(Takes place ICly on Feb 23rd)

Staring up at the sky above her homeworld, Saiph frowned and brushed damp hair from her face. This was the first time that she’d witnessed any kind of weather up here and she wasn’t sure she liked it. All around, the sky roiled with deceptively pretty purple clouds. And within those clouds, lightning danced and sizzled.

Rubbing absently at her arms as the increased static in the air made the fine hairs along her skin rise up, Saiph wondered at what all of this might mean. Absently, she reached for her phone held in subspace and found the way blocked. Frowning, she reached again and again. Finally, she concentrated as hard as possible and managed to get her phone, though it felt like reaching through old, thickened syrup. Above, the lightning crashed and boomed and Saiph instinctively crouched down.

Keeping her eyes on the sky, she thumbed the phone’s camera on and set it to record some of the strange lightning.

“What the heckass is going on,” she murmured. This is not normal, she was certain. And she knew that Cuan would want notes and observations. So, she’d provide them. Another crackle of lightning seemed to tear open the sky and turn everything white for a breath. At that point, Saiph stopped recording and tucked the phone into her waistband. After the trouble she’d had reaching subspace, she wasn’t about to go through that again. Shaking her head, she turned to move away, wanting to get further in under the shelter of the massive trees. Only, as she moved, she felt her magic fail and for a moment, Esfir stood there instead of Saiph. And as Esfir had chosen to wear a dress that day, there was no longer a waistband to hold her phone and the device clattered to the ground.

Reacting quickly, she scooped it up and turned the video back on and turned it on herself.

“This… shouldn’t be able to happen, should it?” she asked the crackling air that lifted and puffed up strands of her hair. “My power up just poofed all on its own.”

Setting the phone within eye level intertwined branches, Esfir ignored the storm above in favor of withdrawing her henshin pen and powering back up. Only to fail the first time. Her second attempt was more successful and she sighed. Well, at least that was all right now.

Her relief was short lived, though as the purple clouds above seemed to darken and another massive lightning bolt ripped the sky asunder. Yelping, Saiph jumped a little and found herself dodging smaller bolts of lightning as they hit the ground around her before one lanced down and struck her. The burning pain was like nothing she’d ever felt before as she was flung through the air to land a few feet away, floating in and out of consciousness.

The storm itself seemed to pull back after that, the air felt less heavy, but Saiph herself felt strange. She struggled to sit up and once she did, she sat in a crumpled, trembling daze.

In her vulnerable state, a whisper of memory swept up.

She sat in a dark… warehouse? Facing her was an impeccable woman with brilliantly orange hair. She felt guilt, so much guilt for the blood on her hands. Because her magic had helped to kill a boy. Her magic was responsible for two grieving parents being forced to watch their child die.

“Would have let him run, would have let him get away. Should have held on…”

There was no escaping the guilt. With a sudden, wild animal impulse, battered by grief, Saiph threw her head back and screamed, a wordless howl of pain that echoed through the warehouse.

That loss of control was all it took to call up her magic and Tail Thrash, already straining at its bonds, ripped through and roared towards…

“Nealite!” Saiph screamed, sitting bolt upright just as another crack of lightning destroyed the silence. The sound caused her to shriek and lash out magically, still half seeing the strange woman with the flame colored hair.

And when Tail Thrash leapt from her, it was like nothing she’d ever seen. She was used to small, visible tells and well, people being nudged. Nothing all that powerful or frightening.

What she saw on the grounds of her homeworld was a ravening beast that ripped and tore through the underbrush leaving a wake of destruction behind. Shaking and in shock, Saiph stared for a moment before getting to her feet and hunting for her phone. How it had survived the lightning, she didn’t know, but she was grateful. Reaching for it, she froze. Her arm was burned and blistered from where lightning had touched it. And winding up the skin was a mark that looked very much like a snake.

Hands shaking as she grasped her phone, she checked first to make sure that it was working. Then, she silently turned to where her magic had struck and took pictures. She wouldn’t assume that she’d caught everything by sheer luck. Then, she turned the phone on herself and snapped as many pictures as she could at what angles she could manage of her lightning blasted arm and the strange snake.

Once done, she went deep into the trees and curled into a little hollow with the trunk of one. She needed several moments before she could go home. And she did not want to be out in the open as she rested. Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t think. She had another name for Cuan to puzzle over. And her magic… had the lightning done something to it? She wasn’t sure and didn’t want to speculate. In fact, what she wanted, more than anything, was her bed. And to hide under a mountain of plush animals. But, since she couldn’t do that here, she settled for drafting up a report mentally. There was something wrong going on and she couldn’t stay silent. As soon as she got home, she was going to find someone to report to.

Word Count = 1015