Islands of the Sky

Chapter 3- A Fly on the Wall

"Be careful how deep you dig.."

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        Just one throw, then we can pick him up before he splats into the ground. It would teach him respect and to keep his mouth closed. I had been complaining to Griffin for almost 10 minutes and in that time, Frinnick had yet to shut up.

       "So then you had to use the magic you got when you were born..." He was still on the story of me fighting the cultist.

        "Frinnick, I don't mean to be rude, but this is my life you're talking about. I know what happened better than the press." I finally found the courage to ask him to shut up, but in a nicer way.

      "Well yea, I know that, but it was more of a reminder to me as to who I am really talking to, that, and I spaced out." He almost seemed cute in a puppy way when he was gawking at me.

        "It's Okay. I just have to think on this mission and how you come into play." He seemed to be quiet after that little talk and I went back to focusing on the mission and how it played out. After I had run through almost 300 different situations in my head, I decided to ask him more about his powers and what else he could do with them.

        "So what else can you do besides bend fire to your will? Can you create it from your life force?" I shifted my weight so I could look at him over my shoulder.

        "Ummmm yea. I can create it from my life force, but I am really drained afterwards and I can only do it once. It takes a long time for me to build up the power to do it again." He chuckled nervously.

        "I see. May I do something that may seem a bit rude to you? I want to look into your head and see exactly where you got your powers." I held up my hand before he could reply. "I know you don't know where you got them from, but your mind will be able to tell me. That kind of magic has a trace to it only my brother and I can follow."

        "Really? It does? Okay, then yes, you may enter my mind." He tried to sound professional, but his boyish smile gave him away completely.

       I reached up, gripped his head and closed my eyes after he did the same and I plunged forward into his mind. As I passed through the first layer of his mind, it was mostly him still trying to figure out where I was in his mind.

       I thought it would be better if I didn't show him what I was seeing so I could find out more about him, see if he would ever attack me. To my surprise, I couldn't find any horrible tragedy that would lead him to do something bad, in fact, I found something amazing. It was pure loyalty.

        Loyalty to his friends, his family and to his people. He had saved no loyalty for anything but people he cared about and that didn't include himself. The only bad thing I could find was a time where he had fought his friend and lost control of his powers. His friend ended up in the hospital. I smiled and went deeper into his mind, looking for the trace of magic.

*****

       I hit a part of his mind unlike anything else I have seen. It took a physical form instead of being like a sea of knowledge. I looked closely at it and it seemed similar to old catacomb structures. The cold stone enclosed me, revealing no way out of the space that I occupied. A small tunnel appeared ahead of me and I clearly had no other choice, so slowly, I walked down the hallway.

      I blinked and what had seemed like a never ending hallway suddenly stopped and split into two paths, one to the left and one to the right.