"I had the dream again last night."
"The one with the boy in the crazy clothes?"
"Yup."
Lauren giggled. "Was it like last time?"
Joey wrinkled her nose. "Not exactly. Sort of. I don't know. I mean, he was wearing a jacket with designs on it, and his shoes, they're the damnedest things, I can't even describe them."
"Come on, Joey, you cunt, you know what I mean," Lauren teased. "Did he make you hot?"
Joey blushed. "No."
"You fucking liar," Lauren cooed. "You have a crush on the dream boy."
"He's cute, so what? So anyway, he was looking for something. He was in a cave, or something, and like, he was in this, like, golden light. There were none of those fucking big ass machines speeding by and no strange buildings this time. He was just in a cave, in that weird fucking light."
"You think it's the Sight?"
"I know it's the Sight. This boy is real, his world is real. It's just, somewhere else."
"Yeah, well, sounds fascinating." Lauren skipped down the road, beaming and cheerful, as usual. Joey was up beat, but much more pensive than her light hearted, care free friend. She strolled along, her sparkling blue eyes distant and dreamy, as Lauren danced and darted beside her.
School was out, and the girls were on their way to jintai practice, a type of martial arts involving sword play. Jintai focused on balance and flexibility, areas in which Lauren, a fiery red head with the body and agility of a world class gymnast (if gymnastics had existed in this world), excelled. Their teacher, Yahmen, a crafty old man pushing sixty, often boasted of Lauren's incredible natural ability and her uncanny skill.
Joey was also adept at the craft, her fourteen year old body developing nicely, although she still carried a hint of flab and was not as limber or as quick as her younger friend. Her frame had been what some would describe as chunky in her younger years, but as adolescence began the baby fat fell away, leaving behind a soft, yet athletic - not to mention breathtakingly beautiful - figure. Her interests, however, lie elsewhere.
Ever since that fateful Friday afternoon in the hills, the afternoon she first learned of the Sight, Joey had been captivated by the intrigue of magic. She wondered how many other hidden talents she might possess, and how powerful she could become if she honed her abilities. Alas, her father would not condone it. After Cupid was safe in his stall and sanity restored to the Hart household, her father had taken her aside, telling her they needed to have a "serious talk".
As it turned out, her father did all the talking, Joey did the listening.
"You must forget what you learned here today. You might think this foresight is a gift, but I tell you now, as surely as the sun sets in the East, it is a curse. It will bring ruin on all our heads. You must suppress it, and never speak of it again." His eyes had been stern, his voice unyielding. "What happened today is done, Cupid is safe now, and for that I'm thankful, but if I ever catch you practicing magic after this day, the consequences will be dire."
"Yes father," had been Joey's only reply. She had wanted to object, but her father's expression had been unrelenting, leaving no room for persuasion. Teenagers rarely heed their parents' warnings, however, and Joey was no exception.
"You wanna have some fun?" Joey's eyes were narrow and mischievious. As Lauren looked at her she retrieved a book in well worn leather bindings from the confines of her school pack. Although she had never seen the book before, Lauren was fairly certain she knew what it was.
"Is that what I think it is?" Lauren asked, her big green eyes widening.
Joey nodded.
"You fucking crazy bitch, your dad's gonna kill you!" But Lauren was laughing, clearly pleased by her friend's defiance. Joey had stolen her father's book of spells.
The girls began thumbing through brittle pages, yellow and frayed at the edges. "What do you want to try first?"
Joey gave this question some thought.
"This looks interesting." Joey was pointing to an incantation in the enchantment section marked object manipulation. It seemed with the right words and mental capabilities, one could control an object with one's mind, a trick better known as telekinesis.
"What do you want to try it on?"
Joey unsheathed her dagger and laid it on the ground between them. After casting a brief smile in Lauren's direction, her eyes returned to the spell. The words were foreign, too many vowels and not enough consonants, but somehow Joey was able to recite them seamlessly. Mumbling what sounded to both of them like incoherent gibberish, Joey's mind-numbingly gorgeous face grew slack, while her piercing blue eyes gained focus.
Once the spell was out, the dagger seemed to float, bare millimeters above the ground, but float none-the-less. "I think it's working," Joey said, her voice quivering with excitement. "I feel something." Joey lifted her right hand, then slowly raised her index finger. The dagger ascended in mid air, the tip of the blade rising in response to Joey's movement.
"You've got to be shitting me," Lauren cackled with glee.
Dipping her fingers, twisting her wrist, the dagger obeyed Joey's every whim. It was surreal. Lauren stood up and drew her jintai weapon; a long, slender sword with a curved blade, resembling a scimitar. "You wanna fight me?" she asked, grinning madly.
"You're on, bitch." Such was the reckless disregard of youth. The dagger zipped forward, Lauren side stepping and blocking the attack with deft ease. Confident in her friend's abilities, Joey did not let up. The dagger dipped back towards Lauren, angling for her neck. Lauren's back bent backwards at an impossible angle, her limber body arching, and the dagger darted harmlessly through the air above her.
Moving with liquid speed, Lauren popped back up and turned to face the unmanned dagger. "Is that all you got?" she cackled. Joey's dagger jabbed and lunged, probing for openings just to have them shut down by Lauren's impeccable defense. No matter the attack, Lauren was prepared. It was her own brand of magic, her version of the Sight, as if she could visualize the thrusts and slashes of the dagger before they manifested in reality. This went on for nearly ten minutes, both girls laughing gleefully as Lauren danced with death.
"Okay, Joey, enough," Lauren panted, still smiling, and lowered her sword. "What else you got?" Joey beckoned for her dagger with the tips of her fingers, and the dagger obeyed, floating into her grip with simple grace.
"I dunno, let's see," Joey shrugged.
"Is there anything in there about the Sight?"
"Maybe." Joey recounted the earlier spell in her head, the nonsense words flying through her mind in a blur, this time focusing her attention on her father's book. She managed this in a matter of seconds, and once completed she saw that the pages of the book fluttered before her, turning to any page she desired without so much as a fleeting touch of her fingers.
"Nice." Lauren was impressed. "That is too cool."
"Here." Joey found the page she was searching for. Scanning the section of interest she saw that there was no spell for the Sight, it could only be channeled by those with a natural gift, and application of the Sight came from practice and intense concentration. Meditation was the primary tactic for employing this rare talent, although some magicians had used fasting or isolation as a means of achieving the necessary equillibrium.
Additionally, it appeared the Sight did not always portray future events. It could be used to see into other dimensions, into other realms, or just to see around the corner, but the events revealed might be occurring in the present, or even the past.
"So what's it say?"
"It says I have to clear my mind, like meditate, or something."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Are you gonna try it?"
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