Valik pinched the bridge of his nose, probably wishing he could communicate with me telepathically right about now.
Well, so do I, Valik—you prick.Or even knowing sign language would be better than having my words trapped in my mind.
I pretended to hold a pen in my hand and scrawl it onto invisible paper, motioning for me to have something to write with.
It wasn’t like it was back at the King’s Palace, where almost everyone knew me well enough to know how to read me. We’d all found ways over the years to be effective. With Valik, I felt like I was nine again when I first lost my tongue and my ability to speak with it. No one understood how to communicate with me, and neither did I. Compound that with the grief from losing my mother, and I’d neverfelt so alone before. But Scarlett always knew how to get through to me.
“Okay.” Valik nodded, waving a hand and materializing a bound notebook and a pen before walking forward and pressing them into my palms.
I took it from him and stormed to the round wooden table that sat by the window, opening the thick blank pages.
“To start, tell me what happened back there. Where did that magic come from?” Valik asked, striding over to pull out the chair opposite me and taking a seat. His eyes still drooped, and his skin shone with a sheen of clammy sweat. But apparently, he had enough strength to materialize a fucking notebook and pen to pry answers out of me.
I pressed the pen to paper, scribbling my response. If he wanted neat handwriting, he should’ve materialized a godsdamn working laptop. Briefly, I explained what happened—how suddenly, a foreign sigil popped in my mind, and then I felt as if I channeled an outside magical force. I assured him that this had never happened to me before and that I’d been raised and trained to be Kinetic. That I’d never even known anything other than Elementals and Endarkened existed until Chrome and Gray freed Scarlett and me from the prisons.
When I finished, I pushed the notebook toward Valik, who had nearly fallen asleep sitting upright like an old man. He startled awake when the notebook touched his elbow, making me smirk.
Valik rubbed his eyes before leaning forward on his elbows, squinting at my messy handwriting. He glanced up at me. “How am I supposed to read this?”
I shrugged, unbothered.
With a groan, he muttered something about the art of calligraphy having disappeared in modern times on Terraguard. “What a shame.”
I rolled my eyes, determined to make him figure it out for himself. I wondered how old Valik was. Or evenwhathe was. Hewouldn’t tell us, but I knew he was extremely powerful and very old, regardless of how peculiar he was at times.
It took Valik five minutes too long to read the short paragraph before he sat back, crossing his arms and exhaling before he went on to speak. “Okay, first things first, Cotton,” he said, exhausted. “We really need to reteach you how to fucking write. This looks like something a little fledgling would scrawl! Or worse! A fucking Endarkened unicorn!”
I pinched my lips inward, trying to hide my amusement, but I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped me.
Valik gaped, appalled by my reaction. “You think it’s funny that you write like a cursed animal? Well, we’ll see how funny that is when you visit the Druids—” As he said it, his eyes lit up, as if the answer to every one of life’s mysteries had just come to him. “Well, Gabriel’s dick…”
I frowned, wondering who Gabriel was and why we were suddenly talking about his penis.
“Cotton,” Valik began, his attention on full alert. “Can you explain to me who your parents are?” He pushed the notebook and pen in front of me again.
I nodded, unsure where he was going with this, but I grabbed the pen anyway and began to write.
Mother was Daisy Okrafor, and father was Sage Sjodin. Both were Kinetic.
I pushed the notebook back to Valik when I was finished. This time, he didn’t comment on my handwriting. “What do you know about your grandparents? Either side.”
Once again, the notebook reappeared in front of me.
My dad’s father disappeared when he was young, presumed to be an Endarkened attack.
“Well, that’s not very informative now, is it?” Valik rubbed his palms over his face. “It’s fine. Time will tell.”
I shrugged. I gestured for the notebook and pen again. It was my turn to ask questions.
How did you purify the unicorn back there?
“It’s part of my capabilities. It requires a ton of magic, and it’s only temporary. So it’s not like I can go around purifying all of Arcadia. Trust me, I tried a long time ago to no avail. Imagine a deadly game of whack-a-mole. It was very similar to that.”
I grimaced, tapping the pen anxiously on the pad of paper before I scribbled the next one.
Who is Brecken? I overheard you and Talitha talking about him.
Valik groaned. “Brecken. He is the High Mage of the Druids. Very grumpy. Very arrogant. Loves sharp, pointy things.”
