Powered by Cube

Part Five- Dependence

Vivet let out a tired laugh. "I know."

Lux let his hand fall from his mouth. "What?"

"Come on, you really think your story about your Plant Elemental friend was believable?" She approached him slowly and sat on the ground near him. "There's no way that a Plant Elemental would risk teaching someone else about their craft. We of all people know the risk."

Lux sighed. "That's not what I meant. Yes, I lied about that, it was obvious, but there's a reason this is my fault overall." He took a deep breath. "I stole one of your spellbooks."

Vivet froze, the wind knocked out of her. "You what?"

"I stole your book, Vivet! After the books I had bought from a traveling herbal fair weren't enough, I was frustrated! Because when someone I love is injured, the only thing Light Elementals can do is cauterize wounds! We can't heal, or cure, or do anything plant related! But i pushed on anyways. And look what happened."

"But you didn't know-"

"Oh, I knew, Vivet. I was well aware that only an Elemental who practices too much of another element can pull it off, the swap. And maybe..." he trailed off, his voice breaking. "Maybe the reason I continued was because I wanted Power Swap."

Vivet sat still, confused. "But if you've wanted to Swap for so long, why now? Why today?"

Lux laughed weakly. "You'll just laugh."

"Lux..."

He looked up at her and shook his head, defeated. "It's because of you."

Vivet laughed. "Yeah, sure. Come on, what's the real-"

"I'm not joking." He looked off into the distance. "Clara would always come to visit with stories of her friends, stories of you. And she would tell me about all of the things you would make for her, what you could fix and heal, the skating show you put on the other night... and I would sit, failing to make anything new with the outdated and unhelpful herbal books in my room, and think about what it would be like to really do something like that. To have more than light on your side.

"And I would think to myself, what could I learn from someone like that? What could she teach me to do, to help people, and to be... useful." He looked up at her again. "Because when it comes down to it, you're one of the most powerful Elementals I've ever met." His eyes softened. "When it comes down to it, there's no denying that you're incredible, Vivet."

"I'm not as incredible as you think."

Lux smiled. "Of course you are, you-"

"I'm nothing compared to the others in my village," she retorted, coldly. "The others can change their houses however they like, they can make new clothes seamlessly with only the materials in the trees, they can create massive, incredible inventions and works of art that dazzles the rest of the village, and what do I do? I hide in the woods, I never socialize with them, I make wimpy, uncreative projects that only disguise the fact that I don't know what I'm doing." 

Her voice rose, growing more shaky as she went on. Tears started filling her eyes. "At the time of my creation, I was told who I was, what I would make, and how I would make it, but now, I'm just biding my time until someone tells me what I have to do." Her face was covered in streams of tears. "I'm useless on my own, but I choose to be alone. How pathetic is that?"

Lux's scooted over to her and put a hand under her chin. Pushing up her face, he wiped away a tear. "I don't think that's pathetic at all. What's pathetic is me, sitting here hiding, instead of figuring out what I'm supposed to do."