Diamond Curse

Title: Diamond Curse
Author: SilverInk
Writing: Short Story
Word Count: 1786

Farsiris Daylily Vaina was busy checking her appearance--again--in her flower-shaped mirror. Something still wasn't right and Siris knew what it was--her necklace. Not one of her necklaces matched her outfit. 

Finally she sighed in defeat and took off the necklace she had on, deciding she could do without one altogether, and hurried from her dorm room. 

School was the same as usual. Siris was certain by she'd aced her literature and demonology tests--the latter not so much as the former--and by the time she walked out of her last period, Siris was thinking of the night's play, for lack of any other interesting subject matter to dwell upon. Then again, the play didn't hold too much interest for her, aside from seeing the costumes: her friend Enlaika was the costume designer and Siris knew Enlaika was a brilliant and fashionable artist at her craft. 

"Margaret!" A familiar and welcome voice called. Siris looked up from her thoughts and saw Collin Gray calling out to his childhood friend Margaret Allene Garrett.

Siris watched with a pang of jealousy as her vamipre crush embraced the new girl at school. He drew away quickly, laughing about what Siris assumed was Margaret's lack of control of her power. Margaret's power--transfer of energies--had a nasty tendency to suck --or infuse-- a plethora of energy from or with anyone she touched.  Siris sulked. At least I can control my powers, she mused cynically, turning away and retuning to her dormitory.

---

The person that had bought a ticket for the seat next to Siris's right hadn't come yet, or they simply weren't coming. Siris glanced at the empty seat and then at her flower shaped watch. 10 minutes until the play started. She sat, ignoring the chatter of the cheerleaders to her left as they admired each other. Siris yawned. She hoped Collin would be the one that would sit to her tight, but she knew Titan, Collin's roommate, had that seat. 

A glimmer of light caught her eye and Siris detected a diamond necklace on a thick aquamarine cord hung on the edge of the handrest. Intrigued, Siris picked it up, wondering who would lose such an exquisite item. She looked down at her clack dress and long to pit it on--it fit perfectly. 

Just for awhile, she begged herself, then hesitated. On the bck of the cord, she noticed a name, sewn in black silk--Enlaika Glavin/ Oh! Enlaika must have lost it accidentally while working in the theater. Siris would keep it on now and return it to Enlaika after the show when--hopefully--her friend would let her examine some of the costumes personally. 

There was something extraordinary about this piece of jewelry, Siris realized the moment she put it on. The cheerleaders next to her quieted and the teacher stopped patrolling irritably up and down the aisles of the auditorium. 

"Hey," someone to her right said, and Siris looked up into the storm-gray of Collin's eyes. "Titan's not coming so he gave me his seat. Hope you don't mind," he explained, flashing her a smile that made all the flower seats in her pocket float with delight. 

"Absolutely," she breathed as the lights dimmed and the show started. Sometime in the midst of the well-acted play, Collin's hand found a way into hers and by the tragic ending, their hands were tightly clasped. They stood and clapped as the performers took a last bow and waited until the last of the teary audience left before approaching the front, where Enlaika was waiting for them. Collin trailed behind but still followed Siris for some inexplicable reason. Siris enveloped her friend in a hug, proclaiming how marvelously tragic the play was. 

"Are you busy?" Enlaika asked, Siris replied she wasn't. "Fantastic--come with me. You said you wanted to see the costumes?

Siris's face lit up and she and Collin followed Enlaika. "I have your necklace," Siris commented, moving to take it off. 

"You can keep it for now," she said smiling sadly. "I'm in no hurry to get it back."

----

It was two weeks before Siris felt any guilt and two months before she decided she couldn't handle it anymore . Her life was seemingly perfect. As long as she kept the diamond necklace on--and she was almost compelled to wear it--she could directly influence the course of events by sheer willpower. The necklace hat since added Farsiris Vaina to the cord in black and Enlaika's name had faded to teal. 

But something urged her to return it. Why, she couldn't tell--who would be willing to sacrifice paradise? 

---

"Collin, stop." Siris commanded but her boyfriend didn't drop his hand from cupping her face. "Stop," she repeated, but he didn't, as she knew he wouldn't--because secretly she didn't want him to leave, and the diamond necklace answered to that clandestine desire. 

"What do  you want?" Collin asked, his voice strange as he leaned backand away from her. 

"You don't love me," she stated matter-of-factly, touching the necklace that made everything happen the way she wanted.

"I do."

Of course he did. She wanted him to. Siris hesitated and a random thought stirred in her head: She had filled in random bubbles in the last math test as an experiment to see if the necklace would really grant her anything she desired. But she quickly determined her life--and Collin's sanity--were more important than a grade that would  barely affect her stellar academic record. 

She drew in a long shaky breath and undid the clasp in a single move, letting it fall to the grass floor.

"Now do you love me?"

"I..." The strange teal that had crept into his eyes suddenly vanished and Collin stumbled away from her, leaning against the wall of the garden maze for support. His head was spinning and she could see he was close to passing out. 

"Collin!" She approached him but he held a hand up and she respected his request for her to back away. 

"Just go, Siris. I'll be fine. I'm just confused." He didn't look fine and every fiber of Siris's being called out for her to help somehow, but she squashed these proclivities with great discipline and nodded. She swept the necklace from the ground and fled from the maze, the flowers on the walls guiding her the way out. She burst into the school and continued to the drama room where she startled a few of the drama club members talking backstage. "Enlaika Glavin. I need to talk to her."

One of the people looked like he was about to object and Siris shot them a glare that only the queen of popularity herself could muster. "Now."

"Enlaika's sick in her room," someone finally said. "Why?"

She ignored his question and dashed off with a "Thanks". She scurried to the third floor where the girls' dorms were and found Enlaika's room. Putting on the necklace grudgingly and willing that the door was unlocked and Enlaika awake, Siris mused on what to ask.

As she had hoped, the door was unlocked and the room vacant except for Enlaika who was laying on the bed, reaching for a glass of water just out of her reach. She turned and smiled tiredly at Siris before flopping back on her bed. "Something amiss?" she asked hoarsely.

Siris handed Enlaika the water glass and showed her the necklace--she'd figured out that people couldn't see the jewel unless she wanted them too, and though she was fairly certain that Enlaika would recognize her own pendant--she had the first time she'd mentioned it--she wanted to be clear. "I need you to take it back. I know it gives me what I want, but once I took it off...Collin got this massive headache and I'm afraid I've seriously hurt him...pemanantly?"

Enlaika shook her head and sat up to drink. She took a long sip before explaining, "It's the temporary side effect of the magic. "The more will you exert on a person, the more the receiver i affected when you take it off."

"I...think I get that. Why are you sick? I didn't want you to be."

"But on the other hand, you didn't specifically will me not o be sick," Enlaika pointed out and took another drink from the endless-water glass. "Thus, my life proceeded as if would have without its influence. Probably also because I was usually manipulating myself when I used it."

"Let's keep it off then," Siris said quickly, taking it off.

But Enlaika disagreed. "You've probably noticed the necklace almost compels you to wear it. Usually people can only see it if you want them to or if you've been its master before. If you resist wearing it though, it will either return to another master or switch to a different function and entice people to find and wear it." She paused. "You understand then, why you wouldn't want it?"

"I'm controlling everyone. I'm sick of getting my way even when I don't get my way--the...thing works so that I get what I secretly want, even if tragedy is what results. I...I don't want the feeling that I'll be able to control everything in the end by sheer will. The power's eating away at me."

Enlaika nodded in understanding and sighed. "You learn to be ambivalent to everything. You learn to control your will on the world. Because if you don't want anything to happen to anyone or anything, then the necklace can't do anything to alter the natural course of events." She stopped and drank again, pensive. She murmured, "You learn to care without caring."

Siris watched Enlaika then turned to the necklace. She made a decision and handed the culprit of chaos to Enlaika. "You keep it. For now. We can trade off, once I learn this...ambivalence."

With a nod, Enlaika reached for the diamond. As Enlaika touched the jewel, a faint aquamarine glow pulsed around it and she noticed the colors of their names on the back of the cord switched again. 

For comfort--either for herself or Siris--Enlaika smiled and lied back down. "I'll be fine," she assured. A similar aquamarine aura glowed around the water glass--Siris realized that she could now see the effects of the diamond--and the glass moved back to it's original place on the desk. 

Siris took this as her signal to leave and stood. At the door she stopped and turned. "One small thing--I put random answers on my math test. Could you--?"

She stopped and returned Enlaika's grin. 

Artist's Note: Another short story and another detour from the Character Backgrounds ;)

DISCLAIMER: Farsiris, Collin and Margaret are actually alias Lyrica Pie's OCs. I had permission to use them for my writing. Thank you Lyrica

@Lyrica--I have an idea for the Jane Exina thing you asked for but it might be a very long while until I write and post >.<

And Tasuke will be in Tsiyone's background. :)

Please read and review! Thank you in advance!

~SilverInk