Book 1: Gemaris Island

Chapter 8: Park Sway

Amien's spirits lifted when the boat reached the shore and the giant elm tree on a wide, short hill loomed into view. He had visited Park Sway a few times in his life, and every time, he had found peace. Mainly in his naps under the large tree. At the base of the elm grew some scattered flowers, red and white in a patch of green grass. Surrounding the tree was a short, square hedge. Ferns, reeds and yellow weeds sprouted all around the grass of the tree, but despite the overgrown park, Amien always loved lying in the plants with his back against the trunk.

Master Amien noticed that recently the park had been redecorated a bit. There were little sculptures of pink butterflies surrounding the hedges, and the paths winding around the tree and outside the park were bordered with teal bushes with tiny white blossoms. Amien didn't like or dislike the new decorations. He was just glad that the giant swing from his childhood still hung from the elm tree's sturdy branch. Smiling at the pleasant view of the park, Amien put down his bag and Ora's suitcase and plopped down in the grass. While resting his head against the firm bark and gazing up at the blue cracks in the treetop's leaves, he tried but failed to stop worrying about Ora for just one second. What was taking her so long? Was she really going to interrogate Cosmos about his chosen theme of "rebellion?" What if Cosmos turned her in? What was Ora thinking? She couldn't be that stupid.

Actually, she can be, Amien realized.

He lowered his gaze and watched the bridge in the distance, until he realized that there were two young people leaving Unity Bridge and coming towards the park...and holding hands.

Amien rose out of the soft reeds and hurried away from his comfortable resting place to get a better look at the two people heading towards Park Sway. But Amien knew who the white man with the white lute was, and he could recognize the girl right away.

Ora spotted, in the heart of the park, Amien in his long black trench coat, a complete contrast to Cosmos in his milk white suit. She finally pulled her hand out of Cosmos' grasp and found herself running towards Amien, shouting his name.

"Ora! What's wrong?" Amien stopped walking towards her, wondering what was causing her to rush towards him.

She didn't stop. It was difficult to clop down the path in her glass high heels, but as soon as she reached him, Ora immediately hid behind, putting Amien in between her and Cosmos.

"What is going?" he asked both her and Cosmos.

"Amien. Don't worry. I'm on your side," Cosmos smiled. "Ora found the hidden message in my songs and we both agree that we need to defeat the king."

"You're against the king?!" exclaimed Amien, sounding excited and yet surprised.

"Shh! Yes! I am. Of course I am," Cosmos said to him. "However, there's one thing that you and I are going to disagree about."

Amien was still celebrating the new ally before he processed Cosmos' words. Then his smile vanished and he threw Ora a concerned look.

"What are we going to disagree about?" Amien asked, turning to Cosmos.

Cosmos leaned his head to meet Ora's worried gaze. Then he said to Amien, "The Willow Wanderer. The one started this mess by standing up to the king in the first place."

"WHAT?!" Amien exploded, storming towards Cosmos. His reaction was completely expected. "Here I was so happy to hear that you're 'on our side' only to find out that you're not?!"

"Don't you realize that the king is so negligent because he's paranoid about Diamond? That means that if Diamond hadn't threatened him-"

"She didn't threaten him!"

"None of this would be happening right now!"

"You're crazy!"

They started yelling over each other and each of them stopped listening to the other completely.

Before Ora could interject, Amien whipped around, nearly hitting Cosmos in the face as he did so, and marched away from the musician.

"ORA! We're leaving! Let's go!" Amien ordered her, picking up her suitcase and his bag from the stone ground.

Cosmos groaned and turned away. But he turned back to face Ora, he was smiling.

"You said he and I would get along," he joked, nodding his head towards the retreating pirate.

"I can't get along with anyone who's going to blame DIAMOND THE WILLOW WANDERER for the incompetence of the king!" Amien yelled, facing Cosmos.

"Look, perhaps I've been a bit...rash," Cosmos held his hands up in surrender. "If we find Diamond the Willow Wanderer and she proves herself to be...useful, then I'll have no problem with her. But until then, I am not a supporter."

Ora scoffed quietly. Amien didn't seem eager to change his attitude towards Cosmos, either.

"I can help you find her. I'm sure of that," Cosmos added.

"How?" Amien demanded.

"She's got to be close to the king. Either that or she's gathering followers on the Ninth Island," Cosmos said calmly.

His expressionless face made him suspicious, but Cosmos had said the answer like it was obvious.

"Why the Ninth Island?" Ora asked.

"They're the poorest of all the islands, which means they're bound to hate the king the most. He's neglected them, even though he promised them that during his reign, they would no longer be neglected. Also, I'm...from that island. I know the people well. They were never quick to rebel or disobey, but they have always been bitter. In fact, they were never very fond of our last king either. You should see the Ninth Island. It's not exactly a wasteland, but it goes through a famine every year, so the people lose more and more crops each year."

Cosmos' tone had changed completely during his speech, starting out as determined and resentful, and then ending like a child who was asking for help.

"You're from the Ninth Island?" Ora asked, widening her eyes.

"Yes," Cosmos replied. "And I was a poor shepherd boy before I was a famous musician."

Ora immediately pictured the nicely dressed Cosmos sitting in rags on a rock in the middle of a grassy plain with a tiny flute in his hand instead of a large lute. And surrounded by sheep instead of people. Playing his delicate instrument to herd the animals so that he could be fed dinner that evening. No. The picture vanished from Ora's mind. She couldn't picture it. It was too unbelievable. Amien was even gaping in shock now, speechless.

"The Ninth Island doesn't have the means to start a rebellion," Cosmos explained, calmly. "But since they're constantly neglected, there aren't many palace guards watching over it, which means we could easily spark a revolution if we go there and inspire them. Maybe Diamond already has."

"So you don't want to have Diamond arrested and imprisoned?" Ora immediately asked, crossing her arms.

"Not if I meet her and get a good impression of her," Cosmos replied, standing still.

Amien dropped his luggage and once again sat at the base of the lonely elm tree. He remained silent, and so did Ora.

Suddenly, Cosmos reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold pocket watch.

"Think it over," he said bluntly. "I need to get to the Opera House to rehearse. If you both come to the performance after sundown, we can meet outside afterwards."

With that, Cosmos Preyer took off from Park Sway, finally letting Ora breathe a sigh of relief.

Amien didn't look at her or say anything. Ora took off her shoes and carefully placed them into her suitcase. She took out some comfortable white flats and slipped them onto her feet, then sat down next to Amien.

He started a bit, turning his head quickly to look at her.

"Ora..." said Amien quietly.

"What?" Ora asked, bending her eyebrows sadly as she avoided eye contact with him. She was still worrying about Cosmos.

Amien turned away, cleared his throat and asked, "Do you think we should trust him?"

No. That was Ora's immediate answer in her head. And yet, she didn't say that, because even though Amien and Ora could not reasonably trust Cosmo who was suspicious and hated Diamond, they HAD to trust him. They had to trust him unreasonably, specifically for the reason that Cosmos would not trust them if they denied him their trust.

"I'm just worried, Amien," Ora began to say, "that if we don't let him come with us, he might get angry and have us arrested. He's powerful enough that nothing we say will help us. He could accuse of treason to Sir Grenton who already suspects us and we would be finished."

"You really think he would be angry enough to give up the only allies he has?" Amien asked.

"Maybe," Ora muttered. "And maybe he's not lying about the Ninth Island! If there are other potential rebels living there without any supervision from the palace guards, that's where we should be headed!"

"I suppose I agree," Amien mumbled. "I mean, if there's any chance that Diamond is there, then we should go there. Even though it will take forever now that almost all the Mirror Gates have been removed."

"Yes, it will..." Ora sighed, pursing her lips. "We're on the First Island and we have to get to the Ninth Island so that means..."

"That means we have to cross nine islands and go through nine Mirror Gates to get there," Amien said, leaning his head back against the tree in exhaustion.

"We can do it, Amien!" Ora said, sitting up and facing him. "Don't feel discouraged. We have to save these islands. We have to do this! We have to-"

"We have to find Diamond the Willow Wanderer before we do anything."

Amien sounded stern and somewhat annoyed. Ora didn't know what to say, so she just leaned back against the king, keeping her distance from the grouchy pirate.

After staring at the sky in silence and watching the clouds go by quietly, Ora noticed three older children heading towards the park. They all had long dark brown hair and big brown eyes and they were all beaming as they scurried towards the park. They seemed to be racing to the tree, but all three children stopped when they saw Ora staring up at them.

"You're Ora Ember!" a tall girl in a purple dress gasped, pointing to Ora. "You're the one who wrote Hope on the Horizon!"

"You saw that?" Ora asked, lighting up as she jumped to her feet.

"Yes! We loved it!" the girl smiled. "My name's Lola and these are my two brothers, Jacob and Isthmus."

She pointed first to the tall young boy and then the short one who stood in between his two siblings.

"Nice to meet you," Ora smiled, nodding to them.

The two boys said nothing, but the younger one smiled shyly.

"Can you teach us how to act?" Lola suddenly asked, pressing her hands together pleadingly.

"Ora. We don't have time for this. We have to get to the Opera House," Amien cut in, standing up from his comfy spot in the grass.

"Amien! It doesn't start until after sundown, and the sun hasn't gone down yet!" Ora said to him, almost laughing at him. "Don't you also want to learn how to act?"

The stoic, pale pirate flushed red as a sunset.

"You're already really good!" Ora assured him, holding her hands out. "But I just thought you wanted some acting lessons from me!"

"You were really good in Hope on the Horizon," Lola added, leaning over to meet Amien's embarrassed gaze.

Isthmus nodded in approval. Amien muttered something in reply, seeming to give his consent. Ora smiled cheerfully.

"Alright!" Ora clapped. "Well, the first step to learning how to act is to learn how to display different emotions, even if you're not actually feeling those emotions."

When she received blank stares from everybody, she went on.

"Basically, we'll just start with acting out different emotions instead of focusing on an entire character," Ora explained.

"Oh! Okay! I'm ready!" Lola chirped.

"I'm less ready," Amien sighed.

"I'm not ready at all," Jacob, the tall boy, suddenly spoke up for the first time.

Ora was used to people, especially teenagers like Jacob, struggling to act for the first time. She hurried over to open her suitcase and pulled out a large brown book with the words "Theater Stories" written in gold on the cover.

"Wow," Amien gasped. "I didn't know you had an entire book of theater stories, Ora."

Suddenly, Ora ripped a page out of the book and started writing on it.

"What are you doing?!" Amien yelled at her, desperate to save the precious book.

"It's a blank page, Amien. I haven't written on it, yet," Ora explained, shaking her head.

"Wait. So you wrote all the theater stories that are in that book?" Amien asked.

"Yes. It's my diary. Or journal. I write all my ideas in it," Ora replied, scribbling something on the page.

"Well, what are you doing now?" Lola asked before Amien could.

After writing a few more things, Ora tore the paper into ten pieces, split them into two stacks and started shuffling each individual pile.

"I'm going to give each of you a paper from each pile. One piece of paper will have a sentence on it and the other paper will have an emotion listed on it. You have to-"

"Say the sentence with the emotion, obviously," Amien interrupted her.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm teaching!" Ora burst, pointing at Amien's face which was almost smirking with mischief.

"Anyways, the goal of this game is to guess what emotion the person is trying to display," Ora said to the attentive children. "But your emotion may not necessarily make sense with the sentence you're saying."

Ora handed out the papers face down and kept two for herself.

"Read your sentence to yourself and get ready to say it with emotion!" Ora announced enthusiastically.

After a few moments of silence, everyone looked up at Ora. Amien looked highly uncomfortable.

"Did you give this emotion to me on purpose?" he demanded, holding up the paper to Ora.

"I gave them out randomly!" Ora told him, slapping his hand away from her.

Amien let a short laugh, covering his mouth.

"Alright. Who wants to go first?" Ora asked her four students.

Lola's hand shot up in the air. She glanced at her pages one last time and then cleared her throat. Her mouth turned upside down and she peered up at Ora and Amien with the saddest brown eyes.

"I love my family so much..." she said in a whiny, sad voice. Her eyes almost seemed to shimmer with tears.

Everyone chuckled at her, even Amien. They all correctly guessed that her emotion was "sad."

"This is easy!" she exclaimed.

Her youngest brother, Isthmus, was more eager for his turn now. Isthmus threw his fist in the air, smiled widely and in a loud voice, exclaimed, "I forgot to do my chooooooooores!"

Everyone cracked up, struggling to guess anything as they laughed so hard. They eventually guessed "victorious" and Isthmus nodded, grinning with his eyes shut proudly.

Jacob, who was still slouching awkwardly as if trying to hide, decided to go next. His siblings were making fools of themselves, so why couldn't he? He stared at his card thoughtfully and then raised his eyebrows while making his lips very small and peering down at everyone. He looked entitled and suspicious, like a teacher reprimanding a student.

In a deep, insightful voice, he said, "I just had the worst day of my life."

Again, everyone chuckled and threw around words like "Entitled", "proud" and "pompous." The words was pompous, Jacob said.

"Alright, I'll go next," Ora said, checking her scrap of paper again.

She glanced at Amien, but actually felt embarrassed to look at him. So Ora turned to the kids and yelled at them in a furious voice, "I love you so much!"

They giggled and immediately blurted out, "Angry!"

Ora nodded, smiling and blushing slightly.

"I didn't notice any difference from how you already always talk to me," Amien shrugged with his arms crossed.

"Ugh! Amien! Just...Say your sentence already!" Ora groaned, refraining from throwing her arms out and pushing him.

She wondered what Amien had actually meant, though. Was he talking about the emotion Ora had used? Or what she had actually said. Definitely not that, Ora shook her head.

"Alright, ready?" Amien asked, looking up from his pieces of parchment.

The children and Ora nodded.

Amien gazed straight at Ora and his face became very gentle. It was only for a fleeting moment, where his cold eyes became soft like a starry sky and his cocky smirk turned into a kind, curious smile. Ora had seen that face somewhere before. But it soon disappeared from Amien's face right after he finished his sentence.

"We won the war."

His quiet voice was so tender and Ora felt herself melt inside. Either Amien was a great actor, or he really had a heart.

"Affectionate?" Lola asked, puzzled. "It's kind of hard to tell. It could be many things."

"Give us a hint!" Isthmus asked eagerly.

"Uhh..." Amien stuttered.

"You have to make it more obvious than you think, Amien," Ora told him. "You may know the emotion, but your audience doesn't. You have to make them feel what you're feeling."

"But I'm not feeling it," Amien said.

"Right. You need to act. And part of acting out an emotion is actually feeling that emotion. At least partially," Ora explained, before turning to Isthmus. "Isthmus. Did you feel victorious when you said your line?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"And Lola? Did you feel sad at all? Even just a little bit?" Ora asked, sounding hopeful.

Lola scratched her head, hesitating. "I mean...I did think of something sad when I said it," she said, timidly.

"Exactly!" Ora smiled, pointing. "That's it, Amien. Just think of something that would actually make you feel that emotion, and then let yourself feel the emotion."

"It's harder than you think, Ora," Amien said, sternly looking at her as he held up the paper.

"I know. I know it's hard. I had to learn how to act. Trust me, I know. Just take your time. Communicate the emotion to us," she said, more determined than she'd ever been. She had always found it easier to teach people how to act than to act herself.

Amien blinked rapidly as he stared at the paper for the twentieth. He knew what the paper said, he just didn't know how to emote. Especially when the feeling listed on the page had been one that he had never felt before. Especially when the feeling listed on the page was not even a feeling in Amien's mind.

But finally, he looked back up at Ora and felt his heart leap out of his chest and he again said the words, "We won the war."

Amien didn't know what he had looked or sounded like. But he had felt it, in his heart, and he desperately hoped it had been completely fake.

"You're in love with her!" Isthmus blurted out, pointing.

Amien's face was back to normal as he glared at the boy, nervously.

"Uh, yes! The emotion was 'in love.' That's correct, Isthmus!" Amien congratulated him, waving the paper in the air with a shaky hand.

He looked back at Ora to see that she was simply smiling down at the boy who was celebrating his victory.

"You're in love with her! Oh, it was so obvious!" Isthmus repeated, laughing almost like a brat.

"Isthmus!" Amien blurted out, failing to hold back a smile. "I will...silence you."

He pointed down at the boy, who only laughed and scurried towards the giant elm tree, away from Amien. But the pirate began chasing after him, trying to catch him as he circled around the tree.

Ora watched in shock as all three children began playing tag with the weird, wizard, pirate fortune-teller, teacher, and rebel who was also too antisocial to make any friends. She thought that picturing Cosmos as a shepherd boy was difficult, but now she didn't believe what was right in front of her eyes: the stubborn, rude Amien was playing with children. And he was playing like a child.

The three brown-haired children eventually had to leave, since it was almost dinner time. They waved goodbye to Amien and Ora as they scurried down the stone path away from Park Sway. Amien sighed as he took his seat by the tree again, leaning his head back and suddenly closing his eyes. Ora didn't say anything for a moment as she waited for him to say something first. But Amien didn't do or say one thing. He had fallen asleep. Ora bit her lips to hold back a laugh, and decided to let him rest. Hanging from the tree was a big swing made out of a wooden plank and two ropes. Ora quietly sat down on it, grabbing the rough opes gently and gazing up at the darkening sky above the treetop. The swing only moved slightly, but it was creakier than she had anticipated.

Amien jerked his head up and saw Ora staring at the sky. Realizing he had fallen asleep, he quickly got to his feet.

"We should get going!" he quickly said, but Ora stopped him.

"You can take a nap if you want. We still have plenty of time before the sun fully goes down," she said, keeping her head up.

"No! We've wasted enough time already, Ora. If we want to persuade Cosmos to find Diamond, and then actually find Diamond, and then gather allies to defeat the king, and then actually defeat the king, then we need to get moving!" he began pacing frantically.

"Amien. We can't do anything until after Cosmos' theater performance is over. Let's just rest up right now so that we're fortified for the rest of our long journey," she said, staying positive.

But Amien, back to his regular, grouchy self, just. Scoffed.

He stopped pacing and stared at the ground with his hands on his hips.

"I think the reason you're always in a bad mood is because you don't get enough sleep," Ora suggested, letting herself move back and forth slightly on the swing.

Surprisingly, Amien didn't argue with her. He even sat back down and leaned back against the tree again.

"You're right. I don't get enough sleep," he said, folding his hands and watching a flower flutter in the wind.

"Why not?" Ora asked.

He turned his head to the side, looking troubled as his mind wandered.

"I...have a lot of dreams. That's all," he said.

"What kind of dreams."

"I don't know," he immediately replied, shifting his position.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't always remember them," he said, sounding confused. "It's hard to explain, but sometimes they wake me up and then I can't fall back asleep. Or sometimes, I don't wake up at all but then after I wake up from the dream and it's morning, and I know I've slept the whole night, I still feel exhausted."

Amien shook his head as if trying to work something out in his head.

"Well, try to get some rest now," Ora said encouragingly.

"I'll try..." he muttered. "Just don't let me sleep too long."

"I won't."

His eyes immediately flew shut and Ora could tell he was asleep again.

It's as if he can control exactly when he falls asleep, she thought. But not when he wakes up.

Usually, it was the opposite way around for other people. At least for Ora. She could control exactly when she woke up. She rose with the sun every morning. But she noticed that the more she tried to fall asleep at night, the harder it was to drift off to dreamland. Although lately, Ora's dreamland had been completely blank. It was difficult for her to remember any of her dreams, which was strange, because she always remembered her dreams as a child.

Ora wondered what Amien was dreaming about, or if he was even dreaming about anything.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Amien was having one of those dreams again.

Everything around him was as clear as if he were awake. The grass and trees all around him were vivid and green. In the evening sky, Amien could make out every color and cloud. He could even feel the breeze and the soft leaves of the bush he was hiding in. But what caught his eye was the giant fountain in the center of the scene. The water cycling through it was constantly changing colors, like a blinking rainbow under the darkening sky. Its steady pace was fast, yet soothingly quiet. Amien couldn't take his eyes off of the colorful waterworks. In fact, he couldn't move at all.

Then Amien noticed two people on the other side of the fountain, mostly obscured by the rushing streams. He couldn't make out their faces or their clothes. But the one sitting on the edge of the fountain was a girl with light-colored hair shining in the sun. She was slowly lowering her hand into the flashing water. And when her hand was submerged, the fountain's flashing gradually turned to one solid color:

Red.

Amien couldn't even blink. But he thought he knew who the girl was. Her short, bright hair looked so familiar. And those eyes.

Something jerked him awake. He sat up and glanced around, blinking rapidly. The pirate only noticed Ora sitting on the swing staring at him. And the feeling of exhaustion swept over Amien once more. His mind felt rested, but his body felt like he had just hiked across an entire island.

"Are you alright?" Ora asked him, staying on the swing. "You woke up rather suddenly."

Amien was fine, but confused. He didn't know what the fountain in his dream had meant, but he thought that the girl he had seen was Diamond the Willow Wanderer.