Page 3 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

The first time I see Nautica, it’s… spectacular.

It is there on the horizon, dominating my view, impossible to ignore.

It’s not an island, but a whole series of islands, some linked together by natural spurs of rock, some by bridges, some standing separate from the rest. Jungle growth towers from much of the interior of the islands, while golden beaches line their shores.

Huge, human-made edifices rise above the greenery, walled and designed for defense, turning the whole place into a kind of fortress.

Yet even those seem as if they are a part of the sea, formed from blue crystalline rock that shifts and reflects the light differently from moment to moment.

As I get closer, I have to guide my boat carefully to avoid rocks. I see something else shift beneath the waves, the giant, snakelike shape of a sea-wyrm sliding past under the water. I shudder at the sight of it, knowing that such creatures can turn a calm sea into a storm without effort.

Thankfully, the waters around the island stay calm as I pull my boat into a sheltered cove, where a jetty waits. It is not the only thing. Finder Davan is there. Somehow, he has gotten there ahead of me.

“I thought you were off looking for other students,” I demand as I pull up to the jetty.

“I will be. And I told you that everything is a test.”

I clamber up onto land. “What do I do now?”

“Now, you run. The other initiates began their training weeks ago. You’ve missed many classes. You’ve a lot of catching up to do. Go up the steps, take the left-hand branch at the fork, then keep going until you find the dormitory for the new female initiates.”

“You could show me the way,” I point out.

“I could, but I won’t. Now, shouldn’t you be hurrying? I just told you that you’re late.”

“Thank you,” I say. His look suggests that he doesn’t care about me or my thanks.

It’s enough to make me scurry away from him, following the directions he gave me.

My hunger and thirst don’t matter anymore.

I take the steps two at a time, and at the top, I’m greeted by a view that takes in several of the surrounding islands.

This is a maze of a place, with paths winding this way and that across the islands, more blue stone buildings situated seemingly at random.

I suspect that, without directions, I would quickly become lost. As it is, I follow the guard’s directions, finally arriving at a large, smooth-sided building that looks like a cresting wave sitting in the middle of a jungle clearing.

There are double doors at its base, currently open, and when I head inside, I see stairs leading up to different parts of the building.

A young woman comes running in. Literally running, as if she can’t move anywhere at a slower pace. She has flame-red hair and pale, freckled skin. She’s wearing a two-piece swimming costume, along with sandals. She looks at me with surprise.

“Hello, I don’t know you.”

“I’m Sera,” I say. “Seraphina.”

“Like the creatures?”

I nod. “I’m new here. I just arrived.”

“You’re a new initiate?” She hesitates a moment. “Then I’d better find you a room. But we have to hurry. There’s a challenge starting, and no student can miss challenges. I’m Aria, by the way.”

She talks like she moves, as if incapable of slowing down even for a moment. She leads the way up the stairs, moving quickly along a hallway.

“That’s my room. That’s Nissa’s, she’s good for healing if you get hurt. That’s Nymyra’s room. I think this one is empty. You can have this.”

She pushes open the door to a room that’s probably meant to be small and spartan to teach the students here to be tough, but it’s far larger than the space I had back home. There’s a bed, a writing table, and a trunk for my belongings.

“Now, we have to go.”

“Go where?” I say, trying to keep up with her.

“I told you, there’s a test. We can’t be late. The masters hate it if we’re late. Come on!”

She sets off again like a startled rabbit, and I have only a moment to make up my mind before I chase after her. I don’t want to cause trouble on my first day here, after all.

We rush down the paths of the island, and I’m glad that I have Aria as a guide, because otherwise I suspect that I would never find where I’m meant to be. She gives me the briefest of tours as we hurry along.

“The library tower is over that way. They post the challenges inside it, and people leave notices. A lot of us like to practice in the space outside it. The refectory is down that path. It’s all pretty simple stuff, but it’s fine.

The main amphitheater for lectures is that way.

There’s a target range for practicing powers over there… ”

It all blurs together in my head because we’re both moving far too quickly. Finally, we arrive at our destination.

There is a horde of young men and women around my age crowded around what appears to be a deep, water-filled shaft. Most are dressed as Aria is, in brief clothes designed to allow them to swim freely. I’m all too aware of how much I must stand out as their eyes turn to Aria and me.

An older woman stands at the front of the crowd.

She is wearing a long robe of shimmering blue.

She is white-haired and sharp-featured, fixing us with a piercing gaze as we approach.

Tattoos reach up onto her face, swirling like tendrils around her right eye, which is otherwise a milky white.

I get the feeling that she can see me through it anyway.

“Almost late, Aria,” she snaps. “Now, who is this?”

“This is Sera, Elemental Mistress Halan,” Aria says. “And she only just arrived.”

“A new initiate,” the woman says with a sniff. “When all the others have begun their training. Well, I have no time to play nursemaid to someone who cannot keep up. It’s sink or swim here on Nautica.”

She laughs at her own joke. A couple of the students laugh along dutifully.

“Very well, she will be one of the first to go,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “You too, Aria.”

“Mistress Halan,” Aria says, “Sera hasn’t had any time to prepare for this like us. She doesn’t even know what the challenge is!”

“Then she should have gotten here weeks ago,” Elemental Mistress Halan says, with no give in her tone.

“As for the challenge, that’s simple: dive into this well.

At the bottom, you will find a golden bracelet.

I wish you to retrieve it. We will continue until one of you succeeds. Oh, and watch out for the creatures.”

“What creatures?” I ask.

Elemental Mistress Halan ignores me. “Begin!”

Aria steps up to the side of the well, diving in with easy grace. I follow her. I would rather not dive in my only tunic, but there’s no way I’m stripping it off in front of so many strangers. I kick off my boots and dive in, feeling the impact of the water against my body.

I tell myself that I can do this, that it’s no different from diving for clams back home. I hold my breath, heading down… and further down.

I quickly realize that the well is deeper than I imagined it might be.

Deep enough that I can’t imagine how light will reach the bottom.

Deep enough that I know that this test is a joke, a trick.

No one can hold their breath that long, not even me.

Yet, I see Aria swimming down, making her way deeper with powerful strokes.

I follow. Around me, I see others diving, moving swiftly and confidently.

How are they diving so deep and so fast?

How are their lungs not burning with the effort, the way mine are?

I’m reaching the point where I know I will have to turn back, to return to the surface and face the humiliation of being the first one up there.

I’m sure that’s a part of why the elemental mistress sent me down here first, to show me that I don’t know anything.

How are the others diving for so long? It seems impossible, but I think about what kind of place this is, and I suddenly notice them taking gulps of water, breathing it as if it were air. Is that possible, for someone with the skills of an elementalist?

Could I do it?

I feel the water around me. I reach for it. My every instinct says that I should head for the surface, that I should save myself, before it’s too late. Instead, I open myself to the water, and I let it into me.

And I take a breath.

I breathe, and somehow my body knows how to do this, how to breathe in water and not drown.

I hang there weightless in the water, watching the others swimming downward, too in awe of what has just happened to follow.

Then I remember why I’m there. I remember Elemental Mistress Halan’s expression.

It’s not enough for me to survive this, not if I want to impress her. I have to succeed.

I swim for the bottom, and now, I reach for the water, willing it to help me, my body pushed along by small currents that weren’t there a moment ago.

I push downward, swimming faster than I ever have before.

Swimming faster than the others, catching them, overtaking them, while they look at me with surprise.

Clearly, they don’t think that the newcomer should be able to keep up with them.

I plunge further into the depths of the well. There is a strange glow here, coming from points on the side of the well. I use that light to show me the way down, until finally, I can see the bottom.

There is something gleaming in the reflected light.

It’s a bracelet. The bracelet. The one we were sent to find.

I grab it, putting it on my wrist so that it won’t fall.

I turn, looking up, ready to swim back to the distant glimmer of light that is the surface.

There are many points of light between me and it, though, and weirdly, as I watch, those points start to move.

It takes me a second to see them, the huge-mouthed creatures that have those lights dangling from their foreheads. They are humanoid, but they are anything but human. They swim out from their hiding places now with webbed hands and feet, and they swim straight at the students.

The students scatter, dodging them, darting this way and that, heading for the safety of dry land.

I surge for the surface, relying on speed to escape them.

I burst past one, the currents pushing me on before it can sink sharp-pointed teeth into my flesh.

I swim up, and up. Normally, when diving deep, I would pause, surfacing slowly, but there is no time for anything but blind flight now.

Then I see that one of them has Aria in its grasp.

She is struggling with it, but she cannot break away.

On instinct, I throw out a hand toward it.

The water does what I want it to do, slamming into the creature with the force of a sudden riptide, tearing it away from Aria.

I grab her arm and she flinches, obviously thinking that I must be another of the creatures.

Then she sees it’s me and we both start swimming for the surface, with all the assistance I can give us.

We breach the surface of the water together. I push Aria out, then haul myself onto dry land, lying there, getting my breath back. After breathing water for so long, air feels almost wrong, somehow.

Elemental Mistress Halan is looking on, staring at me as if she isn’t sure what to make of me.

“Well?” she asks. “Did anyone get it, or do we all have to go again?”

I realize what she’s talking about. I stand, taking off the bracelet. I toss it so that it lands in front of her, rolling to a stop next to her foot. She stares at me, and now, she isn’t just curious, she’s shocked.

“Well,” she says after a moment. “Perhaps it isn’t too late for you to start, after all.”