Strangely Familiar

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

“Old habits die hard.”

Shaurya knew he was not just another powerful Immortal but a strategist, an incredibly intelligent one, constantly maneuvering and plotting to ensure the prosperity and security of his kingdom. He understands the intricate dance of politics and knows when to use his magic and manipulation to maintain his reign.

“Mortals are overly optimistic to believe they ever die,” Cian tilted his neck slightly to match his sight with the girl standing beside the Royalty. “And who might you be?”

“Hardly your concern.” Naina opened her mouth to speak when another voice beat her. She felt a nudge on her side and scowled slightly, pulling her wrist away.

“Oh, c’mon, old friend,” Cian said lightly, “I can see she is a mage with extreme unbidden powers. Very curious, this one.”

Naina consciously moved a step away. The breeze ruffled up her frizzy hair, clashing with the surface of her face and she wiped them away. The presence of two men with dominating auras did not calm her troubled mind as she glanced at the passed-out girl on the ground. She wasn’t sure how Tia ended up with healing magic. Moreover, why didn’t she tell anyone before? Naina did not like not understanding a situation.

Keeping everyone in the dark was the last thing she expected from Tia. Although it would be hypocritical of her to blame her knowing she has kept many secrets of her own, though in her defense, she only did whatever she had to do, and it wasn’t by choice.

“What do they call you, love?”

“Naina.”

“Why does your magical signature say Akira, Akira?” He raised his brows to the hairline.

Naina snapped back at Shaurya inquisitively.

“Novas are the most ancient kind to have ever existed, right after Tempus. They are believed to have impeccable strength and excellent visions. You can’t easily hide anything from them.” He spoke, meaningfully glancing down at her.

Naina nodded, bracing her thoughts. “My adoptive parents named me such, and since you asked what they call me, this is it.”

Cian laughed heartily. “A mage raised by mortals? Things have looked down on you, Shaurya. If word gets out, imagine the scandal.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Cian cocked an eyebrow. “The ferocious leader, willing to burn the world down to avenge the miserable life imposed on him has grown soft.”

The chords of the speaker were suddenly squeezed by a force crushing his larynx preventing him from speaking. His voice hummed at the unexpected vibrations, squealing in pain as black dots took over his line of sight.

His eyes bulged out at the intense pressure. Out of instinct, Naina stepped backward, horror claiming her eyes.

“I don’t like being doubted,” Shaurya spoke nonchalantly, scratching the underside of his ear, ignoring the bits of whimper that managed to escape from the compressed voice box.

Just like it appeared, the force vanished leaving the person to inhale loudly, his lungs claiming all the magical essence around him like a madman.

Cian choked and coughed, challenging him, despite the situation. “Still the same old bastard, I see. One would think you learned how to take humor.”

The Royalty returned his devious simile. “How about I lock you up for eternity and see how humorous you turn out to be?”

“You’ll do me a favor.”

His eyes traveled to where Naina stood, holding her hands closer to her chest, calming her heart. “Look you scared the poor little mage.” Cian smiled warmly at her. “Don’t worry, love. When you live as long as we do, your idea of exchanging greetings changes slightly.”

She released a shaky breath.

Shaurya stood rooted at the spot, hands clasped behind his back as he spared her a glance. Surreptitiously, an act he has achieved his mastery in, he took in her present state. Her curiosity was palpable and so was her desire to leave the ground of Median the first chance she got. Rowing on her dwindling thoughts, her eyes moved quickly from one spot to the next incessantly. Shaurya knew she had a lot to learn, and controlling her emotions would head the list of priorities. She was too mortal and cared for no reason.

He never understood what was so intriguing about mortal life. She negotiated loyalty for her mortal parents, one of whom ended up dead, and the other deceived for selfish gains. Yet, here she stood worrying over a girl she barely know. She needs a brainstorming session with him.

Cian’s smile fell a little. “I don’t feel welcome.”

He was suddenly thrown at a farther point. Shaurya gave him a tight smile. “Want to try again?”

“They don’t call you Royalty for nothing.” He said it gracefully despite the discomfort in his voice.

“What wager do you wish to make?” Shaurya asked, arriving straight to the point.

“If your healer friend survives my little creative experiments, I shall help you with your freedom.” Cian dusted the ceases off, and fixed his gaze on Shaurya’s gloved hands. “I have a perfect little sacrifice you could use at your disposal.”

“What if she doesn’t survive?” Shaurya asked casually.

Naina was shocked to hear them talking headlessly over someone’s possible demise. She chose to remain quiet, knowing better than to interrupt.

“You can forget about your freedom and I shall take the healer’s blood instead.” Cian shrugged, lacing sideways at the passed-out girl, “In fact why risk, I might as well collect my security now.”

He marched at her passed-out form. Naina walked crossing his path at the same time. Shaurya glared at her blatant refusal of his word but this was different.

“You are not going to touch her.” She said sharply, stretching her hands forward, signaling him to stop him.

“You think you can stop me, little mage?” He grinned maliciously at her.

“Step aside, Akira.” Shaurya hissed at her.

“If you think I am going to stand here and watch him do whatever he pleases with a passed-out, defenseless girl, you don’t know me at all, Your Majesty." She grumbled, glaring right at him.

Royalty or not, magic or not, no man has the right to touch a woman without her permission. Her eyes glistened defiantly, in valor.

Bold, thy name is Naina.

Both men stared at her. She would raise her shield if she has to considering defensive magic is the only magic she knows well.

“Little mage,” Cian smirked, walking over to where she stood. “Be grateful, I value courage above everything else, otherwise your overt lack of respect towards your apparent superiors calls instant death.”

“She’ll remember that, won’t you, Akira?” Shaurya’s tone was noncompromising, leaving no room for argument.

Naina nodded reluctantly, wanting to dismiss the conversation herself, though she refused to leave her spot. The two men turned on their heels and left her standing on high moral ground. Shaking her head, she glanced sideways only to realize that Tia was no longer lying on her spot.

“She vanished.”

“He is going to treat her like a lab rat, isn’t he?”

Mr. Kazmi was pacing around the hall of the Mansion as Naina sat at one end of the bench, the brother occupying the other. She recalled the events that took place after Cian magically blocked them out.

Samraat was awfully quiet. Ducking his head, he placed his palms on his lap staring into nothingness.

Naina nudged him gently bringing him back. He sighed deeply, resting his face on his palms again.

“Hey,” she whispered.

“I feel like a fool.”

In the hope to comfort him, she placed her arms around him in reassurance. “You are not a fool.”

“She must have a reason.” Mr. Kazmi said.

“Do you think so?”

“I admit what she did was undoubtedly mindless,” he added quickly, “but she is just a teenager.”

“I’m not,” Samraat said quietly. “yet I cannot digest that she would pick power over relationships, over us.” He halted as another thought crossed his mind, “Or maybe it was just me.”

“Sammy-”

“DAMN IT! I am such a FOOL.” He cried out in utter frustration.

Rahil Kazmi observed his reaction. He wasn’t a relationship expert but the feeling of loss stuck as close to him as his beating heart.

“I never understood why Shaina would pick the magical world over mine - ours, or what could have been ours.” He sat next to Samraat. His voice was deep. “I never lived a normal life since that fateful night. I thought she was in a trance, possessed, but magic calls magic. It was her call. She embraced herself and accepted her fate.”

“You’ve met her again.” Understanding dawned on her as Naina whispered.

It wasn’t a question but he responded anyway, “All my life, I blamed myself for something I had no control over. Spent most of my life seeking revenge and sorting the inexplicable, and look where it got me.”

He waved his hand, motioning his current position. “I lost my job, became a suspect, and my own people turned their back on me.”

“Do you regret it?” Samraat asked.

“No,” he answered in a heartbeat. “Not for a second. I would still happily live my remaining life with Shiana if I get a choice. Only now, I truly understand her.”

“What do you mean by that?” Naina shook her head in doubt.

“I see she is more herself in her world than she ever was in mine.” Rahil Kazmi closed his eyes, smiling to himself.

She listened carefully taking small breaths.

“I just want to go home,” Samraat whispered, “but soon there will be no home to go to.”

“You have me,” Naina repeated, a hard edge in her voice, mildly offended at the implication. “Don’t you understand?”

“But you are a mage,” he responded, correcting himself, realizing his mistake. He straighten up a bit. “How long before you decide to leave this world for good just like Miss Arani did?”

Samraat may have felt dumb for foolishly believing Tia and falling for her innocence but he was wise in every other aspect. Schooling his feature into a small mature smile, he nodded at Rahil Kazmi, whose eyes shone with pride. They exchanged non-lexical, nonverbal communication silently acknowledging the unspoken but inevitable truth.

Naina opened her mouth to protest, but his voice overlapped hers, “Don’t get me wrong, but this is not your world. You must embrace your true self, your true potential, Nans. That’s your destiny.”

She stared at him teary-eyed. “I’m not going to leave you.”

“You have to,” he spoke, this time with controlled emotions. “This is who you are.”

She sniffed. “I’ll be all alone.”

“You have him.” Rahil Kazmi said quietly.

“Only as long as I am useful.” Naina slouched her shoulder, tiredly. The conversation was not heading anywhere. It was hard to make up her mind and bring it at ease, not after what she witnessed. “Once he is truly free, I don’t know what’ll he do with me.”

Rahil Kazmi shifted a chair and placed it next to the bench. He sat himself down and sighed. The next few words slipped out of his mouth. “I no longer have access to the books I’ve read but there is something very exclusive about Magee’s magic, Naina. It reacts to its counterpart.”

She scratched her elbow to diffuse the itching. She gave him a light shrug pushing up her sleeves. “You saw my magic reacting to his?” Naina cleared his doubt. “Only because I promised my loyalty to him.”

“I have a feeling there is something more to that theory.”

Samraat tilted his head, nervously tapping his fingers on his knees, side glancing at her sister. “I knew it. You are a fool too.”

Naina tried not to take offense but he was right. She agreed to his proposition without any forethought to protect her adoptive parents before it all went downhill. A part of her hated Shaurya for taking advantage of her situation but what could be expected of a budding freedom-seeking King, whose life has been all about taking revenge on everyone who has wronged him?

Rahil Kazmi shook his head. “You acted on emotions. It makes you human, something I find intriguing.”

Samraat scrunched up his forehead in confusion. “Why?”

“Because no Mage feels for Mortals. It’s coded in their blood which makes my case different.” Naina responded, dodging his incredulous stare.

“But they were human once, weren’t they? Surely, they can feel for their kind?”

“According to legends, when Magee’s magic burst and scattered itself in the air, everyone who took it was affected. They had more strength than fellow humans. On the one hand, they exceeded in powers far greater than any, and on the other hand, they became emotionless. It was believed power blinded their sense of empathy. It converted them into a mage. Magic only stays loyal to magic.” Mr. Kazmi retold the extracts he read right before the tornado hit the ground.

“Humans were never supposed to possess it, Sammy, if it wasn’t for Aruha,” Naina tensed suddenly remembering the previous incident in the Mansion. Her fingers curled into fists, nails digging into her skin.

Samraat closed his eyes, trying to absorb everything in. It was all too much. “With everything going on around us, I don’t know whether to thank him for saving our lives or kick his ass for putting us at risk.”

“Kick his ass.” A small smile appeared on her face. “Definitely.”

Samraat chuckled, feeling the load freeing in his head.

“C’mon, I need to show you something.”

She got up, gesturing the two of them to follow. Standing firmly on the ground of the Mansion, she traced her finger slightly at the design imprinted on the walls in a particular pattern. The wall shifted revealing a hidden stairway.

“The Mansion has a lot of undiscovered secrets,” she said walking down the stairs. The path lit on its own like greeting a familiar magic. Naina led them to the room whose entrance revealed itself at the end of an alley, that began right after the staircase.

“The Manor Paradise.” She revealed the room for them.

“The what?”

“The only place that could act as a refugee center, a secret hideout, and a time library for every magical being to have ever existed.”

Rahil Kazmi grinned unable to contain his happiness and excitement. He was overawed.

“But we aren’t magical,” Samraat frowned.

“I don’t care.” She responded nonchalantly. “Frankly, you guys deserve to know all about magic, especially after everything we have been through.”

She tossed a miniature wheel of time at the center of the room. “It will tell you all you need to know. It’s like a computer. You speak the keyword and it equips you with the information you need.”

Rahil Kazmi hesitated slightly. “Is the True owner fine with us using his personal time chamber?”

“My magic would have burned me out alive the moment this thought crossed my mind if it was against his will.” She clenched her jaws, feeling irrational anger against him.

She signed up for this. Her mind reminded her.

“He is free to roam here anytime.” Samraat chipped in.

“He isn’t free yet, not entirely.”

“No?”

“Remember how freedom demands sacrifice?” She asked, hoping her magic won’t consider it a violation of her loyalty. When it didn’t react adversely as she expected, she relaxed slightly.

“If what we just witnessed was the level of power when he isn’t free. What would be his true potential if he truly unleashes all his magic?” The muscle of his face grew tense as he spoke louder with conviction.

“All bets are off,” Naina said simply.

Mr. Kazmi occupied a seat and lifted his head from a book he had started to read. The man never wastes time in gaining knowledge. His brows creased on their own as another string of thoughts surfaced flapping over the previous ones.

“Have you guys noticed something, if Aruha truly granted Tia with magic, why didn’t her magic react when the Masnion’s ground began to shake?” He asked.

“That’s actually a good question, Mr. Kazmi,” Naina knitted her forehead, trying to search the logic, several possibilities running wildly inside her head, “Magic triggers on its own when it senses danger. However, her magic acted like it was asleep.”

“Asleep?”

Horror consumed her face. Naina got up instantly, leaving the other two flowing her trial, feeling the tension erupting around her. “I have to find Shaurya.”

“What’s wrong?”

“There is a clause.” Naina hurried in her explanation, “a - a hypothesis that not many believe, magical powers usually fall asleep when the source is active. It’s like a security mechanism. In technology, the source is important for every other connection to work. The magical world works the same way, only opposite.”

“You do realize you are making no sense, Naina,” said Rahil Kazmi.

“You know how property gets transferred to a legal heir only after a person, the rightful owner ceases to exist,” she exclaimed, looking around, worried. When they nodded their head, she continued, “And how one cannot rightfully take control as long as the owner is alive. Well, magic transferred or granted as a gift is considered void if the source - the giver is alive. It can truly reside in a body only after it leaves its previous owner.”

“The source was Aruha’s magic. Are you trying to tell me she’s alive?” Samraat frowned, trying to put two and two together.

“I don’t know. But the source is in action somewhere.”

“Hang on,” Mr. Kazmi interrupted. “Her magic worked at the Median.”

“Exactly. It worked at the Median but not in the Mansion.” Her logic was running wildly in her head.

“So?”

“Don’t you see?” she exclaimed. “If Tia truly controls the magic in her, she would have done something when the ground started to shake, but nothing happened. Magic reacts on its own to preserve and protect the body it resides in. Someone else is operating it, acting only when necessary.”

Samraat stared at her, amazed at how the gears of her mind were working. “But she desired power.”

“Tia’s power is just an imitation like a mirage in the desert, it only shows what you are desperate to seek.” She paused, whispering the last bit. “It only shows you your heart’s deepest desire. That’s what she wanted, isn’t it? Aruha’s magic twisted her words. It only projected an image. Replica magic meant to deceive others into believing it to be real.”

Samraat confirmed, processing his logic. “But that doesn’t explain what happened at the Median or inside the Mansion. Surely, you don’t think she desires to die?”

Naina shook her head, going over the theory again. “No, but what if she wanted that.”

“Dying on the ground of Median is a lost cause because magic traps itself in time. But death in this world would mean magic is free to float once again in these walls,” Mr. Kazmi murmured as understanding dawned on his face, “linking itself with anyone connected to it.”

“Ma?” Smaraat whispered.

Claps resounded in the room, revealing two men in hoods and long robes. They uncovered their mask and looked at each other meaningfully before heading forward.

“Friends with intelligent and cunning mortals. You keep surprising me, little mage.”

Cian’s voice broke the silence of the room.