(Sorry I didn't update last week. I was really busy. Terrible excuse, I know.)
[Harvey's POV]
The room we entered was full of weird looking symbols. On every wall was nothing but strange symbols that I didn't know the meaning of. Bashur looked just as confused as I was. "Well, what now?" He asked.
Suddenly, eighteen symbols appeared in front of me. I yipped and jumped backwards. "Woah!" The symbols were a transparent blue and floating.
"What is it?" Bash asked.
"I think it's some sort of language," I replied.
"I don't suppose we can just Google-translate it into English?"
"I doubt it." I focused on one of the symbols, trying to figure out what it meant. And surprisingly, I did. I focused on the ones next to it. "Magic," I mumbled.
"What?" Bash asked.
The next thing I know, I could read all the symbols perfectly. The floating ones said 'most powerful magic?' "It's a question," I realized.
"Um, hello? Harvey? What are you talking about?" Bash waved his hand in front of my face, trying to get my attention. But I was too focused on the symbols to care.
I looked around, hoping to find an answer in the symbols on the wall. "Where is it?"
"What are you looking for!?" Bash was starting to get exasperated.
"The answer," I said simply.
"Be more specific please!" He screamed.
"The answer to the question the symbols ask."
"Wait, you can actually read that stuff?"
I shrugged. "Apparently. I have no clue how though. The question asks what the most powerful magic is."
"Well what's the answer?"
"I'll know it when I see it." I looked around the room for a couple more minutes while Bashur asked a billion questions. Eventually found it. The symbol was on a brick in the top corner on a wall. The symbol was a small circle with little stars surrounding it and a flame in the center. It said 'The Seto'. I have absolutely no clue what it means, but my gut said it was the answer.
I placed my hand on the brick and it slid out of the wall into my hand, surrounded by a bluish glow. "Woah!" Bashur said in awe. "How'd you do that Harv?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Just like all the other questions you asked."
"Hey, there's never any harm in asking. So what do we do with the brick?"
I face-palmed. "What do you think my answer is going to be?"
"Right. Sorry."
I placed the brick under the floating symbols. Nothing happened. "Dud magic?" Bash suggested.
"No," I insisted. "That has to be right! Let's try something else."
Well, we tried. And tried. And tried. Nothing ever changed. With each failed attempt I got more and more frustrated. After the twenty-somethingth attempt I lost my cool. I picked up the brick and screamed, "Just work you stupid brick!" Then slammed it on the ground. As soon as it hit, it shattered and the symbol floated up to the others. Then they all disappeared.
"Well..." Bashur's eyes were locked on where the symbols used to be. "That was... interesting. Who knew all we had to do was break something? I'm usually really good at that." I laughed. Bash joined in. Not because his joke was funny, but we were both so stressed that we just needed to laugh.
When we calmed down after maybe five minutes, the room hadn't changed. "So what now?" Bash asked.
I glanced around. "I-" I was interrupted by the walls shaking. All the bricks started to fall. "Duck!" I called to Bash. I knelt down and covered my head with my hands. Bricks kept falling and a couple hit me. Nothing too bad though.
Everything stopped, and I was still alive thankfully. But I didn't stand up or open my eyes until Bashur tapped me on the shoulder. "Dude, you gotta see this."
I slowly opened my eyes and stood up. Then I saw what Bash was talking about. "Woah..." The wall and ceiling of the symbol room had fallen to reveal a black circular room lined with torches, probably as big as my entire house. In the middle of the room was a large golden pedestal with a small purple gem subtlety glowing on it.
"What is that?" Bash asked me, pointing at the gem.
I threw my hands in the air. "Why do you even bother asking anymore? I know as much as you do!"
He shrugged. "Not true. You could read the symbol language thing, so you have to have some idea about what's going on. "
"Well, I don't have an idea. So no more questions please!"
"Sorry. I guess let's just get a closer look then. Maybe if we have any luck, what happened to you back there will happen again."
We both walked up to the pedestal and stared at the gem for a bit. Bash reached out his hand to touch it, but quickly pulled it back when he was a few inches away. "Agh!" His scream echoed. "It shocked me!"
I rolled my eyes. "Really Bash? It's a rock. How can it shock you?"
"Hey, we're in the cave of magicy things. I don't know how anything works!"
"Whatever Bash."
"Well if you don't believe me, why don't you just pick it up?"
"Fine, I will." I grabbed the gem off the pedestal with ease. "See? Eas- AAGH!" I collapsed on the ground, my entire body searing in pain.
"Harvey!" Bashur screamed.
"Silence!" A new voice boomed. The pain stopped and I stood up. In front of me on the pedestal was an older man, maybe in his late fifties, holding the gem in his hands. He wore a purple cloak and a white crown in his gray hair. He also wasn't solid. If you focused, you could see right through him like he was made of water.
He looked straight at me. "You, young sorcerer, have proven your strength, wits, knowledge, and skill. You are the next Seto Sorcerer, the most powerful sorcerer in all the realms." He took the gem and snapped. The next I know the gem was an amulet, the purple gem surrounded by gold on a leather strap. He placed it around my neck. "Use your power wisely." Then he disappeared in a flash of light, leaving me unconscious.
"Harvey! Harvey, wake up!"
I groaned as Bash shook me. "One sec Bash. I just had the craziest dream..."
"Dude, that wasn't a dream." I sat up straight abruptly, smacking Bash in the forehead. "Ow! Jeez, give me a warning next time! Your head hurts!"
I put my hand on my neck and felt the amulet from before. Same gem and everything. "Holy crap..."
"Yeah, and speaking of which, we need to talk," Bashur said. "First off, why didn't you tell me you were a sorcerer?!"
"Because I'm not!" I replied.
"I don't know. The guy in the room seemed pretty sure about you being a sorcerer."
"I think I would have known if I was a sorcerer."
"Have you ever tried to see if you had powers?"
"Well, no but-"
"Then how would you know?"
I paused. "Good point."
"Well, try it now."
I looked at him like he was crazy. "You can't be serious."
He crossed his arms. "You better believe I'm serious. If my best friend has sorcerer powers, I wanna know."
I put my hands up in defeat. "Fine. How do I figure out if I have powers or not?"
"I don't know. Jump off of a rock and see if you can fly or something."
I climbed up onto the top of the cave. It wasn't too high up, but still about five feet. "Are you sure about this Bash?" I called down.
He shrugged. "I don't know. I've never had super powers before. This is just a guess."
"Wow, thanks Bash," I mumbled.
"Just jump," he said.
So I did. And I fell to the ground with a thunk on my stomach. "Well, I guess we can cross flying off the list," Bash said, standing over me.
I pushed myself up and glared at him. "Yeah, no kidding."
Bashur started to back up. "Woah! Dude, I'm sorry it didn't work! You don't have to burn me!"
"Wha...?" I looked down and saw that my hands were surrounded in purple flames. "Okay, that's pretty awesome." I pointed at the ground and drew a smiley face with the flames. It was really bad, but who cares?! I can shoot fire out of my hands!
"What else can you do?" Bash asked excitedly.
The amulet glowed around my neck. I took it off and it transformed into a book, the purple gem on the cover. I opened it up and glanced through the pages. "Well, it says in here that I can transform into any animal."
"Try it! I wanna see this!" Jeez, Bash seems more excited about my powers than I am.
I closed my eyes and thought about being a wolf. Then when I opened my eyes, I was half my size, on all fours, and Bashur seemed huge. He crouched down to my height and smiled. "Aww... aren't you a cute little puppy," he said in a baby voice. "Yes you are. Yes you are." I growled and he took a step back. "Sorry Harv. I just couldn't resist!"
I transformed into myself again. "Sorry. I guess wolf me doesn't like being called a cute little puppy in a baby voice."
Bash giggled. "Again, couldn't resist. Next!"
We spent the next three hours or so experimenting with my newfound powers. My favorite was still the fire, and Bashur said he's torn between the forcefield and telekinesis. My powers were all pretty weak, but I'm just gonna go with the excuse that it's because I just got them. The book also listed all the potions I could make, which is also really epic. We probably could've stayed there all day, but then we eventually decided that we weren't in that cave for only a couple minutes, and Bash's parents are probably freaking out. So we started down the trail, mainly talking about my powers and the man in the cave.
It was night time when we made it back to our campsite. Connor, Travis, and their parents were sitting by a campfire, looking worried. "What do we do?" I whispered to Bash. "We can't tell them what really happened."
He smirked at me. "No problem. We just do this." He walked over to the edge of the campsite and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hi family!" Making them all jump.
Bashur's mom screamed then got up and hugged us. "Where did you boys go?! You've been gone all day!"
"Sorry mom," Bash said. "When we were hiking, Connor and Travis were so far ahead that we got lost on the trail."
His mom finally let go and smiled. "Well, at least you found your way back." She turned around and glared at Connor and Travis. "And believe me you two, you'll get your punishment for not keeping a closer eye on them. And you two should-"
Bash's dad interrupted her. "Well, it must've been a long day for you boys. Are you hungry?" We both nodded. "Well then, Molly, why don't you go fix the boys something to eat while I go tell the rangers that we found them?"
So they both left, leaving me and Bash with his brothers. Travis leaned forward. "So, how'd you get out?"
Bash gave him a puzzled look. "Get out of what?"
"The cave. Duh." Connor replied. "That's obviously where you went. So, how'd you do it?"
I was worried that we were going to have to tell them what happened, but thankfully Bash already had it covered. "The cave? Harvey wanted to go in there, but I was too afraid. Right Harv?"
I gave a small nod. "Y-yeah."
Neither of them looked convinced. They both stood up and stared at us. "We'll get it out of you two eventually. You can't hide it from us forever." Then they headed to their tent to sleep.
Soon after, Bashur's mom gave us our food then headed off to bed too. We started to talk as soon as we were sure she was gone. "Harv, you really need to work on your lying skills," Bash said in between bites. "You only said one word and it didn't sound convincing."
"Sorry. I've never had to lie before," I told him.
"Well, maybe there's a potion or something in that book that will help you lie better. Speaking of which, where is it?"
I pulled out the amulet from under my hoodie. "It changed back on the way here. I still can't believe this whole thing is real."
"What I can't believe is that my best friend is a sorcerer and I can't tell anyone about it. Do you know how cool it would be to walk into school with your hands on fire? People would never bother us ever again!"
"I know, it's just that I get the feeling that I'm not supposed to tell anyone. You get what I mean?"
He sighed. "Yeah. It's cool. I've read enough comics to understand the whole 'must protect the ones I love' thing." I laughed at his comment. Then he stood up and started towards our tent. "I'm going to bed. Good night Setosorcerer."
I smiled. "Night Bash." Then he disappeared in the tent.
I stared at the orange flames in the campfire, then ignited my own hand. The purple fire seemed so weird after only knowing the orange one.
I thought about what Bash said about this being like a comic book. Sure, the people in them have great powers and do great things. But those things always seem to come at a price. So what's my price?
I extinguished my hand and the campfire then headed towards the tent. Maybe one I'll figure everything out.
