As the opaque crystal swung dizzily around the map, Aleera fretted her newly dyed hair.
She wound a lock of the golden-blond round her finger and scrutinized the ever swinging chain in utter disbelief.
"This doesn't make any sense." she muttered to herself.
Scrying was Aleera's specialty, after all. Heylin masters had traveled across time and space to seek her guidance, yet here she was an hour into searching for a mere mortal girl and didn't even know what continent she was on!
Naturally she'd started her search in the girl's home town, expecting that in a matter of seconds, the crystal would drop and reveal her location. When it didn't react, Aleera widened her search till she finally and frustratedly pulled out her world map. Still, nothing was happening.
Just as she was about to chuck the "obiviously defective" crystal to the ground, a thought occured to her.
What if she's not on this earth?
Of course, she wouldn't have- couldn't have ended up on another planet since Aleera had seen her last, but there were other possibilities.
Especially if another Heylin has gotten to her first.
Reaching across the table to a tall shelf, she pulled out an old, yellowed map of the Heylin dimension and smoothed it out over the world map.
Being careful not to rip it, she weighted down the corners and began to scry over it.
Immediately, the crystal concentrated it's circles around a dark looking valley. The map depicted the area as surrounded by towering mountains and dead forests. In it's midst stood a huge mountain with a carved face. As the crystal dropped down to cover the monstrous image, Aleera let out a frustrated curse.
"Chase young." She seethed pushing away from the table to stalk into her chamber. "I knew that damn Latin subsitute looked familiar."
After a minute or so of pacing she began to reconsider the situation logically.
"They haven't been together long." She reasoned. "He can't have gotten her to join him yet. That imbicile has always been about free will when it comes to his conquests. God only knows why, the entire point of being evil is to cast aside your morals... but he is weak from his time with the xiaolin..."
She stood in silence for a moment, deep in thought.
"Perhaps," she said aloud, smiling at the stack of ungraded math tests on her vanity. "I ought to show the poor boy how it's done."
***
Chase's room was enormous and absolutley suited him, from what I knew of him anyway.
The coal grey walls were covered in varying pictures and diagrams which automatically caught my interest. Of course, since most of them (those with words on them at least) were written out in chinese or some other language I couldn't read, I couldn't do much more than admire the images decorating them.
The book cases (5 total) which lined the eastern walls, however, had some titles I could read. Though I wasn't about to go snooping around after I'd just invaded Chase's privacy once already.
Great now I'm back on thinking of him naked again.
As much as I tried to distract myself with his interesting decorating style, I couldn't seem to avoid thinking about Chase's other attributes.
Even the wrought iron bed with it's black silk sheets brought my mind back to that moment.
Shut up brain! It's not like he sleeps in the nude!
...or maybe...
"Gah!" I cried, folding my arms over my chest.
Isn't there anything in here that doesn't have something to do with nudity!
I looked over to the large windows lining the western wall and prayed they didn't look out on a male strip joint.
Of course if that's what Chase chooses to wake up to, it would certainly take care of my little crush on him.
Fortunately, the view was of a rather beautiful entrance that I had apparently missed on my way in.
Tall, romanesque pillars and an ivory gazebo stood in front of carved stone walls. A waterfall with a hidden source and various plants flowed down the walls, made even more picturesque by soft blue lighting that seemed to emenate from the ground.
"Wow." I whispered.
Imagine waking up to that every morning.
It was enough to make me consider the Heylin in a very appealing light...if only for a few moments.
With a sigh I turned from the windows that gave me too much to consider, and back to the room that couldn't distract me enough.
For the third time since I'd arrived there, it hit me just who's room I was in.
Chase's room. Mr. Young's room.
A mere 24 hours ago I would never have even considered that I'd end up here, waiting for him to get "decent".
Ignoring the bed, it would probably only make me think about...stuff, I walked over to analyze a poster by the door. It contained a black anatomical sketch of a human body. Circles of color lined the body and tiny paragraphs of chinese pointed to each.
Despite the chinese, the image looked familiar. Unthinkingly I reached up to touch it.
"Chakras."
I jumped and snatched my hand back as Chase shut the door behind him.
"What?" I asked, distracted by his outfit.
It wasn't bad really, just different. A dark turtleneck and pants underneath a black, gold, and green tunic with a dark scarlet sash ( the eye in the center looked wierdly familiar too). The red of the sash also bordered the gold plates of armor covering his shoulders, wrists, and shins just over his combat boots. He seemed more in his element dressed like this, I could almost feel the confidence radiating off of him. It was...distracting.
I think he could tell, because by the time I snapped out of it he was leaning against the wall across from me, watching me watch him.
"Uh-er-" I stammered stupidly.
"Chakras." He said, mercifully ignoring my awkward staring moment. "are what those circles of color are called. They're the energy centers of the body, similar to mystical organs."
"Organs." I echoed, feeling rather like the student charecter in an educational film. "So they keep us alive?"
He nodded and a small smile tugged on his lips. "Yes, but more importantly they can be manipulated by certain things."
"Like what?"
Manipulated?
"Physical contact, for example."
He reached out to touch my abdomen, but I tensed up.
He hesitated. "May I? I promise I won't hurt you."
I pursed my lips.
"Uh...sure." I said nervously, not really sure why I felt I could trust him.
His hint of of smile returned. "By applying the correct amount of pressure here-" He touched low on my abdomen. "-and here-" he touched a point on my throat." You could learn the undiluted truth about anything your enemy has knowledge of. Lies and emotion will be blocked from tainting their words."
"Enemies?" I said, smiling slightly. "I don't have any of those. Unless you count that kid who spit in my pudding in elementary school."
Damn you, Daniel Farnam.
Chase's face went suddenly serious. "Perhaps not, now," he said, voice low. "but soon others may sense in you what I have, and seek to use you for their own purposes."
I frowned. "What are you talking about?"
He walked over to the windows and leaned against one.
I followed him curious and confused.
He watched me move, seeming distracted.
I sat on the bed and cleared my throat, unsure of how to snap him out of it.
Luckily he began to speak, and met my gaze intently.
"A week or so ago I became aware of a powerful energy that called out to me in my dreams. Naturally I researched the source, and found that it was coming from you. I asssumed you'd been doing it on purpose, trying to contact me or something-
"I wouldn't even know how to." I assured him, absolutely baffled.
"-I know. As soon as I met you in that Latin class, I could tell that you were completley oblivious-"
"Excuse me?" I scoffed.
He sighed. "- to your power."
"Oh."
"May I continue?" He asked, sounding a tad annoyed.
"Mhm." I answered, a little embarresed.
"Thank you. Anyway, I knew then that I would have to make you aware of it. I couldn't, in good conscience, allow you to continue on, calling out to random sources of power and risking your life in doing so."
I frowned. "Wait a second." I said. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What the hell do you mean: 'In good conscience'? The Heylin are evil, right?"
He smirked. "That's fundamentally correct, yes."
"So what does conscience have to do with anything?"
He walked over to me and knelt down next to the bed.
With him this close I got that way-to-warm feeling again like I had in detention.
"You are absolutely clever, aren't you?" He asked
"You are avoiding the question, Mr. Young." I replied.
He smiled and stood, forcing me to look up at him.
"Very well, it wasn't conscience that made me wish to recruit you."
"Then what was it?"
A/N: guess you'll just have to wait to find out! .