Dark Currents: Elementals, Book 1

by Mima

  “Hello, Robert.” Adam went up to the older, hearty man, who could have stepped out of the pages of England’s colonial period, in his khaki jodhpurs and pocketed khaki expedition vest. He had a bushy mustache that flowed into mutton chops, and a thick head of white hair.

  “Safe journey? Would you like refreshment?” the other man boomed.

  The people were drifting to chairs around the table that had to be easily three meters wide. The room was wood paneled with a nice dark oak, and the three chandeliers were crystal. It felt rich, but warm. Her gaze was drawn to the few pure-blooded magicals in the room, a winged gargoyle with adorable little horns, and a gnome, with his bald head and mouth bristling with terrifying spiked teeth. There were precious few of the pure-bloods. She could even be looking at the last of their race. Everyone had interbred with the humans or had evolved into having a humanoid form, like the elves, angels, most demons, and vampires.

  “Completely uneventful, thank you. Yes, I’d love some of Vienna’s famed pastries, and a cup of coffee would be brilliant.”

  Adam beckoned Xia. Markos took her elbow and walked over with her.

  “This is my morphi, Xia, and her advocate, Markos.”

  “Excellent! Excellent! Markos, a pleasure. We are most eager to hear your report, young lady, but surely there is time to treat you as an honored guest. What may I arrange to bring for you both?”

  She didn’t want to be rude and looked at Markos for guidance. She couldn’t go by Adam’s bottomless stomach for what was appropriate.

  Markos gave a small head bow to the older man. She noted Robert had not offered his hand to either of them for the lengthy shake he’d exchanged with Adam. “Coffee would be most welcome, thank you, sir.”

  “I’ll have a cup of tea.”

  Robert turned and rapped on the wall twice sharply. He spoke into the wood. “A pot, a cuppa, and a pastry plate for our guests, Tim.”

  Robert clapped his hands together as he turned to them. “I’d love to toss back a shot or four later tonight. You didn’t happen to bring any Glenfinnan, did you, boy?”

  “No, you old dog. You know Mary told you to stop.”

  Robert pounded Adam on the back between the shoulders. Xia was impressed he held his feet, even though the man was shorter than Markos. “A man can dream! Ho, yes, now here it comes. Let’s get you settled. Here, Markos, and you’re here, Adam.”

  Xia stood rooted while Robert gestured the men to their chairs. Tim, the server wheeling a butler’s cart down the length of the room, was an oni. A pure-blood. One of the most vicious creatures on the planet, he was barely bigger than the cart and muttered darkly over the squeaking wheels. He was green and bulbous, with long curling fangs and five horns and impossibly long, clawed hands. She didn’t think they ever emerged from their subterranean caves in Asia. At least, no one saw an oni above ground and lived. She was consumed with curiosity about how one ended up serving snacks to the Chamber.

  “Thank you, Tim! Well done, yes, excellent.” While Tim was handing the gilt-edged plate of sweets to Adam, Robert picked up the teapot. “Cream? Sugar?”

  “Uhhhhh…no, thank you. I’ll take it plain.”

  He tutted, but passed it to her. The china was delicate. She stared hard at it to keep her eyes off Tim as he went muttering back to the kitchen, the scent of coffee lingering in his wake.

  Robert stepped into her space, delicately herding her to one of the grand high-backed wooden chairs. “Here you are, Morphi. If you would, please.”

  Xia stepped forward, then stopped, belatedly realizing she was being placed at the head of the table. Glancing up, she saw at least forty faces fixed on her in two long rows. Her cup rattled once before she firmed her grip. She was proud of the way she tucked her butt into the chair Robert pushed in for her, and managed to put her cup on the table delicately. Swallowing, she looked at Adam on her left, but he was perusing the tortes. Prince or not, she was going to kill him. Markos sat next to him, and gave her a bracing nod, his hand in a fist on the table.

  Robert stood in front of his chair off to her right. Even though the room was silent, he clapped his hands three times. Xia felt the air squeeze around her head, and her ears popped. A privacy spell.

  “Chamber. Interested parties. Our long-standing ally Adam has reclaimed this lovely morphi, Xia, from Terra. This is the same woman who was able to give us the dreamtime information we had long been missing, enabling the hunt. She has come bearing Terra’s wisdom directly to us.”

  Robert turned, looking down at her, his chest puffed out very hale-well-met. “Xia, I will share that we have already heard the reports of the other three morphi who successfully returned from Terra as well.”

  Three? Only three? Xia’s heart stopped. At least one morphi had lost his or her mind or life to the assignment. She glanced at Adam, who was watching Robert. He sensed her gaze and looked back at her, steady, so contained.

  Robert continued in his booming, capable voice. “In summation of the others’ reports, Terra, too, is waking, probably from all of Aqua’s agitation through its realm. Terra does not fear Aqua, but it does not like her. Terra also told two of the morphi that it could not stop Aqua at this point.

  “Also, you will be happy to know our hunters have two of the six balance traitors in custody. Another has been killed, and two are quite close to being taken.”

  The room erupted with hearty applause. Satisfaction thrilled through her. A morphi so rarely got to see such direct results from her dreaming. She, Xia, with Adam’s help, had dreamed big. Only one of the stupid-heads that started this was left to find. She had no doubt at all that it would happen. The Chamber’s hunters were that good. It was too late for it to really matter, though. They’d done their work and Aqua was on her way up. But to have the most powerful beings in the world applaud her good work was a moment that would hold her in the dark times.

  She flashed a smile at the table, at Adam, who was actually smiling more than usual in return. His handsomeness struck her, the golden hair sparkling, angled face so dear. Markos lifted his clapping hands high when she glanced at him. His smile was so wide, his teeth a white slash in his swarthy face. The applause politely died down, but the swelling in her heart stayed.

  “So now that you know the gist of what we’ve heard, please, add your findings to it.”

  Robert sat. Xia glanced down the acre of gleaming wood and staring faces, and back at her teacup. Adam’s foot stretched under the table to hook around hers.

  She took a deep breath. “There are not four elements. There is only one, and she is Aqua.” There. Her message, so hard won, was free.

  An enormous gasp came from a few people, thunderous silence from most, and two men stood to shout.

  “Lies! Blasphemy!”

  “She’s mad!”

  A swell of murmuring took the room and Robert sighed. Standing, he clapped his hands. They didn’t quiet.

  He clapped and yelled a gruff, “Ho, there. Silence.”

  Another person stood up, hands planted on the table and shouted, “She’s one of theirs, I tell you. That rampart is Aqua’s and the whole team is under her spell.”

  The murmurs rose into a clamor with the high-pitched edge of hysteria. Xia sat shocked at their outbursts. This was not what was supposed to happen.

  A woman rose and pointed at Xia dramatically. “Sweep them. Now!”

  Robert knocked on the table. “Order, I say.”

  The man who had shouted “blasphemy” shoved away from his chair and strode forward down the aisle. Xia went rigid, preparing for a physical attack. As the man came up toward Markos, Markos pushed back in his chair, a long slide from the table. He was holding his coffee cup, his legs outstretched and crossed. He took a sip, staring at the red-faced man.

  “Go sit down, Kendall.” Markos’s voice was not as calm as his posture.

  The only reason Xia could hear his bass rumble was because he was so close. The noise had swelled to a cacophony.

  A
woman on Robert’s other side leaned in and hissed with great malice, “Our world is on the brink and you play little dramatic games. You should be ashamed.”

  Xia swallowed on a Saharan throat. Maybe she should have put some thought into how to say what she needed to say. She’d thought starting with the most basic principle and working to the solution would be appropriate. Obviously, she’d been wrong.

  A man two seats down from hissy-face was on his feet now, yelling that Robert be removed for negligence and incompetence. Robert roared back that he was a little weasel and to put his personal machinations aside. Blasphemer got into Markos’s personal space, a mistake with a minotaur. Markos was on his feet, the coffee tossed in the man’s face. He stood shocked, sputtering. The person watching from next to Markos laughed. Red-face became puce-face.

  Looking wild-eyed at Adam, Xia waited for him to take control of the room. He sat with his hands folded on the table, his brows lowered and jaw tight. A pang pierced her heart. He was mad. Disappointed, hurt. She’d carried news like this inside her and hadn’t shared it. It wasn’t that she’d tried to keep it secret from him, it was just that it had been too overwhelming to try to explain twice. She reached out to him, and he pulled his hands into his lap, at the same time he took his foot from around her ankle.

  Xia felt the room dip and swirl under her. There was now a small crowd around Robert and his accuser, with lots of angry arm movements. People were screaming at each other across the table. Xia felt two inches tall and utterly incompetent. A dozen people down on the left, a white face staring at her caught her eye. He had an elbow on the table, his hand thoughtfully cupping his chin. He was so pale he was probably a vampire. His wink was the last the straw.

  Xia drew in her power, formed the spell, and breathed out her command. “Intentio.”

  For one moment everyone’s attention was forcefully drawn to her, their own voices suspended.

  “Let me finish.” Drat. Her voice shook.

  Immediately some person at the far end shouted, “Absolutely not!”

  And it was all lost again. Feeling utterly sick to her stomach, Xia stood and turned to go back into the cool, crisp salon they’d entered through. She fought not to run, but it was a close thing, as all she could hold herself to was an inelegant scurry.

  The door closed, leaving only silence and a bright, civilized room. The furniture was so proper and formal. The drapes appeared to be real lace. She couldn’t bear it. She left the room. Moving swiftly across the marble foyer, she reached for the ornate brass door handle when Adam’s deep voice froze her.

  “Don’t you dare.”

  Stiffly, she turned. He was in the center of the green room, hands in his pockets, glaring at her.

  “Adam—”

  “You little brat. Wait out here for order to be restored if you must, but you will sit and face the mess you created.”

  Her throat squeezed in regret. The feeling of shrinking continued. “Adam—”

  “No. I can’t listen to you. Sit. Wait. If you truly do have the secret to stopping Aqua, it will be a miracle if they listen to you now, but you must try.” He moved to the window. The harsh electric streetlights were softened by the sheer white curtains. He stared unseeing through them.

  Xia stood in the entrance foyer’s dimmer light. She stood, her heart thrumming, lungs aching. Mess, he called it. The most profound truth of her life had been earned as her very soul hung in balance. She held the secret to a new paradigm of balancing the elements, an entirely different and probably more effective way than the long fight the magicals had always struggled with. Lord and Lady, none of them had been there. None of them knew. None of them could go there, and so none of them could know. Might not ever accept.

  She stood on the cold, empty marble, a step from false freedom, and dreaded the rest of her life. She’d actually thought, naively, stupidly, that they’d believe her. They’d be surprised and nod thoughtfully and adjust their techniques. The Chamber’s mages would get to work creating the necessary ceremony from her information and the world would be saved. Her hand was on her throat trying to hold the bile down.

  There were people in the world who revered not a god or the Lord and Lady or their ancestors, but the Four. A vision of pious religious zealots seeking to hunt her for the rest of her days flashed into her brain. They’d kill her. One man had apparently already had that urge. Markos had stopped that angry man intent on getting to her. Was he okay?

  Her hand lifted up to cover her mouth. Her stomach churned. One moment before she’d blown the world apart with her idiotic statement, she’d known what it was to be respected. She’d basked, so proud. Imagined that the pinnacle of her success was yet to come. Her mind scurried around in circles, seeking a way to undo this. What could she say to take it back? What excuse could she give that would play it for a lie? That woman had said she was playing a game.

  The thought of being viewed as that vain, that awful, chilled through her. But it would be worth it, to give people back their world. To regain her life. She could still tell them the idea for the High Magic that would stop Aqua. As Adam said, why would they listen to her, especially if she recanted? Then everything she said for the rest of her life would be suspect. Her career was ruined. No, she wouldn’t think about that. She’d think about how to share the secret to stopping Aqua. Which wouldn’t make any sense if they didn’t believe her first statement.

  Abruptly, her knees gave out. She caught herself on her hands before she totally fell on her ass, but it was still graceless. Her skirt tumbled and her ankle twisted and the heel of her left hand ached. Gasping, head hanging, hair hot around her face, Xia crumpled in the foyer of the Chamber, and for one pure moment, truly wanted to go back to Terra. In Terra, she was safe. Eternal. Terra was peaceful, restful. Nothing like the frantic nature of Aer or the seething emotions of Ignis. Nothing like the vicious, voracious soul of Aqua. Aqua that was rising, waking, to destroy the world.

  Adam was in the doorway. Like the foyer’s marble parquet floor was some sort of barrier, he didn’t come to her. His hands were back in his pockets. “Don’t start crying. Pull yourself together. Think, for a change. Get off the floor and sit in here while you wait.” He turned away. Stalked away. Might as well have shook his feet like a disgusted cat.

  Adam. Losing his regard was a harpoon in the gut. She wanted to weep. To lay prostrate on the cold marble and disappear in a storm of horrified sorrow. For several long moments, she thought she wouldn’t be able to keep from doing that. But the sounds of her gasping lungs steadied, and she rocked up onto her knees. Standing was hard. Walking on shaking legs back into the room with him was the bravest thing she’d ever done.

  She knew this feeling of utter worthlessness. It was what she’d lived with for almost a year after ghosting into that bitch Aqua. Aqua had sucked the life out of her, and the reconnection with Ry had been so horrible she’d had to fight for every scrap of confidence again. This was just like that.

  The room had three seating options. Deciding between the backless bench, the couch or the wing-back chair seemed crucial. The sofa meant someone could join her. The bench seemed too exposed. She tottered to the chair and collapsed. Adam remained at the window, staring out. His back was broad, his shoulders vast above his tight ass. His legs were thick and long, his hair covering the collar of his tee.

  I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t think it would be this way. Don’t be mad. She breathed through the pain. Think, Xia. She couldn’t. She sat there until her ass went numb, but her brain was just locked on replaying the horror after her announcement. It was a long while later when the door to the Chamber’s room opened to her left. Robert stood in the doorway, flushed and glowering, bushy white eyebrows tight together. The murmuring of voices behind him was reminiscent of the first time she’d gone in, but the energy of the crowd was still high. With utter relief, Xia noted the emotions seemed to have been settled and rational behavior restored. Robert, Markos and a female elf came through
the door and closed it. Markos put Xia’s teacup on the table by her arm. He pulled the bench over near her and sat, glancing once disdainfully at Adam’s back.

  “All right, Xia?” he asked, his huge hand settling over hers, clasped tightly in her lap.

  She just looked at him incredulously.

  He squeezed his hand on hers and let go. The elf sat on the couch and stared at her thoughtfully. Xia couldn’t hold her lovely green gaze. Robert paced agitatedly around the room. They all watched him for a few minutes, before he was able to stop and focus on Xia. She dragged her gaze up to meet his. His now shockingly orange pupils were star-shaped. This man was a dragon.

  His question caught her unprepared. “How do we stop Aqua?”

  Xia’s throat swelled shut. Blinking to hold back the tears, she sat like a useless lump in her chair. Breathing through her panic, she managed to croak out, “Steam.”

  Robert began to pace around the room again. The elf relaxed back in the corner of the couch, now stroking her lips in an oddly seductive manner. Markos grew stiffer beside her.

  The elf said something in Gaelic. Robert snarled back at her in the same language, no longer an adorable, harmless-seeming caricature. Adam turned and added his two cents. Markos stood, apparently agreeing with him. Xia felt like a three-year-old, with all the adults in the room spelling so she wouldn’t understand.

  They chattered on for a long while. Adam came and sat on the coffee table near the elf, and eventually Robert leaned on the sofa back, while Markos sat down. She stayed silent, lost in despair. Gaelic was a beautiful language, utterly strange and odd. She let the sounds roll around her.

  Eventually Markos turned to her. “Aqua would still be awake, just changed.”

  “In the grip of Aer, it will not be able to hold to any purpose. Not until it returns to its true, liquid form, which will take awhile. This will buy time, to think of other ways to send it to sleep. Possibly you could even find ways to keep Aqua’s sentience bound to Aer longer. Aer might be enlisted, if it is amused.” The detailed answer made her utterly weary. She had nothing left.