11 9 | Frozen Apple

It was an unpleasant morning for Zaff. The ice wielder just couldn't wrap her head around the revelation that Shei—Sien—was friends with her abductors. When she learned about this, the thought of how lucky she was to meet Shei vanished. She took it back. The girl had only given her misfortune—wait. Zaff frowned. It would be wrong to blame her. Being caught up in the messy incident with the accusing guards and being reunited with the group might have taken place after meeting her but the series of more unfortunate events before that surely had nothing to do with the shade wielder.

Perhaps it was Zaff herself whom misfortune was attracted to, too attracted it had followed her wherever she went. If that was the case, she hoped it would find someone else to woo because she was not and would never be interested. Nonetheless, there was something she was certain of.

'The outside world really won't give me peace.'

She unknowingly stepped into the trap that was unintentionally created and because of this, she had to be with people that might cause her death. Yes, she was still thinking that these very people would kill her even though they reiterated they wouldn't. They somehow needed her, they said, but Zaff was still doubtful.

"Zaff, are you alright? What's taking you so long?" Sien's voice echoed from outside the bathroom where Zaff was in.

'My thoughts.'

Zaff wanted to reply.

She laved her face with the coursing water from the glossy silver faucet and wiped her skin with a clean towel afterwards. Last night, she slept in Sien's room since the one she first occupied was given to the ladies. The young men, on the other hand, took the available room downstairs. So Zaff had to sleep on the floor. She had no problem with that, she had endured all the back pains from the poking roof shingles for the past nights. Being on the floor was better.

"Zaff?" Sien called out again.

Knowing the girl would not cease from calling until she spoke, she opened the bathroom door and the face of the shade wielder appeared in front of her, looking shocked and nervous. Her enclosed fist was raised and by the looks of it, she was just about to knock but Zaff had beaten her to it. Zaff guessed her sudden swing of the door had startled her but she didn't care. She had no plans on being gentle.

Sien lowered her hand and gave her a reluctant smile. "How was your sleep last night? It must have been uncomfortable. I'm sorry I couldn't lend you a bed or mattress—err...you know the situation."

Zaff just nodded as she stared at her with her usual cold expression before walking past the girl and sitting on a chair at one side of the room heavily decorated with hanging unlit metallic gray candles, smoky silver curtains, and blooming colors of lavender.

She had already believed that Sien could be a potential friend, and it still hadn't left her mind. Yet the frustration from last night drove her to act distant at the lady.

"So uhm...everything's settled between you guys already, right?"

Zaff sighed.

"Yeah." She took her boots and slipped her feet into them, slightly stomping them to the ground before standing up.

Sien sighed, inwardly relieved the lady had responded.

"That's good. If you're hungry, just proceed to the dining room. The food's already served for all of you," Sien said before closing the bathroom door behind her with a soft click. Zaff frowned.

"I'm not eating with those people." Zaff shoved her hands to her pants' pockets and trod out of the room with Xeryn.

She silently made her way to the tower, to the only place where she could savor a moment of solitude and peace. With a strong grip on the metal handles, she hauled up the arched windows and looked outside.

There were now townspeople strolling down the streets and a few hooves trotting in every direction with carriages trailing behind at the horses' pull. Xeros had mentioned the animal before and she kept the name in mind ever since. Thanks to Dracia's talkative dealers who kept mentioning it when she passed by the stables, she had learned what it was.

Zaff freely sat on the windowsill with her legs dangling outside. She felt Xeryn brought its rear limbs up to the ledge and stuck its tongue out while the clammy wind blew to their faces.

After their talk last night, she finally gave up and agreed to come with them. She decided to go with the flow and quit running and hiding, it would be pointless anyway. A part of her had somehow believed she was fated to meet them, that it was already predicted for them to rattle her world, or maybe that was just her mind's way of comforting her. Besides, she couldn't deny her interest in knowing what the kingdom and academy they were talking about looked like. She wanted to learn new things. She didn't want to stay ignorant. And she knew following them would give her what she wanted.

"So you're still here, I guess you really gave up."

A deep voice came from behind her and she envisioned a poker-faced man slowly making its way to her, carrying his neutral aura in a prim fashion like he usually did. Zaff ignored the person and didn't even turn around to look since she already knew who it was just by the way it spoke.

"You should go and eat."

'Is this his way of convincing me he's a good person?'

Through Zaff's peripheral vision, she saw Xeros stood near the other side of the window opposite to where she was sitting.

"Are you even listening? You don't want to have a hole in your gut, do you?"

She kept the silence. Yes, she was hungry and she knew she should maintain her stomach's needs but she preferred to do so when everyone was finished. She deemed it to be more appropriate for all of them.

"Tss."

She heard him hissed, obviously irritated at her for acting deaf. Leaning away from the wall, he started making his way to the door. The last thing Zaff heard from him was the thud of the door.

An unamused smirk appeared in her lips.

'Hmm, or is he suggesting he's a snake?'

Shrugging, Zaff reverted her attention to the view of the uniform houses, lush trees, faraway mountains, and the sun watching the people scattered all over the city, completely forgetting about the guy who just went in.

She remembered the times she wondered what the world outside the forest looked like. She had only assumed and imagined. No one had really told her what it was like except for descriptions in a few books she had read which were all too fictional to trust.

Scattered skeletons and bones, barren land inhabited by monsters with horns, numerous furry heads, vicious teeth, reptile-like eyes, and all the frightening things one could ever imagine. She thought those were what occupied the world and killed all the people— leading her to believe that she and her family were the only survivors. But she was proved wrong. Monsters surely existed but people were living everywhere. People who were just like her were enjoying their lives doing their duties in structured places Zaff had only seen for the first time.

Zaff felt like a stranger to the world she was living in, as if she was a newborn worm that had just crawled out of land. There were a whole lot of things she didn't know about; things her parents had kept from her. She didn't have to ask why they did it, she already knew. Just like what they said, it was to keep her from danger.

"Awoo..."

The wolf's soft howl interrupted her thoughts and her gaze automatically settled to the furry creature. Xeryn tilted its head at her, its eyes staring straight at her mist blue ones, pleading and questioning.

Zaff sighed. She had spent a couple of months with Xeryn to know every single move of it but even a stranger could detect the look in its eyes. Hunger.

"Wait for me here, I'll go get food."

Zaff lifted her legs and brought them back to the room's stoned floor. "I guess I got to endure a few seconds being around the presence of the bears—and snake."

Smirking at her own joke, she stood up and left the tower.

Upon entering the dining room, the loud voices of merry eating people muted and all heads darted toward her. She ignored them and looked for the food storage.

"So you finally decided to show yourself up and eat with us huh? Pfft, lowly being." Adie broke the silence and grinned smugly at the girl who just came. But Zaff just walked past her as if she wasn't there, not wanting the lady to ruin her day.

To Adie, her silence was a hundred insults combined. A slap to the face. Her brows curled and heat rose to her cheeks.

'How dare she ignore me!?' Adie thought as she glared.

"Miss Rai—Zaff—please don't mind her, she's just hungry." She heard Naeriah chuckled.

'Doesn't seem like it.'

Zaff took two apples from the storage and didn't even bother a glance as she passed their table. She couldn't converse with them at the moment. She wouldn't even have come down if it wasn't for her wolf.

"You're not gonna eat with us?" Elaine asked when she didn't join them.

Zaff sighed, tired with their questions, and shook her head as she went to the sink and washed the scarlet fruits.

"Eating apples alone won't satisfy your stomach. Get some of the food we've cooked here," Naeriah stated, already preparing a plate for her but Zaff turned down the offer.

"No thanks,'' she said and headed for the door. But before she could leave Adie slammed her fist on the wooden table, the impact shaking the plates and glasses on top with a loud clatter. Her friends looked at her with shock. Why the sudden outburst?

"You lowly being! Get back here and stop acting like a snobby b*tch!"

(Sorry for the word. I just have to use it.) Adie yelled tauntingly.

Zaff stopped in her tracks. Her jaw clenched fiercely as a memory projected in her mind.

That word.

She might be clueless about many things but she would never forget that word her mother loathed. The word where she first saw her mother's navy blue eyes blaze. Even before, she knew, it was not a word she should let herself be called.

A spark of rage combusted her chest and its beating flames whispered its vengeful plan. She was not in the mood for any of this but she needed to teach that woman a lesson she would never forget. Furtively taking a small vial from her satchel, she poured its gray contents into her palm, watching the globules merge into a single circle before she put the container back in the bag.

'The grayness of this will soon be tainted with red. A wonderful scene I'd like to witness.'

She turned around and headed back to the table with heavy footsteps, her aura getting darker and darker with each step she took.

Adelaide's smirk vanished as the ice wielder's piercing gaze froze on her, sending a shiver crawling to her spine. She did not actually expect her to return. The rest of the people halted from eating as they felt the temperature dropped.

The chilling aura she gave off.

It was just the same when they had first met her in the forest. They gave each other a knowing look. They could sense it.

Adie had crossed the line this time.

Zaff held the apple behind her as hard as she could but prevented herself from destroying its form. She needed it whole.

"Zaff calm yourself down. Do you want more apples?" Leon tried to divert her attention and eased the building tension but Zaff only turned a deaf ear.

"What did you call me?" she said with pressure in every word, attention solely focused on the water elementalist.

Adie did not let her threatening gaze scare her. Villan called her name in a whisper and shook his head as if to say 'don't do it.' but Adie was as stubborn as a spoiled 6-year-old kid who would not pay heed to every warning signs blaring at her.

"I said, you're a snobby b*tch. You really are deaf, aren't you?"

And Zaff's last string of patience broke.

"Naeriah!" Leon screamed.

But before the light wielder could make a move to restrain Zaff, a frozen apple was launched. Angry spikes jutted out in every area, its ice a glowing hue of crimson, mirroring the stirring emotion of the ice wielder. They watched the cold steam trailed in the air as the fruit plummeted straight to Adelaide's porcelain face and hit her with tremendous force.

They heard something broke. Like a nasal bone.

"Adelaide!" Leon yelled and quickly rushed to his friend's side.

The impact was too strong Adie was knocked out of her chair, her arms flailing as her figure fell back and collided with the floor. Adie was wide-eyed, surprised at what just happened to her.

Chairs screeched as feet rushed and came to help her up while Zaff just stared at them coldly.

"Adie! Oh my Gorrow!" Elaine panicked.

"Tsk! this is bad." Leon hissed as they checked her face where the spikes pierced through.

All happened too quickly, Adie was stupefied she couldn't react. She felt numb as layers of thin frost spread all throughout her face, stemming from the spikes that drilled onto her face mercilessly. The voices of her friends surrounded her but the crisps of ice drowned them. Adie felt her body being raised but her attention was all focused on the apple blocking her field of vision. She just laid there, unmoving, not even blinking. Was she already frozen? Why did she feel like the world just stopped?

Something warm touched her cheeks, trickling down to her chin that knocked her out of her state. Her trembling hand raised and touched it. Even without seeing it, she knew what it was. Her eyes bulged.

Zaff secretly smirked. Mixing colors. She didn't miss the opportunity.

"B-Blood," Adie muttered as she brought her hand up once more to touch the frozen apple that was stuck at the upper part of her nose just below her forehead. She panicked when she realized she couldn't smell and breathe from her nose. Her earlier immobile state was replaced by trembling. The girl looked as if she was freezing.

"Adie, we'll remove it. Calm down, okay?" Elaine told her reassuringly as they waited for Naeriah since she's still holding the barrier to keep Zaff from attacking once more. Zaff just stood there, making no effort to escape it. She had no intention on launching another attack. It would be a waste to use her last apple for that purpose and besides, she had already reserved that for Xeryn. What she did was enough.

She turned to Naeriah.

"Free me. I'm going upstairs."

Naeriah was reluctant but after seeing she was sincere about not inflicting any more damage, let the barrier disappear. The light wielder also thought it would be a good thing to keep them away from each other for now. Both needed to let off their steam. Not only that, but she was also worried Zaff might be triggered again and attack her friend. She didn't want that. She wanted Adie safe.

"Leave now Miss Rai—Zaff. Don't do more harm."

The ice wielder didn't need to be told twice. After the orange light disappeared, Zaff strode away and reached for the door handle, ready to leave. But she stopped and cast one last dark glance at the trembling lady.

"Shove my words into your empty skull, woman. If you don't want to be damned, never dare to call me with that word ever again."

And she left, banging the door shut behind her, too strong the door staggered in its place.

The group stared at the door where she just left, not knowing how to react. Even with her gone, the coldness still lingered around the kitchen. They could feel anger—Zaff's anger fused with it, suffocating and numbing.

Xeros shook his head and sighed as he bent to touch the apple with his finger. He had nothing to say about what had happened. All he knew was that it wasn't a nice event to start their day. Upon contact, the stuck object melted at once.

The group gasped as soon as it was gone from the girl's face. Adelaide should not see a mirror right now, she would faint. They couldn't believe Zaff's attack had caused such an ugly effect. Adelaide's nose bridge was crooked by a few centimeters and each side of the bridge appeared a swelling puncture, crying blood to paint her now bluish face.

"D-D-Damn! I-It h-hurts," Adie stuttered, closing her eyes as she spoke.

"I'll take care of it, but it'll take time since I think she included poison in the ice," Naeriah announced which made them all turn to her. Adie who couldn't speak anymore just widened her eyes in fright.

Phorax sighed, only slightly concerned of his friend. His mind was focused on a different matter. 'Aish, I was just trying to have a nice hearty breakfast and they just ruined it!'

Leon, in contrast, was the most affected of them all.

"Poison? How?!" he exclaimed, angry at what the girl had done then remembered it wasn't entirely the lady's fault. He gritted his teeth and pinched the bridge of his nose to calm himself.

Naeriah nodded sadly.

"There were small gray bubbles in her blood, it's strength is higher than the average kind but I'm sure I can take it out."

"Her recovery will last for days because of that liquid so she really needs proper rest," she informed while hovering her hand above Adelaide's head. "Which means, she has to stay unconscious until she has fully recovered."

Orbs of orange light came out of her palms and wobbled in the air before bouncing on the girl's skin and eventually expanding like sheets to envelop her body like a blanket. Adie could feel her lids growing heavy and she did not fight it. A few passing seconds, the girl was already snoring. Leon had volunteered to take Adie to her room and as soon as he left, the rest settled back on their seats to resume their interrupted breakfast.

But Naeriah stayed perched on the floor, watching as the bubbling pool of gray blended with red.

'I wonder where she got that.'

***

Zaff went back to the tower and found Xeryn still waiting for her at the same spot. She gently rolled the apple to its direction and the wolf gladly accepted it. At the exact moment, Zaff heard her stomach growl. A frown made its way to her chapped lips.

"Looks like I won't be eating today."

She sighed and sat back on the windowsill. The group must be furious at her by now, for hurting their friend, and for ruining their meal. Yet she did not regret that. Their anger wasn't really her concern but the apple. The apple she had thrown.

"You sure didn't control your temper back there," the familiar voice of a guy said. Zaff's face crumpled as she heard his feet's light taps on the cobbled floor.

"Quite weird for someone who wields ice, don't you think?" He chuckled in an unamused way. She remained silent.

'Why is this guy talking to me? Has he decided to torture me for attacking his friend?'

The taps stopped and she found Xeros leaning on the sturdy midnight blue bricked wall with his arms crossed as he looked at her, a hint of irritation in his gaze.

"You're not deaf, are you? Or is Adie right about that?"

That earned him a glare but it was not as intense as earlier.

"Shut up."

Xeros' eye twitched at her response.

"Tell, where did you get that poison?" He asked, deciding to cut to the chase. It was his purpose for going all the way up the tower and talk to her anyway. He was curious about it and he needed to deliver the information to Naeriah.

"Shouldn't you be there with that friend of yours instead of talking nonsense with me?" She glanced at him. Turned out, his eyes were directed in the room but at nothing at the same time. His expression was unchanging, just serious. Xeros shrugged.

"The others are already taking care of her. There's nothing left for me to do," he said and looked at Zaff whose eyes were now focused outside the window.

"Now, answer my question."

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious," he answered. Zaff heaved a breath and contemplated.

"Ociae. (This plant is created by the author's crazy mind and is indeed fictional)," she answered plainly.

"I see," he replied and started to walk away. He paused when he remembered something, then went downstairs.

To Zaff's surprise, he came back after a few minutes.

"Why have you come? To bother me again?" Zaff started.

"If you consider delivering food as similar to bothering someone, then should I just throw these away?"

Zaff didn't respond, confused at his statement. A gentle clank beside her turned her head and she understood what Xeros meant. A silver rectangular tray she had seen in Sien's kitchen was flunked on the window sill. Thick honey flowed on top of two loaves of buttered bread, looking golden against the sunlight. She sniffed, for some reason the scent had reminded her of summer. Glancing beside the bread she saw a cup of tea, two tiny yellow flowers floating on it.

"I might not like what you did to Adie but she asked for it and you still have to eat," he stated. Zaff darted her eyes toward him, calculating if there was a hidden evil motive behind this act of 'kindness'. This guy had offered him food twice already from what she recalled. But it didn't even budge her to take and give a crumb of her trust. After all, she knew this wasn't because he was concerned. He was only doing it to keep her from being a hassle in case she collapsed in hunger.

"Thanks," she muttered and took one bread and ate, it was delicious. She felt her stomach wanting more so she took another larger bite.

"You're welcome," he stated and without saying goodbye, started to leave.

Zaff wanted to ask him something so she swallowed the bread first before opening her mouth to speak.

"Wait."

Xeros halted but did not bother to look. She continued.

"Why di—"

BOOM!

Their heads automatically went to the direction of the sound, leaving her question hanged without notice. Though, it didn't matter anymore. More blows followed that alerted them. Xeros looked outside and Zaff did the same. Their eyes widened when they saw thick billowing smoke from afar as black as the night sky, creeping up into the clouds as if attempting to reverse the flow of time and erase day.

"This is bad..." Xeros muttered under his breath.

"Hurry up Zaff, we're leaving," he stated and left the room in a flash.