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.

any progress" Vanessa changes the subject to

beside me, where I'm

I'm still kicking myself over for leaving in my room at the

and Marcus

nothing that happens when I touch

red tape, gave me these five papers and told me to find the elements within me

to them. With such vague instructions, it's no surprise I've had

commune with

with fighting. Learning to center, to focus only on what matters. Maybe you're too in tune

you

a dubious look-it's not like I haven't tried that before-I grab the one that means fire,

SVR XS. FIR

away, leaving only the sensation of my

of reach.

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 yields

either.

nothing works?

the rune for fire sitting on the paper

about its properties-how it consumes, how it transforms, how it

Burning.

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

anything I've experienced.

that raged through every fiber of my being. I couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't see. There was nothing but the all-consuming agony

me. I want to pull away from the memory, to escape the torment,

17.50

220 Ava. Fire

matters.

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

power.