Ravela entered Betty’s Diner spotting Laena sitting there waiting together with Safora. Ravela inwardly cursed. ‘You should have stayed out of this.’ Ravela thought.

She walked to their table in the corner of the diner. Secluded and, since it seemed to be a slow day, away from eavesdroppers, Ravela approved of their table choice.

Sitting down, Ravlea took her time to settle in. She ordered herself a steak and a chocolate milkshake and asked the two girls if they wanted anything themselves. Both ordered a big bowl of ice cream bowls, taking full advantage of her offer.

Ravela leaned back and just waited for the inevitable stupid idea to be verbalized.

“So, I talked to Safora and I want to try carrying the crystal too.” Laena started.

“I knew you’d say that. Without any regard or understanding of what you asking of me.” Ravela responded. “It is a horrible idea and before you push your friend in my face let me explain. You have zero control over how and if the crystals alter you. Safora here is the absolute best-case scenario. It is much more likely that…” Ravela stopped talking as the ice cream bowls arrived.

“…Where was I? Ah yes, I was about to ruin your ice cream bowls. It is more likely that you:

Explode. And I mean what I said just now.

Spontaneously catch fire. And no I don’t mean you getting powers I mean just you burning till you’re dead.

Turn to dust. Still no power, just you suddenly not being alive.

All the bones in your body become soft. All the flesh on you turning translucent. All your hair falling out. Every centimeter of your body grows hair. Your entire body getting covered in ugly warts or growing teeth all over. You mutating a hunchback. Maybe you’ll grow gill and fish scales making you able to breathe water….and nothing else. Those are just the scenarios off the top of my head. I can’t even speak to what the consequences of that would be.

I didn’t even talk about the family and friends you leave behind or who would start to look for answers and vengeance for the fate you suffered. Are you willing to kill yourself and burn down your grandmother’s home in the vain attempt to maybe possibly perhaps gain anything comparable to Safora? And if I tell you the odd for it was .001 percent and all I listed before to be the rest of it?”

Ravela heard the waitress come out of the kitchen and prepared to receive her steak. Planning on letting Laena and Safora digest the information she had just imparted to them.

They had stopped eating their ice cream mid her explanation and now looked a bit pale as Ravela seemingly ate her steak without any difficulty.

Laena looked at Safora who seemed now on Ravela’s side not willing to help her friend to a gruesome death.

“Laena, listen this may be a bad idea. I got lucky.”

“You said you’d help me. So help me. This isn’t fair, I helped you and you did all this without telling me and now you take his side?” Laena badgered her friend.

Ravela immensely enjoyed the discord she had sown. ‘That’s what you get for stealing my stuff.’

*Slurp* Ravela drank from her milkshake with some smug satisfaction.

“And what if Ramiel is right and one of those horrible things happens to you? Am I to tell Ma Stone? Or am I not to tell Ma Stone? Will you be able to live with yourself like that? You would hate me more if you did this and it went wrong. You would be able to look at me and not hate me.”

Laena crossed her arms. “Tell me truthfully, what are the actual odds of that happening, Ramiel.”

Ravela chewed slowly on the still-rosy meat. There was no need for haste.

“I do not know. I honestly don’t. I could tell you what the odds for myself were but I know my…lineage by heart. Yours is a complete shot in the dark and I have by far not listed all the horrible things that can happen. I am willing to permit you to try BUT no matter what happens both of you will not speak a word of this to anybody else no matter what happens. Good or bad.”

Laena didn’t even hesitate before she threw her life away. “Deal.”

Safora however said. “No.”

“Safora, don’t do this. Don’t ruin this chance for me. You promised you would help. You promised me!”

Safora squirmed. “That was before I knew all this.”

Ravela finished her steak. “Well, that concludes that then.”

Laena was furious with her friend. “No. This is unfair. You got a shot at changing your entire life by going behind my back and now you’re blocking me from having this chance for asking you for your support. Screw you! Both of you.”

Safora looked like she would vanish into the floor out of shame.

“You listen to me, Safora Pontis. If you don’t help me out here, we two are through. I am not gonna be friends with somebody, who lied to me, stole something while under my roof making me an accomplice in the process, AND then screwed me out of the chance to an extraordinary life” Laena growled. Afterward, she turned away from Safora refusing to even acknowledge her existence.

“How does it feel to screw with my stuff now, huh?” Ravela asked Safora openly mocking the girl. It was evident the waterworks were about to flow. Big tears rolled down her cheeks and now Ravela was the one to be most uncomfortable at this table.

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“Fine, take the stupid crystal and ruin your life see if I care.” Safora squeaked and ran off. The poor girl was balling her eyes out.

Laena instantly changed her attitude. Ravela looked into her eyes.

“That was heartless. You know she genuinely was looking out for you.”

*Crack!* The glass of the front door shattered as Safora left the Diner.

Ravela was almost glad that the girl hadn’t ripped out the door in her state.

Laena looked at Ravela defiantly. “She needed that wake-up call. I helped her in her obsession and she tried to screw me over at this point I’d say manifold.”

Ravela leaned back. “Doesn’t make it right to be cruel to her. Makes me question whether giving you this crystal might be a mistake.”

Ravela placed the crystal on the table in front of her. “If I give you this and you turn out with powers as you hope. Do try to be better.”

With that Ravela pushed the crystal toward Laena.

Laena frowned. “Safora had two crystals.”

Ravela responded with a glare. “The number of crystals isn’t relevant. Keep it on your person for the next day and try not to think too much about what could go wrong.”

Laena took the crystal and put it in her pocket. “Any other tips?”

“No, there is nothing you can do now. What will happen will happen.”

Ravela watched Laena leave the diner like a cat that had stolen the cream. She sincerely hoped she would turn out like Safora. If she turned out half as strong or versatile as Safora she’d be a great asset to have in her debt and maybe even on her side.

The waitress appeared beside Ravela. “Now, what was going on here? Safora was crying on her way out.”

“Nothing terrible. While I was out of town their teenage curiosity got the better of them. They tried to solve the ‘mystery man who lost his memory by unlocking my suitcase. Some young people got up to some shenanigans that parents don’t need to hear about. But I still had to tell ‘em off, I feel.

Hm, maybe I was a bit too harsh…then again they got ice cream…so how much of a monster could I possibly be, right?” Ravela looked at her favorite waitress for support.

“Well, they probably just wanted to take their minds off the accident. Don’t tell their parents or they will both be grounded for the entire holidays and that you can’t repair with ice cream… Well, not just one at least.” She began grabbing the empty dishes.

Ravela left her to it and pondered the enormous shift that just happened to her life. She was about to make powerful allies or enemies depending on how this whole situation turned out.

After paying the bill Ravela walked back home. She skipped dinner that evening as she was not in the mood to sit with ma Stone who had no idea she was mutating her grandchild. She felt the whole situation could only go wrong.

She got all her things and money together. Pulled her sword and pistol out of the ventilation shaft and sat down cross-legged on the bed. Just waiting for any sign that Laena had met a terrible fate at the hand of the crystal.

_________________________________________________________

Safora ran home crying. The fact that she had annihilated the door at Betty’s didn’t help at all. Her best friend had just told her off and now she might turn into a salt pillar or a hideous abomination because she wasn’t strong enough to tell her ‘No.’. It was all made so much worse by the fact that it was all her fault.

She tried to jump on her bed and bury her face in her pillows but she suddenly was once again stuck mid-air.

“Buuh.” She sobbed into the air. Safora before going with Laena to the diner felt great. Now she was heartbroken and the stupid power stopped her from crying into a pillow.

Safora tried to concentrate on dropping to her pillow through the sobbing and hiccups.

“Buh-But I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, Laena. Buh!” The tears rolled in big pearls down her cheeks.

*Plop!* Her face landed firmly on her favorite pillow.

*Knock Knock*

“Angelfish, can I come in?” Her father asked.

“No, go away! I wanna be alone.” She squeaked.

“If this is about the accident you can talk to me.” Her father tried to twist her arm.

“T-This hash nothing to do with that dumb accident. I-Is Markus here?” Safora suddenly had the urge to confide in her brother. “Buh.” She got up and plucked herself a tissue. Looking in the mirror, Safora saw that her eyes were already red and swollen.

“I’m getting Markus. You just be okay, alright?” Her father ran off downstairs. She didn’t know her father to be such a worry wart. She had to talk to Markus. ‘He had to keep his mouth shut about this whole thing. And…and I need a hug right now.’ “Buuh.” She sobbed and pulled another tissue.

She could hear her father tell Markus off. “You go up there and talk to her. She asked for you she is crying. She better be happy again by dinner, or you are grounded, you hear me? If mom comes home and finds her baby like this, it is me who sleeps on the couch. So go up there and be a brother.”

“And what am I supposed to tell her.” Safora could hear her brother ask helplessly.

She snorted with short laughter, all the while the tears still rolled. “Ew. Buh.” Grabbing more tissues, Safora tried to clean her nose and face.

*Knock Knock* “Hey, sis, it’s Markus. Can I come in?”

Safora opened the door. “Buh. Brother, come in. Hic. Buh.” ‘Stupid hiccups!’ Safora tried not to immediately become a crying mess again so that her brother won’t run out of the room right away.

“So about today. Buh.” Safora started as soon as the door closed.

She hugged her brother, careful not to squeeze him, scared to hurt him.

“Yeah, what was all that?” Markus hugged her back and softly patted her head.

“Buh. *Hic.* You see, um. You can’t tell anyone about this, okay? Promise me.” Safora tried pulling on her brother’s strings.

“I already saw a man survive a 200-meter drop, was lifted in the air by that man and saw my sister fly…ehm float? Just explain and stop trying to act like I am our dad and you’re trying to get something. It’s gross with all the snot and tears.”

Safora puffed her cheeks momentarily, forgetting that she was emotionally hurt. “Double douche! I *Hic.* am not gross. Buh. So uh, Ramiel was the one that caught our bus the day of the accident. He saved us all. So I thought I saw him that day down at the lake. *Hic.*

So I found out he was staying over at Laena’s place, and I might have badgered her into helping me snoop around his room. And there were these crystals I borrow-”

“You stole from him.” Her brother corrected her without any mercy for his poor little sister.

“Did not! So I borrowed those crystals from him. But he noticed as soon as he returned, and when he came to the training field, today I panicked and ran.”

“Because you stole his stuff,” Markus interjected unhelpfully.

“Shaddup. Buh. It wasn’t like that. So anyways, he was talking to me about them being dangerous, and when he said he was the one that saved us, I was about to give them back. That was when you came and pushed him off the cliff.”

“Hey, hey! I-I thought he was attacking you, okay?”

She mumbled into his chest. “Yew, theng yow.” She looked back up at him. “You know what happened till you left. It turned out that those stones changed me, and now I am a Super. But I-I got lucky. They could have just as well turned me into dust or stone. And Laena now pressured Ramiel to give her such a stone, and what if-. What if that hap- hap-happens to her and then it’s buh. Buh. All my fault, and then I lose my friend because I am a stupid busybody that h-h-*hic*had to steal from the man that saved all of us.”

Markus kept stroking her hair. “You only borrowed those stones, remember?”

“Buh. Yeah.” Safora sobbed into her brothers chest.

“It’s going to be alright, you hear me? Laena is gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine. And nobody will hate you. How could they? Come one, sis. Cheer up. It will be fine.” Markus tried to cheer her up.

“W-will it? How would you know that?” *hic*

Markus laughed and kept patting her head while she wailed and sniffled on his favorite shirt.

_________________________________________________________

Laena sat at the dinner table with her grandmother. The crystal was placed right on her chest, above her heart. She ate, wondering if she would feel any difference and when the change would happen. Her grandmother was unusually quiet, not that Laena would have much to tell her right now.

‘Yeah, my day was a disaster. My best friend stole from your guest. I might spontaneously ignite during the night. Normal stuff.’

Laena finished her meal, kissed her grandmother on the cheek after they did the dishes, and went straight to brushing her teeth and jumping into bed.

Laena thought about how mean she was to get her way today. Safora was crying. And although she thought that she had done that to herself, she still felt terrible about having made her friend cry like that.

“I will just apologize for it tomorrow. Not like you didn’t have it coming. Deceiving me like that and getting stupid flying powers as a reward.” She grumbled into her pillow. The crystal felt warm and yet cold under her pajama.

She closed her eyes and prayed. She didn’t traumatize her friend by burning the house down together with herself. She suddenly laughed at the thought of Ramiel sitting on his bed with all his things packed ready to jump out the window as soon as he could smell the smoke.

Sleep came with the weirdest of thoughts at times.