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The day she learned how to banish a Power, it was the day when she realised who her teacher meant to her.
It was in their first year. Nell was scrolling on a tablet she purchased on the fifth Terra while on a nearby bench with her gloved hand. She gently massaged her latest bandage on the cheek (A scornful ruffian had punched her in the face for the so-called crime of being a Shaper. L quickly put him in his place.).
“L.” Nell tilted the screen to her. “For today, do you want to pick a job?”
If it was anyone else, she would have Shaped a pocket of air and pelted them for the arrogance of forcing her to do work for ungrateful humans…but it was Nell, and so she crawled onto her teacher’s lap and scrolled—and picked one.
“You want to banish a Horror?” Nell sighed while looking over her disciple’s shoulder. “These kinds of tasks pay well in coin…but they’re more dangerous than nurturing plants or Air maintenance. At least it’s on the Terra we’re on…”
“My dear Nell, it is we that are blessed with His hands. For a Shaper, subduing an amok Horror should be a simple task,” L retorted.
“You’ve never done this before—and your eyes won’t be useful.” Nell flicked a stand of L’s pale hair away from her face.
“It’s better than being at the beck and call of indolent idiots.” L crossed her arms.
“Don’t call them that—”
An argument began, but soon Nell acquiesced to her apprentice’s wishes.
(Were it that she did as I bid before the End…)
When they arrived, it was a bloodbath.
L saw the Horror before Nell. Serpentine heads snapped and hissed at the fleeing townspeople. One light green head was stained crimson with a human body trapped in its mouth. Stone statues of those that attempted to flee littered the fields.
Nell grimaced before Shaping the air around them. “Before we head in, repeat what I told you.”
“Stay far away. Don’t engage with the Horror. If we want to talk, Shape the air to communicate. Have minimal impact on the surroundings because otherwise the imbeciles will deduct our pay—ow!”
Nell kicked her in the shin. “Take this seriously! This isn’t the time for your games!”
L grumbled under her breath, but she listened. Darting to a large white hill and crouching, she observed the Horror from afar.
Skin like ash and many eyes the colour of the Strands on God’s Spine, the monstrosity or its heads hadn’t noticed a small figure on the edge of a deep red pool and fashioning a spear from the liquid.
It was clear, L mused, that Lephon didn’t give His eyes to the Powers.
Now Nell was stalking the Horror from behind. Lessons floated into L’s bored mind, of combat and how to interact with Powers.
Lessons were no substitute for practical applications.
Two snake heads hissed as Nell drove her spear in its back. There was a great screeching as Nell lit the two Air-lights on her hip. The cast illumination coalesced into two blue swords. Six heads snapped at her, fangs bared at the young girl who dared to defy the vengeance of a Horror. The girl’s hair stood in defiance, cold determination writ large on her face.
Force met force. The ground beneath L shuddered as her teacher Shaped the Air to counter the Horror. The Horror responded with a many-headed assault stilled by her teacher’s hands and her two Air-made swords.
It was a beautiful dance. It was a terrible dance.
No stone statue of Nell was made that day.
Seeing her teacher, resolve and conviction behind those Air blue eyes, unleashing her true might against the serpentine Horror—
Something filled L’s heart and mind. It is a trickling feeling, one that bloomed on L’s fair cheeks.
When Nell was finished and cast the Horror into the Air, she found L staring at her body—soaked in blood.
“Minimal damage… so it looks like we’ll receive the full pay—oh no.” Nell looked at her gloveless and bloodied right hand. “I lost it.”
“I can always make a new one.” L prepared to find suitable threads before Nell put a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Nell mussed L’s hair, much to her strangled protestations. “I’m glad that you have a heart for me!”
“One day, when I am called by Lephon, I will Shape my body so that I will tower over you—”
“The last Shaper who had Lephon whisper in her ears was called a thousand years ago.” Nell shook her head. “I don’t think you will be called…and why are your cheeks so red?”
Normally, L would be quick to respond with a jape about Nell being drenched in red, but her tongue failed her. Nell’s smile was radiant as ever, despite being covered in blood. As Nell took her hand, more warmth seeped down L’s neck, into her temples, and coursed through her body.
A new desire emerged:
When, and it will be when, she will be called by Lephon, a new world will be created.
One where she and Nell wouldn’t suffer under the spectre of ignorance.
She slipped into Nell’s room later when the Powers had rested.
She brushed away the aqua coloured streak.
She pursed her lips and hovered above her teacher’s cheek—when her teacher suddenly stirred.
“L, go to bed,” Nell groaned groggily before settling into snoring.
L huffed and marched off to her small cot—but not before sneaking a glimpse at Nell’s sleeping form.
The day had come.
She saw the End of His Designs.
The 8th Seeker, for the first time in three years, was alone. The swirling portal full of new colour had softly dissipated in a fit of purple.
Her designation was Insight, her eyes were Lephon-gifted…yet she could not understand her first love.
They were both raised by Lephon’s will, Lacrymira had commanded the dead god’s heart to submit to her, she cast down the 2nd on her lonesome, brought her teacher back, and yet she—!
What good was prayer and blind trust? In the face of His designs, her teacher cast aside her for…people who were selfish. Who would spit at Nell even if she licks the Terra off of their boots. They weren’t worthy of Nell’s love like Lacrymira is—was.
What a stupid, silly thing to abandon her over. Compassion for people who couldn’t, wouldn’t return it. In a fit of anger, Lacrymira kicked a nearby rock. It plummeted off the cliff.
She turned her back on her love. Reduced to a weeping husk, forlorn forevermore…
“I’m sorry…”
She should despise her. Nell’s endless generosity, Nell’s weak heart…but there was Nell’s drive and conviction, Nell’s love for her.
Out of habit, she waited for her teacher to scold her for being so self-absorbed.
Nothing. Just silence.
Lacrymira examined her left hand. The glove was still moist from the tears, still warm from the heat of Nell’s face.
The newborn Ascendent wondered.
In the end…did she return her student’s love?
That heat…was Lacrymira imagining it, or was it the Air behind His back?
She cast a thousand eyes back on the world built on a dead god’s bones.
Forlorn was still crying.
Even now…Lacrymira had hoped that at any moment, her teacher would come through and embrace her.
An eternity passed.
For the second time, Lacrymira thought about Nell’s wish. To stay. To fight a futile battle.
But she had her own designs, an End that she sought.
Her eyes turned forward, to the future full of new colour.
(In a world where machines traverse the sky, they said that first loves were nothing.)
(But gods know better.)
(First loves sit in the base of your heart and linger there.)
(Years turn into decades. Decades into centuries.)
(Goodbye, my first love.)
(My Nell.)