Read Worldweavers: Cybermage for Free Online

the door made a small clicking sound and swung open a crack.
    “The keys in this house,” Humphrey said, looking up to meet Mrs. Chen’s raised eyebrow, “are alittle different from other keys.”
    “Do you have an Elemental gift, Mr. May? I never knew that.”
    “No, that is not my talent. But this house has been instructed that I am allowed access to this room. Come on in. Rafe, put that thing on the desk.”
    Curious to see the white cube again, Thea watched Rafe carefully pass a hand over the briefcase’s complicated locking mechanism. He placed it on the leather desk pad so as not to scratch the gleaming wood of the professor’s desk and flashed Thea a quick, friendly smile. Once again she found herself struck dumb, and was barely able to smile back as Rafe flipped open the final catch manually and lifted the lid of the briefcase. Inside, nestled in a padded cocoon of protective dark blue velvet, the white cube seemed to glitter with a light of its own.
    Thea said the first thing that came into her head. “I’d forgotten it was so white.”
    “From what I heard of the commotion when it arrived, I’m surprised you remember it at all,” Rafe said easily.
    “Doesn’t look any different than at the office,” Humphrey grumbled, coming over to take a closer look at the cube. “Thea, what do you think?”
    Rafe looked a little startled, and Thea flushed a bright scarlet. What was she doing here with these adult mages, all trained in their craft? What could she possibly achieve here?
    She reached out toward the cube with one hand.
    “Hey,” Rafe said softly, “look at that.”
    Thea’s hand, hovering over the top face of the cube, made it brighten just a little. And a symbol came swimming to the foreground: a small equilateral triangle.
    She snatched her hand back, startled.
    “Fire,” Humphrey said. “That’s the symbol for Fire. There are other Element symbols on the other faces.”
    He gently took the cube out of its nest. “Fire,” he repeated, pointing to the faint outline of the symbol visible on the cube’s top face. “And then, going around, the next face has two wavy lines—Water. The next one has two straight lines, like the Roman numeral II—Air. The next one is a circle with a dot inside it—Earth. And that’s the circuit around the edges: four Elements.”
    “What’s on the top and the bottom?”
    “ Which is the top, and which is the bottom?” Humphrey asked, turning the cube in his hands.“All I can tell you about the two remaining faces is that one of them appears to be blank, and the other has a symbol that isn’t used to identify any Element that we know of: a five-pointed star.”
    “Can I…hold it?” Thea asked diffidently.
    “That’s why we’re here,” Humphrey said, and held out the cube.
    Thea heard Mrs. Chen draw in her breath sharply somewhere behind her. She was dimly aware of Rafe, watching her with close attention. She reached out for the cube; Humphrey released it; and then the smooth, white, glowing thing rested in her own cupped palms.
    It weighed almost nothing. She felt as though she held empty air. But air with a light inside it, as the cube brightened in her grasp and light spilled between her fingers. The uppermost face held the triangle sign—Fire again—and that edged itself into a white brilliance. Thea could also see that the bottom face, which represented the Element of Air, was pouring brightness between the crack of her cupped palms. The other two Element faces glowed, but did not shine. However, one of the mystery faces had brightened also. It was the one with the star symbol, which she had held facing inward toward her body,and it shone bright enough to make the folds in her clothing cast sharp shadows of themselves.
    “You are an Elemental!” Humphrey said, and his voice was triumphant. “And a poly-Elemental, too. Look at those Fire and Air symbols!”
    “And the star?” Thea whispered, rapt in the wonder of what she