Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tammy. I just borrowed them for a bit.
Keth was once again waiting for me as I tried to quietly slip outside of my little home in town and out into the brewing storm. Lately he had taken to following me around and annoying me with the same question over and over again.
"Why do you go and stand in the middle of a storm Tris?" Keth asked with a permanently confused expression on his face.
"Because I like the lightening and the wind. You should know this by now." I responded for what felt the hundredth time this month.
"And I suppose you like the freezing rain that's going to make you catch a cold too." He responded quietly making me pause. That was a new answer.
"I'm not sure why this is any of your business" I finally snapped back instantly.
We had long since moved on from being teacher and student. He had already learned all that I could teach him about lightening and now was learning about glass magic from a craftsman here in Summersea. He had elected to join Niko and I on our remaining travels after Tharios and then all the way back to Winding Circle. It was obvious to everyone how cheerful he was to be blowing glass again. A direct contrast to my own personality.
I think the real reason he had originally came along with Niko and I was because he was worried about Glacki, who was also traveling with us until we could get her into some sort of program for academic mages. In the end she made a home at Discipline Cottage with Briars student Evvy. Just like the four of us had done so many years ago.
"It is my business because someone has to take care of you since you seem incapable of doing so yourself. Now please will you answer my question?"
He continued to follow me wearing a waterproof cloak made for him by Sandry out of a dark blue fabric. After a closer inspection of the fabric the first time Keth had showed it to me, I realized that it was one of the special fabrics Sandry had woven herself and hidden along the seams was a lightening pattern in the thinnest silver thread I had ever seen. Most likely some that was some of Daja's work.
I'm not sure Keth had even noticed the design on it yet. He was too flustered at the time about being given a cloak made just for him by a duchess. It didn't matter that she is a stich witch.
Sandry herself seemed very amused by the fact that I had a student who could actually deal with my temper and had made it for him after learning he kept following me into storms for some unknown reason. I keep wondering if she'd make one for me if I asked but she seems to busy lately taking care of the Duke and her own student that I have decided not to ask for the time being.
"If you would finally get over your irrational fear of lightening then you would enjoy them also." I finally snapped back after a moment's pause.
"You still aren't answering my question Tris. You are going to end up catching a cold."
"You will also if you keep following me around."
"Not while wearing this cloak."
At this point we had finally reached the wall looking out over the harbor where Briar, Daja, Sandry and I had once defeated the pirates. The wind was at this point making the waves rough and choppy and we could see some ships anchored further out, waiting for the storm to finally cease. Experience told me that they were in for a very long night. I sent out a little prayer for their safety.
Standing next to the wall, I finally decided to perch on my favorite section, ignoring the fact that water was slowly starting to seep through my dress, and let the gusty wind blow my braids away from my face and wrap around me like an old friend. I held out my hand to catch sparks of lightening on my fingertips like Briar and Rosethorn would catch a butterfly for their gardens. Keth flinched and stood behind me to the left.
"I come out here Keth because it is peaceful to be in the middle of a storm." I finally decided was a good response, hoping the conversation would end here and knowing deep down that it wouldn't. I am all for curiosity except when it's aimed at me.
We both pause for a second afterwards. Keth because he was thinking about what I had said and I to watch Chime fly in between the tiny raindrops, the lightening reflecting off her small glass body and making her appear to be made of rainbows instead of diamond like glass.
"Tris, I am sure you realize that storms cause anxiety for most people." Keth stated more than asked.
"I do" I replied anyways.
"No one in their right mind would ever call being in the middle of a storm peaceful. Not even one of those crazy poets in Tharios" he presses on.
"I do."
"Well, then I still don't understand."
It is at this point I realize that despite my short responses he just won't give up. In some ways he is too much like me.
"I'm not sure anyone but a weather witch could really understand" I finally break down and reply as I turn away from him to face the churning water.
Keth just stands still behind me, his legs slightly spread for comfort and his hands holding his cloak closed, waiting for me to continue and for some reason, unknown to even myself, I do. Thoughts that have always lingered in the back of my mind are finally shaped into words for the first time. For Keth and the storms ears only.
"Storms and I are as similar as two people can be. We have the same temper you see. We snap at people but don't really mean any harm. We both start off strong and slowly wind down until we're exhausted but can borrow strength to carry on from other forces of nature.
We both are temporary and understand that. The storm knows just as well as I that soon after it is finally ended it will be forgotten.
Most importantly the storms don't want to be forgotten.
Some storms are content with knowing that their rains will water the fields and fill up the streams and lakes until they finally cycle back through to the clouds. Others want to continue to live and I can allow them to do that by trapping them in my braids until they can once again be released to help people or to give me the strength that I need to help those people."
At this point if feel as if I am rambling.
But no matter what I tell myself, I know that this is not my only reason. The worst part is Keth knows me well enough to see this and continues to remain silent, waiting for me to decide to continue. I can feel his gaze glued to my assortment of braids that swing free and wild in the gusting wind. I force myself to continue on with what I was saying.
"Compared to the storms I am extremely small and insignificant. People should fear storms more than they fear me." My voice finally cracks. It hurts to admit this.
After a moment of thought Keth replies, "It is human nature to fear what we don't understand."
I know this and Keth knows that I know this. He continues on.
"If people were to take the time to understand storms then it would be different. Just like how I now understand lightening better despite the fear that will always linger from when I was first struck. However, this is difficult to do if the storm doesn't open up first. A person can't always be forced into understanding."
I pause and turn around to stare at him like I've never truly seen him before. The storm is completely forgotten despite the obvious reminders of the cold wind and rain as I gaze into his solemn eyes which are trying to see if I understand what he is really trying to say.
"You took the time to understand me" I finally reply. I know that I am the storm. I would be foolish to pretend otherwise.
"I had no choice" he instantly retorts, catching me off guard.
His response feels like a slap in the face. I start to turn red and feel tears slowly start to form in the corner of my eyes. I quickly turn around and face the water once again before Keth can see what his comment has done. I have always hated when people see me cry almost as much as can't stand the act of crying in and of its self. Too many reminders of when I was a young girl being passed from family member to family member. Chime swiftly flies over and lands on my lap to comfort me.
She reaches up with her muzzle to take in some of my tears. For a fleeting second, I pause to wonder what form they will take when they come back out of the dainty glass creature.
After all the time I had spent with Keth, teaching him to handle his fear of lightening, how to harness his powers and most importantly helping him discover how to make his lightening globes to protect those dancers he cared about, his response leaves me completely stunned.
I had thought that we had grown close on our travels, almost as close as I am to my brother and sisters minus the distinctive magical connection that the four of us wove, that we had a similar relationship to what I had with Niko as student and teacher. I had thought that I had become his mentor once he had learned all he could from me about lightening. A person he could go to for guidance as he waded through the magical world full of more questions than answers.
In my mind he was the first person I had allowed myself to grow close to outside of Discipline Cottage.
I guess I was gravely mistaken.
Keth must have noticed the look on my face before I had turned away because he hurriedly continued on, this time with a noticeable stutter I hadn't heard in his voice for a couple of months.
"You know what I mean. The first time we met you were striking me with lightening to save that abomination that I had unknowingly created- not that that's what I think of it now!" he quickly amends as I stared at him with Chime perched on my shoulder, eyes narrowed.
As I was about to give a nasty response he quickly cut off what I was about to say.
"I was determined that I would have nothing to do with you and that only changed when I met Niko and he told me the same thing that you had. That I was an ambient mage and that the only way I would be able to blow glass again was if I learned to control the half of me that is lightening, and to let you be the one to teach me. Learning to deal with you was the hardest thing I have ever had to learn, even compared to making the lightening globes."
All I could think through my embarrassment and hurt is that this was not how I had expected this conversation to go.
"But I must say it was worth it."
I felt the look on my face soften and immediately felt sorry for my bad interpretation of his previous comment.
I already knew that I was temperamental and hard to get along with even after people knew me as well as I knew myself.
As if reading my thoughts Keth added with a crooked smile ghosting his lips, "it's what makes you Tris."
I'm not sure if he really understood what I was trying to tell him before because at that point the storm was finally dying down and I was feeling the cold.
As we slowly made our way back into town Keth once again appeared deep in thought. It wasn't until he was finally about to leave me at my door that he asked me the last thing on his mind for the evening.
"Why didn't you try to store some of that storm in your braids?"
I was able to respond almost immediately "because it was content as it was."
Keth gave me a warm smiled at that.
As he turned around to make his way back to his lodgings, I swear I heard him whisper "I will never forget you" but I'm not sure.
Either way I stepped through my doorway with my clothes soaked through from the pounding rain, and gave a tiny smile as I gently closed my door against his retreating form.
The next morning Keth, feeling just as well as he had the previous day, found me huddled under my blankets still in my nightdress with the beginnings of a slight head cold from sitting in a soaking wet dress, on a cold and damp wall, in the middle of a beautiful thunderstorm. Shaking his head with a smirk, he left to go find Briar who would undoubtedly give me some sort of green goop that would leave me feeling much better.
I really need to ask Sandry to make me one of those cloaks.
This story originally started out as a conversation between Briar and Tris, but after some thinking decided that it would be better to have it between Keth and Tris. Briar already knew her well enough that there would be no reason to have this conversation in the first place. Keth and Tris is cute anyways.
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Thank you -Ranna