The Sorcerer's Gate

twenty-six

Alyx and Aster finished their session only after Alyx intentionally tried to disarm her while she practiced Telekinesis and Levitation. It didn't work. Aster had seen it coming a mile away. He was not pleased to see her happy in her triumph of winning their pesky little disagreement for the day. He practically marched inside the castle ahead of her like a toddler. Aster passed Elouise and Jean setting the table for dinner and she caught a small moment of them together that made her smile. Moments like this made her feel worthy and happy within her training. She beamed at the thought of protecting these people that she was quickly realizing she'd come to love. And if her protection meant witnessing more moments like this in the future, she would be happy to suffer through joint pain for them.

Alyx and Aster were outside of her bedroom door. She had mentioned that she was going to take a shower before she joined them all for dinner. 

"How are you feeling? You've mastered everything we've taught you," Alyx said leaning on her door.

"Good, but I haven't mastered everything yet."

Alyx rose an eyebrow inquisitively. 

"I still have to learn Divination and Portal Creation," Aster reminded him.

He raised his chin as if in recollection. "Oh, yes. That. Well, Divination isn't really all that necessary. How can you fight with it, you know?"

"I mean, I think it's extremely necessary. I can get word on what's going to happen and we can be prepared before it does," Aster said.

"Yes, but the future can always change. The visions aren't exactly always truthful. You can ask Jaxtyn to vouch for that. His sight got his powers taken away." Alyx said teasingly.

Aster quieted at the mention of Jaxtyn. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring him up. You never told me the whole story about that night," Alyx spoke quietly. "Do you... do you want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to tell," Aster said quickly. She didn't mean for it to come off rude, but it just happened to fall out of her mouth that way. 

When Alyx nodded in silence and agreement, Aster added, "You don't think he'll show up to The Ball, do you?"

"Who knows... Want me to personally disinvite him?" Alyx offered with a sneaky grin.

"No, don't bother. He'd be stupid to show his face again."

There was a lull in the conversation and Aster tried to cover it up by slowly walking into her room announcing something quick about how she better get a shower. Alyx took the bait and began the motions of walking towards his room. 

"Oh, Portal Creation. I haven't practiced that either," Aster said reminding him.

"Right. That should come easy to you, though," he said as he shot her a smile. "All the other abilities have," he added as he walked down the hall to his room.

She smiled at the thought of him believing in her and stepped into her bathroom to turn on the shower. 

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When Aster joined Elouise and Jean in the Dining Room, Alyx hadn't come out from his bedroom yet. They ate a delicious meal that Jean always seemed to outdo himself with. Elouise spoke about their upcoming appointment with Tessa, the tailor who was fitting the women for their dressing gowns to attend the Ball. Aster and Elouise discussed their ideas for each of their dresses. Jean explained how he was great friends with the band and how overjoyed he was for what they had planned to play for the evening. He was upset that he wasn't helping out on the catering for the Ball, but Elouise had teased that he'd find a way to sneak in some of his own baked goods one way or another. 

They were discussing the decorations and lighting situation for a long while that after a moment Aster realized Alyx still hadn't arrived for dinner. 

"I think I work him too hard. Alyx's probably passed out in bed already," Aster said slightly giggling as she lifted up her wine glass to take a sip.

"I see you too out there. You don't... stop. You're both going to get yourselves sick working like that," Elouise said.

"I think he mentioned something about having an evening meeting with the Council," Jean said as he was trying to think back to what Alyx had mentioned to him.

"Oh. He never mentioned anything about it to me in our session," Aster said.

"Me neither. He likes to do that. I swear he tries so hard to be mysterious," Elouise said snickering as Aster laughed at her comment.

"Yeah, I thought I heard someone leave out the front door, but someone was distracting me," Jean said, reaching over to toy with a strand of Elouise's red hair between his fingers.

They finished their meal and soon the couple had exited the castle to return to their cottage at the edge of the property. Aster was all alone in the castle. She went outside to look at the moon and sat on the railing of the veranda. She stared up at the night sky. The air was cold and comforting. She could hear the crickets and cicadas playing their vibrant song.

From the veranda, you couldn't see anything in town. The town was far away hidden into the tress. Aster stared into the open woods watching as the wind swirled and whistled through the tress. Suddenly, she spotted something big and large in the sky. Not, not something. It was black as night. It was an animal. It appeared hurt. It was depleting in flight and it was heading straight towards the castle. Aster stood from the railing back onto the veranda and kept her gaze stretched towards the sky. She ran out into the open area stretch of lawn in front of the castle. She watched the large animal soar its wings and dip lower and lower towards the ground. 

As it reared closer to her, she didn't know what to do. Should she run to the cottage to warn Jean and Elouise? Where was Alyx? She could run back into the castle. The wards would protect anything from getting through. She tried to calm herself but the beast was fast in its decline. It landed in the stretch of land with a crash and laid there huffing. She approached the creature and realized it was a dragon.

The dragon was large and darker than the night sky. Its black wings were injured and the animal was toppled over onto the lawn. As she slowly crept closer to the animal, she saw its eyes. Dark black holes.

Alyx.

The dragon was Alyx. Alyx, The Firebird.