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Of Words and Wishes
The First Wish
Exchange
“We’re in it,” Wolfgang grinned even though his carnivorous smile was lost on the vision impaired boy swaddled in blankets, “and we’re the pieces.”
Neil’s cloudy blue eyes widened and he barely resisted the urge to look around him to reassess the manor’s rooms for sign of some large gaming paraphernalia. It was hardly plausible that the manor itself was the board of a game. And even more unbelievable was that people were pieces. His near useless eyes narrowed in distrust.
“You’re lying,” Neil stated staring at the blur of the blanket before him and folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull but it’s not going to work on me.”
Wolfgang couldn’t help but chuckle at the boy’s disbelief.
“Your eyesight isn’t working,” Wolfgang pointed out with a mischievous smirk.
Neil frowned and his sandy blonde hair fell in locks around his face.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Neil harrumphed, clearly unhappy with the reminder.
“Everything actually,” Wolfgang replied and studied Neil for a moment as the boy went from even more frustrated than before to composed.
“How did you know?” he asked after a moment of silence. Wolfgang shrugged and looked to his partner, gesturing that he really didn’t know much about the subject so the other man should continue from where he left off.
“You made a deal. Whether you know it or not, you did. In exchange for another personality you’ve lost your eyesight,” Rand stated as though it were an everyday occurrence. When he saw Neil open his mouth to deny it he continued rather harshly, a jarring effect due to his melodic voice.
“At your grandfather’s funeral you were not hungry. You also were extremely disoriented which is to be expected for a Tyro at the opening ceremony of his or her first game. But you were more so, because not only were you a new Keeper, you were a totally new Neil and a new playing piece to boot. Am I right? Did everything seem distanced and dream-like?”
Neil’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. Wolfgang had an amused smile gracing his rugged features.
“Yes,” the boy finally admitted and sunk back into the comfort of the bed with a sigh. He was still so confused. Thoughts chased him through his head, taking new twists and turns, mocking him for wanting to believe this was real.
“Do you want to know why?” Rand prompted softly and Neil was pulled back from the swamp his mind had become.
“I don’t see the point of you telling me, seeing as this game isn’t real. But I doubt that’s going to stop you, so go ahead.”
“Good. The Game has rules, as I stated before. It also has deals that are ways to gain an advantage you want and, in turn, lose something else you don’t need or want quite so much. It’s a balance, you see?”
“I suppose,” Neil scowled and pushed some of the blankets off of him. Goosebumps rose along his legs as the sweaty sheets fell away and exposed him to fresh air.
“So in your case you either needed or wanted another personality and when The Game presented the offer you embraced it. Did you wish for anything recently?” Rand asked with a curious glint in his eye.
“Not that I can remember,” was Neil’s flippant reply as he began to stretch out his bed-stiffened muscles. He thought hard about the past few weeks and when he had wished for something. “I remember I was bored to tears so I was reading one of the books in my room,” he went to continue but was cut off.
“Which room? Describe it to me,” Wolfgang demanded and Neil bit his lip in frustration.
“I don’t even get to figure out why I’m going blind before you change the subject?” Neil snapped and hissed as he closed his eyes against his nauseating vision.
“It’s important,” Wolfgang replied sullenly but allowed Rand to regain control of the conversation.
“Did you wish for something like adventure?” Rand’s mouth quirked up in a semblance of a rueful smile.
“No. I might have wished I wasn’t so bored but how could I make a deal with a house?” the blonde snorted but he felt a grudging rumble come from that force he had always felt while in the manor. He quickly switched subjects. “Plus Shadow-Neil didn’t have any problems seeing so that doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“Ah, but ‘Shadow-Neil’ as you’ve named him doesn’t have much of an appetite. You see, your shadow-persona will be able to see but you will not. Just as you are able to eat and he can not. I would also advise you not to insult our lovely house. To you she may simply be your grandfather’s manor, but to us… she is our world. In fact, she controls the world,” Rand chided.
“You sound like my teachers. Or wackos… or both,” Neil groaned with all the information that was currently bogging down his mind. It was also extremely uncomfortable to talk to people with his eyes closed. He felt venerable in a way he had never felt before. Rand laughed lightly and was soon joined by the chuckling of Wolfgang. Neil’s scowl deepend.
“Well, do you have any more questions?”
“Of course! How do I know to trust Shadow-Neil? How do I switch with him? I want to see again, but I don’t know if I want to if it means I won’t be me anymore. This is all so confusing!” Neil snarled angrily and punched a pillow, enjoying the way that he hadn’t missed despite his blindness. The pillow, he knew, would have crumpled and wrinkled from the impact of his fist.
“I’m afraid we’ll leave that to another time. I must tell you that you’ll lose all sight soon. The world will become a dark place to live in if you let despair or anger overcome you,” Rand replied with a sad smile. “I think you should rest,” Neil’s stomach gurgled loudly, “and above all to get some food in your stomach. ‘Shadow-Neil’ may be immune to hunger, but you are not.”
“Food sounds good,” Neil grumbled unhappily, frustrated with the way his life had turned into a waking dream.
“I’ll send Piper out to the market to get some then,” Rand smiled disarmingly though the motion was lost on Neil. “And I’ll make you a vei'din.”
Before Neil could ask what a vei'din was or how in the world someone could go to a market when his grandfather’s manor was in the middle of nowhere, the two men strode out of his room and he was left with no company but his own.
