Awakening

Chapter 2 A Little Star

“I don’t see how looking through all these…these books of pictures is going to help me find her.” Janek stood up abruptly from the long, wooden table, the chair’s legs scraping on the floor, and stepped back until he bumped against the end of a shelf of books. The shelf creaked in protest.

“Because only you can recognize her,” the older man sitting across from Janek spoke, eyeing him patiently.

“But I’ve never met her,” Janek said, waving his hands wildly at the books. “Do you know how many girls are out here? What if she never had her picture taken? What if she’s not even at this school, Dardon?”

“Don. Call me Don, Janek.”

“Don.” Janek sighed. “It’s so hard. All these lies. I wish we could go back and…”

“And what, Janek? You know what waits for us on the other side.”

Janek glanced out the window. He could see blue sky and white clouds drifting by, trailing harmless shadows over lush, green grass. “Why is it so different here? Don’t these people know if we lose then he’ll be able to come over here? They’d be powerless to defeat him.”

“This world is not set up to defeat magic,” Don said, remaining seated but Janek caught him glancing out the window. It was something both of them had been trying not to do. It was too much of a temptation. Too much of a reminder of what could be, had been so long ago. Don continued in a softer voice. “These people here have other ways of fighting though. That could be their advantage.”

“That’s only if we can’t stop him from coming over,” Janek said. “That’s why the Lightfire came over here, isn’t it? To find her. It thinks she is here.”

“Yes, but the Lightfire has its own motive for finding the Lady.”

Janek sat back down suddenly and dragged his chair forward to the stack of books. “The Lady. She won’t be trained. Can’t be trained. She’ll be too old by now.” He leafed through another book. “If we find her, she’ll be more trouble than she’s worth. Are you sure there is no other girl here? There were a set of twins once. Long ago.”

Dardon shook his head. “Not her. She was the last one to be found and put in this world to be hidden.”

“And because the Lightfire spent some time with Darsis, it now knows where he hid her.”

“You’re still angry with him.”

“He should not have done what he did.”

“You can’t accept that he made a mistake.”

“I don’t care if he is young, as god’s go. He is supposed to be smart. What he did was stupid.”

“Well, he’s paying the price now.”

Janek nodded once. “Insanity looks good on him.”

They heard voices in the corridor.

“Is the spell still in tact?” Janek whispered, not looking up.

Don closed his eyes. Janek felt a slight shift to the air surrounding them. Don opened his eyes, wearily. “Yes.” Costuming spells, a shield that made them hide their true identities and look like regular people to anyone who saw them, exhausted the magician who created it. It didn’t affect them physically. It worked as a filter so anyone looking at them would expect to see their own styles of clothing and hair.

“I wish you would allow me try,” Janek said, his fists clenched on the table. “Take some of the burden from you.”

Don smiled gratefully. “You know you cannot. You must wait. You’re going to need all your strength once we find her.”