STORMBORNS

The Ritual

The sixteenth year in the kingdom of Valeryn was the termination of childhood.

When a child of elemental blood had reached sixteen years old, he was called upon to the Academy, which was located in the cliffs of the capital. The Academy was not merely a school, but the branch of the High Council, the organ which determined who was to serve the kingdom, and who would be a danger to it. Army members were fortified by fire wielders. Cities were cured and provided by water wielders. The trade and defense were influenced by the wind and earth. Every element had its place.

And all were supposed to follow.

Aria Valeryn had been brought up knowing this was going to happen. She was now in the Grand Hall in the midst of dozens of students of her own age, her hands clasped in front of her in order to conceal the shaking. The bright sunshine was passing through the tall stained-glass windows rendering broken colors upon the marble floor. The ritual circle in the middle of the hall was composed of ancient runes, hewn out of white stone, which were meant to awaken and reveal the element that slept in each of them.

She said to herself that she was prepared.

Her father and mother were both wielders of the elements. Her father had been a fireman in the guard of the Council. Her mother had moulded water in rare precision. Both had passed now but their legacy remained like an unspoken anticipation that lay upon her. Naturally, she thought, her power would be like one of theirs.

Safe. Predictable.

The first name was called by the ritual master.

One boy came to the fore, a white lad and a willful one. As he laid the hand in the circle, the runes flashed and a continuous flame sprang out over his palm. It was received with applause, which was not cold. Fire was respected.

The second learner was easily able to draw water out of the ceremonial basin. The third caused a breeze of air that raised the fringes of her robes.

Every victory made the breath less and less easy to Aria, with the lungs. With each name that came by the hall seemed to become smaller. Relieved students mumbled in soft laughter. Council observers were seated on the gallery raised up, and their faces could not be read.

When her name was ultimately uttered it seemed far away, as though it had been called to her on the other side of water.

She entered the group on firm legs which she did not quite trust. The marble under her feet seemed unpleasantly cold. Nice enough to the others, she decided. Why colder now?

She shut her eyes and drew in herself.

She expected warmth. Or cool fluid movement. Something gentle.

Instead, she felt pressure.

There was a tight coiled force in her chest that she had never felt before, uncomfortable and impatient. The air she breathed before she could make it out burst with a thunderous noise.

She threw lightning out of her hands.

The impact of the strike was a shockwave felt in the hall as it hit the ceiling in a blinding burst of white-blue light. Wind whistled through the compartment pushing benches against rock. Gasps gave way to screams and papers and robes fought wildly in the sudden storm.

Aria stood up again, and looked at her own hands with eyes that seemed to be swollen with electricity, which was creeping down her flesh like light veins.

This was something she had never experienced.

The ritual circle was blazing under her feet, responding, as though appreciating something archaic.

Someone mumbled somewhere in the gallery," Storm--wake up--do you hear me?--col`.

The message circulated in mumbled, frightened words.

Storm wielders were not similar to others. They did not not merely have a command of an element--they bore in their purest form destruction itself. Storm was not readily moulded or tamed. Storm did not submit.

The beating of Aria's pulse ran in her ears. This is not what she had planned to occur. She attempted to withdraw the power, but it struck in reply to her alarm, and shook the windows and shut the light farther beyond them.

The Grand Hall with its doors opened up.

Vanguard troops poured in, armed and armored, their motions quick and jerking, making one feel that they had been waiting all along, waiting until this moment.

Cage her in, fellow-citizens, one of them said.

Contain.

The term was more violent than the lightning.

Two men were marching forward brandishing weapons. Panic seized her thoughts. She withdrew, and put up her hands to protect her, but still other discharges of electric energy burst through her, slashing the hard marble floor in pieces.

One of the blades swung at her shoulder.

And then blue fire arose between them.

when it swell in a conspicuous wall, hard and burning, pushing the soldier away with the force of hiss of burning to metal. The fire was not wavering as normal fire. It burnt constant and unbelievably bright, and had something almost of silver at its center.

Aria turned.

Kael was a few feet away with his arm outstretched. His palm turned blue and the fire came out and formed a wall that surrounded her all round. Her shock was reflected in his face. It was not the regulated red flame that he usually called in training.

This was different.

Another soldier charged. The shield of Kael flared, stronger, wider, not in response to the threat, but to her.

One breath they were looking into eachother.

Neither spoke. They did not need to.

The hall had broken out into anarchy. Students scattered. Members of the council screamed orders out of the balcony. Further men of the squad came on.

We cannot remain, Kael said; it was very urgent, I tell you.

Aria nodded.

Together, they ran.

They dashed off to the hall side, and another burst of lightning jumped out of her in an unconscious fashion. The closest stained-glass window burst with a blow, and scattered its coloured fragments out all about. There came the cold wind in the cliffs above.

She went after Kael through the broken frame without giving herself time to think.

They crashed down on a sloping roof below, and came a few feet before hitting the stone ridges. In the background, soldiers were screaming.

Also over the Academy clouds were formed unnaturally quick, close and dark, in answer to the tempest that had just wakened in her.

Aria sat up, and as she did so her breath went unsteady, a shiver of lightning still tremulous along her fingers.

Kael stood up next her with blue flame flickering low as she was ready.

The Academy courtyard had gone down into confusion below. Thunder was rolling at the sky which was clear a moment ago.

Her future had not been seen in the ritual.

It had condemned it.

And here no turning back was possible