Quest (OLD: the new version MIGHT be posted shortly)

Chapter 7-Jae

Morning came with the smell of Emily’s cooking. She really had a gift, I must say. An omelet had never tasted so great. I felt better than I had yesterday, and all I had done was hold a wand. After we ate and packed Sage called us to order.

“We’re going to continue left until we meet our next task. I guess I should tell you about it, hunh?” she mused. She pulled out the leather-bound journal and opened it. “This is from the legend. ‘Follow the directions the elder gave you and you will find your path blocked. Keep your wits about you as you riddle your way past.’ That’s all it says. I think the key words are ‘wits’ and ‘riddle’, so it might be some sort of puzzle. Let’s hope it isn’t too difficult.” With those words she started walking.

We walked onward and turned left. We walked onward some more and turned left again. Eventually our pace slowed as the hot sun bore down on us. As it settled in the middle of the sky Sage called us to a halt.

“Man,” Jason, a large buff man with olive skin, huffed. “I’ve never walked so far in my life.”

“Maybe it’s a challenge within a challenge,” Landon suggested, wiping a sheen of sweat off his face. “Talisman has to test us and make sure that all of us are worthy of getting a wish granted.”

“And being worthy means being able to hike for miles on end?” Emily asked. “I’m not used to this; it doesn’t mean I’m not worthy.”

“Just try to remember what you’re here for,” Austin suggested, his sandy hair plastered to his forehead. “It’s working for me.”

“What are you here for?” I asked. He turned to me, smiling.

“A girl, what else?”

“Is she in the Hole?” Emily asked, somber.

“No, her dad’s a politician. She doesn’t have a drop of magic in her, which means that I can’t be with her,” Austin explained.

“What’s she like?” Serenity asked, catching up to us.

“Perfect,” he stated. “I don’t know how else to describe her. She and I could carry on a conversation for hours, going at each other, teasing; there’s nothing better. But when the laws started being more and more enforced, then I had to stop. Or, rather, she told me to stop, afraid that I’d be caught because of her.”

“That’s harsh, man,” Jason groaned.

“It’s been over two years since we’ve talked,” Austin nodded. “I should’ve gone anyway.” He kicked at a twig and it snapped in half with a loud CRACK! “I watch the news every day in hopes that her dad’ll be on screen and I’ll see her in the background or something. It’s awful.”

“No, sweetie, it’s romantic,” Serenity assured him. “When we get out of here with the wish granted, you can tell her that story and she’ll laugh and say that she watched the magic raids to see you in the crowd. Trust me, love has a way of working out.”

“What about you, Jae? Why’d you come?” Jason asked me.

“My guess would be more or less the same reason you and Heather did,” I replied. “We’re all non-magical, so it’s because we believe in equality and fairness and actual justice, not just segregation and persecution.”

“That’s a good answer,” Jason nodded. “Although my step-dad was a mage, and he died trying to get rid of a couple of trappers on his tail.”

“They killed him?” Emily gasped.

“Yup, and they didn’t even take him to a hospital or morgue to be buried and identified. They just dumped him in the trash,” Jason told us.

“That was your step-father? Wallis?” Serenity asked. Emily grew wide-eyed.