It’s never a good sign when your day starts with screaming, a face full of blood and the world around you shaking. At least, these are usually good enough omens to make me wish I could just go back to bed. But as I have yet to find a way to make an earthquake obey my wishes, I hauled myself up off of the floor and towards my vocally upset twin sister.
“Relax Cassie, I’m alright. The blood’s just from a cut. Stupid mirror fell off of the wall love. Calm down.” I curled around my sister and murmured other useless nonsense to help her stop freaking out.
According to geography and science, a strong earthquake is distinctly unlikely in Ottawa. However, this wasn’t a real earthquake though it feels close enough that it’s mainly a matter of snobbishness to deny it. Around about fifty some odd years ago the fabric of our reality opened just enough for our world to get absolutely tilted. Back in the day string theory stated that the belief used to be that many possible universes existed at the same time, entwined about each other but never intersecting. Turns out that theory was mostly right; different worlds and realities did in fact exist separately but now they all touched and were open to one another. It was unbelievable but I wasn’t yet around to tell you one way or the other. The thing is, these multiverses had existed separately for a reason, there was a lot of problems with this sudden melding. Giant tears ripped across the sky, the earth, the sea, just about everything actually and the Others started flooding in. Angels, demons, the boogeyman, any name someone would want to call it; suddenly all myths, legends and nightmares were real. And there was nothing to prepare people on how to handle this. At first panic was the only response that humans could mount and boy did we cover ourselves in glory doing so. Eventually somehow humans got our act together and huge negotiations later, a very nervous peace developed.
The Others wanted access to our reality because here was new to them, and some property of our reality led to increased fecundity. Through some quirk of multiverses physics, Mother Earth is apparently the place to be to get knocked up. What we got out of the bargain was knowledge and instructions; with the blending of realities, latent skills in humanity were brought to the surface. Most people like to call it magic, but some of it isn’t the stuff of Faerie Tales and it’s rather hard to explain because it varies on a case-by-case basis. Those that have it go out of our way to keep information classified; we’re outnumbered by the Normals, and we all to try and keep the Normals as in the dark as possible. They know we exist and our skills are registered and controlled but it would not take much for the vast majority of Norms to decide that we belonged on strictly guarded reservations, Human history being what it is and all. All of this overlapping worlds explains the massive earthquake in Ottawa; Energy floods. Throughout the years, Power spills through and we become saturated with energy. It shakes the walls of reality for a bit. Thus earthquakes- or actually more like sweet Mother the world is shaking itself apart shakes.
Out of the seven billion humans that populated Earth at the time of the Breaking, about less than three billion of them ended up Casters. That’s the broad term for any human that’s different; some of us shape change, some of us manipulate the elements etc, there are those who have more than one talent sphere as well, though it tends to be the more things you can do, the less strong you are in any of them. Of the three billion Casters, I’m a forgettable nobody and I like it that way. My full name is Callahan Orenda and my identical twin sister is Cassandra. Ironically, we look more alike when we are apart than when we’re together. I'm fairly easy to overlook but everyone sees Cassie; she’s stunning and one of the most famous Casters. Cassie is a Healer, she fixes people; their bodies, their minds, their souls. As long as the person isn’t an actual corpse, she can pretty much send them home as good as new. There are some things that she can’t fix; Vampirism is a demonic blood born disease that apparently just alters the base point so much that she cannot undo it, some Casters who go Wild and lose control of volatile gifts cause damage that she cannot undo either. I’m sure there’s more but we only find out her limits when she runs full tilt into them. She’s even had some amazingly impossible success at treat Others, something no one thought was possible. Like in everything else, Cassie seems to be the exception to all the rules; with her extraordinarily strong Healing gift she also has a second gift that is just as remarkable as her first; she’s an amplifier. What that means is that she makes other people’s gifts stronger; so a Caster who can teleport only himself for example, with her help could suddenly move a bus full of people. She has serious Power which makes her the poster child for all Casters because her gifts are so spectacular and so obviously made to help people. It doesn’t hurt that she was a born model too. And boy does she love it! The attention, the need people have for her, the responsibility, all of it just makes Cassie happier. I personally like being anonymous, Cassie’s gifts and her power make her glow with a serenity that I couldn’t fake even if I wanted to. That’s how you can tell us apart when we stand side by side. It isn’t a visible mark though, when we’re apart if I’m not careful people think I’m her but you can always tell us apart when we’re together.
I have two major gifts as well. I can manipulate the elements to varying degrees. I can’t control weather or anything on a massive scale, but I’m not completely useless either. I can make the elements manifest in physical forms to aid me. Earth, air, fire and water were my playmates growing up, which should tell you something about how smooth my social skills are. Despite my desire to be unremarkable, I too seem to share a little of my twin’s Power. Not the ability to heal, which would be too easy; the entirety my other gift is a secret that even my twin doesn’t know about; she knows about the normal part of it. Part of my gift is the ability to sense the skills of others- that’s the normal aspect that is general knowledge, no big deal at all. The part of my gift that’s a big dark secret is the fact that I can do more than sense gifts; I can hook into them and borrow them. The energy comes from me, so the ‘donor’ never knows that they shared, which on its own wouldn’t be a huge deal, just a little morally questionable. The less than normal part is that I can do this to the Others as well. That’s why I keep it a secret, because as I can sense their skills; I can also find a way through their defenses. I am not dumb enough to paint a big target on my back saying ‘COME KILL ME’ so no one knows this aspect of my gift but me. None of this was able to help with the matter at hand though; namely me bleeding from a non serious but quite vigorous scalp wound and Cassie screaming as if she were in a B-rated horror movie.
As quick as it came, the shaking stopped. The Power must have leveled off. There was a faint tang of ozone in the air, and my hair crackled a little as I moved my head, looking around the condominium I shared with my twin and our guardian. It was definitely trashed. Pictures and the aforementioned mirror had flung themselves off the walls in a most enthusiastic manner, shards of glass were liberally scattered with the wood splinters from broken frames. Dust drifted in the air from the agitated walls and I could hear people calling to each other from other condos. The electricity came back on with a quiet hum and our guardian snapped into the room with a very not quiet jolt. Our guardian is Edward Rex, one of the few men I’ve met who can shield themselves from my ability to sense gifts. Other than teleportation I haven’t a clue what he can do, or even if he is human. For all I know he could be a Demon Lord or a Higher Power. Doesn’t matter though, he’s Edward; the constant man in my life. For some reason Cassie and I were dropped off as fat, unhappy babies into his specific and tender care and he’s done a pretty decent job of keeping us from eating lead paint and falling to our deaths ever since. He didn’t look much like a guardian, lacking any rippling muscles or aura of bone breaking power, but he hadn’t let us die yet.
“Are you two alright?” he demanded, crunching across the glass strewn across the floor to check us out. My magic thrilled a little when he touched my face but I told my gift to take a long walk off of a short pier, my odd magical and instinctive reactions to him making me as uneasy as always; it is not easy for a Sensate like me to encounter someone we can’t Sense. He examined the head wound, which only made it hurt more. “Not serious. A little tape and it’ll heal up nicely, no scar.” He commented then went to give Cassie a check over. She gave me a knowing look when Edward wasn’t paying attention and I shrugged a shoulder without making eye contact. She was aware of how uncomfortable I was becoming around our guardian but had no clue as to why either. Cassie’s injuries were minor bruises and a little scrape; sadly she couldn’t heal herself, and her magic sees us as the same person so she can’t heal me either. “Well, it looks like you two are going to be staying home for a few days until this place is cleaned up.” He said, dusting his hands off. Edward’s independently wealthy but he had made a point to keep us from being spoiled brats while growing up. This included making sure we did our own chores and keeping to a reasonable budget. His job, other than taking care of us, is teleporting people to places they need to go. He can create a bubble that teleports from place to place, so it’s quite handy to move people and he charges an arm and a leg for it too. It drove me nuts as a child, because no matter how hard it snowed we had always made it to class.
Home is a 2-floor condominium in the heart of Ottawa. There’s the bottom floor, which leads outside to an infinity pool and a garden on the balcony with a view that included the distant Outaouais river. Inside there is the kitchen, family room, dining room and storage room. The top floor was the bed and bath area. One bathroom was strictly for Edward and the other one was ours and for guests. The bedrooms were each their own little kingdom. Edward’s is all hard edges, dark woods and bachelor lifestyle. Cassie’s room is soft pastels, a relaxing, serene oasis to help her escape her hectic life; and my room, is my room. It’s mostly bare except where art work I’ve done myself is up on the walls. The floor is hardwood and the only furniture is the double bed and the closet. Both Cassie and Edward have filled their rooms with massive beds, full on wardrobes and bric-a-brac. And considering the size of the bedrooms, it takes quite a lot of furniture to fill it, but I’ve always kept my room bare so I could dance in it. I love to dance, and what’s awesome is that I’m actually rather fantastic at it. It’s the only time I feel more beautiful than Cassie. And she admits that out of the two of us; I’m the better dancer by far.
Edward stayed home with us after we both grabbed some necessary items to set to rights our now trashed apartment. He generally didn’t tell us what to do anymore and had long ago gotten over the need to be hyper vigilant, but Cassie and I had both felt the need to establish some independence after we had graduated from high school so this sudden closeness rankled.
The education system has changed more than a little since the introduction of the Others. Sensors are Casters who can sense gifts and they are present went children are enrolled for school. They’re employed by the government and record all the gifts of all Casters generally when they are four years old. Students have a choice to go to an all Normal school or a mixed school, an all Caster school or a specialization school. Specialization schools are sort of how they sound, where classes focus on the specialization of a gift and generally are populated by those with very rare, very dangerous or very Powerful gifts. Even at the young age something inside of me knew enough to hide my secondary gift, but as a little kid I didn’t do it perfectly so I’m registered as a Caster with Sensate abilities and elemental manipulation. As our legal guardian Edward felt that it would be best if we were exposed to the real world, so we went to a mixed school.
I actually have some fond memories of high school, and those make up for the nightmare that was grade school. Everyone who meets Cassie loves her, except of course the hate groups, but they’re hate groups for a reason. Myself however, I get a much more mercurial a response from people than Cassie does. I had her as a friend and that was about it other than my elemental manifestations. Matters were only made worse by the fact that I was extremely jealous of my twin’s affections. However, puberty happens and we grew up quite a bit once our gifts presented. Since we became separate in our gifts, I learned to let my twin have a separate life. High school was one unpredictable shock to both of us; I made friends and met people I cared about, and Cassie got her first exposure to people who didn’t love her on sight. She cried any time someone hurt her feelings for that first year of high school. Added to the burdens of growing up mentally, we also got to tackle growing up physically, and boys started noticing Cassie and even me. And Cassie started noticing boys right back; she had boyfriends by the score. I just didn’t get it, though I had a couple of boyfriends it was never anything serious. I always enjoyed things more as a group of friends than on a date. The night Cassie lost her virginity was the night she and I discovered that Caster twins have an unexpected ability. If we concentrate we can talk mind to mind, and the more embarrassing part, we can feel each others’ strong emotions. So although I wasn’t there, I knew exactly what she and Darren were doing in his car and I was horrified. Since then I’ve discovered that alcohol, loud noises, and crowds drowns that sort of thing out, so she always lets me know to go out to a club when she’s going to have fun.
When we were sixteen Cassie’s gift started to get noticed by the Counsel- a group of Casters who are pretty much in charge of good relations with the Norms and that sort of thing. Her extremely beneficial gifts, her picture perfect face and her infectious personality made her the prime candidate to be Ontario’s poster child for the Caster Community. Under their guidance and with her natural talent, she specialized in Healing and helping; and her looks made her seem so innocent and perfect. It was really good for her and the Caster community, for the most part. The only downside is that this gave the hate group True Humans a face and a name to attack. For a while there Cassie actually had a body guard. My response to all that nonsense was to learn how to defend myself. I learned every type of self defense I could find a mentor for; I had to make some up to use my own elemental gifts, and lately I’ve been learning how to use firearms. The only reason this wasn’t an option for Cassie was her public image, she had to be as non-threatening as possible. That and I think she finds violence distasteful. At around that time, I also started to learn how to use my ability to ‘borrow’ skills from others. For the most part I used it to blend in. Because my gift lets me hook into others I feel familiar to them, so they completely over look me. It was also at this time that Edward and Cassie almost found out about it. Cassie was still dating Darren, but he was starting to get really possessive and jealous. One night out after some judicious underage drinking, apparently he had had enough of other people ogling his girlfriend and taking all her attention away from him. He figured that she was cheating on him and he started attacking her. I felt her fear and ‘hooked’ into Edward’s gift of teleportation moments before Edward did the same. I arrived to see my twin lying on the floor crying, with Darren standing over her choking her. She’d left her bodyguard inside so for these few minutes it was just us three. And I almost killed Darren. There’s always been this feeling inside me that something dark and dangerous is lurking and waiting to spring loose to do violence and chaos. I fight against that sensation whenever it gets strong but that day it started to win. I snapped in and came charging at Darren. I never even thought to use my gifts, probably because I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands. I guess the body guard had heard the noise, came investigating and alerted Edward because he appeared. It was only two minutes after I had snapped in but I’d already broken as many of Darren’s bones as I could and bashed his face in. The only reason no one realized my gifts of borrowing was that Edward had assumed I had been at the party with Cassie and Cassie doesn’t remember much of the evening.
After that I went everywhere with Cassie, we even went to University together. She got her Doctorate in Healing and I got licensed as a Sensor though I don’t work as one. She still models and is working in the emergency room at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Despite her skills she can’t save everyone, though I think she’s trying to find a way to beat Death himself. Right now, I teach sword fighting and self-defense at a mixed youth center during the day and work at a club every chance I get.
When Edward set about directing us on how to clean the condo up, it felt like the time as independent adults had never happened at all. It was jarring because there had been some key reasons I'd needed that self reliance, and they were all falling away. I needed something to plant me into this current moment so I fled to the newly reset bathroom. It wasn’t until I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror that I got to see what a horror I looked. Dust had turned my hair a gray white colour, my clothes were covered with the same and blood had caked to my face. I hopped into the shower, which got rid of the dust but stung the wound on my forehead and scalp. Cassie used butterfly stitches to close it but even the stinging pain wasn’t enough to help me feel entirely real just yet. So my darling twin sister suggested that she and I take off to go buy me some dance clothes.
“Why do you need dance clothes? Won’t your usual sweats and t-shirt do?” he asked, frowning. Cassie actually laughed at him, thought his ignorance was due to our own attempts to have lives as adults.
“She’s not dancing in her room alone anymore Edward. She dances at Faerie Tales, the Neutral club that caters to Others and Casters. You should come tonight and watch.” She added and I could have gleefully strangled her myself.
“Sure, if you don’t think having me around would be embarrassing.” Edward agreed, looking to me for permission. He had no clue what he was about to walk into and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to experience this. But it was too late to back out gracefully now.
“Fine, but only because this is one of the nights Cassie is dancing there as well. Might as well get this over with all at once, no need to drag you back out there another night for the whole spectacle.” I lamely tried not to sound sullen.
“Perfect. So us girls are going to get the gear. See you there tonight Edward.” Cassie threw in, smiling. Edward rolled his eyes but nodded, making me wonder if he realized how little I wanted my guardian there to see me dance.
Despite my sometimes gruff attitude, I love shopping and so does Cassie. We could very easily make a day of it, so that’s exactly we did. Although I had forgotten that crowds of people would recognize her. She stopped for photos and autographs a couple of times, but did make an effort to keep the day about the two of us and not a publicity stunt. I think that’s one of the reasons I let her choose my dance outfit, a cheery manipulation that my twin was not at all ashamed to take advantage of. Because of the activities I do, I’m mostly hard muscle to her soft curves, which usually prompts me to keep covered. Cassie however had other ideas. I ended up with tight black shorts with white stripes in geometric tangles and a white bandeau bra top that had a neck strap that would be next to useless. At least I got to wear my own black dance shoes so I just shrugged and went with it. Cassie’s dance outfit was a bit different than mine. She had dark purple shorts and a black long sleeved top, the outfit marginally looser to allow for her more gentle curves. Sometimes being identical twins is fun, so we did everything we could to look the same. Hair and makeup was the same and when we concentrate we can move the same. Only our dance clothes differed. And since we both danced to any kind of music, it was easy to play mirror with each other. By nine pm we were inside Faerie Tales and warming up, and I was finally feeling like myself again. Power Floods always seemed to do a number on me more than Cassie.
“Do my eyes deceive me or do I see two nymphs dancing in the woods?” a familiar voice boomed out.
“Barry!” both Cassie and I cheered, running over to hug him. He enveloped us in his huge arms. Barry, thus named because he shape changed into a giant Kodiak bear, had been a friend and classmate since grade nine. At the beginning of high school, he had been tiny, lonely and picked on. Me being who I am, I swooped down on him and rescued him from the grade ten boys who were being mean. When his gift presented itself later that year, he grew a foot and gained a hundred pounds of muscle. That put him at 6’4 and 270 pounds of dark brown, menacing muscle. I was one of the only people not afraid of him; hell, he was afraid of himself. We dated for all of a week in grade ten and he was my first kiss. Then we realized that things were better as friends and went back to being best buddies.
“Barry, dance with us tonight.” Cassie demanded. He took ballet with me in high school to learn body control. By then though, no one was willing to give him a hard time about it. Barry laughed his deep, rich, rumbling laugh and agreed. He didn’t have a fancy outfit; instead he wore black jeans and a dark gray shirt. As we stretched and chatted, the other dancers and club workers started drifting to their places, we moved to the raised stage so the doors could open at ten. Even early in the night, there was a crowd eager to come in; Others who wanted some fun, Casters here to party, and Normals who wanted the excitement of mingling with non Normals. We danced relaxed turns on the stage until we all felt warmed up.
When the familiar strains of a favourite song started, I signaled to Cassie that we were up. It was a country rock song, and great to dance to. Cassie and I danced as if we were the same person, we split apart and came back together, making our bodies tell a story to match the words. When the song finished, there was a roar of cheering from the crowds. They had stopped dancing themselves to watch us. After that Barry came out and danced with us, as did the other club dancers. The lights dimmed, the music soared and the club surged with movement. I loved every moment of it. Finally Cassie broke me out of my dancing trance to take a break. I could, and have done in the past, dance all night long. But I’d forgotten that she didn’t have my physical endurance, or that she had invited Edward tonight.
“Let’s get a drink and see what Edward has to say about us now.” She suggested laughingly. I grumbled at that, not wanting to hear any judgments from the guardian on what I did for a living.
As we wove our way to the bar where Edward was, someone grabbed my hand and pulled me into a kiss. I froze, and then pulled away. “Wrong twin Zeke!” I yelled at him laughing, Cassie was laughing too. The shocked look on Zeke’s face was perfect; he thought that he had grabbed Cassie’s hand so he could kiss his girlfriend. He had the good grace to blush even. Zeke joined us in our manoeuvring to the bar. I could see Edward and he was frowning at Zeke. That made me laugh some more. Apparently our guardian wasn’t quite ready to deal with us being grownups yet. I wondered what he would think of Cassie dating a vampire for the last four years. It seemed cruel to think of all the details we’d kept our guardian in the dark of, but Cassie and I had needed to retain a little autonomy somehow. And he had never directly asked either.
Barry managed to push his way through to the bar next to Edward who was looking between Cassie and me and frowning. Finally he looked at me as asked, “Cassie?” that hurt a little, but I buried that feeling with all the other emotions Edward managed to stir up in me.
“Ho ho! Apparently even your guardian can’t tell you two hellions apart!” Amanda, the owner and bartender called. “Sorry hot stuff, but the one Zeke mistakenly kissed is our fierce Callie. Isn’t that right fangs?” she asked Zeke teasingly.
I watched Edward blink a couple of times as he assimilated that information. His frown was no longer confused instead it was concerned. “Fangs? You’re dating a vampire?” he demanded of Cassie.
Before either of us could respond, Amanda jumped in again.“Were you not just watching them? Your charges have gone and grown up. You need to stop looking at them like little girls. ‘Cause if it’s escaped your notice, they’ve turned into some hot mamacitas.” Needless to say Amanda had become an almost surrogate mother to us and was a little protective herself.
“I see.” Was all Edward could say in response, a little stunned by Amanda’s ferocity.
To get us all past a suddenly awkward stage, Barry ordered the first round of drinks. He’d spent enough time around us to be considered an adopted brother and rounded out my not actually blood family. Barry got Edward a cold beer, himself a shot called a Full Moon, Cassie a shot called Death’s Kiss and Zeke a shot called Purity. Note the irony of the names of each drink; Barry’s that kind of guy. I raised my eyebrows at being excluded, but then I noticed Amanda’s grinning face.
“No.” I said, shaking my head. Barry started laughing and that got everyone else’s attention. “No.” I repeated. Of course Amanda ignored me and pulled out two glasses, pouring them full. “No, no, no, no, no, no.” I repeated futilely.
“Stuff it Cal. You and me, Dragon’s Breath in one go.” Amanda announced. Edward’s eyebrows went high enough to hide under his bangs. Zeke let out a geeky sounding laugh and Cassie grinned at me.
“I’m going to kill you and donate your body to science.” I told Amanda and grabbed my glass, which was warm to the touch. It was a Faerie drink and quite potent, and most Humans, even Casters avoided even doing shots of it. And here I was, about to down a glass. Amanda counted to three and we pounded the glasses back. I finished and placed my glass on the bar as heat scorched its way down my throat to my stomach. Once it hit, the magic in the liquor activated and I started to glow.
Amanda, being Fae, had a different reaction. She breathed actual fire for a second or so. “Hot shit! I love drinking with you Orenda!” she announced, grinning.
“As much as I hate you right now, I’ll hate you more in the morning.” I told her as she refilled the glasses. By this time Edward’s jaw had dropped and he looked more than a little flummoxed. I gunned the second drink down and Cassie laughed at the face I made when the magic in the liquor made me glow as bright as a fire fly again. It wasn’t exactly painful per se, but it wasn’t a whole lot of pleasurable either. The best I could ever explain it was like accidentally swallowing the sun. It was intense.
“Orenda, get your ass back on the stage.” Amanda demanded. She could switch between fun loving bartender and cast iron bar owner in a microsecond. “You had your two drinks, I’m not paying you to sit here and look pretty. Barry make it showy, get her to the stage.” She demanded, General of a little army.
I groaned, knowing exactly what she wanted by showy. Barry and I pushed our way into the crowd closer to the stage. About ten feet away from it, Barry grinned at me and cupped his hands together. “Fine, fine, she wants showy.” I turned to face the stage and stepped back, putting a foot into Barry’s cupped hands. He counted off and on three I pushed against his hands and he threw me. The result had me flying through the air, over the astonished crowd. I tucked into a roll as I hit the stage, and came to my feet, turning the momentum into a pretty damn fine pirouette. The crowd erupted with cheers. Adrenaline mixing with the Fae alcohol, I danced for the rest of the night without stopping. I forgot about Edward, Zeke, Cassie, Barry; I forgot everything except the joy of dancing. When we finally got home at four am, I hit the bed and crashed, sleeping like the dead. I’d been too tired to even shower, hell I was lucky to kick off my shoes even.