The Hunter

New Job

The younger woman looked after the older woman with the pain of regret on her face. Finn ignored the departing woman in favour of clearing her throat to bring the younger woman's attention back to her ball of lava.

"Finn. Fix this now, before I lose control of this and it takes out half a city block." Finn ordered.

"I'm not Finn, my name's Gloria." Gloria eyed the ball of lava and shuddered. "I don't know how to fix that."

"I'm Finn, what exactly were you two doing in here that you can make this-" Finn lifted the lava ball and shifted it to trade the heat from one hand to the other "-in a fit of rage but you can't pull it apart and release it?"

"It all started when I was-" Finn snorted.

"Back story later, what have you covered with Liz?"

Gloria motioned to the remains of a table. "She's been trying to get me to light a candle."

Finn groaned. "Gods that wasn't even a good place to start fifty years ago. Look, I'm not an elemental so I can only tell you what I've been told and I need you to tell me if what I'm saying is on the right track. If it's not jiving with you then I'll try a different way of working with this okay?"

Gloria nodded as the flood gates that had been holding her tears finally released. "Please don't let me die."

"If this thing blows up you and every other fire elemental in the area will be the only ones safe." Finn said. As soon as she heard herself Finn winced. "Sorry, that wasn't necessary. You will be safe. Now, close your eyes." When Gloria did Finn nodded and pushed the lava ball a little further from her. "Let's start with a volcano. Imagine a volcano, but pointing down into the earth."

"Okay." Gloria sniffed.

"Now imagine the lava in my hands slowly dripping down that volcano WAIT STOP!!" Finn contorted herself to avoid the lava suddenly dripping. "Too literal. Okay." Finn breathed in relief when Gloria opened her eyes and the lava stopped dripping.

"I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone! Miss Elizabeth told me she could teach me to control the fire better than just by knitting. I'm so sorry."

"Knitting?" Finn shot a confused glance at Gloria.

"When I knit the fire goes away, but I've never controlled it like that outside of me."

"I don't suppose you could pretend this is a giant ball of yarn and knit it into a slowly cooling blanket could you?"

"I don't have needles." Gloria sniffled and then seemed to think of something. "I could try my arms, but I don't know if I can knit it fast enough to survive."

Finn blinked. "Gloria, your fire will never hurt you. If you were to take some of this in your hand right now it would feel like a hot water bottle." Finn shifted again, her hands beginning to show signs of burning. "Why don't you come try that?"

Gloria stepped forward and carefully put her hands towards the ball of lava. When she felt no more heat than Finn had suggested she would she slowly plucked at the lava as though it was a ball of yarn. She laughed in surprised relief when a piece of the lava came away in her fingers like yarn, connected still to the larger ball. She wound it around her fingers, weaving it back and forth in the beginnings of a meditation. A pair of drips formed and broke off of the lava ball and Gloria absently picked them up and started knitting.

The intensity of the heat faded as Gloria swiftly knit the ball into a scarf that slowly cooled and turned to ash as it moved away from her needles. The needles flew and Finn breathed a sigh of relief as the ball became cool enough she could put it on the concrete floor. She looked at her hands and frowned at the second degree burns.

As she contemplated getting home to her medicine cabinet without having someone calling the ambulance she felt the heat begin to drain out of her hands. She watched in confusion as the blisters and the red moved from the heel of her hands to the tips of her fingers and then disappeared altogether and she found herself meeting Gloria's calm eyes with shock.

"How did you heal my hands?"

Gloria acted like she had been chastised and Finn braced her feet apart, neither moving away nor closer, and holding her hands out.

"I had second degree burns. Now I have oddly tanned hands. I've never heard of any fire elementals being able to heal before, how did you do it?"

"The heat in your hands was part of the ball. It was like someone had knit gloves around you from the other end and so I just kept knitting and took the gloves away." Gloria kept her eyes down cast and wrung her hands in front of her. "How did you hold it without ma - "Gloria cut herself off and looked to the side as though expecting a strike. "How did you help me without powers?"

Finn blinked. "I have magic, just not elemental so I work with it differently than you do. Now, I have business with Liz. I suggest you find yourself a different teacher, one that can use the knitting thing to teach you maybe." Finn turned and stalked from the training room, her daily allotment of patience used up.

"Findobhair you thrice blasted, customer stealing, beggar of a witch!" Elizabeth went toe-to-toe with Finn as soon as she stepped out of the training room. Finn raised both her eyebrows and leaned into the woman's space, letting all the stories that had ever been told about her play through the mind of the idiot café owner until she backed up a step. Finn matched her step.

"You and your family have tried blasting me more than three time Liz, and you know it." Another step in their dance.

"None of them were successful. I didn't steal your customer, I made sure she would reschedule with you. Neither of us were expecting you to be taking so long in the back room." Another step and Elizabeth had to change directions as she bumped into a chair. Finn followed, well aware that because of the candles on the tables her shadow was making her appear much larger.

"I'll get back to that part in a minute. I have never begged, I have always paid you for this job and as far as I'm concerned right now you-" another step, but this time Finn forced Liz into the corner formed by the table closest to the café counter. "Owe." Finn stepped up so that a breath too big would make physical contact between the women. "Me."

Elizabeth scoffed, although her wary eyes never left Finn's and her hands were hidden in the folds of her thick skirt. "In what way do I owe you? Saving people from problems like that is your job." Her eyes darted to the training room entrance as Gloria timidly stepped out. 

"No. By the time a problem becomes my job there's only one solution. You took on a trainee. If you couldn't handle it you either shouldn't have taken her on or you should have reached out for help. Are you going to pay me what you owe?"

Elizabeth raised her chin defiantly. "Over my dead body. I'm done helping you."

"Sevenfold Elizabeth." Finn stepped back.

"You don't scare me Findobhair. Get out of my shop. And take the girl with you, maybe she can pay you for your services."

Finn narrowed her eyes at Elizabeth a moment. "Accepted. Gloria, go get whatever belongs to you and come with me." As she reached the exit to the street she brushed her hands off and made a motion as though she was ridding herself of the place. Elizabeth sneered while the other employees all shared worried glances, and then Finn stepped to the bus stop and waited.