Morningstar

Icarus saw two of his daggers fall from the sky. He catches them on the air. The trial is now over. They will have to kill everyone from the Malefic team. He already expected that. On his trials back at Nightlight, every team that failed the trials was killed.

“You may return to where Wither is,” Icarus says through the earpiece. “I can do all of the killing.”

“Oh, no,” Killam answers. “I did not play in all of this game. I will get blood on my hands one way or another.”

Icarus did not expect everyone to retreat. He sees Slier run towards Tulle, who began to run away. Kimber has also started to run away from Beta. Beta pulls her bow and makes an arrow fly. It hits Kimber on the back, and she falls face first. Beta makes a turn and heads back to the room where Wither is.

Icarus runs, pushing himself to be faster. He will find Kline. He passes Slier, who stares at him as he passes her by easily. He spots Shin fighting a pawn. He finds Phoenix with Rin. Moneo is returning to their side of the board while Tilray is running the opposite direction to kill more people. They are bloodthirsty.

Icarus heads to where the door to the Malefic room is. He finds that the door is closed, and Kline is standing in front of it. Morning must have forced him out to pay for his failure. Icarus stops a few meters in front of him. He flips a dagger in his hand.

“You knew that this time would come,” Icarus says.

“I expected it the other way around,” Kline says.

“I know,” Icarus says. “That’s why you made sure to cheat.” Kline does not answer. “Let’s be honest with each other. You gave them the job to injure anyone from my team before the trial. We both know that.”

Kline shrugs. “Let’s get this over with. If I am going down, you are going down with me.”

Icarus nods. He pockets his daggers. “You are without weapons. Using my daggers would not be fair.”

Kline is already heading towards Icarus. He rises his fist. Icarus moves away and docks from the upcoming kick. Kline is a mentor. He has survived the trials once. He should not be taken lightly. Icarus steps away on every upcoming jab. He tries to strike back, but Kline evades every move.

Then he feels it. He feels the air change. He feels the strong feeling that he cannot mistake. He feels the sense of active magic on the air. Phoenix appears in his mind. He should not have left her alone. He should not have made her release her fire. He should have let her yell at him and let her calm herself instead of angering her up.

Icarus docks at a swing of Kline. He quickly straightens his back, grabs Kline’s head, and pops his neck out of place. He does not wait for the body to fall. He quickly runs to where the magic is coming from. He has to get to Phoenix before Morning does. He has to find an excuse. He has to save her.

He stops abruptly when he sees that it is not Phoenix who is doing magic. It is Tulle. There’s wind around her, forming a barrier between her and Slier and East. She has her arms stretched in front of her and standing still.

“What happened?” Icarus yells over the wind.

“I don’t know,” Slier shouts. “We were going to kill her and suddenly a gust pushed us away.”

Icarus analyzes the wind. Someone who is new to magic has many vulnerabilities. If Tulle is new to her magic, there has to be an opening on her wind barrier. He finds it, an opening between the wind. He quickly dives in without thinking and passes the barrier. He hits her head, by the temple, and she passes out, the wind dying around her.

“Bring her,” Morning says. He has appeared next to Icarus. He looks at Slier and East. “You two, come with us.”

***

Wither is standing in the room with his cane. He sees people come in. The first is Ilya, then Norm, and then Lexan and Vil. Lexan quickly makes his way towards Wither with Vil.

“I knew that you could do it,” Lexan says.

Wither smiles while lowering his head. “Thanks,” he only says.

Lexan pats him on the back. “We have a whole free day ahead of us. We can do whatever you want. You earned it. We won because of you.”

“That’s not true,” Wither says.

“It is,” someone says. He looks to his side and finds Zanna. She looks at Lexan and Vil. “Can you leave us alone for a second?”

“Sure,” Lexan says and turns to leave with Vil.

“Why?” Vil asks her, but Lexan is already pushing her away.

Zanna looks at her hands. She is caressing her knuckles with her thumb. “You trusted me,” she says. Wither remembers the game. Her voice telling him to trust her. “Even though you were concerned for my safety, you trusted me, and then you saved me.”

“I… I was just playing the game,” Wither says.

She shakes her head, still looking at her hands. “You took everyone’s opinions into consideration. You placed everyone’s safety above everything else. In the end, you won the trial without losing anyone.”

“I, um…” but he does not finish. She pushes her lips against him. She quickly pulls back. It was a small kiss, but it is enough to make him blush. She turns around and walks away, leaving Wither to wonder. He did not think that she considered him a friend. He did not think that she wanted to talk to him, even less to kiss him.

He smiles as he stares at the ground. Zanna has just woken something inside of him.

***

Slier is standing at a small room where a chessboard is. She knows that this is the room where Kline was playing from. In the room, there is only four other people: East, Morning, Icarus, and Tulle. Tulle is seating on a chair. Icarus has tied her to it. She is knocked out.

“Wake her,” Morning orders.

Slier expects Icarus to hit her or cut her somewhere. She expects him to wake her with pain. Instead, he grabs her nose, stopping her for breathing. She wakes up, thrashing and wanting to breath. Icarus then frees his grip from her nose.

Tulle looks around, scanning everyone’s faces. Her eyes stop on Morning and they become wider. “Where… am I?” she asks.

“What happened outside?” Morning asks her. She is in no place to ask questions, and even less ask questions to Morning.

“I-I-I was going to get killed,” she says, looking around as if she is visualizing what happened. “Then as East began to shoot and Slier was going to strike with her hammer, something happened. The wind pushed them back and then it started surrounding me, protecting me from them. It was as if the wind had a life of its own.”

“Have you ever seen that happened before?” Morning asks.

“No, never,” Tulle answers as she shakes her head.

Morning looks at Icarus. “Was she who you felt at the forest four days ago?”

Icarus takes his time. Slier stares at him, but he is looking away from all of them. “The essence was similar,” Icarus says. He does not give any explanation.

“Kill her,” Morning says as he begins to walk away. “I have nine other trials to attend to.”

“What–” Tulle asks but Icarus is already slicing her throat with his dagger. Slier watches how Tulle’s body convulses as she tries to breath and then stops.

Then, she hears Icarus whisper something. “May the saints guide you.”

“What was that all about?” East asks Icarus.

Icarus stares at him. “What do you know about this?”

“Morning hired us four days ago to hunt a witch,” Slier says. “I never believed that they were real, and even less that they were among us.”

“Was she one of them?” East asks.

“She was,” Icarus says as he nods. “I, and a couple of other mentors, felt a disturbance on the air a few days ago. These people’s abilities can be felt with practice. We tried to find the owner, but she got away.” He looks at Tulle. “She is dead now.”

“What if there are others like her?” East asks. “What if there are others among us?”

“Don’t,” Icarus says. “There are not others. If there are, they are not your concern. You two should be focusing on the trials, not hunting.” He looks at Slier. “What did he offer you?”

“What?” Slier asks.

“What did Morning offer you for finding her?” Icarus asks.

“Safe passage for graduation,” Slier answers. “We will graduate even if our team fails a trial.”

Icarus nods slowly. “You two sold your team,” he says as he walks the exit. “I expected more from you two.”

Slier watches him go. She feels something inside of her. Icarus sounded disappointed, and for once, Slier feels remorse for her decision. Had they done the right decision of forgetting about their team and keeping each other alive?

***

Phoenix is sitting on the grass by the lake. Rin and Zanna are also with her. They have survived the trial. Rin and she had killed the rest of the other team with the help of Tilray, Killam, Shin, East, and Slier.

She grabs a stone and throws it at the lake. She does not feel like she won. She feels empty. Why does she really want to graduate besides staying alive?

“Hey, you,” someone says. They turned to find Fey, Beta, Kobo, and Moneo walking towards them. Fey is holding two cups on her hands. She hands one to Phoenix. “Here.”

“What is this?” Phoenix asks, but once she sees the content, she knows what it is.

“A drink,” Fey answers. She sits beside Phoenix. “Thought that we all needed a drink.” Phoenix looks down at her cup. “Relax, it isn’t spiked or anything.” Phoenix takes a few gulps, almost drinking it completely. “We all killed people today. It never gets easier.”

“Hear, hear,” Phoenix says.

“It makes you wonder about life,” Fey says. She sighs. “We should put aside our differences. We should not be fighting for anything. We are a team, and if today showed us something, it was that we work better as a team.”

“What about Tilray?” Phoenix asks. “Did you tell her this?”

“I could not find her,” Fey says. “Besides, I thought that I should start with you because you are less stubborn.”

Phoenix looks down at the grass. Fey is right. They have been rivals for as long as they can remember, but for what reasons? Phoenix envied Fey’s glamour. She wanted to be noticed by men as much as they noticed Fey. But that does not matter.

She rises her cup. “Let’s drink to that,” she says. As she takes a sip, something catches her eyes. A few yards away, Icarus is standing against a tree. “I’ll be right back,” she says as she stands up. She heads where Icarus is. He looks up at her. “What are you doing here?”

“Nothing,” Icarus says. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“About?” Phoenix asks.

Icarus looks at her cup. “You are drinking.”

“Yeah,” she says. She extends the cup to him. “Want some?”

“I don’t drink,” he reminds her.

“Right,” she says and proceeds to take a sip. “What did you want to talk about?”

He looks past her, checking if anyone is near them. “I need to see you alone for an hour,” Icarus says. “Can you come by my dorm tonight?” Phoenix rises an eyebrow. Is he asking to be with her? “It is not like that,” he adds quickly. “I have a ritual that it will block your extraordinary ability until the trials are over.”

“Why?” Phoenix asks. “I haven’t used it since you ask.

“I know,” Icarus says.

“Then why do the ritual?”

It takes Icarus a second before he speaks. “Right after the second trial was over, I felt the essence of an ability in the air. I… I was afraid that it was you.”

“It wasn’t me,” Phoenix assures him. He was afraid for her. He was concerned. He might feel something for her.

“I know,” he says. “It was Tulle, and I killed her on Morning’s orders.” He waits a second as if he is recollecting his thoughts. “That’s why I need to do the ritual. I cannot risk you using your blessing.”

“You?” Phoenix asks.

Icarus eyes grow wide. “We,” he corrects himself. “We cannot risk it.” Even in front of her, he is lying.

“No,” Phoenix says. “I can control myself. You won’t do the ritual.”

“Phoenix, reconsider,” Icarus says.

“No,” Phoenix says. “I haven’t had any problems with it. I have not even felt it inside of me. I do not need to block it. Is that all?” He does not answer. She turns to return to her group.

“Phoenix,” he says. She stops walking. “I-I… I was wondering… What were you going to tell me at the ship?”

Phoenix’s heart skips a beat. He remembers. He is also curious. He does care for her, even though he does not admit it. She turns to face him. “I like you, Icarus,” she says. “I hate your personality, but I fucking like you, and I cannot stop thinking about it. What I wanted to tell you was that if you want me, then I am all yours, but I need you to say it.”

Icarus eyes move to the ground for half a second before returning to Phoenix. “I told you before, Phoenix. You might think that you want me, but you don’t. I am a nightmare, and once you get to know me, you will see it. You will begin to hate me.”

She takes steps closer to him and stops inches from him. “You are wrong,” she says. “You are wrong to believe that I do not want a nightmare, because, darling, if you have not noticed, I am not a light dream.” She closes her eyes. She can smell the scent of pine on him, but also of sweat. “I am going to stand here. You do not have to speak. You can just let me know your decision.”

Phoenix stands for a few seconds with her eyes closed. She waits and waits. She feels her hope beginning to glimmer away. She extended her heart to him, and he did not take it. When she is about to open her eyes, she feels it. She feels his lips against her. She feels his arms surround her. She feels every single kiss telling her what he cannot say.

Then he pulls back softly. She wants more, she wants more of him. When she opens her eyes, he is gone.