Vistus

Cold. Everything was cold. Everything was cold and dark and suffocating. Voices called out, taunting. Threatening. Yelling.

No presence, no physical body. Nothing. Only voices. Voices with no owners, shouting over each other in an attempt to be heard over the din.

She stood alone in... where was this? This was nowhere. This was her home. She was finally where she was supposed to be.

Blackness. There were no walls here, and there was no door. It was nothing new. It was the familiar green landscape painted black. All she had for company were the voices. They hurled abuse, as they often did.

“You really are nothing,” they said. They used to say, “Are you still trying?” That was slightly kinder. “You said so yourself, you will never become anything,” they affirmed, simply agreeing with what she already knew to be true. They were right.

No, they weren’t.

She should leave. Too much, too much, too much. The voices were lying. They were. They were. Nausea. She needed to leave. Her chest was tight. Breathe, breathe, breathe...

...

Lorelei awoke drenched in sweat, her heart hammering and her body shaking.

“Lorelei... ” Yuli’s voice could be heard from the other bed in the hotel room, tired from having just woken up. “What are you doing over there?”

“What?” Lorelei blinked, unable to move.

“You kept breathing... very weirdly... ” Yuli sighed. “Like you were suffocating... ”

“O-oh.” Lorelei stared up at the dark ceiling. She waited for her shivering to stop, trying to take in her surroundings. She was in a hotel room with Yuli. That was all. She was fine. There was no one else there. She was okay...

“Was it a bad dream?” the bat girl asked quietly.

Lorelei considered snapping at her, telling her to shut up and mind her own business. But she knew she could trust Yuli. The icy bat had seen her worse than this before. “Yes.”

“Well... ” Yuli seemed unsure of how to proceed. “... It’s over now.”

“Yes, I know.” Lorelei slowly closed her eyes, her body finally ceasing its trembling. She carefully changed her position on the bed, curling up tightly. She tried to push back all traces of the dream out of her mind. There was no reason to think about it.

She let her breathing slow, willing sleep to take her once more.

-

“Rise and shine!” Alex slammed open the door and yelled into the hotel room, jerking Laerya awake.

The rabbit girl groaned loudly and buried her head under the pillow. What a rude awakening. Alex could have at least shouted a bit quieter. Did he enjoy making her miserable? From the cheerful tone of his voice, she guessed he did.

“Stop grunting and get moving. We gotta start the training. You need to be awake for it. Hop to it!” Alex chuckled. “Hop to it. Cos you’re a bunny. Hilarious.”

Laerya wanted to tell him to shut up, but politeness curbed her tongue. She slowly raised her head to see a huddled lump in the blanket on the bed next to her. That was probably Akorri.

“Sorry Akorri. Didn’t mean to wake ya.” Alex snickered. “Actually I kinda did. You should get out and see the sights nice and early, before the rest of the village wakes up! Oh, I know! You should come see Lae’s training session first.”

“Ugh,” the lump in the blankets grumbled.

Alex left the room, his irritating laughter lingering after him. Laerya glared at the door, wishing she could burn it down with her eyes. Though to be fair, he had warned her about this. She had been unable to sleep much during the night thanks to her excitement, but now that the morning was here she wanted nothing more than to shove her face back into her pillow.

She hobbled out of bed and set off to prepare for the day. Eventually Akorri crawled out from the blankets and did the same, and the two of them left the inn after a quick breakfast with Alex.

The hare led them to ‘the rock’, which was pretty much exactly what its title suggested: a rock, though Lae had to give it credit for being a rather large rock. It stood in a spacious, grassy clearing with a group of people surrounding it, almost as if it were a display in a museum. Lae had to wonder why they had their training sessions here, but when she saw Alex climb onto the stone she figured it out. She hadn’t thought he would be the commanding type, but given how he looked so proud perched on the rock she wondered why she hadn’t noticed sooner. He was an Air master, after all.

“Hey, class! G’morning!” The hare stuck his chest out as he addressed the group congregated around the rock. They looked up at him with alert expressions, clearly excited to start another day of training. “Before we begin, I’d like to introduce two new students today!”

The Greengladers muttered amongst themselves and glanced at Lae and Akorri. The rabbit’s ear twitched self-consciously. Were they judging her? Beside her, Akorri showed no signs of disturbance.

“Well okay, maybe only one of them is actually a student; the other’s just here to watch. But it’s good to introduce him too.” Alex cleared his throat. “Say hi to Laerya and Akorri! They’ll be staying here for a while. Lae’s the one learning.”

Lae felt a thousand gazes piercing into her but she tried to play it off. It was only natural they would be curious, after all. She gave the group a smile and a wave. “Hey, I’m Lae! Oh, that rhymed.” She snickered and was relieved to see she had elicited a few smiles from her audience. “I’m looking forward to working with you all.”

With satisfied nods the group turned back to Alex, and the hare set about organising the session. He would be teaching Laerya personally today while the others focused on sharpening their skills. Lae couldn’t help clapping in excitement as Alex hopped down from the rock and turned to face her.

However before the hare could speak, she noticed a familiar character hanging around. The white Feln she bumped into yesterday sat on the grass, sheltered from the sun by the rock’s shadow. The girl made no move to get up and join a group; she merely watched with one vacant blue eye.

A slight shudder passed through Laerya and she spoke before Alex could address her. “Why isn’t that girl doing anything?”

Alex looked over at the Feln, his ears twitching as he grasped the situation. “Oh, Jinny? Yeah, she’s just here to watch, too.”

Lae rubbed her head. There was something off about this Jinny person, though she couldn’t figure out what. Maybe it was just the way her unfocused gaze stayed fixed on... well, nothing. Almost as if she wasn’t really all there. “But why?”

Alex sighed. “Because it’s good to observe every once in a while.”

“But she isn’t really observing,” Lae pressed, “I don’t think she’s paying any attention.”

Alex had been about to speak when Akorri broke in first. “Why do you care so much? Just let her be, geez.” He snorted. “You’re way too nosy.”

Lae glared at him, refusing to accept that he had a point. Was it so wrong to be curious? To want to know the exact reason behind this Feln’s strange behaviour...? Okay, maybe she was a bit nosy. She tended to act like this even with strangers she passed by every day, especially if they were a little out of the ordinary. “Shut up.”

“If you like, I’ll explain after our session is over,” Alex said with another sigh. It seemed as though he was used to getting attention on Jinny’s behalf. “You shouldn’t let such little matters distract you.” He looked closely at the rabbit girl. “Do you really wanna learn?”

“Yes!” Lae replied immediately, intimidated by the hare’s scrutinising stare. “Yes, I wanna learn.”

“Good.” Alex rolled up his sleeves. “Now let’s see if you’ve got any magic in you.”

-

“Focus, Laerya. Breathe.”

Laerya was so close to punting Alex into orbit that she clenched her fist at his words. He kept telling her to breathe, but wasn’t that what she was doing anyway? She had to breathe to stay alive, and she was pretty sure she wasn’t dead, so that would mean she was, in fact, breathing. So why was Alex insisting that she breathe so much? Was he expecting her to suck in all the world’s oxygen?

“You’re not focusing, Lae.”

Laerya bit her lip, just stopping herself from hurling an obscenity at her tutor. Beside her Akorri was snickering, clearly enjoying her failure. She directed her frustrations at him instead, because that was more polite than exploding at her new teacher. “Oh, go fall in a hole, Akorri!”

“Temper, temper, Lae. Remember, you have to breathe.” Akorri’s smirk reached his eyes.

Lae gritted her teeth. “Shut up!”

Alex was grinning at the scene, but he had the good sense not to antagonise Lae further. Not that she would do anything to him, but she appreciated his neutrality in this. That grin was more than a bit annoying, though.

“All right, I’ll say no more.” Akorri held his hands up in surrender.

“You better not say no more,” growled Lae.

“Any more,” corrected Akorri.

“Shut up.”

Alex chuckled. “Let’s get back to it, yeah?” His grin turned into an understanding smile. “It can take a lot of work to get in the zone, Lae. I don’t blame you.”

Lae mumbled wordlessly. She had been trying to ‘get in the zone’ for a good fifteen minutes now, but every time she was almost there, something snapped her out of it. Apparently she needed a blank state of mind in order to access her power for the first time. Once she took hold of it, she’d be able to summon it much easier. According to Alex, when she found her power, controlling it would be as natural as walking.

Of course there was the possibility that she may never even find her power. She could try reaching into the depths of her mind for the rest of her life and never reach it. She knew of a few cautionary tales like this; some poor souls so obsessed with finding magical ability that they would literally kill themselves trying to access it. One thing was for sure; she would never go that far. There was no way she could sit in an isolated space for more than thirty minutes anyway.

Would it be so bad to lack magical ability? Perhaps not, but there was something telling Lae that she possessed it. Or maybe she just really wanted to believe that. She didn’t know why, but she wanted to have some form of magical ability. To be completely without it was shameful. After all, she lived with two skilled mages. Not to mention she was currently in a village filled with magic users. It would be embarrassing not to have even a hint of magic in her.

“Maybe we should call it a day?” Alex suggested, breaking Lae out of her thoughts. “You can practise some breathing exercises until the next session. Maybe even try meditating.”

“It’s an idea... ” Lae replied with a sigh. Alex was probably right to end the session so early. She wouldn’t be able to make progress if she was frustrating herself trying to impress her audience.

She stretched and looked around for the first time since the start of the session. She could see some of the group had split up into pairs and were passing literal air balls to each other, while others were perfecting their breathing. She admired the latter’s ability to focus even with so much noise around them. Would she ever reach that level of concentration?

Her eyes fell on the white Feln again, still sitting in the rock’s shadow. She hadn’t moved at all save for the angle of her head, which was raised upwards to the sky.

Alex noticed Lae’s gaze. “You still thinking about Jinny?”

“Yeah.” Lae remembered the hare’s earlier promise. “You said you’d explain after the session’s up, so... ”

“So nosy,” Akorri interjected.

“I did, didn’t I?” Alex’s smile seemed tired. “There’s not much to tell, not really.”

“Tell what you can,” Lae urged, her eyes wide in what she hoped was an innocent expression, “please.” There was something about the Feln that intrigued her, and it wasn’t just her empty eyes. Why was she so detached from the world around her?

“All right.” Alex shrugged. “Basically, Jinny’s a bit on the unique side.”

Lae blinked, and even Akorri’s interest was piqued. “Unique...?” he echoed.

“She’s a special magic user,” Alex explained. “She can control three elements.”

“Three?” Lae raised her eyebrows. She’d heard of such people before; they were quite rare, but not exactly legendary.

“Yeah,” Alex went on. “She’s able to control Light, Darkness and Air.”

“What a combination,” Akorri commented.

Alex nodded. “Yeah. But the problem is, Jinny’s not really fond of all that.”

Lae frowned. How could someone think that about their powers? If she were Jinny, she would be using her magic all day, every day. To be able to wield more than one element was the dream of many and the reality of few. It was something special, something to be cherished; a talent to be exercised.

“You see, Jinny gets a lot of attention because of her capabilities... ” Alex’s ear twitched. “It’s bad because she doesn’t really like people taking an interest in her.”

Lae didn’t know quite what to say or think of that, so she stayed silent, waiting for Alex to continue.

“The people of Greenglade are looking to learn from her, thinking maybe she can teach them how to hone more than one element.” Alex’s voice lowered. “But the problem is she doesn’t want to teach. Just being in the company of several Greengladers puts her on edge, so she tends to zone out.” He sighed deeply. “Even our one-to-one teaching sessions are tense.”

Laerya wanted to sympathise, but she found she couldn’t. If you have the power and might be able to teach it to others, shouldn’t you at least try? she thought. Keeping it to yourself is just selfish.

“So why is she sitting in on these sessions, then?” Akorri asked.

“I’m planning on training with her once everyone else leaves so I asked her to stick around.” Alex smiled again. “Plus I thought it might be nice for her to meet two foreigners. You guys don’t have the same expectations of her that the rest of the villagers do.”

“Were you going to introduce her to us anyway?” asked Lae.

“Well... ” Alex’s smile turned sheepish. “Kinda, yeah. It was just handy that you took an interest in her so quickly. Though it was less handy that you took an interest before we even started training.”

“Sorry,” Lae apologised reflexively. She didn’t want to inconvenience her tutor.

“S’no problem.” Alex turned to look at Jinny. The rest of the Greengladers were taking their leave now that the hare seemed to have stopped teaching his new student. The white Feln was still huddled by the rock, though now she was looking at the ground, idly drawing lines in the grass.

“So should we go say hi?” Alex asked, looking back at Lae and Akorri.

“Sure!” Lae was quite excited to meet someone who could control three elements. She would have something interesting to report back to Feri, too. Once Akorri gave his nod of approval Alex led the two of them towards Jinny.

The white Feln’s ears twitched when she noticed people were approaching and her head shot up to face them. Her visible blue eye widened at the sight of Lae and Akorri, but she gave no indication of any emotion.

“Hey, Jins. I thought it’d be cool for you to meet these guys,” Alex said, though at Jinny’s unresponsive blink his confidence seemed to falter. “They... they’re from Tananshia... ”

Jinny’s eye gave Lae and Akorri a quick once-over before looking away. “Um... ” Her voice was quiet. “It’s nice to meet you.” Though from her hunched shoulders and generally guarded posture, it looked as though this meeting was anything but ‘nice’.

Lae wanted to ease the Feln’s tension. “Nice to meet you too!” she said in the friendliest manner she could. “Alex tells me you can control three elements. That’s really cool!”

Jinny’s ear twitched again and she did not look up, and it was then Lae remembered that this fact was probably a sore spot for the Feln girl. Oops.

“Anyway,” Alex said, giving Lae a warning glance before addressing Jinny, “I thought it’d be nice for you to hang out with them for a while. Sure beats seeing the same Greenglade faces every day, right?”

Jinny’s body looked like a statue, so rigid it was. “I guess.”

“That’s settled, then!” Alex’s cheerful voice sounded strained. “You guys can exchange stories and stuff. Jinny, you can even give them a tour or something. Just... ” His smile looked like it would drop at any second. “Just have fun, okay?”

Laerya wondered why Alex was forcing this on Jinny when the Feln clearly did not want to even look at her and Akorri, but she didn’t feel it was her place to argue. Besides, she wanted to try befriending Jinny. The girl looked like she could use a companion or two. Not to mention Lae was curious about the Feln’s magic, though she wouldn’t bring that topic up any time soon.

“I’m sure we’ll have fun,” she said with a smile. Though as she looked at Jinny’s huddled figure, she found doubt in her words.