One Step Closer

Saabl

He stood in the vast, empty library, staring up at the rows and rows of books. Browns; various, but mostly darker shades painted the shelves full of their spines. He was looking for one book in particular, trying to listen to the multitude of voices, whispering, trying to pinpoint the one he was searching for. His eyes followed the third shelf up, following the line of books marching to the right. He couldn’t see their titles from where he stood below, but he didn’t need to know its title; only needed to hear its voice.

A sense lit up a part of his mind, the sense telling him he needed to seek out his friends soon. They were meeting to discuss their project for class. He knew that. It was why he was in the library searching for the book.

His eyes crossed over a dark binding, a spine that was black in color, with what looked to be a velvet finish across its covers. He was about to move his sight along to the next when he stopped, his gaze hovering on its soft skin. It, was the book that had driven him to the library. He pushed a rolling ladder over and climbed to the stair that would let him reach the book with no effort.

What was odd was the lack of designs and words on the binding. Nothing. No characters or swirling symbols. No patterns. No intricate designs. It was simply wrapped in black velvet. What the book looked like didn’t matter to him. It was its contents that mattered. Now he needed to find the one who would be able to read the spell.

Calix

He sat, sitting in his favorite chair. He felt this was the comfiest in the study he had chosen for them to meet. He’d sent out a signal, it would feel like a prickling sense in their minds, but one that could pass thoughts unsaid across distances. He had reminded them they would be meeting soon. They were discussing the topic for their project. His idea was to show how to change moldy oranges back into fresh, deliciously ripe fruit. He wasn’t so sure the other two would be as interested as he.

He heard the large doors across the way open. A whoosh accompanied the thick wood as a draft was pulled through with its weight. They closed slowly, soundlessly on constantly oiled hinges. This was his favorite study because of that small fact. One could enter, and one would barely know aside from the sound of air, but it was a gentle sound.

He looked up and saw Qwaya coming toward him. Her ash-blond ponytail pulled high on her head bounced behind her. He’d been fascinated when he had learned she could color water a certain way that could then color one’s hair. The ends of her ponytail were lighter, dipped like a paintbrush in a color of pale lemon. Her area of study was in the element of water.

His majix was based more in absorbing information quite quickly. No amount had been too challenging even thus far in his life of seventeen, but he had quite a ways to go even with basic majix spells.

She walked up to him and flopped into the chair across from him.

“Hello, Calix,” she said with a bright smile. Her teeth were so white against the red of her lip paint. A soft shadowed look overcast her eyelids. It must have been a new look she was trying. He liked it.

“Hello, Qwaya,” he replied. He closed the book he had been reading and let it rest on his cross leg.

“Any word from Saab?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I sent a message, did you leceive it?” He cursed quietly in his head. He had, ever since he learned to talk, always had trouble pronouncing the letter ‘r’. It always bothered him.  

He saw her look change slightly at the sound in his voice. She pitied him, and he knew it. She was the only one he didn’t feel angry toward when someone would give him such a look.

“I did, shortly before I got here, but I had already been on my way.”

“Should I sense where Saabl is?” Calix asked.

Her eyes flickered away, an almost distant look glazing them over, as if she were thinking of something.

She looked back to Calix realizing she had lost focus of what they were talking about and shook her head.

Saabl would be able to sense if Calix tried seeing where he was. And if he was somewhere embarrassing, such as the lavatory, Saabl would not be happy with him. Qwaya was right. They would just wait for him to arrive.

He reached for his book and had a finger at the bookmark he’d placed, ready to flip open the book when he heard the same whoosh of the door a second time.

Qwaya

She turned at the sound, having to look behind her with the position of the door and the chair she’d absentmindedly chosen to sit in. There he was. Charcoal grey hair that shined with a blue tint in the light, one green eye and one grey, the same color as his hair. In certain lights she had noticed how sometimes it matched his green eye. As he drew closer she saw his eyes were two colors instead of one.

Calix was quiet, withdrawn often. He had maple-brown hair, brown eyes to match and a splash of freckles across his nose and cheekbones. And while he could be considered cute, to the right girl, she wasn’t her.

His steps echoed across the marble tiles. He was tall, legs long and perfect in his black trousers. The school jacket, black also, closed only with a button at his waist hid his flat stomach. He looked so poised and neat all the time. Someone she wanted to get to know, and this project was the perfect opportunity to get close to him.

Saabl

The door closed behind him and he saw the other two were already sitting. Both pairs of eyes meeting his.

The three were only friends by acquaintance, pushed together, chosen by fate, -- their History in Majix Master. And both the two he needed for his spell.

He moved across the room. He’d only brought the black velvet bound book, not bothering to bring anything to write with, or write on. He took a seat between Qwaya and Calix, two other, empty seats at this area they had chosen as their meet place.

He laid the book across his lap and glanced at Qwaya. She was staring at him like he was dessert. He rolled his eyes and looked away, but not before saying, “You’re drooling.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her quickly fumble to brush it from her lip.

Such a stupid girl. If she didn’t possess the majix he needed, he’d have requested a different partner to their group immediately. Usually he got what he wanted. He was very persuasive when he wanted something. Sometimes even, those who wouldn’t give him what he wanted would give in to a will not of theirs, but his.

“Calix, friend, I found something I thought you might enjoy,” he said and held the book out for Calix. He knew he wouldn’t be able to pass up the opportunity to read its secrets.

He watched Calix’s eyes rove over the undecorated, plain, black cover; the look in his gaze immediately turning to greed. He reached for the volume, the spine only two fingers thick and carefully took it into his hands.

Saabl smiled on the inside, staring intently as he watched. He knew how to manipulate others even without the use of his powers. If he could just find that one thing they wanted, they sought furtively, but furiously, he would have their will in the cusp of his hand every time.

A whoosh sounded behind him and he smiled this time his mouth curling at both corners. The final piece had arrived.

Calix had opened the book and his eyes flashed across the pages, drinking in its inky whispers. Ones only Saabl could hear. It was how he knew which book to grab. And which would help him with what he wanted.

He specialized in two different majix’s. One, he tried his best to keep to himself, was the power over others. He could persuade people to do things they wouldn’t have normally done. His other power, one he used to his benefit sometimes if he didn’t want to be approached was the ability to hear voices. He hadn’t quite figured out whether they were souls speaking to him from the other side or if they were entities in the objects around him. Waiting to just spill what they knew, what they could see without eyes.

Qwaya

“Saab?” she asked. She looked up at him. He still hovered over by Calix, who for some reason always became so obsessed when a new book entered his hands.

He turned to look down at her. Her breath caught in her throat. He was just so stunning, standing there in his black academy uniform. She saw it all day on all the guys. Calix wore the same. Just on Saabl, but it seemed to have been made for him. She didn’t hear the door open behind them, lost in sight of Saabl in front of her. She stared, helplessly. His right eye, olive green, and the other, grey, dark like his hair, mysterious with an air of mischief.

“Did you want to discuss our project now?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, “but first, I was wondering if you might show me something?”

“What’s that?” she asked. She tried to contain her eagerness. This was her chance.

“Could you show me the Water Dance of Iyana?”

There were ten Water Dances. Luckily this would be easy. She knew the first eight, the first without needing any guidance.

“Of course!” She jumped to her feet.

She glanced to her left finally seeing who had entered the room. It was Thalla. She was Saabl’s cousin. She didn’t know Thalla too well, but she knew her enough where she could send a greeting.

She smiled and waved a welcome. Thalla turned around sensing her greeting and returned the smile and wave. She resumed what she had been doing, looking up at one of the bookshelves.

Qwaya moved to the center where she had the most space. She lifted her right arm and let it drape over her hair but not quite touching the strands. She slid her right foot forward and let her left arm cross her chest, letting her hand hover near her right side.

She stared at Saabl, his eyes glued to her. It sent shivers down her spine. She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. Gently.

Quietly she eased into the steps. Her hands flowed, like the flow of water, her foot sliding along the floor effortless and quiet. She had taken her shoes off. It would allow more fluidity in her movements, which were the key to the Water Dances.

She eased her mind. She flowed and spun and twirled and glided as if she were truly dancing on water. She heard, first distantly, a stream trickling. As she moved more, continuing the dance, she heard the sound grow louder, more rushed, as if it was now a rapidly moving river parted by rocks.

She raised both hands above her head, her fingers almost touching. A sprinkle of something wet seemed to hit her face. She didn’t open her eyes. It must just be her imagination. She could hear spray of waves now, as if she stood on a shore near a tumble of rocks in the water.

Saabl

This was only the first Water Dance, and the first key to what he was planning. The whispers of the book had told him a secret. If coupled with a spell inside the book Calix was reading, a new power could emerge, all he had to do was link the two.

He watched, his eyes moving over the egg of water around her. She knew what she was doing. It had formed an almost complete bubble around her. It was gentle, as her motions were. Small waves, like those stretching up a beach, thin with white frothy caps. They reached up, shaping the egg disappearing near the top like they did when a wave reached its furthest stretch. And then another appeared at the base, flowing up again, some over one another like folded wings as they crisscrossed over one another.

He looked down to Calix. He had gotten to the page. A whisper as Calix turning the thick parchment had shouted to him. This was the one.

He moved. He now stood behind Calix’s chair and leaned over his shoulder. The symbols on the page were nothing but foreign glyphs to him. He had no knowledge on this sort of thing, but he wasn’t the one who needed to say the words. He only needed another to perform the incantation.

“I had looked this over earlier, it was the reason I brought you the book,” he lied. “I couldn’t read it. Can you make it out? What does it say?”

Calix didn’t need another excuse to try and succeed when someone needed his help. It was something Saabl had learned about Calix. In the recess of his mind, Calix liked to help people. And Saabl needed help of this one particular thing.

Saabl closed his eyes this time. He listened to the words coming out of Calix’s mouth. He wasn’t sure if Calix had ever noticed, but it was the only time he didn’t have any problems pronouncing anything. Maybe he’d tell him one day.

Saabl raised his hands like he was about to conduct music. He waited to feel the power the words created. He listened intently to the sounds of the water lapping as Qwaya continued her dance.

There!

Saabl’s eyes shot open and he pulled a thread of light from the air, one becoming visible as he pulled it. The thread was pale green. He took it and held it with one hand between two fingers, gently like it was fragile and could break with a mere twitch.

He looked over and held his empty hand out reaching into air toward the egg of water surrounding Qwaya’s dance. And then he pulled a strand of blue light from the bubble, pulling it toward him until it now rested in his hand and he pulled both the green strand and the blue strand together, tying the lights until they were one. He held the strand of twisted light in his hands and then looked over at where Thalla stood. She watched Qwaya’s dance. If he wasn’t so entranced by this he would have stopped and watched as well. She was like a swan on water.

He threw the strand of twisted light ahead, the blast creating a whirl of blue and green spots across the room. Like light through a stained-glass window.

The shot blasted Thalla. It drew around her in a swirl of lights, flashing brighter the faster they spun.

He watched her raise her hands to try and block the strike, but she didn’t know the spell to dodge it.

The water rose, the lapping of waves around Qwaya suddenly rising together and drew up into the air like a large tendril of a wave. It rose until it nearly touched the high ceiling. As it reached its arc it tilted downward. A waterfall crashed down onto Thalla. The wave caught her and held her in an egg of her own.

He stared, watching and waiting to see what happened.

The spell contained the water around her, but with Thalla there was no bubble of air as there had been around Qwaya.

He heard a gasp and glanced to his left. He saw the look on Qwaya’s face as she caught sight of what was happening to Thalla. She rushed forward but stood with hands raised unknowing what to do to help.

A rush of bubbles exploded from Thalla’s mouth as the last of her air escaped her.

The water crashed to the floor, no longer held by powers unseen, and with it Thalla.

Qwaya

She stared down at Thalla’s open eyes. What had she just done? Her Water Dance wasnt supposed to do anything like that. It was a shield that protected one. It couldn’t move to another unless she had willed it, but she hadn’t willed it.

Thalla had been the heir to the throne, and Saabl’s cousin. And now she was dead. She had just killed her with majix. She stood, struck in shock, unable to move. She didn’t know what to do next.

Calix

           The book dropped to the floor, falling closed, now that it had done its damage. What had happened? He stared over at the girl on the floor. He only knew her vaguely. Only knew her because she was the daughter of the Kae and the heir to the kingdom. He looked over at Saabl, looking for his reaction at what had just happened to his cousin. Saabl was the son of the third Yin. He wasn’t anywhere near being the heir, but with Thalla dead he was one step closer.

Saabl

           The first piece had been claimed. He was on his way to the top. He was going to be Kae, and with Qwaya and Calix, who he roped into his hands. He would continue until he had removed everyone from his way, until he was the next to take the throne. And once it was only him and his uncle, the Kae, he would take care of him as well. He smiled a grin that stretched across his face. His path to the crown had just begun.