Reaching Venus

The Unknown

Ian

Venus set me on fire. Forget the why, I was concerned with the how. She was a water elemental. I had seen her manipulate the water in the fountain and when we went swimming she kept her hair perfectly dry despite diving straight into the water. But even Amber had said her fire magic.

" What was that back there?" I asked without beating around the bush.

Venus bit her lip and looked down.

I reached out and gently lifted her chin up, " Venus, please. I just want to understand. I thought you were a water elemental. "

"Well....I am. But I'm not" Venus shuffled her feet around before continuing, " But more importantly, I'm not the kind of girl who is going to go around stealing someone else's boyfriend. I was under the impression your other girlfriends were always busy or barely gave you the time of day or whatever. so you know what this just isn't going to work for me."

She had started to get that worked up sound in her voice and the fierceness in her eyes that had come about just before my arm burst into flame. I lifted my hands in surrender, hoping she would take a moment and we could talk about this calmly. Although in my experience fire elementals were not calm or rational. Venus seemed to break all the rules I had known about elementals

Instead of calming down she shook her head, turned on her heels and ran the opposite direction. I could have chased her but what good would that do? It had become extremely apparent that I didn't really know this girl. That didn't meant I didn't still want to.

After watching Venus literally sprint away from me I went inside and called Amber. She immediately tried to apologize again but I cut her off.

"What's the deal with Venus?"

"Please don't blame her Ian. She's got a lot going on. She just can't control fire yet and she has been getting really frustrated lately."

"Amber, I saw her controlling water the other day."

"Well yeah, but that kind of magic is so different than fire magic. You should know that."

Amber had clearly forgotten about how rude I had been to her and was in full mother bear mode. She was going to defend anything Venus did. She was just overlooking the most important part. Elementals cannot control more than one element.

"That's not what I mean. Are you truly this dense? I am asking how an elemental can control more than one element?" I slowed down all my words out of annoyance, hoping something would sink into her thick skull.

The line was silent for a minute. I could imagine Amber scrunching up her mouth the way she did when she was embarrassed. Or insulted. I didn't care which. She never said anything so I pretended not to notice.

"I don't know how. But I thought everyone knew that Venus had already mastered 3 of the 4 elements. And with my help she will master all 4."

The line went dead. But it didn't matter. I didn't have anything more to say to Amber. An elemental who had mastery over all the elements. That was supposed to be reserved to faeries, those born of the land and sea, not those born to humans. Most faeries would have been furious. It was an insult that someone who was not bound to the earth goddess had her gifts. However, I found it impossible to be mad at her.

I wanted to go apologize to her, but ultimately I knew it wouldn't change anything. i may not be able to be mad at her but she clearly didn't have the same problem. If I tried to talk to her I'd probably just end up on fire again.

-----

The next morning I decided to go to the fey court. According to Amber everyone knew about Venus. I just couldn't understand why, if her magic was common knowledge, no one was working to figure out why it had happened.

The fey court was held in what was basically a glorified tree house in the highest boughs of the tree of life. Everything had been grown and maintained by pure magic. It housed the ruling fey, our puppet government, along with the faery nursery, and the historical library.

I made a bee line for the library, not wanting to deal with questions about why i was here. While all faeries were welcome at court most of us had no reason to come. At least in the library I would only have to deal with the historian, a faery who went by the name of Lark.

"Hey, Lark. Long time no see." I greeted.

Faeries do not age until their human dies. Even then they age slowly and it could be centuries before they show even a single wrinkle or gray hair. Lark was an exception. He had a full head of gray hair and wrinkles so deep they gave the illusion of tree bark.

He returned my greeting with a grunt and a nod.

I leaned up against his desk and asked, " Hey Lark, you ever heard of an elemental with more than one element?"

He looked up at me over his long nose. A smirk slowly broke out across his face.

"You met Venus Morningstar" He stated matter of factly.

"Yeah. What can you tell me about her?"

Lark turned back to his work as he grumbled out, "Showed up when she was a baby. Spent her childhood terrorizing my library."

I rolled my eyes but tried to remain polite. "OK, but where did she come from? How is it possible? "

Lark put his pen down finally and looked me in the eye as he explained, " There have been rumors for centuries of faeries trying to break their connection to the earth goddess. Searching for a way to retain their magic but not be bound to the whims and callings of the mother. No evidence that anyone ever found a way though. But I suppose if a faery were to find a way it would result in someone much like Venus. Although I'm sure they wouldn't be a baby. Now enough of your questions. If you want to know anything else go bother Mary."