Not My Magical Destiny Part 3

Not My Magical Destiny part 3

Intro <<previous (part 2) next (part 4)>>

Something happens with Gabriel and he turns to the one person that he feels can help him: Kodi. The bakery is barely fixed and much the same could be said for Kodi.

The grandfather clock had just ticked beyond half past four when there was a knock at the glass door to the bakery. I nearly jumped out of my skin, sending flour skidding across the counter. 

One hand pressed to the glass, Gabriel looked at me pleadingly. I wiped my hands on my apron, the one he had embroidered with my name and a phoenix so long ago. Abandoning the puff pastry mid-roll, I walked over to the door. The lock needed replacing, especially after the fight; it had been finicky before but now I had to wrestle it open without it stealing my keys. The owner of the bakery insisted on keeping it since the mechanism still worked in a pinch and they were hard up on funds after renovating the torn-up booths. Gabe’s throat bobbed as he stepped back from the door. His hair was a bird’s nest, shedding whenever he moved quickly. Whatever poise I had seen when he walked into the bakery two and a half weeks ago had vanished. He looked defeated in a way I hadn’t seen in ages. I spread my arms wide, twitching my fingers towards myself in invitation. He barrelled into my embrace. I stumbled back. 

Softly, quietly, I walked him into the office where there was a beanbag. I guided him onto it and covered him with a fluffy blanket patterned with macarons. I kissed the crown of his head, which still had far too much regrowth.

I whispered, “I’ll be back. I just need to get the quiches into the oven.”

He was too shattered to nod back.

As I rhythmically folded and rolled out the dough, I could barely focus. I hadn’t seen Gabe this distraught since before he had started testosterone. We had spent many nights curled up together or apart, depending on what we could stand. Sometimes he was shaking from the wrongness that permeated his existence in those moments. I’d have to hold down his wrists in a hug so tight I took away his breath. Those days were the hardest – when I had to go home knowing he’d come to school the next day with clumps of hair missing and eyes red from crying and lack of sleep. It hurt me almost as much as it hurt him. 

Of course, he had returned the favor. He had wiped my tears too, had taken up the scissors for me when I finished with his hair. I remember the relief on his face, weight dropping from his shoulders just as it did from his head. That was one of my favorite afternoons with him; both of us sought our joy and helped each other achieve it.

I would do anything for his happiness. 

Finally, fumbling only once at the thought of him crying in the office, I put the pastries in the oven. I scrubbed my hands of flour but it never relinquished itself from under my nails. I hung my apron on its nail so I wouldn’t cover him with more flour. It swung limply next to the mural Gabe painted when I started the job.

He hadn’t moved when I shuffled back into the office. His gaze bore into the wall, staring at nothing through the chibi cupcake calendar. I yearned for a smile from him, wide and true and pulling at the dimple he earned from knocking his head on our treehouse. I flopped down next to him, sending him upward and knocking the blanket to the ground. He made no effort to grab it. I picked it up and tucked it around us. I threw an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into another hug.

Lips pressed into his hair, I ordered quietly, “Tell me what happened.”

Tears dripped onto my collarbone. A sob tore from his throat. He wrapped his arms around me, tight as a limpet, and cried. His breathing was unsteady with gasps wracking his shoulders. It took a lot for him to cry this much. I was ready to kill anyone who did this to him, otherworldly or not. I rubbed circles into his back and tried to keep my breathing as metronomic as I could to give him something grounding, to eventually aim for. 

The quiches were almost halfway done by the time he had calmed down enough to get out a few words.

“It was Idle,” he croaked.

“Hm?” I asked, squeezing his arms once gently. 

He sat back so I could see his face. “Or, Patience.” His expression contorted in pain again. “She was posing as Patience to sabotage my return as Pride.”

“Oh,” I said. She was dead meat. “What did she do?”

“Last night she attacked Envy and made a move for me. But she and her companions always underestimate the others. As soon as she turned her back on Envy, Envy sunk a knife into her back,” he said, monotone. “She retreated and I ran off after that.”

I wiped a tear from his cheek. Quietly, I asked, “And then what?”

“I walked around for a bit.”

“You didn’t go home?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t told anyone but you.”

“Did you at least find somewhere to rest?”

Again, he shook his head. “Couldn’t.”

I gathered him into my arms again, more for my sake than his. I’d never found a greater peace than when I was with him. Gabe had expressed the same to me more times than I could count. So, I let him bask in the feeling before I tugged at his composure with more questions. 

“When you say you haven’t told anyone else,” I began, “are you talking about what Patience did?”

He shook his head.

“You haven’t told anyone about anything? Not the prophecy, not the other world, nothing?”

Gabe nodded and buried his face further into my chest. I didn’t need to see it to know the shame tracing his features.

“Why haven’t you told anyone else?” I questioned, forcefully meeting our gazes. “You were asked not to, but that’s never enough for you. So, why?

Gabriel sighed. He sounded as old as Envy seemed. “It’s dangerous,” he began, “for people outside our circles to know. People don’t hide knowledge well, and most people can’t defend themselves against the forces that seek to keep or disrupt the balance by any means necessary.”

“Okay,” I said, reassuring him even as the floor beneath me dipped. 

He took another shaky breath; it smelled like his mother’s dal, which I knew she hadn’t made in two days. He continued, “I just couldn’t keep it from you. Like I said the first time, we tell each other everything. You’re just so strong, I knew you could handle it. Can handle it.”

When he paused the wheels in both our heads were turning. In very different directions I was sure. I kept my mouth shut.

Eyes sparking weakly, he said, “What if you come with us? You’d be under our protection so I wouldn’t lose you, and you’d be safe. At least I hope. Envy is going to take a while to recover.” His eyes darted around the room and his grip tightened on my hands where they had fallen into our laps. “And it’s my fault. I trusted Idle, Patience, let her tag along with us. She had so many opportunities to hurt us, it’s a wonder she didn’t do it sooner.”

Gently wiggling my hands, I extricated them from his. I placed them on top of his palms, feeling their clammy warmth, trying desperately to soothe his racing thoughts. My mind was reeling from what I had learned. Standing, I said, “You’re not ready to leave yet. You can keep me company until the bakery opens, but then you have to go. I love you and I love having you around me, but I might get in trouble for letting you loiter while customers around. Besides, I’m sure Envy will be worrying, so you’ll need to find her.”

“Thank you,” Gabe said into his knees, which he had gathered to his chest during my proposal. 

He ended up dragging the beanbag into the entrance of the pantry so I could dance around him now and again when I went to grab ingredients. We made some idle conversation, but the weight of his breakdown sat heavy with both of us. Every step I took was weighed down by what was to come, for Gabe or for me.

<<previous (part 2) next (part 4)>>

me as a writer: Oh no I can’t write that, somebody else already has

me as a reader: hell yes give me all the fics about this one scenario. The more the merrier

Expanding a thought from a conversation this morning:

In general, I think "Is X out-of-character?" is not a terribly useful question for a writer. It shuts down possibility, and interesting directions you could take a character.

A better question, I believe, is "What would it take for Character to do X?" What extremity would she find herself in, where X starts to look like a good idea? What loyalties or fears leave him with X as his only option? THAT'S where a potentially interesting story lies.

In practice, I find that you can often justify much more from a character than you initially dreamed you could: some of my best stories come from "What might drive Character to do [thing he would never do]?" As long as you make it clear to the reader what the hell pushed your character to this point, you've got the seed of a compelling story on your hands.

Not My Magical Destiny part 2

Intro <<previous (part 1) next (part 3 coming soon)>>

Gabe brings the fight and some friends to the bakery. How is Kodi coping with these new revelations? Spoiler: not well

After the breakfast rush, I was pulling buns out of the oven when I heard Gabriel calling my name from the shop. Frantically depositing the finished bread on a parchment-lined tray, I rushed to the front.

“Kodi, Kodi!” Gabe panted, rushing into my waiting arms. “I need to hide.” His hair was singed and strange yellow stains somehow showed up on his studded leather jacket. I remembered getting it for him, the beginning of his all-black wardrobe. 

“Anything! Anything. Duck behind the counter.” I shoved him out of sight. Moving to stand at the cash register, I spoke out of the corner of my mouth, trying to be subtle, but not doing well. “Are you allowed to tell me what’s going on?”

“I’m being chased.”

“No,” I snarked, “really?”

He bumped his forehead against my leg. “Idle, Envy, and I were facing off against some goons, but reinforcements showed up. Envy told me to run – I couldn’t handle the fight and it would be easier to retreat in stages.”

“Envy?” I prodded. Explaining things always calmed Gabe down whether they were on topic or not. 

Picking at the fraying edges of my overalls, he began, “Envy’s my mentor. She’s really sweet once she gets to know you, but is a little uptight. She’s been doing this gig for ages and it’s been taking a toll on her. Me showing up is going to do a lot of good, but for now its pretty rough. She didn’t sign up to take on a protege. She’d gut me if she heard me talking about us like that.” He chuckled weakly. 

Gaze narrowed on the street, I ruffled his hair. “I think it’s safe to come out,” I said. Gabe started to stand. “I don’t see anyone coming-”

The door burst open, the bell rang across the room and hit the wall by my head with a clang. Gabe paled, springing into action. His fists glowed purple as his hair swayed in an invisible breeze. Pale, burning gold eldritch silhouettes blew into the bakery. The tables that weren’t thrown against the wall started charring in their presence. Something black and green streaked in behind them. She was difficult to look at, somehow old and young at once, with eyes that had seen millennia. She looked more beaten up than Gabe, black oozing out of a cut on her cheek. 

“Envy!” called Gabe. He strode forward, purple light wavering in formless blades in his hands. “Get Kodi to safety. I run interference better than you.”

Envy raised an eyebrow.

“Please.”

When she spoke, her voice was raspy, with smoke or by nature, I wasn’t sure. “You sure, kid?”

“I’ll be fine,” said Gabe. He shook a fist as the purple flickered in and out of existence. “Idle is on her way, right?”

“You worry too much, Pride,” grumbled Envy. She strode over to me, greasy black hair swinging. A chunk of hair was missing by her ear, burned off. Her nails dug into my shoulder like claws. “Come on, mortal. You cannot handle conflicts of this magnitude.”

The only thing that made me go with her was the concern creasing Gabe’s face.

I stumbled with the force she threw me into the pantry. “Stay here. Don’t leave,” she said, looking at me like I was a fraction of her age and didn’t possess significant intelligence. It was the same look and tone I’d give to a toddler. It made my skin crawl; she was entitled to her unsettling view given what I had understood from Gabe last week. She cast one more glare over her shoulder, saying, “Unless you want to die.”

She seemed to be daring me to leave, seemed to want me dead. I flinched as she slammed the door behind her. I saw it coming, but it made little difference. If that’s how it was going to be, I’d be more than happy to make the feeling mutual. That was only if she wasn’t doing so much to help Gabe and if she didn’t mean so much to him. I had never been good at holding grudges like Gabe did.

A crash rattled my bones from where I sat on a bag of flour. I hoped the bakery could be rebuilt. It meant a lot to me since I started working here over two years ago. There was a flash of white and the sound of something shattering. My pastries had better survive – I had spent too much time on them for them to be covered in shards of glass or incinerated by magic. It seemed trivial to be concerned about desserts, but it was the only thing I could think of without going insane. I recognized Gabe’s cry of pain and resisted the urge to rush to his aid. Metal shrieked and I clapped my hands over my ears; this was going to be challenging to fix. I knew it wasn’t something to worry about, that the world was on the line, but I was trapped in a room listening to destruction I couldn’t see on a scale I couldn’t understand. A wave of blue lapped underneath the door and I instinctively picked up my feet, but the light felt like nothing when I returned them to the floor, even as it curled around my ankles. Something let out a deafening muffled thump and splinters of whatever shattered pattered against the walls, knocking at the door.

Soon after, an actual knock rang out. I jumped a little, but relaxed when I heard Gabe call, “Kodi? It’s okay now.”

I opened the pantry to carnage. Chairs were in pieces, and a figure in braids held a stray leg in front of her defensively. Envy stood in the middle of the room, eyes closed and head tilted to the ceiling. She breathed deeply as her arms stopped smoking and the light died from where it gathered around her fingertips. Running my hands over Gabe, I found a burn on his shoulder and a graze exposed by a rip in his black canvas pants. Pulling him towards the storage closet where we kept a first-aid kit, I passed his leather jacket where it was discarded next to the cash register. The register had miraculously survived with only mildly melted plastic on the side facing the bakery floor. Gabe grunted as I pushed him to sit on a step stool so I could dress his wounds. 

“So,” I said, ripping out a section of tape and sticking it to Gabe’s cheek for safekeeping. His head moved back with the force I applied. “I think I deserve an explanation given what happened to my bakery.”

Envy opened her mouth, the expression on her face guarded and venomous. “Mortal,” she spat as if it were an insult. “It is not in your jurisdiction to–”

“No,” said Gabe, wincing as I dripped rubbing alcohol on his angry graze, “They’re right. And they’re my friend. Kodi is entitled to know about my life, especially when I drag it into their work.”

The only other figure in the room piped up from where she was vainly trying to clear the rubble from the booths, “I think that’s fair enough, Envy.”

Envy shot daggers towards them, snipping, “If you were one of my minions, Idle, you would not speak against me like that.”

“Well, I serve Sloth, not you. Besides, Gabe is the one with the highest authority here. He gets to decide what is told,” Idle, apparently, countered. 

Huffing, Envy bit back what I guessed would be a rebuke about having more experience. 

Gabe ignored her look, deciding, as he so often did, that he was right in his stance. “So, last time, I told you about the big players in the world hidden from you. A while back, I haven’t been told how long, Pride disappeared. She was the authority figure on one side, so everything fell out of whack. Ouch, Kodi!” he yelped as I ripped the medical tape from his cheek to put on the dressing for his graze.  

Our gazes bore into each other. I’m still mad at you, mine said. 

I know, I’m sorry. This isn’t an excuse you deserve. Cutting off our silent exchange, he continued, “Then a little over two months ago, there was a concentrated attack against me by Patience and Perserverence’s goons, and some latent magic was awoken within me. Soon after, Idle showed up, followed by Envy. It turns out I’m some strange reincarnation of Pride. Envy and the others are hoping I restore balance, but it’s been slow going as the world is decaying while I have to learn how to use my powers.”

Towards the tail end of his explanation, my movements had slowed as I wrapped his shoulder up. There was a ringing in my ears as panic clawed up my throat. I tilted my head back to rest against the closet door and closed my eyes. The first-aid kit was an elephant in my lap and against my chest even as it barely reached my knees. My hands dropped from Gabriel’s shoulder. The collar of my purple flannel choked me and my overalls dug into my shoulders and legs. 

There wasn’t a single mark on me. 

I breathed deeply like my dad taught me, slowly tuning back into the conversation. 

Still sounding like she was underwater, I heard Envy saying, “Look… done… listened… me. – never learn.”

I blinked away the tears that had been gathering in the corners of my eyes before the others could see them. Gabe’s face was etched in concern and he lifted his uninjured arm to cup my cheek. “Kodi,” he said, “I think you fainted.”

The world had only just stopped spinning with the implications of his earlier words, so I refrained from shaking my head. “I just need a minute.” I hadn’t fainted and it hurt to see my oldest friend underestimating me. How much had this world changed him?

“I told you not to tell them,” hissed Envy. 

With effort, I pulled my vision back into focus. “You’re being safe,” I asked weakly, “right, Gabe?”

He avoided my gaze. “Yes.”

I jabbed his side, right where he was ticklish. 

“As safe as I can be,” he corrected. “I’m not letting anyone ruin my world or hurt my friends.”

“Okay, okay,” I breathed. There was something still burning in the bakery. If luck was on my side, it wouldn’t be anything in the kitchen. It hurt to look around the wreckage, but I fixed Idle and Envy with a glare. “Does any of your preserving the world involve fixing the mess you made?”

“We’ll do our best!” chirped Idle, picking up where she left off earlier.

Envy sighed, “For someone who means too much to Pride, I suppose. We did bring the fight to you.”

“Thank you,” I said, standing on unsteady legs. “I’ll be in the back if you need me. I don’t think there’s much I can do out here.”

Gabe fell short of grabbing my hand. He stood too and turned away to start on the mess. I let the door swing shut behind me as I tried to let the comfort of the ovens wash over me. My hands still shook.

<<previous (part 1) next (part 3 coming soon)>>

Writing is basically just making up shit and pretending like you knew what you were doing all along when the random pieces you threw in there actually come together well