Ascendance

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Then later that morning - after all of three hours of sleep, Cesar had sent Amber to find me. For whatever reason he did so it seemed to be important as everyone in the institution was on edge. As I walked through the passageways towards Cesar's office peoples' conversations would turn hushed, their eyes swiftly landing on me. I'd never felt more of an outsider in the institution before, it wasn't that they were being unkind, they were just looking at me if I was a stranger to them again. As I passed Tyler and Ashley - two undines I'd gotten to know since my time at the institution, they did no more than nodded their heads to me in acknowledgment.

"Cesar, what is going on with everyone?" I exclaimed as I made my way into his office, unaware of our company.

"Eden," Cesar smiled towards me, gesturing for me to take a seat. As I surveyed the room I was surprised to see Hunter and Asim lounging on the couches in the centre of the room facing one another, Asim more casually than Hunter. "We need to speak with you. Asim may have figured out the answer to what we've all been wondering."

"Please," Asim urged me to take a seat beside Hunter, whose eyes remained focused on his lap. As I crossed the room towards them with Cesar at my side, I placed myself on the same couch of Asim, not wanting to experience the uncomfortable glance Hunter and I would've had to have shared.

"Okay then." Asim shrugged, his eyes darting back and forth between Hunter and I.

"Back to our point," Cesar started, dark circles hanging beneath his green eyes, his golden hair a mess on his head. "We have reason to believe that Aro is struggling with performing the ritual for one of two reasons. Either your mother's power alone isn't enough, which seems unlikely, or that she doesn't have it anymore."

"What?" Hunter butted in, his eyes just as exhausted as Cesar's. "How's that possible?"

"You tell me? Susie is an Akasha, like me." Asim smirked, we all nodded in return to his statement. "Well we can manipulate the powers of spirit so in theory it is extremely easy for us to tamper with our own."

"I'm lost." I frowned, not knowing where anyone was going with their predictions.

"We think your mother may have, in simple terms, put her elemental abilities into some kind of object for safekeeping. During eighteen years of neglecting her power something would have happened surely, exposing her to you Eden. You said yourself that for your entire life you had no reason to suspect your mother was different, it's the only way she could have concealed her power for so long, so well." Cesar explained, his eyes locked on my face as he spoke.

"You can't be serious?" Hunter stared at the pair in disbelief, his eyes still avoiding me.

"Come on Eden," Asim urged me on, ignoring Hunter. "Think, is there anything she kept hold of during the entire time you were moving around, anything she kept close to her?" To start with nothing came to mind, I couldn't think of a single thing that we'd kept over the years. Every time we moved we'd leave everything behind, not wanting to burden ourselves with our past. She'd always insisted that a clean slate would make it easier on me when I left behind my friends and the brief life I'd made for myself.

"It would've had to have been small, easy to grab if needed." Cesar added before rising from his seat, the leather of the couch squeaking as he did so. I could feel his eyes on me as he paced back and forth, trying to somehow help me figure it out. I racked my brains trying to think about what she could've used, I'd known her my whole life, it should've been easy but it wasn't, my brow was knitted together in frustration as I stared blankly at the bookshelves that lined the adjacent wall.

"There's only one thing I can think of," I stated, remembering how fond she was of one piece of jewellery. "She used to wear it all the time when I was younger but the clasp broke and she never fixed it, it just sits in her jewellery box now."

"What is it?" Asim questioned, moving closer to me out of speculation.

"It's just a pendant my grandmother gave her," I remarked. "It's just some silver chain with some rock hanging from it. It's nothing valuable, but she loved it."

"What type of rock?" Asim asked, his face becoming more and more excited.

"No idea, it's looks like a misshaped tooth if that makes any sense," I tried my best to describe the necklace from my childhood memories. "It's a pale pink colour."

"That's not a rock," Cesar smiled, his expression resembling someone who was onto something, like a detective on the brink of cracking the case. "It's a crystal, it sounds like rose quartz. Quartz crystals are said to have a deep spiritual affliction with Earth, Universe and so on. It seems like that she could of used a crystal like this to do what we suspect."

"You have to go get it." Cesar decided, making his way over to his mahogany desk.

"Well I better inform my sister of our progress, good luck on your travels." Asim nodded towards Hunter and I before leaving, his khaki shorts making noise as his legs moved in the silence of the room. Moments passed after Asim's exit, neither Hunter nor I daring to speak as Cesar flicked through pages of ancient looking books as he stood over his desk in the dim lit room.

"Hunter I thought it was obvious that you'll be going with Eden," Cesar stated, looking at us both confused as to why we were still there. "Aro's men will be looking for Eden they think she's an elemental, you know that."

"Which is why it's too dangerous for her to go!" Hunter exclaimed, turning his whole body around in his seat to face Cesar at his desk. "She's much safer here."

"I'm at risk wherever I am." I spoke. "I'm going to get it, we wouldn't want you to damage anything else."

"Fine." Hunter almost growled as he got up from his seat, heading to the door. "I'll be waiting in the car." He called over his shoulder as he stormed out, leaving Cesar and I alone for the first time in days.

"Amber and Jasper will be coming with us if you don't mind?" I asked, walking towards Cesar's desk, the candle on it creating shadows in the contours of Cesar's face as he hunched over his desk. "As you can see things are pretty tense between me and Hunter right now."

"He pushes everyone away." Cesar sighed, raising his eyes to meet mine. "It's his thing. Before I found him in a foster home six years ago when he was fourteen, his mother died due to a battle with cancer. His father however, an old-fashioned man," Cesar raised his eyebrows, emphasising his point. "Believed that his devil-worshiping son was to blame for his mother's sudden illness. He beat him senseless for years up until she died, eventually the state got involved and took him away from his dad who claimed his kid was the devil's spawn and told lies about how his son could do awful things. That's why he doesn't really open up to anyone anymore. It's took six years for him to trust me, at first he hated me, even though I'd rescued him from that hell hole he was in, which some call a foster home."

"I didn't realise it was that bad." I gulped, a lump forming in my throat.

"Everyone here has had some really hard times in their lives dealing with who they are, but Hunter doesn't see it as a gift like the others. He's obsessed with saving others because he couldn't save his own mother. So go easy on him Eden, give him some time. I've never seen him become so attached to someone as fast as he has with you, the others might not see it but I can." Cesar finished, squeezing my shoulder in some way of comforting me. 

"I'll see you when we get back." I smiled, fighting to control the overwhelming emotions that were taking hold of me.

"Make the trip quick," Cesar nodded. "I'll tell Amber and Jasper they'll be going with you."

"Thank you," I smiled briefly before turning on my heel to leave.

"Be safe!" Cesar called after me.