FireSweet

Maji's Story

            My sister, my older sister, she insisted on coming with us.  We had always been close, and though I would never admit, she had taught me all good I knew in life.  She was careful, cautious, but the most brilliant liar I had ever seen.  She laughed when I tried to talk her out of coming with us, asking me who would talk me out of trouble and provide a ready alibi if she wasn’t there?  She got her way of course, telling our parents that she wanted a chance to further her academic career in a new environment.  They ate it up of course; they had always favored her and her silver tongue.  Not that I ever minded, as long as it kept the limelight off me while I was running my stupid schemes.

            My sister disappeared almost the instant we got to Effugere; she was whisked away by the dance lady while us guys were lectured by Lord Pipit.  I went looking for her that night; she wasn’t at the opening dinner, and knowing her obsession with punctuality… I worried for her.  Her cabin was empty, and while my friends thought I was crazy and paranoid, they went with me as I combed the camp for her.  I don’t remember how we ended up in the woods, but I know Jumé spotted the wooden shack first, and the hatch was already open…. We took the fire path.  I assumed that my sister had lit the torches.

            Fame and I searched the cavern for weak spots, Jumé approached the paper, picking the pen up from where it had fallen to the floor.  He slid his glasses further up his nose, calling me over when he realized the handwriting on the paper belonged to my sister.  Yet the name I saw before me wasn’t hers.  It read “Carnation”.

                I took the pen from Jumé’s hands, ignoring his warning that we had no idea what we were doing.  The moment I touched the paper my sister’s signature disappeared.  Other words appeared in its place.

                “What do you seek?”

                Jumé tried to snatch the pen back from me, but I was already stronger than him. I knocked him to the floor, ignoring his protests as his glasses skidded across the stone.  I wrote my sister’s name on the paper, and watched as the letters shifted and slid around again. 

                “I can take you to her.  All you have to do is sign.”

                I signed without another thought, handing the pen to Fame as I pulled Jumé back to his feet and shoved the pen in his hand once Fame was done.  Our names changed, each signature stealing letters from the others until we had three new, yet similar names.  The paper now read:

                Mají-jalio Rose

                          Fame-jujio

         Jumé-falio

                My shoulder burned in pain, and Fame and I watched Jumé collapse on the floor before we passed out ourselves.  We woke up here, in the game, but it was a different sort of game back then than it is now.  It was twisted and dangerous, a true pirate nation.  There were no camps, no structured crews or planned raids, and no rule against killing.

            Of course, we didn’t know any of this, because we had no clue what was going on.  So as soon the three of us were awake we set off looking for Carnie, again.  We ended up stumbling into a group of pirates, the kind most people actually envision when they think “pirate”.   They were filthy, their clothes in tatters and their hair going in every direction, their stench rolled off of them in waves.  I remember trying to decide whether or not it would be worse to breathe through my mouth or my nose. They were roaring with laughter, stumbling about as they sang off key and passed around dingy bottles of rum.