Elemental Origins: The Complete Series

by A. L. Knorr

The sounds of light footsteps on the front porch reached our ears, and Targa threw the door open as Akiko was reaching for the knocker. Her face split in a wide smile that lit her entire countenance. I didn't think I'd ever seen her look more happy and open.

  "Hello, strangers," she said, her voice soft. She stepped inside to be swallowed in a group hug. "Someone smells like jasmine," came her muffled voice.

  "That's probably me," said Georjie as we broke apart. "Good nose, you have."

  "Jasmine has always been one of my favorite scents." Akiko inhaled. Her discerning gaze fell on Targa and she canted her head. "You look different. Are you wearing colored contacts? And when did you dye your hair? It looks great black."

  Georjie and I both gave Targa a we-told-you-so look.

  Targa rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you guys." Her eyes seemed to search for something, anything. "You took the carpet off the stairs. They look way better as hardwood."

  "Thanks! On that note, leave your cell phones at the door and..." Georjie made a 'follow me' gesture with her head and went down the stairs.

  Akiko, Targa, and I shared a bemused look, took our cell phones out, and left them on the table by the door.

  The humidity and sweet smell grew as we descended the stairs. By the time we reached the bottom, the air had become damp and cloying.

  Previously, there had been a hallway with a number of doors leading to various rooms; the pool, two spare bedrooms, a storage and laundry room, and the garage. Now, there was a glass wall partitioning the pool from the ground floor landing. The glass was misted up with condensation and a green blur of plants could be seen through it.

  "You've turned it into a greenhouse?" Akiko exclaimed.

  At the same time, Targa said, "You changed your pool to saltwater!"

  Georjie paused with her hand on the handle of the sliding glass door. She leveled Targa with an amazed look. "How can you tell that?"

  "There's no chlorine in the air anymore," Targa answered, sniffing.

  She was right. I took a deep inhale. "It smells like a jungle."

  I closed my eyes, breathing in the fresh clean scents.

  Georjie slid the door back. "That's a pretty apt description. Welcome to the jungle."

  She stepped through and we followed her.

  The pool was the same shape as before but the room was barely recognizable. Butterflies fluttered from plant to plant and greenery burst from every corner of the room. Blossoms of all kinds and colors dotted a backdrop of lush jungle. The ceiling, which had previously been low and filled with pot-lights, had been lifted and replaced with glass. Trees brushed against the glass ceiling, their branches making crisscrossed silhouettes against the dying evening light.

  My eyes were immediately drawn to the tiki torches placed throughout the room. It might have been my imagination, but they seemed to flicker toward us, the tongues of flames inviting us in. Gone were the tiles and plastic sunbathing beds and tables. Moss coated the floor in places. The double sliding glass doors leading out into the yard were open to the warm autumn day.

  "I don't understand." Targa's vibrant aqua eyes roamed the floor to the ceiling, following the twisted form of what looked like a fig tree. "There are trees growing in here. I can see the roots." She pointed and I saw she was right. Gnarly roots appeared and disappeared in the soil like some serpentine underwater creature.

  "But this is impossible!" Akiko pulled off her socks and walked into the space in her bare feet, toes hugging the moss. "You can't have changed the space this much in the time you've been home. How did you transplant such big plants? How did you break up all that concrete and get rid of it in the time you've had?"

  Georjie gave us a secretive smile. "I was so inspired by my Aunt Faith's greenhouse that I asked my mom if we could renovate. It wasn't very hard to convince her. She gave me a generous budget and away I went."

  "It's amazing, Georjie!" I stripped off my socks and walked alongside the pool, enjoying the feeling of moss and soil beneath my feet. "I'm surprised Liz let you do all this. The maintenance alone-"

  "It's my responsibility." Georjie gestured to a small clearing beside the pool where a patchwork blanket had been laid out. A low table held a stack of glasses, plates of veggies and dip, and jugs of water and juice. The Adirondack chairs which had been around the firepit in the back yard had been moved to a space beside the pool. "Want to go for a swim?"

  "Absolutely." Targa hefted her bag.

  We changed into our suits and splashed around, getting some exercise and enjoying the enchanting atmosphere.

  "So, who’s going to start?" I put my feet down on the pool's bottom and stood, water sluicing from my hair. "We've got a lot of catching up to do."

  Georjie looked from me to Targa to Akiko, waiting.

  "Why don't you go, Saxony?" Targa rested her elbows on the edge of the pool. "I'm surprised you haven't started talking already."

  Butterflies spiraled through my stomach and I opened my mouth. No words formed. I didn't know how to start.

  "I'll go," Akiko said quietly.

  We stared at her.

  "I'm pleasantly shocked," laughed Georjie. "Getting info from you is like pulling teeth, and here you are volunteering to go first?"

  "This is unprecedented." Targa laughed. “You must really have something to share.”

  Akiko grinned. "It's difficult to know how to begin…"

  I nodded, fully empathizing with her.

  She took a breath. "The reason jasmine is one of my favorite scents is because my sister and I used to gather it every spring for our home and our neighbors’ homes."

  I blinked, thinking I had misheard her. "Your…sister?"

  "Yes. I have a sister."

  For the space of a few heartbeats there was no sound but the sloshing of water against the sides of the pool.

  "Why didn't you tell us?" Targa asked. "If you used to pick jasmine with her every spring, then it means you didn't just meet her this past summer. You've had a sister this whole time and never told us."

  Akiko nodded. "Aimi and I were raised together but were torn apart by circumstances out of our control."

  "Aimi," Georjie echoed.

  "I haven't been able to talk about my life because I've been bound to keep my mouth shut. Until the events of this past summer, I wasn’t free to share anything with you. I am sorry for that. But everything is different now."

  The words flowed from her lips, relaxed and casual, but their impact was far from casual. Georjie, Targa, and I shared looks of surprise.

  I pulled myself out of the pool and wrapped a towel around myself. Georjie followed me and we settled with Akiko on the blanket. Targa stayed in the water but rested her elbows on the side of the pool. She put her chin on the back of her hand, her discerning gaze on Akiko.

  "Is Aimi older or younger than you? And when can we meet her?" Georjie folded her long legs beneath her, her towel draped around her shoulders.

  "She's older," Akiko said this with an enigmatic smile. "Much older, I think."

  "You think?" Targa dropped her chin and stared at Akiko. "You don't know?"

  Akiko shook her head. "I have been trying to think of the best way to share my story without shocking you, or making you think I'm making it all up." She shrugged. "I don't know any other way of doing it than just telling it straight."

  I thought back to the moment Isaia had pushed the fire into my body. I couldn't imagine Akiko having anything to tell that was more unbelievable than my own story.

  "Just tell us the truth," Georjie said, using the corner of the towel to wipe moisture from her face. "We'll believe you."

  "All right." Akiko let out a long breath and then spoke slowly. "The truth is, I am not human and neither is my sister." Her words seemed to echo across the pool and the space. "I share my story with you now because I have to say goodbye and I want you to know why. I want you to know who I am and why I have to go. Why I have lied to you."

  My heart began to pound and I was flooded with
a confusing tangle of emotions. I found I had to open my mouth in order to get enough oxygen. Not human? Say goodbye?

  "What are you if you're not human?" Targa sounded so calm that I glanced at her in surprise.

  "I am what is known in Japan as an Akuna Hanta, a demon-hunter. I was born in 1908. I was conceived to human parents and, as far as I know, I was human until my sister gifted me with my tamashī—a connection to something called the Æether and the heart of my Hanta powers."

  "You're over a century old?" breathed Targa. Remarkably, she seemed to calmly accept this confession as true.

  My throat constricted and the heat of my fire flickered in my belly. If I hadn't been through my own supernatural summer, I would have thought Akiko was making this up. Georjie and I shared a glance and I saw my own shock reflected in her face. I had no trouble believing Akiko to have some kind of supernatural ability, but to be over one-hundred years old?

  "How?" Georjie asked.

  "Perhaps if I show you something, it will help." Akiko opened her right hand out to the side and a bright light appeared in the region of her heart.

  Targa gasped, Georjie's hand flew to her mouth, and I blinked in awe, staring at the light.

  "This is my tamashī," Akiko explained. "For over ninety years it was in the possession of Daichi, my captor."

  “Daichi?” I sent Akiko a questioning look.

  “I was never allowed to refer to him as anything but Grandfather,” she explained, “and I only learned his true name just this past spring.”

  I was speechless, but Targa loosed a disgusted sound. “Ugh! I knew there was something off about that guy.”

  "He was your captor?" Georjie's eyes reflected the white light of the glow in Akiko's chest.

  I stared at it, thinking how similar yet different it looked from my own fire. As we watched, the light began to move. It traveled along Akiko's right arm until it reached her palm. It hovered there for a second before vanishing, making the space seem much darker than before. I blinked rapidly as my eyes adjusted.

  "Have you ever heard the term kitsune?" Akiko asked.

  "Japanese mythology," Georjie answered with a nod. "A girl who can transform into a fox, or something like that."

  Akiko nodded. "Aimi is a kitsune. She was taken in by my parents before I was born, given a home, taught our language, and cared for. As a reward, when my mother was pregnant with me, Aimi blessed the unborn child with a tamashī. She thought it would give the baby a long life and a keen intuition as well as good fortune. But the tamashī transformed me into a Hanta."

  "Can we meet Aimi?" I asked.

  "She is still in Japan."

  "And Daichi?" Targa asked.

  "Daichi is dead."

  A beat of silence.

  "Did you…kill him?" Targa's question was barely audible.

  "Of course she didn't kill him!" I blurted. "Akiko doesn't have a killing bone in her body." My eyes flashed to hers as a cold thought occurred. What if Daichi had been a demon? She said she was a demon hunter. Maybe she had killed him. "At least for humans you don't. Right?" I added, weakly.

  "I didn't kill him. He killed himself with his own sword. The one he sent me to Japan to retrieve."

  "Whoa. Okay." Georjie put her palms out. "You need to start from the beginning. I am so confused right now. How and why was Daichi keeping you captive? And why was his sword left in Japan in the first place? And why did he kill himself? And why do you have to say goodbye?" She took a deep breath. "And can I put some dry clothes on before you talk? I'm getting cold."

  Saxony

  I lay on my stomach on a towel with another draped over my back. I barely noticed the damp fabric against my skin as I stared up at Akiko with my chin propped in my hand. I had no sense of how long she'd been talking; it seemed time was no longer relevant in our little oasis of secrets.

  Georjayna sat cross legged at Akiko's feet, one elbow resting on the seat of the Adirondack chair Akiko was sitting in. Georjie had put on a terrycloth hoodie and matching bottoms to keep warm, the pastel green hood was cocked over her head. Tendrils of blond hair spilled over her shoulders and out from under the hood, making her look like an elven character against the lush foliage behind her.

  Targa was still in the pool, her chin resting on her forearms. Her otherworldly eyes rarely left Akiko's face. In all the years we had been friends, Akiko had never held our attention for so long or with such a firm grip.

  It seemed that years of intrigue and mystery were falling away from Akiko layer by layer, like she was a flower opening slowly to the sun. Even the flickering torches appeared to be listening as she told her tale of the shape-shifting sisters, the fearsome Oni, the wakizashi she went to Japan to retrieve, the Yakuza, and her beloved Toshi. Her family had not died from a contagious illness like she’d once told us, but had gone on living after she'd been taken by Daichi. She even visited their graves when she was in Japan. She also told us about a fellow Hanta who had helped her retrieve the sword, a man named Yuudai.

  I was dazed by the life story my friend had been forced to keep all these years, but I had no trouble believing her. I recalled Basil mentioning that fire magi were not the only supernatural beings known to him, and we weren’t even the most powerful. I wondered if he knew about the Akuna Hanta; maybe they were even documented in his dossiers.

  From time to time I would glance at Georjie and Targa, watching their faces for traces of disbelief. I found none, and this amazed me too.

  When Akiko had explained how Daichi had stolen her freedom, the fire inside me raged and my face flushed with anger. It was a good thing I hadn't known how much she was suffering because with my temper, I would have done something that might have gotten me arrested.

  For her part, Akiko did not seem to harbor any ill will toward Daichi or even Raiden, the Yakuza boss who nearly killed her and who would have enslaved her for his own gain. I had thought that Dante was evil incarnate, but he seemed like the Easter bunny next to the Yakuza.

  The only time Akiko got emotional was when she spoke of Toshi, of their tender and hopeful love and how it was thwarted.

  "I am so ashamed for thinking that my sister had plotted to get me out of the way so she could marry Toshi." Akiko's voice was solemn and heavy. "I will never forgive myself for that."

  I heard Georjie sniff and looked over to see her wipe her cheek. She said with a husky voice, "I wish we could have met him. I've never seen you date or even have a crush. You always talked about the guys in school with such disdain, calling them boys." Georjie wiped her other cheek. "Now I understand why."

  "You shouldn't punish yourself for thinking your sister wanted Toshi, Akiko." These the first words Targa had spoken in at least an hour. "You never know what people can be capable of."

  "Ain't that the truth," I added, thinking of Dante.

  "So cynical," Akiko looked from Targa to me. "I'm the centenarian here, not you. Why so embittered?"

  It was Georjie who answered. "Saxony fell for a guy who turned out to be a psychopath and I found out a relative of mine was a murderer. But that doesn't explain your cynicism, Targa. Is your mother rubbing off on you?"

  "Maybe." Targa's lip lifted in a smile.

  "Excuse me? You have a murderer in your family, Georjie?" My jaw was on the floor. "I do not recall seeing any reference to this in your text messages this summer! You've been holding out on us, too?"

  Georjie waved me off. "We'll get to me." She looked at Akiko. "So to sum up, you're a shape-shifting demon hunter with the ability to tear an evil spirit from a human body and trap it deep in the earth. You've met another Hanta, whose name sounds chillingly like 'you die,' your sister is a fox-shifter who can influence luck, you're actually almost one hundred and ten years old even though you look twelve.”

  “And she’s gone through high school a few times, too," I murmured. "No wonder she’s so good at trivia games.”

  "Don't forget that she can fly higher than a jet-plane and visit the formless void whe
re all spirit originates," added Targa, lifting her head from her forearms.

  "And you want to leave us and Saltford for good," I added sourly.

  "To go rid the world of demons," Georjie said by way of defense.

  "And you can see demons as well as all living beings’ connection to the Æther while you're in bird form, by way of a spiraling double-helix shooting up into the sky"—Targa put her fingertips on the crown of her head—“from here.”

  "Like some ethereal billboard revealing that person’s most innermost nature." Georjie took the hood off her hair and pulled her long locks away from her neck.

  "And you want to leave us and Saltford for good," I repeated, receiving a comically withering look from Georjie. "What? Isn't anyone else bummed about this?"

  Akiko was laughing. "You guys are crazy."

  "Is that about the size of it, Akiko?" Targa finally got out of the pool and sat on her hip on the edge with her legs dangling in the water.

  "More or less." Akiko nodded.

  I sat up on my haunches and put my hands on my knees. "You know you gotta show us, right?" I reached for my glass of cranberry tonic.

  "Please shift for us?" Georjie's spine straightened eagerly. She looked as though she was prepared to beg all night if that's what it was going to take. "Please?"

  "If you wish.”

  I almost spewed my drink out at the blasé tone of Akiko's answer. Still so understated. As if we weren't all dying to see her shift. Targa burst out laughing at my snort and attempt to swallow my drink before we all ended up wearing it.

  Akiko shook her head at me, smiling. She stood up and took her robe off and folded it. After tossing it behind a thick-leafed plant, she turned and saw Georjie and I share a bemused look.

  "For after," Akiko said.

  I got it, but Georjie still looked confused.

  "’Cause she'll be naked," Targa and I said at the same time.

  "Oh…right." Georjie blinked. "Of course. Your clothes don't shift with you."

  There was a blurring of Akiko's form and a shimmering of the air around and through her, and suddenly she was no more. Her damp bathing suit fell to the ground in a sodden heap.