The Three Lockets [Chapter 5.2]

Author's Note: This chapter was definitely a brutal one at first, but I think I finally got more into it by the time that I finished it. Hopefully I'll be able to get my chapters up much sooner in the future! <3 We're going to have another run-in with a character that's been introduced in a previous chapter soon, and, after that, things should finally start getting interesting on my end.

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Last Lines: There was no glowing ball, or beautiful arcs of water. Nothing burst into flames. There was no series of spells. The only indicator that it had worked was that little screen. Her grip on the ball tightened. She stared down at the letters that were beginning to scroll across it in a small, sprawling cursive font.

D A R K N E S S

All that she could do was just look at the ball and the letters, trying - and failing - to understand what the word could possibly mean. She heard Lira take in a deep breath beside her, holding it for a good couple of seconds before quietly letting it out. Aspen, meanwhile, was pressing up against her side as she peered down at the letters on the ball.

"I think your ball's broken," Aspen said. She poked the screen. "It didn't do that fancy magical display thing."

The letters faded away.

"It's not supposed to," Lira whispered.

Cass looked up.

Lira had gone incredibly pale, her hands shaking as she reached grabbed the ball from Cass' lap. Clutching the ball close to her chest, Lira looked Cass over with wide, horrified eyes. Seeing that single expression was all that Cass needed to understand that her magic was something to be feared and not loved. She couldn't begin to understand what it encompassed, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. If Lira was afraid of her because of it, how could it ever be a good thing?

"What do you mean it's not supposed to?" Aspen said. She leaned to the side so she was looking around Cass' back, staring very intently at the ball - Cass wouldn't have been surprised if Aspen suddenly took it out of Lira's hands. "Its job is to show what magic someone has, so why on Earth wouldn't it do that?"

Lira took another deep breath. "Cass has dark magic."

"Yeah. And I have light magic, and you have water magic." Aspen folded her arms and straightened. "I don't see the big deal. It's another one of those elemental things, right?"

"It is, but that's the type of magic King Karti-"

"Hey, Cassie," Aspen abruptly interrupted, putting her arm around her best friend and giving her a tight squeeze, "it looks like you're the ying to my yang! Or is it the other way around? I can never remember it."

Cass shifted uncomfortably, her gaze going from Aspen to Lira. She knew what Aspen was trying to do, but also knew that Lira had more knowledge about how this world worked. If Lira implied that darkness magic was a horrible thing, then it was. Aspen acting like it wasn't was only going to make it harder for her to face the truth.

And Aspen was already scared of her because of the feelings.

Cass grabbed onto her locket and ran her thumb over its cool surface. She looked away from Lira - looked away from the growing disappointment on her face, looked away from the growing fear - and started staring down at her locket instead. Tears began to prick at the corner of her eyes as she realized that even her locket was something that she couldn't love. It really was a minor thing, but her already distressed emotions couldn't handle the thought of yet another thing being a reason for people to fear her. There was the strange feelings; Aspen was afraid of those. There was her magic; Lira was afraid of that. And then there was her locket; anyone from Rey would fear it because it made it seem like she was somehow connected to King Kartiel.

"This isn't something to joke about," Lira quietly said.

Cass just kept staring at her locket, trying her best to bite back her tears.

She felt Aspen shift beside her. Though she certainly had something she wanted to say, if her restlessness was anything to go off of, she wasn't going to say it now.

Out of the corner of her eye, Cass saw Lira gently return the orb to its chest and use her magic to return it to its spot underneath the bed. For once, she didn't feel an excited jolt when she saw magic being used - it reminded her too much of her own cursed magic.

"What were you saying earlier?" Aspen finally asked. Her voice was just as quiet as Lira's had been, and just as solemn. "You mentioned something about that King Kartiel again."

Lira took a deep breath. Cass couldn't see her locket clearly now; her vision was too blurred by the tears finally beginning to spill over. "The royalty of Telorum has always had that type of magic," Lira whispered. Her voice shook as she spoke. "And Rodet's said that intel gathered implies that the Dark Mage has it, too."

"The Dark Mage?" Aspen repeated. A second after the question was spoken, Cass felt Aspen's arms wrapping around her. Tears rolled down her face in thick, thick streams, falling onto her shorts and Aspen's bare arms.

Lira got off of the bed. She silently walked over to the fountain and sat on its stone rim once more, fingers trailing through the water like they had in the past. The same designs appeared across its surface, and the air felt thick with warmth - though this warmth suddenly felt very intrusive, rather than comforting like it had when Lira had initially used her magic.

"The Dark Mage," Lira said, "is Kartiel's closest ally."

A sob caught itself in Cass' throat, and Aspen's grip on her tightened.

Lira's gaze dropped down to the waters. The designs multipled and grew more intricate, curling and twisting in quick succession. "He hasn't been around for long. Maybe a year, at most. But he's almost always by Kartiel's side, and we've-we've heard that he's a worshipper of the fallen." She took another deep breath. "It's always been theorized that dark magic corrupts the souls of its users, but no one...no one's ever confirmed it."

At this last comment, the sob finally lodged itself free. Cass leaned into Aspen, her best friend holding her as tight as she possibly could. She buried her face in Aspen's chest as her own heaved with heavy sobs. She was so tired of being someone to fear for reasons that were entirely out of control. She just wanted to be back in the comfort of her house, or the safety of the jeep, or the safety of Aspen's house - she wanted to be anywhere but here.

The warmth intensified. The room became stifflingly hot, and Cass could hear what sounded like miniature waves crashing into the sides of the fountain. And the waves suddenly fell back into silence, and the room cooled as it returned to its original temperature. She just barely heard Lira getting up over the sound of her sobs. "I'm going to try finding some clothes that might fit you two," Lira said, "clothes that match what people tend to wear in Rey."

Then she was gone from the room, her footsteps echoing out in the hallway. Cass knew that the need for the clothes wasn't that desperate - Lira just wanted an escape from the awkwardness of seeing a stranger cry.

And Cass, who didn't want a stranger to see her cry, was perfectly fine with being left with Aspen.