Sand in an Hourglass
Chapter 3
The Dark is Dangerous
"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Krim assumed that the hard, unforgiving wood of the dining room chairs would be more comfortable if she actually felt welcomed in the home. Instead, she felt like she was being interrogated by some authorities back at Ravenwood. She imagined that her hands wouldn't feel any heavier if they were shackled to the arms of the chair. She also thought that the wood grain pattern of the dining table would be imprinted in her vision if she stared down at it any longer.
"What are your names?"
The question, which came from the brunette sitting across from her, seemed simple enough to answer. The button she had pulled off her sleeve was urging her to speak, to say something to make them think she was just a normal girl from Wizard City. Except, a name couldn't tell them much aside from what she was called by the people who addressed her. It wouldn't tell them her outlook on life, her fear of the dark, or even what kind of dipping sauce she enjoyed.
"I think you ought to tell us who you are first." Matt's tone was challenging, as if he didn't realize that these were two grown adults with the power to, well, visit his parents. Nolan turned a shade of red, but his wife simply nodded.
"That's fair. Stranger danger, right?" She smiled, "I'm Kymma. This," she motioned to her husband, "is Nolan. You're turn."
"Matthew Ashthorn," Matt kept his eyes level with theirs, though that meant he had to angle his chin up and sit up a bit straighter than he preferred. Krim glanced over at him, fingers tightening and then loosening on the button in her grasp. He was too busy keeping eye contact to notice. Krim turned back to face the two parents, plus the girl's younger brother who was leaned against the kitchen counter behind them, and was shocked to see how pale they'd gone since she looked away. The mother looked as if she might faint or scream and the father looked somewhat scared and annoyed. Then again, Krim realized he'd looked annoyed since they arrived. She wondered if he always looked annoyed.
"Ashthorn?" Kymma echoed, glancing over at Nolan, who rolled his eyes.
"Great, I thought I was done dealing with Malorn's shit." Nolan sighed in annoyance, tapping his finger against the wood of the table. He narrowed his eyes. "Lemme guess, you're his kid."
"Grandkid. I'm not that old." Matt looked offended, but Nolan didn't seem to care. Instead, his face had bunched up in confusion, his brows knitted together as if someone had told him his best friend had died.
"Right, time's different." Kymma whispered, glancing over at her husband. "I forget."
"He… Is he dead?" Nolan lowered his head so that he was no longer looking directly at the two. Krim readjusted in her seat and picked at her fingernails. She wasn't a fan of awkwardness, and this was practically dripping with the emotion.
"He died about a year ago." Matt was also staring at his lap, as if he couldn't make eye contact with either of the parents. Krim debated on patting his shoulder or doing something to show him some support, but the way he had crossed his arms showed that he probably didn't want anyone to even look at him. Instead, she simply muttered a low apology for the loss.
Kymma's mouth opened and closed several times before she shook her head and patted her husband's head. "I think we should let them stay. Malorn would have done that for the kids if they needed somewhere."
"Hey, we're not charity cases." Matt interjected, picking his head up once more. Krim glared at him to shut up; she'd take staying at a quiet house over a dirty, loud motel any day, and since they couldn't convert large amounts of their gold into money without attracting unwanted attention, that was usually what they were stuck with.
"No, I wouldn't think so," Kymma smiled, "but with everything that's going on, I think you'd be safer here."
"We're both trained. We know how to fight." Matt held his chin up higher, but Krim shook her head softly. All the training in the world wouldn't make her want to surround herself in darkness, and that was what Necromancers did. They lived in the night, fought hand in hand with it, and threw it at their enemies. She couldn't handle sitting in a dark room for more than an hour without going completely insane, not even that long if she was alone. She'd done everything she could to stay out of the dark.
"Magic isn't very useful here," Nolan had picked his head up. "We moved here because the magical energies were too low to really do anything with. If Morganthe ever got ou—"
"Morganthe?" It was Matt's turn to furrow his eyebrows in confusion. "My grandfather used to talk about that fight. You know he helped catch her? It was the last time a portal between Wizard City and Earth opened for about a hundred years! He made history on that one."
"I read about that." Krim piped up, looking up from her fingernails as she spoke. Her periwinkle eyes sparkled with curiosity. "That statue in the Commons had something to do with it. I didn't pay attention to its meaning, though."
"Yeah," the two seemed to forget they had an audience as they continued talking, "that's the girl that closed the portal. She got all the credit for the defeat, but I think it should have been split up."
"There's another one, too." Krim turned to look at them, smiling as she did so. "It's a huge love story thing. I always found it interesting. It's similar to the Romeo and Juliet story they have on Earth, but without the stupid suicides and stuff."
"Interesting," Kymma propped her chin up on her hand, smiling subtly. Nolan wore a full smirk on his face as he leaned back in his chair. "What were they're names?"
"Um," Krim furrowed her red eyebrows together and looked at Matt. "Do you remember?"
"Kim and something? Norman?"
"Kymma and…" Krim's eyes went wide and her jaw nearly dropped. Kymma glanced over at Nolan before she elbowed him in the side in an attempt to wipe the smug look of his face. "No way!"
"Yes way." Nolan continued to smirk, but it was much less smug now, probably due to the dull ache in his side from the elbow he'd just received. He stood up slowly, pushing his chair backward, "you two can stay as long as you like, but don't eat all our food. Teacher salary doesn't really cut it."
"You spend all your money on books. I pay for the food." Kymma rolled her eyes.
Nolan grinned, "Well, if the heat ever goes out then we'll burn the books and call it even."
Krim smiled. She might get used to being around people like this. The house was almost as warm as they were; she always had a good sense about people. They didn't seem bad, maybe she could relax here.
The darkness in the spare bedroom had nothing nice to offer her. It bathed the walls in shadows—shadows that she was supposed to control, to bend, to force them to do her bidding—and twisted the furniture into vicious animals. Here she was, squished against the wall that the bed was angled against and nearly hiding behind her knees as she frantically glanced back and forth. Krim was alone, in the darkness of an unfamiliar home with strangers on the other side of both walls.
Necromancer. She thought bitterly. She wasn't much of one; in fact, she doubted that she was ever meant to be one. She longed for the heat of a flame, to be able to summon that flicker of orange and red with just a flick of her wrist, yet nature stated that she would be a Necromancer. She was to be a master of the shadows that ailed her so, yet they only floated and twisted out of her mind's reach as they laughed at her failure. Matthew didn't seem to have any problems, from what she'd seen, so she couldn't excuse it as a normal happenstance of the school. Yet, she'd tell herself that anyway.
Krim's house was never this dark, but, then again it wasn't really her house. In fact, it wasn't in one place. Depending on the day, she moved between the schools in Ravenwood, though the Fire school had always been her favorite. It was warm, and peaceful, and bright. No matter how hard she looked, she'd never find a wicked shadow hiding in the corner and mocking her with its scary faces. That felt like home, and, well, this didn't.
"Krim?" The knock on the door nearly sent her sprawling through the wall behind her, and she calmed down much faster than her heart rate did. It sounded like Matt's voice, or at least it didn't sound dead. "Are you awake? I need to talk to you."
"Yeah, you can come in." She sat up quickly, trying not to look like she was half scared out of her mind. The redhead quickly slapped a smile on her face. "I couldn't sleep anyway."
"Neither could I. This house is too hot."
"I think it feels comfortable." Krim crossed her legs and cocked her head at him, sending her disarrayed hair to the side. He took a seat in the chair beside the wall adjacent to her.
"You're not really the typical Necromancer, you know?" He furrowed his eyebrows together, trying to piece together exactly what her deal was.
"That depends on how you look at it. Maybe I'm completely normal and everyone else isn't." She grinned slightly.
He shrugged. "I think we need to leave. Take her with us."
"What if she doesn't want to go?"
"I have a feeling she won't be able to stay once she realizes she's been lied to her whole life."
"I'm sure they had a good reason for it." Krim crossed her arms.
"Sure, but do you think she's going to think about it like that?" Matt shifted in his seat; he looked uncomfortable asking for her opinion. She nearly laughed, but smiled instead.
"I hope that she will. There's no need in fighting. They were probably trying to protect her. Wizard City is dangerous."
"I know. I don't think she'll care, though. She's pretty headstrong."
"You've only talked to her for maybe half an hour, how do you know that?"
"She hit me with her telescope thing and then acted like it was my fault." Matt sighed dramatically and pulled his wand out of his pocket. He still hadn't figured out why the charm hadn't taken effect. "You remember how they said this place doesn't have good magical energies?"
"Yeah," she turned her head to the side, inspecting the wand from the several feet away from him that she sat. "What about them?"
"Well, you can't come to Earth until you've had the training to harness it, but they left before that training was invented, right?"
"I guess? I mean, I think so?"
"So, how would they know what the magic levels are here?" He looked up from the wand, eyes slightly dark. "I don't trust them. I never really heard anything about them from my grandfather, and I'm not sure they're really who they say they are."
"They seemed okay to me." Krim sat up a little straighter though, dropping her voice to a whisper as she glanced towards the open door. He followed her gaze and leaned closer.
"How would she know how to fix Ashley's wound if she's just a nurse that hasn't had contact with Wizard City for a hundred years? How would he know anything about measuring magic? That idea was invented until the spiral door was unlocked to the public." Matt's voice came out as a hiss as he spoke through his teeth. Krim shrugged in confusion and buried her face in her hands.
"What reason would they have for lying? We're not important."
"Maybe they were banished? I don't know. I just know that things are not adding up and everyone could be in danger. If they're bad, then they'll expect Ashley to be bad."
"Well, she seemed fine to me, but so did the parents. Maybe you're just tired." Krim shook her head gently, and caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She jumped whirling her head around to face the shadow, before she realized it was a person moving past the door. She glanced over at Matt quickly.
It was annoying how smoothly he moved. She'd never really achieved that grace in her studies. He was silent, just as a Necromancer should be, as he made his way to the door and peered out of it. He let out a small breath and shut it, shaking his head. "Just that kid that was in the kitchen. I don't think he was listening. He looked half asleep."
"Probably going to the restroom. I've only seen one in the whole house."
"Yeah, probably," he walked back to chair and sighed. "Think we should leave?"
The idea of walking headlong into the dark, cold outside wasn't exactly appealing to Krim, but neither was sitting in a home where she might get assaulted or kidnapped at any moment. How was she supposed to choose? Instead, Krim simply shrugged, which was a choice on its own. She chose to accept whatever decision he made. He continued talking, planning, while she busied herself with picking the little balls of fuzz off her blanket. It was such a quaint little place; it was homey and comfortable.
There was a small sound at the door, almost a little whine or yawn. Krim glanced up, less startled than the previous two times, but pulled her knees closer to herself. Matt looked up, only half confused before his eyes fell on the silhouette in front of the door that was backlit by a small light down the hallway—perhaps a bedroom light.
"Do y'all know where Aedan went?" Ashley's sentence paused in the middle as she yawned. Matt stood up quickly, crossing his arms out of habit, and nodded down the hall to Ash's right. Krim readjusted on the bed, glancing slightly over to Ashley before returning her gaze to her fingers and started picking at her fingernails again. Ashley glanced between the two before her eyes widened slightly. "—Oh, sorry, I just… Aedan sneaks out a lot and that's so dangerous and I just… Sorry."
"—Woah," Matt shook his head quickly, raising his hands as he glanced between the two girls. "It's not like that. I mean, Krim's my friend, we're not—"
Krim blinked up at him. Her fingers paused in mid pick at a fingernail and then continued pulling at the hangnail as she looked away from him. "Matt's too short for me."
Ashley glanced sideways at the red head, but nodded in understanding. Matt looked slightly redder as he shot a glare in her direction. "I'm not short."
"You're too vertically-challenged for me, then." She teased, sending him an overly sweet smile as she did so. Ash bit her bottom lip and glanced at the ground in an attempt to keep from laughing.
"Well, you're too…" Matthew paused, trying to figure out what to call her on, "red!"
"Red?" Ashley asked incredulously as she looked back up from the floor, giggling slightly. Krim grinned teasingly at the black haired boy.
"What are you laughing at? You're shorter than me!" Matt looked as if he might pull his own hair out, so instead he flopped back down in his chair and crossed his arms.
"Yeah," Ashley looked away with a shrug, "but I've made peace with my shortness. What's the big deal with it anyway?"
"I don't like being…" Matt froze, glaring at her through narrowed eyes. "I mean, I'm not horribly… horribly…" He wasn't really going to admit to it was he? That would make all of his arguments invalid. "I'd like to be taller."
"It's just DNA, though." Ash cocked her head at him. "I'm short because my mom was short. Red hair's a mutation," she nodded to Krim. "We're not really all that special once you get down to it. You're short. Big deal."
"You're pretty cynical," Matt raised an eyebrow. Ashley stopped in her tracks between walking to sit on the edge of the bed. She turned her head slightly to look at him, leaned against the back of the chair and watching her rather intently, as if she was some kind of puzzling… puzzle.
"I'm a realist." She continued walking to the bed as she shook herself out of her shock at being called out. No one ever really questioned her methods and outlook on life, but pretty much everyone knew why she was the way she was. Krim looked over at her through her side swept bangs and shook her head slowly.
"That's so depressing though." Krim propped her head up on her hands, which rested on her knees. "I think everyone's special."
"If everyone's special then special is normal and then, by definition, no one is really special, are they?" Ashley responded without looking at either of them. Krim opened her mouth, but then shut it as she tried to wrap her mind around that statement. The redhead glanced at Matt, who was still watching her curiously. Ash continued, "There might be people who are special, but then again a ninja might jump through that window in a few minutes and stab us all. I doubt either of those is true."
"How do you explain magic, then?" Matt challenged, holding his chin up a bit higher. Ashley looked up through the strands of hair that had fallen in her face, eyes narrowed.
"There's no such thing as magic."
"Then what was that in the forest?"
"That was a natural phenomenon caused by the rift. The molecules in the air were distressed."
"Molecules in the air were distressed?" Matt laughed; a deep, sincere laugh that made Ashley grimace and look away. She hated people laughing at her, that much was obvious. Krim looked between them before she sat up and uncrossed her legs. Matt's laughter finally died down, and he continued, "You really think that you can explain magic away like that? What about your back? Is that from distressed air molecules, because I might not really know what those are, but I'm pretty sure they won't do that."
"So, are you going to tell me that the rift is from magic too?" Ashley snorted, waving her hand is dismissal of the idea. Krim glanced over at Matt with a nod that was accompanied by a small shoulder shrug.
Matt shrugged. "Yeah, actually, it is. It's called a portal, though, not a rift."
"A portal? Like to another dimension?" Ash crossed her arms. "That's ridiculous. Other dimensions are possible, but that's explained in String Theory; that's not magic."
"Yes, but it is magic." Matt argued. "It's old magic. I'm not sure how you could cast it without tons of training, but obviously it's possible or that one in the forest wouldn't have opened."
Ash stood as he spoke, and started walking to the window. Krim wondered momentarily if she was waiting for that ninja to jump out, but instead she pulled the string attached to the blinds and watched as they raised. She stood there for a few moments before her arm flew up and her finger pressed against the glass. "There. Do you see the discoloration?"
Matt stood, followed closely by Krim, and walked to the window. "Yeah, so?"
"That's the same thing that happened last week in the same area as the other one. It's been happening all over the country, but no one's sure why. That," she pointed to the building underneath it, "is the only bar in the entire town. It's not exactly somewhere you want to hang out, either."
"Well let's go check it out." Krim nudged Matt, though she was hoping they wouldn't have to go in that place. She'd be happier to stay outside.
"You can't get in. You have to be over twenty-one, which I'm pretty sure no one here is." Ash folded her arms.
"No said we were going in the front entrance." Matt grinned slightly, turning toward the door. "If you're coming with us, you should get dressed."
Ashley blinked back and forth between Krim and Matt. Krim had started pulling her belt and jacket back on as Matt walked out of the room. Ash didn't know what she was supposed to wear; she had no idea what was even considered appropriate to wear to a bar. Not that bars were normally an appropriate atmosphere.
Krim glanced back at her, pushing her hair over her shoulder as she did. "Matt's dramatic sometimes," she laughed quietly. Ashley snorted in agreement, turning to look back out the window.
"I missed Aedan. He's going to get himself into trouble. Or worse."
"Or maybe he'll be perfectly fine. Teenagers sneak out all the time."
"People die all the time, too." Ash glanced over at the red head. "Look, I get that you're an optimist, but I'm not. I don't see the best in people."
"Why?"
"People aren't always good."
"Yeah," Krim nodded, "but they aren't always bad, either."
"I'd rather be wrong about them being bad than wrong about them being good."
Alright! So, we're finally getting to learn some stuff about our three little heroes. There'll probably be more about their pasts in the next few chapters, plus I feel some shipping coming on. For the questions about smut, I've never been able to write it very well. That's probably the hardest thing I've ever tried to write, and I don't think I'm up for the challenge again, yet. Maybe at some point (It'd be a different entry, though, I don't like changing ratings for one chapter.)
Also, I apologize for taking weeks to write this. This week is my finals week, so I've been really busy with finishing up assignments this month. Hopefully after this week I'll have more time than I know what to do with! I started a website for this series, too (because I totally don't have enough on my plate) though I don't know what I'm going to use it for lol
Actually, I have a serious question for you guys! I've been asked by four or five different people to write specific things that I didn't with Kymma and Nolan (i.e. their wedding, different scenes from Nolan's POV, etc) so do you think I should start a new entry that's specifically so people can send me prompts with those two?
