The Order of the Elements 01 - Breaking Point (17 page)

“How long will it take to use our powers properly?” Ethan asked.

“Not long. The biggest obstacle is overcoming the emotional use of your powers. After that, they are easy to master.”

“I’m accomplished at my power already. I’m sure I’ll be the first to complete training.” Everyone turned and was not surprised to see Kali speaking behind them. Phoebe clenched her fists to keep her hands from wrapping around Kali’s throat. Why was this inconsequential girl making her so angry?

Dorian looked back over his shoulder, and his nose wrinkled slightly. “We shall see, I suppose.”

He looked slightly disgusted to see the self-satisfied smile pass over Kali’s face, but he had been unable to disprove her statement. Phoebe felt microscopically better to see that he didn’t seem to like her either. Then she wondered if that was it—was Kali making her so angry because of what she thought of Dorian? But why would Phoebe care what Kali thought?

They continued on to the dining hall, which was full of circular wooden tables that sat six per table. After looking for a moment at the ornate flower groupings that hung from the walls, Phoebe realized that they were arranged into pictures that changed themselves every few moments as if trying to tell a story. Magnificent chandeliers hung from the ceiling, full of hundreds of lit candles. Between each set of chandeliers were skylights that reached across the entire ceiling.

Everybody settled down to the many tables. Thankfully, Kali choose a table far away from Phoebe’s, and her loyal admirers went with her. Phoebe felt calmer as the unpleasant girl walked away.

After only a few minutes, gnomes started appearing with large trays of food. Each tray was supported by four little gnomes who could hardly be seen beneath them so that it looked like the trays were floating of their own accord to each table. The trays contained six plates of food and six glasses of water. Phoebe was pleasantly surprised to see that they were eating actual food and therefore didn’t have to concentrate so much as they ate and were free to speak to one another.

“That was brilliant!” Jared said, digging into his baked potato. “I have never seen anyone move like that!”

“My brother is pretty good, but nothing compared to what we just saw,” Cynthia said.

“I can’t wait to get in there and try it out,” Evan said excitedly, knocking over his cup.

He managed to grab it before it hit the floor, and as he set it back on the table, it refilled on its own.

“What do you say, Jared? I expect you fancy learning a bit of combat now, eh?” Evan asked, looking over at his twin.

Jared considered for a moment as he chewed his food slowly. “I don’t know yet. I suppose it would be useful, though.”

“Oh, go on, then. Let’s just all do it together. Besides, if we’re going to be friends with the likes of you two,” Cynthia said as she indicated Ethan and Phoebe, “I expect we’re going to need it.”

“What do you mean the likes of us?” Ethan asked, pretending to look offended.

Lucy piped up. “Well, we are friends, aren’t we? If you think we’re going to sit home and knit while you two go off to save the world, you have another thing coming.”

“I agree,” Jared added solemnly. “So, what do you say? All for one and one for all?”

Phoebe tried to protest—like they needed to put themselves in any more danger—but she couldn’t concentrate. Dorian was walking around the hall, talking to people here and there while someone stalked in his shadow. She completely lost her appetite. Kali looked like an overeager fan girl as she followed him around, trying to engage him in conversation every time he broke away from a table. Phoebe tried to get a hold of herself. She told herself that she had no claim to him, and that she was probably just feeling possessive because she had done all the work to get him to open up. But that wasn’t it, and she knew it. She couldn’t admit the other possibility.

The possibility that she might have more than platonic feelings for him.

Thunder cracked outside, and Kali jumped away from Dorian. She had been close enough to touch him. Phoebe laughed quietly to herself. Dorian looked up, and his silver eyes searched hers, looking for a reason that she would be so angry.

“Hello, Earth to Phoebe!” Cynthia was calling her attention back to the table.

Phoebe turned back to her friends as Dorian escaped from Kali around another table.

“Sorry, I was thinking.”

“I know! I didn’t even know there was anyone who could compete with the elves. They are, like, the elite, and Dorian was just as good. Amazing!” Evan continued, clearly excited about starting combat training.

Phoebe nodded in agreement, and sounding like a broken record, commented, “It was amazing.”

Lucy whispered quietly to Phoebe as everyone went into a blow-by-blow recount of what they had just watched. Again.

“Just ignore her; I don’t think Dorian is interested.”

Phoebe’s cheeks burned. Lucy was more observant than she had thought. “I don’t care. She just annoyed me, that’s all,” she lied poorly, glad the others’ attention was elsewhere.

Lucy raised her eyebrows as she saw right through Phoebe’s lie. “Trust me, Phoebe, he’s not interested. There’s only one person he sees.”

Lucy turned back to her lunch, and Phoebe felt like finding a hole to hide in. Perhaps observant was too light of a term for Lucy. If Phoebe didn’t know any better, she would think Lucy had a talent like hers. She made sure Lucy was occupied with her food again before looking back at Dorian. A few strands of his hair hung in his eyes as he leaned over the table, handing something out. Schedules. Kali was back in his shadow, but she looked put out about something. Phoebe turned back to the table.

“Did you see that twist thing that he did? She had to, like, flip over backward to get out of it. It was crazy!” Evan was still going on about the scrimmage. He was practically jumping in excitement. Phoebe had to laugh at his enthusiasm.

She couldn’t see herself ever moving like Piper had. It surely required speed and agility that was far beyond what she possessed. This wasn’t going to be easy, not in the slightest. Phoebe wasn’t the only one to think that.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to move like that. It has to require a lot more than just proper training,” Ethan said gloomily.

“Don’t worry. It looks impossible when you start, but my brother said it’s not really that hard to get a hang of,” Cynthia reassured him.

Ethan didn’t look very reassured. Meanwhile, Evan was still off in his own little world while Jared concentrated on his food; Cynthia stared off thoughtfully, and Lucy watched Ethan closely, measuring his expression.

Dorian reached their table with a stack of parchment in his hands. “So, what training will you all be attending? I mean, aside from Phoebe and Ethan. They obviously have to take all of them.”

“Then we’re going to take all of them too!” Evan said enthusiastically.

Everyone murmured in agreement. Dorian looked at them all warily. “Are you sure? It is quite a rigorous schedule.”

“Doesn’t everyone put in the same amount of hours?” Evan asked.

Dorian nodded, and his hair shimmered as the light danced on it. “Mostly, yes, but Phoebe and Ethan are going to have extra training.”

Ethan looked apprehensive, but Evan leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and looked cool and unconcerned. “Bring it on.”

Jared nodded, trying to mimic his brother’s casual look. “Go on, then, let’s see our schedules.”

Dorian handed parchment around to each of them. As they took the blank pages, writing appeared across them. Phoebe looked down at hers and read her schedule. She had training with the elves all day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays she had Elemental powers and talents training. A note at the bottom informed her that she would have extra lessons with Cassius once a week on Thursday evenings.

Evan peered over her shoulder. “Why have you got extra classes with Cassius?”

Phoebe glanced at Dorian, who nodded his head discretely, obviously giving her the go ahead to tell them. Kali looked over Dorian’s shoulder. His face soured, and that made Phoebe feel better.

“Not here,” she said as she glanced around at Kali and her two clones following her around. “Let’s get back to our room.” They all excused themselves and made their way out the door. Even though Sapphire and Bree had stayed awake for the walk down to the dining hall, they had fallen back to sleep in Phoebe’s pocket. She poked her hand in and stroked Sapphire to wake her up. The foal climbed onto her hand, and she lifted Sapphire to eye level.

“We need to get back to our room,” Phoebe said to the foal.

Sapphire nodded her head and peered around. She looked to her left and flicked her tail. Phoebe took that as the direction she was supposed to go in. They continued following Sapphire’s directions until they made their way back to her room. They all settled down in the sitting room, and everyone turned to look at Phoebe expectantly.

“Okay, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone unless I completely trusted them, and I do trust all of you.” She paused for minute, thinking of how best to say it, but decided just coming out with it was best. “I’m a Truth Seeker.”

The effect of her statement was comical. Cynthia gasped and her mouth hung open. Evan covered himself as if he was naked in front of her. Jared fell off the chair he had been sitting on, and Lucy said “Oh!” with wide eyes. Ethan and Phoebe laughed at the lot of them.

“Does that mean you know what we’re all thinking?” Jared asked as he pulled himself up from the floor.

“If I wanted to I could, but I respect your privacy and am only going to use it when absolutely necessary. Besides, it gives me a headache, and I would really like to avoid that when possible,” Phoebe explained. Evan lowered his hands slightly.

“Is that what the classes with Cassius are for? To learn how to use it?” Evan asked, catching on.

“Yeah, only last night I got really mad so I didn’t actually get anything accomplished,” she said, feeling slightly ashamed of herself again.

“You got mad? About what?” Ethan asked.

She sighed, but finally she relented to recount the events of the night before. Everyone listened closely, and she was relieved that when it was over none of them blamed her for being angry with Cassius

“Wow,” Cynthia breathed. “I mean, everyone knows about the prophecy of all of you being born, but I didn’t know there was more to it, or about this Irena. I’ve never even heard of her.”

Everyone had unconsciously leaned forward while Phoebe was talking, and they now settled back into their seats.

“I suppose Cassius has his reasons for keeping it to himself, and I’m sure he has others for telling Phoebe now,” Evan said, shrugging his shoulders.

“I think he wants Ethan, Dorian, and me to go after it, you know, when we’re ready,” she said.

Jared cleared his throat loudly. “I think you mean all of us. Did we not just say we’re together in this?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“We’re with you,” Evan said as he looked directly at Phoebe, “through everything.” She felt a strange warmth and appreciation at his words, his commitment.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Phoebe blushed; she could not imagine having better friends than the ones sitting here with her now. She couldn’t even honestly say if her other friends would have done the same. She couldn’t imagine them here. Although to be fair, she never would have imagined herself here either. Finally, it seemed, she was able to ask the question that had been bugging her all day.

“What’s it like, you know, out there?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Everyone sobered immediately, even Evan. He was the first to speak. “We don’t know for sure. We’ve never been out of our safe places.”

“I thought you all had to travel here?” Confusion passed over Ethan’s face, and he pulled his eyebrows together.

Jared spoke up. “We did, but there are underground passageways that are partially protected. It’s not completely safe, but safer than traveling across open country.”

Lucy spoke next. “It’s bad, though, and it’s dark all the time with fires burning everywhere. All manner of foul creatures run about preying on whoever or whatever they can find. That’s what my brother told me before he, you know, died.”

Ethan awkwardly reached over and patted her shoulder twice before his hand dropped uselessly on the couch. Lucy had a small smile of appreciation at his gesture.

Phoebe shuddered as a cold chill ran down her spine. She wanted to get this training done as soon as she could. She couldn’t stand waiting around while more people got hurt. Evan seemed to read her mind.

“We’ll be ready soon enough. Petrozan and Esmeralda’s days are almost over.”

Phoebe nodded as sadness coursed through her, and once again, it began to rain outside. Phoebe took Bree out of her pocket and put him and Sapphire on the floor and watched as the two began to play.

“Why does it keep raining?” Cynthia asked, looking out the windows at the trails of water that formed on the glass panes.

“Sorry about that,” Phoebe said, looking up from the two companions. “I don’t mean to. It just sort of happens.”

“You mean you’re doing that?” Evan said in disbelief. His eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s what Dorian said.”

“Wow, I wish my powers would do something interesting,” Ethan said gloomily. Lucy reached over and placed her hand on his arm sympathetically. Phoebe wanted to kick Ethan. He didn’t even seem to notice Lucy’s effort to make him feel better.

“They did, at orientation. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who can produce a shield like that. I mean aside from Dorian, of course,” Jared said encouragingly.

Ethan smiled. “Wow, really?” Jared nodded his head in confirmation.

Ethan perked up slightly after that, and Shade climbed down from his lap to join the other animals on the floor. Phoebe closed her eyes and sat back against the couch she shared with Evan, wondering what was going to happen next. At the moment, she was too tired to care.

13. Jade

Getting dressed had never before required Ethan to concentrate so much. It wasn’t the clothes exactly—pants and a shirt weren’t that difficult—it was trying to put them on correctly while completely and totally exhausted that was proving a challenge. Ethan had barely slept at all. Not from anxiety or probing thoughts, as would be expected, but from dreaming. He had spent the entire night in the garden. He had no idea why he was there, or why the woman with the shining blond hair never looked at him or spoke or even acknowledged his presence. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t simply ask her. Just because her head was pointed in the opposite direction didn’t mean she was deaf.