The right kind of magic

[Ren Caverly]

The timid and anxious little Lamia Scale member was walking around Oak Town when she heard someone lamenting the burning of their house. That was a horrible thing. She looked a little sad for them, and apparently that was enough to draw their attention to her. The startled shadow mage listened awkwardly to the story. Apparently some fires had been started in the area. The Magic Council intended to look into it, but they were busy with other things, and another house had been burned down since then. He seemed very distressed and Ren awkwardly said she would go see about that. He didn’t know she was a magic user, but it got her out of the conversation without much trouble.

Well, it seemed that way at first. She was slowly inching herself away when the man came back. He said maybe the reason the council hadn’t stopped them yet was because they were fire magic users. And magic users were hard to handle. And fire was a very volatile magic. Ren nodded awkwardly. Volatile, maybe. It was still the most beautiful magic she’d seen. Your magic is just fine… you know… she thought, reminding herself of that. Either way, now she actually did have to head to the council.

210/500

[Ren Caverly]

Ren made it to the council without any trouble. She really didn’t want to be here. The last time she had been to town she met a strange girl. Not a bad person, but someone who had intimidated Ren quite fiercely. Ren knew it wasn’t the girl’s fault, but people that outgoing and that involved were really scary for the small blond. The council itself intimidated her. They were this big and scary organization. She didn’t like them for what they did to the guildless wizards, but other than the specific jerks who had been hunting down that girl, she didn’t hate any of them. She was sure they weren’t all that bad. They couldn’t be. Those people were really bad. Ren wasn’t an extremely judgmental person, so she let herself be mostly neutral now, just intimidated.

Speaking of intimidating. Mr. Wellington. Red scrutinizing eyes found Ren’s brown ones, and not a moment later her eyes were on the floor. She didn’t mean to. She just couldn’t stand up to that much scrutiny. He was a very busy man, clearly, and Ren just wanted to help. She forced her eyes up to his. “I know you’re busy. I can… I can handle the fire wizards. If you let me…”

419/500

[Ren Caverly]

Mr. Wellington agreed that Ren could look into it. She was pleased. She headed out and started walking around the town. It was getting dark, and that always made her feel weird. She was a night person at least, so that probably wasn’t a bad thing. The sun set, and she found herself walking around at night. Maybe she wasn’t as good at this as she had hoped? Well, she hadn’t heard of any fires, so maybe they just weren’t out tonight? Or maybe they gave up on being awful. She would like that one.

That thought didn’t last long, as she spotted a group of three men. They had fire magic and were walking toward a big building. She knew if they lit it on fire the fire would spread quickly. People might be in that building, and either way, it was bad to burn things down. Magic wasn’t supposed to be used that way. Neither was fire. Ren looked around quickly. Well… no one was here to help, so she ran forward.

“Hey, s-stop that,” she said quickly, “You’ll damage stuff.”

“Go home girl. Quick, light it up,” one of them said. He looked at the building, and one of the other two stepped toward it to start the deed.

“Hey! No,” Ren said again. They didn’t listen, so she did what she felt she had to, she summoned her shadow whip and slapped the man on the arm with it. Clearly this spell was powerful, and he yelped out in pain, his fire going out.

677/500

[Ren Caverly]

“A dark magic user? Why wo-”

“Its not a dark magic!” Ren snapped. Of all the people to be talking to her about that. Of all the people. A fire magic user, calling her shadow magic dark? It was a shadow, sure it was dark, but oh, she would not have this man talking down to her like he was so entitled. Just because his magic was beautiful… well he used it wrong. She hadn’t felt this angry in… she didn’t know. She just didn’t. Anger was not a feeling Ren often felt. Well right now she was angry, and she was powerful, and if they thought they could take her, even three on one, she quickly doubted their chances.

They didn’t understand how poor their chances were. One created a ring of fire, Ren jumped backward. No visible awkwardness in her movements. She dodged a fire ball or three as they kept coming, before tossing her smoke grenade in the mix. She ran forward, whipping one of the men’s feet from under him. He landed on his back, and she slashed at another. It was her only offense. She neared one and he took a swing at her, her arm coated in a shadow gauntlet, blasting him backwards. She couldn’t physically hit anyone, it just wouldn’t help, but she did subdue them with her whip. They were blind, and as soon as someone from the council showed up, she directed them to the still blind men, and made her way out. She had calmed down from her anger, and now she just felt shaken and drained.

944/500

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