For I shall learn from flower and leaf
That color every drop they hold,
To change the lifeless wine of grief
To living gold.
-Sara Teasdale
"Fine", Orion said. Not the one in the cage, the one closer to her.
And with a groan, he started changing.
His face twisted, and Alessandra was filled with nausea as she saw his bones moving.
He changed. And he wasn't Orion anymore.
"My name is Dmitri. That back there, that's Orion".
His features were sharper. His hair was dark brown and more tangled than Orion's was. He seemed older, but not older than twenty. His eyes seemed pitch black. They also had a darkness, a shadow, warning not to look at them for too long. He was good looking. But he also looked terrifying.
And he had that accent she could recognize anywhere. The other Alessandra's accent.
"You see, I sent him to you to bring you here, but he got carried away. He did keep you alive, though".
"Right. Might I ask why or how you turned into him?"
He laughed softly.
"Well, I decided to do the job myself, since he wasn't going to. Now how, that's another story. Shall we save it for next time?"
He stood up and left. He simply left. Just like that. He had left Alessandra and Orion locked up in a cage in the middle of a forest. It was unbelievable, and Alessandra tried to pierce him with her look as he walked away, to make him turn around somehow.
But he didn't.
"Are you all right?" The true Orion asked, worried.
"I'm fine. What happened to you?"
"Well, long story short, he wanted me to bring you here. I didn't agree with his methods. We fought. At the moment I thought it was strange that he would get so upset, until I found out he just wanted some of my blood. He took some, and used it to turn into me. How he did that, though, I have no idea".
"So, you never told me your name,"
"So if something like this happened, you could tell it wasn't me. So you wouldn't be fooled. His ego needed that".
Alessandra smiled.
"Smart".
But how do they even know my name?
Orion ran his hands through his hair, and managed to get some dirt out of it. She realized he probably kept it dirty so she wouldn't notice it was actually white.
For the same reason he wore gloves, she realized. Because he wasn't wearing them now, and she could see the familiar scarred designs.
"You're the Orion. From the Lab. The Akraqsew".
It wasn't a question. He looked surprised, and Alessandra felt a little pleased with herself.
"I got there when you left", she explained.
"And you met Sewell, I suppose", he said with a smile.
"I did. He misses you".
"I bet he does".
"Nice to finally meet you, Orion".
"You too, Alessandra".
Even though it was completely creepy that he knew her name, she couldn't make herself angry with the boy. There's something about being locked up in a cage that doesn't allow people to hate you as much as they would otherwise.
"So who is he?"
"He took over when the last queen died".
Queen.
"Ah, so there are other people".
"Yes".
"Why didn't I hear anyone?"
"Because Dmitri didn't want you to. They've been hiding".
Hours passed before Dmitri came back.
Alessandra was making knots of the grass to distract her fingers from fidgeting nervously. Apparently, she was out in the open of the forest, hidden in a particularly thick part of it. In her cage.
"Don't make them too tight or you will hurt the forest", a whisper in her ear.
"What do you want?"
"Seriously. This grass can come in handy".
Alessandra scoffed. She was acting tough, but she was scared of this boy. If he could make so many people hide, how powerful was he? How could he change into Orion? Why did he? Why did he seem to know who she was? Had he crossed the portal as well? Alessandra doubted that, since it seemed to have started working properly just a few months ago, and Dmitri seemed... Alessandra wasn't sure exactly how to describe it, but it was like he was used to the forest in the way you can only be used to somewhere you've been a long time in.
Another question that bothered her, was how had she known that accent if she hadn't heard it before? It clearly wasn't her imagination. It was an actual accent. And this boy had it.
Maybe he was the kind of danger the Lab was trying to warn her of. Maybe he was the monster wolf.
She kept quiet.
He cleared his throat.
"May I try to answer some of your questions?" He asked. "But I must warn you; I cannot answer them all at once".
Alessandra turned and faced him, kneeling. The cage was made to be sitting down on, but Alessandra was small, so she could afford to kneel. She could see Orion's cage behind Dmitri, Orion was taking a nap.
He reminded her of someone, Dmitri. Not because of the accent, but physically. She couldn't tell whom.
"How".
"How what?"
"How did you change into Orion? How did you transport yourself from there to here?"
"One question at the time", he said with a smile.
Alessandra was taken back.
"The men on the other side of the Portal, they always said that. But you already knew that, didn't you?"
He looked at her closely.
"Can I borrow your pen?"
"What?"
"I asked if-"
"I heard. I asked you a question".
He leaned closer to the bars. "But you already know the answer".
"But they said the Portal didn't work".
"But it does work, doesn't it? Now, I need your pen".
Alessandra took it out of her belt with a scowl on the outside to cover up the need to run and hide on the inside, and handed it to him.
How could he know?
He scribbled something in his hand, then handed it back as he said, "There is no such thing as coincidence".
"Can you do magic?" Alessandra asked. She was at a point where she could believe anything.
Dmitri looked at her and laughed.
"No, I can't do magic".
"Then how did you change into Orion?"
"With magic".
"You just said you couldn't".
"I said I couldn't do magic. But I can use it".
"That's what I meant".
"Then ask the right question".
He was teasing her, she knew. But how did he know what she had been taught?
A half smile appeared on his face.
"What is it, Alessandra?"
"You know perfectly well what".
His half smile disappeared, his eyes darkened, and with them, Alessandra's heart skipped a beat. That couldn't be good.
"You might want to show me some respect. I choose when to free you, after all".
"Free me now, and I might show you some".
Her heart was complaining against her choice of words and tone. Against her pretended toughness.
"You do not command me".
"No, I don't".
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Dmitri took something out of his belt, and opened the cage's door.
"Truth is, I don't want you to feel like my prisoner. I do expect some more respect from you, but not fear, not hate".
They had been walking for a few minutes in silence. They had reached the beach when Dmitri started talking.
Alessandra just nodded.
She knew what the fierce Alessandra would say. She had been saying what she thought she would say and acting as she knew she would act when she was in the cage, but she hadn't seen her once. Now, she sat in the sand, pretending to be at ease. Dmitri joined her after a few seconds.
"So, this magic you... use," Alessandra started. She was fascinated by it. She had read so many stories about witches and sorcerers and wished so badly it was real and she could learn it one day. Now she could, if she said the right things.
"Yes?"
"How does it work?"
She honestly thought he would act mysterious. She thought he would say something like "All in due time" or say nothing at all. Instead, he turned to face her with glowing eyes.
"Lets start with how I turned into Orion, shall we?" Alessandra nodded. "I took some of his blood for his DNA, put it in distilled water and watered some Carpobrotus Edulis with it. The pink flowers over there", he explained at her poor knowledge of flowers. "They are his favorites, since they remind him of his home. Once they grew with his blood in them, I burned them. The ashes I mixed with some more distilled water and drank. It's not necessary to use the target's favorite flower, you can use any flower, but if you do use his favorite flower the potion lasts longer".
Alessandra stared back. Now, the question was why had he done it.
"It doesn't taste as bad as it sounds", he said defensively.
"I didn't know drinking flower ash with blood made you look like the blood's person".
"It doesn't where you come from, but the forest here is different. Magic".
"I noticed", Alessandra said, remembering the dragon tree.
"Ah, yes. Ollie".
"How did you learn?" She asked.
"Old books. And some of it was experimenting from my part".
Alessandra was marveled. She didn't forget the lies or the cage, but she wanted to learn magic. She didn't trust Dmitri, not at all. But that didn't mean she couldn't be his student. It was too tempting.
But what had happened to Orion? Why was he in that cage, why had Dmitri turned into him? Who had Dmitri been trying to hide from her with that potion, Orion, or himself? Why had she been locked up as well? Was it Dmitri's way of establishing he had control over the situation? Or control over her? Was Orion still in his cage?
That motivated her even further. If she learned magic, Alessandra wouldn't be so easily taken prisoner. So easily controlled.
"Can I learn?" She asked.
Dmitri smiled. It was a warm smile, like Tamara's. It was a nice smile, too. It made him look even better looking. Not at all like the scary smiles earlier. But he looked so much like someone else. Alessandra couldn't recall whom but it was unnerving. Almost like she had met Dmitri before. Though obviously, she hadn't. She would remember someone like that.
"Absolutely", Dmitri answered.
Dmitri opened the cabin's door. How had Alessandra missed a cabin while she was walking around the island, she didn't know.
Magic maybe, she thought with a smile.
She stepped inside and Dmitri followed closing the door. Bottles of different colors were hanging from the roof, each one with different things inside. Some had objects, some had leaves and flowers, some had liquids. Some were even shinning.
A big bookcase took a whole wall, the one to the right of the door, filled with big books. They were really old, some had pages falling out, some had leather covers, some were in languages she couldn't understand, and some she couldn't recognize the writing. They smelled like old books smell. Like dust, like time.
There was a table with square plates, with stones and crystals on them. There were wooden pencils scattered across it, too. Handmade, but working. There was a feather quill and a bottle with ink as well. The table had ink stains across it, and an open book with drawings of the sun and moon as one, drawings of flowers and of symmetrical designs.
The cabin had a certain smell, like trees but also different. It was a relaxing smell.
"Did you draw this?" Alessandra asked. It probably had a meaning, but all she could focus on right now, was how pretty the drawings were.
"I did", Dmitri answered, proud. Alessandra turned towards him. He was watching her in a way that made her nervous, especially with that darkness in his eyes, but she refused to drop her gaze. She had to seem confident; she had to be the other Alessandra.
After what seemed like hours, Dmitri turned away and walked to the bookshelf. He took a book with a leather cover and a flower carved in the spine.
"Here, learn the first ten flowers for now", he said handing it to her.
The pages were yellow with age, the words written in brownish ink and there were some dried and pressed flowers. She approximated the book to have around five hundred pages. It was as long as her forearms. There were four different types of flowers each page, and the information on where to find them, what they looked like, what their names were, their uses and some extra notes.
"You know all of them?"
He laughed.
"Of course not. Only the ones on this island. The ones with the pressed flowers".
Alessandra went through the book fast. On the first pages, every flower had the real flower next to their names, but later on, only a few and then none at all.
"It helps remembering".
"They're beautiful", she whispered.
He went to the bookcase again as if he hadn't heard, but he didn't turn fast enough. Alessandra saw his smile.
He searched for a book, searched for a specific page, a specific paragraph. He walked towards the desk and marked the spot with his finger as he looked at the crystals. There were round ones, cylindrical, cubic, pyramid shaped, and some were smaller, like dust. They were light pink, transparent, white, grey, dark purple, light purple, blue, golden, bright orange and green. The stones on the other plate were of all colors but usually round.
Dmitri took one of the purple ones.
"Amethyst" he said, showing it to her. It had a cylindrical, pointy shape. He placed it on the page where his finger was.
"Were you taught to make a fire?" He asked.
"Yes", she answered, but there wasn't really any need for that, since he had already handed her some sticks, wood cut really small and a rock carved to be a bowl. She immediately set to work. With the rock bowl it was easier, and it took her a reasonably short time to make a fire.
She turned to let Dmitri know she was done and noticed he was looking for something in a shelf on the opposite wall of the bookshelf. He turned with a smaller bowl, with a handle. It looked like a big soupspoon.
He smiled at the fire Alessandra was holding. The bowl wasn't even warm.
Dmitri walked towards her, took another purple crystal, checked if it was the same as the one marking the right line on the book, placed it inside the big spoon, and placed the spoon on top of the fire.
"The highest part of the fire is the warmest part", he explained.
When the crystal had melted into a purple liquid he put it in a small bottle that was hanging nearby.
He took a quill, and looking at the marked line on the book, started writing on another piece of paper, using the melted amethyst as ink.
Alessandra tried, but she couldn't understand what the words said, though she could understand the letters, so that was something.
When Dmitri was done, he straightened himself, and looked at her expectantly.
Alessandra raised her eyebrows. She had no idea what he was expecting her to do.
He grinned, and pointed with his chin at the piece of paper.
Alessandra looked at it but nothing happened. She felt Dmitri's eyes still on her, and she stood open-mouthed as smoke came out of the words in purple. The smoke rose and the ink started disappearing, as if evaporating. The smoke rose higher and higher, swirling, dancing. It came down and surrounded her. She remembered walking home with Sophie after school, coming across smokers who would exhale in their direction. She remembered the unexpected awful smell of it, the smell that left the two girls coughing the first times. They grew used to it.
But this was nothing like that. It smelled fresh, clean. She felt it in her lungs. And even the smoke had some of the stone's purple.
"What was that for?" She asked when the smoke disappeared, not even realizing she was smiling. She had just witnessed magic. Magic. She was wrong when she thought she could believe anything; this was unbelievably beautiful.
"Just for show", Dmitri answered, honest.
"What?"
"It's more useful than it sounds", he explained. "It's to threaten people, show them what you can do. Even make them believe they were victims of some spell. Or just to have fun and control smoke".
"You can control it?"
He tried to hide a smile.
"You will have to learn the theory first. We are starting with the flowers," he said pointing at the book he had given her. "Then we will move to crystals and stones, and then," he made a pause, and half smiled.
"Surprise".