Lost Tides: Elemental Seekers Series

by H. M. Sandlin

  He wrote that anyone using void for a selfish or harmful cause would forever be bound to the dark magic of void. They would be corrupted until they no longer resembled the person they were before. The next paragraph mentioned the dark magic of void calling out to be used. It said once you used the darkness, it would forever compel you, and no one would be strong enough to stand up to it.

  On the last page, the author wrote that if anyone was stronger than the darkness and could use both sides of void, they would be the strongest elemental the world had ever seen, possibly even stronger than the first elementals that came here thousands of years ago.

  I shut the book and took a minute to collect my thoughts. Things were not looking better. In fact, they were worse than before I read the book. I was hoping that the next book would have better information. I looked at Abby and saw her reading with her brow furrowed.

  “You ok, Abbs?”

  “Yeah, I think I may have something, but I’m not sure yet. I need to check a couple more books first.”

  At least she was making progress. I watched her make her way over to Tider to look at one of the books he had.

  I took a deep breath and looked at the other book on void. I went to pick it up but decided I needed to stretch my legs. I got up and brought the first book on void back to the bookcase and returned to my seat. As I sat down, Sasha walked into the library.

  “Look who I found,” she said over her shoulder gleefully.

  “What did you find?” Sean said walking into the library behind her. “Oh, look what we have here. It’s my half-sister and her dork friends. What are you doing in the library on the weekend?” He grabbed one of the books on Abby’s pile and read the title, “Fire elementals: A beginning, Why are you reading this? You don’t even have fire magic.”

  “She is helping me with my studies since I am so far behind,” I stood up and glared at him. “What are you doing in the library on the weekend?” I shot back at him, “I thought only dorks hung out here.”

  He turned an unusual shade of red and started to stammer, “You…how dare you,” he stomped towards me. “My dad will…”

  “Do what Sean?” Tider interrupted, striding forward.

  Sean took a step back as Tider kept moving closer. “What will he do, Sean?” Tider asked again.

  Sean took a deep breath, “I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be awful,” he sneered and walked quickly out of the library with Sasha falling behind him. She gave us one last glare before the door closed.

  Abby and I looked at Tider, and we both started laughing. “What?” he asked.

  “He is so scared of you. Whatever you did to him must have really scared him. He is such a jerk. Thanks for keeping him from bothering us.”

  I reached out and tousled his hair until he pulled away and glared at me, “I’m not a kid.”

  I couldn’t help it, I started laughing again. “I know, but you remind me of my friend’s younger brother back home.” I tossed my arm over his shoulders, “If I could have a brother, I would pick you.”

  Tider blushed and shook his head. Quietly he said, “I wish I had you as a sister too.”

  I smiled, and then Tider cleared his throat. “I think we need to get back to reading, or we won’t ever be able to help you,” he said.

  We all sat back down, and I looked at the book in front of me. My last chance to learn something about void and how to use it. I opened the book and started reading. Immediately I was swept up into it. The author had void magic and detailed everything about it when she first started using it. The book was like a diary.

  She described the way I saw void perfectly and even how the light magic felt. I read through the first few chapters quickly. She explained how to start practicing with it and the different things it could do. I was jotting down notes as fast as I could, so I would be able to practice this stuff later.

  The author started talking about wanting to try to reach out to the dark tendrils of power that were always trying to be used, but she was still too scared to try. For the next few chapters, she talked about the battle between using or not using the dark. It seemed to always be calling to her even though she had never used the dark before.

  Towards the middle of the diary, she wrote that when she was practicing in the beginning, she didn’t know not to use the dark tendrils. She thought she may have used the dark magic, and that’s how it was able to get a hold on her. As the book continued, her writings started to get more frantic, and she talked of ending her life before the darkness could compel her to do anything terrible.

  She didn’t end her life, though. She wrote that she used dark magic to kill the family of a boy that scorned her for another girl. She gave the girl awful nightmares so she wouldn’t be able to live in peace. The diary ended right after she wrote that down. I wasn’t sure if she ended her life after that or not.

  I closed the book and clasped my hands together to keep them from shaking. There was no way I was going to be able to use void magic after reading the two books. Void was incredibly dangerous magic that no one should have access to, not if it could corrupt someone so easily.

  I needed to go talk to Mr. Connor and see if he found out anything else about the prophecy. I didn’t want to be the one it spoke of. I was totally ok with never using magic again. Maybe there was a way to bind my magic so I couldn’t use it. One of the teachers would have to know a way to help me. As soon as Richard was with us, I would tell them.

  “I think I found something,” Abby yelled.

  “Shhh,” I told her. I didn’t see anyone else, but I couldn’t see the upper level very well.

  “Sorry,” she whispered, “look at this.” She held out the book on water elementals that she was reading. “It says that the water sprites once ruled with the water elementals in Hibernia in a majestic underwater castle.”

  “Where is Hibernia?” I asked.

  “No idea,” she replied. “There’s more. It says to get to their castle, one has to find their way to the western shores to the largest isle. Once on the isle, you can cross the isle on foot through mountains and forests, or boat around to the northwest side. You would know you had the correct place when you saw a small lake separated from the ocean by a stretch of land with steep rocky sides. At that point, you would need to go into the ocean and find the cave below it. That will lead you to the castle.”

  “That doesn’t sound hard to find at all,” Tider said sarcastically.

  “I’m just reading what I found. There has to be a way to find out where this is.”

  “I need a little break from all of this,” I said.

  “Ok,” Abby said and started to put her books away.

  I followed her to put mine away too. When I went to put the book on void away, a chill fell over me. I turned away from it and hoped that it wouldn’t cause me to go crazy like the other girl. I said bye to my friends and left the library.

  I started to consider where the water sprites could be. I typed the name Hibernia into my phone, and a bunch of articles came up for Ireland. It was supposedly called that by the Romans. Now I knew where I needed to start my search. Hopefully, they had the same castle now as they did back then. I wanted to find them.

  I wasn’t sure what was going on or if I was part of the prophecy, but it felt like that is what I needed to be doing. I pulled up a map of Ireland and searched for the largest isle. It was called Achill, and it looked to be fairly rugged terrain in spots. I would have to study the map closer to see if I could find the exact area where I needed to look.

  I wasn’t sure how I was going to get to Ireland if that’s where I needed to go, but I thought maybe if I could go see my parents, I could look around then. I’m not sure how close they were to the island, but I was sure I could get them to take me there as long as they thought it was for sightseeing. I hated lying to them, but they definitely wouldn’t let me check it out if they thought it could be dangerous.

  November had just started and I needed to prove to Mrs.
Sullivan that I was able to control my magic by the beginning of December so she would let me visit my parents for Christmas. I still had a lot of work to do.

  The next couple of weeks passed by in a blur. I was so busy with my regular classes and the extra classes that I barely had time to think. I kept working on controlling my magic. I was getting pretty good at it, but I still wasn’t using void. I wasn’t comfortable with it and didn’t want to make a mistake and use dark magic. Mr. Connor and Mr. Merrem never pushed me to use it either.

  All my powers were growing stronger though I still couldn’t do delicate tasks easily. During the last week of November, I asked Mr. Connor if we could tell Mrs. Sullivan about my progress and see if I could spend Christmas with my family. He said he would invite her down, so I could show her at my next class.

  I could barely wait to show her how much better I was. I knew she would say yes once she saw me use my magic. I had learned to keep it hidden most of the time when I used it. The Pulhu hadn’t bothered me, and even Sean and Sasha didn’t give me much trouble. I thought all the trouble at the beginning of the year was over. I kept my powers hidden from the Pulhu, so they no longer seemed to care about me.

  When my next class with Mr. Connor came, I was ready to impress her and did everything Mr. Connor asked me to do. Mrs. Sullivan stopped us at one point and asked me to lift all the feathers that were in the room up and space them evenly apart in the air. Once I had them in the air, I had to take water from the bowl in the center of the room and make each feather damp. Then I had to use fire under each feather to carefully dry them.

  That was the hardest one to do, and I was sweating from the effort by the time the last feather was dry. For earth, Mrs. Sullivan asked me to make the plant that was sitting on a table grow and unfurl many new leaves to catch all the feathers. When I finally finished and returned everything to normal, Mrs. Sullivan was looking at me speculatively.

  “Well?” I asked, “How did I do? Can I go see them?”

  She sighed and then nodded, “Yes. I can see how hard you’ve been practicing. If you keep this pace up, by the end of the year, we won’t have much left to teach you. I’m still not sure that the Pulhu have forgotten you. The more I watch you grow into your powers, the more I wonder if the prophecy is about you. You can go, but you need to be careful.” I thanked Mrs. Sullivan again, and she told me she would get me the details of the trip by the end of the following week.

  When I got back to the school and found my friends, I told them I would be going to Ireland. They were excited for me but also concerned.

  “I will text you guys every day,” I laughed. “That way, you know I’m being careful.”

  “You better,” Abby smiled. “We aren’t going to be there to keep you out of trouble.”

  “I’m not planning on getting in any trouble. I am just going to see my parents.”

  “And look for the water sprites,” Tider whispered with a frown.

  “Maybe, if I have time.”

  They all looked at me. “Ok, ok. I’m going to look for them.”

  “What happens if you find the true elementals and they aren’t friendly. They are not allowed to be seen by us remember. They might be furious that you came to find them.”

  I shook my head, “I am supposed to find the water sprites, remember. That’s what the paper said.”

  “Who knows where that paper came from. Besides, we don’t know anything about the water sprites or the elementals. They could be in another war for all we know.”

  “I doubt they are in a war. The water sprites help us during our practicals. I doubt they will be upset. Plus, I only want to see if I can find the place. I won’t go into the castle. I will see if it’s there and that’s it. That way we know if we are in the right spot. Like you said, they could have moved to a different spot a long time ago, and we would never know. I might be going to look at ancient ruins.”

  Tider shook his head, and Richard looked even more upset.

  “It will be ok, guys,” Abby told them.

  “I have some things to take care of. I will see you guys later. Make sure you start studying too. End of quarter tests start soon,” Richard said and headed down the hallway.

  “Tider, are you coming with us to start studying?”

  “I need to go take care of some stuff for the holidays,” Tider said.

  Tider left, and we went to the library to study. I was surprised to see a couple of kids sitting around the tables and looked at Abby.

  “The tests in December and June are the biggest tests of the year besides practicals. Everyone studies for them.”

  “Why don’t we go back to my room, it will be less crowded,” I said to Abby. “I am hoping to move up to intermediate studies. That way, I’m with kids closer to my age.”

  “That would be great. By summer, you could be in advanced studies with me.”

  “That’s my goal,” I smiled. “It will be nice to catch up to everyone else.”

  After a while, Abby said goodnight and left for her room. It was still too early for me to sleep, so I took out the prophecy book and translated another page. I hadn’t worked on it as much as I should have, and I didn’t know if I was going to need to be able to read and speak the language, so I resolved to work on it every night.

  I didn’t have much time to hang out with my friends during the week. We were all busy studying, and I was spending even more time translating the book. So far, it hadn’t mentioned anything specific. Only theories on what each line meant, but I was learning the language. I could almost read everything without having to translate it first. I should have a pretty good grasp of it by the time I left to see my parents.

  Mrs. Sullivan called me to her office at the end of the week and gave me the information about the flight. Natasha was going to pick me up and take me to the airport. She still didn’t seem to like me, but she was nicer than the first time I was in the car with her. I had seen her around the school a few times and saw her picking up and dropping off different students.

  She always nodded at me even though she never said hi. Still, I trusted her to get me to the airport without any problems. And it was better than someone I didn’t know or trust. Mrs. Sullivan dismissed me, and I went up to my room. Only two weeks until I went to Ireland. I couldn’t wait.

  We started finals, and I had no trouble getting through them. We wouldn’t get our grades for a few days, but I felt good about the tests and was pretty sure I had passed. Abby wasn’t so sure about her math test, but I persuaded her not to worry about it until the test scores came back. When the results came back, I was surprised I had an A in every class. Mrs. Sullivan sent me a note telling me I would be moved to intermediate classes at the beginning of the next term.

  I went to Abby’s room, and she threw the door open and hugged me.

  “I passed all my classes, even math.”

  “Good job, Abbs,” I told her. “I knew you could do it.”

  “How did you do? Are you moving up in your classes?”

  “Yes. I’m switching to all intermediate classes next term.”

  “We had a great quarter.”

  We both headed down to the common area to see how everyone else did. All the students were celebrating when we got there. It must’ve been a great quarter for a lot of people. Even Sasha and Sean seemed happy.

  “When are you leaving?” I asked her.

  “Tonight. My dad is coming to pick me up. You can meet him.”

  “I would love to meet your dad,” I told her. “I hope you have lots of fun, but it stinks that you’ll be gone so early. I’m going to be here a week without you.”

  “I’m sure Tider or Richard will be here too.”

  “Hopefully, or else I’m going to be super bored.”

  “We will ask once we see them,” Abby said. We stayed in the common area for most of the afternoon celebrating with the other kids while we waited for Tider and Richard to show up.

  “Are either of you staying at the s
chool over Christmas break?” I asked them.

  “No,” Tider said. “I have to go home for the holidays. I don’t have a lot of choice.” He looked upset, and I wondered again how bad his family really was.

  “What about you, Richard?”

  “I’ll be going home for a few days, and then I have other things that I need to do before I come back.”

  “What other things do you have to do?” I asked Richard curiously.

  “Just some stuff,” he replied. He gave me a long look and then looked at Tider. Something was going on with those two, but I wasn’t sure what. I thought it might have something to do with me.

  “When are you guys leaving? I don’t leave till the twenty-third.”

  “I’m leaving Sunday morning,” said Tider.

  “I’ll be staying until then too, Sally,” Richard said.

  “Good, I won’t be by myself the whole time.”

  “What time are you leaving?” I asked Richard. “Natasha is picking me up at five in the morning.”

  “She will be picking me up at the same time. We can ride together to the airport.”

  “I didn’t realize you needed to go to the airport. How far away do you live?”

  “I’m not going nearly as far as you,” Richard laughed. “My family has a place in New York that I’m going to.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Before I could respond, Abby looked over my shoulder and then sprinted around me. I turned and saw a man giving her a big hug. She almost disappeared inside his arms, he was so big. That had to be her father. She looked back and waved us forward.

  “Sally, Tider, Richard, this is my dad. Dad, these are my friends.”

  Her dad shook hands with each of us and smiled at me, “I’ve heard so much about you, Sally. I’m glad I got a chance to meet you. How do you like the school?”

  “So far I’m enjoying it. Abby has helped me get the hang of everything,” I told him.

  “That’s great.” He smiled again. Abby stilled and then closed her eyes and took a deep breath as a tall, gorgeous lady walked towards us.