Drip. Drip.
The sink was leaking. Even after Cayto made sure to turn the tap water off completely, droplets continued to trickle out of the faucet and into the sink's basin, hovering above the drain for moments at a time before disappearing into the dark abyss. Three days had passed and the sink inside Silver Run's infirmary bathroom still hadn't been repaired, so Cayto couldn't help but eyeball each and every droplet as they formed at the tip of the faucet, swelling like miniscule water balloons and plopping into the black hole at the bottom of the basin.
Ugh, how annoying, Cayto silently remarked. If I was home, this leak would've been fixed by now. But as soon as he began comparing his home to Avriya, the words Ivan said to him four days ago sprang to his mind:
"When you've spent all your life with parents as rich as yours, everything that's not fine dining and servants and private jets is suddenly beneath yourself. Is that how you feel? Do you look on the entirety of Avriya and all of its people with disdain? Are you that mad about losing your wealth and needing to face reality like the rest of us peasants?"
Wow Ivan, Cayto thought. Way to remind me. In the two weeks he was held at Avriya, Cayto had gained a reputation among its residents as a self-absorbed scion who never knew a struggle, a spoiled brat born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and an arrogant jerk in desperate need of being humbled. If only they knew, Cayto thought. If only they knew…
Drip. Drip.
Most spoons in the Halifax household were actually made of stainless steel, not silver, so it was technically incorrect to say that Cayto was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But still, his childhood had given him something else made of silver: a wire, specifically a silver wire because silver has the highest conductivity out of all metals. Much of Cayto's early years were spent sitting on a bench inside the dimly-lit, staticky room of one of Halifax Industries' power plants, with silver wiring attached to his arms, legs, and other parts of his body. The other ends of those wires were plugged into a tank full of fluid with a piece of metal submerged in it.
The process of electrical harvesting was only slightly painful, but to six-year-old Cayto who didn't know better, it was a degrading experience. "Why do I have to do this?" He would complain whenever his father told him to get back in the power plant room. "I don't wanna sit there with those wires again! It's cold and cramped and if normal kids don't have to do it, why me?"
Most of the time Mr Halifax would respond with a dismissive "because I said so," and leave it at that. But one Tuesday he sat Cayto down to explain why he took him to the power plant room for thirty minutes daily to charge the apparatus. "First of all, you already are normal, and second of all, your contribution to electrical harvesting doesn't change that," Mr Halifax had told him. Cayto looked at his father, a puzzled expression on his face.
"B-but the other kids at school say I'm a freak!" Cayto blubbered. "If they saw me in this room, plugged into that giant… thing—"
"Shut your trap!" Martin boomed, slapping Cayto across the face. "Don't you see how pathetic you look, sniffling and blubbering like that?! Knock it off, and get your ass on that bench!"
The child wiped his tears, stood up straight, and stared Martin dead in the eye. "Will do, father," he said. Cayto then sat on the bench, gripping its sides while Martin plugged him in. Finally, once Martin finished setting everything up, he took a step back.
"Thank you, Cayto." Mr Halifax said curtly. The child, suppressing his squirms to avoid another outburst from his father, stared at him with a blank expression.
Time passed, slowly and painfully. Cayto remained seated, frozen and dead-eyed while he mustered up the courage to speak to his father again. "You never told me why I'm here," he finally uttered after fifteen or so minutes. "May you please explain?"
"Oh." Mr. Halifax acknowledged. He paused for a moment to think of what to say. "You like having a heater when it's cold and an air conditioner when it's hot, right?"
"Yes," Cayto answered.
"And you like having a refrigerator so your food doesn't go bad, is that right?"
Cayto nodded. "Yes."
"And you like watching TV and playing games on your computer, is that right?"
Cayto's violet-colored eyes lit up at the mention of TV and games. "Yes!" He exclaimed.
Mr Halifax laughed. "And what do all of those things have in common?" He quizzed Cayto.
"They use electric-city?"
"It's pronounced electricity, but yes, you're right," Mr Halifax confirmed. "And that's exactly what your aura produces. Those wires and that metal block? They're all for the purpose of harvesting your aura so more heaters and refrigerators and computer games can receive power. You're doing a great thing, Cayto. A very important thing, too."
Cayto stared at his father in confusion. "But I thought my aura was bad?"
Mr Halifax shook his head. "It's only bad if it comes out in the wrong place at the wrong time, or if others see you with it. But in this case, your aura is being used for a good thing. So as long as you have it under tight control, you shouldn't wish to get rid of it. Got that, kiddo?"
Cayto nodded.
From that moment on, Cayto no longer protested going to the power plant room, as weird and uncomfortable as it felt. He figured it was better that he simply did the right thing and obeyed his father, because as strict, impatient, and stubborn Mr Halifax might have been, at least he was understanding. While Sierra and the others looked at Cayto and saw a rotten curse-bearer with no future, Mr Halifax believed in him and his successes. He even promised to hand ownership of HI down to Cayto when he was of age, but only if he proved he was good for the role. So it was important that Cayto proved himself to his father, and that's what he did. He made shock tags and administered them to his father's clients. He avoided protesting against his parents' harsh treatment and took part in assisting with the upkeep of Halifax Industries and its image. He pushed down his feelings and pushed through whatever task he was given, no matter how difficult it was. So while other rich kids supposedly received silver spoons and silver platters, Cayto received a silver wire in his arm.
***
Almost three weeks had passed since Cayto's abduction, and now that Cayto was finally away from his duties at Halifax Industries, he had some extra time to catch up on sleep, even if it was only for a few nights. So one Tuesday afternoon he inspected himself in the bathroom mirror in the hopes of catching himself without eye bags. To his dismay, they were still there. Cayto had always hated his eye bags— they made him look ugly and unkempt, and if he could get rid of them in any way possible, then maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't feel the urge to smash the mirror into pieces whenever he caught his reflection in it.
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Fortunately, Cayto was able to grab onto the sides of the bathroom sink before he could do any real damage. Breathe, Cayto, he reminded himself. In, out. In, out. But his breath escaped him in a series of short wheezes. What the hell is wrong with me?!
Suddenly Cayto heard a knocking on his room's door, causing him to jump. "Who is it?!" He yelled from the bathroom.
"It's me, Ivan!" The voice yelled back.
Ugh, not that weirdo assistant again, Cayto would've thought in his early days of recovery. And it was true, at first Ivan's presence irritated Cayto. He'd always enter the infirmary room twice a week to check in on his patient and bring him meals and daily treatments, and it wasn't that Cayto was ungrateful, as he knew it would stupid to turn down help, but what he found particularly annoying about Ivan was that he couldn't just do his business and leave, and always had to take some extra time to discuss some obscure topic with his patient, whether that was little-known spirit realm mythology or Cloudgate's unsolved murder cases or weird and wonderful plants, from bush-like trees that crawled like spiders with their roots above the ground to mysterious flowers grown from the tears of an angel, able to illuminate the depths of the human psyche.
And worse yet, Cayto found himself hanging on to every word Ivan said despite not being one to approve of idle, time-wasting conversations like the ones he would start. Before Ivan came along, Cayto had one goal and one goal only, which was to complete his recovery and leave Avriya, so he couldn't afford any distractions. But for some absurd reason, Cayto found himself looking forward to Ivan's visits, and he would always be left with an indescribable emptiness whenever he left. And what was even more ridiculous was the fact that Cayto would feel like he was floating on air whenever the healer's assistant smiled at him, and in those moments he would wish for that feeling to last forever— focus, Cayto! You're better than that! The lightning-wielder reminded himself. Ivan's an Avriyan and a curse-bearer after all, and nothing can change that.
"Cayto, are you in there?!" Ivan shouted from outside the infirmary. "I have some announcements! I also have a favor to ask of you, so you're gonna have to open up."
Oh shit. I'm a mess. I can't let him see me like this, Cayto thought. In a rush, he ran a comb through his hair, changed into a shirt that wasn't wrinkled, stained, or sprayed with water, sprinted to his room's door, and twisted the doorknob open. "What do you want?!"
Ivan entered the infirmary and sat on a bed with blue cotton sheets. A ray of sunlight poured in from the window, giving a white shimmer to his golden-blonde hair and the plywood floor below his feet. Cayto felt his face heat up. What makes you think you can just sit on my bed like that?! He thought. Well, it's not actually my bed, but still! I've slept in it! Learn to respect personal space! Yet Cayto couldn't stop himself from sitting on the opposite side of the bed, much to his own dismay. So he crossed his arms and turned away from Ivan, maintaining as much of a distance from him as he could. I'm keeping my eye on you, curse-bearer, Cayto thought in spite of the butterflies welling up in his stomach.
image [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/14c598bfbofby2m5s46rc/Untitled4.png?rlkey=rr2xbt98dv849mnu3lm3g3pz6&st=pr8pvsc9&raw=1]
Ivan, meanwhile, pulled out a black smartphone from his hoodie pocket. "First off, can you charge my phone?" He asked.
Of course, I'd do anything for you! Was Cayto's initial thought, and he almost beamed and responded with an enthusiastic yes, only to catch himself before he could go through with it. Instead he shot a glare at Ivan in response to his request.
Yet Ivan remained unperturbed, shifting closer to Cayto as the latter backed away in embarrassment. "Oh. Wow. You looked like you were going to bash my head in. All I asked was if you could charge my phone.”
At that moment an idea popped into Cayto's head. I could use this as an opportunity… "Give me five goldstones and it's a deal," he bartered, as he figured he'd need the money down the line. It was always good to have extra money, and Cayto assumed that if he had enough of it, he could even use it to pay for a car ride home once he broke out of Avriya.
But Ivan shook his head, declining the offer. "Come on, that high of a price for charging a phone? How unreasonable. Your father was a businessman for Blanche's sake— you should know how to set prices that wouldn't drive customers away!"
"Fine. I'll change it to three goldstones." Cayto offered. But Ivan shook his head again.
"Change it to three greenstones and I'll pay you.”
Cayto sighed in exasperation. "Alright, three greenstones it is," he agreed reluctantly as Ivan dropped three small green coins and his phone into Cayto's hand. After being given Ivan's phone, Cayto poured all of his concentration into generating just the right amount of electricity needed to charge the phone without overpowering it. He didn't want to fry the phone, after all. But as soon as Ivan's hand brushed Cayto's, Cayto lost all control of his aura and the battery symbol on Ivan's phone shot up from 3 to 74 percent.
"Whoa, I didn't know you could do that. Does that mean you can charge my phone instantly?" Ivan queried.
"Actually, your crappy piece of plastic is burning my hands right now," Cayto muttered. "And I bet I almost destroyed it because you were distracting me, so next time I do anything for you, you're gonna have to pay me more. And you're also gonna have to give me more space so I don't do something stupid like lose control of my aura again!"
While Ivan and Cayto sat in silence on opposite sides of the infirmary bed, Cayto tried to focus all of his attention on charging Ivan's phone and nothing else, but sometimes he couldn't help but gaze longingly at the healer's assistant. The way the sunlight illuminated his face and bounced off his sea-green eyes, the way his sweater, colored with three shades of yellow, orange, and teal, gently draped his form, even the way he fidgeted with his hands as he waited for Cayto— all of it mesmerized him. God, I could fall asleep in your arms right now…
"You know you're gonna have to move out of here and into an actual room soon, right?" Ivan reminded Cayto after some time had passed, jolting him from his thoughts. "Since you appear to have recovered from the evaluation incident, Hyacinth is trying to find you a room to stay in. And speaking of Hyacinth, don't tell her this, but I started volunteering at the infirmary because of her. I know Hyacinth's a teacher, but damn, she is hot— uh, Cayto? You look depressed, what's wrong?"
At that moment Cayto felt his heart drop to his stomach, but if he was left dejected upon hearing that Ivan was already interested in someone else, and an older female healer mage at that, he was too stubborn to admit it. "Nothing's wrong with me," Cayto lied, his face burning. "You, on the other hand… not taking your job seriously and only volunteering so you could get with some woman who’s also your teacher? One who's out of your league and would never like you back, and even if she did, would rightfully be fired for it? You should be ashamed of yourself, Ivan— I swear you curse-bearers are all the same!"
Cayto might have been trembling from head to toe, but Ivan reacted to his rant with nothing more than a shrug. "It's hard to take you seriously when you're trash-talking curse-bearers while using your own "curse" to charge my phone. What, do you think you're special somehow, that you're excused from your own prejudice?" The assistant asked coolly. He then got closer to Cayto, making him flinch. "And by the way, your face is all red and you seem extra fidgety today. Are you hiding something?"
"I'm not hiding anything!" Cayto shot back, looking at his hands in embarrassment. To his relief, he saw that the phone he was charging had a full battery. "Your phone is charged," Cayto announced, hoping to redirect Ivan's attention as he handed the device to him. "Take it."
"Thank you!" Ivan replied as took his phone back, headed for the door, and twisted the handle. But just before he could disappear into the hallway, Ivan turned around at the doorway. "And by the way, I still don't believe you," he said to Cayto. Then Ivan left the room, and once again, Cayto sat alone on the bed, feeling emptier and more alone than ever.