Err of Aquarius

Phoenix Blocked

Janus awoke from his nightmare. Gasping for air, he clutched the charm necklace he wore. His chest was clammy and bare. Raising his right hand, he stared at the mechanical prosthetic.
Realizing it had been ten years since the accident that took his arm. He sighed.
"By the light, Janus," he told himself. "You need to stop fretting over that."
In the decade that had passed, his family had imploded. After the accident here on Amun, his father was almost stripped of his rank as Lord of Amphigur. His mother, who was now a bishop of the 99 hands of jade, came by to visit him often. They never spoke about Solomon, instead Tabitha and he exchanged stories about their lives.
Janus was offered a position as the Librarians assistant at the Emperor's Imperial library. He assumed the position was out of pity, after all it was Her Radiance, the Emperor Haethora, who had saved the boy. But, in recent years, he discovered it was because the Emperor had taken a liking to the boy.
Just last year, the previous librarian was allowed to retire. He was the youngest librarian of the royal library in eons.
Now he was in charge of protecting the codexes and magical artifacts stored. Daily he'd count and recount each, though he mastered an easy way to count the books. He'd just sit in a chair in the center of the library, and stretch out telekinetic senses. Feeling his prosthetic arm vibrate in response to his aura, he felt as if a hundred invisible hands had sprouted from his back. Directing them toward each object in the library's inventory he counted out each item without having to physically count them.
Sitting in his bed, he closed his eyes and cleared his mind. THe metal arma twiced, since his magic affinity was metal. Aura warmed his flesh as he reached out with a single telekinetic hand. The library was vast, boasting three stories of data chips and dozens of magical artifacts like the Bow of San Jupero or the Eye of Axolotls. Everything was where it was supposed to be.
Janus went to retreat his hand when it grazed over something warm- hot- on the first floor. His telekinetic grasp snapped back to his body as he realized what it was.
With his senses back, he could smell smoke. Though it was faint and fading, he knew exactly what that was. Not a single object in the library burned like that. Which meant:
"Shit, something's on fire!"
After throwing on a cloak of brown sheeps wool, he fastened it closed. Reaching out his hands as he slid into a pair of sandals, he telekinetically called the plasma blade he kept stashed under his pillow. The silver-gray hilt darted to his hand as he swung the door to his room open and raced down the hallway; the burning smell had gone down.
If an arsonist had broken into the Royal Library and managed to destroy a single item, it would be Janus's neck. Or paycheck. Whichever the self appointed Imperial Congressmen would decide his fate would be. Both were just as bad as the other.

His bedroom was on the second floor, so as he swung his door open, he ran to the rail and lept. Janus spotted the invader before he hit the ground. Levitating over the first floor, he grabbed the assailant with a mediocre telepathy spell. Holding them in place, he hovered toward the invader.
In the darkness, he couldn't see a flame, but that didn't mean there weren't scorch marks on the first floor's data chips. His feet met the rugged floor, a mat of woven pegasus hair. The ceiling was lined with eight round windows that poured moonlight over him. He yanked the invader to the floor; the moonlight revealed the invader's copper red hair.
"Mellie?" Janus recognized the woman, and awkwardly whipped his invisible grasp from her. He almost dropped his staff as he helped the woman to her feet.
Mellie was a pyrokinetic whom he'd known for years. Janus had fallen in love with her since his arrival at the Royal Palace.
Emerald eyes met Janus' as Melissa Ziz breathed the same air as him. His breath caught in his throat as she smiled at him. Her hair was a nest of messy snakes of copper that fell past her collar bone.
She wore an all black dress skirt, though rows of runes were drawn on it to make red flames that covered the left side of her dress. From her shoulder hung a strap that held a bag at its ends, both the bag and the strap were lavender in color. The bag's flap was open, exposing the brown metallic egg inside.
Melissa had said something to him that he had not understood. His eyes were glued to the phoenix egg- yes an actual phoenix egg!- that she carried sound so casually.
Light, you're such a badass, babe!
"Janus!" Melissa took his metallic arm in hers "I asked if you were open?"
Damon blinked, then swallowed. "Uhm, we close at sundown." he responded robotically. Then he noticed her eyes falling away from his. "But I'm sure no one's gonna mind if I rented out an item after hours."
    He turned away from her awkwardly and cleared his throat. Melissa followed him with a single candle that he was about to light. It was tucked behind a fake plant by the library's door. Impressively, he managed to retrieve the lighter from behind the librarian desk. It flickered across the room in the blink of an eye.
    "Allow me," Melissa held out her palm over the candle wick. In a single breath, she lit the candle.
    "Pyrokinesis." Janus muttered. "Right."
    "So, how've things been?"
    It had been awhile since he'd seen her. She used to stop by the library more often, researching certain data on thermodynamics and flame conjuring. But in the last year, Melissa had just stopped coming. According to whispers, the Flame Witch Melissa had returned to her home world on some self proclaimed exile. She never told Damein why she left, but he tried his best to accept her decision. Though he still missed her, and found himself thinking about her.
    "I don't have much time." A crack ripped across the face of the phoenix egg. "I probably have five minutes before this thing hatches and..." she made an explosion with her hands.
    Phoenix's were beings capable of immortality. Now they didn't last forever, but they could revert into an egg shape when they neared death, existing in a continuous loop of rebirth and death. Melissa had mastered a spell that used the heat given off by flames to transport herself across space and time. Supposedly, she could warp between points in space with the heat of the phoenix egg. In an explosion of fire, she could teleport, and since phoenixes were made of fire, she had a literal battery to do so.
    "I see." swallowing a bit of sadness, he tried to hide his grief by turning away from her. "So, uh, what did you need again?"
    "I just wanted to borrow a scroll on flame resistant materials." She said. She always made sure she was standing beside him, constantly in his peripheral vision.
Almost always out of sight, but still there. A paradox of being there and not. Of being present but not.
Janus lead her to the south wall. Taking his hand in hers, the two of them levitated to the third floor. When they landed, the two of them didn't disengage from each other. He led her to the wall containing the scroll she was looking for. She followed, smoothing his knuckles with her thumb. Taking her other hand in his, he moved the scroll to her hand; the phoenix made a second attempt to breach its egg.
The scroll was actually updated to a hollow disk since the last time she borrowed it. Anyone could lift the box's cover and remove the hollow disk. It actually wasn't a disk, which Melissa commented on as Janus removed the lid.
"It's more like the ancient drawing of spaceships. What are they called again?"
"Oofos. Spelled U- F-O."
Melissa snorted. "Light, the primitives were so dumb."
Janus was too awestruck to give a proper response. "Yeah." was all he mustered.
Melissa noticed this, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek right on the corner of his lips. She brushed her hair out of her face as she did. Janus kissed her back, locking lips with hers. Ignoring the third crack in the egg, Melissa wrapped her arms around, pulling him into her; she placed the box on the railing behind her as he leaned against it.
She was warm, her skin supple, her lips tender. He shuddered. She pulled away from him sharply, just enough to undo his robe. Running her hands over his chest she pressed her lips to his neck.
"Light, I missed you," he gasped.
"I know." she said between nibbles. "Me, too."
They locked eyes for a second before diving in to meet lips again. This time the phoenix breached its egg.
"Ba-kurrrk!!" its cry echoed throughout the library.
Reluctantly the two of them broke off their kiss. Melissa cleared her throat. "That's my cue... I guess."
"You could spend the night," he offered. "If you want."
Melissa parted her lips, almost accepting his offer. But then she closed them, shaking her head. He missed the want in her eyes a month ago. The longing he choked back on the daily.
The stitched flame of runes on her dress skirt began to glow, indicating that the phoenix on her hip was reaching a high temperature. Janus knew that when the runes were fully ablaze, the bird was making enough flames for her to teleport.
"When will you stop by again?"
"In a week." She picked up the scroll's box, and brushed past him. Waving it over her shoulder, she said, "To turn this in."
"Oh," Janus nodded. 'Right."
She kept her back to him, denying him a last look at her beautiful face.
"I'll be able to stay a little longer, though. I've been meaning to spend the night with you." she added. He couldn't quite read the emotion in her tone. For a moment he thought she was sobbing. But he quickly convinced himself otherwise.
She doesn't cry. She's too stubborn for that.
"That... would be great."
The phoenix crowed again and her dress lit the corner of the third floor up. Picking up the flaming bird in her hand, she inhaled deeply. He thought Janus was about to call upon her aura, instead, sobbing she said. "I love you, Janus."
He blurted back, "I love you, too, Mellie."
Before he could process the fact they had never said that to each other, she was gone in a blaze of fire. Petals of flames swallowed her as she teleported elsewhere. Probably her home world of Hermestis.
The library went dark again. The candle that he had set on the railing had gone out, a river of smoke drifting toward where Melissa was a moment ago.
Janus grabbed the candle and levitated back to the first floor. Moonlight shone on a single tear that escaped his eye.
"Just one more week." he stared up at the stars through the ceiling window.