The Seal of Oblivion (5 page)

“But how’d you know the accent?”

“I’ve been to Japan a few times.”

The loud clanging of an ax breaking
the old lock got their attention, and they turned to see Isis taking the chains
off the door.

“Come on. I know where they’re at,”
Isis said opening the gates to let them in. The gates squeaked loudly,
terrifying an already jittery Sakura.

“Adria,” Laqiya yelled as soon as
she was past the gates.

“Laqiya,” Adria yelled back.

“Keep talking!” Isis yelled.

“No don’t! You’ll disturb the
dead,” Sakura yelled trying to be careful not to step on any graves as they
went further into the cemetery.

Adria appeared in front of them
grasping Laqiya’s arms. Sakura covered her mouth with her hand to muffle her
scream and even Laqiya couldn’t help crying out.

“Are you crazy?” Isis snapped
looking like she wanted to scream herself.

“Sorry!” Adria replied.

“What happened to your hand?”
Laqiya asked seeing the blood on the other girl’s fingertips.

“I’m fine. I just put up one hell of
a fight is all,” Adria said. “They got a little too touchy.”

“Sure.
Whatever.
Let’s go before something bad really happens,” Laqiya said trying to pull Adria
back the way they came.

Adria shook her head. “They’re
still here.”

“Where?”
Isis asked.

“Listen,” Nightshield said shushing
them all.

Three thin twisters dropped out of
thin air. Thorns and rose petals spun in them for only a second before
dispersing to reveal three young men. Beyond that, any other distinguishing
qualities were hidden by the darkness, but Laqiya had the distinct feeling she
knew them.

“Who are you?” Isis asked
uncertain.

“So ungentlemanly
of us.
I’m Kailash. This is Delsaream and…”

“I’m Aurian,” Aurian disappeared
and reappeared in front of Laqiya. “We’re the Anaxars.
Pleasure
to meet your acquaintance… again for some of you.”

He lifted Laqiya’s hand and brought
it to his mouth, but his lips lingered to long, his thumb caressing her hand a
little too intimately…

Laqiya snatched her hand from him
and smacked him, the sound of it shattering the ominous silence only for the
silence to return even more ominous.

“I see the feeling’s not mutual,”
Aurian said with a smile, but not the welcoming kind. It was the intimidating,
angry kind.

“I can’t believe you all followed
me,” Laqiya snapped.

“Get away from him,” Nightshield
said snatching Laqiya away.

“What’s going on?” Sakura asked.

“They’re stalkers is what. My
mother’s been trying to get a restraining on them for years,” Laqiya explained.

“In case you haven’t noticed by
now, they’re more than stalkers Laqiya,” Nightshield said still holding Laqiya
a safe distance away.

“And I thought there was chemistry
between us,” Aurian said pouting.

“Don’t be so upset Aurian. She’s
just feisty like all cubs. She’ll grow out of it. Besides, don’t you think
she’s a little young for you? Pretty flowers like her are always best when they
fully blossom,” Delsaream said. “But remember, we have a mission. The Tyrant
sent us.”

“Not really the Tyrant
mind
you. He’s still locked up in oblivion. But Sahajah said
to pass it along to the White Rose, and we guess that’s you,” Kailash said.

“How do they know that?” Laqiya
asked Nightshield. “I just found that out.”

Nightshield shrugged opening and
closing her mouth several times before saying, “I don’t know.”

She was lying. Laqiya had known
Nightshield long enough to know that.

“Of course the Tyrant knows. He
always knew,” Aurian said. “Anyway, he doesn’t need you in his way.”

“I’m not really trying to,” Laqiya
said grabbing Adria’s arm and backing away. “I’m here to get my friend.”

“You can have her,” Kailash said.
“She’s not ripe yet anyway. You got the message.”

“And so you’ll leave her alone just
like that?” Nightshield asked.

“You don’t want to pick a fight with
us Nightshield. You couldn’t defeat us before,” Delsaream informed. “Besides we
only needed to pass the message. Got it?”

Sakura pushed Laqiya aside. “Well
you can give this Sahajah person a message for me for making you drag us out
here on Halloween!”

She thrust her hands forward. The
Anaxars disappeared, but an invisible force hit the trees behind them and
knocked them down along with a couple of tombstones.

“Sorry about that,” Sakura said to
the graves she had disturbed.

“So you were making that glass
levitate earlier?” Laqiya asked. “You didn’t want me to see you.”

Sakura nodded.
“Been
doing simple stuff since I was six.”

“Scatter,” Nightshield yelled
pushing Laqiya out the way causing her to fall to the ground.

Large gushes of water burst from
random places on the ground, so powerful they threw tombstones into the air.
When the earth closed back up, Laqiya got up and brushed herself off.

“What was that?” Sakura asked.

“Isis move,” Adria yelled as a
large fallen branch was thrown her way.

Isis flipped into the air, so that
the log passed under her, and then landed smoothly on top of a tombstone.

“Nice moves. You’re very flexible,”
Delsaream said to Isis as he and his comrades reappeared.

“Wind,” Adria yelled.

Harsh winds tore through the area
the three men stood in, but they weren’t affected. Something around them was
protecting them. It was Aurian. He had his hand up and was creating a type of
invisible dome.

“He’s got the same power as me,”
said Sakura.

“Good try. But let us show you real
power,” Auria said.

“Water!”

“Earth!”

“Mind!”

A long stream of muddy water and
vines shot up from the ground. They began to wind like rope and shot towards
Laqiya. Laqiya closed her eyes and opened them again half a second later, amber
eyes seeming to glow with power.

“Fire,” she said and an equally
powerful stream of hot flames came from her hands and engulfed the rope.

The water dissolved becoming steam
and the remaining burnt earth fell to the ground lighting the grass aflame.

Adria waved her hand and the wind
blew out the remaining flames.

“Lucky shot,” Kailash muttered.
“Bet you’ll need your staff to do it again.”

Laqiya shrugged saying, “Maybe I’ll
get lucky again.”

“Wish we had the same luck as you,”
Aurian said. “But we shall see.”

The three men disappeared with that
said. But then Delsaream added, “And call this a present,” and a tree uprooted
from the ground and flew toward Laqiya.

“Move,” Nightshield said too late.
There was no way Laqiya could completely avoid the tree. But as she was about
to get hit with the tree, it shattered like glass, pieces of wood raining
around them.

“What was that?” Sakura asked.

Laqiya looked down at her feet. A
feather stuck out one of the wooden pieces, but it was sharp and stiff.

“Don’t make me have to use one of those
again. Those are my special feathers. I only have a few.”

A woman stepped out the shadows. It
was Chasity, the woman they had met earlier, except she had white wings and
feathers mixed in her neat hair. Sensing her unease, Laqiya turned to
Nightshield, who was looking at Chasity with a pensive expression.

Nightshield then sucked in a
breath .“
I knew you looked familiar. Chasity Pearl,” she
hissed.

“Your memory must be getting slow
Nighty,” said the woman dryly. “You didn’t even recognize me. Maybe you should
take a break from being flower girl’s guardian.”

Nightshield glared. “At least I’m
not a pet,” she shot back.

Instead of replying, Chasity Pearl
looked at Adria.

Laqiya looked between the two as
realization dawned on her, and then said to Adria, “You do know her right?”

“No.”

“Yes you do.” Chasity Pearl then
made a hooting like noise.

“Dove?”

Chasity Pearl scowled. “Just
letting you know I hate that name.”

Laqiya grinned at Adria, who only
smiled a little. Laqiya then turned to Sakura who was tapping her shoulder.

“Okay Laqiya. This is really cool,
and I want an explanation, but I would like to get out of this cemetery. It’s
really starting to
creep
me out.”

To Sakura’s relief everyone filed
out of the graveyard and headed back to Laqiya’s house. Laqiya sighed when she
got a good look at the yard after turning on the porch light.

“This place is a mess,” she said
sighing.

“Well, at least we can chalk it up
to Halloween pranks,” Sakura replied. “And it’s past ten thirty. So no more
pranks for the night… unless those Anaxars come back.”

“They won’t,” Laqiya assured with
certainty. “Not tonight anyway. But we should get inside the house just in
case.”

Nightshield held Laqiya back as the
others went in. They both exchanged a look, informing each other of what they
both suspected.

“You sense it now too?” Nightshield
asked.

Laqiya didn’t want to answer. To
answer Nightshield honestly now would be to admit that on some level, she agree
with the woman about all of this, and she had a feeling that’s what Nightshield
was hoping for.

She looked at Nightshield.
Nightshield raised an eyebrow. Laqiya nodded.

Chapter
Four

The
First Staff Piece

Laqiya started to sketch on a blank
page in her sketchbook deciding to take a break from her grueling social studies
homework. She stared out her open window as she drew absentmindedly, her mind
wandering to the movies that were playing in theater.

 
A shift in the wind… Someone else was in her
room.

“Laqiya,” Nightshield said.

Laqiya jumped, so violently that
she fell out the chair at her desk.

Nightshield laughed. Laqiya glared,
amber eyes aflame with anger and annoyance.

“Sorry,” Nightshield purred. “I
didn’t mean to scare you. It was an accident.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Isis said
coming into the room. “She did the same thing to me, and I fell out of a tree
and broke my arm.”

“I was sitting there for five
minutes and then you turned around, saw me and jumped out of the tree in
shock,” said Nightshield. “It wasn’t my fault I scared you to death.”

“Not to death, but nearly.”

Nightshield shrugged, eyes
twinkling in amusement and a smile tugging at her lips as she left the room.
Laqiya rolled her eyes. One of these days, if Nightshield wasn’t careful, her
mother would catch Nightshield in her half-human form, and they would end up
having one heck of a time explaining that Nightshield was her guardian, and
Laqiya controlled the forces of nature.

“And that’s Nightshield for you,”
Laqiya muttered

“Always,” Chasity Pearl said
sitting in the tree outside the window.

“What are you doing here Chasity?”
Laqiya asked. Because Adria’s room was right across from hers and Chasity Pearl
liked to inhabit the tree between the two houses, Laqiya saw and talked to
Chasity Pearl quite often.
 
The bird
woman’s cynical and unenthusiastic nature took her by surprise but Chasity
Pearl grew on Laqiya, and though Chasity Pearl would never admit it, Laqiya
grew on her. But Chasity Pearl never spoke to her unless Laqiya was sitting
near the window.

“That’s cold Laqiya. Am I not
welcome here?”

“Chasity,” Isis said impatiently.

“Fine then, Adria told me to tell
you that Sakura is coming to pick you up and take you to her house. She wants
to maybe go to the theater or out for lunch downtown or something. She said
something about being bored and restless.” Chasity Pearl yawned.

“Tired?” Isis asked.

“Plainshield’s been keeping me up.”

“For what?” asked
Laqiya.
Chasity Pearl didn’t like Plainshield any more than
she liked Nightshield.

Chasity Pearl shrugged. “As much as
I love playing messenger, I must get back, and unfortunately, keep helping
Plainshield.”

“And that’s Chasity Pearl for you,”
Laqiya said when Chasity Pearl left. She put her things away and headed
downstairs

“Isis, Laqiya, where are you
going?” Miss Robins asked from the living room.

“Out,” they both said continuing
out the door where Adria waiting on the sidewalk patiently outside the house.

“Do you know what Chasity’s been up
to?” Laqiya asked after greeting her.

“With someone named Plainshield,”
Adria replied. “I don’t know who she is. What is she?
Another
half something human?”

“She’s Nightshield’s sister,”
Laqiya explained.

“Another one of
her.
Just perfect.”
Adria rolled her eyes.

It was common knowledge amongst
them that Nightshield didn’t like Adria and vise verse.

“Relax, she’s nothing like
Nightshield. She’s a bit jollier actually,” Laqiya assured the girl and then
added, “A little stranger too.”

Adria still looked unsure,
especially when Nightshield herself slipped onto Laqiya’s shoulder to go with
them.

“Nightshield, don’t start,” Laqiya
warned.

Nightshield purred as a limo pulled
up. Sakura wasn’t in it, but it was obviously for them to be taken to her
house.

When the window for privacy was up,
Nightshield transformed and sat next to Laqiya while shooting Adria a glare.

“Why are we going to Sakura’s
house?” Nightshield asked.

“She just wanted to hang out,” said
Adria.

“Wasn’t talking
to you.”

Laqiya nudged the woman in the arm
and Nightshield sighed, “Fine.”

Nightshield forgot to transform
back into a cat, confusing the driver when a woman he had not seen get in the
car got out. Laqiya smiled at him and ran up the path to ring the doorbell. An
older woman, Japanese, opened the door.
 
Laqiya started. This woman had to be Sakura’s grandmother, but she
didn’t look a day over forty.

“Um, Sakura
here?”
Laqiya asked and woman nodded.

“She upstairs,” she said with a
soft Japanese accent in broken English.

Laqiya nodded her head and the
elder woman bowed to her. Laqiya found it odd, but figured it was a cultural
thing. She shrugged and made her way up the stairs behind everyone else. Adria
was knocking on as door in the middle of the hall looking frustrated.

“Sakura, you invited us over here,
the least you could do is
be
ready when we got here,”
Adria shouted through the door.

A thud came out the room. It
sounded like Sakura had tripped over something.

“I’m trying, but my room’s a mess,”
Sakura shouted through the door.

“Then why can’t we go in your other
room?” Adria asked.

“She has two rooms?” asked
Nightshield.

“And Adria called me spoiled
because I have a kitchen,” said Laqiya.

“Sakura,” Adria sighed. Isis pushed
past the younger girl and opened the door.

Laqiya stepped back and wrinkled
her nose, while Nightshield tilted her head at the mess. Isis and Adria sighed
and began to step over the clutter.

“Sakura, you still haven’t cleaned
your room? It’s….” Isis paused looking for the right word, but found
herself
unable to find it.

“I know,” the girl whined.

Nightshield laughed dryly. “That’s
the understatement of the century. This room looks like it was the battlefield
for World War II.”

“I’m not exactly the most clean or
organized person,” Sakura admitted sheepishly

“Yeah, you’re the least,” said
Laqiya eyeing the mess. She cautiously stepped into the room. “How do you sleep
in here?”

“Heck, how do you live in here?”
Nightshield asked with her arms still crossed.

“You make it sound like it’s that
bad,” Sakura said rolling her eyes.

“IT IS!” everyone said
simultaneously.

“Okay,” Laqiya said. “Forget this. I
didn’t come to help you clean your room. Let’s just go somewhere.”

“If she could use her powers
better, she could clean this up in five minutes. Why not practice?” Nightshield
asked.

“No!” Laqiya said. “That’s not what
we came over here for. We’re going to the movies.”

“But you never practice.”

“What’s there to practice?” Laqiya
asked. She shook her head again. “Not today Night. You’ve already intruded on
my already not normal life enough as it is.”

“Hey,” Sakura asked.
“Just a question.
How do these powers work exactly?”

 
“What’s there to know? We have them. We have
to learn to use them,” Adria replied as she began folding clothes.

“Easy for you to
say.
You don’t need practice. It comes easy to you,” said Sakura

“Of course if comes easy to her.
Wind isn’t a power that’s generally hard to control. It’s a fickle force,”
Nightshield explained.

“What about the rest?” Sakura
asked.

Laqiya groaned, seeing no point in
arguing as she plopped herself on Sakura’s bed and leaned her chin on her hand.
No movies today.

“Mind is passive. Water is like
wind, but not so much fickle, just very adaptable. Fire is hard to tame and
very aggressive. Earth is stubborn and very aggressive. Light and dark are very
subtle powers. Life and death are not generally aggressive, but certainly so in
their own subtle way.”

“How many forces of nature are
there?” Adria asked.

“Nine,” Laqiya replied before
Nightshield could.

“Did I ever tell you that?” the
woman asked and Laqiya shrugged.

“So mind is passive. What’s that
mean?” Sakura asked and then clarified, “I mean
me
and
Isis have the same power but it’s different. Isis can practically defy gravity,
and I can make force shields and all that good stuff.”

“It depends on the person and what
they do with them,” Nightshield said.

“Well, I’ve had my powers since I
was six,” said Sakura.

“It makes sense. Six is around the
time intellectual activity is at its peak developing stage. I bet it was much
easier to use your powers back then,” Nightshield said.

Sakura nodded. “I was doing all
kinds of things with my power back then. Playing tricks on the teachers,
sneaking cookies from the top of the refrigerator.”

“I’ve been able to control the wind
since I can remember,” Adria whispered. “Halloween wasn’t the first time, but
it was more fun that day. It really spooks people out. I used to make my
brother have to chase his hat or something when he was mean to me.”

Isis shrugged. “I’ve always know
there was something different. I could do whatever I wanted when I put my mind
to it. I convinced my mother to put me in all kinds of stuff, ice skating,
gymnastics, you name it and I was good at all of it. But I never felt any
fulfillment from it.”

Sakura looked at Laqiya. “What
about you?”

Laqiya started not to answer. Of
all the things she didn’t want to talk about or deal with, her powers and this
mess with the Tyrant and oblivion were at the top of the list. But since they
weren’t doing what she wanted to do any time soon, she may as well.

“My powers are more of a curse than
a blessing most of the time,” Laqiya said dryly. “When I’m angry, it storms.
When I’m happy the skies are clear. The only time my powers don’t react is when
I’m calm and those are the times I find it hard to do anything with them at
all.”

Sakura shook her head. “That still
doesn’t explain our powers. If
me
and Isis have the
same force on our side, why can she defy gravity and I have telekinesis?”

Laqiya began to absently and
thoughtfully clean the room, knowing the answer in part but not wanting to say.
If she did, she’d practically be admitting she’d put some thought into it
before now, that from time to time, she willingly studied the nuisances of her
powers. Noticing how quiet she was, Nightshield raised an eyebrow at her.

“You have a take on this?” she
began.

Laqiya glared at Nightshield and
shrugged.

“Come on Laqiya. Tell us what you
think,” Sakura insisted.

Laqiya sighed, setting a stack of
folded clothes on the dresser before saying, “I guess our powers kind of play
on our personalities. Sakura is dramatic and worrisome and her powers reflect
that. Isis is quiet. So you wouldn’t know she had powers until she jumps up the
side of a cliff. Adria is like a silent storm. She’s nice and easy to be with,
but don’t tempt her. The wind is like that. I think one day we’ll be able to
control all aspects of our powers though.”

Nightshield nodded. “You’ve put a
lot of thought into this.”

“What about you Laqiya? How do your
powers reflect your personality?” Sakura asked.

Laqiya huffed. “They don’t. I have
them all.”

“Actually, I have an answer for
that one,” said Chasity Pearl flying through the window causing Sakura to
squeak.

“What’s your take on it birdie?”
Nightshield asked.

Chasity looked at Laqiya and cocked
her head. “Flower girl’s personality is versatile. She’s not one distinct
personality, even though one stands out more than the others, namely her
compassion and determination. I’ve never seen someone so determined to save
someone as she was on Halloween. But her powers reflect her diversity. The same
way she can bring all of us together because she’s so empathetic is the same
way her powers work, which is why she’s The White Rose. She controls all the
elements.”

Nightshield crossed her arms. “That
was insightful.”

Laqiya disagreed. “I do not have a
versatile personality, and I’m not empathetic.”

“You’ll all mature into your
powers, even you Laqiya,” Nightshield said and then turned to Chasity Pearl.
“Now why are you here?”

“I was forced here because of her,”
Chasity Pearl said simply nodding behind her to Plainshield.

Sakura squeaked again. “When did
you get her? Better yet, why do you all do that? Can’t you just use the door?”

“Maybe next time,” Plainshield
said.

“You’re Nightshield’s sister,” said
Adria looking back and forth between the two.

Plainshield nodded before turning
to her sister, who said, “Aren’t you supposed to be—”

“I found it,” Plainshield squealed.

“Are you sure their related?” Adria
asked Laqiya. Nightshield would never squeal.

“Found what?”

“It’s downtown in some kind of
magic shop. I don’t know how it got there, but it’s there. I’m sure of it!”
Plainshield said to her sister.

 
“Wait a minute. What did you find Plain,”
asked Nightshield

“A staff piece,” Chasity Pearl
replied bored.

“Staff?”
Isis said and then she gasped. “You mean her staff?”

“Yeah, it’s in a magic shop
downtown,” Plainshield said again.

“Is that why you were with her?”
Laqiya asked Chasity Pearl.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Plainshield sighed. “Surely my
company isn’t that horrible.”

“No comment,” Chasity Pearl
replied.

Plainshield huffed and then turned
to Nightshield. “Come one. We have to go.”