Chapter Four: Disturbance

When Melanie had gone home that night, she had acted nearly normal. Of course she was still hurt by the fact that she wasn't a Wizard and she knew that she wasn't likely to be offered the Oath. Bethany was still here. No one knew exactly when her ordeal would be.

After dinner, she had gone up-stairs to do her homework. She had studied diligently, not wanting to think of anything else. And then, all of a sudden, she was dreaming.

Melanie found herself standing alone on a dark grey plain. It was completely empty and silent. Nothing stirred. There was nothing here to stirs. Melanie glanced around herself. She knew that there was something important to be done here though what it was she couldn't guess. What was there here anyway? Melanie sat down in the ground and placed her head in her hands. What should she do? What was there to do? And why in the One's name did she keep returning to this place every night?

Get up and walksaid a Voice. It seemed to be the place it's self talking. Melanie sat up with a jerk.

"Who are you?!" Melanie called desperately. There was something she had to find out. It was necessary. She didn't know how she knew. Maybe she always had.

I have seen everything that has ever happened here, and I cried when the walls were built said the Voice.

"But who are you?" Melanie wailed. She wondered what the Voice meant. "When the walls were built?"

You knew once. Before. said the Voice. But although you no longer know Me I can still point you in the right direction. Go That Way.

Melanie barely had time to contemplate the strangeness of this statement before the whole world reshaped its self. All a once, everything went black and she fell forwards into nothingness… Someone was screaming. She stretched out her arms to reach for them even she couldn't see who it was. She felt herself getting pulled away. She struggled but nothing helped. And then there was the overwhelming brightness…

Melanie woke up with a start. Someone, her father, was laying her down on her bed. Melanie lay still and pretended to be asleep. For some reason, she always woke up just as the hit the brightness. "There must be a way to make me stay in the dream to find out what I need to," Melanie thought groggily. Then, she had it. Karen. Karen was a wizard. She would be able to design a Wizardry that would let Melanie do what she needed to do. Hadn't her parents told her about something similar that they had done once? Well, that was what she would have to do now.

"Tomorrow," Melanie whispered to herself. She set her alarm clock to ring at five Am "Tomorrow I'll ask her…" and she fell asleep. The dream replayed in her head as she slept.

When the alarm sounded the next morning, Melanie rubbed her eyes and rolled over. She didn't want to wake up. She hadn't slept much. Mostly she had just dozed. With a loud groan, she forced herself to come fully awake. It was a few minutes past five. School wouldn't start for a couple of hours. Melanie dressed quickly and silently to avoid waking her family. She didn't even look at what she put on. She had never told anyone about the dreams. She knew for sure that Karen would have a lot of questions about them and Melanie knew that she would have to answer them honestly. Her first instinct was to keep the dreams a secret but for some reason she also knew that that was no longer possible.

After a few quick brush strokes through her hair, Melanie grabbed her back pack and went down stairs. She grabbed a power bar from a cabinet and silently let herself out of the house. She wanted to speak to Karen alone.

Karen always got up early. No one knew why, it was just part of how her inner clock worked. Or perhaps it was the amount of homework she skipped in the evenings so that she could do her wizardly work. But either way, Karen could always be trusted to rise at four thirty in the morning all year round.

Coming up the Nolen's house, Melanie climbed the tree that was next to Karen's window. Damn. The window was locked and covered by thick curtains. She could see light from the inside though. Melanie snapped off a dead twig from the tree and used it to rap quietly on the glass. After a minute, she rapped again though more insistently. Slowly, the window began to rise. Karen stuck her head out.

Melanie waved to get her attention. Pre-dawn light was just beginning to show. Karen saw her and waved for her to climb down. Melanie did so. She nearly slipped close to the ground. She had forgotten that there was a branch that swayed there. Once on the ground, Melanie dusted herself off and walked over to the front door. After a few seconds, the door opened up a crack and Melanie saw Karen's eye peering through the hole.

"Hey," Melanie whispered.

"What's up Mel?" Karen asked. Melanie could see that she was slightly worried.

"I wanted to ask you something." Melanie said. "Can I come in?"

Karen nodded and pulled the door open so Melanie could come inside. "Quiet," she said, motioning towards the ceiling. Melanie gathered that her parents were still asleep. The Nolen's house was really quite large but then again it had to be to fit all the children. When the family had lived in Ireland, there had only been three children but once they had moved to America, Carmella had had Sonal and then, recently, Merlin. So they had, in short, needed a bigger house. Apart from being a large house, it was rather confusing as well. The last owners had apparently been very big on renovation as well. There were two separate stair cases that led to two different unconnected parts of the upstairs. In addition, the attic could only be reached from the basement. The Nolen's, however, loved their home. It was actually because of its confusing aspect that they had bought it. It suited them.

Karen led Melanie past the living room and down the hall to the stair case that her room was at the top of. It was the stair case that led to the left side of the upstairs. Karen's room was the only room on that side at the moment. Gwen, Karen's older sister, had used to live there too but she had moved out at the beginning of the year and into her college dorm. Melanie thought of her own brother, James, who would be moving out at the end of this year. He had chosen to go to a college that was across the country. Melanie wondered how much she'd miss him.

Karen's room was a jumbled mess of books, paper, and just about anything. There were two book cases absolutely stuffed with books, a bed covered with a patchwork quilt shoved into the corner, and a desk that usually changed places day-to-day. All of this was covered with assorted pieces of junk that Melanie assumed Karen used for her Wizardry. She nearly smiled at the contrast Karen made with her older sister. Gwen had been as neat as a pin. Melanie supposed that Karen took after her mother that way.

Karen shut the door quietly behind her. "What was it you wanted to ask me?" she asked.

Melanie began to explain about the dreams. She told Karen about how she had been having the dream for at least three months and about how clear it was. She didn't know much else.

Karen was unusually serious. She bit her lip slightly and turned away.

Melanie was concerned. She had expected Karen to offer to help and be cheery about the whole thing. She hadn't expected her to actually be worried about the dreams that Melanie was having. It was completely out of character for her and besides, what was there to be concerned about? She just wanted to fine out what it all meant.

At last, Karen turned back to Melanie who was sitting on the bed staring out the window.

"Mel, I know I'm not really supposed to tell you this but we Wizards have been having some trouble lately," Karen said.

Melanie looked at her inquiringly.

"Well it wasn't the Powers that said not to tell, it's our parents," Karen admitted. "They don't want the younger kids worried."

Melanie scowled.

"The younger Wizards haven't been told either," Karen said hastily. "But they'll find out on their own soon. They're just more powerful so they haven't noticed yet."

Melanie's expression softened, though not by much. She didn't enjoy being called a child.

Karen continued. "The thing is, we don't really know what's wrong," Karen said. "It's like our reservoir of magic's run dry. We just can't do many spells anymore." Karen paused. Her brow was furrowed in worry. "Did you know we can't even teleport anymore?"

Melanie bit her lip. "But what does that have to do with my dream?" she asked. She didn't really see the connection.

"I'm not sure," Karen said. "But look at it this way. All the wizards in this universe are crucially low on magic. If problems come up, no matter how dangerous it is, we won't have the energy to deal with it. Then your sister gets offered the ordeal. Did you know that she is the only kid in the universe to get offered her ordeal in over a year? So unknown to her all the wizards in the universe have their eyes on her. Everyone is wondering what her ordeal will be. And in the mean time, you, her older sister, start having dreams about strange places and walls that need to be unbuilt or something like that. So I can't help but wonder, is the reason that Beth was offered her ordeal and not anyone else from all over the universe because she's your sister?"

Melanie was still struggling to process it all when she heard Karen say "because she's your sister." Her mouth fell open. "Are you suggesting that I, the kid who has never shown an once of magical talent, could be the answer to a universe of wizards problems?" Melanie couldn't help feeling incredulous. How could she be? The powers clearly didn't think that she could cope. Melanie had thought that that was obvious.

"Well, isn't it a possibility?" asked Karen.

Melanie made a doubtful face but said "I guess."

Karen raised an eyebrow at the tone Melanie was using, but she said. "Well I think that one of the key things to do right now would be to find out more about those dreams."

Melanie nodded. This at least made sense. "That what I came over here to ask you about," she said.

Karen's eyes flashed with understanding. "Okay," she said. She looked at her calendar. "Tomorrow's Friday." She said, "How about then? You can sleep over."

Melanie considered for a moment, and then nodded. She couldn't remember any plans and there was hardly a need to ask her parents when Karen was a relative. They would wonder why though…

"I'd rather not tell anyone though," Melanie said.

"Okay," Karen said. "It'll take me a while to assemble the proper wizardry though. I can make it so you can just tug a sort of line and then I can pull you back up, that's the simplest way to explain it anyways."

"Okay," said Melanie. She wanted to walk to school this morning since she would have time. She needed the walk to mull things over. There was a lot going on. She wanted to ask her parents why they didn't think that she was mature enough to handle wizardly problems as well. She wouldn't bring it up for a while though. She didn't want to get Karen into trouble.

"Would you like to hang around here till the bus comes or just walk?" Karen asked. "I don't mind having you here."

"No thanks," Melanie said. "I think I'd like to walk."

Karen escorted Melanie to the door. They didn't say much as the rest of the house was still asleep. It was almost foreboding. Melanie took several deep breaths.

"See ya," Karen whispered as Melanie left the house.

Melanie waved behind her. She was glad to be on her own for a while. There was a lot to think about.