Aloysia Warmacher stood with her arms crossed amid falling dust particles that burst into flames when they drew too close. She was every 12-year-old boy’s wet dream. Closed-toe gray heels were the pedestal from which the stunning woman, that even the Greek goddess Aphrodite would be jealous of, looked down upon on you. Her smooth and defined calves led up to a professional gray skirt and black belt that accentuated her curves. A matching tailored suit coat completed the ensemble and framed her ample bosom. She displayed a modest amount cleavage that was haloed by a gold ring on a silver chain around her neck. Her face bore full pouting lips, high cheekbones, and piercing blue eyes that saw and judged everyone lacking and her chestnut-colored hair flowed behind her like she was in a photo shoot.

She looked ravishing, but I knew that thought was just a side effect of using icy energy. The chill helped alleviate the heat of her blazing entrance. I had absolutely no real interest in her. A smack sounded behind me, pulling me away from gawking. I turned to look at the source of the noise and saw Dale making a warding gesture as if it could save him against Leah’s disapproving glare.

“What? She just punched Shawn into Jesse’s bedroom.” Dale defended.

“That’s not why you were smiling.” Leah scolded.

“Ah, there you are Jesse. Couldn’t answer the door and face me yourself? Had to send your lackey to do it?” Heat and anger flared from Al, demonstrating the reason for her nickname. It drew my attention back to her. “I don’t hear from you for almost ten years, then I get a call in the middle of a deposition, from a woman telling me that you’ve been badly hurt and unconscious for days.” She took a step forward that cracked the tile beneath her. “I rush over here, and it appears you’re completely fine. You better have a good explanation.”

“I was injured. Now I’m not.” I explained, trying to maintain a balance between the influence of the energy I was using and the rising anger that I felt at the sight of her. I held back a snarl, and managed it, but barely. She scoffed in response.

“You were injured, and now you’re not.” She didn’t contain her snarl. “Is that all? You’ll need to do better than that.”

“I was in a fight. I got hurt in the process.” I replied. “Is that good enough for you?”

“You’re breathing heavily. You got hurt because you haven’t kept up with the training I gave you.” She spat.

I wasn’t going to let it be a one-sided war, so I took a step forward against the blistering temperature. “You didn’t teach me anything. I was just a plaything to you; all you did was torture me.” Twisting to Dale, I said. “Did I ever tell you about the time she burned a hole through my chest just to see if I would heal from it?” Dale scoot back his chair and gestured to leave him out of it. Leah, no longer admonishing him, had preemptively gotten out of the line of fire by discretely excusing herself.

When I turned back to my mentor with a spiteful expression, I saw that Dale’s wife was hugging the wall, trying to squeeze past the human inferno. She tip-toed with high knees, as if walking on coals, which she practically was, until she crossed where I’d dropped the Kung Fu Chicken. She shot a frustrated or sensual glance my way, I couldn’t be sure which. She shook her head and continued to bedroom then disappeared through the doorway.

“I had to test the extent of your ability.” Al explained through clenched teeth. “And you survived, didn’t you?” Leah’s voice saved me from having to respond.

“Guys? This looks really bad,” she shouted.

“He’s fine.” Al and I shouted back in unison.

“No, he’s not. I think his spine is broken.” Leah added, a concerned quiver in her tone.

“See what you did? You broke his spine.” I admonished. My hand gestured to the hole in the wall.

“Perfect! Now you can show everyone how good you are at healing. Something you’d never have learned without me.” She mocked.

“I’ve been healing myself for the past three days,” I exasperated. “I don’t have any energy left to fix a spine.”

“Of course you don’t have enough energy.” Al said sarcastically. “You ran away before I could teach you how to conserve the little strength you do have. You have to rely on others because you have no real power of your own. You got injured because you couldn’t be bothered to learn what I taught you.” I stared daggers at her, my jaw clenched. She knew where to stab me, and she never forgot to twist the knife.

“Fine. I’ll do it myself.” I said, managing to contain my rage as I tried to stalk past her.

“Wait.” She said closing her eyes and inhaling sharply. The air cooled around her rapidly. “You can still use energy from other people, can’t you?” Her tone lacked its previous heat. There was slight frustration there, but it didn’t appear that it was directed at me. There was something else there, remorse? Did she recognize that she’d gone too far? The Al I knew would never acknowledge such weakness. I was taken aback by how quickly she reigned in her anger. She held her wrist out to me. “Here.”

I accepted it reluctantly. Her body was still scorching, but I saw that she was struggling to reduce the heat. Steam rushed from my hand. She registered surprise. I was using what was left of my ice power to shield myself from the intense heat that still fell off her. I took enough energy from her to heal my remaining injuries, whatever damage Shawn could have sustained, a bit more for good measure. She had plenty to spare.

I exhausted my frost fuel, and it was replaced by flammable rage. When my grip relaxed, she lowered her proffered arm. Without a word, we turned to face different directions, our movements in sync with one another. She went to close the front door and I walked through the hole in my bedroom wall.

Leah was happy to see that I heeded her request for aid, and I was happy to see that she was too preoccupied to notice the underwear and bandages that I discarded on the floor next to my bed. I didn’t want to be there when she was reminded of my slovenliness after she’d cleaned the place so thoroughly. Although Al’s entrance probably made it moot.

Leah was supporting various parts of Shawn’s body; he was bent in an awkward position. Terror and pain registered in his expression. He looked to me with a desperate plea in his eyes. I sighed at his sorry state.

I walked over and prodded different places on his body gently. It was easy to pinpoint the most severe injuries. I suffused each spot with a healing light, rather than just barbarically pouring energy into him. After the worst of the damage were taken care of, I closed my eyes. I had the time and there was no further need to rush. Looking within myself, I put a conscious effort into rapidly converting the fiery anger that Al had given me.

Within my mind’s eye, a conjured lens appeared between a formless raging inferno and a thinning beam of light. The light had no color; it sensed more than seen. I coaxed the flames through the concave glass, and it emerged as a stream of gray. The color of it dwindled to nothing as it merged with the invisible river within my soul. When I deemed the energy sufficient to work on Shawn and sustain myself. The focusing lens dissolved.

The fiery power fought against being contained. Tendrils of flame arced across its surface as if it were a mini sun. I held it there; unwilling to let go of the glow of its the warmth. I felt plea from my subconscious. It was afraid, but the heat and light assuaged that fear. It was a ward against the lonely chill in my dreams, but deep down, it knew. It knew that within a few minutes, it would be plunged back into that cold darkness. I felt its pain, but I ignored the haunting scream as I returned my conscious mind to the world.

I took a deep breath to collect myself. I solemnly returned to my task. Leah noticed the change in my demeaner and went to speak but caught herself. My face became impassive as I pressed my hands against Shawn’s remaining injuries. He exhaled a sigh of relief, then his face tightened, and he pushed himself to stand. I knelt there for a moment, staring at the floor. Leah’s eyes stopped appraising me and her eyes widened with shock as Shawn rose, completely free of injury.

“That’s – amazing!” Leah expressed with awe in her voice.

“Yeah.” I replied absently. Shawn stomped past me. I shook my head to clear my lingering thoughts, but I realized too late what Shawn intended to do. I sprang to my feet and sprinted after him, but it wasn’t fast enough.

“You bitch!” He shouted, stalking toward Al. “Do you know who I am?” She turned to him with a quirked eyebrow, but her face darkened.

“Langu-” was all I was able to get out before Al backhanded Shawn through the wall to the bathroom, her expression cold. The sounds of shattering tile, glass, and porcelain, followed by running water made me wince. I clenched my teeth and stared at my childhood torturer incredulously.

“What the death?!” I exasperated, throwing my hands up in frustration. “I just healed him!” Al tilted her head like a German Shepherd hearing an unfamiliar sound. Nonplussed, she held her wrist out to me once more. For as long as I could remember, she seemed to have a limitless supply of energy. An unfamiliar feeling of greed arose in me. It wasn’t the same greed I felt within my business. It was a gluttonous greed, one of hunger and need. I was tempted by the allure of holding more power. My forebrain asserted itself over the primal sensation. It alerted me to be wary and I chose to mask my hesitation with a concern of more potential damage to my apartment.

“Are you going to hit him again?” I asked.

“Is he going to say something stupid again?” Al countered.

Having very little faith in Shawn, I replied, “He can heal on his own; it’ll be a good lesson for him.” Leah came from the bedroom to see more damage and hear me speak. She crossed her arms in disapproval at my refusal to help him. Clearly, she hadn’t been exposed to Shawn’s stupidity enough yet. A ‘tut’ of disdain could be heard from her as she approached the bathroom. I heard the squeak of a valve twisting, and after a moment, the sound of rushing water stopped.

“You healed him pretty quickly and it appears you’ve developed ice powers. Perhaps I misjudged you; you have gotten stronger.” She said slightly impressed. Her praise shocked me, but her words reminded me that I’d somehow held onto the restaurant manager’s energy. My conclusion that my body used my more compatible power for healing seemed plausible, but I had never thought about holding onto someone else’s energy. It had never happened before, and I hadn’t even considered it to be possible. It made me wonder if I could do it again. It may have been a fluke since my mind had been pre-occupied with the healing, so I decided to try to do it consciously.

I looked inside myself to find the pulsing red energy from Al. It was disappearing into the void quickly, as if the flames were escaping through an airlock in space movies. I tried to grasp it, but it flowed through my metaphorical fingers, then it was gone. Maybe it was possible, but I would need to figure it out through trial and error. Regardless, I didn’t want Al to know that I wasn’t responsible for the ice.

“Yeah, I’ve gotten a lot stronger.” I lied. The truth was, I was probably weaker than I’d been under her tutelage.

When she first became my guardian, she sensed a stronger than normal energy within me, so, against my will, she trained me to use magic. To her confusion, however, I didn’t have an affinity. She pushed me to get stronger and tried to unlock my power in a bunch of different ways, but I couldn’t conjure elemental abilities on my own. Through experimentation, we discovered that I could borrow powers from others. With her as my almost only source, the power I had to work with was the flames of her rage.

The influence of that emotion caused a lot of tension between us. As her training became more physically demanding, we would spar. The duels were one-sided. In the aftermath of a particularly intense match, it became evident that I could heal far more rapidly than any other mage. Afterward, the focus of my training caused me to feel more like the subject of sadistic experimentation.

In a bid to escape her torture, I covertly tried to take energy from anyone I could. I wanted to stockpile a means to get away so she couldn’t fine me. That’s how I learned of my ability to enter the minds of unwilling donors. For fear of her becoming privy to my plan, I didn’t ask about it. I got the impression, however, that it wasn’t an ability typical of a mage. Obviously, I managed to execute my plan and went on the run.

Al joined Dale at the kitchen table and made a come-hither gesture toward me. My steps were still wary as I made my toward her. She was uncharacteristically calm, with no hint of her usual anger. As I sat, she rested her elbows on the table. There was a silence as we eyed each other. She looked like she hadn’t aged at all since she took me in at 15.

“You’ve grown,” she said, breaking our appraisal of each other.

“And you look exactly the same.” I followed. Al feigned a bashful blush. There were no shouts of desperation from the bathroom, so I assumed things were fine in there. Trying to redirect the conversation into meaningless pleasantries, inhaled sharply and asked, “So, what have you been up to?” Al sighed and she leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms before replying.

“I’m lawyering again.” She looked up and away, as if embarrassed to ask. “The girl on the phone said you had been unconscious for several days. How’d you get injured?”

“Oh, it was nothing, just got into a bar fight is all.” I dismissed, but the area around us grew warmer. A part of me shrank at the change of atmosphere. I thought I’d hardened myself; strengthened my resolve to stand in front of her without fear. With her sitting there, I realized I had been lying to myself. Sure, I could have outbursts like a teenager acting out, but she wasn’t just an overbearing parent. She exerted pressure, but not that of a dog herding sheep, it was that of a tiger with its paw on a deer’s neck, but I was the deer. Averting my eyes, I caved, “I was forced to fight a husk while protecting a bunch of people.”

Al tensed, there was a sharp increase in temperature, but it quickly subsided. She leaned forward intently. “A husk?” She repeated.

“Yeah.” I replied, staring down at the floor.

“How did you stumble upon one?” She asked and I sighed.

“Shawn – the one you used as a wrecking ball to destroy my apartment, is technically my student. He got full of himself and just started moving energy around. He tried to bring someone back from the dead but failed miserably.”

Al’s face darkened. “Necromancy is a serious crime among the Table of Magi.” She warned. “It’s not something you should be teaching someone.”

“Yeah, well, being a mage doesn’t exactly come with a rule book.” I commented. She grunted.

“I outlined the rules on day one.” She said. There was bit of heat in her voice. I met her eyes.

“It’s not something I taught him. He saw me do it and decided he could do it too.”

“It’s not something you should be doing either.” She growled.

“Healing. That’s my forte, remember. Giving people a second chance is just healing someone a little too late.” I explained. She laughed. She actually laughed.

It startled me. In the few years I’d been with her, I could count on one hand the number of times she’d done that. Just like the rest of her, it was beautiful. The sound was a spoonful of sugar in a cup of coffee or the slight sweetness in a bite of dark chocolate; a hint of happiness hidden behind bitterness. I couldn’t help but smile.

“I suppose you’re right.” She said, still giggling slightly. “And I already knew it was something you did. I’ve seen your billboard.”

“Oh yeah?” I beamed. “Isn’t it amazing?” She laughed even harder.

“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen!” She replied, wiping away tears. I frowned. “Okay, okay.” She said with a cough, trying to contain herself. “Anyway – so you fought a husk and apparently, you won, otherwise you’d be dead.”

“Apparently – thanks for the vote of confidence.” I pouted. “Yeah, I did, but now there’s another problem. The girl has become a monster. She was on the news, and she had black eyes.” Al’s face grew serious.

“There has been an increase in monster activity lately. When I heard you got hurt but weren’t healing, that’s what I thought had happened.” She said as if she were worried. Al didn’t do worried.

She wasn’t like the strict, but loving mother that I spent my adolescent years with. Using the looming threat of a spanking to keep me in line but reserved it as the most severe of punishment. Something you only had to experience once or twice throughout your whole childhood. Contrary to what I’d like to admit, Al did teach me many valuable things, but most of my time with her didn’t involve the threat of violence. To her, actual violence was just another way to teach me.

She would tell me that the world isn’t kind, and she was just trying to prepare me for it. I’ll give her this, it was effective, she managed to do that. In fact, I wouldn’t just give her a passing grade. She was an overachiever; she got a lot of extra credit. Even when I did well, I failed to meet her standards; I could always do better.

“Well – now that I’m here, I can take care of it for you.” She added.

“I don’t need your help.” I said with a straight face. “I can take care of it on my own.”

“You do need my help.” She commented. “You needed my help just to heal that kid.”

“I’m not a child, Al. I will handle my business on my own.” A flare of anger entered my voice. The red-hot energy washed over me, and it irrationally exaggerated my emotions. “In fact, why don’t you just leave.” I spat.

Al assessed me calmly. She was an attorney, and she was good at her job. Reading people and manipulating them were two things she excelled at. My intensity was disarmed with light-hearted humor.

“You wound me, Jay!” She exaggerated. “How could you say something like that to me?” She asked, with a hand on her chest, with faux pained expression. “All I wanted to do was give you my love and support. I have failed you.” She added with a sob. Her act was completed by throwing her head back putting her hand against her forehead like distressed noble of the past. When she did so, her chest puffed out as she arched back. Dale’s lips parted and I thought his eyes would bug out of his head at the sight.

As was typical from my interactions with her, my response was cut short by Leah. She chose that moment to walk back into the room, supporting Shawn as she entered. When she saw the scene, she extricated herself from him and he fell to the floor. This made me smile.

“Dale. Marvin. Emmerson!” She punctuated, stalking toward him. The chair fell out behind Dale as he stood, fear in his eyes. The palms of his hands rose to ward against her immanent attack. Watching the level of fear the petite, compared to him, woman invoked made me smile even wider. I couldn’t contain my big, fat mouth.

“Your middle name is Marvin?” I asked mockingly. Leah shot me a scathing look and I understood Dale’s reaction when I made a warding gesture of my own. Al saved me; Dale was not so lucky.

“Anyway – how did your fight with the husk turn it into a monster?” Al said, ignoring the sound of Leah’s fists pounding into Dale’s bulk. The whole exchange and a calming breath managed to curb my fury, so I told her.

I explained the events, breaking down everything: the fight; my animosity toward bird plates; an overview of my damage; and my dashing escape from the local law enforcement. Sometime during the tale, Dale and Leah ended their feud to listen in.

“That’s quite a story.” She commented. “Lightning and ice powers. So, you’re really able to use magic now?”

“Yep.” I lied. “Wind, water, earth, and fire as well as all of the in-betweens.” I declared proudly. My story omitted having to borrow energy and my foray into the donor’s minds in order to do so. I was confident in my ability to fabricate the truth, but she still eyed me with suspicion. Her glare didn’t make me nervous; I was only sweating because of the temperature she’d raised with her fiery entrance. Al was still Al however, and my performance of that day hadn’t met her standards.

“Impressive.” She said, but I heard sarcasm in the praise. “However, from the sounds of it, you’ve become inefficient with your use of energy. Based on your recounting, you were able to enhance your body’s attack capabilities, but you didn’t protect your muscles, bones, or organs as you did so. You used lightning and ice but wasted a ton of power that would have allowed you to dispatch the threat with ease.” She assessed, but she didn’t stop there. “You’re sorely lacking in experience and control, but I will admit, I envy your ability to use multiple body enhancements at the same time and different elemental abilities.” After hearing the first part of that sentence, what I took as an insult, my anger reignited. After the second part, the praise, I took a jab at her.

“Well, it requires a subtle – gentle touch. Something you could never understand.” I commented. The furrow of her brow and the heat that followed, made me realize I’d taken a cheap shot.

I pushed down my frustration and remembered that I never was able to recognize what would set her off. It was like walking through a field of glass barefoot. I hastily tried to come up with something to mollify her and her lack of emotional self-control. My attempt included a placating smile, “Although, beating someone into submission is a much faster and easier solution.” She grunted in response then spoke in a threatening whisper.

“That’s your problem, Jay.” She began, a sauna’s heat and humidity emanating from her. “You open your mouth before you think.” I looked to Dale for support, but he flicked his eyes in Leah’s direction. When I looked to her, she pointed at the holes in the walls and shook her head. When I looked to Shawn, he was laying on the floor like a pile of garbage.

Al stood from her chair and put her palms on the table in front of me. She leaned in close, teeth clenched. The laminate of my cheap table started to warp around her fingers. I could only watch as the faux wood curled at the edges. My eyes widened as hers thinned.

“C’mon Al.” I stammered. “I was just joking. You don’t have to go all nuclear on me.” A very little, almost non-existent, miniscule amount of fear caused a trembled in my voice. I closed my eyes to brace myself as she got even closer. Then she did something that caught me completely off guard.

She swiftly kissed me on the forehead and the expulsion of heat from her body ceased almost instantly, “I know, I’m just messing with you.” She laughed. Regaining a measure of control, I chuckled nervously.

I took a deep breath to calm myself and frantically looked around the room, searching for something to redirect the conversation. Shawn hadn’t stirred since Leah had dropped him, which was a pleasant reprieve from his annoying face. I looked to the married couple who both had beads of sweat on their foreheads. I settled on the lack of proper introductions to Al, even though she hadn’t asked and probably didn’t care. I did the whole but-where-are-my-manners bit as I gestured to each. She humored me and shook hands with both of my welcomed guests, but for my unwelcomed one, she had apparently reserved a special greeting.

Al walked over to the motionless lump on the floor. She picked him up like he was a suitcase and plopped him down on the couch. Straightening him, she smacked him across the face to which he blearily opened his eyes. Even though he was coming to, she slapped him again.

“Wha-What?” He blinked a few times. “Oh, it’s you.” He seemed to be torn between fear and outrage, but he said nothing further.

“That’s right, it’s me, and you better watch your mouth, or I’ll slam you around the room like a rag doll. You got me?”

“I got you. I got you.” He replied, shrinking into the couch, fear jumping above his other emotion as she loomed over him.

“Good. Now heal yourself.” She demanded standing straight and crossing her arms, but a look of confusion and fear crossed his face.

“I-I don’t know how.” He replied.

Of course, you don’t know how.” Al said in exasperation. She stared at him incredulously. “Well then, you’re about to learn, its easy. All you have to do is get pissed off, then push that anger into the spot that hurts.”

“That’s not how – ” I tried to interject, but shut my trap when her intense glare scared the words out of my mouth. Shawn looked to me for support, but I just shrugged at him. He furrowed his brow and his face contorted. He looked to be trying to will himself to get angry, but it clearly wasn’t working.

“Get mad!” Al shouted and punched him in the stomach, then straightened once more to stare down her nose at him. Unfortunately for her, the attack didn’t have the effect she was hoping for. His body convulsed, he wretched, and vomited on her. It dripped down her neck, the front of her clothes, and onto her shoes. As anyone would, she reacted by raising her hands up and away from herself in disbelieving disgust. She closed her eyes, and her face tensed. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.

What happened next revealed that she may have changed some, but the mentor I remembered still existed within her. After she was done teaching, I had to siphon a lot more energy from her. She left the room to take a shower; she was covered in way more blood than vomit.