Sparkle (KOTLC) {Completed}

34

The moms—Della, Edaline, and Squall—all offered to be Wylie's entourage, successfully impressing Ro enough that she said, "Ok, you guys are my new favourites."

"Um, excuse me?" Janessa replied, offended. 

"You gotta earn your place, Sparkles." Ro grinned. "But don't worry, you're still above Blondie."

Janessa chuckled, shaking her head.

As they discussed how to lure out the Neverseen, which involved Wylie requesting a meeting, the 'Mom Squad', as Janessa had started calling them in her head, went to go look for more weapons, and Blur, Wraith, and Alden went to scout out possible meeting places.

Grady and Sandor insisted on joining the group going into Nightfall, though Mr Forkle requested the group be limited. "How many does that leave?" He asked, after the number of goblins had been limited to two.

"12."

"13." Mr Forkle corrected. "Miss Redek should go too."

"Marella Redek is part of the Black Swan?" Cassius asked.

"Think of her more like a consultant." Mr Forkle corrected, before dismissing him.

Janessa raised an eyebrow as he left. "Shouldn't I be able to cover that? We shouldn't need to put Marella in danger."

"She told you?" Mr Forkle wondered.

Janessa scoffed. "Are you kidding? I've barely said two words to her. It would just be impossible for me not to notice. Heat likes pyrokinetics, it's literally attracted to us, so I could see the way it gathered around her the same way as me or Fintan."

Mr Forkle sighed. "I would feel better knowing we had a backup, since Fintan's ability is the hardest to fight against."

Janessa rolled her eyes. "You mean, you're worried I'm gonna freeze. Fine, we can have as many backups as you want, but I'm going either way."

Mr Forkle nodded, then clapped his hands. "Okay, that leaves us with a group of two goblins, an ogre, a Telepath, an Empath, a Vanisher, a Shade, a Hydrokinetic, a Technopath, a Mesmer, and two Pyrokinetics—and of course Miss Foster's Telepath-Polyglot-Teleporter-Inflictor-Enhancer combination."

It didn't take long for Granite to return with Wylie, cementing the plan.

Marella arrived soon after, immediately agreeing, though she was much happier knowing she wouldn't be covered in ash the way she had been in her last mission.

"Marella." Janessa greeted, walking over. Marella smiled awkwardly, nervously, in return. "I don't know if anyone's told you, but I'm a pyrokinetic. So, just... I guess... I have your back, and you don't have to carry the whole burden of our job."

"Uh, thanks." Marella nodded. "Hey, if you're here, why did they ask for me? Not that I'm complaining or anything."

Janessa shrugged. "Always good to have backup. Besides, I was kidnapped by the Neverseen, so Forkle is worried I'll freeze up."

"Huh." Marella nodded again.

"You know, if you ever want lessons for pyrokinesis or anything, I've gotten pretty good at it, and as much as Mr Forkle tries, he can't really help." Janessa offered awkwardly.

"Yeah, that'd be great. I'd love to stop accidentally setting things on fire."

Janessa grinned back at her. "Yeah, it took me a long time to stop doing that. The moment when you finally figure out how it works is amazing." Janessa paused. "I won't teach you Everblaze though, just because of how dangerous it is." Even at that moment, Janessa could feel her stress manifesting itself as a desire to call it down.

Mr Forkle's head snapped to her. "You know how to use Everblaze?" Her friends also looked at her in shock.

Janessa nodded slowly. "Yeah, how did you think that random opening in the Everblaze appeared when we were escaping Ravagog? Now, I didn't know how to call it down at that point, obviously, but it's really not hard."

"That's..." Mr Forkle trailed off.

"A useful weapon against Fintan? Yes, I agree." Janessa quipped. "But, it's very dangerous emotionally. Honestly, I'm shocked I was able to resist the urge to call it down when I first got home. Anyways, controlling the flame isn't that hard for me."

Mr Forkle analyzed her as if he were seeing her for the first time. "Can you demonstrate?"

Sophie looked terrified at the idea. Her other friends had similar expressions. As the disappointment filled her and her motivation to prove pyrokinesis didn't have to be evil burned in her stomach, Janessa nodded, reassuring, "Don't worry, I have no trouble controlling it."

They light leaped to an empty desert to avoid burning any people.

Janessa walked away from the others once they got there, feeling her excitement rage. Closing her eyes, her lips curled into a smile as she felt the call of the sun and beckoned it down. 

When she opened her eyes, she had a ball of Everblaze, beautiful, burning, Everblaze, hovering above her open palm. It felt different this time. It had been so long since she had attempted Everblaze, it felt like she was reuniting with an old friend. In a way, it felt like the Everblaze was just as happy to see her. 

Before she could even ask it to do anything, it did whatever she wanted. The ball turned into a ring around her. 

The terrified faces of her friends turned curious, Marella especially looked fascinated. Janessa could only focus on the flame, her new-returning friend, a visitor from far away. 

She didn't even ask it to change shape as the thought of friendship formed, and the flame just responded to her emotions, taking the form of a human. Hi. She thought. Hello friend, the flames seemed to reply. You're beautiful. She admired the yellow sparks. You're a dear friend.

The flame-person's arms reached for her hands and she looked on in awe as the flames covered her hands.

"No!" Sophie screamed, horrified.

Finally remembering her friends were watching, Janessa sent her admiration towards the flames as she pulled back her perfectly intact hands and asked the flames to form a sphere once more. The sphere got smaller and smaller until it was just a small ball hovering beside her.

"It's fine Sophie. It won't hurt me." Janessa grinned, her eyes wide with wonder. She looked over at Marella, who seemed to be debating whether to be scared or awed. "Wanna play catch, Marella?"

Terror won. "What the hell? No! That's Everblaze!"

Janessa's smile faded a bit as she remembered. "Sorry, I forgot you weren't...." Janessa sent away the Everblaze, sending an internal goodbye as the flames returned home to the sun. "Anyways, yeah, it's not hard."

"How did you not get burned?" Mr Forkle wondered.

Janessa frowned, thinking back to when her hands had been in the flames. "Well... I can't think of a better way to put this, but it didn't want to hurt me."

"So, if you were fighting against Fintan with Everblaze, you wouldn't get hurt?"

The concept made Janessa squirm. Despite all that had happened, part of her still didn't like the idea of trying to hurt Fintan, no matter how badly he needed to be stopped. "I don't know. In a way, you have to befriend the Everblaze, that's how you control it, well not control it, but live alongside it, and it has to want to listen to you. I assume the flames would be much more aggressive in reaction with my emotions if I were to use them to fight."

"We'll be relying on you if Everblaze gets involved."

Janessa nodded, the burning in her chest having been satiated and yet somehow stronger now.