Forsaken Deity

Chapter 22

She sat down, crossing her legs, and waited for him to begin. Apollo seemed to be deep in thought. “I guess we'll start with something simple, like creating a flame. When you think of starting a fire, what do you think of?”

Billy Joel’s, ‘We didn’t start the fire’, popped into her head, which then lead to The Office’s funny version and she tried to smother her grin and focus. “Um, I guess striking a match?”

“All right then, let's go with that. I want you to picture your finger as a match and create a flame from the fingertip. Do you think you can do that?”

“I can try…”

“All right. One thing to remember, Thea; with fire, think of it as a strong emotion, like passion or anger. It's something that builds, is fuelled by everything that happens around you. You got it?”

She wasn't sure but nodded anyway. “Good.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Gameboy. “You start doing that and let me know if you need a hand.”

She glanced at him wryly. “This is your method of teaching?”

“Well, you already know how to do this, Thea. It's just a matter of recalling how to do it. And, this is Pokemon Red!”

“Your point?”

“I've never caught them all before on this thing and that's the whole point, right? Catching them all? So while I focus on this, you focus on learning.”

He caught her look of annoyance and leaned over, hand brushing her knee. “It's either that or I can sit here and watch you all –“

“Shut up and play your game, Apollo.” She slapped his hand and he chuckled, moving away to play his game.

Holding her finger up, she first tried to picture a flame shooting from the tip. The same method of picturing it had worked for the other elements in a way, so she figured it was worth a shot. After feeling nothing for twenty minutes, she changed tactics.

Remembering how she had heated the water, she tried to focus on just the heat, removing water from the equation. She used the sun's heat as a source of inspiration too and after a few moments, she saw a spark flicker.

“I made a spark!”

Apollo didn't look up from game, completely engrossed in some Trainer's battle. “That's nice. Keep practicing.”

She tried again and after only five minutes, a spark flickered above her fingertip and a matchstick sized flame appeared. It connected with her skin and she grinned. This was going to be easy, she thought.

“Apollo, look! I did it.”

She noticed he had moved closer to her, and slowly inched away. He looked up from his game and nodded. “Good job. Now focus on controlling the flame and adjusting its size.”

Feeling confident, Thea turned her attention back to the flame and tried to make it bigger. After an unsuccessful hour and having to recreate a flame five more times, Thea's arm began to get tired from sitting upright and she extinguished the flame. “Why can't I make it grow bigger?”

Apollo was pressing buttons furiously. “You need passion. Your emotions need to be heightened. I told you that, remember?”

“Well I'm getting pissed off with your teaching but that's not helping me.”

“Maybe you're not angry enough?”

Creating another flame, she was about to tell him to shove it when he leaned over and kissed her cheek. She glared at him and for a brief moment the flame grew bigger, matching the size of her finger.