True North

by S.M. Winter

fancy, or why would you be laughing at me?”

  “‘Tickling your fancy?’” Alexandar laughed outright.

  I flexed my jaw and turned to leave. A hand on my arm stopped me.

  “Wait,” Alexandar continued to chuckle as I shrugged off his hand. “Come on. Ok, I’m sorry.”

  “About what?” I brushed at his hand on my arm like it was a bug.

  “I’m not laughing at you,” he sobered.

  “I’m sure,” I frowned at the hand that still rested on my arm until he removed it and raised both arms in surrender.

  “Alright, alright,” he said. “I laughed a little but who says ‘tickle your fancy’?”

  With a sigh of disgust I turned to leave again as his voice rose in laughter again.

  “Don’t you want to learn why you were drenched in salt water yesterday?” He managed to get out between chuckles. My curiosity was the only thing that would have stopped me.

  “Do you miss your friend?” I asked. “Is that why this is hard for you to accept me?”

  “Who told you that?” Immediately the easy grin was gone, replaced by the anger that always seemed close to the surface.

  I shrugged and watched him pull himself together. He looked like I had just punched him in the gut.

  “You want to hear my story?” He asked. Though his face was set in angry lines, his voice sounded more tired than anything. I nodded.

  “Fine,” he said curtly. “Then we get to work.”

  Slowly, he walked to an oversized leather chair and sat. Eyes closed, he seemed to gather himself before speaking.

  “The previous Air Elemental was my sister,” he said with a great expulsion of breath. It seemed like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, but the words seemed foreign when they tumbled from his mouth, as if he couldn’t stand their taste.

  “She and I were chosen at the same time,” he said. “We were twins. We had done everything together since we were born. It was always a race for us, a competition. We grew up in the slums of Ireland. Slept in some nasty places, but we always watched out for each other. I don’t want to go into the sad details that had us choosing, but it was not in a good way. We chose each other, we chose life and we fought. Chauncy came for us and he showed us what life could be. We’ve been with Chauncy since we were ten.”

  “What happened to her?” I asked.

  “The same thing that almost happened to you,” he said. “She got cocky and thought she could take the Void on. An agent overcame her mental shield and she died. Do you understand now how serious this is?”

  “Yes,” I nodded. “What was the thing that attacked me?”

  “It was a Doppelganger,” he said. “The same type of monster that attacked you in the dream sleep at your townhouse. They work for the Agents of the Void. There are four of them, just like there are four of us. Only they didn’t choose life, they chose death and power. Albeit, possibly with some pushing from the Void.”

  “Why did it look like that?”

  “Doppelgangers have a hard time taking the form of anything living, so they imitate,” he stretch his neck. “But there is always a flaw. Some are easier to spot than others if they aren’t as adept at imitation.”

  “Like the man I saw after I was Chosen.” I said, more to myself, thinking of the man with shark-like teeth that had pushed me into traffic as soon as I’d chosen to live.

  “You saw him right after you were Chosen?” Alexandar leaned forward, suddenly very interested.

  “Yeah, he pushed me into traffic,” I said. “I know now that I was being selfish in my grief, but just as I’d chosen life he appeared in front of me and I fell into traffic. Then everything just stopped. Time literally held still. I got up and followed the sound of footsteps and found a card that turned into a dandelion. Can you see why I was doubting my sanity at the beginning of this adventure?”

  “Impossible,” Alexandar whispered.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Even for us it’s difficult to find someone right before they are Chosen,” he said. “When someone is chosen it creates a bond. We can feel each other as if we’ve been tied together. You probably haven’t felt it yet because we haven’t left the island, but it’s real. However, we can’t find the fellow Elementals until they make their choice, which is why we weren’t there immediately to help you. The question I have is why an Agent of the Void knew where to find you before we did.”

  “But if it wasn’t you,” I said. “Then who stopped time and left a dandelion?”

  “That’s a something I’d like to know as well,” he frowned. “But before we can start research, you need to learn how to protect your mind.”

  “Hmm,” I nodded, still thinking about my first day as a Chosen Guardian.

  I stretched in the sand and soaked up the sun. This time I had a bathing suit on, but Alexandar still lay next to me smiling.

  “Is this your idea of paradise?” he asked.

  “No,” I said. “But it’s nice. How did we get here?”

  “I took you here with my mind,” he said. “You need to break free of my control.”

  “But this is so nice,” I said as the sun beat down on my skin. “I’ve never been to a beach like this before.”

  “Fine,” he said. “We could lounge here for years if you wanted. But then who’s going to protect your nephews?”

  I opened one eye and peaked at him, playfully sticking out my tongue.

  “How do I break your control?” I asked.

  “One way,” Alexandar told me. “Is to break the attacker’s concentration. Another is to kill them. These worlds are so expansive that it can be hard to find the attacker unless they make themselves known.”

  “So what if I can’t find them?” I asked.

  “Then you need backup,” he smiled at me and my heart skipped a beat. “Call one or all of us in.”

  “How?”

  “You did it before with me at the beach, though that may not have been your intention. Just by wanting someone there, you can usually bring them in. Your element is powerful, if left unchecked it will carry out your every unspoken action and word. You need to be very intentional in your thoughts.”

  “That seems exhausting,” I frowned.

  “It can be,” Alexandar nodded. “So that’s why I find a quiet place and tell my element just to support me in my thoughts. Then it has an action to concentrate on while I just let my mind wander. I can create all sorts of worlds that way.”

  “Was that what you were doing the other night in the music room?” I rolled over to face him.

  “Yes,” he said. I watched him pick up his arm then let it drop.

  I scooted a little closer and watched him struggle with himself before making his face a blank mask. I moved my hand to his bare chest and felt the heartbeat, clear as day. Everything felt so real that we could have really been at the beach. His skin felt warm and grainy from the sand. At my touch, his heartbeat picked up and his breathing quickened. He didn’t move, but I could tell he wanted to. I wanted to move my hand so I did. That was the one thing that was different than the real world. Even if I had reservations about doing something I still did it here because I wanted to. That was really saying something about Alexandar’s strength of will.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked as his breathing turned ragged.

  “My sister,” the confession caught me by surprise and the illusion dropped away.

  “I’m not sure how to take that,” I said as we sat in his bedroom again.

  “Well you broke my concentration that’s for sure,” he frowned at me. “My entire focus was split on continuing the illusion and not...”

  His voice trailed off and he coughed.

  “So unfortunately I couldn’t keep from telling you my thoughts.” He said after a moment.

  “Do you think of her when you look at me?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he squeezed his eyes shut and ran his hands through his hair again. “But not the way you’
re thinking. She is never far from my mind. I miss her every day. Shall we try again?”

  I put my hand on his knee and smiled lightly when he looked up at me.

  “I understand,” I told him.

  “I know you do,” he put his hand over mine and squeezed.

  Over the next hour we went back and forth. He showed me how to protect my mind from someone entering it when I was in public by using my element as a mental shield. He explained that it wasn’t foolproof and that if I needed it maintained I wouldn’t be able to do a myriad of tasks as well. The Elementals power wasn’t infinite, but it wouldn’t get tired or need a rest. You could transfer power from the tasks to other things. We went through a large number of scenarios and it actually became fun trying to outwit him. Though it was only an hour in real time it seemed like weeks of training. He even began showing me how to fight with my element. I was excited to try it out.

  When we were done training we were both covered in muck from our various travels. Alexandar had explained to me that this travel was a form of astral projection. With every projection you brought something back with you, good or bad. So it was always a good idea to cleanse afterward, body and mind.

  We both entered the hot springs, this time with a bathing suit on and enjoyed the cleansing. As I floated through the water, much like the island carrying us, a thought occurred to me.

  “If we can’t make the elements work against themselves indefinitely, how is this floating island possible?”

  Finished, Alexandar was sitting on the side of the pool, watching as I floated.

  “A few Elementals gave their lives so that the future ones could have a