"Kevin, Kevin, wake up," I heard a familiar nagging voice along with a violent shaking as though there was an earthquake. If I didn't know any better I would have thought it was, but this was just my little brother's violent way of waking people up if all had failed. Since I was normally a heavy sleeper I had become familiar with this way of life. My brother was tasked with waking me up, and unlike everyone who treated me like glass after I had been discharged, he shook me like a rag-doll to get me up.
"I'm up, I'm up," I yelled as the dizziness set in along with a nagging mild headache, "what time is it?" I asked him.
"You only got here about thirty minutes ago according to mum. Dinner is ready, mum is starting to yell," he rambled on rushing me out of bed to go and eat. I got up only to fall back in bed, my muscles screaming to avoid exertion. "What is it?"
"I'm very tired, Gary and all my muscles are aching," I complained, "Can't I just have dinner in bed for today?"
"You've been trying to play that card for as long as I can remember. You know mum will never let you have a single meal in bed," he chuckled helping me too my feet. I just had to get through supper, to be free of this day that had refused to end.
My muscles reduced in their war against movement and I was able to get downstairs for supper. "Someone looks beaten up," my dad began.
"Dad, I really wish you could be our coach. This is unreasonable," I said getting into my seat and burying my face in my hands. There was no escaping the dinner table, I knew that, but that didn't mean I had to like every part of the experience.
"I don't understand you when it comes to eating for the sake of building your body. It is literally the best excuse for eating to your heart's content," he said before starting on his plate.
"When you realise you have no choice in the matter and that it is a must for you to eat, things change," I said.
"Although I can't quite say that I have ever seen you this tired in your life," he noted, "and yet I have this you take on a lot."
"Yeah, I have also can't remember the last time I was ever this tired in my life," I said. Now that I thought of it, all of this didn't make sense. Did this simply mean that even before I knew about magic, I was relying on it. I focused on my eating since I wanted to get back to bed as quickly as I could and the rest of the family continued with the small talk that I did my best to contribute nothing to.
Gary then decided to speak up at the end of the meal, "By the way, brother, Sonia came by."
This caught every inch of my undivided attention. I hadn't showed her where I lived yet and she had somehow figured out that were almost next door neighbours in spite of me being careful. I slowly looked up at him from my plate and saw the wide smile on his face, "What did she want?" I asked him in a bored tone. It was taking all I had to keep my cool. Ever since she pulled the piano stunt and tried to turn my friends against in mere minutes of asking her about her ring, I had lost a lot of trust in her. Not to mention she was the one I suspected to be connected to the breach incident in Armensia.
"She said she wanted to know if everything was okay. You guys normally walk home together and today you bailed," he said using a tone most suited for making her look like a victim.
"When was that?" I asked.
"About an hour before you came home. She had chosen to wait for you for that time, but then she realised you might return really late and left. Ten minutes later, you showed up and passed out on your bed with your shoes still on," he explained. It was now my parents who looked worried.
"What's wrong, Kevin? Does this have anything to do with Ryan?" mum asked.
"No, mum, it doesn't. I'm just very tired," I said before standing up to take my plate to the sink and rush off to my room. A couple of minutes after I had happily fallen into my soft bed, I heard the wind pick up by the balcony as if a bird had landed on it. I obviously knew better than to suspect that it was merely a bird. I stood up against all my aching muscles praying this would be the last time I was going to exert myself and unlocked the balcony. There she was looking glorious as always. Now that we had sworn to avoid secrets, she was bound to ask questions almost each time we met. I let Ciara in and locked the door to the balcony behind her.
"Why are you locking?" she asked.
"I don't have the energy to make another trip to this door," I said before painfully making my way back to my bed.
"Kevin, what the hell happened to you?" she asked.
"I can't access my magic, and today was the day that coach decided to punish me with a painful workout," I explained.
"What do you mean you can't access your magic?" she asked. Her surprised tone started to scare me. She knew more about magic than any of us within the artras. If she didn't know anything about my condition, then I would consider myself in trouble.
"I mean just that. All my magic has stopped working. I can't even feel a single slither of magic within me," I told her.
"Just how much training did Bergstrom put you through? You must have been learning a high level spell and your void closed," she said, "but that only happens if you really over exerted yourself and released more magic than you should have been capable of," she explained.
"Can it be fixed?" I groaned from within my bed's covers. Ciara sat beside me laughing before she answered.
"Of course it can. Bergstrom will show you how tomorrow," she said to me before putting her hand on my shoulder and forcing me to turn away from her.
"Damn that Kalifa, I am going to have her reprimanded tomorrow," I whined.
Ciara seemed to have stopped in her movements. Is it wasn't for how tired I was, I would have turned to face her, but I didn't want to risk hurting my stomach. "What's wrong?" I asked wondering why she had stopped her actions. My assumption was that she was here to heal me like she had said she would.
"Did you say Kalifa?" she asked very slowly.
"Yeah, I did. You know her?" I asked still acting casual.
"Unbelievable," I had her whisper.
"I don't the history between you guys, but apparently she asked Bergstrom if she could personally teach me magic," I explained.
"There is no history. I just find her obsession with you constantly annoying," she said before placing her hand on my back.
"Obsession," I mused taken aback by the revelation. "By the way, Bergstrom noticed that I had used healing magic the other time and warned me not to do it again."
"What do you mean not to do it again? Kevin you can barely walk in this state," she complained.
"I'll be better in the morning, I hope," I assured her trying to get her to comply.
"I don't enjoy seeing you like this, you know," she said.
"Yes, I know, but this is all so we can get stronger. If we are ever going to stand a chance of beating Travas, then this is our time to train. I'm sorry that you get to see me like this," I told her.
"Fine, I will hold off on healing you, but I won't hesitate if this persists much longer, she said.
"Okay," I said, a smile spreading across my face, "my suspect was Sonia, you know."
"Are you trying to explain your reason for interrogating her?" she asked.
"Not really, I didn't interrogate her at all. I merely asked her a question I thought might be sensitive and she took it to a whole other level. I didn't even get my answer from her," I complained.
"What was the question you asked her?" Ciara asked.
"I asked her where she got her ring. I have been sensing a weird kind of magic coming off of it ever since the first day we met her at school," I said, "also the ring protects her from all forms of magic including when I stop time. She also knows about me practising magic during lunch time."
"I assume you are telling me this because I am bound by our agreement to keep it all under wraps," Ciara said disappointed.
"How are the artras supposed to be united when there are so many secrets amongst them?" she said, "I knew it was a mistake to swear my silence to you. I might just have to make you reveal a lot of this yourself."
"Ciara what happens if one of us breaks the vow we made," I asked.
"You lose whatever it is you swore upon when you were making the vow. We vowed on our titles, our very powers," she said.
"Ciara, the suspicions I hold about Sonia are only suspicions. Besides, I have noticed something with Jacob," I said. "He cares about Sonia more than he normally cares for other girls he tries to make moves on."
"That is confusing, Jacob hasn't made a single move on Sonia yet," she retorted.
"Exactly, he is taking his time. Normally he would be straight forward, but with her, it's like he's handling glass and that is a first for him. I can't start jumping to conclusions when she could be vital to him. The possibility of her being the partner that Zaraias chose for him is great and if it turns out to be so, we have no right to intervene otherwise we risk losing him," I explained my entire observation of the situation in order to put her issues of my clandestine approach of the matter to ease.
"You have been doing your homework," she said. Sleep was creeping in ever so slowly that I still couldn't tell the time as my internal clock was down.
"Yes I have and I wish I could tell you more right now but I am getting really sleepy," I said to her.
"Okay then, we will continue talking about this later. You can put your investigation on hold. I will handle getting information about Sonia," she said, "the next time you freeze time, make sure you unfreeze me so that I can keep an eye on her. Now sleep, I hope you get better soon. No you'd better show some improvement or else I won't hesitate to heal your injuries. I can't bear all this for too long," she whispered the last part in my ear before everything went deafeningly silent signifying that she had left. Sleep did not hesitate for a second as I passed out almost immediately after she left my room.