Elemental Odds

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

                                        Thalia             

What seems only like minutes later, I wake up to Zack shaking my shoulder.

“It’s, um, eleven. Grace wants to go.” He says nervously. He himself has the same emotion engraved on his face that I myself am feeling: dread.

“Go where?” I ask warily.

He eyes me carefully. “I better let Grace explain.” He replies cautiously. “I don’t completely understand myself.”

“Fine,” I retort. “Now get out so I can get decent.”

My words immediately take effect. Mortified, he stumbles back. “I-I’ll just, um…” he clears his throat, trying to maintain some dignity, and gestures towards the door. “I just er— leave then,” he stammers. For a moment I catch his eye and all of a sudden we’re both laughing. Then we remember what we’re preparing to do.

“Er— just be down in five minutes.” He reminds me awkwardly before striding out the door, face still flushed.

Five minutes later, my innards seeming to be full of lead, I try to amble casually down the stairs and into the dining room.

It doesn’t work; I’m pale and clammy when I sit down, trying to find my way through the uneasy hush. All eyes on me, I manage to stagger into my chair.

“So um,” Dylan says, evidently trying to cut through the significantly charged silence that seems almost tangible, as if I could slice through it with one of my whizzing arrows. “Where are we headed?”

Grace clears her throat and pulls out a physical world map, showing mountains and valleys and rivers. She gestures to a certain place in the Pacific Ocean, making a ring that goes from the coast of New Zealand to the Philippines to Japan up the Eastern coast of Asia to Alaska, descending down the western coasts of North and South America ending at the utmost southern tip of South America. “The ring of fire,” she announces quietly. “Is one of the most perilous places in the world. Naturally, Omnia makes his home there, and being the man that he is, he, as expected, likes terrorizing the mortals that live there. The Bermuda triangle, also, is one of his favorite hideouts.”

“So where is he?” Willow inquires, impatient. “You have to have a more accurate guess than that.”

“I’m getting to that, Willow.” Grace answers sternly. “This requires a little bit more explanation.” She looks at Willow reproachfully. “As I was saying, based off that information, I mostly focus on keeping an eye on those areas. Reports from those parts are getting an amazing amount of feedback; a new volcano— or rather a series of volcanoes— erupting just off the coast western Mexico. There are two types of volcanoes; the kind that build themselves up with layers of rock and cooled magma, and the kind that builds up pressure and them implodes upon itself, such as Mount Helens. This is the kind that builds itself up, oozing lava instead of exploding.”

“That’s good then. Right?” asks Zack hopefully. “A huge exploding volcano would be much worse, wouldn’t it?”

“Not so fast,” says Grace wearily. “This is a time where Omnia is looking to build rather than destroy for once. These volcanoes have been exploding so frequently over the past couple of months it’s creating a new island.”

“B-but shouldn’t that be impossible?” Dylan questions incredulously. “It takes millions of years to make a completely igneous island.”

“It should,” Grace replies. “But with Omnia’s powers, it is quite possible to do that in a time span of months.” She rubs her temple as if she wished to forget all that she knew. The stress she’s under must be insurmountable, even without all the extra pressure I’ve been adding. “Now, you must realize the brilliance of this plan. An island surrounded by water that he has complete control over, covered by air that he has absolute influence on, but the most genius part is the volcanoes that build the island. Even if anybody could get onto the island, and managed to take over, he could simply flee and make the island self-destruct. No gain, no loss. Either way, he can’t lose.” Her eyebrows crease and her eyes look ancient, as if she’d already seen thousands of deaths and disasters. “That’s why we have to be discreet.” At this point she grins and the ghost of the twinkle that used to be in her eye has returned. “We have one distinct advantage though. While we have a slim chance of killing him, he cannot kill us. He can wound us and torture us yes, but he can’t kill us— or you guys, rather.” She corrects herself. “I bet I would be killed on sight.”

“Why?” I query fiercely. “He’s killed hundreds of thousands of people before, and he didn’t seem to have any problem with it.”

“Oh it’s not for your benefit.” Grace rejoinders dismissively. “It’s his. Omnia originated as a fire Elemental. Then he came across a water Elemental and fearing a rival, killed the man. Being the sick, sick person that he is, he drank the man’s blood as a symbol of triumph. Then, he realized since he had drunk the man’s blood in which water power flowed, he could control water. It became his new obsession, finding, killing and drinking the blood of other Elementals. But then something else became apparent too. He had to renew these borrowed newfound powers from an Elemental every fourteen years. Unfortunately for us, he has just been renewed. Fortunately you guys carry the last line of Elementals. If he kills you, you can’t have kids and the Elemental bloodline ends. If he kills you, he rids himself of power until the end of his days.”