Glimmer

Cael

The black cat was curled up in the middle of the settee. It stared at me with its blue eyes, yawned, licked its paw and gave me a bored look.

"I really like Eyri better," I told it. It responded with another yawn before closing its eyes and laying its head on its paws as though telling me he doesn't care who I like better. I have always wondered why Amarissa prefers sending Eyri off for an errand outside the compound and keep Kieran in. This cat seems to dislike me, unlike the other one and I do not know why.

Amarissa was at her desk going over some papers. I sat on the settee opposite Kieran and simply stared at the sleeping cat. "Why did you send Eyri and not this ball of coal?"

Riss looked up from her papers and chuckled. "Eyri runs faster."

"That's it?"

"Kieran sleeps a lot so he is more capable of storing more energy. I'd rather have the spare energy source nearby. Besides, something that sleeps so much is not suitable for guard duty or reconnaissance."

"He seems to eat a lot too." Keiran opened his eyes to glare at me for that comment. I glared back. "He's not very friendly is he? He doesn't seem to like me."

"Don't take it personally. He's like that to a lot of people."

I came here planning to have an ordinary conversation with her but with things as they are, it looks like that's not happening any time soon. Might as well find out what she thinks about what could happen.

"How is she any way?" I asked pertaining to Amber.

"She's fine. Nothing strange so far."

There was a knock on the door and Ilona pushed it slightly open. "You have a minute?"

Riss gestured for her to come in. "Something wrong with the charms?" she asked after Ilona sat next to her desk.

"Something like that." She then explained that the water in the Sisidlan – the basin that powers the protective charms had been making occasional ripples. It started the other day but the ripples were noticed only yesterday afternoon. "We still don't know what's causing it but it has not affected any of the charms yet. Everything is still working perfectly."

Amarissa told her to continue to monitor it and report any changes. "Find out what's causing it."

After Ilona left, I asked, "Wasn't the other day the day you gave Amber the ring?"

Her fingers pressed together, forming a steeple in front of her, her eyes closed as she whispered an incantation. The scrying glass on her left glowed green, she picked it up and placed it in front of her. Without looking up, she asked me for the time. I turned to look at the clock behind me. It was ten past two. I got up and softly asked if I could look at the glass. She gestured me to do so.

The glass showed Amber sitting on the floor of the lobby of what I believed was the university library. She was working on some bronze wire with a pair of pliers, winding it around a red stone. We watched her for a few minutes and when Amarissa thought she's seen enough, she waved her hand over the glass making the image disappear. "Time?" she asked.

"Two-fifteen," I answered after checking the clock. Riss jotted both times down on a pale blue notepad.

"Do you think she's reacting to Eyri?"

"I'm not sure. That's the second time I've checked on her while she's working with a crystal," she said as she got up. "Some half-bloods emit energy when they're working on something magic related even if they don't realize it. Dari was like that when he made his pendants. Amber's his daughter so she might have the same capability."

I followed her as she started to walk out of her study. As I shut the door behind us, I said, "That image looked like Eyri was right in front of her."

"You've seen the two as cats for so long; you've forgotten they're not really cats."

"Hmmm...It seems I have," I said as I remembered the first time I've seen the two. They were sitting on the terrace of Riss's study. When they saw me, the air around them made ripples as in a heat haze and their bodies slowly turned transparent then faded before they completely disappeared. Like the Cheshire cat except they don't grin and their eyes are the last to disappear.

I remembered her saying before that something about the aunt and uncle bothered her and was going to ask her about it when she said, "I feel like having butterbeer at that new cafe. Want to join me?"

I was dumbstruck. Riss was asking if I wanted to join her for butterbeer. I looked at her suspiciously. "Who are you? Where is Riss and what have you done to her?"

She let out a little laugh and said, "Taking a break, especially asking someone to join me for a break is so not like me, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't. What brought this about?"

She told me how Mira had teased her about being uptight and not taking breaks. "As though she has a right to say that."

"Mira takes breaks when she can. Really long ones at that. Besides, I don't think she really needs to 'cause even if she does her job seriously she takes it easy unlike you."

"You're saying I'm uptight?" she asked with her arms crossed and her left eyebrow raised.

"You can be sometimes. You can be so hard on yourself too."

"Hmmm... Yeah I guess I am." Then she shrugged. "I can't focus like this anyway. So, butterbeer?"

"Sure," I said. "Not that I'm complaining, but why are you asking me to join you?"

"It's nice talking with you," she said with her back to me as she led the way out of the secret garden. "Besides, I'd like to know how your story's going. I haven't heard about it in a while." When the trellis gate shut itself behind us, she turned. "It could help get my mind off things for awhile."

She had a tiny smile when she said that. "Oh and it's your treat," she added.

"Sure, no problem," I said smiling to myself, wishing this would not be the last time something like this happens.