15. Teleportation
2071 Words
I run like hell. "KINA. KINA."
"CHILD SLOW DOWN." She comes running behind me and I stop. "WHAT?"
"I WANT TO GET ALL DONE UP LIKE A QUEEN. LIKE MOMMA USED TO, 500 YEARS AGO."
"UGH. Where did you get that idea?"
"EMBERLYNNA SAID IT'S PART OF HISTORY AND I CAN."
Emberlynna walks up to Dipak and Marcus. "Yes, I did say that."
"SEE." I jump up and down and run for my house.
"Thank you, Emberlynna."
"Of course. I have to go change Alden's title now."
2 hours and 1 breakdown later. I have 7 layers of fabric on. The dress is so full I can barely get through a doorway. I can barely move, actually. My waist is tied so tight with something. Not even sure how she got it this small. My face is caked with so much color. My hair hurts. It is too tight and too curly. I have got pins all over my head and I think the jewelry I have on weighs more than me.
"I don't know how she did this."
"I don't either, child. But she made it seem easy."
"I might passout."
"You wanted to do this. If you passout I'll have them bring you back here." She puts some jewelry in my hair.
"Thank you."
"You are grown up now. It's hard seeing you like this."
"It's hard believing I'm the real queen." I put the queen's ring on my finger.
She wipes a tear away, and we go to history class.
I get to the doorway. Arius looks at me and stops mid-sentence. "Welcome your majesty."
Everyone stares at me and smiles. "Thank you sir. I was told, since it's part of our history, I could show up like this. This is what my momma used to wear when she had to get dressed up."
"How many layers do you have on?" Sara has an eyebrow up.
"I lost count at 7. It hurts though. I have no idea how she made it seem so easy."
"So much jewelry." Another stares at me.
"Yea, I'm pretty sure the jewelry weighs more than me."
Silvia stares. "And your hair is perfect. We can't even do that now."
"Pretty sure I have stab holes in my brain."
Kina laughs. "You're dramatic."
"You made me bleed."
"Beauty is pain."
"I never want to be this beautiful again." They crack up laughing.
Aruis smiles. "This is amazing to see. All we've ever see is paintings of it. This is so much."
Alden is staring at me with tears in his eyes. Emberlynna is crying. The rest of the students are watching me. Then I see Nadine and her people. I didn't even know they were there. Aver is here too, with a couple of other teachers.
"Any questions?"
"Why are the guards following you around now?"
One of them answer. "Jewelry."
I touch the necklace. "Yea, the jewelry. It was worth a lot then, I can only imagine what it's worth now."
"Did your mom actually wear this outfit?"
"No. Her clothes disintegrated long ago. This was made for me. The jewelry is hers. She did wear these pieces."
A student sits back in his seat. "I was always told royals could teleport, and they would hook parts of their souls to jewelry. Is there any truth to that? With the jewelry being so old, could it have someone's soul hooked to it?"
"Yes."
Sara smiles at me. "Can you elaborate on that? You can all teleport?"
"All magicians can teleport." A couple of Nadine's boys shake their heads. "I'm simplifying, and they are calling me on it." They chuckle. "Teleportation is a rare form of magic. A magician either has it or they don't. There are ways around this though. Do any of you have teleportation unlocked?" 2 of them raise their hands. "Can you teleport up here, sir? So they can see please." He poofs beside me. "And your name is?"
"Tre."
"So King Tre can teleport. He can teleport anywhere at any time. Try the window." He goes to the window. "There are no limits to where he can go. He has this magic. Now for me, I do not have teleportation. So the castle magician taught me a very old piece of magic. I will never be able to do what Tre does. However," I take the necklace off me and concentrate on it. Then I hand it to him and walk to the door. Then I teleport back to the necklace. "What I did was tie a sliver of my soul to the necklace. Only then can I teleport directly to it. For me, this made the journey to and from school much easier. Blink of an eye or 38 hours in a carriage. Not a hard choice there." They chuckle.
Dipak crosses his arms. "Is that dangerous?"
"For me, it was. Used correctly, maybe not. I mean, it will always have risks. You can tie your soul to anything. I could have used this paper. Then someone could have thrown it away, and I would teleport into a dumpster." They crack up laughing. "Queen dress and all climbing out of the dumpster."
"So, is tying your soul dangerous?"
"That part not really. I tied my soul to the necklace. The second I teleported to it, my soul was returned to me. It's not multiuse, you have to retie it each time. If the necklace was destroyed before I teleported to it, my soul would have been returned to me immediately. It's simple old magic."
"Did you always use jewelry?"
"This was the first time I used jewelry. When I was little, my daddy got me a doll. I held on to that thing forever. I loved it. When I got too old for dolls, I left it in my room on a shelf. When I was shown teleporting, that's all I ever used in the castle. My thoughts were, jewelry is too easy to steal. Nobody wants an old doll."
"Is that how he caught you?"
"Yes. I never told anyone what I used to tie my soul to. Not a single person. I felt safer that way. I put the doll in a drawer in an empty office. I would tie my soul to it and then teleport to school. I had a half empty soap container there. That's how I would go back and forth. Looking back now, I remember the day he saw me coming out of that hallway. He must have figured out my object for teleporting was in there somewhere. I guess when you're searching empty offices and find a random doll, it's easy to know what the object is. He took it and moved it to a different location. I teleported to it and that was it."
"Was he alone?"
"No."
"What happened then?"
I shake my head.
Dipak looks at me. "You said all magicians can do this?"
"Yes sir. It's old magic. I know there are a lot of magicians in the room. Please don't do this at the same time. The object will shred. Do you want to try it?"
"Yea."
"Does anyone have a piece of fabric or string, yarn, anything?" Arius hands me a foot-long piece of yarn. "This makes it easier to explain, but don't take this much out. You only need a sliver. When I say tie your soul, your sliver will tie around this pencil in a bow. Like this."
"Ok."
"Great. Close your eyes. Imagine your soul. It's a big ball of light. Now, in your head pull the tiniest sliver out. Now open your eyes. Imagine that sliver of soul tying around this pencil. A perfect little bow. And don't worry, the sliver stretches. You only need a tiny piece." He smiles. "Now close your eyes and untie the bow."
He opens his eyes again, and he's standing beside me. "Oh shit."
"You teleported. Now to show them. Tie your soul to it again please." I wait for him to do it. "Now I'm going to tie mine to the same object." I close my eyes and tie a little bow. I feel the pencil break in my hand. "No 2 souls can be tied to the same object. The object will be destroyed, and both souls returned." I turn to throw the pencil away and run into another of her boys.
"Sorry. I used the paper." The class cracks up laughing.
I smile. "Your boys are something else."
"They really are."
"Remember though, if you use it. Make sure it's an object that won't be thrown away or stolen. Or anything weird. If you choose to tell people, that's on you. Also... 2 of you have teleportation completely unlocked. So if I were to tie my soul to the necklace again, hand it to Tre, then have him teleport to a vault or something, I could teleport right to him. Be careful and smart with it. Make sure you trust the people if you discuss it with them. I could see this 1." I pat the boy who used the paper. "Throwing all your objects into the dumpster just to watch you climb out."
Marcus nods. "Yea, Tye would do that."
He smiles. "You're not wrong."
"Boys." I roll my eyes. "And last thing. You can only have your soul tied to 2 things at once. If you try for a 3rd, the 1st bow you made will come out and be returned to you. 2 is the absolute maximum."
Nadine tilts her head sideways. "Can you tie it to a person?"
"I don't know. I have no idea. I never tried or thought about it. I don't think I would try it. You would be tying something magical around their body. A lot could go wrong with that. Right down to a head being popped off if it got too tight. You would be better off using a ring or something they wear often. That would be safer."
"Any other advice for it?"
"Sure. Tie to that paper again please."
"Done."
I hand it to Tre. "We're going to pretend that over by that window is a vault. 30 foot thick walls and ceiling. You're not getting out of that. Teleport to that vault please." I smile at Tye. "Now you go to your paper. Great. So they get the valuables and Tre teleport back here." He does. "Now you're stuck. There are 2 ways out of this. You could have tied yourself to a second object before you went. That way, you could teleport back. OR, I hand Tre another pencil." He goes right for Tye. Tye hooks to it and Tre comes back. Then Tye teleports to the pencil. "Good. Don't panic. That never ends well. Any other questions before I try to figure out how this comes off?"
Silvia puts her pen up. "How long did you study magic?"
"Oh gosh, I started after Tim. I would have been 390, maybe. Then I studied until school, so probably 3 or 4 years."
"So you had a lot of practice with it."
"No. The study of magic never ends. There is so much to it. 10 years is like an hour. Some spells alone take years to master." I look at Tre. "How long have you studied?"
"Probably 10 years now." The rest of them nod. "We're still new at it too. It takes hundreds of years to be what is considered a master magician. And even then, they still learn new spells."
"I didn't realize there was that much."
Sara raises her hand. "Can I come take notes on that outfit as you fight with it? I'm doing the fashion paper for the exam."
"Yea, that would be fine. I need to do that now. I feel like my intestines are being squeezed into my boobs." I take 1 step right into Alden. I look up at him. "You are so sexy." They lose it.
He smirks, and his eyes go dark. "I ... necklace." He gives me the deepest, most passionate kiss.
"NO. I NEED TO TAKE NOTES ON THE DRESS. YOU ARE NOT JOINING. I'M NOT TAKING NOTES ON THAT. KINA GET OFF THE FLOOR AND HELP ME."
They are laughing even harder now. Then me and Alden laugh. All I can do is shake my head as I leave with Kina and Sara.
- Writer
