Polarized

Morning Tea with an Owl and a Dragon

Skye couldn't believe it. After she left that bloody scene in the greenhouse behind, she swore she would find the man behind the stabbing and save Lucian from him to make up for her failure to intervene earlier. But she already had an uncomfortable gut feeling on who the attempted killer could be: all signs pointed to her childhood idol, Kai Dalton, former head of the Cloudgate Crusaders and current High Mage of Avriya.

At first, Skye refused to believe that Kai could be the one who stabbed Lucian. The metal mage in the greenhouse looked far different from how she remembered him. When Skye would read of Kai's exploits, none of his pictures showed him with metal limbs or a metal covering over his face. And there was no way Mr Dalton, known for his heroic acts, would take pleasure in driving a sword through an innocent young man... right?

But the clues hinting otherwise were impossible to ignore. First off, were there any other metal mages in Avriya besides Kai? Skye doubted it. She had already asked around and nobody in her class knew of anyone who controlled metal besides the High Mage. Well, one of her classmates had a younger brother with a metal aura, but then she said he was seven, and the man in the greenhouse certainly did not look like an elementary schooler.

And then there was the matter of the "nickname" he gave Lucian. Before the man arrived, Lucian brought up how Mr Dalton would call him a certain name that involved a certain profanity, and that metal mage had addressed Lucian by that same profanity. It probably wasn't a coincidence, as much as Skye wished it was.

Dear Mr. Dalton, Skye wrote in her notebook on her bus ride home. Words cannot describe how appalled I am. I strongly advise that you repent, resign from your position as High Mage, and maintain as much of a distance as possible from the young man you stabbed if you wish to lessen the consequences of your actions. Then once she finished writing, she reviewed her page:

Not bad for a first draft, Skye thought. It's formal and gets my point across. But I still feel like something's missing...

And so, Skye flipped to the next empty page of her notebook and began writing again. Dear Kai Dalton, she continued, scratching her pencil on the paper furiously. I used to love you. I used to look up to you. You were my biggest inspiration and the source of my childhood hopes and dreams, but now you have gone and crushed them all and I am beyond heartbroken. Why? Why would you do such a thing? Are you, the honorable leader of the Cloudgate Crusaders, paragon of justice and peace, really the same as the man in the greenhouse who drove a sword through Lucian? Did you really think that boy deserved to die MULTIPLE TIMES OVER for spreading the truth about the deity you idolize— the same way I used to idolize you?!

Skye scanned through her words. Almost perfect, she thought. But it's a bit lengthy, and I don't know if Mr Dalton will be willing to read all that. Maybe I'll go for something shorter, something more direct. And so, she flipped to the next page of her notebook and started writing again:

Dear Kai Dalton, Skye began her third draft. She paused for a long moment, and after a while, two more words appeared on the page in front of her:

Fuck you.

Skye smirked. Beautiful. Perfect. 10/10. Captures my feelings about that metalbending piece of scum perfectly, she thought to herself. Skye could almost see the look of shock that would cross Kai's face once he opened her letter and discovered that his bloody crimes weren't as well-hidden as he intended them to be. And maybe, just maybe, if luck was on her side, then he wouldn't be the only one reading the letter. Perhaps the other members of Avriya's council would be reading alongside him, and then, once they found out their High Mage tried to commit a murder, (over something as trivial as a winged lady statue, too!) they'd arrest him. Somebody else would take his place, and Lucian wouldn't have to suffer at the hands of the former head of the Cloudgate Crusaders anymore.