Chapter 9: Jasper: Don’t Mess with me Leo

Today was the day. The day Clark and I had waited for since our first specialization test when we were five. Today was our seventh birthday and time to start our specialization classes. We started school when we were five just like humans, but unlike humans we were broken up into magic classes. Since Clark, Annea, and I were elementals we attended the Royal Lessons. From our first day in class they had been putting us through trial after trial, attempting to find where our specialization would lie. Day one I knew where my specialization would lie. Before I had started school the only thing that comforted me had been when my mother sang. She too was an elemental, with a specialization that lied in music. I always knew I wanted to be like her and now I had the opportunity to. I wasn’t going to let her down.

            Annea met Clark and I outside. She gave a terrified smile to the two of us. She was the only one in our birth year to specialize in alchemy. The only one in nearly a thousand birth years to specialize in alchemy. We had no idea what that would mean as far as her training. I wrapped her in a quick hug wanting to reassure her that it would all be okay. I grabbed her left hand and Clark grabbed her right and off we went. To face our future.

            The palace loomed above us as we prepared to enter. The red brick sires loomed above us casting eerie shadows. The place was larger than life and everything down to the old oak draw bridge screamed intimidation. Clark pushed open the doors and the three of us stepped into the busy entry way. A beautiful old woman approached us, she hardly acknowledged Clark and I as she swept Annea away from us. Annea shot me a tentative smile as she disappeared around the corner. Clark and I exchanged our twin look. It was a weird thing we shared. Whenever we looked at each other like that it was an instant knowing of what the other was thinking. This time we were torn between going after Annea and finding where we were supposed to go.

            We started down the hallway where Annea had just been dragged off. The brick hallway walls were covered in the royal penates, posters encouraging students to get involved, and lots and lots of doors leading to place we couldn’t even imagine. A student a few years ahead of us confronted us and directed us to the first year musical specialization, the fifth door on the left. Clark and I thanked him and continued down the hallway to our classroom.

            Clark opened to door to the large room. It was filled with every instrument imaginable as well as multiple music staff lined chalk boards. In the center sat a round table with six chairs. One of the chairs was already occupied by a frightened looking little girl. I recognized her, she lived a couple blocks over, but I couldn’t remember her name. Clark slid in next to her and started to chat her up. They talked for a while till another boy came into the room. He had brown untamable curls pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He wore the traditional royal uniform of black pants, white long sleeve, dark blue royal crested vest, and black sports coat. He introduced himself as Quincy and slid into the seat on the other side of the girl, she introduced herself as Kim. We sat around and talked about different things as we waited for the last two seats to be filled.

            The clock struck a half past nine when the door flew open. A scatterbrained looking old man flew into the classroom and set his shuffled papers in front of one of the seats. “Small birth year,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled a chalk board over towards the table. He spun the board so that the blank side was facing us. He began quickly scratching things out on the board. Dust flew everywhere as he quickly wrote.

            “Alright, I am Dr. Carpel. I will be your mentor from now till you are officially assigned positions in society. And this is…” he searched around the room, “Where the f**k is he?” Just as the last syllable slipped from his lips the door flew open and a boy with firecracker red hair flew through the door. He ran a hand through his spikes as he apologized to Dr. Carpel for being late. He took the seat next to me and waited for Dr. Carpel to continue.

            “Well, this is Leo,” Dr. Carpel continued, “he will be your student mentor for as long as you want him to be. He is ten and extraordinarily gifted. He has already completed the program, but has chosen to be a mentor rather than taking a job position yet.” Leo waved at all of us. “Now without further questions, let’s get started.”

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The door to my hotel room flew open, Leo rushed in completely out of breath. I had been laying on the bed reading my very warn copy of A Tale of Two Cities. It had been Annea’s favorite, most of the dog ears and highlights were her. I never went on the road without it.

            “Annea…” Leo whispered to me. I assumed he was referring to the book.

            “You know I never go anywhere without her,” I replied and returned to my reading.

            “Jasper, no, it’s… it’s Annea,” his eyes were frantic as I looked up to meet them, “I saw her. I didn’t want to say anything about it until I knew for sure. But Clark and I have been talking and …” I cut him off with a raise of my hand and a look of disbelief. Annea. My Annea. Alive? She had been gone sixteen years. Sixteen years of most of the protection agency searching high and low for her. Sixteen years of waking in the middle of the night, still feeling the warmth of the one night we were together. Sixteen years of missing every fiber of her being. Sixteen years of reminding myself to breath.

            “You’re f*****g with my head Leo,” I folded the already creased corner of the page. “Stop, please, don’t bring this up now.” Why would Leo do this to me? Every once in a while Clark liked to try and convince me he’s seen Annea, usually it’s after I’ve reprimanded him for something. It’s his way of crushing me, they all know she’s still in my thoughts every moment. I couldn’t believe Clark would get Leo in on this.

            “Jasper, you know me better than this!” Leo came over and shook me. “Jasper, it was her aura, I’d know it anywhere!” I stood up from the bed and walked over to the window. I placed my hand on the glass and looked down at the traffic. Could it really be her? My Annea? Alive?

            “Why didn’t you confront her!? Why didn’t you bring her home?!” I blew up at Leo. If it really was Annea, she would have come with Leo no questions.

            “Well… I did,” he looked at my sheepishly. “She told me her name was Charlotte Anne Meres. But… But Jasper wait!” I turned my back to him and flopped on the bed. I should have known better than to get my hopes up. “She could have been brainwashed by whoever took her! I know it’s her. They tried to cover her aura but I saw through it. I swear it’s her” I was about to respond with a snarky comment when Clark walked in with a bag thrown over his shoulder.

            “Alright here’s all the applications,” Clark through the bag down on the bed. Leo immediately started digging through the bag. Triumphantly he pulled out a large envelope. In the top left corner it read Charlotte Anne Meres.

            “Ha! Here it is!” Leo shoved the envelope into my hands. I slipped the DVD out of the envelope and into the DVD player. On the screen appeared the girl from my dreams, blonde hair tumbling down her back, lips plump just as the last time I had kissed them, aura the same patterns of gold and pink, but there was something that wasn’t like Annea, the eyes. Rather than the emeralds I was used to seeing, they were the same ones that stared back at me when I looked in the mirror.

            “I have to meet this girl.”