A Falling World: Chapter 3 Part 1: The Trial

Two months had passed since Sarah first met Henry and started her lessons. When she began she felt special. Henry told her that he was in need of an apprentice and that among the possible candidates in the area she had the highest proficiency with magic – he had devices that could detect such things. It wasn’t until a few weeks after she started learning magic, not until she cast her first spell, that Henry told her she had a part to play in a prophecy. She was so elated with her manipulation of light and fire that she assumed the prophecy manifested in conjunction with her magic or at least Henry told her of it at the same time he learned about it. Sarah considered it good news begetting more good news. However, the wooing breeze that had been carrying her since the start, pushing her to continue her journey into the mystic arts, was gone. Her time spent at Andrew’s café no longer served as a springboard energizing her to tackle the challenges of the supernatural – or as Henry would call it the natural world hidden behind this artificial ecosystem. Rather, this café now served the role of being an anchor that she could come and rest at before going out to her job where everyday she had to drag a mule kicking and screaming up a mountain before hammering a stake into the ground to keep the animal in place for the night – only to find it wandering around at the bottom of some ravine the next day and having to do it all again.

Her schooling was not going so well. In fact, she found her lessons stalling. It turns out that when handling magic a persons mental state has a significant impact on their ability to perform. In general, she was told, there are four mental states someone can be in when they perform magic one is optimal, two are fine, and the last is challenging to deal with.

The strongest mental state to have when casting spells is to be present in the moment both emotionally and logically. The second best is to be present either emotionally or logically. Unfortunately, at present she found herself unable to focus on the immediate world either emotionally or logically. Her thoughts waivered and her emotions sparked and sizzled causing her lessons to come to a standstill. Her tutors offered to listen and help with anything that was troubling her. Sarah got along with her tutors and with her other peers who were also learning magic, but what was bothering her isn’t something that she could freely talk about without causing inconveniences for herself.

Not the least of her concerns, was that she found her thoughts toward David. It would be easier if he just showed up so she could deal with him. Push him against a wall, get in his face and make it absolutely clear that he is here for one reason and that is because of a prophecy. Sarah was deadest to make it absolutely understood that the only reason she was going to tolerate his presence was so the world could continue as it always had. He needed to understand that this isn’t an opportunity to be friends or to make amends and once that prophecy is complete they would be back exactly where they started.

She thought that and lamented at how true that might actually be. She didn’t notice anything at first but a pit was growing inside her. When Sarah first met Olivia she seemed fragile but during the weeks they were together she opened herself up tremendously. In fact Olivia started teaching Sarah how to play the violin without having to use magic to do so. Sarah knew they were close because otherwise there was no way anyone would ever endure such screeching for so long and say that progress was being made. Spending time with Olivia no longer required Sarah to walk on eggshells but the opposite was true for Henry.

He was as recluse as ever. With every conversation it felt like she had to navigate an obstacle course while not touching the ground else risk offending Henry. He would never raise his voice but he would cut an explanation short, or shift his tone, or give an indignant huff and walk away if he found himself not in control of the situation for even a moment. Sarah found herself double checking every question before asking something less she accidentally offend the master.

Sarah used Andrew’s café as an anchor to remind herself of the world she was familiar with, but with every offense Henry took she felt herself inch closer to being expelled from that world and back into this one – without magic or anyway to continue on from where she was now.

Sarah thought of the dreams she had growing up and how they all escaped her grasp one at a time. Some of them she lost of her own accord, others were taken from her, and others still were simply barred from her grasp because another person decided she shouldn’t have it or couldn’t take the pressure. She couldn’t go back to that so in her spare time her mind wandered on things she could do now to prevent it, but her expulsion was a scene, an intrusive thought, that wouldn’t leave her. A shadow in the back of her mind that would not stop encroaching because she knew the type of person she was dealing with.

Despite Henry’s general antisocial demeanor he was generous. He quickly understood everyone’s desires and quirks. He procured the appropriate food, covered everyone’s cost of living including expenses for travel, fun, and self-indulgence. He even took it upon himself to understand and take an interest in everybody’s hobbies sparing no special treatment for whether one was a guest or his employee. An example of this is that after the second day he discovered that Sarah was going to Andrew’s café daily and insisted she take his chauffeur to and from the establishment. In addition he insisted on covering the expenses.

If it wasn’t for Henry’s constant attempts to keep conversations short or his defensiveness when things didn’t go as he expected one would think Henry were a saintly kind soul. However, as things were Sarah understood that his actions were that of someone buying affection. He was giving them the world so they would be the bad guys if they left. Sarah felt he wanted them to stay – needed them to. Considering the nature of the prophecy she couldn’t blame him but for the same reason he would never give them cause to leave he would never make a genuine attempt to build rapport.

What was happening was a quick quo pro. Once this prophecy was complete David wouldn’t be the only one back where he started, Sarah would be too. Sarah felt strings pull taught around her body as the shadow in the back of her mind crept another few inches closer. She was on a timer to not only learn as much as she could about magic but also find out how to learn more without Henry. The anxiety continued to build as Sarah’s mind raced trying to fill in a void that remained shapeless and provide answers to questions not yet formed.

Sarah felt the anxiety build and labelled it as such and when she did she once again felt her mind turn toward David. Sarah asked Henry about David recently, making clear her distaste for him, and surprisingly Henry allowed himself to vent about how his latest attempt to introduce David to the true nature of things failed. Henry placed a speaker of some Hindu teaching in his path. The speaker handed David a book on spirituality and asked if he knew what anxiety was – to which David responded that he did not, throwing the speaker off.

Apparently this speaker was also testing the character of David because as Henry described it the speaker knew he was telling the truth and lying at the same time. Sarah remembered back to when she saw David every day and thought about how he always seemed to be in his own world. Because of this she wasn’t surprised when Henry continued and explained that apparently David was thinking that the speaker was asking him about some age like antiquity, or the bronze age and David was honestly answering that he had never heard of the age of anxiety.

Henry looked frustrated as this was the most direct attempt yet with David and he still managed to leave the speaker as oblivious as he was before he met him. The speaker even had to stop him to recollect his book because David started walking away with it after he clarified where the confusion was. On top of that he even had the gall to tell the speaker that he should make it clear to people that they shouldn’t walk off with his book if he wants it back especially if he’s putting it in other people’s hands.

Sarah felt a wave of relief take root as the memory of exasperation on Henry’s face made her feel like she had time to figure things out. The prophecy wouldn’t happen until all five of them were together, she hoped, and by the sound of it David was so self absorbed in his own thoughts that he was testing the very limits of Henry’s reach.

There was tapping coming from the table and when Sarah looked up she saw the wonderful face of Rose staring at her “Earth to Sarah, anyone home?” Speaking with Rose calmed Sarah down. They reminisced, had a few laughs, and went on their way. Rose headed off to work while Sarah started making her way to where her master told her to go. An unsightly term, but one the old man insisted on using “tradition” Henry would say. “You may not like the term but it's important to uphold the customs that our practice uses as its foundation.” Sarah had a feeling of de ja vu as she could swear she had this exact same thought before. She wondered if was tradition to use people and discard them before feeling guilt that she was being unfair.

The place that she was scouting had plenty of open space to move within. It wasn’t as crowded as she would expect given its location in the middle of the city. She had a picture of a man and was told that he would be coming to visit a specific store in the mall. The picture was that of someone white, tall, with short black hair, and a large nose. On top of that Henry informed her that she could expect this man to be wearing the same jacket he always wears – black, leather and with a red Cerberus inscription on the left arm. Overall not a terribly difficult person to find.

Placing the picture back into her pocket she eyed the store from a distance. It didn’t have much to as it sold perfume and nothing else. Sarah felt butterflies in her gut as she stood where she was and waited. Energetically focused on finding this person, her mind raced with the thought of successfully tailing him, and reporting back to Henry with her first real assignment being accomplished without issue. However, things could go wrong.

Sarah knew she could be spotted if she stood out too much. So despite her inexperience she fought against the growing anxiety swelling in her muscles that fought to hold her in place. She moved toward the store she knew the man would go to and with every step she took the smell of perfume grew stronger. Her neck pulsed as a wave of warmth flowed from her right shoulder down into her chest and her spine shivered as she walked under the name “Scent with Love”.

Entering into the store she noticed a man leaving. He was wearing baggy clothes with a jacket that was too large for him. Something that drew her attention to him was that he was chanting to himself and staring absent mindedly around. It was as if he looked right through her and around the room at things she couldn’t see. The chant he repeated to himself continued and burrowed itself into Sarah’s ears. She knew if she focused on it the chant would repeat itself for hours like a song stuck on repeat. The same would have been true if she tried to repress it so she didn’t. She fought against her instincts to repress the ugly rhyme while at the same time paying it just little enough attention so that it wouldn’t get stuck in her brain. It felt strange but Sarah let the man pass, she wasn’t getting a good feeling from him, thankfully he was leaving and she was more than happy to leave it at that.

Entering from the outside the lights were visibly dimmer than in the rest of the mall. Additionally, the floors were layered with wood as opposed to tile. Breathing in there was an odd mixture of scents in the air resulting from one product trying to overpower it’s neighbor. The bottles filled the store from top to bottom.

Looking around there were round tables were strewn throughout the store all with multiple shelves and each trying to highlight one fragrance or another. A cute girl with highlights in her hair greeted Sarah as she entered the premises and asked if she was interested in anything specific. Throwing on her best smile Sarah responded that she was just looking around and with a well practiced upbeat attitude the worker replied that she was available if Sarah needed anything.

Sarah walked to the closest table available to her and began looking over what was offered and though her arms and eyes moved to inspect the product her mind was elsewhere. She could feel sweat pooling along her back. Her heart was racing as she wondered why she came in here. Her initial thoughts were that if she was seen the guy could run through the back of the store, but walking in now that thought was absurd. The store didn’t have multiple exits and even if it did, running out like she imagined would only cause a scene. Chastising herself that the only thing she accomplished was putting herself directly in sight of the guy she was supposed to be tailing she realized that she didn’t even know when this man was supposed to be arriving. Sure, Henry told her to be here around this time but that was no guarantee that her target would be here too.

She could be waiting for hours. I jumped the gun, I came in too soon. The thought echoed in her mind as an unwelcomed guest repeating itself as wayward thoughts tend to do. It left only when another thought, a useful one, came into Sarah’s mind. The guy in the picture didn’t look like the type who would visit perfume shops regularly and certainly not for himself. Sure, he could be buying for someone else or maybe he’s meeting up with someone here. Between the two options Sarah could do something if it was the latter.

Realigning herself back into the present Sarah realized she was holding a glass bottle with divots etched into it. The container was a woody fragrance. She returned the bottle to the shelf and looked around the store and only saw two people around. There was the girl with highlights who welcomed her and a boy with blond hair behind the register.

If her target was coming to pick up a person instead of a bottle then talking with the woman or the boy would be her best bet. The woman was easier to reach and between her options she seemed more likely to be a romantic partner. But the guy could also be a friend considering he looks too young to with him with him though Sarah thought. Without any information at all Sarah knew she was just grasping at straws. Henry was like this, more than happy to omit information and to later say “I told you what you needed, if you wanted more information you should have asked”.

Sarah walked over to the girl with highlights, this time taking care to pay closer attention to any details she could pick up. “Hi, there uh Diana” Sarah said after looking at her nametag “I was wondering if you could help me pick out some perfume. I found some woody fragrances, but I’m looking for something a bit more fruity right now.”

With a closer inspection Sarah noticed Diana’s button nose and blue eyes. Her frame was lean and she couldn’t be more than five and a half feet in height. She looked to be in her mid twenties and about the same age as Sarah. Diana smiled and replied “Of course! I would love to help you.” She led Sarah through the store and asked “So what exactly are you looking for, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh, not at all.” Sarah replied “I’m looking for something that isn’t too strong, but you know – strong enough so a guy can tell I’m wearing something if we get close. Does that make sense?”

Diana paused for a second “Um yeah, it’s kind of vague but we can check if there’s something you like”.

Laughing more at herself than anything else Sarah responded “Sorry about that, it’s just I wasn’t expecting to come in. I just saw the store and wanted to see what you have. I don’t know what you have or don’t have so I don’t want to be too picky.”

“Oh, well that’s fine” Diana retorted as she came to her destination. She grabbed a few cards and selected a fragrance she personally preferred. With a practiced hand she gave a small squeeze of the bottle and aimed it at one of the cards kept off to the side. Handing the card to Sarah she asked “How is this?”

Taking the card and brining it to her nose Sarah smelled an aroma of apples and an image of an orchard took root in her mind. Slowly moving the card away from her she tried to gauge how strong it was over a distance. As she did this she noticed that it took a full foot before the scent wasn’t readily detectable. “I like the smell, but it’s a bit strong. Can you show me what else is available?”