Interlude III — Family

Rachel left the store with Hector in tow. As they disappeared into the darkening streets of Rallsburg, Cinza finally released the energy she'd been holding. The air in front of them seemed to shift slightly, and suddenly they were visible to the world—not that anyone remained on the street to spot them hiding in the alley next to Hector's grocery.

She stretched out, trying to loosen her muscles from having crouched in place for so long. Cinza hadn't been sure how long it would take for Rachel to get Hector out of his store, and didn't want to miss her chance. As Rachel left, Cinza felt the telltale shiver like a faint whisper in her ear. The signal, the only magic she'd ever known to actually affect another person directly. Rachel had kept the specifics a tight secret, swearing Cinza to absolute secrecy that such a technique even existed.

It was time.

She tapped Ruby's shoulder. The younger girl darted across the street. After she cleared the area, she signaled Cinza with a quick tiny flame.

With the lights of the town already extinguishing themselves, it was easy to spot. Cinza bounded across, her cloak fluttering behind her. Wordlessly, Ruby pointed at the simple latched gate and flicked it open. Hector had never installed any sort of alarm or intense lock system, as he had never actually been stolen from. The town was close-knit enough (and Rachel was attentive enough to any outliers) that Hector was left alone by the iniquitous residents. Cinza regretted the actions they had to take that night.

Hector was a good sort, but Cinza had been asked personally by Rachel DuValle herself to undertake this secret mission. No one would deter her. Rachel was a young woman Cinza deeply admired, both for her feats of magic and her accomplishments. To change oneself into such a powerful and capable person, overcoming the well-meaning but hapless fool she'd once been, was a meritorious feat. Rachel was a remarkable leader and visionary. Cinza refused to fail their towering arbiter.

Ruby, on the other hand, did not feel the same affection for Rachel that Cinza did. She was a true believer, an utter devotee to Grey-eyes and everything that their goddess did. For the longest time, Ruby had thought of Rachel as an usurper in many ways—a pretender to the throne of magic and someone to be ignored.

Nathanel Price's awakening changed everything. They'd watched, dumbstruck, as their goddess took Rachel into her confidence. None had ever spoken to the goddess at length before. In Ruby's eyes, Rachel changed herself that day from an object of pity and scorn to a priestess to be worshipped.

In all honesty, Cinza might have been a touch jealous, had she not herself been so intrigued by the titaness of the council. Rachel was unique, and Cinza was attracted to unique things. Even amongst the awakened world, Rachel seemed a beacon of curiosity. By far, the most popular and actively developed branch of magic focused on the external and the physical, from the most amateur among them like Nate to the Three Gods themselves. There was the rare exception, such as the two keepers of Knowledge magic in William Carbonell and Mabel Walsh, and the mysteries of Natalie Hendricks' wondrous abilities with animals, but the primary focus had always been on physical, combative, or utilitarian magic.

Cinza wanted to break free of such a limited scope of ambition. She believed Rachel felt the same way, with her own expertise on the internal and mental forms. Cinza believed that magic could take them so much further into the mysteries of the universe than the council was willing to admit or pursue. Her own predilections were for the arcane, and she tried to express herself through her spells in a similar vein.

The manipulation of photons was scientific only in name, as she dredged up principles taught to her by a foster father so many years prior. As soon as she took them under her mental grasp, it became something else entirely in her mind. Cinza was not forcing them to shift. She asked the universe to change for her. Patterns within her mind were supplanted upon the bursts of light always moving and reflecting off every surface, allowing her to shift and bend them as she desired to create nearly any shape she desired.

It wasn't so easy at it sounded, of course. Cinza had to work hard every day to practice maintaining even the simplest shapes. It was one of several reasons for their nightly rituals, that she keep up her precision and capabilities. It was exhausting, but it felt exhilarating, as she always felt more at ease when she was performing the dance. Cinza exulted in the joy it brought to her followers to see the artwork she brought forth—and particularly in the way it lit up jubilant fires in the eyes of her beloved.

That very girl was currently standing very still in the center of the store, focusing her own particular speciality. Ruby had an affinity for Nature magic, the same as Cinza. At present, she was exercising it in a new method they'd only recently discerned. Cinza had been talking about electromagnetics—or rather, what little she could remember from one foster father's teachings—and Ruby had revealed a surprisingly nuanced understanding of the topic. Naturally the topic had shifted, as all topics did these days, to how they might use that knowledge in conjunction with spellasting.

After hours of experimentation, they'd managed to feel out the magnetic force gently permeating the entire planet. With a great deal more theorycrafting and long days spent discussing methodology and potential avenues of attack, Ruby had actually learned to manipulate it to a degree. To see her creating magnetic fields from nothing was astounding. Cinza had eagerly copied the technique as Ruby had described it, and achieved a similar—albeit weaker—effect. They'd spent hours playfully dragging her charms and necklaces around through magnetic fields. The results also showed, once again, the debilitating nature of the affinities.

Makoto, despite his peerless skill in all forms elemental, could not so much as feel the gentle magnetic pull surrounding them. Cinza's strongest lieutenant had tried in earnest for days without rest, until she'd insisted he stop before he drove himself insane. It was a curious thing, this system of affinities and diffinities, and one Cinza wanted to explore in detail. William Carbonell was her key to solving it.

It was a stray encounter with Viper that gave him away. Cinza had learned of their dealings under the table—Will giving out information in exchange for cash—and subsequently bartered her way to a few readings of her own. She didn't have anything like the capital backing the mercenary, but she knew that Will would be pliable for a few simple requests to keep her silence. In exchange, she'd received a full reading of every affinity and diffinity amongst her followers, after it had been revealed at the Council meeting that they could accomplish such a feat. While some were obvious, like Makoto, others were surprising—including her own.

Cinza had assumed hers would fall under the Elemental tree as so many others did, but according to Will, she was of the Natural persuasion. There seemed to be no level of strength within an affinity by his divinations, just a simple boolean result. As the other affinities amongst them emerged, she began to see some interesting interactions.

Matthew and Brittany Wilkins, the quiet couple who had lost their child, had the Movement affinity, and were close friends with Aaron McGregor, their resident agricultural scholar and political revolutionary—also of the same affinity. Nate Price, the newest addition to their ranks, had the affinity for Self magic, which he shared with Morton Pollock—and by coincidence or otherwise, they tended to get along very well. Makoto, Cinza's strong-but-silent lieutenant, seemed to only maintain one real friendship besides herself—with Rufus Hill, their wandering woodsman and protector, a loner in his own right and with the very same Elemental affinity. Finally, there was Cinza and Ruby, both of the Nature affinity, and they had been sharing a bed as lovers for nearly a year.

The correlations seemed too obvious. Cinza didn't want to rule out coincidence quite yet, particularly when their last two members were unaccounted for. Nikki Parsons, the farmer's daughter who was entertaining a rebellious streak by joining up with their little band, had not yet awakened—as they had no desire to put her through Rachel's vetting process after the frustration and fiasco of Nate's admittance. Will had been unable to get any reading on her affinity, which raised plenty of questions of its own.

On the other hand, Yusuf al-Fayed, immigrant and eternally self-sacrificing member of the troupe, was of the Elemental affinity, but was universally beloved (except perhaps by Makoto, with whom Cinza could never quite tell). This link between relationships and affinities could simply be Cinza grasping at straws. Still, at the end of the day, Cinza found it moving that the crimson-haired girl she had fallen in love with shared in something so innate and personal.

What they did not share was a level of talent. Cinza only maintained and improved on her abilities with light and illusion through diligent practice every night. Ruby was able to master new forms far more quickly, and seemed to handle them almost effortlessly even without practice. Indeed, she had soon located the heavy metal safe within the building through her gentle probing of the magnetic fields. Cinza followed the darkly stunning crimson-haired girl around the back of the soda coolers to an unassuming closet. Ruby tried the handle, but it was locked.

Cinza stepped forward. Where she lacked talent, she could make up for in precision and fine control.

She sent her mind along a path to the world outside, projecting herself mentally forward through the wall. There was strong resistance as her mental strength passed through the physical door, reducing what she could affect, but Cinza still had more than enough to reach for the other side of the door handle. She couldn't feel anything, as the mental projection didn't return any sort of sensation, but she could guess where the handle was, and the lock was built with safety in mind. The door was unlocked merely by turning the handle. As soon as it clicked, Ruby pushed it open, and Cinza gratefully released her grasp and let her mental self vanish back into the void.

Inside lay the safe. To Cinza's delight, it was the exact one they'd been told to expect. Thanks to Rachel's perfect memory, she had been able to give them the precise model number and details, and a quick internet search revealed a flaw in its design that they could exploit. All it took was a simple push of a particular pin just inside the lock mechanism, and the safe popped open. Without magic, the safe might have been foolproof—but between Rachel's information and their scouring of the internet for schematics, it was worthless against their abilities.

Cinza reverently picked up the small metal scroll tube that the Scrap had been placed in. It was a piece of the Grimoire, the most important book to ever exist, and the only holy tome she would ever place her faith in again. She felt a temptation to open the tube and read it immediately, in that dark closet, but she relinquished the chance. To do so would be a betrayal of her followers. This was a gift they would all partake of together as a family.

Ruby tapped her on the shoulder, breaking her reverie. Cinza nodded, gently closing the safe and tapping the lock button.

A few minutes later, they'd exited the building, locking the gate behind them as if they were never there.

A few more minutes later, the pair had vanished into the woods at a sprint, and it was there that Ruby finally broke the silence. It began as a whispered laugh, a faint note of joy in the wind that rustled the leaves around them. The gentle exhale grew into a giggle. Cinza couldn't help it, and a snatch of laughter escaped her own lips. Ruby shot her a mock-serious look, before the moment overtook her and laughter bubbled up from her chest. Soon they were both doubled-over in giddy exhilaration, choking out full-bodied laughter in the success of their heist.

"Ruby Dahl, master thief!" she cried, striking a dramatic pose.

Cinza giggled. "So I am your sidekick?"

"Of course! The taller one's always the leader, I thought that was a given." Ruby leaned down and gave Cinza a peck on the forehead. It wasn't too far, as Ruby was only five foot four, but compared to Cinza's four foot ten, it was certainly noticeable. It also made it a bit more difficult for Cinza to be impulsive. She never let it stop her though—and as Ruby started to pull away, Cinza wrapped her arms around the taller girl and stood up to kiss her full on.

Ruby's eyes went wide. Cinza briefly worried she'd overthought the moment. A second later, the girl's beautiful deep blue eyes fluttered closed, and she returned the kiss in her own fiery way. Cinza felt a tremor roll up through her chest into her throat. No matter how many times she kissed Ruby, there was always a brief moment of hesitation—a nervous fear of rejection that she simply couldn't repress.

Ruby, insightful and passionate, had seen through it from minute one. She knew instinctively what Cinza wanted but couldn't voice, and was happy to oblige. As Cinza paused, Ruby wasted no time in gently lifting the smaller girl up off her feet into an even stronger kiss. Ruby wasn't as strong as she thought, and Cinza weighed more than she appeared. They were quickly sent tumbling toward the nearest tree, but Cinza used that as an opportunity.

There was a spell she'd been exploring with Aaron, in their tests with creating their new garden. She'd found new ways to change plants even after growth, and while they hadn't found any nutritionally productive use for it (fruits and vegetables weren't affected for reasons they didn't understand, growing in size but not in content), it made their next cabin much easier to shape. As Cinza felt her body begin to slip and fall toward the thick trunk behind her, she felt out for the rings of wood and bark encircling the ancient oak. Her mind darted into the outer layers and began to smooth out the bark—just in time for her back to impact the trunk.

It cushioned the blow, and as she began to fall, she started to shape the trunk. The bark and wood melted and merged into new shapes at her mind's will, bending and forming into perfectly smooth wood into the design she needed, just in time. She fell into it with a gentle thump, with Ruby still atop her.

The kiss finally stopped as Ruby opened her eyes in shock. They were quite suddenly seated on a smooth bench seat that had been apparently carved directly out of the tree itself, just wide and tall enough for them to sit comfortably on.

"Surprise," Cinza whispered, completely out of breath from the massive exertion of the tree shaping as well as the kiss.

Ruby looked at it in awe, her blue eyes wide and excited. "How did you do that?" she asked. She ran a hand along the smooth wood gingerly, as if she expected it to splinter and break her skin.

"If I spoil every mystery for you, my love, then what reason will you have to stay by my side?" Cinza asked, taking her hand and holding it firmly.

Ruby gripped it tight and smiled mischievously. "Oh, I'm sure I can think of a few." As she leaned in, Cinza fell back into the soft wood that had sprung into being perfectly formed through her magic. As sensation began coursing through Cinza's body, tiny lights blinked into being in the air around them, dancing sparkles of passion and joy that moved in tandem with the red-haired enchantress beneath them.

If those so-called families saw me now… Cinza mused briefly, before her mind was distracted by more exciting thoughts.