Zafiriel
Zafiriel looked away, hoping Silas had not noticed the small puff of steam escaping through her ear. She felt that same ear pulse under her hand. What was going on with it? Maybe she should go and see the nurse to fix it. She didn't want to end up in even more embarrassing situations with her awkward condition.
”Zafi, check this out!”For a moment, Zafiriel looked stunned. She had not heard anyone call her ’Zafi’ for years, completely forgetting she had presented herself as such. The only one who had called her by her nickname had been Mr Paolini. She turned to look at Silas who had cupped a small amount of water in his hands.
At first, the water just stood still, reflecting Silas’s furrowed browline. Maybe he was inspecting if the water was drinkable. No! It was as if the water had slowly started to follow the line his gaze drew on his palms. The little puddle rolled up to a shape reminiscent of a serpent, defying all the physics’ laws. The transparent snake started to coil around the boy’s fingers with grace. Zafiriel’s eyes widened at the performance. She swallowed a gasp.
The dim light sifted through the tall windows mirrored itself on the water serpent. Little swirls of dust, like golden stars in the universe of the now almost abandoned hallway, danced around the serpent. A lock of hair escaped on Firiel’s face, tickling her nosetip. Curious and fascinated, Firiel unconsciously leaned forward towards the ever dancing snake.
”C'est magnifique! A small snake… Dancing in dark…”As the snake splashed back into a puddle, Firiel had to blink her eyes.
”What did you think of that? If THAT didn't make it obvious I'm a water elementalist. But that's enough of my bragging... for now, anyway what kind of elementalist are you Zafi?””The dancing snake… Gone…”For a few moments, Zafi just stared at the spot where the serpent had been. She had never seen water behave like such. If a water elementalist was capable of doing such things… what about the fire resting in her heart, waiting to explode? Would she be able to repeat the performance she had just seen?
When she turned to look at Silas, a hint of a smile was pulling the corners of her mouth upwards. A person capable of creating such art with just a few drops of water could not be a bad person. Firiel raised a hand to ask Silas to wait for a moment, as she gathered the small sparks floating in her heart. She brought both of her hands to her heart. She felt a steady pulse, a calming reminder that she was very much alive.
Zafiriel took a few deep breaths. She would try and create a snake consisting of sparks of fire. She had no second thoughts about it; why would anything go wrong? It didn’t occur to her she may not be comfortable enough with the occasional heat crashing through her. She tried to force the flames out of her mouth, on her fingertips, in the form of a snake, leaving both of them coughing in the aftermath.
When she opened her eyes, she could see the sparks forming on her opened palm. But as she almost gasped victoriously, the sparks vanished in a giant puff of smoke clouding the entire hallway for a few minutes.
Last time she had seen such amount of thick smoke was when a maid had failed to lit a flame in the fireplace. That maid had been oversensitive to vapours of any kind. Apparently, that was not very rare among people being exposed to them at work. Zafiriel hurried to wave the smoke away from Silas. She did not want him to lose consciousness like that maid had.
”Pardonnez-moi! Are you broken?! Are you alright?!”
@CriticalHit