Broken - 12

"A-" 

There was a disturbance. Within the narrowed ears that sat broadly against the desk. Ice that cooled the room - for me - with a certain breeze.

"Ai-"

Another, my head leant further against the wood that made the desk I sat against. I tried desperately to ignore that voice of hers. But it was all for naught. As-

"Aia!"

I blinked… let the flutter of my brows, the scrunch of my forehead speak of my annoyance. A raised brow that let my aqua blue eyes gaze deeply upon her own.

Orange met blue. A clash of colors. Languid versus passion. 

"Class ended already… let's go!" 

I felt a hand place itself over my shoulder. Ice coalesced into existence. A… a… I tried to articulate my thoughts… even to myself. But it seemed that even the act of doing so tired me greatly.

"Go without me…" I muttered, the fingers… the hand that grasped tightly against my shoulder. All were frozen within the seconds of contact. Wherein the next moment she let go.

"Tss…" She muttered, her mouth formed into a slight pout as a cold breeze seemed to heal her blue hands. Orange flames that appeared only a moment later.

"Ah- oh alright… I think?" 

She left. Her hands rubbed together to gather any warmth that she could.

"Shouldn't you have left."

There was a moment between unconsciousness and conscious thought. Wherein time slowed in the perception of my eyes. When time flew inordinately fast between now and when I next blinked.

"I should have."

My response was curt, there was no passion. No flare… nothing to distinguish me from the crowds of mages that had already left the room. Who hauled books upon their weary backs. 

I was different. For my back was not worn by the years of hauling books, nor a kink in my neck from long nights spent, book in hand.

"Then why do you continue such behavior."

I couldn't respond to her question. Was it even a question…

A sigh echoed from my laugh, leaving my mouth with the depression of a storm. 

I felt a hand place itself along my back, a finger that trailed my spine down and down until it reached my waist.

"I have no interest in teaching some kid with absolutely no motivation." Her words were filled with derision, for when my upturned eyes met her glance…

I could do nothing but shiver against the force of her will… of that passion of hers.

"No matter the talent…" She stood, trailing one last finger… over my head and down my face. Where she pulled my chin to meet her gaze.

"I had hopes."

…

That was the first time I had seen her… she was not the usual teacher, who cared not for the passion but the results. For she knew that was all she was required of her.

And so the bare minimum was given.

But she - not even my greatest remembrance could reconstruct her name - had set herself amongst the hated. Those who nagged and nagged. Who cared not for the results, but the passion within their eyes.

The creativity brought forth by a new perspective.

It was one day… The weather was terrible. Arid and dry. I cooled myself with a slight chunk of ice. One that I had made to suck the heat from my body.

My eyes were as dead as the day I was born. Not even a smile had passed my lips from the conversation before. For I had felt the taste… that taint of misery, and had decided to drown in it.

Only… only I was not allowed to. As within my routine, there was a certain place I could not stop myself from passing by.

A court made up of dozens of crystals, each glowed brighter than the next. Coalescing into a circle that stopped each and every sharpened glacier.

My eyes were drawn to the intricacy. How she had made such… such a majestic spear out of what had once been mere hardened ice.

And amongst the heat of that day… for the first time within my life… I had felt a spark of some new passion within my body.

Days… weeks… months passed as I watched her. Snippets of power from the walk home. Each grew longer and longer. And occasional glances grew into a passion.

For when I opened the door to that cheap apartment, rented from the meager money I made from a dead end job. Or from various commissions…

The key to the lock turned. And maybe it was a coincidence, a wild one that brought me face to face with the arid heat of the sun. Beads of sweat that fell amongst ice, tore chunks off with the very heat it radiated.

That shimmer within my gaze had grown. The clatter of keys, the rush of my feet upon the ground. Something had broken within my mind.

A curiosity. Such curiosity. I wanted… I wanted… I wanted to know. I needed to know.

I couldn't even wait the minutes it would take to reach her area. That court of crystal. So I began. Shaping the glacier I had sat next to my shoulder.

No longer was it used to cool me from that horrid heat but lengthened. Hardened. Everything that I had observed from her. That form. That circle that seemed to appear just above her head. It made her look like a goddess, creating a halo.

And that… that was what my own looked like.

As the claw of that beast brought me back to reality. Those flashes of life…

"Thank you…" I muttered, not able to form the name that sat loosely against my tongue.

I took my stance, hand taut against the spear I had made. For the glaciers of ice, the orbs of exploding snow… they all had dissipated within the wind. The very particles they had been made up of…

Swallowed by her… by this Sariel.

"Shall… we begin…" There was a vicious smile amongst her face. As she tore her attention from Gabriel. A last touch to his chin. Gentle finger, who tickled and forced him to the side