Starlight and Shadows

Chapter 12: The Gamble

The wall had twenty-six discolored red bricks.

A brick can be idealized as a cube.

A cube has six sides, with each face perpendicular or parallel to the other faces.

Perpendicular is equivalent to nor—

Her device was ringing.

Blinking, Saffre reached into her jacket pocket and retrieved it. Roman had called it a Scroll. Was someone calling her? Who would even have her number?

Confused, Saffre answered the call on the holographic surface. She was momentarily enamored with the holographic display before she saw who it was.

"Yes?" she asked. It was Roman. She was trying to speak more. The sound of her voice still sounded strange to her.

"Saffre, meet me by the loading dock."

With a snap of her fingers, starlight rippling out from her hand, she could see the outlines of everyone in the warehouse. She noticed one outline by the loading dock that seemed to be leaning on something.

"I have someone I'd like you to me—"

Everything went white for a second.

"—et..."

Saffre looked up at Roman. "I'm here now."

"...I can see that." Roman said, his voice echoing through the speaker of her Scroll. What was that tone called? Saffre could feel her face scrunching up as she tried to remember.

She continued to stare into his eyes. It was important to maintain eye contact when speaking. "I'm hanging up now."

Roman let out a small sigh, placing his Scroll back in his coat pocket. "I didn't know you could teleport..."

Saffre looked down at the ground. "Oh..." She looked back up. "I can teleport."

"Noted." Roman said. Dry. His tone was dry. Saffre gave herself a little smile at her deduction.

"Anyway, Saffre may I introduce you to Neo," he said, gesturing over at nothing.

Nothing?

Saffre tilted her head. A girl was standing over there. She had two toned hair, half pink and half brown. The figure, Neo, also had heterochromia, with one eye pink and the other brown. She was giving her an easy smile. And yet... the outline surrounding everyone else in the warehouse did not extend to her.

Looking around Saffre spotted something that made her even more confused. There was an outline standing off to her side, but nobody was there. Shrugging, she took one last glance at the figure before walking up to the invisible person. "Hi. I'm Saffre."

The sound of shattering glass came from her side, and the person in front of her decloaked. It was the same person as the figure, but now her expression was confused.

'I should complement her on something...' Saffre thought. People tended to do that when meeting someone new. "I like your eyes. They're very pretty."

It was a factual observation. Her eyes were very pretty.

Neo gave her an amused smile, making Saffre's face scrunch up in confusion.

'Did I do something amusing?'

----

Saffre was weird.

Leaning against his cane Roman watched as the two girls interacted, with Saffre standing an arms distance away from Neo.

He knew that she had abilities that didn't look like any Semblance he had ever seen, but still... Her appearing directly in front of him in a shower of white sparks of light was surprising. And her matter-of-fact way of admitting to the ability...