Blazing Serious (2 page)

“Go ahead, we have things here.” He nodded. “Call your mother if you are going to be late.”

“She is making nine-layered salad tonight. I can’t miss that.” Jimra stepped back into the centre of the street, and she used the heat that she generated to lift her off the ground. She wasn’t sure how it worked, but she enjoyed the freedom of finally being an adult and flying up and into the air.

She soared straight up and let the blast loose in the atmosphere. The flames flared out, and the air caught fire around her before the tendrils faded away. She kept enough heat to support her as she fell back to the spot that she lifted off from.

News vids were being filmed while she dropped back to the cordoned-off space around the house.

“Better?”

She smiled at Graftic. “Better.”

“Have you given any thought to your birthday party?”

“Nope. Turning twenty-three isn’t a big deal.”

“It is a very big deal; it will mean you are finally a full citizen.”

She sighed. “I just want to be able to actually work at this job full time, instead of on a volunteer basis.”

“Your appointment with the hiring board is next week, right?”

Jimra nodded. “It is. The day after my birthday, so I am not too keen on going overboard. I need to be fresh and awake for the interview.”

Graftic nodded. “Fair enough. Low key it is.”

The party was a wild affair with half the hospital and all the off-duty fire officers celebrating her graduation to voting adult of the Lekreaht.

Waking at dawn and preparing for the interview took all of her willpower.

She sat across from the hiring panel with her hands on her thighs, and she listened to the pronouncement.

“Miss Artu, despite your qualifications, this board is unwilling to take you on as a fire officer.”

She stiffened. She had not been expecting that response. “I don’t understand.”

“It has come to our attention that your skill with fire has drawn the attention of arsonists, and they have begun starting blazes just to draw you to the scene.”

Jimra scowled. “I have not seen an arson blaze in the last four months. Not a fire that wasn’t set for insurance purposes anyway.”

“Yes, but four years ago, when you were featured in a news vid, there was. We can’t take the chance of that happening with you being an alien attraction and all.”

There. It was out in the open.

Jimra looked from one uncomfortable face to the next. “So, this has to do with the genetic donor that fathered me.”

Two of the panel blushed. The head administrator cleared his throat. “You know that we don’t offer citizenship to aliens on our soil.”

“I know. I am very happy that my mother managed to keep me on this soil my entire life. I was three weeks along when she returned home, and as far as our laws allow, I am entitled to three weeks off world each year of my life if I choose it.”

She remained seated. “All of the minerals, vitamins and water in my bloodstream come from this planet. You are now telling me that my mind being wired to channel fire is a stigma that you don’t wish the fire office to carry. Be frank.”

He sighed. “Fine, despite your exemplary history, we are denying your application to join the fire office.”

She stiffened her spine and stood. “Thank you for your measured and fair consideration. Good morning.”

She turned on her heel and strode out of the fire office administration building. It was time to make a call.

Jimra looked at her mother, and she smiled. “And now I get to see what you have seen and walk where you walked.”

Orden kept her hand woven with Graftic’s as she sniffled. A far more sober party was underway around them.

Two weeks after her twenty-third birthday, her going-away party was happening.

“I still can’t believe that you have to go.”

Jimra took her mother’s free hand. “You told me when I was little that I would always seek out the fires, seek out things to do and places to go, to find trouble with every step I took. Today is that day.”

“I just always thought you would find somewhere here to fit in.” Orden sighed.

“I thought so, too, and here we are. This is where I fit. These people accept me for whom I am. The rest of the world will be fine. If I can save one more family where I am going, I will consider that I am taking all of you with me on every event.” She grinned, “Well, once I finish my training.”

“You don’t need training. You have already mastered your talents.” Her mother frowned.

“I think I have more to find, and he might be able to help me find it.”

“I don’t like you going to Ypra. You can get lost or you might like it and not come home.”

“This is my home, and I promise to write or make calls as often as I can. I am just moving on to a new career. Consider me going away to college...again.” She grinned.

“I didn’t like it the first time, but this time, you won’t be able to come home on the weekends and work with the fire officers.”

“I am sure that there will be plenty of time for me to work on my fire capability.”

Her mother finally sighed. “Then, I am going to wish you the best of luck and beg you to stay in touch.”

“With that out of the way, we should join the party. Since this is my going-away party, I want to have fun and remember my friends filled with joy for me, even if they don’t want to see me leave.”

The party kicked up into high gear, and it was a hung-over Jimra who arrived at the spaceport the next day.

The emigration officials went through her bags with detailed attention. She had done her research, and there was nothing that they could find to fine her before her departure.

The medical exam was on the order of the Ypra government, administered by an Ypra medic.

Jimra stood in the scanner, and the machine covered her in light before concentrating on her head.

When the medic finished with her scans, blood and tissue scrapings were taken. The surprise on the face of the woman was slightly amusing.

“Pardon me, medic, but why are you so surprised?”

“I did not think...I mean, our people should not be able to breed, and yet, you are definitely half Ypran.”

“Oh. You thought this was a fake.” Jimra finally understood.

Ypra was known for its knowledge, its research and devotion to educating members of other races. Orden Artu had gone there to learn the latest in surgical techniques and had met her Guardian after an earthquake. Their interaction had been short but long enough to produce Jimra.

“I was unsure of how it was possible, but you are living proof. May I be the first to welcome you to Ypra?” The medic smiled.

“Um, thank you, but we aren’t there yet.”

“Just go through those doors and onto the shuttle and you will be in Ypra territory.”

Jimra smiled. “Thanks again. May I ask, why the blood test if I am going to study?”

“As a blooded Ypran, you are entitled to free education, health care and lodgings. We take care of our own.”

“I am only half.”

“Close enough. We take care of our own, and apparently, you are one of ours. Congratulations, a whole world is about to open to you.”

Jimra looked at the interior of the spaceport as she left the medical exam area. She could see the gathering of friends and her family waving her off. She raised her hand and waved at them before heading to the berth where the shuttle waited.

She dashed away her tears before checking herself through the final round of security.

Her bags on her shoulders and her head high, she stepped up the walkway and into the metal vessel.

A smiling face that was vaguely familiar topped the head of a tall man with a lean build, dark hair and pale lavender eyes.

“Welcome to Ypra, Jimra Artu. I believe you know who I am.”

“Guardian Yoris.”

“Correct. Come this way, and I will show you where to stow your bags.”

She swallowed at the first meeting with the owner of half her genetics. It was just as awkward as she had imagined.

It was only a nine-hour flight to Ypra with one jump in the centre of it. The passenger compartment was quiet, and it was only the medic to keep Jimra company. The data pad with information about the benefits of being an Ypra citizen kept Jimra occupied.

“Did you enjoy meeting him?” Medic Tremma asked the question out of the blue.

“What?” Jimra looked up from the list of course outlines for classes starting a week from her arrival at Citadel Ypra.

“Did you enjoy meeting the Guardian? I have friends who would kill to be on this mission, but he only said hello to me and sent me to sit in the back on the way out. The same now.”

“I enjoyed it as much as I expected to. I was surprised to see him here though. He doesn’t look nearly as old as I imagined.” She sighed and tried to get back to planning her studies.

“You imagined him? You know about Guardian Yoris way out here?” Medic Tremma blinked in amazement.

“Yes and no. He is the contributor of that Ypran DNA that you found in my blood sample.”

The medic’s shock was not faked. “Guardian Yoris is your father?”

“Graftic is the closest thing to a father that I have had. Yoris is my genetic contributor.”

The medic stared at her. “He has a daughter?”

“Apparently. My mother was on a medical course during the Mekwil earthquake. She and her class were helping out with the injured and that is where she met Yoris.”

“That isn’t possible. You can’t be twenty-three. I am forty-five and I just reached my maturity.”

“We mature faster than you do. My mother was my age when she went to Ypra. She was a new citizen and ready to learn what she could from your people. She came back with an education and a daughter.” Jimra smiled.

“If you were pure blooded, you would only just be entering puberty.”

“I know. I just read that in the files you gave me.”

“You read that far all ready?”

“Of course. I have already completed three medical courses as well as several on structural engineering. My mother encouraged my love of improving my mind. If I had stayed home, I would have continued my studies in whatever field took my attention.”

“Oh. Why have you decided to go to Ypra then?”

“Well, you have a Citadel and I am interested in increasing my knowledge base as well as control over my talent. I have always had, and probably always will have, a love of learning.”

The medic nodded and then yelped happily. “We are on final descent. Can you feel it? We are nearly home.”

Jimra brought up the view screen and watched the approaching world with its golden and lavender tints. Ypra was her new home, and she was going to have to get used to thinking of it as such. Her past was the past, and she needed to make her own future.

Guardian Yoris was at her side when they went through decontamination protocol, and she had to hand her bags over for the same.

“They will deliver them to the Citadel. I promise that.” His voice was calm, but she could sense a hesitation in his tone.

“You had no idea until she contacted you two weeks ago. Did you?”

He sighed. “I did not even think it was possible. Why didn’t she tell me?”

“There is no stigma on Lekreaht to have a child with only one parent. My mother was a doctor with a good job and a willingness to raise me on her own. She did a good job, I think.”

He smiled. “Did she eventually marry?”

“Yes. I introduced her to her husband when I was thirteen. He was a fire officer and she was working in the hospital when I had to be brought in after an incident.”

His dark brows snapped together. “Did you cause the blaze?”

She laughed. “No. I ate it.”

They were walking past security without bothering to stop. None of them seemed inclined to stop their Guardian.

“You ate it?”

“Thermal control is my speciality, though I have a problem controlling the exact amount that I draw.”

She glanced up at him, and his expression was one of slow delight. “You don’t have to look so pleased with yourself.”

“You are my only child. Your triumphs are my triumphs.”

Jimra laughed and bumped him with her arm. “I fought long and hard for mine. Get your own.”

He paused and looked at her for a moment before he grinned. “A sense of humour.”

“My mother passed it along. She always said that if she hadn’t had a sense of humour, having me would have driven her insane.”

“Were there a lot of incidents when you were young?”

“Enough to make her glad her hair was already pale so that it didn’t turn white.”

He touched her arm as they left the spaceport, which was under extremely heavy guard. “If you look to the left, you can see the Citadel. Would you like to take a skimmer, or I can carry you?”

She smiled. “Can I fly myself?”

He scowled. “You mean the skimmer?”

She reached her hand to the sky and absorbed heat from the sun. It was a trick she rarely used, but she felt like showing off. “No, I can fly.”

“What do you use as propulsion?” He smiled.

“Heat.”

“In that case...” He reached out and took her hand, pouring fire into her.

Jimra’s eyes went wild, but she processed the heat, storing it and using it to lift her off the ground. Yoris burst into a coursing flame, and he lifted off next to her. Together, they flew over the elaborately designed city, across the shimmering amethyst expanse of a lake and to the Citadel of Ypra.

After they landed in the courtyard, she reached up and discharged the unused fire.

“What was that?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t hold power for long. I absorb it and then discharge what I don’t use. If I keep it in, my clothing burns off.”

His eyes went wide. “Well, in that case, your first stop is going to be Outfitting. You will get clothing you can’t burn, and from there, we will begin the rest of your orientation.”

“Shouldn’t I meet with a recruiter or a registrar or something?”

“You are already registered. You have been since two days after I learned about you. The administration knows you are here because I am the administration. I took over command of this Citadel when it was created.”