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Zenith

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The girl sitting in front of me bursts into flames. My blood runs cold as I realize what I’ve done. Waving my hand I suck all of the flame back into my palm. The small sun floats in my hand for a moment before I crush it. Now’s not the time to admire the pretty lights.

I run over to the girl. She’s on the ground, curled into a fetal position. Luckily I reacted so quickly, only her right arm got badly burned. She’s clutching the limb protectively, tears pouring down her face. As I move to help her eyes lock on me, filled with fear. I push the stabbing pain that look gives me deep inside and reach forward. 

She obviously doesn’t want my help, but I’m not going to give her a choice. My magic storms within me, responding to my unstable emotions. I filter the maelstrom of colors of energy within me, looking for ones that can heal and mend. Gathering every type that can repair, I bundle them together and push. The combination of magics flows from my palms and gently dances across Amy’s arm. 

I see her face relax as the pain subsides. Her tears slow and her breathing steadies. The dancing lights move across the scarred arm, slowly smoothing it back to its original shape. As her skin heals a part of the light splits off and softly lands on her burnt shirt, moving inside the cloth. Slowly new threads start to push out of the burnt fabric and begin to studiously reweave into a coherent whole. I put all of my focus into controlling the whimsical energies that just want to dance away. 

Manipulating multiple types of magic at once is an advanced technique. I’m not sure if it’s talent or my blessing but I was able to pick up the skill quickly. That doesn’t mean controlling over five types at once is easy for me, however. When the lights fade and start to aimlessly wash over the girl, searching for things to fix, I stop. My breath is ragged and I feel sweat falling from my long hair.

Amy looks at me, no longer afraid but obviously uncomfortable. I almost smile when I notice some worry in her conflicted look as well, but I don’t have the energy. She slowly sits up and looks herself over. 

“Amiaor, what the hell was that?” Her tone has anger in it. “You threw fire at me, a lot of fire! And then you just undid it all?” She glances down, like she’s unsure any of it really happened. Her eyes fall on the scorched grass below her. “It was real, then.” 

My breathing is starting to settle when Amy grabs my hand. Then my heart starts firing on all cylinders. I look up at her, confused. She stares down at me with determination in her eyes. She’s kinda ho- scary! She’s a child, and she’s scary! 

The girl pulls me to my feet and drags me out of the courtyard. My recently steadied breathing starts to get ragged again. “Where… are we… going?” She glances back at me.

“We’re skipping.” 

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

She finally lets me rest once we’re off school grounds. We stop inside a shop of some kind, people are eating things and there’s small tables everywhere. Amy watches me look around.

“It’s a coffee shop,” she explains. I look at her quizzically. “You don’t know about coffee?” I shake my head. “It’s a drink that gives you energy, it tastes like dirt.” 

I look around as my heart rate and breathing calm. The people here all wear such strange clothes, or rather, lack of them. I’ve seen mercenaries in town wearing that little but the townsfolk tend to cover up. There’s so many colors as well. Amy snaps her fingers to get her attention.

“Ajfpoep, don’t stare, people will think you’re a creep,” she scolds. Right, I suppose that’s true. “So, tell me what the hell you threw at me. Was it some kind of gas weapon? How’d you fix my arm and clothes so fast?” Her eyes pierce through me. There’s no way I’m going to make a lie convincing enough to fool her.

“You want the truth?” I want to make sure, just so I can shift the blame if she gets upset. She nods at me. “It was magic.” 

Her face goes completely flat. “Magic.” Her tone matches her expression. 

I nod. “I haven’t seen anyone else use it yet, is it rare to have magic?” She looks at me funny.

“Anwiho, magic isn’t real.” Her voice is totally confident. 

I raise my eyebrow. “What? Then how’d I toast and then fix you?” She scowls at my word choice.

She lets out a sigh. “How do you even know magic if you can’t remember anything?” I quickly shift my gaze to the table.

I cough. “Well… I never said I couldn’t remember anything. Just that I didn’t know where I was or who anyone was.” 

Amy’s face turns the same color as her hair. “Aiooetj, that’s bullshit. Just before you blasted my face you said you didn’t remember anything.” 

I try to avoid her eyes. She sighs. “Fine, what do you remember?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it here.” My voice drops to a whisper.

“Why not?” She asks in a full volume, mocking tone. I just shake my head. She sighs again. “Fine, follow me.” She grabs my hand again, sending my heart into another round of palpitations. As she drags me back outside I see the woman behind the store counter glare after us.

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

Amy opens the door to an apartment. We had to ride in an automatic carriage to get here. This place is so strange. She throws her arms wide. “Welcome to my home, Amiehjfui.” Her tone is weirdly upset.

I close the door behind me. “Amy, what was that last word you just said?” She turns back to look at me.

“You mean Ampgoj?” 

I nod. “Yeah, what is that?” She raises an eyebrow at me.

Her tone is a bit condescending while she answers. “It’s your name.” That startles me. Why is my name some weird fabric tearing sound? No one else’s name sounds remotely like that.

“Does it sound like ripping fabric to you?” I ask honestly.

Amy looks like I grew another head. That would be more normal for me, actually. “No, what are you talking about?” 

I try to explain. “Whenever someone says that word it sounds like fabric being torn.” Her eyes fill with worry.

She shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t sound remotely like that.” I nod, I expected as much. “Enough of that! Explain what you remember.” She drops down onto her couch and pats the cushion next to her. My rear squishes deep into the cushion, I almost feel like I’m swimming.

After I let my body relax, I start to tell her everything. About my real home, my father, my bodies, my siblings, the town, everything. When I tell her about waking up in the forest with amnesia she laughs. I don’t really understand why. Certain parts fill her eyes with worry or fear. Once I finish she stares at her feet. 

She makes a long, drawn out sigh. “So that’s all the truth?” I just nod, I talked more than I have in days just now. “So you’re not my friend, then? Not Amiijhifef?” I shrug, I have no idea really. She pulls her knees up to her chest and hugs her legs. “If you’re not, I wonder if they’re okay.” 

I stay silent. Nothing I say can help her right now. At least I don't think so. Eventually she looks at me again.

“So, what do you think of Earth?” She smirks at me. 

I shrug. “I’ve only seen one school, two homes and a tunnel.” She laughs at my answer.

“Well, yeah, but like, the city. The buildings are huge, right? Your descriptions made your world sound pretty medieval. I can’t imagine buildings get this big. 

My head tilts as I mull it over. “Well, no one building is big as the ones here, but the townheart dwarfs them.” Her eyes widen in surprise. “Then the town or city is built around the townheart. If you wanted a comparison, my hometown of Wornsbirth is like if you took five hundred of the tallest one and bundled them all together. But that’s three layers of town, not one huge building.” Amy stares at me in complete shock.

“Wow, that’s huge… You live there?” she asks. 

I nod. “Wornsbirth is only a town, too, the capital of the kingdom I live in is much bigger than that. The townheart is so big the top gets snow year round.” Amy sinks back into the cushions.

“That’s insane, how many people do you have in your kingdom if the towns are that huge?” she asks.

I think it over. “I’m not sure. I think the county my father is the lord of only has two other towns, and those would be managed by a baron.” 

“You only have three towns in a county?!” Her voice gets high as she speaks.

I give a slow nod, confused. “Yeah, is that unusual?” She just slowly nods in return.

“Wow, all this has to be true. Ajoijg isn’t clever or imaginative enough to come up with all this overnight.” She shakes her head like there’s something irritating in her ear. “I… I think I’d like to go to your world. If Aqerwer really is gone.” 

I blink slowly. “Really? What about your family?” The girl deflates at the mention of her family. 

“They usually aren’t home… I honestly prefer it when they’re not.” She stares at the ceiling, clearly unwilling to say more.

I nod. “Well… I’m trapped here unless I can make a way back. If I succeed, would you like to come?” She looks at me with a flat expression, but a gentle light flickers behind her eyes.

“Yeah, sure.” She looks forward again. “Could you teach me magic?” 

What? “Um… I’m not really sure. Back home you kind of just get the basics of magic given to you and learn from there. I don’t know how I’d spark the basics in you.” Her stare burrows into me.

Curiosity fills her voice. “Who gives it to you?” 

“Uh… I’m not really sure. There’s a system that you can interact with that gives you your basic class. You get to choose, of course, but some people don’t have much natural magic. Those people have to find other means to power their spells if they want to be a mage.” I take a turn looking at the ceiling. “There’s also teachers and books to help you learn harder to use magic. Once you get it once, though, you can let the system do it automatically.” I shrug. “I tend to just go by feel, it tends to be a bit faster than letting the system do the heavy lifting.” 

I glance at my new friend. Her face is scrunched up as she holds back a grin. “You mean… like a video game?” I look at her, confused.

For some reason I feel wary. “What is a video game?” She doesn’t say anything. Instead she jumps off the couch and walks over to the black rectangle of glass hanging on the wall. It’s nearly identical to the one at this body’s house. She crouches down and fiddles with a box with lights on it. Instantly the glass pane fills with light and colors.

Then she shows me video games.