The silence that occurred as the adults left the room stretched on for what seemed like an eternity as Peni began to fidget slightly and the others glanced back and forth between Ezekiel and Aldro, waiting for one of them to make the first move.
“Well,” Aldor finally says as Ezekiel turns his attention to him, “It looks like momma’s boy doesn’t have mommy here to protect him anymore.”
“Who told you Void mages are worthless?” Ezekiel asks. He completely ignores Aldor’s attempts to taunt him, fully understanding that being goaded into a fight wouldn’t help him in this situation.
“...What?” Aldor asks in confusion. He couldn’t understand how this kid, eight years younger than him, was just ignoring his insults.
“Who told you Void mages are worthless?” Ezekiel repeated himself. “I know it wasn’t your mother, or your father, since they boxed your ears and punished you for insulting me when we spoke during the awakening ceremony, so I was curious as to who told you such lies.”
Aldor’s face was turning red at the reminder of what had happened not long ago. As well as at the insinuation that his knowledge was wrong, and that the words were lies.
But surprisingly enough, it was the siblings that spoke up first.
“They’re not lies!” Alys exclaimed as she and Everet stalked forward. “To dare to call the words of the Church of Light a lie is too much of an insult to allow it to stand.”
“Sister, no.” Everet said as he tried to hold his sister back, even as he was glaring at Ezekiel from behind her. “It’s not worth it right now.”
Glancing around the room, Ezekiel could see the flecks of sand laying around the room gliding across the ground as they started to gather around Alys’ feet.
“I don’t know about that. I think if the little brat wants to talk big, he should back it up.” Aldor said as he started moving his fingers, a stream of fire fluttering through them. “It’s not like Peni can’t patch him up if he gets in over his head. That’s the only reason she’s even welcome here after all.”
Peni couldn’t help but look down at her feet in embarrassment. Life mages weren’t well known for their combat prowess, mostly being regulated to supporters, farmers, or healers depending on their focused talents. To be honest, she didn’t really want to be here, but her circumstances meant she couldn’t actively go against Aldor at the moment. No matter how much she wanted nothing to do with taunting Ezekiel.
“I’d have thought that you would be above goading a ‘worthless’ Void mage into a fight. Aren’t you supposed to be better than me? If so, wouldn’t fighting me not prove anything at all? Why not do something that’s actually challenging, like sparring with Everet? I heard Inferno mages can’t do much when it comes to fighting Glacial mages. Of course, that could just be you.” Ezekiel said as he held his chin in a mockery of thoughtfulness.
“You little-” Aldor exclaimed as he clenched his hand. The fire within flaring up as a reflection of his anger. He stopped himself from attacking but took several seconds of deep breathing to calm down.
The rest just looked at him with concern. They knew that the adults weren’t in the room, but they didn’t want Aldor doing anything to Ezekiel. Peni might be a healer, but burns were still beyond her ability to fix, so if they did anything to Ezekiel, it could only be small bruises and cuts, so they could get rid of any evidence before Ezekiel could get them in trouble.
“Fine.” Aldor said as his temper cooled enough for his fires to go out. “Me and Everet will do a bit of sparring. But afterwards, you and Alys can show us what you’ve got. You’re ‘tougher’ than most people, aren’t you? It’s the only thing Void mages are known for other than being traitorous monsters.”
Around the room the other children shot Aldor a couple of strange looks. It seems like Aldor had more information than the rest of them did.
‘It seems like whoever is telling Aldor to hate Void mages is also giving him information that he isn’t supposed to have. I wonder if I can make him let a few things slip before our parents come back.’ Ezekiel thought to himself. Looking over to the side, he also noticed Shari moving to step forward.
“What about her?” Ezekiel says as he points towards Shari. “If you’re involving someone eight years younger than you, shouldn't you involve your sister as well? To let her prove herself?”
Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty about dragging an actual child into this fight, but it was clear that Aldor didn’t think well of anyone but himself, so the more he could get this little brat to dig a hole for himself the better. Besides, he doubted that Aldor would actually let any harm come to his sister. There’s no way he’d get away with his current behavior, but there was also no way he’d survive at all if his mother found out he’d hurt his little sister.
“She can spar with Stephen after we’re finished with you.” Aldor states as Stephen narrows his eyes, at both Aldor and Ezekiel, in frustration. He didn’t want to spar with a little kid. He wanted to chill in a mansion and not have to worry about anything bothersome. Shari just continued to look confused.
Ezekiel was just disappointed. He had hoped that involving his sister would get Aldor to stop this annoying behavior, but clearly Aldor didn’t understand a single thing regarding his current situation.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ezekiel could see the shadow behind one of the chairs off to the side of the open area was shaking slightly. This occurred outside the line of sight of the older children.
Ezekiel couldn’t help but smirk a little bit as he saw this. Now he felt confident that things were going to be alright. Of course, Aldor and the other children noticed him smirking, which only made Aldor more angry.
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“What’s so funny?!” Aldor yelled across the room.
“Your face.” Ezekiel said without thinking.
“You... “Aldor was starting to grit his teeth at how angry he was getting. He had been expecting Ezekiel to act similarly to his sister after his mother had left, but it seemed like the courage he’d shown previously at the awakening ceremony wasn’t just for show.
“Me.” Ezekiel said in reply. Simple, to the point, and with an expecting tone of voice, as if waiting for Aldor to make the first move.
He nearly did, as smoke started rising from his fists. But after a few deep breaths, Aldor calmed himself down enough to straighten up and once again dawn a mask of serene superiority.
Ezekiel couldn’t help but wonder how much and how long Aldor practiced such a look in the mirror. He knew there was no way that a kid like Aldor could get that kind of face right without quite a bit of practice. This time, however, Ezekiel decided that he wouldn’t taunt Aldor anymore than he already had. Instead, he just moved towards the side of the room, somewhat away from the others as Everet and Aldor moved to the center of the room, where they began throwing punches and kicks at each other from about ten feet apart. Each movement was accompanied by a small blast of sparks or water. Everet’s water didn’t seem to be doing that much, but it was enough to douse the sparks that Aldor was throwing around.
Seeing the magic being performed in front of him, Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel somewhat amazed at what he was seeing. Although he refused to show it on his face, he was utterly drawn in by the feats of magic.
A part of him understood that what was being done wasn’t anything special. Just basic elemental manipulation, which was really nothing compared to what he expected the higher level of magic could actually do. But given that he’d only seen small tricks performed by his parents, though at a larger scale, he didn’t have much to compare it to.
But the most amazing part, for him at least, was the fact that he could see small flashes appear whenever the water and fire thrown by Everet and Aldor made contact with one another. It greatly reminded him of the motes of light he saw when he was practicing his meditations. So focused on these flashes, Ezekiel found himself beginning to fall into the meditative trance for lightning, just as he had done the night before, closing his eyes as he did so.
To the other children, however, it seemed like Ezekiel was continuing to mock them, as he wasn’t showing any of his emotions on his face and wasn’t even watching as Everet and Aldor sparred. This led them to believe that he didn’t think that their magic was at all impressive. Something that was making Aldor more and more angry. Until finally, he couldn’t keep his focus anymore and his magic started losing restraint.
“RAAHG” Aldor yelled as he started punching and kicking with a greater ferocity. His movements were beginning to grow more and more erratic as he could feel Ezekiel’s emotionless gaze bearing into him. Everet was also growing haggard, but that was more because he was getting tired from defending against Aldor’s attacks. They had often sparred in the past, but never at the level that Aldor was raising the stakes to.
“HAAA'' Aldor gave one final yell as he threw a punch with his full force behind it. The plume of fire that flew out from his fist quickly evaporated the water that Everet had moved in front of himself to act as a shield. Luckily the fire itself didn’t make any contact with him, but the steam was still hot enough to give him some burns along his arms.
“AARG” Everet screamed in pain as he immediately jumped backwards as quickly as he could to get away from the boiling heat. He stumbled as he landed and fell to the ground clenching his arms in pain. Afraid to hold his injuries lest he hurt himself further.
“Everet!” Peni called out as she rushed forwards to the downed Glacial mage. “Hold still, I need to heal you before the burns have a chance to scar over.”
Peni immediately bent down and held her hands over Everet’s as they began to glow with a dull green light. It didn’t take long for Everet’s hands to stop shaking and unclenched as the pain slowly began to fade away. They still looked incredibly red, but there wasn’t much to be done about that as Peni herself was only a Tier 1 mage like the rest of them.
“Hold still. Just because I’ve dulled the pain doesn’t mean you can start moving just yet.” Penin said as her hands began moving up and down the length of Everet’s arms. “I’m going to fix the nerves first, so it’ll start to hurt again briefly, but if I don’t do this then there could be permanent damage to your hands.”
“Okay” Everet managed to squeak out as his hands started feeling tingly as a warmth that was only slightly less painful than the burns Aldor had given him began to spread through his hands.
“Tch. Don’t baby the guy, Peni. It’s just a few small burns.” Aldor said as he turned away from Everet and looked over at Ezekiel.
“You nearly burned off all his skin!” Peni exclaimed in shock. Aldor had always been dismissive of his so-called friends, but he’d always been sure never to go too far during sparring. “You know your magic is the most dangerous out of all of us. You need to be more careful, and make sure you control your temper. You know getting emotional can disrupt a person’s magic at the lower Tiers.”
Aldor ignored Peni’s words as he glared angrily at Ezekiel, whose eyes were still closed as he remained in a semi-meditative state. The others in the room were also feeling a little indignant as they watched Ezekiel seemingly ignore the world around him.
“I wouldn’t be getting angry if this worthless waste of space wasn’t here. He’s supposed to be sparring with us, but here he is falling asleep!” Aldor’s voice rose in volume as he gestured towards Ezekiel’s form. “You hear that, you stupid nobody! You’re nothing more than a waste of space. So why don’t you stop standing around with your eyes closed and get over here and do something!”
Aldor’s words were punctuated by the throw of a fist as he punched out towards Ezekiel.
Shock flowed through Peni and the other kids. They knew Aldor was likely to do something stupid and dangerous, but to attack a newly awakened child, one who was nearly a decade younger than him, was beyond their wildest expectations.
“Aldor! You’re going too far!” Stephen shouted as he moved his arm in a swinging motion towards Ezekiel. A gust of wind blew out from his hand as he did. “Move Kid!” he called out.
He knew that using his Tempest to push Ezekiel out of the way was dangerous, but hopefully it would keep him safe, and if it didn’t, at least his attempt to save the child of a True Hunter like Evelyn would hopefully stay her wrath if he got hurt.
Luckily, he didn’t have to worry too much, as Ezekiel quickly dropped to the ground, eyes still closed, rolling forward underneath the small blast of fire that had come shooting out of Aldor’s fist.
Which was a good thing, as the moment the wind thrown by Stephen met the fire thrown by Aldor a large boom occurred as the wind fanned the flame and caused the fire to grow exponentially.
Everyone in the room quickly covered their ears and face as the sudden increase in heat and light caused them to flinch back. It took them a couple of seconds to calm down and take a look at what had happened.
“Stephen” Ezekiel said as he stood up from his crouched position several feet in front of where he was standing before. “Thank you for trying to get me out of harm's way, but in the future please remember that, unlike Glacial which douse Flame, Tempest enhances Flame, unless it’s sufficiently powerful enough to buffet the flames to the point where it blows out.”
The others continued to stare in shock as they listened to Ezekiel tell them something that they all should’ve known.
“Ah... right. Thank you for the reminder.” Stephen managed to say as he overcame his shock.
Finally, Ezekiel opened his eyes and turned towards Alys. Ignoring Aldor completely as he moved towards the center of the room.
“Now then. I think it’s my turn. Right?”