Water {Elements of Power 2}

Chapter 17: Roxy

Tristan lived in a tree, of course.

Thankfully his house was plenty big enough for two of us. In fact, it was extravagant by Sephan standards.

Once we were inside he cut the ropes that bound my wrists. "You're not going anywhere," he said with a shrug when I looked at him in surprise.

"What makes you so sure about that?" I rubbed my wrists where the ropes had chafed—not that they had done much more damage than the manacles. Now that I was away from the sea spray, my arms had returned to the dull, persistent ache I had endured in the Helian Realm. The effect of the gold metal overlaying the red skin beneath looked like drakon scales, I noticed with growing detachment. Even when I managed to get the manacles off, the scaring would never heal. Coupled with the burns that now littered my upper body... Well, at least long sleeves were fashionable in the Arcan Realm.

"You would never be able to get to the Arcan Realm by yourself," Tris said, bringing my attention back to him. "You have no idea where in the Sephan Realm you are and no way of getting across the water."

"I have a boat." Obviously I wasn't really helping myself here, but I was intrigued by his behaviour and wanted to see how he would respond.

"And you know where this boat is in relation to where you are now?"

Good point. I shook my head.

"I thought not."

I looked away from him, taking in my new prison instead.

It was built entirely of wood, like the others in the capital, but it had a few luxuries that I hadn't seen elsewhere in the Realm. Glass in the windows for one, animal pelts for another—it seemed that Tristan was handy with that bow and arrow of his. I shuddered. The Sephans were barbaric. No Helian would ever kill an animal to keep themselves warm, we had synthetic fibres (and a second sun) for that. He had an assortment of plain wooden furniture, a table with five chairs round it, two beds (I was particularly pleased to notice), a small kitchen area and a couple of drawers. However, the entire apartment was littered with stuff: carved wooden animals, garlands of flowers, finely woven clothing and colourful artwork.

"Pledges," he said, following my gaze. "They are given to the candidates by people who pledge their support to them."

"Why?" I looked around me in amazement. He must never need to pay for anything.

"As a public show of support. Even the windows were a gift, showing that the local glazier is voting for me."

I sat down in one of the wooden chairs, astonished.

"So how do elections work, exactly?"

"We have them every three years, unless something important comes up, perhaps calling into question the suitability of whoever is in power, or because someone steps down. Our next election wasn't due for another few months. When Nolan quit, it made sense to move them forwards and get the whole thing over with in one go."

"I bet Erica wasn't too happy about that!"

"No, she wasn't. She's even less happy that I'm running against her as the only other Protector."

"You can only have one in power?"

"Yes. One Protector, one Non-Protector. Most voters will also normally vote for one male candidate and one female candidate, to keep things balanced."

"Who can run?"

"Absolutely anyone."

"That's crazy!"

"Why?"

"Because then absolutely anyone can run your Realm, with no prior experience."

"Well, where's your experience?"