Reborn: High Strung | ONC2024

Chapter 12

Zev stood in the center of the courtyard's sparring arena across from Meira; she had the most intense look of determination he had ever seen on her. Lavan paced around the edge of the ring, rubbing his hands together. He wasn't sure if either of them would actually reach this step in two weeks, let alone one. "Okay, Meira. You think you've actually found the true name this time?"

Meira gives a quiet nod before taking a deep breath, letting sethra fill her hand slowly, and keeping a cold focus on Zev. She raises her hand forward in a half-grip motion, like she was trying to choke him from a distance. A shiver runs through him, and he takes a single step back as he feels her energy swell to a whole new level. Her words were heavy, like the letters themselves were going to fly from her mouth to attack him. "Nightmare Cowl."

[WC: 20,012]

A bolt of black sethra streaks through the air right at Zev, much faster than he could move away from it. The energy hits him in the chest with force but no pain; it splashes almost like water, sticks to his skin, and surges up toward his face with the speed of a disturbed nest of spiders. Zev had maybe a second before her sethra sealed around his head like a holeless mask, blocking off all his senses and altering them. She really had found the true name of her ability in only a week.

Zev's whole world morphed in an instant. He was standing in the familiar forest near his town in Sanctum. The ground was scorched and covered in ash; a black-decorated padlock hung in the air before him. Simon's soul link was shaking and cracking, the motions growing more violent by the second. Zev knew this new ability of hers used his own mind to create it; he knew she wasn't actively making him see it on purpose, but even so, Zev fell to his knees with pain in his chest. He covered his eyes, breathing heavily as he rubbed his face. He could vividly hear the soul link shattering. A grip at his ankle shocks him, and he looks down with a jolt. Simon's green eyes rested on him with desperation, his charred body sticking half way out of the dirt and ash. His voice was ragged. "Why, Zev. Why couldn't you save me?"

The real world around Zev burst back into view as her nightmare cowl dispersed from around his head. He was laid on the ground outside the bounds of the ring, with a blunt arrow resting next to him. He looks at the bruise on his chest for a moment before letting his head fall back and rest on the flat ground. Thoughts of Simon were swimming around in his head like a fishbowl. So many what ifs, different unpredictable scenarios. In his own struggle to even create a technique or find out what he could do, he had pieces, but the puzzle was incomplete. Meira stood over him with her hand stretched down to help him up. "Are you okay, Zev? I'm sorry for whatever you saw." She sounded pained, like she wished she could have cast the ability on anyone else, but Zev held no real ill will; a spar was a spar.

"Don't be silly, Meira. That was the whole point of this training. I'm fine; I just need to catch up again." He takes her hand and gets to his feet, a reassuring smile breaching the corners of his mouth.

"Well, you hit the peak of flame; you just need to build a technique that feels right and find its true name now."

"Oh, is that all I have to do?" He shakes his head and laughs at her eager tone.

"Yes, apparently. I can feel the changes in my own sethra already." Even the girl who had researched the topic day and night sounded a bit shocked by the revelation.

Zev looked at Meira; her ascension had brought no physical changes, but something about her just felt different; maybe it was simply the feeling of her blooming inferno sethra so close to him. Zev admired her more than anyone else except maybe Simon; she was truly amazing. If Meira and Lavan couldn't help Zev reach Inferno by the end of the week, who could? Lavan steps over and smacks them both on their backs. "Good show, my lovely pupils! That's one down and one to go."