Elementals: Entwined

Chapter 6: Amy

 "Yes, he's the latest chosen from the house of fire. And you didn't hear that from me." Vera shooed us from the room. "Tiffany's not even awake yet, so get to the meeting!" The infirmary door  was slammed in our faces.

 We walked to the lifts, numb. Neither me nor Uri spoke, too wrapped up in our thoughts. If there'd ever been any doubts remaining as to Tiffany's parentage, this definitely confirmed it.

 Drydan may not have fathered any children in... a while, but he'd instead continued with the process of creating chosens: people born human who were converted to elementals. These humans were more powerful than your average elemental since they'd get all the elements of one house. West being the elemental of house of fire gave him three elements: fire, light and electric. That at least explained to me how he'd got Tiffany here so quickly- he'd run as fast as I could, and that was impossible for a child of Volta, but easy for a child of Lux.

 Every child of Drydan was issued with a chosen as their guardian -the equivalent of a bodyguard sent to protect the Drydan children until they'd gained full control of their abilities. Drydan currently  only had one chosen per house, so I was confused since I was pretty sure that last I'd checked, the house of fire chosen had been female. I was going to have to get to the library as soon as I had time.

 "So the rumours are true...?" Uri murmured as we walked back to the lifts. "Poor Tiffany -she's about to become the most famous student in this place, and that -" he gestured to some students in the corridor, who were giving Uri wary looks " -is not always necessarily a good thing."

 I groaned and took the lift to the fifteenth floor.

                                                               **** 

"You're late," Mr Shoal snapped as I enter his office. I restrained myself from rolling my eyes. The meeting doesn't even look like it's properly started, and I doubt it isn't stuff I've not already heard a thousand times. I've been a finder since I was eleven -which is longer than anyone else in this school. I was already bored as I slideinto my seat.

Mr Shoal is the acting principal of Weatherstone. I say "acting" because our school has a rotating head system. Each year, the headmaster is changed to a different elemental teacher. Last year was Mrs Charles, a Lux, or light, elemental. That year was a year that sucked -light and dark elementals don't necessarily get along, what with being polar opposites in every way. Mr Shoal was a lot fairer to me, but still let Shelby off the hook for just about anything. He also could get seriously moody -water elementals were renowned for their mood swings, and Shoal was no exception. Even now he was ranting. I tuned out.

Because Mr Shoal was the current principal, his office was the largest and most luxurious. Huge windows looked out over campus. Like every floor, it had a balcony (I kid you not when I say that every room had a balcony, and it's as ridiculous as it sounds), though his was more like a patio, since it was about five times the size of the small room I'd been crashing at whist in London with Tiffany. A water dispenser sat within easy reach of his desk, and a large fish tank, practically an aquarium, took up nearly the entire right wall. At the left wall was an ensuite bathroom, which obviously I'd never had reason to be in, but I had no doubt it'd be huge. The room had been decorated neutrally -the four of us were currently sitting on a leather sofa, the desk Mr Shoal normally sat at was made of heavy, polished wood, and the technology we could see was top range. Mr Shoal had tried to alter that, though, by hanging some kind of blue drapes that gave the room an underwater feel, and a shelf near his desk was practically lined with coral. The room somehow smelled of the ocean, just like Shelby and Mr Shoal always did. It wasn't to my taste, but it was miles better than the way it had been last year -Mrs Charles had covered the room in fairy lights and permanently lit the place up like Christmas. Entering the room had nearly made me pass out, and I was pretty sure that anyone just visiting had required sunglasses. I shuddered at the memory.

 "...As I was saying," Mr Shoal was saying now, glaring at us, "how did it take you so long to calculate what she was? You were at that place for nearly three years! You -" he added, stabbing a finger in my direction, "practically lived with her! I want answers. The first Drydan in a century and you nearly get her killed! What do you have to say for yourselves?" Shoal looked pointedly at me. Since I had the most experience and had been training to do this most of my life, I was unofficially the leader whenever I was tasked on tracking down elementals. This was pretty much all on me. I scowled.

 "First, we did work out that she wasn't normal, and we reported every incident whenever she did something. You can even check the records. Only because she was displaying multiple elements, and Mrs Charles hates me, she wouldn't let me bring Tiffany in unless the Demons made a move first to confirm it. Tiffany was always wearing a negator, though, so the demons wouldn't have touched her anyway. Second, no-one expected for Tiffany to be a Drydan. The guy's practically been a monk for a century, and it's not like anyone told me he'd removed his chastity belt!" I snapped.

Shelby cracked up, and I could see Martin fighting a bemused smile. Lily looked mortified. I winced. There had been no intention to make it sound like I was joking, but I knew that Shoal wasn't going to take it well. His eyes narrowed as he glared at me. Sometimes being the leader sucked.

 "I don't like your impertinent tone, Miss Warden," the tone of his voice implied he'd happily strangle me. "I'll have words with Mrs Charles. Now tell me exactly what happened tonight. I hear I apparently have to cover up an earthquake, a car crash, a wrecked field and blocked roads?"

 One thing that Weatherstone Academy had was connections. Somehow they were able to talk to the right people to cover up nearly every freak accident that occurred regarding us, otherwise we would've all been taken apart by scientists long ago. I hadn't realised quite how much damage had been done by us though. It sounded about ten times worse than usual.

 Shelby relayed the story, leaving nothing out. We'd instinctively let her tell it in order to get on Shoal's good side. Whilst she spoke, Shoal took notes. By the time she was done, he'd filled out an A4 sheet. "The council" -here he was referring to the ten elemental teachers that were in charge of the school -"and I will discuss this. In the meantime, here are your schedules." He handed us sheets of paper. According to it, I was currently late for some maths class, but you'd have to be having a laugh if you thought I was actually attending. "You'll start classes tomorrow, Miss Warden. I doubt you'll actually do as I say, but I'm ordering you to get some sleep. When was the last time you did?"

 I shrugged. "Like a month ago? I still want to take daytime classes though. I can take some of the morning ones. Classes at ten am are like being awake at ten pm." I had realised that day classes had been totally obliterated from my schedule. Even if it wasn't my job to watch Tiffany anymore, I wanted to at least have classes with some of my friends.

 Shoal looked at me, eyes narrowed. "Mr Nilsson recommended you get more sleep. You've barely had any."

 I looked him in the eye. Headmaster or not, I was taking whatever classes I wanted. "I'm seventeen, sir, so it's not like I'd actually be asleep anyway. All I'm asking is that you let me take classes up until noon. Give me more free periods so I can get naps if you want, but I'm sure you'll agree that Tiffany needs a familiar face in the school."

 Shoal looked away. I'd given him my "don't mess with me" glare, which Tiffany had once told me could make people do just about anything. Five minutes later, I had a new schedule and was on the way back to the infirmary.