Friendship

“I think that’s enough training for the both of you for today,” Elan’drin said.

Ria squatted down and rubbed her temples. She had pushed her mind to the limit. Sweat plastered her whole body. Ariel wasn’t any better. She sat down on the gold inlayed marble floor.

Ria laid back and stared at the ceiling of Ariel’s training room. It was beautiful. The patterns on the floor were mirrored on the slightly troubled surface of the water dome above her. They reminded her of the ones on her control collar. Behind the dome of water was the barg of the palatial tree. She had no idea whether it was the stem of the tree or once again a lot of thik branches. The lanterns that were sprinkled on smaller branches behind the dome looked like stars that sparkled through the water. It was really beautiful.

“I’d appreciate it, if you’d reign your powers in, Ria.” Elan’drin had a bubble of water around himself.

“Ah, sorry.Reestablish Restriction Level Two,” she mumbled and blushed.

Elan’drin sighed in relief and dropped the bubble. “Good. One more, please.”

Ria looked away from him. “Reestablish Restriction Level Three.”

“Perfect. I trust you can do the rest with your mind alone.”

“Even now?” They had just finished training, and her thoughts were still sluggish. She felt a bit dizzy as well.

“Yes. I have a feeling that you need to be ready earlier rather than later,” Elan’drin said and Rin cooed encouragingly.

Ariel chimed in. “You can do it. I am doing the same as you all the time but on a far lower level.” Her sister smiled. It was dazzling.

“Fine, I’ll try.” She felt the strain, but it wasn’t as bad as the day before. In fact, it was almost gone.

“I have to leave you now, because I still have things to do.” The elf turned around. He felt a bit colder than just a moment ago.

“Elan’drin?” she asked carefully and stood back up. “I need to talk to you. In private, if possible.”

He stopped and looked back at her. “Follow me.”

Ariel stood up, too. “What’s the matter?”

Ria shook her head. “Just something personal,” she lied.

“Okay …” The other Elemental Avatar sounded as if she didn’t believe her.

“Don’t worry. I think Elan’drin has everything under control.” Ria smiled, then quickly caught up to the elf as he stepped through the water dome. It seemed to open up around her, as if he had a bubble of air around him that pushed the water aside. Ria closed up to him to benefit from that magic as well and fell behind once more as soon as they were on the other side.

The dome’s wall was thick enough that anyone caught in it could drown. It probably cost a lot of power to maintain.

Elan’drin walked briskly along the corridors. The walls, a mix of stone and roots, made his steps echo. He had changed after the Inquisitor’s visit. Hurried them to the chamber. Trained them relentlessly, and now he was almost running to the office, as if he was running out of time. Had he lost even more relatives, when Eirendria came down?

The carpets that covered the floors in the upper corridors swallowed the sounds of his foot steps. He said nothing as he unlocked the door and waited for Ria to come inside. She wasn’t sure whether the echoing steps or the absolute silence now was worse.

Elan’drin walked past her, but stopped before he reached his desk. He gestured and a bubble of water formed around them. He only turned to her once the bubble was fully formed. “You want to talk about that Mage Inquisitor. And you want to know why we haven’t told him, who you really are.” He stated that as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Yes.” Ria nodded.

“I don’t like him.”

“Uh, what?”

“I feel it in my blood. He didn’t have to threaten us, just to get information on the progress of our investigation.” Elan’drin sighed. “Something about him feels rotten.”

“He seemed … strange. But not problematic. I mean he’s been in Solstice before …” Ria trailed off.

“Then he either didn’t recognize you or he knows that we’re keeping a secret. That might explain why he threatened us.” Elan’drin put his hand on his chest, directly below his throat.

“Then there’s no problem, isn’t there?”

“Not so fast. He also didn’t like you criticising the control collars. I just feel that something about him isn’t right. Be careful. Keep your mana suppressed to this level whenever you’re close to him. For now, let’s assume that he doesn’t know and that he really didn’t recognize you. Because that could be our trump card, if something happened.”

“Do you think it’s significant, if he doesn’t remember, who I am?”

“I’d expect that a Mage Inquisitor should know who the Elemental Avatars are and what they look like. An in my over four hundred years of life, I learned to trust certain instincts.”

“And those tell you not to trust him,” she reiterated. Maybe Elan’drin was right. The Mage Inquisitor had really been angry as she insinuated that the collar might have had some kind of fault. But why? She hadn’t attacked him personally, had she?

“We can’t mistrust him openly though, because he is a real Mage Inquisitor. We have to work with him or we’ll alienate the High Mage Council.” Elan’drin shook his head.

The High Mage Council … En’rin had told her that it was comprised of several very powerful mages. The ones that had come up with the method of summoning Elemental Avatars like her, and who had licensed that out to several states. Astartin had been one of them.

Elan’drin sighed. “Let’s hope that he’ll depart once the Agua Intelligencia problem is sorted out.” He dropped the water sound bubble and moved to his desk. The water soaked into the carpet and then quickly drained away from it. Or maybe evaporated. She couldn’t tell.

“Speaking of that investigation,” Elan’drin said while he sat down. “I want you to officially join the investigative team as a lake of wisdom.”

“Me? A lake of wisdom?” Ria didn’t feel wise at all. She had seen no problem with the Mage Inquisitor at all.

“Yes. Bringing you into our organization will shield you somewhat. It will also allow you to act officially on our behalf.” He took a parchment out of a drawer and scribbled something onto it. “It also means that we’ll pay for your room at the academy and that you’ll get a salary.”

Ria felt a rush of something. Gratitude maybe? She was really surprised. “Thank you.” It would help. A lot. She still had no idea how to get money, and now she didn’t even have to start looking for a method.

“Good. I’ll have someone bring you new robes. Do you need anything else?”

Ria shook her head. “No.”

He didn’t say anything else and Ria got the hint. She left his office and then the palace altogether. She had no idea, how she should feel about all this. She hated intrigue, and somehow she was now in the middle of one. She shook her head. There was nothing she could do to change this.

Stepping down the stairs, she got a good look of the plaza of wisdom. It laid empty before her. Every trace of the festival had already been removed, and life in the city had returned to normal.

The clouds above were dark and gray. Her mood was the complete opposite of what it had been the night prior.

A drop of water fell onto her from above. Rin cooed. Ria had no idea, how often it rained in Volasis, but she had heard that it was rare. And the weather looked as if it would start to rain in earnest any minute now. She hurried back to the academy.

Her little slime sounded slightly disappointed and she wondered whether it wanted a bit of water.

When the academy building was in sight and the rain started in earnest, she slowed down a bit. It allowed Rin to catch a few drops of the water. Only when it cooed out its satisfaction, did she continue into the building.

“Ria! Where have you been?” Brannzza welcomed her in the lobby. “You’re totally wet!”

“Don’t worry. I have a tendency of drying quickly,” she replied.

“Well, you do have a slime … but it’z the firzt time I’m seeing a wet one.” He paused. “Or rather one covered in water dropz.”

“There’s always a first,” she replied. It was one of En’rin’s favorite sayings.

“Yez. There iz.” Brannzza shook his head. “I mizzed you in clazz today. What happened?”

“Remember that Elan’drin told me yesterday to come to his office? He has trained me for most of the day.”

Her words made Branzza’s eyes sparkle. “The ocean of wisdom really took that much time to train you?”

“Yes?” She was confused. He had told her that he would, and he did.

“I’m really pleazed. And I think it’z working. You feel … colder.”

“Thank you.” Ria gave him a deadpan expression. That sounded far less like a compliment than he probably intended it to be.

“Anywayz. I wanted to show you something. Let’z go to the academy garden.” Brannzza immediately turned around and started walking.

“In the rain?”

“Sure, why not? It’z just water coming from above for a change!” Brannzza smiled at her and led to the garden inside of the academy.

The lizz walked into the rain without hesitating. He stopped between the central tower and where they had come out. He looked at her for a moment, as if he wanted to make sure, that she had followed him, then he took a deep breath an breathed fire into the air. The plume was about as large as his head—much smaller than that of Erzza—but he was already breathing fire. Ria was speechless.

Erzza had already been breathing fire. And she was growing wings rigt now. So Brannzza could really achieve his dream of becoming a dragon?

The lizz turned back to her and grinned. “I never thought that I’d get this far this early.” He rushed to her and Ria found herself in a tight hug a moment later. “And it’s all thanks to you!”

“I … I … No problem?” Ria felt overwhelmed. She hadn’t done anything for him. Except being there. And she had been a danger all the time. Well, most of the time.

“You’re definitely a blezzing for uz lizz.” He smiled and stepped back. “I think you’re trying a bit too hard to protect everyone though. No one can be alone all the time.”

“But I might have to be alone,” she answered and turned away from him. “You don’t even know how dangerous I can be.”

Brannzza shook his head. “I know what happened to Solztice.” He didn’t grab her or turned her around. He just gave her space. “And going by what I’ve heard, you can be more dangerouz than lava. Far more. I know that. But …” He walked around her until he was in front of her once more. “I think I know you good enough now to say, that you didn’t want that to happen. You even put yourself in danger to protect uz, back at Mount Draco.” Brannzza chuckled. “And once that dwarf hit you, he was thrown away. Erzza and thoze otherz had trouble getting cloze to you.”

Ria blinked. What he had just told her, was surprising her. Was she suppressing her powers somewhat all the time, without even realizing it?

“So, yez. I think I know, how dangerouz you can be. But I alzo truzt you to keep all of uz az safe az pozzible.” His tongue tasted the air and rain.

Ria had to smile. “Thank you.” Her heart felt really warm. Elan’drin was right. He was her friend. She had no idea why, how, or when it had happened, but it obviously had happened.

“No need to thank me.” He walked back to her. “Let’z get back inside. The rain iz starting to feel really cold. And maybe, we can play a card game.”

“Yes, that would be nice.” She vowed that she wouldn’t allow the tragedy that happened in Solstice to repeat itself.