Karis was a popular populated city for those who were looking to climb in life, singers, writers, musicians, lawyers, big city execs even. The city was known for cultivating new talent even at the expense of one's soul. Despite Karis being a bustling, developing, happening, place to live in, it was mostly seen as a tourist attraction. It was slowly becoming a soul sucking succubus, taking in drugs and sex, pills and pain, pleasure and pity, all in exchange for success.
It was stained that way, but the simple countryside was the exact opposite. The grass was always Kelly green, the birds actually sung when swooping down from the treetops, and the summer breezes were always there. With skies painted baby blue, ivory clouds clung, and the sun was a yellow-white blur flashing down from above.
Besides land nothing really laid outside of the city, except one thing. An alabaster mansion, ten or eleven miles from the city sat completely parallel. It was as you'd expect with its glorious columns, double doors, and countless windows. There weren't any topiaries or even a gate outside.
All the land, at least twenty acres belonged to the famous Stone family. The wealthy patriarch and his wife worked hard over many years to build their fortune, and soon after their retired a tragic boating accident occurred leaving their eight daughters to inherit their fortune and take on their familial duties.
Every woman or man born to the Stone family was born with a magical ability that could only be used by someone deemed pure of heart. It was a fact, though a rumor of Karis.
No one there actually believed it, but rumors spread far and wide until a young man of twenty-seven heard of it. He immediately set off to meet the sisters. Sending a letter ahead, he spoke of how he heard of their collection of rare books and wanted to offer one of his own to complete a series (for a sum of course). And while negotiating terms of the book deal, he'd be staying as their guest.
"Mr. North, we're here." The driver said, he had been parked at the front of the overwhelming mansion for two minutes now, the man in the back of the private car had deep brown waves and gentle Caribbean eyes, he was also in a dark gray suit and tie holding onto a brown briefcase nervously.
Mr. North nodded looking at who stood out front, it was a single maid with dull fawn colored hair and gray eyes. She stood smiling, waiting patiently like a statue. The driver came around to open North's door. Once outside he held this briefcase tighter than before walking towards the maid as the driver retrieved his luggage.
"Silas North?" The maid questioned; the man nodded "A pleasure." She gave a curt bowed and turned towards the double doors "My lady awaits your arrival, I hope you don't mind skipping to business."
Silas shook his head "Not at all, please lead the way Miss-
"Larissa. Let's continue then." Larissa opened the doors and Silas became enamored, there were walls and walls of art, pictures, some family portraits mixed in with world renown pieces.
It was almost hard to see the color of the walls, they were a plain white while the floor was a beige marble and two staircases leading up to the second floor, there was a door here and there, and a splash of color, too much and too little. It was a lot to take in, scrambling from the pictures to the randomness of color, the largeness of the stairs, the vastness of the room, it wasn't to overwhelm he thought, but to intimidate.
Larissa led him from room to room, he saw flashes of green, blue, red, beige, yellow, and pink before settling into a deep maroon. This room was subtle, the floor was cypress, and a long dining table was placed in the center, there was a small bookcase to the right, a potted plant to the left, two transparent doors leading to the back and people. People. Eight to be exact.
"My lady, please allow me to introduce your guest, Silas North." Larissa announced. Silas had to blink a few times for his eyes to adjust, there were eight women sitting at the table, all lovely with different colored hair and eyes in wonderful dresses. The eldest sat at the end table.
"Thank you, Larissa, that is all for now." She smiled lightly as Larissa left and Silas sat down opposite of her. She had deep blue hair in a long straight ponytail and lilac eyes. The woman wore a black dress, no sleeves, flowing down to her feet, accented with small silver jewelry (a heart shaped necklace and stud earrings).
"I'm Sapphire Stone, the one who responded to your letter." She said.
"Ah, well then it's a pleasure meeting you-
"Sapphire will do fine, and these are my younger sisters." Even before she began to speak Silas knew that each daughter was named after a gemstone. "This is Emerald." Sapphire pointed to her left "Next in line after myself." Emerald had dark green hair and ocean blue eyes, she usually wore browns, light and dark browns.
After Emerald came Ruby who had fiery red hair and amber eyes, she wore blue tones. Next was Citrine with pallid orange hair and sun-colored eyes, she wore purple. Opal had hair that was almost luminescent, it changed color due to light, first to Silas' eyes her hair appeared a mint green, then pink, then yellow, at the moment it was a sky blue, and her eyes were a clear magenta. She wore multiple hues.
Then came Rose whose hair was rosy colored like a baby's blush, and seafoam green eyes, she wore light colors, mostly yellow. Ametrine had violet hair with dark canary yellow tips and turquoise eyes, she wore green. The last sister, Selene, was the youngest, she had moonstone-colored eyes, it was the first thing that stopped Silas. They were so mysterious and alluring, her hair was frost colored, ivory mixed with tones of powder blue.
"Lovely to make all of your acquaintances." Silas nodded placing his briefcase onto the table "Shall we begin?"
"Of course, girls, off to what you were doing." Sapphire said, and like snapping a finger each one got up, some waved, some smiled, but when Selene looked at him, Silas felt as if the winds around him had wrapped him in a quick embrace. She blushed, putting her head down and hurrying out with the rest of her sisters.
Sapphire came closer to him "Let's see what I'm purchasing, Mr. North. I hope it's as promised."
Silas opened his briefcase and turned it around, there were three original copies there. He had inherited them from his grandfather and up until now had no point in keeping them.
Sapphire gasped and held a hand to her heart as she pulled one out. She touched the tender cover, then ran a finger down the spine. "It's practically priceless. How can you part with such a...historic wonder?" She said this half out of suspicion.
Silas cleared his throat "I like books, but these don't really draw me in, Sapphire. And as I can see, you love books."
Sapphire grinned slyly "I do, a trait Emerald and I inherited from our mother. I've scoured the ends of the earth for this, and the other two...they'd make a great addition to our library."
"Wonderful, then lets start talking about pr-
"But no one even someone who just likes books would sell something this valuable off to total strangers." Sapphire placed the book down into the case and turned to Silas who felt his plan start to unfurl "Please be honest with me Mr. North-
"Silas will do."
"Silas." She leaned back in the chair and smirked "You didn't come here to sell me books, you came for the rumors didn't you?"
He hesitated, but after thinking it over didn't see the harm in being honest "Yes. I am."
"So you're after a rumor-
"No." Silas closed the briefcase swiftly as if to catch her off guard "I've researched it in all the books that I could find, all the articles on this family-
"So you're stalking us-
"No, but I do believe in magic. Do you?" Sapphire's eyes slowly looked from across the room to Silas.
"Magic."
"Yes, magic. There are few in this world who can do it, but it's fact. It exists."
"Rare forms of magic, yes, remnants of it."
