Young Writers Society

"No," said Zhi Hui, his gaze flickering from Arin and Sune to the ground. "I mean that we don't belong to this . . ." He racked his brain for a word. "We don't belong in this realm or land. Where we come from, our people know everything that's going on in all the regions. There would be no way that we wouldn't know what wraiths are if they existed back home."

Sune folded his arms and looked the man over. "So you're saying that you're from another reality?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. It was hard for Arin to tell if he was in disbelief or just trying to digest what had been said. It was definitely a stretch, even for them. They had been through a lot while traveling the galaxy, but never once had they discovered a way to go from one reality to another. Technology like that was just too dangerous to exist, and could cause all sorts of problems if it fell into the wrong hands.

...Right?

"How did you get here, then?" he continued. Arin was starting to lean more towards the disbelief than being overwhelmed; he wouldn't have been asking them more questions in that tone if he really believed what they were saying. "And why were you sent here in the first place?"

Zhi Huang noticed Zhi Hui start to stammer, at a loss for words, so he addressed Sune. "That would be my fault. We are immortals from the Celestial Empire, and we kind of got on the wrong side of the border with our enemies, the Shadow Empire. Some Shadows decided to use their dark powers to banish us because of that. We had no idea such a thing was possible, but one can never underestimate those immortals from the Shadow Empire. And so we ended up here, probably in another universe or something." He crossed his arms. "That's how it is. You believe it or not, that's up to you."

The terminology flew over his head, but he tried his best to take it all in. It provided the explanation that he was looking for, and gave him a satisfaction he often had trouble finding - the satisfaction of meeting someone else who had dealt with things that were magical.

But before he could comment on this, Arin was already eagerly interrogating the two brothers for more information. "So are you magical, too? Because Sune and I have never met magical people before, and we're kind of desperate for that type of thing! Especially Sune. He's really desperate, but who can blame him? We don't really have any magic here, so it's always a lucky day when we find anything about it."

"Magic," he repeated, turning the word over in his head. "Some people would call our abilities that, yes." Though it's more like an outward use of our internal energy, he thought.

After a long moment of awkward silence, Zhi Hui spoke. "So . . . n-not many people have magic here?"

He couldn't cry, but his essence knew how to imitate it to a certain extent - his eyes grew moist, and he could feel his eyes sting, as, according to Arin, they did whenever she had to cry. "We're the only ones," he said. He grabbed onto Arin for support, giving her hand a very tight squeeze. "We-we've never met anyone else who has magic. We've read stories about and run into magical artifacts, but you're the first people we've met that aren't-aren't normal."

"Aren't normal?" said Zhi Huang, half offended by the words and half bewildered by the knowledge and Sune's sudden outburst of emotion. "Where we come from, we are normal. All immortals have powers, to some extent. Even some in the Mortal Realm who cultivate a lot can use whatever small potential they have in them."

"It's not like that here," she said. She looked over in Sune's direction, furrowing her brow into a worried look. He always got like this whenever they even came close to discovering more about magic. And every time, she worried that he would have his heartbroken when it wasn't what he was looking for.

But she couldn't bring that up now, not when he was so happy to have finally ran into someone who actually possessed magic. "This reality works differently - it runs mainly on technology. Even the past civilizations ran solely on that. Magic is...well, magic isn't something that's accepted."

"You're either called a liar," Sune added, straightening ever so slightly, "or people are terrified of you."

Arin gave a strained smile. "I'm usually the liar, and Sune's usually the monster."

The twins exchanged glances. "That-that sounds tough," replied Zhi Hui. "I--oh, we haven't introduced ourselves yet." He directed his last statement at Zhi Huang.

His brother put his fan back into his wide sleeve. "I'm Zhi Huang, and this is my twin brother, Zhi Hui."

Zhi Hui noticed that he did not mention their status within the Celestial Empire. Not all information had to be divulged. It was probably safer that way, even if no one knew them here.

She grinned and placed a hand on her chest. "It's alright - we forget to do introductions too. My name's Arin. Like I said earlier, I'm the Wanderer. I go from planet to the planet, playing songs and exploring new places."

Sune stiffened, though Arin was sure that it was because he was nervous about making a good impression on the two magical brothers. "My name's Sune. I travel around with Arin and help her with her performances."

"Sune's been my best friend since forever, and my boyfriend since a year ago," Arin added. She attempted to throw her arm around his shoulder - forgetting that he was far taller than her in his current form - and ended up settling for throwing it around his waist instead.

Boy . . . friend? The brothers exchanged subtle, confused glances. They had no idea what the word meant. No matter how Zhi Hui tried to grasp it in his mind, he didn't know how a male friend was any different from a boyfriend.

"Oh. It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, dipping his head, with Zhi Huang doing the same.

"Nice to meet you, too!" Arin cheerfully replied, giving Sune a tight squeeze with the hand that was currently snaked around his back.

He stiffened even more. He could see the way that the brothers were exchanging looks. Was it because they were less used to physical displays of affection like this? He wasn't going to change how he and Arin did things because he really did enjoy it, but it still made him worried that he was giving the wrong impression.

Anyways, it was no good to use a word of unknown meaning. That only lead to embarrassment and mishaps, usually. Zhi Huang cleared those thoughts from his head and looked around for about the millionth time. "We should find somewhere to stay. The wind's going to pick up soon. I can feel it. It might create a sandstorm."

"We're almost at the stargate, so you can come with us to our home," Arin cheerfully informed them, already grabbing onto Sune's wrist and bringing him in the direction of the aforementioned piece of ancient technology. She turned to see his gaze lingering on the two brothers. "Come on, Sune! We've got to go set it up for them."

Sune seemed reluctant to look away, but he eventually did as requested and followed her to the stargate.

"Ask them what a stargate is," Zhi Hui whispered to his twin as they followed, eyeing the strange contraption. The two had said earlier that they weren't from here, so was that thing supposed to transport them somewhere else?

Zhi Hui didn't immediately trust things he had very little knowledge about.

Zhi Huang said loudly, for Arin and Sune to hear, "Ah-Hui wants to know what a stargate is." He looked back at Zhi Hui and grinned mischievously.

Zhi Hui could feel his face heating up and he couldn't quite look their companions straight in the eyes. "It's not like you know what it is," he muttered, elbowing Zhi Huang.