The Girl of Many Floods- Linh Song

VI

It turned out, the Foxfire results was nothing to worry about. Tam had scored off the charts and Linh, well, had scored even higher. Even though Linh would never admit this aloud, she was actually very happy about it.

-

The weeks passed, and Tam continued with his Shade lessons.

One day, he told Linh that he wanted to show her something. He closed his eyes and concentrated and Linh saw his shadow stretch over hers, and she heard his voice whisper in her head, "hello."

Linh jumped, "what was that?"

"Shadow-whispering, I carry my consciousness over to you so I can speak to you, and no one can hear me but you, though I can't do it for long, yet."

"I guess that's nice," Linh said.

"It is, if we don't want mum and dad overhearing our conversations, I can shadow-whisper to you, just that you can't reply," Tam paused, then seemed to realise, "well I guess that isn't really a conversation but you know what I mean."

Linh gave a small smile in response, that Shade trick was cool. On one hand, she wanted to be able to do something like that too, but on the other, she didn't want to manifest too soon, what if she turned out to be a pyrokinetic? That would be bad, since pyrokinetics were forbidden. A thought came across her mind and she asked Tam about it.

"What do you think my ability will be, if I manifest?"

Tam blinked, as if he did not expect the question. Then he noticed the 'if' and tried to assure her, "Linh, you will manifest, I'm sure of it, I mean, I did, so you should too. Stop worrying about it. Also, I'm pretty sure ability detecting at Foxfire would help."

Linh was not completely convinced but she managed a simple, "I guess so."

"Anyway about your ability, well, since I'm a Shade, I don't think it's impossible that you'll end up as one. But, it doesn't suit your personality at all,"

Linh had to smile at that, "no it certainly doesn't. Hmm.... wouldn't it be ironic if I turned out to be a Flasher?"

"It would definitely be," Tam's lips twitched, like he was going to laugh. Then he paused and looked her in the eye before saying, "Linh, whatever you manifest as I'm sure it'll be great, and you would be as amazing as you are now, maybe even more amazing, who knows?"

"Yeah, maybe," Linh replied, unconvinced.

But what if I don't manifest? Linh couldn't help thinking, but she shoved the thought out of her mind as quickly as it came. No, she will manifest, she had to.

That night, Linh couldn't  sleep, the thought kept creeping into her mind and every time she pushed it away, it kept coming back. She knew she couldn't do anything about it at the moment, not until she stared Foxfire anyway. Linh knew better than to try ability detecting herself without any supervision.

After she tossed and turned in bed, think about it, she finally drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
-

A few weeks later, Tam asked Linh if he could read her shadowvapour.

"Shadowva- what?" Linh asked, confused.

"Shadowvapour" Tam corrected, "it's what I control in order to shadow-whisper to you. When I read your shadowvapour, I can sense your potential for darkness–in a way, and I can also see if you're hiding something."

"Ohh...kayy," that was a lot to absorb and Linh didn't completely understand what Tam was talking about, then a thought came across her mind.

"Wait, so does that mean you don't trust me, since you want to read my shadowvapour?" Linh eyed Tam suspiciously.