CHP17

Seneya was not ready, not by any long shot.

“Kael, I swear if you drop me, I won’t clean for a month!” She shrieked as he gathered her under one arm and took off skyward.

“That’s not a threat; that’s temptation,” He laughed.

“NO! Absolutely not! NO!” She screeched as she struggled, her wings trying to flick back at the wind through some instinct.

“Come on, just one little—” Kael slung her with a grunt of effort, and she found herself toppling head over heels through the air.

English swears shot from her mouth as she struggled to get her wings out. Spinning too fast, she extended her wings, catching a strange angle. Instead of catching her fall, it increased her descent.

“Sutz!” Kael shouted as he dove after her.

The ground approached rapidly as the sky spun behind her, bringing the hard earth up to greet her.

“PULL ONE WING IN!” He shouted down to her, bolting hard.

“SENEYA!” He barked, and at the last possible second, she caught the air with one beat of her wings, but it wasn’t enough, and she crashed hard into the ground, skidding across the grass.

Kael swore and landed, immediately bolting after her, afraid to move her as her eyes flew open. A strange light suffused them, a misty green that flashed behind pale lashes.

“Whatever it is that you’re doing, stop right now. Stop,” Kael said calmly, feeling her mana spike over her skin. Her fires prickled at his senses. Then, the light of them glowed in her eyes, and just the barest mote of something crackled over her fingertips.

“I said stop!” Kael moved to her side, grabbed, and shook her arm. She jolted, twisted, and wheezed a shriek of shock as green fire shot up her arms and blanketed her. Kael jerked his hand back, genuine fear in his eyes.

She shook, trembling as her back arched, wings spasmed, and like a candle’s flame, she went out.

“Seneya, little starling, please,” Kael said, shaking her. She opened her eyes, fluttering them for a moment.

“Ow,” Seneya said flatly. She sat up gingerly as Kael backed away, and her eyes swiveled about, reaching over her shoulder to tug at her hair. Strands of it had tangled in her wings, and she looked at it strangely, like she’d never seen it before. Then, Kael noticed it hung a little longer than before, a few inches just in the days she’d been with him.

“My hair,” She spoke quietly, and she wasn’t speaking in his tongue, the Acerrai dialect he knew. Instead, she spoke carefully practiced Anael.

Her voice sounded strange, distant, throatier than her normal placid tones.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice. You’re okay, yes?” He asked. Her eyes swiveled to him in an instant, pupils constricted. Then, in a blink, she moved to her feet, crouched, and leaped back.

“I won’t drop you again. I promise. You weren’t ready this time,” Kael spoke to her in his Acerraien dialect, but her eyes only searched his, narrowing as she stared. He spoke Anael fluently but didn’t like to, not since his bondmate had died.

She looked over her arms and legs, then at the pants she wore, fascinated by the strange dingy thick material and the loose weave of her top. She seemed enamored by it all, her lightly freckled skin, her hands. She ran her fingers over her face, smearing dirt from the ground onto it.

“Did you just heal yourself, little starling?” He asked. Her eyes moved back to him a moment.

“Yes,” She answered in a clipped tone, weary as he wilted guiltily.

“Now we know what your fires are, at least,” He sighed heavily, “I’m sorry I did that to you. You shouldn’t have to learn the hard way. I didn’t know your hair had caught, and I wasn’t fast enough to catch you.”

Her head canted, and the confusion buzzed heavily. Then, finally, she seemed aware of it and stamped it down, something she had only started learning to do, and quite efficiently this time.

“Never, ever, ever heal yourself. It doesn’t work right, and it only hurts,” Kael pleaded to her.

She raised an eyebrow. “It worked fine.”

She still spoke Anael, still confused and wary of him, backing away. She swept her hair over her shoulder in a snag, let deft fingers wave through the strands, and then seemed to notice her bare wrists. She wrinkled her nose as she looked at her dry ault patches.

She stood from her crouch, bolstered her legs, and leaped as her wings pumped the air. She tasted sky for less than a second before crumbling down to her hands and knees, wheezing.

“Seneya! What are you doing?” He barked at her and rushed up. The confusion she had turned to anger, and just like that, it abandoned her, melting away in a bare flash. She shook her head in a convulsive jerk.

“I forgot I couldn’t fly for a second,” The confusion seeped back onto her face as she pursed her lips, “How did I... I just had this thought like….” She spoke Acerrai again, his native tongue in the slow metered tone she used. She wasn’t confident with it, but he never could get English out of her unless he forced it.

“Probably your Sohken; come on now,” he said as he scooped her up and carried her back to the house.

“You’re a healer,” Kael said, setting her on the couch.

“Healer?”

“Your fires, they were green. That is a healer’s light.”

Seneya sat up on the couch, not sore in the least, as she rolled her shoulders and stretched.

“I felt things snap, but I guess I’m okay now,” She mused as she flexed her fingers. “Arms feel a little numb, though.” She balled her fist and squeezed, then extended her digits. She wriggled her fingers, rolled her shoulders, and shook her head, startled by her braid.

“Let me do that for you properly,” he said as he grabbed her braid. It was not a typical style for humans, and he stared at it for a long moment.

That damned spirit has too great a hold on her. He thought to himself.

He grabbed a brush and started working on her hair. Out of curiosity, he pulled a few strands of her last brushings from the bristles and compared them. Indeed, her hair was a good deal longer. He tensed for a moment as he took a long shaking breath.

“You need me worse than anything else right now, little starling. I’ll take care of you,” He whispered before finishing his brushing almost reverently.

“Can you let your fires come really quick? Let the tingle loose. Feel it, like a sneeze, let the tickle guide you,” he said as he grasped her elbow and shook out her arm. She lifted her palm, and green flames tickled down over her hand and wrist. Immediately, she shook her hand to get rid of it, startled by the easiness of it all.

“Well, that’s good,” He muttered, looking back to her hair. “Don’t heal yourself like that again. I can heal if need be. It’s not the best, but beats what could have happened outside,” he told her as he started the brush through her locks again.

“Okay. Sorry, it just… I felt it, and it overwhelmed me.” Seneya let it light over her hand again and let a mote of it swam over her skin, traveling over her wrist, then the back of her hand, twirling around her fingers. It went out with a snap of her fingers. A certain poise and grace laid in that movement, one that she didn’t have; she couldn’t have it.

His brow furrowed, and he continued to braid her hair, hypnotizing her with the motions.

“Is this all I will be capable of, a healer’s flicker?” She spoke, oddly calm, in Anael once more. Kael winced as he heard it.

“That’s your fire. I can heal, but it hurts. A healer’s fire doesn’t always hurt, not unless they want it to. You’ve life magic. There’s magic you can use your mana for, but this is what color you manifest and what you are,” Kael spoke softly to her.

“Hmm,” She responded, and something else he noticed, her wings flicked and settled down her back, a distinctively impatient gesture as her feathers rustled. He pulled his hands back from her hair and stepped away. Her tail curled and rolled, practiced in its elegance.

“Seneya, girl, tell the spirit to leave,” Kael said, caution lilting in his voice.

“Spirit?” She looked around, then up to the ceiling, then down. That word was the same in both tongues, but he cautiously listened for her switch.

She needs so much help. Kael thought as her eyes laid upon her slender tail, grey tipped in crimson red.

Her hackles raised with alertness, eyes went bright with delight, and she grabbed for it. She giggled as she pulled it up to her face and brushed her cheek over it, tears welling in her eyes. Then, she flicked the tip of it, fanned the feathers straight out, and turned it before her, examining the feathers, then her dry ault.

“Oh, how I’ve missed you,” she squealed, Anael again. She grabbed at her throat for a moment. “Is that what I sound like?” She cleared her throat.

“Seneya!” Kael shouted before stomping his foot. She jumped, and the squeak came back to her voice. She dropped her tail and whipped it around to her side. Every feather on her wings fluffed and stood.

This is new. Kael tied off her braid.

Seneya looked at him, that impassive calm gone from her face—only the hesitant fearful one she usually wore remained.

“S-sorry, I just,” She said, Acerrai again.

“Tell the spirit to go away.”

“He’s not around,” She said quietly. “He’s not spoken to me since you told him to go away.”

“Just on the off chance.” Kael pleaded, and she did, hesitantly telling the air to go away.

“Now, what was that?” He asked, pacing the room.

“I don’t know, just… I felt sort of sucked into something, then you shouted at me,” Seneya spoke, a meek tone in her voice that made guilt well in his gut.

Kael walked back to her, closing the distance as he threw his arms over her form and rested his chin on her head. She felt so small, but compared to the men, most women did. His thick arms crossed her shoulders, and he sighed heavily.

“I think you bonked your head too hard, small one,” he said in metered Anael, waiting for her response. Instead, she twitched her tail, cocked a wing, and tilted her head.

“I do know not what the bonked is, or as what this small is,” she said slowly. Kael tensed… It sounded strange coming from her. She barely could speak any Anael… Wasn’t she speaking it fine earlier?

He switched to Acerrai to speak, testing her. “It was Anael. I said you hit your head too hard, small one.”

“Oh. My spirit had been trying to teach me, but I don’t know what they’re called.” Her tail continued to twitch idly.

“We speak Acerrai now. That was Anael. Work on your Anael with your spirit some. I do not like to speak it.” Kael loosened his grip on her and hid the pain in his eyes.

“Maybe one day you’ll tell me why you’re sad.” She said as she held onto his arms and sighed. His grasp tightened.

“We’d need a lot more skalt for that story to be told,” He muttered.

“Skalt?” She repeated the word slowly to him.

He translated to English for her, “Alcohol.”

“Ah.”

“Do you drink?” He desperately wanted to change the topic.

She shook her head. “Not old enough.”

“You have your fires; you’re old enough!”

“Maybe I’d like to try a beer, then.” She said, tempted by the prospect.

“A beer wouldn’t touch you, not a dozen beers. We drink liquor to feel anything relevant,” Kael laughed as he shook her a little in his grasp. “Now go get some rest, more work tomorrow. You’re itching to fly, and I saw good progress today.”