Unknown Legacy: Secrets of the Divine

Being an adult is totally overrated. After graduating from the Institute of Magical Arts four years ago, Dani, Viktoria, and I decided to join the Mutane Sihiri army.

Going out, finding, and capturing new magic users proved to be harder than I thought and has kept me very busy.

So busy, that my social life is nonexistent but at least I’ve got Dani and Vik. Shortly after graduation, Dani managed to convince Kyle, our old professor, to construct a small house for us on Orchard Landing.

Some of the other soldiers complained because they have to live in barracks but one swift and very stern conversation with the Over Lords quickly put a stop to their grumblings. Though, it doesn’t stop a few of them from being assholes to us.

“Come on, Lucy,” Dani says as we trudge through the hot desert of Nevada. “The faster we do this, the faster we can go home.”

“Seriously, whose idea was it to go on this mission again?” Vik asks.

I roll my eyes at their incessant whining. “It was Dani’s idea, so I don’t know why she’s complaining.”

“I thought we could capture this new magic user quickly,” she says with a sigh. “That way we could hit Las Vegas for some shopping before going home.”

Vibrations shake the ground and the conversation is forgotten as we go on high alert. I can’t tell in which direction the vibrations originated in the vast expanse of the Mojave. I’m hot and sweaty, and all I want is to shower, grab a glass of wine, and read a book.

A bath would be better but we only have one bathroom at home. The battle over the bathroom is enough to make me want to beg Kyle to add another one.

“Tell me you see him and that I am not hallucinating,” Vik’s voice interrupts my thoughts. She grabs my shoulder. “Am I hallucinating?”

I look in the direction she’s looking but all I see is a bunch of sand blowing around. The amount of sand blowing around looks like a mini sand tornado.

“I told you to drink water before we came and now, we have to deal with you seeing shit on top of finding the new magic user,” I snap, aggravated by the heat beating down on me.

“Hold on,” Dani says before she disappears. She reappears a minute later with a water bottle for Vik. “This is for you miss grumpy pants,” she says as she hands me a piece of my favorite chocolate.

I don’t want any chocolate but I take it and stuff it in my pocket, knowing it’s going to melt. Dani smiles and starts walking again before stopping abruptly.

“Um, guys? A man is walking our way,” Dani says softly like she’s afraid he’ll hear.

Still, I don’t see anyone as I turn around in circles looking for the mysterious figure they keep seeing. “This is not funny, guys,” I growl. “Either both of you are hallucinating or you’re joking around. I’m honestly not in the mood for either one.”

“I’m not joking, Lucy,” Dani says. “I swear he was just there and then gone as sand blew around.”

I’m beyond irritated now and turn toward them with anger in my eyes. “Alright. Whose ass am I going to kick first? I’m through playing games.”

Vik’s eyes widen. “Look out!”

Suddenly, I’m pushed to the ground hard. I roll over to see a man staring down at me before turning into sand and blowing away again.

This mission just got a little more complicated but, luckily Dani is here with us. She has multiple abilities and can assist with apprehending the dickhead playing with us.

“Great,” I moan as I stand up. “We’ve got a new magic user who has a disappearing act.”

We stand back-to-back to have an all-around view of our surroundings. Dani, Vik, and I have trained for years and we’ve gotten so good at having each other’s back that words don’t need to be spoken.

“Incoming,” Vik yells.

A large gust of sand blows our way and Dani quickly covers us in a force field, effectively blocking out the sand. Unfortunately, we aren’t prepared for him to solidify so quickly.

I’m kicked in the stomach before he disappears in a wave of sand. He reappears, punches Dani and Vik in the face, and disappears again.

The magic user reappears off in the distance, and Dani shoots an energy blast at him but he blows away again. We resume our back-to-back stance, rotating while looking around for the next attack.

The wind picks up as a mini tornado of sand comes our way. I flick my hand, attempting to knock the sand user back but it barely does anything.

Just as the mini tornado gets closer, a large ball of sand collides with us, scattering us all over the ground. He solidifies again and goes after Vik. He delivers a two-punch and kick combo before blowing away and reappearing behind her.

Vik throws her elbow back, effectively hitting him in the stomach and he grunts. Vik came to us when she was a teenager and while she’s gotten better at fighting, she’s nowhere as good as Dani and me.

She spins around quickly, trying to look into his eyes. “You will – umghf!”

The magic user spins and kicks her in the face, cutting off the rest of her sentence. I flick my wrist and send him flying back before he lands hard on the ground.

Before he has the chance to get up, I raise a hand to bring him my way and watch as he soars through the air toward me. I ball my fist, readying myself to punch him in the face but he turns to sand again and blows away.

“Get back here and fight like a man,” I shout into the air.

Behind me, Dani is shooting energy balls all around, trying to catch the blowing sand but keeps missing. I know when Dani is getting angry because she starts glowing and her eyes flash as her power flares. The ground starts trembling as lightning rains down, striking different places in the desert.

“Calm down, Dani,” I yell over all the commotion. “We don’t want to attract attention.”

“Screw that, Lucy,” she replies angrily. “This guy is pissing me off.”

The magic user appears behind Dani and strikes her in the back of the head before blowing away again. Suddenly, the wind blows violently around me before an arm wraps around my neck. I bend forward, throwing the magic user off of me before stomping on his chest.

I raise my hand, using my telekinetic ability to hold him down on the ground. It works for a few moments as Dani walks forward with electricity coating her hand.

I’ve seen her use this move throughout the years, as a form of tasing to get magic users to comply. I should have known it wouldn’t have ended this easily. The magic user turns into sand again and blows away before solidifying and kicking me in the back.

I fall to my hands and knees while letting out a frustrated grunt. This guy is getting on my nerves, and I want to kick his ass. The Over Lords want us to peacefully apprehend magic users but that’s hard to do when they’re determined to resist.

Vik is still unconscious on the ground and I look to see Dani surrounded by sand like she’s standing in the middle of a mini sand tornado.

A bright light flashes and sand is blown everywhere before Dani raises her hand and snaps her fingers. The sand freezes in place, hovering in the air.

“Listen up,” she says to the floating sand. “You can either change back to human form and come with us willingly or you can remain in this sand form and come unwillingly. I truly do hope you choose the latter. I’d like to kick your ass for hurting my friend.”

She gestures toward Vik just as she stirs awake. I walk over to help her up and look over her to make sure she’s okay. She’ll have a couple of bruises but Over Lord Sydney can fix her right up and she’ll look as good as new.

We walk back over as Dani still has the sand hovering in the air. I’ve no doubt she’s weighing the pros and cons of releasing him to see if he’ll comply or put up a fight again. Ultimately, she lets him go and luckily, he changes back to his human form without a fuss.

Now that he’s standing in front of us, I can get a good look at him. He’s got brown, shoulder-length hair that clumsily hangs over his full face.

Gentle brown eyes watch over us anxiously before glancing back at his surroundings. He looks like a nice, approachable individual but our recent fight shows otherwise as he attacked us without provocation.

“Come on, guys,” I say tiredly. “It’s too hot out to be here a second longer. Plus, I’m sure the Over Lords will have something to say to our magic user about attacking us.”

We teleport back to Orchard Landing to the infirmary, like we always do after apprehending a new magic user. Linda likes to look over them to ensure they’re healthy before we take them to the Over Lords.

Sometimes it’s easy to capture the new magic users and sometimes it’s extremely hard. Though, there are some in-between times when they initially fight because they’re scared.

After Linda finishes her assessment, Dani teleports us over to the large house where we accommodate the new magic users.

They’re lucky they have such a nice place to stay because Over Lord Ashley wanted to lock up any new people in the dungeons until Over Lord Annie got a chance to infiltrate their minds and do whatever she does before letting them roam Orchard Landing.

Fortunately, Over Lord Miranda wants them to feel welcome since this will be their new home, so she overruled Over Lord Ashley’s recommendation.

“Please let the Over Lords know we’re back,” I tell Dani as we enter the house with the new magic user in tow.

She can telepathically communicate with them, which has come in handy a time or two for us. I watch as she stands there staring off into the distance as she communicates.

I always tell her she has to learn to school her features because Vik and I can always tell when she’s communicating telepathically and her face shows everything she’s feeling.

“Heard you had quite the time catching this one,” Over Lord Mary says as she and the other Over Lords pop into the room.

I shrug with indifference. “Well, his ability is definitely one we haven’t encountered before so it was interesting, to say the least.”

Over Lord Annie walks toward the new magic user. “So, you have Psammakinesis. You can manipulate sand. That’s one we’ll have to add to the books.”

Over the years, we’ve been cataloging all of the Mutane Sihiri’s abilities. I’ve learned that there are a lot of different abilities and there are a lot of similar abilities, like a variation of the same ability.

Our army training consists of us learning to combat against abilities that have an advantage over us. Like today against the new magic user. Mine and Vik’s ability had virtually no effect on him at all.

“Release him, Dani,” Over Lord Miranda commands.

Dani releases him and to my surprise, he just stands there observing his surroundings with a look of irritation in his eyes.

“Just as I thought,” Over Lord Annie says. “You can’t do anything without being around some sort of sand. What is your name?”

Defiance covers his features before his shoulders slump in defeat. “My name is Garrett.”

“Well, Garrett,” Over Lord Sydney says. “Welcome to Orchard Landing. We are the leaders of our people. Can you tell me why you attacked my niece and her friends?”

“I’ve only recently settled there and then – he points toward us – they show up,” he replies. “Can you blame me? Look at her. She doesn’t exactly look normal.”

Dani slaps a palm to her forehead. “Shoot, I forgot the glamour.”

While the rest of us look just like regular people, the Over Lords do not, and Dani even more so because of her demon heritage. I’d be apprehensive if someone with purple hair and pale grayish skin with black veins all around came at me too.

That’s why whenever Dani or the Over Lords leave Orchard Landing, they put on glamour to blend in.

“I’ll give you this one time,” Over Lord Ashley states. “Attack my niece again and I’ll pulverize you.”

“Relax, Aunt Ashley,” Dani says, her eyes flashing in a display of power. “I’ll kill him myself if he even thinks about it.”

Sometimes I’m envious of all the power she has but then I think about what she went through to get it and the immense amount of responsibility she carries. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes nor would I want to be on her bad side because she has a temper.

We give our after-mission report before being released for the night. It feels good to be back home and now I can take that shower I’ve been thinking about all day.

“I call first dibs on the shower!” Vik yells as she takes off running out the door.

I take off after her, waving my arm as I go. I watch as she sails through the air and lands hard on the ground. “Nope, I’ve been thinking about a hot shower all day. I’m getting in first.”

Dani laughs behind us. “I’ll be in the shower when you get there!”

I watch as she disappears, no doubt teleporting home. Vik and I sigh in frustration.

Usually, it’s me and Vik fighting over the bathroom but ever since the Over Lords banned Dani from using the main house, now that we have our own, we have to deal with Dani as well.

She has the advantage over us but we get back at her in different ways which makes our friendship very entertaining.

“Come on, Lucy,” Vik says. “Let’s go shut off the cold water to the shower.”

I laugh as I trail behind her to the house. Dani is already singing in the shower by the time we arrive. Vik disappeared and by the sudden scream coming from the bathroom, I’d say Dani is experiencing some very cold water at the moment.

Laughter rings out around the house as we each take turns showering and playing jokes on each other but soon the shenanigans die down and now we’re relaxing on the couch.

“The heat from the mission today kicked my ass,” I say, interrupting the calm silence. “I’ve also got sand in places that sand shouldn’t be.”

“I know,” Dani agrees. “I don’t want to be around any sand for a long time.”

I stand up from the couch and stretch. “I’m going to check on my parents before heading to bed. I’ll see you guys in the morning.

The night sky is beautiful and the air is warm as I make my way over to my parents’ house. It’s late but not too late and I just want to check in with them.

Mom has had a hard time with me moving out but I told her to find a hobby. Dad is content just sitting in his recliner watching tv and drinking his coffee.

I walk into the dimly lit home. “Mom? Dad?”

“In here, sweetie,” dad says.

I walk into the living room to find him sitting in his recliner with his cup of coffee. “Dad, how many times have I told you that too much coffee will kill you? Why are you drinking it so late anyway?”

He waves a hand in the air. “Bah, coffee is good for you. Besides, your mother always portions my servings so I can’t drink as much as I want anymore.”

“Where’s mom?” I ask, ignoring his explanation. “Is she asleep already?”

His focus goes back to the television as he points in the direction of the kitchen. Walking that way, I hear mom humming as she cleans the dishes. I don’t know why she’s cleaning though because the house always looks spotless and smells like lilacs.

“Hi, sweetie,” she says as I approach. “How did the mission go today?”

She turns with a cup in her hand and hands me some tea. I realize she wasn’t cleaning the kitchen; she was cleaning the pot she just made tea in.

Mom always knows what I need and when I need it. Her subtle loving gestures have always been her way of showing how much she cares.

“Thank you,” I say with a smile as I sit down. “Today we had to apprehend a magic user whose ability is to manipulate sand. It was not fun and I’m glad it’s over.”

Dad walks in and rinses his mug out in the sink. “That sounds like one for the books. I remember when your mother and I were on a mission a long, long time ago.

We were trying to catch the Mutane Sihiri that was causing all kinds of problems in the city. That mission was the most complicated yet most memorable mission we’d been on.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Never mind that sweetie,” mom answers as she sends dad a look I don’t quite understand. “Just finish your tea before it gets cold.”

I visit with mom and dad for a little while longer telling them all about the mission today. They tell me stories about Las Vegas and I want to go back just to visit and have fun like a normal person. Hopefully, the Over Lords will let us do that one day. A yawn escapes before I can stop it.

“Why don’t you head home and get some rest,” mom says. “It sounds like you’ve had a very long day.”

“Okay, mom,” I say as I stand from the table. She tells me to leave my cup in the sink and I hug them goodbye before heading back home.