“Do you know the most important skill of an amber-cobalt
mage?”
Jayden Iston,
mage adept, Sensitive, twin-born and foster son to the Queens Alchemist, chewed
his lower lip thoughtfully, brown eyes thoughtful.
“Calling familiars”, he ventured.
His
foster father Sori Asaton shook his head. Wrong. What then?
“Not flooding the apartment”, Jayden’s sister Ella chimed in
with a giggle.
Sori
turned on her.
“So eager to get a lecture of your own, mage adept”, he
asked.
She
made a comical face, drawing a giggle from her brother. Sori rubbed his temples.
“:10-yearolds:”, he Mind-spoke to his domestic partner.
“:Need help, ashke:”, Nathan asked, humour in his
mind-voice.
Sori
didn’t reply.
“Jayden”, he prompted instead.
“I don’t know”, the 10-yearold whispered, sounding rather
ashamed.
“Jayden”, said Sori gently. “Why do you feel shame for not
knowing?”
“You asked me. I should know.”
“Have you been told before?”
Jayden
looked uncertain and confused, despite knowing that he had never heard the
answer before.
“The most important skill of ANY mage is focus,
concentration”, Sori explained. “So perhaps you should listen too, Ella.”
Ella
started out of her reverie at that. She slipped down form the window sill and
came to stand beside her twin, looking a bit sheepish. They looked so alike. Sori
wondered how long that would last. Another two years? Three? Then Ella would
probably start growing into womanhood, and Jayden would soon after that start
growing into manhood, and they would no longer be able to be what they were.
Always twins, but soon, different.
“Now Listen. Feel. Find the Flows and reach out to them.
They are there, for you to use.”
The
Flowing Colours concentrated and glowed in the work room, at Soris will and
demand. It was as if the whole room slowly filled with the rainbow. The two
feline familiars in the window where Ella hand sat raised their heads, curious.
“You have already been chosen by the elements, your colours”,
said Sori. “Now draw on them. Reach out with your thoughts, call on them.”
Jayden didn’t
really understand what he was supposed to do, but he tried anyway. He imagined
that the flowing beams of colour were ropes, and his mind had hands. He reached
out for the thick blue rope with his minds hands.
“Careful, siha”, Sori said, encouragingly.
Jayden
tried, but it was like trying to grasp and hold on to water and wind at the
same time, and it burned with cold. He shirked back, looking shocked.
“Don’t worry”, Sori said calmly. “Take a breath. Try again.”
He
turned his attention to his foster daughter. She wasn’t faring much better, but
she was infinitely more stubborn. Rather than Jayden’s rope-and-hands mental
image, she was imagining herself as a magnet and tried to attract both her blue
and red colour flows at the same time. She did affect both Flows, but not a
lot.
“Concentrate on the red, Ella”, Sori said softly, keeping in
mind that Jayden was reaching for the blue.
Ella
frowned and concentrated on the red Flow. It bent, slightly but visibly, as if
she was pulling on a rubber band.
“Good”, Sori smiled. “Try to keep it just like that, don’t
pull any further.”
Jayden,
not wanting to be up-staged by his sister, reached for the blue Flow again. He tugged at it. It was heavy, too large for
his minds hands and it was cold and wet and slippery, like a rope of melting
ice. And it refused to budge. Frustrated, he tugged harder.
“Calm down, Jayden”, Sori warned. “Try to part the Flow
instead. You can only use the darkest part anyway.”
But Jayden
wasn’t listening. He tugged at the Flow as hard as he could. It didn’t budge,
it exploded. The workroom was covered in a sheet of ice, icicles grew from the
ceiling and from the perch where Sori’s starling familiar sat. She ruffled her
feathers indignantly. Sori hastily let the Flowing Colors dissipate and fade. Jayden
looked around, stunned and a little dismayed at what he had done. Ella had
slipped as she lost control of the red Flow and sat on the ice, surprised and a
little cross at her twin. Sori was about to as them both if they were alright,
but at that moment, Ella started to giggle. It bubbled up in her, she was
unable to stop it. She Heard and Felt Jayden’s shock and surprise and
increduelty and she giggled as if someone was tickling her, and Jayden joined
in. He crouched down in the icy floor, hid his face against his knees and
laughed harder than he probably had since he came here with his sister 6 years
ago. Ella suddenly pushed him so he slipped and ended up on his side on the
ice. The two feline familiars, Ella’s white lynx cub Sol and Jayden’s amber
tiger cub Mari, jumped down and joined in the game, and the four of them became
a slipping, jostling heap of laughter. Sori smiled shook his head and decided
that they were done with lessons for today.
