Alara’s head was pounding by the time dinner had finished. It was bad enough being overwhelmed by the sheer number of bruyas who surrounded her, but she also spent most of her time trying to block her awareness of every magia user in the dining area. She’d only been around this much magia in the Haven, and she now appreciated the thick walls of the tunnels that kept her mind-stalking skills dampened and safe from the crowds of mages and magites. There had also been little free-running magia outside of the practice rooms. She realized just how much sharper her sense was for active magia and wondered if Emaru knew she could differentiate.

“So you’re a fuegen, right?” Alara gave a small start, realizing Khuno was now walking alongside her, her pale brown eyes focused on her face. “Quenti told me,” she answered the unasked question.

Alara shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I was always envious of the fuegen. It always seemed like a more useful gift than making rain clouds and fishing.”

“I mean, it’s useful if you want to hurt people, sure.” Alara’s voice was sharp and perhaps more bitter than she meant it.

Quenti’s lips pulled down into a frown. She was walking just ahead of them, but it was clear she was paying attention to their conversation.

“Perhaps,” Khuno finally consented. “But we grew up learning the life-bringing aspect of fire, as well. Without fire, forests like these wouldn’t exist. It cooks our food and keeps us warm.”

“Burns down villages.”

“And water can flood them,” Khuno said softly.

Alara gritted her teeth. “That’s different. A water mage can’t accidentally flood a village, just like a wind mage can’t accidentally blow down a tree. A fire mage, on the other hand…”

“Is that why they make you wear that bracelet?”

Khuno looked at Alara’s wrist, where the gold cuff hung. The magite instinctively pulled her shawl down to cover it.

“I choose to wear it,” Alara said. “It keeps my abilities under control.”

“Those are the same cuffs they use on captive bruyas.”

Alara stopped in her tracks, her cheeks flushing red. Torches lined the walkway, lighting the path and making the shadows of the trees swayed in the wind. She turned to a nearby torch and raised her hand, pulling the fire from the wood. The flame danced unaided in the air for several seconds before jumping back to the torch.

“I can use my magia just fine when I choose to,” she snapped. Before Quenti or Khuno could argue, she walked away. She could see Lili’s bridge in the distance and knew they were almost—

Alara stopped herself before she thought home.

***

The next couple of weeks did little to calm Alara’s conflicted mind. In fact, she almost settled into a peaceful routine in Arbol. In the mornings, she and Lili would cobble together a breakfast of quinoa and fruits. After which, Lili would sit cross-legged in the living room, adding to her mural and chatting about the best ways to make the different colors she used. Through this, Alara actually learned more about the local vegetation, particularly what was edible, poisonous, or what would stain your hands the longest.

Most afternoons, she would sneak away to the platform that Micos had shown her, forcing either him or Khuno to follow her whenever they were stationed outside Lili’s home. The one exception was when Runeo was on duty, whose seething anger seemingly knew no bounds.

“What do you want, magite?” he said the first time she stepped outside. After that, he took to glaring at her until she ducked back inside, face flushed red.

Those were the afternoons that Alara spent cross-legged in Lili’s room plotting how to escape, examining the branches that stretched out from Lili’s bedroom window.

She noticed by the end of the week that Runeo’s shifts were getting fewer and farther between, leaving her free to explore Arbol with the others. Was this Khuno’s and Micos’ doing? Despite her unfriendly demeanor, the duo almost seemed to enjoy her company. Micos noted at one point that seeing Alara exploring Arbol wide-eyed was like seeing it for the first time. Khuno was still helping Quenti get the lay of the land herself, so she was open to have Alara join them in the afternoons.

For her part, Quenti was settling in well—a far cry better than she did in the Haven. While Alara floated between Lili, Micos, and Khuno, Quenti spent every waking moment with Khuno. Some days, seeing the couple intertwined on the cushions in Lili’s front room made Alara’s heart ache with a loneliness she didn’t know existed. Occasionally her mind would flash to Ardo’s gray eyes or his laugh—a habit she refused to examine closer.

But seeing them together made Alara realize just how hollow Quenti had been during her short time in the Haven. Alara never saw her eyes light up as they did when she was with the bruya. A part of her wondered if she would even spend the night at Lili’s if it wasn’t for Alara.

One evening after dinner, while she, Lili, and Quenti were drinking tea next to the fire, Alara made this comment to Quenti and watched the deep crimson blush rise up her cheeks and into her hairline. She didn’t say anything, but let her curls cover her face. Alara and Lili laughed at the response, shooting each other knowing looks.

That night, for the first time in weeks, Alara didn’t fall asleep thinking about the Haven.

***

The next morning Alara woke up alone in the house. She could tell by the warmth in the air that it was later than normal. The birds just outside the window sang a different tune from their standard early morning warble.

She slowly rose from her mat, brushing her tangled hair from her face and picking apart the knots that had formed in the night. Eventually, she gave up and tied her hair at the nape of her neck. She splashed some water on her face from the basin that stood beside the window. In the Haven, a physical system of small tunnels channelled water from rain and snowmelt into a central basin that distributed water to the various rooms. But in Arbol, water mages (Alara corrected herself internally: aguen) collected rain and each morning’s dew to distribute into the buildings through the help of wind funnels created by airen.

When she left the room, she saw the house was empty. A plate of cut fruit was left out on the counter, along with a mug of leaves for boiled water. She smiled at Lili’s thoughtfulness before filling the kettle. Noticing the fire had burned out, she set to relighting it.

“What’re you doing?” a voice in the doorway called out, causing Alara to drop the flint.

She turned around, startled to see Khuno’s silhouette in the doorway. Alara’s shoulders relaxed as she saw the smile stretched across the bruya’s face.

“If you’re here, then where is Quenti?” Alara said, tilting her head at the empty space behind the visitor. “Aren’t you two attached at the hip?”

Khuno grinned wider. “After ten years of sneaking around, it’s just nice being in the same place.” She went over to Alara’s plate of fruit and stole a slice of lucuma. “But alas, Quenti’s volunteered to help restore an older bridge. I decided I’d rather take guard duty than braid rope. I volunteered Micos to help her.”

“Volunteered Micos?” Alara raised an eyebrow.

“I may have bribed him with some cuy meat from a recent hunt.” She stole another piece of fruit off Alara’s plate with a wink.

“I’m flattered you wanted to guard me so much. Should Quenti be worried?”

“I really hate rope weaving. And Pacha will be there. That woman’s mission in life is to drive me crazy.” Khuno slumped down in one of Lili’s small cushions. She was wearing pants instead of a skirt, which was lucky given how she sprawled.

“Pacha?” Alara asked.

“One of the tierren in charge of construction. Lili doesn’t much like her either, so it’s not just me.”

Alara gave a small nod and returned to the dying fire. She picked up the flint that had fallen to the ground and started working to relight it.

“You are a strange one, aren’t you?”

Alara turned back to the bruya, eyebrows knit. The bruya was giving her a lopsided grin.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Khuno nodded at the red embers in the hearth. “You could light the fire with your magia.”

Alara frowned. “It’s not that easy.”

It was Khuno’s turn to frown. “I’ve seen kids do it.” She looked Alara over, as if trying to understand a strange new species of animal. “Is it the cuff?”

“I told you, the cuff doesn’t stop me from using my powers.”

“Then relight the fire,” Khuno said.

Alara turned back to the embers with a small huff. “Fine.”

For a second, nothing happened. Alara closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling the small tendril of heat that always danced hidden inside of her. She opened her eyes and reached out her awareness to the heat that still emanated from the burnt out fire. The ghost of the fire’s presence still lingered, a shadow of the heat that had consumed it only an hour ago. Biting her lip, she willed her abilities to spark the fire, the thread of her magia not quite reaching the embers. A sharp breeze of warm air brush past her face.

Suddenly, the hearth exploded with heat and light. Large flames jumped to encase the embers. Alara fell back, the blood draining from her face as the heat seared her cheeks.

She whipped around to see Runeo standing in the doorway, hand still outstretched, as he let out a not-too-friendly laugh. His face was clean-shaven today and Alara saw the sharp angle of his jaw.

“Why’d you do that?” Alara said.

“Yeah, Runeo,” Khuno agreed. “What in Sol’s name was that about?”

He shrugged, his lips dancing in a smirk. “What? I was helping.”

“I didn’t need you help,” Alara turned back to the kettle, trying to hide her shaking hands. “You could have caught Lili’s house on fire.”

“So, the fire magite’s afraid of a little fire.”

“Afraid of burning down someone’s house, yes,” Alara said.

“You have that little control that you’d burn down a house without stopping it?”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell everyone!” Alara felt the heat in her chest rising, but it wasn’t from the fire.

“Sol,” Runeo said, “the Haven’s really in your head, isn’t it? They lock you up in that little mountain and warp your minds until you hate yourselves and everyone else like you.”

“I don’t hate myself.” Alara rebutted, not too convincingly.

“You hate your abilities. Is that all the Council knows how to teach?”

Alara stepped toward the bruya, her face red and eyes flashing. “Don’t you dare talk about the Haven or what they teach.”

Runeo let out a bitter laugh. “They force you to fear your abilities and then teach you to hate those of us who don’t!” He was no longer standing in the doorway, having stepped toward Alara, shoulders ridged and face a mask of anger.

“Okay, Runeo,” Khuno cut in, “I think you’ve said enough.”

“We don’t hate you because of your abilities, we hate you because you’re murderers!” Alara said, ignoring Khuno.

“Oh, so you think we’re the murderers?” Runeo said. “Your people kill or enslave anyone who doesn’t follow their teachings.”

“And your people murdered my entire family!” Alara felt the flare of heat behind her and realized at some point, her magia had connected with the flames of the stove.

The room went silent, and Alara saw the mix of emotions and thoughts flickering across the bruyas’s faces.

“I…” Alara started and stopped again. She looked back at the stove, noticing the flames had blackened the kettle’s bottom.

Before either of them could say anything, Alara pushed past Runeo, eyes stinging with tears she didn’t want them seeing.