“Azia!”
It was rare that she slept in. Nearly every time it had happened, it was deserved.
“Azia, get up!”
Streaming sunlight usually sufficed to wake her. If exhaustion won out, she let it. A Thunderstorm only days prior seemed like reason enough for sleep.
“Azia, I know you’re in there!”
Her face still ached. The consistent friction against the pillow wasn’t helping, although the burn had since dulled to something manageable. She still loathed actually waking up, by which the pain would so quickly rush to greet her skin. Already, she was wincing. It was probably her fault for sleeping on her side.
“Aziaaaa!”
Whatever was pounding on her door was rhythmic and loud. It came with a voice far louder, muffled as it was. Azia groaned, and the groan she offered up nearly matched the same volume. She hoped Klare could hear it through the wood.
With notable effort, Azia pushed herself off of the pillow, stumbling her way out of bed as she rubbed her eyes. If the ample rays beating down onto her borrowed desk meant anything, it really was reasonably deep into the morning--for her, at least. It still didn’t justify obnoxiousness.
Borrowed room or not, she didn’t regret the force with which she yanked the door open. She was just as justified in her own volume--doubly so, for how near she was to an intrusive researcher. “What?” Azia snapped loudly.
The world was blurred by grogginess. Aggressive blinking was only mildly helpful. It took time for her eyes to focus, and yet more time to register the absence of the shawl. The spearing violence in one hand was of equal note, propped firmly against the floor as it was. Under lights beyond the threshold, it didn’t sparkle. That was new.
Azia raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is that?”
Klare only peered past her, judgmental eyes lingering on a messy bed. “Since when do you sleep in?”
“Shut up,” she hissed. “Seriously, what is that?”
With certainty, it wasn’t enathium. The polearm was nothing if not wood alone, really. Honed to hostile curves and sharpened edges, Azia could hardly register the mortal material as a blade at all. It still spoke to a threat, granted.
Klare was unfazed by the interrogation, her eyes drifting to the same abrasive wood upright at her side. “Practice glaive.”
It was Azia’s turn for judgmental eyes. “You shouldn’t be practicing anything. You’re still sick.”
Klare shrugged. “I feel pretty good, actually. Woke up without any symptoms. I think it might be gone, at this point.”
“It’s only been a few days. You’re pushing it.”
“I’m fine,” Klare argued, waving her other hand dismissively. “Look, that’s not even the point. Which room is Seleth’s?”
Azia blinked. “Seleth?”
“Yeah. Forgot what room he’s staying in. I wanna say it’s the one three or four rooms down the hall, but I feel like I’m gonna get the wrong--”
“What do you need Seleth for?” Azia asked, her tone just as judgmental.
Klare answered her with the tiniest shake of a false glaive, shifting against the floor pitifully. Azia flinched.
“What? We’re not even supposed to get Standard until tomorrow. You’re the one who said he could fight on his own. You suddenly think he needs backup?”
Klare rolled her eyes. “No, I don’t think that. I’m well aware that he’s capable of kicking ass.”
Azia’s eyes were on the wooden weapon again. “So, then…why would you need--”
It clicked, eventually. It didn’t do so with grace. Azia’s wandering gaze became a glare, cold and piercing as it ran through a researcher. “No.”
Klare only smirked. “He’ll be fine.”
“No!” Azia outright growled.
“You are so defensive of that boy,” Klare muttered.
“Klare, you’re sick,” she argued, gesturing aggressively to the girl herself. “You’re going to hurt yourself, first and foremost. More than that, you’re an idiot.”
The hand that was spared of a glaive settled onto Klare’s hip. “How many times have you actually seen him fight?”
Twice.
“Once.”
Out of everyone she could’ve considered admitting it to, she would’ve rather died than told Klare.
Klare shifted her weight onto one foot. “I know what I said about the controlled environment thing with the Rain. I’m still right, to be fair. Even so, this would be more controlled. You could study whatever the hell you want. No Precipitation, no interruption, just--”
“What do you get out of this?”
Klare returned her razor-lined gaze with a look far more smug. It was awful. “Dunno what you mean.”
Azia narrowed her eyes. “I have a vague idea already. I don’t know why I’m even bothering to ask.”
“I mean, the whole time you’ve been with him, you’ve never been interested in pushing his limits? Don’t you think it’d be cool to…I don’t know, take him on yourself?”
It hadn’t been.
“No, I don’t.”
She’d admit that much, at least.
“Suit yourself,” Klare finished. “Be involved or don’t, it doesn’t faze me. He’s everyone’s science project now, right? Give me a turn.”
There was no non-incriminating way to warn her of Seleth’s prowess, at this point. In truth, Azia wasn’t even sure as to how far that stretched. So, too, did she refuse to confess to her actual intrigue the moment it crossed her mind. Klare was better than Precipitation, granted. To be fair, Precipitation was predictable.
The way she blinked and lost a researcher was just as unpredictable. By the time Azia became cognizant of the lull in conversation, footsteps had filled the void. They echoed down the hallway, torn from the threshold and dragging Azia’s anxieties along. Scrambling to throw her boots on and project her voice all at once was a trial.
“Where are you going?” Azia shouted.
Klare’s voice was distant, and grew ever more so. “It’s the third room on the left, right? Or is it the fourth? I forgot.”
It was, in fact, the third. Azia had no plans to tell her, although she had suspicions that the researcher would figure it out the hard way. “I don’t even know if he’s in there! Klare, just leave him alone!”
“At least let me ask if he’s up for it.”
There was no point, really. She had a strong feeling she knew what Seleth’s answer would be already. “No!” Azia hissed again.
By the time her bag was on her back, she was left to outright sprint. The traveling sound of knocking was as ominous as it was aggravating, and Azia practically slammed the door shut behind her. Wandering eyes were sparse. Still, they were there, and they clung to her skin as she raced down the corridor.
Of the two guesses Klare had as to Seleth’s borrowed abode, she was correct on her first attempt. That was a bad thing. There was an irony in the way by which she was somewhat more gentle with the boy’s door than Azia’s own. “Seleth, you in there?” she called.
Azia doubted he wasn’t. What was late for her was, possibly, still early for him. She’d grown used to prying him from sleep at dawn, and he seldom awoke with the sun of his own accord. If anyone had earned the right to rest, it was him. For more reasons than one, Klare was driving her insane.
Had a practice glaive not somewhat barred her reach, Azia would’ve snatched Klare’s wrist away from the wood. “Let him sleep!” she snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Oh my God, you really are protective,” Klare mumbled with a grin.
“Why do you have to do this now? If you want to fight him that badly, the least you could do is wait until he’s awake! Do this later!”
Ideally, Klare wouldn’t have done it at all. Azia would deal with that part when she got to it. Redirection was a weapon in and of itself, for the time being.
It didn’t work, anyway. Klare was still knocking. “I wanna do this before it gets too hot out.”
Azia was more or less pulling at her scarf in aggravation. “And you want to do it outside, in the heat, while you’re sick. Does your sister know about this?”
Even Kassy wasn’t a deterrent. There were no deterrents, apparently. “She’ll probably find out once we start. She’ll come looking for me, at some point. Can’t friggin’ stop her.”
Azia never made it to more scolding. Klare forewent knocking altogether, and one hand around the doorknob reconfirmed a bad habit that twisted Azia’s stomach into knots. Even now, so far from another Institute that had come to shelter him, Seleth couldn’t be bothered to lock the door.
There was no room to intervene beyond a sharp bark of the researcher’s name. As expected, it solved nothing. Klare didn’t hesitate to force her way in, false glaive and all. “Hey, Seleth, are you--”
This wasn’t the way that Azia had expected her to find out about the bubble. To be fair, Seleth had brought it up himself during Dissemination. If Klare had forgotten, then that was her problem. She stared--excessively. Azia sighed.
“Whoa,” Klare breathed, blunt or otherwise.
“Yes, he does that,” Azia muttered. “He’s asleep. Now leave him be.”
One open-handed gesture towards the very aloft cocoon of blue served to emphasize her irritation. It came with a very unconscious boy, comfortably curled and adrift in submerged safety. What tranquility Seleth clung to even in sleep definitely fueled defensiveness that Azia recognized. It was slowly becoming palpable in her blood, and she was grateful that Klare didn’t call her on it again.
Klare approached the vacant bed with caution, fixated largely on its levitating owner. As always, Seleth didn’t surrender so much as a drop of coddling purity, nestled in crystal that caught peeking sunlight behind him. He was every bit as angelic asleep--and silent--as Azia had grown used to seeing. It made Klare’s interruption of his peace infinitely more frustrating. So near to shining repose, Azia was all but certain the girl would reach out and brush her fingertips along the coagulated waters.
She didn’t. She didn’t even opt for her hand. She still chose the harassment option, wooden and violent as it was. Two palms grew wrapped around the shaft of the practice weapon, and Klare raised its pointed tip high.
Somewhere between fast and slow, she leveled the false glaive with the curves of the bubble. Azia wasn’t sure what part of her prioritized verifying that Seleth was, in fact, hovering above the mattress. She wasn’t certain that the rudest awakening imaginable would be worth anything in the first place.
“What is your problem?” Azia hissed once more, straddling a shout and a whisper all at once.
“Does this work?” Klare asked anyway.
She’d thought to test the same thing herself, once. These weren’t the circumstances she was hoping for, if Azia still hoped for them at all. Ignorance was only fuel to Klare’s fire, if offered. Azia went with anger. It was fresh enough. “My God, Klare, just leave him alo--”
Her words were slower than wood, let alone a curious researcher. In a motion equal parts quiet and swift, Klare plunged the tip of the glaive past bubbling walls and into the depths of Seleth’s sanctuary. Enveloped in stirring blues, the assault was--shockingly--uneventful. Azia blinked.
Klare raised an eyebrow, staring at the false blade still lodged within the waters. She’d done little more than disturb the surface, really, earning the tiniest of traveling ripples and distressed sloshing. Seleth was more than comfortable, more than smothered, and more than unfazed. A bubble so fresh and pure was immune to the pointed blow, floating peacefully forever. In the worst way, Klare had answered exactly one pressing question on Azia’s behalf.
Her eyes flickered to the alchemist’s own. “It didn’t pop.”
It wasn’t as though Azia had any experience attempting the same. “I…I don’t even know if it can.”
“Well, how does he get out?”
Azia sighed, reclining against the doorway. “He does it himself, once he’s awake. He gets rid of it, I guess. You’re not gonna get him out of there any faster.”
Klare stared into floating purity and cocked her head. “Maybe if I use something sharper?”
“No, nothing sharper,” Azia spat. “Nothing else at all.”
“How do you usually get him to wake up?”
Resisting the urge to growl was getting difficult. “It doesn’t matter!”
It mattered to Klare, clearly. She pushed. “What if I start yelling? Like, can he hear me in there?”
“I can hear you.”
Klare outright jumped. Even from a distance, and even calm as Seleth’s voice came, Azia ended up doing the same. For how violent wood was still intruding into his chrysalis, it was a miracle that the sudden motion didn’t serve to injure him. Dulled by heavy waters, the drifting glaive didn’t get far.
Seleth’s fingers trailed along the edges of the false blade, and that kept it just as stable. When he’d unfurled from his little ball was beyond Azia, engrossed in scolding as she’d been. Now, prone and afloat, his sleepy grin and teasing touch spoke to anything but distress.
“Whatcha got there?” Seleth tried, settling one cheek into his other hand comfortably.
The strain on Klare’s face contrasted starkly with an aloof awakening. Even now, she didn’t attempt to withdraw the weapon. “I-I, uh…I was just…I figured I’d…you know.”
There was something cathartic about watching her struggle for words in the face of compromising hostility. Azia didn’t bother coming to her aid. She deserved it, particularly given what she’d planned to put the boy through.
There was a brief moment where Azia wondered if Seleth would be angry. Given who she was talking about, that didn’t last. His grin only brightened, fatigue be damned. “It’s not gonna break. It doesn’t work like that. I respect the effort, though.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Klare flushed. Slowly, she retrieved the glaive at last, delicately sliding the dripping wood out from the wavering blues that had choked it. “Sorry,” she mumbled, almost inaudible.
Wandering eyes beyond a bubble rose to meet Azia’s own. Seleth wiggled his fingers at her half-heartedly, fatigued or otherwise. “Good morning. That’s one way to wake up, I suppose.”
Azia crossed her arms, not bothering to restrain a smirk. “I told her to let you sleep. That didn’t work out.”
“It’s alright,” he reassured, kicking his feet lazily as he drifted. “Still worried about me? I could seriously get used to this. Not that waking up to that face is ever a bad thing, anyway.”
She would’ve shrugged it off, normally. It was only when Klare’s baffled expression stung her that Azia flinched. She didn’t need to say it. To be fair, in the face of Seleth’s flirting, Azia couldn’t blame Klare. It was probably her fault for not disclosing exactly one quirk of her unfortunate anomaly.
Azia cleared her throat, instead. “You can go back to sleep, if you want. We’ll get out of your way. We didn’t--”
“Not yet,” Klare interrupted sharply, shooting her a different hostile gaze altogether. “I want to ask you something first.”
It didn’t matter that her eyes were on Azia. Her words were for Seleth, and he took them as such. His attention was on the soaked glaive past his waters, anyway. “What’s that thing?”
Klare’s eyes followed the path of his own. Her smile was nothing short of concerning. “It’s a practice glaive. It still hurts, though. At the very least, it probably won’t kill anybody.”
Seleth tilted his head, and the rest of him followed suit. Slowly, he began the absentminded process of floating upside-down. Azia had never bothered asking how the weightlessness felt. She made a mental note to press him on it later, somewhat distracted by his casual movements. “And you have that…why?” he finally asked.
The same concerning smile brightened. “You’re strong. I already know that much. Hell, everyone does. I wanna see what that looks like up close.”
When Seleth only continued to stare, Klare shook the glaive demonstratively. The stray droplets she sent splattering against his bed in the process were inconsiderate, somewhat. “Like, without the Rain, and without anyone’s life being in danger. For science. All that fun stuff.”
Seleth blinked. “Are you asking to fight me?”
Where once was a smile now erupted a grin. It was awful. “If you’re up for it.”
“You can say no,” Azia interrupted, her eyes narrow.
Seleth’s grin was worse--ever more brilliant and ever more smug. Azia had figured it would be, inverted or not. “I mean, you’re the one who said she’s weaker than you. It’d be nice to finally see if that’s true. Dunno if alchemists fight differently than researchers, anyway.”
Klare’s face fell. A sharp gaze shot to Azia, instead. “Wait, have you fought him before?”
Azia had half a mind to fight her first, if not solely for the sake of knocking her unconscious before her thoughts went any further. “Seleth, don’t let her pressure you. Besides, she’s still sick.”
“I’m fine, damn it,” Klare argued, her eyes on Seleth nearly pleading. “Look, I know the Rain stuff isn’t supposed to be for a little while, but this would still be a good opportunity to study some things. We’d be able to--”
“I’ll do it.”
Klare bit her tongue. “Really?”
The process of drifting back onto his stomach was slow, if not consistent. He’d outright made a full rotation. This was absolutely not what Azia was supposed to be focusing on. His entire existence was a distraction, really, and she was eagerly counting the moments until he banished the bubble. “Sounds fun,” Seleth said, the annoying amusement in his tone just barely distorted.
Klare practically glowed. Azia practically bashed her head against the doorframe in exasperation. The resulting thud against wood was loud enough for concern. She’d end up with a headache either way, at this rate. “I don’t know what I expected,” Azia grumbled.
“You know you wanna see,” Seleth teased. “Don’t lie to yourself. You get a bit of research out of it, too, right?”
He wasn’t wrong. It was still ridiculous. “I could’ve gotten whatever I needed tomorrow. This is unnecessary. She only wants to fight you because she’s obsess--”
“Klaaaare?”
Where Azia had tried and failed to instill any semblance of restraint into the researcher, her own name dipped in sunshine sufficed. Klare stiffened in time with clacking sandals, echoing well beyond the doorway. They weren’t distant for long, granted. She swore under her breath.
There was something almost satisfying about her sudden lack of bravado. “What’s wrong?” Azia asked anyway.
“Could you please tell her I’m not freakin’ sick anymore?” Klare asked through gritted teeth. “She won’t leave me alone about it.”
“That’s your problem,” Azia shot back. “For what it’s worth, I’m on her side.”
Klare didn’t get to argue. Azia could more or less feel the morning sunshine pressing up against her back long before the feeling was literal. There were two hands on her, eventually, clasped atop her shoulders and peering into the room. “Are you in here? You’re not supposed to be--”
Kassy cut herself off. Shining blue outdid whatever sunny energy she could bring along. Her eyes glittered in time with tranquil waters, and she lost her breath altogether. To be fair, she hadn’t gotten to see it in Raverna.
Seleth wiggled his fingers again. “Hey, Kassy.”
Sunshine won, eventually. Kassy more or less shoved her way past Azia, leaving the alchemist slamming into the doorframe painfully. Klare was irrelevant in the face of a beautiful bubble, and the librarian hurtled herself onto the empty bed. For a moment, given the sheer height of her jump, Azia wondered if Kassy would smash into the hovering chrysalis face-first. Where she cast her sparkles high, Seleth threw a grin below, adrift and unfazed once more.
“It’s a bubble,” Kassy breathed, curious fingers already reaching above her head.
Azia raised an eyebrow. “I told you about the bubble.”
She’d been at Dissemination, too. Either Kassy didn’t hear twice over, or she didn’t care twice over. Both were believable. “It’s so pretty,” she went on. “Did you sleep in there?”
Seleth’s soft laughs came with fleeing bubbles of their own. “You know it.”
She didn’t bother asking for permission to touch. Her fingertips were more gentle than an intrusive glaive, granted. Kassy’s nails delicately pierced the wavering walls, and she only beamed as her skin grew engulfed in aquamarine. At the very least, she seemed happy about it. Whatever straying droplets came to sprinkle her hair only fueled satisfied giggles.
“Guess everyone came to say hi to me this morning,” Seleth teased, stretching comfortably within his watery confines. “I feel special. When are we doin’ this whole thing, anyway?”
His eyes fell to Klare. It took time for the girl to tear her own from a spellbound Kassy. “Whenever you’re ready. It gets hot outside, so I wanted to do it sooner rather than later.”
He shrugged. “Fine by me. I’m good with sunshine.”
Kassy gave him that much, anyway--literally, for once. She traded soaked skin for obscured panes, swiftly withdrawing her hand from the depths of his waters. Her path to the window left her outright bouncing her way off of the bed and onto her feet. Azia once more feared she’d fall, given how quickly she was moving. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked in the process.
Klare was, again, distracted by her energy. “We were…gonna fight. Sparring, I guess. Research purposes.”
Facing the window or not, the excitement in Kassy’s voice traveled with ease. “You’re gonna fight Seleth?”
Seleth’s head flopped backwards towards her, and the rest of him slowly began to follow suit. Azia again had a distraction of her own, whether or not she wanted to match with a researcher. “You wanna come watch? It’ll be fun.”
With balled hands full of sheer cloth, Kassy tore the curtains wide open. Streaming sunlight was simultaneously gorgeous and painful, for how Azia’s pupils suffered immediately. It took time to stop squinting. When she found the drive to open her eyes in full, the rays tangled in shimmering waters were a solid consolation prize. Ensnared in brilliance, Seleth was blessed with more of a gemstone than a bubble. The sight was almost surreal. More than anything, it was divine.
Seleth only stared at her. Kassy clasped her hands together in delight. “Wow, it’s so sparkly in the light!”
“Is she usually like this with him?” Klare muttered, casting her pointed gaze towards Azia.
Azia submitted to a smile. “Yes, actually. Not everyone starts trying to fight people they just--”
“This is like breakfast for you, right? Does it taste like anything?” Kassy pressed, bouncing on her heels. “What's the sensation like? I mean, do you ever actually feel hungry, or does that not happen? What do you--”
Versus her sister, Kassy’s elation was far less of a catalyst for aggravation. One of them had pure intentions. If Azia had her way, she’d shirk true sunshine and indulge that of a librarian indoors. Still, Seleth’s grin was an unnecessary spark to a fire yet more absurd. Long before toxic misery had come to touch the ground, Azia was miserable in another way altogether.
Neither option came with true peace, granted. For all of the joyous exclamations that followed, Azia would forever relish the look on Kassy’s face in the wake of a bursting bubble.
Beneath the swelling sunshine, Azia’s face was more irritated than the rest of her. She had no plans to admit to the way her blisters objected to the heat, lest she earn the same fawning concern from Kassy. There was something both comical and frustrating about the way she’d shirked her nursing duties the moment that Seleth entered the fray. Not once had she scolded Klare for a reckless challenge made on the cusp of illness. Curiosity won, apparently.
In truth, Azia had half-expected for the Research Institute to harbor at least some form of training facility. Given the lack of combat-certified researchers, the absence made enough sense. If nothing else, it would’ve spared her the burning light of day, early or not. It was the first time in almost a week that Azia had set foot outside in anything less bulky than her gear. The rippling breeze was welcome, and she counted exactly one blessing.
As to where they’d ended up in the first place, she wasn’t sure. Whatever exit Klare had dragged her through was indiscernible from those she’d find elsewhere, for how symmetrical the rounded building was. Azia gave her silent thanks to the height of the Institute, stretching well into the sky and blessing her with an ample shadow in turn. Shade was welcome. The moment she had the chance, she sank into it, her back pressed up against the smooth masonry.
Kassy joined her. It was the only sunshine she could tolerate in cooler darkness. She hadn’t stopped beaming in at least twenty minutes, and she was practically vibrating. “Have you ever gotten to see him fight before? Like, besides the Rain?”
She hadn’t admitted it to Klare, and she had no plans to admit it to Kassy. Azia took refuge in her bag, flipping the canvas flap and rustling within accordingly. “No. Frankly, I didn’t want it to be like this. Control your sister, would you?”
Kassy clasped her hands behind her back, reclining against the wall. “Are you gonna fight him, too?”
Azia was going to fight the next person who brought up anything adjacent to the subject, at this rate. She traded harsh words in wait for a journal and a pencil. “I’m just going to take notes. Whether or not I want to, really. If it’s gonna happen anyway, I might as well try to get something out of it. I’ve given up on stopping her.”
She speared the tip of her pencil bitterly towards a researcher more than eager, trudging undeterred into desert sands. A shielding grin paired well with a false glaive, lying loosely in wait at her side. Azia’s venom was inaudible--for both of them, ultimately. The anomaly trailing in a researcher’s footsteps wasn’t much more tolerable.
As to which of them seemed more satisfied, Azia didn’t bother guessing. Two grins were disastrous in equal measure. Whatever positioning they’d silently agreed on sufficed, and the gap they carved on a sandy battlefield-to-be was reasonable. It wouldn’t hold for long, probably. Seleth stretched with somewhat more drastic motions than were necessary.
“Alright, so, like, are there rules to this? Tell me what I’m doing, here,” he said, carefully rotating his shoulders in sequence.
Klare widened the same gap just the slightest bit further, stealing several steady steps in reverse. When she came to a halt, she stamped the wooden base of the glaive firmly into the sand below. “I didn’t actually think that far ahead. I figured we’d just…fight.”
“What the hell do you mean you didn’t think that far ahead? This was your idea!” Azia snapped from the shade. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised!”
Seleth was unfazed. He’d moved on to his legs, stretching accordingly. “I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never fought with anyone on purpose. I’m not sure how this works, entirely. Give me some boundaries. A win condition, or something.”
“Do you have anything in mind?” Klare asked.
His eyes drifted to the glaive, still steady and idle. “You’re gonna fight with that, right?”
Klare’s gaze followed along, briefly. “Yeah.”
Seleth adjusted his sleeves as he spoke. “Then I think I’ve got something to work with. You can just…try to overpower me, I guess? Knock me down, get that thing at my throat, whatever you’ve gotta do. Does that work?”
Only now did Klare emulate much the same preparatory stretching, with or without a glaive in hand. “I was leaning towards that much.”
“I’m sure you were,” Azia hissed.
For once, Seleth’s eyes fell to her. “What’s goin’ on with you?”
The deep breath she took wasn’t nearly enough. Azia only made half of an attempt to choose her words carefully. “She doesn’t care about research. This has nothing to do with research.”
Seleth blinked. “What?”
“Ignore her,” Klare insisted, cracking her neck. “She hates fun.”
“She’s competitive,” Azia went on through gritted teeth. “I’m an idiot for not realizing this would happen eventually. You’re an anomaly. You’re a novelty. Of course she’s going to want to fight you.”
Whatever part of her had hoped he would deflate beneath the term was instantly dismissed. If anything, Seleth thrived under it, his grin nurtured by the concept. He returned his playful gaze to his opponent-in-wait. “I’m a novelty, huh?”
“I mean, you’re the one who said you were strong,” Klare argued. “If you were me, wouldn’t you do the same? There’s not exactly a lot of solid competition around here, anyway.”
Seleth raised one hand to the same smug smile in thought. “You’re the thrill-seeking type, aren’t you?”
Klare smirked. “Not really. This is an exception, if anything.”
When he flexed his fingers, clenching and relaxing dry fists repeatedly, the motion was almost unnerving. “Don’t worry. I’ll play along.”
“This is so stupid,” Azia muttered under her breath.
“Who are you gonna cheer for?” Kassy asked, already bouncing on her heels yet again.
“Neither of them,” Azia spat. “They’re ridiculous. I hope they both lose.”
Kassy folded her hands together in front of her dress. “It’s okay. I don’t know who to cheer for, either. I thought I’d cheer for Klare, but I think it’d be fun if Seleth won, too. What if I cheer for Klare, and you cheer for Seleth? Or we could do the other way around, too.”
“Kassy, if you don’t cheer for me, I swear to God,” Klare snapped, distantly or otherwise.
“If he gets hurt, it could mess with the Rain plan tomorrow,” Azia grumbled to the librarian alone. “This isn’t just stupid. It’s reckless.”
“I don’t think he’s gonna get hurt,” Kassy reassured, beaming. “He’s Seleth. He’ll be okay.”
“Sounds like she thinks I’m gonna win,” Seleth teased, adjusting his bangs half-heartedly. “At least somebody believes in me.”
“That is not what she said,” Klare growled.
When he dragged one foot backwards along the sand, there was little more stalling that Azia could do. Surrendering to the part of her that prioritized her notes was miserable. Long before bubbles had sprung to life beyond his fingertips, Seleth’s patient hands had risen to grace the air.
His first bout had been marred by both the darkness and her own panic. The second one had been skewed, made abnormal by virtue of bursting blood. In the face of violence in broad daylight, Azia really would have access to all that she could need. Even as she watched him brace, the thought didn’t leave her any less frustrated.
“Azia?”
That left her confused, mostly. It took her a moment to stop biting her pencil.
It took longer to track down a voice so soft, her eyes drifting in unison with yet more around her. Smothered in thick garments as he was, Azia feared for the boy’s health beneath the climbing sun. Really, she hadn’t expected him to be outside in the first place, typically tethered to one towering room. By no means was he unwelcome.
The fact that he could navigate shifting sands with such skill, immune to a cloak chasing his ankles dangerously, was impressive. Not once did he stumble, with or without the proper shoes to be here at all. “There you are,” he said.
Azia’s ire fizzled immediately. “Cailin?”
His smile was just as soft as she’d remembered it being. Granted, it was a recent memory to begin with. “It took me a while to find you.”
“You were…looking for me?” she asked. “Why? How did you even know I was here?”
“Oh, hey, you finally got out of that stuffy observatory,” Seleth joked, handing the astronomer a two-finger salute. “Welcome to sunlight.”
“Stop it,” Azia scolded.
Cailin only laughed softly. That, too, was familiar. “Hello, Seleth.”
“Who is this?” Kassy whispered, near enough to make Azia jolt.
She found a smile of her own, regardless. “This is Cailin. He runs the observatory of the Institute.”
Azia finally got to contrast starlight and sunshine side by side once and for all. Kassy’s beaming grin put Cailin to shame--as did the sparkle in her eyes. “That’s so cool! Do you get to look at the stars?”
He nodded. “That’s my job, yes.”
“Good timing,” Klare called. “Bigger audience.”
Cailin only tilted his head. “Audience?”
“Ignore her,” Azia interrupted, unable to bite back the creeping irritation in her voice. “You said you needed me?”
His eyes widened, and he stiffened awkwardly in turn. “O-Oh, I’m sorry. I just wanted to give you this.”
It took her a moment to figure out what “this” was. One hand came outstretched, and Cailin offered up small papers only slightly sturdier than those of her journal. The color matched what she’d seen scattered amongst his shelves, for the most part. In a way, it was nostalgic.
When Azia took them into her own hands with care, she briefly wondered if they’d crumble. They didn’t, and that was a relief. The splattered numbers and measurements fit in well alongside values she could just barely dissect. For the most part, she got the idea. She still read over it twice, just in case.
Azia raised her eyes to him. “Is this…”
Cailin clasped his hands together behind his back. Whether it was a calm gesture or something more shy, she wasn’t sure. “It’s a forecast. For the next two weeks, I mean. I recalculated the entire projection, just to be sure everything was accurate. Nothing changed, thankfully. That was done with the tropospheric model, so it should be fine. I’m sorry I didn’t get it to you sooner.”
She only smiled. “I appreciate you going through the trouble at all.”
“I had a bit of a hard time finding you,” he repeated. “Someone told me they saw you and Klare go out the southeastern exit. What are you all doing here?”
Azia sighed. “You don’t want to know.”
“Sparring,” Klare answered on her behalf, heaving the glaive up into two readied hands. “Researching, too, I guess.”
“‘You guess,’” Azia echoed condescendingly.
Cailin’s eyes floated back and forth between a researcher and an anomaly. “You’re…going to fight with Seleth?”
Klare nodded. “Testing his limits, and all that. Seeing what he’s capable of. I do the hard stuff, and Azia takes notes.”
“Don’t say it like this is a chore for you,” Azia growled.
“You’re welcome to watch the show, if you want,” Seleth offered, never relaxing his posture. “I kind of agree on the bigger audience thing. Could use some extra moral support.”
Cailin tensed in his own way, fidgeting with the hem of his mantle. “I-I…would I be intruding at all?”
With or without his rigid bracing and steady hands, Seleth found the leeway to turn his head and gift the boy a well-expected grin. “Absolutely not. As long as you’re cheering for me, we’re all good.”
Cailin’s smile in return was far softer, if not satisfied. “I’d love to, if you’d have me.”
“Don’t let him pressure you into doing a damn thing for him,” Azia chided.
Only then did Seleth relax, if not for the briefest moment. “By the way,” he began, “what do I get when I win?”
Azia groaned. “Oh, for God’s sake.”
Klare raised an eyebrow. “Did he just say 'when?'”
“I can make you pumpkin bread! I was reading about it the other day,” Kassy tried, throwing her arms high in excitement yet again. “I’ve never made it myself, though. What about banana bread? I’ve done that before. One time, I added cinnamon, and it came out really--”
“He can’t eat,” Klare deadpanned.
“Oops.”
Azia pinched the bridge of her nose. “You get nothing. This shouldn’t even be happening. You get to go back inside, and we all get to be out of the heat, at that point.”
Seleth chuckled. “Don’t be mean. You know, for some people, a kiss is a solid prize for--”
“Not on your life.”
A chuckle became a laugh. “Worth a shot.”
Shining eyes flickered to Cailin, of everyone he could’ve picked. A finger gun came along. “I’ve got one. It’s not supposed to Rain tonight, right?”
Cailin shook his head, settling comfortably into the shade beside Azia. “No, it’s not.”
“Good. When I win, you take me up there later and show me the stars. For real this time. Is that fair?”
“Stop saying 'when!'” Klare shouted.
Cailin beamed. “Of course. I’d be happy to.”
“You are cocky as hell,” Klare grumbled, leveling the tip of the polearm with Seleth from afar.
She braced against the sands, and she gritted her teeth in time with a scowl. “Water doesn’t mean anything. I’m gonna knock that stupid grin right off your friggin’ face.”
Place your bets!
