"Father," he said aloud.
The machine continued its monotone hum.
"Father, I'm finishing it. The girl from the Mystic Moon is gone now, Father. She's not coming back, she made her decision. Now, I have made mine,"
He leaned forward and reached blindly for the lever connected to the machine. He pushed it up with all of his strength. The machine came to life. Lights flashed and the dull hum raised its pitch in steps. The room lit up for the first time since Dornkirk had left it years ago hidden in the Mountain of the Damned. He had known that the mountain was infamously known and never visited by even the bravest man or woman on Gaea.
Kiteal stood and looked around the room, his eyes wide and his mouth twisted into a smile.
He cried out in ecstasy and spun around, looking at everything that his father had left. The floor beneath him began to shift. He let out a squeal and jumped to safety, outside of the ring of machinery. The floor slid away, revealing a huge orb of crystalline blue
A light shot up from it and materialized into his father's face. The old man's hologram loomed over Kiteal. It began to speak.
"Whoever has found this has found the means to control Fate. I care not who you are for you are brave to have come so far. To control Fate you must first control this machinery. The panel requires another. You must find someone from the Mystic Moon and bring them here. The machine will aid you in this. You must press this button."
A blue button lit up on the panel. Kiteal extended his hand and did as his father had instructed. Dornkirk's face dissolved and in it's place came another image. A young man with pale blonde hair and cerulean eyes sitting at a small desk in a small classroom. His father's voice came again.
"This is the person that you will choose for your partner."
Kiteal grinned.
"Do you believe in fate, Caleb?"
He looked over at the new girl that had sat next to him for two days in total silence. For a moment he wondered if she had really said something or if it was just one of the dream-voices he often heard. She was looking at him expectantly, so he guessed that it had been real.
"I guess. Why?"
"I don't know, I just sorta felt like asking you."
They stared at each other for a moment.
"But..."
"Is there something you would like to tell the class, Mr. Johnson?" The teacher's stern voice tore through him and he sat straight again, with his eyes forward.
"No, Mrs. Kimble."
The teacher nodded and turned to continue writing geography notes on the board. He began to scribble the notes down. After a few moments a small, folded paper slid onto his desk. He glanced at the girl that sat next to him and she smiled back. He unfolded the paper cautiously under his desk so that he wouldn't get into any more trouble. He read it slowly, three times, each time amazed.
In curly letters with hearts replacing the i's it read:
Find me after school by the bus stop. I want to talk to you.
~Candice
He folded the paper quickly and slid it into his desk. He looked at her again and nodded silently.
Rain pelted the bench that Caleb sat on. A bus groaned to a stop in front of him, a herd of students crowded onto it and it roared away. Another bus did the same. Another, and another, until there were no more to come and go. The wind became colder and the rain more fierce. Caleb gave up.
It was a joke. It was just a joke and she's hiding somewhere with her friends and laughing at me right now, the dork who thought the pretty girl wanted to meet and talk to him.
He stood slowly, took a deep breath and began his trek home. Before he had reached the railroad tracks that separated the school from his home, he saw her. He blinked and squinted through his rain drop-spotted glasses.
She was standing in the rain, which was soaking her creamy yellow cardigan, and was waving to him from across the tracks. He ran to her. He was quite out of breath when he reached her.
"Candice, I..."
"Caleb there's something wrong. My foot is stuck in the mud. I was going home before I realized that I needed to meet you and my foot got stuck while I was coming back to find you."
Caleb looked down and saw her foot immersed in mud up to the top of her once white socks. He threw his bag down and kneeled before her, digging into the mud to free her. As he worked her heard her say something. It sounded like a prayer, so he ignored it. He didn't want to embarrass her.
Finally, he found her small black shoe at the bottom of it all and told her to help him pull it out. She did nothing as he tugged. He looked up to her. There was a shining blue aura crowning her. He thought it must be some trick of his glasses and the rain.
"P-please help me get your foot out, Candice."
She smiled down at him and the blue light became brighter and surrounded them both. He felt himself rising off of the ground.
"Candice! What's going on?!"
She continued to smile as they rose up into the sky together.
