I was surprised to see that the menu was actually
painted on the door. It was color-coordinated and very stylish, but I couldn’t
read any of it. There were five columns and a listing across the top.
“These are all listed according to flavor.” He
pointed to the one furthest right. “Spicy…” he pointed to the one on its left,
“sweet…” he pointed to the next one, “salty… meaty… and…”
“Kind of sour. It’s like a soy and honey flavor,”
Divina finished. Edward nodded. “And the row across is drinks.”
“Do they have kamitsue?” I asked.
She pointed to one of them and leaned over me
slightly to do so. “What do you want to eat?”
“Meat. Not meat-flavored stuff, just meat. Something
I don’t need to eat with a spatula,” I said. She frowned. “I can’t eat with the
eating utensil.”
“You just have to get used to it. Speaking of
adapting, how is the gravity?”
There’s a lot of it.
“I haven’t thought of it
in a while. I actually like the air better, but pollution is no excuse not to
have television. I’ve missed all my late-night shows.”
Divina patted me on the arm and Edward pulled out the
papers. “Did you get the laws?” she asked him.
He separated a tiny part of the stack and handed her
the larger part. I was able to tell that the writing was vertical and, by the
way she traced her fingers, written from right to left. “What are they?” I
asked as she went further down the list.
“Okay. In Anoshii… Don’t kill. Don’t steal. You need
a license to sell any magic or weapons. You need a title of at least third
degree to sell anything in public. You’re on first degree. Don’t carry
medicines outside your title---”
“Can you just tell me what applies to me?”
She went silent again. Edward filled out papers with
a pen as Divina read rules. “You don’t have to have any minimum title to buy
weapons or magic below class three.”
“Which includes what?”
She paused for a minute to think. “Guns, knives,
daggers, swords, and bows are all okay. Incinerators, atomic bombs, explosives
that reach over a hundred feet, and bio-weapons are not. Protection spells,
elemental spells, curses, and potions are fine. Mind-altering spells are not.”
“Curses are not legal,” Edward corrected.
She shrugged. “That never stopped me. You have to
master the manipulation of fire and you have to be a licensed trainer to own a
dragon. Kiro has one if you wanted to take up his offer,” she smirked.
Yeah, that’s what I needed; a living, giant flame
thrower that can get angry.
“You can’t buy any magic without your mentor’s
permission if you are an apprentice in magic.”
Edward groaned. “They passed that law?”
“Years ago. Don’t be so ancient.” She read through
more. “You must have at least a fifth degree title to invent anything that can
cause genetic mutation or that controls another person’s will, and you must
have it registered within fifty days of creation.”
“I thought Duran was old technology.”
“No. Duran doesn’t have cars, electricity in many
places, or most of the things on your world that cause pollution. We don’t have
wars with weapons that destroy the world. The world is rather peaceful; there
are no mind-destroying religions or nationalism. Rules are put in place for
people, not some government or king.”
“Then what is the king for?”
“He sets the rules the people want and need. You earn
titles like privileges here. The murderers and serious law breakers are
separated and usually forgotten about. Unlike on Earth, people on Duran are not
trying to screw everyone else over.”
“Why can’t Tiamat do anything about that on Earth?”
Divina shrugged sadly. “She can only create the
humans. She gave them free will and they do what they will with it. She can
either let it go on or take it away. Someday, they may end up like sago… if
they don’t kill themselves first.
“Anyway, Duran doesn’t have the same technology, but
it’s far more advanced. However, only those who earned the right to use it may
do so. Anoshii bans magic for the good of the people, but you can earn the
right to use it for certain matters, such as business. That goes the same with
technology. If there was a fight for honor or women or magic or whatever, you
can’t use technology that can hurt each other or others.”
“What, other than the law, stops people from doing
it?”
“Nothing. Just like on your world. The laws make it
very difficult to get a hold of things like that, and they are very strict on
those who do break the laws.”
“Do you know what you want to eat?” Edward asked
Divina without looking up from the packet.
“Yeah.”
Edward pushed the door open and a few seconds later,
a waiter appeared. Divina ordered, Edward ordered, and then Edward ordered for
me, still without looking up. In fact, his face slowly got closer to the papers
as he wrote. The waiter repeated back the order and left.
Edward slid the door shut. “When they talk about the
Jeno period, they mean the second one, right?”
Divina glared at him. “The third! You’re so old,”
Divina said. He ignored her. “I need to look over those when you’re done.” She
looked back at the laws. “You’re not allowed to marry as an apprentice. Your
mentor can stop you from passing or completing your apprenticeship for a whole
bunch of reasons.”
“Have you ever stopped an apprentice, Edward?”
“That’s not my name. I have only once done something
that drastic to one of my apprentices, and I had no other choice. I couldn’t
teach him in prison.”
My eyes widened. “What law did he break?”
“What law didn’t he break?” Divina asked. She leaned
towards me casually and my heart skipped a beat. “He tried to take over the
world. He might have, too, if Kiro and I didn’t put him down.”
“Put him down?” I asked weakly.
“We tracked him down, broke down his defenses, and
destroyed his mind. Kiro hated it. Kiro rescued Kame from Earth. Some crazy guy
had kidnapped Kame when he was only six and killed his parents and older sister
in front of his eyes. He abused the little boy. Kiro found Kame when he was
eleven and brought him back here. He was very powerful but also very unstable
and was already losing his conscience. Kiro tried to save him, but it was too
late. At sixteen, the kid was sentenced to life on Canjii.”
“Stop talking about him like he was bad,” Edward
said. He finally looked up and his expression was irritable. “He was a good
person who was tortured until he didn’t know what was right and wrong. The only
person he ever wanted to hurt was the one who he had every right to kill in the
worst possible way.” He went back to his work.
“You do remember that he tried to kill you, right?”
“I remember that he cried and begged me not to stop
him when he did. You would understand if you ever took an apprentice you
thought would succeed.”
“I always believed in my apprentices,” she said,
insulted.
He frowned at her. “All two of them? Are you
referring to the one you had for six days or the one who mysteriously
disappeared? There’re rumors about what happened to him.”
And then they were arguing in Sudo again, except this
time, they were angry.
About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the
door. Edward and Divina both instantly took neutral expressions and Edward
opened the door. The waiter was back with a large platter of food. After the
distribution was done, I had a plate, a drink, and the little spoon thing. On
my plate were three large slabs of meat that looked barbequed. Edward had the
same thing, while Divina had several different kinds of food on her plate.
As soon as Edward slid the door closed, I happily
pushed the spoon away and picked up my food. Edward did the same but muttered
something the same way he did when eating the yorkie. I hadn’t noticed it at
the time, but I realized he had done it on the ship, too.
“What do you say, Edward? When you eat food, what is
that you mutter?”
“Vios denas. It’s basically saying that if this is my
last meal, let it be my greatest. I was born before the Reformation, which was
a war that lasted many years. During the Reformation, it was common practice to
send poisoned food to your enemies.
“In many small villages, people were suffering at the
hands of those more powerful. Their resources were stolen, their daughters were
married off by the rich for treaties, and their men were forced to fight in
battle. Many families were so poor and hungry that they ate food gifted by
their enemies, knowing it could be poisoned, but too hungry to refuse. That
kind of horror is what finally ended the war, but some traditions prevail even
instinctually.”
“You two have no sense of taste,” Divina said,
expertly eating her weird and colorful food.
I had a feeling she was trying to change the subject
to something lighter, and Edward took the bait.
“Simple tastes are good. One who can eat everything
can eat anything,” he said.
That’s funny; I remembered him scoffing at a
fast-food burger. The meat tasted like any good barbequed meat from my world
and I really liked it.
We sat in silence for a while as we ate and Edward
continued to fill out the form. Finally, he handed me the last page. The bottom
half was empty and he pointed out the middle of the space before handing me the
pen.
“Sign it just as I showed you,” he said. I signed the
symbol slowly but accurately and handed it back to him. “Good.” He then wrote
something underneath it and signed his name under that.
We continued eating while Divina checked over
Edward’s work. She handed it back without having made any corrections.
I found myself staring at Divina’s drink, wondering
what kind of matter was in it. I figured if I saw enough colors, I would
eventually learn to tell what ingredients are in what drinks. Maybe it could
become a habit to check so I wouldn’t actually drink poison for the third time.
“Dylan? You want to tell me why my drink is glowing
green?” Divina asked.
“Because it has plant matter in it?”
“Yes, I know that; it’s tea. Why are you scrutinizing
it, and why are you using so much energy that others can see it?”
“Others aren’t supposed to see it?”
Edward answered me as Divina just laughed. “It takes
a
lot
of power to make it visible to others. Your energy latching onto
the particles is what glows, so when we can see it, that means you’re using way
too much power.”
“Do all potions have the same color? Like, if someone
put a potion in your drink, would you be able to tell what it was, or just that
it was there?”
“Potions are typically a compilation of ingredients.
Divina?”
Divina reached into her bag and pulled out a little
blue bottle. She opened the cork cap and poured a few drops into her drink,
then put the bottle back. “That’s a sleeping potion, enough to knock out a
dragon. Filter.”
She put a sleeping potion in her own drink! When I
gaped at her as if she were nuts, she just nodded to the cup.
“It’s tea,” Edward said patiently. “You already know
what tea looks like, so distinguish the potion from the tea and figure out a
way to filter it.”
I didn’t point out that I already knew how to filter,
because I didn’t know how to filter something like that. I let my energy swirl
around the liquid until it started glowing. The green substance was still
there, but this time it was overwhelmed by a thick, cool blue glow.
“It’s blue,” I said. Instead of forming imaginary
paper, I formed a thin, clear, flexible plastic like cling-wrap. It was easier
to mold around the lining of the bowl. When the energy filter started to rise,
water drained through fairly easily. The green glow, on the other hand, wanted
to stay in the plastic, too. I didn’t try to force it through, just moved
slower. I imagined that the particles of potion would be heavier than tea.
Obviously this was the correct method to separate them, because the green glow
started flowing slowly with the water, and the blue became more concentrated.
The energy started moving sluggish, my head started
pounding, and then my eyes started hurting. Somehow the sleep-inducing potion
was affecting me through my magic. Of course Divina would find something to
complicate my lessons. What fun would a woman have if she couldn’t make a guy’s
job harder?
I stopped the plastic-formed energy from moving or
filtering, which was harder to work with than paper, but at least I wouldn’t
imagine it tearing. I let myself fall into the regeneration spell’s sleep/wake
state. It sounded like the alpha state, but maybe it was a “Guardian state.”
Either way, it was difficult to keep a spell frozen halfway through and stay
half asleep while a potion tried to knock me out.
I didn’t know how much time passed, but it felt like
it was only seconds before I jerked back into full awareness. The filtering
continued before I even realized I was doing it. The sleep potion was
relentless, but its effect was greatly reduced.
Within a few minutes, I was pulling a small glob of
glowing blue liquid out of the tea. Divina held a napkin out to the side. I
moved the drops over the napkin and dispersed the energy, letting the liquid
fall into the cloth.
“Very good use of your magic and you had excellent
control,” Divina said. I felt like a dog getting praise; I was far too happy
just to hear her say she approved.
“Were you able to see the energy?” I asked. “It was
formed like clear plastic.”
“If we tried to, we could have, but it wasn’t
visible, no. It looked like drops of potion floating through the air.”
“In magic, there’s no right or wrong way; everything
is different for everyone,” Edward said. “That being said, you did
exceptionally well.”
I just hope I live long enough to use the magic I
learned.
“Before we go back into public, can we discuss the book again?”