Illusory

Chapter 15

"Rotundtur Flamma!" I cried, and a blazing ball of fire burst to life in the air before my outstretched hands, flying away from me with a whoosh of hot air. It mowed down a row of thick bamboo plants, sending broken, flaming stalks flying every which way, before extinguishing at my command near the tall wooden privacy fence at the other end of the yard.

"Perfect!" Van said with a round of applause. "I've never seen a better one cast in my life!"

I was surprised that the man could remain so jovial with his yard looking like it had just been bombed. Not only had I killed his precious bamboo plants, but I'd also broken a very nice picnic table into pieces on the stone patio, ripped up the vibrantly green, perfectly manicured grass that he paid a landscaping service handsomely to take care of, torn through several plastic lawn chairs which now lay about in melted shards, and completely annihilated a very large, very colorful flowerbed that he'd planted and bewitched himself to remain so lovely throughout the winter. If this had been my yard, I would have been pissed. But no, not Van. He just clapped away, spouting so many different praises that I just had to smile in spite of all of the destruction.

"Thank you," I said with a broad grin, "but I'm sure you could do much better."

"Nah," he said, a dismissive wave of his hand nearly smacking me in the face as he surveyed his destroyed property. "I've never been very good with the creation and use of fire. My talents lie in the defensive and the life-giving." To illustrate his point, he whispered, "Reviresco." The bamboo plants, the tattered grass, the giant flowerbed — all of it sprang to life and mended itself, wriggling back as a dancing mass into their designated places. It looked like I'd never been here, throwing about fireballs and levitating lawn chairs as if they were weapons. "Resarcio," he murmured once the plants had been repaired, and the chairs and table did a similar dance and pieced themselves together before sliding noisily back to their places. Now, the entire yard looked good as new, and I grinned at Van's serenely smiling face.

"I wish I was as powerful as you," I said softly. "I could do so much to help people, to help you."

"You can already help people," he countered, turning his gentle smile to me. "You have the power. You just need to learn the spells." His smile fell, becoming something that was almost a frown but not quite, and his dark eyes slid over the repaired scene. "But I don't know if you could help in the way that I do," he murmured thoughtfully. "I don't know if you're meant to heal and repair." I frowned. He wouldn't say it outright, but I knew what he meant: I was meant to destroy things, not to mend them.

"Well, that's okay," I said after a moment, forcing a cheerful smile to match my feigned cheery tone. "That just makes us a better pair in battle, doesn't it? I'll do all the heavy-hitting, and you can heal me when I do something stupid and nearly die."

The ghost of a smile played across his lips, though his eyes remained on his vibrantly colored flowerbed. "I suppose you're right. One of us has to do some damage, and who better than the one with the anger problem?" His eyes slid to me now, glinting slyly in the grayish afternoon light.

"I do not have an anger problem!" I yelled, glaring up at him, though I couldn't stop a smile from ruining my pretend anger.

"Right, right," he said, his smile growing to its fully asymmetrical extent, and he started for the sliding glass doors that led to the storage room beside the stairs.

"Where are you going?" I asked as I followed, sneakers clacking loudly on the stone patio. "Don't we have more training to do?"

He shook his head, stepping into the over-stuffed storage area. Old furniture, unused holiday decorations, mislabeled boxes, all of the crap that people usually kept in their attics or basements cramped the place. Walking through it was like walking through a maze, but not just any maze, of course! This was the maze from Hell. "No," he said, his head still moving from side to side as he picked his way through the room. "I think I've taught you everything you need to know."