What Little Worlds

Twenty-Three

Amelie looked down at the ground almost in guilt and backed up a step.

"What-?" he started and she backed up another step, colliding with the barrier to the pool. Her arms started swinging rapidly to keep her balance and she felt her body leaning over the pool.

"Shit!" she exclaimed and topped over into the water. Only, milliseconds after she lost her last grasp of balance, she was blown forward with a huge gust of wind. She fell forward onto her knees and palms, panting with fear.

"What..." she said, "what just happened?"

She looked up at the man with green eyes. Theo, she recalled.

He was standing further away than before, completely unmoving and silent. His eyes were wide and connected with hers. Suddenly he shook his head a little bit and blinked. "Are you okay?" he asked. His voice was smooth and deep.

She remembered she was still on her hands and knees and slowly rose to her feet. "Did you just do that for me? Thank you," she said.

He stepped towards her cautiously. "Um, actually, I didn't do anything. I....I think that was you."

She balked, "How could I have done it when I wasn't consciously trying? I've never used air magic before. Never even tried."

"Some people are more gifted at certain types of magic than others. If it's an element that speaks to you and your personality then you won't need to explicitly communicate your wishes for the magic to occur," he said, sitting down on one of the blocks. "Did they not teach you that at school?"

Amelie turned away from him. "I was never taught magic as a child," she said remorsefully. Hopefully he would assumed she had simply grown up isolated.

"Never taught magic?" he gaped at her. "That's insane. Were you taught to read? Did you go to school?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. How to escape this situation? Adrien had told her not to tell this man about her parentage. "It's not something I like to talk about. But, I'm trying to learn now," she said, "finally."

"Never learned magic..." he said, as if playing with the words that should not go together, "Caumlen, that's horrible. To have the sense of magic and never know what to do with it." He shook his head, "Clearly you're powerful. That wind knocked me off of my feet too."

"What?" Amelie said, abruptly. "I'm powerful?"

"Yes," he said, drawing out the word.

She wasn't weak. Her Magic center of her brain hadn't atrophied at all. She was powerful. She could do this.

"Are you going to be here every day at noon?" Amelie asked.

"Yes, probably. I'm here until two most days," he said.

"Okay. I just want to warn you, I plan on coming at noon from now on," she said, assertively. She wanted to make sure he didn't know how much his comment about her being powerful meant to her. That she meant all business.

"Sure. Do you maybe want to work together? I might be able to help you gain control," he offered.

"Really?" she squeaked before she could stop herself. "I mean," she said, this time her voice lower and more controlled, "I would appreciate that. I can't seem to turn liquid into solid at this point, maybe you could give me some tips tomorrow?"

He smirked and she noticed how nice his eyes looked on a face that wasn't so stern. "I can definitely do that."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then, Th—" she stopped herself before she said his name and revealed that she knew who he was.