Saif, is there a possibility that you can read my mind
Chapter 32| Saif, is there a possibility that you can read my mind?
"Haven't we arrived yet?" Kimberly asked for the seventh time in four minutes, making Saif smirk.
"What have you heard about patience?"
"I lack the virtue I have been told." She retorted, cursing underneath her breath as her sandals got caught in a muddy pool.
Glancing around to see the vast empty road with no human trails on them didn't make her even less frustrated.
"We are closer than you think, Human. Everything in this realm is not as you see it." His words were teasing almost like he had read her mind.
"Now before we take a step further, I need to tell you something before you mingle with people." His voice had a serious edge to it, which made her listen knowing he wasn't joking around.
"This," he said pointing at her outfit, "Is just an illusion. Do not meet the gaze of anybody. That won't be suspicious because a lowly man's face is always down, facing the dust. If you meet the gaze of by tough luck a wizard, sorcerer, witch or anyone who has the discerning gift, your illusion will be shattered and you'll be seen for who you are."
"And that will be disastrous" She added, her addendum sounding more like a question.
"Yes. Varying from Abba being in a good mood and letting us off the hook with two fortnight of house arrest?"
"Fortnight? What's that?" She curiously asked, remembering that Tristan had also mentioned it when talking about the timeframe the realm will be accepting their heir.
"A fortnight is two nights after the meeting of the realm and goddess Asheeraus."
She nodded, not knowing how she could chalk up this weird way of counting time to the earth calendar.
How many days were in this fortnight she wanted to ask? What was the time difference between earth and Realm? Was at the tip of her tongue, but she knew he didn't know the answers to this question because, unlike Tristan, he had only known the realm.
"Saif," she called out a few minutes later as they walk in companionable silence.
"How did you feel about humans before you met me?"
"I thought they were weak that is if they exist. I couldn't imagine any being living with no special abilities at all."
"Like the power to control wind like you do?" Her question was innocent on the surface but in-depth she sought to find out what he thought of her kind before he met her.
"Nope, that's a royal blood special ability." He shrugged like she was dumb to not know that was different from his normal ability.
"Guy, weeks ago I'd have screamed bananas if I saw you control the weather with your hands and make a whirlwind that almost wreaked an ancient building that I suspected have stood for thousands of centuries." She thought to herself but judging by the smug look on his face, she discovered she must have thought aloud.
"My normal ability is pretty not frightening and nothing special," he shrugged, and then giving her a toothy grin, he raised his brow, "Are you ready?"
She glanced around them and not having an idea what he was talking about, she nodded.
She took another step and gaped in surprise, chattering and giggling filled the air.
Boys and girls in a similar outfit like theirs carrying heavily loaded trunks into a wagon.
Impossibly beautiful women, scoffed, shouting at them at the slightest provocation. Without being told, Kimberly could tell they were the elites.
She turned to look at the strange spot which they had just left, but there was nothingness in the air.
"Remember head down," he hissed even as a woman with a long cloak passed them, her eyes crimson red which almost made her audibly gasp.
She looked nothing like the other creatures who looked human regardless of the insanely gorgeous policy she wasn't aware of going on in the realm.
But she made her feel goosebumps even as Kimberly couldn't help but take a peek at her hair which were in braided conrows.
"Goddess, you are certainly not good at following up with instructions. Remember when I talk about witches? She is the most powerful of them all and Tristan's Godmother. She is Elena, the most feared and powerful witch in the coven."
Kimberly stared at the woman's retreating figure in fascination and without being told had her face down immediately she stopped in her trail like she could feel eyes on her.
Saif grabbed her hands and was tugging her forward but not before she saw the strange being turn and twitching her nose, gazed lazily around the market almost like she could sense her presence.
"Have anyone told you, you are a trouble magnet, what were you thinking staring so hard at her, she probably sensed your eyes." He chastised lightly, but she could hear the humor in his voice.
"She also sniffed too." She added.
"She isn't from the Kingdom of Ason, she doesn't possess such gift to sniff out humans." He whispered, his voice firm and sure.
A little girl walked past them, her face was divine just like the other beings around her, she glowed like some kind of goddess, her strand of lovely Auburn hair in a ponytail as she eyed Kimberly.
"Don't," Saif warned seeing the awe in Kimberly's eyes as she resisted the urge to coo at the little child who now gazed at her accusingly, their gazes met.
Kimberly stiffened.
"It is cool. She is just a snake." He mumbled like that was so ordinary.
She hissed almost like she was supporting Saif's absurd comment.
"Your smell is off." The little child muttered and then crouching down on the floor transformed into a snake, smaller than the one Saif's mother had on her lap but even more frightening because she had seen the little adorable girl turn into that.
She gazed at Tristan, fear in her eyes and confusion.
"Don't worry. I'm sure she had not sniffed any of your kind in a long time, but it is nothing to be worried about."
Kimberly raised her brow, a suspicious thought hovering at the back of her mind, regardless of how crazy it sounded.
"Saif, is there a possibility that you can read my mind?"
He chuckled, his eyes wide like he had been caught taking out cookies from a sacred jar yet he still had his ridiculously infamous smirk.
"I was beginning to get disappointed and thought you were just a big dummy. Now, that's my normal ability."
"And you said it was nothing much."
He shook his head, "I'm not yet good at using it. I'm still schooling my powers and it is only easier with you because you don't have a lid over your thought. You are like an open book unlike the rest of us whose thoughts are more hidden, buried."
She nodded thoughtfully, not liking she was the easier creature.
"It has nothing to do with you being human. You are just so untainted and free." He muttered knowingly.
"Can you stop doing that, it is Rude!" She tried to scowl but couldn't help the little grin on her face which made him Chuckle.
"Be a good sport and indulge me. Everyone is so close off, this is the first time, I'm using this ability of mine that everyone calls powerful yet so useless because I can't utilize it."
She pursed her lips, "Have you tried Tristan?"
He barked out a burst of laughter that shocked her, she had not seen it coming.
"You should have just told me to try reading Abba's mind. Tristan's thoughts are safeguarded with spells and incantations I can only dream of going through. He learned the devil's trade from Elena herself!"
She looked away, not knowing why she had even thought of Tristan, maybe a part of her wanted to know why he acted the way he did. Why he was bipolar and so jerkish.
"For the good of the kingdom," Saif mumbled.
"Huh?" Her eyes met his.
"Tristan is Tristan and does whatever he does for the good of the kingdom. He is the future King, the kingdom will come before him at any point in life. So don't even try figuring out his cold persona and fevered one too at the same time. He can't be his person, no matter how hard he fights the affluence and change that comes with the heavy crown."
"Is that why all the Kings never laugh?"
It was a joke. She had expected him to Chuckle and shake his head at her but his next words she didn't see coming, "The crown always takes a man happiness and eternally locks it in a lid. I pity Tristan."