Chương 77: GROUNDED

Jamie sat cross-legged on the edge of the hearth, the dull warmth doing little to chase the frost that clung stubbornly to the corners of her room, though she remained unbothered due to the nature of her abilities. Her father's decision had been absolute: grounded, literally confined and stuck in the house for—officially, four months now. She had tried arguing, pleading, even pouting, but Roric was as rigid as the forests in winter.

His'Lovers' had bound her energy, meant to keep her from slipping through the city's crowded streets, but Jamie being Jamie had long since learned how to shift the fluctuations of her Anti-Flow to momentarily circumvent them. Still, the house felt stifling.

'Boring. Seriously, so boring.' She though as she stared at the ceiling. Before meeting Elias, she had roamed freely—through the Hunters' Bureau, the cold stone corridors, along the streets of Blackhaven, out to the outposts, and into the forests beyond the city. It was her playground, her classroom, her battleground. It was normal for awakened children to be around, helping their parents with their jobs and playing around until they reached age twelve.

At which they were sent to Fazhan to attempt ascending to a level where they could build a life for themselves. Some parents hired people to train their wards toward this, much like the relationship between her Papa and Elias, but she herself couldn't be bothered. Now, confined to four walls, she was painfully aware of the dullness of idle hours.

'Ugh…how do people even survive like this? I'm gonna lose my mind if I have to sit here one more second doing nothing but staring at these walls.' When she heard that Elias had woken up, her chest had nearly shattered with relief.

'Finally. Thank the stars. He made it…he really made it'. Although she knew her friend would pull through. When he got impaled she couldn't help but cry even as Eddie Gable rushed the young lord to the keep, infusing him with Flow as a form of first aid. She and Aina followed. She had held his hand, even as his parents and healers rushed to attend to him, pleading with him to wake up.

'Come on, Elias… wake up… please.' She had thought. It was then that she felt it—something odd, buried deep within him. Her own energy did not circulate in the neat, continuous loop. Instead, it fluctuated constantly, even when she concentrated on keeping it still, sending subtle waves through the room like vibrations across water. The sensations gave her heightened perception: a brush of cloth, a flicker of movement, a subtle change in someone's heartbeat.

Her father had drilled her on control, making sure she could regulate the rate of fluctuation for tracking and observation, but that day she had not needed discipline.

'What the…? Something's in him. Not just the venom… there's… something bigger. Something… huge. But it's… poisoned too. Ew… gross, but… kinda amazing. Ugh, stop thinking that, Jamie. Stop it.' The Flow within Elias had resonated with hers in a way that confused her. It was vast. She couldn't really understand the information she was receiving but she felt his body slowly overcome the venom and drown it while, cell by cell, his wound began to heal.

She finally looked at him, at the shallow rise and fall of his chest, she allowed herself a grin.

'Alive. He's alive.' Relief, pure and unfiltered, filled her. She told everyone that he was going to be fine and while he didn't look like it now he was healing. She made this known. Everyone else took her words at face value, smiling as she spoke so as to mask the seriousness of the situation. Her tone was brisk, encouraging, a mask of confidence. She was just a child after all. All but Aina. Her expression had hardened, her sharp eyes narrowing at Jamie's apparent nonchalance.

The two had confronted each other there, voices low but heated. Aina, furious and worried, had accused Jamie of taking things lightly, of ignoring the severity of Elias's condition.

'Yeah, okay, I see you glaring, Aina. Fine, maybe I'm pushing it. But geez… he's gonna live. Can't you see that? Calm down.' Jamie had stood her ground, for a moment, wanting to argue back. But she had felt the weight of Elias's vulnerability, and she had backed down. Leaving the room with a stiff nod, she had forced herself to act normal for the rest of the evening, changing into a plain shirt and trousers that fit loosely over her boyish frame.

The coat she'd chosen for warmth, not fashion, hung across her shoulders as she padded to bed, but sleep had been easy, heavy with relief. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

'Okay… just breathe. He's okay. I can sleep knowing he's gonna be fine.' When she woke the next morning, before dawn, she crept out of her bedroom, careful to avoid her father's notice. The morning air was sharp, biting at exposed skin, and she pulled her coat tighter. Black trousers, a tunic beneath, and sturdy boots. The ensemble made her look more like a street urchin than a grounded daughter of the Hunter Captain, but that was intentional. She wanted speed, agility, invisibility.

The streets were quiet, the usual vendors and pedestrians yet to stir.

'Perfect. Nobody's gonna spot me.' Jamie slipped past the sleeping guards at the outer gate of the keep, using Suppression to avoid detection. Her energy moved subtly, brushing against their senses and creating gentle vibrations in the nearbystone. She reached the courtyard and approached the threshold, when Aina appeared. Arms crossed, eyes sharp.

'Oh, come on…she always has to show up at the worst times.'

"Going somewhere?" Aina asked, her tone cool, but there was an edge to it that Jamie recognized instantly. Irritation. It mix that made her chuckle inwardly.

"I'm going to see my friend." Jamie replied.

"Your 'friend' is in a coma. Go home. He doesn't want you here."

"Hmm, and who decided that he doesn't want me here? You?" Jamie said with a sneer as she took a few steps forward. She stopped, feeling the invisible wall of gravity Aina had put up to block her path.

"Oh? You're gonna try and stop me, huh?" Aina didn't answer with words. Instead, she stepped forward, and the energy between them shifted, thickening like snow settling before a storm. Jamie's fingers itched, her Anti-Flow flaring briefly, instinctive and wild.

"Bet." Aina was strong—too strong. Her Two Traits were a pain to deal with and she seemed to have trained thoroughly in their usage. But she lacked Jamie's unpredictability. The fight was quick, a dance of glances, dodges, and subtle bursts of energy. Guards had come on hearing the commotion but Aina told them not to interfere. Jamie was on the defensive. Aina was skilled, too skilled, and Jamie felt herself falling behind.

At some point, she stopped using Ice and manifested her true trait, an ability that left the snowflake burns that Elias would later see. Their clash ended abruptly when Miss Gable appeared to separate them. The scolding was severe, tinged with a low-level humiliation Jamie found almost funny. Still, she allowed herself to be guided inside, brushing dirt from her coat and smoothing her hair while staring daggers at Aina who glared back.

Later, Roric arrived, calm but firm, giving Jamie a lecture she knew she deserved. He apologized to Alaric and Elara for her behavior and about what happened entirely. He would have been there immediately but he had to clean up the mess in the city. Alaric and Elara said it was ok, quietly acknowledging the girl's spirit. Jamie had been unusually quiet, absorbing their words, letting them settle like the soft dusting of snow in her mind.

'Okay… so they forgive me. Great. Good. Fine. Moving on.' Her return home had been tense though. Roric had been frustrated, scolding her sharply. It was then that he grounded her. Four months confined to the house, officially, only the occasional wandering the house and the occasional read. But Jamie had always been cleverer, and for brief windows, she had tested her limits, slipping out to roam the streets, to watch the world, when her father wasn't around.

It was during one of these excursions she had first encountered the strange teenager. Pale skin, beaded bracelets. Something about the rhythm of his energy was familiar, foreign, and fascinating, and they had become… friends?

'No…not friends. More like…someone I know an aquaintance, yeah thats the word.' Roric, meanwhile, went about his daily rounds, silent as a shadow, his duties taking him to the corners of the city where only whispers of movement existed. Jamie watched him leave, a twinge of longing in her chest. She would never admit it aloud, but she felt the absence of his protective gaze keenly.

'He's not even going to stay and keep his cute daughter company? No fair.' Her own thoughts, however, demanded motion. She could not stay confined with the constant gnawing of memories. Memories she had buried deep: fragments of a mother she never remembered, blood dripping across her infant face, cries she could not place, the smell of iron and decay.

She adjusted the bindings subtly, letting her energy ripple, transferring the restriction to an ice sculpture she had created earlier in a fit of boredom and longing. The sculpture shimmered in the light, a temporary prison for the restraints that would have kept her home and would be a proxy until it melted. Jamie stepped lightly, coat flaring behind her, and slipped through the house's side door, careful to keep her energy contained and silent.

'Awesome… freedom. Sweet, cold, glorious freedom.' The wind cut sharp against her face as she moved, winter nipping at the edges of her sleeves, the city slowly awakening around her. She thought of Elias, smiling faintly, the warmth of his presence lingering in her chest, and found herself unconsciously lightening her step as she headed toward the Keep with a tilted chin and a wry smile. A figure was standing at the corner of the street.

He had a pale face and wore a furry hat with beaded bracelets catching the light as he sneezed into his hands quietly, pulling a scarf around his neck with meticulous care before sliding his hands into his pockets. He noticed Jamie slide by on a sheet of ice and looked back from where she was coming from.

"Hmmm," he muttered and then he stepped forward, a quiet shadow following her path through the city.