Keepers of Aris

Birthday Bonding

Five years later

By this time, the twins have gained a little control over their powers and life, but little did they know that things would spiral out of control once more. Every time they summoned, used, or called upon their powers, the air would fill with the scent of Sargassa blossoms. This made it hard to escape notice. Emotions also played a part in using their powers, strong emotions automatically triggered the bruise colored energy and the strange chill in the air, plus the distinctive blossom smell. They currently escaped notice by saying Mizen was attempting to cultivate Sargassa and having a lot of success. They also noticed the little things, such as having an increased healing rate, and being able to slowly heal others.

"Oooooo," Skyra squealed, "There are sooooo many things that catch the light in this market, it was a good idea to swim along the back-current to this little multitude market."

Mizen replied, "Thank you for your praise, I will meet you all at the market entrance in ten minutes."

Kitane, their mother sternly said, "Mizen, today's a special day, it's your thirteenth birthday. Both of you girls won't get ten minutes."

Skyra and Mizen sighed, "Really?"

"You will get twenty minutes." Their mother laughed.

"Is there anything you're not telling us?" Mizen questioned.

"Well, maybe the fact that you need to stay together"

Skyra and Mizen cried, "WHAT!!!!"

"I will give you twenty minutes, but for that long amount of time browsing alone, I want you to stay together."

Mizen protested, "I can defend myself you know!"

Kitan calmly replied, "You need to stick with your sister, may I remind you two that you are twins, not regular siblings? You have been growing apart and now I'm forcing you two together for once."

They both looked away, it was true, they had different ways to cover up for things, do things, and even the way they thought was different. Mizen was cunning and Skyra was strong. They had different ways to approach things. So they said nothing and went off.

After they gone a little way into the market, they stopped and pretended to look around. 

"Should we split up," Skyra asked, "Mom wouldn't know if we did, right?"

"Mom will find out, she's using her scry spell to spy on us right now. It's a test."

Skyra noticed that Mizen was eyeing the plants that the stall next to them were selling. 

"Mizen, do you want to buy a plant?"

"Maybe." Was all she said.

Skyra quickly swam over and looked at the plants, on their room's windowsill, there were plenty of vines, blossoms, corals, and plants. She noticed a few odd ones that Mizen didn't have and called her sister over. 

"What?" Grumbled Mizen.

"Look at these, do you have them?"

"Whoa, it that a Nyx's Tube coral? They only grow in the abyssal plain, they need no light and they have amazing healing properties. The spiky one over there is Kaza Kelp. It's perfect for fish to hide in, and one of the reasons they are so rare, they are not permitted to be picked without a license."

The stall's owner, a botanist from Sea Seedlings commented, "You sure know your stuff, which one do you want to buy? The Kaza Kelp is twenty silver pearls and the Nyx's Tube is 90 copper pearls. If you buy both, I will give you the special fertilizer recipe for free."

"I'll take both!" Mizen said and handed the pearls over to him. In turn, he handed her the plants and a small shell.

Since paper can't last for long underwater, they used shells instead, they could record messages if they were polished with a special bioluminescent algae inside and enchanted with the right spells. 

Mizen put the seedlings carefully into the plant carrier she always brought with her and then Skyra dragged her off.

"Where should we go next," Mizen said, "The food section, the jewelry section, or the weapons section?"

"Mom will probably be at the food section, and don't we already have plenty of jewels? Lets go the the weapons section."

"Lets go then"

"Wait, I need to buy something here in the plants and animals section."

"You do?" Mizen gasped.

"Mom said we could buy anything so I'm going to buy a pet, perhaps a anemone."

"That's a plant silly!"

Skyra replied, "So I'm going to buy a plant."

After Skyra made her strange purchase, the twins wandered off to the weapons section. In the Ocean Aris, everyone could have weapons, there were bandits. The bandits were wily, smart, and destructive. And they were hard to catch to top it all off. The only restriction for weapon owning was that you had to be thirteen or above to own your own weapon.

In the weapons section, it was quiet, even the fish stayed away. The lone stall was full of weapons. There were daggers, throwing stars, harpoons, bags full of vortex pearls, and magical necklaces that amplified you singing voice and magic. In the underwater realms, voice was important, when you sing, you can make magic. Vortex pearls, when thrown, generated a vortex to stop bandits, after the magic finished, the pearls becomes just another regular pearl. The currency was pearls dipped in gold, silver, copper, or studded with jewels. There was a whole pile of swords and claymores with spears, boomerangs, and weighed nets.

"The stall owner was a soldier from the armory in the capital. When he noticed the girls looking at his wares, he said, "Now what do we have here? If you want to purchase weapons, you need to be thirteen or older."

Mizen said, "We are thirteen."

The soldier smiled and said, "Show me your ID pearls then."

Skyra and Mizen held out their ID pearls, they were pearls studded with rubies. 

"Why you are thirteen! Welcome to the only weapons stall here, my name is Dogan the second, my father was General Dogan."

"Wow!" Mizen exclaimed.

The twins began to start browsing the stall. Mizen bought a set of knives and throwing stars that were enchanted to slice through water as if there was nothing there. It was fifty silver pearls.

Skyra bought both a Calvary sword and a one handed sword that was made of adamant, making it practically unbreakable. It cost one gold pearl and 20 silver pearls.

The twins both bought two bags of ten vortex pearls for forty silver pearls. Mizen bought a bag of 30 amethyst pearls for 15 silver pearls.

After they gathered their purchases, they went to the entrance and waited for their mother. When she didn't show up, the waited longer.

Mizen said, "It isn't like her to be late."

"She probably forgot the time."

A strange screech sounded behind them. They spun around as a face melted out of the wall and lunged. At. Them.