CEL

TWO MONTHS LATER

Their new house is spacious--not Vonadieu mansion spacious, but easily twice the size of the old apartment. It sits on the mountainside above the educational district, just a train ride from the school Cel will begin attending soon. Roughly in the center of the residential zone for high-ranking military personnel, it’s one of a hundred identical stone houses along a cliff’s edge.

The house is two stories, and it has a grassy front yard shaded by a huge sprawling oak tree. The back yard is paved and wrapped in a ten-foot tall stone wall. A mesh roof covers the walled area, shielding the inground pool from debris.

Cel hates that thundering pool, but Fukashi had declared it a necessary evil if she’s to ever learn to control her fire. Cel’s throat goes dry at the reminder. She can’t remember anything that happened during the fire back at the apartment building. All she can recall clearly is yanking at her core and something breaking loose inside her. The next thing she knew she was waking up in the warehouse at Zy’s to the sight of Daddy leaving.

He hadn’t come back for three days, and when he had finally returned, he’d looked haggard, and ShiShi had still been mad at him. Cel had to ask Nora what had happened.

“Uncle Arthur says he can control people with his voice,” she’d explained. “Teacher was really mad about it.”

Cel thinks about it more and more. Controlling people with her voice? Is it possible? Her grip on her inner fire is awful, but she’s heard the strange way Daddy’s voice crackles when he uses his core.

Sitting in her room with Nora one morning, she gently--oh so gently--coaxes heat into her mouth. It’s always there, sitting in her throat, and it’s much easier to drag into existence than the wildfire she had foolishly conjured before.

Holding flames on her tongue, she gazes at Nora as the older girl picks through Cel’s seashell collection. She tries to think of something Nora wouldn’t normally do. “Nora, jump on my bed.”

She expects Nora to give her an odd look and ask why. She’s startled when Nora’s eyes gain an empty quality, and she climbs on the bed--shoes and all--and starts jumping up and down with grim determination. The bed creaks with her every bounce.

“Stop!” Cel croaks when Nora nearly hits her head on the ceiling.

Nora stops and stands awkwardly in place, blank-faced.

Panic worms its way into Cel’s chest. She swallows the fire in her mouth, then focuses on wrenching it even deeper into her stomach.

“Nora?” she asks nervously afterward.

Nora’s eyes clear, and she turns an odd look on Cel before glancing around quizzically. “...how did I get up here?”

That was so easy! Cel helps Nora off the bed.

“You don’t remember?”

Nora shakes her head.

Cel bites her bottom lip. “I tried it. The thing Daddy did.”

Nora looks excited for a breath, then her face crumples. “On me?”

Cel gulps. “Sorry, I...I didn’t think it would work.”

Nora flings up her arm. “Cel, just a month ago you set a building on fire! What if you hurt me?”

“Don’t tell ShiShi,” Cel begs.

Nora puts her hand on her hip. Her eyes blaze with anger. “Then don’t use it on me again.”

Cel nods eagerly. “Deal.”

Though if I did, you would never know.

Nora looks askance at the window, and Cel sighs. Nora’s been acting strange since the fire. She’d been quiet at Zy’s, quieter still when they moved into the new house. Cel misses Nora’s easy cheer and dogged optimism.

Maybe she’ll tell you what’s wrong? ShiShi has suggested when Cel brought it up. There’s definitely something wrong, but she doesn’t want to tell me. You’re her favorite, Cel. Just ask.

“Nora.” Cel scratches the side of her neck.

“Hm?”

Cel sits on the edge of her bed. “Are you okay?”

“Mmhm.”

Cel digs her fists into her bedspread, thinks about using the fire to make Nora tell the truth, but the idea sits wrong in her chest. “Don’t lie to me.”

Nora whips around, looking cross. “You’ll tell.”

“I won’t.”

“You tell Uncle Arthur everything!”

Cel frowns. “You...you think he’ll get mad?”

Just what did you do, Nora?

Nora huffs and sits on the bed next to her. “Do you remember that lady Teacher complained about across the hall?”

Of course Cel remembered. Cel had never been allowed to see her, but just days before the fire, ShiShi had said, “That old bat is the nosiest, most racist piece of shi--piece of trash in Malais!”

Nodding, Cel says, “I remember. She was always trying to peek into the apartment.”

Nora summons her shadow-arm, but the lower half tapers into a fine blade. “The fire was coming, so I…I...”

Cel stares at the dark blade. Shadow doesn’t shine, but it looks intimidating all the same. She knows Nora’s quite skilled with it. “You what?”

Nora mimes cutting her own throat, and Cel glares at her, her suspicions confirmed. “That was risky, Nora.”

“I know.” Nora groans and flops onto her back. “You know there wasn’t even blood on the blade afterward? I think the shadow absorbed it.”

“You didn’t run outside with the shadow still on, did you?” Cel asks, alarmed.

“No!” Nora sits back up abruptly and bats at Cel’s head, her shadow-blade shifting into a hand. “I may not be a genius like you, but I’m not dumb!”

Cel swats her hand away. “Fine, fine. I trust you. I won’t tell.”

“I won’t either. Not about your...fire-voice thing.” Nora leans heavily onto Cel, who groans and dips from under her weight. Laughing, Nora lets herself fall onto the vacated section of mattress. Meanwhile, Cel strolls over to the window. The educational district stretches out below, hundreds of white brick buildings cradled by the thick, drooping branches of ancient oak trees. Courtyards brim with distant figures in black and purple--students of the three military academies. Cel knows she will soon be one of them, but Nora will not.

A knock on her bedroom turn has her turning.

“Come in,” she says, and ShiShi pokes his head in. “Your lessons by the pool start now, girls.”

Ignoring the dread unspooling in her belly, Cel nods. “We’re coming.”