Back to Atlantis

over here, poor and defenseless,” Jon called.
Nobody was attacking him, but that was because of his reputation as Atlantis’s most powerful art spellcaster. The guards hesitated, but they were getting ready to strike.
“Don’t even pretend you don’t have a pen and paper handy!” shouted Miriam, breathing heavily as she judo-flipped an attacker, silently cursing her dress.
“You could at least be nice about it!” Daniella said, grinning wickedly as she pulled an artbook seemingly out of thin air.
“I’ll give you manners when I have a good mood!” Miriam shot back, her forehead dripping with sweat. “We could really use a distraction here!”
Daniella smiled, and started drawing. Her pencil flying across the paper. One of the many sounds in the room, along with the fighting and the frightened nobles’ whispering.
A minute later, she leaned over the paper, her forehead glistening with sweat as she concentrated.
Daniella could hear every sound in this world, she could see every color, but that wasn’t her goal. She needed to see her drawing. Concentrating on the art, she mentally pulled at the drawing with her magic, careful not to smudge it. She had a reputation to protect, after all. Smudged artwork would just not do.
Daniella leaned back against Jon, exhausted after doing so much magic, and a day spent drawing Miriam’s dress, Yasmin’s dress, as well as her own.
Everyone else, however, yelled, screamed—in a high pitched voice, both male and female—or in Miriam and Yasmin’s case, raised an eyebrow, impressed.
“I didn’t know you could bring live things out of the drawing. You were having problems with a butterfly, last time you tried,” Yasmin said, eyebrow raised, as she gestured at Daniella’s magic creation.
The creation was a six foot tall hot coca bottle, which was waving its arms, yelling, “coco, coco,” and spraying hot coca everywhere.
This was apparently very dangerous, because one of the guards slipped and fell. Everyone in the ballroom was caught between screaming in fear of a manic robot or laughing.
“It’s a robot,” Daniella said, yawning. “Now, can you finish this? I already gave you a distraction.”
“Sure.” Yasmin took deep breaths, settling into meditation.
She reached for her power, unsurprised. Ever since last spring, her color of magic had changed, and now instead of pure blue, it was closer to ocean blue.
David had thought it was because she had Abby’s magic.
Yasmin shook her head. Now was not the time to get distracted.
When she opened her eyes, lightning was flickering across her body. She smiled, because she knew that she had absolute control of it–probably. But she wouldn’t hurt anyone, because no one would dare get close to her.
“David,” she whispered, her lightning vanishing.
She couldn’t muster enough anger to glare at him, nor enough sadness to cry, so she just stared at him with dry eyes, a foot away from her and coming closer.
“Yasmin. Please calm down.” He cleared his throat. He even sounded like a robot. “What you are doing is unworthy of a mage. I, your teacher, will escort you to your room, where you will be taken care of.” He touched her arm gently, a touch that felt ice cold.
Yasmin slapped him then pushed him away. “Stay away from me!” she hissed. Her anger finally dominating her other emotions. “Why would I trust you now?”
David’s eyes finally had emotions in them, and it looked like his heart was breaking.
Yasmin refused to let her body show any sympathy. She needed to be angry right now. More than anything else.
“Is it because of Violet? Yasmin, I’m sorry but–”
“It is not because of Violet!” Yasmin was aware of everyone staring at them, but at this moment she didn’t care. “Your… your eyes are lifeless. It’s like I don’t know you. And maybe I don’t!”
She stood up straighter, hands on her hips. “The David I knew was a kind, brave, and sweet person. Sure, he was mad sometimes, but he was very kind and never tried to hurt the people close to him. You are the opposite of that. You are cold, lifeless, and don’t help your friends when they are being attacked by your mother’s solders!”
David stepped back, as if these words had physically hurt him. “I need to go,” he said, turning around and leaving the ballroom with Violet on his arm.
“Listen, Miss Mage.” The queen’s cold voice cut across the now silent room. “I don’t know what problem you have with my son, but I want to know if you have come only to destroy our hope. If so, then leave. If not, then stop treating us this way.”
Yasmin looked at her, just as coldly. “I am here to stop the beast. And to save innocent people from having the same fate as Abby. No other reason.”
“Then you need us. You still need to be trained. Even though what you achieved in a few months is impressive, you aren’t using half of your potential. I misunderstood you earlier, and I apologize. But your behavior was even more wrong. People don’t start throwing fits out of nowhere. If you want to beat the beast, then you must train and become the face of the kingdom. Atlantis needs hope. That is the main reason we called you here. Will we come to a truce?” The queen held out her hand.
Yasmin eyed it warily. “I don’t know. You seem like a good actress. How do I know I can trust you?”
“How do I know I can trust you?” Queen Andrea asked, an eyebrow raised.
Yasmin raised an eyebrow too. “You have a point. But if you harm me, or my friends, or family, or even try and use me as a tool again, you can forget about this deal.”
“Fine.” Queen Andrea sighed, standing up. “If it is for the good of the kingdom, I will do anything.” She looked at Yasmin. “You had better be worth the trouble, young lady.”
The queen looked around the ballroom. “Everyone! The party is over, and you will be happy to know that the mage has agreed to help us defat the rebellion! Goodbye,