by Indie Gantz
The lesson is probably that Téssera power isn’t a toy, even if it’s a lot of fun to play with.
◆◆◆
After lunch, Avias unceremoniously pushes a stack of books into my arms.
The books are accompanied by a stern warning to come prepared to his lesson in a few days. Bo rolls her eyes and tells me to read the books she provides only if I want.
“The books are basically for the stuff I can’t quite do meself yet,” Bo explains. “Have a look when you think you’re ready for the big stuff.”
“All right, thanks. Are you ready to start now?”
“Just give me a few minutes with Mum,” Bo replies. “Dad’s been gone all day working in the solar fields; just want to make sure she has what she needs.”
“I was up there playing for her a few minutes ago, Bo,” Avias informs her. “She’s resting now.”
My arms begin to grow numb from my heavy study materials as I wait for one of them to say something more. When neither of them say anything, I blurt, “I feel like there’s more going on with Vi that you guys aren’t saying. I know I’m not actually family or anything, but I’m worried about her. Is there anything I can do to help?”
Avias and Bo exchange another glance, and then Avias sighs softly, stepping closer to me.
“To be honest, we aren’t entirely sure what’s happening with our mother. There is precedent for this situation, but this is definitely the worst it’s ever been. Our mother has a very specific problem with her heart, which the healers have found difficult to repair. The casts yesterday were too powerful for her current health status.”
“Then why did she do it?” I ask, alarmed. “We would have never wanted her to help us if we knew it could hurt her like that. We can always just read and-”
“There’s no use,” Bo shakes her head and laughs sadly. “Mum’s a tough bird. She refuses to live within her means. It’s not you. Like Ave said, this isn’t the first time she’s overdone it.”
“But this time it’s worse?”
“Yes,” Avias nods solemnly. “She’ll recover. She just needs to rest her heart for awhile.”
“Okay well,” I shift the books in my hands and try not to grimace under the weight of them. “If there’s anything Tirigan and I can do, we’re happy to help.”
“Well, unless you can go about fixing her heart, I don’t think there’s much you can do.” Bo looks down at Avias’ large textbooks in my arms and pats my shoulder gently. “Good luck with all that. I’ll see you in a few minutes out back.”
Avias glares at Bo’s retreating figure then narrows his eyes at me. “I don’t expect you to have those books completely read by our lesson, I hope you know. I would like you to be familiar with each of them, though. What kind of information can be found in each one and how the index system works. Things like that.” His business-like tone only makes me want to laugh, but I stifle it and nod along. “If you’d like, when you are finished this evening, we can look over some of the material together.”
“Sure thing, professor. I’ll just go dump these in our room. I’m sure Tirigan will devour them in no time.” Something in Avias’ demeanor changes, his expression softens and his lips curl into a ghost of a smile.
“He does read at spectacular rates. It’s incredible, watching him speed through entire volumes like he does. I’ve never seen anything like it. Delightful, really.”
“Delightful?” I tease. “Are you sure that’s the word you want to go with?”
Avias blushes and purses his lips in a way that I’ve come to recognize as an attempt to hide his embarrassment. “I stand by my chosen vernacular.”
“All right.” I smile and start backing away towards my bedroom. “If you’re sure.”
“Yes, yes, all right. How very telling of me,” Avias chastises lightly as he waves me away. “Don’t you have books to study or planets to invade or something?”
“Uh huh,” I reply, laughing as I turn and walk away from him. “Lots of planets to check off my list.”
Planets? Tirigan’s thought comes from our bedroom, which I enter a second later. I find my brother sitting on his bed, his legs outstretched while he reads a large textbook with the molecular symbol for water printed on the front of it.
“Nothing, just a little banter with Avias.” I place the books on the small desk at the end of my bed and shake out my aching arms.
Banter?
“Yeah, you know, witty back-and-forth. An Avias specialty.”
“Mmm.” Tirigan hums aloud. He continues reading.
Do you know what Avias plays? He said he was playing something to his mother earlier.
Violin.
That’s the stringed one, right?
Tirigan manages to roll his eyes without losing his spot in the book. It is one of many stringed instruments, yes.
I hold up my hands defensively.
“Sorry. Didn’t know I’d be quizzed on human music today too.” Tirigan pretends not to hear me. “We have our lesson with Bo in a few minutes. Are you ready?”
In a moment.
I’ll just meet you out there then, okay?
Mhmm. Tirigan doesn’t look up from the pages he’s absorbed in. I take that as my invitation to leave him there.
I pass Robin and Cyra playing dolls together in the living room and feel a pang of nostalgia for the toys of my youth. Even when he wouldn’t open his mind to me, Tirigan and I always played well together as small children. We raced cars and cared for wooden babies with painted faces. The only fights we had involved my frustration with Tirigan not communicating with me, which usually led to one of us hoarding all of the toys and refusing to share.
Cyra and Robin seem to get along well enough, if only because I don’t hear shrieks of torment as I move through the house toward the backyard. When I make it out to the porch, I find Bo collecting sticks from around the backyard and piling them together, like she plans to build a fire. It would make sense, considering which element we’re meant to be practicing this afternoon.
“Need some help?” I ask, stepping down the stairs of the porch and joining Bo in the yard. The sun hasn’t made an appearance since the storm the other day, and the air is cooler than it has been since we arrived in Pacoa. I contemplate running back inside to put on another shirt so that my arms are covered, but then I think about the heat that we’ll be generating soon and decide against it.
“Cheers,” Bo replies, then points out some brush towards the back of the yard. “Grab that kindlin’ over there, yeah?”
“Sure.” I make my way towards the brush quickly, eager to start practicing again.
The boulder Oleander raised from the ground for our lesson with Vi no longer pokes out of the ground, and the makeshift pool has also disappeared. Nothing impedes my path as I nearly run to the edge of the backyard, where grass abruptly meets woods and the path that Kor and I walked along the other day peeks out from the trees.
I fill my arms with soggy twigs and leaves, and then make my way back towards Bo. She has her lighter out and is standing over the pile of sticks with her other hand outstretched over them. Steam rises from the wet wood, billowing up and into the sky at Bo’s wordless command.
“Be a bit difficult to light em' up if they’re soppin’,” Bo explains. “I still have to use a lighter for most of my casts. Not quite strong or disciplined enough to use the sun yet. Mum would have a fit if I even attempted to harness lightning.”
“But, you could? Or, I mean, you’ll be able to with more practice?”
“Practice, age. It all comes eventually. I’m actually one of the most powerful Fotiáns I know for my age. Not off the lighter yet, but give me a couple more months and I think I’ll have it.”
She flicks her wrist and the fire from the lighter jumps to the pile of wood, igniting instantly.
“Looks good to me,” I reply with a smile. “Should I put this on the fire?”
“Not yet.” Bo shakes her head. “It’s still wet. Why don’t you
try to dry it out?”
“Okay, sure.” I let the twigs and leaves in my arms fall to the ground, then stare at it blankly. “How exactly do I do that?”
“However feels right to you. You’ve got a whole mess of power at your disposal, Charlie. You could do what I just did; transfer the heat from the fire to the brush, evaporatin’ the water. Or, you could move the water itself. You could probably even blow air over it to slowly evaporate the water. At your level you’d probably just end up blowin’ the entire pile of brush away, though.”
“Maybe I should just try what you did,” I suggest, eyes flicking between the growing bonfire and the wet mess at my feet.
“All right.” Bo nods and then crosses her arms. “Just concentrate on the heat from the fire for a moment. Move closer and really let it seep into your skin. You should be able to taste it.”
“How does one taste fire, exactly?” Tirigan’s voice comes from the porch. Bo and I both look up to greet him.
“You’re late,” Bo chimes. “Avias would have your head.”
“Well then I guess it is advantageous for me that Avias is absent.” Tirigan strolls towards us at a leisurely pace, a move that seems purposefully defiant.
“Any time now, Sarrum,” I tease.
“I know it’s your alien brother pet name, or whatever, but if I went around callin’ Avias ‘king’ all the time, he’d grow even more full of himself. If that’s even possible at this point,” Bo jests.
I snicker, but Tirigan shows no outward signs of amusement.
“Well, Tirigan knows I only call him Sarrum when he’s being especially difficult,” I reply. “He knows better than to think of it as a compliment.
Tirigan stands on the other side of the fire and places his hands in his pockets. His forearms are exposed, but the white button-up shirt he’s wearing today is probably keeping him plenty warm.
“I like it,” a deep voice says from the porch. Avias holds Cyra on his hip. “Sarrum. Has a nice ring to it.” The Aérasian gives Tirigan a playful smile, and even though he’s turned away from me, I can see Tirigan’s cheeks lifting in return.
“All right, well, now that we’ve got that bit covered, shall we get back to this lesson?” Bo asks, her tone mimicking Avias’ posh accent rather than her own. “Stop distracting my students!”
“I only came to tell you that Oleander just sent a call stone from the store. The sapphire set you put out the other day was traded for thirty stones,” Avias tells her, a hint of pride in his voice. “Just thought you’d like to know.”
“Thirty stones!” Bo nearly jumps in the air beside me. “How’d he get thirty stones for it?!”
“You know Oleander.” Avias shrugs then tickles Cyra under her chin when she tries to squirm out of his arms. “Positively overflowing with charm.”
Bo’s smile falters for just a moment, before it brightens once more. “Yeah, well, yes. That’s good. Thanks for letting me know. Now, be gone with you.” Bo shoos Avias away while he glares at her from the porch. He nods primly and then heads back inside with Cyra.
“Now, where were we? Oh. Right. Charlie, I believe you were about to wow us with your ability to dry some twigs there. Go ahead, give it a go.”
Concentrating on the fire again and remembering what Charlie said about really feeling the fire’s heat before trying anything, I close my eyes and step a little closer to the flames. The closer I get, the more powerful the heat seems to flow through me, almost like an aborted shiver. The more I try to understand what I’m feeling, the more the fire seems to take on qualities I never noticed before.
There’s heat, of course, but there’s also a dull throb pulsing under my skin. The roar of the flames, each and every flicker, is rhythmic like an ocean’s waves. In just a few moments, I’ve learned to anticipate the flame’s movements, its dance easily calculated.
I’m already very familiar with the smell of fire, having spent plenty of nights cooking food over open flames outside of our trailer and the occasional reoccurring nightmare that tries to burn me alive. But it’s somehow different now. It’s not like my dream where I smell the burn of the wood or the ash that coats my body. This scent is the actual fire in its purest form.
I open my eyes and step away from the brush at my feet. I focus on moving the heat from the fire to the wet pile of twigs and leaves, following the rhythm of the flames, zeroing in on the pulse point of their fervor.
I can almost see the heat as it moves through the air and begins to infect the wet wood on the ground. There’s a distinctive hiss as the water is reluctantly pulled into the air and transitioned into steam.
Proud, I start to smile, but then the twigs at my feet burst into flames, forcing me to jump back in surprise.
“Whoa there,” Bo says with a laugh, waving her hand at the fire I generated and moving it back towards the properly built fire. “A bit too much there at the end, but that was good. Well done, Charlie.”
“I don’t know what happened. It felt really good, like I knew what I was doing, but then...” I trail off and look at the smoking pile of ash at my feet. “What happened?”
“Fotiá isn’t like Néro or Aéras. Avias hates when I say this, but it’s more like a person than an element. There’s a feelin’ to it, a connection. Just like with Gi. That’s why it’s dangerous to invoke Fotiá directly before you’re ready. She has to trust you.”
“She?” Tirigan echoes, his brow pitched together in disapproval. “Fotiá isn’t a woman. It isn’t a person at all. I can see why Avias would grow irritated with statements like that.”
“No, I get what you’re saying.” I ignore Tirigan. “I could feel the heat, just like you said. I could taste it. It feels realer than water does. It’s like it’s alive.”
“Exactly.” Bo nods, and then she turns her attention to Tirigan. “What about you? Want to try it?”
“Charlie burned the practice material,” Tirigan responds dryly.
“Well, let’s try something else then.” Her mouth quirks into a wicked grin. “Something a little more fun.”
“I thought that was fun,” I reply.
“A different kind of fun, Lee,” Bo replies, still grinning. She backs away from the fire and places her lighter in her pocket. “Have you read about heat signatures yet?”
“Yes, of course,” Tirigan says with a yawn.
I nod politely at Bo and then scold Tirigan. Stop it.
Stop what?
You know what you’re doing. Stop acting like Bo has nothing to teach you. I know you’ve done most of the reading already, but she still has a lot of practical experience that you could learn from.
Tirigan’s eyes widen minutely. I have literally just been standing here.
Don’t act innocent, Tirigan. I know you. Be nice. Tirigan’s jaw drops slightly as he pretends not to understand. However, seconds later his posture adjusts slightly, and his general air of superiority disappears.
“If you two are done with your little squabble, I’ll have your attention now, thanks.” Bo stares between the two of us, her hands on her hips and an irritated look on her face.
“Sorry,” I apologize. “We’re listening.”
Bo looks over to Tirigan, and he nods, gesturing for her to continue.
“As I was sayin’, heat signatures. As a Fotián, I can manipulate the source of fire and the energy it gives off. I can also sense and interpret it.”
“You’re talking about the biological applications,” Tirigan cuts in, obvious interest in his tone.
“Yeah, which is pretty damn cool once you get the hang of it, Bo smiles wickedly. “Our bodies give off heat, right? Well, Fotiáns are capable of readin’ someone’s temperature, and then interpreting what it means. This is very useful in medical situations, but it’s also extremely helpful socially.”
“Socially?” I clarify.
“Well, yeah,” Bo explains. Tirigan comes to stand closer to us. “Our body temperatures react to various social situations. Our faces get hot w
hen we’re embarrassed. Our hands sweat when we’re nervous. And of course, other parts tend to heat up when excessive blood pumps to, uh, certain areas,” Bo continues, smirking and raising her eyebrows provocatively.
“Oh. Right. That makes… wait.” I turn to Bo, my growing anxiety surely written all over my face. The fact that I now know Bo can read it only makes it worse. “Really? You can tell when someone’s…?” Bo laughs, while Tirigan crosses his arms and gives us a look that says exactly how immature he thinks all of this is.
“Well, I can’t. Not yet, at least, but probably in a couple years with practice. Cal’s actually crazy good at it. If we didn‘t have to keep all this a secret, I’d say you should go to him for lessons.”
“You’re doing fine, Bo,” Tirigan says kindly, giving her a thin smile. “Tell me, does this skill work as a method of lie detection as well? I was reading that it is possible, but I didn’t see any practical application tips in the book.”
“Yeah, it’s possible, but it’s very hard to interpret correctly. For a relative novice, like yourselves, you’d have to know someone pretty well to read their heat signature. You kind of have to have a base to work off of, you know? You won’t know they’re embarrassed if their face just always runs a little hot. Really practiced Fotiáns can sense what a person’s restin’ body temperature should be just by bein’ around them, which makes it easier to interpret when the body goes all wonky.”
“Interesting.” Tirigan nods. “That is helpful. Thank you.”
“Do you want to try it?” Bo asks. “You two know each other better than anyone. You should be able to pick it up pretty fast.”
Tirigan raises an eyebrow at me.
I shrug. “Sure, go for it. Just don’t make me burst into flames or anything.”
I’ll do my best.
“All right, so, just get a good look at your sister,” Bo instructs. “It may help to hold hands or somethin’ the first time you read her.”