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The nation of Zaun was a very different place then it had been years ago. The war made sure of that. But Zaun never had been, and never would be, the kind of place where a teen girl could go walking through the streets alone. At least, not most girls
“Zerianna Crownguard,” came from the mouth of one of these exceptions. She was still charged from getting in trouble earlier, and had resorted to mocking her mother’s speech to vent her frustrations. “I’m tired of having to explain to people that the power grid is down again because my daughter wanted her toast done faster. You have powerful magic, and you need to respect that. You’re big enough now to be responsible for your actions. Go help your mother repair what you broke, with your hands. No magic.”
She let out a huff and kicked a wall as she walked past, cringing a bit as the electricity from her body traveled up the metal plating and shorted out one of the few remaining lights on the street. “Great, now that's my fault too.” She announced to no one as she continued her walk to the power station. She needed to calm down before she got there if she wanted to be of any help, and she did actually want to help, but sometimes it was easier to just stew in her frustration for awhile. The feeling of electricity dancing across her skin, the charge that went all the way to her heart and made the tips of her fingers tingle. It felt right to let her magic flow freely, instead of trying to control it constantly. Lux never seemed to understand that, at least not anymore.
Doing a small spin as she walked, Zeri shifted her focus to her surroundings in search of some kind of distraction. A distraction that came in the form of a yelp, coming from an alley nearby. It sounded like a young girl, which was enough to instantly shift Zeri into serious mode as she rushed toward the sound. Channeling a surge of electricity to speed herself up, she made it to the entrance of the alley and took a second to process what was going on.
There was a girl there, around Zeri’s age, surrounded by five thugs bearing down on her. She had strawberry blonde hair that faded to purple at the end. Hair that even braided lay curled around her feet, putting her mother's to shame in length. Her skin was unblemished by scars and wrapped in a soft blue fabric that looked nothing like the coarse textures of Zaun. She was actually really pretty, and definitely not from around here. That realization made Zeri’s next thought even more concerning. The girl was alone. Zeri never had much concern about going out on her own. She was the child of a Chembaron, The Roar of Zaun at that, and a powerful mage who was known for being accident prone with her magic. It meant people tended to know better than to mess with her. But for someone without her reputation, without her family, even locals tended to avoid being by themselves. Let alone a pretty girl that most definitely didn’t know her way around. Either she didn’t know how dangerous Zaun was, which made her stupid, or didn’t care, which made her crazy.
The yelp came again and Zeri amended her thought, definitely crazy. The girl was clearly in danger, but the sound she made wasn’t fear. She was laughing. Not mocking, no this was a laugh Zeri knew well. The same laugh Jinx had when she was in a shootout and having the time of her life. The same laugh Jinx had when she played with Zeri, dodging blasts of electricity from little hands as she fired back armed with just zapper so there was no risk of hurting her daughter. This mystery girl was having fun as she faced the thugs. That fact alone almost had Zeri turning the other way and leaving them to play, but she didn’t want the girl to get hurt. She also didn’t want to deal with having to explain the bodies if this girl really was like her mom.
“Hey!” Zeri’s voice drew six pairs of eyes. Five that glinted with recognition and fear, one that shown with curiosity and a level of awe. Zeri channeled her power, electricity sparking along the walls and leaving scorch marks near the feet of the five men. “Five on one is hardly fair, why don’t you pick on someone your own size.”
One of the men opened his mouth to stutter out a response, but it was cut off by a squeal. There wasn’t even enough time to blink before the blond girl was standing in front of Zeri. The five men crumpled to the ground behind her, not dead, but asleep. One was snoring rather loudly. Though there wasn’t much time to focus on that as the new girl seemingly shed all notions of personal space. She grabbed one of Zeri’s arms and held it up to inspect it, electricity dancing across both their bodies as Zeri hadn’t had time to calm down after her display of power. And the girl who had now circled behind Zeri, running her hands down the sparking girl's sides, certainly didn’t help. Thankfully, the strange girl didn’t even seem to notice the electricity. “You’re so pretty!” She exclaimed instead. “I’ve never seen someone sparkle like this!”
The girl was all energy, it gave very little time for Zeri’s brain to catch up with the situation enough to form a response. Not to mention it had been a very long time since anyone had called her electricity pretty. Uncontrolled, dangerous, destructive, sometimes useful. But not pretty. Closing her eyes for a second, Zeri tried to pull her thoughts together and off the girl that was still touching her. “What are you doing out here,” seemed to be the most coherent thought she could manage, so she latched onto that.
The girl appeared in front of Zeri again, seeming to bounce right out of the ground. “Hmmm…” She thought for a minute before shrugging. “Don’t know. I’m supposed to do something, but I don’t really know what. I’ll figure it out, till then I get to play. OH! Do you wanna play with me?”
Zeri vaguely registered the fact that the street blacked out completely around her, but at this point she felt it wasn’t her fault. She was almost 18 and, child of a baron or not, she certainly wasn’t immune to having pretty girls ask her if she ‘wanted to play’. Now the still functioning part of her brain could easily tell that this particular girl didn’t mean it in that way, and even if she did Zeri never agreed because her parents would kill her. But the functioning part of her brain didn’t have much authority after hearing those words and getting a better look at the girl that spoke them. Up close this girl was breathtaking, her smile practically sparkling and her skin taking on an ethereal hue where it met Zeri’s electricity. Let alone her eyes, which seemed to shine with more stars than a Zaunite should see in their lifetime. Zeri felt herself nodding long before that functioning part of her brain was able to catch up.
“Oh, what's your name?” The girl asked as she dragged Zeri along the now darkened street by the hand. A touch that distracted Zeri enough for her to miss the fact the girl next to her wasn’t actually touching the ground as they moved. “I’m Zoe!”