Peter and the Heart of Alchemy (War of Contractia Book 5)

by Tj Dixon

  Chapter 6 (Cherry)

  Today will be my first date. Normally I’m really confident about everything, but right now my feelings are a bit of a mess. I wasn’t sure Peter would agree to a date and to be honest I was nervous as anything when I asked him. Then I wasn’t sure I’d pass the challenge but somehow I managed it.

  Now I feel guilty that I get to go on a date with Peter and most of his admirers in the club never had the chance. Another part of me feels angry that Peter is being pressured into deciding who he’ll marry and that same part of me feels even guiltier about the rest of the club. Then of course I’m feeling nervous about my first date.

  The biggest part of me however feels happy to be going on a date with Peter and just as happy that he is considering me as a serious candidate to marry. At least I hope he is. He could just be humouring me, but when we trained together I felt a connection with him and I am sure he felt it too.

  I have no idea where we will be going but Sherry said to wear practical clothes so I assume we will be doing something active. That left me with a dilemma as to what I should wear. It needed to be practical, but I want to look good on my first date. I want to show myself at my best to Peter.

  So I am wearing sparkling blue shoes, shorts and top. My clothes reflect light like crystal but it’s just an enchantment and even in the brightest of lights it isn’t blinding. They have enchantments for protection and warmth so even with the weather how it is they are practical. They are easy to move in of course. Best of all though, I look good in them. They show a bit more skin than I normally do, but today that’s what I want. I want to impress Peter after all.

  Normally it would be the boy trying to impress the girl with his appearance, but Peter isn’t a normal boy. He is free and that is part of what attracts me to him. Most boys would have to obey their mother and marry whoever they were told to. If they failed to impress the girl or woman their mother told them to the consequences could be very bad. So no matter what they say and do I would always have to wonder whether they actually even liked me. I still hope Peter is going to try to impress me anyway, but if he does I know it is because he wants to.

  His freedom isn’t all I like about Peter of course. He could tell us apart even when we first met. As a wind mage he really impresses me and I am even more impressed by his courage, determination and kindness. I always enjoy working with and talking to him. I trust him more than almost anyone else. Not more than Sherry or mother of course, but I would be hard pressed to think of any other person I trust more than Peter.

  I can’t deny that I find him attractive physically too. When I first saw him I thought he was cute, but his body changed a little whilst he was away from the academy. He’s still cute, but he’s more than that now. He’s a bit closer to an adult now he has actual muscles. He’s still a child of course, but I can picture what he might look like when he’s older. Or maybe that’s just me fantasising.

  To be honest I’d rather have more time before deciding whether I’d like to marry him. I’d like to get to know him much better than I do now, but if it is now or never the decision isn’t really that hard. Given a choice between Peter and someone I may never meet, or worse perhaps someone chosen for me, then I’ll choose Peter and pray he chooses me.

  “You’re sure about the time?” I ask Sherry nervously.

  “Yes, he said to meet him here in your room an hour after dawn. This is the fifth time you asked me and the answer isn’t going to be any different the sixth time either.” Sherry laughs shaking her head.

  “So I should just relax?”

  “Yes, like I told you before, if you’re too nervous you’ll only scare him.” Sherry scolds me again.

  “But I am nervous! I can’t help it. You would be nervous too.”

  “I know.” Sherry laughs. Then there is a knock on the door and my heart jumps into my throat.

  “He’s here!”

  “Yes, he’s here. Answer the door before he goes away again.” Sherry grins mischievously. I jump up now my heart has slowed down a little. I race to the door and open it.

  “Peter! Come in!” I say perhaps a bit too loudly. My nerves are really showing, damn it.

  “That’s a nice outfit. You look good in it.” Peter tells me as he enters.

  “Thank you. Yours is nice too. You look really good in it.” I say and it is. I suppose I almost expected him to turn up in his uniform. I’ve very rarely seen him in anything else. He’s wearing dark blue trousers and a lighter blue shirt that looks like it is made from silk. His shoes are black so it seems a little formal but I can sense some sort of enchantment on his clothes so I am sure like mine they are very practical. It is a different look to his uniform and much less revealing, but I like this too.

  “Thanks. Angelika and Asuna helped me choose it. I did ask Hermes first but she didn’t think it would be appropriate.” Peter says and I hide my annoyance at his mentioning other girls whilst we’re on a date, or at least about to go on one. Peter despite his ability to read auras doesn’t pick up on it. I guess he must be pretty nervous too.

  “So where are we going?” I ask.

  “Sherry said it would be better to surprise you, so I’m going to keep that secret until we get there.” Peter smiles. Oh well, at least it is my sister this time and I already knew she helped Peter plan this.

  “Peter…” Sherry says, not even trying to hide her annoyance.

  “Didn’t Cherry know you helped me?” Peter asks, sounding confused.

  “Yes, but talking about other girls when you’re on a date is rude. Surely you know that.” Sherry tells him bluntly.

  “I didn’t, but ok, I’ll try not to talk about other girls again today.” Peter says and I’m both grateful to Sherry and more than a little embarrassed that she pointed it out.

  “Let’s start our date.” I suggest quickly.

  “Take my hand then.” Peter says holding out his right hand. I hold it with my own and then he ports us to the town hall.

  “Our date is…?” I start to ask in shock. Then I realise why we are here. “Oh, we must need a port boost.”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Peter says and leads the way into the town hall. He handles the fee and takes us to the port boost room. We place our hands on the crystal port booster and a moment later we are standing in a grassy field.

  It is slightly muddy but the grass is very green and the sun is shining brilliantly. It is also a bit noisy with lots of people talking behind us. I turn and see a sight I have wanted to see since I first heard of it. There are huge wooden gates with a sign above them. It has the words Heaven’s Park painted on with red paint.

  There are wooden huts with a small queue at each. Most of the people here are nobles, merchants and mage families. Most include children but there is one large group of young women in matching blue mage robes, many of whom have scars on their faces and probably elsewhere. The robes have a green pattern embroidered on the front that looks a bit like a leaf. Perhaps they’re an independent company that has finally gotten a chance to get away from the war for a while.

  “This queue looks shorter.” Peter says leading me to a queue with only three families ahead of us.

  “I’ve wanted to go here for ages. I can’t believe Sherry actually convinced you to take me here. She did tell you how expensive it is here, right?” I ask nervously.

  “Yes, it’s fine. I can afford this once.” Peter answers with a smile that doesn’t quite hide his reservations. I feel guilty, but mostly I feel happy to be here.

  “I can at least pay for the tickets.” I suggest, trying to alleviate my guilt.

  “No, it’s fine.” Peter says and this time his smile seems entirely genuine.

  “Well, let me get lunch then.” I suggest, still feeling a little guilty.

  “I brought lunch.” Peter says and shows me a very small bag he had in his pocket. It isn’t Rin’s dimensional bag.

  “Is that going to be enough?” I ask dubiously.

  “It’s b
igger inside than outside.” Peter tells me.

  “How did you get a second bag like that? I was impressed by Rin’s but to have two is…”

  “I borrowed this from Sor and Emi. Emi’s mother made it. Oh, I’m not meant to be talking about other girls. Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Could Emi’s mother make more of these?”

  “She’s dead.” Peter says shaking his head.

  “Oh… Sorry.”

  “So do you have any idea what you want to do when we get inside?” Peter asks.

  “I have a few ideas.” I smile. More than a few actually. Then it is our turn. There is a woman in red robes sitting the other side of the counter in the wall of the wooden shed.

  “Just the two of you?” She asks us.

  “Yes.” Peter answers with a smile.

  “That will be twenty silver.” The woman tells me and Peter holds out the money. “Oh, he’s carrying your money. You must really trust him.”

  “It’s his money.” I say, a bit annoyed but I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised.

  “Oh, well here are your tickets. Move along.” The woman says waving for us to enter the big wooden gates.

  “Sorry, she was so rude.” I apologise but Peter smiles wryly.

  “I’m used to it from people I don’t know.”

  “Even so, you shouldn’t have to put up with it.”

  “Don’t worry. As long as the people who do know me treat me with respect I can deal with it. So where to now?” Peter asks as we pass through the huge wooden gates.

  Inside looked like a grassy field until we passed through the gates. Now we are greeted with a view of Heaven’s Park. I see the tunnels of water floating in the air that I have heard so much about. I see small islands of rock floating in the sky all around and I see about fifty people whizzing around in a circle in the air. They are carefully controlled with magic to keep them up there, to spin them and to make sure they don’t crash into each other.

  There are also five large shops and ten large restaurants here by the entrance and I know further in there are more. There are also nice spots to have a picnic and it was probably wise of Peter to bring lunch as I know these places are really expensive. I feel guilty again about having Peter bring me here.

  “Let’s try out the water tunnels. They’re meant to be really fun.” I suggest.

  “Ok. Any idea which way we go to get to them?” Peter asks.

  “Yes, I memorised the map before I even started at the academy. This way.” I smile and then hand in hand I jump into the air with Peter. I lead the way as we fly past the restaurants and it isn’t long before we reach the stairs up to the water tunnels. There is a queue of course so we land halfway up the stairs to join the queue.

  Even halfway up we are about fifty feet above the ground. That means the queue is about fifty feet too, but it is moving. It doesn’t take long before we reach the top. We see the people in front of us walk into the tunnel which then pulls them along the tunnel really quickly.

  “Our turn.” I say, nervous now we have finally gotten here.

  “Do we need to use water magic to breathe?” Peter asks nervously, seeing the water tunnel is exactly that. A tunnel of water in the air perhaps ten feet in diameter. Perhaps he had assumed that the inside of the tunnel was filled with air.

  “No, the tunnel takes care of that. Now get in.” The woman floating just to our left tells us. She is in a blue mage robe and is clearly the attendant of this water tunnel.

  Holding Peter’s hand I step into the tunnel. The pull of the water is much stronger than I anticipated despite seeing other people thrown along by it. I manage to keep hold of Peter’s hand but our path is completely out of our control.

  It feels odd to be entirely surrounded by water and yet able to breathe without using magic. The rush of water flowing past us is exhilarating. I suppose it is similar to flying, but flying can’t really compare with this. The way the water colours everything pale blue makes the view seem surreal. Although we can breathe we can’t talk so we are in complete silence.

  I point at the arena below, which seems to have a performance going on. Peter looks at it and smiles. Then he points to the other side and I see we are only a few feet away from the people spinning in the air that we saw earlier. Then we are past them. I point down at people riding giant flying bugs. Peter laughs.

  We may be in silence but it seems we can still communicate. This is also a really good way to see the whole park very quickly so we can decide what we want to do next. At the speed we are travelling it doesn’t take long before we reach the other end of the water tunnel.

  We shoot out into the air and then slowly float down to the ground. We are soaked but thanks to the magic we are completely dry again in moments. The magic feels completely different to my flight magic, not least because I am not in control. It doesn’t even allow me to use my flight magic. I suppose it is safer this way since they don’t want people crashing into each other. I can’t even turn my head to see behind me or even move my mouth to talk. It seems excessive but I’m sure there must be a reason.

  The ground below us is a grassy field with a large fast flowing river in front of us. There are two mages in red robes standing near where we seem to be floating down to. As soon as our feet hit the ground the mages order us to, “Move along, quickly now!” We both walk forwards quickly as instructed, to make space for the next people to land.

  “That was fun.” Peter smiles. “I’m glad we did that first.”

  “Me too. It was fun and we saw so much of the park. Any idea what you want to do next?”

  “We’re spoilt for choice. What about you?” Peter laughs.

  “Since we’re here, how about trying out a river bird?” I suggest pointing at a queue by the river.

  “What’s a river bird?” Peter asks curiously but starts walking towards the queue.

  “They’re huge birds that can carry up to four people. There are smaller ones for couples.” I say and blush at the last word.

  “Let’s get one of the smaller ones then.” Peter says and I blush even redder, but nod. Peter must notice but he doesn’t say anything.

  “You hire the bird for up to half an hour or up to an hour. Half an hour should be enough since there’s so much to do here. In that time it can swim or fly along the river. You’re not allowed to leave the river area though. The river birds and some of the other creatures here don’t get on too well despite their training.” I explain to Peter.

  “I’m sure it will be fun.” Peter says as we reach the end of the queue. It isn’t a long one.

  “If I remember correctly it costs five silver for half an hour.”

  “That’s not too bad.” Peter says with a nod.

  “So what do you think of Heaven’s Park?” I ask seriously.

  “It seems very interesting. Today should be a lot of fun.”

  “I hope so.” I grin. Then I look seriously at Peter. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

  “You’re welcome.” Peter smiles. “Oh, looks like it’s our turn already.”

  “Large or small?” A woman in yellow mage robes asks us.

  “Small.” I answer.

  “How long? In half hours.” The woman asks.

  “Just half an hour.” Peter tells her.

  “That will be seven silver.” The woman tells us. I guess the prices have gone up, or I misremembered how much it was.

  “Ok.” Peter says and hands the woman seven silver coins. She frowns disdainfully for a moment.

  “If you need instructions ask one of the bird handlers over there. That’s your bird.” The woman says and points at one of the smaller river birds sitting by the riverside. They are brown feathered birds with a blue beak and red eyes. They have red leather twin saddles and red leather reins.

  “We’ll be fine.” I tell her. There are steps to climb onto the birds, but we both fly over there and land directly in the saddle.

  “Have you ever used anything like
this before?” I ask.

  “No, sorry.”

  “I’ll take the reins then. I can’t imagine it’s much different to controlling any other giant bird.” I tell Peter and quickly grasp the reins.

  I send magic down the reins and the bird responds exactly as I intended. It walks forwards and wades into the river. Once it is far enough in it starts to swim. I steer it upstream. The river is flowing fast, but the bird’s powerful legs and webbed feet allow it to easily fight the flow of the river.

  “I’m impressed. You make it look so easy, but I’m sure it isn’t.” Peter tells me and I blush.

  “Thank you. There’s a bit of a knack to controlling birds, but it’s easy once you’ve gotten the knack for it.”

  “Perhaps you can teach me?” Peter suggests.

  “Sure. I can try. It may be a bit much in half an hour but there’s no harm in trying.” I say and hand over the reins to Peter. The bird continues forwards, because we haven’t given it any new instructions. “Steering is easy. Just gently pull the reins in the direction you want it to turn. That’s right. And back the other way. Good. Now the hard part is controlling the speed as well as of course flight. I’m going to share my thoughts directly, because it’s just too difficult to explain.”

  “Ok.” Peter blushes and now I am embarrassed too. Sharing my thoughts right now… Fingers crossed I don’t embarrass myself. I place my forehead against Peter’s and open my mind. I quickly show him what he needs to know and then pull away.

  “It will take a while to actually get the hang of it.” I tell Peter but gasp as the bird lifts off into the air.

  “I think I understand.” Peter says and he seems to have complete control. It took me weeks to get a bird to take off even after mother shared her mind with me five times. Damn, I’m jealous! Forget weeks or even half an hour, it didn’t even take half a minute for Peter. “Is everything ok?”

  “Yes. I’m just a bit stunned how easily you picked it up.” I tell Peter with a wry grin.

  “It’s because you knew it so well.” Peter tells me and I blush bright red.

  “Thanks.”

  “Let’s go back down.” Peter says and he quickly drops us back into the river.