A World Of Treason and Tides

Chapter 18: Are We in Odalis?

We were infront of that garden in Cambridge. All the way to Cambridge Ryan had taken care of me. It would not have been right if I said I did not like being taken care of, but for some unknown reason it felt weird— maybe because I did not actually want to be taken care of. I felt out of my own control and I desperately wanted to heal.

“When I came here with mother…,” I told Ryan, “…she could not see the real beauty of this garden. I could.”

 Ryan turned his head towards me as I finished the sentence, but I went on saying, “But when I came back here, it took me a while to see through the glamour, but not as much effort as I needed in Southampton.” my voice was as confused as my mind was, when I asked him that.

“In Southampton, you were too anxious and afraid to see through the glamour,” he said simply and nudged me forward, towards that pond.

My confusion did not go away. I turned to him and was about to cross my arms infront of me, when I realized how difficult it was to move it. I scowled at my arm.

"Don't frown," Ryan said, "You are the one delaying the journey by asking never-ending questions."

I shrugged with one shoulder. Ryan groaned. “Fine, when you first came here, you wanted to be anywhere but inside my house. You wanted to be in this garden and that is why you could see through the glamour. Now Spark, we can talk about this later.”  I wanted to know more and I wanted to yell at him for not making things clearer to me. But I refrained and dragged myself towards the rich blue water-body infront of me, though I could not refrain myself for long.

“So, this is your garden? Why did you leave it unfinished?” I asked, very much aware of the curiosity that might have been showing in my eyes.

“We were finishing constructing it. It’s the humans- you, who couldn’t wait longer,” he snapped at me.

“Hey!” I protested, “Anyone could have come here and drank from the pond.”

“No Venus." Ryan shook his head. "They cannot even see through the glamour, and even if someone could, I am sure they would not have been confident enough to go inside the garden and actually drink water from the pond.” He then rolled his eyes. “Most humans are sensible enough not to do that.”

“So you are saying I am not sensible?” My hand was starting to hurt again and I clenched it tightly with my other arm. I saw Ryan take notice of that.

“You are too sensible, so much so, that you got tired of your sensibility and wanted to do something stupid,” he said and touched my arm transmitting that soothing sensation to my veins. My pain subsided, though I knew that it won’t last much longer.

I huffed.

“Why are we here?” I asked.

“We need to go into the pond to get to my Kingdom. Now, do you remember the spell?” he raised his eyebrows.

“Yes,” I silently chanted the spell. “But how…” I asked, “How is this pond related to Odalis?”

“You ask too many questions,” he raked a hand through his hair.

“I would not have if all these were not so confusing.”

“Well, as you know, we came here from Southampton as the use of magic- how little it may be, made my uncle aware about our whereabouts…” I nodded. Ryan continued, “We had a similar portal there— that mud house— which connected us to the Kingdom of Land, where my mother belonged. She exhausted the little power she had left to build that portal— it was made from her powers, our emotions and our memories in Land.”

He paused. Then said, “But we never went inside it, afraid what it might do. And when we left that house, Mother destroyed that portal. I had thought the house was destroyed as well, but it, apparently is still there. When we came here, Father wanted to cut off magic entirely but I convinced him to build one similar portal here and he built this pond with all his remaining powers, our emotions and our memories in Water.” Ryan sighed loudly.

I did not say anything and let him continue, “We bought that land—it was previously that dry land which everyone still sees, but we converted it into that garden putting the glamour of the dry land over it. I was building the fence around it—now I hope I was a little faster in doing so.”

“Was Aeron able to sense your magic when you raised that wall of water?"

Ryan sighed. "Most likely, I think, but it does not matter since we are now going to Odalis anyway."

"You shouldn't have used your power to get me water that day," I looked into Ryan's eyes, "That was why the monster was able to find us, I think."

"I did what was necessary," Ryan said with a stern expression. Then bended downwards. Then he picked me up.

“Wha—what are you doing?” I nearly shrieked.

Ryan looked at me with a straight face and shook his head as if thinking: Why does this girl get so hyped?

Maybe he was expecting me to say something, but when I did not, he clarified, “You couldn’t jump into the pond, could you? With your hand in this condition?”

Oh. But...

"My legs are fine!" And the pond was not that low anyway, though I wished there were stairs.

Ryan smiled, cocking his head to one side and put me down. "Jump then," he said, still smiling.

That was when I realized jumping requires shoulder muscles too and produces some strain to our hands as well. I looked sheepishly at Ryan, who looked smug on being proven right. "Now it is you—" I started to speak but Ryan picked me up for the second time.

He had just taken a step forward when I blurted out, “I am so afraid. What if the spell doesn’t work?” And before I knew, I started rambling, “I mean, with or without spells, how could a person even live underwater? I—”

Ryan cut me off saying, “A few days ago, you probably had thought how could faeries even exist? But we do exist. So, take a deep breath and close your eyes.”

I was still sceptical but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

After a few moments, I felt a cool sensation around me which meant we were underwater. I slowly released my breath which I did not know I was holding.

I could breathe.

I let out a sigh after I finally accepted that the spell had worked and I was indeed underwater. I felt Ryan relax too.

“Aren’t you going to open your eyes?” he asked.

Right. I still had not opened my eyes; afraid to see where I was, afraid of the dark place I kept seeing in my dreams.

“Come on, Spark. I am here.” Ryan urged me again.

“Are we in Odalis?” I asked him.

“Yes.”

“Well…fine.” I slowly opened my eyes. But what I found was not what I had seen in my dreams.

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Hope you liked CHAPTER 18 of 'A World of Treason and Tides'. Do vote and comment.😊

Exciting music playing in background. XD

They have finally reached Odalis. I can't wait to introduce you all to that beautiful country, and to that beautiful Kingdom of Water.

So, I'll not be late to upload the next chapter. 💫