Page 37 of Cerulean Truth
I quickly dismissed the drops without bothering to read her message. The irony of chewing her out her for mauling a guy in a public restroom less than twenty-four hours before decimating a small—very small—village, wasn't lost on me.
The reality of Emma did however hit me like a tsunami and I remembered with a certain urgency I had to alert the Maumars, and by extension the Council, of her existence.
And, more importantly, of her non-traceable translation, which—in light of the recent information on Radicals fighting the Great Exposure—could be very problematic.
It would all come down to timing. My timing to tell the Maumars would have to be on the nose. I couldn’t afford to make any error in judgement as far as that was concerned. Timing, timing, timing.
"Anyway, on a completely different note... I stumbled onto something pretty out of the ordinary that needs your attention."
Yeah, my timing? Kind of sucked.
NINE
EMMA
It had been three days and two nights of deafening silence from both James and Stephen. They dropped a life-altering bombshell on me and then they vanished without a trace.
When you tell someone they might be a magician, potentially requiring them to sever all ties with their existing world and life, common courtesy dictates you darn well follow up!
My frustration grew with each passing day, and I found myself tempted to recite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to them, reminding them, even in their mysterious magi world, torture should not be allowed. It made me wonder if they had a Universal Declaration of Magi Rights but considering their complete silence toward me, I didn't even have the chance to ask.
The text message I had sent to James had also gone unanswered.
Finally, late on Wednesday afternoon, James managed to carve out a small window in his busy schedule to call me.
I was sitting back at my desk at the firm, slogging through another one of my last internship days. My enthusiasm for the legal profession had waned significantly since learning about my potential connection to the magi world, but I still put in thework, hopeful James might find a way to bridge both worlds, as he had hinted.
When his name appeared on my screen a little after seven p.m., my heart leaped. And to be honest, my nervousness wasn't solely due to the news he was about to deliver.
I took a deep breath and answered the call.
"Hello?" I said.
"Hi Emma, it’s James. I have some news," came the voice on the other end.
"Yes?" I responded, realizing he hadn't said "good news."
James took a deep breath before speaking. "Look, I tried, but the political climate is as such that nobody wants to take a risk right now, and you mean risky business as it is. I'm really sorry, but you've got about two weeks to cut all ties with your world, and we're counting on you to show up around the 20th of this month. You can still stay in touch with your parents, but you can't visit them and you can’t spill the beans about where you're headed or anything magi related. At least not for the first year. Maybe it will change down the line, but for now, the Council feels like they need to do some damage control, and you've gotta come in as soon as possible. Two weeks is all I could wrangle out of them."
I remained silent for a moment before James asked, "You still there?"
"Yeah," I muttered.
"Are you okay?" he inquired.
I let out a desperate laugh. "Are you kidding me? How could I be okay? How is any of this okay? You expect me to uproot my entire life, to break off from all my friends and family and I can’t even give them a proper explanation? No, I’m not okay! And frankly, I’m not very likely to comply either," I said, growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of empathy in their ruling.
James sighed. "I understand, Emma, this has to be incredibly rough for you. But there's no other way around it, we're stuck with this. It's just the way it's got to be, for the time being. Tell everyone you're taking a year-long leave, and we'll figure it out next year."
"What are the odds of my situation changing so drastically that in a year I’ll be able to tell them otherwise?" I retorted.
"Maybe not your own situation but things here… are happening. Look, it’s difficult to explain, just get it done. If you need me, call me," James replied calmly, not sounding as impatient as I had expected.
My heart raced at his last sentence. "Okay…thank you…"
"Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. I’ll see you later.”
"Wait! Don’t I have to find an apartment or something? Where do I even have to go?" I panicked.
