Page 5 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
“That’s my room. That’s Nissa’s, she’s good for healing if you get hurt. That’s Nymyra’s room. I think this one is empty. You can have this.”
She pushes open the door to a room that’s probably meant to be small and spartan to teach the students here to be tough, but it’s far larger than the space I had back home. There’s a bed, a writing table, and a trunk for my belongings.
“Now, we have to go.”
“Go where?” I say, trying to keep up with her.
“I told you, there’s a test. We can’t be late. The masters hate it if we’re late. Come on!”
She sets off again like a startled rabbit, and I have only a moment to make up my mind before I chase after her. I don’t want to cause trouble on my first day here, after all.
We rush down the paths of the island, and I’m glad that I have Aria as a guide, because otherwise I suspect that I would never find where I’m meant to be. She gives me the briefest of tours as we hurry along.
“The library tower is over that way. They post the challenges inside it, and people leave notices. A lot of us like to practice in the space outside it. The refectory is down that path. It’s all pretty simple stuff, but it’s fine. The main amphitheater for lectures isthatway. There’s a target range for practicing powers over there…”
It all blurs together in my head because we’re both moving far too quickly. Finally, we arrive at our destination.
There is a horde of young men and women around my age crowded around what appears to be a deep, water-filled shaft. Most are dressed as Aria is, in brief clothes designed to allow them to swim freely. I’m all too aware of how much I must stand out as their eyes turn to Aria and me.
An older woman stands at the front of the crowd. She is wearing a long robe of shimmering blue. She is white-haired andsharp-featured, fixing us with a piercing gaze as we approach. Tattoos reach up onto her face, swirling like tendrils around her right eye, which is otherwise a milky white. I get the feeling that she can see me through it anyway.
“Almost late, Aria,” she snaps. “Now, who is this?”
“This is Sera, Elemental Mistress Halan,” Aria says. “And she only just arrived.”
“A new initiate,” the woman says with a sniff. “When all the others have begun their training. Well, I have no time to play nursemaid to someone who cannot keep up. It’s sink or swim here on Nautica.”
She laughs at her own joke. A couple of the students laugh along dutifully.
“Very well, she will be one of the first to go,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “You too, Aria.”
“Mistress Halan,” Aria says, “Sera hasn’t had any time to prepare for this like us. She doesn’t even know what the challenge is!”
“Then she should have gotten here weeks ago,” Elemental Mistress Halan says, with no give in her tone. “As for the challenge, that’s simple: dive into this well. At the bottom, you will find a golden bracelet. I wish you to retrieve it. We will continue until one of you succeeds. Oh, and watch out for the creatures.”
“What creatures?” I ask.
Elemental Mistress Halan ignores me. “Begin!”
Aria steps up to the side of the well, diving in with easy grace. I follow her. I would rather not dive in my only tunic, but there’s no way I’m stripping it off in front of so many strangers. I kick off my boots and dive in, feeling the impact of the water against my body.
I tell myself that I can do this, that it’s no different from diving for clams back home. I hold my breath, heading down… and further down.
I quickly realize that the well is deeper than I imagined it might be. Deep enough that I can’t imagine how light will reach the bottom. Deep enough that I know that this test is a joke, a trick. No one can hold their breath that long, not even me. Yet, I see Aria swimming down, making her way deeper with powerful strokes.
I follow. Around me, I see others diving, moving swiftly and confidently. How are they diving so deep and so fast? How are their lungs not burning with the effort, the way mine are? I’m reaching the point where I know I will have to turn back, to return to the surface and face the humiliation of being the first one up there. I’m sure that’s a part of why the elemental mistress sent me down here first, to show me that I don’t know anything.
Howarethe others diving for so long? It seems impossible, but I think about what kind of place this is, and I suddenly notice them taking gulps of water, breathing it as if it were air. Is that possible, for someone with the skills of an elementalist?
CouldIdo it?
I feel the water around me. I reach for it. My every instinct says that I should head for the surface, that I should save myself, before it’s too late. Instead, I open myself to the water, and I let it into me.
And I take a breath.
I breathe, and somehow my body knows how to do this, how to breathe in water and not drown. I hang there weightless in the water, watching the others swimming downward, too in awe of what has just happened to follow. Then I remember why I’m there. I remember Elemental Mistress Halan’s expression. It’s not enough for me to survive this, not if I want to impress her. I have to succeed.
I swim for the bottom, and now, I reach for the water, willing it to help me, my body pushed along by small currents that weren’t there a moment ago. I push downward, swimming faster than I ever have before. Swimming faster than the others, catching them, overtaking them, while they look at me with surprise. Clearly, they don’t think that the newcomer should be able to keep up with them.
