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.

progress" Vanessa

where I'm surrounded by

I'm still kicking myself over for leaving in my

don't disappear, and Vanessa and Marcus are able to

the different papers, looking 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

five papers and

such vague instructions,

matter how I try to commune with a single element within

me. "It helps with fighting. Learning to center, to focus only

you

that before-I grab the one that means fire,

SVR XS. FIR

sensation of my own body, its thudding heartbeat

of reach.

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

either.

inside me. How am I supposed to access this power if nothing works? Taking another deep breath, I force myself to

to the rune for fire sitting on the

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

Burning.

Not a memory of this life, but of another. A dream? A vision? Whatever

anything I've experienced.

Searing, scorching pain that raged through every fiber of my being. I couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't see. There

catches in my throat as the phantom sensations wash over me. I want to pull away from the memory, to escape

17.50

220 Ava. Fire

matters.

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 core of magic within me pulses in response, as if recognizing a kindred spirit. For the first time, I feel a connection

power.