The Heart's Fire

The day came to an end after the elves healed the two girls as there wasn't much left to do. Once again, Kies left the room and went up the roof of the inn to sleep on. When he made it outside, he saw that the moon was out. Kies nimbly jumped onto the top of the roof and found a place where people wouldn't see him and lied down.

A lot of things happened today. For starters, he made others aware of his presence. He didn't have a choice since all the fighters in their group went after them during their group fight in the colosseum. It was safe to say that many of them were suspicious of him, and were questioning whether or not he was human. A second thing that happened is that Iris and Wompa now knew that he was a mage as well.

And lastly, the elf... There was a lot he wanted to ask her but held off for the time being. One thing at a time. He had to help Iris save the queen and prove their innocence. After retrieving the fragment from her, he could figure things out from there.

Kies heard a loud clank from behind him and turned to see the window opening up. Cr*p... Kies quickly got up and tried to move out of the way before someone would find him and question what he was doing up here, but his worry disappeared when he heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Hey, hoodie." Iris' head poked out of the window and he looked at him.

"..."

"This is where you say hi back," she informed him of what he was supposed to do in case he didn't know.

"I may be antisocial, but at the very least, I know how to greet people back."

"Then why aren't you saying hi back to me?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Wow! How rude!"

"I don't disagree with that." Kies sat back up as opposed to laying down on the tiles and asked Iris, "What are you doing up here?" Was there something that she wanted or was she just here to bother him? "Well?" Kies asked, waiting for her answer.

"Why are you rushing me? Are you that keen on getting rid of me? It's not like you have anything to do right now, so why don't we just have a normal conversation?" she asked Kies, genuinely meaning what she said.

Kies thought about it for a moment and replied, "Sure, why not." It was true that he wasn't doing anything right now. "What do you want to talk about?" he asked her, prompting her to start the conversation as he didn't know what to talk about himself.

"What I want to talk about?" Iris scratched her chin. She had a lot that she wanted to talk about. Specifically, she had a lot of questions she wanted to asked Kies, but she wasn't sure if he would be willing to answer any of them. But it was worth a try asking, she guessed.

"You're a mage..." she started off with one of the biggest secrets that he had been keeping this entire time but was revealed in order to save her from the poisoned arrow.

"I can't hide it anymore, can I?" Kies admitted that he is a mage. He had no way of explaining or trying to lie his way out of this one after showing it to them multiple times already.

"Thanks for saving us." Iris never had the chance to properly thank Kies for saving her from the arrow nor from the beasts that almost ate her.

"It's my job," Kies told her. He made a deal with Iris and in other to fulfill his end of the deal, he had to make sure that she was alive. But it wasn't like he only saved them because it was his duty. Had it been anyone else outside of Iris, her sister, or Sirks, he probably would have let them get hit by the arrow in order to preserve his secret. Something about Iris dying just didn't sit right with him... He couldn't put his finger on it...

"I see..." Iris sounded a little disappointed to hear Kies' response, but nevertheless, she was grateful to him for saving her and her sister's lives. "I know you probably don't want to answer this one, but..." Iris said, moving on to her second question, "What magic was that?" She really wanted to know since it was her first time seeing magic like that. She couldn't see it at all, nor could she feel it. Was it gravity or space manipulation? She really couldn't tell.

"What's your take on it?" Kies asked back, curious to know what she might think it is.

"Gravity?" she guessed, recalling how the arrow just froze midair and was flung to the side like it seemingly had its gravity changed. If she didn't know better, she would've guessed that it was wind magic but she didn't feel even a trace of a breeze or hear any sound, so it couldn't be that.

"Interesting..." Of course, she was way off the mark, but Kies found it humorous that she would guess that. But in fairness, it was extremely hard to detect his wind magic unless one's magic was on the same level as his. "But no, that is not it," he informed her that her guess was wrong.

Iris pouted. "Will you ever just tell me what the answer is?"

"No." In his opinion, it was already fair enough for him to give her the chance to guess what he is and what magic he uses. If he really wanted to, he could just say no to everything, and not give her the chance to guess at all.

"I see... So, what do you want to do with this Windstone?" Iris pulled out the fragment and held it in her palm. Before, Iris thought that he had no use for the Windstone and was only after it for its monetary value, but after finding out that he is a mage, he probably has some other intention for it. This Windstone was also the reason why she knew that it was not wind magic that he was using, since if it had been wind magic, then he had no use for this thing... Or maybe...

"Actually, what does this thing even do?" Iris changed her question before Kies could respond to the prior one she asked. The Windstone has to contain some sort of a big secret for someone like Kies to want it. She didn't know him that well, but she knew that for a fact.

"What difference does knowing what it can do make to you? You'll have to give it to me eventually," Kies told her. Even if he told her about it now, she will still have to give it to him. So in the end, it didn't really matter whether she knew it or not, as to keep up her side of the deal, she would have to hand it over and Kies wasn't planning on accepting anything else as a reward.

"I just want to know." It didn't hurt to know what the stone can do. In fact, until she had to hand it over, it could help her out with their mission for the time being if she knew its other functions. She pointed this out to Kies but he just shook his head.

"It's better if you don't know. It's complicated."

"Is is that hard to explain?"

"Yes."

Iris took a long look at the Windstone before putting it away. Even though Kies didn't tell her anything about it, she did confirm one thing and it was that the Windstone had some other purpose. It wasn't just used as a catalyst to use wind magic. It could do something else as well...

"Is that all you wanted to ask?" Kies didn't want to be bothered with questions anymore and wanted Iris to leave already.

"Why are you like this?" To Iris, it looked like Kies really wanted to get rid of her to the point that it almost seemed like that he hated her. Actually, it seemed that way to almost everyone. But even if he hated her... Iris didn't hate him...

"Are you seriously asking me that? I can ask you the same exact thing."

"Whatever..." Iris sighed and hesitated for a moment before asking, "How did you survive?"

"How did I survive?"

"Yeah, back then when you were getting swarmed by those beasts. I thought... I thought-" Iris' voice was shaky. She took a deep breath and finished what she was trying to say, "I thought that you were dead."

"Oh, that? Don't worry, something like that won't kill me. I'm not human, remember?" Iris really needed to stop thinking of him as one. Actually... most of the other races would've died in that situation as well. It made sense for her to have thought that he was dead when he was getting pinned down by those animals. But he was alive and kicking and that was all that mattered.

"..." Iris looked like she wanted to say something else but stopped herself. She took a step back through the window and into the attic but stopped herself again. She turned back around but once again, didn't say anything and continued into the attic. Just as Kies thought that she was going to leave, Iris stopped again.

"What are you being so indecisive for? Is there something else you want to ask me?" he asked in an annoyed voice, not understanding why she was acting like this.

"I-" She paused and slapped her cheeks which were flush red for some reason. She then opened her eyes which were filled with determination now and crawled back onto the rooftop with Kies.

"Yes?" Kies asked, waiting for Iris to ask the question that she was so reluctant on asking.

Iris carefully walked over to where Kies was sitting, almost losing her balance and sliding down the rooftop. "Woah!"

"What are you doing!?" Kies grabbed her just as she almost fell over and pulled her to him.

"Phew! Thank you!"

"What in the world were you-"

Kies didn't a chance to finish his sentence as Iris suddenly grabbed him and pulled his face to hers. His eyes widened with shock as he realized what she was doing. After a second or two, Iris pushed Kies away and embarrassingly waddled over to the window, not daring to look behind her at Kies, and jumped back down.

"What..." Kies was still stunned by what just occurred and couldn't think straight. "You-"

"Sorry..." Iris meekly apologized to Kies before running away. Kies heard her footsteps as the princess ran down the stairs, leaving him sitting on the rooftop, staring bewildered at the window where she disappeared down.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!