Tangled

Unshift 229

Unshift 229

229 Ava: Fire

Bureaucracy in the Fae Ward moves with the pace of a paralyzed sloth, leaving me with an itchy feeling between my shoulder blades, as if staying here is the worst decision I've ever made.

Selene spends most of her time slinking around the Fae Ward, finding pockets of space with less wards to sneeze over. Vanessa and Marcus stick with me, with Vanessa sharing my bedroom. Our first lesson doesn't happen for three days. Why?

Application for Unlicensed Magus to Practice Dangerous Magic Within Residential Areas.

It's an actual title of a piece of paperwork Magister Orion had to file. Apparently, new wizards (though the official Fae-paperwork term is magus, unknown origin) are deemed a deadly force.

Whoever runs this place has a serious stick up their butt about me learning magic.

"I don't like it," Vanessa says, staring out the window. "They'll have your name on official paperwork. We have no idea how deep Renard's influence lies."

"It's only within the Fae Ward," I point out, like I have the other thirty times she's mentioned it. "If they're going to find me here, the paperwork won't be the only reason."

Marcus, of course, is quiet. We already know how he feels. He hates it and doesn't trust the paperwork, either.

Not that I disagree with either of them-it's just that, like them, I feel stuck.

17:05

that I've been unable to reach Lucas for three days.

ty

Knowing that they're fighting over there, not knowing the full

us on edge.

Vanessa changes the

I'm

on them. Unlike the magic book I'm still kicking myself over for leaving in my room at the lodge,

and Vanessa and Marcus are

them over again and again. There's nothing that happens when I touch them: no tingle or buzz within my fingertips. I can't feel anything. It's just a

me these five papers and told me to find the elements within

instructions, it's no surprise I've

try to commune with a single

helps with fighting. Learning to

you

dubious look-it's not like I haven't tried that before-I grab the one that means fire, close my eyes, and focus

SVR XS. FIR

let out a slow breath as I center myself. The sounds and scents of the world fade away, leaving only the sensation of my own body, its thudding heartbeat vibrating through my chest, and the pulsing core of magic within

of reach.

on that core, that energy that warms me from within, I imagine myself reaching out to touch it. Nothing happens. I try to visualize tugging at it, like pulling on a string, but it remains stubbornly distant. Knocking on it in my mind

either.

if nothing works? Taking another deep breath, I force

thoughts drift to the rune for fire sitting on the

life-giving. I think about its properties-how it

Burning.

this life, but of another. A dream? A vision? Whatever it was, it feels

anything I've experienced.

move, couldn't scream, couldn't see. There was nothing but the all-consuming agony of flesh melting from

want to pull away from the memory, to escape the torment, but something

17.50

220 Ava. Fire

matters.

that other death, I was nothing. Only pain. No name, no self, just pure sensation. And in that moment of complete dissolution, something else emerged. Something primal and powerful. I focus on that feeling, on the memory of being unmade by fire. The bright

power.