Alfheim Seoul Read online

  What had happened?

  I didn’t eat the soul. Had I messed up? Did I ruin everything because I didn’t eat the soul? I got to my feet and looked around. There was no sign Iverog had ever been here. Was I going crazy? Did I dream everything? Could someone have drugged me?

  I found my makeshift knife next to one of the garbage cans. At least there was some proof it wasn’t my imagination. But, there wasn’t a body, and the chain was gone. Though, explaining a body to the police would have been awkward: Uh, yes officer I killed him, but he was a monster. I swear I saw his body melt into goo. Then he ate half my soul, and now he lives in my head. Yeah, I’d be spending life in the crazy ward.

  A car drove by just outside the alley, and the sky was visibly lighter. I realized I’d better get home before anyone woke up for the morning. I felt exhausted but no different.

  CHAPTER 4

  Mom dropped me off at Grandpa Dan’s shop the next morning, so I could show up for work. She seemed a little too happy, but what could I do? I had a job now.

  Grandpa Dan owned a small shop near Capitol Hill in Seattle. The front area was lined with dark wood shelves and filled with imported Asian goods, mostly food and housewares. Several rice cookers were displayed prominently in the window. It was Sunday, and his shop was closed, so I would probably just be helping stock shelves.

  “You unpack box,” Grandpa Dan said, pointing to a small crate of celadon china sitting on the floor by the entrance. “Make look pretty. Don’t break.”

  “Just the one box?” I nudged the cardboard container with my foot and it rattled.

  “Hurry, he here soon,” he said, waving his hand at the table. There were four white and blue teapots on the display table. I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I picked up the box and placed it near them.

  “Who’s going to be here soon?” I asked, cutting the box open. It was filled with small, green celadon vases. The decorative swirling patterns on each vase were similar in style but unique enough I could tell they were handmade. I started stacking them in a glass display case.

  “Secret,” he said. “After he check you, then I tell.”

  “Check me for what? Do I have fleas?”

  “I think you have spark,” he said. “You see real faerie ring.”

  “Spark?” I asked, but he had already left the room. Grandpa Dan really wasn’t making any sense this morning, and what did the faerie ring have to do with anything?

  The bell on the door jingled. A dark-skinned gentleman walked into the shop, his expression intense. Something about the way he clung to the shadows as he walked gave me the impression he was hiding from something. And maybe it was just the lighting, but waves of something pooled around him like an aura. I didn’t know what to make of it, I’d never seen anyone like him.

  “Who is he?” I said. “He looks . . . uh

  . . . weird.”

  “He here check you. No be fooled. He nice guy,” Grandpa Dan said. I relaxed a little. I’d seen some rather interesting people in Seattle, but if Grandpa Dan vouched for him, then I had nothing to worry about. I set down the china tea set I was arranging and walked over to greet him.

  “She the one?” the man asked, his words terse and voice gravelly. He didn’t take his eyes off me as he spoke. It was kind of unnerving. I held out my hand, but he didn’t shake it. I lowered it quietly and just stood there.

  “Yes,” Grandpa Dan said in a firm, resolute voice.

  “Has she been told?” the man asked.

  “Not yet,” Grandpa Dan said. The cloaked man seemed pleased that I was still in the dark about things and Grandpa Dan looked nervous. It made me wonder what other things I hadn’t been told about yet.

  Grandpa Dan pointed at the guy. “Alecia, this Malcolm.”

  Malcolm nodded and walked all the way around me. Like he was sizing me up for something. His brown cloak swished as he moved. He stopped just out of arm’s reach and closed his eyes. There was something stitched into his cloak, maybe an insignia, I couldn’t tell. I turned to Grandpa Dan to ask what was going on, but he shook his head and motioned for me to stay where I was.

  I waited, watching Malcolm, almost afraid to breathe.

  The man stood unmoving; meditating, listening, or something, but not making any noise. The dense aura I’d seen when he arrived contracted inward as I watched, as though something around him was being drawn back in. It made me wonder if I was seeing things again. Had my encounter with the faerie made me crazy?

  I waited in silence, trying to keep myself still. My nose itched. His eyes popped open, and he stared directly at me. For the briefest of moments, his eyes looked like pools of liquid fire, and then they were normal brown.

  I jerked back, startled by the intensity of his gaze and a bit scared because of what I thought I saw. But he moved swiftly, glided right past me and stood next to Grandpa Dan.

  “You did well contacting the council. She has the spark,” he said.

  “When she join guild?” Grandpa Dan asked. My ears pricked up. There was a guild?

  “I’m sorry, but her capacity is tiny.”

  “Tiny?” I said. “I need to know what is going on.”

  “SILENCE!” Grandpa Dan said to me in Korean. It was one of the few commands Mom had drilled into my head. I fell instantly quiet.

  “The guild has no use for her,” he continued, ignoring my outburst. “We will watch her though, to make sure she doesn’t abuse her power.”

  I felt my heart sink. Why did it matter if I had a tiny capacity? Why didn’t they want me? I had so many questions, but I didn’t feel like I could ask them yet.

  “Thank you,” Grandpa Dan said. “Now I tell her?”

  “Yes, you can tell her.” His voice was very matter-of-fact and clinical even. “I’ll complete her report and file it with HQ.”

  Grandpa Dan nodded.

  “By your leave,” Malcolm said, and bowed respectfully to Grandpa Dan, then turned to walk out of the store.

  He struck me as a person who believed in rules just for the sake of the rules. I was raised to respect the rules and obey them. People like him were always so self-important and nit-picky. It made me angry. I was going to have to watch out for him.

  The bell jingled as the door closed behind him and the store grew uncomfortably quiet.

  “Good news,” Grandpa Dan said. “You pass test. You special.”

  “Special!” I wasn’t feeling special.

  Grandpa Dan just smiled.

  “Malcolm test you for magic. You pass. Now show you,” Grandpa Dan said. He waved his hands and muttered something I couldn’t make out. I saw his aura grow, just like it had with Malcolm and then it was like someone turned on a happy fountain.

  A wave of color from his aura flowed through Grandpa Dan’s outstretched hands and washed over me. It hit me so quickly; I didn’t have a chance to move out of the way. The effect was instantaneous. I felt healthier, happier, almost giddy. It was an irrational change in mood, but it felt really nice.

  “What was that?” I asked, a smile creeping onto my face.

  “Magic,” he said. “Alecia you special. You have gift.”

  “Magic?” I wasn’t sure how I felt.

  “Yes. I have magic spark, I do magic. You have magic spark, you learn magic.”

  “That was magic? How did you know I had the spark thingy?”

  “You see real faerie ring. You know it smell.”

  “What? Never mind, I’ll just take your word for it,” I said, a little more gruffly than I should have. I was still a bit miffed at Malcolm’s abrupt dismissal. “But, if I can learn magic, then why didn’t that guy want me in their guild?”

  “Malcolm look for big strong wizard. He not see you. My eyes have glasses.” I suddenly felt choked up. A single tear managed to slip out, and I wiped it with one hand.

  I’ve always loved Grandpa Dan, even though I don’t know how we are related. He has always been so kind to me and this time was no exception. I was used to him quoting
Korean proverbs at me and this one seemed to fit perfectly.

  I smiled at him. I felt a bit silly reacting so emotionally. The proverb meant beauty was in the eye of the beholder, but more literally it implied that because he wore glasses, only he could see the real value of me. I sniffed. He really was a wonderful grandpa.

  “So what does this mean?” I asked, after I had regained a bit of my composure.

  “It mean new rules,” he said. “Never use magic on people. Never tell people about magic.”

  “OK,” I said. That was going to be hard. Things just kept getting weirder. First I get my soul eaten and now I can do magic. I wondered if the two things were related.

  “You go home now. Get rest. Tomorrow start training. Wax on, Wax off. Just like Karate Kid,” he said.

  I laughed.

  CHAPTER 5

  “You look different,” Stephanie said, as I walked into chemistry class.

  “You’re never going to believe what happened,” I said, and sat down at the desk next to her. Chemistry was our class to catch up. Ms. Spadafino rarely started on time and even when she did, she was easy to tune out.

  “Ooh, tell me,” Stephanie said.

  “Ok, but you can’t tell anyone. Promise?”

  “Of course.”

  “Alright. After you and Mark left to go catch the bus, I totally met a real live boy, and he kissed me.” I watched as shock crossed her face. I knew she’d be jealous I’d seen a faerie and talked to him.

  “You kissed someone? But I thought you liked Mark?” Now it was my turn to be shocked.

  “No! I mean . . .yes. I mean I do like Mark and you better not have told him, but I didn’t kiss anyone. What gave you that idea?”

  “That’s what you just said!”

  “I did not. Were you even listening? I didn’t meet any guys. This thing didn’t look human, he was very clearly a boy.”

  “You just said it again.”

  “What?”

  “That you met a boy.”

  “Boy. BOY,” I said, trying to mouth the word. “What did I just say?”

  “You said ‘boy’ quite loudly,” she said, and gave me a funny look.

  “This is so weird. I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone about him, but I didn’t think talking about him in general would be a problem.”

  “So you did meet someone?”

  “Sort of, but he wasn’t human.”

  “An alien?”

  “No, he came through…” I trailed off, my jaw wouldn’t open. I started to panic and my Taekwondo training kicked in. I thrust my arms down and forward and took a deep breath through my nose, trying to stay calm.

  “You OK?”

  “Yeah, I think so,” I said, after a moment.

  “Now I’m worried about you. Are you high? Do you need to see a doctor?”

  “No! It’s not like that.”

  “Then why can’t you tell me about him?”

  “I want to tell you, but I can’t seem to.”

  “Did he hurt you? Is that why you can’t talk?”

  “No, I’m fine, really. It’s just confusing. Can we talk about this after school?”

  “All right, but I’m not letting this go.”

  “Of course,” I said, and opened my chemistry textbook. I suddenly felt very alone. I had counted on being able to tell Stephanie about Iverog. Even if I couldn’t tell her about him directly, I figured I could talk about meeting a faerie. I also hoped if I dropped enough hints, she could figure out what really happened. But it seems this spell was smarter than that. Apparently I couldn’t even say the word “faerie” anymore, and I had to assume if something I was going to say would give his existence away then my jaw would just lock up.

  And where was Iverog? I couldn’t talk about him, but he was nowhere to be found. All I could think was I’d totally screwed things up because I didn’t eat his soul.

  “Alecia,” Ms. Spadafino said, standing at the front of the class. “Did you hear me?” I looked down at my desk where a blank worksheet sat. I hadn’t even noticed it being handed out, let alone filled out the answers.

  “Not really,” I said truthfully.

  “Do I need to speak louder?”

  “No ma’am.”

  This was going to be a long day.

  CHAPTER 6

  The orange sun dipped behind a skyscraper in the Seattle horizon, casting huge shadows on Grandpa Dan’s shop. It was getting dark outside, and the sound of Seattle traffic was winding down.

  I had a job now, so I came right to the shop after school. Grandpa Dan had been trying to teach me magic since I arrived. It seemed exciting at first, but I was getting tired and hadn’t had much luck. I was also worried. I hadn’t seen Iverog since our soul merging. As near as I could tell, I’d botched the situation entirely because I didn’t eat his soul.

  I’d wanted to tell Grandpa Dan about Iverog. I figured he would know what it meant to have my soul eaten. But every time I tried to say something about the subject, my mouth would freeze up, and I couldn’t talk.

  This weird phenomenon was the only proof I had that Iverog was real and I wasn’t crazy.

  “Grandpa, I can’t do it,” I said, after knocking the candle over. It went clattering across the table and onto the floor, spinning slowly to a stop. Grandpa Dan obviously knew a lot about magic, but it wasn’t working. There must be something wrong with me.

  I couldn’t even light a candle. We’d tried a lot of magic involving candles. He had me try moving the candle, changing the candle’s color, levitating the candle, and now I was trying to heat up the candle so it would melt the wax. Nothing had worked. It hadn’t so much as gotten warm. I was starting to think the candle was immune to magic.

  “You can do it. I feel it,” Grandpa Dan said from across the room. He’d been saying it all morning. Always optimistic and cheerful.

  “It’s not working. I quit,” I said. “There is no point. It just doesn’t work for me.” I chucked the candle onto the table, hard, half hoping it would break. My anxiety about botching up things with Iverog was starting to leak out. I really shouldn’t take it out on Grandpa Dan.

  Hearing the clatter, he walked over and picked up the candle.

  “Twenty push-up,” he said. “on knuckle.”

  “Oh, come on!” I started to protest, but dropped to the floor and breezed through the push-ups. Grandpa Dan usually walked with me to Taekwondo practice, so he knew it wasn’t much of a punishment. I glared at him anyway when I was done, angry at the candle, angry at him, and angry at the world in general. But mostly angry I couldn’t figure out how to do the simple spell. I waited, but he didn’t respond, so I put away my things.

  “You drive for me,” Grandpa Dan said. My ears perked up. I was almost sixteen. I’d had my learner’s permit for several months now, and I was eager to drive any chance I got.

  “Oh yeah, where are we going?” I asked as I followed him out the door.

  “We go get Zhīzhū. Take my truck.” We walked outside and over to the large garage door, it was already open.

  “Who’s Zhīzhū?”

  “He not person, he package.”

  The 1940s diesel beater truck didn’t really look like much. Dings and dents covered nearly every inch of the dark green paint. The WWII era truck looked like it had actually participated in the war. It had one of those roll-up doors in the back.

  “This truck has lots of character,” I said.

  “Also magic no break it,” he said, and patted the truck firmly, causing the metal to reverberate loudly.

  “What?”

  “Magic not like technology. Truck no has technology.”

  “Is that why my cell phone got fried when I was at the faerie ring?”

  “Yes. New car have computer inside, they break. This good truck. No computer.”

  “It’s gonna suck if I can’t use a cell phone any more.”

  I turned the key and waited the requisite twenty seconds for the plugs to heat up, and cranked the e
ngine. It rumbled to life first try and sounded very much like a barrel of rocks rolling downhill.

  The old-style lap belt was confusing to buckle at first, but simple once I figured it out. Without a backup camera, I had to rely on the huge side mirrors as I backed the truck out. Our destination was a small warehouse just down the road. Zhīzhū turned out to be a large stone dragon packaged in a wooden shipping crate. A large forklift hoisted the two-ton stone dragon from the warehouse floor to the back of the truck. The bed of the truck sank about four inches.

  I thought the truck would handle differently with all the extra weight in the back, but they had tied it down nicely so it didn’t bang around as we made our way back home.

  “We unload in front,” Grandpa Dan said, as we came around the corner near his shop. I looked for a space, but there wasn’t one. I stopped the twenty-two-foot box-delivery truck as close to the sidewalk as I could, but it was still double-parked.

  “You can’t park here!” shouted a cranky looking old man running out of the shop across the street. I ignored him and got out of the truck. Grandpa Dan didn’t seem to be paying him any attention either.

  I walked over to the back of the truck and rolled open the large metal door. The cranky shop owner was on his cell phone talking loudly about us, probably to the police.

  “Oh, look dragon.” Grandpa Dan said. “He much happy.”

  I wasn’t really sure how he could tell a six-foot stone dragon was happy or not. Especially when most of it was still in the crate. The stone creature stood on two wood pallets, with four-foot-high wooden walls nailed to the base. The head of the statue cleared the walls by about two feet. It was looking forward with one paw raised.

  “Here boy!” Grandpa Dan called. I felt a huge surge of power roll forth in a smooth wave towards the truck. It felt serene and almost musical. I hadn’t noticed him move at all to conjure the spell, but there it was, immense and powerful.

  I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye and looked back to see the stone dragon turn its head, the sound of stone grating on stone accompanying its movements. It shook itself free of the wooden crate, like a dog shaking off water. I ducked and covered my face reflexively to dodge the wooden shrapnel.