Underestimated Affinities

by Matthew Scarcella

  Deciding that I’d much rather deal with Aislynn, I siphon the water out of my bracelets and float it around me as I bend down to pick up the Sais from where they fell earlier. I attempt to harmonize the water with the Sais and watch gleefully as the tips of the blades turn a dark blue.

  My sisters get ready to attack again and I work quickly, removing all the impurities from the water I’m about to use. Once I’m sure no positively charged particles or other conductive properties remain, I point the Sais toward Safeyya and unleash two concentrated water bullets.

  They hit her square in each shoulder, and I allow the water to disperse into a film I use to wrap around her body and wings, leaving just enough room for her to breathe.

  I watch Safeyya’s limp body fall from the sky in the cocoon I’ve created, and summon up two strong counteracting gusts of winds in front of me to halt Aislynn just before she crashes into me. She tries to punch me, but her efforts are in vain as the wind wall I’ve created wards her off. As her fist hits the air in front of me, a humming sound fills my ears. Her hand shakes violently before being thrown back toward her.

  She alters course and uses her wood affinity, trying to ensnare my feet using vines. But I notice them early enough and I’m able to jump up, over and behind her. I pivot on my foot and aim a kick at her back, but am stopped by an earth spire that suddenly shot up out of the ground to protect her.

  I take a second too long mentally making sure that Safeyya’s still bound, and in that instant, Aislynn’s used the spire to spin around and kick me square in the rib cage. “Shit,” I curse under my breath.

  I land on my back a few meters away, eyes closed in pain. I anticipate Aislynn using a rock or something else to hit me while I’m down, so I roll to the side just in case.

  Instead, I watch her approach me. Her thick metal gloves begin to change shape as she walks. The metal fizzes slowly then rises and falls, drawing back from her wrists toward her fingertips in a liquid fashion. She combines the two blobs and uses the malleability to change the metal into a long sword. I grin in anticipation — I’ve already dealt with this scenario before.

  She charges toward me with her sword raised high. I grab my Sais and use them defensively.

  Aislynn lowers her weapon in an attacking motion and when it comes into contact with my Sais, her sword breaks in half. A look of shock appears on her face and she jumps back, going on the defensive.

  A surge of triumph runs through my veins, thinking I’ve finally bested my siblings. I draw out the water in my belt and direct it toward my side, using it to alleviate some of the pain on my ribs, but I’ve forgotten about Safeyya. She used the temporary null to break free of the water cocoon and send a solitary lightning bolt in my direction. I panic and put up the Sais in a poor defensive move — and then something unexpected happens. The electricity comes into contact with the blades and then vanishes, but not before the tips turn lavender.

  “What the —?” Safeyya drops her hands by her side, signaling a ceasefire, and rushes forward, examining the Sais. “I didn’t know they could do that. Did you know that?”

  Shaking my head passively, I plant the blades into the earth and observe the residual electricity disperse from the metal. A crackling sound emanates from them until the bright lavender coloring disappears.

  “Intriguing,” Aislynn says, settling down next to us. “Sorry about going a little rough today, Selvyn.”

  Aethyr comes up behind me and smacks the back of my head a little more aggressively than I would like.

  “You’re apologizing to him? He choked me — I could have drowned.”

  “Oh, grow up.” Safeyya chortles in his direction. “He could’ve done a lot worse. And frankly, you deserve a walloping now and then.”

  Aethyr shrugs and then looks at the Sais, their tips still implanted in the ground.

  “So,” he says, “Why did we stop? What are we looking at?”

  “Not sure.” Safeyya kneels before them and taps back into her affinity. She concentrates a small amount of lightning on her fingertips and touches the blade before her. The electricity flashes before us and then disappears, only to reappear a few seconds later in the ground. “Seems like they can act as temporary hosts for other elements besides the ones Selvyn can use.”

  “Yeah, the twins mentioned that,” I say.

  “But,” Safeyya continues, “I thought they meant that when other people were using them. As in, the Sais can be tied to the elements of the person wielding them. But you’re currently the owner, and you wield wind and water. Yet they are absorbing, or whatever, my lightning affinity.”

  They look at me as if I have all the answers. “Well, so far we’ve only seen lightning — and it doesn’t appear as if they can store or handle a significant amount of energy. And I know that metal wielders don’t seem to be able to use them, so I doubt that normal metal would interact well with them.”

  Aislynn steps up beside us and inspects them closely. She puts her hands to the ground and draws up a handful of small metal spikes. The spikes move in place beside the Sais.

  “I’m trying to attach the spikes to the blades,” she explains. She waves her hands around in what appears to be an aimless fashion, but her spikes hover and rotate around the Sais, moving toward and away again, trying to find somewhere to latch on. “Yeah, seems like this isn’t panning out. I can feel the metals attempting to interact with each other, but there’s some sort of barrier I can’t bypass to alter the composition of the blades. I can’t even siphon out a sliver of metal from them; they were crafted very well.”

  “Don’t look at me.” I shrug in response to her morose glare. “I don’t understand them, nor do I expect to fully understand them at any given point in the immediate future. Let’s give it a few months or perhaps years before you give me that face.”

  My siblings laugh at my attempt at wry humor before turning to brief commentary of our three versus one sparring session.

  “I’m utterly impressed with your performance today, Selvyn.” Aislynn bends to the ground and plucks a flower that’s flourished due to interaction with her affinity, then slides it behind her ear. “Today was a significant improvement from our last training session.”

  “Yeah, bro,” Aethyr nods toward the ground, whether in defeat or embarrassment, or both, I can’t tell. “You kicked my ass really fast. I can’t believe I was almost down for the count after your attack. It wasn’t even a major one — seemed sneakier to me than anything else, actually.”

  I ignore his last comment and let the praise from my siblings sink in.

  “Then I will need to keep that in mind. After all, our bodies are made of around sixty percent water. That could prove… useful to me, I think…” I trail off, thinking of the virtually limitless possibilities now that his words sink in. Safeyya grabs me by the shoulders and forces me to look at her, snapping me out of my thoughts, but not before I store that piece of information away for later theorizing.

  “I can’t even begin to tell you just how proud of you I am at this very moment. I want you to know, and I believe you already do, that I never doubted your affinities for a second.” She looks at our brother and sister and nods to each in turn. “None of us has ever doubted you. We just weren’t able to help you believe in yourself.”

  I look to the ground, blushing, as is my usual tendency. I start to say something noncommittal before she reproaches me with a gentle shake.

  “Don’t say anything to ruin this moment.” Safeyya shakes me gently. “We’re being serious here. This is officially a turning point in your life, Selvyn, and you need to look us in the face and realize what is going on.” I tilt my head back up to let her finish speaking, even though the attention is making me insanely uncomfortable. I have never in my life enjoyed being the focal point of anybody’s attention, though Piero has been making that a difficult trend to continue as of late. Maybe for the better.

  “I know how difficult it must have been for you to grow up with wind and wate
r affinities — it still is, I’m sure. As you have seen throughout your life, these are not very prized abilities for a myriad of reasons, the main of which is that neither of these elements has ever been used for offensive purposes, at least from our city’s documentation, Genesis and Lux notwithstanding.”

  Aethyr mumbles a very quiet “That’s for sure” under his breath. I wonder if he’s ever seen Genesis perform in a fight. If not since he became a Tune, then perhaps before? I want to ask, but Safeyya doesn’t hear him, or simply ignores him and continues talking.

  “Wind and water are, without any doubt in my mind, the two greatest affinities to be used for non-offensive purposes. Wood comes in a distant third, and the rest of the elements tend to fall by the wayside in that capacity when it comes to non-fighting scenarios.

  “There are many benefits to having a secondary or tertiary water affinity, but the one that is focused on is being able to heal yourself or your comrades. Likewise, there are also many benefits to having a non-primary wind affinity, but the aspect of that element that is focused on is its sensory abilities. Just because these are the facets of these elements everyone seems to focus on does not mean they are the only things that can be done with these elements, but up until now, you have been rather closed-minded.

  “We gave up trying to spur you on when you were just past ten years old because you seemed to not have any interest in training or fighting of any kind, for starters, and secondly because you seemed to lose faith in yourself. At that point, our constant clamoring wasn’t going to remedy the situation; getting back onto your path was something that simply had to be done on your own.

  “It has been very difficult for us to live with, you know. It is not a good feeling to grow up not knowing how to help your younger brother realize he’s worth something. For most of your life, you’ve made us think that you see yourself as having no worth. Do you understand how horrifying that is… from our perspective, lest we forget your own? Perhaps you think that the world wouldn’t miss you if you weren’t here. We’ll have you know that we wouldn’t just miss you because you’re our family — we would be heartbroken to realize you had never grown to see your full potential.”

  I’m not sure if Safeyya’s simply tired of speaking, or if she sees the tears in my eyes before they form, but she takes pity on me and stops talking. Knowing her, I believe it to be the latter. Gracefully, none of my siblings mention anything as the water starts to well behind my eyes, but I don’t even feel that at this moment I could use my water affinity to hold the tears back. Frankly, I’m not sure if I want to. Maybe it’ll be good for me to be vulnerable right now.

  “Aislynn, Aethyr,” Safeyya says, looking back and forth between the two. “Do either of you have anything else to add?”

  “Couldn’t have said it better myself, Safy.” Aislynn walks over to us and puts a hand on her shoulder and the other on mine.

  “Me neither,” Aethyr chimes in from my other side before repeating Aislynn’s gesture. “I love you, bro. I love all of you.” He moves in closer and pulls the three of us into a giant bear hug.

  “This isn’t really like you, Aethyr, but the sentiment is appreciated, and I love you all too,” Safeyya says.

  “Me too.” Aislynn grins from my left.

  I clear my throat before responding with a resounding “Me too,” and pull them all as close as I can.

  ***

  I woke to the sound of a trengan perched on my windowsill, singing softly to himself while scanning the ground for potential insects to consume. Flitting gracefully from side to side, he mesmerizingly lulls me back into the realm of sleep, but this time it doesn’t last; it’s a fleeting moment and it reminds me just how much I relish sleeping.

  “Hurry up and get dressed.” Aislynn barges into my room with a grin on her face. “We’re all going to the city center to have some actual bonding time.”

  As I get up and walk out of my room, I glance back at the little bird on my windowsill and watch him defecate before departing on his own way. Lovely.

  We talk about everything and nothing for about half an hour as we walk toward the center of Belarin before the inevitable happens and I’m questioned more about Piero.

  “So, Selvyn… how is Piero adjusting to life in Belarin? Do you think he likes it here?” Aethyr asks with an inflection of tone at the beginning, as if he doesn’t know whether he should broach the subject. I look at the three of them and see the same looks on their faces: curiosity and genuine concern. It’s awkward to discuss, but I’m so happy I have siblings who care about me this much and are interested in the minutiae of my life.

  “He’s doing alright, Aethyr.” I cough into my hand before continuing. “I mean, I think he’s a little miffed at being confined to the city for the time being — he’s been used to having his own freedom. But for now, I believe he’s tolerating it and can continue to do so for some time.”

  “He really likes you,” Aislynn says from my other side. “I hope you know that.”

  “How do you know?” I ask.

  “I actually took him up to the area just west of the Academia,” she says. “There’s a spot there that isn’t monitored, and I figured he could use some free space. We sparred for a bit. He’s quite powerful — but I don’t think he’s aware of his true power just yet.

  “I asked him a little bit about himself. Just the normal big sister questions.” She looks over at me and shrugs with a wry smile on her face. “I promise I didn’t say anything that would embarrass you. He kind of brought the topic up on his own. He asked me if you were well… you know. He said he is really interested in you but he has been receiving mixed signals.”

  “He asked you… if I was gay?” I stop for a brief second but then continue on. “What did you tell him?”

  “Uh… I told him the truth,” she says and hesitates before finishing her thought. “I told him that you haven’t spoken to any of us about it, but if you were, we wouldn’t care. You love who you love, that’s just how it works.”

  I look at the sky and notice something bright and red in the distance, but shrug it off. I keep my head up and try to think of past crushes, but nothing seems to come to mind. I think I always knew I was gay, but I never thought to discuss it with anyone. It’s my life and it shouldn’t affect the way anyone else lives theirs… so I kept it to myself. But, it’s also important to share your true self with the people who love and care about you.

  “I am. Gay, I mean.” I look around at my family and see them all smiling. “I kind of thought you all knew.”

  “We suspected, of course,” Safeyya responds, “But it’s not our place to question you about who you are. We’re just here to support you — that’s what real family does.”

  “Anyway.” Aislynn clears her throat, shining the spotlight back on herself. “My point is that I got to know him a little better than these two over here, and he seems like the real deal. I get a very good vibe from him, and you know I like to think of myself as rather empathic. He’s not the type of guy that will screw you over. I just wanted you to know that.”

  “Thanks… but I don’t know if I’m ready for a relationship.”

  “Does that mean you can’t try and see what happens?” Aethyr replies. “You shouldn’t always think of things as black and white, Selv.”

  “He’s right,” Safeyya chuckles. “For a change… hah!” Aethyr punches her gingerly on the arm, but she just keeps laughing. “You don’t need to marry him after your first date, Selvyn. You just take it one day at a time and you see what happens. If you have to make a decision at some point later on in your life, then you think about it then. For now, if you like him, then go for it.”

  As we near the city center, we turn a corner and are stunned by the number of children present in the center square. We walk closer and I’m a bit lost for words. Piero’s here, and he’s created a few ice sculptures and is using his affinity to entertain the kids.

  There are sculptures of all sorts of creatures the you
nger ones are mesmerized by, and with his back to us, he melts them and rearranges the particles before re-freezing them into new shapes. Just behind them, he has a giant ice slide with all sorts of turns and loops, which the older kids are using.

  “What did I tell you?” Aislynn whispers. She goes on ahead of us and pokes him in his ribs. “Hey Piero. Looks like you’ve found a new pastime.” She walks up to her friend’s children and picks a little girl up, throwing her into the air. The young girl squeals with glee and does a somersault in the air before using her wings to bring herself safely to the ground.

  “I guess so,” Piero responds. “The kids sure seem to be enjoying themselves, and that makes me happy. I’m also just kind of glad to be using my affinity right now. I hate being cooped up inside that hovel they call a house.”

  He bends down and coats a flower in ice, then breaks it off and passes it to a child. She looks at it in awe before accepting it and runs off to show her friends. I see a bright red flush in her cheeks and hear her exclaim to them, “Look what the pretty man gave me!”

  He chuckles and then stops when he sees me off to his side. He looks at me awkwardly for a tense minute, and I return his gaze, neither of us sure of what to do at this point. Aethyr and Safeyya walk over to talk with Aislynn, giving me some room to breathe. I realize my siblings are right and that this is a turning point in my life, in more ways than one. I run toward him and use my wind affinity to pull him into my arms just as I reach him.

  “Selvyn… hi.” He returns my embrace and rests his head on my shoulder. “I was afraid you were upset with me.”

  “No, I’m not.” I turn my head toward him and press my lips against his temple — resting them there while I smell his hair. Can you fall in love with someone by the way their hair smells? Or do you fall in love with the person and then learn to love everything that comes with them?