Page 37 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

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Iterra joined Terrick and the other headmistress and headmasters as they took seats in the study. Drinks and finger foods were brought in by the kitchen staff. When everyone was settled, Iterra glanced around the room to make sure her guests had what they needed.

“I’m going to admit,” Marcus, the Hydro Academy headmaster, said, “this was not what I expected to be doing today.”

“Iexpected a normal day of classes and the occasional cocky new kid needing to be put in his place,” Jeremiah, the Crimson Academy headmaster, said with a slight chuckle.

“Well, at least things aren’t going to be boring,” said Ellena, the Tempest Academy headmistress.

The others nodded as they sipped their drinks or chewed their food. For a long while, they ate in relative silence, and everyone appeared contemplative. Iterra had her own worries, fears, prejudices, and preconceived notions bottled inside. She knew she should hold no ill will toward anyone in the room. The light elementals should always be united. They should have been working together long before now. The discord was chipping away at her heart. She hated that they'd allowed such dissension to infect their people. Nature worked in tandem with itself, so why shouldn’t her ambassadors do the same? If the elementals had been working together long before now, would those taken have been so vulnerable? She didn’t think so. Everything suddenly felt out of control and uncertain. She worried for their current students and those not yet there and under their protection. Maybe if the academies acted quickly, they would be able to prevent too many being swayed to the darkness. Though even one was too many.

Terrick finally broke the silence. “Does anyone have any ideas on how to move forward?” he asked. Iterra knew he was taking the lead simply because they were in Terra Academy, and it made sense to defer to the headmaster and mistress of the territory in which they were located. Had they been in Hydro Academy, then they would have deferred to Marcus and Serena.

“First,” said Serena, “I feel we should start small. I don’t think we should attempt any wide-scale changes on an academy level. That would be too much adjustment at once. The potential for chaos would be too great.”

Everyone nodded, and Terrick said, “I think we can all agree with that.”

Talia, the Crimson Academy headmistress, spoke up. “I think our professors know our students better than anyone. We should have them make lists of select students in their third and fourth years they feel work well together. Then we can match them up with students in each of the other schools until we have groups of four. Each group can rotate between the academies using portals. We set a schedule for them just like we do now.”

“I also think they need to be our top students,” Ellena offered. “Those who are powerfully gifted, but also levelheaded. They will be the pupils who can then help train the younger students.”

Several murmured agreement. Iterra admitted it sounded like a good plan. It wasn’t too complicated, though anything they did was going to take a little bit of time because they were talking about moving around many students.

“If you all are agreeable,” Terrick said, “I would offer Terra Academy as the location of the first training session.”

“I see no problem with that,” said Jeremiah. “This cooperative effort began because ofyoursoul bonded, Terrick. It seems fitting that the first lesson begins here.”

“Agreed,” said several of the other professors.

“And one professor for each element. If that’s going to take too many professors then we could rotate out and have half of the students do a morning training time and the other half do an afternoon training,” Terrick said.

“I think we also need to bring in our warriors from the field to fill them in on what’s going on and pair them up with teams from the other academies. They are going to have to learn to work together as well,” Marcus pointed out. “It will make them more adept at protecting their Marks.”

“I agree,” Terrick said.

Iterra knew that Jax and Terrick had already discussed that plan and sent out a call to their warriors. Most of them would be coming in tomorrow morning.

“What issues should we prepare for?” Ellena asked.

“The possibility of animosity between students. Interschool rivalry. Though having pride in one’s school and elemental attunement is admirable, I believe we’ve inadvertently nurtured the attitude that our own school is somehow superior or more powerful than the others,” Terrick admitted.

“We are guilty of the same thing,” said Jeremiah. “That’s something we will have to firmly correct. A certain amount of humility for the fault we played in this will probably go a long way with the students.”

“I think that is an excellent idea,” Iterra said.

“How long do you each need before we make the new schedules?” Terrick asked.

“Four days?” Marcus suggested. “Will that be enough time to get the students organized into the groups?”

“I think it should work for us,” Jeremiah said.

Callum from Tempest Academy nodded. “That’ll do for us as well.”

Iterra and Terrick wished the other academies a good afternoon and watched as they opened portals and exited Terra Academy.

“I’m not going to lie, my love,” Iterra said. “At this point, burying my head in the sand is sounding more and more tempting.”

Terrick chuckled as he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her. They had been together for nearly two centuries, and she was still just as madly in love with him as she’d been when they met. They weren’t soul bonded, of course, not in the magical sense that came from Mother Gaia. Such a thing was exceedingly rare. But they were bonded by choice.

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