After I finished memorizing the Beguiling rules Dame Alina had sent me, I got ready for star mapping. Grabbing three pairs of thick gloves and a map of the stars just in case, I told my parents I was going to go do homework with Biana and left. Sophie had told me to leap to her house because Dex had a special place in mind for the three of us to go to. Havenfield, Sophie's guardians' estate, was beautiful, and I loved spending time there. Animals were a passion of mine, and there were plenty of them at Havenfield. I always stopped to say hello to my favorite, Verdi the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"Hey, girl," I told her as I petted her neon green feathers through the enclosure. Animals always trusted me, for whatever reason. Verdi had never tried to hurt me.
"Verdi really likes you, doesn't she?" The sound of Grady, one of Sophie's guardians, made me jump. He chuckled.
"Sorry, I thought you'd seen me. Are you here to see Sophie? It's a little late," Grady observed. I stepped away from Verdi's pen.
"Sophie, Dex, and I are going to do our Universe homework together tonight. The assignment has to do with stars, so..." I indicated the beautiful, glowing night sky.
"Ah," Grady said, handing Verdi a treat. "Well, Sophie's inside."
"Thank you," I told him before giving Verdi one last pat and walking off to the Ruewen's front door. Edaline, Grady's wife, opened the door with a beautiful smile on her face. I really liked her, she was always very kind to me.
"Hello, Cassia. Sophie's almost ready," Edaline told me. I heard a loud crashing from inside, and a few seconds later Sophie appeared at the door, looking slightly disheveled. Edaline fixed her hair and jacket, looking concerned.
"I fell down the stairs," Sophie said matter-of-factly in way of explanation. "Look, there's Dex. We'll be back soon, Edaline!" So the two of us went to join Dex, Edaline waving goodbye to us from the doorway. Dex was carrying a small stellarscope.
"So, where are we going?" I asked him.
"Moonglade," he told me. "Lots of people go to Siren's Rock, but the view of the stars isn't as good there." I usually just did it with Keefe's help somewhere on the Candleshade grounds.
"Cool," Sophie said. "So, if everyone's ready, let's go!" Sophie and I each grabbed onto Dex and light leaped away. Light leaping was an Elvin talent we could all do, every molecule in our body latching onto a beam of light to transport us somewhere. Kids had to wear gadgets called Nexuses to keep all of their cells together until their concentration was strong enough to leap on their own. I'd already gotten my Nexus off-the youngest elf to do so.
Moonglade was beautiful, an enormous meadow filled with flickering fireflies and the bright light of the stars. Dex set up the stellarscope, and I handed the two of them the thick pairs of gloves I had brought.
"What are these for?" Sophie asked. Dex looked perplexed too.
"Proper starlight-bottling procedure. It protects your hands from being burned," I explained, wondering how they didn't know that. Dex shrugged.
"Okay, let's do mine first." The assignment was a special one. Each prodigy received a list, and each list had six stars that fit some sort of pattern. Every prodigy was supposed to bottle a sample of starlight from each star with a stellarscope, figure out what the pattern was, and select a seventh star that fit with the others. Dex read his list.
"Amaranthis, Rubini, Orroro, Azulejo, Cobretola, and Indigeen." The three of us quickly captured the starlight and figured out the pattern: the colors of the rainbow. Soon, green light from Zelenie was collected as well. It was my turn. Starlight in shades of beige, taupe, ivory, tan, charcoal, and umber lay in front of us.
"What's the pattern?" Dex asked. I was thinking. This was harder than usual. Oh, no it wasn't. The pattern was obvious.
"It's neutral tones," I said, taking the stellarscope. "This is where Gerazey is, right?" I asked Sophie. She nodded, and I bottled the gray light of the dim star.
"Okay, Sophie, your turn," I said. She showed us her list, and we bottled stars with silver, gold, black, white, copper, and green light. I studied them.
"I think the pattern's metall-"
"Elementine," Sophie blurted. Dex and I looked at her. She had grabbed the stellarscope and was adjusting it furiously.
"Sophie, it's metallic lights," I told her. Sophie looked up.
"No, the star I have to find is Elementine," she said. I was extremely confused.
"I've never heard of that. What kind of light is it?" She looked at me very strangely. We both had the stars memorized. How could I not know a star that she did? I picked up the star map I had brought just in case and opened it, scanning the complete list of all the mapped stars.
"Elementine's not on this list," I told Sophie and Dex. Sophie looked crushed.
"We can still bottle it, though," I said hastily. "And ask your mentor about it tomorrow." She perked up and took the stellarscope again.
"Almost got it... and... okay, ready!" Sophie flipped the latch, and a brilliant burst of starlight filled the bottle. Sophie yelped.
"Woah, it's really hot!" She wasn't burned, though, thanks to the gloves I'd given her. Dex peered at the light, which was brighter than all of the stars we had bottled earlier.
"Quintessence," I breathed. Dex's mouth fell open.
"You mean... the fifth element?" He asked incredulously. I nodded.
"I've read about it in some of my mother's books, and it was described just like this. But we have to be really careful... this thing could explode." My two friends stared at me.
"That tiny bottle could blow us up?" Sophie exclaimed.
"Yeah," I told her. "Do you have your Imparter?" Sophie shook her head. I took my Imparter out of my bag. "Who should we call? Someone you trust." Sophie didn't hesitate before choosing someone.
"Alden." Of course, Alden would be who she'd pick. Everyone felt safe with him.
"Alden Vacker," I told my Imparter. A few seconds later, an elf that looked a lot like Fitz answered, looking sleepy.
"Cassia! What's wrong?" he asked, peering worriedly at me. It was pretty late. I angled the Imparter so that he could see Sophie, who was behind my left shoulder.
"Hello, Sophie. What's the matter?" Alden asked, and his eyes widened when Sophie showed him the bottled Quintessence.
"Alden, we were doing the Universe homework and Sophie thought we should bottle light from Elementine. I didn't recognize the name, and it wasn't on the star map, but she still bottled its light. It was really hot, but the gloves I brought protected her hands. I think this is Quintessence, isn't it?" I explained, and I showed him Sophie's list of stars. Alden looked torn.
"Yes, that is Quintessence... and it's a very good thing Cassia brought gloves, that light would have severely burned your hands. The pattern for your list looks like it was metallic lights, so you should have bottled some kind of light from a star with a metallic color," he told Sophie.
"I told you the pattern was metallic!" I said, turning to her. She looked crestfallen.
"So... what do we do?" Sophie asked Alden. He sighed, running his hand through his hair.
"For now... I think that you ought to release the light and bottle light from a different star that fits the pattern. And Sophie, you definitely should not have known that Elementine even existed, let alone its location." Sophie looked scared.
"Am I in trouble?" she squeaked. Alden shook his head.
"No reason to worry," he told her. I repressed the urge to roll my eyes. That was basically Alden's catchphrase. He said it constantly, and oftentimes there was a reason to worry.
"I would recommend, though, that you begin to use a memory log. If you remember anything else like this, record it in the book," Alden said. "Just tell Grady and Edaline what I told you, okay?" Sophie nodded and stood up, holding the bottle of blazing light carefully.
"So just... pull the cork?" she asked, preparing to release the light.
"Yes. I would suggest Cassia and Dex stand back," he told us. We immediately jumped aside. Sophie held the bottle at arms length and began to count down.
"Three... two... one!" She twisted the cork off violently, and a blindingly bright line of light exploded out of the bottle and shot into the sky. Sophie screamed.
"Is everyone all right?" Alden shouted. Sophie looked dazed but fine as I rushed forward and took the empty bottle and cork out of her hands.
"We're okay," Dex said to Alden, picking up my Imparter. Alden breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness. Now, you three capture some metallic light and go home. Don't tell anyone what happened that you don't absolutely trust," he ordered.
"We won't," I said, looking at Dex and Sophie. They were saying the same thing.
"Good night, then." Alden's image on my Imparter blinked out, and the three of us stared at each other for a solid minute before Dex took the bottle from me and attached it to the stellarscope.
"What star?" he asked, looking at the sky.
"Brozerdal," Sophie responded, avoiding our eyes. I aimed the stellarscope for Dex, and a few seconds later bronze light filled the slightly singed bottle instead of deadly Quintessence. The three of us packed up our things in silence. Once we were done, the quiet was overwhelming. I did not want it to be this awkward tomorrow.
"Thanks for showing us this place, Dex," I said as energetically as possible. It really was the perfect place. And nobody else was there to witness what had just happened.
"Yeah," Dex muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. Sophie looked between the two of us.
"Cassia, you really kind of saved us tonight," she began. "If you hadn't brought gloves or your Imparter, I don't know what I would have done. I should have listened when you said the pattern was metallic lights." I waved a hand dismissively.
"Nah, I totally knew you were special, and we were going to find out about your crazy brain sooner or later. Plus, I think the memory log is a great idea." Sophie blushed.
"I'm nothing special," she mumbled. I scoffed.
"Yeah, says the girl who lived with humans her whole life," I pointed out. Dex half-smiled.
"You're totally right. Also, it's super late, I gotta get home. Bye!" He waved and leaped away. I grinned at Sophie.
"See you tomorrow, Mysterious Miss F," I shouted, using the nickname Keefe loved. And I leaped away into the cloudless sky, the blue-black darkness shining with the millions of tiny pinpricks of light from faraway stars.
Cover: Dex Dizznee