by Kira Stüssy
Blister free.
*
“They did what?” Erion exclaimed, pacing around the Elemental palace foyer. Caspian wondered if alerting Erion to the fact that Mira and Ash had gone to break into the Archives might have been a terrible idea. Because the dude was seriously freaking out. “Ash is a blasted imbecile!”
“Well, what are we supposed to do?”
Erion stroked his chin in a very Sherlock sort of way, “Was your source reliable?”
Caspian thought back to Iris, drowned in tears from having blurted out Mira’s secret, “Yeah.”
“Then we need to go wring their necks.”
Caspian sighed, “Sounds good enough to me.”
*
My hands were perfectly fine, no blemish whatsoever. They had been completely healed.
I stared down at them for a moment as a wave of images crashed through my head: my skin glowing in the sunlight, the way light always invigorated my senses, the strange power I got from just soaking in the sun’s rays. It all clicked in my brain.
“ASH!” I screamed running down the hill. He didn’t even turn around. Therefore, I had to reduce to less orthodox methods.
“What is wrong with you, woman?!” Ash hollered bitterly as he peeled me off his back after I attempted to tackle him. Seeing as he is a highly trained Legion soldier and I am a slight girl of elfish proportions, I did little to deter him. But he paused in his progress anyways to glare at me.
“Ash, you’ll never believe…”
“Save it, Miss Mirabelle.”
“Excuse me? What’s with the ‘miss’? I thought we discussed that.”
He refused to look me in the eye, “Yes, well I believe that we should start conforming to the proper Guardian protocol.”
I snorted, “Yeah, you conform so well.”
“I’m not joking!” he set me gently on the ground and crossed his arms while scowling at me, a look of such pain on his features. I suddenly felt overly self conscious, “Do you understand what almost just happened in there? I hurt you, physically hurt you. And it was almost a lot worse.”
“But it wasn’t.”
His eyes softened slightly, “Because of you. But even so, you still…”
I raised my hands up so he could see them and their entire scar-less glory.
He blinked, “Your hands…”
“Healed. It was the light, I’m sure of it this time. I wondered before, but now I know. I seem to gain energy from direct light. Do you think it could be my Knowledge?”
“It’s not possible.”
I laughed, “Like you said, I’m an abnormal freak. Is having a light Knowledge really out of the question? And you know those colors I’ve been seeing and the voices I’ve been hearing?”
“Oh, so you’ve stopped hearing colors? What a relief.”
“Shut up for a second. When we were in there I could see and feel your anger and it was like I was able to give you calmer emotions. Do you think I could be psychic?”
He shook his head, “There’s no such thing. And the only explanation really is impossible.”
“What is it?”
He shook his head again, “That’s the sort of thing a Seer could do. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“Well Seers can see emotions and listen in on the goings on of the mind, but they cannot transfer energy. That’s Wielder territory.”
I thought on this for a moment, “That doesn’t make sense. I’m half Elemental and half Wielder. You look a little pale, should you sit down?” I reached for his hand but he pulled his hand away from my reach.
“I was serious about what I said before, I’m dangerous. I should never have led you to think otherwise.” He closed his eyes, as if in terrible pain, “She was right. I am a monster.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You don’t know!”
“Maybe because you don’t tell me anything!”
He sighed, steeling his expression, “You want to know the truth? Fine.” He slumped to the ground at the base of Center Hill and I followed in his example, facing him. “You already know there is only one Moon Elemental and one Sun Elemental per every generation.”
“Yeah, they’re the king and queen, right?”
“Yes, no matter what. Moon is always a woman and Sun, always man. It is an arranged marriage. There is an ancient legend about it actually.” He breathed deeply. “It speaks of the destructive nature of a marriage without love. Since the royal marriage is always arranged, it almost never results in true love.”
“Okay? That makes sense.”
“That’s not all. The legend specifically says that thousands of years ago, the royals tried to continue their line, thinking it would make sense to continue the line of such powerful beings. The Sun and Moon Elementals are the most significant forces in our Kingdom, so their children were bound to be strong as well, right? The story goes that the very first royal couple wanted to pass down their powers, so they had a child. But instead of producing a Sun or Moon, the Elements together, combined with the lack of love, created a monster. The child grew more powerful with each passing year, and its heart was void of love since it was not born of a loving relationship. The reasoning for its whole existence was greed and want of increasing strength for the royals, mix the bad intentions with the immense magic of the parents and you have a creature of mass devastation. The child eventually became so unstable and volatile that it tried to destroy the Kingdom, killing anyone in sight to do so. It took the entire Nostosian Legion to kill it.
“After that, people knew the royals could never again try to reproduce. Not only for the sake of the Kingdom, but for all of Nostos. There had not been another attempt by the royals to have a child for over one thousand years. But decades ago, the newest duo of Sun and Moon were born, Cyro and Selene. They grew up together, knowing their whole lives that they were going to be wed. For most Sun and Moon’s, this causes them to despise one another and the pact that binds them. But the relationship between Cyro and Selene was different, very special. They had been best friends from the start and as they grew up, they discovered that their friendship later translated into love. They were happily wed, the first royal couple in centuries to actually fall in love. They knew the legend of the monster child, but they knew the cause for the beast was due to the hatred and greed involved in the marriage that brought him into the world. Cyro and Selene believed so firmly in the strength of their love and they wanted so badly to have a family together, that they decided to risk having a baby.
“They were confident throughout the pregnancy that all was well. That their child would inherit one of their abilities or at least take on one of the three true elemental Knowledges (earth, sky, or water). It was not until the child’s birth that they realized the grave mistake they had made.
“The baby was born silent and with closed eyes. They believed the thing to be dead. Really the little bugger was just tricking them, even from day one. After hearing its pulse, they knew it was really alive. They placed the baby in Selene’s arms and she felt the abnormal body heat through the blanket. When it opened its eyes, they were black as ash but when the baby met its mother’s gaze, his irises flashed orange and red, like fire.
“The royals realized they had produced a demon. Even with love, the power of their Knowledges was too strong to produce a stable child. They locked the baby up in the dungeons of the castle, terrified of their own son, worried that even as a small infant he would murder civilians and pillage the Kingdom. They knew from the legend that the child would be evil by nature but they could not bring themselves to kill him, not when he had yet to commit any savage deed. When he turned five and he had still made no attempt to escape the rusty chains of his prison, they decided to send him to live at the Elemental Legion Headquarters, knowing that he would grow up with discipline and if he ever tried to hurt anyone, he would be surrounded by trained Legion members who could stop him immediately.”
Ash’s eyes flashed brightly a
s he continued, “The boy grew up in fear of himself, knowing that a dark and devious creature lurked within his soul, waiting for the time he was least expecting to pounce and force him to succumb to its temperamental ways. Terror was his constant companion, keeping him company deep into his sleepless nights. He knew why he had to be chained up and why he needed to be trained so young the way that he had, but he couldn’t help but hate his parents. Why would they bring him into this world only to torture and despise him? He didn’t understand. It was repeated to him time and time again that he was a ticking time bomb; that he would explode at any second. So he kept his distance from everyone except for those who were too stubborn to stay away. To remind the boy of his evil nature, the royals named him after the color of his eyes which his father once told him as he visited the dungeon, ‘According to legend, they are dark as your soul, laddie.’
“And you already know what consumes the monsters soul. What else could be so destructive and unstable, so malicious and unforgiving?”
I gulped back a sob as I whispered, “Fire.”
He nodded solemnly, “Exactly. So now you know. Now you can fully understand how dangerous I am. The only reason I am still alive is because I’ve been careful, but as soon as I slip up, they’ll kill me where I stand. And I almost screwed up today. If you were more seriously injured…”
“But I wasn’t.”
“By luck! Neither of us knew that you can heal by light. If that hadn’t been the case, you would have been bandaged for weeks. And it would have been by my doing!” he bit his lip, “I’ve been so cautious all my life and then you…you just stampede into my life, knocking everything down and barreling past every wall. I don’t get it!”
I blinked back angry tears, “Don’t get what, Ash?”
“Why you are so dangerous to me!”
“Me?”
“Yes, every ounce of self control I have mustered falls away as soon as you walk into the room. You make me weak.”
I tried to scoot closer to him, but he pulled away as soon as I drew near. He shook his head, his eyes hardening, becoming the expression that I knew so well and also dreaded. When he looked at me now, I saw zero emotion, none of the sincerity and gentleness he had displayed the other night. Stone once again.
“Caring about someone isn’t a weakness, Ash.”
“I best get back into town,” he said, a robot, and started to walk away, “You should consider following my example, Miss Mirabelle.”
Soon enough, his stiff figure was just a black dot in the horizon.
*
I didn’t leave that spot for a long time.
Once Ash disappeared on the horizon, I glared at the grass below my feet, at the bugs that teemed above the soil. I thought about how nice it would be to have the life of an ant, where the only care in the world was survival. They didn’t have to deal with all the pain and drama that came along with emotions and thought. No, they just lived life. It sounded so simple, so enviable.
I tilted my head back and stared at the sun, soaking in those amazing rays of light. I thought about my new found Knowledge and decided to try and practice a little. Ash said that having a light Knowledge was impossible, but what did he know anyways? The physical attributes I possessed were also supposed to make it impossible for me to be an Elemental, so perhaps the normal rules didn’t apply to me.
I raised my hands, palms up and focused on the beaming rays that shone down on me.
*
Caspian had been waiting for me.
By the time I returned to the palace, night had long since fallen. I reflected on the powers I had just spent hours discovering when I caught sight of the intimidating shadow looming over my bed. I gave a small squeak and flipped on the lights to reveal Caspian and Iris perched on my bed. Iris looked extremely guilty and wouldn’t meet my eyes while Caspian had metaphorical steam billowing from his nostrils.
I was dead.
“Mira, what in the world were you thinking?!”
“I was thinking that I wanted to know what I am.”
This only angered him further, his normally calm expression morphing in a mask of solid rage, “Oh, really? Did you happen across anything about me? Did you even consider thinking about the questions I have and that possibly I would want to know some things too?”
“You already know what you are!”
“Ugh!” he threw his hands in the air, the blue-green feathers of his Knowledge ruffled angrily, “At first I was just worried. I was worried that you and that idiot would get busted and that they would throw you out of school or something. But then I got to thinking, ‘If Mira was going to do something this dumb, maybe she would come back with stuff about me too.’ But no. All you ever do is think about yourself and your needs.”
I blinked, “Are you mad at me for breaking the rules or for not checking your file?”
“BOTH! I would do anything for you and Iris! I can’t be the only responsible one here, not with mom and Bram back in Lincoln City. I can’t always be doing everything Mira!”
“You know I would die for you and Rissy.”
His sea blue eyes stared back into mine, a hopelessness drowning in them, “I don’t think I can believe that right now. Not with the way you have been so self absorbed lately. You are always running off on your own. Do you even think about what that means for Iris and I? All you go on about is your worries and problems and discovering who you are. Trust me, I care, I care a lot. But I have my own stuff too and so does Rissy. Did you know she’s been having night terrors lately? And have you stopped to wonder about what her Knowledge might be? Because from what Ash has told us about physical attributes, it is something we should start thinking about. You aren’t the only one who’s trying to figure things out.”
My eyes suddenly flooded and I knew I was on the verge of crying. I tried to make eye contact with Iris but she looked up at the ceiling pointedly.
I drew in a shaky breath, all hope that stemmed from discovering my Knowledge gone. “I’m sorry Cas. I’m sorry Rissy. I really am.”
And I ran out of the room.
*
“Oi!”
Ash groaned and stuffed the pillow over his head. He was laying down on his bed when the door flew open, smacking the wall with a loud bang as it made contact. Ash didn’t move, already knowing what to expect.
“You’re a bloody idiot, you are aware of this, right?” Erion exclaimed and jumped onto Ash’s bed.
“Go away.”
“Sure thing. But first…” The pillow ripped from Ash’s hands, exposing his face. Erion glared down at him.
Ash turned onto his side, “If you are going to scream at me can you get it over with? I have an appointment with a nice long nap that I truly can’t miss.”
“Of course.” The feathery softness slammed down onto Ash’s jaw painfully.
“Hey!” And it happened again. And again.
Ash sprang from his bed and gracefully rolled into a crouch at the foot of it. He then proceeded to kick the pillow out of Erion’s hands so that it landed across the room. The two boys faced each other with snarls ready and fists poised. Ash went through all of Erion’s strengths and weaknesses in battle. He had known his best friend since they were both small children and had been fighting him in training since day one. Each knew the other’s strategies better than they knew their own.
He’s stronger but I’m faster. All I have to do is…
“So what did you find?” Erion slumped down to sit on the edge of Ash’s bed.
Ash stood up and rubbed the back of his head in bafflement, “Uh, bipolar much?”
“I’m still pissed at you, because you’re stupid and if you had gotten kicked out of the Legion I would have to find another partner, and you know all the singles left are dimwits. But I also have my curious side and yelling at you has never worked in the past. So, what did you find?”
Ash chuckled softly before sitting down on his bed with Erion next to him. He explained the strange file under the
name ‘Durrant’, the run in with his mother, the strange way Mirabelle managed to calm him down, and her Knowledge discovery. He left out the part where he had explained the legend to Mirabelle and ditched her at the bottom of the hill.
“So,” Erion muttered after Ash had finished retelling the day’s events, “you don’t think that there’s a possibility that…”
“I think there is a huge possibility.” Ash interrupted, knowing exactly what Erion was referring to.
“How can you find out for sure?”
“We won’t be able to until she develops all of her powers, and that will come with training and time.”
“Lord, help us all.”
*
I ran out of my room as fast as my legs could carry me.
I stumbled down the stairs, sucking in harsh breaths all the way to keep from bursting into hysterics. Apparently I made so much noise, that people on the first floor could hear me because as soon as I made it to the ground, Ash and Erion were peeking their heads out of a door down the hall just off the foyer.
“What’s got you crying?” Erion questioned as I hurried to get away from them. The last thing I wanted was for those two to see me cry, especially Ash, and I neared dangerously close to doing so.
“I’m not crying!”
“Of course not, darling.” Ash appeased as he stepped out of the room and started towards me. His voice light and joking, but his face told his true emotions. Cold as ice. “Erion, can’t you see that her eyes are merely leaking? There is a significant difference.”
“I just need to be alone for a while.”
But as soon as I thought I was out the front door and rid of them, they were flanked at my sides, easily matching pace, “Sorry but we are required to be with you whenever you leave the palace grounds. It’s a Guardian thing.”