Shadow awoke to the sweet smell of food. No Arroz con pollo! I can define it! I remember it! I remember…
A dark-skinned girl was arguing with their mother…wait no he was adopted. He and his brother were. His brother was arguing with the girl.
Their home was a working-class structure with marble countertops and a glass table where he was drawing a piece of art. His chair was real wood. Scratch working class they were Elite. He was dressed in a blue silk button-down shirt and black jeans. He heard the girl prattle with his brother one of the most conceited males out there.
“Rosa belongs to Carmelo, Ricardo! Leave well enough alone,” said his adopted sister.
Ricardo shrugged and smirked. “What? I was helping her out… with something is all, sis.”
“It didn’t look like nothing, Ricardo. You nearly kissed her! Rosa doesn’t play games,” she cried balling her hands into fists.
Ricardo ignored her and rolled his eyes. “I’m not overstepping besides isn’t it up to Rosa who she goes for?” He kept walking to his room and slammed the door.
The girl turned to him and huffed. “Keep an eye on your brother Manuelito!”
“It's….,” he muttered not looking up from his drawing.
His door was opened and his name was uttered as more of that delicious smell rolled over him.
“Shadow?”
Shadow arose from his state in a crouch, one hand around a dagger ready to throw or thrust whichever came first. His eyes were still foggy with sleep. He blinked the sleep from his eyes to see his target in front of him. How did she get in here? Only Amargaritas are allowed to come in.
“Who are you and why are you trespassing on Amargaritas’ sacred ground”
Zen held her hands up. “I didn’t know this was sacred ground to Amargaritas. As for who I am, I am Zen Amargarita. Nice to meet you…”
He decided to keep his name a secret for now. “Senka Amargarita. I own this place and the forest around it.”
Zen raised her hand. “Oh, well I hope we can get along then as family.”
Senka yawned and ran his fingers through his messy hair. He grabbed her hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you Zen”
Do you know anything about the Amargaritas?”
“Sure! Lots of things! Most can be found in the library downstairs too.”
“I knew they weren’t empty books!”
The door bangs open and both turn to face it.
“Zen, the food….oh you’re up.”
“Yeah no thanks to either of you,” muttered a grumpy Senka, getting up from the bed in his boxers and searching for his pants. “Meddlesome kids.” He turned around and cloaked himself in shadow. “I’ll be right down and we can have dinner. Will there be more of you arriving?”
Zen nodded. “Our brothers. You might remember them better.”
“Great! A house full of brats. Just what I needed!” He sank into the shadows and left.
Stephan looked at Zen. “Not a happy fellow.”
Zen sighed. “You wouldn’t be either if someone barged into your home would you?”
“I let you into my home, Zen, remember?”
“Oh yeah, sorry,” she said sheepishly remembering her stint in the SMVK.
Stephan shrugged. “Come on. Let’s give Mr grumpy pants some help in the kitchen”
Zen turned to him. “How do you know where he went to in this big house?”
Stephan smirked. “His water signal? He can’t hide that even with shadows and he isn’t trying to right now.”
They hear Senka screaming from downstairs.
Zen cried “My rice!” and raced out of the room towards the scream.
Stephan followed worried about dinner.
In D’Angelo’s guesthouse, a woman paced the floor, her hand playing against the ringed fingers of her other hand. It was a lavish room with several armchairs set in velvet and two couches swept against a huge bay window. There were small tables strewn with gas lamps around the room lavishly decorated with creme tablecloths of silk. To the left sat a large Holo V and stereo system while to the right sat a Trans V, the newest in the line of sat communication. It was to this they were paying attention as images of New Arctica kept popping up along with the words clear.
“Todavía no se ha encontrado esa descarada y su hermano,” (We still haven’t found that wretched girl or her brother?) Cecile hounded D’Angelo who was flipping through the Trans Vs channels.
“Todavia no querida,” (Not yet, darling.)Vasquez responded trying to calm his wife who was pacing like a lioness in a cage.
“Son unos inútiles! ¡Busquenla! ¡La quiero muerta!” (You’re a bunch of useless men! Find her! I want her dead!)
“No podemos matar la guardiana del cristal, Cecille,” (We can’t kill the crystal’s guardian, Cecille)D’Angelo murmured as he sat in his armchair and waited on Shadow’s report. That man better have something soon! He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. Bernado sat on the other end of the room thinking about what Armida had told him. He stood and walked over to the cabinet that held the liquor and took some wine out, pouring himself a glass.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Oi pour me one too,” Vasquez said, walking up to him.
Bernado grinned. “What do I look like, a Low? Serve your own hide amigo.”
“Come Bernado, can’t you serve an old friend?”
Bernado laughed and served a glass to Vasquez.
“Those two really want to find my niece and I’m not so sure she should be found.”
“Why not?”
“Heh, that much power in the hands of one of us could be devastating.”
Vasquez nodded. “Cecile just wants her dead. She can’t be grateful that Mariposa has fully recovered.”
Bernado scoffed. “We both know your wife better than that, Kiko. She wants the crystal as well.”
Kiko sighed. “You’re right. She is too ambitious for her own good.”
“I’d be careful with a woman like that.”
“No worries amigo. She won’t harm me.”
Looking at Cecile’s shrewd eyes, Bernado wasn’t so sure.
“No hemos tratado el bosque lluvioso todavía.” (We haven’t tried the rainforest yet)
“No creo que van estar en el bosque Cecile,” (I don’t think they’ll be in the rainforest.)Bernado said, walking back to his armchair and gulping back the wine.
D’Angelo grinned. “She may have a point Bernado. We have searched everywhere else.”
Cecile grinned and her blue eyes met Kiko 's dark ones. “Manda una batalla hacia el bosque lluvioso, marido.”( Send a batallion to the rainforest, husband.)
Kiko sighed and did what she said to keep her happy.
D’Angelo sent another battalion of soldiers to the rainforest and Bernado could only watch restlessly as his family was hunted down. Deep inside Arum bided his time.
###
Zen and Stephan helped Senka to dinner. It wasn’t an extremely difficult task to do for Zen, a Low. She took the Arroz con Pollo out of the heating unit, while Stephan stirred the beans on the stove. It would feed four hungry teens and one hungry man at least. Zen set the table as Stephan turned off the heat on the red beans.
“These are done,” he said, turning to her.
She smiled and nodded. “The same. Now...we eat!”
“Finally!”
She laughed softly and helped him serve himself a big plate. Senka walked in and began to serve himself as well so she followed suit and served herself a big helping as well. There would be enough for Isaias’s bottomless stomach, not that a Low was used to eating much, although that could have changed in the weeks of training he had. Marco didn’t seem like a big eater but then she could be wrong so she made enough for eight people. She walked to the dining room and sat beside Stephan who was happily chowing down.
“This is so much better than pizza,” he muttered while taking a swig of his water.
“Is that really all you eat?” she asked, biting into her food.
He shook his head. “Usually I eat from the crew’s fridge...much healthier but occasionally we eat out of mine. That’s why mine is loaded with junk food.”
She swallowed. “Including the ice cream?”
Stephan grinned. “That was solely mine and you owe me a batch of French Vanilla Ice Cream,” he said pointing his fork at her.
“If I live through this, I’ll buy you one how’s that?”
“Fair enough.”
She turned to her food, taking another bite.
“Are you two dating?” Senka asked, which made Stephan’s eyes widen and Zen almost choked. As it was, some rice had gotten stuck in her throat and she had to wash it down with a whole glass of water.
“Please refrain from saying something like that in front of her brother. I’d like to live a little longer...thanks,” Stephan said.
“So you’re not going out?” asked Senka.
“No!” they both shouted blushing.
“How come you flirt so much then?”
Zen set her fork down blushing while Stephan choked on his water. Zen patted his back and served him another glass.
“Drink,” she said, handing him the glass. He took it gratefully and drank some water clearing his throat.
“What can you tell me about the Amargaritas,” Zen asked Senka, quickly changing the conversation topic. She wasn’t ready to reply as to why she acted the way she did with Stephan and she wasn’t in the mood for soul-searching right then. She rubbed Stephan’s back once more before pulling away blushing slightly. He had a nice back. His contours were delineated. She turned to Senka who was chewing on a chicken wing. He set it down and began.
“Well, the Amargarita go back to Gaia. We were a group of elementals that did not agree with the way that planet was being run, so we staged an uprising but it failed and we were exiled off Gaia.”
Stephan perked up. “You mean the famous uprising of 2398? It didn’t fail! Gaia was reformed for the better after that when the people were awoken to the injustices of the laws the oppressors had them under. My clan was established around that time and the civil war of AnShrank started around then as well. Not that the new government is any better.”
Senka grinned. “Well, I’m glad that my people didn’t fail in their mission at least. The whole family was then banished and we wandered the cosmos before some of us decided to go our own way and landed on Earth hiding our abilities. We married and had children and rebuilt the clan into the hundreds spread across the globe but then the Comet of 2436 hit.”
“I remember my brother speaking about this. It wiped out three states and the impact winter did the rest right?” Zen said as she ate riveted by the story of her other family.
“Yup, and while it affected the states the most, it influenced the world as well. It changed the weather and there was Impact Winter for years. At this time the governments had little control over the people and there was anarchy. The people were a law unto themselves. In 2721 it was an Amargarita who started the old ways of the Dons and the monarchies. Xan, his twin Emerilis, and Richard who was related to the kings of England worked tiredly on two different systems to regulate the people into some semblance of law and order. From them is where the Dons and the Monarchies are born from.”
“You’re saying the Amargaritas were the first Dons in history,” Zen said excitedly. Senka nodded. “Of course back then they weren’t called Dons but Legendarios. They were the right arm of the King and worked with anything that had to do with security and the army. Later the Legendarios and the King split amicably and they became known as the Dons a lot later.”
“So Zen has the blood of these Legendarios,” Stephan asked grinning.
Senka nodded. She is not only descended from the first Legendarios, she is an elemental as well as a human although the Arrio are not one hundred percent human either.”
“What do you mean,” Zen asked, confused. As far as she knew, her mother was a human. So was her uncle or he wouldn't be a Don. It was a rule that all Dons be human.
Senka grinned. “The Arrio hide it but their blood is mixed with Galacticals and Travelers. It’s not a miracle the crystal picked you, Zen, as a guardian. You hold the blood of all three species of the Galactic Trinity.”
“That’s impossible,” Stephan murmured. “She would have shown signs of her element by now.”
“Shadow elementals don’t mature until they are at least eighteen and it could be with her mixed blood, she never evolves but I’m sure her brother has shown signs of his blood. Tell me, does he tend to disappear near or in dark places? Does he move without you noticing at all sometimes?”
“H-he does.”
Senka grinned. “He’s manifesting well then if he hasn’t already and is hiding it.”
She glanced at Stephan. “Is this what he is hiding from me then?”
Stephan nodded.
She sighed. “So if I’m part of royalty why am I a Low?”
Senka shrugged. “Jealousy although most have forgotten their roots. It’s up to us to remind them. We hold birth records, when your brother arrives, we will add you and him to the registry.”
Zen nodded and finished her food.