Amy
As much as she hated it, she trusted Alvin, even with her life. Her dad? Not so much, especially after seeing Alvin's expression when she had mentioned his name not so long ago. His expression was of pure hatred, and Amy had the sinking feeling that it was related to their mother.
The underground travelling thing the three strangers had done, tagging her along? It was bad... just bad. Amy couldn't breathe, and the middle dude hadn't mentioned anything about suffocation.
After a really long 26 seconds that felt like a whole 10 minutes, they finally popped out of the ground.
"Finally...", Amy grumbled under her breath. Whereas the middle dude just gave her a huge eye-roll and croaked, "You'll get used to it. It's quite a pain at first, especially after phasing, but it is a vital skill the Earthen Elementals have. Great for surviving in battle."
"Earthen Elementals?", she repeated, confused.
"Oh, so don't know.", the left dude spoke up, not exactly dude because she was a women as Amy had figured out from her voice, but Amy didn't really care at the moment. So left dude it was.
"Well, looks like you are in for orientation. Good luck.", the left dude added, clearly amused.
Amy was about to inquire ahead but decided against it. She looked around, only to see that they were at another abandoned construction site. There was an elevator in the half-finished and abandoned building, which also happened to be the place they were heading towards.
"Guys, can you at least tell me where are we heading to?" , Amy asked, annoyed.
'Cause I am feeling really pissed off right now.", she added, just in case it wasn't clear by her tone when she asked the question.
"I am liking this girl more and more now.", left dude said. Not sarcastically though.
Amy just huffed in response, she wasn't going to get any answers from these two, and the right dude simply won't let any noise escape his/her mouth, let alone answers.
They had been in the elevator for 6 minutes and 31 seconds, and it and according to the monitor, they had traveled only three floors.
"Is it just me or is the elevator moving really slow? I mean we have traveled just four floors in 4 minutes and 32 seconds!", Amy complained.
"It's 31 seconds actually.", left dude stated in a 'duh' tone, to which Amy responded with a growl.
She could literally hear left dude smirking. Just to get back at her, Amy traced her finger over left dude's gloved hand and pressed sharply at a sensitive nerve ending.
Left dude gasped in pain, "What the heck was that for?", she exclaimed as she felt her hand going numb for a moment, the sensations still zipping across her hand, making her extremely uncomfortable.
It was Amy's turn to smirk, "Sorry.", Amy said in mock apology.
Left dude glared at Amy, while middle dude stared at her in awe. At this moment, right dude finally spoke up. Revealing that right dude too, was a woman.
"Enough blabbering, the two of you! Seriously Gicela, I expected more from such a high ranking officer like you.", Right dude said, disappointment dripping from her words.
"And Amy, the Earthen clan values discipline immensely. As much as the others will enjoy your sass, control your tongue whenever in the company of elders, professionals, and officers. As for your question, we are in the Elemental Academy at the moment, the main building to be precise, it has five main floors, each 60 feet tall, with five sub-floors on each main floor. The main fifth floor has the headmistress' office, the teacher's quarters on the sub-floors above. We are taking you to the headmistress' office for further discussion about your grade, dormitory, and a brief explanation of the Elementals by headmistress herself. Bless you, you will not have to attend the orientation.", Right dude said calmly. Surprisingly, all in one breath.
As if reading her mind, Gicela spoke up, "Earthen Elementals don't require oxygen as much as normal humans do."
"And I am not human anymore?", Amy asked.
"You never were, you were always an Elemental. Only now, after your phasing, you have become an Earthen Elemental.", Right dude explained.
"So, Elementals are just randomly born amongst humans?"
"Of course not! Elementals don't just randomly show up. For a child to be an Elemental, it is necessary for the mother to be an Elemental too. Usually the child is of the same clan as the mother, but siblings can be of different clans if their mother's parentage is of two different clans.", Gicela said coldly.
"Gicela... don't.", Right dude warned.
Right on cue, the gate opened. The three shuffled in their places, forming a triangle around Amy. They walked out of the lift, taking a left turn. The four walked in silence. They reached a fork in corridor, taking another left turn, they went forward a couple of steps before stopping in front of a large oak wood gate.
Middle dude knocked on the door twice before a voice came, "Identity and purpose please.", to which Middle dude replied, "Jorset Minstre, Second in command of the Sixth Battalion, here along with General Gicela Trins and General Orota Trins of the Sixth Battalion to bring Amy Marsh to the headmistress for further procedures."
So Middle dude is Jorset Minstre and Right dude is Orota Trins... Amy thought. Wait, is Jorset Fenz's father or something? And did I literally just poke a freaking General and made her hand go numb, and call her left dude!
Amy's thoughts were cut off by the gate opening, revealing a room that really reminded her of Dumbledore's office. The only difference was that the previous headmasters weren't moving in their frames, and there was no Fawkes.
Behind the huge study table in the centre of the room, the headmistress sat. Her chair was turned towards window, that way, only her auburn bun was visible. It had a sharp hair pin stuch into it, to Amy, the silver hair pin looked more like a weapon rather than an accessory.
The headmistress turned around to face them at the sound of their approaching footsteps. Amy gasped as she saw the headmistress's face. It was her mother's face.
She smiled at Amy and said, "I have been waiting for you to arrive." Amy could only stare blankly at her.
There was something disturbing in her smile. Though the face was the same, the headmistress's smile wasn't genuine like Amy's mother's. Amy took a seat, just as the headmistress had asked.
"Your mother, Esther was an Elemental, half Earth and half Moon. Her mother —my sister, was of the Moon clan. I have to say, you look just like Finola."
"Finola?", Amy spluttered out.
"Finola Sinths was your mother's real name, she changed it in order to keep her identity hidden in the human world."
Amy had gone weak at her mother's mention, the new piece of information did not help Amy either. Taking a deep breath, she ranted, "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Why am I even here? I must have been dreaming about that stupid gem. Did Alvin tell you to do this? I want answers, and believe me when I say I don't have the best patience in here.", her patience draining at every statement.
"Calm down, honey. Jorset, Gicela, and Orota, excuse us please." With this, the three turned on their heels and marched out.
"I am still waiting.", Amy said.
"Well, well, well, I will begin from the start of the Elementals. About 70,000 years ago, only the primordial beings existed, they were:- the Time God, who also happened to be the Sun God's first love, giving birth to 8 planets; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (Pluto left after learning that Sun had left Time for Life), the Goddess Life, who after marring the Sun, is known as Nature, and her ever-maiden sister; the Goddess Gravity. Soon after, Nature gave birth to Light, she couldn't survive on her own, so she took refuge in Sun to exist, the next children, they were triplets, namely Water, Air, and Fire. Fire, the only female in the triplets, took refuge in Sun. However, Sun had injured Nature during a quarrel, of which only Fire knew. Infuriated at her father, she decided to not live on Sun anymore, instead, she took refuge in Earth, Nature's youngest daughter. Still, Fire was not able to leave Sun completely due to their blood relation. Sun blamed the now pregnant Nature for Fire's decision, and this time Earth new about this. Earth was young, even though she had been blessed by Air, Water, Light, Fire and Gravity, she didn't fully understand her responsibility to protect the life present on her."
"Afraid that Sun might hurt Nature again, Earth approached Nature and begged her to not let Sun hurt her for the sake of the unborn Moon, she suggested Nature hurting Sun back in order to ensure that he never hurts Nature again. Nature on the other hand, told Earth that she could destroy her father within seconds, but she wouldn', for the sake of her children and Moon, who were dependent on both of their parents for survival. Sun got to know of this, and he got angry at Earth and Gravity, who had supported Earth in this. Earth had to face Sun's wrath, which resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs from Earth. He didn't hurt Nature though, because he knew that Life could destroy him. Nature, however, felt like she was being biased towards Moon once she had threatened to destroy Sun even though she knew he was listening. She felt that to protect Moon, she was putting the rest of her children in danger. Life believed in balance and equality. Gravity too had to face Sun wrath, and after listening to her sister thinking that she was being biased towards Moon, Gravity couldn't help but feel angry at Moon. So once Moon was born, he was not blessed by Gravity, hence, the other Elements couldn't bless him too, all except for Light. Sun was afraid that Life might get angry at him for Moon's condition, and sent Light to bless Moon. One thing that Earth hadn't realised, was that by her prior selflessness she had shown while trying to protect the unborn Moon, she had created a bond with him. Moon, only being blessed by light, and only having the minimal gravity he had due to his blood relation, couldn't become a planet. So he had revolve around another planet for survival. Moon had always been blamed for the wrath Gravity and Earth had to face, so he did not want to revolve around Earth. His parents, however, couldn't accept Moon revolving around Sun and Time's children, so he had no choice but to revolve around Earth."
"Earth and Moon fought regularly, they usually bottled up their anger at each other. One fateful day (their day lasts almost as long as our one year), both of them had had enough. Their anger affected each other immensely. On Earth, Mariana Trench and other cavities formed. Water too was affected by this, he started having tides. Moon's appearance had been affected. What once used to be a flawless globe of silver light, now had dark spots where Earth's anger had affected him, the spots were so sore that even Light could not stay at those spots without hurting Moon. This had been the Great War of the Elements, which still affects us."
"So, what are Elementals then?", Amy asked, as curiosity got the best of her.
"I was getting to that. A lot of time had passed since the Great War. Sure, Earth and Moon still fought, but they knew better than to lose control. Life, the previous self of Nature, had been quite dominant during that time. This was when she created Elementals, the lesser descendants of the Elements. She had been dominant before too, that's how other life forms had appeared on Earth. But this time Life was tired of solitude, just 6 Elements and 3 primordial beings, and 8 other planets and 1 primordial being they saw but never talked too. So she created us, we could communicate with them, we were even influenced by their powers. That was how the clans came into existence. One clan for each Elemental, 6 clans in total, with a queen for each."
"Our ancestors didn't know that for the child to be an Elemental, it wasn't necessary for both of the parents to be one too, only the mother was to be an Elemental. This way, the Elementals started to decrease in number. Life feared their extinction, and ultimate solitude, so she created humans. About a 2000 years later, we discovered that it was only necessary for the mother to be an Elemental. There was a sudden spurt in our population, but we learned to control it. We formed the Elemental Government and set up the Elemental Academy for the welfare of our kind. And the rest, as they say, is history."
"You will be sharing a room in the Earth Dormitory. The Earthen population has been increasing and it will take some time before we are able to construct another building, so you might have to share for a few months at least. Your luggage has been kept along with you uniform and books. Tomorrow you can go around in the market for other essentials and stuff you might need. The timetable and the details of your academic year will be provided by the morning. Till then, goodnight!"
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"So, what were your thoughts after learning about the Elemental History?", Gicela asked as soon as Amy left headmistress's office.
"Honestly, my reaction reminded me of an Indian meme I had seen, it was 'Koi Sense Hai Iss Baat Ki', I have never felt this relatable to meme before."
Gicela gave a small chuckle, before leading her towards the Earth Tower, where she showed Amy to her room and introduced the sleeping roommate as Fesdi Jiffe to her, before putting her to bed, where the exhausted Amy fell asleep immediately.