Of Love and Death.

The Past Chapter 13: Chaos in the Orb Pt. 4

Next to Fire, Mind tensed up. Cold could bring me back, he whispered quietly in Fire's mind. The sun got the feeling that those words had been private to him. But the words had been correct. However, words could be changed. Well, not ones that had already been said. But Light was more than capable of amending his statement.

Looking into Mind's eyes, Fire asked, Should I say that the Nexus Force's shouldn't have that power, or do you want to? Either was more than fine with him. He didn't want to step in for Mind, protecting the shadow to the point of smothering him. Like Mind couldn't do anything for himself. Because that wasn't the truth. Mind was more capable than basically anyone else Fire knew. And Fire was more than willing to respect that.

A quick nod came from Mind. I can do it, he almost smiled. It wasn't exactly a smiling conversation, but there were less smiley ones as well. With that, the shadow turned his attention back to Light. Thank you so much. I really mean it. You probably just saved my hide. But it was Cold that I infuriated, he politely explained. All of his emotion was in Mind's mental voice. The true gratitude that he felt towards Light. As well as the fear the shadow felt of Cold.

There was understanding in Light's eyes. But, there wasn't any in Earth's. "Oh please!" She called, "Why would you even fall for this Fire? Some random shadow shows up with a sob story about how the one person you dislike the most is a danger to him, and that he needs to come with you? You have to see that this is some kind of trick by Dark to infiltrate us, right? I bet Cold didn't even have anything to do with Mind!"

The outburst that came from Earth took Fire by complete surprise. He hadn't thought that she would ever attack someone like that. Even if she didn't have a favorable view of shadows (which Fire had thought wasn't the case, she never seemed testy on the occasions that they went to the Shadow's Orb), it was still harsh. And to accuse him of being tricked, as well as Mind of lying? Even after she had heard everything in Fire's crush's voice? It was almost out of line!

"Well, how do you know the shadow isn't lying?" Earth asked Fire.

Biting his lip, Fire tried to take down his temper. Yes, Earth maybe shouldn't have said what she did. Or said it a bit kinder. But he understood that many of the suns didn't trust the shadows. And that, perhaps, it was a valid fear to her to mistrust Mind, even if Fire knew it was completely ridiculous. And shouting back would help no one. At the same time, he really wanted to shout back that Mind was one of the nicest people he knew.

Taking a deep breath, Fire carefully and slowly said his words, "I knew Mind for a long time before he explained everything about Cold. We met for the first time before there were even stars." Now that took a lot of people by surprise. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sky's gaze dart between him, his wing on Mind, Mind, and back to him. She turned a bit red as she did so. So Sky knew how he felt. Neat.

Continuing, Fire kept speaking. "And Mind wasn't lying. I'm not going into detail, but besides how I knew Mind wasn't lying and how I could hear in his words he wasn't lying there is evidence for his story. And he's the kindest person I know. He wouldn't spy on us." Closing his mouth, Fire fell silent. He wasn't sure if he could say more without violating Mind's privacy to his story. Or without screaming at Earth.

Looking over at Mind, Fire intended to carefully dissect the shadows face. To see if there was anything else he was supposed to say, or if he had accidentally said too much. However, apparently, he'd said something a bit too nice. Mind's face was a delicate shade of dark purple. Fire had unintentionally made the mind-reader blush. He was going to take that as a win.

After a moment of relishing in the joy of making Mind flattered enough to blush, Fire turned back to Earth. The other sun looked almost fuming. She was definitely about to say something back, but Light beat her to the chase. The leader of the suns dramatically cleared his throat.