Twilit Mage

Chapter 21: Friction

Mercury went to class with a very strange feeling in her gut. Raoul's words were still resonating in her head, spinning and swirling and posing a million different questions.

What did Raoul mean, he didn't feel like a Dark Mage? Well, of course he wasn't one, and neither was Mercury...and of course it was natural that he felt reminded of it at every turn. Mercury did too. The others in the school were far from letting them forget that, after all.

And yet...how could he say the feud between Dark and Light Mages wasn't his problem? It was their history. Their lives would have taken a whole different course if it hadn't happened this way. Just like so many other people's lives. If everyone had gone on living in peace–

If everyone had gone on living in peace, there would have been more people like them, but they would still have existed just the same.

Maybe that was what Raoul meant. In a way, she thought, they and their families were a glimpse of a history that never happened, a glimpse of the way people could have lived if nobody had decided to hunt and kill the other. Maybe what Raoul meant was that Twilit Mage history was a story of peace, not one of war like the other groups'.

And still...it felt unsatisfying. Something about it felt wrong, even if she couldn't put her finger on it. Raoul's carefree attitude suddenly seemed risky...dangerous, even.

If he didn't see himself as one of them, did that mean he didn't want to fit in? And if he really didn't, then why had he come here in the first place?

No, Mercury knew about that part. Raoul had come here because he liked to do magic and show off. Maybe to learn something too, even if she had yet to see him paying attention in any class that could teach him something new.

She just wondered how he managed to have fun when everyone around him seemed to hate his existence so much.

~ ~ ~

The morning went by without further disaster after the trainwreck that had been yesterday. The magic barrier on the classrooms was still intact, so Mercury didn't have to worry about accidentally letting her powers loose on anyone and making herself look even worse, but that didn't mean she left a very good impression. The rumor of her being a bully had spread throughout the school, and both students and teachers would constantly give her those piercing, half fearful looks, as if expecting her to attack another innocent victim at any given moment.

And then there were the comments. Snide remarks wherever she looked, some mocking, some downright hateful. They were everywhere, everywhere she went, everywhere she looked, impossible to escape.

"Oh look," the boy from yesterday said as he passed her in the hallway, "it's Mercury Day! Everybody run, she's gonna kill you with an illusion!"

Mercury flinched, anger boiling up inside her, but she bit her tongue and said nothing. Keep your mind blank, she repeated over and over in her mind. No pictures in your head.

It was no good. She couldn't...it was impossible...

Keep it blank...blank...

A shriek erupted from behind her. She spun around and found Riley staring wide-eyed at something on the wall, shock and horror written all over their face. "The wall! Look at the wall!"

Mercury followed Riley's gaze and went cold. Her shadow on the wall had changed. It was growing, growing, growing to gigantic proportions, flickering on and off as if cast by an invisible fire, gigantic and orange, filling the hallway with a glowing, burning light.

How? She hadn't pictured fire in her mind...or growing shadows...or anything!

"I'm sorry!" she shouted, but nobody heard her. People were running away in every direction. Somebody called for a teacher. Several people collided in the hallway, crashing and tumbling back and nearly hitting the walls and doorframe. Mercury's eyes darted back and forth. The illusion was gone. She should run, get out of here while she still could–