Apple Cider

Chapter 1: Tangle

I wasn’t much of a social person even in my youth. I kept mostly to myself and didn’t speak unless directly spoken to. My dad, ever the optimist, used to encourage me to play outside but I always found other children too… childish. Babbling stupidly and imitating what they’re shown, totally helpless and hapless- and happy, I admit but I’d choose misery over ignorance any time. Grown-ups are no better though, they treat kids as if they can’t understand anything and that’s exactly the reason why it takes so long for them to ever do.

When my dad consulted mom though, she merely shrugged and pointed out that my older sister didn’t spend too much time playing outside either. Yes, but she was what they call a freakin’ prodigy. By age 6, she was working with my mother in developing an unpronounceable cure for an unpronounceable ailment. I’m now sure she just wanted me to realize the difference between me and her daughter.

I somehow took this as a challenge and immersed myself in the world of books. Their alchemy notes were and still are way beyond me but I developed a taste for history. You see, my real parents died at the end of the Great War. Their best friend, General Cain Journey- that’s the guy I call dad, took me in. I don’t remember them at all but according to him, they were the bravest and most talented people he ever had the honor to have known. It was with those words I managed to hold back from pitying myself – just barely. I wanted to prove myself and I was given that chance many times during my adolescence. It was mostly a life or death thing actually.

It started with a dream I had when I was in my second year in college. Something was chasing me. The taste of blood filled my mouth as I gasped, stumbling into an old house. A whimpering sound appeared to have awakened me. I opened my eyes only to discover that they were already uncovered and that the sound came from my own throat. I felt around and found myself holding something soft and warm… and breathing. A girl’s brea- something grabbed my arm and this terrible howling filled my ears and raked at my soul.

“Aphelion, a girl’s looking for you!”

Kid, my roommate was shaking my arm. I pulled it away, the sound still ringing in my ears. Groggily, I glanced at the wall. The sickeningly pink wall clock our landlady kindly supplied us said 4 am so I just turned the other way and pretended to go back to sleep. The vision had unsettled me though and it was unlikely I was brave enough to face my dreams anytime soon. I heard him leave but after a few seconds, he came back and stood beside my bed.

“M’too tired to jog with you today.” I turned and tried a weak glare but instead I found myself staring at a girl wearing a robe which I can only describe as… weird. Seriously weird. The purple fabric flowed all the way down to her feet but what captivated me was the way it seemed transparent and yet showed nothing.

“Good morning,” she said as if it was a natural thing for a robber to say.

“Barely,” I grumbled. “Who are you?” Giving her an odd look I said, “I’ll fight for my chastity.”

She smiled a little and sat on the edge of my bed. I glanced nervously outside the window as the roosters started to crow. Getting scolded by the landlady for getting caught alone with a girl in my room (at a questionable hour, no less) was not my idea of fun.

“Miss, you’re gonna have to lea-”

The girl took my hand and pressed it firmly over her heart. Wow. Not even thinking about pulling it away, I was considering some inappropriate proposals when I suddenly remembered the dream. I tried to ask her what the hell was happening but suddenly I couldn’t think. My mind was filled with images of death and pain, distorted faces looking at me, pleading. Then she slapped me, hard. My heart was pounding with hers as I struggled again to speak.

“Well, that- that was a first.” I noticed that she looked kinda dazed – even more so than I felt so I tried shaking her gently. She’s really small. The girl blinked twice then pushed me with a little more force than necessary.

“I-I’m sorry. That’s about all I can do for you right now, to show you. She suddenly kissed my cheek. “I’ll explain later, Aphelion.”

With that, she left me there a little confused, a little embarrassed and a lot curious.




“Seriously, you don’t stand a chance,” I said smugly as we watched Alice, the newest object of fantasy for the male population of our school, pass by. Not having a love life of my own gave me no qualms about making fun of Grey’s- not that he ever had a real relationship.

“Won’t know unless I try, won’t I?”

“Maybe if you were more serious about it, they’d spare a second look.”

“Cheh, what would you know?” He stood up and poked my chest. “You’ve never even had a girlfriend.”

“And what makes you so sure about that?”

He patted my back and grinned. “You never open up to anyone- even me. Someday, someone’ll break ya.”

Gray hurried off after her and I sat there mulling it over. He was never one to be overly perceptive but he nailed me on that one. At least the part about me not opening up though I never acted too unsociable.

“Pfft, a girlfriend?” I muttered to myself. Enduring chit-chat with classmates was troublesome enough!

Yawning, I headed towards the school gates but someone suddenly grabbed my arm.

“You’re skipping class.” Her voice made me think of half-ripe mangoes. Damn, I’m poetic.

“So what?” I gave her a slow once-over and smiled. “Aren’t ya skipping too?” Seriously, she looked adorable in our uniform. Reminded me of my younger sister. I cleared my throat and said, “Arcane sucks… This school sucks.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I’m glad you asked.” I smiled condescendingly. “C’mon, every single one of us has a particular affinity and they expect us to master it through a generalized curriculum?”

She looked up at me calmly and sighed. “You don’t understand.”

I narrowed my eyes. That line pissed me off and I wasn’t going to take it from someone who I didn’t even know but she suddenly dragged me towards my class. Struggling to break free, I found that her grip had more power than it looked. Mustn’t bite…

“Well Aphelion, nice of you to join our little ‘lame’ class… 30 minutes late.” I couldn’t get myself to resent my hobbit-like teacher. He just looked so funny trying to look imposing while squinting up at me. I pointed at the girl beside me. Wow, even she’s taller.

“Miss Fae, I- oh, I hope he wasn’t causing you any trouble.”

“Why no, sir. He was kind enough to guide me here. I’m afraid I am to blame for our tardiness.”

He looked doubtful but gave each of us a bottle filled with some clear liquid. “It’s the annual potency test that the school is now implementing. The liquid disperses as filtered mana is applied.”

I looked at my bottle and sighed. “It’s not like they can really… measure…” Fae’s bottle was already empty.

Gaille, the class president came over to introduce herself while carrying her own empty bottle. Gah, probably smells competition. There was this long welcome speech but for some reason, my mind was elsewhere. Mmm, food…

“If you need help with anything, don’t hesitate to ask.” The Prez glanced at me and my bottle meaningfully. I looked away. I hate popular people in general. Gaille excused herself to assist someone who actually wanted it. It was Mike, I think… The closest thing to a friend I had in that place. I submitted my bottle with only a couple of drops missing after learning that a lot of people didn’t do much better than that and none as good as Fae and Gaille.




“You think she’s even better than the Prez?” Mike was a fanboy, no other way to describe it. We were on our way to the park for our routine after-school snack.

“Mmm..? It should be, ‘Is she worse?’”

“C’mon, more than half the guys in our department have a crush on Gaille. At least half of that’s gonna convert for sure.”

“Which concerns me… how?” I checked my watch.

“Just saying… maybe you have a chance…”

“Mike, I told you. Nobody’s good enough for me.” I’m not good enough for anybody. “And she’s a bit short.”

“And you look rough! A perfect match, I say.” How he reached that conclusion, i'll never know. He sighed and stated, mockingly serious, “It’d be perfect! You and Fae, me and Gaille… We’d be the envy of our school!”

“Yeah, until an angry fanboy kills you. Well, you can have both for all I care.”

Mike stopped and said thoughtfully, “Not a bad idea either.”

I rolled my eyes and headed towards the hotdog stands. “You don’t want to become like Grey, do you?” Frowning at the crowd surrounding the big stage in the middle of the park, I asked, “What’s all this about?”

“So it’s today… That’s the semi-annual ritual held by the school to strengthen the barrier surrounding our city.” He sounded like he was reading from a pamphlet. “You seriously didn’t know about it? I thought you were a history nerd.” He pointed to the dark stage where several dancers surrounded a small figure in familiarly strange clothing. “They’re mostly from the student council.”

“Lawl, elected dancers...” A sudden chill wrapped itself around my body and I was unable to speak or move. I suddenly noticed the person from the stage heading our way and the cold receded as quickly as it appeared.

“Hey, it’s her!” Mike whispered excitedly.

Oh yeah, the clothes… Remembering the bedroom scene and the strange chill just then, I frowned, sure that it had something to do with her. “Hey-”

Mike stepped forward and offered his hand. “Fae, right? I’m Mike… We’re in the same Arcane class.”

She nodded and shook his hand. Looking at me, she said, “I need to talk to you.”

“About..?” The imp was actually making me nervous.

Mike was grinning, no doubt thinking his grand plans were setting into motion. “Would the Prez happen to be here?”

“Gaille’s the main organizer, she’s probably backstage wrapping it up.”

He skipped off happily and we stood there quietly watching the crowd slowly disperse. I kept glancing at her until she looked straight back at me. Might as well ask now.

“Hey Fae… Uh, who are you really..?”

She smiled and shook her head. “That’s not as important as who you are.” Fae took my right hand and held it up. Inspecting the back carefully, she muttered some words I couldn’t quite catch.

“Who do you think I am?” I asked anxiously.

“You hate not knowing. It’s okay… As I said, I’ll explain everything. The bakery, 9 pm.”

“Why-”

“Fae! There you are.” We turned to look at a figure walking purposefully through the crowd. “Everyone’s looking for you.” Gaille reached us with Mike at her tail, carrying what appeared to be stage equipment. She looked at me and smiled. “We’re having a welcome party in her honor, why don’t you join us? You already seem chummy enough.” There was a trace of annoyance in her voice. Probably doesn’t like the idea of Fae associating with people like us.

“I don’t really like…” I trailed off when I noticed Mike giving me his best pleading look.

“It’s settled then! Let’s go, everyone’s probably starving by now.”

We sat through a couple of toasts from guys- and even some girls who seemed on the verge of forming a Fae fanclub but a growling stomach- I could swear it was Fae herself signaled an end to all of that.

“Hey Mike,” I elbowed him, “what was that about a barrier?”

“Mmm..?” The chicken was seriously delicious.

“The thing with the ritual.”

“Oh, really weird that you don’t know about it. Shadowthorn was the strongest frontier city during the Great War. It was here that the Sages taught us elemental manip-”

“I know that, tell me about the barrier.”

“Nothing much about it. The Sages themselves used to do it to keep the Shadows out but now it’s more or less just a tourist attraction so the best students from our school get to do it.”

“But stuck-up fairy just transferred…”

“Must be that good.” He shrugged and resumed eating. “I’m not even sure if the thing’s still there… Why so curious about it?”

“No particular reason.” I glanced at my watch and patted his shoulder. “I’m going home, socializing takes a lot out of me.”

“You just sat there,” he snorted. “Tell Kid I want my orb back by Sunday… without scratches.”




“9:36.”

“It’s alright, we have plenty of time.” Fae sat down and cocked her pretty little head to the side as if wondering at my less than cheerful voice.

“So explain…” She had changed into a simple pink off-the-shoulder blouse and a short but still modest skirt. It was totally unlike me to notice such things but I found her so exasperating peculiar, she had my undivided attention. “Starting with this thing on the back of my hand.” It was a black spiralish S-shaped figure with a dot at the center.

“The mark indicates an ancient spell that binds a soul to another. As my other half, you have the responsibility of fulfilling my goals, particularly stopping the conception of Amalgam.”

“Other half, you say…” I decided to let her continue with her yarn. Maybe it’s a creative confession of some sort. “The conception of wha?”

“The Amalgam is equivalent to the collective consciousness of everyone on this planet. All current knowledge circulating throughout the human population is gathered to create an absolute truth. A single existence equal to our whole race.”

“…”

“I’m already simplifying it too much but it’s basically a god.” Fae was so serious, I thought she must have been joking. The annoying mark started to throb.

“I’m slow so please bear with me. Try explaining the how and why of it in detail.” I ordered some cake and leaned back. “As you said, we have plenty of time.” There was something in her voice, some earnestness that didn’t match my impression of her at all.

“You know a significant amount of what happened 17 years ago, right?” She paused and closed her eyes. “It’s a bit earlier than expected but if it’s you… you’ll be alright.”

It was like the pressure suddenly tripled the moment I heard the windows crash. I turned to look but there was nobody there. The other customers- even the people outside were gone, just broken pieces of glass on the floor. No sound, no movement.

“What th-” I turned to Fae but she was gone as well. Something stepped on the broken glass and my heart skipped a beat. I saw it clearly from the big mirror across the room. It was like a shadow but I felt… somehow I knew that the thing didn’t need light to exist. Darkness that was for itself, just as the books described. A wraith. I heard it cackle and saw it suddenly step out of the mirror.

“Tell me where that cursed fox is, boy.”

Crap… can’t be real… Stupid fox-fairy set this up.

“I-I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“No matter. She’ll come when she feels her partner dying.”

Liquid flames engulfed the pillar I summoned in front of me just in time. I jumped away and bumped my shoulder hard against a table. So much for the ‘date’. I ran outside as the fire started to spread, silently congratulating myself on how calmly I was facing the situation. Okay, Wraiths were wiped out 17 years ago so this fire-user’s just dressed up to scare me. Even outside, the stillness was deafening. The fire raged soundlessly, consuming the bakery.

“Worn out?” The thing laughed from behind me. “So much weaker than I expected.”

I just grinned and activated Penitence.

The Wraith grunted and fell to its knees. I heard the satisfying snapping of bones as it crumpled to the ground.

I must’ve passed out when I heard it scream because the next thing I knew, I was back inside the bakery, which was somehow undamaged, lying down on my seat. Fae was sitting across the table in deep thought. I waited but she didn’t say a word.

“Where’s your friend?”

Earth-manipulation, despite being the most basic among elemental control, requires a lot of mana. Especially for me who had a little trouble completing those boring beginner-class spells. I liked making up my own anyway.

She crossed her legs and sighed. “I really thought you could handle that much.”

“But I crushed it…”

Fae merely looked at the mark on her hand as if regretting the whole stupid contract thing. “That half-hearted spell of yours is just a waste of mana. I had to take care of it myself after you knocked yourself out.”

I didn’t reply.

“Oh, bother… Let’s call it a night. At least I have an idea where to start with your training now.”

I’ve never been pushed that far with my temper. That realization itself helped me keep my tongue in check. “Have a night.”

She left without a word and I had no energy to even stand up so I spent the night there mulling it over.




Already past the point of not being surprised about things relating to Fae, all I felt was grudging acceptance when I entered the house and found her chatting good-naturedly with our old landlady.

I stopped for a moment at the doorway, frowning.

“Oh, here’s one of my tenants. Aphelion, this is my niece Fae. She just transferred here.”

“I see… Um, good morning ma’am.” I nodded in their general direction and somehow managed to make it to my room before collapsing from exhaustion.

After what felt like a minute of sleep, I crawled out of bed to turn off the alarm. Dazedly wrapping my towel around the waist, I wondered if everything that happened the night before was real.

Hands suddenly reached out from behind me and covered my eyes. I didn’t hear or feel anything approaching so I tensed, fully awake. Better not be something connected to the fox again…

The culprit giggled and sang, “Jazz is here~”

What’s the point of covering my eyes?! I relaxed and smiled.

“Hey~ aren’tcha glad we came?” she complained and wrapped her arms around my neck.

She was so sweetly choking me to death. “Can’t brea- wait, did you just say ‘we’? You mean…” I turned with Jasmine still hanging from my neck.
“It has been a while…” she said to the floor. Scarlette hadn’t changed a bit- well, other than the fact that she was talking to me. I grinned stupidly and motioned for her to come in.

As a high-ranking military officer, Dad was often away for years at a time and that left Scar more or less in charge of taking care of me.

Scarlette was one of those quiet poker-faced genius-type characters with the standard-issue glasses. I understood that despite being less than a year older than me, she didn’t have much to speak to me about. What few conversations I heard her have were with mom about alchemy stuff. I was something of a quiet kid myself so it suited me just fine.

Jasmine, on the other hand was something else. A hyperactive ball of boundless energy intent on pulling me away from my books and into life. Through the years, she was my shadow- er, she was the light and I was the reluctant shadow. She literally dragged me around with her and when she started taking an interest in martial arts, I became her regular sparring partner/punching-bag. I suppose I should be grateful for all those times because my pain tolerance went way up.

Mom was too busy with her work… that’s what I told myself. I didn’t feel any outright hostility but she acted like she’d have as little to do with me as possible. There was this one time she suddenly looked at me with fondness then pain then sadness then finally anger. I really couldn’t contemplate the cause of that wide a range of emotion flashing through that perpetually stern face.

“Apple!” I blinked and raised my eyebrows questioningly at Jazz for interrupting the flood of memories. She looked pointedly at the doorway where someone I really didn’t want to catch me in any embarrassing situation was standing, carrying a couple of heavy bags. Jazz smiled sweetly and explained for me, “He spaces out a lot.”

“I see…” she said slowly and discreetly turned away. I couldn’t look her in the eye but I hoped dearly that she didn’t ‘see’ much. Prying my sister off, I hastily secured the towel around my waist. “Is Aunt Megan here..?”

Aunt Megan!? “Just a sec.” First Fae, now Claire? I motioned for her and my sisters to make themselves at home and ran upstairs to bang on Aunt Megan’s door. “Ma’am? There’s someone looking for you… your niece.” The antique clock hanging on the wall told me I might as well skip my first class again.

The door on the right opened and there stood Fae with a cranky look on her face that probably mirrored mine. She was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and shorts with fish designs. I laughed inwardly.

“What is it?” A sleepy glare thrown my way.

“Uh… um, niece.”

She blinked, looked at my attire and decided to ignore the idiot in front of her. “Yes?” She asked the person behind me.

“I am Scarlette Journey. Jasmine is downstairs with…” she looked pointedly at me.

“Another niece showed up, actually. She’s Claire, my- our senior. Did Aunt Megan go out?”

“She’s vacationing with my parents and won’t be back until next month.” I must’ve looked more idiotic than usual because she added, “Spur-of-the-moment thing.”

“Why am I the only one who doesn’t know anything that happens around here?!” I grumbled and stomped off. “Explain yourselves to each other.”

Interrupting Jazz and Claire’s little chat, I muttered, “upstairs” with as much dignity as I could muster. I stumbled into the shower, musing on my developing harem when it hit me the same moment the warm water hit my face.

No class today, it’s Saturday.