She was startled awake by the soft creak of her door opening. “Lily?” She settled her racing heart— and the hand that had reached for the airburst talismans she kept by her bed, just in case— as she heard Mimi’s voice. For a second there she’d almost thought that she was about to be robbed… “can I come in?” Laughable, right?
“Sure, sure…” She shifted around in her bed for a moment, yawning for a second as she fumbled with the thick winter covers before just giving up, licking her fingers, and drawing the simplified bright rune on the wall. “What do you need?”
Caught by surprise beneath the rune’s faint, sputtering glow, Mimi’s eyes widened before she flushed red in embarrassment. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were asleep…” at… she checked on her dataslate… half past midnight in the middle of the week? Likely story. “I just wanted to talk for a bit, but I see that I’m not—”
“Whatever. Just turn on the light as you come in, okay?” Mimi grimaced, but acquiesced, slipping into the room and flicking the old light switch with a heavy clack. She liked that light switch. It had a certain… weight to it. Finality. “What brings?”
Mimi closed the door behind her, grabbing her chair and slumping down into it. “Heavens above, I’m going to sound pathetic, but…”
The silence stretched out long, until Lily just rolled her eyes at her long-time… associate. Friend, in a vague sense. “Spit it out already, would you?”
“I feel like I’m falling behind— no, I know I’m falling behind. I’m— you’re practically a cultivator already, and— heavens! Avyr is almost in Opening, which would make him the most powerful person in the entire school. He might already be, in terms of pure qi, the most powerful person— but he’s going to be able to match the councilor, and you can match him and— what am I, compared to that? What can I be, compared to that? I’m not an elite student, but neither am I a bad student…” she slumped, the wind billowing out of her sails. “I don’t even know why I came to talk to you about this. I know you’re not good with this emotional stuff. You’re probably going to say something like ‘just try harder’ or ‘keep going’ or whatever bull-headed stubbornness fuels you more than food.” Lily blushed brightly at that, only for Mimi to groan. “You were, weren’t you?”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Ah… I can neither confirm nor deny the accusations.”
“You’re incorrigible.” She was smiling, though. A somewhat wry smile, yes, but a smile nonetheless. “I… dunno. You’re just so…” she waved her hands, at nothing, at everything, and somehow Lily got the gist of what she meant regardless. “I just feels like… you’re almost larger than life, now.”
“I’m still the same as I’ve always been.”
“Really?” A pause, heavy— she shook her head then, laughing. “Of course, of course— that’s a silly thing to ask. Sorry for waking you— I’m being a bit of a bother, aren’t I? Nevermind, never mind— this whole thing was dumb from the start. I’ll… I’m just going to go.”
Lily opened her mouth, then paused— and by the time she called out for her to wait, she’d already flicked off the light and closed the door and left her once more in the dark, alone.
She fell asleep that night, wondering…
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