Autumn And Earth - Chapter 2 -

Lots of things to edit in this chapter. I will have Xavier seem more surprised and confused. I also need to change the descriptions a bit as some are not coherent. (Sept 11) I am also currently writing Chapter 3 - The Academy and the Roommate.





Chapter 2 - Her name was Autumn Easthill





         When Xavier came to his senses, the music was still faintly playing in his ears. He was perfectly content with lying down face first in the grass, when a girl’s voice took him out of his half-awake state.

         “Get up, we have to go,” she pressed.

         He slowly turned to lie on his back, and looked up at the girl who was talking to him from above. As he opened his eyes, the sunlight blinded him, and he could not really make out much more than her silhouette against the bright sun. She was towering over him, with her hands on her hips, clearly impatient.

         Xavier moaned, “Where am I?”

         “You’re in the Magical Plane now,” she answered, still very much impatient.

         He started to remember the events that had preceded his vanishing into the prism. He sat up, and now that his eyes had gotten used to the brightness, he contemplated his surroundings.  He was sitting at the top of a hill, in grass which had a blueish tinge in the sunlight. There were still a few dew drops on the grass he felt with his hands. It must be morning, he thought.

         He looked around from his panoramic viewpoint. From the hill, he could see a small city surrounded by mountains. To his right, a river flowed down towards a lake, on the banks of which was an imposing glass building, contrasting with the brick houses that seemed to be the most common find in the city. Their chimneys were all billowing smooth white smoke, and he could distinguish the people walking down the streets, getting their morning business done. He looked around until he finally looked behind the girl, and to his surprise, he saw that he was lying in a garden. Right behind him was a huge brick mansion, sitting majestically at the top of the hill.

         The girl tugged his hand to get him up: “Alright, you’ve looked around, now let’s go inside.”

         Xavier was hesitant: “Wait. I have no idea where I am. You just brought me here with your magic or whatever. Why am I here? What is going on?”

         “Just follow me. We need to talk to my father. If you really are what I think you are, he’ll have a lot of explaining to do.”

         The girl started to walk back to the mansion’s front door. Xavier reluctantly followed, and for the first time, he was able to get a clear view of her, clear from behind at least. She was a little shorter than him, with black wavy hair running down her back. She was wearing a black robe, with a blue jacket over it. What a weird style, he thought to himself. Girls certainly don’t dress like that back home. Maybe it’s some sort of magical uniform, he added, as an afterthought.

         He turned off his music player as they reached the front door. It was at the center of the mansion’s facade, beaming with its pearly white color, and its cream colored window. Right below the window was a red button, which the girl delicately pressed.

         She turned around and smiled sweetly as she held out her hand: “My name is Autumn by the way. What is your name?”

         Xavier was completely taken aback by her sudden change. He took her hand and replied with a little unease: “Uh... Xavier. My name is Xavier. Nice to meet you, I guess.”

         Autumn bowed slowly and replied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir Xavier.”

         She then reverted to her usual harder face and dropped the sweet voice: “Alright, how’s my good girl attitude?”

         “Very convincing,” replied Xavier, who had a hard time believing this was the same girl who had slapped him in the alley. “Why would you need a good girl attitude though?”

         Autumn fluttered her eyes and replied with her sweetest voice: “In my Dad’s eyes, I’m a model child. By the way, you must refer to him as ‘Sir Easthill’ at all times.”

         The button turned green, and the door slowly opened by itself.

         The girl took out a hair stick and twirled her hair with it until it formed a spiral and stuck it into place: “Let’s go.”

         Xavier followed her into the mansion. As he looked around, he was overcome with awe. They found themselves in a huge square room, with a black ceiling showing off painted constellations. It was filled with antique furniture, all made from exotic woods of different colors. In the center was placed a small table, with a golden scale perched upon three books. To the right, he could see a massive painting, depicting what seemed to be a coat of arms. It was a shield filled with vertical blue and gold stripes, with two crossed light brown staffs. Straight in front of him, he could see another door leading to the rest of the mansion.

         Autumn continued to the left, towards a white door with the inscription: “Sir John Easthill - Mayor of Maravia.” Xavier walked in her steps, still very much in awe over the beauty and grandeur of the room. She knocked on the door, and a booming voice was heard.

         “Come on in, young one! Welcome back!”

         Autumn opened the door and entered the office, with Xavier right behind her.

         She took on her sweet voice, which Xavier found increasingly sickening every time he heard it: “Thank you father! I have missed you so much!”

          The office was surprisingly small compared to the room they had just passed through. It was lined with old books in bookcases on each side. Behind the mayor, Xavier could see a small window, with the shutters closed. The only light in the room came from the 4 candles on each corner of the desk in the middle of the room. The mayor was sitting at the desk amongst so many books and folders, it looked as if he didn’t have any space to work with.

         John Easthill himself was an imposing figure. He was dressed in a blue robe with golden linings and a yellow star embroidered on his chest. It commanded respect, even though Xavier did not know what any of the medals and ribbons on his shoulder meant. What intimidated our hero the most was the mayor’s face. It had an aura of power, of strength, and of resoluteness he had rarely seen in anyone. The thick brown eyebrows overshadowing the dark gray eyes bore into Xavier, mentally asking him why he was intruding on such a high official’s private time with family.

         Autumn sensed her father was wondering why she had brought the young man to the office and immediately added, “Father, this is Xavier. I met him just before I used the Exit Prism. Apparently he is a mage, and he does not know about it. I think he might be a Lost One.”

         John nodded, and slowly stood up. He was a little taller than Xavier, who was already taller than most boys his age. The mayor walked around the small desk, and stopped in front of the two visitors. He placed his palm on Xavier’s forehead, who could feel much more heat this time. It was as if someone had fired up some wood, and pressed warm coals against his face.

         John was talking to himself, “Indeed, indeed. Yes, very interesting. Hmmm... Yes...”

         He lowered his hand, and extended it to Xavier.

         “My name is John Easthill, Autumn’s father. It is an honor to meet you. What is your name, young sir?”

         Xavier was surprised by the respect the mayor was showing him, provided he had somehow intruded on a father-daughter private moment, and he was nothing more than an illegal alien to the magical world at this point.

         “My name is Xavier, Xavier Meiraux. It’s an honor to meet you sir Easthill.”

         Xavier shook his hand, almost getting his own palm crushed. The mayor was certainly an imposing figure, with physical strength to back up his looks, and probably a certain magical prowess to reinforce his standing.

         Magic. Apparently he was a mage, as were the two people around him. Still he could not believe a word of it, and only the pain he had felt when Autumn slapped him reminded him that this was not a dream. And if he was to believe her, he was indeed a mage. But if so, where was his magic? All these thoughts swirled in his head, until he opened his mouth to release them.

         “So how come I am a mage? What is a Lost One? And why did I have to come here... sir?”

         John snapped his fingers and made two rings with his thumbs and indexes, making a pair of glasses appear in his hands, which he delicately put up to his eyes.

         He calmly answered, “Yes, you probably have a lot of questions. I will try and answer a few of them here. Autumn will help you with your life here from now on, and will answer the more practical questions you will have about magic.”

         He sat back down at his desk, and joined his hands under his chin, with his elbows resting on the expensive looking wood that could barely be seen under the folders.

         “What I am going to tell you is relatively simple and straight forward. The whole picture is probably much more complicated, but you will learn that later, once you know the basics of our world, and what happens and has happened here.”

         He pause, and made very quick movements with his hands. Instantly, two chairs appeared behind Autumn and Xavier. The pair sat down quietly.

         “Now,” he continued, “a Lost One is a mage who has lived illegally in the Normal Plane. We are here in the Magical Plane. If it makes sense to you, think of Earth as a coin, and each plane being a side. You cannot be on both sides at the same time, yet the Earth itself is made of both sides. This may be complicated, but we will not get into physical implications of dimensions and such. I am not qualified enough to explain it anyway, this is mere theory.”

         Xavier looked completely puzzled, and looked towards Autumn, who had kept her smile and nodded intently at each sentence.

         “As I was saying, a Lost One is a mage who has lived in the Normal Plane. This is something we are against. Every four years, we send our children who are of age for 6 months into the Normal Plane, and they must all come back. Any mage who does not come back is termed a Lost One. They pose a threat to the integrity of the planes, and of life as we know it on Earth.”

         Xavier muttered slowly, “So I’m dangerous?”

         John closed his eyes for a second, then continued, “No, not you. You were not aware of your magic. Lost Ones are dangerous when they are part of the 6 month Expedition. They are aware of their magic, but cannot control it. Any revealing of their magic to a non-mage could result in serious complications, which we would have no control over. The rift between the planes opens twice in six months, every four years. This is why Lost Ones are such an important matter to us, and we have tried to limit the number of occurrences. You... You are a different type of Lost One.”

         Xavier was looking puzzled again, but listened on. He was fidgeting on his chair slightly nervous about the coming revelations about him. Autumn smiled at him and took his hand.

         She said softly, “Don’t worry, I’m sure this is all new to you but I’ll take care of you.”

         Somehow, Xavier knew she did not mean it at all, and felt even more uneasy.

         The mayor went on, “There is no doubt about your identity. We have had only one Lost One not accounted for and brought back to safety in the last four years, so it must be you. When you said your last name was Meiraux this confirmed my hypothesis. You probably don’t remember it, but you were born here, and you spent the first four years of your childhood here in Maravia. Your parents took you illegally back to the Normal Plane.”

         Xavier now held Autumn’s hand tightly. This news was shocking to him. He was born here? But he remembered living in his city all his life. And his parents fled this city illegally? This was slightly overwhelming.

         “I am sorry to say this, but your parents were rebels. Emily and Aymeric Meiraux were part of a terrorist group here in Maravia, and they fled to the Normal Plane in order to avoid capture. They staged your death just moments before leaving.”

         Xavier was completely taken aback. His parents were terrorists? This was madness. He remembered them as a nice couple, always taking care of him, and loving him with all their heart. Nevertheless, the back of his mind was putting two and two together. There seemed to be some sort of cycle of four years between the Magical Plane and the Normal Plane. His parents had died around four years ago when their car had run off a cliff on a sea side vacation trip without him. What if?... What if?...

         John could see Xavier was deep in thought, and continued, “We captured your parents four years ago. Their interrogation revealed that you were still alive, and living in the same city they fled to. You became the only known Lost One left. They recently gave us your location and we decided to send out someone to contact you and bring you here. However, that was not my daughter, which leaves me in the dark as to how you two met, but I am sure she will tell me later.”

         Xavier’s eyes had widened. He was muttering under his breath for the last ten seconds, until he decided to speak up: “They’re alive? My parents are alive, here?”

         John showed no emotion as he replied, “Yes, they are alive. They are currently in isolated detention for their crimes. I am sorry but you will not be able to visit them for now. It may happen in the near future though.”

         Xavier was still holding Autumn’s hand. He was glad for the heat it provided, no matter how unnatural, and how hypocritical she was. But he was also glad that she was not his only link into this completely unknown world. Somewhere, his parents were alive, waiting for him.

         He could barely contain his emotions, and croaked, “So... my parents are mages, so I am one too?”

         John closed his eyes again for a second, before going on, “Yes you are. However, you cannot use magic for now. It seems your parents have sealed it in your body, and its reach is very limited for now. You will not be able to perform spells or even simple magical actions until someone performs magical liberation on you. In a sense, this is like surgery in the Normal Plane, but with magic. Someone will go through the different magical currents that live through you, and use their skill to unlock other magical currents hidden in seals through your body. I am not a skilled liberator, so I will only be able to unlock the basic ones for now. We will find help for you later.”

         The mayor rose again, and walked up to Xavier’s chair. He gently placed his right hand on his head, and made complicated movements with his left hand. A blue light started to shine in Xavier’s hair, as his eyes fell out of focus. Within seconds, he regained consciousness and could feel something coursing through his body, tingling under his skin.

         John went back to his desk, and sat down calmly.

         “Xavier, you are now a real mage. Of course, your magic is  going to be very basic for now, and Autumn will teach you how to master the few skills you will be able to use. The rest will be taught to you at the Higher Academy of Magic.”

         He stood up and faced his daughter, “Autumn, teach him the basic skills you learn before you achieve Control. Then take him to the Academy, he will move in tonight. We will talk more this evening.”

         Xavier then watched in awe as the mayor of Maravia’s hands drew a number of complicated signals in the air for a few seconds, before vanishing in a flash of blue light. He was stunned at all the sudden revelations and seemed paralyzed, until Autumn let go of his hand and reverted back to her usual abrasive self.

         “Well that was a bore. Snap out of it, you’ve got stuff to do. Let’s go.”

         She stood up and Xavier slowly followed.

         “So you’re going to teach me a few things now?”

         Autumn snorted, “As if. I’m gonna take you to the Academy, and get you a map of the city. Then you’re on your own. I’m not a babysitter.”

         Xavier started to feel annoyed, “You know, I preferred you when you were with your dad. Holding my hand and all, that was sweet of you.”

         “Shut up if you know what’s good for you. My cheeks hurt from all the smiling.”

         As they walked out of the mansion into the morning sun, Xavier couldn’t help but feel ambivalent about his new situation. With this much change in his life, and his new acquaintance being a two-faced violent mayor’s daughter, part of him was wishing he had never heard her muffled scream. But at the same time, it seemed like he was about to live some new adventure, and this was perfect for him to forget about Sonya.

         He could not have been more wrong.