Arine

I hoped Eli was alright. I had a sinking suspicion that she was in trouble because of me. After parting with the other girls, who were all equally worried about Eli, I made my way to my room and thought about the day. I loved it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, hell, I even had lots of fun, but was it the right decision to go? What if I had another strange outburst? Who would have been there to stop me this time? Or worse even, what if Jenna had shown up? I didn’t want to think about the implications. Agreeing to go was stiüpid, I put the others in unnecessary danger and now Eli had to take the blame. It was so unfair. If anyone deserved a talking to, it was me not her. And yet she took it without batting an eye. Why did she care so much? We had known each other barely more than a week and still, she tried so hard and all I did was drag her down.

Stop it Arine, that’s not getting you anywhere. I was right. Self-pity wasn’t helping anyone, not me and especially not Eli. I made a decision; tomorrow I would talk to Eli’s mom and make it clear it was all my fault. Eli only wanted to cheer me up after all.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt. I thought about going to the library and taking my mind off by reading a bit more but that seemed needless now. Once my mind wandered back to considering the day as a whole, I was able to think about all the positives. The day was fun, more fun than I had anticipated and being together with Eli and her friends made me feel like I wasn’t alone for once. It was strange, really, somehow being with them was so different from what I was used to. Back in school, I could never connect to my friends on the same level I did with the girls. Was it just that girl friendships are different from guy friendships or was there more to it? 

The thought, however, had to wait till another time as a wave of fatigue washed over me. Snuggling the shallofinh plush closer to my body I was able to find sleep when the night was at its darkest.

Waking up the next morning and getting ready for the day, the same heterochromatic girl judged me again. She mimicked my every move and even managed to smile at me for once. If only you would look more like mom. 

Repressing the negative emotions that threatened rise up, I got dressed and made my way over to Eli’s dorm. I waited for about twenty minutes, before she showed herself, not looking like she had slept well. 

“I’m sorry. About yesterday, it was wrong to let you be alone with your mother. It was all my fault, I shouldn’t have agreed to come along.”

She didn’t say anything instead, she took a step closer and wrapped me in a surprise hug, “Ari…please tell me you were happy. I don’t care if I get in trouble again...just...tell me...please” 

I couldn’t see it but she was crying for sure, “Eli...I...” I was so bad at handling crying girls. It was one thing if I was the crying girl but having another pretty girl cry about me on my shoulder was something else. “It was one of the best days I ever had. I never feel alone when I’m around you and the others .”

She grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me slightly back until we were face to face again. Her lips still quivering and tears running down her cheeks, “And you mean it? You’re not just lying to make me feel better?”

“Of course not! Being around you, I can forget all the terrible stuff...” The way she looked at me. Her tear smeared face and that smile she gave me. How was I to put it into words how she made me feel? “Eli... I -”. 

“It’s okay. I believe you." when she looked at me with her big eyes like that...It did strange things to my heart, "Just promise me you’ll be happy again someday, will you?” 

“I promise” And if there wasn't one small detail maybe I could keep this promise. But how I could be truly happy again without her by my side was a question I didn’t dare tackle yet.

Wiping away the tears, she tilted her head and her cheeks started to redden, “Uhh, there’s one more thing. You know Mr. Sirus and how he gives us private lessons?”

“Yes? I noticed he looked pretty down yesterday, is he alright?“ Please don’t give me more things to worry about. 

“He’s alright but...uhh...my mom will continue his lessons from now on.” 

I told her it's alright since I wanted to speak to her anyway. On the way to the spot where we normally met Mr. Sirus, Eli and I speculated a lot about what her mom might be like as a teacher. I liked the way Mr. Sirus taught us, he was a lot more relaxed than he admitted and while Eli’s mom didn’t come off as the most strict person, she was pretty high up. Another thing I noticed after talking with Eli for a while was the expectation her mom placed on her. I never gave much thought to it before but it made sense. Being the daughter of such a powerful and successful sorceress can’t be easy. 

Arriving at our destination, Eli’s mom was already waiting for us. She didn’t look as mad as yesterday evening but not as happy as when I first met her either, but I made my decision. I owed it to Eli after all.

“Miss Sypha about yesterday. I wanted to tell you that it wasn’t her fault and she shouldn't be the one being punished. I shouldn't have agreed to go in the first place and not telling you was wrong. I’m really sorry.”

“You are right, Arine, and I’m not too happy with you either. But Eli of all people should have known better. For the future, if you come up with another idea like that, please tell me so I can make sure that you all are safe.”

“Yes Ma’am,” we both said unison. 

“Good. First, I want you both to channel your magic into this,” she pulled out a sphere-like object that reminded me of a fortune-telling ball. The sphere was white with a different, more fuzzy layer of white storming inside of it. “This is an affinity ball, do you know about affinity?”

Again, Eli and I nodded in unison. Spending every afternoon in the library had taught us already quite a bit about magic. It was now the practical side of things that dragged slowly behind. 

“Eli I want you to start.” She gave Eli the white sphere and after a few seconds, the white color turned into a pleasant lime green. “Do you have an idea what your affinity might be?”

Eli had told me she thought her affinity was based on nature magic, and seeing the affinity sphere turn green was confirmation. At least green was the color associated with nature, wasn’t it? 

“Nature magic? I'm very calm and balanced when I’m near plants and stuff.”

“Almost. The green color does indicate an affinity for nature magic, but the shade of green is important too.” When she saw the color the sphere had assumed, she grew a wide smile and clapped her hands. “Just like your grandma, oh she’ll be so excited once she learns her granddaughter is a summoner like her.” 

“A summoner?” Elis said as she admired the sphere in disbelief.

“Your magic resonates most with the forest spirits, just like your grandma’s resonated most with water spirits. With enough training and dedication, you’ll one day be able to call them to your aid.”

Looking back between the sphere and me, her mouth wide agape and her eyes filled with wonder she handed me the sphere without saying a word. Once in my hand, the sphere turned to its usual matt white again, until I tried channeling my magic into it. To be honest, I was quite excited to learn what my affinity would be. I wasn't able to feel anything like Eli did and even searching for some of the more odd affinities in the library didn’t bring much that resonated with me. Now though, I would learn what my specialty is.

To my disappointment, the sphere didn’t change color at all. It was only after I wanted to hand it back over to Eli’s mom when the color started to entirely disappear leaving it crystal clear. “What happened?” 

“I have only read about- Arine it seems you have a very special gift, the gift of Valvesalla.” 

“Valvesalla?” Eli asked while I was busy looking dumbfounded at the transparent ball of magic. 

“It’s a flower that has the special property to cancel every magic energy it comes into contact with. After discovering it's properties, this kind of magic was named after the flower.”

Shifting my focus from the sphere back to the two people talking, I listened with interest while Eli asked more questions, “So it’s like anti-magic?” 

“That’s one way to describe it, yes. But it’s not as easy as that. Controlling this kind of magic is not only extremely difficult but can also be very dangerous.”

“Dangerous? In what way?” 

“Valvesalla magic doesn’t mix well with traditional magic. Think of it like two magnets with the same pole who repel each other. It's not only very risky to have both types of magic in your system but valvesalla magic works very differently from traditional magic.”

But wouldn't this kind of magic be the ideal way of dealing with Jenna? If I were able to cancel whatever she did, wouldn’t that give us a better chance of fighting her? “Can’t we use this to our advantage? If I can control and-”

“Arine, your magic is so rare we don’t have anyone here that could teach you. And besides, the only person I know of who might be capable of helping you told me it took him over a decade to not accidentally kill him while channeling valvesalla.”

After her words, the enthusiasm that found its way onto Eli's face was a thing of the past, with balled first and pinched eyes she let out all her frustration. “But why? Why does it have to be so complicated? Why does Arine always have to draw the short end of the stick? It’s not fair”

“Hey Eli, Arine please take a step closer.” We did and her mom gestured for us to sit down. We did and her mom started to soothe Eli all the while explaining to me why it was so important that I couldn’t rely on this kind of magic, at least not yet. 

“Eli, it’s not the short end of the stick, and I promise you that we will do all we can to encourage Arine's unique ability. But just because she is able to channel this kind of magic, doesn't make her immune to it. If she by accident still has magic that isn’t valvesalla in her body, it will have severe consequences. 

“She needs an extraordinary understanding of her body, the way it stores magic and when it is safe to channel it. These are all demands that greatly exceed the need for most mages. Do you understand now why we can’t just let her freely experiment with it?”

“Yes but still, ” her fists still balded and her gaze fixated on the ground between us, “does that not mean Arine can’t use magic until we get some special teacher?”

“Oh Eli, I think you misunderstood something." She took Eli’s hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze, ”It’s better for Arine right now to not experiment with this sort of magic, but that doesn't mean she can’t use other magic. She might not have an affinity to a specific type like you but that doesn't mean she can’t use it all.” 

Once Eli calmed down enough, her mom instructed us with new exercises we were to complete for the day. Eli’s main task was to form her magic into specific runes her mother had drawn for her. And while she struggled at first, by the end of the day she was able to create a rune circle with up to three runes. Not much by any experienced sorcerer's standards but still impressive she could pull it off after only a week of training.

My exercises were much more different from hers. They all were some sort of controlling my magic in different situations. One exercise had me try to prevent the magic energy leaving an object Eli’s mom gave me, another had me try to channel only so much magic into an object that it started to glow but not too much as it would shatter otherwise. And I had to say even if those tasks sounded mundane and boring, they were actually pretty engaging and more difficult than I thought. By the end of the day, I had shattered at least twelve different objects. I hope they weren’t too expensive. 

With the lesson finished, Eli and I were already on our way to the library when her mom called her back, “Eli, can I speak to you for a while?” Eli poked at my arm and we both turned around to meet her, “Actually I’d like to talk to Eli alone for a while if that’s okay for you?“ 

“Oh...sure, I’ll just go ahead and-”

“Thinking about it, there’s something you should see. The campus has an arranged flowerbed of Valvesalla flowers in the southwest area. It’s not too far from here, why don’t you take a look and Eli and I will join you later?”

Seeing the flower that I’m more or less related to seemed like a good idea. Lost in thought about how this flower might look, like I accidentally took the normal route back to the library until I noticed my mistake. Keeping an eye out for one of the many campus maps distributed all over, I adjusted my path and made my way to the flowerbed.

Wandering the mazes for some time, it became painfully obvious that whoever designed the campus wanted students to not find anything in this maze. Like there were maps and signs everywhere, showing clear paths without any entanglement and yet the reality looked a lot more different. Those maps were only good for finding your way out but that you might want to find a specific spot inside this maze seemed like a foreign construct to some. How do other students deal with this bullshit? 

Another turn right, one more left, and two more right and I had reached my destination after an eternity. A side glance to the clock told me it only took about ten minutes to find the spot. So maybe it didn't take me that long to find, but running into a dead-end over and over again is frustrating as hell. My irritation was soon lifted by the sight that played before my eyes.

The flowers themself weren’t very special, they reminded me of blue roses the size of sunflowers. Special was the way they were arranged around a fire-breathing fountain. Small sparks of fire rained upon the flowers, only to disappear again when they came in contact, giving the flowers a blurry red aura. 

“A beautiful sight isn’t it?” I expected Eli or her mom, but it couldn't be. I didn’t recognize that voice and it was much too deep to belong to a girl either. Turning around revealed a boy in uniform around nineteen with red hair, braces, freckles, and a head and a half taller than me. “I saw you on your way to the library, ” he took a step closer and I couldn't lift my eyes from his, “I was wondering where your green-haired friend is? I thought you two were always together?”

“She has something to do with her mom.” What compelled me to answer? I didn’t know this guy, and what Eli does is definitely none of his business.

His smile grew wider and I got a good look at his ominous white teeth, “What a shame but there will be another opportunity for us three. ” he put his hand under my chin and came dangerously close to my face. I could feel his breath in my neck, “Meanwhile why don’t we two spend a little time together?”

He withdrew his hand and started marching towards the boy's dorm. With every step I took, my mind was getting foggier and foggier. It became hard to think straight, I had no idea why I was following him but it seemed like a good idea.

We passed his dorm and were still wandering for a while, in the corner of my eyes I saw something red following us but couldn't pay much attention to it, my head became way too heavy. 

He led me to what I assumed was an abandoned greenhouse. Large tendrils and withered away flowers marked the entrance, but instead of going straight into the greenhouse, he led me to a side door embedded into the ground. Walking down the stairs, I could only take in my surroundings. It looked like a long time ago they did some plant experiments here. I took my time watching the environment when he yanked painfully at my arm. He led me further into a small room that had nothing in it but a small table and a used mattress.

“Your name is Arine, right?” 

“Yes.”

He pulled out a small knife and started to carve my name into the wall, next to the name of countless others with tally marks behind them. A devastating realization set in and my trance started to lift but it was too late. He finished drawing the last stroke of my name and as soon as he turned around my mind was clouded by him again.

Pulling his hand under my chin again his grin became predatory, “So, why don’t you start undressing?”

With my mind completely unusable I was only able to give one response, “Yes.”