Alexia pulled Zafrir into the kitchen and shut the door behind them. She lit the candles in the room, then stood with her back to Zafrir, taking a few deep breaths. After she had calmed herself slightly, she walked to one of the cupboards and fumbled through it, trying to find the first aid kit. It's no use, she thought bitterly. I can't see anything through these tears. She sniffled and tried to rub her eyes dry, but gave up soon after, as her tears kept coming. Zafrir was watching her from behind. He slowly walked up to her and turned her to face him. He flinched slightly as Alexia's teary eyes met his. "Why do you never tell me the truth?" Alexia asked, dejectedly. Zafrir reached forward to hold Alexia's face in his warm palms and gave her a sad smile. "Don't cry," He pleaded.
"And why not?" Alexia asked, frustration making her voice rise. "How about you stop being so difficult. Then I wouldn't have any reason to cry."
"I'd stop being difficult if you'd stop treating me like a child," Zafrir retorted, his face turning into a frown that mirrored Alexia's. "I'm two years older than you, yet you always scold me whenever I risk my life."
"Wouldn't you do the same if it were the other way round? It's frustrating to never be able to return your favours! Why do you never let me know when you need help?"
Zafrir was silent. Alexia turned away from Zafrir and continued looking for the first aid kit. Her tears had stopped and she found it without further problems. After cleaning Zafrir's wound, she applied a herbal paste to it and bound it in fresh bandages.
"You know..." Alexia started again. "If you make a wall around yourself, people will find it hard to trust you."
Zafrir humphed. "You're one to talk. You pretend you're made of stone when you're around these Apprentices, but-"
"I wasn't talking about the Apprentices."
Zafrir hesitated. "I know you trust me. What are you trying to get at?"
Alexia sighed. "I do trust you. But I'd prefer it if you would talk to me. I'm sorry I couldn't heal you- I don't have enough stamina left." Alexia closed the conversation.
"No problem," Zafrir said. "I can hardly feel it anyways. But speaking of healing, how's your leg?"
Alexia rubbed her hip experimentally. "It's better, thanks to you."
"I'll heal it a little more," Zafrir offered, but Alexia shook her head. "I'll be alright. But this also brings us to the topic I wanted to discuss with you... Something's strange. First the Amarok that attacked the temple, then the landslide. Somebody clearly wants us dead."
Zafrir didn't reply for a while. "I agree," He finally said. "But at the moment we don't have enough clues to be able to suspect anyone. As hard as it seems, we'll have to wait for whoever is behind this to make a mistake."
Alexia's eyes narrowed. You know exactly who's doing this... she grumbled. Then she shook her head and yawned. "It's getting late," She said. "I'm going to sleep." She knew Zafrir wouldn't tell her his suspicions unless he wanted to.
"Goodnight," Zafrir said softly, as she left the kitchen. "I'll stay downstairs a while longer."
***
The next day, Caitlyn was the first to wake up. She could smell somebody cooking downstairs, and the thought of food made her stomach rumble. The drama of last night had vanquished any thoughts of supper from her head at the time, but now she was fully aware of the fact that she was famished. She slowly turned in her bed to peer at Alexia's mattress. It was empty. Caitlyn let out a sigh of relief. Alexia was nice, but very difficult to read- you never knew what she was thinking. Frankly, she scared Caitlyn. Caitlyn got out of bed and walked over to the small dressing table positioned in a corner of the room, where she knew she would find a mirror. After making sure she looked presentable, she opened her bedroom door to find Leigh and Allan also leaving their room. What perfect timing, Caitlyn thought, her heart sinking. Then she drew a sneer onto her face.
"Good morning," she said shortly.
"Mornin'," replied Leigh. Allan grunted. As they got downstairs, the unmistakable smell of frying onions hit them. Alexia was sitting at a small desk, writing a letter but got up as she saw her Apprentices enter.
"Please sit down," she smiled, pointing to the oak table at the side of the room. "I apologise for last night- Zafrir and I shouldn't have argued in front of you and I can't believe I forgot about dinner."
"Oh, don't worry," Allan said. "I wasn't thinking about dinner at the time either, to be honest."
"Well, Zafrir will be done with cooking breakfast any moment now." With that, Alexia rushed into the kitchen. She came back a few moments later with plates, stacked with scrambled eggs, fried onions, a few rashers of bacon and thick slices of dark brown bread. Usually, Caitlyn would have turned down any meal presented so chaotically but today, her stomach won over her head. She gratefully accepted the food and cleared her plate as fast as Leigh and Allan did. Only when she leaned back in her chair with a sigh did she notice Allan had been watching her. He was looking at her with an expression of shock. During all the other meals he had shared with Caitlyn, she had picked at her food prudishly, only ever eating half of what was on her plate. Without intending to, Allan started to smile. Caitlyn, realising Allan was grinning at her, blushed and quickly turned away. She couldn't believe she had forgotten her manners. Had she even chewed the food? She had eaten so quickly, she could hardly remember if she had liked the taste of it.
"Did it taste good?" Allan asked, still grinning, as if he had read her mind. To Caitlyn's relief, Zafrir walked into the living room at that moment, saving her from making an embarrassing answer. Zafrir's amber eyes flickered over the empty plates in front of the Apprentices and he smiled shrewdly. "I see everyone was hungry," he noted. "Even you, Caitlyn?" Caitlyn opened her mouth to answer, but stopped halfway as she realised Zafrir was shirtless. A good deal of his body was hidden by the bandages that covered his shoulder wound, but Caitlyn's face grew hot again as her eyes ran over the length of Zafrir's body. Then she averted her gaze, cursing the part of her that appreciated the lean muscle and tanned skin which seemed to be the sole makeup of Zafrir. "Yeah. No dinner," She mumbled. Zafrir laughed, then seated himself opposite the Apprentices. "There's no shame in being hungry," Zafrir said kindly. The statement was so contrary to his normally haughty personality that Caitlyn's gaze rose to meet Zafrir's in confusion, just in time to see a shadow darken his bright eyes. The shadow dispersed almost as soon as it had come, but Caitlyn was sure it had been there. She was also sure that Zafrir knew she had seen it. But Zafrir's stare didn't waver from hers, nor did it betray any sign of vulnerability. If anything, he looked curious, as if he was wondering how much of himself Caitlyn would unravel. Unnerved, Caitlyn's eyes fled from his. As she broke eye contact with him, he turned back to the other Apprentices. They seemed not to have noticed the short moment of tension between Caitlyn and him.
"When are our lessons starting?" Leigh asked bluntly, as he noticed Zafrir looking at him.
"Maybe you should ask your master that," Zafrir remarked.
"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you're also an Apprentice. I mean you're the oldest out of all of us, right?" Allan sighed at Leigh's slightly offensive remark. Caitlyn couldn't help but feel jealous of the two- they had met only a few days ago, but already seemed to be best friends.
"You're lessons are starting today," Alexia interjected. "In fact- as you've all finished your breakfast- they'll be starting as soon as you manage to dress yourselves."
"Brilliant!" Leigh grinned, rising from his chair in a flash. "I'm first in the bathroom!" With that, he turned and raced towards the stairs.
"You might need your backpack," Zafrir called after him dryly. Leigh clattered to a halt, grabbed his backpack from the pile next to the door and continued his sprint to the bathroom. Allan shook his head and followed, a little less energetically. Caitlyn sighed as she watched them go. Yes, she was definitely jealous. Then she realised she was now alone at the table with Zafrir and Alexia.
"I'm going to get changed too," She muttered awkwardly as she got up and collected her backpack.
***
Half an hour later, Leigh, Allan and Caitlyn were assembled again in the living room. Zafrir was already waiting for them and, to Caitlyn's relief, had put on a shirt. Alexia was nowhere to be seen. "We won't be holding the lessons in here," Zafrir said, looking at Leigh, who had just seated himself on the sofa. Leigh sighed and got to his feet again. "I'll take you to our classroom." The classroom was little more than a large shed, built just behind the main house. An old, dusty window filtered some light into the room, and a rickety chandelier hanging from the centre of the ceiling gave off a warm glow. On the far wall of the hut hung a blackboard, covered in chalky sketches. Alexia was in the process of wiping it clean, but stopped what she was doing as Zafrir and the Apprentices entered. "Please take a seat," Alexia said, waving at the worn chairs and sofas that had been arranged in a semi-circle around the blackboard. "I'm really sorry about all the dust- no one's been up here for several months. I was going to give this place a clean first, but Zafrir and I decided it would be for the best to start your training as soon as possible." While the others sat down, Alexia turned back to the blackboard and continued to wipe at it with a damp cloth. When she was satisfied with her work, she put down the cloth and wrote the words "The Elements" with a piece of chalk.
"To begin with, we're going to look at a bit of magic theory," Alexia announced. There was an silent, but entirely tangible groan at her words. Alexia smiled slightly at the collective reaction. "You may find it boring, but theory is very important," she explained. "How are you going to learn to control magic when you don't understand it?"
"But we've managed to control our first element without theory," Caitlyn protested. She absolutely despised magic theory. Her parents had forced her to take classes, but it hadn't improved her abilities. It's a complete waste of time, Caitlyn huffed. Alexia seemed to be at a loss.
"Good argument," Zafrir spoke up instead of Alexia. "But this is how we do things up here. First we look at the theory, then we put it into practice." Caitlyn humphed and leaned back in her chair. At least Zafrir's back to his old self, she thought.
"Yes, thank you Zafrir," Alexia said, giving Zafrir a sharp look. "Anyways, let's begin: can anyone tell me what the elements are?" Leigh's hand shot up. "Leigh, I'll say it again: you really don't need to raise your hand when you want to say something."
"Oh but I like this school theme you got going on here," Leigh grinned. "Takes me back to the good old days, 'ey Allan?"
"I didn't even know you existed a week ago," Allan frowned. "I have no idea what kind of "good old days" you're talking about." Before Leigh could move further along a tangent, Alexia cleared her throat.
"Would you mind answering the initial question, Leigh?" She asked. "I'm afraid we're a little short on time." She gave Zafrir a conspicuous look.
"Oh right- the elements. Wasn't it fire, water, earth, air, ice and electricity?"
"You're partly right," Alexia said, sounding triumphant. It was evident that she had been hoping someone would make this mistake. "There are many different opinions about which and how many elements exits. I like to think that there are five basic elements: water..." Alexia paused while she wrote it on the blackboard. "earth... air... fire and energy. You can combine several elements to create sub-elements. For example: you could make the sub-element mud with earth and water."
"But then what about ice?" Allan asked, puzzled. "Ice is commonly used as a person's preferential element."
"Yes, there are people who seem to have mastered the ice element before any of the other elements," Alexia agreed. "But in those cases, they're just using two elements simultaneously without knowing it."
"So which of the basic elements would you use to make the element ice?" Allan asked. He had always wanted to master the ice element.
"Well, water is the basic element needed to make ice, unless there is water already present." Alexia explained. "Your preferential element is water, isn't it?" Allan nodded. "So you have two options: the easier and more commonly used option is to combine water with wind. The wind can cool the water to such an extent that it freezes. A more difficult option is to combine water with fire."
"What? No!" Leigh exclaimed. The rest of the room glared at him. "Oh, sorry. That wasn't supposed to sound sarcastic." Leigh grinned sheepishly.
"Anyways..." Alexia continued. "The theory behind the using the fire element for making ice is quite easy to follow. Fire generates heat. When you have complete control over the fire element, you can create heat without fire. Heat, like ice and mud, is a sub-element. When using the fire element, you can dispel fire as well as generate it, so it is quite similar with heat- you can take the heat from an object and thus freeze it."
Allan nodded. He understood the logic Alexia had used, but a small part of him was still doubtful. Whenever he wanted to use his water element, he would have to focus on a lake, a stream or a storm. Only by picturing something wet, was he able to transfer his magic into the water. He needed to feel the water around him to understand how he could make it do what he wanted. How could you feel the heat of fire and use it to freeze?
"Can you freeze water using the fire element?" Allan asked. Alexia looked surprised at the question.
"Well..." she began carefully. "I said the theory was easy to follow, but... in practice, it is a lot harder. So in short: no. I can't freeze using the fire element."
"Has anyone actually managed to freeze something using the fire element?" Caitlyn asked. She was as doubtful as Allan was. Alexia hesitated, then glanced at Zafrir.
"No way..." Leigh muttered. "Zafrir can freeze with fire?"