A small fire crackled, waking Ezra. He didn't bother to lift his head. He simply curled tighter into himself, as if he hoped to disappear completely.
A voice called form across the fire.
"You finally awake?"
Ezra didn't answer. He only curled further, burying his face into his knees. The memories bled in too fast. Too soon. Ann,White, Mav, Mia. His eyes began to leak. A quiet broken whimper escaped him.
"Stop the water works. You're going to put out the fire."
"Who are you…?"
Ezra words trembled.
"Pedro."
" I couldn't save your friends, but I got them out of the distortion. At least their souls won't turn to ash."
Ezra finally lifted his head a little.
"You got them out…? That's impossible. You can't leave a distortion after entering."
Pedro stood up and dusted off his ridiculously layered outfit. Baggy pants tucked into cowboy boots, a hawain shirt under a unbuttoned waist coat under a blazer, dark glasses and a head wrap. Strange but not insane. Experienced but not senile.
"I can get out."
Ezra stared at him, unsure wether to believe him or laughs at him. He didn't respond.
"You're not going to ask me to leave with you? It's pretty easy."
Ezra turned his gaze upwards towards the pale sky.
"What would be the point? What would I do once I left? Where would I go?"
Pedro flicked his hand towards the fire— it died instantly. He stepped over the fire pit and looked down at Ezra, blocking his view of the sky.
"So you're giving up?"You're what fifteen? And you're already giving up."
Ezra turned away again, this time staring blankly into the trees.
Its sunnier today. The snow looks pretty, almost pretty enough to make me forget this place isn't real. Lyla….
"How many bodies were there?"
The stands in front him again trying catch his focus.
"Three guys, two girls. The distortions weak so you kids must have done some damage to the ashkin, it's hiding somewhere."
So she got away….
Ezra swapped hard.
"You're a sorcerer right? Is it true there is no way to free someone once they have been possessed?"
Pedro walked back and sat down agai, leaning back on his backpack.
"A way to free someone huh….There are theories. But right now? No, not really."
Ezra stiffened.
" we call it exorcising." Pedro added softly.
"But the truth is, some time the best thing you can do for someone who has been possessed is…"
He hesitated.
"Put them down."
Ezra's head dropped again, chin against his chest. He dug his fingers into the ground.
"So that's it…? All there's years of sorcery. All the academies. All the rankings. And we can't stop the one thing that's haunts us the most. We just have to accept there is no way to stop it, that's it?."
Pedro dragged his massive backpack in front him in one lazy motion, unzipped it and pulled out a dented silver flask. He took a sip, then holding it out towards Ezra.
"Soup?"
Ezra didn't look. Didn't even lift his head.
Pedro lowered his flask, unoffended.
"You're wrong kid. There's always a way."
His voice stayed soft but with steel underneath it.
"With sorcerery there ain't a question that's can't be answered. Not one. Because the cosmos?"
He talks his flask against his knee.
"It's infinite. Infinite hides infinite answers."
Ezra dug his hands back out of the snow, rubbing them together. He blew warm air on them and glanced over at the dead fire pit. Pedro smirked and waved his hand toward the pit, reigniting it instantly.
"What is your divine?"
Pedro took of his sun glasses revealing his cloudy, unfocused eyes.
"I don't have one"
Ezra stared deeper into them. But nothing. He really is blind.
"Then… your eyes were your divine? My eyes are my divine. But they're useless."
Pedro lifted his arm raising the fire then lowered his arm again to shrink it back down.
"You can see, can't you? So your eyes can't be useless. And there is no such thing as a useless divine. A divine is just the manifestation of something deep inside you. A desire. You just haven't discovered it."
Ezra lifted his hand towards the flame, trying to mimic what Pedro had done.
Nothing happened.
He waved harder. Still nothing.
Pedro snorted, then broke into fall laugh.
"Hey I thought you were blind." Ezra muttered, cheeks burning red.
Pedro only laughed harder.
"Blind, yeah. But not stupid."
He pointed at Ezra directly. Perfectly, uncannily and a sudden gust of wind whipped past Ezra's ear.
"Want me to teach you?"
Ezra flinched.
" you… want to teach how to use my divine?"
Pedro lowered his hand still grinning.
"No, no. Forget that for now. I'm talking about conversion."
"Conversion?"
"A foundation in sorcery."
Pedro said tapping the ground with his foot as if he was lecturing a class.
"It might just be catalyst in what you need to uncover what your divine really is. And if your eyes are as useless as you claim, the the wind conversions pretty damn handy for feeling out what's around you."
Ezra hesitated. He had nothing left. No home, no future, no Lyla. Only the snow and the numb ache in his chest.
"… I don't have talent." He said quietly.
" buts it not like I have anything else to do anymore."
Pedro slapped his knee and stood up.
"Perfect then we start now."
He stretched his arms out wide, cracking back and letting out a relieving sigh.
"This distortion is weird… you were knocked out for a couple of days in here, but barely any time passed outside. If we're lucky, that means you got time. Enough time to learn. Enough time to walk out of this place with your own strength."
His grin widened.
"Come on, kid lets make sorcerer out of you."
Ezra hesitated, but followed.
They stepped into the quiet forest, snow crunching beneath them.
Pedro stopped suddenly, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile. Like he just remembered something. Or maybe he had been forgetting something.
" Ah… wait."
He turned around to face Ezra.
" I forgot to ask your name."