A Warning

Gisa

Gisa smacked her hand on top of the cards, Emma's hand slapping hers a second later. "I got that fair and square!" Gisa nearly shouted, laughing as she yanked the stack of cards from the middle of the low-lying table.

"You always win because we're too afraid to put our hands on the pile. You hit too hard." Cameron protested with a chuckle. He straightened his decreasing stack of cards. He looked at Jamison who had three cards left. "Well that's at least true for the Emma and I, he's just too bad at this to even have a fair shot."

Jamison glared, but didn't contradict him.

"How are the magic classes going, Gisa?" Ron asked before Jamison could come up with a fitting response.

She sighed, flopping backwards onto her bed, poofing the comforter with the movement. "Well they've only been going on for a week. But the training center is really cool. There are only a few of us in my section. And only a couple of us have even touched our magic. The other classes are difficult, but I'm learning a lot." Gisa shrugged. "I think they'll be useful though."

"What's it like having magic?" Emma asked, playing with the fraying corners of the cards.

Gisa shrugged. "It's definitely an essential part of me. It's like another limb. I don't know how I lived without it for so long. I try not to use it for silly things, but it is so easy to just…" She smiled almost wickedly.

Jamison yelped. "Hey what the hell!"

Gisa cackled, and Emma and Ron stared at her. "I pinched him without even touching him. I have to move some part of my body to indicate that I want to use it. The more magic I use, the bigger the motion. To pinch Jamison, all I did was wrinkle my nose."

"Well don't do that again," he grouched. "Can we just get on with the game so I can lose already?"

Gisa was about to say yes when a knock sounded on her door. "Coming!" she shouted, jumping over Ron who was seated on an ottoman. She pushed her way around the pile of shopping bags Emma had dumped on the floor and opened the door.

An old man stood at the door with a letter in his hand. He wore a red and black suit, a cane in one hand. He was blind in one eye.

"Hey! I know you." Jamison said, standing up from the couch. "Have you been following me?"

The man simply offered what seemed to be an apologetic smile. He lifted a finger to his lips, silencing them, and handed the envelope to Gisa. He bowed curtly, then vanished.

Everyone started, glancing around. Gisa vanished a moment later, leaving them in silence. She reappeared on the carpet, panting. "I lost him."

Jamison shut the door, giving her a sideways look.

"Where did you go?" Ron asked, his brows knitted. They were all staring at her.

She coughed, the strain wearing on her. "It's called a pocket realm. It's the in-between space when you teleport. Like seeing a moving blueprint of the world. But there's no air, so I can't be there for more than a few seconds. Enough to scan the area for the man. But he either jumped a short distance to get away, or he's incredibly powerful." She inhaled another deep breath. "I haven't been training with magic very long enough to do that. It will take me a long time to recharge." she laughed, interrupted by another hacking wheeze.

She dropped the letter on the wood floor where she was kneeling. "Whatever he wanted to say, here it is. Care to do the honors, Emma? You've been awfully silent."

She nodded, taking the letter gently from Jamison. Her hands were shaking a little as she opened it. "It's blank." She turned it around to show them.

Gisa frowned. "No it's not! Though his handwriting is horrible."

"You see something on the page?" Jamison asked, turning to her. The chair squeaked against the floor at the motion.

She took the letter, scanning the brief message. She read it again. What the hell… She opened her mouth, then shut it. 'Dear Gisa and company, I hope this finds you well. This is a courtesy warning, Audenzitios is on the move. Prepare yourself. Sincerely, a friend.' She could feel the beginning of a headache. She knew her mother wouldn't quit. Though, she didn't know who that man was. "Jamison, you recognized that man." not a question.

"I saw him when Jules and I were getting coffee. He was kind of staring." He offered. "He wore a suit then too. No cane though. Why? What does the letter say?"

Gisa formed her mouth into a straight line. "Audenzitios is on the move."

"How do we know that's true?" Emma said too quickly. "How do we know she's not trying to scare us or something?"

Gisa shook her head. "You know as well as I do that the island was only going to hold her for so long. Whether she sent us that message or not, we should prepare in the best way we can."

"What's that preparation supposed to look like?" Emma snapped, standing up. "How are four teenagers going to stop an all out invasion from a person like Audenzitios? You said yourself that even stepping into a pocket realm drains you." Emma said, gesturing to the way Gisa still hadn't resumed a normal breathing pattern. "You took out one of her generals, but how about thousands of those soldiers, Gisa? Could you hold yourself then?"

"Knock it off!" Jamison said to Emma. "None of us are happy about this, but berating her isn't going to help." He turned to Gisa. "Why don't you bring this up with the Mother Guardian, maybe she can strengthen the barrier or—"

"Mother Guardian won't be able to help us." Gisa said dejectedly. The one time the plump little woman might have been of assistance… She looked at the confused faces around her. "Now, this is just a theory, but when the barrier was made, I think in order to contain so many magical creatures, she had to give up her magic completely. It would make sense. That's the only way my mother could have ever been imprisoned, right?"

"But that also means we're in trouble." Cameron said grimly. "And if you know then undoubtedly—"

"Audenzitios knows too." Gisa nodded. "I knew mom had contacts on the continent, but I didn't really understand that she still had creatures like the shape-shifter here. I didn't understand the true network of people she has." She ran a hand through her hair. Everything was so much bigger than she'd thought. "Should we tell someone? Would they even believe us? I mean, it looks like a blank paper to everyone but me…"

"Well we can't sit around and pretend. Besides, we're only cared for on campus, if we try to save ourselves, we're on our own." Jamison sighed. "But… I think we need to be careful who we tell. If Audenzitios has a network of spies… She could have spies in the court, in the school, in the staff, and everywhere on the continent. If we tell the wrong person that we're ready for something to come…"

"Then we very well may paint a target on our backs." Emma finished angrily. "Every time I think I'm in the clear, she comes and screws it up!"

"Hey, you calm down right now. This doesn't just concern you." Jamison said softly. "This is a matter of life and death for potentially thousands and thousands of people. We need to figure out who we can trust. We can't do this alone."

Gisa nodded, puzzling in her head. "Okay why don't we take the next three days to gather some information in different areas." A pang of hurt hit her as she realized what she was doing. This was just like the gang back at home. But, she was missing someone by her side. Damn her mother. "Okay. Emma, I want you to try and glean information about who in court she might be connected to. You're always good at that sort of thing. You have finesse that the rest of us lack. Cameron, I want you to look into the mother guardian and research about her magic, and the creation of the barriers. Search for weak points, and who else might be able to break it. Jamison, you're going to get me a list of three authoritative people we can trust." He almost seemed to scoff. Gisa's face hardened. "I'm not kidding. This is very serious. I'm going to look into the remainder of her armies and potential allies should a battle arise. Can we agree on this?" Gisa asked, looking at the three faces staring back.

"Let's get it done." Cameron said. "Meet back here in three days…" he checked his watch. "Seven pm?"

"Agreed." Gisa nodded, Emma and Jamison also giving their approval.

Gisa flopped on her bed after the boys left, rereading the letter. The scrawl was so similar to Camden's that she physically ached inside. She knew that wherever he was, he was certainly better off than where he'd been before. Audenzitios was not kind to her prisoners. Gisa tried not to think about what he must have endured in that room beneath the house. She had to stop thinking about him before she started to cry again.

The whirring of Emma's sewing machine offered a distraction, a segway into a thought that wasn't about Camden. "What are you making?" Gisa asked, sitting up with a grunt.

Emma didn't respond, her lips pursed, and her eyebrows angled downward. The machine picked up speed and the black fabric flew through it. She slowed only for a moment to turn the corner before she was at it again. She deftly guided the material through, the needle a silver blur and it rattled up and down.

"Emma?"

She stopped the sewing machine and glared at Gisa. "If you must know, I'm making a dress." She turned back to her project.

"Sorry." Gisa said somewhat offended. "I wanted to know if you were okay being a part of this."

Emma stopped, but didn't look at Gisa.

"Emma, if you can't handle this situation, then that's okay. I will let you go about your life here and keep this chaotic mess away from you." She raised her hands up in a defensive gesture. "No judgement either."

Emma looked down at her lap, before tears started to fall. "I'm sorry I'm being such a brat Gisa, I'm just so terrified and so damn sick of living this way. I want to live like them." She pointed out the window where a group of kids were throwing snowballs at each other, laughing. "I want to know what it feels like to live so freely. I've always lived in Audenzitios' shadow. My life will always be stained with the things I was forced to witness, and forced to do." she dissolved into a full sob. "Gisa I don't want to do this anymore!"

Gisa crossed the room in two strides and enveloped her sister in a hug. "Then don't, okay?" She stroked her hair. "Let me and the boys handle it."

Emma shook her head, hiccuping. "I won't do that either. I know you need my help more than you're letting on. And I want to keep your mother imprisoned just as much as you do." She took a deep breath. "We can do it."