Lux [h.s]

sixty-two

Cora was in her bedroom, absentmindedly flicking through the pages of the book she'd taken from the secret library section earlier that morning. Harry had disappeared in some nook of the house she was yet to discover. She didn't mind, though, because it gave her time to read about her magical ability. The night before had awakened something in her, and now she wanted to know more, learn more. She wanted to know what it truly meant to wield water, where her limits were, what she could do.

She flicked through the pages, and her eyes fell on a sentence.

Fire and Water

Her attention was instantly snagged and she started reading the paragraph under the title.

Fire and Water are fundamental opposites, complementary and mutually excluding.

Fundamental opposites? Cora let out a little chuckle. She struggled to believe her and Harry could be anything of the sort. After all, fire was a rare ability, and water was a very common one. It sounded a little ridiculous, but she forced herself to continue, in hopes it'd make better sense later on.

They're intrinsically chained to the only dichotomy of the universe of energy that composes our world, Life and Death. Fire calls the latter, Water calls the former.

She frowned. While she could see how water could be reconnected to life, she struggled to see the connection between Harry's fire and death. His magic was beautiful; she'd seen the shining stars, the fireflies, all those breathtaking examples of magic that had conquered her soul since the first moment she'd lain eyes on them. No, Fire could not only be Death, and water could not only be Life. Too much water could also kill, just like too much fire could.

An interesting thought came to her. If the author of the book believed them to be opposites, then what did they think would happen if they faced each other? She scanned the text for answers, and she found them on the next page.

Fire and Water are the only two magical abilities known to possess identical strength—if put against each other, the stronger fay will overcome the other, or they will cancel each other out.

Cora smiled and leaned back against the chair. Harry would certainly overpower her in a fight. She was starting to close the book, but the next couple of paragraphs captured her interest.

Fire and Water, similarly to Death and Life, do not overlap. Where there is one, there simply cannot be the other.

The opinions on the essence of energy differ. While one theory sees it on a continuum ranging from Water to Fire, or Life and Death, another postulates the existence of a circular system, with Fire and Water occupying nearing seats, and Life at the other edge of the circle. This theory is based on the belief that both the essences of Fire and Water are essentially destructive, and that Life can only exist when they are balanced. The Theory of Balance is thought to be the foundation of the—

The next few words had been furiously scribbled away by a pen of the same colour and tract of the one that had been used to write the entire book, leading her to believe the author had censored themselves not long after first writing it down, but Cora's mind filled in the blanks effortlessly.

Lux System.

She furrowed her eyebrows, looking at the page. Why was the System kept a secret? Ives had led her to believe it was a recent development, but the book was nearly two hundred years old—it'd been written before the War—which meant that the System had been kept a secret for centuries. Why?

She put the book down and grabbed the key Harry had gifted her, making her way up to the library again. It was enlightened by the fireplace, and Cora took advantage of the fact that it was empty to slide through the door at the end corner of it.