The Two Sisters

Chapter 4: The Vision Seeker

The two girls sat breathless on the bed.
"A, please tell me I fell asleep listening to you retelling one of your vivid dreams" Effie uttered, as she flopped back on the now dust covered sheets.

"Oh it's real sweetheart" ...
The two girls bolted upright, standing as close as they could - shoulder to shoulder, now facing the direction the voice had come from.

"Relax, I'm a friend" the man spoke again. "Altho, I completely understand why you don't trust me." The two girls stood motionless. "Yah know," he said as he took calculated steps over pieces of broken wood while entering the room. "You both had the right instinct, standing close together like that, that way you each only have to defend one side, but instincts alone are not enough, in time you will learn that standing back to back is more efficient- that way no one can sneak up behind you."

"There are more of those things?" Aife spat. "More, different, many; some stupid, some intelligent, some small, some large, some with tails, some with wings, some with claws...."
"Okay we get it, thank you."
"Forgive me, I've yet to introduce myself. I'm Bairrfhionn."

For the first time the two girls took a step back to look at the strange man who had just entered there former house now rubble pile. He was tall, thin and lanky. An oval face with a chiselled jawline; light stubble on his face that made you think his hair was once brown but now a dark dirty blonde from the strands of hair they could see falling from his man bun. He had one simple silver hoop hanging from his left earlobe, while an almost identical hoop hung on the right side of his nose. He had one blue eye & one brown, which weirdly didn't look a miss with his black & white stripped pants, claret skin tight top and plethora of jewellery. His smile showed his abundant smile lines and perfect straight white teeth. Neither girl knew as of yet if they could trust him.

"I'm Bairrfhionn, you're Effie and you're Aife." he spoke again. "How do you know our names!" spat Aife, the words coming out more like a demand than a question.
He spoke, quietly and calmly. "I saw you."
"You what?" Effie interjected.
"I saw you. I am a vision seeker. I can't see everything, nor would I want to, in the same way I can't see anything I want. A vision seeker is bestowed upon him or her certain visions throughout life. We're given just the images, a few details and nothing more - the rest we have to figure out; hence the seek part" he gestured with his hands as he spoke.

He lowered his voice as he leant in; "Look, when you both became nineteen years of age this morning, the magic that was once thought to be a distant memory in your family suddenly came surging back to reality. The thing is magic isn't the only thing that has awoken."

"You mean A rekindled the magic?" piped Effie.
"You both did."
"But back there, against those flying human gnats" stammered Effie.
"The łyk kość wróżka."
"Beg pardon?"
"łyk kość wróżka. they're what flew at your window. Annoying little pests, they always show up at the worst times, but I digress...my dear Effie, you and your sister hold different types of magic within you. You are a witch; to execute your magic properly you need to give voice to it."
"A spell."
"A spell." affirmed Bairrfhionn. "My darling Aife, you are a sorceress. In order to carry out your magic to completion you need to give desire to it. You need to master this. It does not control you, you control it." Aife nodded her head in agreement.

"Now, you both will have a lot of work to do. Remember; before you use any magic center yourself, your heart, your brain & your focus, got that?" Bairrfhionn raised an eyebrow.

"Center yourself, your heart, your brain & your focus." they repeated in unison. The four words replaying in their heads over and over: self, heart, brain, focus, self, heart, brain, focus...

"Good - now we must leave, it is not safe here. Climb on."
The two girls looked at each other for a split second in sheer confusion. They looked back, and where once stood a decorated Bairrfhionn, now lay a massive blonde wolf with one blue eye & one brown. "Unless, you'd both rather walk."