Magic is real. We see it, read it, and listen to it every day without realizing it. I know, this is sounding a bit too close to that every miniscule thing is magic crap that people lie to tote, but stay with me, okay. A sunrise holds no more magic than what you give it, but if certain powerful artists capture that sunrise in his or her medium followed by capturing the love and other emotions of countless people, then it could have magical potential.

Magic is based off of arts; you know, literature, arts, dance, and my main thing music. And only those with a true calling to their medium can use it. Later, I would learn that that was why there were so many shows and websites dedicated to showcasing new talent in these things.

Confused yet? Good. That’s how I felt when I got pulled into this whole mess.

It all started due to some stupid impulse to play the hero, and this is the story of that and what happened after wards. I suppose here would be a good enough time to explain who I am.  For the most part, I considered myself a normal kid. Normal looks, normal build, relatively normal ambitions for a teenager, normal everything. That’s how it’s supposed to start with these kind of stories, right?

I was just some punk kid who played guitar and sang at cafes and such, trying to make a name for myself in the music industry. Until then nothing out of the ordinary happened in my life, then a few days before all this happened and I was actually starting to get somewhere with my dream of playing music for a living. Talent agents were starting to take an interest in the teenage guitarist that was me. Then I got involved with the different guild factions and the rest is history you are about to learn. My name is Dylan Fox, and now let’s get this show on the road.

2: Chapter One

I was waiting in a bar. Seemed pretty cool, right? I mean, I wasn't even old enough to legally drink but the bar owner had heard of my talent and wanted me to play during their talent night. A talent scout was also there, waiting to hear all of the musicians and singers perform. I had met him before, and after talking to him knew that if I played and sang my best I was almost guaranteed fame. I thought about this excitedly as I eyed up the competition prepare for their allotted time. They all most likely knew about the scout, and all but one person seemed nervous.

The calm performer was a young girl, maybe a year or so younger than me, who looked completely out of place in her neat, good-girl cut dress and royal air. Soon the other performers went to the small stage for their turns. She did not seem interested in even acknowledging the other performers before their turns, but once they started to perform she would give them her full attention; her entire body focused on every aspect of the performer. I could not help the smile as I watched with her and realized that each of their nerves played against the performers. At last my turn came, so I nodded politely to the quiet girl and headed towards the stage.

I told myself to not be nervous, that I had done this countless times before, but then I looked into the crowd and spotted the scout. I gave a nervous gulp and stared blankly. I came out of my blankness as I heard the crowd begin to grumble, a moment later I remembered that I was supposed to play my guitar. Soon I began to worry that I was too late to save my performance and frowned when the scout shook his head and wrote something down. Fearing the worse, I could only think of one other thing to do. So I smiled broadly and decided to at least sing the song I chose, if for nothing else than because I was already up there.

It was a country-western-like bar, and assumed that the crowd would rather listen to country music than pop or metal, so I chose the song accordingly. I don't remember exactly what happened as I played, but it seemed to sound better than when I practiced it. The applause erupted then came at an end, signaling me to leave the stage and for the girl to take my place.

As she took the stage and I a seat, I listened to the older men whistle and cat-call her, only for the girl to smile pleasantly at them. She then spoke up in a voice that could only be described as musical, "I apologize, but there seems to be a mistake. Like you, I only came to listen to the new performers yet they assumed that I was to sing for you also," she then looked to me and continued, "If it is not too much to ask, would it be alright for this young man to play in my place. He seemed to have a wonderful connection with his music that I for one would love to hear more of."

I could not help the blush that came to my face due to the compliment and the sound of them wishing for me to take the stage again. I smiled more than before as I took the stage, and played several more songs much to everyone's enjoyment. At last I left the stage when I noticed that the allotted time was over. At first I started to walk towards the scout, but I then noticed the girl from before leave the bar in a hurry. I knew that I should have talked to the scout and at least hear him out, but all I could think of was my wish to thank the girl. After all, if she had not said that stuff than maybe I would not have gotten such a good chance to play.

So I followed her out of the bar and down a side street, my guitar simply slung over my shoulder instead of in its case. I soon caught up with her, and called out to her to stop so that I could talk to her. In response, she turned around and stared angrily at me before she said, "What are you doing here? Get away from me quick!"

Slightly confused by what was happening, I began to mumble out a 'thanks' only to stop when I spotted the scout ahead of us. He smiled as he walked up to us, and I was not sure why but the girl looked nervous to see him. The scout then commented, "There you are Mr. Fox. And I see you also found the beautiful Miss Celeste for me. I guess this is what they call hitting two birds with one stone."

I watched confused as the man took out a pad of paper and began to read from it something about jungles and vines. My confusion then turned to alarm as the girl gave out a shriek and I noticed the random amount of litter in the alley transform into word-covered vines which moved across to the girl and me before they bound her legs.

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed as I quickly knelt down and tried to pull the vines off her; only for the vines to begin to attack me.

"Play something, a song, anything!" the girl cried out as the vines moved faster up her and covered her mouth and throat.

Play a song? Was she insane? Here she was being suffocated by some weird vines that a guy read into existence and she wanted me to sing a song? Upon more thought over this nonsense that I was observing, I decided why not and tried to think of a song to play. I'm still not sure why, and I kind of wish I could say it was a cooler song, but the first to come to mind was an old summer camp song about campfires.

As I strummed the first few opening chords, I could feel a great, burning power from my fingertips. Later, I would learn that my stress from the situation most likely caused my abilities to take form and appear in an awesome way. Anyways, I then sang out, "Flicker of the campfire," only to see a spark of firelight appear and land on the plant-matter. I did not let this get in my way as I continued to sing until the vines turned into smoldering cinders and my guitar lit on fire.

At this point, I first realized that I should move my hand out of the fiery center of the guitar, ending with me holding the instrument like a club. I then realized that the scout had stopped reading in favor of rushing at us in hopes to grab the girl who had fainted. Again without really thinking, I moved between them and used the burning guitar like it was a bat and the scout's head a baseball.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, girl, are you okay?" I asked the girl as I shook her until she woke up.

"Where are we?" She asked, only to then rush to her feet as she noticed we were surrounded by ashes and the scout lying on the ground unconscious with a slightly singed face. She then continued, "Oh my God, we need to get out of here before someone finds him."

"Sure, as long as you explain what the hell just happened," I answered as I also got to my feet and casually took the scout's wallet. Call it bad taste or not, but my guitar was now ruined from helping this girl and a good one is not cheap. She gave me a look as if unsure if she could trust me, only to then nod, grab my hand, and run off with me.

We stopped a few paces later when a new group of people appeared with a car. Like the last time, they seemed to know this strange girl, but this time she looked actually happy to see them. It also did not hurt that she happily called out, "Simon, what took you?!" and hugged a middle-aged man who held a car door open for her.

I cautiously walked up to the cars with her, a firm grip on my ruined guitar. The Simon-guy eyed it like a dangerous weapon, only to then turn back to the girl and asked, "I take it you found some fresh talent, Miss Celeste?"

"It was horrible, if this young man was any less than I thought of him then I would not be here right now," the girl, who was apparently called Celeste, answered.

"I see," Was all Simon replied as he continued to watch me, "I suppose a thank you is in order."

"Ya, that's great, now about that explanation she promised," I began.

"In good time, but it is first my priority to take her home to rest," Simon began coldly. He then looked down at Celeste, who gave him a pleading look. He sighed disgruntled, then asked me, "Would you like to come with us to rest and hear what this is about?"

Without verbally answering, I slid into the car next to Celeste and soon we were off to where would be my home for the next long while.

3: Chapter Two

Chapter two: 

After I reached our destination and was allowed time to rest, I expected an explanation on how I was able to set a guitar on fire by singing. Instead, I was more or less told exactly what I told you in the prologue. Magic exists in works of art. Anyone who appreciates the arts can sense it, but only those destined to be masters in their medium can use the magic. Because of this, magic users had throughout time looked for those with talent to use magic in order to teach them and pass the knowledge down, like in some old time guild. Apparently, I had always been destined to join the magic guild for music and it only took until now for everyone to realize that.

And like any guild, organization, group, or insert catchy word here, they did not all get along with each other. Because apparently inter-group cooperation would be too boring for groups of magic-using artists. From what I was told, the scout was from the literature guild which was actively against the music guild, and who was trying to kidnap this guild faction’s heir. An heir who I just so happen saved for no reason other than that it seemed like a good idea at the time.

So was a given a great reward? Like riches, the cute girl’s hand, some kind of compensation? …Not really. Due to my obvious talent, I was instead more or less told that I was to move into the old servant hall of their mansion and learn to focus my magical talents by joining their trainees. So if you want to look at free room and board plus on-the-job training as a reward then ya, I got one, too bad it isn’t even a good enough one to replace my guitar!

But they had bluntly told me that it was either this and give up on my dream of any kind of fame or take the risk of other guild factions trying to kill me, so I took it. Two months had passed since then, and I had found myself doing not much of anything that I had thought of as training.

The trainees they had me join was run by Simon, and instead of actually learning about my powers we spent most of our time acting as security. This meant that I spent a lot of my time running drills, learning the layout of the estate, and only occasionally practicing on a guitar that the guild loaned me. None of this exactly screamed magic lessons.

I was not sure if it was a bright side or not, but I at least was not the only ‘new recruit’ as Simon called us. We got along as well as could be expected, and I was slightly surprised at how varied we all were. Not that I really should have been, it was just that most of them were more genre or instrument-focused than I was. 

Anyways, two months soon passed and we were told that soon we would be given our new roles in the guild until a spot for apprenticeship opened up. If we were lucky, we would quickly move up from mere security to apprentices and start to learn more about our abilities. It was just my luck, however, that the day Simon was making his decisions I decided to take a break and miss all of my duties in favor of trying to recreate the fire I made that one fate-filled night.

“Idiot,” was all Simon could say as he approached me after finding me. He then looked at the slight scorch marks in the meticulously cared for garden and continued, “Obviously you lack the self-control for magic and the perseverance for my force.”

With this said he shook his head and headed on his way without telling me what he wanted me to do. The next morning the other trainees and I were told where we would now work. And apparently he decided to put me into grounds keeping. When asked about this he replied, “You should at least learn to clean up your own messes, starting with scorch marks to grass.”

It seemed completely unfair to me, I mean, I thought that I was supposed to be learning how to use my abilities, or to at least practice more of my playing, not mow a lawn! So I trudged to where the main grounds keeper was and was told to clean out the fountains. With an internal sigh, I grabbed a trash bag and walked to the first fountain I could find.

It’s usually peaceful on the grounds, as I quickly found out. At first it surprised me since the guild was filled with people constantly singing, playing instruments, or talking about doing so. It was kind of eerie at first how secluded some of the distant areas on the grounds could be. Several hours of work had passed, and I was starting to grow tired of this quietness when a hyper voice called out, “Hey, hey, new guy! What’cha doing?”

Confused as to who was calling me, I looked behind me to find an elementary-aged girl standing there. She was the faction leader’s younger daughter Fifer, and was mainly like any other hyper-active ten-year-old girl who liked music and had a princess movie obsession. Normally, I would see her with her sister Celeste or one of her parents, or in the very least with a body guard, but at that moment she was alone with me.

“So, what’cha doing?” she asked again with a slight giggle; the same blue eyes as her sister staring expectantly at me.

“Working,” I answered as a held up a hand of fermenting leaves, sludge and insect larvae. She walked closer to get a better look at the concoction, only to then hold her nose when the smell hit her. I could not help the laugh that came from seeing her distorted face, causing me to then reply, “Not as nice smelling as the flowers, is it.”

“So why are you playing with it?” the little girl asked after watching me fling it into my garbage bag.

“I’m not playing with it, I’m taking it out of the fountains so that they don’t get filled with it and stink even more,” I answered. She seemed to buy this, or at the very least she nodded at it then looked around the gardens bored. Not entirely wanting her to leave and the conversation to stop, I asked her, “What about you?  Did you just get back from school?”

She gave a big smile at this and nodded yes, only to then decide to show me her new Disney princess backpack. I have to admit that as far as little girls go, she is not too bad, albeit a bit stereotypical at times. Like with her obsession for anything Disney princess related. Along with a new backpack, everything from her shoes to her barrettes had some princess staring at whoever she turned to look at. And I am willing to bet that most if not all the songs she knew came from their movies as well. She was also fairly energetic, and gave the impression that she would be good at sports if given the opportunity. As she showed off the backpack she ranted on about her fun in school with her friends, stopping at last to ask, “So I was thinking, is it true that it’s just as much fun in the adult world as it is to be a kid?”

“Does what I’m doing right now look like fun?” I asked with a slight laugh.

She seemed to think about it for a moment before commenting, “Well…I’d bet that it’s more fun doing this than doing homework.”

We both laughed and agreed at that. I then decided to ask, “So why do you ask? You want to drive yourself to the movies or stay up late or something?”

“Those are good reasons I guess. It would be fun to stay up however long I want to watch stuff, but I wanna get big quick so that I can be like everyone else here,” she answered truthfully.

“I see, so you want people to stop treating you like a kid. I can buy that, it still frustrates me when older guys treat me like a little kid just because I’m younger,” I replied in thought. It was true that Fifer was the youngest person staying at the mansion, and no one seemed to really like being treated as young and in the way.

“Ya, but you’re still luckier ‘cause your older. You and everyone else can at least use your magic,” Fifer countered with a slight pout. To this I simply stared blankly at her and asked, “So then you can’t? Is that why you don’t seem to have as many people watching you as your sister.”

“Big Sis is a prodigy, even if she rarely uses her power. And she’s the oldest heir, that’s why so many people watch her. Most people don’t realize their ability to use magic until they’ve had years to get used to and master their medium; their teens at the earliest. But Big Sis was able to first summon things through music when she was a little younger than me. Mom and Dad say that it’ll take me a long time to get to her level and use magic. But it’s just, I don’t know, not fun being the only person in this whole place who can’t do that stuff.”

Again I could not help but nod that I understood her predicament. Okay, so I never exactly had her issue, but anyone can understand wanting to belong to something. And even though I barely knew how to use my abilities it was still more than she could do. I then decided to ask, “So what are you going to do when you’re older and have your magical abilities?”

She stopped pouting at this and instead smiled as she explain, “When I’m older, even if I don’t get any powers, I want to travel and have adventures like in movies and stories. Then on the adventures I’ll meet a great guy and fall in love. And then I guess I’ll settle down to help Big Sis with guild stuff and raise all of the kids I’ll have,” and so she continued happily explaining as she walked around the fountain and followed me to the next. At last she ended, “When I get older, it’ll be like my life can finally start!  I just can’t wait!”

The energy she placed into her expectations for herself was infectious, and I soon found myself smiling and nodding to her. She then looked over to me and asked, “So then do you understand what I’m saying.”

“Of course, I mean, do you expect me to want to look after this yard for the rest of my life. The older guys said that because of my abilities it’d be best for me to lay low until i've master them better, but that does not mean that I want to be cooped up forever,” I answered. 

She smiled more at this, only to then decide to take her homework out of her bag and sit down next to me. After a moment to settle down, she commented, “It really is quiet this far from the house, it makes focusing a lot easier. And I bet you could practice singing all you want without anyone overhearing you.”

“True…are you expecting a song now or something?”

“Well, it’s just that Big Sis said that you have a good voice so I was curious,” Fifer commented, only to then pout when a chuckled at her.

“My singing might distract you from your homework.”

“No it won’t, I always listen to music when I do my homework.  Do you know anything I might know?”

“I kind of doubt it,” I answered honestly as I searched my mind for any Disney song that I knew all of. At last I was able to think of a song that I knew most of, only for her to join in for the parts that I did not know and for this to continue for several more songs. 

4: Chapter three

“So how was your time cleaning fountains with the little princess?” my roommate asked as I walked into our room from the shower.

The room I stayed in this mansion was about the size as a small dorm room which I shared with one of the other trainees. His name was Beril, a pianist a couple years older than me, who spent as much time on his laptop as he did working and practicing. The room itself was not much more interesting than a normal dorm room. It had two beds, two dressers, our instruments, and other random items needed for minor convenience. And like any other dorm room, it had the downside of a walk down the hall for the bathroom and shower.

“Fountains still seem to purposefully collect leaves to annoy me and Fifer is still obsessed with following me around,” I answered as I toweled off my head; causing my rust colored hair to stand in odd-angled clumps. About one week had passed since I started garden duty, of that time Fifer had decided to follow me around in the afternoons. I had to admit that the rest of the time was a bit too quiet for my taste, leading to me filling in a lot of the time by singing to the songs that came on my IPod. I got to admit, one of the perks of garden duty is that as long as work gets done no one is around to complain if I listen to music or not. Along with keeping myself company by doing so, I had also learned a bit more about my magical skill.

It happened earlier that day when the song I was singing caused a gust of wind to blow most of the remaining leaves off of a nearby tree. Usually when I sang songs, I did not feel anything different, but with that song it felt like before when I set my guitar on fire. When I talked about it with Fifer, she said that according to her tutors it was similar to how only certain people could use magic. Only certain songs and such given enough emotion of their own could bring about magic.

For someone who cannot use magic, she sure knows a lot about it.

“If you want I heard of a chance to get you into a cooler job,” Beril offered as he looked up from his laptop. He had joined a few months before me, and due to his knack for gathering information he had been placed in records until he was deemed apprentice-ready. It suited a guy like him, I thought, and worked out well for me since he liked sharing what he learned.  He also understood my initial complaints about my job and seemed eager to give me any help he could.

“So what’s this ‘cooler job’ you found?” I asked.

“Well…bear in mind that it’s really just cooler compared to what you’re currently doing, okay. Apparently there’s going to be some party next week and some of the higher ups were talking about possibly needing more security for it. There’s supposed to be the leader and his family from the nearest faction of the Dance guild, not to mention it would mean some time for you to get a better look at Celeste. And don’t you dare try to deny it buddy, one look at your face and you can tell that you think of her that way,” Beril answered then laughed at my face as I blushed slightly at the mention of Celeste.

Okay, so I can’t exactly lie and say that I felt nothing for the girl. I mean, I thought that she was cute the first time I saw her in that bar. And maybe those feelings got a bit more in-depth since I saved her. Besides, take away all this magic stuff I’m still a teenage boy susceptible to…crushes. It doesn’t mean that he had to point it out! 

And there were other issues with his idea to begin with. Wanting to stop his laughing, I threw my damp towel at his head and said, “You’re supposed to be the smart one, remember, so think this through. I mean, for starters that would be a new job for only one day then back to lawn care for me.”

“That’s why you bring you’re A-game and make everyone have a good impression of you. I mean, people already know about you since you saved her a few months ago. And you have the younger sister in your pocket. All you need to do is get some of the big wigs on your side then you can say goodbye to algae,” he reasoned.

“Okay…and how am I supposed to set a good impression as security when I have no more control over this magic stuff then I did when I first used it?”

“And how do most people stop problem characters when they can’t use magic? I mean, you don’t exactly strike me as a weakling or a pacifist.”

 “Even if I did ask, they would probably just use me as a butler or something. And that sounds way too stuffy for me.”

“It could still mean getting a new job before it starts snowing. Or what, are you worried about looking stupid in front of Celeste?”

“Dude, just stop trying to embarrass me! Or I swear if you ever find a real girl I will make your life miserable,” I threatened only to then flop on his bed and glare at his laptop’s screen.

“Ooh, scary. In that case maybe I’ll stop letting you borrow my computer. By the way, tomorrow. You got it off too, right?”

“Ya, why? You wanna do something?” I asked confused by the sudden topic change.

He gave me a cheeky grin and replied, "Got a chance to book one of the practice rooms with a real nice piano. If you don’t have any plans I could let you practice with me. Besides, I figure it’s been a while since you played a guitar in something with better acoustics than this room.”

I thought the invitation over for a moment. Sure, while on the job I could practice my singing all I wanted, but it was different for my guitar skills. And since I had not really seen anyone else use music to make magic it might be interesting to see what could happen. At last I agreed, only for him to once again give out a loud hoot upon seeing that his show on his laptop had finished buffering. Curious and bored, I scooted closer to see what he was watching, only to be met by a 90s rock guitar solo and the opening to an old show.

When it came to entertainment, Beril had a passion outside of music which at times could be concerning. Like Fifer’s obsession for Disney, my roommate was obsessed with Japanese animated series. Unlike Fifer, however, his obsession was not as obvious unless you knew where to look. Mainly, you would need to look at his laptop’s screen saver and browser history or listen to what he played when he knew no one was paying any attention. But this did not stop it from being anymore awkward when he got riled up over something in a show.

After living with him for this long, I had decided a bit ago to at least sit down and see what the big deal was, and was pleasantly impressed. The music for most of the series was pretty good, even if most of the time I could not understand a word of it, and while at first I thought it would be childish I was soon shown how mistaken I could be at times. Needless to say, I soon found myself watching the show with him late into the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So how do you want to do this, you play a song then I do?” I asked as I re-tuned my guitar. It kind of sucked that I only had an acoustic guitar to play on, but I saw it as better than nothing. Next to me was the big, fancy piano Beril mentioned the other day; my roommate testing the instrument for any flaws.

The practice room he got was a good size, with much better acoustics and a large open area in the center. Morning sunlight came in from a large window which gave the room a view of the backyard of the mansion. I was actually getting pretty excited for practice.

“We could, or do you know any songs that use both a guitar and a piano. With two common instruments like those we should be able to at least think of one song,” Beril offered. With this said, the two of us tried to think of a song that the both of us knew, only to stop at the same time when we heard something from the room next door.

It sounded like singing, but I could not remember the last time that I heard someone sing as beautiful as that. The fact that I did not recognize the song also made me curious.  Practically compelled by the notes, the two of us left our instruments where they were and walked out of the door to the next room over.

Once there, I quietly opened the door a bit to get a view as to who was singing and to hear the music better. On the other side of the door was a smaller practice room with a girl standing in the center looking out the window as she sung. To be more accurate, standing on the other side of the door singing was Celeste. Like the night I first met her, she was wearing a simple, blue sundress with a white, long-sleeved shirt underneath it. Her long, blond hair was tied into a messy bun, but at the time I was too awestruck by what I heard and the other thing I saw to notice these small details.

As she sang the song, a pair of wings white like her shirt appeared from her back. All I could think of was how this girl not only had a voice like an angel but also had the wings of one! 

Beril or I must have gasped, or she chose that moment to open her eyes and see our reflection in the window. As suddenly as her singing began, it ended with her turning around and staring annoyed at us.

“Sorry, Miss. We were about to practice in the next room over when we heard your singing and were called by it. We really didn’t mean to interrupt your practice,” Beril apologized, realizing that spying on a girl did not look all that good for us.

“Not that you need to practice! I honestly can’t remember the last time I heard something so beautiful. And those wings! What were you singing anyways?” I blurted out.

She seemed slightly embarrassed by my comments and questions, but at last she replied, “I was just looking for a quiet place to try singing a new song I heard. If I had wings then it would mean I was right in thinking that the song would give me them. Now if you would excuse me.”

“Hey, wait!” I quickly called out as I grabbed her thin wrist. I then continued, “Like he said, we were just about to practice. Do you want to practice with us? I mean, I know that the two of us aren’t even apprentices, but you know what they say about more being merrier.”

Again she looked at me shocked by how I was acting, and I could not help but think that the face made her look cuter as I gave her my biggest smile. I lost the smile, however, when she replied, “I thought you were a solo actor. Thanks for the offer but no, I’d rather spend my day by myself.”

With this said she broke free of my grip and headed down the hall. Spotting my frown Beril simply shrugged and commented, “Women. Don’t get too down on me, she’s probably just tired of always being surrounded by people. Now come on, let’s actually start practicing before my times up!”

 The two of us then returned to our room and started to play music. Soon the room was filled with our playing, and I was slightly bummed to not have anything out of the ordinary happen. Once the song was over, we began to discuss the next song as I looked out the window. There I saw Celeste sitting on a bench in the yard, staring at the nearby trees. That was when I noticed that something was not correct.

5: Chapter four

At the time, I could not exactly describe what I saw that startled me, it was more or less one of those gut instinct things. The sun was still shining, and it was not like time slowed down or something, but it seemed like someone else was watching the yard; only from the yard itself. This feeling felt similar to something from before, but what?

I must have looked out of it as I desperately searched the area for what was wrong, because I then heard Beril ask, “Yo, Dylan, you know you kind of look desperate staring so intensely out the window at her.”

“Do you see anything off?” I asked as I stopped scanning the surrounding trees and shrubs in favor of watching the ground. I was not completely sure, but it almost looked like the grass was moving from a wind but the trees were completely still.

“Not really, but then again how should I know? I don’t really have reasons to go outside all that often,” Beril answered as he looked between the window and me confused.

Whatever was happening, Celeste must have recognized it also since she suddenly stood up and stared at the spot of grass. I then remembered where I felt like this before: the time when she and I first met and were attacked.

Before I understood what I was doing, I found myself running through the halls and to the doors which lead to the back yard; my borrowed acoustic guitar still strapped around my neck. By the time I reached the yard and turned towards Celeste’s direction, I saw what had come this time.

Upon seeing the thing finish forming, all I could do was gulp. Unlike simple vines like last time, this time a genuine monster stood in my way. It looked a bit like a human, if humans were normally eight or so feet tall and beaten a few too many times with the ugly stick. Its arms and legs were as big as small tree trunks. Its skin was the color of the stones which formed part of the garden’s path and its hair was the color of the dying grass. Along with this, the creature was covered in words and sentences describing it. 

One word in particular stuck out to me: Ogre.

Several thoughts raced through my head at this point: What was the ogre supposed to do now? Where was the person who summoned it? How long would it take for the others in the house to realize it was here? How was I supposed to deal with this when I hardly knew what I was doing?

As if looking for an answer, I looked towards Celeste to see her watch the creature terrified while mumbling something. She was most likely trying to sing something to help her, but upon noticing her lips move the ogre barreled at her and roughly swatted her off her feet. She gave out a cry of pain as she fell on her side.

At that moment, it did not matter what I could do. I just knew that I had to do something.

“Hey, ugly! If you’re looking for a fight come over here!” I yelled out at the creature tauntingly. The thing was huge, certainly someone had to also see it and would come out to help. I just needed to buy enough time for that to happen and distract it from hurting Celeste again.

The taunt worked and it began to lumber over towards me. I could not help but smile blankly as no new plan came to mind. Subconsciously, I gripped at the neck of the guitar and watched as it got closer. Twenty yards, ten yards, five yards.

A song, play something, anything!

Celeste’s words from last time sprung to mind as my hands slipped into position. But again I asked myself what to play? I knew that only certain songs could work, so what song could help me? 

By now the monster was too close for me to think without being pummeled, causing me to spring out of the way as its fist slammed into the ground where I stood seconds before. I then ran several yards to the side and stared at the area, noticing the sandy ground that the broken stones and torn up grass failed to hide. The site must have reminded me of the show Beril and I watched the night before, and at that moment all I wished was that I had an electric guitar to make the song sound better.

The show took place in a desert, filled with sand like what I just saw, and with all of the energy naturally stored in that song plus my current adrenaline maybe it could work for me now.  It was an instrumental, and all I could remember were the same few chords, but that did not matter.

Before I knew it the feeling of magical power began to well up in me as the ground became covered in the sand. Soon the ogre found itself stuck in a sand dune as a sandstorm raged around us. Then as if it gave up on everything, the ogre gave out a loud grunt before it collapsed to the ground.

The shockwave of its thud back to the ground was enough to break me from my concentration, only for me to gawk as the creature reverted back to grass and stone now covered in sand. I’m not sure how long I stared at the mess before I heard Simon and others rush to us and demand to know what happened.

“Dylan and I were practicing when we looked out that window and saw this huge thing about to attack Miss Celeste,” Beril began explaining. According to what he said, while I was rushing to protect Celeste, he tried to find someone to help get rid of it; leading to the group in front of me.

“Celeste, Dear, are you alright? What were you doing outside alone?” her father asked as he left the group to see if his eldest was injured.

“I’m fine, Father. I simply came outside to get some fresh air when I was attacked,” Celeste bluntly answered her father.

Her father looked her over one last time to make sure. He then threw a protective arm around her and ordered, “Search the entire estate! Whoever summoned that thing must have been close by and I want to make sure that the rat does not get out only to try this again. And Celeste, until this reader is found I don’t want you out here alone, understand. Now move people!”

After giving this quick speech, the group split into bits as people rushed around to check the yard for any sign of the intruder. As they did this, I simply stooped by were the ogre fell and stared at the mound of sand and stone and zoned off. Simon was the one who broke my trance when he commented, “You sure must like wrecking the grounds, trainee. But I guess in this case it was for a good cause.”

At first all I could do was blink at him. I then responded, “Do you guys really think that the person who summoned that thing is still here?”

He seemed to think the question over for a moment, only to then answer, “Personally, I doubt it. Or in the very least the guy is running as fast as he can to some safe place.  Summoning something like that into existence must have taken a lot of energy, so the reader will be drained. Along with that, the reader was obviously somewhere nearby.”

“Obviously?”

“Do you really think that a little sand caused that thing to die? No, you may have slowed it down, but the only reason it stopped was because the reader stopped focusing on it and decided to scram when he most likely saw reinforcements arrive. Most likely the reader was going to grab Miss Celeste once the ogre captured her. Needless to say, the meeting with our allies cannot come soon enough with how bold these readers are getting.”

I felt too tired to speak at that time. I did not realize just how tired I was until that point, so instead I simply nodded an understanding. Simon then told me to go back inside and rest.  Slowly, I started to get into a standing position, only for Beril to slap me on the back and comment, “Now are you glad that I introduced you to anime?”

I was a bit dizzy when I stood up, and I guess Beril’s slap was enough to send me back down because the next thing I remember is falling face first into the mound of sand. 

 

                       

“You know, it’s kind of cool that you can use magic by both just singing and by playing the guitar,” Beril commented that evening as he pecked at his keyboard. After the fight with the ogre, I had fainted and Beril more or less dragged me back to our room. A few hours after that I woke up, but had yet to gain the motivation to leave my bed.

“That right? Have you ever even tried singing magic before?” I asked as a glanced over at him. 

“Course I have tried singing, but my voice sucks so I never really tried too hard. But it’s not only me. From what I’ve heard and read, most of the other members in our faction – let alone the guild - only have their one mode of magic and that’s it. If it’s singing their screwed if they lose their voice, if it’s with an instrument their screwed if without it. But you said earlier that you can use magic without your guitar, then today you used magic without singing a single note. My friend that is one seriously nice skill.”

“You have got to be over exaggerating. I mean, it’s common for people who play an instrument like mine to also sing. Are you really trying to tell me that I’m the only one who can sing, strum, and summon?”  I asked. The odds just seemed not right for that to be the case.

Shrugged simply shrugged to this and answered, “I didn’t exactly say you were the only one, just the only one that I can think of right now. I’m sure that there are others like you that I just don’t know about.”

I’m not sure why, but for some reason this comforted me a little. A new question then came to mind, causing me to ask, “Do you know why those literature guys keep attacking us?”

“Not really. All I ever hear is how a lot of people talk down about them and the arts guild. Not that I really understand why. I don’t know, maybe I just watch too much stuff, but think about this way for a moment. Some of the oldest songs passed down to us are used to tell stories and literature, a tradition which continues to this day. And that same music can be used to motivate peoples’ feet to dance and hands to sculpt or sketch what they imagine from what they hear. Likewise, sometimes what a person sees drawn can inspire a song or story or dance. It can all be kind of this huge mess of mediums all tying back to the same inspiration. When I think about it that way, these feuds don’t make the most sense.”

I could follow his reasoning, but I still got lost; causing me to think it out.  At last I offered an idea, “Maybe it’s just pride. You know, like ‘what I do is the greatest and everything else sucks!’ That kind of thing.”

“Ya, I guess that tends to happen too. Here’s an idea, how about you ask some of the higher-ups during security duty next week.”

I gave him an even more confused look for this, thinking that we were past his pressuring me to try getting a new job. But he simply smiled broadly at me and replied, “While you were sleeping some people came over and asked if you could help with security; what with your abilities and all. Since you were asleep I took responsibility for you and said yes in your place.”

“Responsibility my ass!  And shouldn’t you at least try to move yourself up too?” I asked shocked by this news enough to quickly get into a sitting position so that I could stare him in the eye.

“Let me put it to you this way. With your abilities and some friendly help, you could quickly climb the ladder around here.  And as your closest friend here you would of course have me climb with you. Catch my drift?”

“So in other words you decided to be a leech,” I commented.

“What can I say, great talent doesn’t exactly stand out when surrounded by great talent. And until I get a good enough grasp on my magic to get up to apprentice level I need something or someone to help me stay as far on top as I can get,” Beril replied, his dark eyes twinkling and a devilish grin on his face as he stared back at me.

“All those songs about the devil playing the fiddle were wrong. Obviously it’s the piano and is you,” I commented with a sigh, only to earn a laugh from him as he went back to pecking at his keyboard. 

6: chapter five

I was bored. B.O.R.E.D. In movies and on TV they always make big, important dinners like this one sound exciting, and perhaps for the people actually invited to the party they could be. But for the hired help, they are either stressful if things go wrong or boring once things quiet down. And in my case, it was the later.

Maybe if I was helping with the catering or something else it would not have been so bad. At least then I would have been busy. But as part of security I guess my job was to stand around silently and look menacing. Personally, I did not really know what they were expecting if any attack were to happen. The last two ones that I knew about where by people who to me seemed pretty cowardly. I mean, attacking a girl when she is alone, running away when the odds go out of their favor? That screams “Punk” more than “Beware.”

Besides, the place was currently crawling with strong magic users.

Those invited to the event were mainly my guild faction’s family and the family of the nearest Dance faction. My group’s head, wife, and his two daughters were all dressed in their best and surrounded by several of the other masters as they enjoyed the event. The same could be said for the Dance group’s head, her husband, their son, with the group of masters they brought. The parents seemed to be about the same age as Celeste and Fifer’s parents, and from watching the two couples talk it seemed like they knew each other for a while. The son looked just as bored with the event as I felt.

The two groups had just finished their dinner and walked into the ballroom where I currently sat, most likely to have some form of after-dinner entertainment. Some dance music was struck up, followed by the two groups joining to dance. I always thought that such stuffy behavior had been phased out of society by now, but apparently the wealthy like to stick with classic entertainment.

It was starting to get late, and so far the only entertainment I found was in watching Celeste stomp on the feet of the dance group’s heir during their dance. It was obvious that it was intentional, since she then danced with Simon perfectly. But I soon grew bored of watching the same people the entire time, and in my boredom rummaged through the pockets of my suit for something to entertain me.

Nothing. Stupid almost-never-worn suit with its empty pockets. That was my last hope! At the rate this was going I could literally feel myself dying of boredom.

I then spotted my life saver.

Someone had left a pen from taking notes on a nearby refreshment stand. Making sure that no one was paying me any attention, I slinked over to the stand and swiped the pen before anyone else noticed it. With the pen in hand, I then leaned against a wall and began doodling on the palm of my hand.

I suppose now would be a good time to talk a bit more about myself. I’ve never had the longest attention span, so before I dropped out of school I was that kid who used to doodle all the time instead of pay attention to the teacher. I got pretty decent at the typical body art doodles too, so much so that some of the classmates would ask me to draw on them. Of course, the teachers did not approve of this, which lead to me changing to only doodles on places the teachers could not see.

Slowly and careful to insure that no one paid me attention, I began to ink a little skull and crossbones onto my palm. I suppose I was focusing so much on this that by the time I was almost done I almost missed Fifer standing next to me staring at my hand. Needless to say, when I did notice her it startled me a little.

“I didn’t know you draw. Can I get a better look?” Fifer asked innocently.

“It’s not really a drawing so much as a doodle,” I replied modestly as I lowered my palm so that she had a better view.

“It’s cute,” the little girl proclaimed after she inspected the doodle.

“It’s a skull and crossbones. It’s supposed to look awesome, not cute,” I retorted.

“Oh? I think I’d rather have something cute. So why’d you draw it? Aren’t you having fun at the party?” Fifer asked.

“Let’s just say this isn’t my thing. So ya, I guess this is kind of boring for me.”

“I see,” Fifer commented in thought. She then remembered something and continued, “One of my friends at school draws stuff on herself and paper all the time. But she usually draws hearts and flowers and stuff like that. This is kind of like that, right?”

“Ya, I guess so.”

“Can you draw something on me too?” she asked as she held out her hand for the picture.

“I guess…what do you want me to draw? Something to match your princess dress?”  The princess dress part was not only because of the nickname my roommate had for her. It was also because the fancy dress she wore did look a bit like something a movie princess would wear.

She agreed with the idea of a matching picture, and promptly told me to draw something. At first I was at a loss for what to draw to appease the little girl, ending with me drawing a little, black rosebud to match the roses embroidered on her dress. She frowned slightly when she first looked at it and proclaimed, “It’s not as cute as I would have thought,” only to then smile and thank me.

“And what are you thanking him for exactly?” Simon asked as he walked up to us. It was at that moment that I realized that he had most likely watched me for some time and decided on now to confront me. He stared coldly at Fifer’s hand as she tried to hide the rosebud behind her back. He then looked to me and asked, “I don’t remember telling you that drawing was part of security duty.”

“And it’s not like there’s that much to be securing. Come on, not a single interesting thing has happened all night!” I weakly defended.

He ignored my comment and instead ordered, “Give me that pen then go wash off those pictures, both of you.”

“But I like my doodle,” Fifer complained as she looked up angrily at Simon.

“They’re just fun, little pictures. It’s not like they can do anything here,” I continued.

“We have a rule in this place that no one is supposed to have tattoos or inking on their person which could be considered dangerous,” Simon replied.

“Really? I mean really? This is a guild centered on music! What, am I really the only rock-n-roll guy to ever join here? It’s completely normal for musicians to have tattoos of this kind of stuff,” I argued.

“For the past almost ten years our guild has not only been against the literature guild but also the arts. And if what we have been told is correct, than the art guild has sent an assassin against us who could attack any day. Now do you even know what that doodle you gave yourself stands for? Poison. If we were attacked at this moment, the assassin could use that picture to poison you and anyone within arm’s reach of you. As for her little flower…”

“Okay, I get it. These feuds have been going on for a while and you’re paranoid. I guess if it means that much to you I can wash it off,” I yielded, deciding that it was easier to back down than fight something as pointless as this. 

Though it did kind of irk me. Here I was getting yelled at for breaking a rule that was so obvious to everyone else that they never bothered to tell it to me. And what was with all of this assassin talk all of a sudden?

I simply shook my head disappointed as I walked to the bathroom with Fifer so we could wash off the doodles. The girl still looked upset about being ordered to wash it off, and every once in a while I could hear her mumble out something about it not being fair. Wanting to try to cheer her up again, I commented, “Hey, Princess, don’t worry too much about it. I still don’t know how a little rosebud is supposed to be dangerous, and I bet once things calm down no one will care if you have a doodle on you or not.”

She shook her head sadly as this, but then weakly smiled at me.  She then replied, “Thanks Dylan. It really is sad to get rid of such a pretty doodle though.”  

7: chapter six

“Hey, Dylan, have you seen my sister around recently?” Celeste asked. A few days had passed since the party, and I was back on garden duty with everything going as normal. Though Celeste walking up to and asking me about her sister was definitely not what I came to expect as normal.

“Not today. Why do you ask?” I answered then asked. I looked at my phone for the time and saw that it was past when she usually found me. I guess I was so busy making sure things were cleaned up for winter that I did not notice how much time had passed. Still, it was a little odd that Fifer had not shown up yet.

“She has not been seen anywhere since we got back from school. And with everything that has been happening…my parents and I are just a little worried that something might happen,” she answered, worry outlined on her face.

I nodded in understanding. The entire place had been riled up since that last attack and news got out of an assassin. It only made sense that she and their parents would be worried about their youngest family member disappearing.

I honestly had no idea where Fifer was, and the fact that enough time had passed for people to start wondering where she was concerned me. But at the same time I did not want to leave Celeste worried. So I said the first comforting thing that came to mind, “You know, the place is really big. And she is always talking about wanting to go on adventures. Maybe she decided to have an adventure around the area instead of follow me and do homework.”

“But why would a little girl want to go on an adventure by herself? And what kind of adventure could she have inside the estate?” she argued.

I simply shrugged to this and offered, “Who knows? Secret pathway in the building? A good tree for climbing? Or maybe something happened at school and she simply wants to be alone and sulk.”

Celeste simply nodded at these ideas, her look of worry still on her face. At last she commented, “I was really hoping that she was with you, but could you please keep an eye out for her? And thanks for trying to cheer me up.”

With that she walked away, back to the mansion. It was close to when I normally called it a day, so I finished my task, returned my equipment, then headed inside to warm up and relax. I knew winter was still supposed to be a month away, but apparently someone forgot to tell that to the weather. More importantly, someone forgot to tell the cold wind.

Maybe she really did decide to hole herself up somewhere inside instead of play in the cold.

 

“Wake up, Dylan. Sounds like we won’t be doing our normal jobs today,” Beril commented as he tiredly closed the door. It was the day after my talk with Celeste, and Fifer had yet to be found. Due to this, it was decided that more people were needed to help look for the little girl; leading to us being awoken early to help search.

“I heard. Seriously, how hard can it be for people to find a little girl?” I asked as I slowly got out of bed and found some clothes to throw on. I realized that I was acting like this whole thing was a bother, but at the same time I was a bit worried.

“You said yourself yesterday that they are a lot of hiding places here, especially for smaller people,” Beril commented.

“Ya, but if she was simply hiding then wouldn’t she have gotten bored of it by now and shown herself?” I asked.

“You would think, and I’m kind of hoping that’s all that is going on,” Beril answered as he finished dressing and waited for me to finish. I nodded mutely at this and the two of us left, thinking that two pairs of eyes would be better for looking than one.

The building itself was already swarmed with people looking and calling out for the girl. With all the help, they had to have already searched the entire perimeter at least once. But it was still the kind of search where even once everywhere was searched, you simply rechecked every place until the person was found. And that was what people were doing.

As we walked down the hall, I noticed Celeste and Fifer’s mother walk past us, a look of grief on her face. It almost made me wonder what they expected to find, and if this really was due to this assassin they heard about.

“Hey, where are you going off to?” Beril asked as he noticed me head towards the front door.

“There’s obviously enough people looking for her inside this building. We should look someplace else,” I reasoned. He seemed to buy this, and I soon found myself outside near one of the fountains; the one where she first started following me to be exact.

“You don’t really think she’s out here either, do you. Or at least not in a way that we want to find her,” Beril commented, reading the answer on my face. I could not put the answer into words, and instead simply nodded sadly. The girl may have been younger than me, but I still considered her my friend. She always seemed happy and excited for everything, waiting impatiently to grow up and all those plans for herself to come true. The idea that something bad happened to her just seemed…wrong.

“You know, this just doesn’t seem right. I mean, if this was the assassin you heard was coming, why attack a little girl with no power whatsoever instead of kill a legitimate target?  There has to be more to this…” Beril mused.

“Like in a show where she’s bait?”

“…Possibly. If that is the case, then it would be good news, because then she still might be alright.”

“But what exactly are they trying to catch with her?”

“Someone in her family of course. Think, you saw how worried her sister was yesterday, and her mom today. The person most likely thinks that with her family feeling that way they will walk right into whatever plan the assassin makes. Then when the family is hoping for the best, he will strike the real target and finish his job.”

“You know, that sounds pretty heartless. Please tell me that isn’t something you would do,” I commented. The idea of using such desperation sickened me, but at the same time I found myself awestruck at the idea.

“Sad to say, I may find myself siding with the villains in my shows more often that the heroes. I can’t help it, you know I tend to have a dark side,” Beril answered in a way to make it impossible to tell if he was serious or not. He laughed slightly at the face I made, then in a serious tone continued, “But if I were the assassin and I kidnapped a little girl to use as bait, this would be the point where I took her to a place giving me advantage and send a ransom note to the real target.”

“And that safe place won’t be here surrounded by the target’s bodyguards and workers. So where to take a hostage? Maybe we should ask our bosses for help,” Beril gave me a look of disgust at the idea of asking for help. Later on he would tell me that he saw this as a challenge to prove themselves capable, and that asking for help was to admit defeat. But then how were we supposed to learn if his hunches were correct?

“If it was a member from the art guild which took her then she most likely took her to a place filled with art that he could use for weapons,” Beril answered superiorly.

“Right, so we should just storm every art gallery, museum, apparel store, movie store and every house which may have more than family portraits on the wall? Even if that was possible, I don’t think that would go over that well. Not to mention it would take too much time. What if the assassin gets tired of waiting? Or if Fifer does something stupid and he gets angry with her?”

He sighed at this, thought for a moment and said, “You’re right, that would take too long. It would help if we at least knew what this assassin specialized in.  Sketches, sculpture, costumes? Maybe if we knew it could help us track her down. It also makes me wonder if the faction has told the outside people about this. I mean, what did they tell her school about her not attending today?”

“I thought that the guild did not want people who could not use magic muddling with these kinds of affairs, so I’d bet they lied about her absence at school. Celeste’s too probably,” I answered then looked back to the building. If a ransom letter were to be sent, would it have come by now? You would think that once they had an address as to where to find their daughter, the head and his wife would send all available persons out to get her back. But so far nothing.

“You might have gotten used to it from working out here all the time, but I’m getting a bit cold. Let’s head in and see if anyone has found something. If anything, maybe our idea could spread some light,” Beril commented as he shivered then pointed inside. A shiver from the cold then came to me, causing me to realize that in our concern we had spent several minutes outside in short sleeves in the cold. I agreed with the idea and we headed inside to give our idea to the higher-ups.

 

 

“So you kids think she was kidnapped? I can understand where that is coming from, but no ransom message had been found.  And if it was truly to draw out the true target, then why not simply attack while he was here?” Simon asked. The first official we found was Simon, who upon hearing that we had an idea on what happened to Fifer agreed to hear us out. At first he seemed to think over the idea seriously, but upon our finish he started to nit-pick it.

“Maybe the person just did not want to deal with too many people in cause things went wrong. Or maybe this has nothing to do with the assassin and was simply some random person who saw her one too many times on her way home from school and took a liking to her,” Beril speculated.

Simon simply shook his head to his, however, and replied, “We already have a few groups out searching the surrounding neighborhood for her along with the rest of the estate grounds, but at the same time the head has requested for more guards particularly for the rest of his family. We’re a smaller faction in the guild and this whole mess has already run us too thin for me to send two more people out to randomly search.”

“Maybe we could ask one of the other factions to help then,” I offered.

“We could, but the closest one is still a couple hundred miles away. Even if we did reach them and they got here, would it be in time to find and save her? Look, I care about Fifer as much as anyone. At times i think of her as my daughter instead of my boss'. I hate to say it, but…a lot of the searchers seem to have stopped looking for a person and more for a corpse.”

I was shocked by this. It had only been a little more than twelve hours since she vanished, and one would think that if she was killed because of the assassin there would be some trace or indication. I then took in a shaky breath and asked, “So then, have the police called or has there been news that a body has been found? News of a kid’s corpse would go public, I would think.”

“No news that I’ve heard of. Besides, none of the guilds approve of non-magic users learning of our affairs so he would have most likely had the body hidden,” Simon answered.

 “But since there has been no news of her death she could still be alive, right? We have no definitive reason to believe otherwise, right?” I pursued. At a time like this, I just felt that it would be wrong to give up hope on finding her so soon. It would be like admitting defeat before even trying.

“Look, kid, I realize that she had been hanging around you, but sometimes things happen to people who did not deserve anything bad. Now in case you didn’t notice, we’re still busy so go back to looking for her,” With that said, Simon took his leave.

I looked over to Beril, to see if he had come up with some idea as to what to do, only to see that he looked just as lost as me. Neither of us wanted to admit defeat, but without a clue what could we exactly do?

“Hey,” A voice called out, causing both of us to look up. The voice belongs to Celeste, who had just walked up to us. Seeing that she had our attention, she continued, “Do you really, honestly think that my sister is still alive?”

Her pleading face would most likely make anyone agree with her just to calm her worries, but when I told her yes I realized that I truly meant it. She gave out a sigh of relief only to then comment, “You have no idea how glad that makes me. Simon was right about people acting like they’re looking for a corpse, even my parents have seemed to give up hope.”

“Miss Celeste, we really want to help find you sister, but we need more information. Can you think of anything that might help?” Beril asked. It was at this point that I noticed that she was clutching her cellphone to herself.

She looked slightly defeated as she answered. “There was something. This morning I woke up to find a text message on my phone from Fifer’s. When I told my father, however, he said that he could not make anything from it and would not send men to follow my idea without better proof. He said that my protection came before that of my sister’s. After hearing that…I was not so sure about telling anyone else.”

“What did the message say?” I asked eagerly.

In response, she brought up the message on her phone so that we could read it:

She wished to live a princess’ life, so I gave her one of their stories.

“I can see what your dad meant, I don’t really see much in that message as to where to look,” Beril commented as he looked up from the phone.

“It has to be some kind of riddle, but what’s the answer? How is this supposed to tell us where to look?” I asked.

“I think I know where to look. About a mile from here is an old building that we always passed on our way to school. Ever since I was a little kid, the kids at our school always called it ‘the enchanted castle.’ It’s actually just an abandoned house made in a time when castle-like building were in style; I can’t remember what the building style was called. I heard that some kids would even go explore the place and use it as their make believe castle. Maybe the kidnapper heard of these stories and decided to take her there.” Celeste answered.

“Maybe…so where is this building? Dylan and I can go look for you,” Beril offered.

“What do you mean ‘we?’ Last I checked, you were pretty useless without a piano,” I rebutted. It was not that I wanted to say no to the idea; I actually wanted to check and see if she was correct. But at the same time I also disliked the idea of going into a trap without any back-up.

“Fear not, because I have a few tricks of my own. So Miss Celeste, just tell us where it is and we’ll bring her back here safe and sound,” Beril answered with that cheeky grin of his.

“Just wait a moment and I’ll take you there myself,” She answered then ran off before we could tell her no. Neither of us liked the idea of taking her to where there would obviously be danger, but when she returned and we told her this she simply blew off our concerns.

Seeing that we were not going to lose her that easily, we again waited for Beril to grab his ‘trick’ which turned out to be a piano guitar and me to grab my own instrument before we sneaked out. For a place that had apparently been told to tighten security, they should really work on not making it so easy to sneak out. Especially when all we needed to do was go to the end of the back gate and crawl under a poorly fixed whole in the stone gate. Celeste looked less than pleased to have dirt marks on her used-to-be immaculate dress, but at least we were out of the estate and soon on our way to this ‘Enchanted Castle.’

8: Chapter Seven

“So this is the ‘Enchanted Castle?’ I guess to a little kid it could look like one,” Beril commented as we stood outside an old stone building. Celeste was correct about it sort of looking like a castle, it even had a tower. And the years of weather damage and disarray of the yard certainly made it look abandoned. But then again, most abandoned houses did not have the front door welcoming open or lights on in the tower.

“You said that kids sometimes sneak in to play here, right? Any chance that someone would mistakenly be in here during school hours?” I asked. To the questions, Celeste shook her head no, telling us that she believed the only person in the building had to be the kidnapper. And Fifer.

Even though the door was wide open and only a few yards away, it still seemed to take forever for us to reach it. The problem was the overgrown grass which hid several holes, rocks, and old gardening items left by the old owners. Upon reaching the inside, we noticed that the house looked in only a little better than its yard. 

I could tell that at one time the house looked rather majestic, but that was obviously a long time ago. The inside was made mostly of wood, which due to lack of care was starting to rot in several places. The rooms with carpet smelled of mold, and several heaps of garbage from visitors littered the floor. Several windows were boarded up, with many of the ones not boarded missing the glass windowpanes. The few windows left intact were covered in so much dust that only a yellow-tinted light seemed to enter.

“When you said little girls liked to come here, I was expecting something different. Kids these days must be made of stronger stuff than I thought,” Beril commented as he overheard several high-pitched squeaks when we starting into the building.

“Every year it seems to grow worse. I would bet that no one would even want to tear it down to build another house here for fear of what they would find,” Celeste replied as she took her cell phone out to work as a flashlight.

“Let me guess, along with being a children’s castle it moonlights as the city’s haunted house?” I asked. Apparently it did not sound as good as it did in my head, because the other two ignored me.

We decided to start searching in the tower where we saw the light, thinking that it made the most logical sense, and carefully began to creep our way up the rotting stairs. After several minutes of this, we happily left them to find the door to the towers and slightly more solid ground. The door led to a small room that was in the same disrepair as the rest of the building.  It was obvious that someone had moved one of the old settees to the center of the room, where we noticed the sleeping body of Fifer.

“Fifer! Fifer, wake up! We need to get out of here!” Celeste whispered earnestly as she tried to shake her little sister awake. This failed to wake the girl, however, causing her to frantically search her for anything that could be wrong.

I then noticed something black on one of her fingertips, causing me to rush over, grab the hand and inspect the black thing. The other two then noticed this and looked at it with me.  Upon closer inspection, the black looked to be a little picture of a spinning wheel.

But what the hell was a spinning wheel supposed to mean? I then realized when I looked at the face staring at me from Fifer’s shirt, followed by the words from the text message Celeste received. Fifer was not just obsessed with those princesses, she idolized them. And now the kidnapper had decided to give her one of those roles. At last I answered our confused looks, “The kidnapper turned her into Sleeping Beauty.”

“Great, so now we need to find a prince charming to wake her up? But first how about we get out of this place,” Beril asked then offered. The dread of the building was getting to all of us, so Celeste and I eagerly agreed as I carefully picked up the unconscious girl and turned to the doorway.

Our way was blocked, however, by the return of the culprit. When I first heard of an assassin, then of a kidnapping, I was not completely sure what to expect if I saw him. Perhaps the person would look like anyone else, with maybe a tattoo or something giving them away. Maybe it would be someone taller than everyone else with a lot of muscles, or small and inconspicuous. Needless to say, if the idea of the person looking like what she actually did crossed my mind, it was only a fleeting moment.

For starters, I was not really expecting this great assassin that we were told about to be a girl. She looked to be in her mid to late twenties, wearing skintight black shorts, black tank top, combat boots, and leather gloves. Her dark spiky hair was then kept out of her face by a bright red headband. But what startled me the most were all of her tattoos. 

You see or know those people, the kind seemingly obsessed with covering every inch of themselves in ink. She would definitely fit into that group, but instead of your typical Chinese characters, names, plants, mythical or magical creatures, the majority of it were things that could be used as weapons. The most prominent ones were countless bladed weapons, prickly vines, streaks of fire, and a few symbols for poison.

No emotion seemed to pass her face as she looked at us, as if determining what to make of us. Upon seeing that we were not going to move towards her, she began to move towards us; her heavy boots causing the wooden floor to groan under the weight.

“I was not expecting the third person, but I suppose three is better than more,” she commented carelessly as she searched us over with her eyes. She then continued, “So boys, which one of you is Dylan Fox?”

I stared at her obviously confused as to why this assassin would be asking for me. I mean, sure, I might have done some stuff to tick people off in my past, but never something to call for this! And besides, I thought that the assassin was to target someone of, well, importance.

She noticed the others look at me causing her to correctly guess who I was. She watched me carefully as I slowly lowered Fifer to the ground and leaned her against a dusty wall.  Things were obviously about to get ugly, and I did not want to juggle her and try to protect us at the same time.

“If I was your target, then why go through all this trouble with Fifer? I mean, if you were able to sneak into the estate to grab her you could have just attacked me there,” I asked in a poor attempt to give us more time to think of a plan. There was three of us and one of her, there had to be something we could do to get out of this.

“Because I was curious. And because the costumer asked me to make sure that she never grew to her true potential. Be happy that I simply put her into a world of dreams instead of a permanent sleep,” the assassin answered before placing her hand over an image of a dagger on her forearm. A slight light appeared as she did this, ending with a dagger exactly like the image to appear in her grip.

Okay, I gotta admit that after watching this I was both impressed and internally freaking out. I mean, she just made a nice, sharp, pointy weapon appear just by touching her arm. I was not even sure how that was possible, but could still tell that it put us and our spotty abilities at a great disadvantage.

“But why Fifer? And then why send me the text message?” Celeste asked confused as she inched over to get between her sister and the assassin.

“One as a target in the role of the bait, one as a target in the role of an unsuccessful protector, and you in the role of fake target. But enough talk,” the assassin answered, only to then rush at us. The three of us jumped to different sides of the small room; Beril and I on one side while Celeste was on the other side with Fifer. The assassin stood in between us.

“Celeste, grab Fifer and get out of here! We’ll try to hold her off,” I called out. She obeyed without another word, and carefully picked up her sister and took her towards the stairs. At first I was a little worried if she would be able to carry the girl, Celeste was not exactly the most muscular woman I ever saw, but I suppose the adrenaline from the situation must have helped.

To our luck, the assassin made no move to follow them, her entire body focused on watching Beril and me for any sudden moves. I’m not sure how long the three of us stood still in that room, waiting for the first person to make a move.

At last someone moved, the person being Beril as he began to play a chord on his instrument. It was obviously the beginning bit to a song, one which I did not know just from one chord. In response to the sudden music, the assassin lunged at us; a quick swipe knocking him off his feet and hands off of his instrument.

“You’re new to this, and slow. Or at least slow compared to me,” She commented as she swung her bade at him again. Beril dodged the move, however, and scrambled away from her as I began to play my guitar.

I knew that I needed to play a song that would have some kind of effect, and the first one that came to me was the same song I used against the ogre. I desperately tried to play it, and I was starting to see some of the sand mixing with the dust when the assassin grabbed a chord of fire from her arm and flung it at me.

I dodged just at the last moment, rolling to a stop and feeling a burning sensation where my guitar should have been. In its place was still an instrument, only it was ruined by the fire and slowly burning to cinders. I quickly tore it off, not wanting to deal with the dead weight while cursing my luck at another ruined guitar.

She did not give me any more time than that to recover, and instead rushed at me with the dagger aimed at my head. My guitar was still in my hands, and I instinctually used it once again as a bat against the opponent. Unlike last time, however, I simply knocked the dagger out of her hands instead of the knocking her unconscious.

She looked annoyed as the dagger landed on the ground and reverted to nothing more than a pile of goo. Again she charged at me, this time ending with her kicking me in the side and sending me across the room towards Beril.

“Hey Dylan, you not out for the count yet, right?” Beril asked as he clutched his instrument and glanced at me.

“Still breathing for now-!” I began only to then yelp as I rolled out of the way before the assassin could land another decisive kick on me.

Beril and I quickly got up and rushed to different ends of the room, leaving her once again in the middle and surrounded on two sides.  He then answered, “Good, because I think I just figured out a way to get out of this.”   

9: Chapter eight

The assassin looked between the two of us, alert for the first of us to try something. As she did this, Beril and I shared a look followed by a nod. At this signal, I began to slowly clap my hands as Beril began to play a slow instrumental. Almost as soon as he played the room began to feel less tense as the crashing of distance water filled my ears. I then looked at the floor to see puddles form under our feet as the smell of salt water filled my noise.

So this was the power of soundtracks as he liked to call it.

The assassin noticed these changes as well and lunged at Beril again. Seeing that it was now my turn, as soon as her feet moved I sung out, “From the cold and winter air and mountain rain combining…”

Beril continued to play more water into the room as I sung, a slight look of relief as the assassin double-backed to attack me instead. It was then my turn to look relieved as I continued to sing and noticed Ice form around the assassin. The ice slowed her down to almost a stand-still as it moved from the floor up her body. I thought that we had surely gotten her until she touched a segment from her forearm and I realized our mistake.

The picture she touched glowed intensely as the room heated up like a furnace. The picture was of the same fire she threw at me moments before, and with the fire all the ice and water we formed vanished.

“I have to admit, using two songs like that was a good idea. And if you were both stronger than my fire it may have worked,” the assassin commented almost approvingly. I then looked to her face and saw that the battle was not completely lost.

“Don’t move!” Beril called out upon seeing the assassin take a step towards me. A loud crack then came from the floor, followed by the sensation of the ground under us giving way as the three of us fell into the room underneath the tower.

 

I groaned as I opened my eyes and saw the other two. Beril looked to be trapped underneath a bit of the floor and the assassin looked to have difficulties standing. Otherwise, she looked unharmed thanks to a large shield she summoned at the last minute.

I smiled as I saw this and quickly got to my feet to cross the small distance to her. She had just gotten to her feet at that point, and when I took her shield from her she fell into a kneeling position. I grimaced as the shield morphed into a pile of goo then fell to the floor.

“Give up lady, you lost,” I ordered cockily.

“Not yet I have not,” she replied as she slowly touched where the goo landed only for it to return into her. It made me wonder what the hell the stuff was.

After doing this, she punched straight up at my chin. I knew that if I fell backwards she would have the advantage again, and tried my best to make sure that did not happen. Instead, I fell on top of her. I held her by the shoulders tightly in case she tried something again.

I was angry, I’ll admit to it. Not only was some strange woman trying to kill me for some reason that I did not know, but she had hurt two of my friends in the process. Along with this, I was tired, stressed, and just wanted this whole mess done with. A sudden feeling of heat stopped these thoughts as I took my left hand off her and noticed a string of fire follow. At that point I realized that I had placed my hand on her fire tattoo.

She noticed this too, and screamed. Taken through a loop, I let her go and scooted off her as the fire disappeared. She shook, obviously afraid, as she commented, “But you use music to summon. How did you just take my fire?”

“I’m…not sure.”

She took several deep breaths to calm herself as she looked me over. She then answered, “I see. So that was why he wanted to gone with. You must be one of them…I can’t remember the last time I heard about someone like you being around.”

“What are you talking about? What do you think I am?” I ordered her to tell as I get to my feet. It was obvious that she was now afraid of me, but I wanted to know why this was happening. Upon seeing me walk back to her, she moved into a defensive move as she grabbed for another blade tattoo, only to then faint.

Confused, I knelt down and began to shake her, shaking of my own fatigue in the process. I then heard Beril call out, “It’s no use, she’s probably out cold. If she’s lucky one of the neighboring houses heard our fight and an ambulance will be called that can take her someplace.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s kind of two part. From what we currently see, it looks like she just fainted due to using so much magical energy; like what happened to you last time. But thanks to my geeky knowledge I was able to figure out that she was playing with a double-edged blade. It’s like in that one anime I showed you last month, even though we use magic it still has to follow a balance. I did not create the hydrogen and oxygen for the water, only made it appear from the surrounding atmosphere. Likewise, she used her body’s make-up as components for her weapons and her own energy for the fire. Let me guess, when you touch her she feels ice cold, right?”

“Dude, you must have some wicked observing skills or something,” I commented. Part of me wanted to tell him to not be so full of himself, but at the same time I realized that the complement was merited. I then grimaced as I realized that using and losing so much material from her body for her powers was most likely what did her in, and if she had chosen to fight a different way then I may have been dead at that moment.

Seeing that Beril was still trapped by his instrument, I staggered over to help him. By the time we were both free and standing, I noticed Celeste had returned and was staring at the assassin. Slowly we walked over to the girls and I asked, “Did you get Fifer out of here in time?”

She nodded then returned to softly singing a song. As she sung, her hands began to glow and she gently placed them on the assassin.

“I think I hear sirens…we should probably get going,” I continued as I cocked my head towards where the road was. I figured that I would have a hard enough time explaining all of this to my boss, let alone police officers who had no idea what any of this was about.

“Do you two think you could help me get her out of here with us?” Celeste asked.

“Miss Celeste, if the police get here to find no one then there will only be more questions asked. Besides, she did try to kill us so why help her escape?” Beril asked.

“Because she was the one who put Fifer asleep. So perhaps she could wake her up if we ask her,” Celeste answered. Someone might think that simply asking our opponent to do something nicely was a bit naïve, but when I looked at Celeste’s face I could easily read ‘by any means necessary’ on it.

I nodded an understanding and tried to lift the unconscious assassin, only to then call Beril over to help. I knew that the woman was muscular and I was not in the best of conditions, but she weighed a ton! So the now four of us slowly left the house before anyone could find us and went to where Celeste left Fifer.

10: Chapter nine

“You used two songs at once? That was both risky and creative of you. But what would you have done if one of the songs did not work? You’re entire idea would have backfired,” Celeste commented after we told her what happened on our way to where she left Fifer.

“We would have figured something out,” I answered nonchalantly. It was the truth, how I saw it, since I did not like the idea of me considering otherwise.

“I shouldn’t have left you two alone to deal with her, I’m sorry. It’s just…,” Celeste began, a look of sorrow gracing her face.

“It’s alright Miss Celeste, we understand. The whole point of us going there was to find your sister, and once we did it only made sense for you to be the one to make sure she got out alright,” Beril replied convincingly. She nodded at this as she led us to where she left Fifer.

 

 

The assassin groaned slightly as she awoke, then glared at us upon finding herself tied up in a deserted park with Beril, Celeste, and me standing over her. She then asked, “So now what? Why are we here instead of at your fancy house?”  

“Because we have a few things we want you to do for us first. Complete our tasks and we will let you go…as long as you promise not to try killing us again,” I answered. She glared at me more for this, far from amused.

She seemed to think the offer over for a moment, then asked, “What do you want with me?”

“For starters, you can wake up my sister,” Celeste demanded and moved so that the assassin could see the figure of the little girl sleeping peacefully on a bench.

“You know how the story works, she needs her true love to come and kiss her,” the assassin replied.

“And I’m thinking that you can simply take the curse off her. Do so and continue nicely with the other tasks and we won’t need to hurt you,” Celeste ordered determined.

“Fine,” the assassin sighed, looked at me, and then continued, “Release me so that I can wipe off the mark. Or if you don’t trust me you could always put her life in his hands.”

“I take it you forgot to tell me something,” Celeste asked and looked at me confused.

“During our fight, I touched that tattoo of fire on her arm and…it came out. She then said something about me being like ‘those guys.’ What do you think she meant by that?”

“You summoned fire by touching her tattoo? Are you sure that you were not humming or singing or anything?” Celeste asked in thought.

“It’s true, he grabbed her arm then pulled out a whip of fire. Then this assassin started shrieking like she came across her worse nightmare. Show her,” Beril answered then ordered me as he grabbed my wrist and placed my hand on one of her tattoos. I kind of wanted to show Celeste, but when I felt the assassin shiver under my touch I lost the ambition. If using her tattoo meant that I would be taking part of her body…the idea just seemed so wrong.

“Those guys, you know, those famous artists and such from long ago. People who were masters of multiple mediums. Renaissance men, that’s what you are!” the assassin answered rushed as I kept my hand on her arm.

“Renaissance men…I think I remember hearing about that kind of ability,” Celeste mused.

“What ability?” I replied.

“During the renaissance time and later, there was an idea of being a Renaissance man, which became sort of the stepping stone for how to be an educated gentleman. To be called a renaissance man, you had to be highly proficient in several fields such as history, languages, music, dance, and the fine arts and so on. For those like us who use art for magic, the title simply means someone who can use different mediums for magic,” Celeste explained.

“Okay, all I got out of that was that you think I am a modern-day gentleman Di Vinci…something about that does not sound right,” I commented in hopes that someone would explain better.

“I don’t know, you never struck me as the painting and inventing kind of guy. Maybe someone more like Martin Luther. He was from around that time,” Beril commented. 

“Idiots,” the assassin commented, drawing us back to the topics at hand. She then continued, “But if you are what I think you are, then it would explain why my employer wanted me to kill you.”

“Why, because I can not only write or draw but also sing? A lot of people who sing write lyrics or dance and other stuff,” I asked.

“That’s true, but a lot of them are also remembered in time more for what they are a true master of then their other hobbies. I can’t even think of another with the Renaissance man ability in our entire guild currently living,” Celeste answered.

“Okay, so my roommate is some awesome freak of nature when it comes to magic and someone told you to kill him because they knew before he even knew himself. Somehow, that does not sound as crazy as it should. So how about you tell us who paid you to kill us,” Beril commented.

She was silent for a moment, only to then quietly answer, “He goes by the name Spider. All I really know is that he uses literature for magic and that he has something my old faction of the arts guild thought was destroyed. And that he’s using that item to pull all of the strings into these guild feuds.”

“And I take it this item that he has is how he knew about my powers before I did? What kind of item are we talking about?” I asked.

“It is a loom that legend says was entrusted to my guild by the three fates themselves. It can tell the viewer anything about anyone’s past, present, or future. With this knowledge and his powers over words he has made himself almost unstoppable,” the assassin answered.

“Right, and let me guess. You took this mission in order to get close enough to this guy to take back a loom? Talk about a cliché motive,” Beril criticized. The assassin simply looked away, proving that Beril had guessed correctly.

“Okay, so then I guess having you lie and say that you succeeded would not work,” Celeste stated the obvious. She seemed startled by the mention of this Spider guy, so I decided to ask if she knew anything about him. In response she answered, “Not really, we don’t really know too much about the art and literature guild anymore. If he was a higher up then I might have heard of him, but I don’t think he is.”

“He’s like me, a freelancer, someone who is not part of a guild. But he uses that position to sway the other factions,” the assassin clarified then asked, “So are we done with these questions?”

I could not think of any more pressing questions, so I decided to untie her and order her to release Fifer. She casually looked over to the child and grabbed the hand she placed the symbol on. She then took out a pen and began to color it in, only to then wash it off.  As she did so, she commented, “At first I wondered why he would want me to stop a little girl, but after realizing what you are I think I understand.”

“You understand what?” I asked.

“You and this girl must have an important role in the future, one which he did not want to happen. So now I’d like to make a deal with you. Rufus Fox, do you want to learn more about using art to summon magic? If so I could teach you. All I require is that you give me sanctuary.”

“Wait…really?” I was sort of shocked. I mean, part of me thought that it would be great to learn anything more about all of this magic, despite the fact that I never really thought much about my art abilities. Yet did I really want to learn from someone until a few minutes ago was trying to kill me? And what was she talking about sanctuary for?

“If this guy is as powerful as she is making him out to be, then he’ll most likely come after her for failing,” Beril commented.

She nodded to this, then leaned back as she finished with Fifer’s hand. At that moment, Fifer gave out a yawn then sat up, only for Celeste to push her back down in a hug of happiness.

“What do you say?” the assassin asked.

“I never thought of myself as much of an artist, I always liked music more. Not to mention that keeping you around might mean that more people would come to cause trouble,” I answered as I thought more about the issue. Along with this, where would she even stay?

She stayed silent as I thought after this, only for my thoughts to be broken by Celeste commenting, “You have a chance here most people would never get. It would be good for our faction to have a renaissance man at his full abilities.”

“In case you forgot, I’m not even that good at my music skills. Wouldn’t it be better for me to focus on one medium at a time?”

“Actually, you may not get that chance. I mean think about it, since you first used magic you have been in three fights already. And once this spider-guy hears of her failure he could simply send more guys after you,” Beril continued.

“The extra help could give you an edge. And if your lack of training with music is the issue I could tell my father what happened and have him promote you,” Celeste persisted.

“That may not be a good idea. I may not deal a lot with guilds or factions, but I know that both the art and literature guild have active lists of anyone of importance on the opponent side.  If a sudden newbie is suddenly promoted, then it would only make him into a bigger target. Not to mention, do you really think the people he took that spot from would be happy?”

“So what you’re saying is that it would be best for me to stay as a pond de-scummer,” I clarified with a sigh. 

“Well…in that case I could teach you?” Celeste commented.   

“What are you guys even talking about?” Fifer asked confused.

“It’s a long story Fifer, I’ll tell you later,” I promised. She pouted at this, only to then comment, “Well if you ask my opinion, I like this lady. She was nice and made me a princess.”

“She was going to keep you in an eternal sleep,” Celeste retorted sternly.

“Well did you ever think that maybe I would have liked the dreams I were having. I was having so much fun!” Fifer complained.

“Perhaps they were fun now, but would they have still been fun after having it for the thousandth time?” Beril asked. Fifer thought about this for a moment, only to then shrug her shoulders undecided.

“I still think that she’s a good person,” she mumbled out quietly.

I sighed at this and commented, “Well then it sounds like all of you guys are in agreement. Which means I guess I’m going to have a busy while as I learn another medium.”

“Alright, and now things are really getting interesting,” Beril commenting triumphant.

“By the way, what’s your name? I think us just calling you assassin would make people at the estate suspicious,” I asked.

“I’m covered in tattoos, anyone would be suspicious of me,” she commented dryly.

“Tell me your name or the deal’s off.”

“…Claire. Just Claire,” the assassin Claire finally answered. With that our group decided to head back to the estate.

11: Chapter Ten

“Good God, how much can you eat?!” I asked shocked as I stared at Claire from across a small table. As soon as our group reached the estate, Claire vanished with a promise to return later. This worked out well, since there was still a lot of people around the estate looking for Fifer and I doubted her parents were in the right mind to listen to our reason of letting the assassin go free. From how they acted in the little bit I had seen them, they would most likely want Claire killed or imprisoned as soon as they saw her. As it is, she kept her promise and returned after she quickly redesigned a rarely visited garden shed into an impromptu room for herself.

The room was rugged, to say the least, and hard to make out due to the years of grim built up on the one and only window and the doors closed. In fact, unless one looked for signs it was hard to tell if anyone lived in here at all.Against one wall laid a ratty sleeping bag on a makeshift bed area created from broken patio furniture with an old citronella candle placed on a chipped, upturned pot next to it. Against the other walls were old gardening equipment consisting of more pots, rusted hoes and shovels, and rakes along with a well-used folding chair. Snaked through a hole in the corner was the head of a hose, which I could only assume Claire decided to use for water. There was also a small duffel bag in the center which I could only assume came from Claire and worked as the only clue that anyone was in here for a longer amount of time. 

Feeling a little bad about a girl living in such a place, I asked her if she was truly alright with this. She gave me a confused look to the question then explained that she had stayed in worse before she quickly changed the subject to me taking her out to get food. My room and board cover most of the money I would earn, so I don’t really get a lot of money to spend.  She failed to accept my chance to turn her down, however, and instead dragged me and Beril to an all-you-can-eat restaurant in the neighborhood.

“I guess if you think about it she does need to regain all of that mass and elements and stuff she lost in our fight earlier,” Beril answered knowingly. But it was obvious that he was as surprised by the stack of empty plates as I was.

“Correct, now if you don’t mind I’m going to go get some dessert,” Claire commented then left the table to grab several pieces of cake and bars from the dessert area. Once she grabbed as much as she could carry, she returned to the table and ate every crumb as I grew sick just at the idea of all of the food.

“So, feeling better?” I asked after I noticed her slow down her food intake. She nodded, then commented, “That should tide me over for a while. Now if you two are done we can go back to that estate and figure out more about your art ability.”

With this said, she abruptly stood up and headed towards the exit. With a shrug, Beril and I reluctantly followed her.

 

“Useless. These pictures you drew have no life to them at all. Maybe normal sketching is not your thing like I thought,” Claire complained after she looked over a few pictures I drew for her. It was my first official day of secret art lessons from Claire, and she decided to start them by seeing if she could learn exactly what I could do. The only kind of art that I really felt comfortable with was doodling, or I guess sketching, so that was what I showed her. Personally I did not think they were that bad, nothing overly note-worthy mind you, but the face she gave them looked as if they disgusted and insulted her.

“Like I told you, I don’t really know too much about all this art stuff. All I really know how to do is play the guitar and sing,” I defended annoyed. I had never been good at taking harsh rejection, with it always provoking me to act defensive.

“Maybe sketching isn’t your thing with art. I mean, there are plenty of different things you could try,” Celeste tried to sound encouraging. Curious about all of this, she, Fifer, and Beril decided to join Claire and me in the suddenly crowded shed and watch what they could.

“Ya, but if I can use different kinds of music and instruments and stuff for magic then shouldn’t I be able to with the other mediums?” I asked.

“It could also just be because you never spent a lot of time drawing. I mean, most people aren’t good at something when they first start. It can take a lot of practicing,” Beril thought aloud.

“Ya, right. I’ll get right on that after my work and learning to use my music better. I think I might be able to fit it in…when I’m dead,” I complained.

“But with winter coming you’ll have more time to work on magic, right? I mean, unless they decide to have you work somewhere else,” Fifer commented. It only seemed rational that they would stick me somewhere else, and I was really not in the mood to answer all of their kind words. Instead I simply picked up the pictures Claire threw on the floor and scowled at her mistreatment of them.

“Keep up this attitude of yours and that might come sooner than you think,” Claire responded dryly. I ignored her too while the others glared at her, and instead got up and left the room to find something else to distract me.

 

“Woosh, woosh, the wind blows. All of, the leaves,” I finished singing then looked at the leaf-free area satisfied. Call it what you will, but it is kind of cool that I can work as my own leaf blower. It gets the job done faster and lets me experiment more with this whole magic stuff. It definitely works as a win-win situation.

“Doing things the easy way I see,” A voice called out to me. Startled, I looked around until I found the voice’s owner. It was Claire, lounging in the old oak tree I had just finished cleaning under.

“How long have you been up there?” I asked surprised to find her out of hiding. How did she even get up there?

“Long enough. You really are a bit of an odd duck. Here you act like some tough rock and roller but you’ll sing a stupid kid’s song if it helps you get what you want faster.”

“So? Only singing or playing one kind of music and ignoring all the others is stupid. And if I finish faster than the others it’s their own fault for not thinking to use their magic,” I responded as I looked for my next task.

Claire nodded to my answer then asked, “So then do you also write your own songs?”

“Never really tried,” I began with a shrug then continued, “I guess I liked poetry units in class but it always seemed difficult to add them to music notes or make up my own rhymes.”

“I see,” Claire answered as she jumped off of the branch she was on to land on the hard ground. She then thoughtfully looked at the ground and all of the acorns which covered it. At last she picked one up to have a closer look at it, then muttered out, “This one will work.”

“What are you doing now?” I asked as I watched her crouched down and draw a picture around the acorn. It was a more abstract picture, but still obviously a sapling. Once she was finished, she nodded to her work, turned to me, and ordered, “Okay, make that acorn crack and a tree pop out.”

I looked at her confused. I thought we agreed that normal sketches did not work for me, but upon seeing Claire’s glare at me for stalling I knelt down next to her and placed a hand on the picture. I felt a pulse from the picture as I touched it, faint but powerful. An image then came to my mind of the little acorn splitting apart as a green stem and leaves appeared from it. As soon as this image came a second one of the stem expanding and hardening into a wide trunk with a lush canopy like the parent tree appeared. Without realizing it I had closed my eyes, so when I opened them and looked I was surprised to see a sapling about one foot high with several light green leaves stood up to greet me.

“Well, I guess we found out what is going on with you and art,” Claire commented as she stood up and brushed the dirt off her knees.

“What exactly does this mean?” I asked. Here I was getting used to the idea that sketching just was not my thing, but apparently there was some trick to it that I did not know. But Claire did.

“It can be difficult to make your own original work. Even with people who use magic, we are littered with people who can only us pre-existing works of art. You simply fall into this group.”

I pouted slightly at this statement. Here for the last few days she and the others who knew about this had been acting like I was some great artist and here I was being told that I could only use covers and other people’s works. I also disliked how she made it sound like it meant I was simply a wannabe or something.

At last I scowled and commented, “Well…so what if that’s the case? Would it be cool if I could make up my own stuff? Ya, but maybe if I practice in time I could be able to use my own material.”

“You’re thinking that if you try your hardest and wish on every star anything can come true? I can’t tell you how often that idea fails. This tree you just grew has a better chance of surviving until it grows tall like its parent.”

“You know something, you’re a real joy-kill.”

“Killing other people’s joy is one of the things I do best.”

“And nothing says that this tree can’t grow tall. I mean, if they can break through concrete then why can’t it grow bigger?” I defended.

“True, but I think that old man winter would probably have something to say about that,” Claire countered.

“Again, real joy-kill.”

“Joy-kill or not, at least we now know what’s going on with you and your ability to use art for magic. Next time we practice you should bring some pictures or cards with you and try using them,” Claire replied with a shrug. 

A voice then called out for me, causing both of us to look over and see one of the other gardeners wave and rush over to us. The other did not know about Claire, so I quickly glanced over to her to tell her to run; only to find to my shock that she was already gone. When he reached me he asked, “Hey, Dylan! Wasn’t there someone with you?”

“Not that I know of? Must have just been your imagination,” I quickly answered as I tried to think of a plausible answer. Thankfully, the other guy must have not cared too much since his response was, “Oh, okay. In that case if you’re done here can you come help me with the leaves on the east side?”

“Sure, I guess. Good timing actually. So then are you almost done or something?” I agreed then tried to change the subject as I walked back with him.

12: Chapter eleven

“So, this is happening. Almost feels like we’re actual friends or something,” I commented dumbly as I sat in the back of a car with Beril and Celeste. Due to the recent kidnapping a week earlier, my guild’s leader was interested in what their allies in the dance guild thought and about protocols. When Celeste heard about this, she instantly volunteered to meet with the dance leader’s family as long as she was allowed to choose her own bodyguards.

“I’m just surprised that your father would agree to this. I mean, with how much he seems to want to hover over you; his heir,” Beril replied towards Celeste as she looked out the window closest to her bored.

“He was a bit worried in the beginning, but agreed when I told him that I would make sure that I was well cared for. As it is, I know that my mom was happy to hear that I willingly agreed to meet with the dance guild heir,” Celeste answered off-handly.

“That right? He’s the guy our age who you purposely stepped on during that dance, right?” I asked with a slight smirk as I thought back to when our guild hosted them. As soon as an after dinner dance started some young adult from the dance guild wanted to dance with her. I have to admit that it looked pretty painful when I watched her stomp hard on his foot with her high heels.

“I’m a simple singer from the music guild, not an elegant ballroom dancer like him. So I can hardly help it if I have two left feet and accidently step on him,” she answered sarcastically.  It may be the fact that I hardly ever thought of her as the sarcastic type, but it certainly made me wonder what the rest of this meeting would lead to. 

“So what, you invited us to remind you that you hate the guy? He must be quite the character for someone like you to hate him,” I commented still confused as to why we were even joining her instead of her usual bodyguard Simon.

She gave me a blank stare for this then answered, “Well, he’s not my favorite person to spend my afterschool time with. But more so I figured that it would be a good learning experience for you guys.”

“She does have a point. I mean, if you can learn other kinds of magic mediums then it might be good for you to take a serious look at it. As for me, they might have some more info on this Renaissance man ability or this bad guy that we don’t have at our place,” Beril rationalized.

“True, mind you I’m not sure how much you guys will be able to find out. To be honest, the guy kind of bothers me so I also figured it would be nice to have some friendly faces around to help me keep it together.”

“He must be pretty annoying,” I commented dumbly.

“I haven’t heard much about him from around the guild. Or at least nothing really about his character,” Beril commented in hopes of gaining more information on the person.

“He’s a narcissistic fool,” was all Celeste said before she returned to silently staring out the window.

 

After about another half hour of awkward silence, we reached the dance guild’s house. Like ours it was a mansion with a more modern look compared to our traditional one. Along with that, there was a good sized shed with a large AC unit attached to it.    

“Good afternoon miss Celeste. Jack is looking forward to seeing you today,” An older man commented as we walked up to the front door. Celeste nodded politely to the man as he walked inside, only for him to stop Beril and me and ask, “These must be your body guards. If they would follow me this way please.”

“Actually I would prefer if they stayed close to me during my visit. After all, we can never be too cautious,” Celeste replied bluntly.

“It is highly unlikely that anything would happen to you, our allies’ daughter and heir. Why, you have always been treated with more care than even this guild’s heir,” the man relied indignantly. But one tempered glance from Celeste was all it took for the man to cede consent as he replied, “It is a bit unorthodox, but if it will make you feel more comfortable, miss, that is all that matters. All of you can come this way then.”

“Rich folk and ordering people around like that. I swear I am never going to get used to seeing it done,” Beril whispered aloud as we followed the man and Celeste to what looked like an office. I gave him a quizzical look for the comment since I knew full well that he could and would act just like that butler if he believed it would give him an edge on something, but stayed silent as I looked the room over.

It looked like any overly large and modern office with sitting space. Against one wall sat a large, sleek, black desk neatly organized and matched the book shelf next to it. Against a far side consisted the sitting area which included a loveseat, chair, and coffee table, all in black to match the desk and bookshelf. In a corner of the room was a second door, also black in color and with it and the black curtains acted as the only part of the walls with any color other than white. I never paid too much attention to fads in furniture or housing designs, but all the dark furniture against white walls simply made the room remind me of two things; first a Dalmatian then Clapton’s song ‘White Room’. But I suppose I may sound a little hard on the room. There was some color in the form of the deep red roses in vases scattered strategically across the room. And there was also color in the guy who sat on the love seat as he read some random book.

I assumed immediately that he must be this Jack-guy we talked about on the way here. As I expected from our conversation, he looked to be in his late teens, and sort of had that same rich-by look to him like how Celeste had the sheltered-girl look. Same as how I remembered from the party, he was tall and thin yet still possessed a muscular build from all of his assumed practice with dance. His hair was a dirty blond, cut short and with the bangs pushed up exposing his large forehead and his eyes were a playful green. As expected of a rich-boy, he wore well-tailored pants, shirt, and checked vest.

He smiled and placed his book down as we entered, only for the pleased smile to turn to one of confusion when he spotted me and Beril. Upon seeing us he got up and commented, “Hello Celeste. I was pleased when I heard that you would be visiting me. But I don’t remember hearing about those two suspicious-looking boys behind you.” 

As he came closer I could smell the strong cologne he wore, and suddenly the reason for why Beril and I were supposed to wait somewhere else became all too clear. The roses, the clean room, the air of over-pleasantries. This guy obviously wanted to impress Celeste and most likely did not want other guys around to stop his strut. After seeing all of this, I glanced over to Beril and saw a hint of a smile on his lips. At that moment I could tell that the two of us agreed now was a good time to take our bodyguard position seriously, if for no better reason than to simply rain on this prissy-guy’s parade.

Before Celeste could answer for us I answered, “We’re friends of hers. We’re also the ones who helped save her sister, so she invited us to come with her as her bodyguards.”

I then decided to push my luck me when I took a seat on the loveseat as Beril commented, “My name is Beril and he on the loveseat is Dylan. And if I am to assume correctly, you must be called Jack. Now don’t mind us and you two crazy kids talk about whatever it is that you need to.”

“That would be much easier if you two had gone to a different room like her bodyguards normally do,” Jack commented with a sour look towards us.

“But how are we supposed to guard a certain body if we can’t see it?” I answered cockily then looked towards Celeste. She gave an aggravated sigh at our display then asked the man who brought us here if she could have something to drink. He agreed to the request and left as Celeste took a seat in one of the vacant chairs.

She watched as Jack stared at Beril and me for a few moments before she decided to change the topic and said, “I’m a bit surprised that you still use this room since you finished school. That is, assuming you’re not in collage.”

“I’ve never been one for school. And despite my mom’s insisting I decided to take a year off to focus on my magical skills. Besides, I always found this room good for reading in,” Jack answered bluntly.

“So what kind of magical skills do you have?” I asked conversationally.

“Dance, of course. Not that it’s any concern of yours,” Jack answered coldly.

“Jeez, can’t a guy be curious? I mean, music and dance go hand in hand so why shouldn’t I want to know what an ally can do?” I persisted.

“And who said that I allied myself with a punk like you?” Jack asked.

“From what I heard he uses figure skating. You know, the kind of stuff you would expect a girl to do,” Beril told me since it seemed Jack would not answer straight. As it is, he seemed surprised to hear Beril talk about him.

“Beril works with the information achieves at our guild. He sort of makes it his business to know about everyone important,” Celeste answered before Jack could ask. Jack simply nodded to this as he stared coldly at Beril and me.

“So you do all those flips and stuff on ice skates? I suppose that is one way to have some one-on-one time with hot girls. But aren’t a lot of them younger than you?” I asked. 

“And what can you do exactly?” Jack asked crossly upon realizing he was being made fun of.

I shared a quick glance with the others before I answered, “Play guitar and sing mostly. From what I’ve been told it’s pretty rare for someone to be good enough to use magic with two different things so who knows, maybe I can add dancing to my list of talents. After all, a lot of professional musicians like to add some dance moves to their performance.”

I could tell by their looks that I may have said too much, so we were relieved when Jack replied, “You, a professional artist? Are you an idiot? You hardly look like you have the discipline to handle one song. Besides, even if you could learn to dance what makes you think that you could use magic with it?”  He then turned to Beril and asked, “What about you? You seem a bit smarter than that clown so what can you do?”

“I play the piano,” Beril answered.

“So then you’re one of those guys who are pretty useless without a bulky instrument. That’s exactly why my guild is so much more prepared for a fight then yours. It’s a miracle that you did not end up getting yourselves and countless more killed! And you three expect me to believe that you two beat off an art-using assassin? Either there is more to you than meets the eye or they sent someone incredibly stupid to do a job,” Jack commented.

If looks could kill, Beril and Celeste would have just murdered this guy for those comments.

“It’s like you said, there’s more to them than meets the eye. But Dylan does make a good point in wanting to know more. With everything that’s been going on it may be good to know what both our sides have so the next time something bigger happens we can all be prepared,” Celeste requested.

Jack was quiet for a moment as he thought over the request, then answered, “And do you expect that things here suddenly changed in the less than two weeks since we last met? I can assure you that my guild is prepared in case an assassin or something decides to come against us. But speaking of sharing information, perhaps you could tell me a bit about this assassin that you stopped.”

Beril was the one to answer with, “The assassin was a female who used tattoos to summon magic. Mainly assorted weapons and fire. Before we got rid of her, we got some interesting information from her. Apparently, the person who hired her was not from the one of the literature guilds but from a private hit.”

“Really? Did you get who hired her?”

“No…she did not give her employer’s name. But whoever it was, she seemed scared of letting the person down,” Beril answered. Jack nodded solemn at this and commented that he should have his guild look into who could put in such a hit. And once again I found myself thinking how lucky I was to have a quick thinker like Beril by my side.

“So then were you able to capture her?” Jack asked.

“No, she escaped at the last minute and is still at large. That is partially why my parents and I wanted to talk to you guys in case of another incident like ours,” Celeste answered.

“I appreciate your concern, but there really is no reason to worry. We have everything prepared in case of problems.”

“You keep saying that but is it really the case? Is that why you decided you need to spend more time practicing magic? Are you afraid something might happen and get your face all scratched up or something?” I baited.

Once again he glared at me, then smiled and asked, “Would you like to see a demonstration?”

13: Chapter twelve

The next thing I knew the four of us were walking out of the house and to what I originally thought was an odd shed. Instead, it turned out to be a small ice rink, which I suppose explained the large AC unit we saw originally.

“I apologize if you’re cold, Celeste. Just let the sight of this take your mind off it as I show your friends what real magic looks like,” Jack answered cockily as he replaced his normal shoes with skates. Once this was done he walked out onto the ice as if he were an actor about to take stage. As I saw this, however, I became a bit confused since I thought that there was usually background music or something with figure skating.

“He does realize that there are three competent musicians in the area he could have asked to play back-up music from. Or in the very least use that CD player in the corner,” I commented as I looked questioningly to the other two.

“He probably just does not want us to think his magic is coming from one of us instead of him. Along with that, without music he can show that the performer is more important than anything happening in the background. As it is, he’s either stuck rehearsing a performance he knows by heart which will seem off without music or will free-play this and have the chance of messing up. In either case, if he makes a mistake it could be bad for his wanting to impress Miss Celeste,” Beril rationalized. I nodded at this since it made perfect sense, but the idea of him trying to impress Celeste made me wish to ‘accidently’ feel called to start singing and mess with his performance. I stopped myself, however, when I decided that Celeste would not be happy with that.

As it is, once he skated to the center of the rink he gave a nod of the head to show he was ready. After dealing the nod, he bent his body over in a fluid motion and started to perform. I was not fully sure what to expect from his performance. To me it always seemed like ballet but on ice and added jumps, so by those standards I suppose he was good.

…Okay, I hate to admit it but it was more than good. He had the three of us watching his every movement and he knew it. It was like he was feeding off our amusement and using it to feed his own magic. In one moment he was at the other side of the rink twirling in the air then the next he was practically flying past us. All of this as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him.

As he skated past, I realized that there was a certain charge of freshness to the air; similar to after a snowstorm melts away. A second later the charge chanced as the freshness instantly froze and an ice ramp appeared several yards ahead of him. I could not stop myself when I clapped as he skated up the ramp as if it was nothing and use it to extend his leap in the air and land safely on the other side of the rink.

Again he skated towards our side, this time with his hands near his heart and his head bent down to blow into them. Slowly, he knelt down on the ice yet continued to move nearer and nearer to the ramp. Once he was only a few feet from it, he slapped his hands on the ice in front of him and melted the ramp back into a smooth section of the rink. Using his momentum, he pushed himself back into the air and did a back-flip and stuck the landing with a shower of ice crystals and his hands in the air expecting applause. 

I will admit that I applauded. I mean, that was something that I knew I could never do…the black flip and skating I mean…and it is only polite to applaud after someone performs. Jack looked pleased with himself, and after a moment to sink in the applause started on his way back to where we waited. A noise caught his attention, however, and caused him to turn around in time to earn a foot to the face.

“Jack! What is that thing?!” Celeste called out to Jack when she saw him fall, then turned confused when she saw what it was that hit him. 

It looked like a human, albeit a freaky, almost skeleton one. The person looked almost like a mix between a ghoul and a witch doctor with his ridiculously this body covered in ash colored skin and some weird tribal/ceremonial get up. He wore black shin protectors which went down to cover the tops of his feet with matching fingerless gloves. For fingers, they looked more like bony claws needle thin. The only other real closes on its body was a black and blood red robe, and red wrappings up his thin torso to his chest. The creepiest part of the guy was his head, where he wore a horned skull for a helmet and a strange bandana which looked like an overly large mouth over his own mouth and chin.   

“Kekekekekeke,” the thing half wheezed, half laughed at us after it skidded to a stop. Slowly, its beady red eyes scanned over the four of us, only for it to then jump up into the air like a frog and land right in front of Jack. Startled, Jack pushed himself out of the way just in time to avoid another kick to the head.

“Get off the ice you idiot!” I called out as I skidded up to him and pulled him off. The what-ever-it-is did not seem to like this and tried to jump towards us again, but to our luck it instead skidded off course due to the slickness of the ice. 

As fast as I could, I pulled the still shocked Jack off of the rink and noticed as Beril frantically fumbled with his phone and Celeste look as if frantically racking her mind.  t last Beril smiled relieved like he found what he was looking for then began to poke more at the screen as piano notes came from his phone. Celeste smiled as well when she recognized the song, and began to sing out while Beril played.

“Where there is a fire there is going to be a flame, where there is a flame someone’s bound to get burned,”

As Beril played and Celeste sang, the ice in the rink vaporized as the entire area grew into a giant oven. From where the opponent landed, I looked shocked as the thing caught on fire and sprinted towards us as if the flames had no effect on it. I would like to think that after the last several opponents I had learned to work better on my feet, but when I saw that fiery thing hurl at me and hear its weird laugh and the sound of its body burn my body refused to move.

The creature was nearly on top of Jack and I, and I could not even move the muscles that control my eyelids. A miracle then seemed to happen when a hurricane-strength wind pushed the creature away from us and blew the flames off of him. The creature shook from where it crashed against the wall and stared at the one who summoned the wind.

I followed the creature’s look to the doorway and watched as a slight girl rush up to it. It was not until she kicked it in its charred head that I noticed Beril and Celeste stopped performing. Once the girl was certain the creature would not move again, she walked over to the four of us and looked down as if to make sure we were alright.

From first glance and the fact that she was in a dance guild, I had to guess that she was a ballerina. She just had that stereotypical skinniness and balance. Her complexion was ivory colored, which contrasted from her long, slightly curled, dark brown hair. She wore a deep red leotard and skirt which matched her almond-shaped, oddly red eyes.

“Are you alright Mr. Jack? Visitors?” the girl asked in a strong voice.

“Where were you?!” Jack demanded from the girl, obviously over his shock and changed to anger.

“I-I’m sorry Sir, but you gave me the afternoon off, remember? I was practicing when I heard something going on in here,” The girl defended herself, slightly startled by his anger.

“Hey, Dyl, are you okay man?” Beril asked as he shook me. At the time I was more or less staring out to space. He snapped me back to reality as I noticed that he was joined with Celeste who asked, “Are you alright? You froze up there for a minute.”

“Ya, ya…I don’t know what happened. I guess that thing was just too freaky and I forgot what I was supposed to do,” I weakly explained.

“That’s a bit hard to believe, based on everything else you’ve fought recently. Are you sure you’re alright?” Beril asked critically and searched for any other exclamation for what happened. He stopped this, however, when he noticed something with Jack and this new girl’s argument.

Celeste also noticed the argument, and apparently had enough of it as she ordered, “Jack, stop shouting at the poor girl! In case you did not notice, she just saved your life. So instead of acting like a total ass why don’t you apologize and thank her for completing her job even when you were the one who told her to go away.”

Jack opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to think of the words to say; his anger still evident. At last he said, “Well maybe I would not have been in so much danger if someone did not decide to put it on fire. And look at what you two did to my ice rink!”

“Well you obviously weren’t going to do anything so we took it into our own hands,” Celeste answered critically. She then turned to the girl and continued, “Thank you for finishing that thing off. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. Are you new?”

“Y-ya, um…but I’m a good dancer and with magic so my boss decided to put me in charge or watching her son,” the girl awkwardly answered.

“That you are, miss ballerina. And I take it watching him can be a fulltime job. Is this the first time something like this happened here?” Beril asked as he continued to look the girl over.  At last he smiled as if he figured something out and earned a confused look from the girl.

“To my knowledge this is the first time in a while. I actually just got this job a little over a week ago,” the girl answered.

 “I see…you’ll need to work on your attitude,” Beril continued then walked closer to whisper something in her ear. I did not know what it was, but it caused the girl to look even more surprised.

“Tajina, either stop standing there and call for help or get out of my way!” Jack ordered as the girl hurried out of the shed to talk to her superiors.

Again I noticed Celeste’s angered look towards Jack, and this time I felt compelled to comment to the guy, “Dude, if you really want to impress people you should not treat the hired help like a piece or garbage. It makes you look even more like a loser.”

He glared at me like he had some more choice words, but Celeste apparently had enough as she ordered, “Beril, Dylan, let’s just head back to our house. Obviously they lied about me being alright here and I’m sure my father would like the update.”

“Sure thing. If we leave now we should be back in time for dinner,” Beril replied casually.

“What, wait! You don’t need to leave because of this incident. Everything will go much smoother now. And I’m sure that the others would like to hear your side in what happened here,” Jack called out as his mind scrambled for any reason to why we – I mean Celeste - should stay.

She ignored this as the three of us walked back to where our car waited for us. Within moments the driver returned and we were on our way back home. Once we got a good distance away, Celeste broke the silence and asked, “Well, that was interesting. Do you think that thing was there because of us?”

“I don’t know Miss Celeste, but it seemed more interested in attacking Jack so I doubt it,” Beril commented.

“That’s right. It did not even look at you two. And in the past they always seemed drawn to you Celeste,” I added. 

She nodded to this then commented, “It seems like a constant battle recently. I remember hearing that it was not too long ago that things were a lot more peaceful. I wonder why all of this is happening now of all times?”

“…I don’t know. Maybe that Spider-guy that Claire was talking about it behind all of this?” I ventured to guess.

“But if he was then wouldn’t he have wanted to kill us as well? Not just Jack?” Celeste asked. Again, I could not think of a good answer so instead I simply shrugged.

A question then came to my mind which caused me to ask Beril, “Hey, Beril, what was it you whispered to that girl?”

“Hmm? I was just telling her that she looked like someone I recognized,” Beril answered.

“You know, she looked a little too young to be a girlfriend. Or did you meet her at one of those conventions you were telling me about a little while ago,” I jokingly critiqued. 

“You really think she looked that young? ‘Cause when I was up close she looked a little older than me. And who knows, maybe I did meet her once at a convention or something,” Beril answered.

“So then who do you think she is?” Celeste asked curious. She had only recently become friends with us, and I suppose she wanted to know more about her new friends.

“No one I would expect the two of you to know, so just forget I said anything for now. It probably wasn’t anything important,” Beril answered then turned quiet for the rest of the ride home.

14: Chapter Thirteen

“You still lack experience with your magic and fighting skills. Not to mention from the sounds of things you should have thanked this girl and your friends,” Claire critiqued after she heard about their visit to the Dance guild. We had the day off from our normal jobs, so I ended up in Claire’s shed for art lessons.

I did not have a good response to this, since I realized that there was some truth to it. Sure, I felt like I had gained a bit of experience with the few fights I had been in, but at the same time I had only known about my abilities for a few months. Even then, during that time most of it was spent simply working and using magic when I could to help with work. At last I nodded that I agreed and looked to her expecting her to continue.

She sighed and continued, “I suppose part of the issue could also be what you were up against and the magic medium you use. It takes time to think of a song that will work and to actually sing enough of it to summon some sort of magic. Again, you should be thanking your friend for thinking faster than you. Not to mention thinking ahead with that piano app of yours.”

“What can I say, it’s a gift. To be honest I’m just happy to learn that a phone piano will work instead of constantly having to look for a real one,” Beril commented from where he slouched and plucked at his keyboard guitar.

“Not that I’m mad that you’re here, but why are you here?” I asked in order to change the subject. I knew that all the little bits of praise Claire gave him were merited, and I was grateful for my friend, but part of me suddenly wished that it was simply one-on-one like I originally thought.

“I have the day off too, and you have to admit that this seems a lot more interesting a place to practice in than our dorm room. And it’s interesting to hear all of this stuff about other guild’s magic abilities,” Beril answered. He then continued, “So if music tends to take a long time to summon magic, which kinds take a short time to summon?”

Claire seemed to think a moment then answered, “Any form can take a while to summon magic, but of the main kinds music and literature tend to take the longest. Dance would take the shortest amount of time, especially if the performer decides to use it like an extension of martial arts. With art, it can be a bit of a wild card depending on the medium used. If they’re using pre-made artwork then summoning can be quicker than if the person needs to create then summon.”

“I suppose that makes sense, so then do you know a lot about other art mediums?” Beril asked.

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m just a little curious on if cosplay could be used for an art.”

“Cosplay?” I asked. I was still a bit knew to all of Beril’s geek talk, so while I think I knew what it was I was not completely sure I knew what he was getting at.

“Ya, costumes then acting like the character you’re dressed as. I mean, you look at professional cosplayers and costumes in movies and I’d call them art,” Beril explained.

“Costumes are a primitive way to call magic, but it is also a powerful magic. Many primitive cultures had the idea that if they wore a costume which made them look like gods or important animals they could gain the attributes of those beings. I used to know someone who used costumes like that,” Claire explained.

“So then could someone make a costume that gave them the abilities of a singer or a dancer for magic purposes?” Beril asked.

Claire had to think for a few moments due to this question. At last she commented, “I’m honestly not sure. The costume would allow them to know how to dance or sing, but I’m not sure if it would still allow them to use magic. I suppose the only one who could tell you would be the person using the costume.”

“You know, this really is interesting. But I kind of think that this lesson is starting to sound too much like a school class,” I commented. It’s not that I was not interested, because I was, it’s just that the topic was going in one ear and out the other.

“That’s right? And I take it drop outs like you are allergic to learning new topics,” Claire commented sarcastically.

“Look, it’s cool and all to know about all of this stuff, but let’s try focusing on learning about one thing at a time, okay? Now how about we get back to this art lesson you’re supposed to be giving me,” I defended.

“What’s the point? You forgot to bring pictures like I asked you to. Not to mention you’re mind seems to be someplace else today,” Claire complained. She looked around the shed then at my helpless shrug before she decided to call the lesson done for the day. With this said, Beril and I reluctantly got up and left.

“You have been pretty out of it since that last fight. Are you sure that you’re okay?” Beril asked as we walked back to the house.

“Ya, I guess. Maybe I’ve just been over-thinking all of this magic stuff for the last few days,” I answered.

Beril nodded and thought for a few moments then commented, “Well, then maybe you’re just a bit stressed over the incident. Today is your day off, so why don’t you go do something you like and maybe you can think of a new perspective for it tomorrow.”

I liked the idea of doing something I wanted to do. I honestly could not remember the last time I did something like that for no reason. Usually when I got off work I was too tired to really want to do anything, and on most of my days off I ended up practicing my music skills. I had always liked playing and singing, but it seemed to lose something when practice seemed to control my life. 

It was later in the afternoon by this time, turning towards evening. I knew of some places nearby where I used to go to clear my head, places I had not been to since I first got into all of this magic mess, and decided that now was a good enough time as any. So after we reached our room, I got myself ready and decided to go out on the town for the evening.

 

Soon the sun was setting and I found myself seated in an old haunt of mine. It was a small restaurant which I used to frequent when I first started performing due to their more lax live music nights. Like many music nights the place was busier than usual, but I was able to find a small table to sit at with my drink and sandwich.

Shortly after I sat down to eat, a three person band took the small stage and set up their instruments. They included a younger girl with a bass, what looked like an older brother on piano, and another man in his early forties on drums. Once they were set up they broke into an impromptu jazz session. That was always one thing I liked about coming to this place, the fact that one night could be a jazz and the next pop or rock. 

After their first song, people originally seated started to move around. As this happened, a regular recognized me and greeted, “Hey, I’ve seen you around before! Ya, you're that singer/guitarist. I haven’t seen you in a while and thought you must have moved to a different town.”

“No, haven’t gone that far yet. I did have a chance to get a record deal but I had to turn it down,” I answered.

“Really? So then what are you doing now?”

“Well, I was given a work study deal at this music school outside of town,” I scrambled for a plausible answer. Despite the guild’s wish to stay inconspicuous, the fact that it was a large place filled with musicians caused people to talk about it. Due to this, the guild had allowed normal citizens to think that it was simply a large, old house which doubled as a music school for those serious about creating a livelihood on music. On occasion they would get boastful mothers or over-eager kids who wished for lessons, and if they could pay the outrageous prices they would be taught in a secluded room where there was no chance of them seeing anything they should not. But for the most part it was a cover and the majority of the students where hand-picked like me. 

The old man nodded his head in thought then commented, “I suppose it is good to get some advice from experienced folks, but I would have thought that if you were getting contract offers you were already set. So then are you learning anything important?”

“Some, it has helped me learn some more different kinds of genres.”

Again the man nodded then looked towards the stage where the performers talked amongst themselves during a break in their sets. At last he asked, “They’re not playing right now so how about you give us a little demonstration for old times’ sake?”

“Sure…is there a guitar I can borrow here? I was only planning on listening tonight so I don’t have mine,” I instantly agreed then began to backpedal.

“I think I have one someone forgot in the back…why don’t you come with and we can check,” He answered as he and I got up and walked over towards a door near the stage. I waited by the stage, however, not feeling up to following the man into some random room to root around the lost and found. A few minutes later, he returned with a banged up acoustic in hand. 

With the instrument, it was only a matter of time for me to re-tune it as the old man, who was actually the manager, talked to the band and had them agree to let me play one song.  Once all of this was sorted out, the man introduced me and I walked up onto the stage as he re-took his original seat.

It had been a while since I performed in front of a group like this, so it took me a moment longer to choose a song and start than normal. But I could not help but notice that as I did begin everyone in the restaurant stopped to listen. 

I enjoyed the positive attention, and I had to admit that it had been a while since I enjoyed playing the guitar as much as I did that night. I guess my parents and teachers were right when they always said I fed off attention. But then I felt the surge of power that comes with a display of magic.

The song I was singing was you typical love song, and since I was not even trying to use magic I had no idea what it would even do. Along with this, I was not supposed to use magic in front of normal people. As I realized all this, I stopped the song and stared at the audience frustrated. I have always loved to perform, but now this magic stuff decided to get in my way! 

The crowd began to whisper as I stopped followed by one vocal person boo me. With my head bowed in frustration and shame for having to stop, I hopped off the stage, placed the guitar against a nearby wall, and walked out the door. Once outside, I began to trudge on my way back to the house; only to stop when I heard someone follow me.

It had started to rain since I first entered the restaurant, and by now the downpour had caused the streets to feel deserted. Walking around made it feel as if I was in an alley even though I was out in the open. After a few minutes of changing my directions and speed, I was sure that the person was in fact following me, which only added to my annoyance and caused me to at last turn around to see who exactly it was. I was surprised by who it was.

The person was the old man I talked with earlier, the restaurant manager, only this time he held a bread knife pointed at me. I could not help but laugh nervously and ask, “Dude, I know that I was a bit worse than normal, but that’s no reason to hold me up. Or is business that bad?”

“Sorry lad, I was kind of hoping that you weren’t like that. Now if we could move off this main street we can then continue this conversation,” the manager replied then pushed me into a nearby alley by knife-point.

Obediently, I walked into the alley and asked, “Do you even know what you’re doing, old man?”

“Making this town a safer place. Don’t think I don’t know what happens at that music school. I’ve had countless music nights, art shows, and poetry readings at my humble restaurant, and you would not be the first to accidently try to destroy my place.”

“So you know all about this magic stuff, and the guilds never talked to you about it?” I asked.

“Oh, sure, decades ago they talked to me, paid for damages, even tried to convince me to send fresh meat to their guilds. Then they started fighting and all of a sudden each guild wanted me to send everyone to them either for learning or ransom money. Then when that didn’t pan out they would threaten to destroy my restaurant, or home, or family. You are a punk, and everyone like you is a bully. But after tonight there will be one less bully.”

After he said this to me, he lunged at me with the knife. Frantically, I dodged and scrambled for something to do. The guy was the first person to let me perform at a restaurant, he literally let me get on my musical feet, so it was not like I wanted to hurt him. But at the same time I did not want to simply let him slice me up.

At last I decided to simply scare him off, and due to all of the water around us I decided to recreate the ice I used to fight Claire with. When he heard me begin to sing, he lunged at me again only to stop due to ice encasing his feet. He then looked at me surprised and scared as I looked relieved at the stopped knife. My relief quickly changed to shock as well when I noticed that the ice continued to grow up him even though I had stopped singing.

“S-stop the ice!  Please!!” the manager begged as it encased his legs and torso.

“I…flicker of the campfire…,” I began to frantically sing in hopes that some fire would stop the ice from killing him, but the heavy rain simply extinguished the flames before they could do anything. I then rushed over to grab the knife and tried to use it to break the ice off him, only for the man to cry out in pain as the breaking ice ripped at his raw skin.

“Need some help?” a voice called out over the rain.

I looked over to the entrance of the alley to see a slight silhouette, then call out, “Yes! Get help, quick!”

Instead she ran up to me and punched me in the stomach, then looked over to the man. The last thing I remember seeing was her kick the man with enough strength to break him from the ice.  

15: Chapter fourteen

I awoke to find myself in what looked like a back room which worked as part store room and part office. Seated on top of a cheap, creaking desk was the figure from the alley illuminated by a candle. From the candle light I could tell that it was an Asian girl in her late teens, petite in size and with long, dark hair tied up in a loose ponytail. She was dressed in athletic shorts and a tank top underneath a baggy leather jacket, along with high socks and tennis shoes.

“I guess it’s true what they say about idiots having all of the luck,” the girl commented once she noticed that I was awake.

“Where are we?” I asked, not wanting to reply to her comment but still curious.

“A craft store downtown. You know, you could at least thank me for saving you and that guy. I mean, you were the one being attacked originally, right?”

“Ya, I was…but…so then is that guy okay?” I started to answer then ask. I just had too many questions going around in my head and wanted to get the ones I saw as more important out of the way first.

“He’ll live. He was pretty heavy so I left him at the end of the alley where someone will probably check on him eventually.”

“So then did you stop that ice?”

“Kind of, it’s still too warm out for ice to stay so it would have most likely have stopped on its own and melted away.”

“How did you do it?”

“The same way that you started it. Magic.”

I blinked surprised at the idea that some random person I just met would be able to use magic and do so to help me. After a moment to let this sink in I told her thank you.

She pouted slightly in silence, only to then stand up and reply, “The thank you is appreciated, but you might as well also thank Claire. If I hadn’t seen her with you acting all friendly the other day I most likely would have just left you guys there.”

“Really?” I asked a little shocked.

“Well…maybe not. I’m sure that guy had his reasons for wanting to hurt you, and it would be bad if some non-magic user found the guy frozen to death and covered in ice. You do know that you shouldn’t use magic in public places, right?”

As I watched her hop off the desk and walk around the room I could not help but feel like I saw her someplace else but could not place it. I then realized that she had just mentioned Claire and asked, “Wait, how do you know about Claire?”

The girl stopped by the door and looked at me hard for a moment before she answered, “Did you honestly think that she was the only one told about you? Or that she was the only person out there told to hurt others?”

“Well, no, I guess not. So then if you were sent to hurt me why did you stop my ice and save me from that old man?”

“Because you’re not my target, and if Claire has decided to let you live then she must have a good reason for trusting you. There isn’t a lot of people she trusts, so I think it would be bad if she lost one she does,” the girl explained. She then toed the door to the actual store open slightly and narrowed her eyes as she looked out to the room.

“I guess that would mean that we’re kind of friends. I mean, you did save me earlier. And we both know similar people. So who exactly are you?”  I asked.

She gave me a questioning look before she answered, “…Tajina. And just because you know a friend of mine does not make you my friend.”

I was about to comment on this, but stopped when she held up a hand to silence me. Instead, I crept over to her and the door to noticed that a bright light flooded the cluttered storefront windows. Figures blurred by the light moved round outside followed by loud talking.

“You must have tripped a burglar alarm when you came in here with me. We should leave before they spot us back here,” I observed.

“It’ll be even more obvious if two kids like us are spotted leaving a closed store’s back room together,” Tajina commented then walked back into the room in thought. From a corner in the room she rummaged around in a suitcase, then pulled out a hat and continued, “I’m glad that I came prepared for anything. Another thing you can thank Claire for. Now put this hat on and leave through that hallway over there. You’ll find a door to an alley to your left.”

The hat was a baseball cap, and had to be the most generic piece of clothing I had ever seen given to me. It reminded me of those generic all-black caps that some fast food places make their employees wear. At last I looked up from her hands and the hat and asked if she was serious.

“Don’t worry, I’m not all that partial to the hat myself. Besides, you need to get back to your guild in one piece and with this hat on no one will look twice at you,” She persisted. The sound of the police entering the store stopped our argument over the hat as she slapped it on my head and pushed me towards the hallway.

“What about you?” I whispered towards her as she continued to push me out.

“I’ll be fine, just get out,” she ordered as she finally pushed me up against the door then rushed back to the room. I kind of felt bad doing so, but I did leave and stand next to the door to make sure that she got out alright. The door was thin, so I could hear the officers and the girl’s voices, and when I sneaked to the front I saw the officers leave relaxed without the girl.  I’m not sure how she did it, but it seemed like she convinced the officers that she was supposed to be there. 

To be honest I kind of wanted to go in again and see how she did it, but knew that odds were I would just trip another alarm. I was also a bit surprised that none of the police officers paid any attention to me. She had seemed confident that things would be alright, and since nothing so far said differently I took her advice and headed back to my dorm room.

 

I entered my dorm room exhausted from the evening events, met by the typical view of our room filled with the bachelor mess we called our belongings and Beril busy with his laptop.  He looked up slightly when he heard the door open and close. He then abruptly closed his laptop and stared at me as I took the hat off and flopped onto my bed.

“It looks like you had an interesting evening. Where did you get that hat?” He asked.

“Oh, you know, just the usual. Met some of the usual people, went to one of my old haunts,” I answered.

“Bull. I doubt you were just given a hat that made you invisible for no reason.”

I paused at this and looked closer at the hat. I did not feel invisible when I wore it, but now that he mentioned it, it did explain why it seemed like no one saw me. After the moment to think on this I continued, “Okay, so it happened like this. I went to an old haunt of mine, got attacked on my way back, and taken to this store by some weird girl who knew Claire and gave me this hat in order to not be seen by the police officers after we tripped the security alarm. That pretty much explains everything in a nut-shell.”

Beril stared at me for another moment, then nodded his head and commented, “Seems legit. And you’re right, based on the last few months for you that does sounds pretty usual. Sorry for calling bull. So, did this weird girl have a name?”

“Taj-something. Something foreign like her. But you know the weirdest part was the fact that she seemed familiar but I could swear that I’d never seen her before,” I answered, knowing all too well that the fact I forgot her name would annoy me to no end.

“Maybe you have met her before. I mean, the fact that she had this hat means that she is most likely a magical performer, and according to Claire she used to know someone who used costumes,” Beril mused.

“Well, she also made it sound like she had been watching me for a while, so that might also explain it,” I added.

“You got a stalker now? Well, I suppose that is always a chance issue when you want to be famous. Just be careful that she doesn’t turn into the psycho-type,” Beril finished with a slight laugh which made it hard for me to tell if he was taking this seriously or not. The conversation seemed to only make me more exhausted, so I simply took my pillow, threw it at him, then kicked off my shoes and tried to get some sleep.  

16: Chapter fifteen

My job around the guild had become lighter as the days grew colder and the grounds became more and more manageable. So I found myself with an early day off and decided to take a walk around the house to help warm myself up. A few days had passed since my little adventure into town and meeting with that strange girl, and besides Beril I had only told the rest of our normal group. At first Celeste urged for me to simply report an abridged version of the story and take out the part with the girl, but after debating the matter some we at last all agreed that it was best to add it to the rest of our current secrets.

The halls were generally noisy, filled with the sound of people practicing their musical abilities, but I soon realized that the more I walked in my current direction the quieter it became.  After a few moments, the only other sound from my feet against the floors was of a flute. Unlike the rest of the music, this flute sounded different. I was not sure if it was simply that the person was still learning the instrument or if there was something else which stopped it from sounding as good as it could.

Curious about the noise, I followed it to a room with the door ajar. I assumed that it was another practice room when I opened it, only to instead be met by a pastel yellow room covered in Disney memorabilia. Seated in a chair was Fifer, her hands on a shiny, silvery flute, and a frustrated look in her face. She was focused on her music to the point that it took to the end of the refrain for her to notice that I entered. 

When she did notice me, she sat the flute on her lap and said, “Did you come looking for me?”

“Well, I guess I was looking for something to do when I heard you playing. So then I guess this is your room?” I answered.

“Yup, you just walked into the wing where my family and I live. This is my room, and Celeste’s room is right across the hall, then my parents stay a few rooms down,” Fifer explained.

“And I guess that your magic is going to come from your flute?” I asked as I looked out the door and down the hall filled with closed doors. I had a feeling that I was not supposed to be in this part of the house, and was a bit worried that Fifer’s sudden stopping would cause someone to check on her.

The girl looked frustrated again as she stared down at the instrument in her lap as she answered, “My mom wants me to learn to play the flute, just because she named me Fifer. Did you know that my name means flute and fife player? But, I don’t know, maybe it’s just me or the music they make me play but I don’t really seem to like it as much as other people like their music.”

“I can see how that can be a problem. So if you don’t like this kind of music what do you play for fun?”

She gave me a blank stare then answered, “Well, Disney of course. Here, let me give you a demonstration.”

With this said, she re-situated herself and began to play some random song. It took only a moment for me to recognize the tune, but had only ever thought of the song as a vocal.  Nevertheless, I found myself enjoying the instrumental more than the original and found it difficult to think that this lovely performance came from the same person who played so half-heartedly moments before. Once she was finished, she placed the flute in her lap and looked at me expectantly. I could tell that she wanted my approval on the performance, so I told her, “If you continue to play like that then you’ll definitely be at your sister’s level in no time.”

“That’s good, it’s one of the reasons why you found me practicing when you came in here. I need to get as good as fast as I can so that I can use magic,” Fifer answered.

“Just one of the reasons?” I asked slightly surprised. I knew from past conversations that she wanted to get as good as she could so that she could be a prodigy like her sister, but this was the first time she talked about other reasons.

She nodded her head then continued, “It’s just…remember when Claire kidnapped me and put me to sleep. When I was asleep I kept having this really cool dream where I was a great performer and almost anything I tried music-wise would cause magic. I want that to be reality, so that’s one of the other reasons to practice. Then there is also because of all of this fighting happening.”

“Fifer, you’re still just a kid. It’s not like anyone is expecting you to take any part in all of this fighting. You should just focus on having a good childhood, not being a hero,” I critiqued.

“You sounded like an old man right there. And in case you forgot I already am involved in all of this fighting. I was kidnapped to be killed along with you. And from what I overheard earlier another hit had been placed, this time on the dance guild heir. There’s been fighting since the time I was born, but lately it just seems to be happening a lot more recently.”

“Ya, I’ve heard that from several people now. So then, you want to gain these great magical powers of yours as soon as possible in case you do get drawn into this fight? I can see that as a good reason to practice more. So then is the Dance guild actually under attack?”

“That’s what Daddy thinks,” Fifer answered then thought for a few more moments before she asked, “Do you really think that Claire is right about all of this being caused by that one Spider-guy? And all thanks to some old loom?”

“I don’t know. To me it kind of sounds too much like some cliché hero story. But then again, until recently I would have said the same thing about all of this magic stuff, so maybe it is possible,” I answered honestly.

“What does a loom look like anyways?” 

“I…I honestly don’t know. I never spent much time in a crafting area so I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. So let’s just hope I don’t end up having to look for it,” I answered with a slight laugh.

Fifer laughed to this as well then commented, “Careful, if this was like in a story then saying such things will almost guarantee that you get stuck retrieving it.”

We both laughed some more at this then Fifer continued, “So what were you doing inside anyways? Usually you would still have another hour or so of work.”

“The yard has reached the point where it only needs a few people to take care of it. So I was told that I could leave early and decided to do some exploring,” I answered. She seemed to like this idea, and asked if she could join me.

I agreed to the idea and soon the two of us were off.  As we walked she would on occasion stop and point out objects which interested her or hallways which lead to different kinds of rooms. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until we heard someone open and close a door up ahead. We were still close to where the guild leader and his family lived, and I assumed that we were not supposed to go snooping around in this area, so we stopped and waited to see who exactly it was.

“Hello?” Fifer asked when whoever opened the door failed to walk into our field of vision. A few moments later a random person who I had seen around Simon appeared and looked us over. At last he commented, “You’re Dylan Fox, right? The guild leader needs to talk to you so if you would come with me.”

“Can I come too?” Fifer asked.

“You should practice your music skills,” the man weakly protested, but when Fifer refused to back down he decided to not push it. So he led the two of us a few doors down to a large office. I suppose there are some perks to being the leader’s kid; even if it is not as the main heir.

In the center of the room was placed a large, rich wood desk which a dour-looking man sat at in a comfy looking chair; the guild leader. Behind him stood Simon, and on the other side of the desk stood Beril. Beril gave me a confused look to match mine, but quickly replaced it with shrug and a half smile.

Once we entered, the man who brought me in closed the door then turned to face the desk. The leader then looked us over before he focused on Fifer and asked, “Why are you here instead of practicing?”

“I wanted a break so I was taking a walk. Then I ran into Dylan and we decided to walk together,” She answered bluntly.

“And you think that a walk is going to help you gain magical abilities?” He asked his daughter. She seemed to wilt at the question, only to reluctantly nod her head that she understand the hidden order and left the room sad.

A few seconds after she left the leader continued, “So I asked for the two of you to meet with me for some good news. Due to how the two of you have acted during the last few incidents, I have decided to promote you to true apprentices.”

I was a bit confused by this. I mean, I thought that when I moved here it had been as an apprentice. Simon must have noticed the confused look, since he explained, “When you two first came here it was simply as people who showed more talent than the rest of the people out there. Since then, you two have worked on your talents in your spare time and began to test the boundaries and master your skills. Beril Castielle, after a little more than a year of being here I am happy to see you become an actual apprentice. You deserved it. As for you Dylan Fox, you really have some balls to become an apprentice after such a short time. It’ll be interesting to see how long you continue at this pace.”

“Thank you sirs,” Beril responded as I curtly nodded my head.

The guild leader nodded his head in return and continued, “Starting tomorrow afternoon you will begin to learn from actual teachers and will be given your new jobs within the guild. Until then do as you please.”

With this we were dismissed and walked back to our room. As we walked we speculated on what would happen now, what the new jobs and teachers may be like, then slowly turned to relax as we sunk into our music. 

17: Chapter sixteen

“It seems that your skills are good enough for this weekend. Just stay to the side and if anything happens get Misses Celeste and Fifer to safety. You can do that, right?” my new music-magic instructor explained after my first lesson. The instructor was a middle-aged man who did not seem all too eager to teach me, and seemed even less happy to learn I was assigned as a body guard to the guild daughters.

From what he told me, my first official task for my new job would happen in a few days. On that day, I would help escort Celeste and Fifer to some evening event at the Dance guild. It sounded like another boring event like the last dance party at my guild, and I did not look forward to going. But, I guess, it would give me some more time to make sure that that Jack-guy kept his distance from Celeste. As I thought about this my mind would reel over the ideas of how to get him away from her in any situation expected.

 

Soon the day came for the party, and as I expected, it started off as boring as the last one. I honestly do not understand how people find these fun. Maybe their enthusiasm for these things is something they inherited along with their roles. Or maybe it’s something that you have to be invited to actually have fun at. Like with the last one, the actual guests were all dressed up in fancy clothes first for some dinner which I was not allowed to partake in followed by the dance in a large room. A group of musicians from our guild played classical dance music as the members from the dance guild began to do what they did best followed reluctantly by the music guild’s guests. 

After a few moments I noticed Jack once again try to dance with Celeste, but this time she seemed to have issues shaking him. Noticing her distress, I moved my way through the crowd and asked, “Hey guys, how’s it going? Here I would have thought the dancer would be dancing.”

Jack glared at me for interrupting, and Celeste looked both wary and grateful. Jack then gave an indignant scoff before he replied, “I was actually asking Celeste for a dance when you decided to overstep yourself. But what about you? Or are you like most of the musicians here and are simply a one-trick pony?”

Both Celeste and I glared at him for this followed by my competitiveness deciding to take root. After a moment to compose myself I retorted, “You have no idea. How about you talk to those players and have them play something from this century and you can see a little of the tricks I can do.”

Jack accepted my challenge with a smile then left to talk to the band. A few moments later he returned and told me to have fun. To this I commented, “If it means I get to take that look off your face then this will be fun. So are you going to tell me what you picked or is that part of the game?”

“You said pick anything so you can find out when they start,” Jack answered. He then quieted down when the band struck up a popular song from the 1950s.

I laughed as I recognized the song and commented, “I requested something from this century, but I guess the last one works just as well. Well Celeste, can I have this dance?”

My question seemed to surprise Celeste, so in her confusion I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the dance floor. Once we were in the floor I broke out into the jitterbug as I swung Celeste around me in time to the music. Her parents must have enrolled her in some past dance lessons, since after only a few moments she was in sync with my dancing. Even so, a few times she gave out a cry of surprise, but towards the end of the dance she was laughing and panting alongside me.

I was panting by the time the song was over, it had been a while since I danced like that. I smiled at Celeste once we were done. Once my heartbeat left my ears, I noticed that a lot of the others gawked at us; some of them even applauded. Feeling proud of myself, we left the center of the stage and returned to where Jack dourly stood.

Unlike the other guests around us, Jack did not smile or say a ‘good job.’ Instead he asked, “Where did you learn to dance like that?”

“I used to have this girlfriend who liked to go to old-school dances. I suppose you could say I picked up a few moves. Now I guess that means I know more than one trick. But what about you ice boy? Or is the water too hot for you now?” I answered then asked.

He glared at me again for this but never got the chance to answer, for as he began to form a rebuttal the lights went out followed by the noise of several people rush towards the room.  Surprised and sensing the worst, the other guards rushed over to their assigned people and took protective stances. We were then met by two figures.

The first figure everyone saw was a wolf; a giant wolf which looked like it could put all of the evil wolves in all of those old fairy tales to shame. It was not a dark colored creature, but pure white from teeth-filled muzzle to lashing tail tip. Its legs were as large as most of the guys in the room and its bulk only served to crowd us on the opposite side of the room like frightened sheep.

Riding atop the wolf was a slip of a girl in a short, purplish-blue dress and wearing a strange mask. The blank eyes of the mask silently scanned the crowd of shocked guests only to then stop when she looked in my direction.

A dancer in the crowd must have been thinking quicker than the rest of us, for a flash of water whipped through the crowd straight towards the girl and wolf. The wolf broke the whip with a snap of its powerful jaws as the girl gave out a battle cry, then gracefully jumped off the wolf and literally ran across several people’s heads towards us.

“This way!” I called out as I pulled Celeste out of the strange girl’s direction. It was not as crowded where we were compared to closer to the wolf, and I could see an exit we could wiggle towards.

“Jack!” Celeste called out as she looked behind us. A few feet from her, the girl had pinned Jack down and stabbed him in the chest with a small blue dagger. Seeing this, my body moved without my head’s consent as I pushed past Celeste and kicked the attacker in the torso. The girl rolled with the kick and stared at me with the blank-eyed mask. She then jumped up again as bystanders separated between attacking her, attacking her wolf, and running for their lives.

“Celeste, get out of here before you get crushed,” I ordered as I pushed her yet again towards the exit. With so many people against two opponents, and many of those people using magic, I would not have been surprised if the entire house fell apart.

“What about Fifer?” Celeste asked as she frantically looked around after realizing she had not seen her sister for a while.

“I’ll find her, just go!”

She looked in my direction for a moment, then saw a couple of people go to Jack’s aid. At last she nodded that she understood and rushed out of the room as Simon lead her parents out through the same door. 

With her assured safety, I scanned the room for Fifer only to not easily see her. Frantically I tried to think what a ten-year-old with no powers would do in this situation until an idea came to me. As quickly as I could, I squeezed my way out of the fray and towards the refreshment bar which had been upturned in the confusion.  Behind the makeshift shelter I found Fifer staring wide-eyed as a dancer shot the wolf’s head off with a summoned gunshot. In retaliation, the wolf locked eyes with the dancer then bit her arm off.

Both she and I ducked as a stray fire shot came towards us. Not wishing to miss the chance, I grabbed hold of her. She yelped as I grabbed her, most likely not aware that I was near her, then listened as I told her that we needed to get out of here. Obediently she followed me the few paces out of the nearest doorway and into a hall, then stopped as a loud crash came from the room. Noticing her stop, I turned around to tell her again to run but stopped when I noticed her close her eyes tight, hold her hands near her face as if playing a small flute, and whistle slightly.

“What are you doing?” I asked confused, but she must have thought I was angry from how shocked she looked at me.

“I-I want to go home. I always thought these parties were boring but this one was just way too scary with that wolf and girl,” She bleated out; holding back tears of fear. Fifer had always struck me as the more out-going, tomboy-like girl, but apparently she still acted like a typical girl from time to time too; especially when scared.

“Well…whistling isn’t going to help. Come on, Celeste and your parents are this way. We should get out of here before this mess gets any worse,” I replied in a softer voice before I continued to lead her out of the house and to the courtyard where her family waited. Upon seeing them, she rushed up to Celeste who hugged her and her mother asked if she was alright.

“How are things in there?” Simon asked me as he watched the doorway to the room for anymore creatures. Several more people ran out to safety through the same door, and since things had quieted down I could only assume that the fight was close to over. 

“The wolf and the girl were both surrounded when we left with the wolf pretty much done for. Nevertheless, they’re going to have a lot of clean up to do when this is done,” I answered.  Now that I was out of the fray, part of me wanted to go back in to see how this ended. But at the same time they had drilled into my head that my job entailed making sure that the sisters were safe, and only that. Something then occurred to me, causing me to comment, “That must have been the assassin you guys were talking about since she only seemed to be after Jack.”

The others nodded their agreement to my theory and watched as the last of the people left the room. From what they told us the girl escaped, the room was no longer structurally sound, and several people including Jack were seriously injured. The only real bright side was that the wolf was killed and the girl was also badly injured. Seeing that the party was over, my guild leader told the dance leader to call if anything changed then excused us. With this said, we all left for our house.

18: Chapter seventeen

“It seems that your skills are good enough for this weekend.  Just stay to the side and if anything happens get Misses Celeste and Fifer to safety.  You can do that right?” my new music-magic instructor explained after my first lesson.  The instructor was a middle-aged man who did not seem all too eager to teach me, and seemed even less happy to learn I was assigned as a body guard to the guild daughters.

From what he told me, my first official task for my new job would happen in a few days.  On that day, I would help escort Celeste and Fifer to some evening event at the Dance guild.  It sounded like another boring event like the last dance party at my guild, and I did not look forward to going.  But, I guess, it would give me some more time to make sure that that Jack-guy kept his distance from Celeste.  As I thought about this my mind would reel over the ideas of how to get him away from her in any situation expected.

 

Soon the day came for the party, and as I expected, it started off as boring as the last one.  I honestly do not understand how people find these fun.  Maybe their enthusiasm for these things is something they inherited along with their roles.  Or maybe it’s something that you have to be invited to actually have fun at.  Like with the last one, the actual guests were all dressed up in fancy clothes first for some dinner which I was not allowed to partake in followed by the dance in a large room.  A group of musicians from our guild played classical dance music as the members from the dance guild began to do what they did best followed reluctantly by the music guild’s guests. 

After a few moments I noticed Jack once again try to dance with Celeste, but this time she seemed to have issues shaking him.  Noticing her distress, I moved my way through the crowd and asked, “Hey guys, how’s it going?  Here I would have thought the dancer would be dancing.”

Jack glared at me for interrupting, and Celeste looked both wary and grateful.  Jack then gave an indignant scoff before he replied, “I was actually asking Celeste for a dance when you decided to overstep yourself.  But what about you?  Or are you like most of the musicians here and are simply a one-trick pony?”

Both Celeste and I glared at him for this followed by my competitiveness deciding to take root.  After a moment to compose myself I retorted, “You have no idea.  How about you talk to those players and have them play something from this century and you can see a little of the tricks I can do.”

Jack accepted my challenge with a smile then left to talk to the band.  A few moments later he returned and told me to have fun.  To this I commented, “If it means I get to take that look off your face then this will be fun.  So are you going to tell me what you picked or is that part of the game?”

“You said pick anything so you can find out when they start,” Jack answered.  He then quieted down when the band struck up a popular song from the 1950s.

I laughed as I recognized the song and commented, “I requested something from this century, but I guess the last one works just as well.  Well Celeste, can I have this dance?”

My question seemed to surprise Celeste, so in her confusion I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the dance floor.  Once we were in the floor I broke out into the jitterbug as I swung Celeste around me in time to the music.  Her parents must have enrolled her in some past dance lessons, since after only a few moments she was in sync with my dancing.  Even so, a few times she gave out a cry of surprise, but towards the end of the dance she was laughing and panting alongside me.

I was panting by the time the song was over, it had been a while since I danced like that.  I smiled at Celeste once we were done.  Once my heartbeat left my ears, I noticed that a lot of the others gawked at us; some of them even applauded.  Feeling proud of myself, we left the center of the stage and returned to where Jack dourly stood.

Unlike the other guests around us, Jack did not smile or say a ‘good job.’  Instead he asked, “Where did you learn to dance like that?”

“I used to have this girlfriend who liked to go to old-school dances.  I suppose you could say I picked up a few moves.  Now I guess that means I know more than one trick.  But what about you ice boy?  Or is the water too hot for you now?” I answered then asked.

He glared at me again for this but never got the chance to answer, for as he began to form a rebuttal the lights went out followed by the noise of several people rush towards the room.  Surprised and sensing the worst, the other guards rushed over to their assigned people and took protective stances.  We were then met by two figures.

The first figure everyone saw was a wolf; a giant wolf which looked like it could put all of the evil wolves in all of those old fairy tales to shame.  It was not a dark colored creature, but pure white from teeth-filled muzzle to lashing tail tip.  Its legs were as large as most of the guys in the room and its bulk only served to crowd us on the opposite side of the room like frightened sheep.

Riding atop the wolf was a slip of a girl in a short, purplish-blue dress and wearing a strange mask.  The blank eyes of the mask silently scanned the crowd of shocked guests only to then stop when she looked in my direction.

A dancer in the crowd must have been thinking quicker than the rest of us, for a flash of water whipped through the crowd straight towards the girl and wolf.  The wolf broke the whip with a snap of its powerful jaws as the girl gave out a battle cry, then gracefully jumped off the wolf and literally ran across several people’s heads towards us.

“This way!” I called out as I pulled Celeste out of the strange girl’s direction.  It was not as crowded where we were compared to closer to the wolf, and I could see an exit we could wiggle towards.

“Jack!” Celeste called out as she looked behind us.  A few feet from her, the girl had pinned Jack down and stabbed him in the chest with a small blue dagger.  Seeing this, my body moved without my head’s consent as I pushed past Celeste and kicked the attacker in the torso.  The girl rolled with the kick and stared at me with the blank mask.  She then jumped up again as bystanders separated between attacking her, attacking her wolf, and running for their lives.

“Celeste, get out of here before you get crushed,” I ordered as I pushed her yet again towards the exit.  With so many people against two opponents, and many of those people using magic, I would not have been surprised if the entire house fell apart.

“What about Fifer?” Celeste asked as she frantically looked around after realizing she had not seen her sister for a while.

“I’ll find her, just go!”

She looked in my direction for a moment, then saw a couple of people go to Jack’s aid.  At last she nodded that she understood and rushed out of the room as Simon lead her parents out through the same door. 

With her assured safe, I scanned the room for Fifer only to not easily see her.  Frantically I tried to think what a ten-year-old with no powers would do in this situation until an idea came to me.  As quickly as I could, I squeezed my way out of the fray and towards the refreshment bar which had been upturned in the confusion.  Behind the makeshift shelter I found Fifer staring wide-eyed as a dancer sliced the wolf’s head off with a summoned sword.  In retaliation, the wolf locked eyes with the dancer then bit her arm off.

Both she and I ducked as a stray fire shot came towards us.  Not wishing to miss the chance, I grabbed hold of her.  She yelp as I grabbed her, most likely not aware that I was near her, then listened as I told her that we needed to get out of here.  Obediently she followed me the few paces out of the nearest doorway and into a hall, then stopped as a loud crash came from the room.  Noticing her stop, I turned around to tell her again to run but stopped when I noticed her close her eyes tight, hold her hands near her face as if playing a small flute, and whistle slightly.

“What are you doing?” I asked confused, but she must have thought I was angry from how shocked she looked at me.

“I-I want to go home.  I always thought these parties were boring but this one was just way too scary with that wolf and girl,” She bleated out; holding back tears of fear.  Fifer had always struck me as the more out-going, tomboy-like girl, but apparently she still acted like a typical girl from time to time too; especially when scared.

“Well…whistling isn’t going to help.  Come on, Celeste and your parents are this way.  We should get out of here before this mess gets any worse,” I replied in a softer voice before I continued to lead her out of the house and to the courtyard where her family waited.  Upon seeing them, she rushed up to Celeste who hugged her and her mother asked if she was alright.

“How are things in there?” Simon asked me as he watched the doorway to the room for anymore creatures.  Several more people ran out to safety through the same door, and since things had quieted down I could only assume that the fight was close to over. 

“The wolf and the girl were both surrounded when we left with the wolf pretty much done for.  Nevertheless, they’re going to have a lot of clean up to do when this is done,” I answered.  Now that I was out of the fray, part of me wanted to go back in to see how this ended.  But at the same time they had drilled into my head that my job entailed making sure that the sisters were safe, and only that.  Something then occurred to me, causing me to comment, “That must have been the assassin you guys were talking about since she only seemed to be after Jack.”

The others nodded their agreement to my theory and watched as the last of the people left the room.  From that they told us the girl escaped, the room was no longer structurally sound, and several people including Jack were seriously injured.  The only real bright side was that the wolf was killed and the girl was also badly injured.  Seeing that the party was over, my guild leader told the dance leader to call if anything changed then excused us.  With this said, we all left for our house.

19: Chapter eight-teen

“The party was attacked by a girl with a knife riding a giant white wolf. Why couldn’t I have been there? You do realize who that was right?”  Beril asked the next morning as he and I walked over to Claire’s shack. When he saw my blank stare to his question he groaned and replied, “Okay, tonight we are watching a very particular movie!”

“This is an otaku-thing for you, isn’t it,” I asked as I patted my arms to keep them warm from the crisp morning air; my mind more focused on the cold. Fall had come in full force, and I found it hard to believe that only a short time ago I had to work in this. It also seemed to make me more surprised that Claire refused to move out of her shack. All I could hope was that she had somehow started a fire or something else to warm the place up.

It was still early, too early for the now fewer lawn-care employees to be about, so we felt safe to talk and go as we pleased. As we walked Beril continued, “Yes, I suppose you could say that. Man, how about we stop talking about this before it gets me more depressed for missing it.”

“Okay, how about this topic. Why are you coming with me to my practice?” I asked as we reached the shack.

“Duh, so that I can make sure that I don’t miss anymore cool stuff,” Beril answered then walked through the door to the little area. He stopped in the middle of the doorway, however, so I had to push past him to see what was so interesting. 

When I saw a strange girl lying hurt in the middle of the room I also stopped. The girl was unconscious, yet restlessly, and fairly familiar. It then occurred to me that she was the girl who helped me the last time I went out into the city alone. Scattered around the floor next to her was the mask, dress, and a white pelt similar to the night before.

Looking for an explanation, I scanned the walls for Claire. She slouched against the far wall and stared back at me, her left hand against one of her tattoos of a dagger as if she had expected a fight instead of us.

“Um…why’s she here?” I asked when I remembered I could talk.

“I would think it was obvious,” Beril commented as he too looked over the girl and items. I gave him a confused look as he continued, “Come on dude, I just told you I recognized the description from a movie. She must be the person who attacked Jack last night, but I’m a bit confused as to why she came here.”

“From how the others made it sound she got injured in her fight. She must have realized that and wanted to come to someplace she felt safe. I mean, she did mention knowing you Claire,” I rationalized as I noticed her start to wake up and wince as she got into a sitting position. Part of me wondered how badly she was injured.

“Ya, I suppose you could not stay at the dance guild after doing that. They would have wondered how you got hurt when you were not ‘on call.’  Right, miss ballerina?” Beril commented as he looked down at her.

“As usual you are quite perceptive,” Claire commented towards Beril.  She then continued, “Tajina was my first and last student before I left my guild. I had heard that after I left she left too, and that she was in the area. But I did not realize what she was up to until last night when she passed out in my shack and tried to bleed out on my watch.”

“Jeez, are you okay?” I asked Tajina as I squatted down to get a better look at her possible injuries. Modestly, Tajina tried to cover herself better with the blanket Claire had covered her with, but she did so after I – or more importantly my teenage, horemone-driven brain – noticed something that did not make sense. Before I could think of anything else to say I asked, “Huh?”

 

“Maybe we should take Tajina to a hospital,” Celeste commented. Not sure where to go from here, we decided to fetch Celeste and Fifer so that we could think this over as a team. By the time we fetched them and caught them up as far as to what Beril and I found out, Tajina had grimaced and got into a sitting position against the wall by Claire. The costume-maker was obviously in pain, and looked overly embarrassed due to Beril and me realizing her secret.

“It’s just a few too many cuts. Thanks to some super glue they’re not even bleeding anymore,” Tajina grunted as she avoided eye contact.

“So if you were the girl from the attack how did you make the wolf appear?” Fifer asked more curious than shocked. This only seemed to embarrass Tajina more as she explained, “It was just some wood covered in an old pelt I found. It was just a matter of making it look like a wolf then using my magic on it to make it real.”

“So then you’re like the blue fairy and the puppet-maker from Pinocchio all rolled into one person,” Fifer concluded. Words seemed to escape Tajina for a moment, leading her to simply nod.

“To get back to our problem, we now have two wanted assassins in this little shack in a guild which would like nothing better than to interrogate then kill them,” Beril commented in hopes of reigning in the group to our pressing topic.

“Why would you even become an assassin?”  Fifer asked, unwilling to let her questions go unasked.

“It depends on the person. Or how badly you need something,” Claire answered as she watched Tajina look down.

“I think a better question would be who would hire this assassin,” I replied.

“Obviously someone who had it out for Jack, for starters,” Beril answered.

“Or to be more specific, the Spider perhaps. I remember when he gave me the task to get rid of Dylan and Fifer that there was also a hit for sale on a figure skater called Jack,” Claire said and caused Tajina to look down even more.

Seeing that Tajina was not going to deny this Claire continued, “When I took my job, it was in hopes of getting close to him and retake the loom. So what were you looking for?”

Tajina stayed quiet for a long moment, then finally answered, “I can change reality for some time thanks to my costumes, but once they come off or break apart the magic stops. The Spider is a powerful literary magician, and with the loom he may be able to change reality forever. He said that if I completed my job…he would change my character. Into a real girl, understand? But the time limit he gave me was running out, so I panicked and decided to attack during the party then get out during the commotion.”

The others and I gave a uniform “Oh” noise to this explanation.

“You should have thought of a less risky plan,” Beril commented.

“You shouldn’t be making deals with him or having any such plans period. I shouldn’t have to explain that to you,” Claire continued to scold.

“Can’t you at least try to understand? I mean, you took one of his missions too,” Tajina pleaded.

“I did so to try to put an end to all of this fighting. You did so to help yourself. Tajina, I do understand why you agreed, but you must also see how reckless it was,” Claire retorted, growing less harsh as she spoke.

“She has a point. I mean, you can barely get around this little place right now. What are you going to do if the music guild decide to come to this shack and find you? In case you forgot, both you and Claire are wanted for attempted murder. Even if you were able to get back out of this place without being seen, that’s assuming that the other guilds don’t go looking for you as well,” Beril bluntly explained. Tajina again looked down to this and mumbled out an apology.

“What’s done is done. Now we need to figure out where to go from here,” Celeste commented finitely.

“Why not continue this conversation inside the mansion with us?” A voice called from the doorway. We all looked over that way, realizing that we had been so focused in our conversation that we forgot to watch the door. In the doorway stood our guild leader, along with several of the journeymen from the house, all staring at us with a disapproving look.

The leader gave a signal for the others to storm the room, and Claire took it as time to throw several knives from her arms. She then broke the lone window next to her and tried to sling her other arm around Tajina. As she did this, Tajina was grabbed by my guild while the rest of us were surrounded. 

Claire gave one last look towards us as she pushed a man off her, then left through the window. Several people rushed out after her, but returned without her. When they returned empty-handed, we were escorted back to the mansion. Beril and I to be held and watched in an empty room, Celeste and Fifer likewise but in their rooms, and Tajina to someplace else to be questioned.

I was not happy about all of this, even if they had a point to think I was a traitor to the guild, and showed my displeasure by banging against the door and yelling out to them to open the door. I stopped when Beril called out to me, “Save your throat. Might as well rest and think of a plan for if they do decide to get rid of us.”

“Do you really think they would do that?”

Beril shrugged and commented, “Who knows, but whatever happens it’s best to be prepared. So sit down and rest up. We very well might need voice of yours.”