Grey stone, old powers

The girl in her dreams was smiling at her, and for once she actually seemed… perhaps not exactly excited, not quite, but on her face there was an expression other than infinite melancholy and grief, and it felt like she was looking forward to something. Honestly, it was good for her. She was crouched down in front of Opal, who was apparently still very short, and was gesturing with her hands.

“… so, you see, I can do anything I want with it” she was saying, in the middle of explaining something Opal hadn’t managed to catch. Sadly, her dreams never gave her context or a short summary of the previous episodes like in the series she watched.

She tried to speak to ask for elucidations, but failed miserably again. Whenever she opened her mouth, the only sounds that came out were unintelligible gurgles, and she couldn't for the life of her form actual words. She forced herself not to feel frustrated, because after all that was still a dream, but it was difficult. In the end she settled for inclining her head to the side, making the most lost expression she could muster.

The girl seemed confused too at first, but then she smiled as if she understood. “… Ah, you want an example, of course.” Not really, but Opal would’ve taken what she could. “I thought you saw me use my powers, before we actually met, but maybe you were still too new.” ‘New’? Did she mean ‘young’? “Look.” Afterwards, the girl moved her fingers in the air in an elegant gesture, and, answering her silent order, mineraloid matter detached itself from the ground of the barren land they were in, hovering above the girl’s open palm and aggregating until it formed a light grey and iridescent stone.

Opal’s eyes widened and she stared in awe first at the stone and then at the girl, while her brain connected a few dots. The other had her same magical powers, Ametrine’s same lilac eyes, and looked like- she looked exactly like the-

“Pretty, isn’t it?” she commented, distracting Opal from a realisation that was leaving her wrong-footed. “It’s different from what you can do, but it remains similar.” The girl’s gaze seemed melancholic again, lost among thoughts and memories, but it cleared after a few seconds and her smile got a touch more genuine. “Perhaps it was on purpose.”

Opal had many questions swirling around in her head, but nothing was as important as having that strong of a connection to the girl in her dreams, nothing was as exhilarating as that.

Maybe her emotions were showing, because the girl’s gaze got softer. “You know, I think that, if you like the stone, you can keep it. I can make as many as I want, after all.” The stone, that was still floating, fell on the girl’s palm, and she gave it to Opal, who eagerly took it in her hands – they seemed human this time, even though just barely, even though they were dripping liquid clay, and Opal convinced herself that it was because what had happened in real life was influencing her dream –.

As soon as the stone touched her palms, however, it started melting into them, until nothing was left. Opal didn’t have time to feel anything other than shock before the girl laughed. Opal’s gaze, previously fixed on the empty space between her hands, lifted in surprise and wonder: that was the very first time she heard the girl make that sound.

“Ah, sorry” she said, still smiling. “For a moment, I forgot about that instinct of yours.” She shook her head. “If someone else knew about this, they would tell me my guard lowered too much.”

Opal had so many questions, but she couldn’t even ask them.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter.” The girl inclined her head to the side, while her gaze got suddenly curious. “Oh, wouldn’t you look at that?”

Before her dream drew to a close, Opal heard one last thing.

“Your eyes turned iridescent too.”

*

Opal didn’t want to think about the meaning of that dream, she didn’t.

(She felt that she was on the edge of a revelation, but, for the first time in her life, she didn’t wish to know more.

For the first time in her life, it felt like knowing more would’ve only led to rupture of some kind.

She was on the edge of something, and it felt like it was an ocean of broken shards.)

She very resolutely chased all of those unwanted thoughts out of her mind.

*

“Okay Opal, now give me a glass column!” Celsian exclaimed, excited as a kid in a candy store- no, scratch that, more excited than a kid in a candy store.

“A glass column, Celsian, really?” Ametrine asked from the sidelines. She had her arms crossed over her chest, but she seemed more confused than condemning. In those days after her revelation, she had become much more accommodating – in the limits of her personality, of course –, perhaps as a roundabout way to apologise for hiding something as crucial as that from them.

“Well, I like the idea!” was the simple answer.

Opal snorted despite herself – she had quickly discovered that Celsian liked pretty much everything with coloured glass tiles – and tried to do what she’d been asked to, since understanding what she could do was the whole point of that training session: she extended her hands towards the ground, willing it to obey her orders – the image of the girl in her dreams came to her mind, and Opal wondered, not for the first time that day, if she could’ve ever been as powerful and precise as her –, and tiny grains of grit and gravel lifted from the forest floor, twirling in a circle in the air until they fused together and then cooled down, creating a glass column. ‘Glass’ only in a manner of speaking, though, because it was lacklustre and generally sad. Opal sighed, but reasoned that if it was that simple there wouldn’t have been glass artisans.

“Okay, can you transform your arm now?” Celsian asked, leaning forward and following Opal’s every movement, with the amount of attention of a student the night before an exam at the end of the semester.

Opal focused on her arm, this time: the form stayed the same, but the rest slowly changed, until the human skin was substituted with vaguely opaque glass.

“Nice, Opal!” the thief cheered, her eyes sparkling with pride, as if she was her personal trainer and not a scientist that was currently analysing her powers. Opal appreciated the sentiment, anyway. “Stay like that!”

Opal tried to maintain the glass limb as long as possible, but as soon as her focus wavered and her arm moved even a bit, cracking around her articulations, it turned back into something fully human. She didn’t even get enough time to breath out an apology that Celsian had already grabbed her notebook with the rapidity of a card game player and was furiously scribbling on it. Opal smiled fondly. She had to admit that at the beginning she was still a touch unsure about that whole idea, but in the end she had made a good decision by accepting the other’s proposal. Now she felt much more comfortable with herself and her powers.

“So, Doctor Felspat, what is your conclusion for now?” Ametrine asked. Only going by her expression and her tone of voice, however, it was impossible to understand if she was joking or if she was actually interested in the answer. Or if, somehow, it was both. The thief would’ve been a doctor, after all, if she wasn’t, well, a wanted criminal.

Celsian scribbled a few other notes, understandable solely to her, before actually looking at what she’d written, in those pages filled to the brim with memos, and replying. “Well, I can’t be totally certain, of course, but I’d say that it’s all based on imagination and knowledge.” She lifted her gaze, looking at Opal. “From what I’ve been able to see, you can create basically everything you can imagine, but you can’t do precise work if you don’t know in detail what you’re replicating, hence why the glass turned out like that” she said, gesturing with her open notebook in the direction of the column that was still there.

“I see…” Opal mumbled, listening to her intently. That made sense. It was a shame they hadn’t really thought about doing that experiment with her magic earlier, but it was understandable, since until that battle in Smaragdos they all believed she had the traditional powers of the Saintess and not whatever her deal was.

“I think that’s also why every time you transform your arm it returns to normal after a short interval, unless you’re replicating something simple that you see very often, like for example Ametrine’s sword.” Celsian grinned mischievously all of a sudden. “You know, since she treats it like her own child and spends half of her free time polishing it.”

“Hey!” Ametrine, who up until that moment had followed the explanation with mild interest, sprang to life, pointing at the thief in indignation. “A sword is a knight’s closest companion, of course I care for her” she huffed, putting her hands on her hips. “Also, her name is Diamond, so make sure you do not forget.”

Celsian stared at her for a moment, maybe trying to compute the other’s words, and then burst into laughter, to Ametrine’s absolute indignation.

The latter crossed her arms over her chest. “Celsian!”

“Sorry, I’m sorry” she said, doing her best to stop laughing and managing after a few seconds. Her shoulders were still shaking, but her smile didn’t seem mocking. “I just- Who would’ve thought that you had your comfort objects too?”

The knight was opening her mouth to reply, but Celsian continued to talk.

“I’m happy you told me, though. I promise I won’t forget her name” she said, genuine.

At those words, Ametrine’s eyes widened fractionally and all of her movements came to a halt. Was she really that surprised by that answer? It was possible, used as they both were to exchange barbs and thinly veiled insults as if they were just talking about the weather. She started moving again when her cheeks tinted slightly and she hid her face behind her hands. It nearly seemed like she was blushing, for lack of a better word, but it would’ve been strange coming from her of all people.

“Ametrine, are you okay?” Opal asked, while Celsian just looked puzzled.

“I am fine” was the muffled response.

She was saved by the bell when Rutile returned, complaining loudly about everything and anything as usual. “Hey, you three, have you finished with your training session or whatever? I’ve had enough of looking at flowers and clouds!” he exclaimed, underlining his annoyance with nervous hand gestures. “Not to talk about the fact that my clothes gathered even more dust and this place is crawling with insects! It’s horrible!”

Ametrine usually replied sarcastically to him, but that time she was the quickest to accommodate him. “You know what, you are right” she answered, shaking her head and beginning to gather their belongings.

He seemed taken aback too. “Wait, I am?” He turned to Opal and Celsian, stage-whispering. “Did something happen while I wasn’t here?”

They shrugged, not having a clue either.

Ametrine, meanwhile, was as busy as a bee, a soldier breaking up camp. “Come on, we have to go” she said, all professional and business-like, and they inevitably ended up following her lead.

Opal wanted to bring up the previous topic again, but they would’ve had time later for that. Now, their break had finished; they had a destination to reach.