In Which We Think Warm Thoughts

Tam looked familiar. Both him and Linh reminded her of something, of someone, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it. She didn't want to make it a big deal, so she simply assumed that they'd met when they were little, and neither of them remembered it.

Besides, Marella had more important things to do, namely training her illegal ability with a murderer. What fun. Linh would be there too, but Marella was trying not to think about that.

That's right, on top of having an illegal ability and therefore pretending to be Talentless from now on, Marella likes girls. Well, Linh, specifically.

And now Linh has to watch Marella fail miserably at controlling her ability, while being taught by a murderer, which certainly does not make things any better.

Marella is not supposed to like girls. In the Lost Cities, it's illegal for girls to like girls. So Marella talks about how cute Fitz Vacker is, even though Biana is much cuter. She gushes about Keefe Sencen, even though she likes Sophie Foster far better. Marella swoons over Tam, but in reality, she prefers Linh.

At least now Marella has something to do to keep her mind off Linh, even if it's training with a murderer. Oh, wait, she doesn't, because Linh was going to be there too. Fantastic.

But Linh offered, and there was no way Marella was going to turn her down, so here there were, standing outside of Fintan's cell, just the two of them and a few armed goblins. Ready to take lessons from a murderer.

One of the goblins stepped forward and opened the door. Marella and Linh glanced at each other nervously, and walked in.

The cold air blasted in their faces as they walked inside. Fintan sat on a slab of ice, staring right at them.

"Ahh, Marella! So nice to see you again. And look, you've even brought friends!" Fintan said.

"H-Hi." Marella shivered.

"I'm Linh." Linh smiled.

Marella took her lead and smiled, too. Befriending the crazy murderer seemed like a good idea.

"Now, this training is going to be a little harder to do than usual, seeing as how I'm trapped in here and can't use my ability, but I'm sure you'll get it. Shall we begin?"

"Sure." Marella said, stepping forward. She formed a flame in her hands, warming herself up.

"Not bad." Fintan mused. "But of course, all good pyrokinetics know how to warm themselves up without making flames. Let's start with that. Just focus on warm thoughts, however ridiculous it may sound."

"Oh! That's like the body temperature regulating techniques we had to do in Excellium!" Linh exclaimed. "That's why I'm not cold right now."

Fintan frowned. "It used to be a technique just used by pyrokinetics. It's ridiculous that this is allowed but regular pyrokinesis isn't."

"Pyrokinetics came up with it? Really?" Linh said.

Marella wondered what qualified as a "warm thought."

Fintan sighed. "Yes. No need to sound so shocked."

"I wasn't shocked!" Linh said, blushing. "I just didn't think that the Council would keep using it if it was made by Pyrokinetics."

Marella shivered again. Clearly, her "warm thoughts" weren't working. "Can we just get on with the training already? I'm freezing!"

Fintan sighed again. "Now you know how I feel."

Marella glared at him.

Linh snickered. "It's easy, Marella. Just think of things that make you happy."

You make me happy. Marella thought automatically. So she started to think about Linh, and how very relieved that there were no telepaths in the area spying on her thoughts.

"There we go! Finally! You know, we don't have all day here." Fintan said, sneering.

"I bet you didn't catch on quickly at all when you were learning." Linh replied, jumping to her defense.

"I did, actually. Seeing as how I was the one to come up with it and all." Fintan smirked.

"You came up with it?" Marella interrupted.

"Yes. Have you not been paying any attention?"

"Yes." Marella muttered.

"It's a miracle!" Fintan said sarcastically.

"Well, are we going to get started or not?" Marella asked.

"Yes. We'll start with creating flames…"

Training with Fintan was exhausting, and Marella had lost control several times, but Linh was thankfully there to put out any fires.

"I can't believe I have to do this again tomorrow." Marella groaned.

"You do have to admit that Fintan's a pretty good teacher, though." Linh pointed out.

The two girls were sitting on Marella's front porch on the fireproof beanbags. Well, Linh was sitting, Marella was flopped across about seven beanbags.

"I guess." Marella frowned. "He sighs a lot, though."

Linh laughed. Marella loved Linh's laugh, it was so soft and delicate and pretty. Could a laugh even be soft and delicate and pretty?

"Earth to Marella."

"What?" Marella looked up, blushing.

"It's a human saying. I've heard Sophie say it before." Linh smiled.

"Cool." Marella said.

"I was asking if you were going to keep going to training."

"Oh." Marella thought about it for a moment. "I guess so. I don't really have a choice, do I?"

Linh tilted her head. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"The thing is, I want to control my ability so I don't go crazy. I don't really want to train with Fintan, but he's my only chance." Marella paused. "It helps having you there, though. I mean, like it would be a lot worse if it were just me, and-"

Linh laughed. "I get it."

The two girls sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.

"I'd better get going now. See you later, Marella." Linh got up.

"Bye, Linh!" Marella called after her.

After Linh left, Marella was once again lost in her thoughts.

"Fintan? Why did you join the Neverseen?" Marella asked. They were taking a break from training. Marella and Linh were sitting on a blanket on the floor.

Fintan sighed.

Marella and Linh glanced at each other and laughed.

"I joined because the Council is ridiculous." Ridiculous is Fintan's favorite word. "They banned pyrokinesis! And the Neverseen was the only group who was doing something about it."

"But what about the Black Swan? Were they around back then?" Linh asked, genuinely curious.

Fintan scoffed. "If they were, then they were even more secretive than they are now."

"They're hardly secretive now. The Council knows all about them." Marella pointed out.

"I suppose. But I joined the Neverseen to take the Council down. And the Black Swan doesn't seem to care about that."

"Didn't you used to be a Councilor, though?" Linh asked.

"Yes. Long ago." Fintan sighed again.

"And you want to take down the Council so badly, you'd kill for it?" Marella asked. The concept seemed incomprehensible to her.

"Yes. The Black Swan, too."

"I get why you hate the Council, but why the Black Swan?" Marella glanced at her. Linh was deep in thought, trying to puzzle out Fintan's motives.

Fintan, surprisingly, sighed. "The Black Swan is working with the Council, for one thing. For another, they haven't made any progress. And then there's the whole Project Moonlark thing. Completely ridiculous."

"They saved the gnomes." Marella pointed out.

"No, that gnome who sacrificed herself saved the gnomes. What was her name? Cilla?"

"Calla." Linh corrected.

"And from what I understand, the Council had no part in any of that, though they were quick to pardon you from destroying Ravagog." Fintan said.

"Part of Ravagog." Linh muttered. "And we had to."

"Oh? Not that I'm complaining, of course. That was the correct action to take."

"It was?" Marella raised her eyebrow. She hadn't been there, but from what she understood, destroying a city wasn't exactly the smart thing to do. Excuse her, part of a city.

"Yes. They lied to you about the cure-"

"Technically, you lied about the cure." Linh interrupted.

Fintan glared at her. "Minor detail. They lied about the cure, so you got your revenge and wiped out part of their capital."

"It was a lot more complicated than that." Linh said softly.

"If you say so. But I think that you made the right move, no matter what the situation was."

"But did they? They killed hundreds of ogres, and the plague didn't kill a single gnome." Marella blurted out, then immediately felt bad for asking when Linh looked at her in shock.

Fintan chuckled. "I'm probably not the best person to be talking about doing the right thing. But I think you made a wise choice."

"Are we seriously taking advice from a murderer?" Linh asked, still looking hurt from Marella's question.

"One could call you the same thing, Linh. And that's why I admire you. Your ruthlessness."

Marella scoffed. Linh, ruthless? She couldn't see it.

Linh glared fiercely at him. "I'm not ruthless."

"Yeah. She's not." Marella jumped in. Linh gave her a small smile.

"Should we get back to training now?" Fintan asked, dodging the question.

Marella and Linh looked at each other. "Yes."