┊✧*｡ ✯┊💫⋆✧*｡ ┊
COZEN | 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏
-ˋˏ ༻🌙༺ ˎˊ-
❝ 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔫𝔨𝔰 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔫𝔲𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯 ❞
Maya dug her phone out of her pocket to see if she could get in touch with her brother, sending him a text to check if he was alright; she found a seat on a nearby bench and settled down, crossing her legs, expecting to hear back from Lark. She felt a peculiar vacuum within her belly, an enlarging emptiness that was beginning to worry her, and in her distress she began to chew her nails.
It was a bad habit, one that her mother didn't shrink from reprimanding her for, but one that Maya still couldn't shake; Lorelai had gone so far as to suggest that she would put hot pepper in her nails so that she wouldn't gnaw on them, which ultimately proved to be a vain attempt to break her of it; however, it's not that simple to break a vice.
Suddenly her mobile phone began to ring, Maya raised her head in anticipation, but furrowed her brows at seeing an unknown number, "Hello? Who's this?"
"Maya? It's Aeden, I swiped your number from Lark's mobile phone since he had left it behind and I didn't even know what dorm you were in. Anyway I called you to ask if you've seen him anywhere because I haven't seen him since this morning."
"What do you mean you haven't seen him since this morning?" Maya lifted her voice grittenly while noting out of the corner of her eye a shadow taking a seat beside her, "weren't you with him yesterday when you left me alone?"
"Exactly! We gabbled and all and went to sleep and in fact I woke up this morning, but his bed was empty. There was only his phone on the nightstand and I-well, I used a trick to unlock it but that's not relevant now."
"Is that your boyfriend?" Riven's cheeky visage loomed over, Maya widening her eyes ever so slightly, nervously shushing him.
"Who's that?"
"It's not import-HEY!" Her phone was pried from her hands, Riven setting it up to his ear with one hand while with the other he poked away Maya who was reaching for it.
"Maya? What the hell is happening?"
"Hola!"
"Who's this? Where's Maya?"
"I'm here!" Maya cried out, angling for her mobile phone but Riven scooted away as he pressed on.
"This is her boyfriend, Riv-River, yes it is, and we are in a tricky situation as my love here is feeling kind of sore after last night-"
"What-"
"Yeah, I guess you don't need to hear the details," he smirked slyly whilst Maya began to flicker with temper, "Goodbye." He disconnected the call, looking extremely smug and twisted around to view Maya balling her fists together with a menacing scowl, although it didn't bother him as he leaned in and returned the phone to her, "There you are, you must be feeling lucky you know? Your phone has been touched by m-"
"You prick! It was an emergency!" She jabbed her finger into his face, Riven faintly taken aback by the girl's flare, however Maya took a profound intake of breath to subside, not wanting to attract the misdirected spotlight on them, and gazed up at him with her eyes fading into a purplish shade, her low-toned voice disarming,"quit thinking that the world revolves around you, and most of all quit stalking like a mad man for the first girl who basically doesn't give a flying shit about your little dick." She did not give him the time to talk, when she spotted a text message from Musa.
"Crap, crap! I'm running late for class!"
"Hey, doll!"
"What?"
"Thanks for your number," Riven winked at her, having taken advantage of the moment he had her phone in his hand to send her number over to him. Maya groaned in frantic annoyance, lacking any kind of word, as she sped off to get to class.
When Maya reached the Circle of Stones, she hefted a sigh of relievement when she saw that Headmistress Dowling was just about to begin her speech, while Terra waved her hands in the air as soon as she spotted Maya and beckoned to come and sit by her side. Musa sent her a mischievous smirk as Maya settled down, hushing her voice, "And where have you been all this time?"
Maya opened and closed her mouth several times, scrambling to come up with a coherent answer, and Musa could sense the chagrin rooting from the girl, who in fact responded after a while, "Looking for my brother since I haven't seen him at all since last night-uh,"she heaved a resigned sigh, shrugging her shoulders, "I have no further comment."
Musa shook her head, a knowing grin on her lips, but she knew that part of what Maya had said was the truth, yet there was something she still hadn't admitted and she was definitely going to ask for the details later.
Meanwhile, Headmistress Dowling's voice echoed, "Magic lives in the very fabric of nature, and here in our Circle of Stone it's magnified," all the pupils observed as Dowling stepped closer to the core where a massive stone was located, in which was a dark bowl emblazoned by runes, "The Vessel tests your ability to channel that magic, further down the line you may learn to connect with other elements, but your first year is all about the element you were born with."
Maya eyed in admiration as various students approached to show off their magical prowess, personally wishing for special and empowering uses like theirs too; she desired power. The power to wield them, the power to endure, the power to manifest her dominance, but she knew that this would not be the day though.
When the headmistress called her over, she didn't notice the glint in Dowling's eyes when she saw the girl, already knowing who she was, "Illusionary Power, hypnosis, the ability to make the eye perceive things that are nonexistent in reality, playing with the mind, perceptions, the senses, manipulating the characteristics of objects, people." Maya propped her hands on the stone as she peered at the black tray, her eyes burning bright purple and yet her entire mind dulled.
The image of her brother, the fretting about where he was, her own parents and one other thing surfaced from her mind; a obscure remembrance she thought she had entombed within the innermost roots of her conscience.
She began to quake as she replayed the vivid footage that had first occurred when she was a child.