Becoming

Chapter #13: Ember "Magic-Born Child"

I'm in the kitchen thinking about how messed up everything is. Ava is here, but they won't listen. She's not even attempting to hide, Dameal must have them under some sort of crazy spell or something. Ava isn't even wearing makeup or anything, yet she's hidden from Kari and Sofia's sight. How did she do it? Emily told me that Ava is one of the magicians, so she's ten times more powerful than any of us. She can use her language to command power, but apparently, there are only ten in existence. Emily crosses her arms and glares at Kari and Sofia who are chatting in an animated fashion, disregarding why we brought them over here.

"Guys!" I say, waving a hand in front of their faces, "Important discussion happening!" Sofia looks up at me and smiles, then looks back at Kari. How come they can't even remember why they came here? How come only Emily and I realize what's going on? Emily rests her hand on my shoulder and pulls me into the corner, leaving Sofia and Kari to walk back over to the table and continue to eat.

"Ember. You know we're not going to get anything out of them. It's time to consider our options. We could kill Ava and Dameal" She suggests, shrugging her shoulders. I shake my head.

"Sofia and Kari don't know though," I say, "They would regard us as enemies after we've killed their so-called friends. We need to think of something else without murder, which is illegal in case you didn't know. If we got caught, we'd be in tons of trouble, not counting the magical consequences, and I'm absolutely positive those exist" "Sofia and Kari don't know though," I say, "They would regard us as enemies after we've killed their so-called friends. What else do we have?" I fiddle with my hair again, twisting it into a braid so I can focus and stop playing with it.

"Here," Emily says, "I have an elastic" She lifts up the cuff to her pink sweater to reveal about two dozen multi-colored hair elastics. I smile, that seems like something Emily would do. I know, that's kind of stereotyping her, but whatever. The curly blonde hair, the pink sweatshirt, the smile. I kind of pinned her as the popular girl, pretty much the stereotypical teenage princess. She's pretty and wears pink, so sue me if I think she's popular. I smile at her, grabbing a neon green elastic and tying it in my hair.

"You hair is a cool color by the way, I've always been into that style, I was just never brave enough to try it for myself. I like your personality, you don't take anything from anyone," She smiles at me. Okay, nevermind. I take back all the things I said about her a couple seconds ago. Before we can talk about anything else, Ember blows a strand of hair out of her face and grimaces, gritting her teeth, grasping at straws to try and find a solution.

"Alright," She says, "I know Ava isn't exactly a credible source, but she did tell me something when I came to the school. She took a special interest in me once I told her I didn't have any magic, I didn't know she was using me for, whatever I have. I'm supposed to like, reset the balance or something. Whatever that means" She massages her temples, clockwise on one side, and counterclockwise on the other. Not a lot of people can do that. She must do that when she thinks, like how I play with my hair.

"What did she say?" I ask. I really hope that we can find a solution in all these riddles, maybe even that apparent 'prophecy' Ava wouldn't shut up about could help. It led us to Dameal and his birds of paradise right? It's funny that we were looking for birds and not plants. I should know full and well what birds of paradise are, I'm supposed to be the smart one, and without that, who am I? I think I have it down now, Emily and I are the smart ones, Ava and Sofia are the caring ones, (even thought Ava might not want to admit it, I could see right through her. She really cared about whoever that Daniel guy was.

"She said that," Emily pauses, "That we are all like, magical in some way. I think she was lying though, because I was born without any magic at all, that's why my parents abandoned me"