162 - Playing With Fire

Lexie was elated as she watched the small flickering flame encased in a transparent ball at the tip of her finger. She’d made fire. How exciting!

Okay, now to try to grow the fire.

She turned up the switch on her second card, and as the fire grew in her hands, she immediately began to feel the mana drain. And truth was, the fire hadn’t even grown by that much. It was just a little bigger than her palm, and while it was encased in the forcefield, she didn’t feel its heat, only a mild warmth on her hand. But she felt like her entire insides were heated up, and if this kept going, she would eventually tap into her Eldritch mana. 

"Okay,” she murmured. "Now, time to turn it off."

She twisted the switch down, but unfortunately, that didn’t work. The fire continued to burn. She frowned. The fire increased in proportion to her mana drain as she was ‘feeding’ it, but it didn’t reduce in the same proportion, nor did it react to her in-built kill switch. She couldn’t put it out.

“Uh oh.” She murmured. “I might be in trouble here.”

As the fire continued to flicker in her palm, she thought of new methods to snuff it out. The fire was currently encased in a forcefield kept alive with her mana and the delicate combination of flammable gases she’d pumped in there. Maybe she could extinguish the fire by dropping the forcefield…but on second thought, that was probably a bad idea. If the fire escaped its confines, it might burn everything in sight, including her, before she could get it under control.

Maybe she could smother it with a cloth or something else…but would that work for a fire that was fed by mana? Even now, she felt the mana sapping even more, and if it depleted, she’d be in danger. Would the fire tap into her Eldritch mana then? Would it burn endlessly?

Shit. She needed to do something quickly before she passed out, or before the fire tapped into her Eldritch side. 

If she could separate the components that made up the fire in the first place, maybe she could put it out. If she could take out the oxygen...fire cannot live without oxygen, right? 

She tried that, relinking her pathway to reform a forcefield in the fire, that would extract the oxygen... but it didn’t work. Not only was it difficult to shift her pathways once activated, but it felt like once the fire had been created and connected to her magic, it couldn’t be put out by the laws of physics anymore. This fire was a living thing, and like all living things, it fought to live, even to her own detriment.

Shit. She’d fed the flame, and now it was going to keep eating. 

Maybe if she tried to stop feeding it her mana.

She tried to draw back with her mana and sever the contact with her pathways, but the flame held on, her pathways refusing to move to stop the drain. What the heck. What was going on? Why wouldn't it stop?

Lexie’s panic really started to grow now. She hadn’t put a timer on the card yet, because she’d gotten too bold and too excited, and now look what she’d done. The card was also linked to her Eldritch land card, so it didn't play by Earth rules. It could go on forever.

Damn it, Lexie. She wasn’t usually this careless. Oh God, what had she done? Who could she call?

This is why cards have limits, she could already hear Professor Stein telling her. She could also see her father shaking his head in disappointment and telling her that he'd warned her about this.

Should she call her dad? Would he know anything about fire magic, considering he wasn't a fire mage?

She didn't have time for them to figure it out together.

There was one other person she could call, though.

She ran to the door and opened it. She knew two of her bodyguards were still standing there, even if she couldn’t see them standing in thin air. 

“Hey, um…” She kept her burning hand behind the door so that none of them would see it. “Can either of you get Theo for me, please?”

The red-haired woman appeared first, looking worried. “Why? What’s wrong?"

"Oh, nothing major, just…I need his help. Like semi-urgently.” 

Aoife looked into the air at where her companion was standing and nodded. “I’ll call him.” 

“Thank you,” Lexie made a mental note to get Theo’s number when she could, so she didn’t have to ask someone else to help contact him at a time like this.

As she waited, she paced, trying to search for more ways to put out the fire. She’d already felt the headache blaze in her head, but the pain was dying down, meaning that her Eldritch mana was now compensating. It was feeding the fire. The flame was starting to act erratically too, pulsing, growing even though she wasn’t consciously trying to make it bigger, surging out of control at intervals.

Lexie’s heart skipped several beats. She hoped the forcefield wouldn’t fall. That was the only thing protecting her from the flame.

A flood of relief hit her as the door opened behind her and someone said in a yawning voice, “It’s one a.m., Lexie. What’s wrong?”

Lexie spun around and showed him her palm. Theo must have still been half-asleep because he stared blankly at it, and it took him a few seconds to register what she was showing. 

He looked like he literally just rolled out of bed and walked here. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, his hair was sticking up all over his head, and some dried drool had trailed out the side of his mouth.

But as he blinked at the fire, awareness trickled back into his vision. “What is that? Some kind of magic trick?”

“No,” Lexie said, panic making her voice tight. “It’s real. I made fire, but now I don’t know how to turn it off.”

“You…made fire?” Disbelief was dripping out of his voice. 

“Uh-huh. With a card.” Lxie squeezed her other hand into a fist. “Theo, I really don’t have time to explain everything right now. Please just help tell me how to put it out because I can’t. I tried starving it, and tried to break contact with my mana, but it’s not working, and it’s going to drain my mana until I pass out or die.”

“Okay, no, slow down,” he said, holding up his hand. “You made the fire, and now you can put it out? Is that right?”

“Yeah. Please help Theo.” The fire once again surged with her fear, pushing against its boundary angrily as though it wanted to be free to burn the entire place down. Lexie took a deep breath through her nose, attempting to settle down. It was responding to her anxiety, her emotions. She needed to calm down. 

Theo reiterated that, holding his head up. “Alright, calm down. Deep breaths, alright? Breathe. You are one with your body. You are one with your emotions.”

“I am one with my body,” Lexie repeated the mantra, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. “I am one with my emotions.”

“Good,” Theo had moved closer to her, and he said, “You’re in control. Remember that. This fire is a living thing, but it is one that you created, and it’s feeding off of you, which means you’re in control even if it might not feel like it.”

It definitely didn’t feel like it, but Lexie still accepted the sentiment. She would accept anything at this point if it would help free her of the burden she’d placed on herself. 

“Take control, Lexie. Keep breathing. Now I know this next part is going to be extremely difficult, because it involves good pathway control and more mana strength than you probably have, but  I need you to focus on the pathway that is attached to the fire, and twist it in the opposite orientation. That will take the life back into you."

“I can’t,” she whispered. "It’s stuck.”

Try.”

Lexie tried. She inhaled and tried to push the pathway back into the reverse orientation, but the fire fought back, sustaining itself. She sweated as she pushed and tried to overcome its strength, and by the time she did, she felt her head throbbing once more.

The pathway moved just a tad, and Theo announced, “Good. You’re doing well, Lexie. The fire has receded.”

Lexie peeked open, and she stared at the flame, but it immediately burst out again, fighting back. Lexie instantly knew what was happening. The Eldritch side of her was elated at the fire and the chaos it promised, and didn't want to put it out. It was getting even harder to handle. 

"Oh shit," Theo said. He picked up Lexie and ran with her, dropping her next to the bed. “Alright. I’m going to try this. There are magic-canceling silvers around your bed. I’ll turn them on.”

It might not work, Lexie thought. It would have worked if she’d thought about doing it before, when the fire first got out of hand. But her stupid brain hadn’t even reminded her of that option. Now that the Eldritch mana was involved, things were more complicated, and the silvers hadn’t worked with Diana, so there was no reason to believe it would work now. 

She was screwed if she couldn’t turn it back. 

“Alright, hold on,” Theo said, "They should be activating any second now." Meanwhile, Lexie closed her eyes and breathed again. Theo couldn't help her, nor could the silver. The only one who could help her was herself.

She focused on the pathway, reminding herself, I’m in control. She visualized bits of her Eldritch mana mixed in with her human mana as it rushed through the pathways, inside and out.

Stop, she told them. I’m in control, and I want you to stop. 

It didn't stop.

She started soul scooping like crazy, hoping that would help contain the power coming from her soul. Each Eldritch particle she saw going in that direction, she snatched it back and put it in a bucket. She kept going faster and faster, and she felt more than saw the fire reducing.

Even as Theo said, “I think it's working,” she knew that she was taking the life out of the fire until it was finally out. 

When she opened her eyes, her hand was empty. Thank God.

And then she fell on the floor. 

“Lexie!” Theo dashed to her, and Lexie held a hand over her racing heart. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just exhausted.” That was a lie. She was more scared than exhausted, dealing with the aftershock and the adrenaline of what just happened.

That was close, dangerously close.

If the fire had escaped from the forcefield, or if it had kept going with her Eldritch mana…she would have been screwed. 

Theo laid a hand on her forehead and one on her neck and said, “You should see a medic. You might have damaged your pathways.”

“I don’t think I have.”

“Well, frankly, I don’t have a high opinion of your thinking skills right now, because I’m not sure why you thought that was a good idea.” His gaze was incredulous as he looked down at her hand as though still envisioning the fire that burned in it. He was still stuck in utter disbelief. “Why did you...how did you even do that?”

Lexie avoided his eyes, patting her hair instead. “I wanted to see if I could make a firestarter with card magic.

“Wait…you did that with card magic?” Shock didn’t even begin to explain the emotion on Theo’s face. He looked absolutely gobsmacked, like his world and worldview had completely crumbled before his eyes. "With card magic? As in the stuff they use for children's parties?"

“Yes.” She cringed. “But don’t tell your mom.”

“She wouldn’t believe me even if I did,” he said slowly. “ I’m not even sure I believe it, and I watched it happen. I’m pretty sure she would laugh in my face if I told her...” He shook his head at her. “Lexie Sparrowfoot, what the hell are you?”

Lexie felt a little shy under his intense regard and nervous as well. What she’d done was highly unusual. She didn’t want this getting out, but she knew the risk of calling him for help in a time of desperation. She only hoped she could appease him with her answers now.

“I’m a genius,” she said. “A card crafting genius.” With a little bit of an Eldritch mixed in with my soul. “I have a S-Rank Intellect, level 8.”

“That’s incredibly high for your age.

“Yeah. It’s why I’m able to make things like that. It’s not a fire, the way yours is. I created it using physics.”

"Physics?"

"Yeah." She explained to him in detail how she’d created the card by splitting particles in the air and combining them, obfuscating the truth a little so she wouldn’t sound as crazy as she was. To further throw him off on how unusual the card was, she added that the card did have a time limit, but the fire continued even after the time for the card had elapsed, and it had fed on her mana, which she wasn’t expecting. 

When she was done, Theo looked even more confused than before. 

"That's..." He shook his head slowly. "I mean, I can't even tell you how crazy all that sounds. How did the system even let you create that card?"

Lexie shrugged. "I tricked it. I combined two cards that were individually weak, but create a powerful effect together."  

It was another lie, but he seemed to nod, accepting it. combination was."

“You shouldn’t have done that," he said. If you’d burned out, you could have seriously hurt yourself and your pathways. In fact, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t burn out already.

“I almost did,” Lexie lied. "It’s why I collapsed on the floor after it was done. I almost burned out. And I'm really tired right now."

"You should rest. Me too. My brain isn't even working right now, and I can't process all of this." He straightened and ran his hand through his hair. "Tomorrow I'll take you to a medic to ensure you haven't hurt your pathway."

"Alright. Just please don’t tell your mom,” she implored. “Or your dad. Or my dad. If they find out, they’re not going to be really upset and maybe confiscate my card-making tools."

"They should know Lexie," Theo said, sinking Lexie's hope. "What you did is extremely dangerous. You're not supposed to do it again."

“Yeah, I know, and I swear I'll be more careful from now on. But I needed a card like that. I…I think someone is trying to kill me or hurt me, and my dad can’t use magic, which means that I’ll need to protect us both."

Sympathy shines in his gaze. “We can help you, Lexie.”

“No, you can’t. With the villain uprising, you guys are already stretched thin, and it’s going to get even worse. Mouse isn’t the only [villain] dad offended. I need to protect my dad."

“I know, but Lexie…”

“Please, Theo,” she put her hands together in a pleading stance, opening her eyes wide and guileless. “You can teach me how to control it so I don’t hurt myself. I’ll not be as good as a firebringer, but with this, I at least have something to fight back. I can throw forcefielded fireballs. Like grenades.  I finally have a weapon I can use." She shakes her head. "I'm not going to give up, but I will be careful. And in return, I don’t know, maybe I can help you too.”

He smirked. "And what could you possibly help me with?

“Finding your friend, Lucy Frank."

Theo’s eyes widened. "You know where she is?

“No. But I have a lot of useful cards that can help you just in case you want to…you know…check out things in the association and with Vace…”

“Lexie…” His face got very serious, his expression stern. “Are you proposing corporate hero espionage right now?"

Lexie's breath hitched.

Oh no. Had she said the wrong thing? She’d assumed that Theo would do anything to save his friend, but maybe she’d miscalculated. 

Or at least she thought so until a soft smile eased her features. "I'm just kidding. Lord knows I've espionaged a bunch of times myself in the association." He bit his lips and glanced out the window. "Look, I'll think about whether or not to tell my parents. My brain isn't functioning right now, so I'll sleep on it and see which option makes the most sense. In the meantime, just rest, alright? We'll be going to see a medic tomorrow."

Lexie nodded. That was the best she could hope for.

As the door closed behind Theo, she threw herself on the bed and finally let herself relax.  

Damn, what a night. On one hand, she'd created fire. On the other hand, Theo was now suspicious of her and her powers. She couldn't blame him. She was suspicious in that respect.

She just hoped she could keep him off her scent for long. And Stella, too.

In the dream, when she told Naem of what had happened with Theo. They were on their way to meet the next creature on her soul line, and once they appeared in its domain, Lexie completed her story, "So anyway, I told him that I would help him find his friend Lucy, if he helped me."

"Hmm," he said. "That might not be an adequate bribe. Next time, you should offer him his life."

Lexie gaped. "I'm not going to threaten Theo. He's my friend."

"I don't see how that's relevant. We would just be giving him an additional reason to keep his word, just in case the friendship isn't enough of a deterrent."

Lexie shook her head. "Is that how you threaten people to keep your secrets with their lives?"

"Yes," he said simply. "Secrets are easier kept when one of the knowing parties is dead."