Chapter 5: Mukashi Mukashi
THE FOOD AT CAMP WAS good, but Amber didn’t taste much of dinner or lunch. Daniel’s low voice kept repeating itself in her ears. Feed off our fear. He had sounded haunted and weary, like he’d had a lifetime’s worth of Demon attacks and didn’t want to keep fighting.
Darker. Primal and wild. Sometimes, she felt like that. She felt like an animal, but it wasn’t her, it was something inside of her. Something that killed Emily. A Demon killed Emily. So it wasn’t inside of her. It was just a Demon that lurked about the house and its presence made her imagine things that weren’t true.
Her sensing Daniel’s fear… that was just a side effect, like Daniel said. Sometimes Adepts get so scared they see things that they didn’t really see.
That almost made her feel worse. Emily had hated her, and Amber had hated her right back. There was no love lost between them, and yet she had been the only family Amber had. Now she had no one. No one to explain what exactly Lucian Starling did wrong, or how her parents really died.
But now, at least she had a purpose. When the Demon killed Emily, all she’d done was stand back and look on, as if she was watching a movie, where nothing could hurt her. More Demons could come for her, though. And if she really wanted to go back to a normal life after twenty—because that’s what I want to do, find out my parents’ story—then she had to start, here, at Camp.
It wasn’t just because of the magic or her powers or the opportunity to fight and look cool. That was just Daniel. Not her.
Amber put down her fork and stood, leaving the Air table. She didn’t know any of her cabin mates, and had no interest in starting now. And yet Daniel somehow acts like he’s my friend. Even in my old school, no one did that – talk to me so easily. But she didn’t need to make friends here.
She headed to the training grounds, which seemed to be the open space she had run through just hours before, heaving and panicking like some cornered animal. That wasn’t me.
“—couldn’t have wanted that. They created us, idiot! What the hell are you thinking?”
“If they didn’t want that, then why would there be the power stream? The seven of them made everything on this planet, because they’re the source of all magic. That means they made the power stream too, so how can you say that they want to protect us? Explain that!”
Following the shouts to a corner of the huge room, Amber joined the already-present crowd of onlookers. She squeezed her way to the front, just in time to catch a girl shove a boy. The bystanders oohed. It could have been another of those post-breakup fights that she’d seen too many times in school, except these two were spewing rebuttals and points about something she had never heard of.
The boy jerked away and pointed at the girl, opening his mouth to say something else, but a familiar voice interrupted the argument. “No fighting in the middle of training, you guys. I can feel the sexual tension in the air from the other side of the room!” Daniel walked between the two, hands raised in a placating manner.
The boy made a frustrated gesture, sputtering, “We’re not attracted to each other! And I was correct! The original elementals didn’t give a shit about us at all. They—”
“Shut up,” the girl cut him off. “Daniel, back off. We’re multitasking, is that so wrong? And it isn’t even your class.”
Daniel slung an arm around both the girl and the boy, bringing their heads close to his, though he raised his voice so that everyone present could hear. “Listen, kouhai, debating is good, but at least be a real Adept before you start. And legends are legends; people get to interpret them however they want. You shouldn’t force your opinions on others. Now,” he said, releasing the pair and giving each a little push, “go work on your Fire powers, all of you!”
The Fire Adepts snapped into mocking salutes, or bows in some cases, startling Amber. “Hai, Daniel-senpai!” they yelled and dispersed.
Spotting her, Daniel strolled to her side, his hands in his pockets. “You seem popular,” she commented despite herself, as they watched the Fire Adepts train. The training grounds lit up with an orange tinge as they paired off and tossed fireballs back and forth.
“Yeah,” he said, “all of them have known me since they first entered Camp, and sometimes Calida—she’s one of the senior Fire Adept, by the way—let’s me teach the newbie classes.”
Amber found herself nodding. They had treated him like an older brother, using words that she didn't quite get, though they sounded familiar: kouhai, hai, senpai.
“Yeah, that was Japanese. Meaning ‘junior’, ‘yes’ and ‘senior’ respectively. You probably heard the words in an anime, maybe. It started when they found out that I’m half-Japanese, so they began to answer me in Japanese. Kind of weird, since I don't speak that much myself.” He chucked.
But she stiffened. “You read my mind again.”
“Oh, you think so? It’s kind of easy to guess what anyone would think when they heard what we said.” He shrugged, posture languid. She sensed that there was something else he wasn’t saying, but the issue wasn’t worth pressing, even though the idea of someone poking around her thoughts disconcerted her.
“Anyway, because newbies are kind of my unofficial responsibility, I get to scold them for stuff too,” he gave her a smile, but his expression darkened. “But we don’t have that many kouhais. Most new recruits don’t even reach Camp nowadays, ‘cause they get eaten by Demons before we can even get to them. If only we could just exterminate them, then less lives would be lost and there’d be more newbie Adepts.”
Exterminate all the Demons? I would like that to happen. After a sombre silence, Amber asked, “Why were they arguing?”
"Hm? Oh, it's a legend called The Elemental Legacy, talking about how creatures and magic came to be,” he explained. When he gave no sign of continuing, she gave him a raised eyebrow. “You really want to know?” She nodded. “I'll have to start from the beginning though. Is that okay?"
Amber grimaced. She had zoned out on him a few times already and she felt slightly bad for it--not that she was going to mention it. Then again, this issue seemed so controversial that it inspired fights among differing opinions. She nodded.
"Well, I have something I want to show you, so let's go. I can launch into my spiel as we walk." He offered her his arm, but instead of placing her hand on his elbow like the last time, he waited.
Hesitating for only an instant, she touched his elbow and let him lead her away again.
"Let's see, how do I start this..." Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose, then something seemed to occur to him. "Just remember that what I'm about to talk about is controversial among Adepts because there can be radical interpretations and some of us have our own religious beliefs. It's really complicated, so pay attention. I'm going to tell it like it's a fairytale, but you can decide if you believe or not. Just so you know, it could all be crap, but yeah.
"So, uh, mukashi mukashi, once upon a time, there were six elementals. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Nature and Metal. Together, they were the universe, powerful enough to create anything. So Fire, Water and Earth made our planet, while Air made the Ethereals, Metal the Demons and Nature the Humans and Beasts.
"Time passed and these creatures evolved. Humans were the most adaptive, some taking on powers of different elementals and becoming Adepts to protect themselves against Demons. And then Mind came about from our consciousness and caused some Adepts of other elements to take on predominantly Mind powers.
"But Humans sinned and used Metal's gifts to make weapons for violence. They massacred the Beasts out of spite and a desire for glory, and drove the Ethereals from their lands. With its source of power corrupted, Metal went insane, rebelling against the other elementals. From them on, there were wars and battles and massacres. Tons of people died, Humans, Ethereals, Beasts – everyone was affected. At that time, magic itself was corrupt, stained and tarnished by the evil deeds committed using it. It was a temptation to all who possessed it, driving people mad with power.
"Finally, we come to what you asked about. The other elementals were horrified at the death and destruction caused by the corruption, and they knew that they had to do something to stop it. And as more and more people succumbed to resorting to their magic for their own greed, the elementals realised that the amount of magic that they had bestowed upon the world was ebbing away. The decrease was tiny, but over time, it could be devestating to all creatures if magic disappeared.
“So they had two problems: one, magic was corrupt; two, magic was going to get depleted. Thus the elements came together and channeled their power, prophesising that one day, four Humans would become something called Emblems, which were the embodiments of the elementals, like their second coming. They would replenish the power stream with magic that isn’t corrupt, bring balance to their race and make peace with all the other races. After this, the elementals, dragging Mind and Metal with them, gave all their magic to the power stream to buy time for the Emblems, trusting that their magic would bring their second generation into this world. And so they were no more.
“Thus, according to The Elemental Legacy, when the Emblems come, it’ll be happily ever after for everyone but until then, us Humans need to keep each other alive.” Daniel smiled. “Got it? That was just the background information. I’m sorry if was information overload.”
She turned his words over in her mind, nodding slowly. “But what’s a power stream? The two kids just now talked about that too.”
Daniel hummed. “That’s just a theory, though a lot of people believe it. It says that when magical creatures and humans die their power goes back to the source, and is given to the next generation. But since magic itself isn’t a resource that can be replenished naturally, the power stream just ends up passing down less and less magic. It’s kind of like some never-ending cycle.”
“The circle of life?”
“Kind of. Wait... so you watched Disney? I never would’ve guessed with your social skills,” he remarked, smirking.
“What do my social skills have to do with anything?” Amber huffed and folded her arms over her chest. “And you’ve literally given me a lecture or something, but you still haven’t answered my question. Why were they fighting?”
“Right. So if you take The Elemental Legacy and combine it with the power stream theory, it suggests that when the Emblems do come, they will have to be killed in order to fulfill their purpose of replenishing the power stream. So the boy just now was for killing the Emblems and the girl was against it because she thought that the elementals cared enough to not let them die.
“People have been debating this over and over for years, but everything’s reaching a head around now, because the Delegates announced that there was something wrong with the power stream. The most powerful Adepts, Beasts and Ethereals in the world are weakening, and even the Daron twins have felt their magic draining.
“People are getting worried and even the kouhais are getting involved. It’s a bad time to be an Adept right now.” He shook his head.
“’Delegates’?” Amber frowned. “What are they?”
He sighed. “I keep forgetting that I can’t use jargon with you. Delegates are a coalition of the most powerful creatures on earth from all three races that make sure the races live in peace,” Daniel said and gave a wry smile, “which is ironic because sometimes they can’t even hold their own group together. The controversy about The Elemental Legacy exists even among them.”
Amber nodded again, contemplating the concepts that Daniel had discussed. “I think that if the legacy really is true, I’d support the boy from just now. I mean, it’s like atheism, or something. If a God did exist, I don't think they’d care about us at all.”
“But,” Daniel started, “Does it really matter? Either way, we still have to train and learn. We still have to fight for our lives when Demons attack. It doesn’t change much no matter how much you debate about it. If you die, you die. I’d rather deal with facts than listen to the ramblings of a radical.” Amber shrugged in response, but he increased his pace, walking faster. “Come on, it’s just up ahead. I think you’ll like it.”
‘You’ll like it’? Has anyone ever said that to me before? Someone knowing enough about her to know what she liked – the idea itself was absurd when she herself didn’t know what she liked. And yet she found herself willing to let herself be dragged by him, content to follow along. Daniel had gotten to her more easily than anyone ever had, maybe because no one had ever really tried. But this went deeper than just effort – it was an understanding in which words were sometimes not needed in the face of some striking similarity that linked them.