Light

by Adrienne Woods

  I was really silly. My first crush ever and it was on somebody that wasn’t even real. Someone that lived inside a virtual world.

  The room rippled again and this time Leigh rippled with it. When everything spun again, I forced myself to look. I saw him disappear with his eyes staring into mine and then we found ourselves back in our seats in the room we entered an hour or so ago.

  My head was still spinning and I was slightly tired but not as tired as everyone else around me looked. It looked like they’d worked for 24 hours straight. Their bodies were slumped in the chairs, their eyes barely staying open.

  I got up, the only one to, and pressed the red buzzer. When Dingle came in, he just stared at me. His eyebrows knitted.

  “Why aren’t you tired, Chas?”

  I shrug. “It’s something I can’t explain. It’s like the opposite happens to me when I spend time in the Virtual Realm, I feel revived, not drained.”

  “I see. You’re free to leave, since you don’t need the tonic,” he simply said, pushed me out of the grey room and closed the door behind him.

  I went home as it was our last subject of the day and fell onto my bed. Mr. Grey was missing like usual.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about what Leigh had said. Would I really disintegrate after seven days? I needed to speak to him.

  I closed my eyes and it felt like only ten minutes had passed when I found myself in the woods.

  Leigh was sitting underneath one of the big oak trees with his back resting against the trunk. His eyes were closed with his glasses resting on top of his head. The picture of him just took my breath away. He was really so beautiful. For a second all my fears about what would happen in seven days disappeared, but they reappeared the second he opened his eyes and smiled at me.

  It disappeared the minute he realized that I wasn’t sharing his awesome mood.

  “What is it Chastity?” he asked with a smile.

  “It’s almost seven days since I’ve been here,” I said and he just stared at me to go on. “Am I going to go poof?”

  He chuckled. “You are not a Shadow Caster, I told you that you can choose. Only Shadow Casters disintegrate. Does that answer your question?”

  I nodded and looked at him, he still rested his back against the tree. I smiled. “I didn’t know virtual people needed their rest too. What am I doing here?”

  “Sit. We need to have a little chat.”

  “To be honest, I am seriously starting to fear our little chats. It’s like you’re the bearer of danger or something.”

  “It’s nothing like that, Chas.” He had a grin playing in the corner of his lips.

  “Okay, fine.” I sat down next to him and rested my back against the tree trunk too. I could still see part of his body. “Shoot.”

  “It’s about the Basilisk Orb.”

  “What about it?”

  “This is something I’ve never told anyone, so you have to keep your mouth shut, Chastity.”

  “What, no oath this time?”

  “Just see it as me trusting you completely. Don’t screw it up.”

  “I’m not the kind, I’m good with keeping secrets. Heck I even kept my best friend’s secrets after she chose ass-and-abs above me.”

  He smiled. “The Basilisk Orb has a twin.”

  “What do you mean has a twin? Is there a second orb?”

  He nodded.

  “Remember when the tour guide said that they picked up the pieces that the basilisk broke off when he struck?”

  I nodded.

  “Those pieces form a smaller Orb which is a replica of the bigger one and has just as much power as Selene and the big Orb.”

  “So it makes it just as powerful?”

  He nodded.

  “Nobody knows about it, only Selene and I and now you. ”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “I have my reasons,” he simply said.

  “Okay, so where is it?”

  “I think it’s in her vault.”

  “Wait, you don’t know?”

  He shook his head. “She used to carry it around her neck.”

  “Around her neck, like something you can insert into a pendant?”

  “Yes, Then one day, she didn’t carry it around her neck anymore.”

  “Why do you think she took it off?”

  “Fear, I guess. That’s not the most important part, Chastity.”

  “What is the most important part?”

  “If Shadow Casters find it, they’ll need both Orbs to reverse this world and turn it into something as sinister and evil as the Oblivion.”

  “How do you know all of this?”

  “If I tell you, I’d have to kill you.”

  “Haha.” I punched him playfully on his shoulder, and he started to laugh. “I’m serious. How do you know?”

  “I’m a good observer, Chastity.”

  “Fine, then don’t tell me, but if you think I’m going to buy that crap, you’re seriously mistaken.”

  I got up, ready to move back to reality, well my new reality that is.

  I stopped, remembering one more thing I’d wanted to speak to Leigh about.

  “You know plenty of things around here. Do you know what the deal is with Dingle?”

  He squinted. “What do you mean, the deal with him?”

  “Fox told me something on my first day here, that he wanted to become a Shadow Caster.”

  “Fox told you this?”

  I nodded.

  He squinted at a memory and then relaxed his eyes. “It is a misunderstanding Chas. Dingle isn’t a bad guy. He’s actually one of the few Guardians I would trust with my life.”

  My left eyebrow raised “You sure?”

  “Yes, now forget what Fox said. It was a misunderstanding and the reason why he’s still inside Revera and not parading somewhere in the Oblivion.”

  I smiled. “Thanks, I guess. Bye.” And just like that my eyes opened and I found myself still lying on my bed, with drool running onto my covers.

  I had no idea why I always fell into such a deep sleep when I met up with Leigh.

  Still, why would he share something like that with me? If nobody knew about the twin Orb, why didn’t he just keep it to himself?

  I had to admit that I loved keeping his secrets and I would never do anything to betray Leigh like that, but my curiosity would eventually get the better of me and I would push to find out why he was sharing every little top secret detail with me.

  THE NEXT DAY WE STARTED WITH ONE OF DINGLE’S lectures again. I found him staring at me, just as I jumped off the rope I had just climbed, his eyebrow slightly raised. A cold thumb traced down my back.

  What if Fox was right about him? What if he was still dark and had just found a way to hide his sand? Could that even be possible?

  We had another training session scheduled with Leigh for this morning and as I got up with Natalie to go to the grey room, Dingle spoke. “Chas, you will stay and train with Max,” he said and then went back to explaining what the rest of the class was going to do.

  “Okay, yay you, I guess,” I whispered to Nat who just smiled.

  We broke apart when he finished speaking about how the others were going to form two teams. One pretending to be Shadow Casters trying to enter Revera, the others needing to protect Revera.

  All of them were ecstatic. A part of me wanted to go, because it was the virtual world but my black sand could easily appear. So I should have thanked my lucky stars that I wasn’t going to have to pretend to be a Shadow Caster, it might have become my reality.

  At nine, the class, except Max and I, left.

  I followed Max to the training area where he wanted me to start experimenting with my dust.

  It flowed freely now and I knew it would be gold, as I experimented with it every night, using all my different emotions. I even became angry, and my dust was still gold, which was a good sign. But fear of the dark was still inside of me. The mirror inside my Initiation dream had shown
dark.

  He really pushed me hard and my mom was right, the dagger came but the arrows didn’t want to.

  I looked kind of silly holding the bow and trying to hit a target board as nothing but sand emerged from my string. It would fly into the air and land in trails of sand aimed toward the target board.

  “Come on, Chas. You can do it.”

  “I can’t. We’ve been at this for two hours, Max. Please can we stop?”

  “Chas, you need to learn how to fight with weapons.”

  “Then give me real ones.”

  “They are not…” He stopped and stared at me. “Okay, it might not be a bad idea. But you tell Dingle that we learned with your sand, okay?”

  “Fine, whatever.”

  He smiled and opened the weapons chest. “So what will it be? They have no bats in here.”

  I smiled. “Are there real arrows?”

  “Arrows it is then.”

  He handed me a quiver filled with old dusty arrows.

  “Why are they here when Dingle doesn’t want us to practice with weapons other than our sand?”

  “Sometimes our sand doesn’t take the right course so well, so he lets new students practice their technique first with the real weapons.”

  “Makes sense.” I took out one of the arrows and it wobbled in my hand as I tried to connect the tip with the string.

  Max started to laugh.

  “What are you doing, Chas?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never practiced with a bow and arrow before.”

  “Here, let me show you.”

  He took a position behind me and turned the bow around. “You pull the string back until the arrow is in line with the bow, and then release.”

  I released the bow at his command and the arrow shot out, but didn’t come close to the target board.

  “It’s harder than I thought.”

  “It’s easier with your sand. Again.”

  The second arrow went a bit further, and we practiced shooting arrows until my shoulders and arms ached.

  The arrow didn’t hit the target board once, which was a bummer.

  “The stronger your core gets, the easier you will handle your bow and I promise you will hit the target board, Chas.”

  “Okay.” I sighed as I put the arrows back inside the chest. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Shoot.”

  “Do you think my weapons in Revera might be as effective as the bat in the Virtual Realm?”

  “I have no idea, Chas. But for some reason you trust a real weapon more than your sand. You should really learn to trust your sand, Chas. It’s your only weapon in Revera.”

  .

  AT LUNCH I MET NAT BACK HOME WHERE A COOKED meal was waiting for us.

  When we entered the front door, Margot pushed me hard against the wall.

  “Where is it?” she spat.

  “Where’s what, you crazy loon? Let me go!” I tried to push her hands away from me but she was really strong.

  “Fight, fight.” Mila and her gang egged Margot on to hit me.

  “I know you took it, Chastity. Where is it?”

  “Where’s what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, don’t play dumb with me you little thief. Since the first day I met you, you’ve been staring at it as if it was some sort of drug. Why do you want it Chas, what are you hiding?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let go of me!”

  “Enough!” Fox’s voice filled the room. “For goodness’ sake, what is going on in here?”

  Margot finally let go of me.

  “She took it. I know she did.”

  “Chas?” Fox looked at me.

  “I have no idea what she is talking about.”

  “My crystal!” Margot yelled. “The one that can tell me when a Shadow Caster is near.”

  EVERYONE GASPED. I JUST STARED AT HER. SO SHE

  did know what I was.

  I looked at Fox. No, she didn’t.

  Fox said that it was a stupid pendant Margot believed that had the ability to show her if a Shadow Caster was near or not.

  My nostrils flared as I stared at Margot.

  “Chastity?” Fox spoke.

  “I never took the stupid thing. I don’t even know what it looks like.”

  Margot started to laugh. “It’s been around my neck ever since you met me, now it isn’t.”

  “Your necklace?” I gave a sarcastic laugh. “This is serious bullshit.” I looked back at Fox. “I’m no thief. I never took it I swear.”

  “Okay, I believe you.”

  “Are you shitting me?” Margot yelled.

  “Margot! Your language,” Fox yelled, but took a deep breath. “Do you have proof that she took it?”

  “No, but I know she’s hiding something.”

  “That’s not enough. If you don’t have real proof that she took it, this case is closed.”

  “Un-freak’n-believable!” Margot yelled and ran up the stairs.

  Everyone just stared at me. They’d heard what her pendant could do and I saw it on all their judgmental faces.

  “Everyone is free to leave. This doesn’t concern any of you,” Fox said and all of them disappeared.

  I didn’t eat any lunch and went straight to my room.

  Shades was lying on his basket that Selene had dropped off a few hours ago to make him more comfortable.

  “Chastity?” the cat said.

  “Not now, okay.”

  “What happened, you look as if you are about to kill someone.”

  “I am: Margot.” I told him the story of how she’d accused me of taking her stupid pendant. Shades just stared at me with his flat face and I swore if a cat could roll his eyes, Shades just did. “You want me to sniff around?”

  “No, please, you’ll just get me into more shit if you go sniffing around.”

  “Whatever,” he said and went back to lying in his basket.

  I knew he meant well, but it wasn’t a good idea, trying to find who took her stupid pendant.

  My first Tula class, with a Mrs. Mios was right after lunch.

  I entered her classroom which looked like any other classroom, except every student had their Anitule with them, everyone stared at me again. Tulas and their Anitules. I didn’t have to read other animal minds to know what it was they were thinking, it was evident on their faces.

  Hell, news travels fast.

  “Good day, Chastity,” a short, rather big, woman with curly dark hair said. “Please take a seat.” She showed to the very first table that was vacant.

  I felt like the only idiot without her Anitule. She introduced her Anitule, a lizard, as Greta.

  The class was interesting but it still felt weird not having Shades there with me.

  MEOW! a cried call, and to my surprise, Shades made his graceful entry through an open window and jumped into my lap.

  “A bit late, aren’t we?”

  “Shush, I had better things to do with my time but felt it was probably necessary for me to make my appearance.”

  “Thank you so much Your Highness for showing me this courtesy.”

  “Chas,” Mrs. Mios said, and both of us looked at her. “Please tell Mr. Grey that class started 15 minutes ago and that next time there won’t be an open window for him.”

  “Okay,” I said as her lizard, sprawled on his log behind her desk staring at both of us.

  “He looks absolutely yummy,” Shades said and I had to suppress my laughter.

  “It’s a she,” I whispered.

  “Doesn’t matter, it will make my stomach full.”

  “Way too much info, dude.”

  “I’m a cat, not a dude, Chas.”

  “Whatever.”

  “And to be quiet.” Mrs. Mios interrupted our conversation.

  “Sorry,” I apologized.

  “Who spat in her milk this morning? I’m out of here.”

  “Don’t you dare,” I whispered at him but was too late to
grab him. He walked out the way he’d entered.

  “Cats,” Mrs. Mios said and everyone laughed.

  “Sorry about that,” I said and wished that I was a bird that could just fly away.

  I felt left out with the assignment. Nat and Charlie won as they knew each other really well plus she could hear him the way I hear Shades.

  He was her eyes when they blindfolded her, everyone was in awe at how she got the answers right to everything Mrs. Mios asked her to point out.

  Not a lot of Tulas could hear their Anitules the way we did and these exercises were supposed to help make that connection.

  I guess Shades wasn’t wrong when he said it was a waste of his time. We heard each other perfectly and he would’ve probably told me the wrong answers anyway for that very first night.

  I walked alone through another hallway, far from my classmates so as not to see the judgmental stares or hear the gossip about what I was.

  I looked up and couldn’t remember ever being in this hallway. A set of stairs were to my left and I took them, but paused as I heard harsh whispers below.

  It was a quarrel between two people.

  “I have my eye on you Dingle. You might have fooled Selene but you don’t fool me. I know what you are and it’s only a matter of time before it will show. My advice, bring back Margot’s pendant.”

  Dingle laughed and I knew that Leigh was wrong about him. If Fox could still sense the dark in him, then that was good enough for me.

  I found another route out of the Institute and back to the House of Lords. I guessed now that everyone had made up their minds about me, Natalie wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore.

  When I got back home I was attacked again the second I took my first step through the door.

  “Really, Chas.” Margot was five inches from me.

  “What is…”

  “If it isn’t your long fingers that take my stuff it’s your cat!” She had one of her tops in her hand covered with thick long grey fluff. Mr. Grey.

  “How do you know it’s him? And I didn’t take anything from you.”

  She gave me a sarcastic laugh. “Don’t even try to deny it. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?”

  “I’m not hiding anything, you crazy lunatic!” I yelled back.

  “Enough!” Fox barged into the lobby. “What is it now, Margot?”

  “It’s Chastity’s cat. Look at what he did!” She pushed her top into Fox’s face.