Making her own path

Chapter 4 - Wristbands and cellphones

Aysha and Jordan entered Aysha’s room and Jordan sat down at her desk, which was situated on the right side of the room against her bed. Above the desk were large shelves filled with all kinds of things Aysha had found in old human ruins. Jordan was not as curious about the past as her, but she loved examining the things that Aysha found in the ruins. Aysha walked towards her closet on the right side, which took half the wall and was next to her large bed.

“So, you’re telling me that your father is planning on choosing husbands for you and your sisters?” Jordan asked while inspecting an old snow globe that Aysha had once found in the ruins just outside town. It had a statue of a small castle that Aysha had also seen in a book about Luxembourg.

“Yeah.” Aysha sighed as she rummages through her closet, she finally decided on a pair of navy jeans and a creme blouse with wide sleeves. She grabbed some underwear and walked towards a door that was next to the desk, which led to her bathroom that was both equipped with a large bathtub and a shower. She placed her clothes on the counter and took off her training clothes. Glancing in the mirror above the sink she could see a few bruises forming over her body, but thankfully she did not have any bruises on her face.

“When does your father plan to hitch you off?” Jordan asked through the closed bathroom door.

“I’m not sure, but he did mention something about inviting “prominent” men to the castle soon,” Aysha said as she turned on the shower and stepped in when the water was warm enough.

“Taking you’re not okay with this?”

“I’d never be okay with marrying someone that I have no feeling towards or don’t even know.” Aysha took out her braid and quickly washed her hair and body and stepped out of the shower. “Mel has been pouting since he told me.”

“Take it she wants to find her mate?”

“Something like that,” Aysha answered while drying her body. She wrapped her hair in a towel, got dressed in the clothes she had picked, and opened the bathroom door.

“What are you going to do?” Jordan asked and was now examining a black flat square that had a glass surface on one side. By the look on her face, she was trying to determine what it was.

“That’s a cell phone. They used these things to call people no matter where they were.” Aysha answered her unasked question while she dried her hair with her towel.

“I’ll give them points for managing to do that without magic.” Jordan shrugged and put the phone back on the shelf.

“They had something that they called a cell tower that was used to send the transmission between phones. They could also use their phones to play games and go on something called the internet. But during the war, both the cell towers and the internet were destroyed.” Aysha took out a hairbrush and started combing through her hair.

“Well, we both have our wristbands, and it sounds much simpler, and I don’t see the point in having a device to play games all day.”

After the war, the land everywhere was in real bad shape, and to save what was left people had to take better care of the environment. They had tried to restore the cell services, and even though the witches managed to clear most of the radiation from the worst-hit places the cell signal did not come back on. Then they decided to come up with another solution, and that was the wristband.

The wristband was simple in design and embedded with magic. It was transparent and almost looked like it was a part of the skin. You could use it to contact people that you had matched your wristband with or send people your location or letting them know they were looking for them.

Werewolves did not have to use such devices in the past, but then they had a powerful mind link inside every pack that helped them communicate with each other through their minds. Werewolves today still have a mind link, but it is limited to sensing the feelings of people close to you or letting them know that you are looking for them. No one knew why wolves stopped being able to communicate with words through mind links, but it happened about twenty years after the great war.

“I don’t understand why you want to collect all this stuff.” Jordan stood up and walked to the balcony and looked outside.

“I just find them interesting and the story behind each item.” Aysha finished combing through her hair and decided to let it air dry.

A lot of technology was destroyed during the war and some things people decided not to or could not fix when the war was over. The wristband was one of the things that were used to replace old technology. Thankfully, they had managed to maintain electricity and hot running water and found a way to use it without harming the environment with magic.

Honestly, a lot of things would be different if they did not have witches and magic.

“But you never answered my question,” Jordan turned from the window and crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you going to do about the marriage.”

“I don’t know.” Aysha sighed and sat on the bed. “Dad just told us this morning but didn’t give us any time to ask questions since he had a meeting. I was thinking of going now and try talking to him about it.”

“He’s your father, I’m sure that he’ll come around.” Jordan walked over to her and placed her hand on Aysha’s shoulder.

“Thanks.” Aysha stood up and together they walked out of the room.

“Well, I got some stuff I have to take care of but don’t hesitate to call me if you need to talk some more,” Jordan said and hugged her.

“I will,” Aysha answered, and they walked in separate directions.

Aysha started walking towards her father’s office, which she suspected he would be in right about now, and thought about what she was going to say. She understood that if there was a threat of vampires looming over them, it was necessary to unite forces, but did that have to be done through marriage?

Her thoughts were cut short when she turned around a corner and bumped into probably the only person that could make this day worse.