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NaNoWriMo 2010 - Part 8, and End
In the morning, everyone stumbled up to find that Jaéda, Daéja and Uncle Umi had made a glorious breakfast and could only have gone to the pre-dawn market to do so. As the three adults drank their coffee, what Uncle Umi had said to them the last night dawned on them, and they looked at him with varying degrees of what the frackery. Uncle Umi just motioned at the plates, and encouraged them to eat- promising that they would explain everything over the meal.
After the meal, the three adults were in what could reasonably be called “shock”. None of them were particularly happy about being deaf from the last night, however, as Yuki O’Bonny admitted that it wa a clever trick, Thomas Iruka laughed at the subterfuge- very pirate-y and Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt shook her head, but knew that the scene in the town in the mountains made sense given everything.
“You two are the Children of Chaos. Right” Thomas asked. At the twins nod, he continued “and you two need to go and release the other gods, right?” Again they nodded. “Alright, and you two are seventeen, which is legel adulthood here…. You two can leave, if you really have to, in one week- no earlier. I am correct in guessing that this is somthing you must do, right?”:
“Yes, that is correct” Jaéda said. Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt looked sad, for these were “her” children, but she too understood.
“One week” she said, and that was settled.
The next week was full of preperatuon for the eventual farewell to Jaéda and Daéja. Of course, the news was not spread that they were leaving, or what for, but people knew that something was up anyway. That was the way things were in this type of smallish town, people just knew. And because people knew that they were leaving, they just had to stick their noses into business where they did not belong. Of course, no one knew exactly where the mountain of the gods even was, and everyone had decided not to explain that was where they were going- all that anyone knew or guessed was that Jaéda and Daéja were going on a “quest” and that was good enough.
The two of them were mindful of not using their newfound powers to much, but they still practiced them as much as possible. One thing they had noticed right away was that, though they could layer a basic illusion over themselves, they could not change their basic look- skin tone, eye and hair color and so on were all always the same. They could change the color of other things, though, and they had found out that clothing changed from their ususal black and white color scale with their powers did not wash them out, but managed to look good on them. It was liberating, Jaéda had decided, to be able to dress in colors other then black and white- though she still preferred dark colors, like emeralds and sapphires rather then pale (or worse yet- pastel colors like pastel pink, or pastel purple).
She also used a bit of her… Magic… to attack someone she did not like very much. Lacy had dated her brother, only because he was a popular student- she knew it just as surely as she knew her own heartbeat. Always. Anyway, she knew that Lacy had dated Daéja simply for the so-called “prestige” she though it could get her, and so it had been until she had dumped Daéja for someone “better”- a Pirateing prince from a Pirate clan to the south, one richer and- in a way- more handsome.
Jaéda carefully illusioned herself to look like an old lady, a witch if you will, with a lump on her nose and back, wrinkles and lines and everything else she could think of that would show up in a old lady who was also a witch. Carefully she layered another illusion over herself that made her clothes look like those of the gypsy bands that occasionally trade with the Pirates. She was sorry that they would be blamed…. But then she had a brainstorm. Gypsy’s could be told by the colors they wore, so she just made sure that she wore colors that belonged to none of the clans that traded in the area- in fact, she dressed in a whole rainbow of colors, and that made her stand out, but that was okay. Then she took a little of the power in her core, and focused- she had found that with a little focus, she could do mostly anything, but it as hard- like using muscles she never had before. With the focus, she made a door of white power in her closet, making sure to focus on it only letting her through, and only twice before it would shut down. Lastly she focused on a mirror that she had in her room, and using more white power, she created a copy of her face in it. The face would be instructed to yell “I’m reading!” should anyone be foolish enough to bother her when her door sign was “reading- I do not want to be disturbed!”. Then she stepped through the portal in the back of her closet that she had made to a back alley in the city.
Once there, she waited, for she knew that Lacy and her posse of girls came through there everyday to look at the goods, and they would be there shortly. Focusing again, she forced a ball of pure white energy into her hands, and she tried to turn it a different color. Eventually she gave up, it was not worth it, and here was her prey. Carefully she whispered instructions to her ball of power, and it split up into small balls and hit Lacy and the four girls in her entourage. Once that was done, each girl felt a trill like lightning go up their spine, and they froze as an old woman laughed- cackled in an ally.
“You fool girls!” She said, “you fool girls- I have given you a curse or you annoy me. Good luck with that! For inner beauty shines most bright with you- now until the rest of your life, though after you turn twenty-one, I suppose you can just have a general report every year ot see how you will look the next year. Farewell!” And she hurried back thorugh the portal in the alley and back to her room before she heard the screams of confusion from the girls. As soon as she was in her room, she let go of the power in the mirror, the portal and the illusion on her, and flopped down on bed, letting herself sleep until dinner. She had decided not to actually hurt the girls- not too badly, but to embarrass them enough to make them think twice. She had focused enough on the spell of sorts, so she knew with a kind of instinct what exactly was happening and what would happen.
The girls would laugh off the incident, thinking it ridiculous, but still slightly worried. They would go through the whole day, forgetting about it as they talked about boys, shopping, and the new weaponry avalible in the shops. That night they would go to bed, same as every other night. That night they would have a dream whereupon they met a spectral figure who would point out their failings- overindulgence in the main seven deadly sins, amoung other things. For Lacy, it would point out her reliance on being popular, and the way she was a horrible person, and she treated other people horribly as well. In the morning, all five girls would wake up and go to the mirror, just like every morning, and what they would see there would surprise them. Instead of being the pretty girls they had been the day before, they would see new features that reflected their inner self rather then their outerself. Every night they would have a meeting with the spectral visitor who would tell them what they did right and wrong for that day, and their looks would change accordingly. After they turned twenty-one it would happen only once every year, and after they turned eighty-five it would happen only once every five years. She was not cruel, though, and if someone was ugly for having a horrible inner-self, but honestly tried, people would not mock them, and there would be no cruelty.
‘Well’, Jaéda thought, ‘that was totally worth it. I wish I could see their faces when they wake up in the mornings, and realize that they will have to rely on their inner beauty to get by!’
Daéja had also been practicing his powers. He was not using them for revenge on anyone- not even Lacy- but he was still practicing none the less. He practiced making portals after he had decided that he wanted to know how to make portals. Portals were nice. You did not have to do anything like, ya know, actually walking. With a portal the only problem, Daéja had found, was that he had to know where he was pulling out, really actually know where it was- at least for then. He had also praticed mirror hopping, but that took more power then he was willing to use at one point when he did not really need to.
Mirror spying was another thing that Daéja practiced- though, not for the uh… “Normal” reaons that a teenaged boy would do mirror spying- he already knew the basics of what a female looked like due to his boyfriend and girlfriend status with Lacy. They were young, and “in love”, so no harm- right? Right? Daéja mentally sweatdropped at where his brain had gone. Instead he decided to focus still how to travel in mirror portals, while still expending the least amount of energy. The energy was tricky, and like herding cats- though given everything that Daéja and Jaéda had learned in their lives about chaos, herding cats would be easy. After all, all you had to do was buy catnip somewhere, and put it into a box. The statistics of cats who liked catnip would jump into the box, where you could then get the rest of the cats in other ways, such as sitting still and whistling a cat calling charm you could buy from anyone with a little bit of power themselves. The whistle itself was not completely magical, but when mixed with power bought into the tune with the help of a hedgewitch- for one example- it could call up cats. Simple magic, but effective. You just had to be careful, for it only had a range of how far a cat could hear it from.
If you were not careful… Well, you just had to hope you were not allergic to cats. Especially if you had inherint magic, and picked up the tune bey accident… Cats like it. It was like musical catnip. Lovely, beautiful, musical catnip.
Anywho, Daéja was practicing mirror scrying and mirror portalling. Traveling through mirrors was actually fun, the few times that Daéja had tried it, but eventually he stuck to making portals between places he had seen or been. He knew that Jaéda was having less trouble with it, with a seemingly perfect ability to make portals in between places that she knew, but he was still having trouble. Scrying was more his thing, his white eyes taking on the appearance of what he was scrying in, he had found- mirror scrying have his eyes a silver sheen that frightened people, or so she (Jaéda) had told him. Her eyes were no less freaky though! I mean, really, black eyes? Really? Really? Black eyes with no pupils were no less creepy then his white eyes. Period.
He also had found that, once he started scrying, his brain had gotten all scattered. He had never scryed before, and he found his mind was jumping form place to place all of a sudden, though he had once been so… organized… He supposed his brain was now flying form place to place- chaotic. He wondered if Jaéda was having that problem as well, and he pulled away from all the attempts at magic he was doing.
‘Jaéda?’ He called tentatively mind to mind. He felt her jump up mentally, as though she was foind something and had just gotten distracted- or was that guilt?
‘Yeah Dae?’ She called back.
‘I have some questions for you… Could we talk like this? Or would you prefer to talk in person?’
‘I think I would like to talk in person. I’ll come to meet you…. Where? In your room?’
‘Very well, I will shortly be there. Do you have a large bowl of water that you may have been practicing scrying in?’
‘Yes.’
‘Stay way from it, and I will be right there.’ And her mental presence was gone. Instead the bowl began to ripple, and a white haired head began ot push through it. Soon shoulders followed through, and hips and legs until she was standing on top of the water in the bowl. Jaéda stepped off of the bowl onto the floor before the bowl’s water lost its hardness, and she was on the floor in Daéja’s room, completely dry. Compeltely and utterly dry. Daéja looked at her in shock, whenever he tried to travel through the water, he always ended up wet- or at the very least, moist. That cinched it, Daéja knew that she would always be the better at portals. It must be fate, he decided, fate was the only possible explanation. He knew that she had trouble with scrying, though, for her frustration was clear to “read” whether mental or physical.
“Are you…. Having any problems? I mean, with your mind? I have been having some issues… And I needed to talk to you about it.”
“No, I feel perfectly and completely calm. Why?”
“My mind is scattering. I do not know why, but I am having far more trouble focusing on things then I reasonably should. My mind is jumping around a lot- but yours is completely calm. That is completely unfair, just so you know. You know what else is unfair? Cheese- you got more cheese then I did last night, and I like cheese more then you. Of course, I like many things more then you, like fu-”
“That is enough. Wow Daéja, that bad?”
“Sorry….” Said Daéja, unnaturally apale face even paler. “I do not know how to stop it, either.”
“I have an idea. Hold still, please.” And Jaéda leaned in to get her face closer to the face of her brother. Not for that. Sickos. NO TWINCEST. EVER. IT IS GROSS. (I have twin brothers. I have many feelings about this. Sorry.)
Making sure she was touching their foreheads together, Jaéda focused her breathing until she was doing the meditation that she and Daéja had learned when they were but four. She heard Daéja meditating as well…. That was good. Very good. Then, with the knowledge that he was her twin brother, she thought of the places between their foreheads as a prtal she could- or her “soul” could- step through. It was thankfully easier then she thought it would be, only a slight moment of dizziness heralded her arrival to a new world of someone’s mind.
Her brother’s mind was a mess. Thigns were thrown everywhere, and it was filled with colors and sounds that made no sense to anyone. Closing her mental ears, Jaéda instaid focused on straighteining the place up.
Nothing happened.
Of course nothing happened, you had to give in order to receive- you had to make an equivilant exhcnage, or the world would go out of balance. Such was the understanding in many philosophies, and here she was trying to just force her will on this landscape without offering it up something in return.
But she knew what she could do. It would take a bit more focusing, but she imagined her brain and her brother’s brains as two puzzles- hers a solid white puzzle, calm and serence- his a puzzle where nothing made any sense, and all the pieces were different. Continuing with the mental theme, she carefully switched half of her calm pieces with half of his chaotic pieces. With what focus she still had, she forced the pieces in both minds to form a coherent puzzsle. Then she pulled herself out of her brother’s mind, and fainted.
She woke up to drops of water being splashed onto her face by a worried Daéja. “I do not know what you did” he said, “but it is better now- thank you.”
“No problem. So, I am really good at portals, and you are really good at scrying. Do you want to test if we can bring the other one along for just as easy a time?”
“With you, sure, why not. After dinner, though, I mean, you just fainted. On my floor. Let us go eat first…?”
“Was it really that long?”
“It was.”
“Dinner first it is, then.” And they both went down to dinner.
After dinner, they decided to practice together, in something they randomly decided to call Side Along Portal Hopping™ and Side Along Scrying™. The idea was quite simple. In practice, well…
It was surprisingly easy. After all, all it required was that the original twin lead on with the magic, and “tied” the other twin to them. Now, granted “Surprisgly easy” did not necessarily mean “easy”- it was incredibly tiring for them, and by eight o clock they were completely exhausted, so they went back to the ktchen for something sweet- usually they drank apple cider at that point. Apple cider was really good, and if it was non-alchoholic, well, the sweetness and coolness of it helped to cut into their tiredness. Once they got to the kitchen, they saw their mother, father, aunt and uncle waiting around the table for them.
“Hey.” Uncle Umi said with a lazy wave. “We have something to do with you before you leave. We figure you are old enough, anyway, and it could be fascinating for you.”
“What are you going to do?” Asked Daéja- they had tried Side Along Portal Hopping™ second, so he was far less tired then his sister was, and she was getting her drink first.
“Using your birthday, (amoung other things) we are going to do some basic divination for you two, alright?”
“Fine. Can I get a drink now?”
“Yes- of course.”
After Daéja had gotten his drink, Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt pulled a book to the center of the table where everyone could see it. “You two were born in the late spring, in the month of Mayena, the twentieth day in this month. You two were born in the year of the dragon, and with these we will tell your basic fortune.
“The fact that you were born on the twentiewth day of Mayena puts you at the cusp of Taruvol and Gekiminaia. This means that you two are constantly adolesent, which would be problematic for what you are trying to do. You two are versatile, able to have both the grounding persaonlilty of the Truvol and the Airy personality of the Gekiminaia. You manifest energy, with communication, nervous excitement and energetic moevemtn. You love to help out, but you can spread yourself thin. You two do need to limit yourselves at times, though, so be warned. Talking is good, but make sure you commuinicate rather then just talking. No one way streets people! You may have some physical verses mental problems going on, but you two can handle it. Moniter the pace of your Quiet, do not overreach yourselves, and good things will happen. Try not to come off so strong, or so unapproachable, and people will come and help you out. If you actually confront your fears and insecurities, that is even better. Supposedly you two are good to marry with those born under the cusp of Ariana and Taruvol and Sajitan and Coripana.
“Now, did any of that confuse you two?” Both Jaéda and Daéja shook their heads. “Did any of that surprise you? OR was it accurate?”
“Some parts were, in fact, accurate, but not all of the parts.” Jaéda said, after a nod from her brother.
“Very well, now were are moving on- based upon the day of your birth being the twentieth of Meyana, your strengths are that you two are exciring, innovating and expressive- but your weaknesses are that you can be overtalkative, undisciplined and a feelling of being unfulfilled. Whatever you two like to do, you like to do it a lot. Is this true? Anyway, your interests can be wide-ranging, but you like to fly high as well being addicted to travel. You are too frenetic, and it can lead to a break down if you are not carefully. Be meditative and objective or become bogged down in unrealized dreams. You two are ruled by the number two, it being fitting given that you are twins. Do not be too emotional- but do not bottle it up inside to compensate for this, neither ways are healthy ways to live. Be stable in your bodies, ground yourselves. Do not use any hallucigins, and use any sleep aids only when a healer gives you their blessing. Finish what is on your plate rather then over spreading yourselves, and all will be well.” Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt added to her already dumbounded charges- no, these were her children, not just her “charges”
“Does this sound familier?” Asked her husband, Thomas Iruka. Both twins nodded. “Good. Now, you were planning on leaving tomorrow, do you still want to?” Another nod.
“Never forget, we all love you, and you can always come back here.” .” Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt said.
Then it was time for a group hug, and bed. Adventures would come in the morning.
After the meal, the three adults were in what could reasonably be called “shock”. None of them were particularly happy about being deaf from the last night, however, as Yuki O’Bonny admitted that it wa a clever trick, Thomas Iruka laughed at the subterfuge- very pirate-y and Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt shook her head, but knew that the scene in the town in the mountains made sense given everything.
“You two are the Children of Chaos. Right” Thomas asked. At the twins nod, he continued “and you two need to go and release the other gods, right?” Again they nodded. “Alright, and you two are seventeen, which is legel adulthood here…. You two can leave, if you really have to, in one week- no earlier. I am correct in guessing that this is somthing you must do, right?”:
“Yes, that is correct” Jaéda said. Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt looked sad, for these were “her” children, but she too understood.
“One week” she said, and that was settled.
The next week was full of preperatuon for the eventual farewell to Jaéda and Daéja. Of course, the news was not spread that they were leaving, or what for, but people knew that something was up anyway. That was the way things were in this type of smallish town, people just knew. And because people knew that they were leaving, they just had to stick their noses into business where they did not belong. Of course, no one knew exactly where the mountain of the gods even was, and everyone had decided not to explain that was where they were going- all that anyone knew or guessed was that Jaéda and Daéja were going on a “quest” and that was good enough.
The two of them were mindful of not using their newfound powers to much, but they still practiced them as much as possible. One thing they had noticed right away was that, though they could layer a basic illusion over themselves, they could not change their basic look- skin tone, eye and hair color and so on were all always the same. They could change the color of other things, though, and they had found out that clothing changed from their ususal black and white color scale with their powers did not wash them out, but managed to look good on them. It was liberating, Jaéda had decided, to be able to dress in colors other then black and white- though she still preferred dark colors, like emeralds and sapphires rather then pale (or worse yet- pastel colors like pastel pink, or pastel purple).
She also used a bit of her… Magic… to attack someone she did not like very much. Lacy had dated her brother, only because he was a popular student- she knew it just as surely as she knew her own heartbeat. Always. Anyway, she knew that Lacy had dated Daéja simply for the so-called “prestige” she though it could get her, and so it had been until she had dumped Daéja for someone “better”- a Pirateing prince from a Pirate clan to the south, one richer and- in a way- more handsome.
Jaéda carefully illusioned herself to look like an old lady, a witch if you will, with a lump on her nose and back, wrinkles and lines and everything else she could think of that would show up in a old lady who was also a witch. Carefully she layered another illusion over herself that made her clothes look like those of the gypsy bands that occasionally trade with the Pirates. She was sorry that they would be blamed…. But then she had a brainstorm. Gypsy’s could be told by the colors they wore, so she just made sure that she wore colors that belonged to none of the clans that traded in the area- in fact, she dressed in a whole rainbow of colors, and that made her stand out, but that was okay. Then she took a little of the power in her core, and focused- she had found that with a little focus, she could do mostly anything, but it as hard- like using muscles she never had before. With the focus, she made a door of white power in her closet, making sure to focus on it only letting her through, and only twice before it would shut down. Lastly she focused on a mirror that she had in her room, and using more white power, she created a copy of her face in it. The face would be instructed to yell “I’m reading!” should anyone be foolish enough to bother her when her door sign was “reading- I do not want to be disturbed!”. Then she stepped through the portal in the back of her closet that she had made to a back alley in the city.
Once there, she waited, for she knew that Lacy and her posse of girls came through there everyday to look at the goods, and they would be there shortly. Focusing again, she forced a ball of pure white energy into her hands, and she tried to turn it a different color. Eventually she gave up, it was not worth it, and here was her prey. Carefully she whispered instructions to her ball of power, and it split up into small balls and hit Lacy and the four girls in her entourage. Once that was done, each girl felt a trill like lightning go up their spine, and they froze as an old woman laughed- cackled in an ally.
“You fool girls!” She said, “you fool girls- I have given you a curse or you annoy me. Good luck with that! For inner beauty shines most bright with you- now until the rest of your life, though after you turn twenty-one, I suppose you can just have a general report every year ot see how you will look the next year. Farewell!” And she hurried back thorugh the portal in the alley and back to her room before she heard the screams of confusion from the girls. As soon as she was in her room, she let go of the power in the mirror, the portal and the illusion on her, and flopped down on bed, letting herself sleep until dinner. She had decided not to actually hurt the girls- not too badly, but to embarrass them enough to make them think twice. She had focused enough on the spell of sorts, so she knew with a kind of instinct what exactly was happening and what would happen.
The girls would laugh off the incident, thinking it ridiculous, but still slightly worried. They would go through the whole day, forgetting about it as they talked about boys, shopping, and the new weaponry avalible in the shops. That night they would go to bed, same as every other night. That night they would have a dream whereupon they met a spectral figure who would point out their failings- overindulgence in the main seven deadly sins, amoung other things. For Lacy, it would point out her reliance on being popular, and the way she was a horrible person, and she treated other people horribly as well. In the morning, all five girls would wake up and go to the mirror, just like every morning, and what they would see there would surprise them. Instead of being the pretty girls they had been the day before, they would see new features that reflected their inner self rather then their outerself. Every night they would have a meeting with the spectral visitor who would tell them what they did right and wrong for that day, and their looks would change accordingly. After they turned twenty-one it would happen only once every year, and after they turned eighty-five it would happen only once every five years. She was not cruel, though, and if someone was ugly for having a horrible inner-self, but honestly tried, people would not mock them, and there would be no cruelty.
‘Well’, Jaéda thought, ‘that was totally worth it. I wish I could see their faces when they wake up in the mornings, and realize that they will have to rely on their inner beauty to get by!’
Daéja had also been practicing his powers. He was not using them for revenge on anyone- not even Lacy- but he was still practicing none the less. He practiced making portals after he had decided that he wanted to know how to make portals. Portals were nice. You did not have to do anything like, ya know, actually walking. With a portal the only problem, Daéja had found, was that he had to know where he was pulling out, really actually know where it was- at least for then. He had also praticed mirror hopping, but that took more power then he was willing to use at one point when he did not really need to.
Mirror spying was another thing that Daéja practiced- though, not for the uh… “Normal” reaons that a teenaged boy would do mirror spying- he already knew the basics of what a female looked like due to his boyfriend and girlfriend status with Lacy. They were young, and “in love”, so no harm- right? Right? Daéja mentally sweatdropped at where his brain had gone. Instead he decided to focus still how to travel in mirror portals, while still expending the least amount of energy. The energy was tricky, and like herding cats- though given everything that Daéja and Jaéda had learned in their lives about chaos, herding cats would be easy. After all, all you had to do was buy catnip somewhere, and put it into a box. The statistics of cats who liked catnip would jump into the box, where you could then get the rest of the cats in other ways, such as sitting still and whistling a cat calling charm you could buy from anyone with a little bit of power themselves. The whistle itself was not completely magical, but when mixed with power bought into the tune with the help of a hedgewitch- for one example- it could call up cats. Simple magic, but effective. You just had to be careful, for it only had a range of how far a cat could hear it from.
If you were not careful… Well, you just had to hope you were not allergic to cats. Especially if you had inherint magic, and picked up the tune bey accident… Cats like it. It was like musical catnip. Lovely, beautiful, musical catnip.
Anywho, Daéja was practicing mirror scrying and mirror portalling. Traveling through mirrors was actually fun, the few times that Daéja had tried it, but eventually he stuck to making portals between places he had seen or been. He knew that Jaéda was having less trouble with it, with a seemingly perfect ability to make portals in between places that she knew, but he was still having trouble. Scrying was more his thing, his white eyes taking on the appearance of what he was scrying in, he had found- mirror scrying have his eyes a silver sheen that frightened people, or so she (Jaéda) had told him. Her eyes were no less freaky though! I mean, really, black eyes? Really? Really? Black eyes with no pupils were no less creepy then his white eyes. Period.
He also had found that, once he started scrying, his brain had gotten all scattered. He had never scryed before, and he found his mind was jumping form place to place all of a sudden, though he had once been so… organized… He supposed his brain was now flying form place to place- chaotic. He wondered if Jaéda was having that problem as well, and he pulled away from all the attempts at magic he was doing.
‘Jaéda?’ He called tentatively mind to mind. He felt her jump up mentally, as though she was foind something and had just gotten distracted- or was that guilt?
‘Yeah Dae?’ She called back.
‘I have some questions for you… Could we talk like this? Or would you prefer to talk in person?’
‘I think I would like to talk in person. I’ll come to meet you…. Where? In your room?’
‘Very well, I will shortly be there. Do you have a large bowl of water that you may have been practicing scrying in?’
‘Yes.’
‘Stay way from it, and I will be right there.’ And her mental presence was gone. Instead the bowl began to ripple, and a white haired head began ot push through it. Soon shoulders followed through, and hips and legs until she was standing on top of the water in the bowl. Jaéda stepped off of the bowl onto the floor before the bowl’s water lost its hardness, and she was on the floor in Daéja’s room, completely dry. Compeltely and utterly dry. Daéja looked at her in shock, whenever he tried to travel through the water, he always ended up wet- or at the very least, moist. That cinched it, Daéja knew that she would always be the better at portals. It must be fate, he decided, fate was the only possible explanation. He knew that she had trouble with scrying, though, for her frustration was clear to “read” whether mental or physical.
“Are you…. Having any problems? I mean, with your mind? I have been having some issues… And I needed to talk to you about it.”
“No, I feel perfectly and completely calm. Why?”
“My mind is scattering. I do not know why, but I am having far more trouble focusing on things then I reasonably should. My mind is jumping around a lot- but yours is completely calm. That is completely unfair, just so you know. You know what else is unfair? Cheese- you got more cheese then I did last night, and I like cheese more then you. Of course, I like many things more then you, like fu-”
“That is enough. Wow Daéja, that bad?”
“Sorry….” Said Daéja, unnaturally apale face even paler. “I do not know how to stop it, either.”
“I have an idea. Hold still, please.” And Jaéda leaned in to get her face closer to the face of her brother. Not for that. Sickos. NO TWINCEST. EVER. IT IS GROSS. (I have twin brothers. I have many feelings about this. Sorry.)
Making sure she was touching their foreheads together, Jaéda focused her breathing until she was doing the meditation that she and Daéja had learned when they were but four. She heard Daéja meditating as well…. That was good. Very good. Then, with the knowledge that he was her twin brother, she thought of the places between their foreheads as a prtal she could- or her “soul” could- step through. It was thankfully easier then she thought it would be, only a slight moment of dizziness heralded her arrival to a new world of someone’s mind.
Her brother’s mind was a mess. Thigns were thrown everywhere, and it was filled with colors and sounds that made no sense to anyone. Closing her mental ears, Jaéda instaid focused on straighteining the place up.
Nothing happened.
Of course nothing happened, you had to give in order to receive- you had to make an equivilant exhcnage, or the world would go out of balance. Such was the understanding in many philosophies, and here she was trying to just force her will on this landscape without offering it up something in return.
But she knew what she could do. It would take a bit more focusing, but she imagined her brain and her brother’s brains as two puzzles- hers a solid white puzzle, calm and serence- his a puzzle where nothing made any sense, and all the pieces were different. Continuing with the mental theme, she carefully switched half of her calm pieces with half of his chaotic pieces. With what focus she still had, she forced the pieces in both minds to form a coherent puzzsle. Then she pulled herself out of her brother’s mind, and fainted.
She woke up to drops of water being splashed onto her face by a worried Daéja. “I do not know what you did” he said, “but it is better now- thank you.”
“No problem. So, I am really good at portals, and you are really good at scrying. Do you want to test if we can bring the other one along for just as easy a time?”
“With you, sure, why not. After dinner, though, I mean, you just fainted. On my floor. Let us go eat first…?”
“Was it really that long?”
“It was.”
“Dinner first it is, then.” And they both went down to dinner.
After dinner, they decided to practice together, in something they randomly decided to call Side Along Portal Hopping™ and Side Along Scrying™. The idea was quite simple. In practice, well…
It was surprisingly easy. After all, all it required was that the original twin lead on with the magic, and “tied” the other twin to them. Now, granted “Surprisgly easy” did not necessarily mean “easy”- it was incredibly tiring for them, and by eight o clock they were completely exhausted, so they went back to the ktchen for something sweet- usually they drank apple cider at that point. Apple cider was really good, and if it was non-alchoholic, well, the sweetness and coolness of it helped to cut into their tiredness. Once they got to the kitchen, they saw their mother, father, aunt and uncle waiting around the table for them.
“Hey.” Uncle Umi said with a lazy wave. “We have something to do with you before you leave. We figure you are old enough, anyway, and it could be fascinating for you.”
“What are you going to do?” Asked Daéja- they had tried Side Along Portal Hopping™ second, so he was far less tired then his sister was, and she was getting her drink first.
“Using your birthday, (amoung other things) we are going to do some basic divination for you two, alright?”
“Fine. Can I get a drink now?”
“Yes- of course.”
After Daéja had gotten his drink, Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt pulled a book to the center of the table where everyone could see it. “You two were born in the late spring, in the month of Mayena, the twentieth day in this month. You two were born in the year of the dragon, and with these we will tell your basic fortune.
“The fact that you were born on the twentiewth day of Mayena puts you at the cusp of Taruvol and Gekiminaia. This means that you two are constantly adolesent, which would be problematic for what you are trying to do. You two are versatile, able to have both the grounding persaonlilty of the Truvol and the Airy personality of the Gekiminaia. You manifest energy, with communication, nervous excitement and energetic moevemtn. You love to help out, but you can spread yourself thin. You two do need to limit yourselves at times, though, so be warned. Talking is good, but make sure you commuinicate rather then just talking. No one way streets people! You may have some physical verses mental problems going on, but you two can handle it. Moniter the pace of your Quiet, do not overreach yourselves, and good things will happen. Try not to come off so strong, or so unapproachable, and people will come and help you out. If you actually confront your fears and insecurities, that is even better. Supposedly you two are good to marry with those born under the cusp of Ariana and Taruvol and Sajitan and Coripana.
“Now, did any of that confuse you two?” Both Jaéda and Daéja shook their heads. “Did any of that surprise you? OR was it accurate?”
“Some parts were, in fact, accurate, but not all of the parts.” Jaéda said, after a nod from her brother.
“Very well, now were are moving on- based upon the day of your birth being the twentieth of Meyana, your strengths are that you two are exciring, innovating and expressive- but your weaknesses are that you can be overtalkative, undisciplined and a feelling of being unfulfilled. Whatever you two like to do, you like to do it a lot. Is this true? Anyway, your interests can be wide-ranging, but you like to fly high as well being addicted to travel. You are too frenetic, and it can lead to a break down if you are not carefully. Be meditative and objective or become bogged down in unrealized dreams. You two are ruled by the number two, it being fitting given that you are twins. Do not be too emotional- but do not bottle it up inside to compensate for this, neither ways are healthy ways to live. Be stable in your bodies, ground yourselves. Do not use any hallucigins, and use any sleep aids only when a healer gives you their blessing. Finish what is on your plate rather then over spreading yourselves, and all will be well.” Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt added to her already dumbounded charges- no, these were her children, not just her “charges”
“Does this sound familier?” Asked her husband, Thomas Iruka. Both twins nodded. “Good. Now, you were planning on leaving tomorrow, do you still want to?” Another nod.
“Never forget, we all love you, and you can always come back here.” .” Mizuko Miiko Yuki Ai Uzu Nekiko Fuu Umi Umiko Uchiha Hatake Sakura Scmidt said.
Then it was time for a group hug, and bed. Adventures would come in the morning.