Aki's Tale

Aki's Tale

I was sixteen when I met him.

I was in an apple tree, selecting my lunch. Someone else’s apple tree, of course. It was a bright spring day, the sort with a cold breeze and warm sunshine. I had just picked an apple that was half red and half green when a voice called to me.

“What manner of angel or sprite are you?”

I looked down. A man stood on the path below my perch. The sun was in my eyes, so all I saw was a silhouette of a figure in a billowing cloak, and a gleam of white.

“Neither,” I called back, squinting down at him. “What do you want?”

“Direction,” was his reply.

I thought it an odd response. “To where you want to go, or where you should go? If you have a set destination, I will do what I can, but I cannot tell you what you should seek.”

He chuckled. “Wise words for a young maid.”

“I’ve come of age,” I told him indignantly, scrambling down through the branches. “I’m a woman of sixteen.”

“As you will,” he said, laughter in his voice. “Do all women here fancy themselves tree sprites?”

I let go of the branch I was holding and dropped to the ground. “Do all men where you come from interrupt people in the middle of their lunch?”

“Lunch?”

I held up my apple.

“Ah.” I could see him better now. He wasn’t tall, but he was taller than me (which wasn’t the difficult, truth be told). Even though it was spring, he was wearing a thick red cloak. But what caught my attention most was his hair. It was as white as salt, and reached to his shoulders, gleaming in the sunlight. He wasn’t old, though. In fact, he looked hardly older than I was. (After awhile, I would begin to recognize the gleam of mischief in his eyes, and the smile that was always hidden just beneath the surface of his features, but I saw none of this at first glance.)

It sounds strange to say about a man, but he was beautiful.

He smiled charmingly. “My apologies. Might I. . .” He trailed off, staring at my waist.

I laid a hand on the sword hilt at my belt. “Yes?”

“Apologies,” he said again, still staring. “Your mirror. It’s very. . .unique.”

I frowned. The mirror hanging from my belt was very unique, but there was no way he could know that. If he was planning on stealing it, he was in for a rather nasty shock. “It was my mother’s,” I told him coolly, taking a bite out of my apple. If I feigned indifference, maybe he wouldn’t bother. . .

“She was a Rogue too, was she?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I inhaled sharply, choked, and sent bits of apple spewing everywhere.

He burst out laughing.

Furious for being made a fool of, I turned on my heel and stalked off in the other direction.

“Wait,” he said, hurrying to catch up with me. “Wait, I’m sorry.” Although his words were contrite, he still looked like he was holding back laughter. “It was just. . .your face. . .” He started chuckling again.

I kept walking, very pointedly looking away from him. I didn’t know what the implications were for having my powers revealed to someone, but I was sure it wouldn’t be good.

“I’m sorry.” He caught my elbow. “See, look. I’m one, too.” He held out a small, gold-plated mirror.

I yanked my arm out of his grasp, but stopped all the same. The object he was holding was definitely a Rogue’s mirror and I was intrigued in spite of myself. Aside from Mama, I’d never met another one. The people who could travel between worlds were rare. No one who could “shift,” as we called it, would mention it lightly. Seeing a mirror hanging from someone’s person was our only hint, and there was enough vanity in the world that even that wasn’t foolproof.

He looked pleased with himself. “Tell me, what world is this?”

I sighed. Maybe if I told him where he was, he’d go away. “The one they call the Green World. The land is called Northangle, and you’re just outside of a small town called Devonn.”

“There,” he said smugly. “That didn’t hurt, did it?”

I rolled my eyes and started walking again. That still didn’t stop him.

“What are you called?” he asked, keeping up with me easily.

“Rarely anything complimentary,” I informed him.

“I don’t bite,” he told me, sounding amused. “Why do you answer me in riddles?”

“Why are you following me?” I countered.

He looked surprised. “You’re another Rogue, of course. You know how this world works. Don’t you seek out other Rogues when you’re in a new world for the first time?”

“I don’t go to other worlds much.”

“What?” he exclaimed. “A Rogue, not shift to other worlds? Why not?”

I shrugged. “I don’t even care about this world. Why would I want to bother going somewhere else?”

He seemed genuinely baffled by this. “Because!” He gestured expansively at the horizon. “There’s so much out there! In this world, in every other world. . .different cities, different technology, different customs, different
people. . .”

“People are all the same,” I scoffed. “You cut them and they bleed.”

He raised his eyebrows. “So cynical at such a young age.”

“Oh? And how old are you, Grandfather?” Certainly not old enough to slight my age, that was for sure.

“Twenty,” he told me.

I stopped dead, staring up at him. “You’re never.”

“I’faith, just. My birthday was yesterday.”

“You don’t look it,” I said suspiciously.

“Yes, so I’ve heard,” he said with a smile. “But I am going to change your mind. Traveling is the most fascinating thing you’ll ever do.”

“Really.”

“Truth.” He took hold of my shoulder and spun me around to face the sun. “Did you know that the sun sets with a blue tint in the White World? I’m not sure why. . .something about the quality of their air.”

I stiffened, and he took his hand away. He kept on, though.

“In the Red World,” he said excitedly, “they have floating cities. Imagine! An entire world, up in the air! The Blue World has the most beautiful flowers you’ll ever see, not just reds and pinks, but any color you could think of. The Gray World is almost magical in its people’s abilities. They can do things with their minds that you and I would never dream of.”

I stared, awed. He seemed so. . .alive. I’d never met anyone that enthusiastic before. You could almost feel the love of life surrounding him.

He met my eyes, smiling warmly, and I looked away in embarrassment.

“So you just travel all the time?” I asked, purposely making my voice brusque. “How do you ever get anything done that way?”

“Get anything done?” he exclaimed, laughing. “Why on earth would I want to bother with that?”

“Don’t you have anything you want to do with your life?” I challenged. By his age, he was an adult, but he certainly didn’t act like any adult I’d ever met. He sounded like a little kid, the way he talked about the worlds.

“Not really,” he said with a shrug. “I just want to enjoy myself.”

“Are you sure you’re twenty years old?” I asked skeptically.

He laughed. “If not, my mother and I need to have a talk. Come.” He held out his hand to me. “Your name.”

He behaved as though he had no doubt I’d answer him. “Yours first,” I insisted. No need to let him have all his own way.

“Very well.” He swept a bow, which would have made anyone else look silly, but it just made him look more graceful than ever. “Rothian Graye, Rogue and traveler, lately of the Red World, but I call no world home.” He straightened up and looked at me expectantly.

“Alakina Elantra Black,” I said reluctantly.

“A beautiful name for a beautiful lady,” he said solemnly.

I felt myself blushing. I knew the effect my looks had on people. I was no fool. But no one had ever said it so straightforwardly. Most men just stared, or started spouting flowery speeches.

He was, without a doubt, the strangest man I had ever met.

“Lead on, Alakina Elantra Black,” he told me.

“Where?”

“Why, to your home, of course.” He grinned. “I’ve nowhere else to go. I believe Rogues are supposed to offer shelter to one another?”

“You have to be kidding me,” I muttered under my breath.

“I am going to teach you to love life if it’s the last thing I do,” he mused, setting off on the path ahead of me. “It’s going to be most interesting. . .”

“Hey!” I protested, hurrying after him. “I didn’t say you could stay with me! Hey! You don’t even know where you’re going! Hey, wait!”

I didn’t know it then, but I would be chasing after him for the next eight years.



Rothian Graye infiltrated my life quite easily. My mother adored him on sight, of course, and instantly invited him to stay with us.

“Are you serious?” I protested. “We don’t even know this guy!”

Mama raised an eyebrow. “We know he’s a Rogue, and that’s enough. You remember the oaths as well as I do. We have a responsibility towards others of our kind.” When my face darkened further, she laughed cheerfully. “Oh, Aki, you’re so suspicious of everyone! The two of you must have met for a reason.”

“You and your reasons,” I grumbled. “Not everything happens for a reason, you know.”

She just laughed again.

“Why do you call her Aki?” Rothian asked curiously. He was sitting at our kitchen table, calmly sipping some soup.

“None of your business,” I muttered darkly.

“It’s the most adorable story,” she gushed. “When my daughter was a child, she couldn’t say her L’s, so when she was asked her name, she’d say ‘Aaaaakina!’ I shortened it to Aki.”

Rothian joined in my mother’s laughter. “That is adorable!” He beamed up at me.

“How’s the soup, dear?” she asked him.

“Delicious, thank you.”

I realized something then, and I knew who he reminded me of.

He was just like her!

“Why me?” I groaned.



He was maddening.

He turned my life upside down as casually as breathing, convincing my mother to allow me to travel to other worlds—no easy task, with Mama’s opinions. After he managed that, I couldn’t very well refuse to go along with him. I could have, I suppose. . .it just wouldn’t have done any good. He was astonishingly stubborn when he wanted to be—good-natured, but immovable as a rock. He insisted on dragging me along as he explored countless places. We became two shiftless travelers, moving around on his whim. Which wasn’t to say that he never listened to me. If I expressed a preference for one world or another, we would go there. He was the most careless, genuine person I’d ever met. I was constantly making sure that he didn’t spend all our money or survive on nothing but sweets or get his throat slit because of a teasing comment. For some reason I couldn’t quite understand, I wanted to protect him.

To me, he was sunshine. Bright and cheery, never losing hope no matter what happened.

I couldn’t understand him at all.



Three weeks before my eighteenth birthday, I woke up in the middle of the night without knowing why. We were in the Gray World, traveling from Wail to Lunduntown. I didn’t know where we’d go after that, although Rothian had talked of heading to Tallia.

I sat up, rubbed my eyes. The pile of blankets that was my friend was shaking on the other side of our weak fire. He was probably cold again. I liked the cold myself, and couldn’t understand his need for constant warmth. I called him a lizard sometimes, only half joking.

I grabbed my blanket and walked over to him. Kneeling down, I draped it over him, smiling slightly. He looked even younger than usual when he was sleeping, curled up in his cocoon.

As I began to stand up, his hand encircled my wrist. “Aki,” he mumbled.

I sighed. He’d called me that ever since my mother had told him that story, and no amount of threats from me could stop him. “Yes?”

He didn’t answer, just held my wrist tighter. I was pretty sure that he was still asleep. I tried to tug my hand free, but he was strong, and I didn’t want to pull hard enough to wake him up.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh, lying down next to him. “It’s warmer on this side of the fire anyway.”

I ignored the way my heart sped up when he rolled closer to me. He was so warm. . .

In spite of thinking that I couldn’t possibly fall asleep like this, the next time I opened my eyes, it was morning.

Rothian was up and dressed, eating breakfast by the fire. He didn’t say a word about the previous night, and neither did I.



The day before my eighteenth birthday, we were on a ship heading to Tallia. We’d just left the Lunduntown harbor.

“This is wonderful,” I said, leaning out over the railing. Drops of ocean sprayed my face. “It’s so peaceful, out here on the sea.”

Rothian laughed. “Wait until we hit a storm, then you’ll see how peaceful it can be.”

“Storms are even better!” I said, grinning. “Then you feel like you’re part of the sea, instead of an intruder.”

He stared at me, looking very far away all of a sudden. “Your smile is too rare for something so beautiful,” he mused.

I ignored his sudden lapse into flattery, as it was fairly common. “Well, you told me that you’d teach me to love life.”

“That I did,” he said thoughtfully.

“Not that it’s changed me,” I told him. “I’m as cold and calculating as ever.”

“Yes,” he said. It wasn’t a condemnation. He leaned against the rail. “I love you, you know.”

He surprised a laugh out of me. Of all the things I’d expected to hear from him, that was near the bottom of the list. He’d seemed to pay no attention to affairs of that sort whatsoever. And me? I’d thought he saw me as a friend, maybe even some sort of little sister. “Nonsense.”

“Never.”

“You? Love me?”

“I’faith. As I live and breathe.”

I regarded him for a long moment, considering the possibility that he was joking. But his face was as earnest as ever. “Why?”

“You are yourself. Isn’t that enough?”

Yes.

It was enough. More than I’d ever dreamed of.

Very carefully, I slid my hand across the rail to cover his. “Well then. Where do you think we should go after Tallia?”

He turned his hand palm up to rest against mine. “I hear the flowers in the Blue World are spectacular. . .”