Chapter 2 – Herbalicious!

“Welcome to Herbalicious! Your one-stop-shop for all things herbal, flowery, natural and organic!” Sabrina, who had seemingly popped out of nowhere, practically shouted at the customer that had just entered the store. 

Mildly startled, the handsome man stood there and stared deeply at Sabrina, who found it hard to maintain her wide smile, in such a presence. 

Rolling his eyes lazily, he looked around the large shop, he had to admit, it was a pretty cool place. 

Interesting plants of all kinds were scattered about, filling every nook and cranny, were all manner of fragrant and exotic flowers. The scent that filled the shop was magical, every person who came in was filled with a deep sense of purpose, calm and happiness.

“How can I help you, are you looking for anything in particular?” Sabrina tried asking the guy.

“Umm…I’m looking for a few bits and bobs,  like, health potions and stuff for cuts and bruises…you know, the normal stuff.” the customer responded casually. 

‘Hah! He does talk! And he's cute too, no, more like devastatingly handsome!’ Sabrina thought and mentally chided herself for eyeing up a customer. 

“Okay! Great! Over here, we have a great little ‘on-the-go’ pack for the discerningly chic traveller! Such as yourself…” Sabrina quickly eyed the man’s outfit; she noticed they featured an unusual mix of silver and black, with sharp lines and metal details; he looked elegant yet deadly.

The mysterious man studied the contents of the pack and handed it to Sabrina who was lost in thought over this curious customer. 

“Okay…thanks…yeh I’ll take this one then.” the man gave a small smile.

“Okay good choice! By the way, what’s your name? I don’t recognise you, are you new around here?” Sabrina tried again at conversing as she priced the item up on the till. 

The man stared at him for what seemed like forever, and finally answered, with, what Sabrina could have sworn was a smirk; 

“Yes, I’m new around here. I’m from, the city of Gallium… and the name’s Michael”, he glanced around the shop, and, somewhat nervously gave the other customers who were busy milling around the quick once over.

Sabrina’s eyes immediately widened at the name, Gallium. She had been fascinated by the city of metal since he was young, even though where she and Sam lived was pretty far away; all that excitement had made her discount Michael’s shiftiness. 

“Woooow! I’ve always wanted to visit Gallium! It sounds amazing! The gleaming city, the city of technology, glittering skyscrapers, it’s the epitome of modernity and science revolutions, and, at the cutting edge of fashion from across the lands!” Sabrina beamed as if she was reciting some advert he had heard. Michael was 90% sure it was the Gallium tourist board’s main tagline, which forced a pang of homesickness and a little warm glow of how excited someone can be over a place like Gallium. 

‘There really are some good and innocent people out here… I’m glad’ he thought to himself as Sabrina popped his items into a bag, along with some samples for good measure. 

“I think you would like it there! You should visit sometime!” Michael said with a genuine smile that melted Sabrina’s heart a little.

“Thanks for your help…if these are good, then I think I’ll have to come back, see ya.” Michael continued, as he paid and waved curtly to Sabrina, “bye”. Sabrina could only manage “uhhh…sure sure! You’ll love them! See you soon!”

“Hey, who was that guy that you clearly have the hots for?” Sam said out of nowhere as he entered from the back room with a box of fresh potions he had been brewing all day. 

“WOAH! DON’T MAKE ME JUMP LIKE THAT!” Sabrina screamed as she jumped backwards, hands flailing. Recovering quickly, she continued, “Anyway, by the roots of mother nature herself, that guy was from GALLIUM! And his name is Michael. Also, I am SO not into him, thank you very much! Anyway, old man, isn’t tomorrow your birthday?” Sabrina retorted as her older brother placed the box down on the large ornate hand-crafted counter. 

“hmm…I see, it’s rare to see a Gallanite here in Gaia, yes it is and I'm not old, I'm mature…unlike somebody I know; and besides I’m turning 29, not 89! It’s only 2 years older than you! ” Sam said, slightly exasperatedly, as he began unloading the contents.

“So, what’re these then ?” Sabrina picked up one of the bottles filled with a glittering purple liquid. 

“Oooh! It’s glittering…. It’s a strong one!” Sabrina continued on, as she examined the substance, to which Sam grabbed it out of the woman’s hands before she could open it. 

“But…you know recently, you have been making powerful potions and stuff,” Sabrina mentioned airily as she put the payment from Michael into the till. 

“You are so great at all these herbs and potions! You can make anything grow or wither at the touch of your fingertip! It’s so cool!” Sabrina chirped as Sam just stood smiling at Sabrina’s bright personality. 

“Thank you, yes, it is a masterpiece, well… we will have to see about that actually, but still, it’s very potent and deadly! So no opening, please! It’s a poison, a very strong one, after burning with searing pain first, it then rots and disintegrates whatever it touches!” He added cheerfully, to Sabrina's delight and horror.

“You know,  I really wonder what goes on up there sometimes,  I really do….” Sabrina said while tapping her head as she walked off to do some carving, which was waiting patiently in one of the back rooms of the shop. 

Sam finished the new product placement and went to watch Sabrina working on a new block of wood; it fascinated him when Sabrina worked on a piece. 

Being a wood elemental, Sabrina spoke to the wood first with her hands on it, for comfort and then assured it, that it would be turned into a thing of infinite beauty and would bring delight to many people from all across the lands.

She always reminded Sam, who was an earth elemental that trees and plants could talk, you just had to know how to listen to them and that they had thoughts and feelings like everything else in this world. Sam often tried to listen, to converse even, but each time he just ended up on the wrong end of a grunting boulder somewhere, or some mean-spirited sand elsewhere. Sabrina could make things grow at the touch of her hands and could get flora to do her bidding, whereas Sam’s powers only controlled them through the ground, even then it was a bit hit-and-miss.

She had only two tools: her hands. Sabrina’s hands gently touched and smoothed over the surface of the wood, causing it to change shape instantly, the bark and wood melted away as she worked at a break-neck speed; her hands became a flurry of glittering golden light, and before long, the piece was finished. 

It was a beautiful sculpture of an ethereal man looking up at something, which would be contained within a glass ball in his hands, that Sabrina had suddenly bought earlier that day from a local glazier. The small statue seemed to be wearing the traditional robes of the Bards of the Waves people from the southern kingdom of water and ice.

“Sabrina….that’s a magnificent piece, he's praying? Or even looking at that ball with reverence, aren’t those the traditional robes of the Bards of the Waves? The lands of water and ice.” Sam mentioned curiously as he stepped closer to the piece; he had read an interesting book about them and their peoples and history a while ago.

“... I, I dunno what happened, I, I was going to make something else! It’s like I was possessed or something to make this, I can feel it, it’s the last one, see.” Sabrina glanced around at his studio, it was full of the other elements incarnated in some form or another; she had carved them all now, even the fabled yin-yang and the light, dark, death and otherworldly forms of magic. It worried her, she felt like they had been created for a reason, some other purpose, or maybe even as a portent of things to come. 

Sensing Sabrina’s uneasy mind, Sam chimed in with a chipper tone, “Look Sabrina, these are your masterpieces! We should send them to the leaders of the respective nations, no? Look, maybe they don't mean anything….” although as he said the words, he knew he himself didn’t quite believe them. 

“No, I can feel it, recently in the roots, in the flowers, in the very wood itself, it’s growing, something, something different…you’ve been feeling it too…haven’t you? I mean look, recently, you’ve been making all these special potions, clearly linked with each of the elements and forces, there’s definitely something going on! I have an idea! We need one of each of your special potions!” Sabrina looked like a woman possessed, but Sam nodded slowly and ran off to grab the magical vials.  

“You’re right, I can’t believe it, now that I look at them, I don’t understand, I have made the essences of each of the elements, but I don’t even know how, it’s like something possessed me. Here; take the water one, fill the ball…” Sam said as he went through the potions he had been making recently, they all gave off a mystical sparkling glow.

Sabrina took the essence of water and opened it; the smell of cool fresh water wafted out and transported them both to the seaside. Sabrina then poured it delicately inside the ball the man was holding. They both stood back and waited with bated breath.

They stared it down but nothing happened.

Looking at each other they silently decided to pour the other essences over their respective pieces. Immediately, the small idols began to emit a soft gold glow and suddenly each disappeared in a brilliantly blinding flash of light.

“Oh…my…gods…. Sabrina! Do you know what this means!? They have gone to find their ‘place’… I read this in my book, ‘The Elementals and Mongkai’, these are carvings of the gods and goddesses of the forces within this world! The gods used to temporarily ‘possess’ an elemental master to create these powerful idols; these statues were placed around capital cities, temples and leylines of power.  

Each idol would be ‘charged’ with its element, which then gave life to the land around it and acted as an amplifier for the elemental’s and everyday people’s powers. Eventually, people built shrines around them and prayed at them.” Sam spewed all this knowledge as he remembered the books he had read as a child; the history of the world, rituals, rites, magic spells, the gods and goddesses, they all fascinated him. 

“So…these are boosters for our powers? And they will allow the people to use their magic a bit more?” Sabrina said slowly, as she was processing and eventually caught up with what Sam had just said.

“But… I think I read that the gods destroyed the idols themselves, because the balances were being tampered with, and also with the increase in magical power it made others thirst for more and more power, that’s why elemental powers in the world have dwindled so much.” Sam said in a far-away tone.

The pair stood and stared into nothingness wondering what to do now and what this meant.

The strength and power of the elemental and non-elemental magicks around the globe experienced a sudden boost, as did Sam and Sabrina’s powers too; they could feel it within themselves, and they had become stronger.

-_-_-_-_-

Somewhere in the forgotten depths of the world, the ancient creature’s eye’s blinked a few times for the first time in an age…

-_-_-_-_-

On a faraway island, a girl was meditating along with her mistress, in the garden of peace. They both felt a shift in the world’s power levels. First, some years ago, water’s powers grew hugely and fire saw a burst of power some time ago, and now, earth, wood and the others had just spiked in power and abundance.

Opening her eyes the Grand sorceress Lady Melia spoke, “The balance is shifting, there is something I must show you Sloane, come this way….” as she led the girl off towards the inner library of the palace. Their ethereal robes wafted furiously as they marched through the corridors. 

-_-_-_-_-

“I wonder what I can get here in this city? It’s all hippie, hand-holding,  happy-clappy stuff….” Michael said aloud to himself as he made his way around the city of Gaia the capital city of the Earth Protectorate of Madame Kafeela. He was looking for a distraction, whether it was women’s or men’s hearts…or even jewels and gold of any kind.  

Michael Kozma was a thief in every aspect of the word; he stole people’s lives, hearts, souls, minds, and wealth. Though he had one rule, he only took from people who could stand to lose a few things, the rich with bad manners, and the powerful who treated others like dirt and gave back to the needy and less fortunate. Well, he couldn’t help how he looked, and life had made him much more mysterious than he would have been before he was forced into this life of thievery and constantly running to survive.

He wandered the streets, exploring this pretty city, so full of sweet scents of flowers and fragrant tees. Fruit, vegetables and herbs were in every corner of the city, hell, it was all over the protectorate. He found a bench in the middle of the city, overlooking a large river and gardens, there were people of all kinds, families and the like, out and about enjoying the good weather.

 Michael smiled sadly at the families going by and decided he would study his collection of knives to further distract himself. His knives and blades were stored in his very skin, they were a part of him. Michael was a Gallanite, a proud citizen of the gleaming city of Gallium, and he was the last true metal elemental master. He had learnt from an early age, he had only himself to rely on, and that was all one truly had at the end of the day. He barely had any memories of his family and what he did remember was a blur of colour, smiles, laughter and then darkness and pain.

Suddenly a thought struck him, ‘hmm that woman in the shop though, there was something about her, perhaps I might actually like, no….I can’t think of that…no emotions! Dear heart, don’t you remember our deal?’ Michael killed any thoughts or emotions of liking, even daring to love another, since the first time his fragile heart melted into nothingness years ago. He sighed at the thought of how he had made sure his heart was as cold as steel. 

He taught himself over the years on the run, often painfully, how to turn himself into and meld into any form of metal at will. It was a surprisingly useful skill. His choice of weapons, should he need them, were a set of daggers, swords, knives and katana, all drawn from either the metal around him, the earth in its purest form, from buildings, from his own skin and perhaps even from the very blood of his enemies. 

He looked up at the sky and wondered. Wondered about how his life might be if he actually had a person…or people that he cared about, or who might actually care for him.

He let mercury tears fall silently, just as it began to rain.