Chapter 10: Origin (Part I)
The rest of the day goes by, just like all the others. Class after class after class. Nothing, but the usual. Nothing, but the usual for the next hundred or so days until summer break. It may still be exciting now, but after the second week back, it becomes tiring, a chore.
I would rather be at home practicing my magic, perfecting each little quality of it. How the roots grow and expand, hopefully not enough to cause the pot to explode. How each petal captures its nutrients from the sun. How the stem connects everything together, the core of the flower and its foundation.
Everything else, healing and potion making, I already know how to do. Somehow, I’m not getting this nature magic thing, but that’s okay. Maybe Iris could… help me.
No, she can’t.
I stop by my locker, grab my coat and anything else I need to bring home. I don’t have much homework today; it is only the second day after winter break. Well, it leaves me with more time to work on my magic, then. Or try to anyway, without putting another hole in the ceiling. I don’t think Dad would be very pleased about that.
When I turn to leave, I’m greeted by a familiar face. Eyes that sparkle and hair that falls just right. Even freckles that dot her nose.
Iris.
With Riley and, I assume, Lucian behind her.
“Is there something you want? I need to get home,” I tell her, holding on to the straps of my backpack.
“Look, I didn’t approach you and tell you that I knew what you were for no reason. If you let me talk, you’ll understand,” Iris explains. “Please.”
There’s no harm in it, I guess. It’s just going to be a conversation. One conversation. That’s it.
That’s it.
I nod. “Yeah, but not here.”
Together, we travel through the halls, following Iris to wherever she’s taking us, somewhere private. An open classroom or something.
Although we’re just walking in the hallway, it feels weird. This is what friends do, wander the halls before or after school for whatever reason. Talking, hanging out, laughing about some stupid inside joke. Things that humans do with their friends. Things that are all new to me. Things I never thought I would get to do. It’s my last year of high school, yet here I am, living my friendship dream of simply walking down a hallway.
We enter a secret spot in the hallway downstairs that’s in a corner, a dead end. So maybe it’s not-so-secret if it’s just the end of the hallway, surrounded by light blue drywall.
Every classroom we passed was closed, teachers already locking them up for the night. This spot here will have to do. No one’s around, and at this point, a majority of both students and teachers have gone home, besides those in after-school clubs and organizations.
I face the three of them. “What’s so important? You said yourself that you had a reason, so what is it?”
“I said earlier that I, no, we need your help. We can’t do this without you. The future depends on it,” Iris says. “And I know that sounds… desperate, but believe me. Please. We’re trying to do what is right for everyone, including you.”
“It’s written in the stars, Mika. You’re meant to be here, right now,” Lucian adds.
I sigh. “Okay, Mr. Oracle. Stop with the future talk. It would be nice to know what you’re talking about first.” I move my gaze from Lucian to meet with Iris’. “You want me to understand, right? So help me understand.”
“You have to promise that you won’t freak out.” Iris walks up to me and lifts my hands into her own. “I know it might sound crazy at first, but we already have it all planned out, so you shouldn’t—”
“We’re going to overthrow the rule!” Riley exclaims. “You know, that silly one that was created by the Council after the war? Every Mystic knows of it, at least they should.” She looks to Iris for validation. “Do they?” She receives glares in return from both Lucian and Iris. “Oh. Too soon?”
Overthrow the rule. I don’t understand. Why would they want to do that? How could they possibly do that? The Council consists of these all-powerful beings. Even if they want to and have it all planned out, as Iris stated, it would be impossible to achieve. As a result, they would be banished, or better yet, executed.
I yank my hands out of Iris’. “Please tell me you’re lying. Please tell me Riley just said that for sh*ts and giggles. Please don’t tell me that you really want to put yourselves in that kind of danger.”
Iris shakes her head, and I’m sucked into a vacuum that I can’t escape from. A blackhole that pulls at all my limbs until they snap, crumble, then float on into emptiness. And somehow, I’m still alive, reaching out towards the light for anything, grasping for anything. But it starts to fade and I’m left alone, a soul in the wind.
They’re going to bring down the rule, and all I can think of is the inevitable chaos that will follow.