MesonHill’s Anem

Chapter 10: Research is key

The next morning, Celeste woke to the beams of sunlight that peaked through the curtains as they blinded her gently. She rolled off of the sofa bed and drew open the curtains to the balcony, letting light flood the room. The girls were still in bed and not a whisper of noise came from next door, so she took herself out onto the balcony to sit at the small patio table.

To her delightful surprise, Axel was sat out on the balcony to the left.

"Morning, lovely." He said, whilst shielding his eyes from the sun with his forearm.

"Morning. Sleep well?" Celeste asked with a sweet smile.

"Alright, I suppose. Did you know Beck snores? That kept me up for a bit." He gave a weak laugh, but it was clear to Celeste that he hadn't slept a wink.

They prattled on to each other for the early part of the morning and watch the sunrise higher in the sky as they waited for the remainder of the group to wake up from their slumber. After the late riser, River, had knocked on their door to alert them that he was awake, it was then time for them to go down to the restaurant for some breakfast.

Celeste hurried through to the boys' room to find an outfit to wear for the day. She picked out some pale-blue denim shorts and a white, cropped, off-the-shoulder top. She matched this with the white pumps that she had worn the day before and, finally, braided her hair into Dutch plaits.

At breakfast, the conversation had shifted from how great their holiday had been so far, to talking about the Zirkyan stone - much to Celeste's approval.

"I'm sure you have, Cely, but have you properly looked into where the stone is?" Asked Beck.

Celeste was a little hurt that Beck hadn't put his full trust into her, but, then again, they had only known each other for a few months. And, in that short amount of time, one of the many things that she had learnt about Beck was that he trusted very few people, so she didn't take it greatly to offence.

"Yeah, I know exactly where it is. I've read several books and they all point to the same place. I've actually brought some with me." She replied. Fawn looked at Celeste with an impressed expression.

"I read those, too. In the one I was reading, there was a bit where it said a beast guarded the stone. It said it was in a building called something like the Beatdeces, right?" Fawn relayed the details of the book she had read. Celeste felt rather proud of herself for being able to encourage Fawn to read about Zirkyan magic.

"Yeah, she's right, it's a museum. Well, technically, it's called the Bêtedécès museum. We don't speak French, though, so I can see how you could so easily get that wrong." Celeste said, correcting Fawn on her minor slip up.

"So what's yeh plan for gettin' it, then?" Asked River.

He wasn't quite as up to date on the history of Zirkyan magic as the rest of the group. After all, even Celeste only knew as much about it as was in the books she read. They only told you how the magic came to be and how the Victorian's managed to accidentally harness it to create a power source. The rest was left up to the imagination. Unless, that was, if they could venture further afield to other libraries, both in Britain and abroad.

"Well, we should go check it out first and see where the stone actually is. Then we need to monitor the guards' shifts and the opening hours of the Museum. At the least, we need to check for cameras." Axel said, having suddenly perked up and given quite a detailed plan of execution.

"Ax, that's actually exactly what we need to do. You speak like you've done something like this before!" Celeste laughed at how sinister Axel was acting, at that moment.

"How do you know I haven't, love?" He tried to act serious, but his tone soon changed as he said "nope. I'm not about that life. That's more like something Jaxon or Aria would do!" He laughed, but Aria didn't find it amusing.

Her nostrils began to flare and another situation like in the canteen all those weeks ago looked like it was about to happen again. She leaned forward in her chair, closing the distance between them across the table. Then, in a firm whisper, she said "Just because I am in the Garnet team, does not mean I am anything like we are stereotyped to be! So, please, shut your mouth, before I do it myself! And, I really doubt you'd want to make such a scene in a lovely restaurant like this." Her face was becoming slightly red, but as she leaned back in her chair, she took a deep breath and appeared to have calmed slightly.

"Just think yourself lucky that we're not at MesonHill, or I would have dragged you across this table." Aria crossed her arms and looked away from Axel.

River leaned over to Fawn, and whispered: "Is she like this all't time?" To which, she nodded, and replied: "yes, recently." Celeste and Beck exchanged concerned looks, worried that Axel could bite back at any moment. But, luckily for everyone in the restaurant, he didn't.

...

After breakfast, the group went to the hotel snack bar to further discuss the plan to find the stone. The snack bar sat under a little canopy in the hotel grounds with several tables that faced out to sea.

As they were sat, a French couple, on the table next to them, started to glance over at the group. At first, Celeste didn't take much notice of them, but it got to a point where they were practically staring, mid-conversation. It was hard to understand what they were saying about them, but Celeste had definitely heard the word 'Anem'.

She wasn't aware that the word had spread internationally. She had only ever read about the magical history of England, so she never, even for a moment, considered that people would want to bring magic back to other countries.

"Did you guys hear that?" Asked Celeste. There were several puzzled faces, at the table, as clearly nobody else had overheard the French couple's conversation.

"That couple just said something about Anems." She said, pointing over to the man and woman.

"What? You're joking! They're talking smack about us!" Axel snapped, becoming quite distressed. He stood, unexpectedly, from the table and started towards the French couple.

"Excuse me, do you speak English?" He tried to be as polite as possible, but his voice came across as quite stern. The woman, whose black hair curled round to her glistening dark skin, looked shocked at Axel's tone, but the silver-haired, pale-faced man remained calm.

"Oui, I speak English, but my wife does not." The man exclaimed. His French accent was very strong, but his words could be understood.

"What were you saying about Anems?" Axel questioned. The man flitted his eyes to his wife, who clearly understood the single word when she raised her brows at her husband.

"We were saying that you must be Anems. Your friend. She looks like one." He pointed to Celeste.

Axel was becoming increasingly more annoyed with the man, so Celeste decided to go over to him, in an attempt to help him calm down. She wrapped her hand around his bicep and he flinched slightly at her touch, at first, but he soon relaxed and allowed Celeste to take the lead in the conversation.

"What does an Anem look like, specifically?" She asked. The man was quite shocked that she wasn't aware of what her kind looked like.

"You are very beautiful." Axel's arm tensed under Celeste's fingers. "It is something very few people 'ave. You 'ave this - 'ow do you say?- an aura of elegance. It interests people. That is why people start to listen to you. Each Anem 'as a most intriguing aspect. Your eyes. They are very green. Trés verte!"

The man had explained something that Celeste had never heard of before. She let go of Axel's arm, who appeared to be as shocked as she was, as they both shared a confused glance.

"Your friend. The boy." The man continued, pointing towards Axel. "'E sees this aura. 'E is intrigued."

Celeste looked up at Axel, who was looking back down at her, but she couldn't quite read his expression.

"My wife. She is like you." The man said. Celeste looked at his wife. Her most special aspect must have been her hair. It was the first thing that Celeste had noticed about her, at first glance. She gave her a small smile, which was kindly returned.

"Are you 'ere to find the stone?" He asked.

Nobody knew whether to deny or admit that they were, so they remained silent. The man broke the silence, eventually, much to everyone's delight.

"If you are, you should know that many people come 'ere to find the stone. Experts from all around the world, but nobody 'as ever removed it from that museum. I wish you and your friends good luck!" He said.

Celeste could feel the lump in her throat starting to grow. Did this mean that their trip was a waste? If Anems from all over the world couldn't get the stone, then how could a group of teenagers from Yorkshire take it?

"So sorry, we must be going. We 'ave to pack our things. We are going 'ome today. Enjoy the rest of your trip!" The man said as he and his wife stood from their table.

"Thank you. Have a safe journey." Celeste replied.

After they left, the atmosphere was tense. Celeste and Axel had gone to sit back down, but they stared at the table, barely shifting their gaze when Fawn started to speak.

"Hey, what he said might not be true," Fawn said, trying to be optimistic about the situation.

"It has to be!" Aria yelled. "For crying out loud, look at her! Her eyes - just like he said. No wonder you were all so infatuated by her, the moment you met her. It was all a gift. Then, if that's true, what he said about not getting the stone will be too."

Aria had instantly slammed Fawn's optimistic comment and anger started to rise from Celeste's gut, forming burning bile in her throat. Celeste had stood for enough of Aria's nonsense and had finally hit her breaking point, choosing that exact moment to burst into a fit of rage.

"Aria, why are you like this? Do you think that belittling me is going to make you look any better? Yeah, sure, maybe at first sight they all liked me because of my 'so-called aura', but so what? They've stuck around after, and have gotten to know me, and are still here! And, as for the stone, I don't care if it's not there. I don't care if we can't get it out. I would just hate to have been given an opportunity to finally do something worthy of all of my efforts and not have tried to do anything about it. We all know you didn't come here for the stone anyway, so you can just stay at the hotel, and the same goes for anyone else who doesn't want to come, anymore! But, I sure as hell am going to that museum and I will try my hardest to get that stone, even if it kills me!"

After her outburst, she sat back in her chair and tried to catch her breath. The whole group was now staring at Celeste in complete awe. Aria didn't say anything in response, she just sat with an angry look on her face, in silence.

"I'm going for a walk. If anyone wants to come, you can but I need to clear my head." Celeste said, and she stormed away from the snack bar, and towards the reception. Axel jumped to his feet, without processing what had just happened, and followed her, whilst the others remained at the table in silence.

As they exited the hotel, Axel jogged to catch up with Celeste. He walked beside her sheepishly, trying to conjure up a sentence that might make her feel better.

"I'm sorry." He said. Celeste jolted her head to look at him, in shock.

"What are you sorry for?" She laughed. Why was Axel apologising for Celeste's outburst?

"I just- I - I don't want it to seem like we only like you because of your aura. I need you to know that we like you - I like you for the person you are, not the person your aura shows you to be." He was stumbling on his words, as he spoke. This was not usual for Axel. He appeared to be nervous, in a way.

Celeste gave a great smile to him, as he had just made her feel a hundred times better than she did before. She pulled him into a hug, that lasted for several minutes and she started to cry onto his chest.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked in a whisper. He lifted her head to face his and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"It's just Aria. She infuriates me. I don't know why she has that effect on me, but she does. I couldn't help myself. I made myself look like such an i***t in front of the group!" She was running out of breath between sobs.

"Don't say that! You made yourself look strong. Aria has needed to be put in her place for a long time, and you were the only one strong enough to do it. Besides, the rest of the group love you and you flipping out once isn't going to change that." She smiled at his kind words and stayed in his embrace until she had calmed.

When she had, they ventured back inside the hotel. Instead of returning to the group, they went straight up to the girls' room, so that Celeste could tidy herself up, before facing them again later.