Chương 62: Chapter 60 – Two Destroyed Families

Amber No updates on her Snapchat. Nothing on Instagram. Nothing anywhere. Not that Chelsea could update anything even if she wanted to. Her phone had been left behind in her bedroom along with her shoes, wallet, charger, and everything else a runaway would actually take. Chelsea was officially classified as a runaway now. Amber hated that word. Chelsea didn't run away. Not without saying goodbye to her. Not without showing some sort of sign she was going to run. The police had interviewed everyone. Teachers.

Students. Neighbors. Amber had answered the same questions so many times she could recite them herself now. When was the last time you saw her? Was she upset about something? Did she mention wanting to leave? Did she have problems at home? Amber had been one of the last people to see Chelsea. She remembered standing on the sidewalk watching Chelsea drag herself up the front steps after school looking as tired as always.

Chelsea had turned around halfway up the walkway just to wave at her one more time like the dork she was. Then she went inside. She apparently talked to her brother. And then somehow she vanished off the face of the Earth. No shoes. That part kept clawing at Amber's brain. No shoes. Chelsea hated walking outside barefoot. She complained if the driveway was too hot during summer. Or too cold… or too dirty… or any other number of complaints.

There was no universe where she voluntarily disappeared without even putting shoes on first. Something happened to her. Amber shoved her hands deeper into the sleeves of her hoodie while walking home from school. Technically, this wasn't even the fastest way to her house. But this route passed Chelsea's house. Amber couldn't help but go this way. Maybe because some stupid little part of her still expected Chelsea to suddenly appear around the corner grinning awkwardly like none of this had happened.

Maybe Chelsea would be sitting on the porch steps scrolling through her phone. She'd look up and wave her dorky wave. Instead the Drake house just sat there, the same as always. Like a major piece of it wasn't missing. Her thoughts kept spiraling into darker places no matter how hard she fought them. Horror movie images shoved themselves into her brain constantly now. Chelsea trapped somewhere. Hurt somewhere. Calling for help. Amber hated herself for even imagining it.

She swallowed hard and rubbed at her eyes angrily. Maybe she should make flyers. People did that, right? Missing posters on telephone poles and shop windows. It's possible someone would recognize Chelsea somewhere. Amber slowed as she approached the Drake property. The big oak tree in the front yard still had the crooked and frayed rope swing Chelsea's dad put up years ago. Half the leaves had already fallen for autumn, covering the grass in brown. Amber stared at the front door. Please be there. Please.

Chelsea please I can't…

"Watch out!" someone shouted. Amber turned toward the street to see who was yelling at who. A box truck was already on top of her. There wasn't time to react. The grill slammed into her side hard enough that the world instantly vanished into noise and force. Her body lifted sideways before crashing violently into the oak tree in Chelsea's yard. A horrible crack echoed through her skull. Then she was staring at the ground. The leaves were blurred with how close they were to her good eye. Amber couldn't breathe.

For several terrifying seconds her body simply refused to work. She heard screaming somewhere nearby. Tires skidding. Someone yelling to call 911. Her cheek pressed against damp autumn leaves beside the sidewalk. Something warm spread across the concrete in front of her face. It was blood. It was her blood. The pain arrived all at once after that. White-hot agony exploded through her ribs and shoulder so hard it made her vision flicker. Amber tried to move and immediately regretted it. She couldn't.

She couldn't actually feel… anything. She know she was touching grass but she couldn't actually feel the blades against her skin. She couldn't move. It hurt. God it hurt so bad. But through all of it, only one thought kept forcing itself forward. Chelsea. She still had to find Chelsea. Everyone else thought Chelsea ran away. Amber didn't. She knew she wouldn't run away. Chelsea wouldn't do that. She wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. She… wouldn't… do… tha…

Chelsea Chelsea received the morning stack from one of the clerks and immediately reserved a training field before anyone else could claim the decent ones. After that, she made her way to the usual table with Ivy and Adriane following behind her. The guildhall was already alive with noise. Adventurers shuffled around carrying packs and weapons while clerks tried desperately to keep the front counter organized. Someone near the entrance was arguing loudly about goblin ear compensation again.

Chelsea ignored all of it. She sat down, spread out her F through A ranking pages, and began sorting jobs into neat stacks. She had refined the process into something almost efficient. The higher-ranked requests went first, then the specialized jobs, then the general labor nonsense nobody actually wanted. Honestly, she was getting pretty proud of the system.

"Excuse me, Miss," someone said softly nearby. Chelsea kept sorting for another few seconds before finally looking up. She had already been interrupted three times this morning by adventurers trying to skip the line.

"I hope I'm not too late." Ivy leaned slightly around Chelsea and immediately brightened.

"Tali! No, you're fine." Chelsea finally remembered her. One of the women from Easton's group. Only now, without the others around her, Tali looked entirely different. She still wore revealing clothing, though now it looked less confident and more like she simply didn't own anything else. Her hands tightly clutched a small lamp sized bronze urn against her chest. Chelsea patted the seat beside her while finishing the stack she was organizing.

"Sit. Sorry, I just need to finish this stack before my brain loses the system." Tali sat quietly and watched Chelsea work for a moment.

"Okay," Chelsea said at last, setting the stack aside. She gave the girl her usual soft smile.

"First things first. Welcome. Second question. Is Easton going to hurt you for being here?" Tali lowered her gaze.

"I… don't know, Miss Wixx." Her voice trembled slightly.

"I ran away." Ivy's eyes widened. She leaned forward around Chelsea again.

"Wait. Is that what I think it is?" Tali nodded silently and adjusted the urn slightly in her lap.

"I've never actually seen one before," Ivy admitted quietly.

"It's beautiful." Tali looked up at her in surprise. The smile she gave this time still carried sadness behind it, but it looked more genuine. Chelsea looked down at the urn again. To her, it honestly just looked like something you'd see at the back of a Goodwill with a discounted sticker on it. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Still, reading the room carefully, she nodded along.

"Yeah. Really pretty." Tali's eyes began to water.

"So," she said carefully while reaching for another stack to sort, "when you say you ran away… what exactly does that mean for you?"

"I…" Tali swallowed nervously.

"I need to find a new master." Chelsea immediately stopped sorting. Her expression flattened.

"Are you a slave?" she asked bluntly.

"Was that asshole seriously keeping you as a…"

"Chels," Adriane interrupted quietly from behind her. Chelsea turned.

"She's a djinn."

"Oh." Chelsea looked back at Tali. Then she looked over to Ivy. Ivy nodded once in confirmation.

"Oh," Chelsea repeated with dramatically fake understanding.

"Yes. Of course. I definitely know exactly what that means." Tali slowly held the bronze urn outward toward Chelsea with both hands.

"Would you… want to become my new master, Miss Wixx?" Chelsea instinctively reached toward the offered object before Ivy immediately grabbed her wrist.

"Absolutely not," Ivy said quickly. Tali looked startled.

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

"No, not you," Ivy clarified hurriedly.

"Chelsea touches mysterious magical objects with the survival instincts of a greedy little goblin. I should tell you some time what she got out of our labyrinth run." Ivy slowly lowered Chelsea's hand back onto the table before releasing it.

"Sorry, Tali. We're just being careful."

"And," Chelsea added quickly, "I'm definitely not trying to collect people into some weird harem thing." Tali looked confused.

"Oh gods," Chelsea groaned.

"Sorry. That came out wrong too. You're lovely. The concept itself is just gross." Adriane finally took pity on everyone involved.

"Djinn are spiritually bound beings," she explained calmly.

"They're tied to an object, usually something valuable or symbolic. In this case, the urn."

"Technically," Ivy added, "I think they're supposed to be distantly related to seraphs. They are tied to a shiny item and some have been known to grant small wishes."

"Yes!" Tali said immediately, sitting up straighter.

"I can grant wishes. You just have to become my master." Chelsea froze. She was being offered an actual genie. An honest-to-gods magical wish granting genie. Chelsea slowly looked down at the urn again. Then back at Tali.

"No," Ivy muttered behind her.

"Again, sorry Tali," Ivy said quickly while wrapping her arms around Chelsea from behind like she was physically restraining an impulsive child.

"Chelsea is absolutely not allowed to be your master." After a few minutes of thought, she realized something. Ivy had her arms wrapped around her. Was this Ivy being jealous? Chelsea blushed slightly and relaxed into the hold. Was this a 'back off bitch, Chelsea is mine' thing? Finally she replied reluctantly, "That's right, I can't be your master." Ivy visibly relaxed behind her.

"But," Chelsea continued, "I can absolutely offer food, shelter, and protection if you need somewhere safe." Tali's eyes widened hopefully.

"Really?"

"Of course really." Tali looked down at the urn in her lap again, fingers tightening around it nervously.

"But… you wouldn't want me to grant wishes?"

"Uh, no." Ivy answered. Then tilted her head thoughtfully.

"Actually wait. Hypothetically speaking, can I wish to remove your racial restrictions from the whole master djinn relationship contract?" Chelsea continued sorting papers while waiting for an answer. Chelsea organized three more jobs before finally looking up again. Tali still looked completely confused.

"I… don't know what that means, Miss." Adriane sighed softly and translated while carefully practicing the letter H beside them.

"She means could she wish for you to stop being a djinn."

"Oh." Tali looked down sadly.

"No. I'm not powerful enough for that." Chelsea leaned back slightly in her chair. That sucked. Her curiosity got the better of her a moment later though.

"So Easton was your master?" Tali nodded once.

"What kind of wishes did he even make?"

"To read," Tali answered immediately.

"And for as many girls as I could give him." She said it with such casual honesty that Chelsea nearly dropped the papers in her hands.

"All of that was you!?" Tali nodded again.

"He preferred quantity over quality." Ivy physically gagged. Chelsea stared at the girl in disbelief.

"Wait. The other women from his group…"

"They were homunculi created while he was my master," Tali explained quietly.

"Now that I do not have a master, they disappeared." Chelsea leaned back in her chair and barked out a loud laugh before she could stop herself.

"That is the funniest possible way for his harem to end." Tali looked uncertain whether she should also laugh. Chelsea pointed reassuringly at her.

"You did great." Tali looked like she might cry again. Chelsea softened immediately.

"Hey. No more worrying about him, okay?" Chelsea said gently.

"You're under the protection of the Wixx family now. Nobody's forcing you into anything. No more masters."

"No!" Tali blurted suddenly. Chelsea startled slightly.

"No?"

"Djinns need masters," Adriane explained quietly before Tali could panic further.

"Their magic builds continuously. Without a bond directing it, it eventually becomes deadly." Chelsea slowly brought a hand to her face."Of course it does." Chelsea sighed into her palm before peeking over toward Adriane.

"Okay. Solution brainstorming. Know anybody trustworthy looking for a wish-granting genie?"

"A djinn," Tali corrected softly.

"Right. Sorry. Wish granting djinn." Chelsea thought for a moment.

"Maybe Bea?" Adriane looked genuinely horrified.

"You want Bea to have wishes?" Chelsea immediately reconsidered.

"Oh gods. Never mind. Absolutely not Bea."

"Okay then…" Chelsea pointed one finger while thinking.

"Fiona? Dewey? Edgar?"

"Fiona is out because she isn't technically Wixx," Adriane explained.

"Edgar would work if he wasn't married to Bea. And Dewey is absolutely a no."

"Why?"

"Because Fiona would probably kill Tali with a rock before the week ended." Tali shrank slightly in her chair.

"You all have a very different version of Fiona in your heads than I do," Chelsea said with a laugh while continuing to sort papers into stacks.

"That leaves either you or me, Adriane. And I definitely do not need wishes. Do you?"

"Please no," Tali muttered under her breath. Adriane let out the long, resigned sigh of someone accepting that fate had once again chosen her specifically for nonsense.

"Fine," she said at last.

"I'll do it." Tali looked genuinely terrified now.

"Do you currently have a wish available?" Adriane asked calmly. The djinn stared at her in silence. Her lips parted slightly, but no words came out. Chelsea finally looked up from her sorting.

"Tali," she said gently, "she's not going to bite you."

"Tali, this is Adriane. Adriane, this is Tali. She's agreeing to become your master so you don't explode from magic buildup or whatever horrifying thing your species does." Tali swallowed hard.

"But she's…" Her voice shook slightly.

"She's the Silver Sword." Chelsea glanced over her shoulder at Adriane, who was currently practicing writing the letter H with intense concentration. Then she looked back at Tali.

"Yeah," Chelsea agreed.

"And she also reminds me to eat all of my uh… meals and gets annoyed when I leave armor on the floor. She's not scary all the time."

"It's alright," Ivy added more softly.

"Adriane won't mistreat you." Chelsea nodded along.

"Honestly, I'll probably still handle most things involving you anyway. Adriane's more like…" She paused while thinking.

"A vault."

"A vault?" Adriane repeated.

"You know. Safe. Reliable. Strong enough that nobody's stealing the magic genie pot from you."

"The urn," Tali corrected automatically.

"And I'm a djinn."

"Right. Sorry." Chelsea pulled another posting aside while speaking.

"Oh, this one's definitely for Bea." Tali slowly rose from her chair and approached Adriane like she was walking toward a dragon. Adriane simply held out her hand. After one final nervous breath, Tali placed the bronze urn into it. Adriane carefully stored it inside her satchel.

"There," she said calmly.

"Now answer my question. Do you currently have enough magic stored for a wish?"

"I do, Master," Tali said softly before bowing her head. Adriane thought for only a moment. Then she said, "I wish I could read." Tali straightened suddenly as soft white light spread across her body. The glow only lasted a second before fading away again. She released a long breath afterward, shoulders visibly relaxing like she had been carrying weight that just fell off of her.

"Your wish has been granted." Chelsea immediately grabbed one of the nearby postings and handed it to Adriane. Adriane stared at the page intensely. Then, slowly, carefully, she sounded it out.

"Sand… worm… twelve gold." Chelsea's face lit up instantly.

"That's amazing!" Adriane looked down at the paper almost like she didn't believe it herself.

"I really can read it."

"And you recognized twelve as a number instead of saying one-two," Chelsea added proudly.

"That's actually huge." Adriane looked over at her.

"Is that what reading feels like for you?"

"Sort of," Chelsea answered.

"You have the building blocks now. Eventually you won't need to slowly sound things out anymore. You'll just look at words and know them instantly." Curiosity suddenly crossed her face.

"Oh wait. Hold on." Chelsea grabbed a quill and quickly dropped it to beneath the bench. As she did it transformed into an elaborate decorative piece. It turned a pale blue with what looked like glitter inlaid along the vane. She flipped over her with a giant C on it. Then she wrote a single word.

'Island.' Afterward she hid the quill beneath the bench again so it would revert before anyone noticed the magical transformation.

"What's this one?" she asked. Adriane studied the word carefully.

"Is-land," she sounded out confidently, pronouncing the S clearly. Chelsea smiled immediately.

"Okay. We still have some work to do." Tali bowed her head quickly.

"I'm sorry, Master. I am only so powerful. When my magic builds again, I can strengthen the wish further." Adriane looked genuinely stunned.

"No," she said quietly.

"This is already incredible." She looked back down at the page in her hands. Then over toward Chelsea.

"When we're done here," Adriane said carefully, "We need to go to a bookstore."