I ran back to my parents' street, but I approached Aria's home instead of my parents'. I rang the old doorbell and waited. Aria eventually opened her door, and I was surprised by what I saw. She was wearing a sleeveless golden sequined dress that was a little higher than her knees. She wore exquisite beige wedge sandals.
"Uh, hi," I scolded. She did look very beautiful, but I need to cut to the reason why I came here. Aria smiled at me, which annoyed me. She opened the door wide and signalling for me to come inside, so that's what I did. Her house was very beautiful, it was made of brick and looked very old. Vines and indoor plants filled up the empty brick walls. She had amazing artworks framed in gold and hung up on the walls. I followed her into her living room, which was basically a soft brown couch, a coffee table and an enormous amount of books.
"No TV?" I asked curiously.
"I find TV is a waste of one's time." She said sitting down on the couch. "So, why are you here Valkyrie?" She asked me, in her rich Australian tone; It really was so gorgeous...no, had to focus on the magic.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you were showing my little sister earth magic?" I complained.
"That's why you came here?" Aria asked, laughing.
"You realize that it's against the law to show someone earth magic, don't you? You can get arrested!" I fumed.
"Woah, no need to shout. Why are you so defensive about it anyway?" She asked me.
"It's... a long story," I signed.
"Well, we have some time to talk about it, and I am known to be a great listener." She sympathized, patting the spot next to her on the couch.
"Fine." I said murmured, sitting down on the leather couch where Aria's and was, "So, I am part physic; And I've had a vision of my sister when she's older, around sixteen; And she was preparing for some sort of big battle, and I'm not sure if she was on the good or evil side of the battle. So, I don't want her learning any magic, to avoid any parts of that vision."
"Wow, that's so dramatic; I get why you're so sensitive about it, but no one can just simply learn magic just by showing them what we can do. So, you have nothing to worry about." Aria confirmed, sitting up and heading into another room; I stood up and followed her out of curiosity.
She was kind of right, Alice couldn't possibly learn magic from Aria just showing her earth magic; I guess I was just being overprotective of Alice and that stupid vision. She entered her bedroom; It was full of more plants and artworks.
"You must really love nature, huh?" I asked her, observing the plants.
"Oh no, I absolutely hate plants!" She stressed sarcastically. There was a five-second pause and then we both burst out laughing.
"Sorry, stupid question," I giggled. "let me ask you a better one." I rummaged through my mind for good questions, "So, why are you here?"
Aria opened her closet and took out a jewellery box and put it on her bed; She started to take out some bracelets and necklaces.
"You might already know, but I was born in Australia." She announced, slipping on a golden bangle bracelet.
"Yeah, I can tell by that accent of yours," I answered smiling. She smiled back.
"I grew up in Sydney and loved music from the moment I heard my first song. Ever since then, I felt as if I had some sort of...weird bond with music; I started writing songs from age thirteen. It got a little-recognized in my city, I went to a few gigs here and there. That's not my real job though, I actually live off my art; I do paintings, all of the ones in my house are my own." Aria explained.
"Woah, you did all of them? That's impressive" I exclaimed. She blushed but kept going. Maybe she's better than I thought she was.
"Anyway, I got an email a few months ago, asking me to do a range of gigs here in Dublin! And of course, I took the job. So here I am." She said, putting some stud earrings in her earlobes.
"Wow, that's pretty cool. And that would explain the dress." I said rejoiced
"Yes, I'm off to my first gig at a bar in a short moment," Aria said.
"I thought you said you had some time to talk about Alice and all this magic stuff," I said, crossing my arms.
"I did... just about ten minutes." She said grinning. We both giggled.
"Well, I'll let you get back to your gig," I said, heading for the front door.
"Hang on. You could come with me?" Aria said walking towards me. I turned around, facing my back to the door.
"But I don't have anything to wear; I can't go to a bar looking like this," I said, gesturing to my black T-shirt and shorts.
"I-I have some dresses in my closet, we are roughly the same size, right?" Aria asked. Hmm, I'm not sure if I should go. I stood with myself for a moment. Oh, what the heck.
"I sure hope so," I said laughing, heading to her bedroom with Aria, and opening her closet, which revealed many coat hangers occupied by dresses, shirts, jeans, the list could go onwards."Wow, you have a lot of clothes."
"I love my clothes." Aria looked at them as if they were delicate trophies on a large shelf, "I can tell by what you're wearing, you like black." Aria said pulling the coat hangers up and down her closet.
"You got it," I said. She finally pulled out a dress. "Oh wow, this dress if beautiful!" I said excitedly.
"I'll let you change. Also, feel free to wear some of my jewellery." She said, leaving her bedroom and shutting the door. I got undressed and put the dress that Aria picked out on. It was a strapless dress that came down to my knees; It had a little silver bow in the middle, which made it look a lot better. I took a silver necklace, and some bracelets as well. Just for fun, I slapped on some mascara and blush. I opened the wooden door to find Aria waiting at the front door with a guitar case that was decorated with stickers. She looked at me as if I was the most beautiful thing in the world. I did feel very beautiful.
"Woah, you look...exquisite!" She said exotically.
"Thanks. I love your style, it's just so...what's the word...different." I said clicking my fingers. Aria giggled, she opened the front door and stepped outside. I followed her out the door and observed the wonderful sunset. The sky was filled with shades of pink and purple; It was so magical. Aria locked her front door, then she observed the sunset herself.
"It's so amazing what nature can do," she said, her eyes glittering in the last fraction of sunlight; She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in all the energy.
"It really is amazing," I said starting to walk onto the concrete and towards the main road. Aria opened her eyes and started to run onto the footpath chasing me.
"Hey! Wait for me.! She shouted.
"I'm not known as the meditative kind, sorry," I said giggling a little. Aria shook her head and grinned.
"We haven't really talked about you, have we," Aria said, her brown boots clicking on the light grey concrete.
"There's nothing really to talk about, I'm just a normal sorcerer," I said; It wasn't necessarily true, but I didn't want to talk about my life right now, considering I was having a good time with Aria.
"Don't be silly, you really think I don't know who you are? You're the famous Valkyrie Cain; Us Aussie sorcerers heard a lot about you when I was little. You destroyed an entire city!" She excitedly. But it's not a good thing. I'm just too tired to deal with this.
"Can we just not talk about this. Right now. You clearly know enough about me, I-It's just hard to look back and see what a monster I was," I said signing.
"I guess I do know the general stuff about you already...sorry if I made you uncomfortable or anything," Aria said. I dipped my head lower, feeling even more guilty. What if people started hating on me again when I'm in the bar. It's happened before and I felt terrible. We stopped at a street crossing and waiting for the light to turn green.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good- " I wailed, but Aria interrupted me.
"No, don't be silly; You'll be fine." The traffic light turned green but we stayed where we were. Aria put her hand on my shoulder. It felt like a soft feather draping across my arm. Her palm was warm, as though she was giving me all this positive energy as we spoke.
"But what if you're wrong, what if something goes wrong," I said, rejecting this energy she was trying to offer, I started to tear up slightly.
"Trust me, it won't; I won't let anything bad happen." She took her hand off my shoulder and gripped my hand. The energy became stronger and harder to resist. Was this even magic? No, it had to be. I could feel it passing through every inch of my body, warming it up and filling it up with peace and zen.
I began to calm down; I gave Aria a soft smile, to thank her for...whatever she was doing to me, she gave me a soft smile back. We started to walk across the street, heading for the beach. When I stepped through the beads that dangled over the doorway, it was like I was entering another world; There were posters, coloured lights surrounded the interior of the building; People were chatting, laughing and drinking.
"So...what do you think?" Aria asked me, starting to take her guitar case off her back and laying it next to the small stage (which was a tiny wooden platform).
"It's really pretty," I said, completely forgetting everything that could go wrong. If people recognized me too well, I'd be kicked out like that. Aria smiled and began to take her guitar out of the case.
"Glad you like it. I think I'm doing a soundcheck right about now, so you can sit down." She said, motioning to the chairs at the bar. I gave her a small smirk and headed off to the bar and ordered a drink. I'm not really the type to drink that often, although if felt as if tonight was a special night. Unique and not like the other times I've been out before with Skulduggery, or with Fletcher (my ex boyfriend). This time it's special, well, because it's with someone special. Aria is a really special girl.