章節 4: Chapter 4: Different
Silence greeted us. Only the crickets are breaking it at the moment. We stared at each other, not making any move, not making any noise. His eyes widened, spaced out, while I was just waiting for him to say anything, as I, too, couldn't believe what I just did. The force that I released earlier… was it… magic?
"M-Meria, what did you do?" He faltered.
"I…I was…" I tried to find the words. My whole body was shivering and I didn't want to move from kneeling down. My mind was full of confusion, and all I was wishing that this was just a dream.
"Is that… magic? Do you have magic?" He followed with more questions. I stood up from kneeling and looked at my hand, trying to find something that triggered it, trying to find answers on his questions, but to no avail.
"I-I don't know. I… I don't know what's happening to me." I said. I really don't know anything. I was just having problems with my chest the previous night, and now, I just found out that I did something that could possibly relate to magic.
Everyone knows that humans couldn't do magic. Humans are prohibited and cursed for that. And yet… here I am, breaking those rules.
"Could it be…?" He muttered, but I could still hear it. I turned my attention to him with a raised eyebrow. What does he mean by that?
"'Could it be'? What 'could it be'?" I asked with grown suspicion. Come to think of it, he's always acting suspiciously before when we were still kids. He is always hiding something from me. When it's bedtime, he is rushing towards a box that he is hiding in the corner of the room, and I don't have any idea what it is. I thought it was just a boy thing so I just shove it off. "Farin, is there something you're not telling me?"
"I'm…" He stumbled, making him more suspicious.
"Tell me…" I spoke, scared of what I was gonna ask. And not to mention, I'm different from my parents and my brother, especially my pale skin. They said that I probably got it from my grandfather or any relative I have, so I didn't think about it. But now, all of the questions I kept since I was little have been answered. "I'm not your sister, right?"
"I…" He tried to answer my question, but couldn't. I couldn't help but let my eyebrows frown.
"I should have known," I said, clutching both of my hands into fists, trying to stop myself from going mad.
"That's why I have different genes than any of you. That's why I'm so left out." I murmured, but let him hear it all. My black eyes fresh from tears were forming warm water again. "Y-You should have told me from the start! Why didn't you tell me?!"
My eyes were becoming fiercer. I'd never got mad like this before because I'd never been betrayed like this. It's like everything I knew is just lies. All he could do was to lower his head. This made me more frustrated.
"Answer me!" I yelled.
"Because I don't want you to leave!" He shouted back, much to my surprise. "I-I'm scared that if you knew about it, you'd want to know more and leave me behind. I don't want that to happen."
"Farin…" I called his name. What he said was right. If I knew everything about this, I might want to look for more answers and left this town, leaving him behind… alone. He already lost his parents, our parents, and now, he will lose me too.
His eyes were pleading to cry, but he was stopping it. "You're my only family. All I can do right now was… to take care of you."
I approached him, with an aching heart. I reached for his shoulders and gave it a pat.
"I won't leave you," I said with a serious face, trying to comfort him. I wanted to know about myself, and what I really am, but I don't want to leave him here. "I just… I just want to know everything about me... about who I really am."
We sat down in our sleeping mat, trying to be comfortable. I don't know how to react to it, but my mind is mature enough to be ready with this kind of thing.
"I just found you in the forest… with your mother. Unfortunately, she died for some reason, leaving you alive. So we took care of you." He started to explain. When I heard about my real mother's death, I couldn't help but grief for it. Even though I hadn't met her yet, I could feel that she must have done something to help me. "But… your mother was completely human, so I was shocked when I saw you having magic."
My eyes were widened. I heard about it in the book. About the race that can only use the magic freely without any equipment and only their own bodies. There are one of the four races that decided to coexist with all of us, and they are the ones who were ruling all of the kingdoms in the world, to avoid conflict in each ruler. They are the creatures of majesty and loyalty, who were always following rules and laws.
"You mean that… only encantors could do it?" I spoke of their name, couldn't believe that I said it with this kind of tension. When I was a kid, I was just using it in our roleplays with others and Dalary, but right now, it became a serious thing.
"Yes. In this world, only encantors can freely use magic, not even tendrins, not even scarnets, not even us, humans." He confirmed, clutching his hands.
"Does that mean I…?" I couldn't help but have an impossible conclusion. If I was one, then how come that I looked like a human? I have human ears and auburn long hair, different from their characteristics.
"I still don't know yet. But…" He answered, raised his head to meet me in my eyes. I did the same and noticed the sadness in between those. "…would you promise that you will stay?"
After hearing that, I couldn't help but give him a sincere smile."I will."
He also did the same thing.
"Thank you."
***
The next day came and everything I see around me wasn't the same anymore after I found out about myself. Farin wasn't the same person I know before. But even though we're not blood-related, I still considered him as my brother.
As usual, Dalary came in and picked me up, but I don't have the energy to say anything since I've been thinking about what happened. If I'm really an encantor, based on the rules, then how come I was still a human?
"Tell me…" My tree friend spoke, while we are just waiting for Dino to walked us to the Deravon Kingdom. "…did something happen?"
I was surprised that she still managed to read me, or maybe I was too predictable that anyone could read through it. Either way, I don't know how to escape from this situation so I just lowered my head.
I heard her sigh.
"It's fine if you won't tell me." She said, crossing her arms. "But for almost fifteen years, I've been sticking with you. So at least, we should share some secrets."
"Fine." I admitted, couldn't be able to take her. She will repeatedly tease me until I tell everything so there's no point staying quiet. "But don't tell anyone."
"Meria, you're my only friend– and Farin– in this town. So of course I can't tell anyone." She mocked, which made my eyes turned into slits.
"But… do you promise not to be surprised?" I asked her, trying to catch her off guard, even though I knew that it's impossible to do it, especially to her.
"Meria, you're always weird and a bookworm. You kept telling me that you're an encantor or a tendrin like me since you were a kid. So of course I won't be surprised." She said with the same pattern as her sentence before.
"I…" I paused, distracted by her sparkling glowing eyes. I sighed before saying anything. "I have magic."
My short sentence made the environment surrounding us to stay in silence and only the tweeting bird passing by made noises.
"What?!!" She yelled at me with her loud voice suddenly, which made me covered my ears. "You must be joking!"
"I'm not! It's true!" I tried to prove it to her by saying it, even though I know that won't work. If you don't have evidence, then it's not the fact. But I know that she will trust me and accept it.
"Then how come? You're perfectly human!" She shouted again, pointing her index finger at my whole body while scanning it. "Show me, then!"
"I-I can't control it. I just found it out last night." I excused, unfortunately, couldn't show her the magic. As far as I can remember, I can push everything around me with great pressure… is there a magic like that?
"Did Farin know about this?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. I nodded.
"Well, what should you do now? Once the whole kingdom founds out, you won't be safe anymore." She warned, which made me think about it. Come to think of it, if they knew about me having magic, they would be interested and will do anything to find out how I got it, and that's not a good situation for me.
"I… don't know."
At last, we finally made it towards the Deravon Kingdom gates. I decided to drop everything I learned for now and grabbed my work pass in my bag. I felt two pieces of copper stuck in my container and realized that I forgot to bring back my brother's work pass to him. I hope he won't question me about the loss later.
We dropped down from the wagon to go to the shack, but then, we saw a hooded man standing beside the place.
"Sir, you can't go in if you don't have a work pass or an appointment form." The guard said, trying to stop him. Curious about the commotion, we tried to approach.
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