Backstory time. The Academy

Her dad sat her down on the couch.

"I was going to explain it all..."

"When?! You literally had 2 whole months!"

"Look, it's complicated..."

"Everything is complicated! It's just secrets over secrets with you!" Maria shouted.

The air was already heavier. And the voices rose up in a thundering chorus, demanding answers.

"So I'll explain it now, ok? I should have told a lot of things earlier, but I was scared that I'd say too much and that knowing too much would hurt you... so I ended up telling you nothing. I'm sorry."

Her dad looked so tired. It felt like now that all the worries and the secrets were finally starting to spill out, he would crumple because he didn't have to be strong and hide it all away. Who knew secrets could hurt so bad?

So, despite her anger, Maria hesitated. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself and the voices. She would give her dad a chance to explain.

"I come from a long line of extremely well known light elements. An elite family, if you will. The longer the lineage, the more likely it is the child is going to be a certain element. Mrs. White is my cousin. Yuna and Rachel are second degree cousins to you. There, that's one question answered." He took a small pause before he continued.

"Light elements in general are quite rare. Still, you have no idea how happy I am that you are not a light element."

"... Why?"

"It's such a heavy burden, knowing the future... knowing the bad things, not knowing how to prevent them and yet still desperately trying... Light elements receive visions. The more you hone that power, the more you are able to receive visions precisely for what you look for instead of them being random and you can see which things would influence the outcome of said visions. In essence, it gives you more and more control over the future."

"So... is it bad that I'm a water?"

"No! Of course not. It's just unexpected is all. Usually, when the parents have two different elements, the child inherits one of the parents' element. It's pretty much unheard of to have a child that has a different element." He took Maria's hand, his warm touch reassuring. "You're just unique, nothing bad about it."

But the way he said the words felt off, as if there was still something wrong with that. So she insisted:

"Are you sure?"

A small hesitation before she got her answer: "I don't know of something like this ever happening before. So that's why I asked for a bit of help from my old friends. Should something bad happen, they should be able to help you."

"Who?"

"Mr. Brown, for instance. I was his advisor for a period of time, helping him with my visions before we..." He stopped abruptly at that.

And Maria continued:

"Before what?"

Her father's gaze was unfocused, or maybe focused on memories from his past. She shook his arm before he finally answered.

"I had received an vision which appeared suddenly. I saw you were in darkness. Then that darkness expanded to the whole Academy, the whole city, the whole continent. Everything was covered in darkness. Terrified... I tried to find a way to protect you, to protect everything. I analyzed and reanalyzed the vision a thousand times, trying to find the familiar impulses that guided me and told me what would make the vision less likely to make it come true."

For a moment, it felt as if all the color was sucked out of the room, everything turning into unforgiving shades of grey. As dad took a deep breath, Maria blinked, confused by the atmosphere. When she opened my eyes again, everything was back to normal.

"I felt nothing. It felt as if absolutely nothing could prevent the events that I had seen. I told Mr. Brown. We... looked together for a way prevent the vision from coming true. In the end, we reached a conclusion. If the vision started with you at the Academy, I'd raise you on Earth. If it were by me, you would have continued to study on Earth."

"Then why am I here?"

"Mr. Brown took in a new advisor: Mrs. White. And she received a new vision, a positive one. It predicts that just as you were the source of the darkness, you would also be the one to save our world from it. She came here personally to try convince me I made the right choice."

"But what is this darkness. What exactly am I supposed to face?!"

"I... still can't tell you that. While there seemed to be no way to stop my vision, there are plenty of ways for the other vision to go wrong. Telling you more about the darkness or telling you what that other vision entails could make it not happen at all. And I can't take that risk. You need every chance you can have."

That was certainly a lot to take in.

But there was still one question left.

"Why... why is it bad that mom's a dark?"

Her dad pursed his lips at that, anger glowing in his eyes.

"It is a ridiculous thing. People have prejudices. Just as they think of Earthens as incapable and stupid, they see dark elements as shady and untrustworthy. And, let's say, me marrying her, as an important member of the White family, essentially spoiling my light bloodline, it wasn't taken well by the rest of my family."

He took her hand and squeezed, sighed deeply, then stood up.

"I need some fresh air, dear. I'm going to go outside for a few minutes, ok?"

"Ok"

He was gone for a while after that.

Maria had waited and waited for his return, worried about him. He looked so shaken up. She... still didn't know what to do to help him out. And she still had the difficult problem of sifting through all the information she was given now.

In the end, she decided to goto the bathroom to take a shower and clear her head a bit. It had quite the opposite effect. The things she learned were new pieces to the puzzle of the snippets of conversation she had overheard 2 months ago.

"... no one ... protect..."

"... stays here...Maria... die..."

"... everything... destroyed... save Maria!"

"... shadow... save... Maria..."

She wondered if her overhearing ruined the other vision. Hopefully not. She didn't want to think about it too much, since it would just make her panic uselessly. It felt a lot like the positive vision had to do with a shadow that would save her, maybe even help her save the world. It also sounded a lot like that darkness kills people? Would it kill her? Just the thought of that made her shiver. No wonder why dad wanted her to stay back at home after receiving such a scary vision. They were just trying to protect her. But she still didn't get why her dad and mom wanted her to stay here for only 2 years. That didn't make sense at all. Did it have to do with the positive vision again? She was still missing some pieces of the puzzle. These visions sure are a headache... Maria was starting to understand why her dad didn't want her to have some as well.

She got out of the shower, trying to leave behind the worries she had, but they clung to her like the steam did to the mirror. The voices bickered and fought, each wanting the spotlight and the noise soon turned unbearable. Tired, she went to bed and let all the troublesome thoughts slip into the darkness of sleep. Her dad returned home a few minutes after she had gone to bed. He gave her a feather-light kiss on the forehead and prepared to go to sleep himself.

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In the weekend, it was finally time to train with the water teacher, Ms. Cloud, in order to be able to not lose control of her powers. Maria was quite excited as she entered the campus of her would-be Academy and as soon as she got a good look, she was amazed: just ahead, small fluffy clouds formed a spiral staircase to an archipelago of clouds, some of which were drizzling and leaving behind fragments of rainbows.

Quite a bit further away, one of the clouds surrounded a giant mountainous peak, and a chain of mountains continued down the valley. One of the peaks left a black smoky trail in the air, making her wonder just how safe the place was near what looked like an active volcano.

"Over here, little one!" She looked back towards the valley and saw the frail old lady standing near a greenhouse of sorts. Maria moved towards her, the dew from the fresh green grass clinging to her new shoes, a sort of sneakers tied with a white ribbon. The wetted ribbon was slowly turning sky blue. Neat!

"My dear, it looks like you got to experience some of our traditional clothes! You look much better now, little one."

"May I ask: why are earthen clothes so... improper?"

The woman looked quite surprised, before some sort of realization lit up her eyes:

"Of course you wouldn't know, dear. The clothes in Elementum are made of natural material, or at least material in tune with the magic of Elementum. Earthens don't need to worry about such concerns so... your old clothes felt unnatural. Where our clothes can help you feel the magic around you, the synthetic material in earthen clothes is like a muffler. Surely, you must have felt some sort difference since you put the new ones on?"

Maria tried to think whether she had felt something out of the ordinary in the past two days. Nothing particular came to mind.

"My shoelaces turned blue on the way here, I guess?"

"Ah... well, it's alright dear, you'll probably able to feel it after a few hours of training. Now follow me, we're going to Moonlake, it's the best place for water elements to train."

She turned around, but Maria could see that she was a little bit disappointed. "Failure" the voices whispered. She did her best to ignore them. She felt a little bit upset at that, promising herself that by the end of the lesson she would make her proud.

They walked by the greenhouse and Maria noticed it was empty. That was peculiar. Could it be..?

"Miss," She said, pointing at the greenhouse, "is that one of the special places for students in which they can learn elemental magic more easily, because a certain element is in a more magical form?"

"Why yes, that's true, dear! That is Gardenstar, it's made for light elemental training. Your father must have spent a lot of time there."

She saw Ms. Cloud smile and felt a little bit better.

They were entering into a patch of young tress, the ground filled with wildflowers. Wanting to further prove her knowledge, she continued the discussion.

"The reason there's a place for each type of element is because of the enchantments the founder of the Academy put on each place, right? Is she also the one who named these places?"

"Well, Lady Ka'rah Sanford was the one who put the original enchantments in place, but they must be renewed every 5 years. We have a great ceremonony called the Great Awakening when that happens. You are quite lucky, you’ll get to see it this school year! As for the names, they have been renewed as well, but they keep the essence of the original ones. Now, tell me, what do you think this place is?"

Maria looked around. They had reached a clearing, surrounded by some gnarly old oak trees, and covered by a thick carpet of moss. While the clearing itself was sunny and birds chirped all around, most of the forest was covered by the permanent clouds and the path ahead was covered in a fine layer of mist, ankle deep. She tried to shake any hesitation and announced:

"We're in Misty Wood, made for nature elements."

The woman smiled. "Very well! I see your father has taught you well. Now, do you know the rest of the places off the top of your head?"

She struggled to remember all the names, as the voices echoed "your father, not you" and said "she doesn't believe in you". "Quiet, you! Of course she believes in me, that's why she's going to help me out!". They shied away, but she could still them whisper. She concentrated once more on the names.

"Well... the clouds are definitely called Milky Way, for air, the lake is Moonlake, for water, the volcano is Everlasting fire-"

"Everlast, but very close."

"Mistake mistake" the voices sang and she pushed them back down.

"The mountains... the mountains were... Earth Brow! For earth. And the caves within them, for dark, um... Deep Hollow."

"Beautiful, dear! Well, we've arrived at our destination."

The trees thinned and gave way to open field once more. They had arrived almost at the base of the mountains and ahead was a brilliantly blue lake, water gently lapping the softer side of the shore. Misty Wood continued uphill, turning quickly into a mixed, then a normal coniferous forest, before thinning out and leaving way for the empty barren peaks. Not too far away, on the opposite side of the lake, was a cave opening. A beautiful aqua crystal glimmered at the entrance of what was probably Deep Hollow.

Ms. Cloud beckoned her to the edge of the lake and sat down. Maria sat down as well.

"Now, my dear, close your eyes. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Let the magic of the Moonlake guide you."

Maria closed her eyes. She breathed in, then breathed out. Again, then again. she tried to focus on the soft lapping sound of the water hitting the shore. She could also hear the rustling of leaves, the sound of rushing wind. And she waited. And she breathed. Relishing in the silence.

"Do you feel anything? Anything at all?"

Maria concentrated on all the things she could hear, on all the things she could feel. She was about to say that she felt nothing, but then...

"I see... a lot of blue dots in the air. Moving very fast."

"Good, now face the water. Don't open your eyes."

"I can see the lake! But... I have my eyes closed!"

That was the moment the blue of the lake vanished, replaced by the normal black behind closed lids.

"It's gone..."

"It's alright. For your first time, it's a really good try. You just lost your focus. You can regain it through the technique I showed you."

"How is this going to help with my stormy moods?"

"One thing at a time, dear. In order to understand how the water manifests inside you, you must understand water. You can't control something you don't understand."

"That means more breathing exercises?"

"Yes."

"For how long, exactly?"

"Patience, dear. Now, continue breathing. And try to adapt your mood to that of the water. Moonlake is really good for learning to control emotions, as it can only be viewed with a calm mind."

It was a long day of staying on the edge of the lake shore and looking at the world through closed eyes after that. But after she finished her training, for the first time since she got here, she felt completely calm. And the voices were completely quiet for the rest of the day.

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Edit: Hello, elements! I hope you're enjoying my book so far. I'll only be able to publish one chapter a week, which would appear on Friday. Also, I am in the process of doing a pretty heavy edit and that changed a good part of the first half of this chapter.