Chapter: New tricks, new faces
It was the start of a new day in the Boiling Isles. The clouds above grew into an overcast white then grey, shielding away every ounce of blue that was large into smaller spots. The time was around 6:30 in the morning and the two teens reached the glade bythe the Owl House.
"So you ready to tell me why we're here, Luz?" Jett asked, "And I hope this is important. Bacause I had a nice dream about swimming in the ocean of chocolate milk before you woke me up."
"Yesterday, after I finished talking with Aisha and Sidon about the mechanica roach-dogs who have tried to destroy forest, I ran into Gus in headquarters of the Order. Villarreal asked him to give me this."
Luz told him with a hint of excitement. She pulls a old book out of her bag.
"According to this book, some of witch spells and my glyphs can be combined with each other. We have to try this!"
"Okay magic combo sound cool, but couldn't this wait till after?" Jett asked still a little sleepy.
Luz frowned, slightly thrown by the question. "After what?"
"7 A.M." Jett replied, stifling a yawn.
"The earlier we begin to train, the sooner we'll discover all possible combinations for fusion spells we can do!" Luz said, full of the enthusiasm only kids have.
"You just want to learn new tricks before our tonight's meet with Nova. She'll checking your magic skills." It sounded like a statement, but Jett meant it as a question.
"I...won't deny it." Luz said, rocking on her heels.
Jett's lips quirk into the beginnings of a smile. He took M&Ms pack from his pocket and put all sweets in his mouth. "I tanked up on sugar. Where do we start?"
"I'd like to try combine light glyph with fire spell." Luz said with a big grin, eyes almost shining. "It's a logical and cool mix."
"And potentially very devastatingly." Someone said, making them turned around.
"Hi Red. What are you doing here?" Jett asked upon seeing his cousin.
"Luz texted me this morning asking me to come." Katrina answered.
"I thought it best to whole team practice with the mixing magic." Luz said with smile.
"We're a team." Jett agreed, smirking at Katrina "But I get first turn cool magic combo with Luz!" He poked Luz, "Dibs! Mine."
"Don't worry. Today, I am only a observer." Katrina said as found the perfect place to put her stuff - large and flat stone.
"You don't wanna try this?" Luz asked, watched as Katrina started pulling everything out of her messenger bag.
Katrina shook her head. "Mixing spells and glyph is a lost art of magic. I found only blip about it in library. So, someone has to watch, analyse, describe and record the results of attempt to reconstruct it." She explain, "I even brought the seeing stone to watch the flow of magic during training."
"Nerd." Jett said, but Katrina didn't react to the comment.
"What's seeing stone?" Luz asked, intrigued.
"This." Katrina raised mentioned object, "Looking through the hole allows you to see magic energy of all living beings."
"Really?" Luz points to the seeing stone as if asking for permission to hold it. With a nod, Katrina gave Luz a palm fitting silver-white triangle with a hole in the middle.
Luz held the stone up to her eye. At first it looked a lot like infrared vision to her. She can see the internal structure, like the magic pathway system of everything and everyone around her.
She let out in awe before glaring at Jett. His sack of magic was pulsing with light orange-white energy with a subtle tint of black. Then Luz turned her gaze on Katrina. Her magic looked different. It more closely resembled a two-toned lavender flame.
"Amazing." Luz handed Katrina her seeing stone back.
"I know." Katrina smiled at younger girl, "I'm ready, do your thing."
"All right, Luz, hit it!" Jett drew an half spell circle before he realised he has no idea how to do fusion spell with Luz's glyph and his magic. "So... how do we exactly do this? Do we have to dance a fusion dance or something?"
Luz looked into book and said, "Well, for starters, we need to use the magic at the same time...I guess."
"What you mean "you guess"?"
"The first chapter has an outline of all the mixing different types of magic idea. But everything else is in this book is written in metered verse or kind of poetry. Like this." She replied and then read out loud part of text.
The power can be share in one spell,
We know magic is everywhere,
Find one purpose for two different magic kind,
By uniting the path of your minds,
To built special plans,
To work side by side,
And then smile with pride,
As one by one, two spells can be done,
Just like always be the special one,
"And that's why I read only manga and horror novels." Jett said before turned to his cousin, "Red, you're into poetry. Do you get what this means?"
"That can be interpreted in many different ways." Katrina said, tapping her chin. "I think you both have to think about one thing during cast spell."
Jett cocked his head, "That's all?"
"Sorta," Katrina shrugged as she walked across the glade and sit down on stone, "I have no better interpreting."
"Then we have to learn by trial and error." Luz said in a very encouraging tone.
After a short discussion, Luz and Jett kneeling, a ligh glyph was lying there between them. Jett draw a spell circle, just above the piece a piece of paper with the symbol drawn on. Luz looked at Jett who nodded and gestured ahead. With a tap, a tiny shower of sparks shot out of the glyph for two seconds before it goes off.
"Total sham." Jett simply stated.
"Third time lucky, right?" Luz held up a other, prepared light glyph.
But third time wasn't lucky. Or ninth. Or twenty-first.
Jett and Luz tried to do it in any way they could think of. But each time the effect is failure.
"Okay, this is getting boring." Jett said, watching another glyph extinguishes like a scrape of phosphorous.
"Katrina, did you notice anything out of the ordinary?" Luz turned to the redhead girl, which have written fifteenth page, "Did Jett and I do something wrong? Or the light glyph and fire spell just can't combine with each other.
"From what I gather, this two spells fits together, and your magic are starting to come together when you cast spell." Katrina explained putting the notebook and the seeing stone away. "However, at the last moment, there was a problem with the process. It's almost like the power surge of your fusion spell, all of a sudden, was loosing its power."
"Maybe we need catalyst." Luz said after a moment thinking.
Jett just shrugged, "I'm actually not very hungry, but-"
"It's not food, Birdbrain." Katrina got up from the rock and come closer, "Generally speaking, anything that increases the rate of a process is a 'catalyst', a term derived from Greek καταλύειν, meaning "to annul," or "to untie," or "to pick up." The catalysis makes the reaction products are more stable than the starting material."
"They teach of that in magic schools?" Luz asked with hight level of disbelief.
"I read some science book from Human Realm, actually, sometimes." Katrina confessed, "By the way, I think you're right. Catalyst is good idea."
Luz smiled, "We just have to figure out what to use."
"I got an idea." Half smiling, Jett formed a ring with his finger and summoned the staff from where it was hidden. "Draw the glyph on the ground. The big one"
Luz picked up a stick and started sketching glyph into the dirt. "Done," she said, finishing the big circle with a flourish, "The perfect light glyph. Now tell me what is the plan?"
"Both witches and enchantress use staff to do magic." Jett gripped the staff as if it was his own mighty weapon. And it was. "Enchantress staff was a bit different from the witches' but I thinks its the missing element. Staff."
"I don't have staff yet." Luz reminded him.
"Let's use my staff together." Jett flipped the staff over and offered the end of the stick to Luz.
Luz grab the staff right under Jett's hand. It was hard, but comfortable to hold. She also like the natural pull from the wild magic. It was exhilarating.
"All right, Luz, on three." Jett said, holding up his free hand and showing 3 fingers.
"3...2...1..." Both of them counted down before they raised Howlitty together. Focusing.
Knocking the witch staff on the ground twice, the light began to glow with a red-and-yellow aura, before a bright light shot out from the glyph and began to reach the sky. It suddenly bursts apart, forming the shape of a great red golden owlcat. Very similar to the palisman on top Jett's staff.
Sparks gushes from its wings as it turns back and flies low towards the startled teenagers. Luz and Jett hurriedly focused on the spell again, just as the large owlcat flying a few feet above their heads like a flaming express train.
The fireworks owlcat turns a somersault and explodes over the glade with a deafening BANG!
It exploded in the sky in the shape of a light glyph. Big, glowing, beautiful and full of magic sparks.
"That was a good fusion spell!" Jett said.
"Let's do that again!" Luz replied excitedly.
"I admit, that was beautiful." Katrina cut in, "But maybe you should try something new."
Jett seemed to think for a moment, smiling suspiciously. "Let's see what happens when we mix the sleeping spell and plant glyph."
"Ok," Luz said agreeing that would be a good thing to try. "Just give me one second."
And in just a few moments, the plant glyph was ready. And they repeat the same action. Teenagers watched with a sort of fascination as glyph immediately shone brightly and began to glow green with power.
A pink, white, and yellow flower around a very long stamen popped out of the ground. It was big and nice but it didn't seem to has special features.
"Looks pretty normal." Katrina noticed.
"I wonder what it smells like." Luz leaned forward curiously.
Then, without warning, the flower spat a ball of glowing pollen. It sailed across the air toward Luz, who dodged it just in time to let it fly right into Katrina's face...
The redhead was just stunned and stared at them before falling down on the grass face flat.
"Oh my gosh, we knocked her!" Luz ran up to Katrina.
"I'm sure she'll be fine. She is Clawthorne." Jett crouched down, so he could poke Katrina's cheeck. No reaction. "But to be safe, we gotta get our story straight.. uh...she was like this when we found her."
"How we wake- Whoa… what's that?" Luz asked out of curiosity, watching kind of the dream sand coming out of Katrina's ear and floating above her head. It was an animated image of horned bear with an strange symbol inscribed on the forehead.
"This dreampollen... dreamsand shows Kontio Minor," Jett recognized the horned bear made of glowing sand-like thing, "Katrina's favorite constellation."
"So, is this her dream?" Luz asked as the tiny glowing horned bear sails toward her. And before she knew it, the glowing sand-like pollen covered her face.
"Uh-oh. Do you feel anything?"
Luz hadn't even time to register what Jett's saying. All she knew was that she felt unbelievably tired. She tried, but she just couldn't fight it anymore, and within three seconds after touching the glowing sand-like pollen, she was unconscious. She let her heavy eyes close as her body fell to ground. The image of Azura quickly takes shape in above Luz's head.
Jett chuckle while Luz is snuggled up up next to Katrina. A horned bear and Azura, made of "dreamsand", seems to have funn as they dance together above Luz and Katrina's head.
"I suppose I should have wake them up. But it would be a shame not to take this opportunity." A smirk show on his lips as he take Katrina's marker, "I thought I'd start with a classic-Ow!"
"OW OW OW," Jett yelped as something tugged him back by his own hair before he could painted a comedy moustache on girls' faces.
He backed off a meter and his hair was finally released. The teen turned to see a wooden phoenix looking straight at him.
"It's not a's permanent marker, Solaris." Jett told Katrina's palisman.
Feathers fluffing outward in anger, the palisman blinked rapidly. A single tweet of annoyance escaped Solaris' beak.
"Not much of a laugher, are you?" Jett asked pointing black marker at phoenix. "Fine, no pranks." He calmly said and threw the marker. "Happy?"
His cousin's palisman let out a screech, and back to top of staff. Jett looked at two slepping girls. The nap time is over and he have to wake them up. With a small spell the dreamsand was gone.
"Luz, wake up," Jett mumbled, shaking Luz who was still cuddling Katrina's side. He then shakes red head teen. Katrina replied with a soft snore.
"Comeon hup hup, wake up," Jett clapped his hands a few times. Still no movement. "Everybody, wake up!" He yelled. Luz and Katrina made no indication that they heard him.
"Okay, switch to plan B." He formed a magic ring with his finger and summoned a bucket full of icy water.
"Wakey, wakey," Jett said while dosing both girl with a bucket of cold water. The water burned their nerves, sending shots of fire running up and down their skin.
The dream world goes black for girls...
The next thing Luz and Katrina know is that they're somewhere else than land of dreams — and their clothes are soaked and so are their faces. Because whoever roused them decided to do it by throwing a bucket of cold water into their faces.
"Good morning sleepyheads." Jett began needing to duck as he was shot at by a blast of ice and snow.
"Jett Clawthorne! You'll pay me for it!" Katrina said a lavender blue aura around her hands telling she was really mad.
"In your dreams." Jett teased and 'booped' her in the nose but needing to quickly get out of the way of another blast of ice.
For a second, just a second Jett thought his cousin just punch his nose, but Katrina had quieted down, suddenly.
"Hey Luz, would you like to cast a fusion spell with me?" She asked very sweet voice. Drawing a circle in the air to dry them.
"Sure." Luz nodded, knowing what she means.
The older girl leaned in toward her human friend. And whispered something in Luz's ear. Both girls later gave Jett a devious smirk, which made his ears tucked a bit down.
"Ready?" Katrina asked Luz as she took her staff.
"Ready!" Luz activate glyph in her hand.
"Shish kebab." Jett hopped onto his own staff.
Luz and Katrina give Jett a five-seconds head start before quickly hovering in the air and chasing after him.
While that chasing was going on, elsewhere in the Human Realm morning shimmered in the summer heat radiating off the parched grass.
*SHHRRRP!*
A tearing sound shattered the morning stillness as a swirling silvery-black portal tore into existence. Stepping out of the portal, the female figure wearing a peacock coat that has a golden triangle zipper gently patted the insect-like creature sitting on her shoulder, reassuring herself that Chauko was still there.
The beautiful woman had dark blue hair dyed moderate dark silver tips at the end that went past her waist and the most unusual eyes – Pale crimson with dark blue sclerae.
She walked up to the tall, ornate gates and looked at the mansion behind it. It was a tall white building, impressive, everyone had to admit. But she know that this building is a front for something else. The subbasement as great and elaborate as paris catacombs hidden beneath the mansion.
'Home sweet home.' She though as pressed for the intercom and conversed with the person on the other side.
"Welcome back, agent Nyx." Said a low voice before she walked towards the large white double doors that were the entrance to the mansion.
Before she had made it up the first two steps the doors swung open. Inside stood large man with muscular build. He wears dark grayish persian blue dress suit with a pale, light grayish blue sweater underneath, and sports dark sapphire blue dress shoes. He also wears a mask with yellow button-like lenses, resembling a medieval plague doctor.
"Boss wants to talk to you. Now." He said in an firm eerie voice that could have easily terrifying most of people, but not even a single muscle in Nyx's face move.
"Good, I want to meet with him, anyway." her voice was calm and tainted slightly with an German accent, "I figure he is waiting in the new wing."
"Yes, let me escort you there," He showed her to boss new office without any words from either of them.
They parted with simple nod before Nyx turned the crystal doornob and open wooden door revealing two male characters.
The higher one was, her boss known by his alias the Lazarus. As usual, he was dressed in white 3 piece suit cleaned and pressed. And has a pair sunglasses on his nose. Next to him was a teenage boy that Nyx didn't recognize. He had messy ash-blond hair, huge bags under his magenta eyes, a notch in his left ear, a scar on his left cheek, and a gap in his teeth that she noticed as he spoke to her.
"So this is the... infamous Nyx I've heard so much about." His eyes traced over her form, glistening with unclear emotions, "Thought you'd be taller."
Nyx treated a boy like air, like he wasn't here, "Sir, who's that child?"
"I'm a teenager." The boy muttered, nearly under his breath.
"This is the Golden Guard." The boss 'Lazarus' announced solemnly, voice breaking through the air like sharp glass.
Nyx raise just one eyebrow. She have heard name "Golden Guard" many times... in her years of service. The Golden Guard was an agent recruited by boss himself to this organization. And the Lazarus said a lot of times that the Golden Guard fulfil very important tasks and he will play an important role in the project PURIFICATION. So, Nyx trying to understand why or how that's possible... the Golden Guard is a child.
"He will assist you in next mission." Lazarus said and interrupted Nyx's deep thought.
"Pack a travel bag, we leave in 30 minutes." Golden Guard added.
Nyx ignored the boy, "Sir, I'd like a word with you in private."
Golden Guard watches Nyx for a long moment and their boss' gaze shifts between the two of them until he nods. The teen leaves the room without saying a word.
Once the Golden Guard's door closed the Lazarus asked her bluntly; "I assume it's about a failed mission in the Forest of Ascetir."
"Yes," Nyx said now, with a light bitterness, "There has been a incident regarding the mission... which I must communicate to you, sir. The human girl-"
"I want to see what happened." the Lazarus said forcefully, looking at Chauko. "Show me."
Nyx's face was a mask of perfect poker face, but inside she was worried. Chauko is not only her friend, it's a rare bloody scarab to which Nyx's magically connected to. And the Lazarus, well if her boss don't like what he'll see...
"Now."
Chauko looks at Nyx as if expecting her command, she just nodded. The Lazarus held out right hand. Chauko landed on it.
"Do it."
Chauko's eyes literally glowed and a flash of memories flowed into man's head. To a normal person having memories placed into your head would disorient them or knock them out but the Lazarus is different than most of the world so he handled it pretty well.
After a two minutes, it was over, their eyes back to normal and the Lazarus knew exactly what happened in the Forest of Ascetir.
"I see." He almost in a whisper this. Despite Nyx's concerns about his reacti reaction, her boss was surprisingly calm.
The man sits there thoughtful for a moment and he vaguely registers Chauko flying back to its owner, and Nyx staring at him.
"Opportunity presents itself just as I suspected." Lazarus broke the stillness of the room.
"Opportunity?" Nyx echoed her boss. "For what?"
"I assume you remember the Power of Three Project." He replied, without even looking up at her.
"Yes, sir."
This time he meet her eyes. "Luz Noceda may help us to finished it."
Nyx frowns, expression bruised. "But, sir, this project concerns-"
"I don't think you need to worry about that." the man said, interrupting Nyx from speaking again, "Remember that you have a mission."
Nyx easy discern the hidden meaning - you know everything you need to know. "I'll complete my mission as best I can."
"I know you will." Lazarus hand her a black folder. "You and the Golden Guard will use my private plane. This is a very important cause, and we certainly can't waste much time."
There was a silence before he simply told Nyx to go.
Just a few feet from the door, was waiting the Golden Guard. Nyx looked at him for a very short while, and then both of them began walking in silence.
"I hope that you do not have the airsick. We have a long flight ahead of us." Nyx told him as she still be thumbing through black folder.
The Golden Guard had to think for a moment, but then, he realized something. "You're supposed to be a master 'shadows and bloody scarab whispering', just use your powers to transport us there."
"I could do that, but your body's not up to the travel." Nyx told him.
"I'm tougher than you think I am." The Golden Guard argues.
"Are you willing to risk your life to prove that?" Nyx stopped and turned to him, "This can be a significantly painful death."
The teen opens his mouth again then seems to think better of it and close it. But before he could even formulate a reply, his temporary partner spoke again.
"Let's not keep pilot waiting." Nyx said with a bland face and she walking toward the exit, making the Golden Guard followed her again.
"I get the window seat." Golden Guard call dibs.
Nyx just smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.
A/N: So? You like it?
This author invites and appreciates feedback :)
