~ Amber ~

Amber heard the bell begin to ring in the morning, and it seemed louder than before.

The events of the previous day had been incredibly exhausting, and it was no surprise to her that it knocked her out by the end of the day. The energy of the other children was incredibly variable, from the quiet enthusiasm of Ribes to the mischievous antics of Cloud to Ginger’s unending energy.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t enjoy the time with others, of course. It was easy to say that the Sanctuary was better than the slave ship they had been brought on, and it had been a long time since she could really say that she had this many people in her age group to talk to. The issue was what happened during breakfast, and how it had so little impact on them. She couldn’t understand how these other kids could keep up their appearances of happiness while knowing the pain Yarrow had to go through. She took a moment to ask Mullein about it, but his statement wasn’t making any sense.

“It’s not like we like it, but when you see it enough times, all you’re able to think is ‘he had this coming’.”

It seemed like an unusually cruel thing for a leader of a children’s group to say, and it left an impact on her thinking. Apparently, she was going to get used to seeing children get taken away for some unspecified painful experience to the point where she would put the blame on them for it, and that thought sickened her. Even if it were an illusion, which was unlikely from how sick Yarrow looked when he was done, the kind of fear they were living in of being ‘the next one to screw up’ was far too much for her to handle.

Thus, the bell she heard no longer sounded like a call to get up, but more like a threat. She had to get up here.

Amber made her way out to the dining area, where she noticed everyone else, including Ruby, was already situated. Opuntia stood up, as did the rest of the children, at her arrival.

“Cutting it a little close, aren’t you?” she asked with her usual smile.

Amber could feel a shiver making its way up her body. Despite the caretaker’s attempt at warmth in her smile, it came across far too cold for its own good.

“I’m sorry if I’m late,” Amber exclaimed, slightly loudly.

“Well, you’re not technically late,” Opuntia conceded, “so there’s no harm done. But try to get in the habit of arriving slightly early.”

Amber nodded before taking the only open seat, between Lily and Ribes. Ruby, who was sitting on the other side of Ribes, whispered behind her back.

“Are you feeling okay?” she asked, “You seemed a bit restless when I woke up.”

Amber nodded.

“Didn’t sleep great,” she admitted, “But I’ll be okay.”

Ruby nodded but didn’t seem to relax at all. Amber then turned to Ribes.

“Do you know when Ruby came out here?” she whispered, careful not to let Ruby here.

“I think she was the first one out,” Ribes answered, “Rubus and I both came out a little while before you did and we heard that she’s been out here for at least an hour.”

Amber’s eyes widened in shock. Ruby had been out here for a full hour?

She must be afraid of Oppie, Amber reasoned, After what we saw yesterday, Ruby’s been convinced that she needs to do everything right in order to avoid her ire.

Amber remained silent as the food was presented to the group. Eggs were once again the choice of breakfast, and once again, they were as bland as before. As Amber ate, a commotion occurred on the other side of the table.

“Prun, dear,” Opuntia’s voice could be heard, “You seem to be eating rather slowly. If you take too long, it will go bad.”

Amber looked over to see the girl her age nod her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry, I’ll try to speed up,” Prun replied.

“You know, you could be more like Ruby over there,” the caretaker noted, “She’s already finished.”

A commotion immediately stirred up as all eyes, Amber’s included, targeted the other twin. As Opuntia had claimed, her plate was empty, and had enough tiny scraps that it was clear it was not just dumped in the garbage, but actually eaten. Looking at Ruby, Amber could see a slightly nervous look on her face, as well as hints of feeling sick.

Did she just force feed herself? Amber thought.

Ruby’s strange behavior continued to nag at her throughout the day. While it was natural for her to be afraid of screwing up, like Amber was, Ruby seemed like she was almost forcing herself to go beyond the basic expectations that Opuntia had for the children, all for the sake of avoiding punishment. After lunch, she decided to ask about it.

Ruby had left after lunch and headed back to the girls’ bedroom. Knowing that Ruby wasn’t one to take naps, Amber simply waited in the dining area until Ruby returned.

However, after fifteen minutes Ruby still hadn’t returned, and Amber decided to go check on her. Luckily, Ruby was simply sitting at the foot of her bed, lost in thought. Hoping to get her attention, Amber knocked lightly on the door.

“Amber?” Ruby asked, prompting Amber to walk in.

“Hey, are you doing okay, Ruby? You’ve been acting pretty strange recently.”

The girl in question sighed, shrugging.

“I don’t know. It’s difficult to deal with everything that’s going on, you know? Feels like everything’s been tossed at us so fast.”

“I know what you mean,” Amber agreed, “Hard to believe it’s only been three days since we were on that slave ship, and Jasper…”

The rest went unspoken, leading to an unusually awkward silence between the two. Thankfully, it was interrupted by a hesitant knock on the door.

“Hello?” Amber replied.

“It’s Lily,” a cheerful voice replied, “Can I come in?”

Amber looked Ruby in the eye, and the latter shrugged.

“Sure thing,” Amber called.

The door opened to reveal the young girl, looking somewhat timid.

“Hi Amber,” the girl waved shyly, “Hi Ruby.”

“Hello, Lily,” Amber responded sweetly, “What’s wrong?”

Lily suddenly gained a slight panic in her eyes and started shaking her head rapidly.

“Oh, nothing’s wrong,” she insisted, “I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Well okay. Sit down over here,” Amber pointed to a vacant spot on the bed, which Lily promptly sat down on.

“You two are sisters, right?” Lily confirmed, to which both older girls nodded.

“Yes, we are,” Amber answered with a smile, “Twins, as a matter of fact.”

“Twins?” Lily repeated, “That’s so cool!”

Even Ruby couldn’t resist a smile at Lily’s enthusiasm.

“It really is,” Ruby agreed.

“Yup,” Amber reiterated, “We don’t always get along, but neither of us can imagine life without the other in it. We look out for each other, like all sisters should.”

Even in the dim lighting of the bedroom, the shine in Lily’s eyes was blinding.

“You do? You’re always together? You would never leave the other behind?”

“I’m not sure we could if we wanted to,” Amber joked, “But I know for a fact that I would rather die than let my sister be hurt. And, though she wouldn’t readily admit it, I know Ruby feels exactly the same way about me. We’re like two halves of one whole, you could say.”

Sure enough, Amber saw Ruby blushing slightly out of the corner of her eye.

“How do you just come out and say that so easily?” Ruby protested.

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Amber giggled at Ruby’s embarrassment, while Lily’s eyes shone even brighter.

“Then,” Lily started, “Can I be your sister, too?”

Amber looked back at Lily, startled.

“You want to be what?”

“I want you to be my sister! Then you can be nice to me like you are to Ruby!”

Amber looked at Ruby, who still looked like she wanted to hide, then looked back to Lily.

“Are you sure you want someone like me?” Amber asked, “I mean, I’m sure Prun would be happy to be in my place, too.”

Lily shook her head.

“No, I want you,” Lily repeated, “You would actually be my sister. Prun, um, isn’t like that.”

Amber’s mouth fell open slightly, and her eyes remained wide. After a moment, she collected herself, and gave the idea some thought. Would it be so bad to take Lily under her wing? She and Ruby hadn’t been there for very long, but she had already taken a liking to the young girl and her boundless enthusiasm. Over time, she wouldn’t have been surprised if she had come to feel the same way eventually as it was, and something about Lily told Amber that the precocious child could really use all of the emotional support she could get.

“Okay Lily,” Amber declared, “I’ll be your sister, if you do one thing for me.”

Lily tilted her head, and Amber couldn’t help but think it was incredibly adorable to see the girl in such an inquisitive state.

“What is it?”

“Ruby gets to be your sister, too,” Amber finished with a smile.

The girl in question looked over at Amber in alarm, while Lily began jumping for joy.

“Yay!” she cheered, wrapping her arms around Amber as tightly as possible, “I love you, big sister!”

Amber simply giggled, wrapping her arms around Lily as well.

“Hey Ruby,” Amber addressed the lone other girl in the room, “Come join this group hug!”

Ruby gave her a long look, before sighing and wrapping her arms around the duo.

The three held the hug for what felt like an eternity, before the door opened in a rush, revealing Ginger slightly out of breath.

“Hey, guys!” she exclaimed, “We’re practicing our magic. Want to come watch?”

“Magic?” Ruby replied, dropping the hug, “Like, with cards?”

Ginger tilted her head.

“Cards?” she asked, “How do you do magic with cards?”

“Well, then what do you mean?” Amber returned.

“Well, this.”

Ginger held out her hand. Out of nowhere, a ball of water about an inch thick appeared, suspended in the air.

Amber felt her jaw open, and she could feel Ruby grab her hand incredibly tight. She had never seen such a phenomenon before in her life.

“Is that water floating?” she asked, slowly.

Ginger nodded, before letting the water disappear.

“That kind of magic. Make sense now?”

Amber shook her head.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” Ruby admitted, with Amber nodding in agreement.

Ginger froze and looked at the pair, while Lily tilted her head again.

“Really? You’ve never seen any magic before?” she asked.

Both twins shook their heads at this. After another moment of silence, Ginger beckoned the trio to follow her.

While walking, Amber attempted to process what she had seen. While she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to expect when Ginger initially said ‘magic’, she had assumed it was sleight-of-hand, much like was commonplace back home. She always enjoyed going to magic shows with Jasper, even if Ruby more often than not stayed home with their parents. In fact, she had always wanted to learn how to do the impossible things they could.

However, Ginger had provided a different answer to the question. The magic she showed was more akin to the kind she had read about in children’s fantasy novels, where actual power was being used to manipulate reality. However, everything she had read about in books was apparently just made up. People couldn’t actually do that, she was told. For the first time since she learned Santa wasn’t real, she was beginning to question if Jasper had lied to her all this time.

I’m definitely going to be talking to Ruby about this later, she concluded.

Once the group reached the living area, Ginger sat them down on the couch and called over the other present orphans, which turned out to be everyone except for Yarrow, Rubus, and Ribes.

“Hey guys, Amber and Ruby have never seen magic before. You want to show them?”

“Wait, they haven’t?!” Cloud exclaimed, “How is that possible?”

“Cloud, watch yourself. You didn’t learn about it until you came here either,” Prun scolded.

“But Prun, they’re older than me!” he complained.

“Not by much. Now sit down and listen to Ginger.”

Giving a pout, he complied. Ginger laughed at his antics before turning to Mullein.

“You want to start?”

“Certainly,” he accepted with a smile.

He stood up from his seat on the carpet and walked over to Amber.

“Is it alright if I touch your arm real quick?” he asked calmly.

Amber tilted her head in confusion before holding her arm out. Mullein put a finger right below her elbow and touched her.

“Ow!”

Amber immediately retracted her arm, a brief but sharp pain running up to her shoulder. While it didn’t last very long, it left a very distinct tingling sensation behind.

“Sorry about that,” he immediately apologized.

“It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt,” she quickly forgave, “Was that an electric shock?”

He nodded.

“You’ve never seen magic, right?” he asked, “Then maybe we should explain how things work.”

Amber nodded slowly, still wondering what was going on. It wasn’t like electric shocks were hard to perform on someone; it was one of the most common pranks among her age group. However, this one felt a little stronger than most of the ones she had felt during her life. It was at least twice as painful as the ones she would feel on slides at playgrounds when she was a child.

“Firstly, as far as we know anyone can use magic,” he began, “But that doesn’t mean everyone can use the same kind. Ginger, you showed them your magic, right?”

Ginger nodded, prompting a “Not fair!” from Cloud.

“She can use water magic, and only water magic. I’m not certain, but I think my magic is lightning,” he continued.

“Electricity, maybe?” Ruby pondered.

“Not sure what that is, but if it’s similar to lightning that might be it. Anyway, what kind of magic you can use is based on what your parents could use. Bloodline, essentially.”

Amber nodded in understanding, though she was unsure what that meant for the twins, whose parents couldn’t use magic.

“What other kinds of magic are there?” Amber asked.

“Cloud? Want to show them yours?” Mullein requested.

Cloud bounced up with a massive smile and held out his hand toward the girls. For a moment, they didn’t feel anything at all.

“Wait, is that…?” Ruby noticed.

A slight breeze had come over the room, in the direction of the twins. Amber couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but it was blowing her hair up. She couldn’t deny that what she was feeling was legitimate.

“Are you controlling the air?” Amber guessed.

“Correct!” Cloud shouted.

“Cloud, quiet,” Prun scolded.

“Anyway, Prun can use water magic like Ginger. On top of that, there’s fire and earth magic, which no one here can use.”

“Why not?”

“Fire magic is tied to noble bloodlines,” Mullein explained, “Ever since King Sage discovered his magical abilities, he did his best to ensure that only the highest class of society was capable of it. It was almost like a symbol of power to have fire magic.”

“King Sage? Who’s that?” Amber pressed.

“King Sage I was the second king of Aurem, back when it was barely the size of a colony. He is responsible for the largest expansion of territory in the history of the Kingdom. At least, that’s what we’ve been told,” Prun cut in.

“Oh, okay,” Amber murmured, somewhat impressed.

“Earth magic isn’t special or anything, by the way,” Mullein continued, “It’s just that no one around here uses it.”

“No one mentioned what kind of magic Lily can use, by the way,” Ruby pointed out.

A short silence fell over the room as the girl in question looked up with a slightly depressed look.

“Actually,” she said, “I can’t use magic.”

“You can’t?” Amber repeated, “Why not?”

“It’s not unusual for people to have trouble with it,” Mullein informed them, “But usually they’re able to at least interact with magic in some way. Like create a ripple in water without touching it, or something small. But in Lily’s case, she can’t even connect with any of our elements.”

“Don’t go looking down on Lily, by the way,” Prun ordered, wrapping her hands around the little girl, “She’s perfect the way she is.”

Lily giggled at the affection, while Amber put her hands up defensively.

“Hey, hey, don’t get the wrong idea,” she said, “We can’t use magic either. Why would we look down on her for something so trivial?”

“Want to try?” Mullein asked, “We can figure out which element you are.”

Ruby nodded first and stood up to try.

“Okay, let’s start with water,” the older boy instructed, “Put your hand out like this, relax, and attempt to will water to gather in your hand.”

Ruby copied his movements, closed her eyes, and began taking deep breaths. Amber could tell that she was trying to relax, though it seemed like it would be incredibly difficult given everything that had happened. Her face seemed incredibly serene, like it was completely clear, but the rest of her muscles were still laced with tension. Despite this, she managed to stay completely still as she attempted to form the water. However, after several minutes, nothing formed, and she finally gave up.

“Did you feel any connection?” Mullein asked, “If you did, we’ll know where to start.”

“Not really sure what I should be feeling,” Ruby replied, “But I can’t say I felt different at all.”

“You’d know if you felt it,” Mullein said, “So it’s probably not water. Why don’t we keep trying?”

Unfortunately, Ruby was unable to form a ‘connection’ with any of the four elements that Mullein presented. Even after an hour, none of the elements that Mullein talked about bore any fruit with Ruby, and they were left at an impasse.

“Should I try?” Amber asked, “Maybe I can make it work.”

Mullein shook his head, declining the offer.

“We don’t have another hour to waste on this. You two have the same element, whatever it is. Unless, of course, you weren’t related. Not sure anyone could look at the two of you and come to that conclusion, though.”

“Well, are there any other elements?” Amber pressed.

Mullein stopped and thought for a minute.

“Well, there’s fire, but you’re not nobles, right? Other than that, there are rumors.”

“Rumors?”

“There’s some kind of ‘extra-elemental’ magic that may or may not exist. That is, magic outside of the five standard types. However, there are no reports of any person or bloodline that still exists that is also capable of extra-elemental magic of any kind. All recorded cases, at least in Aurem, are elemental in nature.”

“What kind of extra-elemental magic is there?” Ruby inquired.

“No one knows,” Prun cut in, shrugging, “It’s just an umbrella term used to talk about weird forms of magic that no one can explain. Maybe someone has an idea what such magic could be, but since every person in Aurem is in the elemental spectrum, it would need to be someone from outside. And before you say the Empire, I grew up there for over ten years. Extra-elemental magic is just as much a myth there as it is here.”

“I see,” Amber murmured.

If extra-elemental magic existed, could that be the kind of magic her family could use? After all, they were from far, far away, and the paternal nature of magic didn’t apply to them as a result. The problem was, since it was such a broad term with so many potential meanings, it was impossible to even know where to start with learning it. What would such magic even look like, anyway?

“Well, just because you can’t figure out what kind of magic you can use doesn’t mean you can’t use it at all,” Mullein reassured, “None of us first found our ability in one day, let alone an hour. Let’s keep trying, we’ll figure it out eventually.”

“I hope you’re right,” Amber admitted, “It seems like it would be really cool to do.”

“It’s okay, Amber!” Lily piped up, “You and Ruby and I can be no-magic buddies.”

Amber looked down at Lily and smiled. The girl had a talent for finding the glass half full even when the liquid was as clear as air, and that optimism clearly permeated the entire Sanctuary.

“That sounds good, Lily,” Amber gently replied, “I would love to be your no-magic buddy. And I’m sure Ruby would, too. Right?”

“Huh?” Ruby stammered, surprised to be pulled in so fast, “Uh, yeah, of course.”

Amber nodded, her sense of inferiority from lack of magic slowly fading. It would happen someday, she hoped, but until then they would be able to share it with Lily. That, more than anything, was worth it.