Ellera

Scarlett

Zuleima

What the hell happened? Who is Duvessa chasing? I follow not far behind her. Ahead I can see two people, one wearing black and the other wearing white. They both seem to be females. I slide down the steep ground then see the white lady disengage her chase after the person in black. I thought Duvessa was going to chase after her but it seems that she's going for the person wearing black. I guess I'll try to catch whoever the person in white is.

The woman doesn't have a lot of stamina and is coming to a stop. I'm out of breath too but I can run some more.

"Stop right there!" I shout after the girl. She looks back and runs again. I saw her face. She's as pale as Ellera, so could she also be a non user? I boost myself with my fire then tackle her down. We roll over each other until we stop and I'm on top of her. I grab her neck as she glares at me. "Who are you?" I say breathlessly.

"Get off me you disgusting fire user!" She retorts back. Such attitude. I notice where I'm touching her, I'm leaving black imprints. I pull away and prop up on my hands, still trapping her underneath me.

"What's your name? Who were you chasing?" I question her as I see the imprints fading. What is that effect?

"Why do you need to know?" She push me away and I push myself up on my knees, now straddling her. We both are still catching our breath so she sounds like she's dying.

"I'm Zuleima, my Second is Duvessa and we are here on a quest to find a lady named Vittoria. Are you her?" I ask.

"I'm Scarlett. Vittoria is my twin," she said. Twins? Dark user? She's a light user. "Yes, I'm Light. Now could you get off me? I hate nothing more than fire users who tries to steal my shine,"

Oh, okay.

I get off her. "Duvessa is still probably chasing your twin, we should go find them,"

We trail back to the part where she abandon the chase. I guess I can use this time to question her.

"So your twin, has she already plagued the forest?" I ask.

"Been plaguing, so I have to kill her,"

"You can't just kill your own twin, light can't live without darkness,"

"Tell me you two are the district champions, are you?"

"We call them First and Second, but we aren't the champion of all districts,"

"Thanks for clarifying, but let you tell you something, fire user,"

"It's Zuleima," I roll my eyes and hop over a fallen tree. I turn back and offer my hand but she smack it away.

"Your textbooks has it all wrong," she claims as she hops over the tree. "Darkness lives in light and vice versa. Either I kill her and she lives in me or she kills me and I live in her. You best believe you rather want me alive than her. If I die then the only way to end her is another light user, which I don't know anyone else other than me and no! You fire users are not light!"

What's her problem? Jealousy? Wait, we can't let Vittoria die, our quest could be a failure. We have to bring her back to the councils.

"Your Second is ahead," she put an empathize on Second.

I look up and see Duvessa hugging a tree. What happened?! What did Vittoria do?! I sprint to Duvessa and find her breathing hard.

"Don't touch her!" Scarlett's voice made me stop from help Duvessa up. "She's infected," we both move to stand in front of Duvessa. Her hand and half of her face is black. The blackness is stretching across her skin.

"Can you do something?" I ask Scarlett. She nods and crouch in front of Duvessa. Scarlett cups the infected face of Duvessa and I watch as she extract the darkness from my friend.

"It takes three weeks for a person to be fully infected. During that time, the person will act violent. If the infection takes over the body then the person will die. But your Second, she's a metal user. The infection will spread faster," Scarlett moves on to hold Duvessa's infected hand. "Only I can draw the darkness out and purity them. She should be fine now,"

I feel something behind us so I turn and shoot my fire out. A dark cloud devours my fire and continues our way. I thought of sending another attack but a white cloud invaded the dark mist.

"Vittoria is near, take your friend and go," Scarlett advise me.

"What about you?" I ask.

"I'm not useless like you," she retorts. I furrow my brows. Useless?

"I can't let you kill your twin, we were given order to capture her and bring her back,"

"And what do they plan to do to her? Cage her? She's better off dead or it'll be all of you,"

"I will do what I was brought here for,"

"Get through me first," she challenge.