Chapter 7

Signe watched Caine closely as he focused his magic into a beam of pure darkness and chaos. It had taken some time, but eventually he learned how to focus his magic into one big beam, and not a million small ones. He fired off a second one, pierced a tree into two pieces.

 "I can't believe it's only been two weeks," Caine said. Signe smiled. "You've come far. How does it feel?"

 "It feels good. It's like I found a piece of myself that was missing. Even though…" His voice faded. Signe waited for him to continue. "Even though it still feels chaotic and uncontrolled."

 Signe nodded. "It makes sense. It's chaos magic. It's supposed to be chaotic." Caine sighed. "So you're saying I will never be able to fully control it?" Signe shook her head. "I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying that it will take time. More time than two weeks. And maybe I'm not even the right person to teach you. Maybe…"

 She decided to end the thought before the thought process was done. She didn't want to give him false hope of some savior coming for his rescue. Caine took a step closer to her. "It's fine," he said. "Really. I'm very happy with how far we've come. This is more than I could ever imagine."

 Signe smiled and reached for his hand. He froze, but let her take it, and for a second, she could feel the warmth from it. But she could also feel the shaking feeling of chaos underneath his skin. As if something wanted to break free, some demon that constantly fought him. It felt like he could lose control at any time, that if he didn't pay attention, the demon would take over and consume him.

 Caine let her hand go and walked away, making some distance between them. Signe could feel it – he still didn't fully trust her. She wondered what made him so cautious, what fueled his lack of trust in people. She wondered if his sister was the same. He never talked about her, and whenever they met, it was here in the mountainside.

 The smell of burnt wood filled the air. They had been careful, chosen the deeper part of the forest, hiding away from the city. Even though Rosea knew what she was doing, she didn't want any unwanted attention to them. If she was to gain Caine's trust, she had to be careful. She couldn't have the Council sneaking around in the mountain, prying on them.

 "It's getting late," Signe said. We should start to head home."

 "Just one more time," he said, channeling his powers and firing off another chaos bolt. Signe smiled at him. At least she couldn't complain about his motivation and enthusiasm. And she had to admit, she enjoyed his company. Even though he didn't really say much outside of asking her questions about his powers. If she asked him anything about his family or his sister, he went silent. But even though their relationship was strictly professional, she didn't mind. He was a good student, eager to learn and a good listener. Sadly, this was the limit to what she could teach him. She wasn't Tor who had over twenty years of experience, she didn't really know anything about chaos magic, and the little information she had was nothing compared to his knowledge.

 "I'm ready to go," he said. "I actually feel tired." Signe laughed. "You've been going at it for hours, of course you're tired." Caine looked at her, his green eyes shining in the sunlight. "What about you? What's your powers?"

 The sudden interest in her powers, surprised her. It was the first time since they met that he seemed genuinely curious about something else than his own powers. Signe closed her eyes. She started to draw energy from the trees around them, then she focused all the energy into him. Caine laughed. "Wow, I feel so… Light. So powerful. Is this what you can do?"

 "Among other things," she said. "It's called Energetic magic. You know how energy is all around us, in everything?" Caine nodded. "I can take that energy and move it somewhere else. I can draw it from my surroundings and focus it into myself for example. Or into you. Or I can borrow your energy, drain it, and in that way empower not only myself but other things, or objects."

 Caine looked confused for a second so Signe continued: "Let's say I want to keep someone prisoner, right? I can put a spell on their chain, so it drains a person's energy. It won't kill them, but it will make it nearly impossible for them to break the chain themselves. Or I can put an energy field around you so you can't move."

 "That's cool," he said. "I wish I could do something like that." Signe chuckled. "Yeah, it is kind of cool." Caine turned around and started to walk down the mountainside towards the city. She stared at his back as they walked in silence back to the city, wondering what had led his curiosity to shine through. Wondering if this was the start of 'trust' or if he was just playing a game with her. Maybe this wasn't only about getting him to trust her, maybe he was doing the same. Maybe this was all a trap. Maybe…

 "Are you coming?" Caine's voice interrupted her train of thoughts and brought her back to reality. She hadn't noticed she had stopped walking, and with a smile she walked down to him. "Let's go," she said and led the way down. And even though she tried to shake away the negative thoughts and uneasy feelings, something inside her just couldn't let go of the thought of Caine playing a game of his own.