Light in Dawn

Chapter Eleven - The Unyielding One

Happy birthday to my dearest Nellie.

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Andriana froze, her widened eyes fixed on the waterfall before her. It only lasted for a second, but it was long enough.

"What the hell is that?"

"The water is f***ing freezing!"

"What did that b**ch do?"

"Let's get away from here!"

Something vague and transient seized her. Was it strength? Elation? Her line of sight shifted to her own hand. For a second then, it trembled with an unfamiliar and powerful energy.

At the exact moment she recovered from the shock, her gazed locked on a pair of familiar dark blue eyes. They were ten metres away.

How long had he been watching?

One of Julyan's hands was raised midair. A second passed and he dropped it back into his pocket, a faint smile traced his lips.

Andriana was the first to break eye contact. She tried to steady herself as the drenched girls fled, screaming and cursing; miraculously, not a drop of water touched her. She bent down and pressed on one of the water fountains - water flowed out in a peaceful stream, at its normal height. That's odd. I'm sure this one was involved. The next two were also in perfect working order.

He approached soundlessly, testing the the last one for her. "Normal," he informed.

Andriana didn't look at him. "Was that entertaining?"

"Pardon?"

"Watching us from a safe distance."

Clenching his right hand into a tight fist, Julyan forcefully crushed the third-level fixation charms; the fragments slit the flesh of his palm like glass. With his aptitude, he could easily handle seven Inferiors with a first-level charm. Somehow in that split second he automatically conjured third-level charms.

Still, he was glad that he didn't have to use them. That evanescent display of power was exactly what he had hoped for. After all, he had been told that Rexia'a crown princess was an Elemental.

"If you're questioning why I didn't intervene -"

"I'm not," Andriana's tone was indifferent. "I don't need your help. You're not anyone to me, and vice versa."

Elemental aside, she seemed less like a princess every time he saw her. The naïveté of her ideology was characteristic, but would there be a princess - the only child of a royal house at that - believe so tenaciously in the rights of the inferior? "I wouldn't help just because you were on the right side. There is no such thing as real justice. They believe that you are at fault for challenging their authority, just as firmly as you believe their actions are immoral."

Andriana stared straight ahead. "Don't compare me to them. We're not the same."

He studied her reaction, continuing in a measured voice, "They tried to override your morals by force. You did the same when you punished them with your power. Is there really a difference in intention?"

Her piercing ice-blue eyes gazed at him, unwavering.

"For a while they might not bother you, but they won't see your justice as a stronger belief that naturally triumphs. What you let them see is a difference in power. You win this time because you've overpowered them."

"For a while they won't bother me, you say. And that is what sets us apart," she responded unflinchingly. "They can't change me even if they did shave my head bald - not my belief, nor my actions. I won't yield, and I won't be silenced."