Elementia Tellurian

Chapter 7

“I intend to speak with you.”

Sera nodded.  What could be the prince needed from her?

He looked at her in the eyes, staring. “If ever you are having a hard time. You can always come to me,” he offered sincerely. “If other competitors are giving you a hard time, don’t hesitate to talk to me, I can talk to them,” he added.

Sera showed her gratitude by bowing to him but despite of being thankful, she was quite disappointed. Her face turned sour for a moment but she tried her best to not be obvious about it. Was it because she's a girl?

“Thank you, your highness. I appreciate it,” she said. She took a deep breath.  “But I would respectfully decline it. I don’t think that is necessary, your highness.”

Being protected was not on Sera’s list. She joined the competition to be exposed and not to be hidden. Accepting someone’s protection would look like she was not capable of protecting herself. She had proved a lot of things before she decided to join the competition. If a competitor could not protect his or herself then they were not worth it to be crowned as a ruler.   

She bowed once again. This conversation was making her uncomfortable. It was better for her to leave. “I have something else to do. If you don’t mind, I’ll take my leave, your highness.” Sera curtsied as a sign of respect.

“Wait,” Zale stopped her by grabbing her wrist. Sera looked at it for him to remove it but instead, he tightened his grip.  

“Wait, “he repeated with a hopeless tone on his voice. “Do you, in a way, remember me?” He looked her again in the eyes. 

Sera stepped back, “You are creeping me out, your highness.”

“I will not be going to bother you again. Just answer me this question. Do you remember me?” he asked, being hopeless can really be heard from his voice.

Sera shook her head. “I don’t know what are you talking about but whatever it is. No, this is my first time talking to you closely, your highness.”

“Brother!”

“Princess Marina,” Sera mumbled.

A woman who was wearing an elegant mid length blue puffed-sleeve dress walked toward their direction. She removed her brother’s grip to Sera in a way that Sera won’t get hurt. Zale looked down, embarrassed. His curly black hair covering his eyes. Sera noticed a light tremble on his shoulders. “This is torture,” he whispered.

 “What are you doing?” Marina shouted to her brother in a whisper.

He looked Marina into her eyes. It was visible that Zale was holding his tears. “Eir-”

Zale was not able to finish what he was about going to say because Marina shook her head and cut him off. “Please, not again. Stop.”   

Marina wrapped around her arms to her brother’s arm. She faced Sera and smiled. “I’m sorry. You still have important things to do right? You should do that. We would get going first.”

Marina started dragging her brother away from Sera. Marina brought him to his office. Marina shook his brother’s shoulders to wake him up. He must be already out of his mind. He always did this whenever he saw someone who has a little resemblance with their youngest sister but this time it was different. She knew he’s a prince!

“Why did you do that?” asked Marina in frustration.

Zale sighed and leaned on this office table. “It just suddenly hit me, okay? I saw Eirene in her, today.”

“You always saw Eirene in someone, brother. You need to stop that. You just creeped a competitor!”  Marina reminded. They would not know if what happened earlier would be kept a secret or what if some other competitors saw that? Would an issue emerge?

“I just ask her one question and I already told her I won’t bother her, okay?” Zale said in defense.

Marina rest her head on her palm and shook it. “You should have not acted like that, though. You gripped her hand too tight. I saw some grip marks when I removed your hand and you better leave her alone. She is a competitor you might instilled bias on her.”

Marina walked toward her brother and hugged him. They might not be the closest sibling but he definitely needs a hug. He had been torturing himself with the past for past twenty years.

“Please move on. It has been twenty years. Stop blaming yourself.” Marina said assuring Zale.

He heaved a sigh. “I will try to.”

Marina released him from hugging and patted his head. “You are older than me. Why am I doing this?” she said in a face flashed with annoyance.

Zale released a light chuckle. “Thank you, Marina.”

Marina waved her hands. “Don’t bother.”

Zale straightened himself and fixed his blue suit embellished with gold lacing. “Ah, I need to be back at the headquarters.”

Marina looked at him, curious. “Why?”

“I got a message from the elders from the council,” he said while fixing his cuff links. “I read that some part of the lands from Terra and Meta kingdom was on fire.”

“A wildfire? An arson?” asked Marina. “Was it natural or intented?” she added.  

Zale shrugged, “I still don’t know, yet. They didn’t provide the detailed information. I’ll be back when it is time to deploy the competitors to the forest. Just keep an eye on them, for now.”

Marina nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you, again.” Zale disheveled Marina’s hair and leave the room.

From being sad to serious. How can he switch his emotions so easily?

*** Two days later

“We have everything ready?” Alistair asked as he look at the bags in front of him. Sera organizing all of it since it was a complete mess earlier with Calyx and Alistair’s organizing ability.

“Yeah, all of the supplies were already in equal ration, the food, medical supplies, and the weapons.” answered Sera as she distributed the bags to each of them.

“It is good that we have a woman’s hand. Everything is organized.” Alistair said with a smile. Sera looked at him with a stern face. They should not get used to it. She would not do it next time.

All of the competitors were already in the general training ground. In any minute, they would be all going to the forest. Joash was with his team. A guy from Aeris seemed to be leading their group. Every time Sera looked at their direction, he always talks. She looked around and the other teams were preparing, as well. Everyone looked like they were ready to fight a war.

“Are you all ready?” A voice from above echoed throughout the training ground. All of the competitors looked up and saw Princess Idalia on a balcony with other council members. She saw princess Marina but not prince Zale. What happened to him the day before yesterday?

Some competitors’ faces lighten up when they saw Idalia.  Her wavy red hair flows to the air and her red dress matched her white complexion. “Unfortunately, Prince Zale could not see you off.  He has not come back yet from an important business that he attended. So let us just start without him, okay?” Princess Idalia announced with a smile.

“You are liking this, do you?” Princess Prairie from Terra said in a whisper.

Princess Idalia smiled at her, “I do. Who would not? I am like the head of the council,” she said with confident.

She looked at the competitors below them. “So now, please go to your own team’s training ground. There will be a door waiting for you.”   

The competitors started moving to go to their training grounds. All were intrigued of the things that awaits them.

When Sera and her team got inside their training ground the ground was empty. The forest that they saw for the past two days was now non-existent. All that was left inside was a big open door. The other side of it was a quiet and still forest. It was vaster compared to the one they had before.  

“Does it look like the same to the forest we had in our training?” Calyx asked.   

The other members shrugged. “Let us go.” Leed announced.

They all agreed and walked toward the direction of the forest. When they were already out, the fresh air from the forest greeted them. They were birds flying around the area. Calling each other. Splashes of water from a distance can also be heard from where they were standing. The heat coming from the sun also lingered on their skin.  

“It is gone,” Birch said. Everyone looked at him in a confuse face. “Mansion,” he added coldly.

They assessed the area.  Birch was right. They were encircled by a vast forest and no mansion can be found. The mansion was now a group of trees.

“Could we be in an illusion?” Calyx asked. “There are some strong Meta residents that can make an illusion hmmm,” he stopped for a moment to think, “just like Prince Primo,” he added.

“I saw the forest outside my balcony room. Is it safe to say that maybe the mansion was only covered in illusion so we would not able to find it easily?” Alistair asked.

Calyx nodded, “Yeah, maybe.”

Leed walked to the nearest tree he could find. He brought out his dagger and carved a big ‘X’ on the tree. He faced his teammates who were looking at him. His forehead wrinkled. “What?”  

They all shook their heads. What Leed did was a right thing to do. They were not still familiar with the forest and it was best to leave marks to know if they were not just walking back in circles.

“We should start walking now,” Birch suggested. “We would not be able to achieve anything if we stand here all day.”

The five of them started walking. All with bags on their backs. The bags contain food, medical supplies, weapons, and clothes. Every time they walked, the dried leaves on the ground rustled.

“Let us look around. Maybe there are pieces of paper scattered around for our mission.”  Leed directed.

The mission was really vague. The council didn’t exactly explain what would they face in the forest. If the they were going to refer to the book Birch and Sera found, should they look for a dead body? It has been reported that people who didn’t really understand or didn’t realize the intention of the forest would end up dead.  There were already a lot of dead bodies that had been recorded in the book.

“I found one!” Alistair shouted. He raised a strip of paper into the air.

“Read it.” Sera commanded.

~ One is not enough. Four creatures under different elements will soon you’ll face. One creature corresponds to one element; only susceptible to its own element. Finish the mission by learning to manifest all four base elements. Utilize the resources found in the forest. Beware of the danger, a lot of things are unknown. ~

“A creature?” asked Calyx, wanting to clarify if he read it right.

“Learning to manifest all four base elements,” said Birch.

“This is why they form a team from different regnums, they want us to teach one another.” said Sera. Since they were all masters on each other’s academe, an elite. They were capable to teach other people from different regnums their power.

To be a king, you need to possess all base elements. That would make you stand out among other residents from your regnum. By manifesting all of the elements, you’ll become one of the strongest. Learning all the base elements were only allowed in the competition for kings, not permissible to be taught in an academe. Those who were unfortunate to become king, would receive a position as one of the peerage.

“What element should we start first?” asked Alistair with a smile. It was obvious that he liked the gist of learning other elements. “Air is an easy element to manipulate,” he added.

“No, let us start with water. I heard a splashing water, maybe from a falls, it is not far away from here.” Leed opposed.

“I am fine with anything,” Calyx said in response. He smiled and raised both of his hands to lean his head on it. “I can control all four base elements.”