I close my mouth.
My mind flips quickly through everything I’d learned from the books.
The political situation with the rebels or the King and Queen? But no, that’s all too related to the attack. And just thinking about bringing up the rebels give me bad flashbacks.
The Hannu and how he can defeat them? But then he’ll just think I’m a Hannu plant. Especially since they’re a mage-ruled society. He already thinks the body-swapping magic is fishy, best not to put ideas in his head about the Hannu being involved.
Something about him? His family?
Tragic family massacre, rise to power, descent into madness, coronation as the first Mage-King—
Wait.
“You’re a mage,” I say. “An elemental, controlling fire.”
I assume it’s going to hit him as hard as a certain child wizard. Objectively, an elemental is even the coolest of the types of mages discussed in the novels.1 Half the time the novels just called them war mages, since they’re by far the most useful when fighting.
Though granted, it’s not like the others are stiff competition. The shapeshifters might be useful, if their one alternate form is like, a lion and not a saltwater fish or something. But I can’t even imagine what the enchanters, druids, or seers would do.2 Certainly nothing as exciting as throwing mini whirlwinds or having water guns for hands. Or, in Alex’s case, wielding a flaming sword .3
But Alex—scoffs.
“You’re mistaken,” he says. “I’m no mage. If I were, my magic would’ve shown up by now.”
“You are!” I insist. I’m getting pretty tired of him calling everything I say a lie. Granted, I’d been lying a lot since I’ve been here, to Alex most of all. But I’m not lying now. “Your ‘Awakening’ is just later than usual.4 In the—alternate future—it was awakened when you were angry and backed into a corner.”
Alex is ready to retort. And then he pauses.
He strides across the room to his desk and leafs through several stacks of books interspersed of papers, until he snags on one page and pulls it out.
“Fine,” Alex says, as his gaze runs down whatever is written there. “Let’s test that then.”
“Test… what? Your magic? You want to… provoke your Awakening right now?” My hands clench on the fabric of chaise.
He better not be contemplating, like, attacking me one more time to get his adrenaline flowing and try to catalyze it. I’m not about to make him angry again, and he should know by now I’m not going to be putting up enough of a fight to make him feel ‘backed into a corner’ or anything. I’m more likely to be cowering in a corner. Anyway, I thought we were making progress in this Aurelia-but-not-Aurelia-but-not evil thing.
Alex doesn’t approach me though. He puts the paper down and walks over instead to his cold fireplace a little to my left, which weirdly holds only a single large brown ball thing.
He pick up the iron poker next to fireplace and—strike hard at the ball, with a loud violent clang that makes me flinch. The brown ball goes from as dark as dirt to an angry crimson.
Oh. That must be one of the heating stones that royal enchanters made. They’re a consumable luxury that the nobles and anyone else with enough money like to use instead of wood or coal. For some reason, I’d thought they’d be smaller, like, the size of a golf ball and not my whole head. Though maybe they come in different sizes.
I flick my eyes to the candleholders in Alex’s rooms. That explains why Alex’s study has brighter and more table light than anywhere else I’ve been in the castle too then. Now that I’m paying attention, I can actually see that his candleholders don’t actually hold candles burn low to the wick. Instead, they hold these sort of… glowing round balls. The lighting stones I’d forgotten about but that the books had also occasionally mentioned.5
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I can’t help it, I’m a curious, fascinated bird. It’s actually the most magic magic I’ve been exposed to here. I hesitate for a second, but then I rise from the chaise and take tiptoe steps towards Alex and the fireplace.
Alex gives the ball another good whack. It bursts into flames with a roar. I’m prepared this time though, having seen this described in the books, and don’t even flinch.
“Uh…” I say, looking from the cheery flames to Alex. “Are you like, cold?”
As cool as that was to see, I thought we were in the middle of an important conversation, or rather, interrogation. Wasn’t he in the middle of deciding whether or not to trust me?
“No,” Alex says, as he struggles to push back his left tunic sleeve. What, is he like, too hot now?
He’d have an easier time if he just dropped the poker. Even though it's done its job, he’s still holding the poker in the middle of the fire, where the flames burn so hot they’re white instead of red.
I’m just about to offer to help with whatever he’s doing when he manages to get his sleeve secured above his elbow and flash me his exposed forearm. He pulls out the iron poker, and have just enough time to register how its end looks like it’s been dipped in liquid gold before he lays the whole poker end across his forearm.
“Alex!” I yelp, rushing towards him.
But I pull up just a few steps away from him, as the dots finally connect. The books had shown this. Elementals don’t—
Alex drops the poker onto the floor, and blow off a few pieces of ash from his skin.
Underneath is his arm. Tan. Whole. Unharmed.
He smiles, though there’s nothing particularly humorous about it.
“And to think, when I drifted fingers across a lit candle without ever feeling pain, I thought I simply had thicker skin,” he says.
I put my hand to my heart and rub it hard. Even though Alex is fine, it’s still hammering away.
In fact, the constant adrenaline is making me a little dizzy and nauseous. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve not had anything since those bites of bread and water yesterday.
Without waiting for Alex’s permission, I sit back down again on the chaise. I mean, after his little ‘test’, he ought to know I’m really no threat now.
He sits down too, on the other side of the chaise.
“Okay,” Alex says. When I look over at him, he’s got his arms resting on his knees and his head bowed over his clenched hands. From this angle, I can’t really read his expression. “You’re not Aurelia, but you’re not a danger. And you know the future.”
Is he asking me or telling me?
“Like I’ve been saying,” I reply, after an awkward pause.
“So… Who are you then?” He looks at me, and it feels like I’m locking eyes with Alex for the first time. “What’s your name?”
The question—makes my chest tighten.
Every since I’ve been here, I’ve not felt quite… right. And I mean me, specifically. The others, I’ve come have real thoughts and emotions and lives, as absurd as they may be. But me? I’d still vaguely felt like I’m in a hyper-realistic AR/VR game. It’s processing all the right sensations and interactions, but it’s still a layer removed from reality. I’m not really here. Only my avatar is.
Which of course is is in a sense true. I’m not here, really. Only Aurelia is.
Until now.
I swallow past the lump in my throat.
“Gemma,” I say. My voice is dry and clear. “My name is Gemma Tran.”
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1. Natter never properly lays this out, but I’m pretty sure based on the types of magic Natter shows that there are five: elementals, shapeshifters, enchanters, druids, and seers. Based on how the King and Alex used mages, elementals were useful as soldiers, shapeshifters as spies and messengers, enchanters and druids (or to be more exact, the items they made) as money generators, and seers as… rumor-mongers? Score zero for seers, and score one for everyone else. Again.
2.Although I guess never say never, I’m sure when there’s a will there’s a way. The enchanters can make opponents swords heavier? Druids can throw poison bottles and grow vines to trip enemies? Seers can… dream of attacks so they can better plan running away?
Seriously. Why is it that if Aurelia had to be magical, she couldn’t have had some more useful powers for me to inherit? Personally, I would’ve liked to be an earth elemental. I can both throw clumps of metal at people and build a whole packed earth shelter around to cower in.
3. Yeah, apparently Alex thinks he’s too special to just shoot fire beams like every other fire elemental. He has to wield a freaking flaming sword like a psychopathic angel.
(I do have to give to Natter though. It is kind of a cool image. Makes great fanart. Also could be nicely symbolic of the book’s themes or whatever, though I’d have to be convinced that Natter meant that intentionally).
4. So ‘Awakening’ is what I personally first time a mage registers that their magic has flared up. The books had mentioned it happens mostly in the early teen years, which is why Alex Prime was so surprised, but I don’t think the books actually gave ‘the moment’ a name. I just call it ‘awakening’ because of Alex Prime’s experience reminded me of the Persona games. I mean, blood, brooding, fire, a scary grin as he vanquishes all his enemies? Very Joker-esque.
5. Light bulbs. They're basically just light bulbs.
You ever notice how book magic is often just technology, but like (sparkly confetti) magic?