The surprise on the Queen’s face, however, didn’t last two seconds. As quickly as she had seemed fazed by the fact that I could add and subtract flames without needing to make a gesture with my hand, as quickly as the surprise had left.
The only indication that she had been shaken had been the slight shaking of her hand as she returned the cup to the table, a shaking that led the cup to spill some of its content. Its content was a blood red liquid.
Wine then. I thought, taking my eyes off the cup to her face when she stood up from her seat, dusted her hands on each other, and started walking toward me.
“So, it seems that you can control the fire with your mind, at such a young age. That’s huge potential, I will have to admit. Let’s see how far you can go…” She said, staring at me, from my hair which was tied to a ponytail, to my tennis shoes.
My significant other recoiled further into my mind, as if the gaze was scorching her. What exactly was with the both of them? I wondered, not cowering under the queen’s scrutiny.
With a gesture of her hand, the hold on my legs was freed. I shook them so that they wouldn’t become numb.
“You can extinguish the ball now. Cast another one, let me see if you have that much control over your magic, without movement, or if my magic has helped you to do so.”
I nodded curtly to her instruction, and then inhaled deeply, lifting my hands as I did so, up and down, centering myself to conjure a fireball. It was easier this time around.
‘Do you think I can do it with my mind, without gesturing with my hands?’
‘You can do anything if you set your mind on it. You can already do it, Dora. What’s left is for you to believe in that strength, in that knowledge. Start with picturing the amount of fire you want.’
A willful effort not to nod at my other’s sage advice, I imagined the ball I wanted. A big ball.
Later, I would wonder why I had done this, why I had given into the impulse to create a great fireball, and I would shelve it to pride, would shelve it to sheer foolishness, because it would herald the onset of another series of events that would overturn my perfect life again.
With all my magic in line, I shut my eyes, let my hands fall to my side, and muttered the singular word: Ven.
At first, nothing happened, just like in magic classes.
I increased my concentration and will, however, making sure that there was a leash around the magic so that it wouldn’t go berserk like it had gone in school yesterday.
“Ven.” I muttered again, calmly, feeling my worries disappear, feeling myself sink into a deep magic state, feeling a superb energy roll over my body like never felt before, feeling it swim into my head. I became drunk with it, intoxicated; so intoxicated that I started laughing loudly.
I didn’t care to see what the Queen had thought of this aberration, the anomaly I was sure it was, until I felt the heat, the searing heat that was soothing to my skin, but I knew had the opposite on the people around me, just like it had been in school yesterday.
So, I opened my eyes, my mouth falling open in shock when I saw a huge ball of fire, way taller than me vertically, and even bigger horizontally-I wasn’t even fat to start with. It was that huge.
I stepped away from it, my mouth still open. What the hell! It was bigger than what I had pictured in my mind! It was even bigger than the one I had created yesterday. But unlike the other, it had a bluish ring around it, a leash I think, that had kept it from rolling into a queen with an open mouth, into her servants in the room, into the huge palace.
The ball was just revolving on its orbit-we were like dwarfs around it .
Immediately, I raised my hand to extinguish it, but the Queen barked at me: “stop!”
I furrowed my eyebrows, watching her approach me, wondering what she wanted now.
Luckily, the ball of fire didn’t touch her. It wasn’t emitting any of those dangerous heat that could burn off someone at a small radius either-it was like its heat had been contained within itself, reserved for only me.
“How did you do this?” She asked, still approaching, about to cover the few meters between us, when suddenly the flame burned then, releasing a flicker toward her.
Why did it do that?
‘Are you behind this?’
No answer. But I knew she was. She must be really hate the Queen then.
The Queen remained at the spot where the flame had tried to torch her, darting glances between me and the flame. “Did you do that?”
I knew what she was talking about, but I still asked her what she was taking about. It was amusing seeing the Queen lost for words, seeing the Queen with a less-than-hundred percent composure.
“The flame that just jumped toward me, did you do it?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
She didn’t believe me, but she said nothing. Rather she sighed, and admired the ball of fire, her eyes checking out the height and width.
I could hear the clicks of phones and knew that some of the palace officials were already capturing the spectacle, probably sending it already to the community group. Seeing as the Queen said nothing about it, it was possible that she didn’t know of it, didn’t know of her officials capturing the scene.
Well, witches didn’t have sensitive ears.
For me, I was aware of someone taking pictures, aware of another on live feed-even though they had muted their phones’ volume. It was probably why the queen didn’t hear.
“So, Dora how did you do this? This type of magic isn’t given to novices as you. That is indisputable. What is your story? You still don’t remember?”
The last phrase was said in a spoofy tone, like she knew I had been lying the first time. Well, I wasn’t going to make this easier for her. She can think whatever, assume whatever. I didn’t care. She couldn’t read my mind after all. I had that at least.
“No, I don’t have my memories yet. About the ball, I don’t know either. It just happened.”
The Queen shook her head, obviously tired of my lies, and waved at the ball. “Pull it down. Can you do that at least? Do you know how?”
I gave her no answer, not when the statement had been delivered as a mocking one.
‘Can I do that?’
‘Why are you asking me? You seem so eager to put yourself under the Queen’s radar, no matter the reservations I have about her. Are you that desperate to make her feel terrified by you? …because I tell you that’s not a good idea! It’s not a good idea for the Queen to be terrified of you. I know you have been bullied for your helplessness, and for that, you want to show that you are not the same person again. But you don’t need to do all these, you already know that you are not the same person. You even have a new identity, and even if you didn’t, your display since this week had informed everyone what they should expect if they mess with you. This wasn’t necessary.’
‘I’m sorry.’
I could see that it wasn’t just the control of my power I needed to master, but most importantly, my thoughts, my feelings. I was no longer helpless, yes. But I didn’t need to keep proving it to everyone. It was enough.
‘Well, the deed has already been done. We will take everything as it comes. Hopefully, we will emerge unscathed.’
I hoped for our sakes that was true, and immediately took a deep breath. I raised my hand, just for effect now-no need increasing the Queen’s suspicion of me-and spoke: “Be gone.”
My eyes which had been open this time around, widened in surprise when the ball suddenly vamoosed into thin air, as if it had never been. I wasn’t expecting that. I had thought that it would cool off, not disappear into thin air.
‘You said ‘be gone’, you didn’t say ‘cool down’. They hear human language, Maya…’
Was that so?
I dropped my hands, and looked at the Queen then. Her mouth was slightly opened, and the live feed was getting more reactions.
What could be the backlash of this? I hadn’t destroyed any property, but still…
My thoughts were interrupted when the Queen covered the distance between us, a dazed look on her face.
‘Be calm, I’ve raised the mind guards.’ My other stated. ‘But don’t let her touch you.’
However, before I could step away from the Queen, she already had my hair in her hand, her eyes like twin saucers.
When I looked at the offending hair, I saw that it was pure white.
The entire strand was pure white.