She was falling, rapidly and vapidly through a vortex. She could feel her very essence lash out and react to the environment she's found herself in. Kiara should have been terrified, but her emotions were dulled, she could only wordlessly observe. The world around her was unusual, a boundless void spreading out around her, flecked with streaks of cerulean, scarlet, and viridian; the vivid colors blending and exploding, a cacophony of light focused into singular points that flared magnificently. It was as beautiful as it was surreal.
Was she asleep? She had to be, right? This was all a vivid dream, she thought to herself. Kiara had never before experienced such a powerful dream before. Usually her dreams kept to absurd normalities, like losing a sock to a bird, or jumping into a pile of leaves that warped into a pile of sticks. Occurrences that could very nearly happen, but just don't. Kiara was aware of everything, lucid to an abnormal degree even compared to when she's awake. She could feel everything that stretched out before her, and it was all the same in every direction, a piercing static, a raging storm, except for one place. Her ghostly vessel was approaching something, abnormally placed into this void like her. A blob, black and formless, it twisted, curled, and folded on itself in ways that shouldn't be possible.
Kiara felt the presence reach out to her, beckoning her closer. Tendrils grew, reaching out towards the girl before getting folded back into the mass. As she approached a ghastly cold washed over her. Suddenly her dormant emotions began to spike. Fear, terror, pain, ecstasy, joy, love; her emotions clashed inside her not allowing her a moment of focus. The form began to spread, consuming the colorful lights around her, plunging everything into the murky abyss of its tendrils.
It grew closer, drawing her closer. She wanted to join it, the surge of emotions was wonderful and terrible all the same, but it was now all she wanted, all she could think about. The form, indescribable, grew. Tendrils? Wings? Teeth? Whatever they were slowly crept all around her wrapping themselves around her body, intertwining with her arms, legs, and neck. Kiara felt numb, hot, then cold, before settling back into a blissful state. The darkness blotted out the colors of the void and the static had vanished. Her mind drifted, content, as the darkness fully enveloped her.
***
Kiara woke gently, her body warm, her breath a little heavy. She opened her mouth, taking a long breath; wait a minute... is that, copper? Her mouth tasted of a thick metallic sludge, she quickly raised her hand to her mouth and drew it away. Blood. She raised it higher to her nose which was gushing profusely. Kiara panicked, jumping up, taking in her surroundings, blood was staining Aria's bed, pooling all around her. Parts of it were already becoming dry and sticky. Quickly but reluctantly, Kiara grabbed the blanket and stuffed it over her nose blocking the flow of blood. As she sat up to treat her nose she felt another warm sensation from lower under the blanket. Her underwear was tight, something she hadn't felt for years. She cautiously reached down with her other hand and felt a cold sappy substance coated her hand. Kiara was immediately flooded with regret and disgust as she, without warning, threw up onto the bed, a mixture of blood and acid. The warmth she felt upon waking up was now replaced with the cold realization of her body, which has failed her yet again.
It took over an hour before Kiara felt clean again. Aria was still asleep when Kiara cried out for help, her disgust and panic growing every second, unable to make herself move. After gently stripping away all the stained bedding and clothes Aria helped Kiara into a warm bath and left her to her privacy. It was all so awful, never before had she experienced such a monumental betrayal from her body, the bloody nose was one thing, but that other thing, the one that had tormented her since birth decided to lay her fears out on an open platter, making itself fiercely known, to the abject horror of Kiara. She wanted to die. She curled into a ball in the water, sinking her head, only barely keeping her nose out of the water to breath.
That dream had done something to her, it must have. She doesn't know how or why but it's the only explanation. Kiara tried to recall the dream and picture the formless entity, and her mind nearly collapsed being flooded again with the visceral emotions she had felt in the dream. Her body was beginning to betray itself again. Refusing to experience that ever again she focused on the water, how it was moving and interacting with the tub and her body, feeling every little wave that washed up against her skin, how it flowed gently and possessively. Kiara's emotions and body came back under her control, and she silently and thoughtlessly vowed to never think or speak about the dream again.
It was still early in the day, the sun had barely broken through the few wispy clouds that were floating about. Kiara closed her eyes as she got dressed; she'd borrowed some of Aria's clothes, even though Aria had cleaned them of the blood stains Kiara just wanted to distance herself from that morning. The clothes were a little big on her, a simple shirt and shorts. While Kiara had grown quite a lot since they first met, Aria was still much taller than her and it showed itself clearly in her clothes.
Aria was sitting at the fire pit, a small flame gently flickering against the bottom of a pan and kettle. The smell of peppers and onion wafted through the space. Kiara sat down opposite Aria curled up slightly.
"You feeling any better?" Aria asked, cracking an egg into the pan, a loud sizzle echoing about. Kiara hadn't really had time to properly take in the house after her losing control of her magic the night earlier. She gazed up around the wooden structure that normally looked so lively, partly because it was alive. Much of it was scorched black and covered in a thick layer of ash. The guilt of having caused so much damage to the home of someone who she respects so very much starts to settle into her mind.
"I think so, at least as good as I think I can be after nearly bleeding out in my sleep, among other things", Kiara's words were quiet and barely audible but Aria just looked on gently and nodded.
"You still look a little pale, here eat this" Aria took the pan of the fire and moved its contents over onto a plate, passing it off to the girl. Aria then began to pour out the liquid from the kettle, which looked like tea.
"That better not be any more of that dragon tea from last night". Kiara shuffled in place, moving into a better position to eat the food her mentor had just provided. The tea looked ordinary enough but that wasn't quite doing it for Kiara at the moment.
"No, it's not. Although I must admit, it is slightly magical. It will help calm your spirit and body more than ordinary tea. It works best over long periods of time, so sip it slowly", Aria handed over a cup of the tea. It smelled very pleasant and slightly sweet, and tasted just as nice as she took a small sip. As the warmth of the tea washes over her, Kiara notices her muscles relax much more than she is used to; everything about her is at ease, a welcome change of pace from this morning.
After clearing her plate and tea, and a rather thorough discussion on the various migratory birds that will soon be making their way to Chelenki for the colder season, Kiara thanked Aria for everything and book in hand, departed back to her home at the top of the giant turtle.
Kiara realized about halfway through her walk back that she would need to avoid her parents, lest they begin berating her with questions about where she's been. Hoping that she could avoid such discussions if she managed to sneak her way back up into her room, she crept around to the back of the lighthouse just below where her window was. Thankfully a trellis of thick vines hugged the exterior wall, and after testing their strength to see if they could support her weight climbed the vines as fast as she could. Dragging herself just barely around the slight overhang of the roof, Kiara rolled onto the tiles and crawled her way over to her window.
Locked. No matter how much Kiara fiddled with the window it refused to open for her. Seeing only one more decent option Kiara hopefully and silently made her way over to her sister's room. Breathing out slightly, hoping she's not about to see something she'll regret, she peered into Marta's room, casting her eyes about looking for any sign of her sister. Seeing a slight movement coming from Marta's closet Kiara begins to tap incessantly on the glass, hoping to grab the attention of her sister.
"Kiara?" Kiara, unable to hear, sees Marta's mouth say something that resembles her name, points to the latch of the window trying her best to communicate that she wants to be let in. Marta puts down the shirt she was in the process of putting away and moves over the window, popping it open letting Kiara climb into her room.
"Thank you, I was hoping I'd be able to get through my own window but I of course locked it, so no luck." Kiara collapsed a little bit beneath the window sill, relaxing knowing her overnight excursion has yet to be known.
"What in the world are you doing knocking on my window, and where have you been? Dad is furious. I tried covering for you but he didn't seem to want to hear that" Marta spoke quickly but quietly trying not to be overheard by anyone else who may be in the house right now.
"I may or may not have passed out last night from exhaustion" Kiara kept it vague not wanting to explain to her sister she nearly burnt her teacher's house down.
"What! Are you ok?" Marta rushed over and began investigating her younger sister, but seemed to give up after a moment of not seeing anything.
"Yea, yea, I'm fine. I wanted to change things up a bit and it backfired" Kiara chuckled to herself at the unintentional pun. "I've been making almost no progress recently and it's infuriating to have hit a wall. I feel useless." Kiara begins pacing back and forth across the rather tight room, weaving around her sister's bed and desk. "When I started this I assumed this would be my out, an easy way to leave my awful life behind. Instead I've ruined almost every relationship I had, and concluded that I'm probably never going to be free of this place, all to be able to do what, make a small light? But I can't even manage to do that right half of the time!" Kiara's ranting quickly devolves into heavy breathing and finding herself sitting in front of her sister's bed, Marta sitting next to her trying her best to comfort her.
"Ok, so things aren't going as smoothly as you hoped, but I mean think of it this way; you can still do things, know of things that the rest of us can barely understand. Even spread out to the rest of the city there's almost nobody that can perform even a little bit of magic properly, at least from how you've explained it to me. They're all hacks with tricks." Marta's attention glances over to the book Kiara was assigned as homework the previous night. "What's that?" She asks, trying to redirect the conversation to something hopefully a little more upbeat.
"Basics of Elemental Theory, Aria assigned it as 'homework" Kiara picked it up and began filtering through the pages. "So far I haven't touched this kind of magic, aside from the poor attempt last night that nearly burned Aria's house down-"
"You burned her house down?!" Marta interjected, glaring in confusion and fear over the sentence.
"No, nearly, come on keep up." Kiara joked quickly. "But, as I was saying, she's mostly been keeping me focused on what she does and is good at, a more mystical, spiritual approach to magic. And she is good at it but very clearly I am not." Scanning through the book some more before closing it and setting it back down beside her.
"Like I've told you before, you'll figure it out, you're smart." Marta playfully hit Kiara's shoulder, eliciting a faint smile from her.
"Hopefully"
***
The confrontation with her parents, mostly father, went about as well as was expecting, but thankfully since she had technically completed everything she was supposed to, things were merely kept verbal that night. She was also being benefited from the fact that the golden child, Eris, was back on Chelenki from a lengthy work trip over in Vaeris, the capital city of Codentia and one of the leading mercantile hubs in this section of the world. And as such her parents' attention had been more focused on pampering the eldest daughter.
Kiara didn't hold the clear favoritism against her oldest sister, and in fact most of the time, especially now, it seemed to benefit her, allowing Kiara to slip under her parents radar and continue what they viewed as deviant proclivities, with little to no repercussions. Still it did sting knowing that her parents were capable of loving their children but seemingly chose to ignore those impulses when it came to loving her.
After what was, a rather extravagant meal of savory delight, Kiara hid away into her room to begin properly looking over the book Aria had given her. The amount of books she has read in the past few years startles her every time she thinks about it. She never did care for reading much when she was younger. It wasn't that she disliked the concept of reading more that it seems she never really found anything that clicked with her. But with her introduction into the vast swathes of magical literature and its study, she had begun to consume them quite ravenously. Although unable to find herself able to replicate almost anything the books spoke of, the theory and stories behind the rituals and spells fascinated her and compelled her to learn more. It was an infuriating thing, that in theory she was capable of many magical concepts, but in practice she was nigh useless.
The text seemed to have divided itself in how it spoke of its concepts, splitting the enigmatic term into material elements and immaterial elements. Things like stone, dirt, and trees being lumped into the material category while concepts like fire, storms, and water being placed into the immaterial. These distinctions coming from the type of ether that makes up these aspects of the world. Green ether governing the physical world, and Blue ether governing the other.
Blue and green made up two parts of the whole triad, with red being the third. Of the three Kiara was only really familiar with ether in its red aspect which was what she and Aria used when performing the divinations and communications with the world beyond. The chapters that followed included diagrams and incantations, which utilized the language of the gods, Visharva. Most of the words were wholly unfamiliar to her.
Many hours passed and Kiara found herself on the brink of passing out. Vowing not to sleep on the floor again she pulled herself up and began to change into out of her borrowed clothes. Upon removing her shirt she notices something on her chest, a small scar like line crossing across her heart. It was nearly black in appearance and as far as Kiara was aware she hadn't had it even the previous day, it was new, but from where she could have gotten she wasn't entirely sure. It clearly wasn't a burn scar from her disaster because if it was her whole body should be covered in it. Maybe it was related to the tea she had? Her body had clearly had a poor reaction so maybe this is just the residual effects and she had been slightly poisoned, but that didn't entirely make sense too because she felt mostly fine, and definitely not like someone who was poisoned. Too tired to be able to follow any further train of thought about the strange mark she chose to figure it out tomorrow after some sleep, maybe she'll ask Aria about it to see if she knows anything.
