City of Mages

Chapter 26: Alara

Alara's head was pounding by the time dinner had finished. It was bad enough being overwhelmed by the sheer number of bruyas who surrounded her, but she also spent most of her time trying to block her awareness of every magia user in the dining area. She'd only been around this much magia in the Haven, and she now appreciated the thick walls of the tunnels that kept her mind-stalking skills dampened and safe from the crowds of mages and magites. There had also been little free-running magia outside of the practice rooms. She realized just how much sharper her sense was for active magia and wondered if Emaru knew she could differentiate.

"So you're a fuegen, right?" Alara gave a small start, realizing Khuno was now walking alongside her, her pale brown eyes focused on her face. "Quenti told me," she answered the unasked question.

Alara shrugged. "Yeah."

"I was always envious of the fuegen. It always seemed like a more useful gift than making rain clouds and fishing."

"I mean, it's useful if you want to hurt people, sure." Alara's voice was sharp and perhaps more bitter than she meant it.

Quenti's lips pulled down into a frown. She was walking just ahead of them, but it was clear she was paying attention to their conversation.

"Perhaps," Khuno finally consented. "But we grew up learning the life-bringing aspect of fire, as well. Without fire, forests like these wouldn't exist. It cooks our food and keeps us warm."

"Burns down villages."

"And water can flood them," Khuno said softly.

Alara gritted her teeth. "That's different. A water mage can't accidentally flood a village, just like a wind mage can't accidentally blow down a tree. A fire mage, on the other hand..."

"Is that why they make you wear that bracelet?"

Khuno looked at Alara's wrist, where the gold cuff hung. The magite instinctively pulled her shawl down to cover it.

"I choose to wear it," Alara said. "It keeps my abilities under control."

"Those are the same cuffs they use on captive bruyas."

Alara stopped in her tracks, her cheeks flushing red. Torches lined the walkway, lighting the path and making the shadows of the trees swayed in the wind. She turned to a nearby torch and raised her hand, pulling the fire from the wood. The flame danced unaided in the air for several seconds before jumping back to the torch.

"I can use my magia just fine when I choose to," she snapped. Before Quenti or Khuno could argue, she walked away. She could see Lili's bridge in the distance and knew they were almost—

Alara stopped herself before she thought home.

***

The next couple of weeks did little to calm Alara's conflicted mind. In fact, she almost settled into a peaceful routine in Arbol. In the mornings, she and Lili would cobble together a breakfast of quinoa and fruits. After which, Lili would sit cross-legged in the living room, adding to her mural and chatting about the best ways to make the different colors she used. Through this, Alara actually learned more about the local vegetation, particularly what was edible, poisonous, or what would stain your hands the longest.

Most afternoons, she would sneak away to the platform that Micos had shown her, forcing either him or Khuno to follow her whenever they were stationed outside Lili's home. The one exception was when Runeo was on duty, whose seething anger seemingly knew no bounds.

"What do you want, magite?" he said the first time she stepped outside. After that, he took to glaring at her until she ducked back inside, face flushed red.