"You coming to church with me?" Mum asked, waking me up.
I groaned. "I suppose so."
I hadn't been to church since being at uni, and I guess I kinda missed it. I wasn't the strongest of Christians, but I still believed and always felt better after going to church.
"You'll get to meet the new vicar." Mum said, smiling.
"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed. "What's her name again?"
"Stella." Mum said.
"Is she nice?" I asked.
"She is nice. Seems very sweet."
"Good good. I wonder if she plans on staying longer than the other vicars."
Mum chuckled. "I hope so. She seems nicer than the others, that's for sure."
We'd always had nice vicars that came to the village, but then they always left after a couple of years. I guess a lot of them did that, but it would be nice to have one who stayed.
I got dressed and then hopped in the car to go to church.
__________
When we arrived, we were a little early. Still, the woman, who I assumed was the vicar, was at the front organising the table. She turned and smiled when she saw us come in.
"Good morning!" She said, a cheerful smile on her face. She had dark ringlets brushing her face as she walked towards us, cut short just along her jawline.
"Morning!" Mum said. The woman came right up to us.
"I don't believe we've met?" She said, still smiling.
"This is my daughter, Millie." Mum said.
I smiled. "Nice to meet you."
"And you! My name is Stella." She said. "So you're at university?"
I nodded. "Yes, at Greenwich."
"Oh, its really lovely up there, is it not?"
"It is." I couldn't help but smile at this woman.
"Actually, seeing as you're here, I don't suppose you could come and help me with something?" Stella asked, looking at me and not my mum.
"Sure." I said, after a moments hesitation, and followed her into the back room of the church.
The moment my mum was out of earshot, she turned and started talking as she prepared some stuff.
"So an Argent Eye, huh?" She asked.
I was taken aback. For a moment, I just stood there, unsure what to say or how to react. "I, uh... what?"
Stella chuckled. "Your unusually bright eyes kinda gave it away at first, not to mention the fact that one is silver."
"Oh." I said, still not sure what to say.
"I have to say, I didn't think I'd ever actually get the chance to meet another one."
"Another one?" I asked.
"Yes." Stella said, counting out the communal wafers onto a silver plate. "My mother was one."
"Really?" My eyes widened. "So you're an Heir?"
Stella turned, and with that, one of her brown eyes flashed silver for a moment. I gasped. "That's so cool!" I exclaimed.
She smiled. "My mother told me all about the stories and everything else about the Argents. I never thought that I would ever meet another one besides her!"
I laughed. "Well, here I am."
She looked at me. "Has your element manifested yet?"
"Yes." I nodded, and held out my hand. I then repeated what I did earlier today, forming the swirl of ice above the palm of my hand before letting it drop and catching it. It seemed to be much easier from when I did it before.
Stella gasped. "Oh, that's just beautiful!" She said, and took the icicle. "If only I could keep it." She laughed, as the icicle began to melt.
I looked at her. "So, if your mother was an Argent, does that mean you inherited some of her abilities, too?"
"You seem to know an awful lot about Argents, despite having only just turned." She said.
I frowned. "How did you know I just turned?"
She smiled, knowingly. "One of the skills my mother taught me. I can tell an experienced Argent from one who's only just changed just by looking at them."
"That's impressive." I said.
"But, in response to your previous question- yes, I did inherit some of her abilities. She was an earth wielder."
"Earth?" I asked. "That sounds cool. Can she, like, make the ground shake?"
"She could." Stella said, a little sadness in her tone.
"I'm sorry." I said.
"It's okay." She said. "She's in a better place. But yes, she could. She was quite impressive. Unfortunately I did not acquire her abilities to that extent, but I still have the connection to the earth if I so wish to use it."
"My personal tutor at uni is an Heir, too." I said. "It's strange that so many people around me have this connection to the Argents."
"Probably more than you think." She said. "I take it you have an assigned Dreamwalker?"
"Yeah- Ronan. He's pretty cool." I said. "At first, I thought I was going mad because he kept following me and vanishing right in front of me."
Stella laughed. "They do have a funny way of introducing themselves."
"I know!" I exclaimed.
She handed me the plate of wafers to hold, and went into one of the cupboards, pulling out a bottle of wine. "So, you have the Black Prometheum, I take it?"
"Yeah. Although, I left it back at uni." I said, knowing it was under my knickers, hidden.
Stella looked at me. "You haven't been taught to summon it yet?" She seemed surprised.
"No." I said. "Should I have been?"
She shrugged. "Well, I suppose you haven't been an Argent for long. But you seem pretty advanced in your training, so I just assumed you might have."
I chuckled. "I guess things have been a little hectic. I've only managed to have one training session with Ronan, and that was yesterday."
"Well, I don't mind teaching you a few things." She said. "If you wanna pop down to the vicarage later, I'd be happy to help."
"Really?" I asked. "That would be great!"
She smiled. "Now, you can help me set these up." She said, and handed me a large candle. She then led me out of the room and told me exactly where everything needed to go.
__________
When I got home, I told my mum that I was going to go on a long walk around the village to take some decent photographs. Of course, I was actually going to Stella's, but I couldn't think of an excuse as to why I would be going there. Still, I shoved my phone in my pocket and walked out the back gate and towards the village.
I'd only ever been to the vicarage once before, and that was when one of the old vicars lived there. It was quite a big house with a huge garden, although I'd only ever been in the living room and garden for a summer BBQ a while back. I walked up the long driveway, and knocked on the door.
A young boy answered- he couldn't have been older than eleven or twelve. This must be one of Stella's sons.
"Hi there." I smiled. I was just about to ask if his mum was in when Stella came to the door. She smiled when she saw me.
"Hi, Millie." She said, smiling. "This is one of my sons, Jacob." She looked down at Jacob. "Jacob, this is Millie, who I was telling you about."
"Oh!" Jacob's face lit up a little. "The one with the cool powers?"
Stella laughed. "Yes, that's right."
I was a little taken aback when Jacob said that- so he knew? I wasn't sure what to say.
"Why don't you run upstairs with your brothers?" Stella said to him, before Jacob turned back and went inside. Stella turned back to me. "Come in, come in." She ushered me inside, so I slipped my shoes off and stepped into the house.
"So, Jacob knows?" I asked, curious as Stella walked me through to the living room. The entire room had this soft earthy smell to it, which instantly seemed to fill me with a calming sensation. Every shelf and available platform had a vase of beautiful flowers on it, which were fully bloomed. I wondered whether it was even the right time of year for them to be so colourful and full of life, but I had to remind myself that I was in the presence of an earth wielder.
"Yes." She said. "I had to tell him when I noticed he'd started developing some kind of connection to the earth. I'd been watching him out in the garden one day when I saw him bring a dead plant back to life. It was quite something, and he was young enough to come to terms with it quite quickly."
"Wow, really?" I asked, taking a seat opposite her. "I didn't know an Argent's power could go further than one generation."
"I think it depends on the Argent, and the strength of their power. I know my mother was a very powerful woman, so I guess it's no surprise that Jacob inherited some of it."
"You have more than one son, though?" I pointed out. "Do any of them have abilities?"
"Not yet. They're a bit too young for any manifestation to happen, but I'm not sure if they will or not."
"Do they know?" I asked.
"Yes." Stella nodded. "I had to say something after Jacob. It wouldn't be fair for him to keep something like that from his brothers."
"Yeah, fair enough." I said, liking how everyone in this family was in the loop.
"So." Stella announced. "I think it will be good for you to summon your Prometheum, don't you think?"
"Yes." I said, excited.
"Okay, so it will look something like this." She said, before putting both her hands together. She then pried them apart, and I watched in fascination as black dust seemed to accumulate in the space between her hands. The dust then started to compact, before I noticed it beginning to resemble the shape of an arrow. Once the shape had finished forming, it dropped into Stella's hand and she held it. At the touch of her skin, the black metal glowed green from beneath her grip, and little rune like symbols appeared on it.
I gasped. "That's incredible."
She smiled, looking at the arrow in her hand. "The arrow was my mother's signature weapon." She held it out to me. "Here."
I was hesitant, remembering what Ronan had said about the metal. "Am I allowed to touch it?" I asked. "I mean, it's not mine..."
"Of course!" She exclaimed. "If an ordinary human were to touch this, then it wouldn't do anything. For an Argent, it only matters if it is the first time the metal is being touched, because then it belongs to that person. But my mother touched this for the first time many years ago. Now that she is gone, it belongs to me, and when I go, it will be Jacob's. You're still able to hold it and use it, but it will only obey me if I want it to do something."
"Oh." I said, and reached out to take the arrow. When my hand gripped round it, I felt the same thing I did when I touched the knife Ronan had given me, although it definitely wasn't as strong. It glowed green under my touch, filling me with a calming warmth and the scent of fresh flowers.
"That's strange." Stella said, and I looked up to see a confused look written all over her face. "It's supposed to glow with the colour of your element."
"But, this is your arrow." I said. "Surely it should just stay green?"
"No." She said. "Even though it's mine, it still responds to an Argent's individual abilities."
I handed it back, and it glowed green like it should with Stella holding it. Then, she handed it back to me. I took it again, and gasped when it changed from green to red. Immediately, I could feel the heat of the fire within. The same heat I'd felt in my room when I'd returned from bowling. The veins under my skin of my hand started to glow red, as if my blood had turned to lava.
"Impossible." Stella whispered.
"What's happening?" I asked, still staring at my hands. I mean, it wasn't as if this hadn't happened before, but it still shocked me. I thought that perhaps whatever happened that night, it was all a one off. Seems not.
Then, something that I'd never seen before happened. The light from under my hand changed again, to yellow. I felt the sparks go right through me, like an electric shock.
Then it went blue, and the ice had returned.
Teal blue, and a coolness washed over me.
Pale blue, and a breeze blew my hair out my face.
Silver, and a metallic ringing filled my ears.
White, and I was filled with strength.
Black, and an overwhelming sensation of hunger started to take over.
I dropped the arrow, unable to rid myself of the darkness that was now clouding my thoughts. It felt good. I wanted it to continue, but at the same time, I was well aware of what it could do. Of what it was.
"Millie?" Stella had lost all amusement and curiosity in her voice- it had been replaced with something else. Fear. Whatever she was feeling, it was only fuelling the darkness and hunger even more.
I caught my reflection in the mirror that Stella had hanging on her wall. My eye- the non silver one- was black. Pure black, with no white visible. I tried to fight whatever was clawing away at me. I knew that no matter how good it felt, I couldn't let it control me. I fell off the sofa, and fell onto my hands and knees, trying to fight it.
"Millie, you need to calm down." Stella said, joining me on the floor. Despite the fear running through her veins, she placed a gentle hand on my back. "Take steady breaths." She said.
"I can't." I managed to breath.
"Look at me." Stella demanded, and I did so. Her eye was glowing green, and I could feel it then. Whatever she was doing, I could feel the calmness trying to attack whatever was inside. "Think about your element." She said. "About the ice. Think about how it makes you feel."
I looked down, seeing the black fill the veins in my hands, and the smokey darkness begin to surround them. I could feel its strength flowing through me, beckoning me to just give in to it. It could give me whatever I wanted, if only I would just give in...
Then I felt it, like a distant thought. Like someone in a loud crowd trying to grab my attention. I focused on it in the back of my mind, and grabbed hold of it before pulling it free from the dark clouds. The ice exploded in my mind, and my entire body. It snaked its way through me, overpowering the darkness and filling my veins with a cool blue colour. I felt the grips of the darkness let me go, and I collapsed onto the floor of Stella's living room. I took a deep breath, and then looked at Stella who's eyes had turned back to their usual brown.
"Holy cow." I said, well aware I was in a vicar's house and unsure as to what her take on swearing was. "That was stressful." I was out of breath.
Stella laughed a little nervously. "You're telling me! How are you?"
"I'm good." I said, still a little out of breath. "Thanks to you."
"Don't be silly." She said. "That was all you."
I took one more deep breath before sitting up, and eventually made my way back onto the sofa.
"Right." Stella said sternly. "I think that calls for a cup of tea."
With that, she got up and put the kettle on.
__________