Chapter 15
Turns out Ben was really, really angry at me for getting him wet. I thought a nice hot shower, a couple minutes and loads of sucking up would put him back into his usual evil mood.
Apparently not.
He barely acknowledged me the entire day. So I’d kept on trying to levitate random – lifeless – objects in the hopes to get his attention. Then after countless tries, I finally succeeded...and found myself alone to celebrate the great accomplishment. I guess seeing a feather floating around isn’t much out of the ordinary for Ben.
“Seriously, he’s overreacting!” I said to Tony as we sat at the dining table hours later.
He took the glasses that hovered by his shoulder and set them on the table. “No he isn’t.” At my glare, he shrugged. “Sorry but I’m with him on this one. You’re damn lucky nothing happened; you could’ve gotten yourself and Ben killed. The Elementals aren’t to be messed with.”
I huffed, deciding to ignore what I didn’t want to hear. I scanned the kitchen from my seated position, spotting several plates on the counter just to Gigi’s side. I focused on them and looked slightly higher. They lifted off the counter slowly, and just as they started making their way towards me, Gigi snatched them out of the air.
“Non! You leave the dishes alone!” she ordered.
“But I’m practicing!” I complained.
“And until it is no longer practicing, I don’t want you moving them; you might break my lovely plates.”
“No I won’t!”
She quirked an eyebrow. “Like you didn’t break my oven pot?”
“Th-that was an accident; Tony distracted me!”
Tony himself smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
“You’re not helping,” I muttered.
Gigi turned back to cutting her bread, calling out, “Go tell the men it is time to eat, instead.”
I groaned but did as she said. Moving to the edge of the kitchen, I yelled, “Guys!” When seconds passed and nothing happened, I opted for a different tactic. “Food!”
Two sets of feet stomped upstairs, then downward, until Greg and Ben appeared in the kitchen. They quickly seated themselves at the table while Gigi brought the food and I – physically – brought the plates. Jason and Nicolas were missing, but they would be back after having run an errand for the Council.
We ate in light conversation. That is, up until I could no longer stand Ben’s disregard of me. “Why are you still mad?! We weren’t even harmed!”
“But we could’ve been!” he snapped. Despite how I felt about the subject, he had a point.
“Well how am I supposed to know that if no one tells me?!” Ha! One point for me.
“You ask!”
“Oh I’m sorry! Next time when you tell me to do something, I’ll make sure to ask if anything might just kill me!”
“Why don’t you-“
“Vos gueules!” Gigi bellowed as she rose from her chair. Silence fell as we were all shocked to hear Gigi, sweet little Gigi, tell us to shut up. “You are worse than children!” she snapped, “Both of you made mistakes; now be a man and woman and get over it!”
“Fine,” I grumbled before chomping down on my bread. Ben’s reply was nothing more than a grunt.
“Good.” She cleared her throat, sitting back down. “Now, let’s go about this in a calmer discussion. Without insults,” she added once she saw Ben’s wry smile.
“How about I take this one over?” Greg suggested. “Okay..where to begin?” He rubbed his hands together. “Elementals are the most powerful known creatures of this dimension. They-“
“Wait a minute! Dimension?”
He nodded. “Earth is part of an infinity of dimensions; locations defined throughout space and time.”
“What?! I never heard of that! Are you trying to prank me?”
Tony shook his head. “No. We just thought it better not to mention it to you yet. You’re still new to the things happening in this dimension, so adding on to that won’t help.”
“How many dimensions are there?”
Ben actually spoke up. “No one knows; humans can’t Hop through dimensions and technology’s still not advanced enough to do that either.”
And here I thought nothing could surprise me. But instead of being scared, I was actually fascinated by this knowledge. “Have Shifters ever..what did you call it? Hop?”
The men’s eyes turned sad. “Some have, but at the cost of their life,” Greg whispered. “We have no knowledge of where the dimensions’ lead to. Only creatures born in dimensions’ know of their locations. You can imagine why they would be uncooperative about the subject.”
“The same as us not telling strangers where we live,” Tony specified.
“Dude, I think she got the message,” Greg joked. “Although, if you ever you want to know more, I’d suggest you ask Jason; he’s an expert on the matter compared to us.” The other two men agreed with him.
“That being said,” Ben continued, “you have to be careful on what you do and don’t do. You might have learnt much so far, but never forget that you are but a pebble in comparison to some other things.”
“I’ve already done a round,” I stated, “and came out of it fine.”
Ben sighed. “That was a minor task. I knew the demon wouldn’t harm you as long as you were not on your own. Besides, he was barely more than a shape-shifter; he could hardly do damage to one of us, not even you.”
“Geez. What a way to boost up my moral, eh?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You’re missing the point. It’s not about what you’ve done, or even how you’ve performed, it’s about learning to judge your capacities and limitations. Up until this day you have followed our teachings without hesitation, despite your numerous falls and now you must grow on your own. You have already begun.” He pointed to the feather and pillows I had practiced with during the day. “Now you must continue your progress or else, one day, you may fall...and never get back up.”
* * *
Later that night, I found myself thinking of the recent events in my life. Scratch that; my whole life. I used to know exactly what I wanted in life: my own house, a career in the music industry, to have some good friends, a family, and Abby, of course. It was the one dream everyone across the globe wishes to have. Despite all that, I’m actually...content? No. That wasn’t quite it. I am happy.
Happy to be different. Happy to have met the people I know. Happy to live life day by day. Happy to not know if I’ll be there tomorrow. Then I had to laugh at myself, ‘cause that just sounded sick.
Thinking seriously though, I realized what I was really thankful for. I was happy to be alive.
However, I wasn’t allowed more time to analyze my discovery as Abby came running into my bedroom, an angry Ben right behind her. Abby’s tail was tucked between her legs and her ears flat against her head as she rushed to hide behind me. Ben stood a few feet in front, glaring at her. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“Your dog, that’s what! She keeps rubbing all over me. The one person in this house whose asthmatic and she comes to annoy me! I’m warning you, she better stay away or else!” He made incoherent sounds and gestures that were meant to be threatening, yet only succeeded in making him look insane. If he weren’t so angry, I would’ve laughed. But then he started sneezing heavily, to subsequently leave in search of tissues.
As soon as he was gone, Abby sat in front of me. “Good girl!” I exclaimed, patting her ears. I also gave her a cookie for pestering Ben...just like I’d promised her I would.
That’s when Tony showed up laughing. “Does Ben know you put all the tissue boxes in your closet?” he asked rhetorically.
I smiled up at him. “Maybe you should lock the door...” I suggested, “And place the desk in front of it.”
“I’ll do something even better. I want to show you something; you’ll have to Shift though.” He came towards my bed while I rose from it, Shifting simultaneously.
He presented me his palm, where a circular disk lay flat. Coloured in a greyish white tone, it prompted a cloud on a sunny day. Without a word, Tony handed me the disk. It was warm to the touch, at first, and then turned ice cold. I shuffled it between both hands until they got accustomed to its temperature. Glancing at it afterwards, I noticed that its colouring had also changed; it was now bluish white.
I looked to Tony, who merely shook his head, silently saying not to question. I concentrated on the disk. It didn’t budge. What am I supposed to do with this? I thought, a little annoyed.
I touched it with my other hand, taped on it to discover it had altered into some kind of glass material. I made circles on the surface, turned and flipped it, rubbed it as you would a magic lamp, and still nothing happened.
Tony, laughing softly, seemed to be enjoying the show. Angry, I clutched the disk in a fist. “Do something already,” I mumbled angrily at it.
Who’d have thought that would do the trick?
The disk lost its shape, slithering like fluid in a mold, taking a form slowly. For the longest part I remained immobile, however not long as I found my fingers drifting over the living limb. Despite it moving, it felt the same as it had moments before; ice cold glass. But my mind wouldn’t stop screaming that glass did not move. I almost laughed at myself for that. How could I believe in demons, ghosts and angels but couldn’t process a bit of moving glass? I think I have a couple of screws loose.
Those thoughts scattered as soon as the glass stopped moving. The mold had finally acquired its final shape and a quick glance was enough to identify what the small yet intricate design was; I grabbed hold of the white hilt.
I gripped it firmly, and no sooner had I done so that, through the opposite end of the hilt, protruded a blue-white tip. By the time I finished wondering from where this had possibly come from, the tip had slid out completely. I marvelled at the beauty of the blade, it’s gorgeous material and coloring reflecting light everywhere. And despite its glassy look, I would later discover it was as hard as any metal, if not even more.
“Fulgora,” Tony whispered.
“What?”
He motioned the blade. I looked down at it where, sure enough, a small engraving of the word Fulgora was. “Fulgora, the goddess of lightning. If I remember properly, she was a Roman goddess.”
“Wow,” I said, genuinely surprised, “you sure know your mythology.”
His dimples appeared. “Actually, that’s from hearing Ben repeat the same stuff over and over.” We both laughed to that.
I lifted the sword towards the ceiling, being careful not to hit either of us. “So what’s with this all of a sudden?”
“It’s time for you to get your own weapon. Each Shifter has his own preference, whether they realize it or not. Yours is the sword, obviously. Fulgora is her name.”
“Cool! Is this like Excalibur?”
He chuckled. “No. Each weapon has its own name, usually in significance to some deity. Men of centuries past found it to be an honour to be blessed with their name. Some even said that the gods themselves descended from whatever dimension to bestow it upon them.” He paused. “I say they were on drugs.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “And have you not had such an otherworldly experience yourself?”
“Definitely not. And even if I had, I wouldn’t be telling people about it, ‘cause that’s a quick way to a mental institution and I don’t think they’re ready for what I would have to say.”
I could easily understand that. “Good point. So what do you have?”
“Same as you, only her name is Amaterasu, a sun goddess. She’s a Shinto deity.”
“Huh. Never heard of Shinto deities.”
He sat down on the bed. “I doubt you would’ve.”
“And everybody else?” I asked, twirling my sword.
“Well I don’t remember their names, but Greg has throwing knives, Ben has a bow and arrows and Jason has guns. I even have some friends who’ve got crossbows and spears. The most popular weapon is definitely the sword, though. It was in so much of our history that many of us prefer it.”
“Plus it’s the coolest one of all.” And I meant that. During my weapons’ training, the exercises I’d loved the most had been sword combat. I guess it really had been my preference, despite not having thought about it.
That’s when Ben could be heard throughout the house, asking loudly where all the tissues had gone. Even though he was asking, you could hear the underlying anger of having to search everywhere for some. I felt a great delight in his frustration, although the reason for that was quite foreign. I looked down at the sword in my hand. “Think I could practice on a moving target?”
Tony followed my thought process easily. “In due time,” he said with a sparkle in his eyes, “in due time.”
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