Chapter Fifteen - Prophecy and Modesty

“What the heck just happened?” Arette blurted it out first.

Liz shook her head, “I don’t know...I’ve never seen her like that before.”

“Huh.”

For the first time, Arette didn’t know what to do. She had never been feared like that before, never been looked at with such terror and disgust - as far as she was aware she hadn’t done anything to warrant it.

It wasn’t a problem that could be solved by a fight either.

“I think she had a vision,” Liz said in a low voice, “She’s an Ascendant of Clairvoyance after all. Maybe she saw something in the future that disturbed her.”

Arette pressed her lips together. Not exactly the most comforting thought.

“So I’m going to become a monster? A murderer like she screamed?” she said darkly.

She did have a love for fighting and she sure wouldn’t hesitate to hit back when struck, but she didn’t want to be a monster. Or a cold blooded murderer, for that matter.

The thought that it might happen sent a chill down her neck.

“No!” Liz looked at her, speaking adamantly, “I don’t believe you could ever become something like that! And on top of that, the future is never written in stone. If she saw something, it was only a possibility, never a certainty.”

She spoke with enough conviction to make it convincing, while Arette looked at her, trying to find her reassurance.

What if I really become a monster? A murderer?

The thoughts were like flies, buzzing in her head.

No.

I’m my own person.

I decide the future.

I decide my path.

She gritted her teeth and pushed the negativity down. Whether she’d become a murderer or a saint, that was her decision alone.

Not Merin's, not fate’s, only hers.

Besides, she had no real idea what Merin saw and after that display, she surely wouldn’t tell her. It wouldn’t do to dwell on it.

She nodded to herself.

“It doesn’t matter. Today is today and tomorrow is my decision,” she said more to herself than to Liz but her friend gave a firm nod as well.

Arette let go of the breath she’d unknowingly held.

“Well,” she looked down at her filthy and battered self, “I’m going to find some lake to wash up. I must smell horrible.”

She drew her nose up and Liz giggled.

“You do smell a bit...strong.”

“I know,” she groaned and then marched off into another part of the forest behind Redhall. Despite the fact that the school was in the middle of the city, the forest seemed to exist in a far bigger place than was physically possible. There were always new parts popping up and other parts disappearing.

Sometimes, Arette walked in a straight line in the forest for hours, only to land at a place close to where she started.

But that too was a particularity of the Plane of Gods and by now it wasn’t hard to accept it anymore.

Liz followed her and together they managed to find a small lake that Arette had used before.

Even though most Immortals liked to bathe inside in either a tub or in something called a shower, Arette felt more comfortable under the sky. Having arrived, Arette took off her clothes without hesitation, not noticing Liz’s scrunched up face.

“What are you doing?” Liz hissed, her eyes wide.

“Uh, I’m undressing?” Arette said confused. What was there not to understand?

“Here?” Liz almost screeched, “What if someone sees you?”

“So what?”

“Someone could come here and see you. Naked! Not to mention that I can see you, it’s weird!” Liz’ voice was low as if she was scared that someone could hear.

Arette didn’t get it. Yes, indeed, without clothes she would be naked. But so was everyone else?

“What’s weird about that? It’s not as if I’ve got anything you don’t?”

“But it’s not modest!” Liz seemed really insistent on this. But why was this so important? She wore clothes to keep warm and if they got wet, she’d be cold. So she took them off before bathing. Wasn’t it obvious?

“Modest? What’s that supposed to be?” She’d heard the word before, but not in this constellation.

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“Well, it’s not proper to be seen naked! How can you not know that? Being naked is something reserved for...for...you know…” Liz turned beet red and mumbled the last part of the sentence to quietly that Arette couldn’t hear.

“For what?” By now she felt kinda stupid, but she still didn’t get it.

“You know, when a man and a woman...or a woman and a woman….or a man and a man, I guess...well it’s when they…” she blushed even harder.

“When they have sex you mean?” Arette blinked, trying to make sense of it. She knew the basics about that, both from observation in her life in the woods and from an instinctual knowledge, but she didn’t find anything in it that would make her blush like Liz did.

Of course, to sleep with someone required a loss of clothes but a loss of clothes didn’t quite require intimacy, did it?

“Well...yes,” Liz still hadn’t found her composure, “Anyways, it’s just not done.”

“How weird,” Arette remarked and then shrugged, “Well I’m not asking you to get naked, but I don’t really have a problem with it, so I don’t think I’ll start wearing clothes when bathing any time soon.”

With those words she jumped into the water, letting herself drift across the surface.

Liz gave an exasperated sigh and then sat down next to the edge of the water, obviously giving up trying to change her mind.

“So you’re not coming in? It’s kinda nice, at least, as nice as water can be,” she scrunched up her face. While she wasn’t scared of water, she couldn’t swim well either and she just didn’t feel right in an element so far removed from hers. Nonetheless, bathes were a necessity.

“No, I’d rather not,” Liz’s tone was cold and a little sulking.

“Oh come on! It’s nice in here, Lizzy!” She drew the name out in a pleading tone.

“No, I’d really rather not,” Liz remained stern but Arette saw the sparkle in her eyes.

“Okay then…”

Arette grinned and with a swift move, she grabbed Liz and threw her into the water.

“Ahh!” Liz screamed out as she hit the surface, sinking in until all of her body was soaked.

Arette began to laugh at her enraged, pouting face and began to splash water at her friend.

“How dare you!” Liz yelled back and began to throw water back to Arette and soon enough both of them here head to toe soaked and giggling like there was no tomorrow.

Chasing each other through the water, both of them forgot Merin’s ominous words.

They should’ve remembered them.

Merin, meanwhile, was suspended into a state of shock.

Usually, she was a steady person, always friendly, stern when needed. But the moment that girl entered her class, she had a bad feeling.

It made her usual friendliness a hundred times harder, lying like a stone in her stomach, always present. Even Jharek found her behavior strange - he seemed to find the new girl nice enough.

But she couldn’t find her nice, no matter what she did.

It was also with reluctance that she let her participate in class today, but with even Nex - ever stubborn and taciturn - allowing her to do her training/torture, she had little reason to deny it.

The girl herself looked quite elated, but it only made her more irritated. When she interacted with her, it was as if she couldn’t control herself anymore.

She could clearly see the overwhelming fire aura around her, but still she made her try control earth - even though she knew that any earth element would be completely overpowered by the fire inside of her.

She didn’t even know why she was being mean. It was this immense dislike, without reason, that welled up in her as soon as she saw the fiery red hair and those piercing golden eyes.

The reason, she finally understood when she asked Arette to control fire.

Without a doubt, her fire control was superb. It was even better than Merin’s who had trained for centuries to reach hers, but jealousy or respect were far from her in that moment.

Instead, she felt the familiar flickering of the world she always got when she had a vision.

As an Ascendant of Clairvoyance, an ability she carried over from her last life, she knew those flickerings and the visions that came after it, but none ever came with such dread.

Then, flames. Screams, men, women, children, screaming as flames devoured them alive.

Houses, woods, mountains falling, crumbling to cinders as the world went down in flames. A calamity of a thousand flames, raining down ash and brimstone, costing hundreds, thousands, no, millions of lives.

Amidst it all, golden eyes. Lifeless and dull, they took one life after another, slaying again and again and again. Red hair, stained crimson, fluttering among the flames.

Blood dripping from a curled pair of horns as souls were devoured by the flames.

Monster.

She would become a monster.

Even when Merin woke up from her vision induced daze, she couldn’t think about anything than the screams she had heard, the deaths she had seen.

She could only scream at the monster that would kill so many, push her away. She couldn’t confront her anymore, not now.

Yet, the girl may be innocent.

But she won’t be for long.

The next day, Leesha herself came to apologize to Arette.

“Look, I’m sorry about Merin,” she told her after having drawn her aside in the hallway, “She has these visions sometimes and she can’t control herself during them…”

Arette looked at the principal for a while and then spoke.

“I don’t care about what she said. I’m not going to be a monster.”

Leesha stared back for a while and then gave her a nod.

“Yes, I would hope so. Merin can only see parts of the future, fragmented pieces she tries to put together. Yesterday, she interpreted that you were going to cause a huge calamity, but it might also mean that you’re going to caught up in one. Or that you’ll be connected to one. Or maybe that calamity is only a small one and she overimagined it. Prophecies are weird like that.”

Leesha clearly tried to calm her, but Arette wasn’t all that riled up to begin with.

“I get it. It’s not like I can’t change the future. I’m not going to be able to visit elemental control anymore though?”

Leesha made a face and then shook her head.

“I’m sorry. Merin insisted you stay away from her. But with your situation, I imagine you won’t need a class in fire control either?” The principal grinned.

Arette smiled back and shrugged sheepishly.

“No, not really.”

“Take your time to choose another class. We’ve got a wide range of them, I imagine your new friend told you all about it already.”

Arette nodded, “Yes, Liz did. I’m Arette now, by the way.” She grinned when she introduced herself for the first time.

“Arette,” Leesha smiled, “I like it.”

With that Leesha said goodbye and Arette was left to head to another bout of Nex’ training from hell.

That was one thing Merin’s ominous warning certainly couldn’t influence.