Fire has never been my strong point for seeing things. The stars, sure. Crystal balls, definitely- I’m really good at those. I’m even okay with palms, and those are realy hard. But the whole “staring into fires” doesn’t work for me.

It’s like they don’t want to work for me. It’s such a conscious effort to really see any other thing in such a fast-moving, swift spectre of an object. Fire doesn’t really know if it is alive or not, and how am I supposed to look into an entity that doesn’t know what it is?

I guess I just get to sit here now, hoping I can look and see what I need to see. I’m told that this is one of the easiest, and so I don’t know why I can’t get it. It doesn’t make any sense.

“Maybe that’s your problem, then,” Lianna says, approaching from behind me. I turn, and see his deep eyes looking at me intently. Lianna is a Walker of Minds, not a Seer of What Is To Come, like me. I don’t know what he’s talking about, but my heart beat is pumping faster all the same.

“What?” I ask him, unnerved. Normally Lianna never goes into my mind, or those of the other apprentices, without permission. He smiles and sits next to me.

“Well, maybe you need to stop thinking it needs to make sense,” he explains to me. “You see things that haven’t happened yet, and that doesn’t make sense to most people.”

I roll my eyes sarcastically.

“Yeah, but that’s because they don’t know about the rules, Lianna. Even magick has rules that make sense. And I can read the stars and everything else. Fire is supposed to be the easiest, but it’s not.”

We sit in silence for a few seconds, and Lianna looks over at me briefly. He smiles mischievously and looks at me annoyingly. I groan.

“Look, don’t you have to go and, like, make out with Vilanshi? She’s probably waiting for you,” I remind him, thinking of his girlfriend. He gives me another infuriating smile, one of those smiles that make me so excited all at once, but that make me sad, too. He looks into the fire where I am supposed to be seeing glimpses of the future.

“So…Master Rekko tells me that the stars are for the world’s future; the palm is for someone else’s personal future; and crystal balls are for one’s own future.

Then…what’s fire for?” he asks me curiously. I think of why he could be asking this. My exam for the fifteenth circle is tomorrow, and I need to learn how to see fire, which I should’ve learnt a long time ago, but was always too busy hanging with my other friends, being the random guys that we can be, or being a third wheel to Lianna and Vilanshi, two other apprentices of our kingdom’s chief sorcerers. There are always three: A Walker of Minds, A Seer of What is to Come, and a Wielder of Life and Death. Each of us has one master whose role we will someday take, and we spend time with them learning our individual specialties. But we also learn some universal spells and potions together.

“The fire can be anything,” I explain to him. “It’s whatever the Spirits think the Seer needs to See at the moment.” Lianna already knows this, of course, being a Walker of Minds…But I humor him.

“I think that’s why it’s the hardest. I don’t know what to be looking for,” my mouth practically recites, having thought it over and over again sadly. How can I ever continue my training if I can’t see the Fire’s secrets?

“I don’t know what to expect.”

Suddenly Lianna is putting his hand to my face tenderly, taking my chin gently and turning it towards himself, and his shining, amethyst eyes, glinting with the beauty of the fire.

“That’s a good thing, Cord. That’s one of the best things, actually…about everything. You never know what to expect, and that’s scary and wonderful, all at once,” he whispers to me. I shut my eyes, hoping against all hopes that he and I are about to-
Yes, now we are…he’s kissing me. I didn’t think he could ever like me, I thought he only preferred women’s companionship,and he's so dashing and amazing while I'm just a too-skinny, ordinary peasant, but this is…this is heavenly, him and I, locked together at the lips, tender and beautiful. It’s my first kiss, and I don’t want to break apart, but we both have to breathe. We stop for a second, looking into each other’s eyes, and then passionately go for it once more.


Finally he puts a fingertip to my closed eye, and softly puts it open. He points to the fire.

“Look again, Cord,” he commands kindly, brushing his raven hair out of his eyes. I do, and I see so many things…ships sailing across open waters, and a blushing bride with a regal-looking man, crowds gathered around hopefully. I see two men, wielding lightning and shooting it at one another, and a smile on a newborn child, grasping at golden locks. I look back at him in amazement.

“How did-?” I ask incredulously. He grins once more, that beautiful smile.

“I just…I knew you needed something to jumpstart it, that’s all. And I needed to let you know, so…it’s two birds with one stone, right?” he explains. I look at Lianna happily and we embrace.

“I was so scared you wouldn’t love me back,” he tells me. I raise an eyebrow.

“But you...you're never nervous or scared. And anyway, you walk in my mind, Cord-“

“No. Not until tonight, and only to know certain things. I’ve never wanted to…spoil myself that way. Not with you. It had to be special. It had to be risky…or else-“

“Or else it wouldn’t’ve been worth it?” I finish. He nods, and our souls dance as the fire roars on.