Allies of Plaxas

Chapter the Sixteenth: Opal

"Opal, can I talk to you?"

I jump and snap my book shut. "Mitali, what are you doing here? You aren't allowed to just, like, look into the dorm rooms are you?"

"Actually, I am," she says, grinning. "It's part of the teachers rulebook. You can look at it if you want," she digs in her bag for the book and pulls it out. It's as thick as my hand is wide. I shake my head. "No thanks,"

"Where's Kaitlynn and your sister?" she asks. "And why aren't you down at breakfast?"

"Kaitlynn is at breakfast," I respond. "But I'm up here because Ruby hasn't returned from her, like, secret mission with the elf. I'm afraid something's happened,"

"She'll be fine, Opal. Come. Take a walk with me. We can go down to the courtyard. I've got breakfast right here," Mitali produces several pieces of buttered toast from her infinity bag.

I let her take my hand and she leads me down to the courtyard where we sit on a bench and I munch on the toast.

"Your sister wants all the power, all the attention. It's....it's something that happens lots with twins. Especially....people like us. It was my sister, not me, who was like Ruby,"

"Are....are you telling me that you think that Ruby is going to end up like Mistress Kali?" I ask her. I shudder.

"No. Not necessarily. Hopefully not. Kali....she went bad very early on. You two will be okay. Probably. Anyway, what I was saying was that we need to get her out of this phase, but it will be hard. I need you to try your best to follow her around everywhere, to be better than her at certain things, stuff like that. It's vital. Otherwise she could turn out like my sister,"

I shudder again. The worst thing is, I can almost imagine Mistress Kali and Ruby working together on something. They're so similar it's not funny. Nothing's funny when Kali is involved.

I stand up. "There's only one way that we can do this. I need you to train me harder than ever. I need to be better than her at her most prized character trait,"

Mitali smiles. "I admire your spirit. Unfortunately, it won't be that easy. Since you two are twins, you should grow together. If you learn something, she's very likely to pick it up too. It's how you were designed,"

I wince at those last few words. Designed is not exactly the word one might use to describe how a human is made.

"So how do we do this?"

"You must train....but you two must do it together. We need to show her that you two together are so much more powerful than her alone. That you two can do anything together,"

I nod, but I must look skeptical because Mitali reaches for my hand. Squeezing it, she says. "It'll be okay. I promise that Ruby won't turn out the way that Kali did. I won't let her. Now let's go inside and train so that we can help your sister,"

Before we can leave the courtyard, though, a loud voice rings throughout the school. "Attention, school of Plaxas!"

My heart sinks as holographic images of Ruby pop up everywhere around the school. I want to crawl into my room and hide as she begins to speak again. She's putting herself in danger to try to create a peace treaty between the elves and humans.

My own sister is doing that. My brave, stubborn hero sister.