Chapter Seven

Chapter VII

“Nerice?” I heard a voice as I gained consciousness. I slowly opened my eyes. “Nerice, are you okay?” I saw Darnell as I completely opened my eyes.

“Of course she’s not! She just fainted; how stupid can you get Darn-ell?” Blaze shouted as he entered the living room. I just realized I was on Darnell’s couch.

“Can you stop arguing for a while?” I said as I tried to sit up straight. They glared at each other and looked at me.

“Here, take a drink,” Blaze gave me a cup of water and I thanked him as I drank it. “It’s Saturday tomorrow, so, just rest, okay? I’ll take you home now.” He said as he helped me stand up, but I took off his arms that were supporting me.

“No… I won’t leave until you two explain to me everything… from the start!” I said. I really wanted to know all about these stuff and I now know this is all true. Darnell’s eyes, the light brown ones, are telling me I need to know. “And I don’t want the two of you fighting over what the other says.”

“I’ll go first. I’ve been in Goronia longer.”

“No, I’ll let Blaze start since he’s been there shorter than you.” Blaze gave him a “what can I say?” look. I glared at Blaze for doing that.

“I have vague picture of it since I left Goronia when I was 6,” he started, looking at me. I knew deep inside him he was ignoring Darnell. I wonder if Blaze is Blaze’s real name. I mean, he’s from Goronia, wherever that is, and Darnell has a weird name… Darnell’s name seemed to fit in Goronia, so I wonder if Blaze just changed his name. “I just know that when I was a child, there had been wars and fights all over Goronia and Goronians were blaming it on my family.”

“Wait, what was ‘it’?” I asked, confused on what he was talking about.

“I don’t know. The reason there were wars in Goronia. I don’t know why they had wars,” he explained. “Okay, going back… they blamed it in my family because my mother’s not Goronian. A Goronian was able to make a portal, like what Darnell did, to go here. And that Goronian was my father. So technically, I’m half-Goronian. My mother told me the last time there was a half-Goronian in existence; a really huge war broke out in Goronia. Between the Goronians that are against having half-bloods and the Goronians that stood up for the family of the pureblood who had a half-blood child. Do you get it?” I nodded. I just wanted him to continue. “So since my mother wanted to protect me, she decided to make a portal, with the help of my father’s brother. So now I’m here.” He stopped. That’s it? Now I understand Blaze’s story. I want a more detailed one… Darnell’s story.

“That’s it? Okay. Darnell? Your story, please,” I said as I turned my attention to Darnell. But that’s when I remembered something. As Darnell opened his mouth, I said, “Wait! Blaze, that’s your story? That’s it?” I asked and he nodded, giving me a questioning look. “I mean, why don’t you think Blaze is trustworthy then?” Darnell mouthed an “oh” as Blaze nodded.

“Right. Let him tell you that.”

“My pleasure,” Darnell said and my attention turned to him at once. “I knew all about this war, even when I was a kid. My family is equal to the ‘royal family’ they call in this place, but so much more than that. I’m the only child from the leaders right now and they’re all depending on me since I just turned 19. This ‘war’ that Blaze told you about earlier is still going on right now. Blaze’s father is my father… he’s my half-brother�"”

“WHAT?!” I shouted so loud I swore the next door neighbors were able to hear it. Blaze just nodded and so did Darnell. “SERIOUSLY?!” My voice was still loud.

“No need to shout, Nerice.” Blaze said.

“I’m serious. So the war continued because of that. My father has been looking for Blaze and his mother for so long. The reason Blaze doesn’t trust me is because even if he only knew his dad for 6 years, he loved him.” Darnell stopped there.

“So?” I asked Darnell, confused.

“He loved his father, but I didn’t. I hated my father for making our family look indecent. I hated him because he broke my mother’s heart. I know, even after all these years, that my father loves Blaze’s mother, not my mother. So he’s been trying to take control of the whole situation and I never helped him. He wanted me to follow his footsteps, be the next ruler of Goronia… but I didn’t want to because everybody would remember me as Blaze’s half-brother, the son of Darren, who had an affair with a human.”

“You hated Darnell because of that?” I asked Blaze. He nodded but his was looking at the floor.

“Why’d you hate your father like that? Do you hate Blaze?” I asked Darnell.

“I just hated my father. He forced me to do everything he wanted for me, but I didn’t want for myself. Every time I would negate to what he asked me to do, he’d compare me to Blaze. And it honestly hurts… being compared to someone who’s a little far from who you really are, but I never hated Blaze. I knew he makes my father happy so I don’t hate him… I hated my father, but at the same time I loved him. Very ironic,” He stopped like he didn’t want to continue. I gave him my ‘I’m still expecting more’ face and he understood it so he smiled at me. “Just a few weeks ago, I came here. Days before I went here, things weren’t going very well in Goronia. The war was unstoppable. I knew my father couldn’t do it… and I now know Blaze is right. I’m a coward, because I ran away from my responsibilities, and that is to continue what my father has started.”

“See? I told you he’s a coward… running away from responsibilities, he can’t be trusted.”

“Shut up, Blaze.” I said sounding a little bit irritated. He gave me his “sorry” eyes and I turned to Darnell.

“I created a portal to go here, for two reasons; to escape from Goronia and to find Blaze. Luckily, I came here… maybe my determination to find Blaze was the reason the portal brought me here. It took me 4 days to make the portal. I’ve used the hardest type of magic possible to create it,” he ended. “Do you need any other information?”

“What things would happen if the war ended? I mean�"” I asked, but Darnell cut me off.

“I get it. It’s either my family and those loyal to us would be able to talk to the majority of Goronia about the topic or…” Darnell stopped talking, looking at Blaze.

“What?” I asked.

“Or… I really don’t know what would happen if the majority of Goronia wins. I mean… it’s possible, but I hope not, that my family would die and Goronia would find a new leader. But Goronia won’t be able to find a leader if they’d follow the rules.” Darnell explained.

“Darnell, remember that Goronians have magic. The rules are somewhat protected by magic. If any Goronian breaks it, they get tracked. If ever no one’s left to be the leader that is in Goronia on that day, Goronia might end or all the Goronians would end up being here or any other worlds.”

“Worlds? There are other worlds?” I asked Blaze. This is too much information…

“Of course there are!” Darnell said, laughing at me. Maybe laughing at how silly my question was.

“But Goronia can’t end up in any other world. You know what some Goronians are like… if they end up in that world, that world might end, too and then the whole population of people in that world would end up in another world and then another.” Blaze explained. Wow, this stuff is scary. If I were Darnell, I would honestly tell Blaze right now, “Why did you have to be born?” No offense, but I’d be panicking, wouldn’t I?

“What’s in your mind, Darnell?” I asked.

“I don’t know. All I know is that I have to help my family do it.” He said, staring at the floor. We were all silent for a while until something struck me. I don’t know why but I just had a good feeling about what I’m thinking.

“Darnell… You have to do it, but not on your own. Blaze, can you do magic?” I asked Blaze. He looked up at me.

“No, but my mom said that if someone trains me, I might.”

“Well, Darnell, you could train Blaze until he learns to do at least some useful magic and then I don’t know why but I think I could help. You said I was special, right? Well, maybe I could help, I just don’t know how… because I’m able to change your eye color. And I just recognized right now that every time you look at Blaze, it turns into blue but when you look at me it turns light brown.” Darnell’s face lit up. I still didn’t know how I could help but I know I could… big time. A silence not awkward swallowed us. No one spoke for what seemed like hours. We all just stared at the floor. I know they were thinking as hard as I was, too.

“But how am I going to train? When are we doing this? School! Remember?” Blaze said out of nowhere, breaking the silence. My head turned to Darnell’s briefcase.

“We could do it after classes, during weekends. Darnell has a portal and I’m very sure that would lead us to a secret place, you guys could train there,” I said. “Oh, and I’ll come with you,” I hope they would agree with me. “But we have to do it fast. We could start right now.”

“How long do we have?” We both turned our heads to Darnell.

“I don’t know. When I left there it was pretty intense, I’m sure it grew more intense since I’m gone. No contact with anyone.”

“Let’s go in right now!”

“Problem is… humans can’t go in the portal,” Darnell explained. “I could only make portals wherein the human could go out. If you’re thinking how Blaze’s mother was able to go into Goronia… my father’s a ruler, he has one of the greatest powers, ever.”

“We could try, right? Come on.” We all stood up and went towards the briefcase.

“Ladies first?”

“Blaze, you go first,” I said. Blaze stood on top of a chair and inserted his feet and then he was swallowed by the swirls. It scared me. “You go next. If I don’t come in within 30 seconds to 1 minute, come back.”

“Are you sure?” I nodded. He stood on top of the chair, too and inserted his feet first and like Blaze, he was swallowed by the swirls, too. I swallowed my saliva. It was so scary. What if I would go to another world because that won’t accept a human? Oh, what am I thinking, I should go now. I stood on top of the chair; I slowly put my left foot in the briefcase. Now my left foot was in, I held on to the sides of the briefcase and slowly put my right foot. After that, I felt myself being swallowed by the briefcase. I screamed my lungs out. I could only see blue and light brown, just like Darnell’s eyes. My head was aching so much. I had a bad feeling about this. I’m a human, not Goronian. What was I thinking?