Loosely Lawful | 17

“Like I said,” Sera yelled, “I literally did not know I could do that!”

“Oh sure!” Avon adjusted their grip on one of the many, many shopping bags and whipped around to snarl at her. “Because we all develop fun new powers right when we need them in the height of battle.”

“I have never in my life been powerful enough to do that! You, of all people, ought to know exactly where I started on the whole magic thing.”

“Are we talking about our past now?” Avon screeched back. “Because if we are, then maybe it’s time to rehash a few things!”

Across the street, a pair of parents pushing their pram-bound infants around for an afternoon stroll sent them all dirty looks. They were, admittedly, back in the tranquil, wealthy, professorial neighborhood where Dr. Crev lived. Sera could even see the jut of Dr. Crev’s townhouse above its neighbors, observation deck and all. It probably wouldn’t be good to show up at the door yelling and screaming at each other.

Instead of dignifying Avon with a response, Sera put a hand over her bloodied shoulder and ignored the obvious bait. Better to let them cool down so they could all focus on Kali’s translation ritual as soon as they arrived. She picked up the pace, walking past Avon, though not before they could slip in the last word.

“Oooh, running away again. You know I’m right!”

Avon didn’t know what they were talking about.

With her good arm, Sera flung open Dr. Crev’s gate and marched up the front walk. The door opened for her automatically; someone must have done something with the house’s magical wards. Probably, it had been Kali, who stood in the hallway to the kitchen, looking fetchingly dishevelled.

“Six seas,” she breathed, “not an average shopping trip, I wager? Come in. Try not to hemhorrage everywhere.”

“Hemhorrage is an exaggeration,” Sera grumbled, but she let Kaliko nudge her down a hallway and into what was very clearly the guest bathroom. Avon and the boys tromped in behind them, their footsteps muffled as Kaliko closed the bathroom door and rummaged through the cabinets.

Not sure what to say, Sera started the long, annoying process of unbuckling and shedding her armor. Her shoulder twinged as she reached awkwardly around herself, but she managed to shrug off her pauldrons and unhook her breastplate anyway. Dust and grime wafted off her and onto the pristine, white floor of Dr. Crev’s bathroom, and since Sera had already gotten the place dirty, she figured she might as well rip off the bloodied padding and tunic she wore under that as well.

She dropped onto the edge of the bathtub and twisted around to try and look at the arrow wound.

It seemed messy at first, crusty with the uncomfortable combination of sweat and drying blood, but when Sera looked closer, she saw the wound had already closed. A thick, white scar bridged the skin on either side. She hadn’t even needed to stitch it.

Sera poked at it. The shoulder still ached–her muscles would need time to fully mend–but she was definitely healed. When had she done that?

“Hey Kali, quick question.”

Kaliko stood, first aid kid in hand, and shut the drawer behind her with an efficient bump of her bum. “Yes?”

Chewing on her words, Sera tugged at the now-healed skin to see if it would break. “Have you ever heard of people just like, suddenly having magic they didn’t have before? And maybe power. Like without training or studying for it.”

As she dug through the kit for cleaning wipes and disinfectant, Kali considered the question. “It’s not unheard of.” She turned around and leaned over Sera’s shoulder to scrub away at the dried blood, lips pursing as she likewise found the area well-healed. Kali paused, put down the disinfectant, and slipped her glasses out of her pocket.

She stared at Sera.

“Um. What are you”-

“Well! I suppose congratulations are in order.” Kali tucked her glasses away and set back to work, so smiley she lit up the bathroom.

“Why?”

“You seem to be a potential case of doctrinal revelation. It’s an immeasurably difficult phenomenon to study. It’s a rare cleric who undergoes the process, and an even rarer one who deigns to take notes in enough detail for qualitative or quantitative data. I hope you’ll grant me the privilege of taking a few measurements as you progress.”

With Kali’s torso mostly over Sera’s face and shoulder, it was impossible to make eye contact or in any way convey how batshit and nonsensical the other girl sounded. “What?” Sera said again instead, sounding very intelligent. “Hold on- I don’t- Are you implying I’m some kind of special? That’s crazy.”

“Says the cleric who experienced direct divine contact from beyond the etherial veil! You know some experts hypothesize that fewer have received such visions than undergone doctrinal revelation? Visions are simply easier to record.” She stood, tossed a bloodied square of cotton rag into the garbage, and started wiping more vigorously at Sera’s shoulder with a fresh towel. “Or lie about, I suppose.”

“What even is this doctor stuff?”

Sera could hear Kali’s eye roll. “Doctrinal revelation? The name is so autological I shouldn’t need to explain it. Tell me, did you did experience any new and revelatory thoughts before blasting off magic you’d never been able to perform before?”

“Not particularly.” Sera was pretty sure the only thing in her head had been how unfair it was that the Wildes thought they could get away with attacking people just because they had the money to either cover it up, the money for the best lawyers, and maybe even money to bribe or intimidate the courts in their favor. It wasn’t an original thought.

“You’re thinking too hard.” Kali stepped back and turned around to wash the rag clean in the sink. “It doesn’t have to be a brilliant thought, you know. It’s not very scientific, but my understanding of philosophy is that many important ideas are obvious and often repeated. Your renewed understanding and appreciation of it may be the more crucial element.” She draped the rag over the side of the bathtub and gave Sera one last, long look. “It would be invaluable if you would keep a diary or something during this time. For my research.” And then she strode out the door, leaving Sera in the yawning, empty quiet of Dr. Crev’s guest bathroom.

Sera gave herself a few spare thoughts along the lines of what the hell, Kali? And this is stupid! And I’m still pretty sure there’s no way in the six seas I can be any kind of special. But annoyingly, Kali’s words kept rattling around in her brain.

No, it wasn’t original to think that the things rich people could use their money to get away with were unfair. But it was, maybe, something that Sera hadn’t allowed herself to think about in a long time.

When even was the last time? As a child, she’d been too focused on winning the Kavarn family’s sponsorship to consider how unfair anything was. She’d been too busy in law school, and too tired after she dropped out. But now she’d thought of both the before and after of the event that turned her whole life upside down, and like pulling a thread on a sweater, Sera found she couldn’t stop the memory that came next.

Suddenly, she wasn’t in Dr. Crev’s guest bathroom any more, seated on the edge of an elegant, clawfooted bathtub.

She sat on a sad, dingy bed that sagged under her weight, fingers of one hand wrapped tight in the quilted blanket her mother had given her when she set off from home. She was in that cramped apartment she’d shared with Avon, where they’d licked their wounds together after their first few jobs as a team. She smelled the lavender sachets they each tucked under their pillows, and the spices she’d used to cook their shared dinners. She heard the noisy, raucous street outside their window. And she saw the untidy scrawl of her father’s letter, informing her that her little sister had just passed away.

And she’d known better than her own heart that nothing that the Kavarns did with their money was ever fair, that it had been their thoughtless actions that killed not only Sera’s sister, but a hundred other children in the Kavarn mountain range. For a split second, on her old bed in that dirty apartment building, she’d felt the heat of anger flash through her blood. What could she do with her law degree, once she had it? Could she burn down the Kavarn family? Could she flay them with their own callousness? Could she find justice for every family just like hers?

But her sister had just died, and before the anger could take root, it drowned.