As Beth watched her friend’s hair shift color slightly, she smiled softly. Jess wasn’t totally aware of exactly which colors changed their hair to certain things, but Beth had been able to gather by now that yellow was good. It usually came about when Jess was happy or more so excited about something. It almost always happened whenever the two of them engaged in combat since the both of them absolutely loved to fight.

Over the years, they had fought probably over two hundred times and, in that time, Beth had come to learn that she was able to read Jess’s mood fairly well during a fight. Although, right now, she didn’t need the fight to do that since they were being fairly transparent right now about the fact that they were thinking about their relationship. Despite how hard she tried not to think about it though, Beth couldn’t stop herself from doing the same.

Jess had grown up here their entire life after Silvia had taken them in, but Beth had come from elsewhere, wanting to be a disciple of the forest. She was happy when she got accepted and was even happier because that was the day that she met them, Jessica Violi. Because of her last name, it hadn’t initially occurred to Beth that Jess was the child of the Sage of the Forest. It didn’t change anything though, Beth was drawn to them. Jess was such a spirited and energetic person. They were outspoken and very straightforward, but they were also quite protective and caring. They had such a connection with nature that Beth hadn’t even believed possible.

All of that had drawn Beth to Jess, but the same thing was happening on the other side. Jess was completely smitten with Beth from the day they met her and before they even knew what love was, they had fallen in to it with Beth. However, it wasn’t until they were around sixteen that Jess had finally confessed their feelings to Beth. Beth was shocked, but after some time, she agreed and they started dating. The two of them had only dated half a dozen people between them before each other, but that didn’t change anything. The two were incredible for each other, but then doubt started to creep in and Beth had decided to end it.

She was scared of losing Jess to something or another, despite the fact they had been together for almost three years. Every night that they went to sleep together, Beth was afraid of losing them and she eventually became far too consumed with her feelings. She told Jess that they needed to end things. Jess was crushed, but Beth tried to stay strong, knowing that it was the best thing for the both of them. But now, every time that Beth saw them, she couldn’t help but feel her heart aching. She wanted so badly to be with Jess again, but she knew that she couldn’t, no matter how much it hurt.

Beth sighed, shaking the thoughts aside and focusing on the opponent in front of her. Jess usually started their matches aggressive, but it seemed like they were talking a defensive stance for once. Beth wasn’t used to offense, but she wasn’t one to allow the opponent to lead the fight either. Beth adjusted her stance, the two circling one another, drawing closer to the center, now only around twenty feet apart.

Beth saw Jess smirk and chuckled before finally taking the initiative and rushing forward. Jess’s stance tightened and they quickly sidestepped, but Beth continued her approach, throwing out a sweep to try and knock Jess off balance, but they planted their feet and held fast. Beth backed up and cracked her knuckles, lunging back forward towards Jess who once again side stepped, but this time, Beth was ready, anticipating the move and catching Jess in the shoulder with a hit.

Jess quickly backed up, gently massaging their shoulder and smiling. “That was a pretty solid hit. You really aren’t holding anything back, huh?” Jess called coyly.

“I’m holding a little bit back,” Beth retorted, lunging forward once more, but this time instead of dodging, Jess caught her arm and threw Beth over their shoulder, slamming them against the ground.

Beth winced and rolled out of the way, her breathing growing a bit heavier. “Guess I shouldn’t be…”

Jess returned to a starting defensive stance, allowing Beth to circle them and decide on her approach, watching Jess’s movements. Beth swapped her stance, allowing her to have one had behind her back without it looking too conspicuous. A small seal formed on her palm, creating a perfectly spherical stone. Beth adjusted their feet once more and rushed forward, using her free hand to throw a punch while the other slung the rock along the other side. Jess blocked both arms, but the rock hit them square in their side causing them to wince. Jess cursed and threw Beth to the side, regaining their composure a bit.

Beth then formed a large seal underneath of her and began to launch a volley of small stones at Jess. Jess started by trying to avoid the stones and get in close to Beth to land a hit on her, but then Beth’s seal shifted in color and she slammed her fist to the ground, a shockwave of branches erupting outwards. Jess once again was forced to retreat.

Beth smirked and shot several waves of sharpened branches after Jess, but their distance allowed them to avoid easily. In the hail of branches, Beth found that Jess wasn’t countering with any kind of magic. That wasn’t unusual though, Jess had never been prone to using magic in any capacity. Since that was the case, Beth changed the seal and began to conjure a hurricane of razor sharp leaves coated in a thin layer of construct magic, allowing them to be more sturdy as they swirled all around.

When Beth was certain that Jess couldn’t see her any more, she twisted the tree underneath of her and dropped down, burrowing a small tunnel in to the tree. She pressed a hand to the tree and closed her eyes, focusing on the surface of the wood, looking for the points of tension, eventually finding Jess and rushing forward, forming a tunnel before leaping up right in front of where she had felt Jess. Unfortunately, when she emerged from the tree, all she found in front of her was Jess’s robe and boots, and a large collection of the sticks and rocks that Beth had shot at them.

Beth’s eyes widened as she noticed Jess just above her, dropping down after having jumped in the air. Jess twisted themself and slammed their foot in to Beth’s chest, knocking her down and across the platform. Jess smirked at her and began to redress as Beth regained her composure, having had the wind knocked out of her thanks to Jess’s kick.

“Had enough or do you want to keep going?” Jess called over as they finished sliding back on their boot.

Beth made her way back to her feet, trying to decide what she wanted to do. At the moment, she wasn’t too injured, but that last blow had done a bit of damage. Despite that, Jess had been on a hot streak recently and Beth was determined to win this fight.

“Let’s keep going. If you’re up to it, Violi!” Beth taunted as she once again returned to the center of the platform.

“Alright. Round two!” Jess shouted, already streaking forward, both fists clenched tightly. They were no longer taking the defensive route, instead opting for their usual offensive approach.

Beth quickly picked up on this and formed a seal on her back to create vines to wrap around her arms and legs. When Jess reached Beth, they didn’t take a moment to wait, immediately throwing out a flurry of punches at blinding speed. Most of the impacts, Beth was able to block, but some went through, however their power was lacking somewhat and they weren’t hitting with a great amount of accuracy.

When Jess launched another volley, this time, the blocked blows stuck, being trapped by a strange sticky substance that had coated the vines. Beth took this opportunity to sweep Jess’s legs and kick them backwards, chuckling softly as Jess skidded to a halt a few feet away.

“Maybe you should try to fight magic with magic, huh, Violi?” Beth called teasingly as she shot her vines forwards for a long distance attack.

Beth’s words rang in Jess’s head, practically deafening, a ringing noise taking over as they found themself more and more disoriented before Beth’s blow struck, not even registering to Jess until it slammed in to their face and sent them flying backwards once more. Jess managed to collect themself enough while falling and was able to readjust and land on their feet, panting as they looked back up to the concerned face of Beth.

“A-Are you okay?”

Jess didn’t respond and instead began running forwards, closing their eyes and concentrating. Small glowing sparks began to flicker on their body as they ran. They focused on the essences flowing within them and then on their heart, feeling the power inside of them. The sparks soon turned to embers of flame before turning fully in to small flames that trailed from Jess’s body. Inside of their body, their muscles began to strengthen and Jess pushed them further and further until they were moving at blinding speed.

Beth’s eyes widened at the sight of the primal flames and she began to form a wall of wood and vines to brace herself, but then she heard something falling to the surface of the platform just in front of her. She dropped the barriers and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the collapsed form of Jess in front of her. Quickly rushing forward, she used a seal on her palm to conjure up some healing herbs which she began applying to some shallow glowing burns and cuts dotted across Jess’s body.

Once the injuries had mostly subsided, Beth picked up Jess and began to carry them towards the edge of the platform. The movement of being picked up caused Jess to stir and they looked over to Beth, still very out of it.

“What happened…? Where are we going…?” they asked, their voice hoarse.

Beth shook her head before setting down Jess, forming a cushioned branch for them to rest against while Beth began to explain. “You tried to use primal magic. I think it worked for a second, but then I guess it cut out and you just… collapsed… Don’t worry… You only have some minor essence burns.”

“I see…”

Beth sighed softly, brushing some of Jess’s hair out of their face. “What is it with you and your magic? As long as I’ve known you… You’ve always been so weird about it. The most I ever see you do is some minor construct magic to augment your attacks or to protect yourself, but usually, you seem to just take the hits and dish them out all on your own.”

Jess averted their eyes. “It’s complicated…”

Beth rolled her eyes. “So you say. But I saw you with a look I’ve never seen in your eyes when I mentioned using magic… That wasn’t a normal look…”

Jess lifted their hand to their face before looking up at Beth. “My eyes are kind of the problem…”

“Why is that? I’m not even sure I know what they do, now that I’m thinking of it…”

Jess nodded. “I don’t really tell people about them… They’re not that complicated, inherently anyway… They’re actually similar to the cursed eye that my aunt Avery used to have… They give me access to a creation and destruction affinity for the blessed and cursed eye respectively,” Jess said, pointing to their left eye and then their right eye.

Beth thought for a moment. “Okay, that doesn’t really seem like a problem… What’s wrong with that?”

Jess shook their head. “Well… Cursed eyes tend to impose darkness on a person and blessed eyes tend to impose light on them… For me… I have both… The effect of it isn’t quite as intense as my aunt… She’s got a whole other thing going on… But for me, when one of the eyes is active, my mind is practically overwhelmed by light or darkness. I basically turn in to a different person, but I’m still me… I’m just… another side of me… For the blessed eye… I become Jessica Emery. For the cursed eye… I become Jessica Demore. One of them is greatly loving and compassionate almost to a fault. One of them… I become… violent… dangerous… unstable…”

“Well then, why not just stick to normal earth magic? Don’t bring any affinity in to it at all,” Beth offered.

“It’s… not that simple… Whenever I use magic… anything other than primal… for a longer period of time, I can feel my eyes each trying to pull me towards them. I’ve tried to master primal essence so I can at least use some kind of magic without them interfering, but I just keep missing something and I don’t know what it is. So I just stick to not using magic. That’s why I train my normal combat so hard. If I can beat magic users without magic… I won’t need magic, ya know?”

“You need to learn to use your magic well. Unarmed combat is only going to get you so far. You’ve got tougher skin than most, but that doesn’t make you indestructible. Why don’t I try and help guide you along with magic?” Beth asked.

“What? Are you serious?” Jess asked, confused.

Beth nodded confidently. “Yes. Absolutely. We’ve got a few months until we would even be put in to the searcher trial, so I can take that time to try and guide you. I’m the best fit. I know you better than anyone and now I even know what you have going on with your magic.”

“Alright… I’ll give it a shot…”

Beth smiled warmly before picking up Jess. “Now, let’s get you home. It’s late.”

“Thanks… Beth…”

“Don’t mention it.”