In the end, I stumbled out of the training room five hours after Leonard left. Sweat streamed down my face, and my knees buckled with hunger and exhaustion. I gripped the wall with a sweaty hand to keep myself upright, trying to find my way to the dining hall. I hadn’t meant to overwork myself as much as I had, but I’d lost track of the time and my own condition in my fervour for the new magic I had gotten my hands on. Like a child given a new toy, I’d lost myself in making the sparks erupt from my body; in trying to make them bigger and brighter, chasing after the brilliant flame I had witnessed burn on myself.
Despite the snarling pain in my gut and the stinging ache of my muscles, the smile on my face was brighter than it had been in months. The exposure to the new magic had lit in me a flame of passion that pushed me beyond the fetters of pain and exhaustion, fueling me with a strength that was strangely nostalgic for me.
It took me a minute, but as I stumbled my way through the doors of the dining hall, I realized where the nostalgia was coming from: it was like the first time I had realized the power of Flux.
I smiled as I remembered the night. It started out as nothing special, just another in the long string of cold and lonely nights I’d been having. I’d long known I had a stronger body than most, though I didn’t know why, but that night had been the night I’d finally connected the dots.
It had been a particularly brutal night, for reasons my mind expertly danced around – I had gotten very good at sparing myself the torment of the details – and as I lay in my makeshift bed, going through my nightly healing ritual, something strange had happened. As the terrible pain surged through my body, righting the broken bones and closing up the gashes, I was consumed with a madness, a swirling concoction of both anger and insanity that burned within my chest, pushing me out of my bed.
With a face set in stone, I moved like an animal possessed, with rage beyond anything I had ever felt before. I remembered the night vividly, one of the few I did, for the mark it had left on me. The euphoria of finally, finally winning a fight. Of pounding in the faces that had caused me such pain. I remembered going from door to door, territory to territory, and jumping on any of the faces I recognized. It wasn’t all easy, not at all painless. I took as many hits as I gave, maybe even more, but the rage dwarfed the fear I held towards pain. Every hit I took only made me stronger, and no amount of pain kept me down. The rage was a charging bull I was tied to, and it dragged me for hours on end.
That night, the seedy streets of Toronto shook under the fury of a ten-year-old girl.
And more than anything, I remembered the feeling that had invaded me as the night came to an end. The feeling of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the crushing relief of my hands grasping onto a rope as I lay drowning. I had at last been granted a way to gain the strength I had wanted, the strength I needed to make them all pay. And cluttered with pain, though it may be, I knew as I stood on those streets that night, my knuckles dripping with blood and my face and clothes smeared in scarlet, that I would walk that road till the end. Further than anyone else had ever walked it before.
“Well, I’d recognize that face anywhere,” a voice said from behind me, knocking me out of my reminiscence. In that strange way Ren seemed to have mastered, I could practically hear the smile in the voice, even though I couldn’t see him.
“What face?” I asked, turning around to greet him.
He smiled. “The face of a child given a new toy.”
A laugh escaped me as I pulled out a bench and sat myself down. “Oh, you have no idea. This affinity stuff is so cool. I can literally make fire. Like, that is…it’s beyond words, honestly.”
“Fire, huh?” Ren mused. “Was Leonard right? About it matching the mage's personality? Is fire what you would've chosen?”
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I paused for a second, thinking it over. “I mean, I think so, but I haven’t really seen what any of the other affinities can do. The only one I’ve seen is the light one that these guys have, and compared to that, I definitely like fire better.”
Ren nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I would have figured. I think anyone who knows you would agree that if they had to pin you as an element, fire would be the choice.”
I laughed again. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” My stomach grumbled loudly as I spoke, the hunger suddenly flaring up. “By the way, could you please get me some food from the kitchen?” I asked, too exhausted to be embarrassed. “I would do it myself, but I honestly don’t think I would survive the trip there.”
“Sure, sure,” Ren chuckled. “Gimme a second.”
A minute later, Ren gently laid down two bowls on the table with a small clatter. I picked my head up from where it lay resting against the wood, a small oval of red marking the spot my forehead had pressed against the table.
My eyes glinted as they found the steaming piles of rice and meat, a glistening, thick brown sauce drizzled over the both of them. “Fooood,” I managed to get out in the second I had before my hands grabbed the bowl and spoon and began to stuff my mouth.
“Slow down,” Ren cautioned warmly, chuckling. “The food isn’t gonna run away from you.”
“You never know,” I slipped out between bites, my mouth full. “I’m not willing to risk it right now.”
Ren shook his head with a smile as I continued to shovel the food into my mouth, gently picking up his spoon and beginning to eat as well. His well-mannered elegance only made my methods look more barbaric, but at that moment, I could not have cared less. There’s no one around to impress, anyway, I thought, shoving down the slight guilt I felt.
A few minutes later, after the mountain of food was cut in half, I finally slowed down enough to speak again, feeling the pain in my gut abate a little. “By the way,” I said, swallowing down the latest mouthful, “I see you got a wardrobe upgrade as well. Didn’t think I’d ever see you wearing something other than that hoodie.”
I hadn’t noticed right away, in the haze of my exhaustion and hunger, but he’d changed into clothes similar to mine. The boots, pants, shirt and belt, and the half cape were all almost identical to mine, only his stuff was darker. The shirt, cape, and boots were all a deep, midnight blue that matched his whole ambience very well. The pants and belt were inky black, completing the look.
Ren laughed at my jibe. “What can I say, hoodies are the best. But I have to admit, these clothes are really good. Better quality than anything I’ve ever worn on Earth.”
I nodded emphatically. “I know! They’re amazing. I wonder if they’re giving us really high-quality clothes, or if these are just the standard for them.”
“And what’s up with their style?” Ren added. “I mean, I don’t know what I was expecting the fashion of a whole new universe would be like, but the ‘gothic vampire’ look was definitely not one I was expecting.”
I shrugged. “I don’t mind it. I always thought the clothes of Earth were too boring anyway.”
Ren nodded. “Yeah, you struck me as the sort of person who likes the flashy look.”
“Y’know, I get the feeling you’ve made a lot of deductions about me that are based on surface-level stuff. I’m actually a lot more complicated than I look, I’ll have you know.”
Ren laughed. “It’s not my fault. You’re just an open book. You bare your entire personality within seconds of meeting someone.” At my offended look, he added, “I mean, it’s not a bad thing. Being a simple person is good. It makes you likable, someone you don’t have to keep your guard up around.”
I smiled sardonicly at that. “Also makes you an easy person to betray, too.”
Ren mirrored my smile. “Yeah, that it does. That’s why most people aren’t like you. Most people have their simplicity, their genuine-ness, beaten out of them early. Or they learn to keep it only for the people they know they can trust. The world is too full of thorns to go about with your self unguarded. But that’s one of the reasons I decided to join you. It was such a breath of fresh air to finally be around someone like you after spending so many years cooped up with such duplicitous, manipulative people.”
“Huh. Thanks, I suppose. I-”
“RUBY?!” A loud voice sounded out from behind me, echoing in the empty hall. One that I’d never thought I’d hear again, from a person I’d almost completely forgotten about.
"Craw?!"