Page 41 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
“You’re expecting my heart to break?” Orion asks with a wry smile.
“I mean, with your parents, the marriage to Princess Tia, all of that?”
Orion nods. “I think we bought enough time for them to start to get used to the idea of my being here. And I guess if it looks like they might change their mind, I can try to find someone else to help me the same way. I’ll be fine, Sera. Now, I should probably get to class. I thought I was going to have you walking all of us through the water manipulations we’ll need for the challenge. We’ll need to prepare.”
It’s an excuse for him to leave; both of us know it, but I’m okay with that. As Orion leaves, for the first time in a long time, I start to feel as though some of the turmoil within me has started to quiet down.
I’ve done what I need to do. I’ve made my choice. Now I need to focus on getting stronger, because the challenge ahead isn’t going to wait for me.
Chapter TWENTY TWO
“Are you sure you’re strong enough for this?” Darius asks as we head down toward the assembly point for the water flow challenge. I’m leaning on his arm, and only part of it is from the desire for that contact. For a trek across Nautica’s islands, I need the support.
“I’ll have to be,” I reply. “If I don’t do this, I’ll fail.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Darius says, continuing to help me. I see him looking around as if worried about what people will think.
“Anyone would think that you’re ashamed of being seen with me,” I say.
“Just worried that people will start to think that I’m the guy who stole you away from the school’s favorite student.”
“That’s not what happened.” We haven’t even had a conversation yet about what there is between the two of us. It’s obvious to us that there’s something, but getting Darius to admit to that—while not drugged—may prove harder.
Darius looks at me for a second or two. “It doesn’t matter, Sera. All that matters is what people think happened.”
The worst part is that it’s probably true. My friends haven’t exactly pulled back from me now that the news about Orion and me has broken like a wave through the Elemental Hall, but they haven’t gone out of their way to make sure that everything is okay, either. I guess they really do think that I’ve simply dropped Orion to make way for Darius.
And they’re not entirely wrong, are they? It’s simply that the relationship I let go was never a real relationship in the first place.
I can’t focus on that, though. Today, I have to play my part in the water flow challenge if I’m going to keep my place in Nauticaand keep studying to become an elementalist. As we have been told again and again, the classes aren’t the part that matters. All that counts is how we perform in the challenges they set.
This challenge is on one of the more remote islands, currently reachable by walking the length of an extended causeway that I suspect the elemental masters have raised from the sea specifically to allow us across. The island is large, flat, and mostly barren, without the usual covering of palm trees and waving grasses.
Already most of the others from our class are gathered there, on a shale beach that looks almost bleak in comparison to the golden sands of some of the other islands. Where they are tropical paradises, this island looks empty and unfinished.
Darius and I join the waiting group of our classmates. I can see Cara and Aria, Nissa and Sybil there. They glance my way, Aria even offers me a small wave, but they don’t say anything. Maybe it has something to do with the presence of Orion right there. Whatever Orion said about our breakup not messing up our friendship group, it seems that things are still going to be awkward—for a while at least.
There are plenty of other students gathered around. By this stage of our training, they look confident and lean. Combat training has hardened them, while weeks in the library have given us all access to knowledge that most normal people will never even learn hints of. If, when I was young, someone had suggested that I would one day be able to bend the waves to my will, I would have just laughed at them.
Even so, there are a few nervous faces in the crowd.
Elemental Mistress Halan steps onto a rock to address us, her voice carrying across the shale beach as she holds up a map of the island.
“This island is lifeless and gray. Once, we had water channels running across it, carefully designed to nourish plant life andmake it habitable. Slowly, though, their use faded, and the island became… as it is. We wish you to change that. Working together, you will start to reshape it. You will control the flow of water across and through the island. You will find ways to coax fresh water into being here. You will wash away barriers and create stable conditions for life. If some of you have the skills to coax plants into being, still better. You will start to transform this island into the kind of place that the others here are. You will not be able to do this alone. You will need to function as a team. I suggest that you begin by selecting a leader to direct your efforts. After that, you should begin quickly. You will have until the sun goes down. And should any here think that they can slack off, remember that my fellow masterswillbe watching your efforts.”
She walks away down the beach, leaving us to worry about what we’re going to do next.
“I think that Orion should be the leader,” Sybil says, with a look at him filled with some mix of calculation and adoration that I can’t separate.
It’s not a surprise to me, Sybil suggesting him, but it certainly seems to surprise Ash, who doesn’t look happy with her.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Cara said. “And I have some plans for things we can do. Let me see that map.”
There’s hardly much of a discussion about it. Everyone just seems to agree that Orion should be the one leading us. He doesn’t look entirely comfortable about it, but he doesn’t argue against being the one in charge.
Cara is the one coming up with the plans. She sketches out her ideas, drawing on the map of the island and showing where channels should go, how we’re going to create pools to purify some of the water, forcing it to run through rocks to filter it. The others start to pitch in with their ideas, each student showing some of the things that they have been working on. A few are good at purifying water, so they will help with the creationof deep pools. A couple have talents that let them encourage plants to grow, so they will be the ones trying to produce trees. Ones like Orion who are good with stone will try to reshape the earthworks of the island, changing it into something less windswept and bleak.
It’s no surprise thatmyjob is to try to guide some of the water around the island, forming barriers and redirecting it where we want it. Yet, my job is not ascentral as I might have expected it to be. Orion positions me over to one side of the island. I can’t tell if he’s just trying to keep me away from him or if he’s trying to make sure that I don’t overwork myself so soon after the attack by the kraken.
