Argent Eye II

20

I walked back inside with Irina after about ten minutes, not feeling any better about the situation but definitely feeling better in myself. I always underestimated how good it felt to just tell somebody. We walked to David's office, knowing that he was teaching a lecture but not really having anywhere else to go- we knew that David wouldn't mind. Then, Irina proceeded to make two cups of tea, and sat down on the sofa next to me.

"Do you feel better?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yeah." I said. "Thanks."

She smiled. "You're welcome. It always helps to talk about things."

I sipped my tea. "So you were twelve when you became an Argent?" I asked, the question having been brewing on my mind since she said that to Peter. Plus, I wanted to change the topic of conversation.

Irina smiled, amused by whatever memory I'd reminded her of. "Yes." She said. "My Dreamwalker, Saxon, decided to haunt my dreams even before he'd exposed me to the Black Prometheum."

I rolled my eyes, the memory of Ronan invading my dreams all too familiar. "They can't just, you know, come up to you and introduce themselves, can they?"

She laughed. "No, that would be boring on their part." She said. "I went to a doctor, you know. My mother thought I had something wrong with me when I told her that the man I saw on the street was also in my dreams."

"You told your mum?" I asked, shocked.

"Why, yes. I was only twelve, and I thought there was something wrong with me. Then, when I was exposed to the Black Prometheum, things changed. I stopped getting the dreams for a while."

"Were you stabbed?" I asked, curious.

"Sort of." Irina said, and placed her mug of tea on the coffee table. She then summoned her Black Prometheum, the black sand-like particles gathering between her hands before condensing to form a solid object.

A blade, not too unlike my own, sat in her grasp, but it was straight. Mine was a little curved. Hers was also a bit longer- it looked like a miniature sword, elegant and dainty.

"Ooh, that's pretty." I said, as it lit up a white-blue under her grip.

"I wasn't stabbed, exactly." She said, looking at the blade. "I suppose sliced might be a better way to describe what happened."

My eyebrows shot up. "Ouch."

She nodded. "Yes, ouch." She said. "Although I can't imagine it being anymore painful than yours."

I thought about it. "I guess." I chuckled. "We probably endured about the same."

Irina dropped the blade, but before it could hit anything, it dissolved away again and vanished. She nodded. "Anyway, after that, all the strange stuff started to happen. Saxon would visit me more frequently, trying to tell me that I had control over one of the elements. Eventually, I realised he was telling me the truth. I could control the air around me."

I remembered when I started realising that I could project ice out of my hands. It was a strange few weeks.

"What about you, anyway?" Irina asked. "How did you find out you could control more than one element?"

I wondered how much Irina had heard, and how much of what she'd heard was the truth. I knew I'd been the hot gossip amongst the Argent population- at least, that's how Ronan had put it. The only thing I'd told Irina about my Argent life so far was about how Peter found out about my powers.

"Well, I started off with ice, probably as you did with air." I began. "It happened by accident a few times."

She nodded, understanding.