Glistening Embers

Chapter 3: Lavender Sails

Author's Note: Oops, sorry. I honestly thought I posted this. Oops. 😆 Well, have a chapter.

Everything was silent. "You're crazy." Glisteen said, as Hepas stepped out of the car and opened the door for them to get out.

"Oh, but I'm not. You're crazy to think you're not Gifted. The G.B.T is never wrong."

Glisteen raised an eyebrow as she and Yilasia clambered out of the car. "G.B.T?"

"Gifted Blood Tester." Hepas replied, as he walked along the docks.

"And what would have happened if I wasn't Gifted?" Glisteen called, jogging to catch up with him. Wow, did he have long legs.

"But you are. The G.B.T. proved that." Hepas said, stopping to stare up at a massive ship with strange purple sails.

Glisteen gaped at it. The ship was white with neat blue trim on the side, small circular windows, and massive sails towering above it all. It was beautiful. Everything about it was perfect (except the purple sails, but she got the feeling they weren't supposed to be that way.)

"Mictochra!" Hepas exclaimed, presumably about the Gifted who had colored the sails. "I told her to..." He glanced over at Glisteen and Yilasia.

"Well, are you going to catch up?"

Glisteen glared at him. "Well if you walked a little slower, we wouldn't have to 'catch up'." she said, pointedly.

"Where's the fun in that?" he replied, as Glisteen and Yilasia plodded along the dock and, finally, caught up with him.

"Come aboard, will you?" With that, he turned into a maroon red animal with white facial markings and climbed up a rope that someone had thrown down.

"And how are we supposed to get up?" Yilasia said.

Hepas looked down at them from the ship, in human form now. "Use your Gift." he said, before disappearing from their view point.

"This is ridiculous!" Glisteen fumed. "How are we supposed to use our gift if we don't know what our gift is?"

"We could ask someone for help?" Yilasia ventured, trying to be helpful.

Glisteen sighed. "No, most of them are probably just like-"

"Hey!" Yilasia yelled. "Can someone help us?"

A blond head appeared over the side of the ship, leaning over the rail. "Did Hepas leave you down there?" she asked, smiling good naturedly.

"Yes," Yilasia replied, "can you help us?"

The girl's smile, if possible, grew wider. "Of course." With a snap of her fingers, their ugly dresses glowed silver and they were lifted up into the air. Glisteen marveled at the way everything seemed to shrink as she got higher. Gently, she and Yilasia were set on the ship's deck.

The blonde smiled again, looking pleased with herself. Just like the ship, the blonde was strikingly perfect. Her blond hair was just below her shoulders with the perfect amount of waviness. Her black and white dress matched with her chunky necklace. Her eyes... her eyes were the best part. They were the same silver as her Gift's aura. Alive and warm, yet still and cold. Her name?

"Aritraya." she said, her voice sweet yet firm, like a hard candy and with the same bittersweet kind of feeling as that her silver had given Glisteen. Now, Glisteen wasn't in love with this 'Air-ih-tray-ah,' (she preferred men,) but she could see how men could fall for this dazzling, but from the look of her Gift, deadly girl. "But you can call me Raya." Raya interrupted Glisteen's thoughts.

Glisteen was so in awe of Raya that she could barely speak, but she knew one thing: if she needed an ally or maybe even a friend, this was the girl.

Yilasia was the first to speak. "H-h-how did you?"

Raya snapped her fingers and a deck of cards flew out of a box, fanning through the air. They began shuffling themselves. "My gift. Now, what are your names?"

"Yilasia."

Raya stepped forward to shake hands with her. "Nice to meet you, Yilasia."

She moved over to face Glisteen. "And you are?"

"Glisteen. Sia and I are sisters."

"Nice to meet you, Glisteen. You know, I have a feeling we're going to be friends. Don't you think?"

Glisteen smiled that massive smile right back at Raya. "I do."

Raya nodded and stepped back. "So, what are your Gifts?"

Yilasia and Glisteen exchanged glances. "Um, we don't know yet."

"You don't know yet?" Raya looked surprised and worried. "How are you supposed to train?"

"No, Hepas just picked us up from the orphanage, told us we were Gifted and dropped us off. Wait, what do you mean train?"

Raya looked even more worried. "I mean-"

"Now, Raya," a voice called from up above them somewhere. "Don't you know it's best to have the advantage?"

Yilasia looked up at the mast, shocked. Glisteen followed her gaze to see a transparent staircase, curling its way around it.

Too stunned to speak, Glisteen watched as a man sauntered down the stairway.  He reached the bottom and strutted across the deck as if it were a runway. He nodded to and walked past a steaming Raya (not literally,) and an equally stunned Yilasia.

Was he... was he walking toward her? The man stopped directly in front of her. Don't blush, don't blush. He lifted her hand up and kissed it.

A fiery burn spread across her cheeks.  "And you are?" It came harsher than she meant.

Most likely because just like the ship and Raya, this man was perfect. Just in a much more annoying way. It was like if you had spent your life working on something, then someone else came along and did it in an instant.

His formal suit was unbuttoned just enough so you could see the top of his chest. (Ew!) His eyes were as blue as, no, not a summer's sky, too cold... as blue as a winter's sky. His hair was a stark white, contrasting with his deep tan skin.

If people were seasons, Raya would be the ideal summer. This man would, most definitely, be winter.

"Hello?" the man said, snapping his tanned fingers in front of her face. "Are you too mesmerized by my beauty to say your own name?"

Glisteen flushed even more. "I-I... I-"

Raya saved her. "Stop it, Sabecary. Her name is Glisteen."

"Glisteen Evocabeth?" he asked, not seeming surprised.

Instead Glisteen was surprised. No one knew her last name, even her. There was no note left with her and Yilasia at the orphanage. The fact that someone she had just met, knew something that powerful...

She latched onto his hand. "How did you know that?" Oddly, he looked as if he was trying not to flinch. She didn't think she had that strong of a grip.

With his other hand, he pointed to the wall, near what must have been the captain's quarters, judging from the sign reading 'Captain.' He jerked out of her grip, his hand red and raw.

Glisteen looked down at her hands. They were fine. Could Sabecary's red hands have something to do with her Gift? She looked up. Sabecary was looking with an odd mixture of anger, curiosity, longing and what could have been pity. He cleared his throat. "Well then. See you around." With that, he flounced back across the deck and back up the stairway, the steps melting as he passed them.

Glisteen looked at Yilasia with puzzlement and annoyance. "What did he mean by..." She trailed off as she saw Yilasia raise a trembling finger to the Captain's side of the ship.

There, on the wall, were dozens of portraits. Glisteen spotted Hepas' face, smirking among them. Then just to the left, was a portrait of two people. The girl, on the right, looked familiar, but she couldn't place him. The guy, on the left, looked almost exactly like Glisteen. The girl, she realized, looked like Yilasia. Below, was a plaque reading 'Uterna Porwe and Erif Evocabeth.'