2
The atmosphere in the dining room of Lily's house became filled with tension so thick you could cut through with a bread knife.
"wait a moment, what do you mean by you're here for a manifested elemental?, there is no such person here, I think I'd know if an elemental was living under my roof, don't you think?" Lily's father declared to the three figures currently intruding in their home.
It was now clear that they were elementals even if they hadn't declared that they were from the Ascendance League of Elementals commonly tagged ALoE.
Asides from the speaker who was evidently a fire element user, the other two were male and had the build of a royal guard -which is to say very huge- They also had a lot of brown and green coloring all over (one had green eyes and brown hair, the other had brown eyes and green hair and both of them had a sandy colored skin) and so they were evidently earth element users.
"we were sent here by the institutional sight, seekers of elementals, which is never wrong by the way, that this town and particularly this household holds an elemental' the lady stated matter of factly.
"The user had been really well hidden and had gone undetected for a while but the user has been in use of the element more and more recently in the past two years, so the trace is absolutely sure" the lady added.
Hamil rushed in to reply her "yes there is" which sent up surprised gasps from every member of her family till she continued "there are elementals in this household and currently that's just the three of you, otherwise we do not have any other freak in the house " she said boldly to the elementals.
"shush, Hamile" their mother chided.
The fiery lady took a few steps towards Hamile with a slightly menacing glance which made Hamile take a step back and swallow hard.
"We've been in this town for a whole month, the inn food is bad and the accommodations worse, the only good thing are the people, they are warm and welcoming and tend to answer questions properly when asked" she said then she lowered her glance and cooled her tone.
"After seeking for a whole month without finding anything because of how obviously good the user is at covering their tracks, just a few hours ago, we got lucky that we were in the very same tavern that she came to and used her powers right in our presence, it was in the outskirts of town as we were about giving up and leaving town, we followed the user right here to this household, so are you telling me that our eyes don't know what they saw? All three of us?" She stated simply and once again glanced straight and fierce at Hamile, believing that she was actually the elemental they were searching for.
An awkward silence ensued for a few moments then Lily stepped forward with her face looking to the ground "I'm the one they're looking for" she said knowing fully well that the elementals would never leave them alone now without getting who they came for, her secret had been exposed, finally.
"what?! That's not possible" her father replied in disbelief "You mean to tell me that you are an elemental and you've kept it from us for some years now?" He said again as his voice took on a sad tone.
"Uhm, no Dad, it's just two years and a few months now" Lily answered her father, the reply put him in believing shock that he couldn't say anything for lack of the words he needed,
"why? How?" was all her mother could ask but before Lily could answer Hamile chipped in yet again;
"whoa! so big Sis is also a freak? I knew you were weird and you hide things especially with the sneaking in and about thing, but I never pictured you for an elemental freak"
"wait! what sneaking in and out? " her father asked recovering from his mute shock.
"we've got who we came for, we shall take our leave now", the fiery lady stated cutting everyone off.
"wait you can't just take her and leave! " her mother pleaded.
"no, no way, just like that? You cannot!" her father added.
"no way, that'll leave me to do all her chores! " Hamile said almost to herself in a loud whisper which bought her hot disapproving looks from her parents.
Before there could be any other input Lily answered "its okay, Dad, Mom, I'm sorry to have kept this from you all but believe me I was scared of what you'd think of me, I didn't want to appear changed or different, I just wanted you to see me as the same me, and I really didn't want to be taken away and separated from every member of my family" she said getting emotional.
"Well, you couldn't have avoided that for long" the fire elemental lady came in "By law and decree, every manifested elemental has to be registered and take up study at an academy before taking up any of the three profession branches available to elementals, leaving your family is hard, we've all gone through that one way or the other, so say your goodbyes" she said to the family.
At that point Lily's other siblings: Hamile's immediate sister Camella and their little brother Jamie, both came and wrapped themselves around Lily, "Don't go Lily, I'm gonna miss you" Jamie said teary eyed as well.
"Don't worry we'll take care of Ma and Da" Camella added in a small voice, Hamile in spite of herself had to join in the hug
"take care of yourself Sis, stop being so shy and enjoy your new freakish life, I'm sure it'll suit you well " she said almost breaking down in tears.
The parents while seeing this knew they had to accept the fact that their first born is now of another calling and they really have to say their goodbyes as the lady had advised
"how long does she has to be away from us?" her father asked with his arms around his wife who was still sobbing.
"The academy takes seven years to complete and another five years is spent at the ALoE institute in order to become an adept, it might take longer if the user's element is difficult for the user to grasp but that shouldn't be the case since she seems to have gotten the total hang of her element" the lady answered.
Hearing this, Lily's mother rushed to hold her in a tight embrace while sobbing harder still, she tried to speak but it only came out in sobs which caused the kids as well to break down in tears.
"Guys Cmon, stop it, its really ok, besides its not gonna take forever, I'll be back before you all know it" Lily said putting on a brave face trying to hold her own tears back, at this point the three visitors started moving out giving the family a little more time to say their goodbyes.
***
In the carriage taking her away Lily kept looking out the window at her house till it was all but a tiny dot far away
'twelve years and I should be back, no longer than that' she thought to herself.
she finally put her head back in and was surprised to see different people in the carriage only that they were the same people, only the coloring of their eyes and hair had toned down to normal, they didn't look like elementals now, just normal people.
The surprise and confusion must have been evident on her face because the lady chuckled with amusement.
"its called wearing elements, a process where we wear the features of our elements, something you'd learn soon enough" she said to Lily.
"Ok" was all Lily could reply, she actually understood it, she had done it a few times herself, although not as good as they had done it.
Lily folded her arms and seemed to withdraw into herself, the lady felt for her and reassured her "you'll get over your homesickness too soon enough, and just about when you don't feel your home anymore, you'll be through and ready to go back home" she said and placed a hand on Lily's knee.
Lily shrugged then she said "you know, I don't even know your names, I don't know anything about you, yet you're taking me far away, away from my home and family, from everything I ever knew and you say I'll get over it just like that? I don't think so"
Now the lady shrugged "we'll see" she said then added "I'm Lydia and this is Ethan and Grayson"
"oh... I'm Lily" she answered Lydia who smiled at her and her thought was that it was the most beautiful smile she had ever seen.
***
The carriage pulled over at a seemingly impassable mountain, huge and menacing.
The passengers got down and moved towards a little depression in the mountain where there was a palm print carved into the smooth wall.
Lydia place her palm in the print in the wall and ignited it, there seemed to be an exchange of words but Lily couldn't find who she seemed to be talking to.
Right after there was the sound of heavy stone grinding on heavy stone, the depression got deeper till it was large enough to allow people with twice the height and build of Ethan and Grayson pass side by side.
After the opening in the mountain stopped, they all moved in through the fresh arched passageway and walked for what seemed to Lily like hours but was actually minutes.
They got to a wide opening on the other end, and when Lily came out through the opening her surprise and confusion added to amazement doubled over as her head processed what she was seeing.
It was like a huge city all on its own spreading wide and far with buildings in the arrangement of a six pointed star with squares around each point and a large circle at the center of the star in which a huge and tall tower stood, the tallest in the whole region.
Buildings of different types spanned across and what seemed like practice fields scattered all over, she knew this because even as far and high up as she was, she could see elements flying around in the grounds.
What was also distinguishable was the color coded arrangement of buildings in all six points of the star, there was red and orange, green and brown, blue and cyan, gray and maroon, white and silver, black and ash, arranged beautifully at every point.
"Welcome to the Ascendance League of Elementals, ALoE headquarters present in this kingdom" Lydia said to Lily after a short while, she allowed Lily to take in the view at first.
"The six points represents a level each starting from spark to inferno -for fire users that is- you'll learn how to relate with your element and how things work here soon enough, or maybe not so soon since you have to go through the academy first, but first you go to the sorter and get what your core element is" Lydia explained as they move along towards the institution on a seemingly self operated half-carriage.
"But I know my element already, its water" Lily argued.
Lydia answered chuckling "oh dear Lily you still have a lot to learn, water might be what you have an affinity for and its the general name you'd carry as a user of that element" Lydia explained.
"But it doesn't end at that, you might be a mist user, ice or steam too, and you might just be plain water, trickle, stream or wave, the sorter would place you"
As realization dawned on Lily all she could say was "oh, I see".
"this is where we part, we'll see often enough though, as I'm one of the first level instructors here and at the ALoE academy itself, assuming that is where the sorter places you for your studies. Ethan and Grayson will lead you on to the sorter, so bye for now" Lydia said then got off the platform onto another.
Lily waved at her as they separated and saw that as Lydia moved further away, she wore her element back on, her hair turned hot pepper red again.
By the time they got to where the sorter would be as well, which was the huge tower right in the center, Lily noticed that both Ethan and Grayson already wore their elements too
"here goes nothing" Ethan said or was it Grayson? Lily couldn't differentiate them yet.
The building was high and mighty, it was also compartmentalized into six, 'why is everything six? ' she asked herself wondering, then the door opened and as she entered she got wide eyed again and at that moment with what she saw and what she had been seeing, she knew that all Lydia had said was totally true.
Ohk there we go again with the second chapter which I would like to dedicate to princess_favian, vote and comment guys I need to know how y'all feel about anything and everything, the next chapter is gonna be packed with elements use so be expecting action... Love y'all ..... K