Chapter 2

The City of Halcyon is a city...by the sea. All the players are introduced in this chapter, except for the seer who is to bring the doom.

CHAPTER 2

            Just breathing in the night time air of the place, sent chills down her spine.  It was odd, to be back in the one place she had vowed to never return.  Yet she had.  She had returned for the good of the planet.  The whole planet was depending on her.  It hadn’t really occurred to her that way when she had accepted this mission, but as she had trekked across the mountains and through the valleys, the reality of it all had finally hit her.

            Halcyon, her own personal hell. If she didn’t save this child, would also be the hell of every person on the planet.  Just great.        She sighed.  That was really becoming a habit. She would have to see someone about it when she got back.

            The distinctive sound of laughter rolled loudly, slowly out the doors of the local bar, The Seven Forty-Seven, and drifted down the street.  Things hadn’t changed at all. The Seven Forty-Seven had been a hotspot back when she was a girl and was still a hotspot now apparently.  That gave her an idea.

            Turning, she walked back to the bar doors, exhaled, it sounded better than sighing, and entered.  Only one or two people paid any attention to her.  She figured no one would, since there was usually a good thirty or more unknown people in and out of town every week or so. To them, she was just another person who had come because of the legends.

            See, Halcyon wasn’t just called Halcyon because someone thought it was a nice name for a sea town.  It was called Halcyon because years ago, around the time when the city was built, there was a tale of a great bird, the kingfisher.  When the city was built, there was always a storm rolling in.  Every night, a tide would rise so high, it would dare to wipe the city out.  There were arguments that the building of the city had angered some god.  Local shaman claimed that the city was built on magical ley lines.  Of course, no one believed that.  No one believed it until one night, several of the building were wiped out by a ferocious tidal wave.  The shamans had preyed and preyed, and as they did, a bird, a giant bird, swooped down out the sky. As its wings touched the water, the tidal wave almost instantly ceased.  The waters stayed calm for days after that.  No more disasters.  Everyone believed it was a Halcyon that had calmed the seas, and thus, in honor of the great bird, the city was so named.

            “Can I help you?”  The bartender, a plump little man with a receding hairline and beady little eyes stared at her like she was an infection. She recognized him instantly as the guy who used to chase her away from staring in the windows.  Obviously, the recognition didn’t go both ways.

            “Actually you can.  I used to live around here.”

            “Never seen you before.”

            “I was an orphan.  I moved away when I was about sixteen.”  He studied her than, as if still trying to remember. 

            “Hmm.”  He gave up and turned to wiping down the bar.  “So, what do you want?”

            “I’m looking for someone. A girl. She should be about a few years younger than me.  More than likely, she had two distinctive features, white hair and white eyes.”   

            “Well now, those definitely are distinctive features.  Freaky ones at that.”  A patron called his name and he held up a hand.  “No one in this town looks like that and trust, if they did, I doubt they would for long.  You say you’re from around here, orphaned.  If so, you know that anyone who don’t fit the mold is shunned something bad.  I doubt your friend is here.  Sorry.”  With those last parting words, he walked away to the awaiting patron. 

            Lily walked out the bar.  He was right.  How could she have forgotten something like that.  Halcyon didn’t take kindly to unnaturalness.  The girl had probably dyed her hair, and there were always ways to change eye color.  Shaman magic. Spells.  This was just fabulous.  Now she would have to work double time to try to figure out a way to find this girl before it was too late.

            She looked at the sky.  She had to meet Jalil in the morning.  Her best bet was to get a room and call it a night. With one last look at the night sky, Lily shook her head and sighed, yet again.

 

 

ô         ô         ô         ô

 

            “Do you feel that?”

            “Feel what?” Her annoyance was evident.  It was visible in the way her blue-green eyes flashed when she gave him her usual, annoyed look.

            “Come on Ai, don’t pretend like you didn’t just feel that?”  His determination was what had attracted her to him in the first place.  His features, well, they were beautiful, he was a handsome man.  But beauty wasn’t everything, something Aileen Portman knew for a fact.  Her own beauty didn’t always get her everything she wanted, but it had gotten her “Prince” Lucien Roe. Prince of…well, he was a prince of charm, of deceit, and the prince of the night, if nothing else.  Really, Lucien was nothing more than a common thief.  He was the local shaman, the last of them actually, in Halcyon.  He did have the gifts, he just didn’t use them like he was supposed to.  Instead he told people what they wanted to hear, lies he plucked from their very minds so that he could take their money.   Anyone who had met a shaman, who knew about Shamanism, knew that even though it was believed shamans could tell the future by just looking at a person, by touching them, it was far more difficult.  Shamans only see what they are allowed to see, what comes to them.  It’s not something they can control.

            “What is it you think you felt Lucien?”

            “A change in the air.  Someone is in town.  Someone with power.  Although, it feels like two instead of one.” That caused Aileen to sit up.  The sheet falling to her lap, revealing a cotton top.  Instantly, Lucien’s concentration was snapped. His eyes went to her chest like heat seeking missiles to it’s mark.

            “How strong?”

            “Hmm.”

            “Lucien!” She jerked his head upward so his eyes were on her face. “How strong are the feelings?”

            “Um…” his eyes drifted.

            “Lucien?”

            “Yeah.  One’s really strong and the other is strong enough to feel, but not strong enough to worry about.”

            “But one of them is?”

            “Yeah.” His eyes were once again on her chest.  His hand stroked the sheet to her flat stomach.

            “Stop that!” She slapped his hand, threw back the sheets, so they landed across his hand, and rushed into the bathroom.  The door was firmly shut and locked by the time he detangled himself.

            It opened about ten minutes later.  Aileen dressed in her favorite garb, a red peasant blouse, black pants stuffed inside black boots, and a black scarf around her neck.  Lucien took half the time she had.  She was in the kitchen eating a baguette smeared with butter, when he entered wearing all black.  It went well with his black hair and dark brown eyes.  He looked mysterious.

            “So, can you still sense the presences?”

            “Yes.”

            “Good.  Let’s go.”  She strolled out the door, Lucien on her hills.

 

 

 

ô         ô         ô         ô

            Lily shifted restlessly from one foot to the other as she waited impatiently in front of the Narimi Fountain. Jalil had said morning, he just hadn’t said how early or how late, so she had arrived here a little after sunrise.  It was getting ready to be midday, and he was nowhere to be seen.

            As she stood, her mind wandered to another day she had stood before this very same fountain. It was the day she first meet Violet.

            The sun had been shining beautifully.  It was a fabulous day seeing as the past two had been nothing but clouds and gloom. She had been a mean, vindictive little kid of thirteen at the time.  If you asked the lady that ran the orphanage, she would tell you, she ran the orphanage operation, while Lily ran the orphanage girls.  She was their leader. 

            Lily and some of the girls had been out, pick pocketing, the usual, when they spotted an unknown woman standing before the fountain.  She was dressed almost like a nun, her head covered. She looked like one too.  Her hands were clasped together before her, her head was bowed, eyes closed.  Lily had been planning to pick the woman’s pockets, but instead, she had walked up to her and said, “I hope you ain’t praying to God, cause he ain’t gonna answer. He never does”.  And that was how she had met Violet. 

            Violet had opened her eyes, looked down at he in surprise and responded back.

            “Maybe he does and you just haven’t paid attention to the little things he does instead of the big things.”

            “Hmm. Believe what you want.” Just as Lily had turned to walk away, a hand grabbed hers.  “Hey! What are you doing you crazy lady? Let me go.”

            “You have some very strong abilities little girl.”

            “Wh-what?”

            “Your abilities. They are strong. Tell me, do you know how to control them?”

            “And what if I don’t.” Lily yanked her hand back and hurried away.   

            “I can teach you to control them!”  That one sentence.  That one statement was the change of her whole life.  

            “You are the one the Sisterhood sent to collect the girl?”  She was so tuned into her own mind that she hadn’t heard the person come up behind her.  Jalil, the spirit was in yet another body. He was handsome, but that was to be expected for a being from the spirit world.

            “I am.  Lily Valentine.” Lily extended her hand.