Classy, Controlled Chaos - The STEAM Team Adventures

☁️ Seven Days [2/7] ☁️

Addison's POV:

One sail to Pyronica and two boba teas in, we were about to plummet into a rabbit hole of a conversation.

Kairo was serving us yet again at the Fyre and Flames Grill, handing me my third cup of taro boba.

"Again, just holler if you need me!" The waiter smiled as he strode back into the kitchen.

"We will," Marshall called back, keeping his eyes on me. "So... What do we talk about?"

"Let's get straight to the point." Tia began, taking a deep breath and putting her hands together. "Why don't we just... Get rid of Edward?"

"Give me three good reasons why we should take an innocent life, regardless of how annoying he is." I countered, watching the captain shake her head.

"Oh, I can give you at least twenty!" She bragged, rolling her eyes. "He's useless, whiny, thinks he's better than everyone, wants nothing but women, acts like a child, complains about minor inconveniences, is a narcissist, extremely self-absorbed..."

The captain went on and on, dragging her list so far that it almost lulled me to sleep.

"Need any more?" She huffed, flicking her whale tail at me.

Marshall jokingly laid his head on the table, pretending to snore.

"You said enough," I laughed, earning a satisfied grin from her. "Anyways, Tia, good argument, but-"

"In Heaven's name do you mean BUT?!" Tia sputtered out, genuinely shocked. "I could write a fifty thousand word essay on why we should have this guy dead, and yet you have a counterclaim?!"

"One, it's an opposing claim. The author writes the counterclaim to go against the opposing claim." I corrected her. "Two, I highly doubt that you could write fifty thousand words about why Edward should be exterminated."

"Don't challenge her, Addi." Marshall warned me, taking a sip of his matcha tea. "Y'know she can do anything if she's spiteful enough."

"We can do anything as long as there's strong motivation behind it." I replied. "But anyways, Tia, look... We just can't kill him."

"Why not?" She snapped, crossing her arms. "We've both fed up with his stupidity for far too long... I think it's about time we close the curtains on him."

There were reasons deeper than her feeble, shallow-minded brain could even fathom.

Long ago, specifically at the start of the Great War, I had enchanted the Horizon Library with magic to sustain it from ever touching the ground again.

In order to keep that magic running, I had to use a tiny bit of the life force of five different people...

Those five being my close friends.

Sophii, who was a shadowshifter, sacrificed some of hers for the island. She knew she would probably never decide to turn back into human again once she made her decision, so she kept her form as a cat after the transaction was made.

Tia was next, who volunteered a portion of her own life force. Energy radiated from even being within the essence of it, so I used it to act as the forcefield that kept us safe.

Edward gladly accepted the offer if it let him read more books. He used to be a bookworm when we were younger... A pleasant one to be around. His life force was used to reinforce the levitating properties of the island. Not much, but useful enough not to discard.

Marshall was hesitant at first, but eventually let me take a teeny bit of his. I was very careful with it all, making sure not to put any of it to waste. Once I had used up most of Tia, Sophii, and Edward's, I used the rest of his life force to reinforce the magic already on the island.