Morningstar

Phoenix makes her way to the forest where she saw Agrion and Beta go with Icarus. She does not know if Icarus is following her. He should be. Once she thinks that she is deep enough, she stops.

“You are an asshole,” she says. She turns around. He is standing a few feet away from her. He is keeping his distance.

“I cannot disagree,” Icarus says. His hands are in his pockets of his pants.

“What was that?” she asks, yelling. He should know what she means. He does not answer. “Talk to me!”

“What do you want me to say?” Icarus asks. He is not raising his voice. It is as if he has a hold over his emotions and lost it this morning. “Do you want me to apologize?”

“You could start by that!”

“I won’t apologize,” he says. “To apologize for something, I should regret doing something. I do not regret what I did.” Phoenix did not expect that answer. “I do apologize for kissing you without your consent. It will not happen again. Is that all?”

“Is that all?” Phoenix repeats, not believing him. “This is not some lecture! This is a conversation.”

“And what do you want me to do?” Icarus says. “I apologized. There is nothing more for me to say.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Phoenix yells. She feels herself getting hot. Her anger is taking control. “Do not speak like a mentor! Do not speak as if you were trained to speak like that! Speak your mind for once!”

“No,” he says.

“Then kiss me,” she orders.

“No.” He does not bother to show any sign. He is relaxed, not even stiff.

“Do something, dammit!” Phoenix yells. “Say something!”

“Fine,” he says. “You remind me of her.”

“What…” Phoenix remembers the story that he told the team. He said that he had a best friend that he was in love with and she was killed.

“She carried that same fire inside of her that you do,” he says. “She was strong, powerful, even stronger than me. She was the reason why I continued to survive at Nightlight.”

“You… You are telling me that you fucking kissed me because I reminded you of her?” she yells. She feels the fire that he spoke about rising. She feels hotter. “I am a human being, Icarus, not just some toy that you can play with!”

“Calm down–”

“Don’t tell to calm down!” she continues yelling. “You left me to bleed out! Then you took care of me when I was drunk. Then you yelled at me. Then you kissed me. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

She looks at her hands. Something is shining. She finds that her hands are on fire. She feels terrified for a second, but she is not feeling the pain. Her hands are on fire and she is not able to feel it.

“Hell,” Icarus curses and runs towards her. He places his hands on her shoulders and passes them around, touching her.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Stop moving!” he yells, which catches her off guard. His hands go to her neck and then he lowers them, touching her chest until it stops in the middle. She sees him close his eyes and then he presses his hands on her chest once. The fire on her hands die out.

“What…” she asks, looking at her hands, but he grabs them.

“Run back to Draconic,” he says, and he runs deep into the forest.

***

Zanna sees when Phoenix enters the room. She is out of breath. She thinks that Icarus will be behind her, but he is not. Phoenix holds against the wall and then she vomits on the floor. Zanna stands up quickly and heads towards her.

“Are you all right?” Rin asks, already beside her. Phoenix does not answer. She only walks out of the room. Zanna looks back into the room.

“Go,” Lexan says. “I’ll clean this.” Zanna nods and heads to follow Phoenix and Rin.

She finds them on the bathroom. They are in front of the sink. Phoenix is throwing water on her face, sobbing.

“What happened?” Zanna asks as she closes the door of the bathroom and locks it.

“I-I-I…” she begins but stop.

“Did Icarus do something?” Rin asks.

“No, no, no,” Phoenix says too fast. “Well, yes, but no.” She closes the tap. “He-He…”

“Okay, calm down, Nix,” Rin says. “Start from the beginning.”

Phoenix lets her breath go. “Do you remember what happened last night?”

“Barely,” Rin says.

“And you keep asking me why I do not go drinking with you,” Zanna murmurs.

“I ended up at Icarus’s dorm,” she says.

“He raped you?” Rin asks, surprised.

“Rin!” Zanna scolds.

“No, no, no,” she says. “He actually took care of me. He even slept on the floor. But when I woke up, he yelled at me.”

“Yelled?” Rin asks. “Like did he really showed emotions?”

Phoenix nods. “And then he kissed me.”

Zanna flinches. She does not believe it. Icarus had punished Phoenix. He had killed their friends. And still, he kissed her.

“What!” Rin asks. She opens her mouth but rethinks it. “How was it?” Zanna smacks her on the back of the head.

“That’s the wrong question,” Zanna says.

“Oh, right,” Rin says. “Did you see how he looks under the mask?” Zanna smacks her again.

“That’s not the point, Rin,” Phoenix says. “I confronted him about it when we went outside and… I saw fire. I was burning.”

“What?” Rin asks as she rises an eyebrow.

“My hands were literally on fire,” she says. “I-I-I somehow created fire. And it did not hurt! I was holding fire that I created.”

“That seems hard to believe,” Rin says.

“No, I swear,” Phoenix says. “I was holding fire. And Icarus turned it off somehow. He then told me to run back here and he left running also.”

“Why don’t you try it now?” Rin asks. “Create fire for us.”

“I can’t,” Phoenix says. “Whatever Icarus did, turned it off. I cannot feel it.”

“Phoenix…”

“I am not lying,” she shouts.

“I believe you,” Zanna says. They both turn to see her. “You have not lied to us before. Why would you start now?” Rin nods. “Let’s wait for Icarus to return. We’ll ask him what happened.”

***

Icarus runs through the woods as fast as he can. He has always been fast, but he needs to get away from the place where Phoenix created fire. He knew it from the moment that he met her. He knew that she had a fire. He just never thought that she was going to release it so soon.

He feels someone’s presence and he stop as he throws a flying knife towards someone. Demetrio catches his knife on the air.

“What are you doing in here?” he asks. He is wearing red armor that resembles a suit. It is tight enough to his skin and thin enough to show the shape of his muscles.

“I felt it,” Icarus answers.

“So, I was not the only one,” he says, walking towards Icarus. He throws back the knife, and Icarus catches it.

“Of course, you weren’t,” Quin says as she appears from view. Her clothes are more white than black today. “A thing like that in a place like this is hard to go unnoticed.”

“I am not crazy then,” someone says as he appears from behind a tree. He is around the same height as Icarus and Quin. He wears a red cape behind his back that drags on the floor. His clothes are gray and are tight enough to show everything, including muscles and marks. “I am right, once again.”

“You are still crazy, Signe,” Quin answers. “It is just a matter of perspective. Won’t you agree, Icarus?”

“Don’t bring me into this,” Icarus answers.

“Uh,” Demetrio says. “What is going on between you two? There is something between you… You two came from Nightlight, right? Did you know each other before coming here?”

“No,” Icarus lies.

“There is someone in here that should not be,” Morning says as he appears from within the woods. His hands are together in front of him, covered by the sleeves of his yellow cloak.

“What kind was it?” Signe asks.

“It felt weak,” Quin says. “Clearly it must be their first time doing that.”

“Whoever it was, you all know what you must do,” Morning says. The golden suns in his yellow robe reflect the poor light that is penetrating through the leaves of the woods. “That creature must not leave Morningstar alive.”

Icarus finds himself nodding with Quin, Demetrio, and Signe. Morning has made it clear. Phoenix cannot leave this place alive.

***

Xeon does not understand what is going on. Phoenix returns with Rin and Zanna after a while and then Icarus. Icarus tells them to take a break and return after lunch. Xeon, Hakea, and Agrion leave. They are not the only ones on a break. Apparently, everyone in Morningstar is on a break too.

“What is going on?” Hakea asks as they walk around the campus.

“I don’t know,” Agrion answers. “But it must be something big.”

“I’ll ask around,” Xeon says and detaches from the duo. He moves to the closest group. He does not know anyone, but he does not care. “Excuse me, if I may ask, why aren’t you at practice?”

“Our mentor, Kline, told us to take a break,” one of the men answers.

“We do not know why, but we don’t seem to be the only one,” a woman answer. “I have a friend in Phantasmic and their mentor, Demetrio, also let them go. Something big must be going on.”

“Agree,” Xeon says. “Thanks for the info.” He returns to his group, who are still standing where he left them.

“If you could talk to Zanna like how you talk to strangers, she would be already yours,” Hakea says.

Xeon shrugs. “They said that their mentor also let them go. They do not actually know why.”

“I heard that Morning is requesting to speak to every mentor,” Vil says as she appears next to them. Xeon did not hear her approach. “Something happened in the woods because apparently Demetrio, Signe, and Quin all left their team and headed there.”

“Where the hell did you come from?” Hakea asks.

“It does not matter,” Vil says and proceeds to walk away from them.

“That’s a weird gal,” Hakea says as they watch her head to nowhere.

***

Norm is sitting on a rock by the lake. Shin has taken his shoes off and rolled up his pants to submerge his feet in the lake. Killam is laying on the grass with his head against a tree. Tilray is standing by the same tree that Killam is, and Ilya is sitting on the grass, her legs on her side.

“When you played yesterday chess with Icarus, what happened?” Norma asks Ilya, wanting to spark a conversation between them.

“He spoke about knights,” she says, not adding anything more.

“Knights?” He wants her to continue talking. He likes hearing her. He actually has liked her for many years. He loves the sound of her voice. It soothes him somehow. Yes, he loves her, and he knows that. But most importantly, she knows too. He told her once, and she said that she was not looking for romance right now. That is a story that they remained secret from everyone else.

“Yeah,” she says. “He was talking hypothetically about if knights were real, but I don’t know. He sounded as if he believes that they are.” She plays with the grass, twirling her fingers around some patches. “He was probably trying to make me talk because I was afraid of him.”

“On the assassin’s trial, we all feared him,” Norm says. He looks to see if Shin, Tilray or Killam is paying attention to their conversation. “But, to be honest, I believe that he is more than just the assassin.”

“I agree,” Ilya whispers. Tilray, Killam, and Shin hate him, and they do not want to know that Norm and Ilya don’t. “He killed Urho, that’s true, but what if there is something more? What if there was something that made him do it?”

“He is more than what meets the eyes,” Norm says. The conversation ends, but Norm continues gazing at Ilya. Her straight brown hair is loose on her shoulders. He remembers the texture of it when she used to lay her head on his lap. How he wishes her to do that again. “Ilya…”

“Don’t, please,” she says, knowing what he is going to say. “We have trials ahead. I cannot afford getting involve with someone when there is a chance that he will die.”

Norm lowers his head. “I understand.” He rises his head again and smiles. “Tilray would not approve of us anyway. We better leave it like that. We do not want her yelling at us until graduation.” Ilya laughs at that, and that is enough to lift Norm’s spirits.