My Sister The Keeper
Sunday, November 17th, 2024 - The Tower of Fire
"This was the first tower I ever challenged for," Our mom told my sister and I as they stood in the entryway of the newly acquired Tower of Fire. Averia fidgeted with the brass and fire opal key hanging from a titanium chain around her neck.
"But not the first one you won," Avy said softly. We were both used to her quiet voice and didn't miss what she said.
"Right, that was the Tower of Water down in the lagoon." Mom smiled softly at my older sister. Avy and I had been born while Mom was the Keeper of Earth, so it came as no surprise that at least one of us would have an interest in the magic duels and their titles. She just hadn't expected it to be so soon that she would see not one but two of her children with dueling titles. "Do you wanna go explore?"
Avy and I were keen to do just that, and took off up the stairs to the higher levels of the tower.
Hey Avy, I found some weird stuff in here. I gave my twin a gentle nudge as we both stood in one of the upper rooms, looking over the dusty furniture and the dim white marble floors. Avy took up a place at my side and looked around, a small sigh escaping her lips as she did. Her slight smile spoke of her happiness, but her voice came a little stronger to convey a hint of surprise.
Like what?
Weird furniture, some paintings... think any of it is magic?
Who knows, Alex... Mom might, but.
Mom probably saw more weird magic stuff in her life than we both have put together.
We hummed in agreement and moved further into the room, with both of us being about as excited to dig through the various knick-knacks as any kids really ought to be. We couldn't figure out anything that was magical at first, however.
Until we got to the book.
It wasn't leatherbound and it didn't look particularly old. It didn't have gold on it or anything like that. In fact, other than the strange symbols all along the spine and on the front, there was absolutely nothing that seemed worth noting. In unison, my sister and I both moved towards the desk we had found the book in, climbing in the chairs in front of it, which both luckily and coincidentally fit our height.
What is this? Avy seemed curious and a little unnerved by the odd book, as though, somehow, they were something she needed to fear.
Well there's only one way to find out. I reached for it and took a short breath to steel myself for whatever could come. Prying the book open carefully and setting it gently to the left, I tilted the cover up and brought the first page into focus.
Before my eyes, the world went black.
Before we lost all vision, Avy's shrill shriek accompanied the sensation of her grabbing my arm in an effort to reassure herself. I placed my right hand atop hers and let out the breath I had been holding in a short and quick exhale, steadying myself the best I could. That was, until we came to, on a cold marble floor a few minutes later.
"Avy? Alex?" I heard my mother's voice, though it sounded as though she were standing right next to us. I felt a stab of pain through my bond with my sister as I sat up, blinking blearily around and looking for Averia.
Veri, what the hell? I nudged her through our mindlink and called her by the private nickname I had for her; Lulu, short for Luna, her middle name.
Lulu, where are you?
What happened, Alex? I don't remember...
Sitting up the rest of the way, I stumbled my way back to my feet and rubbed my eyes roughly with the back of my right hand to clear them. To my surprise, it worked, leaving me with a pleasant feeling that something good had happened. Once I was able to blink, I frowned. My mother, concerned to the nines, stood in the doorway to the room we were in. But where was Averia?
Lu, where are you? I asked, trying to feel for her in the tower.
Up. The only word I got in response from Avy had me squeezing past Mom to run up the spiraling staircase. There, she laid, motionless, in the center of the room, with her eyes closed. Her dark hair had moved all the way into view and pooled against her cheek and made her look so pretty.
"Averia!" I shouted, dropping to my knees beside her and rolling her onto her back. Grabbing her shoulders with both hands, I shook her for several long seconds. "Lulu!"
It took only a moment or two more of my desperate yells before she returned. Avy's silver eyes cracked open slightly and a little mew of pain escaped her, until Mom crossed the floor in a hurry to wrap both of her children in a hug. "Avy?"
"Sorry, Mom," she said so softly that her usually quiet voice was barely audible. "Alex and I found something...a book..."
"What book?" She prodded the two of us to get to our feet and get moving back towards the door.
"It looked like any old book, a boring black one with weird symbols all along the front and the spine."
She could very clearly feel my frustration and took the reins. After a few seconds of Averia describing the book in detail, I came forward and finished for her.
"We thought it was interesting and just wanted to see if it was magical. It turned out it was, and we blacked out. When we woke up I was sitting on the floor and Avy was gone. I found her up here." I tried to explain without leaving anything out.
Mom froze, like she was contemplating everything the two of us had said. Mom's powers, the things she could do, hadn't been told to us very extensively, but it seemed to be safe to say she knew a lot more about magic than we did. That must have had something to do with how the two of us both ended up within close proximity of each other when whatever spell it was had taken us.
"Okay. Just... make sure that you two are careful. Books... magic books at least, can be dangerous." My mother gave us a very serious look. She knelt down in front of both of us and ruffled our hair. "Very, very dangerous."
I nodded while my sister made an affirmative noise.
With that, my mother took both of our hands and began to lead us down the stairs. "How about we go downstairs and have something to eat? Are you two hungry?"
There wasn't any way to respond except nodding and that was exactly what both Avy and I did. Of course, food was exactly what we needed to stop the lightheaded, nearly nauseous feeling that had threatened to overcome us after getting up. Thankfully, it didn't last very long, as Mom led us to the tower's kitchen, a big, grandiose space with a huge dining room table and black glossy appliances. There was plenty of food stocked in the giant fridge and cold storage, enough that she felt comfortable asking both Avy and I the fateful question, "So, what do you two wanna eat?"
Both Avy and I looked at each other and smiled mischievously, tugging each other towards the pantry. We both knew what was in there; among the essentials, a lot of junk food. Mom barely resisted a chuckle and shook her head lightly. "Of course you do. Dinner is in about an hour and a half though, so you can't just have cake, chips and ice cream."
As she chided us, my sister and I pouted, but rifled through the pantry carefully, examining the shelves. Yes, there was a ton of junk food, but so much more as well. We settled on chips and cookies, and Mom insisted on pulling out some juice and bananas too. We all made ourselves comfortable at the table and ate in silence rather than relaying more of whatever had happened with the black book in the dusty room upstairs.
A few times, I probed mentally to see if Avy had any thoughts on the matter, but she too was surprisingly silent mentally.
The small amount of food at least served to placate my own hunger, and Averia's too, and a lot of the fatigue brought by the journey past our breaking points. Whatever had happened, it couldn't take away everything.
Something lingered in the corner of my mind, however.
Avy... you're okay, right?
Yeah.
She would never let me worry, even at our worst.
Okay. Love you, Lu. Remember that.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder in a sort of hug and kissed the side of her head.
I won't forget. Love you too.
I would have worried, and probably freaked out some, over what had happened that day, but with how calm my mother and sister were about it, I tried to mimic their demeanor. It could've been a big deal but I hoped I was taking the proper approach. For the moment, the biggest thing that struck me was a note of strange, brief regret. Had we gotten more answers from the book, maybe it wouldn't be so scary.
I made a note to ask Avy about it later and hoped that she wouldn't immediately shoot the idea down.
"Let's close things up and go home for dinner... we can always come back later this week to look at things a bit more... and more carefully too." Mom said and for once, we both agreed.
