ii.

Even as Minathia there was no way for Amaya to just walk in to a jyju meeting and drop a ‘we’re going to start a war with the humans’ bomb. They had to find a way to convince even the more human-sympathetic dainisa.

In mid-December 2005, Leon visited Amaya at her Yamakita apartment. Amaya’s mess had become Pixie’s, with toys and books everywhere, and the bedding rolled against the wall. The only light came from a small window, looking out at the fading greenery as winter swept across the mountains.

Amaya herself fit in perfectly with this look — her hair unkempt, her face gaunt without makeup, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Leon in his perfectly maintained suit.

“Minathia,” Leon purred, “you look radiant enough to be the sun yourself.”

Amaya replied, “Get a life, get a spine, I don’t care which, but never try to feed me your lowly half-breed compliments again.”

Through clenched teeth, Leon said, “Of course, Minathia.”

“Furthermore, it is exceptionally likely Pixie is the Sun,” Amaya said, “the more I teach him, the more powerful he becomes. Perhaps too quickly. My attention is needed elsewhere, as you know, and his lack of talent in non-magical areas, particularly language, well…”

Leon said, “Perhaps it would be best for him to be educated alongside other jyji children.”

“Perhaps. I hear good things about Iz’s children,” Amaya replied. “In the meantime, he’s doing fine at the local pre-school. It’s contact with humans, but he seems to be internalising the right lessons from it.”

“It sounds like a risk, but you certainly know best,” Leon said. “Is Pixie attending school at this time?”

“Yes, so tell me what you’ve come up with before he comes back from swimming lessons.”

Leon dove right in with: “I strongly feel that Australia is the best country to take for dainisa.”

Amaya said, “It is large, I suppose.”

“With strong potential for self-sustainability removed from trade as well,” Leon said. “It is your decision, of course. To be safe, recently I visited Canberra and laid the foundations of my associations in Australia.”

“Ah, yes. Human politics.”

“Indeed. While I was there, I met a curious dainisa with powerful magic related to nature,” Leon said. “His name is Rabanu Surléa, a passionate environmental advocate who seems to truly despise cities. I would suggest he could be convinced to use his remarkable gifts in such a way as to provoke a reaction from humans that we desire.”

“That’s worth considering,” Amaya said. “I need Pixie formally recognised as my heir first. There will be a jyju meeting to do so in a fortnight.”

Leon said, “I am sure he will be received with great awe.”

“Once he reveals his powers, yes,” Amaya replied. “He will be home in about an hour. Tell me more about Australia, and this eco-terrorist dainisa you seem to have found.”

Leon smiled widely. “Of course, Minathia.”

Outside, Pixie was walking home from pre-school with a group of about five other children and their mothers. He was walking several paces behind, eyes on the ground, hair even more obnoxiously bright in contrast to the white hats they all wore. As they approached Amaya’s apartment block, the group slowed, the adults murmuring to each other.

They’d no doubt noticed the young boy leaning against the door. If Pixie stood out with his Japanese face but yellow hair, a tall, thin black boy with tight coils of hair hanging around his jawline had to be surrealist.

One of the children said, “Hey, a foreigner!” which got the others started.

“A foreigner?”

“Hey, Pixie, do you know him?”

“Yeah, Pixie, you must, right? If it’s a foreigner?”

On instinct, Pixie said, “I’m not a foreigner, I’m Japanese.”

“Pixie is half-Japanese, so he’s only half a foreigner,” one of the adults said. “But, Pixie, do you know that foreigner?”

“Foreigner,” Pixie murmured dryly. He looked over at the door. And gasped. “Nova!”

Nova didn’t react, like he hadn’t heard.

One of the adults nervously asked, “Pixie?”

“I know him,” Pixie said, first in Dainisan, then again in Japanese with frustration when they didn’t understand him. “Bye. I’m going home.”

“Okay… good night, Pixie!”

Pixie ran over as quietly as he could. Nova, who’d turned to lean sideways, ear not-so-subtly pressed against the door, didn’t notice until Pixie was standing right behind him, saying, “Hi!”

Nova quietly replied, “Can you keep it down? I’m trying to eavesdrop.”

“What’s eavesdrop?”

Nova looked. His eyes went from a deep brown to blue as he spluttered, “Jyji. Yamaguchi. Hi. I mean —”

Pixie gasped, “You can do that too?”

Nova said, “Forgive my behaviour. I didn’t realise it was you.”

“What’s that matter,” Pixie said. “You can do that too? With your eyes?”

“Do you even know who I am?” Nova asked, irritably. “Do you think I’m some kind of jyji?”

“You’re Nova,” Pixie said. “We met at Gran’s. Remember?”

“Yeah. I remember.”

“She said we can’t be friends but I don’t know why,” Pixie said. “You can do the eye thing.”

Nova replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. My eyes are always like this.”

“But you just —”

“Might’ve been a trick of the light.”

“Oh.”

Nova said, “Your mother said you wouldn’t be home for an hour. Said you’d be swimming, or something.”

Pixie shook his head. “She always forgets. We can’t swim, it’s winter.”

“I noticed.”

“I don’t know when it’s gonna snow,” Pixie said. “I hope soon. But I like not-snow too.”

Nova very quietly said, “There’s a lot of shades of green I’d never seen before coming here. In the mountains.”

Pixie nodded enthusiastically. “Once, Mama and I went, um, I don’t know the word in Dainisan, we went to the woods near Shasui Falls and slept in a house made of fabric.”

Nova said, “You know ‘fabric’ but you don’t know ‘camping’?”

“Huh?”

“Camping. The word is camping.”

“Okay. Camping. Thank you.”

Nova asked, “Didn’t your grandmother tell you not to talk to me?”

“Yeah. So?”

“You kinda… are.”

“She’s not here,” Pixie replied, “and I want to be friends.”

Nova said, “You’re like. Two.”

“I’m four.”

“Did your mother tell you not to talk to me?”

“She talks a lot. The truth is, I don’t really listen.”

Nova laughed. “Okay, maybe we can be friends.”

Pixie gasped. “Really?! I —”

The door opened slightly.

Leon peered out, hissing, “Boy. Be quiet.” He fell silent as his eyes fell on Pixie, widening slightly. “Ah, Pixie, I —”

The door burst open, bouncing against the wall, only missing Pixie because Nova pulled him back.

“Pixie,” Amaya hissed, “what are you doing? Get inside!”

“I was only —”

“Now.”

Pixie whispered, very softly, “Bye” as he walked inside. Amaya slammed the door, leaving Leon outside.

“You can’t talk to people like that,” she said, leaning back against the door. “That boy is being trained to behave in a certain way by the half-breed, for the Jalanis family.”

Pixie asked, “Are they teaching him to be nice? I like him, his soul is —”

“It doesn’t matter,” Amaya interrupted. “He is a jymnaji. You do not interact with them.”

“Why not?”

“You’ll be defeating his purpose,” Amaya replied, ushering Pixie through removing his shoes. “That isn’t what they are for.”

“What’s jymnaji mean?”

Amaya froze. Eventually, she said very slowly, “It means someone who has been chosen to serve the jyju, because that is how their magic can best help dainisa.” Then she blurted, very quickly, “They agree to it. He’s agreed to it. It’s fine.”[1]

“Oh. So why can’t I talk to him?”

“You have your own concerns. You don’t — it’s not worth getting distracted from your destiny for.”

Pixie looked convincingly like he was listening and that he understood. I doubt he even understood half the words Amaya was using, let alone the concepts.

“We’ll be going to Tokyo soon,” Amaya said. “We have to meet with the jyju. I don’t want them coming here.”

Pixie said, “I like here.”

“Don’t complain again,” Amaya groaned, closing her eyes. “This is all for you.”

Pixie murmured, “Okay, Mama.”

Amaya stepped outside again. She told Leon to leave, watched until he left, then started calling the other members of the jyju.

Back then, the jyju families were spread globally, with the majority living in Europe, so they didn’t meet often. In truth, with dainisa hiding themselves by assimilating to human culture, there wasn’t much for them to do but act important. The meeting Amaya called at the tail end of 2005 was their first in three years.[2]

“I have decided to name our minaji[3],” Amaya declared, “though I don’t plan on resignation or death any time soon. You may put in bids of your own children, but it will inevitably be my child, Pixie.”

Hoffmann said, “You actually named your child Pixie?”

Rivera sniffed, “Do you have any concept of how offensive that is, Minathia?”

Amaya replied, “Your sensitivity is quite surprising for a practitioner of a human religion. I wonder if your family has perhaps become too corrupted to participate in our mission.”

Rivera cried, “How dare you, after reproducing with a commoner!”

Amaya replied, “Perhaps if any of your family members had been magical enough to draw my attraction it never would’ve happened. Don’t blame me for the weakness of your kin.” She gestured at Jalanis. “You know it’s bad when one with the ability to simply enhance sound is powerful enough to qualify for the jyju. Honestly, Jalanis, even humans can do that.”

Jalanis flushed. “I nominate my grandchild, Ares. He is a siren!”

Johnson said, “Maybe we will believe that when we see it.”

Jalanis snapped, “He doesn’t like to travel, okay?! Get over yourself!”

Johnson’s hand crackled with electricity. “You wanna fight, wishes-he-was-a-song-boy?”

Jalanis yelped, “No! Leave me alone! Ophelia is a siren too! Eleos even, maybe, it could happen!”

Several jyji around the table laughed. Eastman said, “We all know Eleos is worthless.” The laughter increased.

Amaya reclaimed their focus with a click of her fingers. “Serious nominations only, Jalanis. And only children whose powers can be easily verified.”

Dubois said, “Can Pixie’s powers be verified?”

“Yes, , he’s outside studying. Though I would rather hear your nominations before bothering him.”

Rivera said, “If Pixie is eligible, my eldest Nicholas should also be. He can create illusions powerful enough to confuse any and all.”

Garcia said, “I can verify this is true. Nicholas recently spent a great deal of time casting illusions allegedly for the amusement of my daughter, though at the expense of our staff’s sanity.”

Rivera replied, “Nicholas has an appropriate level of disdain for humans, as a matter of fact. One could wonder why you hire humans at all, but, the weakest light needs any fuel it can get.”

Garcia said, “Kiss my arse, Jesus-fucker.”

Rivera dove at her.

Amaya gestured with her finger. Rivera was driven back, pinned to her seat. Garcia sunk in hers, laughing sheepishly.

“I’m not in the mood for your usual behaviour,” Amaya said. “Any others?”

Eastman contributed, “My nephew Mathis has been developing time manipulating magic and is an exceptionally talented at teleportation.”

Mercier angrily said, “That’s our power.”

Eastman replied, “Perhaps if anyone in your family could actually use it, my nephew wouldn’t have had to step up to fill those shoes.”

Mercier stood up, slapping her hands against her chest. “Let’s go, old man, I’ll destroy you!”

Amaya telekinetically pinned Mercier to her seat too, asking, “Are you weaklings going to stop overcompensating like this at any point in your lifetimes? Or shall I pick a new jyju?”

Silence fell.

Amaya icily added, “If you start fighting again I will close nominations and we will vote.”

Kozlov raised her hand.

Amaya rolled her eyes. “Nobody wants a fire user as Minathia, ever.”

Kozlov lowered her hand, shoulders drooping.

Jones said, “My eighteen-year-old son is so intelligent it may as well be magic.”

Kaya hissed, “You mean the son who crashed my favourite Porsche into a tree?”

Jones cried, “He was testing physics!”

“What kind of human bullshit is that?!”

“I don’t know, but kids these days are into it,” Jones snapped. “You can’t blame me for the human lies they buy into.”

“I can blame you for exposing them to it! Physics, of all nonsense.”

Amaya slammed her hands down on the table. “I believe that’s the end of the serious nominations, then.”

There were several more murmurs about how physics ‘isn’t real’. Amaya continued as though uninterrupted.

“So we have Mathis, who can teleport and somewhat manipulate time. Nicholas, who can create illusions. And Pixie, who can manipulate souls themselves. Amongst other things, of course.”

Murmurs of disbelief broke out. Amaya gestured at the door. It flew open, revealing Pixie, standing and reading. He quickly threw the book over his shoulder, flushing. The book slowed before it hit the ground, closed itself carefully, and fell with a soft drop.

Pixie quickly said, “It wasn’t a human book, Mama. Leon wrote it. Don’t be angry.”

Because Pixie happened to say ‘Mama’ in English, Amaya replied, “I would be less inclined to anger if you would stop mixing human languages with your Dainisan.”

Pixie bowed. “I’m very sorry.”

Amaya beckoned him closer. “Pixie, it’s time for you to show the jyju your magic.”

Jalanis said, “We just saw the little brat use telekinesis or whatever on the book. Bit of a stretch from what you claimed, Minathia. Unless you expect me to believe books have souls?”

Pixie replied, “Books do have souls if you love them enough.”

Jalanis laughed loudly, the rest of the jyju quickly joining in. Pixie flushed, lowering his gaze.

Amaya said, “There is no reason for you to speak, Pixie. Simply show us your soul magic.” She pointed at Kozlov. “You’ll be our test subject, Kozlov. This will be the greatest thing your family has contributed to dainisa-kind, I believe.”

Pixie’s eyes widened. He looked at his mother and shook his head.

Kozlov said, “I’ll do whatever is required.”

Moser sighed, “Such a kiss-arse.”

Amaya ordered, “Do it, Pixie.”

Pixie bit back a complaint. He looked at Kozlov, pupils narrowing, cat-like.

“What do you see?”

Pixie replied, “Anger. Memory of you saying fire magic is bad. There’s lots of emotions, I don’t know the word for the rest. It’s icky. Can I stop?”

“No, Pixie. You must move Kozlov’s soul.” She placed a toy rabbit in his hand. “Use this.”

Pixie’s hands started to glow with golden light. There was a gasp of surprise. For a moment the light weakened before becoming brighter. He placed his hands on the rabbit. The light disappeared into it. Kozlov slumped.

Rossi breathed, “Is she dead?”

The rabbit replied in Kozlov’s voice, “Only in my dreams.”

Pixie said, “I’m sorry.”

Amaya snapped, “Do not apologise to fire users, Pixie.”

“Why?”

Eastman laughed. “Truly, the child is the product of Tiffany Darwin.”

Amaya loudly addressed the room, “Pixie is young. His flawed thinking will be addressed in the years to come. That he has such powerful, rare and unique magic so young is miraculous.”

Zhou said, “Especially as we just saw him using another form of magic. Your child is very radiant.”

Amaya smirked. “Yes, you could say that.”

Pixie’s hands started glowing again. He quickly moved, hands glowing, and rested them on Kozlov’s body.

Amaya said, “That was unnecessary, Pixie.”

Pixie didn’t reply.

Amaya looked around the table. “So. Are any of you actually going to vote for someone other than Pixie?”

The silence said it all: you get your way Minathia.

Amaya smirked. “Then it is settled. Pixie will become Minathia upon my retirement or death.”

The jyju bowed their heads, murmuring as one, “Minaji Pixie.”

Pixie frowned and quietly said, “Can’t I be princess?”

Yes, he said ‘princess’ in English.

Amaya stood up, grabbing Pixie’s arm. “Meeting adjourned.”

An hour later Amaya was reading a tourist book about Australia while her four-year-old was strapped down getting a very illegal tattoo on the back of his neck.

“Stop crying,” she told him, “I’m paying a lot of money for this. You should be honoured.”

When it was done, the tattoo was a replica of the kite-shaped deep purple amethyst Amaya wore around her neck.

“Your mother wouldn’t have been so pathetic about a little pain,” Amaya sighed. “Come along. It’s time for your training to really begin.”

Amaya took Pixie home and immediately started packing what few possessions she’d given him over the past few months. Clothes, mostly, a mix of jeans and dresses. A few books. Pixie watched in confusion.

“What now?”

Amaya replied, “Watch your tone. You will be staying with Leon for a while to learn more about magic and your duty as minaji.”

Pixie asked, “Why can’t you keep teaching me?”

“I can for a few more months,” Amaya replied, “Then you will go to Leon, and I will have many other important things to do.”

“Can’t I stay with Gran again?”

Amaya replied, “Your grandmother doesn’t want you around anymore.”

Pixie bit his lip to keep from crying. It didn’t work. Amaya ignored him anyway.

---

[1] So, a slave. Cool, that’s not fine.

[2] For reference: the jyju families are Dubois (omnilinguism, the ability to understand all languages), Eastman (ice), Garcia (super-strength) Garforte (healing), Hoffmann (hypnotism), Jalanis (music & sound), Johnson (electricity), Jones (precognition), Kaya (earth), Kozlov (fire), Mercier (teleportation), Moser (wind), Rivera (water), Rossi (shape-shifting), Yamaguchi (telekinesis) and Zhou (light). They’re in a footnote because none of them are actually very relevant.

[3] You could translate this as ‘successor’, ‘heir’, or anything but ‘princess’.