3.90
“Why we
doing this,” Sampson leaning against a wall.
“Because it
is tradition boy,” Old Ben responds sitting in front of Sampson.
“But he’s
already Adze, this is a waste of our time, we can move on to the others.”
“You have
no respect for your ancestors and how they judge people to be worthy.”
“Wake up,
he’s already worthy.”
“You’re
forgetting your place. You got some hair on your lip, you’re a big man and you
can have any woman you want but you aren’t half the man I was when I was 12.
She ain’t here to save you boy, I’ll give your ass a one way ticket out of
here.”
I don’t
intervene as Sampson and Old Ben argue. I’m already halfway through the test so
there’s no point in stopping now. The trial of magic is supposed to test how
much magic power we have within us. It’s a three part test. The first is to
demonstrate we have some magic abilities already. For me, I just showed them my
pocket. They already knew about it, Sampson saw me use it when he kidnapped me.
They already knew and they wanted to see like it was some parlor trick, as if I
didn’t spend weeks trying to learn it. The second test, they show you how to
put up a magic shield, and you have 30 minutes to learn it. Lastly, you put your
hands in a tank of black water. If you drop your shield, the water cuts through
your flesh. I dropped my shield two or three times. I’m sure Sampson and Old
Ben can tell, they just want to see if I’ll yell. I manage to bring it back up,
and let my hands heal for a moment while they argue.
“Remove
your hands,” Old Ben commands and I oblige. “Could be better, but you pass.”
“I knew you
had it in you little bro,” Sampson says as he claps sarcastically.
“I couldn’t
have done it without you,” I respond.
Old Ben is
not amused by the sudden comradery “send in the next person before I cut your
hands off myself.”
I send
Ashley in and head out to the garden. I still haven’t gotten a chance to speak
with Isis, it’s almost as if she avoids people. The garden and the maze look
amazing, very relaxing. I’ve been coming here to read Destiny’s diary. That’s
part of the reason I’ve gotten along with Sampson so well lately. They were
together, a real couple. But Granny was trying to break them apart. Destiny
wanted to leave, but Sampson couldn’t bring himself to do it so they kept
putting it off. It’s about that time Isis started changing her attitude towards
Destiny, spending more time with Granny. She described it as almost brain
washing. Isis told Granny they were planning to leave, this led to Destiny
being kicked out, for being too radical. She did everything but call it a cult,
they didn’t save me so I can see it as a cult. They damn near worship Granny
and talk about all the great things she’s done, while never providing examples.
Why are we calling this woman Granny? I bet her name is Maude or something.
“Hey,” Isaac
stands in front of me, blocking my view.
“Hey back.”
“Just
wanted to make sure we were good,” Isaac asks offering a beer.
“I’ll
pass,” I hold up a glass of water, and the sun isn’t even down yet.
“Makes
sense,” he waits for my answer but I don’t have one. “I just wanted to check on
us.”
“We’re not
a couple. There is no us.”
“But we’re
roommates and you didn’t come back to the room last night.”
“Don’t
really need to sleep.”
“I know
you’re mad at me, and I really am sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I said.”
“You
already said you’re sorry. I apologized for pushing you off the roof. There’s
nothing else.”
Isaac
quickly chugs the rest of his beer and opens the can he brought for me. “Look,
I fucked up and I’m sorry I said I said what I said, but I meant it. I really
think we could work together.”
“What don’t
you get? I’m not trying to be consumed with revenge right now. I’m trying to
figure out what to do with my life. I might still have a price on my head. I
just need to figure out what comes next.”
“Can we at
least be friends again?”
“Were we
ever friends? I don’t recall us agreeing on that.”
“I get the
feeling you don’t have many friends. You rarely say you’re friends, you just
are. But, if you don’t want to be friends, that’s cool,” Isaac storms off.
I spot Isis watching our conversation, pretending to water her flowers. She looks away when she spots my eyes, but I’ve got her. I stand up and walk towards her, she walks away. It’s less that she’s walking away, and more than she’s leading me somewhere. She doesn’t look back as if I’m going to hurt her. Instead she looks to her left and right, scouting for someone. When I’m close enough to touch her she doesn’t even look back, just leads me deeper into the garden.
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