She turned, her eyes cold, the mere sight of her gave me shivers, I had never seen her pissed off… well, perhaps in our first trial when she stumbled upon Eve. “Someone must’ve stolen it from me, and… wait… did you clear the trial yet?”
“Long story short, no, but Michlael tolerates me anyway?”
Ashley tilted her head confused, before she shrugged and turned to the orange sky again. “Well, if they find out it was ours, we might be thrown out anyway.”
“Butwedidn’t do it,” I objected.
“Didn’t we?” Ashley raised her voice, looking back at me. “Two of us are missing, without so much as a word. Can you vouch for them not doing it?”
I opened my mouth to protest, but no words formed. She was right, I wasn’t sure that Lionel and Eve hadn’t done it, especially when I knew both of them wanted nothing to do with Aetherions. They simply remained because of the rest of us. What if they’d finally crossed a line, where they’d had enough and simply decided to break ties with us?
What if Lionel cut me off? What if he betrayed me?
A piercing pain spread inside of me, it was suffocating.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“You’re right,” I forced out. “I’m not sure. But I intend to find out.”
I pushed on, past her and aimed for the flames. They were not mine, but I had seen how other Aetherions were able to control the elements around them, even the manifestations not created by themselves.
These fires felt warmer, like they were actually going to hurt me. How did you even soothe a flame in the first place? I took a deep breath as I watched it, focusing. What first seemed like panicked flames clawing desperately for anything to consume, suddenly calmed, swaying like dancing lights.
They arched, bending down from the building, burning a path, slithering across the ground towards me. People close to it screamed and began running away.
They didn’t see what I felt, flames searching for a home, somewhere they belonged and could burn brightly without earning fear or hatred. The first flames reached me, creating a circle around me before slowly and carefully, as if asking for permission, began climbing up my feet and legs.
A small burning sensation came with the trail; it wasn’t as friendly as my own fires were, yet they didn’t aim to scorch me either.
The building, now left alone, was half-burned with only slowly dying embers remaining within the structure.
As the villagers noticed, they slowly crept out from their hiding-spots as their gazes fell on me, engulfed in flames, welcoming the fires.
And as I let out a breath, the flames faded into ashes, flying off into the air, disappearing intonothingness.
“Wow,” Ashley stammered behind me. “That might’ve been one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.And I feel like I’ve said that to you a couple of times over the past few days.”
By the fallen gate, I caught Michlael in the midst of the crowd, staring at me, his jaw tense.
A part of me wanted to smile, if I hadn’t passed his earlier trial, it was clear that I had now. No matter how much he tried to hide it in his features, I had saved his village from the possibility of a devastating inferno.
Sure, they probably had a lot of water-wielders, they would’ve been able to extinguish the fires eventually. But this?
I was declaring to everyone here that a fire mage was amongst them, alive and most importantly on their side. Fighting with them.
I took my time, walking towards Michlael with Malakai and Ashley by my side. My eyes found Nate and Mey next, their baffled faces told me they had seen it too, as they smiled widely, joining our parade as we made our way towards the entrance.
“What happened?” I asked, trying to act nonchalant.
“Someone has indeed infiltrated us, they planted explosives, which caused the gate to fall,” Michlael said, his voice flat, as if not wanting to give me any credit for my achievement. “And I can’t help but notice that you’re down two people…”
“If they did it, we’re not supporting them,” Malakai cut him off, his words making me falter for a brief moment.
“They disappeared before we even woke up,” Nate added. “But rather than accusing them… what if someone set them up?”
“Sir!” a guard interrupted, panting as if he had been running for a while. “We saw a whole group of people running into the forest, none of them from here. I’d assume they were either ungifted or demons.”
Michlael’s brows furrowed as his eyes burrowed into mine. “It’s curious how all hell seems to break loose as soon as you arrive.”
