Rory Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 5 of 13

The note came at breakfast, folded under Rory's spoon. Aphrodite's handwriting. *After class. My office. Bring the cat.* The Watcher stood ten paces off, hand near his belt, exactly where he had been since the cloister. Rory pocketed the note. Void jumped onto the bench and pressed his shoulder against her arm. Aphrodite met her at the door in dark robes, sleeves already pushed back. "Private session. You are wasting the school's air with what you leak." She glanced past Rory at the Watcher. "Wait outside." He nodded once and took the wall. The Headmistress led her through a door Rory had not seen open before, down a stair, and out under trees. A small stone arch stood in the green, wrapped in vines. Lanterns burned inside. Void slipped through the arch first, tail high. "A grove," Aphrodite said. "Old. Quiet. It will hold what you spill." She made Rory sit on the moss. "Anger. Show me." Rory thought of the Watcher's boots. Heat rose in her palms. Aphrodite caught it in her own hand like a coin and closed her fingers. The heat went out. "Again. Smaller." They worked until Rory's hands stopped shaking before the flame came. Void watched from the step, eyes bright. They came back the next day. And the next. Aphrodite spoke in short orders. *Pull it in. Hold. Release.* Rory hated how well it worked. She hated more that Aphrodite smiled once, small, when a candle Rory lit did not blow the door off. On the fourth session Aphrodite stopped her mid-breath. "You are shielded enough. The Watcher comes off tonight." Rory looked up. "Off." "Off. You have earned the hall back. Do not make me regret it." Aphrodite's eyes held hers a beat too long. "I would rather reach you first than lose you to what waits outside these walls." By supper the corridor behind Rory was empty. Ten paces of nothing. She kept turning to check. Void wound between her ankles and would not let her stop walking. She found Luna in their room, cross-legged on the bed, brushing her long brown hair. Pink sweater, big smile, the one friend who had never once flinched at Rory's mood. Rory shut the door and sat on the floor. "She let me off the leash," Rory said. "She trained me in a grove. My hands do what I tell them now." Luna set the brush down. "And?" "And she wanted this. All of it. She's not scared of me anymore." Rory pulled her knees up. "Kael said Aphrodite thinks I'm the convergence. Why teach me to hold it steady unless she plans to use it?" Luna's smile went thin, but did not leave. "Then don't show her everything you can do. Keep one thing back. For us." Void jumped onto Rory's lap and settled. Rory nodded. The Watcher was gone. Aphrodite was closer.