Gifts of Elysielle - Inner Origins Book Three

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I stalked out of the changing room. Amber and Claire were nowhere to be seen, so I continued through the quiet store past the racks of diaphanous, gauzy material and exited into the street.

Yet again, I was struck by the alien visual cacophony of the city. Every building was uniquely carved and bedazzled, like some ball-room dancer had gotten her hands on an award-winning architect’s designs at the last minute. No two buildings were alike, nothing matched, and yet somehow everything complemented each other. The city was like a giant fractal – when you approached it from far away it presented a collage masterpiece of color and aesthetic design, but the closer you got to it, the more detail you found. Within each facet, you would find twelve more intricacies. It was like a giant Gaudí installation, but infinitely more complex. In fact, my grandmother had informed me just the other day that Gaudí had been part fae, too, although he had never been to Elysielle. I guess some things were just in the blood.

Tearing my eyes away from the red and purple balconies shimmering in the warm rosy sunlight, I turned to see my friends waving at me from an outdoor café down the street.

I rushed to join them, just barely avoiding being jostled by a troupe of street performers. Amused by the group’s antics, I turned and walked backwards a few steps, watching them retreat from view.

“Hey, watch it!” A thin, reedy voice rasped at me. I spun around to just miss stepping into a boy’s lap where he sat cross-legged on the stones drawing with chalk. All my training kicked in and I vaulted over him instead. Of course, that meant that now my hands were covered in chalk, and I’d messed up part of his drawing.

“Look what you did!”

“Oh, man, wow, I’m really sorry. I totally didn’t see you there.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of obvious,” he muttered petulantly. “Now I’m going to have to fix that whole section.”

He waved his hand and we both surveyed the damage. He’d managed to draw an incredibly realistic 3D view of a rock well, complete with a massive opening showing the moon and the starry night sky I’d always taken for granted. Looking at it, you felt like you would fall straight into the sky.

“This is amazing,” I said, kneeling down beside him. The boy seemed near my age, maybe just a year or two younger. His dark skin was clear and glistening, warmed from mahogany to a mulberry hue under the Aeden sun, making his azure eyes stand out in stark contrast like heat lighting in a midnight sky. Long, thin dreads twisted on top of his head in a wild, messy knot secured by several colored pencils. “The moon looks just right. But what are these constellations, here and here?”

“I don’t know, I just copied them from some of the Ancient star charts, see?” He held out a couple pages for me to look at, seeming torn halfway between distrust and curiosity. “But how would you know if I got the moon right, anyway?”

“Well, I’ve seen it enough times to know, I think. I grew up above below. This is actually my first time in Elysielle.” I stuck out my hand. “Siri Alvarsson.”

“Brenin Mirro. Are you really from topside?”

“Yeah,” I smiled.

“That is so cool. All the things you must have seen. I wish I could travel above below, but my mom says no way.”

“There’s a lot to see, but it’s not so different, not really. Besides, your mom’s right. Things aren’t going so great right now for us up there. Wait a couple years before you try to travel, hopefully by then everything will have worked itself out.”

I didn’t want to crush his hopes, but honestly, there might not even be a world to travel to in a few months. Who could say? He seemed like a nice kid. I was glad his mom was keeping him out of trouble.

“Huh. Yeah, well, thanks for the chat, but I still have a lot of work to do on this before it’s done,” he dismissed me in a huff and turned back to his art.

“Well, hey, look, I feel really bad about messing up your piece. Why don’t you take a break and come hang out with me and my friends for a while, get hydrated before you get back to work? We’ve all been topside, you can ask us whatever you want.”

“Really?” His eyes lit up as he tilted his head to the side, considering.

“Yes, really. You know what, I even have my phone on me, you can check out the pictures I have stored up on it. They should give you some good art ideas.” I stood up and held out a hand to help him up.

“You’re an artist? You have paintings of Midgard?” He accepted my hand and rose, dusting himself off. Standing, I could see he wasn’t much taller than me, and wearing loose clothes and pants that were just a little short for his gangly frame. Maybe he was even younger than I thought, since he was obviously still growing.

“Ugh, no,” I laughed. “I draw a bit, but I’m no artist. Don’t worry, what I have is even better. Come on.” I linked my arm in his and dragged him over to Amber and Claire, who’d been watching the whole exchange with amused grins.

“Hey guys. This is Brenin. He’s an artist, and I’ve promised him we can answer all his questions about the world above. Brenin, this is Claire and Amber.”

Amber smiled and eyed him over her menu, while Claire patted the seat next to her. “Here, Brenin, have a seat.”

“Okay, yeah, thanks.” He looked around at us all in awe. “So you’ve all been to Midgard? Is that really true?”

“Yes,” Claire answered. “This is actually my first time in Aeden, and Siri’s second. Amber’s a Light Guard, so she comes and goes all the time.”

Brenin’s eyes got round. “No way. You guys are messing with me. No way you’re a Light Guard!”

Amber dropped her smile and leaned forward menacingly. “You wanna test that theory? You think I’m what, too small? Maybe too girly?”

I punched Amber in the shoulder. “Cut it out, Amb. He’s just a kid.” I turned to Brenin. “Amber’s definitely a Light Guard. You might have heard of her uncle, Mitch Slaight?”

Brenin paled and looked quickly back at Amber.

“Yeah,” she laughed. “You might want to choose your next words more carefully.”

“I’m sorry, I just thought…I’ve never met anyone who’s been above below, and now I’m meeting three of you? It’s just a little hard to believe.”

Amber narrowed her eyes at him.

“But I do! I believe you! Geez. You guys really know how to make a guy nervous, you know that?”

We all cracked up and Brenin smiled at us sheepishly. Amber waved the waiter over and ordered a tasting round of all their best juices and a giant sampler platter of fatishchets, an Elysielle specialty that reminded me of sweetened spring rolls.

“So, shoot,” I said after the waiter had left. “Ask me anything you want to know.”

“Are the plants really green up there? And does the rain really turn to white, fluffy ice? And what about the humans? What are they like? My friend Kylis says he heard that they are all really dangerous and wild, like monsters, and that’s really why we’re not allowed up there. He says that’s why fae-human hybrids have pointy ears and funny hair sometimes. He says they’re like animals.”

“Wow, really? That is so not true! You can tell your friend Kylis that humans look just like us.” I told him, thinking of Alec and understanding a little more of the kind of teasing he must have endured as a kid in Valhalla “In fact, from what I know, most fae have human DNA in them. Some have a little more, and it can cause some funny traits to pop up, but no one’s an animal or a monster. But yeah, humans do fight sometimes. Just like how the Light fights the Dark – there are good guys and bad guys, and of course everyone thinks their side is the good side.”

“Huh.” Brenin chewed on his lip, mulling that over while I continued.

“The sun is yellow and the grass is green in Midgard, most plants are, at least their leaves anyways. Except in places where it gets cold and snows. We call that winter, when the water turns to ice and snow. That’s when the leaves turn orange and yellow and drop off the trees.”

“The trees die every winter?” Brenin looked horrified.

“No, no, they just sleep.” Claire said kindly, “Spring is beautiful. Everything wakes up again and the trees get covered in bright green leaves and flowers. It’s my favorite season. We have flowers that only bloom for a few weeks in the spring.”

“I heard about that, too, how you guys have sessions.”

“Not sessions, seasons,” Amber laughed.

Brenin blushed and I explained. “In the fall, some places get colder and the leaves fall off the trees. In winter, everything is quiet and cold and snowy. In spring, farmers plant their crops and nature wakes up again. In summer, it gets hot like here, and everyone goes to the beach and plays outside a lot. And then the farmers harvest their crops and it’s fall again. That’s how the seasons work. Unless you live in one of the places on the equator, where it’s more like here, hot all the time.”

“I’d love to see all that,” Brenin said wistfully. “I draw from copies of old books we have at the library here, but it’s not the same. And I never know if I’m copying something that another artist made up, or if it’s really accurate.”

“Oh, hey, that reminds me!” I pulled out my phone and scrolled through to the photos gallery. Even though there was no signal down in Aeden, I still carried it around so I could listen to my music. Now, I thanked the gods that I wasn’t into taking selfies. Most of the photos were of architecture and places I’d hiked, trained or snowboarded.

I showed him the phone. “I told you I had pictures. Check these out. Just use your finger to swipe through the photo gallery.”

I didn’t think it was possible, but the kid’s eyes got even bigger. He tucked himself back in his seat, poring over the images.

The girls and I eyed each other, trying not to laugh. Claire shook her head and sighed, reaching into her bag.

“When you finish up with that one, you can look at mine, too.”

“Sure, thanks,” he said absently. I wondered if he’d even heard what she said, so complete was his absorption in the device.

The fatishchets arrived and the girls and I tucked into the food. Shopping made me ravenous, even more than training. Must have had something to do with the stress, I thought to myself and shrugged. The waiter came back and placed glass flights in front of us with four small glasses each, all containing different juices. After being in Aeden, I could see where my mom had gotten her preoccupation with fresh juice from. It was so totally genetic. Now I found myself craving juice regularly, whether they were sweet and fruity or iron-rich leafy purple smoothies.

I took a small sip of each juice in my flight, and settled on my favorite combo, a brilliant azure concoction of berries and cala. The grass had a sweet, almost vanilla taste to it, and always amped me up for the rest of the day. So much, in fact, I had to be careful not to have any after lunchtime, or I’d never fall asleep that night. I knew the girls planned to get back to shopping soon, though, so I eyed the tiny glass and wondered if I should order more to see me through the afternoon.

Finally, Brenin looked up from my phone. “These are amazing. Claire, can I see yours now?”

“Sure thing,” she smiled, and tossed him her phone. He nodded his thanks, catching the phone and grabbing a couple fatishchets to munch on while he scrolled through the pictures. While we ate, Amber and Claire started discussing where we should go next.

After a while, Brenin looked up from the phone. “Who are all the men in these photos? Are these all fae who live above? They all look fae.”

Claire turned bright red. “Oh! No, um, those are just, you know, random guys.”

“You mean they’re humans?”

“Mostly, yeah,” she nodded, tucking her short curly hair behind her ears. I swear, her cheeks were redder than the brilliant crimson streaks lightening her brunette locks.

I leaned in and gave Brenin my best stage whisper. “Claire’s got a thing for hot guys. She likes to stalk them and take their photos.”

“I do not!” she protested loudly. Several of the other diners looked our way and she leaned across the table.

“I do not,” she hissed.

Brenin leaned back and quirked an eyebrow, holding up the phone so we all could see the picture. A handsome blonde sunburned tourist was inspecting the goods at a market stall back in Egypt. The shot was clearly taken without the guy’s knowledge.

“Well, fine, that one, but-”

Brenin’s other eyebrow shot up to match the first as he scrolled back and held up another shot of a tight group of sun-kissed Middle Eastern soccer players horsing around.

“Oh come on, I was covering that game for the school paper-”

Brenin’s smile broke out in full force and he flipped past a couple more pictures, showing us a handsome student in winter dress, standing in the Long Room at Trinity’s library studying a book. Amber and I lost it, cracking up loudly.

“That was just a couple of weeks ago!” I pointed at Claire while I cackled. “You haven’t changed a bit! You are so totally boy crazy.”

“I am not,” Claire sniffed and put her chin in the air. “I just appreciate a fine form, that’s all.”

Amber and I laughed even harder, Brenin joining in loudly.

“Wow,” he said, gasping for breath, “I thought my sister was bad, she draws the same guy all the time, but this totally has her beat!”

“Oh, shut up,” Claire huffed. “What are you, like fourteen? What would you know?”

“I just turned sixteen, thank you very much. And I know more than you think,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at her.

“I, I…Whatever. I think I need to use the bathroom.” Claire got up and rushed into the building, no doubt to cool her cheeks while the rest of us dissolved into another fit of giggles.