Page 50 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
I feel someone shaking me, but what could possibly shake the vastness of a leviathan? It takes me a second to realize that it is a different body being shaken, far, far away.
I snap back to myself with a gasp that takes in a gulp of water, my own body feeling small and tight after the leviathan. Darius is holding me, Orion on guard near us. Around us, the only kraken remaining are dead ones. The only living kraken now are swimming for safety, fleeing the leviathan with all the speed they can muster.
For a moment, the leviathan hangs in the water, one huge eye staring at me. I feel small, insignificant, in the face of that gaze. I feel as if it sees everything I am, everything Imightbe. I know that it could devour me in an instant if it chooses to.
Then it flicks its tail, turning and heading after the kraken, hunting them into deeper water.
I swim for the surface with Darius and Orion. We burst up into the light and I take a moment to just breathe while Darius holds tightly to me. He kisses me then, the two of us locked together in the water.
“You did it, Sera. You saved us.”
Chapter TWENTY EIGHT
I haven’t saved everyone. When we clamber onto the remaining boats and make it back to Nautica’s shores, I see that at least ten people are missing. Several are elementalists, hunters, or guards, but there are still gaps where people should be, people I know from my classes, people I might think of as friends.
We gather on one of the beaches, lighting a bonfire as the darkness starts to close in. Right then, we all need the warmth and the light of it. We stand around it, the whole class, the masters, everyone silent in their thoughts.
Elemental Mistress Halan speaks after what seems like the longest time.
“Today, you have seen what it means to be an elementalist,” she says. “It is easy to think that our lives are special and filled with beauty because of the powers we possess. It is true that we have the capacity to change the world around us, but with that comes a responsibility. We are the ones who can protect Lumina, who can help its people, and so we serve all of those who need it. We are not like Umbrae, where those with the powers of the elements take what they want. We do not give ourselves to the lonely life of the wanderers and the hedge witches. We do what we must, even when it costs us those closest to us.”
She is silent for a few moments then, letting us think of those who have died today.
“Those of you who have come through today have done so stronger. Some of you have shown remarkable talent.” She looks my way, and I force myself to stare back without flinching. “All of you have earned the right to progress to Skyhold, to learn the ways of the air.”
A cheer goes up from some of the others, because we all want to move on to the next stage. We all want to be one step closer to being elemental masters.
“Each of you is now an elemental novice,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “Were you to leave now, you would still find a place serving a noble family or a village. But I know that all of you will wish to learn far more. Here is the mark of your progress.”
She closes her eyes and whispers words beneath her breath. For a moment, the fire seems to burn brighter.
I feel a sharp pain on my arm. I look down at it to see the outline of an elaborate design starting to work its way up my forearm. Most of it is a mere outline, there one second and then fading into the skin, but one part, a ring of water droplets around my wrist and a leaping seraphin winding around the shape of the leviathan, is there in such color and detail that it looks as if it is about to leap from my skin.
For several seconds, I can only stare, so it takes me that time to realize that something similar is happening to the others. For each of them, the design is different; even the location seems to shift from person to person. Orion gets a single water droplet pierced by a trident on his upper arm. Darius gets a flash of lightning on his chest, with raindrops around it. For the next minute or two, it seems that we all move to one another, seeing the effects that Elemental Mistress Halan’s spell has wrought.
“You are all marked as novices now,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “These marks will give you entry to Skyhold when the summer is done. In the morning, you will be able to return home to rest and recuperate, but for now, enjoy yourselves.”
A couple of the students get out musical instruments. Some of the others go to fetch food from the refectory. When the dancing starts, I seek out Darius, putting my arms around himand swaying with the music, not caring about anything else in the world.
“Have you thought about what you’ll do over the summer?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I never dared to imagine it. Now… I’m not surewhatI’ll do.”
I don’t want to head back home. It is too far to go, and I’m not sure that I even belong there now. But I also don’t have anywhereelseto go.
“We could stay here a while,” Darius suggests. “Or we could wander Lumina a little, maybe learn some more about it. Perhaps villages will have uses for a couple of traveling novices until it’s time for us to go to Skyhold.”
There is nothing I would rather do than spend the summer with Darius.
“I love you,” I murmur.
“I love you too,” he whispers back.
I think about suggesting to him that this would be a good time for us to slip away from the party. Maybe back to my dormitory room. I’m still trying to work out the best way out of there for us when a messenger rushes up, stopping in front of Elemental Mistress Halan. Something about the speed of it makes us all stop and stare.
“There’s news!” he calls out. “Umbran ships have raided along the coast. They’ve struck at noble houses, at villages… it’s a slaughter!”
In two sentences, our thoughts of an idyllic summer are gone.
