Page 22 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)
“Are you sure you’re strong enough for this?” Darius asks as we head down toward the assembly point for the water flow challenge. I’m leaning on his arm, and only part of it is from the desire for that contact. For a trek across Nautica’s islands, I need the support.
“I’ll have to be,” I reply. “If I don’t do this, I’ll fail.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Darius says, continuing to help me. I see him looking around as if worried about what people will think.
“Anyone would think that you’re ashamed of being seen with me,” I say.
“Just worried that people will start to think that I’m the guy who stole you away from the school’s favorite student.”
“That’s not what happened.” We haven’t even had a conversation yet about what there is between the two of us. It’s obvious to us that there’s something, but getting Darius to admit to that—while not drugged—may prove harder.
Darius looks at me for a second or two. “It doesn’t matter, Sera. All that matters is what people think happened.”
The worst part is that it’s probably true.
My friends haven’t exactly pulled back from me now that the news about Orion and me has broken like a wave through the Elemental Hall, but they haven’t gone out of their way to make sure that everything is okay, either.
I guess they really do think that I’ve simply dropped Orion to make way for Darius.
And they’re not entirely wrong, are they? It’s simply that the relationship I let go was never a real relationship in the first place.
I can’t focus on that, though. Today, I have to play my part in the water flow challenge if I’m going to keep my place in Nautica and keep studying to become an elementalist. As we have been told again and again, the classes aren’t the part that matters.
All that counts is how we perform in the challenges they set.
This challenge is on one of the more remote islands, currently reachable by walking the length of an extended causeway that I suspect the elemental masters have raised from the sea specifically to allow us across.
The island is large, flat, and mostly barren, without the usual covering of palm trees and waving grasses.
Already most of the others from our class are gathered there, on a shale beach that looks almost bleak in comparison to the golden sands of some of the other islands. Where they are tropical paradises, this island looks empty and unfinished.
Darius and I join the waiting group of our classmates.
I can see Cara and Aria, Nissa and Sybil there.
They glance my way, Aria even offers me a small wave, but they don’t say anything.
Maybe it has something to do with the presence of Orion right there.
Whatever Orion said about our breakup not messing up our friendship group, it seems that things are still going to be awkward—for a while at least.
There are plenty of other students gathered around.
By this stage of our training, they look confident and lean.
Combat training has hardened them, while weeks in the library have given us all access to knowledge that most normal people will never even learn hints of.
If, when I was young, someone had suggested that I would one day be able to bend the waves to my will, I would have just laughed at them.
Even so, there are a few nervous faces in the crowd.
Elemental Mistress Halan steps onto a rock to address us, her voice carrying across the shale beach as she holds up a map of the island.
“This island is lifeless and gray. Once, we had water channels running across it, carefully designed to nourish plant life and make it habitable. Slowly, though, their use faded, and the island became… as it is. We wish you to change that. Working together, you will start to reshape it. You will control the flow of water across and through the island. You will find ways to coax fresh water into being here. You will wash away barriers and create stable conditions for life. If some of you have the skills to coax plants into being, still better. You will start to transform this island into the kind of place that the others here are. You will not be able to do this alone. You will need to function as a team. I suggest that you begin by selecting a leader to direct your efforts. After that, you should begin quickly. You will have until the sun goes down. And should any here think that they can slack off, remember that my fellow masters will be watching your efforts.”
She walks away down the beach, leaving us to worry about what we’re going to do next.
“I think that Orion should be the leader,” Sybil says, with a look at him filled with some mix of calculation and adoration that I can’t separate.
It’s not a surprise to me, Sybil suggesting him, but it certainly seems to surprise Ash, who doesn’t look happy with her.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Cara said. “And I have some plans for things we can do. Let me see that map.”
There’s hardly much of a discussion about it. Everyone just seems to agree that Orion should be the one leading us. He doesn’t look entirely comfortable about it, but he doesn’t argue against being the one in charge.
Cara is the one coming up with the plans.
She sketches out her ideas, drawing on the map of the island and showing where channels should go, how we’re going to create pools to purify some of the water, forcing it to run through rocks to filter it.
The others start to pitch in with their ideas, each student showing some of the things that they have been working on.
A few are good at purifying water, so they will help with the creation of deep pools.
A couple have talents that let them encourage plants to grow, so they will be the ones trying to produce trees.
Ones like Orion who are good with stone will try to reshape the earthworks of the island, changing it into something less windswept and bleak.
It’s no surprise that my job is to try to guide some of the water around the island, forming barriers and redirecting it where we want it.
Yet, my job is not as central as I might have expected it to be.
Orion positions me over to one side of the island.
I can’t tell if he’s just trying to keep me away from him or if he’s trying to make sure that I don’t overwork myself so soon after the attack by the kraken.
I go to my assigned spot, trying to do what I need to in order to make Cara’s plans for the island work.
I start to guide water inland, using the pressure of it and the currents in order to create channels that will serve to irrigate this side of the island.
It’s precise work, trying to find paths that the water will flow along without flooding the entire island, trying to play my part.
It’s also hard work. I’m mostly recovered, but I’m nowhere near as strong as I should be.
I try to keep Cara’s plan in mind, doing what’s required.
In truth, it’s not that hard, and I find my eyes wandering across the rest of the island.
I can see Aria darting back and forth, carrying messages and lending a hand here or there, helping to coordinate the efforts of the students working on the island.
Orion is moving from place to place, rather than just standing in one spot and directing.
It’s obvious that he wants to do a lot of the practical work here, but he’s caught up with having to deal with problems, making decisions.
Cara is in one spot, looking over everything, obviously planning every step, while Nissa is coaxing plants from the earth.
Ash… he is going off alone, and that catches my attention. Especially since he seems to be moving furtively, keeping behind rocks so that Orion and most of the others can’t see him. If Orion hadn’t tucked me away on the far side of the island, I probably wouldn’t see him either.
What is he doing? Happy that I can abandon my efforts for a minute or two, I follow him as he heads to where an ancient lock gate seems to be closed, holding back the sea. He stands in front of it, his features contorted in concentration as he uses his magic on it, smoke starting to rise from it.
“What are you doing, Ash?” I ask, moving to confront him.
“I’m doing my part in the plan,” Ash snaps back. “Shouldn’t you be off seeing that the water is dribbling nicely along the irrigation channels?”
“Cara didn’t say anything about destroying this gate,” I reply.
He snorts. “You know what, Sera? I don’t have to answer to you. Or to idiots like Orion and Cara.”
“So you’re not doing what we agreed?” I ask. I think about the lock. If it’s opened, it will send seawater cascading across the island. It will make all our efforts much harder, throwing out all our plans. “Ash, are you trying to sabotage this challenge?”
Why would he do something like that?
“What if I am?” he shoots back.
“Why, Ash?” I ask him. “What do you gain by this?”
“What do I gain? Stupid commoner. You don’t know what this challenge really is, do you? But they told me. The Umbrans explained exactly what is about to happen.”
I stare at him in shock. “You’re working for the Umbrans?” I think a moment or two longer. “It was you who put Darius in the cave, wasn’t it?”
Ash smiles at me cruelly. “It was all too easy.”
“And you tried to kill me by sending me to the Green Tower Pool.”
He spreads his hands. “Of course.”
“Why are you working for them?” I demand. “Why betray all of us?”
Ash’s expression turns harsh. “Because at least they appreciate talent when they see it. I was meant to be something special. I was meant to be great, but first Orion shows up and takes all the attention, then you arrive, with a gift you’ve done nothing to earn.
If I do this, they’ll give me a place of honor in their academy. ”
“You’d do all of this, you’d join Lumina’s enemies, just so you can feel important?” I say. “No, I won’t allow this. I’ll find one of the masters and tell them all of this.”
“And you think you’re going to get to one of them?” Ash says, raising an eyebrow. “Even if you somehow run now, you’re going to be far too busy. As I said, the masters haven’t been entirely truthful about what this challenge is.”
I feel the moment when the earth starts to shake, jarring and jolting me, threatening to make me fall.
Even with that, we aren’t at the center of the earthquake.
No, that is somewhere away under the ocean, the sea seeming to roil and jolt as the seabed beneath it is hit by the full violence of a seaquake.
As the quake continues, I see a wall of water rising up on the horizon, heading our way. The tsunami is massive, with enough force to scour this island clear of life, and if I don’t help to stop it, we might all be swept away.
That is when Ash throws himself at me, lashing out with a punch I barely see coming.