Mastering herself as the crowd’s jittering faded behind her was a difficult matter, even for Lavastro. The anger from Tempora’s idiocy still ran hot in her veins, fingers still tightening as if they might find his throat between them. It took an effort for her to retain some semblance of calm.

Kleidra didn’t help a scrap, orbiting her as always the moment she stepped from sight and into the tunnels.

“Sir, there’s something I need to mention.” The Wrathman began, unsurety in his voice grating on her last nerve.

“Can it wait?” She snapped.

“It can’t.”

Lavastro bit back her irritation.

“Speak, then.”

“It’s about your trip to the slums, sir. Frankly, as your body guard, I don’t feel comfortable allowing you to take risks like that. There were far too many easy shots and choke points there, and-”

“I’ll not have my movements restricted on the basis of a Wrathman’s paranoia.” Lavastro snapped. “The Megala Progenus would not have dispatched me to Unix practically alone if he weren’t confident in my safety.”

She spoke the truth, knowing full well it would be political suicide for Unix to allow her death within their own city. Still she found a stab of guilt. The man was simply doing his job, and she could see full well how needled the dismissal left him.

Lavastro continued heedless. She had far more pressing matters to attend to than her bodyguard.

Gem found herself struggling to walk, battling with her animacy just to keep from skipping.

She made a brisk pace still, for no amount of self control could keep her from hurrying. Not when the thought of meeting Karma rang so loud in her mind. Meeting Karma, and finally finding her tutor proven wrong beyond argument.

It was me. Gem reminded herself, surely for the thousandth time. The whole city saw, and they saw me win that battle. It was my light that blinded the undead, my nihil that drained its strength a moment before the finishing blow. My power that contended with it where everyone else was forced to stumble back and flee.

Gidiness threatened to overwhelm her once more as she walked, stopped only by the sight of Karma’s door around a corner. Gem hastened, growing more eager still.

She took a moment to steady herself before knocking, beating back disorienting elation and striking as dignified a rhythm as she could manage.

“Enter.” Came her friend’s voice, strong even through the wall. Gem pushed the door ajar, stepping into Karma’s quarters and finding her smile suddenly too strong to suppress.

She laid eyes on Karma curled up on a sofa, her nose in a book.

It was strange to see the Taik in such a position. Relaxed, leisurely even. Entirely at odds with all Gem had assumed about her. The effect was mitigated by the perpetual severity still lining her face.

“I was wondering when you’d stop by.” The Taik said. She didn’t look up.

“Wondering?” Gem asked, stepping forwards and closing the door behind her. “I assumed you’d predicted my arrival down to the second.”

“Funny.” Karma answered, eyes still on her book. “It always did irk me, when I found something beyond calculation.”

“How do you think the rest of us feel, living our entire lives like that?”

A smile crept onto Karma’s face at that, finally drawing her molten eyes from the paper.

“Are you trying to capture my attention with flattery?” She asked.

“Are you trying to pretend it isn’t working?” Gem answered.

Karma glanced at her book once more, doubtless to memorise the page, before placing it to one side and standing. An easy smile swelled over her expression.

“I assume you’re here to discuss your performance in the task yesterday?” She asked, eying Gem expectantly. The prompt was no less than the floodgates needed to open, excitement overriding all else in Gem’s head and sending her mouth to work almost automatically.

“Of course I am.” She grinned. “You were watching, right?”

“I was.” Karma said.

“So you saw how well I did.” Gem continued, feeling giddy once more at the memory. “How I fought even while my teammates were strewn about and helpless. Oh, did you see how poorly that blonde girl did when she tried the same thing without Crow Tempora to back her up?”

“I did.” Answered the Taik. It was the second, blunt response, so devoid of thought or passion, that gave Gem pause. She eyed her friend, saw the intensity behind her stare. Felt a cold worry creep down her spine.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. Karma didn’t answer immediately, stepping forwards first.

“You’re proud of your performance, then?” The woman began. Gem saw the test instantly, thought back to what she’d done. Realised her mistake.

“No.” She said, quickly. “I realise that I could have-”

Pain froze her mouth as Karma’s fingers closed around an ear, tugging hard enough that Gem thought it might be torn free.

“Don’t try lying to me, Gemini.” The Taik said, voice barely reaching Gem through the misery coccooning her. “You know it doesn’t work.”

“Let go!” She cried, feeling tears well in her eyes. They nearly fell with relief when Karma did so, leaving her to stumble back and fall into a chair.

“You ran in expecting to use your power and skill to crush anything that stood in your path, yes?”

“Yes!” Gem hissed, massaging her tortured ear, almost surprised to find it untorn.

Karma continued heedless of her discomfort.

“And when you were confronted by a greater enemy than you could match, let alone beat, what was your reaction?”

“I adjusted.” Gem snapped.

“No.” Karma interrupted. “You continued trying to use skill and power alone, as though your talent would somehow grow to meet the demand.”

“What does it matter? We still won.”

“You barely won.” The Taik said, icily. “And could have easily lost while you remained stubborn.”

Gem had no answer to that, save for a glare.

Why can’t she just be proud of me?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

It made her want to scream.

“I’m sorry.” She murmured instead, swallowing pride and indignity alike. Karma eyed her for a moment more, then sighed.

“Why do you think I’m angry?” The woman asked softly. Her question took Gem by surprise. She scrambled in silence for an answer.

“Because you think you’re wasting your time.” She said at last. Her heart sank to voice it.

Could this be Karma’s final straw? Surely not, over something as minor as this.

And yet the more she thought about her friend’s fury, the less minor it seemed.

“You’re wrong, Gemini.” Karma said. Her tone was like silk, so soft she couldn’t feel whether it remained hard beneath. “The reason your arrogant recklessness enraged me is because I watched you in that fight. I watched you struggle, retreat, get hurt. I watched, and all the while I felt certain I’d see you die.”

The sudden tenderness left Gem without air.

All strength and hardness bleached from the woman’s breaking voice, heat and fire drowned in her wetting eyes.

Gem hugged the Taik, ignoring the woman's surprise. Finding tears well in her own eyes as guilt threatened to draw sobs from her.

She was worried about me. Of course she was worried about me, I’m her friend.

“I’m sorry.” Gem said. Karma said nothing more, merely maintained the hug. Jaean sensibilities were the farthest thing from her mind as they embraced, buried by the comfort of Karma’s arms.

When they finally broke apart, she saw her friend’s armour back in place.

“It was clever, what you did at the end.” The woman noted, standing back up as she spoke. “With your nihil, I mean.”

Gem smiled, but it was a bitter expression. She had mixed thoughts on the battle’s climax, hiding them as she answered.

“Thank you. It was quite good, wasn’t it?”

“I’ll give you eighty points for execution.” Karma shrugged. “If a middling fifty for inspiration. I wasn’t aware you could control your null field like that.”

Meeting the Taik’s gaze with a smile, Gem shrugged.

“What can I say? I’m full of surprises.”

Surprises enough that even she’d been shocked to find out her control went so far. It had been luck and genius alone that had let her intuit how to shape the energies around Eden to engulf and weaken their foe while leaving him untouched.

Her mouth dried at the thought of how things may have ended had she erred.

“And you will be full of yet more surprises in the next stage, yes?”

Gem didn’t miss the warning in Karma’s voice. Changeable as the winds, she knew better than to assume the woman’s tenderness would keep her safe from another scolding were she to answer wrong.

“I will.” Gem said, nodding briskly and fighting the smile as it tried to creep onto her face. Karma seemed satisfied. Or perhaps merely amused.

“Very well then, Gemini. I shall wait and see whether your assurance has any weight. Is there anything else?”

“No.” Gem said, making her way from the room before Karma could say anything more. She’d heard and felt enough already.

Whatever it took, Gem would make sure her friend was awed in the next task.

She’d taken only four steps from the door when the clearing of a throat froze her. She turned slow, dread leaking in with a greater intensity than she’d felt since the undead.

Somehow it didn’t surprise her to see the grey-coated man leaning beside the door.

“Do you need something?” She asked, forcing a challenge to hide her fear.

The man didn’t answer immediately, merely looked at her. Face still, eyes dark and small. Scars twisting his nose and lips, mangling them to a passive, grim sneer.

“What?” He answered.

The word was strange in Gem’s ear, and it took her a moment to realise he’d spoken in Taikan, albeit of a rough and distorted form. Seizing her nerves, she answered in kind.

“I asked if you needed something from me.” Gem asserted, fearing the foreign words would betray her unease.

Once more he answered slowly, yet with an air that banished any notion he may have been dim witted. The man didn’t delay, merely took his time. Patient, not slow.

“I don’t.” Came his near unintelligible answer. Gem forced her chin high.

“Then might I ask why it is you were staring at me?”

Once more he took his time in answering, eyes remaining on hers with a steadiness that threatened to sap Gem’s strength. It was almost a relief when he finally spoke.

“Curiosity.” He said. A simple reply, and one that brought relief flooding her.

Of course, he’s seeing the Gemini for the first time.

“Well then, I’d like you to stop if at all possible. It’s disquieting.”

“Do you know why?” He asked, surprising Gem with the speed of his answer.

“Why you were staring at me? I can guess.”

“Why you find it so… Disquieting.”

Gem stared at him for a moment, wondering whether her Taikan was more flawed than she thought. After a few moments she spoke, deciding to keep faith in her fluency.

“I can’t say it’s particularly difficult to guess.”

“If you need to guess, then you don’t know.”

“Would you stop being cryptic.” She snapped, irritation replacing fear. “If you think you know something I don’t, then just fucking tell me.”

For the third time, he fell silent. Speaking only when Gem was about to raise her voice once more.

“It’s because you feel sick just looking at me. Like someone’s holding a knife to your neck, but you can’t put your finger on the cause.”

“And you’re the one responsible?” Gem asked. It was disconcerting to hear him word her thoughts so well. “Using magic without my noticing? Deciding to scare mystics half your age just because you can?”

“Magic.” The man repeated softly, a smile finally creasing his face and making the scars dance. “No, I’m not using magic. I’m not using anything. Have you never seen a magiphage before?”

In an instant it all clicked into place. Gem marvelled that she hadn’t realised immediately, then felt awash with a new emotion.

Different from fear, even moreso from disgust. Something beyond even the curiosity the man described.

Fascination.

“You’re like me.” She said, feeling her face lift into a grin at the realisation. Years among mystics had left Gem more familiar with magic than air itself, and yet in all that time she’d never once met a pariah.

Never once met any with whom her nihil was common ground.

“Like you?” The man laughed, deep and hearty like a drunkard. None of the dignity she’d come to expect in such places as the Crux. “No, I’m not like you. At least no more than Kaiosyni is.”

He nodded to the door of Karma’s room as he spoke, grinning still.

“If we’re so different, then why the curiosity?” Gem asked.

“If we weren’t so different, I’d have had none.” Answered Greycoat. “I was sceptical when Kaiosyni said you’d used nihil in that task. It didn’t show up on the display, obviously, and I’d seen you use enough magic to be doubtful. Wouldn’t have believed it at all, if I hadn’t heard all the stories.”

“So you’re satisfied now, then?” Gem asked. “You’ve seen the Gemini with your very eyes, witnessed evidence enough to accept my existence?”

He shrugged again.

“To a point. Not sure about the rumours saying you’re a mystic with all the powers of a magiphage, but you certainly have the basics down.”

“What do you mean?” She blurted out, suddenly finding a defensive flush burning her skin. “I’ve shown nihil aplenty, and shaped it to my benefit. Is that not magiphagery enough for you?”

Her challenge raised only an eyebrow.

“What do you really know of magiphagi?”

Gem opened her mouth to speak, then found the confident arrogance in Greycoat’s question all too unsettling. Karma’s admonishment surfaced in her thoughts.

“Less than you, I’m sure.” She mumbled, forcing temperance.

“I’d say you’re probably right then.” The man answered, a slight sneer to him. “Let me take a guess here, and let me know if it’s wrong. Did you learn about nihil mostly from books and classrooms?”

Gem hesitated a moment, then nodded reluctantly.

“Thought so.” He continued. “Then let me be the first to tell you that whatever it was you were told by your teachers and historians is probably utter shit. There’s more to magiphagery than nihil and ghost stories.”

Something shifted inside Gem’s belly like hatching insects. She felt a smile spread, irritation turning to elation, curiosity crushing discontent.

“What else is there?” She asked, not bothering to hide her ecitement.

The man’s mouth opened, then a muffled call came from the door beside him. Karma’s voice, oddly sharp, summoning him.

He turned to Gem, looking almost apologetic as he brought a hand to push through into the room.

“Sorry, you’ll have to ask some other time.”

Before she could protest he disappeared inside.