The Elemental

by Sara Galadari

  “Let’s go, Elemental 0001. Your training begins.”

  Helia’s stomach growled.

  She was hungry.

  She looked at the young uniformed man standing before her, then at the old man clad in a set of deep velvet robes draped across his shoulders, and then finally at the small bowl of water set in front of her.

  “I know you can do it,” the older man coaxed gently. Helia looked at him uncertainly. His voice seemed kind, but his small, cold, beady little eyes twinkled sinisterly at her.

  She would never forget his face.

  The face of the man who took her family away.

  “I saw her, Professor Neptune,” the young man spoke. “We saw her do it when we broke into the girl’s house. Yun Zeru attested to that already.”

  “Nothing’s happening, still,” the old man replied shortly. He sighed, and then looked at the toddler. “If you make the water move, you’ll get some food.”

  Helia’s stomach growled loudly, as if on cue.

  She stared hard at the bowl of water, unsure of what to do.

  Helia begged the water to do something. Anything.

  Come on. Move…

  She contorted her face and held her breath, her eyes trained hard on the small bowl.

  Nothing.

  She looked at the Professor helplessly.

  He sighed, turning away and walking out of the room. The young man followed.

  “Maybe tomorrow.” The cell’s iron door slammed shut behind them, and Helia was thrown into the cold darkness once more. The sound of the water dripping from the ceiling plinked against the hard floor, and she shifted away from the small puddle.

  Beside her, the puddle quivered, and the drops suddenly froze in place. Her stomach grumbling angrily, she wrapped her skinny arms around her belly, and leaned her weakly head against her knees.

  Helia’s eyes sprung open at the screeching sound of the iron door dragging against the floor, ripping her out of her fitful slumber. She sat up in her small, hard, lumpy mattress, blinking at the sudden light blaring into her dark cell.

  “In you go.” A large man tossed a small figure in, their body landing hard onto the ground. The cell door slammed shut again, and the heavy footsteps grew further away.

  Helia stared silently at the figure laying on the ground, curled up into a ball and whimpering pathetically.

  She cleared her throat, catching their attention. The whimpering slowly stopped.

  The figure uncurled, and slowly stood up. It was a small boy, perhaps around seven years old.

  “Are you okay?” Helia asked. She felt silly asking the question. Of course, they weren’t okay. No one was okay in here.

  He nodded, silently wiping at his eyes.

  Helia looked at his shirt, her eyes catching the ‘0002’ embroidered onto his scratchy uniform.

  “What’s your name?” Helia asked.

  “Inigo. Inigo Erif,” the boy replied, sniffing.

  Helia nodded stiffly.

  So, they found another one.

  She looked at him dejectedly. “No.”

  “No?”

  “Your name is Elemental 0002,” she uttered quietly, turning and settling back into her hard mattress. She closed her eyes, the sounds of Inigo’s soft, desolate crying resuming in the darkness.

  “Your assignment today.” Her superior looked down at her. “Rounds.”

  “Rounds?” Helia mumbled confusedly. “But my duty today is—”

  “Rounds, Elemental 0001.”

  Helia fell silent and nodded, shuffling behind the man.

  “March, Elemental 0001,” the man barked, not turning back. “Like in training.”

  “Yes, Mr. Vega.”

  Helia quickened her pace, matching her steps to the man in front of her, stomping her feet rhythmically against the ground as they entered into the Elites Headquarters. She kept her eyes straight ahead, ignoring the other marching squads making their way across the campus as they stared at her.

  She was beginning to grow used to the stares. Everyone stared at the Elementals. They were a small group, and easy to spot, with their itchy, sandy brown uniform contrasting against the blue uniforms of the Elites. Her eyes shifted slightly over to the thick plume of smoke rising above Polaris’s horizon. It looked like they were putting the Fire Elementals to use again.

  Helia sighed softly, looking straight ahead of her as she continued to march behind Mr. Vega. How many years had it been since she was first taken away? Seven? Eight? Helia tried to count the passing seasons in an attempt to keep track of time, but with the slow additions of the different Elementals Professor Neptune was rounding up, and the powerful displays of controlling the Earth’s elements, the weather and seasons began to meld into each other into one unrecognizable mess. Winters were periodically replaced with scorching heat, and rain fell from the sky in torrential downpours in an unpredictable pattern. Controlled hurricanes and carefully calculated earthquakes tore through the ground.

  Professor Neptune could only find and capture eighteen Elementals, and made sure to wipe out the rest of their families. But the destruction that that handful of Elementals could bring with them shook the world to its core.

  Helia turned her head in the direction of the castle, now standing in ruins. She stared blankly at it as she marched forward, her mind flashing back to the horrible scenes forever seared into her brain as she was forced to invade the castle with her comrades. The castle, which had stood over Polaris for centuries, fell to rubble in their two-day siege. The Royal Family was wiped out entirely, swept away in a blazing fire led by the Erif clan. The walls of the castle were swallowed whole by the earthquakes ripped into the ground by the Areth clan, and their enemies were toppled over like twigs in the harsh winds that the Ria clan brought with them.

  She, as the only surviving member of the Tawer clan, kept watch over the city’s massacre under the watchful eye of General Yun Zeru, forced to drive the survivors into the water and watching them get swallowed into the ocean’s depths.

  Helia’s foot caught over a loose cobblestone, and she stumbled momentarily as she tried to catch herself.

  Mr. Vega paid no heed, striding strongly out of the gates of the Elites Headquarters, heading towards the city. Helia arched an eyebrow, surprised.

  They were deviating from their usual path for rounds.

  She knew better than to question Mr. Vega, however, and kept silent.

  She followed Mr. Vega as they marched towards the castle. She hadn’t been back there in a long time.

  Helia pondered detachedly over the invasion of Polaris Castle. As an Elemental Warrior, she had met her fair share of victims and prisoners of war. Each of the victims who succumbed had their own kind of scream, depending on how they died. The ones who burned had the most wretched screams, their voices reaching peaks of shrill shrieks that rang and pierced through her ears in the most bone-chilling way. The ones who were swept away in hurricanes and forceful gales of wind had their screams taken away from their lungs, their voices swallowed and overpowered by the suffocating howls. The ones crushed under boulders and earth had weak screams, their bodies too weak and quashed by the weight of the Earth to make a sound.

  The sound of people drowning, however, stuck with Helia. She recalled the first time she drowned a targeted victim, and expected them to flail and scream in the same way the victims of the other Elemental Warriors had.

  To her surprise, drowning was quite silent. When people drowned, all of their energy went into trying to breathe and keep their heads above the water. It was very quiet, with their mouths focused on trying to draw in breaths of air rather than scream, only to fill up with water. They pressed their arms against the surface of the water, as if hoping to hoist themselves out of its depths, but alas, their arms splashed and sank beneath the surface, falling uselessly beside them. Eventually, they grew too tired to fight, and their movements became slower, more sluggish. Their heads dipped underneath the water for longer and longer period
s of time, until their heads finally disappeared beneath the surface.

  Yes. Drowning was quite silent.

  Helia’s head lifted as they neared a decaying cottage standing at the outskirts of the fallen castle’s walls. It was overgrown with moss and small sprouts of trees, and its roof looked like it could topple over with just the right gust of wind. She looked warily at Mr. Vega as he led her into the cottage’s entrance. Her skin crawled as she eyed the back of his head nervously, and her marching slowed.

  “Keep up the pace, Elemental 0001,” Mr. Vega ordered, not turning his head.

  He entered, his tall stature disappearing into the darkness of the abandoned cottage. Having no choice, she followed.

  Helia stood in the middle of the cottage, the unfamiliar wooden floors creaking beneath the weight of their feet. She looked to the side, eyeing the toppled over armchairs and overturned tables. The shattered glass of the windows littered the floor, and she heard it crunch loudly beneath Mr. Vega’s feet as he paced the cottage.

  He looked nervous.

  Helia looked at him curiously. In all of her years being commanded by him, she had never seen him look nervous before.

  What was going on?

  Was it another mission?

  Her stomach twisted at the possible proposition.

  Helia opened her mouth to ask a question, but caught herself before she could speak.

  She knew better than to question her superiors.

  She stood, her hands neatly folded behind her back as she silently watched the man slowly walk the perimeter of the cottage.

  Thud. Thud. Thud.

  Helia’s ears pricked, and she frowned, concentrating. The faint sound of another set of footsteps began to draw near.

  The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she felt a chill travel shakily down her spine.

  Who was coming?

  “Vega?”

  Helia turned her head towards the soft voice.

  A woman with long, chestnut brown hair stood behind her. Her soft, gentle doe eyes looked apprehensive as she quietly entered into the cottage. Her clothes were tattered and torn, and covered in grime and dirt. She looked around sadly, as if she was watching the ghost of someone she had once known drift by her. Her eyes rested on Helia, finally.

  “Helia,” the woman gasped, and ran quickly towards her. Helia winced reactively, bracing herself for whatever this strange woman was going to do to her. Her muscles tensed painfully, and she held her breath in anticipation for the pain she knew would come.

  The woman launched herself at Helia, and, to her utter surprise, threw her arms around her, and squeezing her tight.

  Helia stiffened uncomfortably.

  What?

  “You’re safe,” she cried softly against her cheek, her breaths tickling the hairs on her ear. Helia remained still, utterly confounded.

  Slowly, she closed her eyes, and leaned against the woman’s embrace. It had been a long time since someone had held her so.

  “We have to move fast, Tami. Do you have it?” Mr. Vega said shortly.

  Tami pulled back quickly, and ran over to Mr. Vega. She lifted the strap of an old, tattered leather satchel around her neck, and nodded triumphantly. Helia frowned. Where had she seen that satchel before?

  “I have it.”

  “And did you find… it?”

  Tami nodded.

  “Perfect,” Mr. Vega uttered. He looked at Helia, and beckoned for her to come close.

  Uncertainly, Helia walked towards the two.

  A small, almost intact stone basin lay on the ground. Vega grunted, pulling the heavy stone structure towards the center of the room. Helia eyed it curiously.

  “Elemental 0001. Do you know what this is?”

  Helia shook her head no.

  “It’s a sundial,” Mr. Vega grumbled, setting the sundial in place. “Tami, bring it here. We need to make sure it works.”

  Tami rushed towards him and bent down, bringing a small, weathered stone pendant out from the satchel. She placed it in the center of the sundial, and then looked up at Helia. “Helia,” she said softly, holding her hand up to her. Helia blinked. It had been a long time since she had heard someone call her by her name.

  Helia took her hand uncertainly and knelt down. She looked at Mr. Vega uneasily. She had never seen this side of him before. He looked like a completely different person, his usually stern and harsh demeanor melting away into one of concern and trepidation.

  He looked worried.

  Helia looked at the two of them, and then at the stone. Tami pulled out a small, battered journal from the satchel, flipping the pages and tracing her fingers against the faded numbers etched into the book. She nodded, mumbling to herself, and then began fiddling with the stone. A faint clicking noise began to emit from her ministrations, and Helia’s eyes grew wide as a soft, blue light began to glow from within the stone’s center.

  “It works,” Tami whispered, satisfied. She turned to face Helia. “Helia, I know the world’s been unfair to you. And it’s unfair to put you through this all again. It’s unfair to ask you to go through this again. But we have no other choice…”

  Helia looked silently at Tami, uncertain of what she meant. Go through what again? What was she talking about?

  Tami looked at her blank expression, and then shook her head. “Oh, right,” she sighed. “You were too young… Too young to remember…” She looked at Mr. Vega.

  He cleared his throat, and turned to look at Helia. “We don’t have time to explain,” he said shortly.

  “Explain quickly,” Tami snapped, her soft demeanor slipping away as she glared at Mr. Vega. “She deserves to know.”

  Know what? Helia felt the gears in her head go into overdrive as she tried to piece together the cryptic conversation the two of them were having.

  Mr. Vega sighed, and then turned to Helia. “We… We were friends with your parents, a very long time ago. I used to work with your Aunt Miela as a Guardian. She was a good friend of your mother’s. I inherited her files, her work, her investigations, and…it took us a long time to get here.”

  “We had to go undercover,” Tami continued. “With the Elites wiping out the Guardians and taking over Polaris, we had to find ways to survive, and to keep watch over you.”

  Helia shook her head. Keep watch over her? Where were they when she was captured by Yun Zeru and his men? Where were they on those never-ending days of food deprivation and beatings? Where were they during those grueling years of training? During years of abuse? During years of being forced to fight as an Elemental Warrior in Professor Neptune’s ruthless quest for world domination?

  How dare they.

  Anger flared up in her chest, and her hollow, sullen eyes burned furiously with life for the first time in years. She looked at Mr. Vega, and she felt something stir inside her. Uncontrollable rage welled up in her, and she could barely hear their next words.

  “We needed to wait for the right time. The right time to make our move. You’re old enough now. You can do it. You’ve done it once before. You’re going to bend time. You’re the only one who can do it again. It’s all on you. Again.”

  Helia shook her head, beginning to protest. Do what? Bend time? What did that mean?

  Marching footsteps began to sound outside of the cottage. Another squad was making their rounds of the castle ruins.

  “We’re running out of time,” Mr. Vega pressed. “It’s now or never.”

  Tami pulled the satchel over her head. “Don’t you let go,” she urged desperately.

  Helia’s breath caught in her throat at her words. A fuzzy memory surfaced.

  “Listen here,” she whispered, still carefully twisting the pendant around itself, the blue glow growing brighter and brighter. “You see Mama’s bag?”

  Helia nodded her head, still sniffling.

  “Take Mama’s bag—that’s right, good girl. Don’t you let go, all right? Whatever you do, don’t let go. Keep it safe with you.”


  “Okay, Mama,” said Helia, clutching the satchel tightly. She closed her eyes as her mother pulled her hood over her head, pressing her lips to her forehead in a strong kiss.

  She could barely remember what her mother looked like. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to recall something about her face. Anything.

  “Helia, are you with me?” Tami spoke quickly. The marching footsteps were drawing nearer. She looked down at the glowing stone in the sundial, its blue light growing brighter and stronger with every passing moment.

  Tami pulled the necklace around Helia’s neck. “I need you to stay with me, and remember everything that I’m saying, all right?” she said, cupping Helia’s face between her palms. “Everything that you need to answer your questions is in here. She pointed at the satchel. “Don’t you let go of that bag.”

  “It’s up to you to change everything,” said Mr. Vega.

  Helia looked uncertainly between Tami and Mr. Vega. What was happening? She wasn’t ready for this. She didn’t ask for this. “How will I know what to do?” she asked, her voice scratchy and shaky.

  “You’ll know when the time is right,” Mr. Vega replied, his voice low in apprehension. “Trust your instincts. Trust your memories.”

  “What?” Helia shook her head desperately. “I don’t understand. I don’t—”

  Before she could say anything else, the light from the stone overtook her surroundings in a blinding flash, and the world disappeared around her.

  Helia blinked, her eyes adjusting to the dim light around her. She wildly looked around. Mr. Vega and Tami were nowhere to be seen. She looked down at the necklace around her neck, now looking like an ordinary stone pendant, and quickly shoved it under her shirt.

  She was in the same cottage still, but everything seemed different. Instead of the cold, decaying, stony structure, she was sitting in a warm and inviting room. The toppled over furniture previously strewn about was now arranged neatly in the sitting room. A tray with a few empty mugs sat on the table, and a half-eaten biscuit was on a small plate beside one of the mugs. It was the middle of the day, and the sun was streaming into the window, comfortably warming the room. Outside, she could hear the cheerful chatter of some guards passing by, and she strained her ears to hear what they were saying.