I'd forgotten about Vivian Hearth. Or, more accurately I hadn't factored her into how I was dressed. The snow crunched under my feet slowly. I was on time, but I was dreading it all the same.

The snow was nice. It was colder than home, but it was still nice to see such a familiar sight in this place. I wouldn't call this school a second home, not yet. But…it had grown on me. Just enough that I didn't want anything to change.

But change was unavoidable, wasn't it? Nothing I could do now.

Vivian was gathering sticks and twigs. Small pieces of wood that floated and glowed her very familiar purple. She conducted the random pieces to form a picture perfect pile of wood for a campfire.

I hoped she didn't expect me to light that on fire with magic alone. I was not ready for that yet.

"Hello," I greeted.

She looked up from what she was doing, and she paused. The sticks stopped moving as she just stood there looking at me. The look on her face reminded me of Mom when she was confused. I wasn't going to say anything before she did.

"Did you have other plans today?" She asked after a few moments.

"No. Just…felt like it." That was a lie, but I didn't know how to begin to explain this. My left wrist itched. Stupid nerves. Stupid curse.

"Hmm. Your friends didn't make you do this?" I hated how neutral her voice sounded. It was too measured and clearly hiding something.

"No. They…they aren't like that. I…I wanted to. And they can't make me do something if I really don't want to." I had no idea if that was convincing, but it was mostly the truth. Truth in spirit.

Face that refuses to emote, be useful!

"If you say so."

I couldn't tell if she actually believed me, but at least she was dropping it.

"So what's the plan for today?"

"Regardless of what your future holds, fire spells are too useful for you to not be able to use basic ones."

What?

"What are you talking about? What future?" It was too early for me to be thinking of the future.

"I know you and Jarec have talked about what will become of the Hearth coven."

"Not like…seriously. That's…beyond me, I think." I didn't know what to do with my panic. The itching became more insistent. But I hadn't thought Jarec was that serious!

"One of you will have to take it eventually."

"Jarec grew up with you guys. With the coven and knows way more about…" About this world. About her world. "Knows what he's doing more than I ever will." I barely knew what I was doing now! And that was way less responsibility!

Vivian was frowning, "You sound like you want nothing to do with it."

"It's not… I don't…" How was I supposed to say this? "I don't think I'm the right person for leading an ancient and respected coven."

Vivian Hearth chuckled but it was humorless. "I know you're not your mother. But sometimes you sound exactly like her. She said nearly the exact same thing once."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

That didn't really make me feel better. Not when it felt like she was proud of it. I wasn't sure if she really understood that I wasn't a Lucinda 2.0. But if she hadn't figured it out by now, maybe it was a lost cause.

But I'd kept trying in worse situations, hadn't I?

Case in point, the pile of wood in the center of this snow covered clearing.

"So, what's the plan for today, exactly?"

"You need better aim."

She wasn't wrong. If my display at the Creature Cage was anything, it showed that I had zero business throwing spells around.

"How am I supposed to practice aiming spells when I can't cast?"

It also didn't help that I'd been under tectonic levels of pressure and would be for any attempts at using magic for the foreseeable future. She had to know that, didn't she?

I breathed in and out very slowly once.

This wasn't going to work. I could already feel it.

I glared at the wood. I remembered an incident when I was young where Mom had once glared at a wet would-have-been campfire and it set itself ablaze. Maybe I could do the same if I was annoyed enough.

It didn't work.

I didn't really expect it to.

"Focus less on what you want to happen and more on how it happens," Vivian interrupted my attempts at beginners pyromancy.

What did I know of fire? I knew you needed fuel, oxygen, and heat. But did that even apply here? To magic? Magic was just energy, wasn't it? Spells were about how I applied that energy to this situation.

Ignoring the curse, how even would I do that normally?

Then again, I was bad at normal. If I could do normal none of us would be here.

I closed my eyes and thought back to cartoons about molecules. About atoms rubbing together faster than humans could perceive. About Dad showing me sparks flying off flint and crucibles.

There was a flash of deep green behind my eyes. A piercing pain shot through my skull. It was like I'd been stabbed and struck by lightning at the same time. It was agonizing and lingered and something smelled like metal.

"Serafina!" Vivian's voice sounded distant.

My legs couldn't hold me up anymore, I fell into the snow knees first.

"Talk to me," Vivian persisted.

It was all I could to focus on breathing. In and out. In. And out. The pain began to recede and I could open my eyes. When had I closed them?

Vivian was in front of me, kneeling in the snow and looking very lost. Her hands hovering in the air like she forgot what to do with them.

Mom looked like that sometimes when I was sick.

I slowly removed my hands from my head, I felt dizzy. Dizzy and very cold. I shivered once and wiped at the wetness I could feel on my face.

Green. The curse's dark green. And it was coming out of my nose. I could see droplets of it in the white snow.

My throat hurt, but I could speak. "I think…I'm done for today."

"Do you want to go to the healers?"

"What good would that do? We know what's wrong. I might just go get some rest. It's what she'll probably tell me to do anyway."

Vivian frowned, but she didn't argue with me.

I wiped at the green stain on my face with a gloved hand. The green wouldn't hurt the black cloth. Would probably still need to wash my face when I got back to Dragon Tower though.

(*********)

Celica was judging me. She was lingering behind me in the bathroom in silence with a raised eyebrow and I could feel her demand for an explanation.

The bits of green in the sink in front of me as I washed my face were a testament to her cold judgment being at least a little justified. But I wasn't going to start this argument.

"You know if you explode we're all screwed, right?" Celica demanded.

"I have considered that, yes."

"Have you? Because I'm starting to wonder if you actually know what happens if you aren't here."

"You all go back to different towers," I explained despite both of us knowing that.

"Yeah. And they sucked. And also, you would be dead."

"Probably, yeah."

"Damn it Stewart, will you please take this seriously? This thing could kill you, at this rate it probably will."

"You think I don't know that?" I spun around to face her, leaning backwards on the sink to keep my balance. My head still hurt and the motion made me nauseous.

"Do you? Because you don't act like it."

"I don't know if you've noticed Celica, but how I act and how I feel don't always align."

She was glowering at me.

The thing was, Celica was the most intimidating out of my fellow Dragons. She really was. She towered over me, and she always seemed to default to anger. The truth was, I would bet more on her being the first to throw a punch than any of the boys.

But I trusted her all the same.

So I crossed my arms and stood my ground.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You can't read my mind. No one can. Not even Dragon Tower could. This curse might kill me, sure. But it probably will whether I poke at it or not. If Merripen wants to steal my future he's going to have to try a lot harder than this. I won't let him win. I won't let it win. I can't run from this. I can't hide. So, I'm going to fight it. And it if it tries to fight back, too bad."

"And if this fight kills you?"

"It won't. I'm too stubborn for that."

She looked skeptical.

"You haven't seen how stubborn I can be. But you'll find out sooner or later. Just have a little bit of faith in me, okay? Unless you think I can't handle this and want to take on being Representative. That I won't fight you on."

"Hells no. If you're really sure…"

"I am. I'm not sure often, but with this I won't budge."

"Reckless."

"Dragon."

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