Freyja | Fire | Edward, lun

“It hurts that, after all this time, especially after last night…” Despite the blatant sarcasm in his voice, she couldn’t help looking up and studying his bright blue eyes for significance. Any hint of genuinity was quickly wiped off his face at the presence of Edward. Freyja was under the impression that he’d been lurking in the shadows for a while, which didn’t make her feel any less uneasy. She was certain he wouldn’t kill them, but that didn’t mean his intentions weren’t malicious in some capacity.

The only thing stranger than the fact that Edward had been stalking the two of them when there was perfectly good havoc to wreak elsewhere was the fact that lun didn’t seem to recognize him at all. Though they ran in different circles and the former certainly had a habit of doing his precarious business in the ominous obscurity of the shadows, Freyja was certain they knew each other. Due to her own drama with Henriik, she couldn’t recall whether they’d spoken to one another at the party the night prior, but surely they had in the last year. Naturally, she assumed they’d spoken since school had been back in session, but she wasn’t entirely sure. Her mind began to fill with theories on this matter, though she had far too many more questions for the both of them to even begin to narrow it down. The look on lun’s face said he wasn’t lying, and if anyone had the ability to read him, it was Freyja. Being sworn enemies with him year after year had ironically caused her to know him better than anyone else in the world.

She grabbed lun’s arm with careless haste, though there was nothing nurturing about it. She nearly ripped it out of its socket trying to get his attention. She fought the urge to singe his forearm just a little, if only to get him to stop gaping at the man across the dock and look directly at her. She wasn’t sure she even possessed the power. Even if they couldn’t tell by the look in her eye, she was afraid, and fear drained her of the strength of her power. At this rate, she could likely barely light a candle. “lun…”

Before she could say anything more, or question his newfound amnesia, Edward began speaking in his riddles, and she found herself with more important things to deal with. She barely remembered falling, or any of what had caused it. When she looked back up, she saw Edward, and she saw lun. Somehow, the blond had taken the other male down, though she imagined it was because he had let him. Freyja knew them both well, and she was certain Edward was stronger than everyone in this school, including the administration. Not to mention all of the rumors about him…

It didn’t take long for it all to come rushing back. Still, she sat with a glazed over look for a moment or two before crawling back a few lengths from both men. Though she had invited lun, she didn’t trust him. Maybe this was all apart of some elaborate scheme. She didn’t think so, given the fact that he was too damn honest and had far too many tells to be hiding anything. She’d learned basically all of his tells by now, and that if she pushed him just slightly over the edge, any words rolling around that empty brain of his came spilling out like marbles. Edward had pushed him far over the edge, and he didn’t seem to have much to say.

Despite all of the challenges Freyja wanted to verbalize to her rival, she was still stunned by what she’d just seen. As far as she knew, Edward didn’t have the power to create new visions with his mind control, he only had the power to lift memories out of an individual’s subconscious. She couldn’t think of one single way that would result in him being able to harness someone else’s magic to create that effect, not to mention the fact that the memories he had shown her had evoked some kind of emotion in her. Smoke was rising off her arms, her hands, her legs, her hair. Because the emotion had been faced inward, she was somehow burning herself. Typically her emotions were only faced outward, such as rage, annoyance, and vengeance. She never felt much of her own emotions. This was the first time she’d discovered what feeling something inwardly could do to her. Yet, the flames didn’t hurt. There was something about them that made her glow, that gave her an aura of power she didn’t typically possess.

“What did you do to me,” she whispered gently, studying her arms. She hadn’t come to terms with exactly what was happening and why. “Why did you show me that specifically, out of everything?” Her eyes were threatening to well up with tears, something no one had ever seen before, surely. A tear rolled out of her eyes and onto her cheek, and immediately dissolved into steam with a sizzling sound. “What’s your angle?”

“Not what I did, what you did to yourself.” He paused, looking up and down her figure in a way that wasn’t innately sensual, but somehow became that. “You know more than you realize, Freyja. Somehow, you just need me to help you realize it. Maybe it’s that you want me to help you realize it. Surely a woman like you is capable of doing everything on her own, so why’d you let me slip into your subconscious?” He smirked, his eyes disregarding the other man on the dock completely. “It seems you have a lot to think about. I know we’ll meet again, very, very soon. Whenever you like, my dear. You know where to find me.”

Before he could plot his dramatic escape, lun interrupted Edward's speech to Freyja, and seemed one strand of sanity away from absolutely demolishing the man. Once again, Edward seemed to be allowing it, for what reason, Freyja couldn't tell. "This one's free," he muttered, gripping lun's wrist and doing the same thing he'd done to Freyja to her sworn enemy. She was still too stunned to understand what was happening, and the place where the tear had spilled below her eye had turned into a severe burn wound the shape of the droplet that had once existed there. Water was fatal to her in any form, even that which her own body made.

After doing exactly what he had intended to do, Edward left lun stunned on the dock beside Freyja. Without so much as a second look, Edward turned to leave, snapping his fingers and allowing time to resume. Freyja was still sitting on the dock, too stunned to speak. Her words to Edward had barely been croaked out, she she hadn't yet realized what had happened to lun. Breathless, and still with that glazed over look, Freyja made no effort to chase the other man, who’d seemed to vanish as quickly as he’d come. She just sat, deep in her thoughts, unwilling to comprehend any of what she’d seen. There was just too much to understand, and so much of it had been just beneath the surface, right under her nose. How had she missed it? If that was just scratching the surface, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go any further. Yet, she felt helpless in her fate, and in the destiny that awaited her and everyone else at this school.

As she finally seemed to snap out of her own daze, Freyja glanced over, noticing that lun was lying on the dock, either lifeless or just dazed and staring up at the stars with a still expression on his face. As soon as she realized he was in a vulnerable state, she rushed to his side, surprising herself with her concern for her enemy. Though her concern for him was her main priority, she still held the utmost fear that he would retaliate against any movements she made given their history. Somehow, despite a few moments of reluctance, it didn't stop her from kneeling beside him and shaking his frame fearfully. "lun," she whispered, "lun, what's wrong? lun, wake up." Her pleading continued for several moments as she shook his body and his face, eyes soft and concerned for him. She wanted to say it was because of her fear of having to explain what happened to him to the administration, but something deep inside of her was being pushed aside that told her otherwise. Not realizing how long it had taken her to come out of her own daze, she continued to beg and plead with him for several minutes, her expression showing pure fear. It wasn't supposed to end before it even began.

Freyja | Fire | lun, marble

"I can't stay out here all night, Freyja. Thanks to you and your ring of fire, I'm severely dehydrated. I need to soak in a bath ASAP unless your intention was to finally kill me and get rid of me forever." She looked up briefly, eyes a soft green color. She wondered if it was strange for lun to see her with eyes this color, considering the fact that, historically, any time they were together there was rage, hatred, or another equally passionate emotion involved that invoked both her powers and the changing of the color of her eyes. She brushed that thought away quickly, though the curiosity still lingered. When had it ever mattered what he thought or felt? It didn’t, and though he was being suspiciously nice for once in his life, it wouldn’t change the way they treated each other now or going forward. It wasn’t like he was doing it for her sake, it was clearly to save his own ass in the case of a threat. Or, beyond that, it was that awful boyish curiosity of his that made him unable to leave any option left unexplored. Paired with his stubbornness, that nosiness would surely lead to his demise one day.

Still, despite the way he’d returned to his normal state of sarcasm and insults after the night they’d had, Freyja couldn’t join him in normalcy. Instead of burning him just a little, or giving some sort of equally witty and offensive remark back, she quietly followed behind him in perfect obedience, a dead look behind her eyes as if she were a thousand miles away. The truth was, she hadn’t left her mind in the last day, not with everything that had happened. She didn’t feel safe to walk anywhere alone, and she didn’t want to go back to an empty room where just about anyone could come for her next.

Briefly, she came out of her thoughts to acknowledge what lun had said to her with a brief nod, though her expression was still distant and his words were a complete and total blur. Something about a lamp or a light or the ceiling, hopefully nothing too important because she stood in the dark beside lun’s bed until he returned. The glow of the bathroom light lit up his silhouette, his skin holding an ethereal glow on its own due to the recent application of his lifeblood. His pale hair was wet, and the faint smell of what she assumed was his cologne wafted in from behind the open door. His eyes met hers, and she smiled faintly, more of a gesture of acknowledgment than anything else. Though the sides of her lips were curved upwards, happiness was the farthest from what her expression conveyed. When he passed her to reach the lamp she could have sworn he got far closer to her than was necessary, and she could have sworn he did it on purpose. Typically she would have rolled her eyes or played into it, but between the paranoid state she was in and avidly trying to cover up and the quick, unexpected movements he made towards her, she couldn’t avoid the way her breath hitched, her eyes frozen over with fear. She flinched and backed up a few steps, nearly falling over as she crashed into his bed. If at all possible, she seemed even more afraid now than she had been before, based on absolutely nothing other than the way she’d allowed her mind to wander further down the path it was on. She barely noticed when lun left again to get whatever he’d gone behind her to get initially, though she finally registered his presence as he leaned in to touch her face.

She didn’t jerk away immediately, which was surprising considering the relationship the pair of them had. On literally every other night of her life that she could remember, the man in front of her was the biggest threat to her status, her magic, her success, her happiness, her life, and anything else she could think of. Except maybe her boyfriend, but even that was questionable, considering the amount of time she spent complaining about him and obsessing over him instead of enjoying Henriik’s presence. Today, instead of being a threat, he was somehow her only source of protection. He was applying some sort of ointment to the small burn on her face in an unusually delicate manner, much to her surprise and slight disgust. When she came out of another daze, she jerked the applicant away unexpectedly, looking lun dead in the eye with more concern. It seemed as though her consciousness was wavering, as if she was coming and going from reality. The only thing that was unknown was whether it was by choice, or whether it was something Edward had done that was still affecting her. Or maybe it was just a result of everything that had happened in the last day, though little had happened. It was the implications of the few things that had happened that were getting to her, it was the gravity of the situation. “Wait– what is this? What are you doing to me?” Her eyes narrowed, studying the bright blue hue of his eyes. Briefly, her eyes flashed orange. It seemed the normal Freyja was resurfacing after a long drought.

After a few moments had passed, lun left her alone with the instructions to wait in his room for a certain number of minutes she had since forgotten, and that he would return. She took the opportunity to observe his room, a room that had undoubtedly seen many other women this week. She hated to be grouped with anyone he was involved with, even if it was solely by gender. She made sure not to touch the bed, not knowing how often he washed his sheets, but she took notice of the little details with a watchful eye. Something that stuck out to her was that there were no pictures anywhere. Not of him, not of his family, not of his friends, not of anyone. Did he live a lonely life behind that carefree, nonchalant exterior? His personality was surely abrasive enough. Before she could finish the thought, the room started to spin. She’d been feeling lightheaded, but she assumed it may have been the emotion of the day catching up with her. She felt cold, and the tips of her fingers were beginning to turn black as if she had a severe case of frostbite. On wobbly feet with no real direction, she forced herself into the bathroom, trying to locate the door between blackouts. She knew she was getting close when she felt the steam begin to burn her skin, but she persisted, trying to avoid touching anything or letting the steam do anything other than redden and irritate her skin. It didn’t contain enough moisture to scar, just singe her.

“lun,” she mumbled, though it was more of a growl in her head. She wasn’t coherent enough to make it happen the way she envisioned it in her head, she didn’t have the strength to confront him. She stumbled again, losing her balance as her body shook in a severe way that was not at all human. She fell towards the sink, trying to catch her own fall before ending up completely blacked out and incoherent on the floor, no more than a mess of limbs.

x

Iun|Water|Freyja, Marble

Iun had indeed noticed her eyes but he figured she was simply reeling from the night they'd had... She'd never looked at him without even a small spark of anything menacing in them... Not to mention for the first time in the entire time he knew her she followed him like an obedient dog wanting to serve it's master and while it briefly caught him off guard like the things he'd just seen he let it roll off his shoulders for the time being this was a one time thing he was certain of it both on his end and hers this little truce they had would only last for so long. Aside from a small remark here or there he was quiet as he applied the ointment to her face, when she shoved him away he narrowed his eyes at her in a playful manor "Easy princess... It's basically extra-strength Aloe... It has some quick healing properties... Marble made it you can ask him about the ingredients in the morning if you wish but I've used it myself... Don't have a cow." He remarked smirking when he saw the brief flash of the spitfire she actually was. "Make yourself comfortable." He replied before heading into the bathroom.

Truthfully no other women besides Freyja had been to his and Marble's room in fact she was the first and only girl hed ever had here... Boy was Marble in for a shock in the morning. He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Marble waking up to find Freyja in his bed whilst he himself was in the bathtub or on the floor as he rubbed his kelp lotion over his upper human body before he started rubbing it down his long beautiful tail that hung mostly over the bathtub. He'd just finished rubbing the kelp lotion over the ends of his tail fin when Freyja stumbled into the bathroom he looked rather awkward in that human sized tub considering his tail alone was the length of another human itself "Freyja?" He asked raising a brow. When he saw her start to fall over he lunged for her splashing water everywhere pretty much and ending up with his human half and about half of his tail over the side of the tub and on the bathroom floor whilst the other half of him was propped up the end of his tail flipped over on his back.

"Marble!"

"Get your ass in here now!"

Marble|Hybrid|Iun, Freyja

"Marble!"

"Get your ass in here now!"

His ears flicked for a moment before his bright blue eyes fluttered open it took him a second to realize he hadn't been dreaming... When he did he scrambled out of his blanket nest and ran into the bathroom wincing at the bright lights letting his eyes adjust for a moment before he took in the scene in front of him... His friend and roommate in his mer-form half in and half out of the bath and... Freyja?! Freyja... That took him a second to wrap his head around Freyja was here? He was used to Iun coming in late at night and going to the girls dorm... But he'd never brought a girl home before... Much less his enemy!

" What-"

"I'll attempt to explain later... She hit her head... Toss me a towel so I can dry off will ya?"

Iun's voice was distant for Marble... He just simply couldn't comprehend everything he was seeing but he did what he was asked, he tossed Iun a towel before he checked on Freyja gently rolling her onto her back so he could get a look at her gulping when he saw the blood on her forehead shuddering before he grabbed a dry washcloth to put over it. He had minimal medical training but he knew enough to buy Iun a minute to dry himself. Once Iun was dry he told him to hold the washcloth on her head and gently apply pressure to stop the bleeding before he went and called the schools medical team he didn't know what to say so he only told him what he knew before he went back to Iun "They're on their way..." He told him earning a nod from his friend who seemed mildly concerned about his enemy even in the midst of this he was curious about why he was showing her so much care... What happened between the two of them? He wondered.

Freyja | Fire | Edward, lun, Marble

Freyja came to due to the urgent vibration of lun’s voice, her eyes fluttering open and shut gently. It took all of her force to focus on trying to locate him and focus on what was happening around her. Trying to focus was making her nauseous, and she could feel the burns on her skin from the water. Despite the fact that she was freezing and her lips were blue, along with the rest of her body, she felt damp, as if she was sweating out an infection. Her body was shaking violently, out of control.

She realized he was on the phone with the medics, and immediately she began to panic. “lun,” she mumbled, eyes continuing to flutter open and shut, searching for him in the dull blur. She reached for his hand, or for any part of him that could remind him of her presence, and to get his attention enough to change his mind, but she only found the moist surface of the bathroom tile. It singed her skin, blistering it immediately as steam spilled off her fingertips. “lun, no doctors. you…don’t…understand…” She continued to grope around in her blindness, her skin crawling from the feeling of blood dripping down her face. She was still trying to find lun, she knew from past experiences that he was very dependent on physical touch, and it was often the only way to get his attention. She sincerely doubted that he would listen to her words, no matter how soft or gentle or strong, so she would have to resort to utilizing touch as her weapon of choice. It didn’t matter what kind of ideas anyone got from it–especially not lun, and probably not Marble–considering the fact that her life depended on it. “lun, my…vision…”

Not long after, a knock sounded at the door. Freyja was still in the bathroom when lun sent Marble to the door, but in the blink of an eye, Edward had appeared on the other side of the door, just beside Marble, with a gash in the side of his head. He went along with the medics as if it had been the plan the entire time, and glared at Marble as if to threaten him. He utilized mind control to convince the medical team to walk him back to their building instead of treating him there, leaving without so much as an explanation. A note was left, scribbled on the counter. You owe me. Both of you.

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Freyja continued to struggle. “lun, i…can’t…breathe…the…water…” Before she knew it, she was lifted in his arms and carried out into the main room. He and Marble were exchanging words, but she could barely hear them. Everything sounded jumbled, as if she were drowning underwater and lun was her lifeline. She felt surprisingly light in his arms, though if anyone were to ask her she’d chalk it up to the delusion of the illness coursing through her veins. She could feel his heart beating quickly beneath his shirt, if he’d even bothered to put one on given the circumstances. She couldn’t remember, and the burns had temporarily faded her sense of touch. In fact, she wasn’t even really sure how she knew it was lun that was carrying her, if she really thought about it. Maybe there was steam coming off of him, and it was burning her. Or maybe it was something deeper that she’d made up deep in her inner psyche.

The next thing she knew, she was in a bed, tucked under the covers. She assumed it was lun’s because it smelled strongly of his cologne, or whatever it was he smelled like. It was a distinct smell, something she could hardly place. It was senseless to say, but it smelled something like if there was an ocean trapped in the midst of a forest, combined with the way the air smells just before dawn. She didn’t know what kind of memory she was tying him to, but surely it was some odd side effect of whatever he’d given her. Despite her burns, she continued to reach around the bed, looking for him. “lun,” she whispered again, more distantly this time. There was a certain fear and vulnerability woven in that rarely characterized any part of her. However, the fear lingered that the administration was after her. She didn’t particularly trust lun in any way, but, at the moment, he was her best bet at staying alive. She needed to make sure that he was close to her because her life depended on it.

Marble|Hybrid|Iun, Freyja

After he'd called for a medic Marble returned to Freyja and Iun doing his best to help as he put a towel over her head injury when she started shaking he instructed Iun (in a surprisingly authoritative manner) to hold her still to prevent her from injuring herself more in her tremors, his ears flicked when he heard her speaking and watched as she groped the damp bathroom floor he leaned closer to her his brows furrowing

"Iun, no doctors... You... Don't... Understand."

When he finally realized she was trying to find Iun he grabbed her wrist checking her pulse as he lifted it to Iun's cheek a frown plastering his face... She was so weak but...how? Surely it wasn't the bump on her head.

"Iun... My vision..."

Now that he understood that explained why she was searching for him with her hands. After she seemed to relax a little he made an attempt to examine her whilst they waited for help... However it didn't last long he heard the knock at the door only a minute or two later and went to get it... Who he saw at the door made his hair stand on end he flicked his tail anxiously and got out of Edwards way his ears and head lowering as if he were guilty but it was simply his way of showing respect toward Edward unlike Iun he was way more of a pacifist... He didn't care for confrontation or fights he was good at pissing people off but he never fist fought with anyone however he was good at picking his words... Words that'd hurt or make someone angry in a fight. For Iun it was perfect... If he ever got into a fight he couldn't handle Marble could piss them off with his words and distract them.

Marble didn't even look at the note he simply rushed back into the bathroom to help Iun "She's too cold... We gotta warm her back up." He said he and Iun lifting her up and taking her to Iun's bed laying her on it and then under the covers Marble running and getting his own when she spoke however he realized what was happening she'd gotten splashed when Iun tried to catch her from hitting her head "She needs to reignite her flame..." He said thinking for a moment as he sat on the bed with her using his fluffy tail and putting it on her forehead in hopes to keep her warm before he instructed Iun as far as what he needed to do and/or get before he shook his head "Nevermind I'll get it... Just keep her warm and... Do what you do best... Piss her off." He instructed before he left Iun and Freyja alone.

Iun|Water|Freyja, Marble

"Do what you do best... Piss her off."

SLAM

"Gee thanks for the advice...' he muttered. Iun was a little shaken but he looked at Freyja and decided to trust Marbles advice though he didn't exactly understand why of all times right now was the best time to piss her off... "Hey princess..." He said sweeping some hair from her face "I hate to say I told you so... But... I told you so. That wall of fire of yours attracted every bit of attention I thought it would." He said trying to have his usual 'couldn't care less' attitude but there was something softer in his voice this time... He just... Didn't have the heart to torment Freyja... Not like he usually did... Not while she was in this state clinging to him as if she were drowning... He just couldn't bring himself to go on with his usual brand of torture he had in store for his enemy... So he just applied the aloe-like ointment and waited for Marble though he was even more delicate about it this time gently singing to her... Not so she'd fall asleep but in hopes that she'd relax... In a way this felt familiar... He just couldn't place it... Instead of causing her pain or pissing her off he simply wanted to make it stop much like a parent with an injured or sick child. His eyes wandered toward her lips... They'd be cool enough now to where they wouldn't hurt... He thought before he leaned forward pressing his surprisingly warm lips to her damn-near ice cold ones... Part of him hated himself for taking slight advantage... But... He reasoned that this might also piss her off enough for Marble's liking.

The hybrid returned just in time to watch him pull away and admittedly (though he couldn't really be seen in the dark...) He was jealous... "I said piss her off not make her burn the dorm down!" He scolded shaking his head at Iun before he took his supplies to the little kitchen area and started whipping up a medicine for Freyja... It wouldn't taste very well but it would help... That is of course his roomates kiss didn't do all the work... The object was to simply piss her off and hopefully light her spark again... Not burn down the form.

Iun watched his roommate curiously "What are you making anyways?" He asked "Something to help Freyja get her spark back... It's made from hot ash... Coal from the metal shop students dorm... The root and sap from a fire flower..." Marble trailed off after that and returned with a reddish liquid with floating bits of Ash inside he grabbed an eye dropper and got the syringe full of it before he went and checked Freyja's forehead... She might have felt slightly warmer...? But it was cooling down outside she could just still be warmer than it was outside. He offered the vial to Iun and nodded "Only two drops... If she's not warming up within an hour two more..." He instructed as Iun gently brushed his fingers over his lips before taking the vial and opening Freyja's mouth and doing as Marble instructed dropping two drops on the back of her tongue and shutting her mouth putting his hand over it to force her to swallow before taking his hand away and simply watching her.

Woo finally! xDD)

Freyja / Edward | Fire / Misc. | lun, Marble

Even now in lun’s bed, Freyja was fighting an uphill battle just to stay conscious. She felt like she was on a rollercoaster she couldn’t get off of, constantly slipping out of her thoughts and into a sleep-like state and returning back to reality. Everything was warped, as if she was swimming underwater. Her sense of reality was blurry, and her senses were distorted. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was dreaming or not and what was delusion brought on by her current state.

A million times it felt like she tried to explain it to lun, and a million times it felt like her instructions fell on deaf ears. This was how she knew that she was not in reality. lun was many things, especially to her, but inattentive was not one of them. He seemed to remember every word she’d ever spoken, if only to use them against her. Clearly he couldn’t hear her. Suddenly she found herself far from him, placed in the deepest depths of what she imagined was the ocean. Cold water enveloped her, but it didn’t burn her. Her hair stood on end from the cold temperature, and she quickly realized she was running out of oxygen. She couldn’t tell up from down, but she knew she had to move quickly. The feeling of swimming was a foreign concept to her, given the fact that her entire life had known this notion to be an extreme form of suicide for those with her element. Her lungs burned and she swam for what felt like hours until she began to give up. She grew afraid and kept swimming, continuing to lose her breath more and more as confusion hijacked her thoughts. She wanted to call for lun, but she knew she’d lose what was left of her air if she did. She came to the conclusion she’d simply have to surrender.

Soon she became still, frozen in time, and she came to not long after. As she fought to open her eyelids, she found lun studying her face gently. He was closer than she remembered him being, and there was a heaviness about him that made her heart pound. His eyes were big and blue and bright and vulnerable all at the same time as he watched her. There was an unspoken feeling shared between them that she couldn’t explain, especially considering the fact that she had no recollection of what had just happened. Clearly something had, he looked more like a stranger than like the boy she’d hated for the majority of her life.

She heard Marble enter, but only due to the hallway lights that flooded in when the door was opened. She heard him mumble something, but everything was still warped in a way that left her unable to comprehend anything. She was struggling to stay in control of her body and her consciousness, so the concept of trying to add anything to that was just too much. She kept her line of vision perfectly in sync with lun’s face. It was annoyingly symmetrical, and she hated how soft all of his features were. She traced his eyes down to his cheekbones to his lips, blinking fiercely to combat the nausea and the dizziness that hit her as a result of her movement. She was still so cold, nothing was helping the burning sensation that was spreading throughout the tingling in her fingers and toes.

She didn’t know how long after it was that she felt herself being brought back to consciousness again by a gentle touch. It reminded her of something distant, some kind of memory that was embedded somewhere deep inside her. She couldn’t will it to the surface, and especially not in her present state. Even breathing took all of her effort and energy. When she took her mind off it for just a second, her breath hitched and she started to choke. Again, that touch was there, keeping her breathing. She felt a liquid being poured down her throat, and when she forced her eyes open, she saw a figure standing over her. She could tell it was lun based on his stature and the color of his hair, but his actual features were fuzzy now. She choked it down, grimacing at the taste of it but too weak to put up a fight. The idea had crossed her mind that he may have been poisoning her on purpose, but it didn’t fit his typical behavior. Given the pain she was in and the agony radiating from the burning in her limbs and what felt like the freezing of her internal organs, Freyja allowed her eyes to close to escape the pain.

The next time she woke up, she heard a knock at the door and a familiar voice on the other end. Edward. One of the boys left with him, she recalled faintly based on the footsteps and the excerpts she could make out of a short conversation between Marble and lun. When she opened her eyes, she saw lun standing over her, watching her carefully. It seemed as though he thought that if he took his eyes off of her, she would simply disappear into thin air. She was feeling slightly better, enough to force herself to try to put his mind at ease through a painful attempt that seemed to do exactly the opposite if the expression on his face was any indication. “You really are…a dumbass…” she sputtered weakly, the slightest smirk on her face. She forced herself to put it there, but it fell immediately. She fell into another fit of convulsions as she tried to spit the rest of her words out. “If you…paid attention…in class…you’d know the…concoction you gave me…is poison.” Gently, she tried to tug lun’s sheets closer to her frame, her lips blue. She was starting to feel better, though, whatever Marble had given her seemed to be counteracting what lun had given her. “Seems…like…common sense…fire elements…and…anti-fire…ingredients…toxic…” She smiled weakly, sweat dripping off her face. No one seemed to notice that it wasn’t burning or steaming now. “But…not everyone…is smart…as me…”

Meanwhile, outside the corridor, Edward had guided Marble out of earshot of lun and Freyja before stopping time for the two of them. “Don’t fear me,” he mumbled, his dark gaze focused on Marble. “Everyone seems to these days. I’ve just come to cash in my favors, is all. From you, I need a very specific book. You’ll know it when you see it, it will find you. It’s in the secret section of the Administration’s library, the one adjacent to the sleeping quarters of Henriik and his family, all of the big names of this school. As you know, if you get caught, you’ll be dead, surely.” He smirked viciously, “but, no pressure.”

freyja | fire | lun

Though she didn’t remember much of what had happened the night prior, Freyja woke up in the morning well past the time she would normally sleep in until. Feeling faintly fuzzy and not at all herself, the young woman felt herself taking in the sensory details around her to get any kind of picture of what had occurred. Clearly she was somewhere other than her room, but no one was with her. It smelled faintly of aloe and something else, something charred and well within her element. The room was oddly humid, but not in a way that was toxic to her. Sunlight danced on the wooden floor, filtered in by the window between the two beds. It took her much longer than she was proud of to realize she was in someone else’s room.

Getting up fairly quickly, Freyja began to stumble around due to the dizziness that soon set in. Though she no longer possessed any of the symptoms that she’d had the night prior, she felt very fatigued and quickly found that even the most basic of tasks proved to be rather difficult. This caused her to lean against the bed, at which point she soon discovered a note written in lun’s painfully pretty handwriting. She had always envied him, he took notes at a much more careless and reckless speed and they still turned out exponentially more legible and aesthetically pleasing than hers. She’d always chalked it up to the fact that he was a water element, and surely that had something to do with the fact that he could and probably had sold his handwriting for a small sum. She had a piercing headache that made it difficult to see straight enough to study the small, loose lettering, but after a moment or two of nauseating concentration she came to the knowledge that lun was in the bathtub. This answered many of the questions that she had, but replaced them with a million more. Why was she in lun’s room, and why didn’t his note have an insulting or offensive tone to it?

Slowly, some of the events started coming back to her. She remembered being in this room with lun and Marble beside her, and, for some reason, lun was taking care of her. Marble was instructing him, and he continually aided her recovery from something with few complaints. Had she gotten into a battle of magic with him or someone else, or had he done something to her at the party? Had she fallen in water accidentally? Surely not, she’d always been told that if she were to become fully submerged in water she’d instantly perish. Slowly, she started to recall being in the woods with lun, then being with Edward, and something else–something important. The memory was right on the edge of her subconscious, but she couldn’t bring it to mind.

A bit too disoriented to try to recall anything at that moment, let alone a memory that she remembered had distinct emotional gravity, Freyja made her way into the bathroom to find that lun was putting on a shirt and getting some of his things together for class. “What the fuck, lun? What time is it?” She crossed her arms, concern in her eyes regarding the fact that he was prepared to walk out the door and she was still in yesterday’s clothes with no materials for any of her classes and seemingly no time to get them. About to get angry, she lifted her hands off the door and wobbled a bit, at which point he quickly stepped in to steady her. He seemed just as concerned as her, perhaps moreso. The difference was that his was a deep, intimate concern that seemed directed at her, and hers was selfish and directed entirely towards herself. The fact that he hadn’t tried to get a word in or start a petty fight with her and had saved her from collapsing despite it being farther than ever from his general disposition spooked her enough to allow his hands to remain on her arms for only a second. She studied his eyes with confusion, this had to have been a dream. What was stranger, he seemed to get lost in her eyes briefly, and she could have sworn she saw him try to lean in as if he was going to kiss her.

“What the hell, were you just thinking about kissing me?” She pulled her arms away from his with so much force that she ended up crashing backwards into the door. If she hadn’t successfully grabbed the knob, she would’ve crashed all the way backwards into the other room. “What the fuck is wrong with you today? I remember everything.” This was meant to sound threatening, but the lack of veracity in the statement only made it feel like she was threatening herself. Luckily her voice didn’t waver, and, though she was obviously not in peak physical condition, she carried herself with the majority of her usual strength and fire. “And I’m especially going to remember you making me late for the second-most-important exams of the semester when I’m asked where I was last night and what happened to me.”

Subconsciously wiping her mouth with her sleeve even though lun hadn’t even gotten close to actually kissing her, and had barely advanced a centimeter when all hell broke loose, Freyja scoffed and turned on her heel. As she left, she was muttering something about the fact that he needed to go find one of the million other women at the academy willing to kneel at his feet and that he must have confused her with all of the other women who made a habit out of sleeping over here. Without a second thought, she grabbed her coat from the hook and left his dorm, slamming it shut with all of the haste, fury, and emotion that she was feeling from the possibility of being late or missing one of her exams.