Scorching

Broken

Hunter

Lucas Hunt. My body is so tense that my nails are digging into the palms of my hands. I look down and see bit of blood. I quickly wipe it off. Lucas seemed to notice, but didn't comment. I think he can tell how agitated I am. He tried to put me at ease by telling me Kaien is just "rough around the edges." Understatement of the year. Still, I can't show him the bad taste Kaien left in my mouth. I have to play nice. "Yeah, Hunter. Hunter Reid." That feels so weird to say. "Well it's nice to meet you Hunter, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, hopefully Kai answered some in between the teasing." What an odd man. I would think arrogance would be steaming off of him, but he's quite bubbly. I anticipated a stoic, dark presence, but this is the opposite. I don't know what to feel.

Now I have to remember exactly everything Kaien did let on, so I don't get caught in a lie between the two of them. Although I don't feel any suspicion coming from Lucas, he's much more calm than Kaien. "Yeah he did answer a few, he told me this is a school for diviners, although I still don't know what that means, or what happened to make my hand look like a lava lamp. And that thing that attacked me was actually trying to eat me." "That boy, always giving me trouble, haha, probably left you more confused huh? Now where to start...hmm..." he scratched his head, looking at me like a science project that is due tomorrow and he needs to ask his mom to go buy construction paper at 8pm. How is this the strongest, and most feared diviner. "Well Hunter, diviners have a special talent, we can each channel a star to conjure weapons..." He gave me the whole spiel about diviners and creatures, and told me to ask Jesse more about healers, said he would explain it better, and I'm not complaining. No Hunter stop. I'm not here to drool over sexy doctors with glasses. Although glasses have always been a weak spot for me. Ugh. I need more sleep. So much has happened today I just wanna get this conversation over with. I'm even too mentally drained to be mad at Lucas right now. I think Kaien sucked all the hate out of me, and this man is so aloof, making it hard to be angry at him. "And me, I have an extra star. This is unheard of amongst diviners. I have my regular star, but I can also channel the sun." Okay I'm checked back into reality. This is the important stuff, I need as much info about him as possible if I'm going to kill him. Finally, I'm back to myself. I can think about killing him again. "My ability allows me to instantly kill any creature within a radius up to 360 feet, by conjuring a portion of the sun. I can choose the size I channel based on the situation. It's similar to how we channel a star to heal. The raw power of the star heals people, without the need to form a weapon. I don't need to form a weapon when I conjure the sun." Holy shit. 360 feet? My radius is about 100 ft right now, and I still need to form a weapon. I swing my scythe and it instantly kills all within that radius, I thought that was impressive. How am I gonna kill this guy? Day one and it already feels like mission impossible. "At the same time I could injure my comrades or students in battle, that's where the adjusting the size part comes in handy. Anyways, enough about me let's talk about you. As I explained before, we are each connected to a star, that's what looked like, as you said, a lava lamp, in your hand. Kai also told me it started to take the shape of a dagger, that's probably because it's small and you've never conjured a weapon before. Your brain went into fight or flight, and the diviner powers inside you triggered your body to channel your star. That was your star protecting you, but it fizzled out quickly since you don't know how to handle this power, at least not yet. That's why I want you to become my student. Unfortunately we lost a member last year so we have an opening. We can teach you everything you need to know here, how to control your powers, how to fight creatures, how to protect yourself and others. It will be so much fun, my team is the best. Kaien is our top student and I'm sure you will get along with him more than you think. And Maeve will love you, she's stuck with boys all the time, so this is a breath of fresh air. What do you think?" Wow just like that, offering me a spot on his team. I guess Peter was right. I didn't notice that Jesse had come back and he chimed in, "How about you give her some space to think about it Lucky, that was a lot of information just now, look at the poor girl she's overwhelmed." I guess I forgot to keep my face in check. But he's not wrong. I'm just overwhelmed in different ways than they think. "You're right Jesse, sorry Hunter. I know that was a lot to process. How about you rest some more and we'll talk later tonight?" I just smile and nod. "One more thing before I go, is there any family we should contact to let them know you're safe?" Fuck. I have to respond before I get choked up. "No. My mom is dead and I've never met my dad."

He holds our eye contact, "I'm very sorry to hear that Hunter, I want you to know that I treat all my students like my kids. If you decide to join our team, you have us as a family," said with all the conviction in the world. I know he meant it. That was the nail in his coffin. All I see is red. Hearing those words come out of my father's mouth breaks me. Any ounce of guilt or uneasiness about this mission is out the door. I can't help it, as hard as I try so much happened today, I don't have the strength to hold my tears back any longer. I'm sitting here in front of my father who has no idea I even exist, or a care to. I'm already off the a bad start with this mission, Kaien is out for my head and I know it. At first I thought he bought the tears but he didn't. He's smart I can tell. If he finds out why I'm here there's no doubt in my mind he'll kill me. I'll never get to see Peter and Kayce again. It's already hard enough without mom. As rough as Peter is I love him. He's the closest thing I've ever had to a Dad. And Kayce. Kayce has been there for me through everything, my night terrors, panic attacks, nursing me back to health after one of Peter's beat downs, even sneaking me to the hospital behind his back when the injuries were that serious. He's saved my life in so many ways. I never got to reciprocate his feelings. I knew how he felt about me, and sometimes I felt the same but I couldn't. Not with everything in my life. The pain of losing my mom, trying to master my powers, proving to Peter that I could do it, that I would kill Lucas. It just wasn't the right time, but I thought that maybe someday I could. It's even worse that I know it doesn't matter, even if I never reciprocate them, he'll always love me. And it's all his fault. Everything. All of it. It's your fucking fault Lucas. Your fault that mom died, that I grew up with no dad, that I grew up getting beat to death for training, grew up being trained to kill my own flesh and blood, and I'm now separated from the makeshift family I found, and if this goes wrong I'll never see them again. Either the diviners find out my goals and kill me, or Peter kills me for fucking up his mission. I don't even know how long I've been sitting here sobbing. Lucas looks at me with solemn eyes, but why do they look so kind. No one with eyes that kind would leave their daughter this broken.