Argent Eye IV

2

------ Present Day ------

Uni was over. I'd managed to finish the year with no Argent-related stress at all- although, I was beginning to question whether the Argent stress would be easier to handle than the dissertation stress. It was stressful. However, I'd made it. I'd graduated with a first class honours degree, and to be honest, I couldn't be prouder. I'd had an amazing graduation day with all my friends, including Kate, Ryan and Sunny, as well as my parents and David and Irina. Ronan even came, and pretended he was one of my classmates when my parents asked.

Now, however, it seemed I'd been tossed into the ever-growing pit of unemployment. The house in London, which I'd shared with Jake, Tom and Andy for the last two years, had reached the end of its contract, and so we had to move out. Only Tom had a stable job to stay and rent in London, however, the rest of us were currently jobless, and had to move back in with the parents for the time being.

I'd had a couple of job interviews over the last month, but unfortunately, none had amounted to anything. I wasn't sure whether I was relieved or not, though. I started to wonder whether I actually knew where I wanted to be in life. At first, computer science seemed like the way forward. Then, I began to look more into the digital forensics area. But then I wasn't so sure. My mum kept telling me to just go with the flow, which is what I finally agreed to do. I decided that I'd just relax at home for a while, and then keep an eye out for the dream job to make an appearance.

I'd only been back in Kent for a couple of days, and had spent those days unpacking and sorting through all my stuff and bagging up a load of charity bags. Now, I was ready to go and see people- I hadn't seen Stella or Miss Jones since the whole Fujio incident. After that, I'd been so caught up with uni work that I simply didn't have time to go home and visit anyone. I did ask Ronan to go and see them, though, just to tell them that I was okay and that everything had somehow worked itself out.

I decided to go and see Stella first, and so walked down the field behind my house towards the main village. Stella had helped me several times throughout my Argent journey, and had been there right from the very beginning. She was an earth Heir, who'd inherited powers of the earth element from her mother, who had been an Argent Eye.

Ronan appeared by my side then, and started walking with me.

"What's up?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Not a lot." He said, and then sighed. "I just had an argument with Luke."

I rolled my eyes, but laughed. Luke was Ronan's latest Argent recruit, at whom he'd thrown three throwing stars made of Black Prometheum- the metal that gave an Argent Eye their powers. For an Argent to have their powers awakened, the Black Prometheum must somehow enter the body and the bloodstream. That usually meant it had to be done via some kind of violent and unpredictable method, namely stabbing. It seemed to be the easiest way.

For the Dreamwalker, anyway.

"Have you ever had an apprentice without arguing at least once?" I asked.

Ronan thought about it for a moment. "Don't think so." He said casually.

"What were you arguing about?" I asked.

"Well, he's struggling to grow his connection to the fire." He said. "He was getting stroppy about it, so I told him to stop getting angry at it and start focusing more. He didn't like it."

I just chuckled. "Well, I can relate." I said. "It must be harder for an eleven year old, too. They just wanna go out and play with their friends or play computer games."

"True." Ronan shrugged. "But he needs to learn."

"He's not gonna learn if you argue." I said.

"You did." Ronan pointed out, and looked at me, smiling.

I smiled. "Good point." I admitted, remembering the number of times I'd argued with Ronan. All those times ended up breaking out into a fight. "But it wasn't fun."

"It was kinda fun." He said.

I looked at him, raising my eyebrows. "You thought fighting with me was fun?"

He shrugged again.

"Well." I said, and then proceeded to shove him sideways, releasing a small amount of magnetic energy as I did so. He stumbled, not falling over, but was slightly surprised.

"What was that for?!" He exclaimed, and came to walk next to me again.

I shrugged. "I thought you said this was fun?" And with that, I shoved him again, this time harder. He stumbled further, and I started running.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, running after me.

I looked over my shoulder, only to see that he'd vanished. Then, I ran into something.

Nope- someone.

It was Ronan.

Both of us fell onto the grass from the force, me on top of him, laughing. I propped myself up on my elbows, my silver hair falling past my face and brushing his cheeks. For a second, we just stared at each other. He was clean shaven, and his hair was as black as the night skies. One eye was blue, the other silver.

"Such beauty." He said softly, slowly tucking my hair behind my ear.

I blushed, and smiled. "Says you, you big oaf."

"Who are you calling an oaf?" He said sharply, and then he vanished from under me. I flopped hard onto the grass, making a rather loud oomph sound, and then rolled over to see that he was now standing over me.

I grinned. "You." I said.

He held a hand down to me, amused, and I took it. He then left, deciding to go and make amends with Luke, whilst I walked down to the village.

__________

I smiled when I spotted my next door neighbours walking up the hill back towards home, as I walked down to the village.

"Hey, Millie." Anika stopped and smiled- she was walking with her two children, Dina and Kara, both of whom shared their mother's long, black hair and brown eyes. I was sure they were nine and seven years old, although couldn't be certain. "Your mum said you were back from uni- how have you been?"

I nodded. "Yeah, not too bad, thanks." I said. "And you guys?" I looked at both the girls as I said this.

"We're okay, aren't we girls?" She said, nudging her shy children. They both just grinned, and giggled a little. Anika looked back up at me. "All finished with uni now?"

"Yeah." I said. "Just looking for a job now."

"Oh, yeah- that's the worst bit, right?" She chuckled.

I nodded. "Absolutely." I said in agreement. "I'm just waiting for the right thing to turn up."

"Fair enough." She said. "That's all you can do, really. What kind of thing are you looking for?"

I shrugged. "I'm not totally sure, but maybe some kind of digital forensics job. Cyber security, perhaps."

"Ooh, that sounds complicated." She laughed. "I'll leave that to you."

I smiled. The two girls were just looking at me, not sure if they were brave enough to say anything. I'd met them a couple of times, but only in passing- they hadn't been our neighbours for any longer than a year, and whilst I'd been at uni, I hadn't really had a chance to meet them properly.

"Anyway, I better get back." Anika said. "Get these girls some dinner. It was nice seeing you, Millie."

"Yeah, you too." I smiled.

"Say goodbye, girls." Anika said, and so both Dina and Kara said goodbye, if not very quietly.

I laughed. "Bye!" I called back, before we walked our separate ways, and I made my way to Stella's house.

_________