by Jess Bowen
“Our second task will be expanding the strength of your talents, for those of you who have them, so that you may use them to their fullest ability.”
“Excuse me,” Kali said, raising her hand.
“Yes?” Jade said, acknowledging her.
“Well, I already can use my talent to its fullest ability, so will I be able to have afternoons off?”
Everyone turned to look at her, raising their eyebrows. Ethan was disgusted by this girl; she obviously thought she was better than everyone else here. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Phoebe rocking on the balls of her feet. Dorian held onto her wrist, like he was restraining her. Even Lucy reacted to Kali; she gripped Ethan’s hand a little more tightly and sighed quietly.
“Oh,” Jade said with a slight smile on her lips, “and what is your talent?”
“Astral Projection,” Kali responded confidently, clearly thinking this was impressive.
Ethan turned to Lucy and whispered so only she would hear. “What’s Astral Projection?”
“It’s where you can use your mind to project a copy of yourself somewhere else. It’s not that rare, but rare enough. I’ve only heard about it three or four times throughout the safe places,” Lucy whispered back.
Jade looked slightly impressed. “Well, let’s see it then.”
Kali looked affronted at being asked to show her talent, but relented nonetheless. She closed her eyes as her head dropped and a copy of her body appeared about three feet away from her. While Kali’s projected image was alert and moving, her real body was standing motionless, appearing unconscious.
“Very nice, but can you use your powers from your astral projection?” Jade asked, challenging her.
A frown crossed over the face of Kali’s astral projection.
“I thought not. You most certainly will not be permitted to skip afternoon classes.”
Kali’s astral projection faded as she regained consciousness. She looked angry to be made a joke of in front of the class, and she sulked farther to the back. Phoebe smiled. Lucy’s grip loosened slightly, and Cynthia laughed quietly.
“Now, who here does not have talents that they are aware of?” Jade asked, looking at everyone at large.
Evan and Cynthia raised their hands as did four others. Kali made a satisfied sound when she saw Cynthia’s hand. Cynthia whirled, and Evan and Jared each grabbed one of her arms to keep her back. Phoebe was faster and took two long steps before Dorian lunged forward and got an arm around her waist to restrain her. Kali looked like she was going to spew acid from her eyes as she watched Dorian pull Phoebe back against his chest. Jade noticed nothing; she was making a note on a piece of parchment, and the whole conflict took place silently.
Lucy sighed again. “This is going to be difficult with her around,” she whispered.
“Why?” Ethan asked. He was sure between Evan, Jared, Dorian, and himself, they could restrain Phoebe and Cynthia, and Lucy showed no inklings of violence.
She didn’t answer, but she shook her head. She obviously knew something he didn’t or had noticed something he hadn’t. It would have to wait. Jade was looking at the class again.
“Those of you who raised your hands will be permitted to skip the afternoon sessions,” Jade said.
“If I may for a moment?” Dorian said, speaking up. His arm was still secured around Phoebe’s waist even though she wasn’t trying to go anywhere. Kali didn’t seem very happy about that.
Jade turned to look at him. She clearly had not realized Dorian had walked over to her group when everyone had split up. “Yes, what is it?”
“Phoebe will also be staying out for afternoon session,” Dorian said.
Jade looked confused. “But she is a Master; surely she has talents that need to be developed?”
Of course Phoebe has talents that needed to be developed. Every Master has talents that needed to be developed. Well, everyone except me, that is, Ethan thought reflexively.
“Yes, she does, but she’s studying separately with Cassius for them,” Dorian explained.
“Very well,” Jade said, clearly not about to contradict Cassius or Dorian.
Ethan was slightly jealous. Phoebe, Evan, and Cynthia were going to get out of being with this woman for half the day. Evan and Cynthia because they didn’t have a talent, and Phoebe because she had good reason to be studying with Cassius. But Ethan still didn’t know what his talent or talents were, so he didn’t see much point in being there, either.
14. Frustrated
The rest of the morning was spent with the trainees trying to conjure their Elements. Jade explained that they had to concentrate and focus on finding the power within themselves. Surprisingly for Ethan, after having stood there for a few minutes searching within, he made the ground shake—not very noticeably, but it was quite an improvement over nothing. He wasn’t able to do it again for the rest of the morning though.
Phoebe wasn’t able to do anything for a long time and became increasingly frustrated. As she got more and more upset, it started to storm outside, and Jade told her that in time she would be able to conjure it with ease. Lucy, already having decent control of her talent, made several breezes shift through the room at large, causing everyone else to look over at their group curiously.
Cynthia was able to conjure some fireballs—one of which lit her sleeve on fire, and Evan had to put it out. Jared conjured a bouquet of flowers. Evan laughed at him, asking what good flowers were going to do against Petrozan and Esmeralda. Kali, almost lazily, conjured an enormous fireball that lit the entire room. The boy who had looked frightened was able to do nothing but make himself hysterical, and he had to be taken away to calm down. The others in the class were able to conjure small bits of their Elements. Dorian mostly watched and offered his advice when Jade was busy with someone else. He also made sure there was a wide gap between Kali and Phoebe and Cynthia.
When it was time for lunch, Jade said they had all done quite well for their first lesson and that she was looking forward to the next one. As they headed to lunch, Ethan couldn’t help but look forward to the next lesson himself. He was sure to get a little bit better with each one, even if it meant having to endure Jade and Kali.
They all sat down at a table and grabbed sandwiches that had been brought out by the gnomes. Shade sniffed the air hopefully from Ethan’s pocket, and he took the animal out, set him on the table, and handed him a sandwich to eat.
“Well, that wasn’t too bad for a first lesson,” Lucy said thoughtfully between bites.
“Not for you. You’re already pretty good,” Phoebe said, looking disgruntled.
“What are you talking about? You make it rain all the time; that’s pretty good, I would say,” Evan said encouragingly.
“Yeah, but only when I get upset, not when I want to do it,” Phoebe replied gloomily.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it soon,” Cynthia said.
“At least you guys get to skip afternoon classes,” Ethan said to Cynthia, Evan, and Phoebe.
They all looked around brightly at each other. “Yeah, at least there’s that,” Evan said. “I can’t wait to start combat training tomorrow, though.”
Everyone murmured in agreement. Ethan was quite excited about the next day’s training; he wouldn’t need to use any powers for that. After lunch was over, he, Lucy, and Jared said goodbye to the others and headed back to the training arena. Only nine of the First Order returned. Looking around, Ethan realized that Second and Third Order had many more people than they did with at least forty people in each group, and he supposed there had been several more than that during the morning session.
Ethan turned back to his own group and saw that the hysterical boy was back and now looked slightly calmer. He then turned his attention to Jade, who was talking again.
“Now, there will be two people joining me to help train you to use your talents.” She turned and waved to a man and woman standing off to the side, and they walked up to join the group. �
�This is Dinah and Pallin, and we will be splitting you up into groups of three to make sure you each get the individual attention you need to get the most out of your talents. Let’s get a move on. Get into groups now!”
Thankfully, Pallin walked over to Ethan, Lucy, and Jared and took them away from the others to begin their training. Ethan recognized Pallin as the one who had acted as a translator for Syran the night he had appeared. He looked over his shoulder and was pleased to see that Kali was stuck, once again, with Jade along with two other girls. The nervous boy had been taken by Dinah and was starting to look intimidated again.
“If you will, please,” Pallin said, looking at them, “I would like to know your name and talent.”
Jared went first. “My name is Jared, and I’m a Sensor, but only by touch.”
Pallin nodded. “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be able to do it without touching anyone. Next.”
Lucy spoke up this time. “My name is Lucy, and my talent is Telekinesis. But I’m not very good with it.” When she did have to speak, she never sounded shy, like Ethan always expected. She was quite sure of herself, just quiet. He admired that.
“Not for long, and lastly?” Pallin said, turning to Ethan.
He could tell Pallin had only asked out of courtesy; he already knew who Ethan was.
“My name is Ethan, and well…I don’t know what my talent is.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Dorian approaching their group.
“You don’t know what it is?” Pallin repeated, looking confused.
“No, sir.”
“But you are a Master! Well, no matter. I’m sure we’ll discover it in due course. Now,” he said, turning back to the others, “let’s see how well you can use your talents so we know where to start from. Jared, you first. Although from the other night I’m sure you can guess my talent, but go ahead.”
Jared stepped forward and shook Pallin’s hand while considering him for a moment. “You are in Second Order of the Earth Element, and your talent is speaking to animals.”
Pallin nodded. “Impressive, a little slow, but we’ll work on it. Now, Lucy, if you will.”
Lucy looked around the room and didn’t see anything lying around, so she looked at Ethan. “Do you mind?”
“I guess not,” he answered, considering that getting lifted into the air wasn’t that big of a deal.
Lucy concentrated on him for a moment before he started to rise up into the air. Just then someone yelled, and she lost her concentration and dropped him. Thankfully, he wasn’t too far off the ground and managed to land on his feet. Lucy’s face flushed.
“I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to drop you!”
“It’s okay, I’m fine,” Ethan assured her. She nodded, but continued to scrutinize him, looking for some sign of damage even though it was obvious Ethan was fine.
“Not bad. With some work, you will find it much easier to use your talent without having to concentrate so much. Now, Ethan, I’m not sure what to do about you. I’ve never had someone who didn’t know what their talent was.” He frowned as he thought it over. Then his eyes brightened. “Wait a minute. Jared, couldn’t you tell us what it is?”
Jared looked slightly uncomfortable. “I tried on his first day here, but I couldn’t get anything. I could try again, I suppose.”
Jared walked over to Ethan and grabbed his wrist. Jared closed his eyes and concentrated for nearly two minutes. Ethan tried to concentrate with him, willing his powers to show themselves, trying to help. Jared let go of Ethan’s arm and shook his head. “He has too many, and they’re powerful; I just can’t tell what they are.”
Ethan looked down, ashamed. What was he supposed to do? He didn’t know how he was supposed to make a power show itself. Dorian had stepped up and was conversing with Pallin quietly. After a moment, Pallin turned back to Ethan. “We’ll keep you here and wait to see if your talents show themselves soon.”
“Yes, sir.” Ethan didn’t fancy the idea of sitting there watching the others use their talents while he did nothing, but he didn’t really see any other solution. He spent the rest of the afternoon sitting quietly as Pallin worked with Jared and Lucy.
He never got tired of watching Lucy. She was working so hard on trying to master her talent that he was surprised at how easily she got distracted. She refused to use Ethan as a subject anymore because she was afraid of hurting him, so someone brought in colored rings for her to move around. Jared had to go around touching other people as they worked with their own talents so he could read them. After a while people stopped noticing he was there.
Around five o’clock everyone was dismissed for dinner, and Ethan, Jared, and Lucy headed to the dining hall to eat. When they walked in, they looked around for a moment before spotting the others and hurried to join them.
“So, how was it?” Evan asked as they sat down.
“Nothing exciting,” Jared said, looking around for where the dinner tray was.
“So, what have you been doing?” Lucy asked.
“Not much, really,” Phoebe answered. “We just went down to the lake for a bit and watched Syran swim.” She sounded a little depressed about something and glanced anxiously around the hall every few minutes.
“Sounds better than sitting around doing nothing all afternoon,” Ethan commented.
“Why didn’t you do anything?” Cynthia asked, looking concerned.
“Well, we did, but Ethan still doesn’t know what his talents are, and they made him sit there anyway,” Jared said. “Excellent! Dinner is coming; I’m starving.”
Dinner was indeed being carried across the floor on trays with four little gnomes underneath each tray. Tonight they were having shepherd’s pie for dinner and apple pie for dessert. Suddenly, Ethan too felt like he was starving. The six of them enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting around and talking about one thing or another. Phoebe and Ethan spent the good part of an hour trying to explain to the others what a television was. Everyone had been fascinated by the fact that they could make people so small and stick them in a box. Phoebe had tried to explain about satellites and things like that but gave it up for a bad job when they found something else to talk about. They all went to bed early so they’d be on time for training with the elves the next morning.
Ethan thought over the day as he lay in bed. He had woken up with high expectations that morning, only to be mostly disappointed. He had barely used his Elemental powers, and he still didn’t know what his talents were. He felt useless. He hoped the next day was going to be better since he wouldn’t have to use magic for combat training. But his hopes weren’t too high.
Ethan felt the last of the Refreshing Solution leave his system and drifted off to sleep. He found himself, once again, in the now familiar garden. He groaned; he wanted to sleep tonight. He walked down the pathway toward the fountain and knew that this time he was going to talk to her. He was going to find out why she was here in his dreams every night. There she was, sitting on the far side of the bench, her head still turned resolutely in the opposite direction. He sat on the other side of the bench, contemplating what he should ask her first and wondering if he would even get an answer from her.
“Who are you?” Ethan asked, peering at the back of her head.
She didn’t move or speak for a minute, but just as he was preparing to ask again, she spoke. “You know who I am.”
That voice, it sounded familiar. It was embedded in his memory somewhere; he just couldn’t place it. But he didn’t know who she was.
“What are you doing here?”
She still didn’t turn her head. “You know why I’m here.”
Ethan was becoming frustrated. If he knew why she was here, he wouldn’t be asking, would he? Perhaps talking to this woman hadn’t been wise after all.
“I do?”
“You brought me here. You should know why I am here.”
“What do you mean? I didn’t bring you here. You’re the one in my dream.”
“It is
more than a dream. You are searching for something, and I am here to lead you to it. The necklace you wear is no ordinary charm. It is a symbol of your power, but it also is a key.”
She still wasn’t looking at him. Ethan was becoming more and more frustrated. If she was supposed to lead him to something, why didn’t she just tell him where it was? “A key? A key to what?”
“It is a key to many things. Ancient powers that have lain dormant for years are waiting to be called upon by the Masters of the Elements. It is a key to a prophecy lost centuries ago. It is a key to an elixir more powerful and more terrible than anything this world has ever seen. It is the key to the downfall of darkness.”
That sounded like an awful lot for the little charm on his necklace to do. “Everyone carries an Element charm. Why is mine special?”
“You will find out in time. It is not so much the charm that is special, but what it represents.”
“And what is that?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
No hope of an answer there, Ethan thought, so he tried something else. “What about the prophecy? Do you know what it says?”
“No, you do not know; therefore, I do not know.”
“So, what, are you my subconscious or something?”
Ethan stopped for a moment, laughing at the irony of having a woman for a subconscious.
“No, I am not. You brought me here. I know the things that you allow me to know and the things that I know, but no more than that.”
This was becoming exhausting. She was speaking in circles and it was all very confusing. On the other hand, it might also be helpful. If she knew everything that he knew, perhaps she knew what his talents were.
“Do you know what my talents are?”
“Yes, and you will know in time. Great need of your talents will cause them to show themselves.”
“I need them now. I need to learn how to use them so I can train.”
“You must be patient. They will come when they are needed.”
This is completely useless. She’s no help at all. Didn’t she say she was supposed to lead me to something? Why isn’t she helping me then?
