Sunday, August 31, 2008

spELlcaster Part 2

My mind began racing.
Fumans? The RDA? Needing my help? ...no. Nonononono.

I opened the door.

Agent Stone and her partner stood there stoically. Agent Stone flashed her credentials, her partner did the same - he was identified as Agent Sticks. Oh, the RDA, always with the jokes. Sticks and Stone? The message was clear to me - they could break my bones. Names, of course, despite what the children's rhyme promised, could hurt you. If you were a spellcaster, like myself, knowing names could hurt a LOT of people.

"May we come inside, El?" Agent Sticks asked. I could sense his vision scanning the room behind me, no doubt trying to locate the elusive Aesop.

It bothers me that I considered bending to get out of there. The desire was so strong. The past eight months had not been easy for me. Bending is, according to some, a vital part of who I am. Imagine trying not to breathe for eight months, or not to blink. Fortunately, I do not buy into that particular philosophy. I was proof that spellcasters do not have to be benders. And now, the government was here to ask me to break my streak, to bend again.

Okay, that was unfair. They hadn't asked me anything yet. But Stone had mentioned Fumans, and the only way they'd been defeated previously had been through bending, so it stood to reason that that's what they'd expect of me. It wasn't like I had any other skills to battle time travelers with, after all.

"Do I have a choice?" I responded to Sticks' inquiry about entering my abode, as I opened the door and allowed the Reality Defense Agency back into my life.

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