The Elementals

“You plan to leave?” Evia’s father, King Anarri asked, “And on the arm of that Ilvan spare? At least choose someone with more influence.”

“Princet Lotus—” she started.

“Stay still while your king is speaking, Evia.”

And he wondered why she planned to leave. She wanted to scream, to tell him she would run away whether he liked it or not, and at least this way he could save face.

“I have trained you all these years to be a perfect consort, even removed your voice so your nature wouldn’t make you suspect, and you repay me by running away with the most useless royal possible.”

She took quiet but deep breaths to keep from responding.

King Anarri shook his head.

“I simply don’t—”

“It’s not Evia’s fault, father,” Ingvar, her older brother interrupted, “It’s Queen Ivy and her ilk that are the problem. They blame you—and far be it from me to speak ill of my late godfather—for the problems cousin Ingvi caused.”

“Excellent point. It isn’t Evia’s fault they won’t let her near their important children.”

These two self-important pieces of—

“And moreover,” Ingvar continued, “I hear Princess Ariana intends to go as well.”

Princess Ariana was still a mystery to most. King Reuben’s hidden daughter was a Phoenix who had immediately invoked the Rite of Embers to give the claim to her sister. Evia hadn’t spoken much to her, but she seemed sweet, if a little naive.

“Maybe there is some value to this.” King Anarri leaned on the table. “Even Princet Lotus has their siblings’ ears.”

Disgust welled up inside Evia.

Despite Singe being forced to recover instead of help, the royals managed to move a bed to the side in one of the guest rooms.

“Are you sure your godmother’s alright with this?” Lotus asked, already sketching the necessary runes in chalk.

“She gave me the cabin to use as I need to,” Skylar said, “And if we’re going to deal with incursions like all of you want to, we need a way to find them.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to?” Evia asked.

“Positive,” Skylar signed back. Evia was surprised she bothered.

“I learned in the Forge.” Skylar explained, tapping the ornament on one ear. Evia finally realized it was a hearing aid.

“I know you’re talking,” Lotus said, focusing on the chalk, “I just can’t see it right now. Stomp twice if it’s about me.”

The two girls made eye-contact, then stomped twice in unison.

“Now I’m sure you weren’t.”

Skylar laughed. It was a hearty laugh, like she wasn’t taught to hold it in. Despite knowing Skylar was the mysterious Princess Ariana, Evia couldn’t reconcile the two. Singe in some ways seemed to show the trappings of royalty more than she did.

Lotus made one final stroke, holding their chalk in the air.

“Now, Skylar, if you would lightly burn these symbols in?”

Skylar nodded, bending down to the edge of the drawing, analyzing it like a problem to solve. With a quiet breath, fire dashed from her fingers, totally engulfing the circle. By the time Evia moved further back, the flames were gone, leaving the runes perfectly burned in Lotus’ hand. Skylar for her part didn’t seem the least bit winded after such a display.

Evia clapped, leading Skylar to laugh a little more.

“That was nothing.”

“Do you know how long it would take me to properly build this circle?” Lotus asked.

“Yeah, but I had a model to work with, and it wasn’t that big.”

“It takes a lot of effort to make ice forms that big,” Evia said, mimicking Skylar’s indication of size.

“And the impressive part is it didn’t go past where you intended,” Lotus pointed at the edge of the circle, “So the lack of size is more impressive.”

Skylar rolled her eyes, leaving the room.

“She doesn’t like attention,” Evia commented.

Lotus watched their cousin leave before finally responding.

“Not that kind, no.”

“Why not?”

They shrugged.

“There’s a reason Singe is the only one who’s brought up her status as a Phoenix to her face.”

“Because she likes him?” Evia asked.

“Because she trusts him.”

But not the two of them. The fact hung in the air, waiting to be said.

“Well one of us has to imprint on these runes,” Lotus said, “And that is a job for a wizard.”

Evia respected Lotus’ need for privacy, but found herself in the awkward position of not knowing how to make her presence known to the two wrapped in conversation with each other, even if it was something so mundane.

“Lotus is going to take the Rune-room, I’m sure of it.” Skylar tapped the piece of paper on the coffee table with her pencil.

“It’s the rune-room now?”

“Burned them in myself.” She sounded proud telling Singe about it.

“Your godmother’s going to have something to say about that.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take all the fallout. You were busy recovering, remember?”

Evia took the door out to the porch. Now she was alone.

She found a book sitting next to the swing, clearly a journal of some sort. She stared at it. She grabbed a stick from the ground and used it to push the journal open, in case there was some charm for touching it if she were the wrong owner.

On the front page, it read, “Gardening Instructions.” Evia pushed to the next page with her stick.

“USE THEM!” It said, “And actually pick up the book. I wouldn’t leave it if I didn’t want it read.”

Evia obliged. She soon occupied herself with the task of identifying all the plants listed, finding them around the cabin. She allowed herself samples of some of the edible ones. There did seem to be an excess of rose though.

Reading carefully, she noted the words she was unfamiliar with to ask one of the others about later.

“Franklin suspects this wasn’t her first garden.”

Evia dropped the book in surprise, finding the source of the comment in Singe’s uncle walking down the trail. He picked the book up and handed it to her.

“I’m surprised you weren’t scared of me earlier,” he said with the familiar large movements of the Draconis dialect of sign language.

“My ancestor was a dark mage, and you are not one.”

He gave a chuckle.

“So my eyes do not deceive me, Renuean royalty actually on Earth. You may be the first member of your family on this world in centuries.”

That didn’t surprise her. She was the first to even show interest and not be completely disowned. Her father still had possible uses for her.

“Well my nephew doesn’t hate you, which tells me you’re probably better than your kin. Since I’m offering my hospitality to him, that means I’m offering it to all of you. Let me know if you need any help.”

“Likewise,” she offered.

“There is one thing,” he said, “And you’re free to tell me to shut up if it’s personal. I can tell you can hear, so it’s clearly your speech that’s affected. May I ask what happened?”

It wasn’t really a secret by any means. Evia glided her finger over her throat, revealing the pale ink that made up the silence rune. Sebastien’s whole form darkened.

“Who would do such a thing to a princess?”

Who else? Evia imitated placing a crown on her head.

“To his own child?”

“Siren.” She explained in one word.

“That piece of—”

“Did you bring food?” Singe yelled from the cabin.

Sebastien lifted the bag in his hand.

“C’mon in, then!”

Earth food was strange for Evia. She liked it, but it required too much use of her hands for her to participate in the conversation.

“I heard about your incident at the store,” Sebastien said, “There’s already reporters asking if I miraculously got a photo.” He seemed to catch the confused looks on Lotus and Evia’s faces.

“I’m a photographer as my job. There’s family money obviously, but I like earning something for myself.”

“I could make an engraving of it,” Lotus offered. Evia bit her lip to keep from laughing.

“Appreciated, but not by my contacts. Are you planning to do it again?”

“Do what?” Skylar asked. Singe avoided eye-contact.

“I knew it. One taste of heroism and you’re putting your lives on the line.”

“Don’t be a snitch,” Singe warned.

“Do you think your father would have become captain of the Black Dragons if I was a snitch? I brought something.”

Sebastien slapped a newspaper down on the table, actually clippings from several newspapers once Evia got a look at them. Everyone grabbed one of the articles. Skylar set hers down first, pointing at the face in the photo.

“That’s my dad.”

“Is it now?” Sebastien asked, clearly aware.

“‘The Elementals take the scene again,” Singe read, “‘These empowered heroes wielding the forces of the elements, are using their abilities to deal with otherworldly creatures the rest of us can’t handle.’” he looked back at his uncle, “I can’t see anyone else in the photo, but I know for a fact Reuben was a mage.”

“Empowered wasn’t always so specific. It took long enough for people to acknowledge superhumans lived among them, they weren’t ready to think we could all be different.”

“Incursions aren’t new.” Evia concluded.

“See, the Snow Siren gets what I was trying to show you.”

“Is that your code name now?” Lotus asked her, “Like Nightingale, or… what was one of the other ones?”

“Electron?” Sebastien offered.

“That’s a real name?”

“I think the point is that they aren’t,” Singe answered.

“My point,” Sebastien said, gathering the papers again, “Was to show you guys are part of a legacy, and maybe you’d want to acknowledge that.”

“By calling ourselves the Elementals?” Skylar asked, “That’s not even a real thing.”

“It was to the people who made this name up. Imagine you deal with nightmares the world says are fictional, and there are people who know enough to solve this problem. The only name you have is something fantastical.”

“So we’re the New Elementals now?” Lotus asked, “Just like that, pretending to be just like Uncle Reuben?”

“If you want to save the day, there will always be comparisons to those who saved yesterday. It’s up to you if you embrace it or not.”

“We’ll sleep on it,” Singe said, “How much do I owe you for food?”

“As much as you always owe me.”

“There’s a difference between just feeding the two of us and feeding five people.”

Singe followed his uncle out the door as he tried to argue about this. Skylar smiled as she watched them.

Lotus suddenly bent down, holding their head.

“What is it?” Skylar asked.

“Runes. Incursion.” Lotus seethed, “Apparently the signal is pain.”

Skylar ran to the door.

“Singe! Get in here!”