The Sorcerer's Gate

nineteen

After the Council's departure, Aster had found that she lost her appetite. She picked at the noddles in her bowl. She resided to her bedroom much too quickly after. Jaxtyn trailed behind her.

"I don't want to talk about any of it. I want to go to bed," Aster announced as she stripped her clothing from the day, changing into something more comfortable before climbing into the bed.

"Okay," Jaxtyn said. He began stripping clean of his clothes. "I'm going to take a shower."

Jaxtyn was in the joint shower to the room for a while. Aster forced herself to sleep but didn't find herself successful. When she heard the shower turn off, she shut her eyes tightly and turned herself facing side of the bed that was alongside the wall, her back to the room. Jaxtyn exited the bathroom. She could hear him getting dressed then he slowly slipped under the covers beside her. He shifted his weight onto the bed and whispered, "Are you awake?"

She pretended to be asleep. She didn't know why she had done this. She didn't plan on ignoring him. Aster couldn't bring herself to respond to him and at her silence, she felt the bed shift again. Jaxtyn blew out a breath and was quiet. Soon, she drifted off into sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Throughout the week, Aster and Alyx had remained keeping up their lessons. As the days went on, she was seeing such amazing results. Jaxtyn watched from afar. He always sat in on their lessons. At first, this bothered Aster but then she found herself willing and more prepared to scare him off or intimidate him with her newfound abilities. She did notice the way it bothered Alyx. He was much more focused like he had something to prove. He was distracted like Jaxtyn's mere presence irked him. She found her ego fueling itself at this realization. She didn't have the words to explain how Alyx made her feel. She didn't know what he was to her. If he was anything, really. After Urie's attention towards him, she thought back to how angered it made her feel. Maybe she did have some sort of lingering feelings for him. She couldn't act on them though. Not with Jaxtyn watching their every move.

Jean appeared from the patio's edge. His brown hair was in a mess upon his head. He appeared stressed. His apron was dirtied with food stains. "Can I please get an extra hand in here?" Jean asked.

Aster and Alyx looked to Jean. Jaxtyn refused to give the man any of his attention. She shot her eyebrows and eyes towards Jaxtyn. When he refused to listen to her, perhaps of genuine stupidity or purposefully ignoring her, she focused her energy towards the flower pot at the center of the courtyard and threw it beside the direction of Jaxtyn just missing him by a few feet.

He jumped out of alert. "What the fuck, Aster!" He yelled, looking at her.

"Sorry," Aster said innocently. "I'm still learning." She went into his mind, using Telepathy, Get off your ass and help Jean right now.

Jaxtyn looked around in fear and then at her. "Okay!" he said. "That's all you had to say." He walked over towards Jean and patted him on the back. "Let's go, Housewife," Jaxtyn said as Jean trailed after him into the castle.

Alyx shot her an amused smile. "What? I don't have much control on my powers yet," Aster said lying through her teeth.

He looked at her with nothing but excitement and thrill, "Right..." he said.

Throughout this week, it had been six days since the Council had paid them a visit. Since that day, Aster had mastered Telepathy, Levitation, and Telekinesis. She was working on Elemental Control with Alyx today and would be assisted by Elouise in the evening since it was her power. They had plans to work on Earth control. She was able to produce air and wind in her hands and project it in different directions. Water had come easier during this morning's lesson. Alyx had marveled at how simple she could produce a rainstorm, wetting everyone in the process. As for right now, she was working on Fire. This is the element that caused her some difficulty. She was able to light her fingers up with tiny fragments of flames, but other than that, she had difficulty lighting up the house on fire. Alyx had teased her earlier about it that he wished she'd do such a thing.