Lost Tides: Elemental Seekers Series

by H. M. Sandlin

  “Abby, how lovely to see you again,” the lady said in a high voice. “I see you have made some friends finally,” Abby’s dad turned towards the lady with a small frown. She put a hand on his arm and smiled at him. “You know how much I worried about her. It makes me happy to see her hanging out with other kids.”

  Abby’s dad smiled, “It is good to see her happy.”

  I immediately didn’t like the lady. She hadn’t said it nicely, and I looked at my friends to see if they caught it. Richard was frowning, but Tider looked pissed.

  “Of course she has friends. Abby is one of the nicest kids at the school. Most of the students like her. She is very busy studying, so she doesn’t always have time to hang out,” Tider said angrily.

  “And who might you be?” the lady asked him.

  “My name is Johnathon.” She looked at him disdainfully. I was surprised that he used his actual name since he always wanted to go by Tider.

  “Well, Johnathon, I’m Laura Ravenis.” She seemed to expect us to be impressed by the name, but I had no idea who she was. Richard had a grimace on his face, and Abby was looking down.

  Tider pulled his shoulders back and looked her in the eye, “Your name means nothing to me. Let me give you my full name. I’m Johnathon Murdell.”

  Mrs. Ravenis gasped and took a small step back, “I didn’t realize. I mean, I knew you were at the school, but I didn’t expect you to be friends with my stepdaughter.”

  “Maybe you should see who you are talking to before you open your mouth. My family will hear of this.” Tider’s voice sounded strange. It was a mixture of pure fury and coldness. It sounded awful coming from one of my friends. I looked at Tider from a different perspective. I hadn’t known him long, but I thought I knew him well. I had never seen this side of him.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Murdell,” Mrs. Ravenis apologized. “It won’t happen again. I don’t think your family needs to hear of this.” There was fear in her eyes, and her hands were slightly shaking.

  “You should be on your way,” Tider told her.

  She reached for Abby’s dad, but Tider stepped between them. “No, just you. Abby would like to see her dad for a bit longer.”

  Mrs. Ravenis turned and walked away quickly. As soon as she was gone, Abby’s dad perked up. “Hey, where did Laura go, she was right here?” I looked sideways at Abby. Why wasn’t her dad saying anything about what had happened?

  “We should really get going. Laura wanted to pick you kids up quickly so we can get our vacation started.”

  “Ok, dad. I’ll be right there.”

  Abby walked over to me and gave me a hug. “I’ll see you soon,” she said.

  “Wait, Abby. What just happened? Why didn’t your dad say anything?”

  “That’s pretty normal for him. Whenever she gets near him, he forgets everything around him and can only focus on making her happy. Even when she is mean, he has trouble realizing it. I think it’s a spell, but I haven’t found anything to prove it.”

  “Can’t you talk to him when she isn’t around?”

  “I’ve tried,” she sighed. “It doesn’t work. It’s like he doesn’t hear anything bad against her. I’ve even snooped around looking for the spell, but there isn’t anything. Maybe he really does love her, and love is blind, right?”

  “I don’t think that’s what that means. I will help you figure it out if you want.”

  She looked hopeful, but then her face fell, “Not right now. You have more important things to do.”

  “Nothing is more important than my friends, and besides, your dad seems like a good guy. He doesn’t deserve this if he is under a spell.”

  Abby hugged me again. “I better get going, or she will be more difficult. Have a safe trip.”

  “You too,” I watched as Abby and her dad walked away. I turned to the guys. “What did you think about that?”

  “About what?” Richard said.

  “Abby’s dad acting so weird,” I said slowly.

  “I didn’t notice anything different, did you?” He turned to Tider.

  “Yes, I did. She has control of him somehow. I’ve seen it before. It’s something the Pulhu do to people they need to control.”

  “How do we fix it?”

  “I have no idea. I’m not even sure if it’s a spell, or if it’s an enchanted item.”

  “Why doesn’t Richard see what happened to Abby’s dad?” Richard was looking at us, confused.

  “His family isn’t part of the Pulhu, so he’s not immune. All the families associated with the Pulhu are immune and can see what is being done. Those who aren’t Pulhu don’t even realize something is wrong. They just see a pleasant conversation taking place.”

  “Is that what you saw, Richard?”

  “In the beginning, Mrs. Ravenis seemed very rude, but the more I listened to her, the more I realized I was wrong for judging her right away. She was trying to be nice to Abby and give her a compliment. It just came out the wrong way.”

  “Ok, Richard. Thanks,” I stepped away from him and moved towards Tider. “So how do we fix Richard? And why doesn’t it affect me?”

  “He’s fine. It doesn’t affect him any other way. And now that she’s gone, he will be himself, except he will remember this conversation differently than we do. He’s pretty strong though. He remembers her being rude in the beginning. That’s a lot more than everyone else would remember. And I don’t know why it doesn’t affect you.”

  “Why doesn’t Abby do whatever Mrs. Ravenis asks like her dad?”

  “Mrs. Ravenis must have given her something to make her immune to it. She probably enjoys harassing her and knowing that her dad won’t stop it.”

  “We need to find a way to end it. It’s not right for people to be used that way. He doesn’t seem like he deserves this. And Abby has to watch her dad being controlled. He won’t even defend her when Mrs. Ravenis is mean.”

  “I know. It’s bad. We can try to find a way. When I go home, I will snoop around and see what I can find.”

  “Good,” I said but then remembered who his family was. “Don’t get caught. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Your family must be pretty scary. It ran off Mrs. Ravenis pretty fast.”

  “Yeah, we are one of the most powerful, but most of my family use their powers in a dark way. I’m pretty sure everyone knows, but no one has the power to stand up to them. As you saw, even the Ravenis family are scared of my family name.”

  “If your family is that bad, how did you manage to not be corrupted like them?”

  “It was actually their own fault. My mom sucks at the whole mothering thing, so she brought in a nanny. What they didn’t know was that the nanny would take me to all the typical places a kid would want to go, including the park and to get ice cream. I learned kindness from her, and I started making friends when we would go out places. I got to see how ordinary families acted, and I spent a lot of time around nonmagical people.

  “They always seemed so happy, and the parents always seemed to care about the kids. When I asked my nanny about it, she told me I can choose to live in a world where people act that way, or where they act like my family. It was up to me. I’ve been choosing to act like the other people instead of my family ever since. When I go home, I have to act more like them so I don’t get into trouble, but I only have a few years left before I can leave. I’m hoping they don’t manage to corrupt me before then.”

  “What do you mean?” Richard asked as he walked up to us.

  “Every time I go home, they try to get me to do bad things, but I’ve managed to wiggle my way out of it so far. I don’t know how long that will last.”

  “Why do you go home?”

  “I don’t have a choice. They won’t let me stay away forever. I am supposed to be taking an interest in the family business after all. I’m glad they sent me to this school instead of one of the others. Mrs. Sullivan tries to protect me from them as much as possible. S
he even lets me stay here during breaks, telling my parents that with how powerful I am I need extra lessons to keep it under control. So far it’s been working, and I only spend a few weeks out of the year at home.”

  “I didn’t realize things were so bad at your house,” Richard said to Tider.

  “It’s not a big deal,” Tider said.

  “You know,” Richard said, “you could come stay with me for the holidays. Tell your family that you are trying to get me to agree to be on the side of the Pulhu. That might get them off your back, and then you don’t have to go home. They want me bad enough that it might work.”

  “That will definitely work. They have been trying to get to you and your family for years. If they think I’m close, they might pull Sean off of you too. I know you are worried about your sister, but if her powers aren’t strong and we say that I’m working on you, they might not threaten you with her either.”

  Richard and Tider both looked excited. “This could work,” they said.

  “I still need to go home for a few days to make an appearance and tell them I’m working on getting you to join the Pulhu though. Then I can head to your place. You sure your parents are ok with it?”

  “Yeah, they’ll be fine with it.”

  They talked a few more minutes about exactly what they needed to do. Then Tider said his goodbyes for the holiday and took off to get the rest of his stuff packed before he was picked up in the morning.

  Most of the kids had left already or were packing to leave today, so no one bothered me during breakfast. I wrote down notes about how I was going to deal with my trip to Ireland while I ate. I had narrowed the area I needed to search to a few beaches. Hopefully, it would be one of those, or else I didn’t know what I was going to do.

  One beach, in particular, looked promising. Everything sounded right. It even said people shouldn’t swim there because the water was so dangerous. It sounded exactly like where I needed to go. I had already plotted out a few different routes to get to each beach and would need at least a full day to search each one. Maybe more if the cave was really well hidden.

  As I was finishing breakfast, Mrs. Sullivan walked in and headed straight for me.

  “Good morning, Sally. Why don’t you walk with me in the garden?”

  “Good morning, Mrs. Sullivan,” I said, standing up to follow her.

  “Mr. Merrem wants you to meet him at the dome after you finish up here. He will be teaching you every day until you leave to make sure you are ready in case something happens,” she said quietly once we were out of earshot.

  “Ok,” I said.

  Mrs. Sullivan talked to me about my studies for a few more minutes. She gave me another warning about staying in the haven once I got to Ireland before she left. I headed up to my room to put my notebook away and grab a sweatshirt before heading to the dome. Mr. Merrem was waiting for me and immediately wanted to get to work.

  “You are going to be using your natural magic to defend yourself. When you were attacked your first day here, Richard said he thought you became invisible. Do you remember how you did that?”

  “Yes, but I wasn’t trying to be invisible. I was trying to create a shield.”

  “That’s ok, I want you to try to do that again. If it works, we can try to change it a bit so you can move and remain invisible. This magic isn’t completely uncommon, so I have a pretty good idea how to help you with this. Go ahead when you are ready.”

  I walked away from Mr. Merrem and closed my eyes, imaging air wrapping around me like a shield. I opened my eyes and looked at Mr. Merrem from inside my shield.

  “Can you see me?” I asked.

  “Yes, I can.”

  “I’m not sure why it didn’t work.”

  “I want you to think back to the attack. What were you thinking when you created the shield? That may have influenced your magic.”

  I thought back to that day, “I wanted to get away from them and make it to the school. I remember being scared and trying to create the shield. I was hoping they wouldn’t be able to hit me with their magic.”

  “Try thinking about it like that again. Think about not wanting someone to be able to hit you,” Mr. Merrem said.

  I did what he said and could feel my magic changing subtly. I closed my eyes and noticed the silver color was much brighter than before but also almost opaque. It looked different than the first shield.

  “Good job, Sally,” Mr. Merrem said. “It worked. I’m not able to see you at all. Now try moving towards me.”

  He was trying to talk to me, but he was looking slightly to my right. I stifled a giggle and took a step forward. Immediately I felt my magic change again.

  “It didn’t work when I moved, did it?” I asked.

  “No, it didn’t, but that’s ok. We have something to work with, and I’m sure it can be improved. Stay focused on not being seen. Start with slowly lifting a hand to see what happens.”

  When I tried it, I could see and feel the difference as soon as I started to lift my hand. I stopped.

  “How did it go, Sally?” asked Mr. Merrem. “I could see a small shift in the air but didn’t see you.”

  “Not well,” I said honestly. “As soon as I started to move, my magic started to change too.”

  “Explain how your magic felt,” he said. I told him, and he thought about it for a few minutes while I kept trying.

  “I think the best way to try to overcome this is to listen to your magic. Close your eyes, and watch how it changes. You might be able to see where the change is starting, or figure out how to stop it once you know exactly what it looks like.”

  I agreed and watched my magic as I lifted my hand again. As I lifted it, I saw a spark of gold flow through the silver right where my hand was. I kept moving my hand, and the gold spread out. It was very faint but still there. I put my hand down and moved even slower, trying to keep the gold magic from forming. I wondered if it was void magic, which I didn’t want to use. At least it didn’t look like the dark side of void.

  After a few more attempts, I was able to lift up my hand very slowly. I was sweating by the time I was finished. Keeping the gold magic out was very hard.

  “Ok, Sally. I think we have that figured out. The bad news is that it is going to take a lot of work to be able to move while you are invisible. The good news is that you can become invisible.”

  I shook my head in frustration, “Why am I having so much trouble with this?”

  He laughed, “Magic takes a lot of control. You were born with a lot of power, but you still need to practice your control. Remember this is your first year, some kids your age still don’t have full control of their powers, and they have been going here for years. You should be proud you are doing so well.”

  “I know I should be.” I hung my head. “I guess I’m being impatient.”

  “It’s ok, I understand why,” Mr. Merrem said. “I know you are worried about the Pulhu, and you can’t do as much as the other kids until Mrs. Sullivan is sure they aren’t after you. So far you are doing great at hiding your powers from everyone else. I’m sure if you continue working on your control, by the end of the year, you can go out with the other kids to town or the beach.”

  “Thanks, Mr. Merrem. It has been hard being cooped up here. I can’t wait until I don’t have to worry anymore.”

  I spent the next couple of hours working with Mr. Merrem on how to use my magic defensively. He would pretend to attack me with his magic, and I would defend myself. I practiced all of my magic except void and learned that I could protect myself from almost everything he sent at me.

  “I think I’m getting the hang of this,” I told him.

  “You are doing great, but so far, I have only used a small amount of magic on you.”

  My magic faltered as I stared at him, and my windstorm died as he threw a firebolt at me.

  “Duck,” he shouted.

  I threw myself to the side as the firebolt soared past. It grazed my thigh, and I yelped in shock.
I looked down at my leg and saw his magic had burned right through my clothes and left a one-inch streak across my thigh.

  Mr. Merrem ran up to me and kneeled, checking my leg to see the damage.

  “We need to put something on that right away. Here, Sally. This will help the burn heal. It may hurt for a second.”

  He poured a small amount of liquid onto my burn, and I tensed up as a sharp pain hit me. It was gone in a second, and I stared in wonder as the burn healed before my eyes. Within seconds it was completely gone, and the skin looked as good as before. The only evidence that something went wrong was the burn hole in my jeans. Mr. Merrem helped me stand up and walked back to put the vial away.

  “What happened, Sally? You were doing great. All of a sudden, your magic was gone.”

  “It was my fault, I got distracted when you said you weren’t using a lot of magic on me. It made me completely lose my focus, and my shield collapsed.”

  “It’s ok, Sally. I’m glad it wasn’t any worse. I can only heal small burns,” he smiled in relief.

  “Is what you said true? You aren’t using a lot of magic on me?”

  “Of course, I’m not using a lot of magic on you. This is your first time using defensive magic. I didn’t want you to get hurt,” he grimaced.

  “So if I’m attacked, I probably won’t be able to help myself,” I said.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because it was hard to defend against you. And you weren’t using a lot of magic. What happens when someone uses their full magic on me.”

  “Don’t worry. That is why we are going to be practicing every day until you leave. You will be more comfortable using your magic and stronger the more you practice it.”

  I still wasn’t sure if I would be able to defend myself, but I was going to do my best. “Ok, let’s keep practicing.”

  “I think that’s enough for today,” Mr. Merrem laughed. “You need to eat something after practicing all morning. I will see you tomorrow at the same time.”

  I found Richard and was surprised when he said we would be looking for the water sprites together.