Sages and mages

The city of Neffra looked almost alive with glowing lights of every color inside it. The multi-colored neon lights contrasted sharply with the black shimmery color of the sea as it washed the beach in small waves. The rooftop I was sitting on was not the highest in the city, but atop it, I could see Neffra as well as the giant seat that sat calmly beside it.

It was one of the rare moonless nights when the alchemists gathered to study the sky. That is how they knew whether and when the tsunami would return.

The tsunami had devastating consequences every time it came to Neffra once in a century. The last time it came, we fought it and we won. Maybe it would always be like that.

As I looked out into the open sea, I couldn't help but wonder how long it would take before either Neffra or the sea would be at odds.

An alien charge in the air disturbed my thoughts a second time. It was subtle and resonant, but unyielding. Maybe the cold air of the rooftop was making me sick already.

 "Not one for alchemy, are you?" I turned around to face the speaker, startled by the suddenness of her words. "Sorry for startling you."

The speaker was tall and lithe, but the shimmery grey of her hair shone slightly in the glowing lights. The said hair was tied back in a single braid, revealing an asymmetrical face. Her clothes were dark as the night itself, making her deceptively inconspicuous.

"Why are you not at the alchemy meeting yourself," I asked, curious about anyone who would dare miss an alchemists meeting. Alchemist meetings were very important for the Neffrans. It was almost a taboo to miss them.

"I believe in something else." She said plainly in her raspy voice. "I believe in magic."

My heart almost skipped a beat at the mention of magic. Most Neffrans feared even the mention of magic least they somehow call it into being. But again, her face was not one I had seen in Neffra before.

" Beliefs are different. Magic is dead to Neffra." I slowly tried to wring down the conversation as I moved to leave the rooftop but she wasn't done with me.

"Asleep, not dead." She spoke firmly as she sat on the edge of the rooftop, motioning for me to sit beside her. She waited until I was past my conflicted thoughts before the smiled at my decision to sit beside her.

"Magic and science are twins, both born of necessity. Neff used to be the city of Magic before the visitors came and washed away all we had, all we knew." I knew she was referring to the invasion of the Visirers who had arrived from the sea, conquering Neffra and ruling it for decades. she sighed softly before she spoke again. "We have forgotten who we are as people and we have forgotten magic. The ancestors we once believed in are now mere tales of idiocy and the arts we adored have become hollow and void."

" Why are you telling me this?" I wondered aloud as I called myself nine brands of stupid for even considering what she was saying. I wasn't supposed to listen to her words considering I was one of the Gole siblings, the greatest alchemists in all of Neffra.

She looked at me intently before she spoke. "I am a messenger of the ancestors. They have watched from on high and have been angered by the city's forgetfulness. Before Dawn, the tsunami will come to remind Neffrans of who they truly are."

The intent was to call her out on her lie but I recognized the truth in her words because the air was unusually charged for that time of the year. I could swear that something cackled in the air as I stood, making me shiver.

"You can feel it, can't you?" Her Raven colored eyes were somber. "Tell me you can feel the tsunami coming."

"If there was a tsunami, my siblings would have detected it. Besides, the tsunami comes only once a century and not many years have passed since the last one." My stubborn side won out. Familial pride was something I kept on a short leash even when I was the only one among the twelve siblings who couldn't practice alchemy if my life depended on it.

"Imperfection is everywhere, Riman, and your family and their gadgets are no exceptions." Amusement danced in her tone. She stood slowly and walked gracefully to the stairs. "You are magic, keep that in mind."

The cackle in the air returned, but this time it was more pronounced and it felt on my bare skin like a resonant hum. I watched the woman's retreating back as she left. "You could at least tell me who you are," I yelled.

"Orsella." She replied without looking back. The view of the open sea mocked me with its calmness. Like the calm before the storm.

The meeting was set at the core of the city, making it accessible to anyone who would want to attend. I braced myself as I walked into the Hall of alchemy but my nerves failed me the moment I walked into the giant door.

All eyes turned to me as I regretted my lack of formal wear for the meeting. Everyone else was impeccably dressed, wanting to impress in the presence of the most important alchemists in the city.

" Riman," Alluk, the eldest of the Gole siblings called out to me as he made his way through the packed crowd to get to me. "I've looked for you everywhere." His bright smiled stayed put even as he embraced me but once he was near enough he whispered in my ear. "What are you doing here."

I should have been used to the venom in his voice after being the victim of his hot temper for years, but it still caught me off guard. " I ... I came to warn you." I squeaked.

He held me gently by the elbow and lead me to a more private part of the hall. All the while, he threw the guests apologetic smiles. "What is it, Riman?" He snapped as soon as we were alone.

It was no secret that of all the thirteen Gole siblings, I was the only one who couldn't practice alchemy. Most of the Neffrans found my mere presence irritating but all that didn't count because of Alluk's temper which was often used to defend me. Tonight, it seemed fire burns indiscriminately because that very temper was blazingly pointed towards me.

" The tsunami is coming. I came to warn you." I said. "I know your machines haven't detected it, but it's coming."

He sighed, calming down a notch. "And how do you know about it? Have you felt it in your magical bones?" He was one of the few people who knew I had magic even if it was limited.

Maybe it was meant as a joke, but the statement opened old wounds, ones that I had forgotten. " I think I need to rest. I've probably had a lot to drink."I was halfway across the balcony when he spoke again but his voice was swallowed up by the noise of the conversing alchemists.

I should have walked out peacefully but an idea made it into my mind as I walked. "The Tsunami is coming. All of you do something or it will drown the entire city before Dawn."

I was not sure of the reaction I expected from the impecably dressed alchemists but indifference had not been in my calculations. It probably didn't help that I couldn't quite keep the edge of hysteria from my voice.

" Poor thing, she thinks she is people." One person said rather loudly before another male voice spoke. "Probably crazy, that one. Such a bold claim for one who knows nothing about alchemy." There were a few laughs in the crowd but I couldn't see who was laughing through the wetness of my eyes.

I almost ran into a few frantic looking alchemists at the giant door but my thoughts were elsewhere and my hurting heart was nonlachant. I ran out into the night. There was a reason I preferred my solitude. These people had a knack for hurting non-alchemists. Especially if there was only one in the entire city.

The calm outside the hall had disappeared in the few moments I was inside the Hall of alchemists, leaving a raging storm in its wake. Anyone else would have paused at the fury of the storm but I walked right into it. A lifetime of whispered insults and sharp glares does that to a person. Even the patter of the rain on my bare skin did not feel as painful as the pain of rejection.

I had been running blindly in the rain for what felt like hours before I felt a hand catch me by the elbow. I balled my right hand into a fist as I threw it at whoever had caught me but my tiredness made my movements clumsy and I found myself bent over, facing the muddy streets of cobblestone.

"Stop struggling." Orsella's voice carried above the noise of the rain as I struggled out of her grip. "Let me show you the way."

I hesitantly let her pull me away from the rainy streets into a cottage. I was shocked at being on the outskirts of the town because that is the only place with cottages, the rest of the town was all glass buildings and spires. Exactly how far had I run?

" You do nothing in inches, it's always miles." Orsella's said as she handed me a cup of sweet-smelling tea. The cottages were cozy and well lit. The walls were full of ancient paintings and the floor had a multi-colored rag with olden patterns drawn into it. The fireplace on one corner of the living room had a blue fire burning inside it, obviously sustained by magic.

A clock hung majestically on one of the walls pointing ten. It was hard to imagine that it had only been four hours into the night.

I was beside the window watching the glittering raindrops as they reflected the light from the cottage, falling like stars. I should have been next to the fire, warming myself but there was a comfort in the cold. besides, Orsella's spare clothes fit me well compared to my wet clothes.

" I can show you a trick if you like." Orsella's tone was almost hopeful. "I know a thing or two about magic." brought a chair and sat beside me.

Taking it as a chance to put the looming apocalypse off my mind, I agreed.

"I'll show you how to make a water shield. It's one of the basics of manipulating magic and mostly hasn't much use, but it's still magic. Hold your hand out like this." I imitated the way she was holding her hand out of the window into the pouring rain. "If you're focused enough, you can feel the threads of existence and how they are woven together.

I closed my eyes and focused. Feeling the threads came as easily as breathing but the next part was a bit harder. " Try feeding your energy into the threads and focus on making your flow of energy one with the flow of the rain. Now open your eyes." Orsella's said.

Orsella's weave of energy and water was the height of a toddling child. It looked like an umbrella made of fire and ice. Mine was quarter the size and not nearly as breathtaking but Orsella insisted that mine was a good start. Most mages didn't get a hung of magic even after weeks of practice.

Weave after weave, I continued practicing even after Orsella took a break to attend to the whistling kettle on her stove. I was lost in the weaving until three sharp wraps at the door interrupted me. A guest of Orsella's, probably unkind to keep them waiting in the rain.

I rushed to open the door, determined not to let Orsella's guest soak in the rain a while longer. A glance at the clock revealed it to be a few minutes past midnight.

The door was stuck, wielding after three shoves to reveal a rain socked Alluk at the door. His wet hair was clinging to his face and his clothes were in a state of dishevel I had never seen them in.

"Maybe magic can help. Our machines couldn't detect the tsunami. You have to do something." The sense of urgency in his voice was terrifying because with it came the knowledge that for once, the all-knowing brother didn't have the solution. His sudden belief in magic spoke of the desperation of the situation.

 Science had failed him. Science had failed Neffra.

"I'm not advanced enough as a mage to even try to stop a tsunami. Even if I could, I don't know how to." I said and his face fell.

"Or..." Orsella cut in, "we could mage giant energy weaves. Just as long as you allow magic back into Neffra.

"Are you serious? Do you realize how much energy such a spell will take? Probably more than we can give." I was shocked by her suggestion.

"That's where the giant generators of Neffra come in. Let's just try and see." She handed Alluk a steaming cup of tea, beckoning him to enter.

We were at the beach in the hour before Dawn, preparing to battle the apocalypse that none of us had prepared for. It was as dark as night can be but the bright lights of Neffra we're strong enough to illuminate the wave as it massively came, threatening to drown Neffra in a heartbeat.

The combined energy weaves were thick enough to hold the giant wave but probably not strong enough to keep the wave away for long. Though they were infused with waterproof seaweed and reinforced with titanium lining, there was no telling what fury lay behind the apocalypse or how much damage it could do. One wrong move and both Orsella and I would be burnt to crisp.

When it finally came, the wave was a feline thing, intent on the damage of everything in its path. I imagined that the Neffrans were somewhere in safety watching the energy weaves repel the tsunami.

" No one said science and magic can't work together," Orsella said once the tsunami was past. For a moment, it had seemed as if we were fighting a losing battle but the tsunami finally subsided.

The sea returned to the calm it once had, leaving the glowing city alight with multicolored lights.