>>6073545>book reportsI remember completely making up mine, back in middle school. I suppose I was either so good the professor did not catch me or so bad she found my Level 5 autism entertaining.
(the fact I'm now running a quest should provide a slight hint towards the correct answer)
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You go back into your inner world as you get ready for meditation. This time it’s not in order to ask for Sanctions, it’s to visualise your previous memories. The last time you attempted to take part in a molten spring ceremony you had just been forced to join the <span class="mu-i">manipolo</span> — which meant that Soralisa was ignoring you, Salicera just glanced at you from a distance, and Rubida was—
Rubida was the thorn in your side.
Your stomach clenches at the memory of the dark-haired girl leering at you while you stood before the burning pellets, their heat washing over your skin in heated waves. You were supposed to put your hands in there. Your naked hands — Ansàrra would protect you, if you were worthy.
Unlike the Trial of Fire, there was no penalty for withdrawing and no consequences for failing, besides some painful blisters.
You had forced yourself to try. To reach out for the pellets. You had closed your eyes, breathing in the heated air, the smell of iron invading your lungs, making your tongue itch. You tried to get a bit closer. A bit closer. Ignoring the heat that was licking at the skin, the growing pain. You could feel your skin getting redder.
And you withdrew. Your hands pulled back at the last moment, you bowed and ran off in the distance, to sit with your back against a tree, crying.
But that was in the past. Now the same people who did not want anything to do with you before were helping you. You were a bit surprised even by how easy it had been to forgive what had happened.
What mattered in the end, you tell yourself as you wander inside your inner world, was that the same people who did not trust you ended up putting their life in your hands when you were put to the breaking point.
Fire-forged friends, and now it was time to face that fire again.
[cont.]
