Fire's Mage (Book One) Kyoko of Fire Country

Chapter Thirty

Kyoko, Emma and Ethan watched as Adeline and Connor spoke on the other side of the clearing, Connor rubbing his throat as hand shaped bruises appeared on his skin.

Emma looked shocked, not that Kyoko could blame her. She doubted Ethan could as well, Adeline was someone that a lot of people found shocking. She was also the type of person you had to get use to.

"We're not going to finish this mission," Emma told her, fingers going through her hair.

"Adeline will bug him until he agrees to go with her," Kyoko told her, Ethan hiding his laugh with a cough. All of them were sitting on the blanket that Jakob had given her,Emma had unsealed something to eat while the cousins argued.

"Connor has always been a father to me, helped me since I was left to die," she told her, putting her hand on her knees before looking at the sky.

"You'll be going with him," Kyoko stated, blinking when Emma dropped a scroll into her lap. Along with handing her a smallish book.

"I will," Emma told her, Kyoko taking the book from her, looking at the building plans and mission reports. This she could use to work out what she was happening in Ice. "You'll need this more then I do."

"Thank you. I'm glad, didn't know I'd hold up against an Ice Mage, self taught or not."

"I'm sure you would have done better then you thought."

"Maybe in time."

"You got Connor and I," Emma pointed out, her eyes tracing the lines left from her seal. Even as it slowly disappeared from the ground. "We'd be dead, if you didn't show us that small mercy."

"That's not it," Kyoko told her, her actions were had more selfish motives then Emma could ever realise. She barely knew mercy, how could she show it? "I just wanted the bloodshed to end, too many children have died for little to no reason. That's all."

"Then your heart is kinder then most," Emma told her.

Her? Kind? That didn't sound right, it didn't sound right at all and she didn't know what to think about Emma's words. She had killed who knew how many people, only because she wanted to get rid of the hatred in her heart. To get rid of her hatred and sorrow.

She wasn't kind at all. Kyoko would call herself hateful, vengeful and bitter.

"Just because you have that mark," Emma continued pointing to the wrist that she would always hide. Taking her hand into her own, dropping a snowflake necklace into it. "Doesn't mean anything about how you'll end up, when you have something you want to protect. You'll always be stronger then the thing you fear."

"To have someone to hold and love," Kyoko whispered to herself, dropping the golden chain between her fingers. "It was nice meeting you Emma."

"Don't worry," Adeline told Emma, her hands on her hips and a giant grin on her face. It looked like Connor had lost their argument, again, if Adeline's stories were true. "You'll see the red haired menace soon, she'll be at some of our meetings."

"You?" Connor asked her.

"She fights with us," Adeline told her, Amadahy wanted all of them dead. Kyoko had heard rumours about the things she had said about magic in general. "Haven't you been wondered about the random fires appearing in Uisce? If so, that's her and her seals."

"Not all of the time," Kyoko told them. "There are the rare Fire Mage."

"See," Emma told her, messing up her hair with a grin growing on her face. Taking the necklace from her, put it around her neck and Kyoko quickly hid it underneath her shirt. "Friends?"