Magus {Complete}

4

Cinder fled the neighborhood where the others were staying. He was unconsciously retracing his steps back to the Capitol building where they had attended the ritual that morning. Anger and fear drove him. His mind was a mess as he dashed past people who gave him strange looks. Cinder ignored every single person he passed. He had too much on his own mind to be dealing with other people.

Sure, he knew all about individuals that could use magic, he knew about the Capitol and some of the basic rules set in place for the magic users. He knew about all of that, yet for some reason everything they told him just didn't fit well with him. It was like someone was telling him that cows could fly or something equally stupid. But, they believed it. He had so many questions and not a single clue as to where to start to get them answered.

Odain.

Everything seemed to snap into place as the man's name came to mind. Of course he could ask the old man. He said he would answer any of Cinder's questions should he have them. Maybe he could explain why they didn't try to save those people from turning black, or maybe they did try and it failed. But there had to be something more than just going and killing them. Cinder couldn't wrap his head around that notion at all.

He slowed as he entered the huge courtyard that led up to the giant pearly white building with its dome center. Cinder forced himself to walk instead of run. It gave him time to relax and get his thoughts together. In a way, it was nice living downtown. Everything was so close to one another, and the house he'd been brought to with Kydyn was not far from the Capitol building. Whether that was coincidence or not, he didn't really know. Not that it was important either, because it really wasn't.

As he climbed the steps, he found himself eyeing the guards that stood at either side of each entrance into the building. For some reason, they seemed a lot less friendly and peaceful than they had when he'd first come with Kydyn and his gang. Cinder got to the top of the steps leading to the giant double doors and slowly approached them. Standing next to the whitewash wood, the golden bar that acted like a handle stood out so brightly against the rest of the building. Wrapping his fingers around it, Cinder clenched his teeth as he felt like a million pairs of eyes had just settled on him.

With his hands trembling, he pulled it open and slipped inside. The feeling of being watched didn't diminish as he slowly paced across the marble floor to the desk with the red head seated behind it. She looked up at him and once again, he felt small under her scrutiny.

"What's your business?"

"I-I.... Odain. I want to speak with him." It took Cinder a moment to find his voice, but when he did it was almost as if he'd shouted in the empty room and the words echoed through the dome, making him flinch.

She eyed him a moment longer before taking up the phone at her desk and dialing a number. There was a long pause as she waited for someone to answer. "Odain, a visitor," was all she said and hung up. Flicking her wrist at Cinder, her long bright red lacquered nails directed him to where he needed to be. Which was far away from her desk apparently. Cinder didn't mind, he got away from her the moment he could. Standing off in the corner of the room, he leaned on the wall with his arms crossed as he waited for Odain to receive him.

The longer the wait, though, the harder it was to convince himself that he'd done the right thing in going to the Capitol to speak to the old man. Another shiver passed through him as he stood there, staring at the floor. The idea that he was being watched was worse than it had been before and he wanted to leave, to go back to Kydyn's home and lock himself in the spare room he'd been given.