Talentless

Behind the Green

            "HELP!" I screamed, my voice raspy from hours of disuse. "HELP! GET A HEALER!" No one batted an eye. Was I dreaming? Was this a hallucination. I touched my own neck, feeling my own heartbeat. 

          It was real.

          I whipped around, tears spilling, when I realized something. A ripple in the air, like a wrinkle in time. It kept us separated from the others, so no one would know we existed. A force field, and a brilliant one. 

          We were trapped.

          "What are you doing?" someone snarled behind me. She made her way down the marble steps, her eyes flashing. She slipped something silver into her cloak pocket. "You're making us all shameful, that's what."

          "Please, something's wrong---" I crawled away. But Lady Glauce was a Conjurer. She could get the sword from home and still hurt me. The best I could do was cooperate.

          "Get away from him and let me fix him." She tightened her bun, removed a brass sphere out of her dress. A Technopath from Nobility built it just for her, to store her medical items. With a push of a button, it expanded into a box the size of her Foxfire study guide, and propped itself open. She reached for a long knife and coated it in a shadowy substance. It wasn't the eurypterid venom, though it had an icy feeling to it, like an emptiness. She smeared it across his forehead like icing on mallowmelt. Whatever the substance was, it had faded into his skin. 

          Glauce conjured the kit away, leaving behind the knife. "Cross me again, and I'll make sure this knife cuts deeper than skin." She snapped her fingers and the knife was gone, too. 

          Jacen Vacker's eyes fluttered open a minute later. "What...happened?" His voice was raspy, like it was hard enough to get those words out. He looked around and gave his wife a peck on the cheek. It seemed he had forgotten everything. He stood up without a struggle, arranged his jerkin. "Let's go back."

          Semele waited for me at the end of the carriage ride. Glauce was fingering her vial of eurypterid venom the whole way, letting a small smile. The little gnome clutched her tunic, waiting for me. "Hey," she whispered weakly. 

          Something had happened. It couldn't be either of my parents, since they were away at Atlantis. But I couldn't ask her right now, with Glauce so close by. 

          Deeper than skin...

          "Hey, I replied back, making our way to the gate. It was the only way in or out of the property other than the cyan leaping crystals. I was not trustworthy enough for Mother to give me my own homing device. The gate seemed simple at first, maybe a little boring---iron and steel spirals that wove together like a net. There was no lock, not even a handle. But only Vackers could even touch the gate, all others would be knocked unconscious. Gnomes had a way of bypassing the security, though, as Semele was able to easy push the gate open. Mother didn't seem to mind. Out of all things, she seemed amused. 

          I changed, got ready for bed as Semele sat at the window, whispering to the flowers. They're supposed to give you good luck. I did not know when I fell asleep, but, when I opened my eyes again, the sky was dark. No moon, no stars. I had seen the night sky before, after Mother forced me out of bed one night years and years ago, for an appointment with Kesler Dizznee because she did not want to be seen at Mysterium. But this wasn't like it. There wasn't even a prick of light, and, for a few moments, I wasn't even sure my eyes were open. 

          I snapped my fingers, a crystal lamp lighting up for a better view. How many hours had it been since midnight? How many hours until dawn? I reached for a small pocketwatch hidden in a drawer. 

          2:45:35 AM

          Just a few more hours, I thought. Go back to sleep. But, the more I tried to, the more terrified I was. I was nine, and had never witnessed night like this. Never like this. 

           "I don't care for her, Councillor. If she is who we think she is, we best to get rid of her immediately. No one will know." Her voice, clear and cool and terrible. They came from her study, echoing across the walls. I sat up, trembling. The best thing I could do was find Semele. She'd know what to do.

          "We cannot  banish her without evidence. Lady Vacker, the Council has already ruled out the possibility. This is none of their business, none of yours. They'll find out you kept your memories soon enough." A man's voice this time, but none of the Councillors I had heard of. 

         "Then I wish to file a Nectar examination." A lengthy pause, and I almost felt like I was caught. When the Councillor spoke again, he was stammering.

          "We...are finished here, Lady Vacker."

          I turned the corner, but her study was empty of both her and the stranger, except for a jagged blade on her desk, coated with the black substance. Its jewels shined in the darkness. I barely had time to turn my head before I heard footsteps behind me.

          "What are you doing here?" I whipped around, almost knocking over the knife. She was taller than I wanted, her bun pulled tight, jewels sewn in her cloak. 

          Her fingers smelled of blood.

          "Go back to bed," she said. She opened her mouth to say something else, a threat, maybe. But she didn't. I didn't remember falling asleep, though I woke up to a brilliant sunrise, so bright I almost caught sight of a ripple in the distance, as if the sky were a dome. 

         And there was always something off about Jacen Vacker after that. An unnatural stillness, maybe, or an emptiness in his teal eyes. He rarely spoke, and, when he did, it was a low rasp, without any feeling at all. Mother would smile at me then, her eyes flashing ice blue. 

          The only good part was Semele, who'd come every day, helping my practice my telekinesis now Foxfire entry exams were closer and closer. Visits to the waterfall cave were no longer exciting, like all the sound was drowned out from the world. I'd turn my back, and the plants would stop singing, as if Semele was dead.

We have a visitor, Glauce said one day. Someone outside the force field. A tall, slender man with piercing blue eyes and braided black hair. He wore a beautiful jerkin encrusted in gold and a billowing cape of emerald green. His pale complexion reflected off of the early morning sunlight, giving away his trickster smirk. 

          A man who called himself Errol Loki Forkle.