Children of the Elementi (3 page)

He turned to look at his friend; Karl had brought out one of his many books again. Craning to look at the cover, he could just make out
Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre
in the firelight. His friend really needed to get a life. What was the point of going to these parties if he just read books? Jake sometimes despaired of his friend. All that scheming to be popular. Okay, they weren’t popular - but they were invited. Surely, that was a step in the right direction.

Jake watched Karl put his book down to look at his watch. Jake jerked. Karl was staring straight at him! Jake twisted behind and realized that was the direction where he lived. As Jake looked back at his friend again he caught him shaking his head. Karl took out his mobile from his pocket. He swiped the screen to unlock it and pressed the green key. Searching for Jake’s number, he began to call.

Simultaneously, Jake could hear a ring in the distance. A sharp tug pulled him and he found himself hurtling back towards his body at an impossible speed. While before he had travelled around buildings now he went through them. Within seconds, he was back on his bed. Jake groaned, if he’d known that was going to happen he would have lain down properly! He leaned over to his bedside table exhausted. There was one missed call on his phone.

Jake rolled over to stare up at the ceiling. His mind was whirling; he needed to find out more about his real parents. Energized he sat up. Where could he find out more? Social Services! Jake sat down in front of his computer and tapped the spacebar on his keyboard. Moments later the familiar login screen lit his monitor. Thank God for Emma, he thought. She could be a pain but her need for a quiet life meant she’d do anything to get it. Not that I would ever take advantage, he smiled at the thought. Ben would never have let him have a computer without her insistence.

Using a search engine, Jake quickly found the public Social Services website. A quick search within the code found a link to the private site.
Don’t you just love it when governments insist that everything is put online?
Jake grinned.
If it’s on the web, I can get it.
Searching for the password-cracking program in his downloads folder, Jake’s pendant started to glow imperceptibly. He opened one folder and closed it. Another, and another. Suddenly, hundreds of folders were opening and closing at an impossible rate as Jake looked for the file he needed. Another moment and Jake was
inside
the computer. It was so easy. It felt like he was in an incredibly large room with hundreds, even thousands of doors. All he had to do was just think of the door and it opened, think again and it closed. Easily finding the passcrack file on his computer in seconds he just applied the program to the website and he could sense millions of number combinations crashing against the security wall.

In just a few more minutes, he was in. Pausing to check there was no more security, he moved through to the adoption records. Another few moments and he found his name. Entering the folder, he visualized it as just another large room filled with paper suspended around him.

Grabbing the nearest, he found it was a newspaper clipping from the year he was found fourteen years ago. They had digitized the whole page. On the top was an advert and below it was a small picture of his adoptive parents holding a baby and a short description.

He was found at St Mary’s, he read. He was a month to two months premature but miraculously healthy when a nurse found him abandoned on the steps. After a few months in an incubator, his new parents took him home.

He was found wrapped in a blanket with a crystal and a letter. Jake frowned, letter? What letter? Dropping the article, he grabbed the next few files; these were just progress reports for Social Services. He frowned and moved around the ‘room’ picking more up and discarding them again. It was all rubbish, where was the letter? In the ‘corner’ was another folder, only a few kilobytes large. Inside was a file labeled to be deleted.

Picking up the paper, eagerly he began to read. It was from his real mother. Just hours ago he would have thought it was all nonsense, but now... It said his name was Malo Omnax. Impatiently he skipped the next paragraph, something about being sorry.

He began to read more slowly with disbelief. There had been a coup in a place called Eleria? The Magi had killed the heads of four of the five great Elementi families, including the High-King his father, the letter explained. She had managed to escape and with the help of Ariel, the Air Queen, had sent him and the other children to Earth. She didn’t know where the others went. The power was fading and all their systems were shut down to preserve energy. They had to use all the spare energy they had left to accelerate his growth so they could safely send him.

He had all four powers within him she said, fire, earth, air and water. With the crystal he had to find the other children and bring them back. Only together would they be able to defeat the Magi.

Wow, no wonder they marked this file for deletion. They must have thought she was a right nutcase. Thinking back though, it did make some sort of sense. He thought back to the beginning when he found he could make something catch fire just by thinking about it.

The first time had been an accident. He had lost his temper. Ben had promised that he would let him stay at Karl’s but had said no at the last minute.

He’d been furious! How dare he. He wasn’t even his father! Jake had stormed to his room, slamming the door behind him. The fury had built up, making him so mad, he felt like he would explode - and to his surprise the book in front of him burst into tall angry red flames. Luckily there had been half a glass of lemonade on his desk to put it out with. It was so cool.

After months of practice he found if he concentrated hard, so hard that every muscle in his body was tense, he could make something light up in front of him. It got easier the more he practiced. In fact it was how he got himself and Karl invited to the beach parties. His party trick was to light the bonfire... so that was fire. He could read minds - that had to be air. That only left earth and water.

Glancing around he decided he wouldn’t be able to find out any more here, he was tired and it was getting late, he set the page in his hand to be printed on his computer.

About to leave, he halted. He had to do something about security. Jake found the door that led to the access logs on the server. Scanning them, he wiped all traces of his visit before jumping to a nearby proxy server. Making sure that it didn’t keep any records of his visit, he jumped to a couple more servers before heading home.

Jake withdrew from the computer and sat back to stare at the blank screen. This was far too much to take in. He was a... No, not a magician; that was obviously what the Magi were. He picked up the printed letter. He was one of the Elementi - one of the rulers of Eleria with Talents. Not only that but he was a king - well he must be if he was the son of the High-King and he was dead. The spirit of the nation she had written. He looked down at the crystal. It had stopped glowing. It just looked like any other crystal he’d seen in jewelry shop windows down the high street.

Jake felt a wave of tiredness hit him. Exhausted, he looked at his clock. It was two in the morning. Turning the computer off, he lay back down on his bed. Clicking the light off, he turned to face the wall, closed his eyes and fell instantly asleep.

CHAPTER TWO: MIRIM 

Mirim opened her eyes, and sighed with contentment. Of all the islands on Eleria, this had to be the best. She smiled as she watched the boats bobbing on the horizon. Her visits to Pumar for fresh fruit and fish were always a welcome relief; she just wished there were more of them. It broke up yet another humdrum week. The vibrant port was so different compared to the white empty
soulless
Citadel.

Taking her cup, she found a seat along the edge of the covered stall area. The market wasn’t fully open yet and she could see people at the red colored stalls nearest her were still setting up their fruit displays. The only stands serving customers were the grey fish booths nearer the cliff edge.

She had just enough time to sit down and unwind with a cup of dushu. Sipping with pleasure, she let the warm amber liquid soothe her parched throat. Closing her eyes again, she leant back against the woven chair and relaxed.

She let the islanders’ thoughts sweep over her like a gentle breeze as she listened to their chatter. She loved the friendly banter among the stall owners and their customers. It reminded her of Byia, her friend from the next island along. They had been friends for years and had been inseparable once together. Each time her mother came to the market, they would sneak off to play for a couple of hours on the beach. A frown crossed Mirim's features as she remembered the last time she saw her friend. One day her mother had ‘heard’ her making plans to show her friend the entrance to the Citadel.

Mirim cringed at the memory. As soon as she’d decided to tell Byia, her mother had immediately sensed what she had been about to do. Within minutes, she had appeared like an avenging demon. Mirim relived the fear she felt when she spotted her mother approaching across the beach. Her mother had stalked up to them, the old queen’s mouth set in a grim line, her mind clamped shut like a steel vice. She’d grabbed the seven-year-old Mirim’s hand and dragged her across the sand. Mirim had never seen her mother so furious.

It was the first and only time the old Air Queen had used the air power on her daughter. Mirim had cried bitterly, tears running down her face. She wasn’t really going to tell Byia she remembered arguing, but her mother knew different, she'd read the truth from her thoughts. Ignoring her cries, her mother mercilessly invaded her mind, slicing through her immature barriers with ease. She'd tried to resist but all she could do was let the tears fall down her cheeks as the compulsion grew in strength. She would never be able to talk about the Citadel’s location.

Their trip ended there, and the old queen forbade her to see Byia again. They never went back to Yarn. Mirim could smile at the memory now but at the time she had screamed and sulked for days. Of course now she understood why her mother had done it. Her family had guarded the secret of the Citadel for almost a hundred years, ever since the Change. A child's temper tantrum could never be allowed to jeopardize that.

With her the old Air Queen gone, now it was just her and the Matrix at the Citadel. Resolved to forget about it for just a few more minutes, Mirim relaxed and let her mind wander into the thoughts and dreams around her.

The islanders always seem so happy here,
she thought wistfully. At that,, a shadow impinged on her awareness. She sat up slowly. Something was wrong, no,
different
- nearby. Trying not to draw attention to herself, she idly scanned the crowd. There were soldiers, here? Watching through half-shut eyes, she watched as two Arellian guards strode by.

Their facial tattoos weren’t the only clue to their mercenary status even though they wore the standard uniform of the guard. Unusually, ugly blasters hung on their belts. They were remnants from the old Elementi Guard, she supposed. No one had the technology to create self-charging weapons any more. As mercenaries, they would easily be able to pay black market prices.

Their height was imposing, and they stood half a head taller than the island people. Tourists and islanders alike were trying not to stare at the conspicuous newcomers. Instinctively she probed into their public minds but found nothing useful. Their surface thoughts were unstructured, full of how they were too hot in their new uniforms, they were uncomfortable and - she smiled at this - how they could be earning far better pay hunting rebels, anywhere but here.

Mirim sighed. She would have to look deeper into their psyche. There must be a reason they were here. She was glad she had already eaten that morning; gods only knew what would be in there, she forced herself to look even further. Going past surface thoughts was always tiresome; the mind instinctively had defenses that had to be bypassed.

She struggled for a moment and sighed. It had to be done. This was the furthest you could get from any battleground she knew of, and they were clearly not here for the tourism. Sorting through the strands of thoughts around her, she looked deep into their minds.

Her body jerked, but at the curious looks from nearby stall owners, she leaned back again and pretended to bat away a fly. She had found what she needed.

From the memory of the nearest guard, she replayed the last briefing from his mind. She could see the old Elementi castle in Naven loom above the capital. Its imposing gray walls matched the rain-heavy clouds hovering in the distance. A passenger in the guard's memory, Mirim could only watch through his eyes as he walked through the castle gates, through elaborately decorated corridors until he reached the Great Hall. Standing on a podium, she recognized the current Emperor-pretender’s face from coins, Aras himself speaking to hundreds of mercenaries standing side by side facing the front as his voice boomed artificially through the room. He didn’t look as though he was well. Sweat dripped from his forehead and his face looked haggard. Concentrating on his voice, she listened closely to his words. They had orders to find out what they could from the natives in the Empire. Aras was looking for the Citadel!

Mirim withdrew from the guard's mind gently, extricating her thoughts from his with the deft skill that only an air power had. Investigating further, Mirim stood up nonchalantly and sauntered along behind them. Careful to avoid notice, she began picking up the occasional piece of fruit. As she appeared to test its ripeness, she listened intently to the men.

The first stall owner was a Dikkar. He had never even heard of the Citadel. Even at the height of the Elementi Empire, the Citadel was a well-kept secret. His people were refugees from halfway around the globe. Although they had been one of the first people to fall under Aras’ grandfather, they had still only reached the islands some sixty years ago.