These Broken Tears || Kotlc

Chapter Seventeen: Dex

Dex was doing to regular- tinkering with gadgets. Yeah, it had been cool to find out about the Sensetelepis thing- even more cool to tell his dad that he did have an ability after all, but that was all just a few days ago.

The excitement had worn off and was replaced with worry and fear.

Again, the usual.

Sophie had run off to who knows where and that was Dex's primary focus right now, even if it wasn't anyone else's.

He tried to get Keefe to help him, but he seemed to be stuck in some depression world which Dex wanted nothing to do with.

What did Sophie do to him? Dex wondered as he pulled out another wire. Couldn't be anything good.

Keefe hadn't made a joke or smiled even. This was worse than when he discovered his new ability thing.

"Dex?"

Dex jolted up from his work and spun around excitedly. Maybe someone had news at last!

Oh. . . it was Stina.

"What are you doing here?" he asked coldly, folding his arms.

"I was wondering if you wanted to practice?" Her voice sounded small and had lost the arrogance she once had.

Dex sighed. It was going to be hard to be mean to Stina if she wasn't being a brat.

"I guess," Dex replied, "I don't really have anything else to do."

Stina smiled a little bit- which was odd since it wasn't a haughty or rude smile. It was . . . nice and sort of pretty too.

What's wrong with you Dizznee? Dex grumbled at himself.

He stood up and they faced each other on opposite sides of the room.

"Alright," said Dex, "So. . . what do you want to practice?"

"I think we should practice channeling our emotions since it'll be hard to control them on the battlefield," Stina said carefully.

"Right. . ." said Dex wearily, "But we don't know what will happen. All we know is that anger explodes things."

Stina laughed, "Well, you're the pro alchemist right? A few fires shouldn't worry you."

"That's right," Dex let out a reluctant smile. Maybe working with Stina wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Let's try happy. That can't do anything bad right?"

Dex nodded. 

"Alright. Three. . . . two. . . . one. . . . go!"

Dex collected all of the happy feelings he could find and forced them out of his body. He let out a shudder of relief.

There had been a cramp in his hand from working on his gadget, but now it faded away. It was like bliss- no hurt or pain at all.

"Wow. . ." Stina murmured happily, "That felt. . . nice."

"Yeah," said Dex, "Did you get rid of a cramp too?"

"No," she replied, "But I had this old bruise on my arm and now its gone! I don't feel anything anymore."

"Interesting," remarked Dex, spinning around to his desk and pulling out a notebook.

He scribbled down,

𝓢𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓮𝓽𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓹𝓲𝓼: 

𝓐𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻= 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓵𝓸𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼 

𝓗𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼= 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰

(Sensetelepis. Anger= explosions. Happiness= healing.)

"Okay . . . " Dex said standing up again, setting his notebook down. "Let's try some more!"

Throughout the course of an hour Dex had added more results to different emotions.

Excitement= Multiplication illusion (Where objects and people start to multiply. Only one of them is real, the rest are fake)

Disgust= Gross smelling fog

Fear= Clouds (In which it made it very hard to see anything)

Wonder= Levitation (Everything started to float)

Hunger= Earth shake

Peace= Standstill (Nothing moved- everything was on pause except Stina and Dex who had cast the peace)

It was an interesting assortment of results- but it truly showed how powerful Dex and Stina were. It felt good. If Team Valiant and the Black Swan knew about this, they would be likely to take him on more quests and explorations- instead of always being left behind.

And by the way Stina smiled, he knew she felt it too.

"Thank you for practicing with me," Stina said, "I would've hated to do it on my own."

"Yeah, you're welcome," Dex smiled as he led her out of the Rimeshire. 

"Wait!" Stina said as Dex walked back toward his house.

Dex turned around to Stina again, confused.

"I- I don't want to leave yet," she whispered.

"Really?" Dex said softly.

"Yeah," Stina said.

"Why?"

Stina gulped and sat down on a bench. Dex followed her.

"I- I just can't be on my own right now. I don't know where Marella is- and Linh's still at the Healing Center. You're the only person I trust right now."

"What about Maruca?" Dex mumbled.

"That's just it," Stina sighed, a tear spilling down her cheek, "She's dead."

Dex was filled with shock. Maruca was dead?

He tried to wrap his head around it- trying to understand the why and the how until a little voice in his head held him back.

Stop thinking Dizznee and be useful! He scolded himself.

So Dex did the only thing he could do. He wrapped Stina in a hug as she started to cry.

It was strange. Did it make sense? No, it didn't. He and Stina were enemies- they hated each other!

"Why are you doing this?" Dex mumbled, "Why am I your friend? Why do you want us to be like this now?"

"It's complicated. . ." Stina whispered.

"No it's not," Dex urged, "Just tell me! I want to know."

"Maybe it's because I love you," Stina said quietly.

"What?" Dex said.

"I love you!" Stina said louder, looking up. "I don't know how Dizznee, but I do! You're just too dang nice and smart and. . . ." she swallowed, "Easy to fall for."

"Yeah well, that would've been nice and all but you hate me," Dex pointed out, "I hated you too- you know?"

"I guess I did," said Stina, "But now. . . . you weren't as bad as I thought. And in a way, you're better than Fitz or Keefe or Tam or anybody! I don't know. . . love is weird."

"Yeah I guess it is,"  Dex whispered, not really knowing what was coming out of his mouth, " Because. . . maybe I love you too."

Stina smiled.

"I guess we have a lot of getting-to-know-each other stuff we have to get to," she said.

"Yeah," Dex sighed, "We do."

So it wasn't a relationship yet- that was a relief. It was a good friendship, for now. Then maybe it would grow into something bigger.

Only time would tell.

It felt good, to know that he wasn't going to be forgotten anymore, at least by one person- even if she wasn't who he thought it would be.

Dex felt a simple thought run through his head proudly.

I am not broken, but I can fix me.

***