which made for a dizzying labyrinth if one was not familiar with the layout of the Plimpkins Haven. Before she stepped out into a blocked alley, she heard Lucy speaking. Sara decided that caution should be the better part of valor and peered quietly around the corner instead of announcing her presence outright.
Lucy spoke into an omniport robotically, “No, everything is going according to her plan. They will all belong to the Master. What if
she figures out the truth too soon? The Master believes that she's more powerful than she knows. We should destroy her friends, force her to do as our Lady wills, and be done with it. No, I won't. I understand, Mr. Evans.”
Sara covered her mouth in shock. She had not been able to hear everything, but what she had gathered from Lucy’s end of the conversation was frightening.
Lucy was still facing the blocked alley with her back turned away from Sara when she offered ominously, “I know you're there, Sara. You understand that spying is rude don't you?”
Sara stepped out from her hiding spot and said in a shaking voice, “Lucy, what are you and Mr. Evans planning to do? Who were you talking about and why?”
Lucy turned to face Sara. She began rubbing her eyes extremely hard, and she was shaking her head as if she were dizzy and trying to find her balance. When she lowered her hands from her face, Sara could see that Lucy’s eyes were not their normal soft, golden brown. Instead they were entirely as black as the deepest void in space with nothing in the center where a pupil should have been.
“Lucy, what happened to you? We have to go find Ms. Decker!” exclaimed Sara.
Lucy shifted her head slightly to one side as though she were trying to comprehend Sara’s statement and voice of concern. She took a single step forward and summoned Maverick. He shot up and away from Lucy in a blast of light which was actually very muted in comparison to the usual display of his radiance at the academy.
Maverick landed on the ground next to Lucy and cawed, “I'm with you, Lucy. How do you wanna handle her?”
Lucy looked down at Maverick and retorted, “You can decide, Mav.”
Lucy’s totem spread its ethereal black wings and cawed angrily at Sara before her own totem, Mikey, the little brown kiwi, exploded forth to shield her from harm. Lucy extended her reach and braced her sapphire katana as her black Avior cloak was exchanged by her cascading sapphire hued armor, flowing smoothly over her body.
Lucy commanded icily and with harsh authority, “You will join us, Sara.”
Terrified of her fellow Avior, Sara replied, “I won't have anything to do with whatever you're planning, Lucy!”
“Then it’s a fight that you're looking for?” Lucy asked with a sneer of derision.
“Lucy, no! You need help! I won't fight you!” cried Sara.
As Lucy’s face was being gradually concealed by her luminescent armored helm, she replied to Sara, darkly, “Then you will die.”
*
Maggie had left the Blue Whale Ale with her friends and took a seat next to Nigel, Stephanie and Callum, all of whom had been left eating their lunches by Sara. They were wholly engrossed in the play being narrated by the flamboyant Sapka Strato.
Maggie nudged Callum on the arm and asked, “Hey, Cal? Where's Sara? I thought that she was with you three. She was wasn't she?”
Callum answered, “Yeah, she saw Lucy bolting out of that artifacts shop across the way and went after her to see what was wrong. Sara said that Lucy was rubbing her eyes and looked upset or something.”
Maggie looked perturbed at Callum and said accusingly, “And you just let her go alone? To check on Lucy Min? Lucy is the most prickly person I've ever met even when she's in the best of moods. Geez, Cal.”
“What? What did I do?” asked Callum completely lost.
Nigel laughed just loud enough for Maggie to hear it, and she shifted towards him and narrowed her eyes into an extremely cold and steely glare before starting in on him.
Maggie hissed with even more venom at Nigel, “Keep your laughs to yourself!”
Stephanie looked away, trying very hard to keep a straight face.
“I'm gonna go and find them,” Maggie stated.
“I'll go too. We can split up and cover more ground,” Alice suggested.
Maggie looked a little bit concerned and asked, “Are you sure? If you find Lucy first, she's probably not gonna be very nice to you. She's told me on more than one occasion how much you get on her nerves.”
Alice responded with a wave of her hand to show that she was not in the least bit concerned about Lucy or her now infamous irritability. She turned on her heel and made her way through the town to find her classmates. Maggie looked down with no show to hide her displeasure with the trio in front of her. With a final grunt of annoyance, she left all three of them at the stage watching the play.
Jax and Thomas decided to hang back and watch the show also. Lester thought it best to go with Alice, naturally, and so ran to catch up with her. Klaus and Oliver had just left the artifacts shop for a second time after going back to retrieve Kylie. They had returned empty handed and sat down next to Callum.
Oliver looked over to Callum and asked, “Where are Maggie and Alice going?”
Callum answered, “They're off to find Sara and Lucy. They're making a mountain out of a molehill.”
Klaus looked confused and joined into the conversation by asking, “What are they upset about?”
Callum shrugged his shoulders and said, “Beats me. Silly girl stuff, I guess.”
Stephanie elbowed Callum hard in the ribs for his slight. Thomas found the physical assault on his friend’s rib cage hilarious. Klaus and Oliver looked at each other with quizzical looks and turned to watch Sapka Strato continue to enthrall the crowd.
*
Nancy and Edgar had left the pier earlier and decided to eat a nice and quiet dinner together in a fancy restaurant without a single basket fryer in sight.
“You sure do look beautiful tonight, Nancy,” Edgar said with as much charm as he could muster.
Nancy laughed and reminded him gently, “You've seen my Avior cloak a million times before, Edgar.”
“It's not the cloak that is beautiful, Nancy. It's the lady in it,” Edgar countered with a sly wink.
They both laughed, and Nancy reached across the table to take Edgar by his very large hand.
“Come on, let’s go enjoy the evening,” Edgar said with a warm smile.
Together they left the restaurant and strolled carelessly to a grassy area in a courtyard just ahead of the outskirts of the Haven.
“Let’s have a seat here, Nancy. It's a pretty spot wouldn't you say?” asked Edgar.
Nancy smiled and answered sweetly, “Yes, this is very pretty, Edgar,” before looking around and asking, “What are we doing out here anyways?”
Edgar took in a deep breath, reached inside of his cloak and pulled out a small box. Nancy looked around nervously and leaned forward toward Edgar as he dropped to one knee and fell over slightly. Nancy crushed the laugh in its tracks, which was trying desperately to bubble its way up, and Edgar quickly regained his composure. He steadied himself on a single knee and opened the box which contained a single sapphire and emerald engagement ring which was braided with cascading diamonds.
“Will you marry me, Nancy? The Nexus knows you're the only one that I've ever loved and I'll be good to you,” proposed Edgar.
Nancy placed her hands on her cheeks and answered happily, “Of course I'll marry you, Edgar!”
Edgar took the ring from the box and placed it on Nancy’s trembling finger. Her totem, Siril the cardinal and his totem, Rose the bloodhound were sitting together watching the scene unfold, happily.
*
Maggie walked around the town and through multiple alleys in her search for Sara and Lucy. She had almost given up and was on the brink of simply letting them be when she heard the now familiar resonance of weapons clashing. Maggie followed the sounds until she turned the corner of a building with a blocked alleyway and saw Lucy and Sara in the heat of battle. This was not like the measured and steady sparring in which Mr. Carver oversaw each and every day at the academy. This was a furious battle, and Lucy was pressing her attack. Maggie stood, too stunned to do anything except watch the fight unfold. Sara was clad in her sapphire armor and was whirling nunchakus in each hand trying desperately to deflect the fierce and hastened blows of Lucy’s katana. Their totems, Mikey and Maverick, were embr
aced in what would have been a fight to the death if they were not the creations of sentient magic. The totems would embark on a series of violent attacks and then would immediately return to shield their respective Kindred. It was amazing to behold an unfettered fight between two Kindred and their totems, First Years or otherwise. Lucy parried a blow from Sara and spun around to slice her opponent in half. Maggie gasped in horror, but Sara had anticipated the move and countered Lucy’s attack with a bone-crunching strike to the ribcage which would have done grievous harm if Lucy had not been encased in her armor. It was still a successful hit in so much as it staggered Lucy and appeared to knock the wind out of her. Sara flourished her nunchakus and took a step backwards into a defensive stance. The beautiful Avior helm melted away to reveal a noticeably shaken Sara.
Sara pleaded with Lucy who was trying to catch her breath, “Please stop this, Lucy! Something's wrong with you! You're sick and you need help!”
Lucy rubbed her solid black and empty eyes, stood erect and raised her sword. She pointed the tip of her Prussian-blue colored blade directly at her opponent’s exposed face.
Lucy stated in a creepy monotone voice, “I'm going to destroy you for that, Sara.”
Sara spun her weapons, one final time, in preparation for the fight that was to continue. Before Sara could bat an eye, Lucy jumped at her with an incredibly unerring speed. Lucy gave a savage war cry and raised her katana, poised in midair, to sunder Sara straight down the middle. As Lucy brought her blade to bear, she was knocked off course by a sapphire arrow which had seemingly materialized out of thin air. The azure bolt exploded with such force upon impact that it shook the foundations of the surrounding buildings. Sara, startled to her core by the massive detonation, turned to find Maggie with her sapphire bow in hand and Elliot perched upon her shoulder.
