1.02 – An Invitation to Dinner

“You look familiar,” Carda said, “but I’m positive I’ve never met you before.”

“My name is Xironi. Xironi Heartlight. I’ve been keeping an eye on you for a while now, Carda.” Xironi looked to be roughly the same age as Carda, perhaps a year older, with green eyes and reddish-brown hair. She was shorter than Carda by about six inches or so, with a trim gymnast’s figure.

These were all minor details in Carda’s eyes, at least compared to the tail and cat ears. Carda couldn’t stop staring at Xironi’s ears.

Xironi giggled. “Right, I forgot you haven’t seen anyone nonhuman before.” She twitched her tail as proof that it was indeed real and not just a costume. “I’m a Felician. I’m from another world.”

“Whoa, hold up,” Carda interrupted. “Another world? Like another planet?”

“No, another world. A different dimension. A parallel reality.” Xironi looked confused. “You don’t understand a thing of what I’m talking about, do you?”

Carda shook his head. “I understand other planets, and other solar systems, and other galaxies… But parallel realities? That doesn’t make any sense. How is that even possible?”

“It’s a lot harder for me to explain than you might think,” Xironi sighed. “I had hoped this world wasn’t so biased against magic, but—”

“Magic? Now you’ve lost me. What does magic have to do with anything?” Carda began pacing, trying to assemble the scattered thoughts within the conversation into something coherent.

“Magic has everything to do with anything, even in a world like this, where technology has taken its place. How else do you suppose you teleported to the top of a ten-story building?”

Carda turned to fire back a response, and suddenly realized he didn’t have one. He knew he had second sight, and that in itself was paranormal, but this was something else entirely. “I… don’t know,” he admitted.

Xironi stepped forward and rested a hand on Carda’s shoulder. “You’re a strider, Carda. A mage who can manipulate the fabric of space itself. Your teleport up here proves that.”

Carda stared at her. “How do I know that you didn’t pull me up here yourself?”

“Because I was sent to observe you and recruit you, and I was given strict orders to avoid helping you,” Xironi retorted, turning slightly red at this last bit. “My grandfather believes that you might be able to help us. There’s a war brewing that no one in this world will ever even know about.”

“A war? What do I look like, some kind of hero?” Carda pulled away from Xironi and jerked a finger in the direction of the ground ten stories below. “I nearly got my face rearranged down there—”

“But you didn’t,” Xironi replied simply.

Carda couldn’t argue with that. He sighed, frustrated. “Look, there’s a lot going on here that I can’t wrap my head around right now. Is there any chance we could talk about this some other time, when I’ve had a chance to think about it?”

“There isn’t much time. You need to start your formal training as soon as possible.”

“Formal training? For WHAT?”

“For becoming a strider, of course. Just because you were able to teleport once doesn’t mean you’re ready to take on anything that might come your way,” Xironi admonished.

“See, there you go again. I don’t know what you’re going on about, and unless you’re willing to tell me everything I want to know, I’m not sure I can trust you.”

Xironi stared at Carda for a few moments. She hadn’t expected this much resistance from him, but she had to admit that he was at a crossroads. It was obvious that this was a crisis of faith for Carda and she didn’t want to push him down the wrong path by mistake. “All right, you win,” the Felician replied gently. “I’ll tell you everything over dinner. Does that sound fair?”

“Dinner?” Carda blinked. He checked his watch. “Oh NO. I’m running late. I was supposed to be at Mom and Dad’s half an hour ago. I’m SO dead.”

“Your parents would kill you for being late?” Xironi inquired, bemused.

“Only figuratively. I think I’d prefer the real thing.” Carda sighed as he considered the situation. “My sister Michelle should be there by now, and she’s probably brought Sera and Echo with her. I guess one more can’t hurt, even if it still means that Dad and I will be the only men in the entire house,” he added with a smirk.

“Who are Sera and Echo?” Xironi asked him. These names were unfamiliar to her, though she had seen Michelle several times before.

“Sera’s a good friend, and she always seems to be there when I need help,” Carda replied. “And Echo is my girlfriend.”

“Oh,” Xironi replied, stunned. “I see.”

“I have no idea what my parents will think, but I don’t see much of an option at this point, if things are as dire as you say,” Carda sighed, failing to notice Xironi’s reaction. “You said you’ve been observing me for a while. You know where my parents live?”

“What? Oh, yes, I know where they live,” Xironi replied.

“Can you meet me there in about ten minutes? I don’t think it would look proper if I gave you a ride… especially to Echo.”

“Yes… of course. I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay, thanks. And… don’t think too badly of my parents, no matter what they say or do,” Carda added as he opened the door leading down into Everett Hall’s main stairwell.

Xironi stared after him, trying to master her conflicted emotions.

Dinner was, as expected, somewhat awkward. Xironi’s presence at the table had created an unsettling blanket of silence over the whole room. Carda found himself torn between wanting to make excuses on Xironi’s behalf and wanting to just disappear.

The first person to speak, to his dismay, was his mother, Abigail. “So, Xironi, you said your last name was Heartlight?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Any relation to Arthur Heartlight?”

Xironi dropped her fork, which bounced into her mashed potatoes. She didn’t notice. “You know my grandfather? Where is he? Is he okay?”

“We don’t know where he is now, but the last time we met him he was doing quite well,” David, Carda’s father, replied. Carda took note of the warning look David gave Abigail. Apparently they knew more than they were letting on.

“I didn’t realize you knew anyone from… Xironi’s side of town,” Carda commented. Xironi snickered quietly.

“Arthur works with Felix Grey on occasion. He’s quite the linguist,” Abigail said, cutting herself short. Judging from the glare she shot in David’s direction, Carda guessed that his father had given her one of his patented “shut up you’re saying too much” kicks beneath the table.

“So what brings you out to Sun Valley, Xironi?” Echo inquired from her seat on Carda’s left side.

“Well, Grandpa wants me to give Carda some training—”

“Oh GOOD, James, you’re finally going to have a tutor for your archaeology classes,” Abigail interrupted.

“It’s not exactly like that, Mom—”

Abigail didn’t hear him. “We’ve been telling James for months that if he didn’t get himself a tutor he was going to fail his classes, but he never listens to us. At least he didn’t before. I’m glad he’s finally started THINKING for a change.”

“Mom, any chance you could stop referring to me in third person? I AM sitting right here.”

“I’m just saying…”

“Yeah, you’re ‘just saying’ that you think I’m a horrible student.”

“Your GPA is barely 2.0, James. You could be doing better.”

“Okay, for one, a 2.0 means that I’m passing. For another, it’s only a 2.0 if you count nothing but my archaeology classes.”

“Well, those ARE the only ones that matter, aren’t they?”

“I. Like. Theater. How many times do I have to explain this?”

“Theater isn’t going to pay your bills when you get out of school.”

“Maybe the theater skills will come in handy if Carda ever winds up on national television thanks to some amazing archaeological find he makes,” Sera answered peaceably between bites of baked chicken.

Good old Sera. Always able to defuse a situation. Everyone went back to their food and didn’t say much for the rest of the evening.

After dinner, Carda’s parents went upstairs, and the others sat out on the porch and looked at the stars. Xironi and Sera carried on a quiet conversation at one end of the porch, while Carda tried to figure out how to explain everything to Michelle and Echo.

Echo ran her fingers through her shoulder-length brown hair and fiddled with her necklace with her other hand. She always did this when she was feeling thoughtful. The necklace had what appeared to be spiral-carved ivory piece that came to a rather sharp point. Carda realized that Echo had never told him where the necklace had come from, even though he never saw her without it. Odd, that. “I wonder if there are any other worlds out there,” she commented. “Not like planets, though. Dimensions. Realities.”

“I think there are,” Carda admitted. He’d had too much happen to him that day to believe otherwise at this point. “Xironi told me she came from another world.”

Echo and Michelle stared at Carda. “You’re not serious,” Michelle said.

“I am serious,” he replied, meeting her gaze evenly.

“And you BELIEVE her?” she shot back, skepticism evident in her eyes.

“Michelle, I accidentally teleported to the roof of Everett Hall this afternoon. From the ground. Xironi saw me do it. At this point I’m open to a lot of things that once seemed exclusive to the realm of fiction.”

Michelle didn’t look convinced. “Okay, so you can teleport, huh? So do it now.”

Carda’s eyes bugged out at his sister. “What?”

“If you can teleport, then teleport up to the roof and back down here.”

“Michelle, in case I hadn’t made it clear, it was an accident. I don’t even know how I did it.”

“Riiiiight.” Michelle had her arms folded in the familiar “you’re playing a joke on me” pose she had mastered back in grade school. Carda had no idea how he was going to prove he wasn’t lying. After all, it wasn’t like he could just wish himself up onto the roof—

When Carda’s senses finally returned, he could see the faces of Echo, Michelle, Sera, and Xironi all hovering over him. “What happened?” he asked.

“You teleported to the roof of the porch, but you landed wrong and rolled off the roof and into the bushes,” Xironi explained.

“Well, that explains all the scratches that suddenly hurt,” Carda winced.

“Come on, let’s get you inside. I can bandage you up in no time.” Xironi stood up and dug a key out of her pocket. Key in hand, she walked to the front door.

“Wait, how did you get a key to my house?” Carda blinked as he sat up.

“Don’t be silly,” Xironi answered. “This key is for my house.” With that, Xironi slid the key into the lock of the front door of Carda’s house, turned it, and stepped inside. Carda stumbled through the door, ready to argue ownership of the house, but his complaint died halfway up his throat.

Because Carda’s living room was DEFINITELY not THIS big.