Page 2 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
“Who’s this?” I ask my mother.
“I am Finder Davan, of the Elemental Hall of Lumina,” he says without waiting for anyone else to introduce him.
So, I was right—an elementalist. His presence makes my breath catch in my throat, because I’ve heard so many stories ofwhat his kind can do. Plunge a hand into a raging fire without being harmed, whisper a message on the wind to a lover across all the kingdoms that make up Lumina’s federation, master a raging…
“Wait,” I say, the implications finally hitting me. “Didyousummon that storm?”
He smiles without apology. “A necessary test.”
“Necessary? You could have killed me!” I take a step toward him, and only then remember that I probably shouldn’t be arguing with someone who might be able to turn the blood in my veins to fire, or open up the sand of the beach to swallow me.
“I had every confidence in your gifts.”
“My gifts?” I say.
He gives me an impatient look. “Oh, come now, Seraphina Stormborn. All your life, you have felt an affinity for the ocean, yes? You can hold your breath longer than anyone you know. You can feel the currents as you swim through them, and they help you. Does any of this sound familiar?”
“I…” I hesitate, trying to take in the full implications of that. I stand there, staring at him, my mind refusing to process it all. What he’s saying can’t be true, yet I recognize everything he’s saying in myself. And then there’s the question of what I just did, calming the storm around me. “You’re saying I’m some kind of elemental master?”
Finder Davan snorts at that. “Hardly. You aren’t even an initiate. But you could be. Join the Elemental Hall. Train. If you come through it, you would have your choice of positions in the kingdom.”
“If I come through it?” I say. This is all moving too fast. I can’t keep up with it.
“Many do not. I make no apologies for the Elemental Hall’s training methods,” Davan says. “We are training elementalists to take on the might of Umbrae should it attack, to wield powersbeyond most people’s comprehension, to serve the people of Lumina. There are no easy ways to do that. We do not actively seek to kill students, but we cannot take it easy on them, either.”
I stand there, only too aware of the eyes of my family on me. “So, you want me to go somewhere where more people like you will try to kill me? No. No way.”
I see the recruiter shrug.
“Then go back to your life. Such as it is.”
He makes a gesture that somehow takes in the whole of the village and makes it look very small, all at once.
And it is small. It is small, and ramshackle, and poor. Most days, we barely have anything beyond what we can gather from the sea. When the fish aren’t biting, we don’t even have that.
“Or be something more. A fine soldier, a great explorer, a healer, someone who can shape the world. Choose, Seraphina Stormborn. But choose quickly. This chance will not come again.”
This is too much, too quickly. I step back to my family, looking to my parents for help, for advice.
“This is madness,” my mother says. “Some stranger can’t just come in and snatch you away. You’re due to be married.”
Married to a man I barely know and certainly don’t love.
My father looks thoughtful, though. “Sera,” my father says, “I think you should consider this.”
That’snotwhat I expected him to say. “You want me to go. I thought you wanted me married.”
“Of course I don’t want you to go, but this… it’s a great honor. And an elementalist would be able to do much more to help the village. The marriage… we didn’t know what else to do with you. But now… I’ve known since you were a little girl that you were special. This just shows how special you are.”
“Well, I don’t like it,” my mother says. “This isn’t something you should be doing, Sera. You should stay here, with your family. Mastering the elements? It’s not for the likes of us!”
In an instant, I can see my life branching into two possible paths. On one path, I stay here, I do as my mother wants. I become the good daughter she desires. I marry a man I barely know. The thought of it makes me flinch.
On the other path… there’s danger. But there’s also a chance that I become much, much more. I would be strong enough to control my life, strong enough not to have to marry Gerant. I would be able to help my family. I would be able to make my own choices.
Put like that, the choice is simple. I turn back to Finder Davan. “I accept.”
He nods, looking satisfied, then takes out a series of papers. One appears to be a nautical chart, another an elegantly lettered invitation. “Then take these. Everything you will need to get to Nautica, the first of the elemental colleges. You will be expected there before the next full moon.”
