“A transportation potion. You’re a wizard, then.” I was instantly on my guard. Wizards were trouble.
“Yes. I am. I’m trying to get to my friend Temet.”
My breath caught in my throat.
Temet
. Temet was my twin brother, up in the house on the cliff at this very moment. He had been forced to join the Wizardly Order, that prison-like organization for wizards, when he was very young. Two years ago he had escaped it. He and I were living in hiding now because of the Wizardly Order.
“Who are you?” I asked. This could be a trap.
“Aesath!” I turned to see Temet standing above us on the cliff path we used to get from our house to the beach, his eyes wide with surprise as he stared at the man from the sea. “Aesath!” he yelled again, even more excitedly. “How did you find me?” He ran down the path to us. “It has been so long!”
“Temet!” cried the man from the sea. “It worked! It got me to you!
My transportation potion worked!”
My brother reached out and embraced Aesath, heedless of the sand covering the man’s body. “I see you
still
can’t make your clothes transport when you do.”
“You know him?” I asked, still suspicious. “Temet, he’s from the Order.”
Temet released Aesath from the embrace and turned to me. “Cemagna, this is Aesath, the
one
friend I had in the Order. He kept me sane for the ten years I was there. Aesath, this is Cemagna, my twin sister, who is very much alive. Remember when the Order told me she had died? They were wrong.”
I regarded Aesath. He did not look capable of the evils I knew the Order did, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t.
But I let my suspicions go. “If you are sure he means you no harm, Temet, then he is a friend to me as well.” I looked at Aesath sharply. “As long as you don’t intend to drag him back to that horrible Wizardly Order of yours.”
“Never, my lady.” He bowed as if I was a queen. “Not that I could, anyway. He is a semi-faerie, a Halfway. He is stronger than I am. But I have no such intentions towards either of you.”
“Then you are welcome in our home,” I said.
“Come up to the house with us, Aesath,” said Temet eagerly. “We will make you something to eat if you are hungry. You can wash if you’d like, and I will get you a fresh set of my clothes.”
“Yes, please,” said Aesath as Temet ushered him towards the path. I followed, my earlier suspicions having given way entirely to curiosity.
“Temet, I have only heard rumors about what happened on the day you vanished from the Order,” continued Aesath. “The Ten Ring released a statement saying you killed yourself.”
We reached the house, a tall stone structure jutting from the rocks at the top of the cliff, looking like a rock itself. Our mother, Nessy, had found the house abandoned before we were born and settled here to raise us in hiding, away from the Wizardly Order. Temet and I were Halfway, the offspring of humans and a race of faeries. Halfway children were rare; those that survived were rarer; and those that had the combined abilities in Magic of faeries and humans were rarer still.
Temet and I were in that third category: Nessy had hidden us out of fear of the many people who would have loved to get their hands on the only two Halfway children alive.
“I’ll tell you all about what the Ten Ring did,” said Temet, making a face at the unpleasant memory.
Good,” said Aesath, stopping under the stone patio. “Can I wash up first?”
“Of course,” said Temet, handing him one of the buckets of fresh water we always kept nearby for washing. “I’ll bring you some fresh clothing.” He went inside.
That left me with Aesath. I looked at him, my face calm. Even darker eyebrows framed his dark eyes, and all of his features were strong. This man was Temet’s friend from the Wizardly Order. The one who had known Temet when I was far away, during those ten years we were apart. As I stared at Aesath, I put a hand to my cheek, feeling uncomfortable. Why did looking at Aesath suddenly make me worry about my own appearance?
My face was too angular to be human-pretty but not angular enough to be faerie-pretty, the way Nessy had been. I was simply stuck in the middle, human softness and faerie grace equally unattainable. And my hair… well, I
did
like my hair. There was that. I had always been proud of the unusual white-blond hair I had been born with. But I had never had anyone around to teach me the secrets of how human women made their hair the flawless, shiny manes I’d seen in the city. Usually, I just tied my hair back and hoped for the best.
I found myself wishing I had done something special with my hair today.
“So you are his twin sister,” said Aesath, meeting my gaze. “The Wizardly Order told Temet you had died along with your mother. He grieved for you for so long.” He cocked his head. “How could I not have seen the resemblance immediately? I assume you are a Halfway, a semi-faerie, as well?”
Removing my shawl from around his waist, he folded it and placed it, along with his monocle, on a wooden chair. Then, scooping up water from the bucket with his hands, he washed the sand from his body.
“I am,” I said, turning away to give him privacy. “Temet has been teaching me how to use Magic properly. I’m not as good at controlling it as he is.”
“If the Ten Ring had known there was
another
Halfway alive…” He paused, then smiled. “They wouldn’t have slept until they had you in the clutches of the Order. Provided, of course, that they survived the shock and outrage of learning you existed for so long without them finding you.”
I didn’t know what to say. During my years alone, I had often wished the Wizardly Order would come for me, because then I would have been able to see my brother again. The Order didn’t scare me as it scared Temet. Two years ago, I had been tied to an experiment table by a crazed scientist, Duke Von Chi, who wanted nothing more than to copy my Magic into himself, even if he had to kill me in the process. Nothing,
nothing
the Order could do to me could compare to that.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to craft an appropriate response for Aesath, for Temet returned from inside the house, his arms filled with clothing that, without a doubt, would be too short for Aesath. One of the interesting—as well as irritating—side effects of being half faerie was that both Temet and I were several inches shorter than average height.
“Aesath!” he said. “Try these on when you’re done washing. And here is a towel.”
“Thank you, Temet,” said Aesath. “I’m decent, Cemagna,” he added after a pause.
I turned to look at him. I had been right—one of Temet’s floor-length wizard robes didn’t even reach to Aesath’s ankles.
“Come inside,” I said to Aesath. “You must be hungry. Temet and I baked moonfruit muffins last night.” Moonfruit muffins had been Temet’s favorite before the Order had taken him away. He and I recently had been learning how to make them together, the way we used to with Nessy.
Temet held the door open for us as we went inside. I motioned for Aesath to sit down at the table as Temet and I went to fetch the muffins from the kitchen.
We brought the plate of muffins, a pitcher of water, and dishes for serving to the table; then the three of us sat down to eat. Aesath devoured four muffins with gusto, seemingly without taking even a breath in between bites.
“Aesath…” Temet said around a bite of muffin. I could tell he was struggling to find the right words. “Now that you’ve come, ah, I wonder—”
“He wants to know if there is a reason you’re here,” I said bluntly.
“After all these years, I can’t help but wonder, why now?” asked Temet.
Aesath downed his entire glass of water before replying. “I came to warn you that they are looking for you. The war will come to you.”
“What war?” asked Temet.
Aesath leaned back, his tone grave. “The worst kind. A war of Magic.”
About the Author
Stephanie Void spent most of her childhood indoors reading, since going outside meant the sun might kill her. Some of her favorite authors are Edgar Rice Burroughs, J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Patrick O'Brian, and Madeleine L'Engle.
All this reading made her want to write stories herself, so she did.
When she isn't writing, she might be doing one of these other things: oil painting, graphic design, photography, singing, perfecting her Gollum voice for everyone's amusement, or enjoying nature.
Sometimes she mangles some songs with a string instrument and calls it violin playing.
Once somebody thought it was a good idea to give her a black belt and a teaching license in Shindoryu Aikijutsu.
She's from New Orleans, Louisiana but moved up to Boston to eat snow.
She loves hearing from readers; you can contact her at her website: stephanievoid.com.
Books by Stephanie Void
Halfway (Wizards and Faeries #1)
Wanderer’s Shadow (Wizards and Faeries #2)
The Girl, the Woman, and the Wizard (Wizards and Faeries #3, coming soon)
Running from Secrets
The Blue
“Formula for a Galactic Conquest” (short story)
“Music of the Spheres” (short story)