The Crown of Pearls

EZRA WAS IRRITATED.
No, that was an understatement. He was really frustrated. Why the hell couldn’t he read Mara's mind? Even if she was in a coma, he was pretty sure her mind was still working. So there was no explanation on why he couldn’t get through. He’d been in hospitals where there were patients in coma, and he could read their minds. All of them were fairly the same, darkness was everywhere for some, while for the others, they were in a tunnel where light was shining from the other end.

Sometimes he caught glimpses of what Mara was dreaming of. Once, he saw that she was looking at a city, but after two seconds, the image disappeared, and what was left was only a faint buzzing sound. Ezra felt like a kid in a toy store, feast your eyes in the toys, but don’t touch it. After the glimpses of Mara’s dream, Ezra wanted more. He never felt this interested in a person before.

Maybe Mara’s power is Force Field Generation.

But that was impossible. Then how did she manage to stop the truck? He was there when the accident occurred, and he saw with his own two eyes that Mara was the one who stopped the truck. He was sure of that. There were two kinds of Force Field Generation, Physical and Psychic. You could only possess one kind of it. It was not possible to possess both of it, or was it really impossible?

Ezra Fitzgerald was a member of The Royal Secret Society of Magic, or most commonly known as "The Magical Army". To be a part of this, of course you must possess magical abilities, and the royal blood must run through your veins.

Ezra was entrusted the task of taking Mara Evans to Cyrena, given to him by the Queen herself. The army was slowly growing over the years under the Queen's guidance. As of that time, The Magical Army had fourteen members, Mara being the fourteenth.

Mara would be taken to Chand Castle to train her powers. Without proper training, her powers might not improve. It might disappear completely in a couple of years. That was why retrieving members was one of the most important missions of the army. They were quite difficult to detect because their powers did not show often when untrained.

Ezra's power was mind reading. He could read any mind in a distance of 20 miles. Except Mara's, that is.

Mara was traced by her dreams. All of the members of the army too have been traced by means of their dreams. All members had the same dream and they could easily be traced by Violetta. Her powers provided her to know where the person was dreaming. That was how they find out a new member's residence. All of the members of the army would have this dream at a particular age when their powers will arise. It usually depended on the person. Ezra had the dream on his sixteenth birthday, two years ago.

Mara's power was still unidentified. By this time, they should have already been back to Cyrena. A member couldn’t be away for too long. His services were needed there.

This is not going as planned.

For their powers to arise the first time, it must be provoked. Ezra could remember the day he discovered his powers like it was just yesterday.

Ezra was a boy of sixteen at that time. Just eight months ago, his younger sister, Keziah, died of Leukemia. Keziah and Ezra were very close to each other. Ezra was angry at the world. He hated his parents, his friends, everybody. He wanted to be with his sister. Keziah was the sweetest and kindest girl in the world. She was only fourteen when Death took her in his arms. Before his sister’s death, he was cheerful, like all the boys of his age. But since Keziah died, he stopped doing anything altogether. He refused to leave his room, and he only ate when his mother begged him. After one month of isolation, his father begged him to live. He knelt before him and cried, and finally Ezra realized that Keziah would be sad if she saw their father like that. So, he lived.

But he stopped all his hobbies. If that thing would make him happy, then he would not do it. He was punishing himself. He never smiled nor laughed. He used to like playing soccer, playing video games, and drawing; but he stopped doing all of those things. Instead, he focused all his attention in his studies. It became his obsession.

The thing that Ezra hated most was everybody’s way of treating him. All of them pitied him. ‘Oh, poor Ezra. How dreadful.’ When he heard those things his blood boiled. He didn’t need their pity.

And that day was no exception.

Ezra noticed that someone was staring at him. He could feel it. It was like whoever's staring at him, it was boring a hole in his soul. It was getting to his nerves.

He turned around and saw a girl looking at him oddly. Like she was seeing something she didn’t like. Ezra caught her gaze and she looked away, obviously embarrassed that he caught her staring.

Then he heard her, like she was just beside him.

"I can't believe Ezra's gay. But that's what everyone's talking about. I guess he's just too good to be true."

Ezra couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Him?! Gay?! What the hell! Ezra could almost chuckle. How stupid. So he wasn’t pitied after all.

By then the teacher already entered, so there was no chance to make the girl know who she was dealing with.

When school day ended, Ezra finally realized how foolish he was. That girl would never attempt on saying those things out loud. And if she did, it was impossible that he heard her. She was at the other end of the room. It must be his mind playing tricks on him.

When he reached the school gates, he was stopped by a petite Chinese girl. She told him that he had powers. Ezra thought the girl had gone mad. But then, she suddenly disappeared in front of his eyes. Then after about ten seconds, she appeared again! Of course, he believed her after that.

The Chinese girl's name was Shin Tao. Her power was invisibility. And, like Violetta, hers was also a rare case. She could also make a thing she was in contact with invisible. Usually, people who had the powers of invisibility could only make themselves invisible. It became a problem too, since their clothes floated midair.

Ezra then discovered that his parents were also members of the magical army. He should have been angry at them for keeping a secret like that to them, but he wasn’t angry for that reason. He was angry because they did nothing for his sister. They knew magic yet they did nothing. They would have done something, anything! And the only reason they gave Ezra was because their magic could not heal. He then did a little investigating. He discovered that there were magic that could really heal; he saw a book about that at the library at the highest floor of the castle, only accessible to the Senior Army. But he had his own ways.

The real reason that his parents did not heal Keziah with magic was because that was considered as Dark Magic. Magic that could be performed were only those that you had and enhanced, but attempting to do magic not in your range of abilities was considered as Dark Magic. How ridiculous.

Of course, his competitive spirit and pride wouldn’t let himself get behind in his lessons in magic. Aside form his studies, magic also became an obsession for Ezra. It was a form of escape to all of his problems. With hard work, he managed to be the colonel in the army in two years, and since all of the magical army's members were talented and competitive, that was saying something.

And what kind of Colonel had loopholes in his powers?! What would the other members think of him?! Now, Ezra was furious. It was like running in circles. He kept getting back to this problem whatever he did.

Ezra got up and faced the window. He was in his hotel room, and of course they had the Presidential Suite. It was already one in the morning and Violetta's in her room sound asleep. The sight outside was refreshing. The contrast of the lights and the dark night sky was beautiful. It made him calm down.

It made him think of Keziah. The fact that Mara looked a lot like Keziah did not go unnoticed by Ezra. He would stare at Mara for hours and imagine that she had sapphire eyes instead of dark brown. He imagined that she liked to dance ballet, and that she had a collection of dolls in her room. Ezra imagined that she liked the color pink, and that she always woke up early just to see the sunrise.

If wishing was enough, then Keziah would have been alive right now. She would be in her room practicing for her next ballet competition. She would be in front of the mirror trying different hairstyles. If wishing really made things come true, then Ezra would be with his sister right now.

But it was never enough.