An Immortal's Favour

Gale- Who You Are, Part 2

*

"Remember, everyone, steady breaths. In and out, that's it. Now, pull gently at the heat in the air and hold onto it..."

"Yes!" Sekou squealed, cradling a flame in one of his palms. Looking over, his sister grunted, dipped one hand into Aminata's pot of water and splashed some of it over Sekou's fire.

"Hey!"

"Hawa." I gave her a stern look.

"It's not fair. I've been trying for three days, and nothing's happened yet." The poor girl looked close to tears as she kicked at a stray rock.

"Some people just take longer than others to get the hang of it. But what you did wasn't nice. Apologize, please."

"I'm sorry, Sekou."

"And remember that looking after both the mind and the body is important. You won't be able to control your casting if you aren't looking after yourself."

"At least it doesn't hurt to move the water as much," Aminata said, struggling to keep her sphere of water floating through the air. It fell back down with a splash.

"Hawa, look at me." Lifting her light brown eyes towards mine, she allowed me to take her tan hands into my own. "Close your eyes. Feel the magic flowing through your body."

"I don't feel it."

"It's there. You just need to give it the chance to reveal itself."

In silence we both sat, waiting. Then, sure enough, Hawa's fingers grew hot against my own. In surprise, she drew them back, just as a spattering of sparks glowed around her hands. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"You did it." I smiled warmly.

"I- I did." She grinned to herself. Her eyes slid open, and she fixed me with a serious look that left me unnerved. "You know, Mother used to tell us our casting was nonsense, that me and Sekou were just making it up."

"Did you believe her?"

"I'd started to," Hawa admitted, letting her head hang.

"Thank goodness you had a change of heart. It would've been awful if you'd lost your abilities."

"Lost them?"

"Perhaps 'lost' is the wrong word. But they would've become deeply buried. You wouldn't be able to reach them if that'd been the case. That, or... worse." I gritted my teeth.

"What could be worse than losing my powers?"

"They can resurface of their own accord. But the results of this are almost always catastrophic." I knew by this point that the others had stopped what they were doing, and they were certainly eavesdropping. Raising my voice, I continued, "I'm sorry if this scares you. But it must be said."

Nene, who tended to sit at one corner of our tile, preferred to be alone and practice in silence. There were only five of us now since Oumar had left.

"Nene-"

The distant sound of the school bell interrupted me, and all of the supervisors stepped forward to escort the children back inside.

"Bye, Bobo!" Sekou called, skipping as he fell into line with the others. Nene nodded at me as she went by, and I made sure to grin in return.

"I'll take you back to the reception." The friendly Nama, one of the supervisors, waited as I gathered my things and returned them into my shoulder bag.

"Has Oumar said anything to you or anyone else yet?" I asked, shifting the weight of my shoulder bag from one hand to another.

"No, I'm afraid," she said, the skin around her eyes creasing. "I don't think he'll come around."