Shadow Color

“And that’s why I refused to stop over and deliver my notes to him last night. Wouldn’t you feel afraid to travel across Anecaster by yourself late at night?” Natsuki asked.

Macaria shook her head with a surprised look on her face, “Why would he think that was a good idea?”

Natsuki sighed as she reached for her drink sitting next to her laptop, “Who knows. I would have emailed him the notes, but the internet is down in most parts of the city which is strange. At least there are a select few places that still somehow have service. I’m glad that the Lakeside coffee shop is one of the few places that has service.”

After hearing what Natsuki had said, Macaria was thankful that the coffee shop was one of the select few places that still had service. Her and Natsuki come here often. To them, this was the perfect spot to get together and relax or work on homework.

“I wonder how long it’ll take for them to figure out what caused the outage. There’s this show I recently started watching and I need to watch as many episodes as I can before Stream It removes it from their platform,” Macaria complained as she placed her arms on the table and rested her head on her arms.

Natsuki reached for her navy-blue backpack that was sitting in the chair beside her and began to shuffle through her bag, “Which show are you talking about?” she asked as she pulled a light blue brush from her bag.

“Into the Night. The show where a girl gets lost in the woods at night and stumbles into another world and a celestial fox is trying to help her find these keys so she can return home,” Macaria explained as she fidgeted with the straw in her drink. She then looked at Natsuki who had untied the purple ribbon from her hair and began brushing her long shiny pink hair. “I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never had the chance to see it.”

Just as Macaria was about to speak, a man with light green messy hair walked into the coffee shop. Natsuki noticed she was looking at something behind her. She looked behind her to see who had entered the building as she gathered her hair behind her and tied it back with the ribbon. “Oh, hey Klein,” Natsuki said sounding unamused.

Klein turned to his left and noticed the two sitting at the table closest to the door. “Oh, it’s you, Natsuki,” he replied in the same tone of voice. Macaria sat up and looked at them both. Natsuki had spoken of a classmate named Klein before and how she disliked him. They both are the top male and female students in their class, but when asked who was the smartest out of the two, they would argue and try to tear each other down until someone stepped in and split them up. Macaria had witnessed this once and that was enough for her to see. Klein and Natsuki had started fighting on campus after a new spell craft professor had asked if any of them were unknowns and if so what kind of power they had. That day, the new professor learned that they both had elemental abilities and that a wind and a lightning unknown can nearly destroy the entire campus.

Macaria could feel the tension in the air. She wanted to break them up, but the thought of getting in between two unknowns and being powerless herself wasn’t a safe option. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see one of the staff watching them from afar as he cleaned the counter with a rag. The man looked to be a few years older than her and had short blonde hair with black glasses. His sharp glare was enough to scare her.

“What, are you so far behind that a short outage caused you to come here just to catch up on your work?” Klein asked.

“Oh, no, you’re mistaken. You see, I’m nine chapters ahead of the entire class. If you want to keep dreaming of being the top in the class, you better go home and get to work instead of talking to me.” Natsuki responded bitterly as she stood up from her seat and spun around to face him. Macaria wanted to speak up, but she couldn’t find the words to say without making things worse. She never knew what to say in these kinds of situations. From behind the counter, a woman who had long purple hair and looked to be a bit older than the man behind the counter, approached him and whispered something. The man nodded as the two continued to watch from afar. At that moment, people began to look at Natsuki and Klein who were still arguing. The arguing rapidly turned to shouting and the next thing she knew, Klein and Natsuki both had glowing orbs in their hands. Macaria quickly jumped up from her seat without hesitation and just before she could jump in between them to break up the fight, the man behind the counter quickly leaped over the counter just as a blue- purple aura surrounded his body. He then quickly snapped his fingers; he moved so the fast human eye couldn’t track his movements.

Ghostly looking roman numerals ranging from one to twelve appeared in a circle, just like a clock, for a moment in front of Natsuki and Klein. Then the man suddenly appeared behind Macaria, just before she was able to jump between the two to stop them from attacking each other, he quickly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back. Just as this happened, Natsuki and Klein were frozen in place. The wind orb in Klein’s hand was inches away from Natsuki and the electric orb in her hand was inches away from him.

It took Macaria several moments to register anything that had happened. The man that had pulled her away released her and shot an angry look at the other two who were still frozen in place. “I’ve had enough, I want you both out of my store! There are other places where you can do this, this is not one of those places, do you understand?” he asked in an irritated tone. He waited a few moments before he raised his hand and snapped his fingers which caused Natsuki and Klein to unfreeze and stumble a bit.

“Alight, that’s fair. I’m sorry for my behavior, it won’t happen again,” Natsuki said in a low voice for them to hear.

The man then looked at Klein who look frustrated, “What about you?” the man asked.

“Yeah, sorry. It won’t happen again,” Klein said not making eye contact.

“Good,” the man said before turning around to face Macaria who was now sitting in a chair trying to process everything that had just happened. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” she responded sounding confused. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened.”

“I was able to freeze the two in place before they could attack each other and then I increased my speed to pull you back before you were able to jump between them. I can tell you’re not an unknown, why would you throw yourself between an attack like that? Something like that can cause serious injury or worse.” He then took a step back and shook his head as if something was bothering him. He stood there for a few moments before he covered his face with his hand and walked past the counter and entered the back room. “Don’t worry about him,” the woman behind the counter began, “Simon will sometime become dizzy when he switches from an extreme time freeze to a speedy time skip too fast. It’s a nice skill to have, but it can take a toll on him.”

“I see,” Macaria said slowly as she turned to look at the table her and Natsuki were originally sitting at. Natsuki’s belongings were gone and there was no sign of her or Klein in the store anymore. They’ve must have stepped out while she was talking to Simon. As she looked back to thank the woman, she realized she was gone and wondered if she had gone to the back room to check on Simon. Instead of waiting around for her to return, she decided to grab her belongings and rejoin Natsuki and Klein who were standing outside by the door having a calm chat. They seemed to be on good terms now.

As she finished packing the rest of her belongings, she could hear whispers about the events that had occurred moments ago. “That’s the fourth time this week Simon had to kick someone out,” one girl from the table behind her whispered to the three other girls who were sitting at a table with her.

“Those two really made a scene,” said a boy from a different table to two other boys that were sitting with him.

Macaria slipped her purple and black backpack onto her shoulders before making her way to the door. She looked at Natsuki and Klein’s direction as she pushed open the door. Klein, who was facing in her direction, looked up at her while Natsuki spun around to see who was leaving the store. “We’re sorry with what happened earlier. I guess we both just lost our temper quick,” she said sounding apologetic.

“I don’t know what got into me. I don’t normally lose my cool like that,” Klein said.

Macaria shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. Nobody got hurt and nothing was destroyed. Sounds like we’re not ban for life, I guess.”

“Yet,” Klein muttered under his breath.

Natsuki looked over her shoulder, “You want to repeat that?” she asked in a low voice.

“Well, it’s getting late, and we all hopefully know it’s not safe to stay out after dark, I’m off,” Klein said before he spun around and started down the sidewalk. The streetlamps started to turn on one by as the sun continued to sink behind the horizon turning the sky to a warm orange.

Macaria slipped her backpack off her shoulders and kneeled on the ground as she started to dig through her backpack. After a few moments, she pulled out a dark green jacket and quickly slipped it on. The temperature had dropped drastically since they had first arrived at the coffee shop. “I can walk home by myself. I wouldn’t want you to walk me home since you live in the opposite direction,” she began as she zipped up her jacket and reached for her backpack.

A surprised look came across Natsuki’s face, “Are you sure? It’s nearly dark! If something happens to you, you don’t have any way to defend yourself. I’m fine with the extra steps. Plus, it’s my fault we were out this late- I mean, I never planned to still be out by this hour.”

“I can defend myself, remember, I got this!” Macaria reached into her pocket and pulled out a pocketknife. She then quickly flicked out the blade and showed it to Natsuki. “Well,” she began in a nervous tone, “I’ve actually never used it before, so I don’t know if I really got this.”

“Alright, then I’ll- “Natsuki began before Macaria suddenly cut her off.

“I can still walk myself home! It’ll be fine, I’ll give you a call if something happens, alright? I’ll text you once I’m home. If I call, I need you imminently, if I text, I made it home, got it?”

Natsuki sighed, she knew this was a battle she couldn’t win, “Fine. But please be careful. Even if you think someone is following you or if someone gives you an odd look, call me.”

“I will, good night!” Macaria said before turning around and started to walk down the street. Natsuki watched as she stood at the end of the sidewalk with a group of people who were waiting to cross the street. Once the light changed and the crowd started moving, she continued to watch until Macaria turned down a different street and disappeared behind a building. She wanted to follow her, but she convinced herself everything would be alright and began to start her walk home.