"Are you back for training?"

Amelia stopped her own training and placed Ceres next to Dana and Aura. She then walked and stopped in front of Karteira.

"No, I didn't came for training."

With a puzzling look , she asked Karteira.

"Then why are you here? I thought I wouldn't see you until tonight at dinner."

Karteira looked lost. In fact, she was extremely lost. She didn't understand why she was here.

There was this nagging feeling inside her that she had to talk to Amelia, that she couldn't keep her worries inside anymore.

"I- I need to talk to you, or that's what I feel."

"About what?"

Seeing a fidgeting, Karteira moving her hands around trying to find the words, Amelia began to understand.

"Alright, calm down. Let's sit. We have time, so breathe."

'It's most likely about the matter I tried to get out of her.'

"Thanks."

They both sat on the ground and waited until Karteira was ready.

"I don't really know why I came after you. But there's something I need to speak about."

With a nod, Amelia prepared herself.

"I'm sorry!"

Karteira bent her body forward as far as she could and apologized.

"Why?!"

But she was also surprised at the sudden move.

"I kind of refused to talk about it before, and now I'm here just trying to say it. It feels kind of unfair."

Amelia understood what she was feeling.

'She feels guilty about hiding it and then opening up about it. I know how that feels. Orion too. Everyone lives through that.'

She nodded, and listened to Karteira.

"I've been feeling weird since I've fought against Orion. I haven't felt like myself."

"Why is that?"

"I keep remembering when we first met. I remember the way I was, the attitude I showed, and most of all, how weak I was."

"Are you comparing yourself to him?"

With a look of certainty, she looked at Amelia.

"That's definitely not the case. I now understand that I can't compare myself with others, I my strength is different from yours or Orion. To begin with, I can't use magic like both of you."

"Are you feeling left out? Not belonging with us?"

She shook her head strongly.

"Definitely not. I'm having so much fun with you that it would never come to mind. I wouldn't even trade our situation for anything. I cherish what I have right now."

Amelia looked lost this time.

"Then I don't understand the problem. Let's turn back a little, you said that it was a problem concerning Orion right?"

Meekly, Karteira nodded.

"Oh dear, I think I got it. Don't bother explaining anymore."

"Huh?"

Pure shock appeared on Karteira's face.

"Don't you 'Huh?' me! That expression alone was enough to give me all the clues I needed."

"How?!"

"Have you ever seen yourself being shy? That's what you are when I talk about Orion."

Karteira pursed her lips a little, looked away and began to play with a strand of her blue hair.

"I don't know w-what you mean by that."

'That girl! Is she serious?'

"Karteira, since when? I remember our talk in the fairy realm about you respecting Orion. What happen since then?"

This led to Karteira turning serious all of a sudden.

"That hasn't changed. I respect him greatly, and I'll even say that I respect him more today."

"But I began to feel something else recently. When I look at Orion, it makes me want to stay next to him and encourage him."

'She fell this far?'

"I want to train more with him, I want to spend more time next to him, I want to learn more about him. I've never felt like this before."

"Can you answer the question? Since when?"

Both exchanged a tense gaze, before Karteira gave it away.

She touched the hairclip on her head.

*sigh*

"What?"

"I should have guessed. The day Orion gave us a present."

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Eh?"

Amelia relaxed her body and placed her arms behind her, supporting her weight. She stared at the sky without saying anything.

"A-Amelia, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have, but I have no idea how to deal with it. If you can help me forget, or stop thinking about it, then it should be alright, isn't it?"

The stare she received was deadly, as it completely shut down Karteira on the spot. She could only grit her teeth tightly.

As she looked down at the ground, the most honest words came out of her mouth.

"That's why I kept it quiet. I didn't want to break the relationship we built so far."

*sigh*

Hearing the sigh, she looked at Amelia.

"Karteira, stop making me sigh. We're friends, and that won't change."

"But what about th-"

Amelia immediately stopped bothering and came straight at her.

"I don't care."

"What?"

"I don't care. Let me say it again, just so you understand. I. Don't. Care."

Sitting back cross-legged, Amelia looked seriously at her friend.

"You have the right to love who you want. You can even love the same man as me, it doesn't matter. I never stopped at the stupid rule that a man or woman need only one lover."

"I don't see myself with anyone else than Orion. That makes me a hypocrite, and I fully understand that. But what about you? Do you mind him already having me?"

"..."

Karteira tried to remained quiet, but Amelia wouldn't let her, so she spoke her true feelings.

"I don't mind it. In fact, if it was someone else, I would be bothered."

"Same for me. Because it is you, I don't care."

They both exchanged another serious stare, before Amelia continued.

"By the way, I've already told you that I wouldn't mind you going after him, am I wrong?"

"That was serious?"

"Am I not always serious?"

Karteira remembered that Amelia was usually honest with her feelings and about what she wanted to do.

"That was before I knew you well."

"Right."

For a few minutes, silence fell around them.

"Feeling better? Did that lift that strange feeling inside you?"

Karteira nodded.

"Yes. Though, I don't think I'll go after him in the end."

"After all of that, you get cold feet?"

But she shook her head.

"I don't even know the start of a love relationship. I also don't know how he will react, and that scares me the most. Also, I'm a fairy. Isn't it gross for a hybrid to love another faction member?"

"I'm human, remember? I'm not the same faction as him either."

"Oh."

"Because you have a scorpion tail, and a weird armor ability doesn't make you less lovable."

Karteira blushed when she heard Amelia call her 'lovable.'

"Anyway, it's your choice. You just remember that I don't mind, and everything will be alright."

"You really are open-minded about love. I thought you would monopolize this relationship you have with him, but you got as far as to include me in it."

Amelia watched as Karteira bowed forward once again.

"Thank you. I couldn't hope to find a better friend than you."

She walked next to Karteira who was still bowing, and spoke her true mind.

"We are nothing without Orion. Mediocrity is a fair word to speak about our abilities. Without him, we most likely would have never improved at all."

"To be fair, without him, I wouldn't even have magic. And without him, you would be watching as the Tree of Life die from corruption."

"That's the least we can do. I am ready to share 'love' if it means his life would improve ever so slightly."

Karteira was speechless.

"I should go, I've kept way too much of your time."

"Karteira."

"Hmm?"

"Take your time to process it. And think about a way to tell him."

She blushed and turned around, leaving hurriedly.

'Well, that was good to learn. I should speak about the bare minimum to Orion. Just say that what was on her mind was that she wanted to spend more time with him.'

'I'll just help her a little. I still want her to make the first step.'

But something formed in her mind now that she thought about it.

'Wait! I haven't kissed him yet! What if she does that before me?!'

Weird thoughts began to take shape in her head, before she shook her head and switched her mood completely.

"That won't happen. Alright, let's return to training."

She watched as Karteira disappeared through the portal, and not long after, she walked to the three daggers laying on the ground.

"Where was I again? Leima?"

The moment she said its name, the lightning dagger formed from a sphere of blue sizzling lightning element.

"Well, what can I do with you? I haven't used you a lot, just like Vesta."

The fire dagger did not react to it, because Amelia refused to feed the fire element at all times. Only when she needed to.

Vesta's power was terrible on her magic usage.

"Lightning right?"

She lightly slashed vertically from top to bottom. A line of bolts left the tip of the dagger and crashed on the ground in a straight line.

Like all of the other daggers, the distance was close to twenty meters.

"Hmm... Dana."

Calling out the water dagger, it once again flew toward her. When she grabbed the handle, she immediately slashed both daggers at the same time.

A water blade flew from Dana, while Leima enveloped that water with lightning magic.

"Electrified water. Does that mean that my water isn't pure water? Orion said that conductive water was different from pure water."

Amelia pondered for a minute, before giving up.

"I don't remember, I'll ask him later."

Then, something she hasn't realized until know was brought to light.

"I don't have any abilities..."

Her mouth dropped to the ground when she pointed that out.

Since she uses her daggers as abilities, she never thought of naming each attack she threw at her enemies.

"Electro...cution? Zapper?"

She did her best.

"Fuck that! I always hated that stuff anyway. I'll just keep it like that and simply call these guys when I need them."

She looked at the four daggers she had.

"So, what else can we do with you?"

Placing Dana back next to its peers, she focused on Leima only.

"We'll try that."

An electric current began to course through her arm, which settled around her shoulder.

"One, two..."

"Three!"

*Zap* *zap* *Zap*

Her arm moved so fast only a blurry mess was seen.

"Hmm, it doesn't hurt like slicing with Ceres. Enhance the other arm?"

The lightning current continued down her shoulder blades, connecting to the other arm and to her fingertips.

"Aura, come here."

The wind blade vanished, and reappeared as a sphere of wind next to her hand. It reformed quickly before Amelia grabbed it.

"Let's try... this!"

She slashed upward and diagonally, releasing two wind blades in the process.

"What about more?"

She made a diamond shape with wind blades. 0.25 seconds were needed for one wind blade to be formed.

*Exhale*

"It's exhausting alright."

Wiping the sweat that quickly formed on her forehead, she stopped using Leima.

"Release."

The lightning stopped coursing through her muscles, and she felt the hard reality come back.

"Aaaaaah! Muscle pain! Damn it!"

She grabbed her each arms in pain and sat on the ground.

"I would have loved... a damn heads up!"

There was work to do on that front. What Reon had to go through, Amelia was going to do the same.

"Why can I only feel suffering when I think of training Leima?"

That was her destiny. To suffer at the hands of her own magic. But what she will gain from it will be tremendously powerful. Lightning elements were like that, difficult to train, yet rewarding.

Amelia's muscles began to relax, and the pain subsided gradually. She stood up and looked at Leima.

"..."

Without a word, she placed Aura and Leima with Dana and Ceres. She turned around and extended her left hand.

"Vesta, dagger only."

A powerful flame appeared in front of her, taking the form of her most powerful and harmful dagger.

"As usual, it is a beautiful flame, yet also terrifying. I'm still afraid of you, you understand that?"

The flame surrounding the dagger swayed slightly, as if to answer her.

"But without you, I'm not complete. We'll have to work together to make thing right. I'll kill my own fears to be with him."

She strongly remembered Orion saving her from the fire she created. This was one memory she would never forget.

"You know what, let's just create an ability together? What about 'Sacred Fire'?"

The dagger shined brighter, and a pillar much smaller and condensed grew in front of her.

"What have I done..."

Amelia just blurted the first idea that came to her mind.

A clone of herself made of fire stepped out of the fire, and remained immobile.

"Huh?"

Amelia moved her foot forward, and the fire clone did the same.

"Is it imitating my moves?"

She waved her arms, jumped, made strange positions with her body, and concluded that indeed, it was copying her movement.

"This should be good."

She ran toward the clone, who did the same thing.

They both clashed with one another.

"I can use this to fight with my full strength!"

Amelia had found her very first ability, and she was going to make the most out of it.