Page 33 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
She attacks fast and hard, swinging the trident with the kind of fury that more than makes up for her lack of skill compared to Ash. I have to defend and give ground, letting her push me back. Sybil glances past me, making a concerned face.
“Oh dear. Poor Orion.”
It’s an obvious trick, one I shouldn’t fall for, but somehow I can’t stop myself from glancing back to see what’s happening. As I should have guessed, Orion and Darius are still fighting, still evenly matched with one another.
Sybil takes the opportunity to thrust her wooden trident home much harder than she needs to. Hard enough that I double over in pain. Hard enough that it will leave bruises in the morning.
“You should get out of my way, Sera,” she says. “It will be better for all of us, and alotsafer for you.”
She stalks away even before Master Glebe calls for us to switch again. I see Orion and Darius step back from one anotherwith wary respect, sweat glistening as they’ve managed to fight one another to a draw. I should feel grateful that neither of them has managed to hurt the other, but mostly, I just feel the pain of my own growing bruises.
I know that, in one sense, Sybil is right. My life would be a lot easier if I just made a choice. But I remember what it was like when I first came into the academy. Being Orion’s fake girlfriend has let me fit in here in a way that I wouldn’t otherwise. If I were with Darius, with one of the enemy, that would only give people a reason to hate me.
Yet I also can’t stop watching Darius, can’t ignore the attraction I feel every time I look his way.
It feels like an insoluble problem, but it’s one where I need to find an answer before it tears me apart.
Chapter SEVENTEEN
Not all of the challenges at Nautica are for the whole class now. In the mornings, some of us arrive at the refectory to find sealed instructions with our names written on them. Aria gets one, then spends the whole day running between different points of the island, following some kind of treasure hunt. Nissa is called to Nautica’s small infirmary. Orion is summoned for some kind of secretive meeting with the elemental masters, in which he says they made him set out how he would go about conquering a kingdom.
I wait, assuming that it will be my turn soon. It seems obvious that the challenges are preparing us for the kinds of roles the elementalists running the Elemental Hall think we will have in the world beyond. Aria is being prepared to be a messenger or a scout. Everyone knows that Nissa will be a healer. Orion… well, maybe he’ll be a general after all.
But there is no task for me, not yet, as if they haven’t decided what my place in all of this is likely to be, or maybe they’re trying to tell me that thereisn’ta place for me after my training, no matter what I do.
No, I can’t think like that. I have to believe that if I only do well enough here, I’ll be able to find a place in the ranks of Lumina’s elementalists. Maybe I’ll be one of the ones Orion commands when he’s a general. Maybe I’ll be aboard a ship instead, helping to guide it and keeping it safe from storms. There are plenty of things I could do, and I have to believe that Lumina will need me for at least one of them.
I head to the library, finding a couple of tomes on the creatures of the deep, wanting to match them to the things the seraphin has shown me. I ache with not having seen it in a few days, but I’m worried now that every time I see it, I’m driving itfurther from me. In one way, Sybil is right: I do have to make a choice.
But not yet. For now, I focus on my studies. I read about the merfolk of the far oceans, the sharks, the eels, the seraphin with their strange, unknowable ways. There is a whole section of the book devoted to the kraken, those giant, squid-like creatures that hunt and kill those who venture into their realms. There are a dozen accounts of them attacking ships, each powerful enough that the skills of an elementalist are barely enough to hold them off. It is a reminder that, even with all the power we are gaining here, there are still things in the world that are a danger to us. Past the section on the kraken, there is a shorter section on leviathans, huge, whale-like beasts that some speculate are related to the seraphin. They are vast, and they are powerful, but the section on them is brief because no elementalist has truly been able to study them.
I put aside the bestiaries, making more notes on the fundamentals of air, earth, fire, and spirit. Spirit is the hardest to grasp, potentially giving those who master it influence over others, or the ability to send themselves beyond their physical bodies. Where I now have the ability to produce a small flame or a breath of air, to help rock crumble, or to focus the light of the sun on a single point, I can’t do anything with spirit so far.
I’m in the middle of reading more about it when I hear a commotion from outside. Several students are shouting, while a warning bell starts tolling an alarm. I head out of the library, trying to work out what is going on, and find my fellow students heading down toward the docks.
So are the elementalists, and they look ready for a fight.
I spot Darius in the rushing crowd. He looks wary, even frightened.
“Darius, what is it? What’s going on?” I demand.
“An Umbran ship has been sighted,” Darius says.
Now I understand everyone’s alarm. Is Nautica under attack? Are we going to be called upon to defend it? I think of all I might be able to do to protect the island chain from invaders. Will I be able to make the sea rise up against them? To make the creatures of the ocean strike out at them?
I have no idea, but I also know that I can’t just stand here. I have to get to the docks. I have to see what is going on for myself.
I rush along with everyone else. I see Orion there, a sword clutched in his hand as if he’s ready to take on an army. I see Aria flitting from one master to another, obviously carrying messages. Ash is buckling on a sword of his own.
I follow the flow of people down to the docks. A ship is indeed approaching. It is so obviously not a ship of Luminan design that for several seconds, I can only stare at it.
It is made of aged, dark wood, which flows together in a sleek design. Oars cut through the water on either side, while a single square sail depicting a half-full moon is open above. There is a great bronze ram at the prow, and I can see several ballistae on the deck, the giant crossbows obviously there to attack any enemy ship that comes too close.
I feel fear in that moment. Fear of what might be about to happen. Fear for my friends. Fear for myself. Fear that I’m not prepared for this. The Elemental Hall has supposedly been training us to deal with any threat from Umbrae, but now that one is here, I have no idea what to do.
“Hold fast!” Elemental Mistress Halan orders, her voice carrying above everyone there. “Do not act unless commanded.”
Is she worried that some student will lash out with elemental power? I look over to where Darius is standing and see lightning crackling around his fists. It’s obvious that he will throw it at the least provocation.
