Fire Meets Water - A Kotlc Marellinh Fan Fiction

Chapter 4 - Marella

 "Yeah...me too," Marella said. Linh had walked up to her and told her that she had something to tell her. Linh looked oddly stiff, and Marella wondered why.

"Really?" Linh asked.

"Yeah...It's about," Marella lowered her voice so other prodigys wouldn't hear, "My lessons with Fintan,"

"Oh," was it Marella or did Linh look...disappointed. "What is it?" she added.

"Fintan requested that we bring Alkahest to our training session," Alkahest is a very hard potion to make, second hardest in the world according to Lady Jarma, Marella's alchemy mentor. It could burn through almost anything. Wood. Steel. Bone. "So what did you want to tell me?" Marella asked Linh.

"Oh, um," Linh looked flustered. Marella wondered what was up. "I just wanted to say....um....is there anything that I missed in PE yesterday?" Something told Marella that that wasn't what Linh was going to say, but all the same she answered.

"Nothing much. Just practice for the Great Splotching Match next week. I don't know why they even do it anymore. Sophie just crushes us every time," Marella rolled her eyes, "Doesn't she know how to go easy on us, non-mega powerful genetic experiments?"

"Uh yeah," Linh said, staring out the window and obviously not paying attention. She had a far away look in her silver blue eyes and her mind was clearly elsewhere.

"Hey, are you even listening?" Marella asked, poking Linh in the back. When she turned around, their eyes met, ice blue to silver, and it suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked from Marella's lungs. She also suddenly noticed how close they were standing. Linh's face was only a few inches away from Marella's. Linh seemed to notice this too, because she jerked her head away, and mumbled, "Better get to class," before spinning on her heel and walking in the other direction, but Marella caught a glimpse of her cheeks and they were cherry red.

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Marella couldn't stop thinking about Linh all day, which was weird. Suddenly Sophie, and Biana, and Keefe, and all her other friends didn't seem so interesting, or nearly as beautiful. Marella tried to push these thoughts to the back of her mind, as she walked through the ruby red hallways toward Lady Jarma's classroom.

Marella didn't actually have Alchemy, but she needed to ask Lady Jarma to make the Alkahest for her training with Fintan.

"Oh, hello, Marella," Lady Jarma said as Marella walked into her Alchemy room. It was a well lit room with white walls that were adorned with shelves that held viles, glasses, bottles, and tins filled with liquids and solids of all colors imaginable. There was a long metal (wood burned way too easily) table in the center of the room, which Lady Jarma was now wiping down with a sky blue cloth. "What brings you here? Last I checked, your class with me isn't for two days," she said. Lady Jarma was one of the few of Marella's mentors that treated her the same as she had before she manifested.

"Er, I need your help with something," Marella said. Lady Jarma stopped wiping down the table, and pulled out a chair for Marella to sit in. They both sat down and Marella told her what was happening.

"So, for my training with Fintan and Linh, Fintan wanted us to bring Alkahest. Something about how the potion reacts to the low heat of Balefire--I wasn't really listening, but I was wondering if you could maybe make some for us?"

"Alkahest..." Lady Jarma said slowly, "the second hardest thing to make in alchemy, I've only done it successfully twice,"

"If you think it's too hard-" Marella started.

"Nonsense," Lady Jarma cut her off. She stood up and started brushing her fingers across the messily written labels on her potion materials. Suddenly, Lady Jarma spun around, "When do you need this?" she asked.

"Uh..my training session is on Saturday so-" Marella said.

"I'll have it for you on Friday. Swing by after class to come pick it up," Lady Jarma. Marella had not seen her this excited for something in a long time.

"Well, thanks," Marella got up from her chair and walked out of the room. There were still a few minutes left before lunch started, so Marella took the long way to the cafeteria. She passed her locked and decided to put the star charts she'd made earlier in the Universe there.

Marella licked the silver strip and nearly gagged. She had forgotten that it was Elwin's turn to pick the flavor. It was something very strong and very spicy that Marella couldn't name. Afterwards, she walked a little faster towards the lunchroom, since she needed to rinse that revolting taste out of her mouth.

That was when she ran into Linh.

"Oh, uh, hi, Marella," Linh said. Her cheeks were bright red. Why is Linh acting so weird? Marella wondered. Linh started to turn away, but Marella grabbed her hand. She felt a strange zap where their fingers touched, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

Marella said, "Hey, what did you really want to tell me earlier today? And don't try to tell me it was just about PE."

Linh took a deep breath, as if to steel her nerves, and glanced around to see if there was anyone in the hallway. No one. "Marella, I...I-." This was how it started last time. "I...uh...um...." Linh squeezed her eyes shut, trying to muster the courage to tell Marella whatever it was.

"Hey, whatever it is... you can tell me, it's okay," Marella said. She wasn't usually one to comfort another, in fact it was normally Linh comforting Marella.

"No, you don't understand-" Linh started.

"I will," Marella promised.

"Okay," Linh looked like she might actually tell Marella what the heck was bothering her. "I, I li-"

"Hey guys guess what-?" Keefe burst into the hallway then saw them standing together and added, "But if it's a bad time, I can go..."

"No!" Linh burst out. "What do you want to tell us?" Marella groaned. Linh would probably never tell her now.

Keefe still eyed them suspiciously, but he seemed too excited to push any farther. "Sophie just got the most amazing Imparter hail." Keefe was nearly bouncing up and down, he was so excited. Marella wondered what could've made him so thrilled. "Okay, so you know how we suspected Elwin was together with some guy? Well, we were right."

Marella could tell by the sparkle in Keefe's eye what was coming before he said it.

"Elwin's engaged!"

Word count: 1.97k

Art credits: catching-art (it's part of a comic strip of a wedding between Linh and Marella)