Kolo didn't bother trying to argue with Qila and Xigon. After the duel she had witnessed, she knew better. Azvalath was another story. She was more than eager to give him grief. Once the Masters dismissed the two of them, she followed him down the stairs and thought about how hilarious it would be if he were to trip all of a sudden.

"So," said Azvalath. "Have Channei and Lalek been treating you well?"

"Yes." She pulled her snow goggles off and shoved them in her pocket. "Though why do you ask?"

Azvalath looked over his shoulder at her. "I know we didn't get off on the best start, but anyone who ends up here is my brother or sister, as far as I'm concerned." He jumped off the bottom of the stairs and ran over to the pool of crystalline water. Styzia's bluehole shimmered red as she joined him. The light from her eyes glared off the water's surface.

She glanced at Azvalath, then back at the pool. "What are you doing?"

Azvalath sat down and gestured for her to sit beside him. She plopped herself down next to him. He dipped his finger in the water. "I get how you feel. Really, I do." His shoulders sagged. He sighed. "Not one of us came here willingly, and anyone who tells you they did is lying."

Kolo cocked her head. "Why not run away, then? I guess you're scared of being hunted down again."

"No, actually," said Azvalath. "All of us are free to leave whenever we want. That's why the bluehole isn't restricted." He flicked the water. "There's no punishment for leaving. Yet no one has ever left because we have nowhere else to go."

Kolo raised her eyebrows. "No one ever?"

"Of course not," said Azvalath. "Out there, we really have no right to live. Our existence blurs the line between mortals and gods. Most people can't accept that." He looked up. "I don't remember where I came from. Only the story that Master Qila told me. First, though, I want you to tell me anything you know about yourself."

Kolo opened her mouth, then struggled for words. "Nothing, really. Just running everywhere from you."

"Do you remember when it started?" Azvalath asked.

She shook her head.

"I remember," said Azvalath. "We were informed that the entire village of Howl Hollow had died in one night, after they had all developed a mysterious sickness that morning. Xigon and Qila went to investigate. The only survivor they found was one extremely damaged girl." He looked at her. "You got away from them, though. That's when they sent me out. I chased you for months."

"Only months?" Kolo looked down at her hand and clenched her fingers. "It felt like forever." She tried to remember a place called Howl Hollow, but as far as her memory went back, no such place existed. For all she knew, Azvalath had made the whole story up. "Is any of that true?"

"I know it sounds absurd," said Azvalath. "I sometimes wonder if Master Qila made up the story about how I got here. I really don't remember it all that well. She told me that my father sought Master Xigon's help in curing me of seizures. He did, of course. And then he and Qila took me away because I'm a descendant of the Iron God." He shrugged. "I don't remember ever having a father. It's been so long. Never remember having seizures, either."

Kolo pursed her lips. Through the ceiling, she heard Master Qila shout something unintelligible. She looked up. "What're they doing up there?"

"Training, probably." Azvalath stood up and beckoned for her to follow him. "Let's go to my room. It's quieter there."

She got up and crossed her arms. "Why not my room?"

"Because I can't let Channei have another reason to accuse me of being a creep," said Azvalath.

Kolo smirked. "You are, though."

"Channei's one to talk." He took a few steps down the hall and then yelped.

She saw him recoil and laughed out loud. "What was that about?"

"There was a rat and I almost stepped on it." Azvalath kept moving. "Ugh, now I have to tell everyone we've got a rat problem again. Jai-Lag is slacking off, apparently."

"Big deal." Kolo rolled her eyes. "I'm still going to my room. I want something out of there." She shoved her way past him and ran all the way to the girls' room, not bothering to wait for him.

He ran after her. "This had better be something important!"

She jumped up the stairs, rounded the corner, and flung the door open. That was when she saw the biggest, ugliest rat she had ever seen in her life. It was sniffing at Channei's notebook. The page was opened to a drawing of a magpie. When the rat noticed Kolo staring, it stood up on its hind legs and gawked like a tiny, scruffy human. Kolo wasn't sure whether to laugh or gag. She ended up making a sound that wasn't quite either.

The rat, startled, leaped over to the window, wiggled through the shutters, and jumped. Kolo ran over to the windowsill and saw the rat fall. Then it spread its little arms wide, and they became wings. Feathers sprouted all over its body. Within seconds, she wasn't looking at a rat anymore, but a magpie.

Kolo's jaw dropped. "What the...?"

The bird disappeared into the clouds without so much as acknowledging her.

Azvalath caught up. "You look stunned."

"I...um, I don't think we have a rat problem," she stammered. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I think that rat just turned into a bird and flew out the window."

Azvalath came over and looked down at the open notebook. "Was the bird a magpie? If so, that was Channei." He picked the notebook up off the floor and flipped through it. "These are her transformation references. She can't shapeshift into an animal – or a person, for that matter – if she doesn't know exactly what it looks like." He set it down on Channei's bed.

Kolo looked out the window again. "What's she doing?"

"Probably something important that's none of our business." Azvalath clapped her on the shoulder. Kolo jolted and nearly smacked him. He recoiled. "Whoa! Sorry!"

"Don't touch me," Kolo growled. Then she picked a bouncing-ball up off the floor and tossed it in the air.

Azvalath raised an eyebrow. "A ball? Really?"

"It's important." She caught it and bounced it off the wall.

Azvalath sighed. "Seriously?"

"Mm-hm." She caught it and bounced it off the floor a few times. "Any questions?"

Azvalath's voice shifted. "Now give me the ball."

Her hand moved on its own and passed the ball to him. He took it from her. She folded her arms. "What's with that, anyway? You command someone to do something and they just...do it. It's not like I actually wanted to."

"It's my power," said Azvalath. "An ability from the Iron God's blood. Just like your telekinesis."

"That's probably an oversimplification," said Kolo. "I can do more than move stuff. I doubt you can do more than throw around ultimatums." She imitated him mockingly. "Now give me the ball."

In a stiff motion, he shoved the ball back into her hand. "Damn it," he muttered. "How could you have figured it out so quickly?"

"Figured what out?" Kolo turned the ball in her hands. "Wait. Oh!" She grinned. "I can do it right back to you! Now sit."

He stayed on his feet. "I'm not a dog, you know."

"So that means it only works if you do it first." Kolo tossed the ball up and caught it again. "Do it again. A few more times. I'm curious about something."

"You sure about this?" Azvalath grinned back at her. "No telling what I might make you do."

"No telling how hard I'll punch you if you make me do something awful," said Kolo.

Azvalath cleared his throat. "Now give me the ball."

She handed it back to him.

"Now sit."

Her legs gave out from under her.

Azvalath looked down at her with a rather insidious smirk. "Now die."

Kolo's eyes shot wide open. "What?!"

"That was a joke," said Azvalath. "A bad joke, I'll admit, but still. I can't command someone to die." He offered his arm. "Your turn, then."

She grabbed his arm and hauled herself back up. "Stick your tongue out." She squinted and waited for him to do it.

"All right. At some point in my life, I'll have to stick my tongue out." Azvalath tossed the ball up and it hit the ceiling with a thud. "The now is important, otherwise you've given me the liberty to do it whenever it's convenient."

She looked at the ball as he caught it. "Now give it to me."

Azvalath picked up his sabretooth mask and handed it to her.

Kolo took it, stared at it, then stared at him. "I meant the ball."

"You didn't specify that." Azvalath took the mask back from her. "If I give someone that command, but don't specify exactly what they're supposed to give me, they theoretically could give me anything." He threw the ball back to her.

Kolo snatched it out of the air. "So, the details are important."

"Yes, absolutely," said Azvalath. "Why don't you show me what you can do now?"

Kolo bit her lip. She imagined an invisible third hand closing its fingers around the ball. Then she lifted it up in the air. The ball hovered in front of her face. She extended the invisible arm until the ball was high above her head, then let it drop. Right before it hit the floor, she caught it and brought it back up. She glanced at Azvalath with a nervous smile. He didn't look terribly impressed.

"That's not all," said Kolo. "Watch this."

She reimagined the invisible hand as a blade and split the ball in two halves. She caught the pieces and pulled them into her physical hands.

"That's interesting." Azvalath didn't sound interested. "Why, though? Now you don't have a ball anymore."

"Why would I not have a ball anymore?" she asked.

"You split it in half," he pointed out.

"So what?" Kolo pictured two phantom hands and lifted both halves. She then brought them back together with extreme force. There was an earsplitting boom and a shower of white sparks. Azvalath recoiled.

She handed him a perfectly intact ball. There was no sign that it had ever broken. Not a scratch to be seen.

Azvalath took it. His expression shifted from one of boredom to one of pure shock. He turned the ball in his hands and his eyes grew wider and wider. "Kolo..." he gasped. "How?"

"How what?" she asked.

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it." Azvalath blinked. "There's not a mark on this ball. And with those sparks, there's no denying that you just used some form of creation power." He tensed. "Only Qila and Xigon have any form of true creation power. Qila, Xigon, and – apparently – you."

Kolo looked Azvalath up and down. "Creation?"

Azvalath grabbed her shoulders. "The masters aren't going to believe this. We've got to show them. Kolo, do you think you can do it again? Anything. No matter how small."

"I don't understand." Kolo backed away. "How's it any different from what anyone else does here? You all have special abilities. I'm just a..."

Azvalath snapped at her. "When in the hell are you going to wake up and realize you're not just anything? You're here for a reason. Master Xigon sent me after you for a reason! Can't you tell me what it was? Why I risked everything to bring you back here, sacrificed what shred of honor I had left? Was it even worth it?"

Kolo shook her head. What little memory she had of anything about herself was all warped and hazy. "I don't know!" She grabbed her lightningfisher tooth necklace. "I don't know where this came from, where my name came from, my power, my anything. I didn't even know until, what – yesterday? – that I'm over two hundred years old! So don't ask me what it was all for. I can't tell you."

Azvalath looked stunned. "That necklace. I didn't notice it before." His expression shifted to one of concern. "But that might be how you survived whatever killed the entire village of Howl Hollow. Are you really sure you don't remember anything?"

Kolo blinked. For a split second she saw a ghoulish smiling face. She jolted and clenched her teeth together.

Azvalath squinted at her. "Well?"

They stood there and stared at each other in awkward silence until Xigon came to the door. "There you two are. I thought I sensed some strange energy. Kolo, what were you doing?"

She turned and raised an eyebrow. "I was just showing Aza what I could do."

"Which, apparently, includes creation." Azvalath pointed to the ball in Kolo's hand. "Did you know about that?"

Xigon stepped closer. His crutches clicked against the floor. Kolo looked up at him. Xigon's eyes were wide with wonder like a young boy. He looked down at her and smiled. "You really are something spectacular."

"I wouldn't know." Kolo tried not to shiver. "But Aza says you can do something similar. Can you show me?"

Xigon handed his crutches to Kolo. She took them awkwardly. Somehow, it felt wrong, like he had just detached his own limbs and asked her to hold them for a second. Then Xigon put his hand on Azvalath's shoulder and leaned so their foreheads touched. "Thank you, Azvalath. Now we'll learn the truth of things."

Azvalath trembled. "Yes, Master."

Xigon let go of Azvalath and turned to Kolo. "I was hesitant at first, Kolo, to do what I'm about to do. Now, I can't deny its necessity any longer. I have to reconstruct your lost mind."

Kolo stiffened. "What?"

Xigon took the ball from her hand. "You used creation power to reconstruct this ball, didn't you?"

She nodded.

"It's the same idea. Right now, your mind is like cracked ice. I didn't want to risk cracking it further. But with a power like yours, you have to know who and what you really are." Xigon knelt in front of her. His eyes turned from brown to deep red like hers, then to a dazzling indigo-violet color. Kolo gasped. It was like looking into a god's eyes.

"Be strong, Kolo." Xigon's eyes widened. He clasped her head between his spidery hands. "This will likely hurt. I'm sorry."

Azvalath threw himself toward them. "Wait, Master! NO!"

Xigon touched his forehead to hers. White sparks erupted between them. It was like being struck by lightning.

Kolo screamed at the top of her lungs.

The world around her shattered into glittering splinters. They pooled around her like sand from a leaking hourglass. They gleamed like jewels in the sun. Then she realized they weren't jewels, but eyes. Thousands and thousands of eyes, and every single one of them stared at her.

She shook her head. Then they all meshed together to form one gigantic blue eye, like the one she had seen during what should have been her death. She stood in the center of its deep black pupil. The Iron God's words came back to her.

I have been waiting for you since I lost my heart.

Her own heart hammered against her ribs. Kolo looked down and saw a harsh blue glow pulsating through her chest. She raised her hands to her face and saw her skeleton through her flesh, brighter than the sun. The light scorched her eyes until boiling tears streaked her cheeks.

She burned with the heat of a god. Why, then, was she so small?

That grinning horror flashed in front of her for a split second. Then there was an explosion of white sparks. Dazzling indigo-violet eyes. Hands on her head. Kolo hit the floor so hard she nearly blacked out. Xigon looked down at her. Azvalath yanked him back. All three of them lay panting on the floor for a second.

Xigon sat up and brushed himself off. "That's enough for today. Process everything and come back to me tomorrow. I can't bring everything back at once without breaking you."

Kolo blinked. Her necklace was scorching hot against her chest.

[13] Kolo: Exposure

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