Remarkable

Chapter 6

I instantly felt the jerking, whirling feeling I had felt the last time Dayton had taken me to Lyria and wondered why I hadn't felt that way when I had transported myself accidentally into my bedroom minutes before. When I opened my eyes, which were forced shut during the transition, I looked around the room and tried to suppress the nausea that overcame my senses. There were 3 new faces in Keeper Mercer's living room now. The one in the middle had very kind eyes and a small smile. The one on my left was almost glaring at me, blue eyes narrowed and jaw clenched. The one on my right simply stared curiously. I believed it was safe to assume that the face on my right belonged to Profit Lancaster, as it was the only face belonging to a man. I remembered that Keeper Mercer had told me a few minutes previously that the profit was the oldest member of the council. By the looks of him, he seemed likely to be the oldest member of Lyria itself, or perhaps the entire world. Somehow, though, his eyes seemed to work much better than Keeper Mercer's. They were beady and round, and the closest to black I had ever seen as far as eyes are concerned, but they seemed gentle all the same. The profit tore his eyes from me after what seemed like several minutes as he slowly looked at Dayton. His wrinkly skin was rather tan, so tan that I figured he was of some type of Middle Eastern descent. He had absolutely no hair and his eyebrows, or what was left of them, were wispy and stark white.

"Mr. Dayton. How have you been?" he said casually, as though he just ran into him and wasn't at all expecting to see or speak to him.

"Um, fine. How are you, Profit?" said Dayton, looking as confused as I felt.

Dayton extended his hand and half-bowed as he greeted Lancaster, and the profit responded rather vigorously for his age, shaking Dayton's hand with both of his and stepping in closer to both of us.

"And, your friend here, Angelina... She has caused quite a ripple of excitement already." Landcaster said, again shifting his eyes back to mine.

I wasn't sure how to respond, so I bowed, again in imitation of Dayton and in understanding that this was how Council Members were properly greeted. The profit raised his wispy eyebrows in shock, just as the Commander had earlier.

"Hello." I said rather meekly.

"She doesn't look extraordinary..." said the girl on my left as she crossed her arms and continued to glare at me.

Everyone in the room looked at the girl with the same expression of shock and incredulity.

"Annemarie!" said the girl beside her with the kind eyes as she recoiled slightly.

"Don't be rude!"

"What?" said Annemarie shrugging.

"Everyone was thinking it. I just said it first."

"While she has extraordinary ability, Miss Barnes, it is our actions that make us extraordinary people. You would do well to remember that." said Keeper Mercer as he crossed the strange circle we were in and slung a skinny arm around my shoulder.

"Miss Sanchez, this is Annemarie and Lylah. They are apprentices of Designator Spencer. They are going to escort you to your living quarters to settle in before you meet the other 4 members of the Council." said Mercer with a kind smile.

"Hi!" said Lylah enthusiastically, waving and beaming at me.

"You'll learn very quickly to ignore Annemarie." she said with a wink and another wide smile.

Everyone chuckled, except Annemarie, who just rolled her eyes and shifted her weight impatiently.

"It's very nice to meet you, Angelina." said Profit Lancaster, as though picking up right where we had left off when I had awkwardly bowed to him.

"You too." I said simply with a small smile.

"See you soon." said Dayton, his eyes tightening as he gave me a small nod, as though to silently say 'everything will be okay'.

I nodded in return and smiled at him.

"Goodbye, Keeper Mercer. Goodbye, Commander. Goodbye Profit." Annemarie said with a small bow to each Council Member as she said their names.

Lylah bowed to each member in unison with Annemarie and then turned to me expectantly. I bowed to each one of them and said goodbye, and then followed the two women out of the room.

Lylah, the kind one, was a couple of inches shorter than me with smooth, pale skin, long jet black hair that was neatly separated into 2 braids and almond-shaped eyes whose irises were deep, dark brown. She reminded me of my friend from middle school, Karen Woo. Annemarie was about 3 inches taller than me with fair skin, a large nose and a round-shaped face. Her hair was dyed a dark auburn color, but her light brown eyebrows gave away her natural color. She walked slowly and heavily, with a slight hunch in her shoulders. I couldn't tell if it was due to posture issues or her unexplained yet obvious dislike of who she was with.

We took the elevator to the ground floor and exited the building in silence while about a thousand questions popped into my mind. My mind remained ocupied by the most prominent ones as we made our way down the cobblestone street past several other unmarked buildings in what seemed to be the perfect weather. Can all Rems travel in that swirly, nearly instant way Dayton had brought me here, and if so, why are we bothering to walk? What exactly do apprentices of the designator do? Are they going to show me how to use my powers? What are their powers? What is Designator Spencer like? Do I have to immediately move in if I decide to take on this world as my own? Is any of this actually real, or did I perhaps fall asleep at the wheel on the way to my interview at the Law Firm office? And lastly, what could Annemarie possibly know about me that would cause her to dislike me this much already? I just met her like 5 seconds ago.

Both girls turned left almost robotically about 3 blocks from Keeper Mercer's building and walked through the door of a dark pink building that looked to be about 6 stories tall. I followed them through a room that looked like a hotel lobby and down a marble floored hallway to another elevator. Lylah pushed the button labeled Roof and gave me another kind smile as she folded her hands together and rested them on her waiste. It appeared Annemarie had decided to ignore me altogether, which I was perfectly fine with. She was in the far corner of the elevator looking in every direction but mine. They were both wearing what looked like a mix of hospital scrubs and sweat suits that were navy blue with black tennis shoes. I wondered why we were headed to the roof and feared they were going to somehow test my powers. I had no idea how to control them, so I was hoping that was not the case.

After what seemed like the longest minute of my life, the elevator dinged and we stepped out into another marble floored hallway that seemed to run the length of the building. Lylah headed straight across it to the door on the opposite side, while Annemarie took a right and made a beeline for the first closed door on her left.

"Ann?" Lylah asked when she realized this.

Annemarie paused with her hand on the doorknob to shoot an annoyed looking glance at Lylah before answering.

"My orders were to escort her back here. You can do the rest."

She opened the door and nearly slammed it behind her as Lylah and I watched in puzzled silence. Then Lylah rolled her eyes and opened the door we had been standing in front of, stepped outside, and leaned her weight against it to hold it open while gesturing for me to join her with her right hand held palm up, waiting for me to oblige.