The sun is slowly peeking up from the horizon, its warm soft glow pushing away the darkness of the night and casting light on the many clouds hanging in the sky. Lea stands in the garden of the base, her breath heavy. She repositions herself preparing for another throw. She bites her lip as she draws back her hand with the dagger in. She is facing away from the tree, but she knows where it is and now that just needs to be enough. I can do this. Her eyes flash a strong ruby red as she hurls her arm forward letting the dagger slip out of her hand. It immediately curves to her right sliding through the air in an arc around her, but just as it gets out of her vision she hears the now familiar sound of it colliding into the thick grass. She quickly turns her head to see it dug into the ground. It had made it the slightest bit further than the last one, but not far enough. A frustrated sigh escapes her as she crouches down next to it to pull it out. Drops of sweat rest on her face, glistening in the light. She fiddles with it in her hands, trying to encourage herself to try again, but the feeling of defeat was slowly overtaking her. She’d been trying to practise this for weeks, but had little progress to show for it. Constantly straining herself by overusing her powers did wear her down, but she didn’t want to give up. She’d heard of people with the same power who could curve a weapon all the way around them and she was determined to get to that point. Her only issue was that right now it was as if she lost control of it whenever it left her field of vision and with no one else with her power in the town she didn’t have anyone who could teach her. Mother was meant to be her mentor, but… all she cares about right now is Ember and results. She hangs her head a bit lower for a moment before shaking the thought, her grip on her dagger tightening. She wasn’t doing this for Mother, she was doing this for herself.
As she thought further about it, she realised she hadn’t seen Ember for a few days now after they had made up. A faint smile forms on her face as she thinks back to that night. She had been so stuck in her emotions, but she thought they had talked it out. So why was Ember suddenly keeping her distance? She takes a deep breath and turns back away from the tree, trying to distract herself, but just as she is about to throw it a familiar voice rings out.
“Lea!”
Her face lights up as she looks towards the building. Speak of the devil. She calls back in an enthusiastic voice.
“Ember!”
Ember is quickly walking up to her with a faint smile, although something about her expression seemed off to Lea. Like she had something on her mind. As Ember gets close enough Lea takes a step forward and gently bumps Ember’s shoulder with her hand.
“What’s with the face?”
Lea’s voice is teasing, but there is a hint of concern in it too. Ember seems taken aback for a moment before she answers.
“That obvious, huh?”
Lea chuckles.
“You’re an open book.”
Ember’s face changes to a wry smile at Lea’s statement. She lets out a long sigh before she finally answers.
“Well I… I need to get stronger for my next mission, If I want to escape unscathed if he is there again…”
Lea grimaces. They hadn’t seen him when they went together, but that wasn’t something they could do again, Mother isn’t exactly keen on lending out what she deems unnecessary resources. Not to mention the risk of being nearby when such a fire starts, Ember can be considerably quicker than both Lea and Ethen. When they had gone with her, it had been a good thing, but they had barely made it out even though the fire seemed weaker than normal. And however good Lea was at long range fighting, it wouldn’t do much good in a dense forest with the amount of obstacles in the way, especially since her current practice of losing sight of her weapons weren’t progressing how she’d been hoping. Ember would be on her own, although this wasn’t a thought that particularly excited Lea. Lea’s expression tightens. It was hard for her not to worry after the last fight. She meets Ember's eyes after a moment.
“How did you escape last time?”
Ember avoids her gaze, almost seeming ashamed. Her first fight had clearly not gone as she’d have anticipated. Ember’s voice is smaller as she speaks.
“Luck mostly… The way he blinked around made it hard to keep up, if I hadn’t been able to sense his presence I wouldn’t have stood a chance. But I caught him off guard when I set his arm on fire, that was what gave me an out to retreat.”
Lea’s eyes widen at the last sentence.
“You set his arm on fire?!”
“Well, the leather armour on his arm, but yes.”
She takes a step closer to Ember, excitement in her voice.
“Could you set other objects on fire?”
Ember looks puzzled at the sudden inquiry.
“I mean, yeah… I set forests on fire, so definitely.”
Lea thinks for a moment. Of course she knew Ember set forests on fire, but she had never considered using this in a fight before. She felt a bit foolish for not having thought of this earlier, but starting fires always seemed to exhaust Ember too much for her to actually use it in a fight, not to mention how long it took her to charge up. It would make sense if the area she affects has an impact on her energy spent, so something small might work in a fight… She notices the dagger in her hand and then the idea strikes her. She eagerly holds it up to Ember as she speaks.
“How about knives?”
Ember chuckles at the gesture, clearly amused at Lea’s enthusiasm.
“They’re made of metal, it wouldn’t catch fire. Although it would be very warm and I’m unsure if I’d be able to hold it myself with that amount of heat.”
“Oh, hmmm…”
Lea looks mildly defeated for a moment, but the idea wasn’t fully lost on her yet. Very hot knives would surely still hurt more than normal knives? Although she had been very keen on the idea of flaming throwing knives, what Ember said made sense. However… An idea strikes her, making her quickly regain her excitement, her voice giddy as she yells out to Ember.
“Wood!”
Ember tilts her head, visibly confused at Lea’s proclamation.
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“Wood, Ember. Make wooden knives! Or just wooden bolts. Set them on fire and throw them!”
Lea almost can’t contain herself at this concept. If this worked she was definitely asking Ember to make her some, so she could get to throw fiery knives. She looked at Ember expectantly. Ember seems intrigued for a moment, but then it fades as she awkwardly smiles.
“I… Lea that’s a great idea, if I could throw anything to save my life. That’s kind of your thing.”
Lea was undeterred by this, she was too focused on how great of an idea this was to let anything discourage her. Even if Ember was right and the few times she had attempted to throw anything with Lea when they were younger had all gone terribly. For someone so skilled in using a rapier you’d think she would have better coordination with her arms. Without hesitation Lea answers with encouragement.
“I can teach you!”
“That’s… I don’t know, I want to. It’s a great idea in theory, but I don’t think I’m learning it quickly enough for my next mission, I need something quicker.”
Lea’s expression tightens as she goes back to her thoughts. This hadn’t been a no to learning, so surely they could still do that. She couldn't help but smile widely at the idea. However, she did need to think of something else for now. If it still involved throwing things then she could get her fire knives soon, hopefully. She tried remembering how she had practised to improve her throwing, not that she had needed to with her power, but she wanted to prove she could do it well even without it. Although Ember was right that it would take time to hone a skill like that, especially with Ember’s current starting point. But if she can’t land her hits, then she just needs something where being accurate doesn’t matter. Her smile grows even wider.
“Throw lots of things!”
Ember smiles, it was hard not to when Lea was like this. She clearly hadn’t caught on yet to what Lea was getting at and she can’t help but laugh as she answers.
“Lea, I just said I can’t throw one thing, how am I meant to throw lots of things?”
“No, no, all at once. Throw a bunch of small things on fire at once. It might not do much, but it will definitely catch someone off guard.”
Ember’s face lights up as the idea clicks for her.
“Wait, that's… That's actually genius!”
Lea shoots Ember a self-satisfied smirk, clearly proud of herself.
“Don’t act so surprised! I am smart sometimes.”
“Sometimes.”
Lea playfully scowls at her, and Ember laughs in response, seeming in a better mood than when she got here. The atmosphere around them was lighter. Lea felt happy about this, relieved that although they hadn’t spoken in a few days and even after she blew up at her, they still got back to their usual conduct. That even if they had their rough moments they could always rely on each other. For a moment it felt almost bittersweet for her. She couldn’t help but remember how much she missed this kind of connection, how much she missed her. She shook the thought, she wouldn’t let herself reminisce about it. About someone she could never see again. She forces a wide grin as she grabs Ember’s hands, trying to sound as enthusiastic as earlier, although a faint ache lingers in her voice.
“We should go to the edge of the forest to start practising, we will need a lot of wood for carving and seeing what you feel comfortable using.”
Ember smiles and nods. For a moment considering to ask what was bothering Lea, but she decided against it. The way Lea seemed eager to go somewhere else was a good indicator to leave it be, at least until she was ready to talk about it herself. And with that, they went on their way.
By the time they were done carving a small assortment of different wooden shapes the sun was high in the sky, white clouds still predominant above them. The strong scent of the oak is only enhanced with every slice of their knives as chippings scatter around them. Lea takes a look at her creations, she had mostly made sharp objects and even attempted to carve a knife from wood, although it was rather crude as carving wasn’t exactly a skill of hers. Ember had mostly made a larger collection of small wooden spheres that were nowhere near perfectly round, but it was close enough for her. Lea abruptly stood on her feet, seeming giddy as she looked towards Ember.
“Let’s get to the fun part!”
Ember chuckles and quickly gets up as well, seeming cheerful at Lea’s enthusiasm.
“So, where do we start?”
“Well… why don’t we start simple and just have you throw me something until you feel comfortable throwing it at a target?”
Ember nods, visibly nervous now. They both take a few steps away from each other and Lea readies herself to catch. Ember takes one of the bigger spheres she made, letting it rest in her palm for a moment. It’s light and just about smaller than her palm. She looks towards Lea as she winds up and throws it towards her. The wooden ball flies through the air and quickly makes contact with the ground a few feet away from Lea. Lea looks at it, then back to Ember and then she bursts out laughing.
“You know you had to aim at me, right?”
Ember grunts.
“I told you I was bad at this!”
Lea takes a few moments to collect herself before she stops laughing and picks up the sphere. She gently tosses it in her hand for a moment, feeling its weight, then turns to Ember.
“Can you catch it?”
Before Ember has a chance to answer, Lea chucks it towards her. She tries to catch it, but it fumbles in her hands and falls to the ground. She lets out a loud sigh at herself before picking it back up. Lea chuckles and walks up to her.
“Okay, okay, let’s start by improving how you stand when you throw. Just your stance can help your aim a lot.”
“We’ll see I guess, currently I think I prefer carving these things over throwing them.”
Lea bumps Ember’s shoulder with hers in a playful manner.
“To start with you should use your shoulder as your guide when aiming.”
Lea grabbed onto Ember’s shoulder’s and guided her body and arms into a better position as she went into a longer explanation of how and why.
Most of the remaining daylight was spent with Lea attempting to get Ember to stand better when throwing and a lot of practice. They got a target set up after Ember finally managed to throw something to Lea in a way where she could catch it. Then they moved on to using Lea’s knives at the target she had scratched out on a tree. Ember even managed to land one of them into the tree, though not at the target, but it was a small victory for her either way. She definitely felt she had improved at the end of the day. Lea felt proud of her teaching, although she had spent most of the time messing around, she had clearly gotten some of her knowledge through to Ember. Lea holds onto the crude knife she had carved earlier and looks excitedly at Ember.
“Before we stop for the day, can you set this on fire so I can try and throw it?”
Ember chuckles as she places her hand on the blade. Lea’s face lights up as Ember’s eyes flash a bright gold. Only a second later the blade of the knife bursts into flames and Ember quickly removes her hand from it as she speaks in a lighthearted tone.
“Be quick or you’ll burn yourself.”
Lea nods and quickly chucks the now flaming knife at the tree, her eyes flashing ruby red as it leaves her hand. It flies through the air elegantly as she makes it curve a few times, the flame flickering at the wind gracing over it. It collides into the middle of the target, but quickly falls to the ground as the wooden blade snaps at the pressure of hitting into solid wood, the fire slowly dying out on the ground. Lea lets out a sigh, she had hoped it would have looked more interesting. And although she couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed at the lacklustre scene, she was determined to make it work somehow some other time. She looks at the small fading ember’s still prominent in the blade and points to them as she looks towards Ember.
“Hey look. It’s you!”
Ember rolls her eyes, but can’t help the smile on her face as she does. Lea laughs, amused at herself. She links her arm into Ember’s and pulls her close as she looks over at the horizon. The sun gently resting against it, slowly descending. Warm orange softly transitioning to light blue, clouds illuminated by the dimming sun rays. They both observed the view, taking in the mesmerising sunset together. It was a peaceful moment for them, taking them back to younger days, training together until daylight ran out and sneaking into each other's rooms at night to keep the day going. As the sun disappeared into the ground Lea turned her gaze to Ember, who was still absorbed by the scene. She gave a mischievous smirk.
“You know, I could really use a drink.”
Ember smiles widely and turns to Lea.
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
They both chuckle as they pack their things and start heading to the tavern.