Morningstar
Chapter XIX: A Switch in Reality

Agrion is walking ahead of Xeon and Hakea. They survived the trial, but they did not do anything during. Hakea is mad about it, but Agrion is just a little angry. He wanted to show Icarus that he is strong, and he is worth being taught by him.

Out of nowhere, Agrion sees Icarus walking on the same route as them but at the opposite direction. It is as if he summoned him by thinking about him. Agrion stops in front of him.

“Are you going to teach me?” Agrion asks.

“Are you going to stop asking that question?” Icarus deflects the question.

“When you agree to teach me,” he says.

“Teach you what?” Hakea asks, stopping beside Agrion.

“This does not concern you, Hakea,” Agrion answers, not taking his eyes from Icarus.

Icarus stares at Agrion for a second as if reading him before he turns to Hakea. “Agrion wants to be an assassin.”

“Agrion? An assassin?” Hakea asks. He looks at Agrion. “I do not think that you should be one.”

“Frankly, I do not care what you think,” Agrion says.

“Why is that?” Icarus asks.

“Because this is what I want to be, and no one will stop me from reaching it, not even you,” Agrion answers.

Icarus stands for a second silently. He then walks past him. “See you tomorrow morning before dawn.”

Agrion turns quickly. “Does that mean…”

“Don’t disappoint me,” Icarus answers.

Starting tomorrow, Agrion is going to begin training with the best assassin that he has ever met.

***

Beta is on top of a branch of a tree. She is looking down. Moneo is standing below her, smiling at her. Fey is a little farther away, sitting on the grass with Kobo, Phoenix, Rin, and Zanna. It is odd that they are finally talking, after all of these years of rivalry.

“What are you doing?” Moneo asks her.

“Doing something different today,” Beta says as she walks on the branch, balancing herself with her arms.

“We already had a trial today,” Moneo says. “That is enough difference for today.”

She looks at the lake. “No, it isn’t,” she says. She pulls her bow and quiver of arrows and throws it in front of Moneo. She quickly run to the end of the branch and jumps into the lake.

The cold water greets her. She swims underwater for a few seconds, not caring if there are any fishes in there. When she cannot hold her breath anymore, she swims to the surface slowly, almost letting the water lift her. She looks around when she hits the surface to where Moneo is. He is standing at the edge of the lake.

“What…” Moneo chuckles. “Stay there.”

He proceeds to take the staff from his back and put it on the floor. Then he takes his shirt off and his shoes before jumping into the lake. He swims towards her. When he reaches her, she can see that he is grinning from ear to ear.

“What were you thinking?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” Beta answers. “I guess that I am glad that I am alive, so I wanted to do something that I do not do every day.”

He kisses her. “I love that about you,” he says. “I love that randomness of yours.”

“Is that the only thing?” she asks.

His grin becomes bigger if it was possible. “Do you think that that is the only thing?” he asks as his lips move to her cheek and neck. “I love everything about you. I love your smile. I love the way that your eyes drift when you are thinking about something. I love the way that you bit your bottom lip when you are thinking something dirty. I love how you scream whenever you win at a game. I love the way that your foot taps when you hear music as if that is all of the dancing that you can do. And I especially love the way that you whisper my name whenever we–”

She pushes him back. “Stop that,” she says, but she does not want him to stop.

“What? You get embarrassed when I talk about–”

“Yes,” she says. “Because you always talk about what I do during it, but never about you.”

“That’s because I do not do anything to be worth talking about,” he says.

“Oh, really?” Beta asks as she rises an eyebrow. “You moan more times that I do.”

“All right, all right, I believe you,” he says, stopping her from talking.

“Hey, love birds,” Fey shouts. “We are going to the lunchroom. Are you coming?”

“Yes. Give us one second,” Moneo says, but Beta holds his hand.

“We’ll catch up to you,” Beta says.

Moneo turns to face her. “Why? Aren’t you hungry?”

“We can eat later,” Beta says. “Right now, we can do something else.” She smirks and he opens his mouth wide.

“Like what?” he asks, even though he knows.

“Well, Morningstar is empty except from our team,” she says. “The rest of the people are on the trial. We can… you know.”

“Uh, I like it,” Moneo says, and Beta begins to kiss him as if she had never kissed him before.

***

Zanna is walking alongside Kobo. She remembers playing with him chess once. He was lost about how the pieces moved, and he was not afraid to ask for help. It seemed as if he trusted Zanna from the very beginning. He did not have any reason to hate her, and frankly, she did not too.

Rin is a little more in front, walking with Fey and Phoenix. It is odd for Zanna to see them together, but it is about time that they were. Zanna did not understand very well why they did not like each other. The only thing that she knows is that Fey tried to make Drano have a crush on her, but by then, Phoenix said multiple times that she was not interested on him. It was all a lie.

“You have a cut,” Kobo says. He is looking at her arm. Zanna looks down at her left arm. He is right. It is not deep, but it has dried blood on it.

“I hadn’t notice,” Zanna says. “I must have gotten cut when I was fighting Heigl.”

Then she sees Kobo lick his thumb and pass it through the dried blood. He then opens his eyes wide. “Sorry,” he says as he wipes his finger on his pants. “I am awkward sometimes…”

“You are,” Zanna admits, which causes him to lower his head. “Was Heigl who bullied you?”

“Yeah,” he says, “him, Zarf, Kimber, and Miles. That’s why they broke Wither’s knee. They were searching for me.”

“Well, now they are gone,” Zanna says. It is the best that she can do to lift his spirits. She does not talk about feelings.

They arrive to the lunchroom. There is no line in there. There are other people from other teams in the lunchroom that must have won their trial already. When she turns with her food to follow Rin to the table, she spots Wither with Lexan and Vil. He flashes his shy smile that says more words than the words he speaks. She curves a smile at him.

She sits down next to Kobo and Rin and away from the table that Wither is.

“So, Phoenix,” Fey says, “you and Icarus are closed, right?”

“I don’t think so,” Phoenix says. Zanna would have asked Fey to elaborate on what close means. Are Phoenix and Icarus close as friends? Zanna does not think so. Are Phoenix and Icarus closed in the way that their tongues have been inside of each other’s mouth? Then yes.

“But I have seen you talking to him,” Fey answers. “He listens to you.”

“So?” Phoenix asks.

“Well, I was wondering if you could put on a word for me,” she says. Zanna almost chokes on her food. Killam was not kidding. Fey is actually interested on Icarus. Zanna looks at Phoenix. What is she going to answer?

“No,” Phoenix says and takes her fork. She plays with her mash potatoes.

Fey seems to wait for a reason, but it never comes. “Why?”

“I am not close to him,” Phoenix says. Zanna knows that she is lying. Whatever is going on between those two, she does not want it to end.

“You like him, don’t you?” Fey asks with one eyebrow raised. Zanna looks down at her plate.

“Of course not,” Phoenix answers. “He hanged me on a tree and left me to bleed. How the heck would I like him? He is a total asshole!” She sounds agitated. Zanna thinks that maybe she is asking herself that question, not Fey.

“Nevertheless, I saw you with him at Wraith, trying to make him dance with you,” she answers.

Phoenix opens her mouth but closes it. “I invited him,” Rin steps in. She shrugs. “I was drunk, and some guy came to ask me to dance so I left him alone unintentionally.”

“Sure,” Fey says. She does not sound convinced. “I thought that I saw some sexual tension between you two.”

Phoenix places her fork down. “Now I am not hungry anymore,” she stands up with her tray. She throws her tray on the trash and leaves the lunchroom.

“She is a little moody lately,” Rin says.

“Is she in her days?” Fey asks.

“Yeah, sure,” Rin says, but even if Phoenix is not on her days, Zanna knows that she is a little moody when it comes to Icarus.

***

Icarus has his eyes closed. He is sitting on the window’s frame of his room with one leg hanging outside. His arm is on one of his knees. He wants to leave this place. He wants the trial to be over. He needs to go back to his home. He misses her.

Her face appears on his mind of a memory that appears to be distant, but it isn’t. She is hanging upside down from a branch, holding on with her legs. Her blonde hair is laying down and the wind is blowing it to the side. She smiles, a genuine smile, when her blue eyes catch Icarus’s eyes. Her small nose and her cheek are turning red, probably due to the blood running to her head.

“Get down,” Icarus remembers saying. “You are going to get hurt.”

“We both know that I won’t,” she answers.

A knock on the door makes the memory disappear from Icarus’s mind. He steps down from the window and makes his way to the door. He checks to see if he has his gray mask on, but he always does. He does not have his gray cloak, which is uncommon since he came to Morningstar.

When he opens the door, someone steps in. He stops himself from acting when he sees that it is Phoenix. He closes the door.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

“Let’s have sex,” Phoenix says.

“What?”

She stops in front of him. “Fey said that there’s sexual tension between us,” she says. “I want to know if it is true. Maybe that’s the only thing that makes me want you.”

Icarus stares a few seconds figuring out if she is serious. She does not even blink. “You are serious,” he says. He shakes his head. “No.”

“It does not have to mean anything,” she says. “If it is good, then we can take this further. If not, then we at least will know.”

“This?” Icarus asks. Is there something between them?

Phoenix rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“No,” Icarus answers. “I am not like that. I do not have sex with someone that I met a week ago.”

“Prude much?” Phoenix asks.

“Yes, Phoenix, yes, that is what it is,” he says with all of the sarcasm that he could add. “I am a stable person. I passed the stages of hooking up and one night stands many years ago.”

“Sure,’ she says, sarcastically too. “How old are you?”

“That does not matter,” Icarus says.

“It does matter,” she answers. “You speak as if you were older than what you really are. How old are you?”

“Twenty-four,” he answers.

“I’m nineteen,” she says. “You are older than me by only five years. Don’t give me the crap that you are past your hooking up years.”

Icarus shrugs. “It is not crap. I do not hook up.” He heads towards the window to close it.

“Then what? Have you never had sex?” she asks, following him.

“That does not concern you,” he answers.

“It does if we are going to do this,” she answers.

He turns around to face her. “Again with the ‘this’. What is ‘this’?” She does not answer. “Do you want something between us? You have to be clear, Phoenix.”

“Yes!” she answers to shut him up. “I mean, no. Wait. Let me think.”

“Speak from your heart and tell me,” he says.

“Me?” she asks. “Speak from my heart? You never say what you think! How come I am the one who needs to say what I want? Why don’t you say what you want for once?”

“Fine,” he answers. “I want to kiss you. I want to hold you. I want to be the only one that can hold your hand. I want to be who you tell your worries. I want to be the one who hugs you and tells you that everything is going to be all right… There. Happy?”

“Happy?” she asks. “It took me a while to hear you say this. Why didn’t you say it since the beginning?”

“Because you are unpredictable, Phoenix,” he says. “And I thought that I could control myself, but I have failed. I can’t. I can control what I say, my anger, even my hunger, but I cannot control this attraction towards you.”

She does something that Icarus does not expect, she smiles. “That’s what I wanted to hear,” she says. “If I agree to these same feelings that I have, you need to promise me something.”

“What?” he replaces himself asking before he could think.

“You have to trust me,” she says. “You have to let your guard down and be vulnerable around me.”

He stares at her for second. “Fine, but we have to make something clear. I am still your mentor, and that is what I will be in front of everyone. No one needs to know that we are something, not until we finish the trials. There would be no preference with you. You will be like everyone else. If I need to punish you, I will not hesitate.”

“Wouldn’t expect any less,” she says. He nods. They remain seconds looking at anything but each other. “So…”

“Don’t speak,” he says. She looks at him. She moves her eyes to Icarus hand, which is moving towards his face. “You wanted me to be vulnerable. So, here I am.”

Icarus removes his mask for the first time.