14 Sister Of Darkness (1/2)

The flame of a candle grew bigger. It soon started to take a particular shape, the shape of a ball.

And within the next few seconds, it became a fireball and rose up from the candle. The flames had become independent of the candle they had been formed on.

The ball of fire hung in the air for a while before slowly moving towards the window of the room.

It moved in a straight line, as if it was following a digital pattern. And in that straight line, it flew out of the room and then disappeared.

As that happened, the sounds of clapping echoed throughout the room, throughout the classroom.

”Well done, Hena! You have almost perfected the basics of The Elemental Arts Of Flame. The God Of Fire, Inferno, will be pleased by you!” The teacher said, applauding the girl who was responsible for that whole fireball thing.

”Your words honor me, sir!” She said as she bowed to him, withholding inside her the disgust she felt towards him and everyone around him.

As the sister of Vilome, she was one of the few people in the world who knew about the Dark Arts.

Most people thought they were history, but she knew that they were not. She knew it, and she had practiced it. And because of that, she knew very well how something like The Elemental Arts Of Flame, or Flame Arts for short, were no match for them.

After all, even among Gods, there was a loose hierarchy. And Elemental Gods like Inferno held no candle to Gods like Emoliv or Vilome in that hierarchy.

But, even so, her brother had said that they needed to blend in and wait for the opportunity while he makes his preparations, so that's what she had to do. And one part of blending in was to learn things that people of her age do.

So, she had chosen to learn Elemental Arts.

”Hena!” A male voice called out to her. ”Can I see you for a bit?”

She knew who that voice belonged to without even looking. It belonged to a reknowned painter of her nation, who was also a painting teacher at her school.

She had never taken up the course of painting herself but some of her acquaintances had and so she had come to talk to that man a few times.

'What could he be calling me for though?' She wondered as she went out of the class.

Out there in the wide and comfy hallways, that man looked at her and asked, ”Hena, have you ever met my son?”

”Uh, well, I haven't, Mr. Jake.” She tried to act as innocent as possible as she lied.

In truth, Hena had met his son a number of times. After all, he was in the same class as Vilome and also had his coming of age ceremony the same day. She had met him a few times, and seen him snooping around many other times.

”I see.” Tim Jake, the painting teacher, said. ”Well, he was in the same class as your brother.”

”Oh, is that so?” She gave her best 'slightly surprised' expression.

”Anyway, that boy has been acting strange these past few days. He always seems worried and anxious about something.”

'So what does it have to do with me!?' She questioned, only in her head.

”And now, he has gone off somewhere without telling anyone. No matter what I do, we aren't able to reach him.”

”...”

”Since Vilome and him are acquaintances and all, I was hoping you could ask him to help me find him.”

'So you are trying to get an older brother to give into her little sister's requests and gain his help in searching for that pathetic loser of a son of yours?' She would have laughed if she didn't care about the facade. 'Well, I can't blame you for wanting my brother's help. He HAS always shown results whenever he tried to do this kind of thing. But if you really want his help, you'll have to do better than that!'

”So?”

Calming her thoughts, Hena made an awkward smile as she said, ”I will relay your request to my brother when I get home.”

”Thank you!” Tim said with a grateful and relieved face.

***************

Even though she had promised, Hena didn't even care enough to remember it for more than 20 minutes. However, during her return trip from the school in the evening, she came across a particular woman.

She was a blue-haired, ivory-skinned aspiring adventurer of her brother's age, named Yasmine. She was genuinely cute but also dumb-looking with her big, bright, light blue eyes and her hair was usually left free-style.

'What is she doing here?' Hena had questioned with annoyance.

Yasmine was in the same school uniform she was wearing, which had a light brown coat on top of a classic white-shirt-and-red-skirt combo.

”Hena! There you are!” As Yasmine saw her, she quickly ran towards Hena with a bright expression.

”Ms. Yasmine, what are you doing here?” Hena asked as politely as she could.

”Well, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Hena didn't reply, giving Yasmine the reigns to continue.

”There's a classmate of mine and your brother named Jill Jake. I am kinda worried about him.”

'Her too?' Hena wondered, but from Yasmine's next words, she realized that her case was completely different than the worry that Tim Jake had for him.

”I am worried he would try to do something stupid to Vilome.”

”And why's that?”

Hena knew why Jill may try something foolish. If anything, Yasmine had been dense enough to not realize it for such a long time.

”I think ... he likes me.” But, thankfully or not, the blue-haired girl had finally realized. ”And ... because I like Vilome, he might be jealous of Vilome and try something.”

This was the first time that Yasmine had deliberately admitted her liking towards Vilome in front of someone else. Everytime before this, it had only happened as an accidental slip-up.

Hence, Yasmine was blushing hard enough for her ears to start turning red.

”Well,” Hena said as she saw that, ”I'm sure it'll be fine.”

”Y-yeah, since it's Vilome, he'd probably be fine.” Yasmine said while fidgetting. ”But please tell him to stay alert!”

”I'll do that.” Hena said with a smile.