Honesty

Five years have past since the day when Arsenio and his friends were saved by a mysterious group, Hex’s rebellion was supressed and Kimia gained the water powers. The mysterious group known as the Shadows, who saved Arsenio started to appear more often, as if the Stagar would be in danger. But the truth was that this tension prevailed in all of the Great Elemental Countries. The reason behind it was that four years ago, the king of the Northern Federation had succumbed to a mysterious disease, and his brother Chaménos took the throne. He gradually abandoned the peaceful policy, which other countries adhered to and became menace to them. Even though there was a threat of war, the other countries seemed to do nothing special to prepare.

Kimia concentrated her power on the small pond and formed a giant ball of water. She had no problems of holding the water together, so not even a drop of it was leaking. Then she lifted it upon her head and threw it on her student Hann. She ignited flame in her hands with a flint ring, and sent long flames against the water ball. About half of the water did really turn into steam, but the other half killed the flame and casted Hann away.  “This is terrible!” shouted Hann and cursed. “Why can’t we just stick to fighting with weapons?” she asked as she stood up. A new peacekeeper absolvents were training in the academy with their commanders. "Weapons are important in fight, that’s undeniable. But imagine not having any element and standing with a sword against a skilled element user.” explained Kimia. “I guess you’re right.” mumbled Hann while putting her dark wet hair into a ponytail. “And learning how to block one element with another is essential to control it.” added Kimia. “Arakan, you’re last.” she said, but the boy named Arakan just stood behind Hann and looked at Kimia incredulously. “Ar, please.” sighed Hann. “What if she tries to kill me?” he asked. “Why would she? She is our teacher, and after all, she had many opportunities to attack you and she didn’t.” said Hann in an attempt to comfort him. “I know, but.. I have that anxious feeling again..” responded Arakan, but the other peacekeepers were already nervous, so he stepped against Kimia. She just smiled on him and formed the water ball. Right before she could throw it, Arakan snapped with fingers and small sparks of static energy appeared on his hands, and when the ball was approximately one meter from him, he unleashed powerful lighting towards it. Both of the elements clashed and stopped for a hundredth of second. Then the lighting evaporated most of the ball, but before it could disappear completely, Kimia condensed the steam back into the water, and killed Arakan’s lightning. He looked on her with terror in his eyes. “I’m really sorry! You did what I required, but I’m a little competitive, so I overdid our exercise.” she said. Suddenly, she heard some familiar laugh. It was her colleague and a good friend, Axel. 

“Very well, Kimia!” he said with a bit of irony. “You’re slowly getting into it!”. “Thank you Axel. But seeing you here means that today’s lesson is already over, right?” she asked. He nodded, so she sent her students home and the two of them went to the central. “What do you think about those newbies? Are they any promising?” asked Axel. “Some of them are really interesting.” confirmed Kimia. “Especially the boy with asian features, Arakan. I heard that he was abused as a little boy by his biological parents, so he has problems with trust. Actually, the only person he trusts is his adoptive sister Hann. Although he has such problems, I can tell that he has really strong character. And he is talented as well.”. “I hope he can socialize more.” said Axel as they were walking towards the main entrance. “Oh, I almost forgot! Diana and Eitan are sending you their greetings. They will return from their honeymoon probably tomorrow.” said with a sad smile. “Why the long face Axel? Are you.. ”. Kimia didn’t end the sentence when she saw Arsenio.

Arsenio was nervous, because nobody was in front of the Peacekeepers Central. Is he late? Did Kimia already went home? Those were the annoying questions he couldn’t get out from his head. But then he saw her running towards him and calmed down. They smiled on each other and hugged.  Then Kimia turned to Axel, who she wanted introduce Arsenio to. He was staring at him with extremely surprised and frightened look. “Why are you looking at me like that?” asked Arsenio nervously and stared back. “Arsenio, this is Axel. Axel, this is Arsenio.” she made the formalities fast. “Yeah.. Nice to meet you, Arsenio. Sorry for the stare, you just looks a little familiar to me.” apologized Axel and shook his hand. Arsenio was still suspicious about him, but didn’t show any emotions and smiled. Then he and Kimia parted their ways with Axel, who returned back to the Central. As for the place of their date, they chose the one coffee shop, where Kimia planned to go with her mother five years ago, in that tragic day. They bought a coffee and went to drink it on a bridge, from which Kimia has fallen. 

“Is it really okay with you to be on this bridge? Last time we were out you told me about that terrible event which happened here, and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.” said Arsenio. “You’re really nice, but I’m absolutely okay with this.” smiled Kimia. “Past is past, and it didn’t end tragically for me or my mother after all. Although I really regret killing those two guys. It was just self defense, and I don’t remember much about it, but still.. The knowledge that I have taken two lifes is really depressing.” she said and drank coffee. Then she looked at Arsenio and smiled again. “But what about you? I may have talked too much on our first time out. You can tell me something more about yourself, for example what element do you control or something like that.”. Arsenio swallowed dry. Did she really asked about that? He can’t tell her the truth, because he will look like complete looser against her. But she confided him with her tragedy. She’s a good girl, he also can’t lie to her. “Why are you so quiet? I hope you are not ashamed of me!” asked Kimia with laugh. “Well, I guess I’m going to tell you the truth, since you were honest to me.”. He sighed. “I can’t control any of the elements. I have done the activation, but nothing happened. That’s why I’m studying economy on the Universal Institute. I’m sorry if I have disappointed you.” he said. Stagar’s Universal Institute was second degree school for people who have no elemental powers. After nine years of elementary school, young people are expected to undergo the element activation, which will show them the way they should continue to study or what they should specialize at. People with no elemental powers have to study something without need of elements, such as economy, law, scientology or politics.          

“You don’t need to apologize!” assured him Kimia. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Society needs the people without elements as well as people with them.” Arsenio was really thankful to her for trying to cheer him up, but her words haven’t changed his mind. Powerless guy looks like a coward by the side of a talented woman. Although this was bothering him, he was still enjoying the presence of Kimia. After they drank the coffee, they went to the former Junkie park, which was left with that name even though it wasn’t dangerous anymore. It was because after the incident with Kimia, an urban legend about a water demon arose between the individuals visiting the Park. However, when Safety Council stated that anonymous girl killed two guys in self defense, normal people began to visit the park more often. So Arsenio and Kimia were walking in the park and talking about many things, what brought them more together.

After their date, Arsenio met with Berek. They didn’t say much to each other and proceeded to their plan of proving that their friend Werge is a Shadow. Two years ago, he refused to try the elemental activation, what was really unusual, as most of the people wanted to take it so much. He had no satisfying explanation for it and every time someone asked him about it, he just stated that it’s his own thing. Arsenio was a little bit angry, since he thought that people should be thankful for such an opportunity. Besides that, Werge was acting completely normal, so it didn’t ruin their friendship. But when the Shadows started to appear more often, he began to go out with them less. And what was the most suspicious thing, was that every time Arsenio and Berek saw the Shadows, he wasn’t with them. The boys needed just one last proof, so they came up with the idea of Berek and Werge being attacked by Arsenio in a disguise.      So few minutes before Werge should meet with them, Berek gave Arsenio a disguise and a fake knife, which he was going to use in the attack. He put it on himself and hid behind the trash cans. After a few more minutes, Werge arrived.                                                  

“Hello Berek! Sorry I'm late, but I've been arguing over the school with my mom.” he said. “It's okay my friend.” reassured him Berek. “But don't you know where Arsenio is?” he asked. Werge just shook his head, when attacker suddenly ran from behind the trash can. Without a single word, he pulled out a knife and aimed it on Berek’s back, but before he could stab him, Werge did something unexpected. He jumped away from them, then bounced off the wall towards Berek, grabbed him by shoulders mid-air and threw him out of the attacker’s way. Then he landed smoothly on the wall and grabbed it’s stone ledge. This was enough to proof that Werge underwent a Shadow’s training, however Arsenio was in the heat of the game. He wanted to do some cool attack, but Werge aggressively jumped towards him and kicked him in the chest. Arsenio fell on the ground and quickly put his mask down to prevent any more injuries. “What the hell is this supposed to mean?” shouted Werge who stopped his punch directly before Arsenio’s face. “It’s.. I.. Not.. “ he couldn’t put even two words into one sentece. “It was meant to be just a small prank.” explained Berek. “Small prank? I could have hurt him a lot!” he continued shouting. “No.. It was no prank. We’ve just proven that you are a Shadow!” said Arsenio as he was standing up. “What have you just said?” asked Werge with shocked look. “I’m not a Shadow! I mean, how could I be?” he tried to persuade them, but was even more suspicious. “We aren’t stupid Werge. The way how you saved Berek was unnatural to you. You used some of the moves the Shadows are using, and also, you didn’t want to explain us why you didn’t undergo the activation. But Shadows are known for not controlling any element, right?” confronted him Arsenio. It was still no direct proof, but Werge was already cornered.      “So what now?” he asked nervously. “You have to understand that you can’t join the Shadows just like that. Or do you wanna expose me to the public?”. “No, nothing like that.” assured him Arsenio. “We just want..”. he looked at Berek and smiled “..a little excursion.”.

Chaménos walked out of his apartment. Although he could afford it, he didn’t really enjoy the luxury life. After he became the king, he moved to the small apartment for the servants, where he spent most of his free time. He didn’t like being addressed as His Majesty and doing all of the official stuff. But since he ruled the whole Norther Federation, he had to do some of it to strengthen his authority. Otherwise he spent his free time by developing his plan, training or experimenting with elements. And now the time has come. In the empty hallway, he met his most loyal general Gorn Cawato, who was in charge of the Northern Peacekeepers and announced him the news. “Greetings, Cawato. I have a good news. We planned to attack Stagar two weeks from now, but I’ve just received report that one of those devils has shown up. We will attack the Stagar tomorrow. Get the army ready and tell our allies there to prepare the portals“. General Cawato was surprised, but the army of Peacekeepers was trained enough and his loyalty towards Chaménos allowed him no protest.      He just saluted, and responded: “As you wish. I will announce it to others and make sure that everything will be ready tomorrow morning. We will achieve your goal. “