Work Text:
Marella pulled the hood of her cloak up, moving swiftly but unobtrusively through Atlantis. She scanned the crowded streets for any sign of the Neverseen.
A black cloak flashed at the edge of her vision, and she whirled around. She recognized the pale skin and borderline ostentatious jewelry that matched her memory of Vespera. The Ancient elf strode with a confidence that didn’t match her frail frame, drawing stares and whispers from the other pedestrians.
At the sight of her, Marella’s fire blazed higher inside of her, the flames just begging to be unleashed on the elf who had given Biana her scars, kidnapped and tortured Sophie’s human parents, and created Nightfall. But Marella kept herself in check, promising herself that there’d be plenty of time for rage when Vespera was locked away in Nightfall or wherever the Black Swan’s prison facility was.
She trailed the black-cloaked figure for two city blocks, until an elf with messy blonde hair and sky blue eyes stepped out of the crowd to meet Vespera. Fintan. He’d escaped from his prison a few months prior, and he’d wasted no time returning to his wicked ways with the Neverseen.
She was so focused on Vespera, that she only noticed the fire when people started screaming.
The neon-yellow flames flared up around the two elves, and Marella broke into a sprint, discarding her red cape as she ran. She hurdled obstacles and shoved civilians out of the way as she sprinted full-tilt towards the flickering cylinder of Everblaze mixed with regular flame taking up the center of the square.
Without stopping, she flung herself right through the wall of fire just in time to catch Vespera handing Fintan a marble-sized crystal orb. A cache! Where did she get one?
Marella hurled a ball of fire at Vespera, then grabbed for the cache, sending Vespera’s cloak up in flames. Her hands ignited as she snatched the glass sphere from a shocked Fintan. He responded in kind with his own inferno, the heat of Everblaze meeting her own orange-red flames.
“Put out the Everblaze, Fintan!” she shouted, finding her voice. “I don’t want to have to hurt you, but I will if I have to!”
Her former teacher simply laughed derisively. “As if you could ever get close enough. I am the most powerful Pyrokinetic the Lost Cities have ever seen, and you haven’t even been training for a year.” His blue eyes danced with a mad gleam.
Despite the heat surrounding them, Marella fought back a shiver. Fintan never failed to unnerve her, even when he was cooperating with the Black Swan. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come. It was true that she was relatively untrained, but the Black Swan’s wrinkly leader had said she had the strongest Pyrokinesis he’d ever seen.
Hopefully she could utilize that power now.
She opened her mind to the fire around her, the familiar, normal fire, and pushed past it, wrapping her control around the Everblaze that was rapidly turning everything around it to cinders. She pulled hard on it, and the walls surrounding them vanished, seemingly sucked into the ball of Everblaze she now held aloft in her hand.
Huh. So that’s why it’s called the fire of the sun on earth. Marella felt like she was holding the entire sun in her hand, the energy from it surging through her body. The fire wanted nothing more than to turn the city to ashes, engulf the entire world inside its destructive power. But Marella wouldn’t let it. She focused as hard as she could, and the flames slowly shrunk smaller and smaller, glowing brighter and brighter. Finally, she closed her fist over the Everblaze, extinguishing it.
Fintan looked faintly disappointed, but shook his head, raising a crystal and a bottle of starlight. He glittered away through the light of whichever unmapped star he was using. Marella spun around to see Vespera step into her own path of light and vanish.
Marella let out a breath she didn’t quite realize she’d been holding, and reached out with her mind to the remaining fires. With barely a thought, they shrunk down to nothing.
She was suddenly very aware of the staring elves that had crowded around the battle, if it could be called that.
Whispers and mutters tore through the crowd.
“The Redek girl, a Pyrokinetic-”
“Unstable, like the rest of them-”
“Did the Council know about this?”
Shoot. The Council. Marella didn’t know the exact terms of the contract that allowed her to train in Pyrokinesis, but she was pretty sure that “publicly revealing her power in a showdown with the Neverseen” wasn’t part of it.
With shaking hands, she fumbled for her home crystal, until she remembered she couldn’t light leap in Atlantis. Marella shoved the cache deep into her tunic pocket, kept her head down, and practically ran as far from the site of the confrontation as she could.
She left the city as fast as possible, leaping back home as soon as she could and rushing immediately to her room. She gasped a few deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heartbeat. She felt light-headed. I can’t believe I just revealed my Pyrokinesis to all of Atlantis. Soon all of the Lost Cities will know and then any second now the Council will be knocking on my door and my mom’s going to panic and my dad’s going to have to deal with this, I have to calm down-
Unsurprisingly, the thought didn’t help her calm down at all.
Marella shut herself inside her closet and curled in on herself, trying to steady her breathing and blink back the tears prickling behind her eyelids. She wasn’t sure how long she stayed like that, but she had no intention of coming out.
Footsteps sounded through the hallway and into her room, too light to be her dad and too even to be her mom. Probably one of her friends, then. Marella held her breath as though playing hide and seek, hoping that whoever it was, they would go away soon. She soon realized that her plan wasn’t going to work as the twinge of oxygen deprivation set in.
Marella gave in, and gulped down greedy lungfuls of air. She heard an amused hum from outside of her closet.
“May I come in?” Her girlfriend’s soft voice asked. Marella nodded, then realized Linh couldn’t see her. Her cheeks reddened, and she muttered a quick “yes.”
Linh opened the door, and Marella buried her tearstained face in her arms.
“Hi,” she said, her voice muffled.
“Hi there,” Linh replied. “I heard about your ability reveal, and I brought ripplefluffs. I know they’re your favorite.”
“What did I do to deserve you?” Marella sighed, uncurling her arms and legs and standing up to squeeze the other girl’s hand. Linh smiled warmly, but the look did little to calm Marella’s nerves.
“Love you too,” she said, placing an arm around Marella’s shoulder and steering her to one of the many balconies that overlooked the courtyard.
The two settled into the soft chairs on the balcony and slowly worked their way through the large basket of ripplefluffs.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Linh asked, after about a half-hour spent in silence. Marella hesitated, then shook her head. “Do you want a distraction?” A nod this time. “Okay… Keefe and Sophie came over this morning, before the news went out, and they tried to bake desserts for Tam and Biana. It went about as well as you’d expect.” Marella giggled. “I swear, the kitchen was a disaster by the time I finally had enough and kicked them both out. I ended up having to walk them through the steps to make custard bursts, and only because they insisted on making the food themselves. You know how Keefe and Tam have their date tonight? Well, Biana dragged Tam out shopping to give him a makeover, and Sophie insisted on Keefe bringing baked goods. I think it’s revenge for how much unasked-for advice Tam and Keefe gave Sophie and Biana on their first date.”
Marella laughed. “Honestly, when will those four learn? At this point, it’s become a competition to see which couple can out-wingman the other!” The doorbell rang, and Linh put a hand out to stop Marella getting up.
“Here, I’ll get it.” She returned a few minutes later with a scroll. “It’s a summons for an assembly in… Tribunal Hall.” Marella clutched the armrests of her seat, her hands growing uncomfortably warm.
“They’re holding a Tribunal for me?” she asked, trying not to panic.
“They’re actually just trying to explain everything,” Linh clarified. “They’ll probably explain their reasoning for allowing you to have your ability without being banished, and for keeping it a secret as well.”
“Oh.” Marella relaxed a little bit, though she was still nervous. “When is it?”
Linh shifted a little bit. “In three hours.” Upon seeing Marella’s reaction, she backpedaled. “Don’t worry; I’m sure everything will be fine!”
“You don’t know that,” Marella groaned, hiding her face in her hands again.
“Yes, I do. I know that I won’t let them banish you, even if it means I get banished again,” Linh promised.
Marella looked up at her with an expression that probably looked pathetically smitten. “You really mean that?”
“Of course I do,” Linh answered with a confident grin. “We’re both going to come out of this absolutely fine.” She held Marella close in a hug.
“We’re going to be fine,” Marella echoed, but it felt like less of a promise to Linh than a promise to herself.
“Absolutely right. Now, let’s go get ready.”
---
Marella fidgeted with her ruby-red dress in the front row of Tribunal Hall. The seats behind her were packed with elves. It seemed like the entire population of the Lost Cities had come to watch, but maybe that was just her nerves.
Sophie sent her a reassuring smile from where she sat, looking elegant in a dark red tunic with black leggings and black blazer, arm in arm with Biana.
She tried to smile back, but it probably looked more like a grimace. Linh nudged her arm.
“We’re going to be fine,” she whispered. Marella nodded, entirely unconvinced, but Linh being there calmed her more than a thousand comforting words ever could.
The buzz of chatter in the room gradually died down as the Council took their seats, flanked by a dozen goblin bodyguards.
“We are here today to discuss the ability of Marella Adene Redek,” Emery stated. “To clarify for anyone who the news has not reached yet, Miss Redek recently manifested as a Pyrokinetic, an ability that, as I’m sure you all know, is banned due to several tragic incidents involving the notoriously volatile and unstable ability. We did not exile her, and allowed her to train in the power at the urging of the Black Swan and Sophie Foster.” That was news to Marella. She supposed it made sense that Sophie would stand up for Marella’s right to train in her ability, but she was still surprised that Sophie had found the time to do it, between all the assignments and missions and cryptic notes from the Black Swan.
“We kept this secret from the public because we wanted Miss Redek and her family to have privacy, and for the sake of her mother. I assume you all know about Caprise Redek’s injury.” The crowd murmured assent.
“However, in an incident earlier today that involved several members of the Neverseen, Marella was forced to reveal her Pyrokinesis to Atlantis. I am sure that many of you have opinions about this.”
Alden Vacker stood up. “I would like to make it known that I do not approve of allowing an unstable girl with an unstable ability to train in said ability. The rules banning Pyrokinesis were made for a reason, correct?”
“The rules banning Pyrokinesis were made and signed into effect during a more desperate time, with tragedies involving Pyrokinetics happening left and right,” Councillor Bronte called out.
“That does not change the fact that Marella has been left unchecked with this ability solely because a group of rebels wanted her to be,” Alden argued. Biana glared at him from across the room. If looks could kill…
“Marella is one of the most brilliant, kind, and powerful elves in the Lost Cities,” Linh said abruptly. “There is no reason to judge her based on her ability and not her compassion and bravery. Ask anyone in Atlantis, they all saw her running straight into that fire to stop Fintan today, without a thought for her own safety.”
“Yeah,” Biana stood up. “There’s no reason to worry, Dad.”
“Thank you, Miss Linh and Lady Biana,” Councillor Emery nodded.
“Miss Redek has not had any Pyrokinesis-related incidents since she manifested. We have been observing her closely, and she is neither unstable nor unreliable,” Bronte said firmly, cementing the decision.
Marella released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, and Linh squeezed her hand reassuringly. They weren’t out of the woods yet, though. The gathered elves were murmuring disapprovingly, and she heard someone call out.
“Maybe she hasn’t yet! But who knows what will happen?” Marella craned her neck to look for the speaker, but she couldn’t pick them out of the crowd.
“We will not be changing our decision on allowing Marella to train in her ability,” Councillor Oralie spoke up. “This is final. Remember, we did not call you here for you to question our choices, but to give you the facts.”
“And the facts have been given,” Emery said. “You are all dismissed. Do not harass Miss Redek because of her ability, and continue to treat her the same as you did before you knew she manifested.”
Linh stood up, Marella trailing behind her, and they filed out of the building surrounded by their friends, and the rest of the crowd.
“I can’t believe they defended me,” Marella said excitedly. “I mean, I was pretty sure, but you never know.”
“I’m not surprised.” Sophie smiled. “The Council can make good decisions from time to time, you know.”
“By the way, thank you for what you said back there,” Marella addressed both Linh and Biana.
“Oh, it’s no trouble. I’ve been wanting to say that to my dad for ages!” Biana grinned.
Linh said nothing, but pulled Marella into a hug. “Of course, love.” Biana and Sophie leaped away, and suddenly it was just the two of them.
“Let’s go back,” Marella said suddenly. “We can steal some of those cupcakes Keefe was making.”
“I think that after today, no one is going to deny either of us cupcakes,” Linh laughed.
She held a crystal to the last rays of the sunset, and the two of them stepped into the light.