The Order of the Elements 01 - Breaking Point (30 page)

I’m guessing that you can’t explain that further? he asked.

Not really.

Ethan had finally finished breakfast and gotten dressed. He, Evan, and Jared walked out into the hallway. All of their companions were frolicking happily. They were all still very young. Shade and Beau were just now molting and growing in their flying feathers. Sapphire’s horn was poking out about five inches from her head. Thor was quite a bit larger since he was older than Shade and Sapphire, and Sadi and Bree also showed signs of an older age. They all still loved to play, though.

“All right, we’re ready to go,” Evan said as the boys exited.

“About time. We’re all going gray out here!” Cynthia exclaimed.

“Why are you all so impatient to get to the tournament?” Jared asked as he stretched.

Phoebe and Cynthia answered at the same time. “Kali.”

Everyone laughed. “Is there any chance you two will just let that go?” Evan asked, although it was clear he was expecting a no.

Phoebe’s eyes narrowed. Ethan didn’t blame her. Her arms were still slightly pink, so she was now sure that it was a permanent scar, and she was ready for revenge.

Evan held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, just a question!”

Phoebe opened her mouth to say something, but then her expression changed. A smile appeared on her face, and she turned in anticipation. Ethan knew that look. It was impossible not to connect that look with the person associated with it.

I never get tired of that, Lucy sighed.

What?

The way they feel about each other. It catches my breath every time.

Ethan didn’t know how she knew what she did, but he didn’t ask. That was one of those things she couldn’t tell him. He snaked his arms around her waist, and she leaned back into his chest. She was always very content when Phoebe and Dorian were around and together. Their feelings for each other were very intense. Dorian rounded the corner. As always, he only had eyes for Phoebe. Not until after their morning greeting would he turn his attention to the rest of them. Today, Phoebe’s expression turned from contented to confused, and a second later Ethan knew why. Sebastian was trailing behind Dorian, looking extremely nervous with his eyes darting around anxiously, and he was sweating profusely.

Ethan couldn’t understand that. The Annexus had recently been renovated by the karabs to include hundreds of fireplaces as the temperature dropped outside, but the conditions inside were always perfect. The renovations were all for show. Ethan had never once been too hot or too cold here. It wasn’t hot at all—warm, yes—but not hot. But Sebastian’s sweating wasn’t the only anomaly. Dorian’s assistant had rarely been seen at all lately. The last time Ethan had seen him was in the infirmary the day of the disagreement with Kali.

Lucy mentally snorted.
Disagreement?

You know what I meant. What’s wrong with him?

No idea. He’s pretty twitchy, though.

He was very twitchy and stopped halfway down the hallway as Dorian continued forward. Dorian seemed unshaken by Sebastian’s odd behavior. Phoebe shrugged and turned her attention back to Dorian. Ethan relaxed; if she didn’t sense anything worth worrying about, then there probably wasn’t anything there. Maybe Sebastian was just a very strange individual. He couldn’t be the judge of that; he had only seen him a few times, and the guy hadn’t been exactly normal then, either.

Dorian wrapped one of his arms around Phoebe’s waist and brushed her cheek with his hand as he gazed down at her. Everyone was so used to this by now that it hardly triggered the gag reflex anymore. The look of adoration on each of their faces was similar to one in a fairy tale. Not that Ethan had room to judge. Everyone had assured him and Lucy that they were just as sickeningly infatuated as the other two were. He guessed it was different to see it from an outside perspective than to experience it firsthand.

“You slept well?” Dorian whispered.

“As well as can be expected, considering,” Phoebe replied. “You?”

Considering the fact that they weren’t together last night
, Lucy finished Phoebe’s thought. Ethan’s arms tightened around her as he stifled a laugh.

“My night was long, as always,” Dorian replied.

Long because she wasn’t there, Lucy interpreted.

It was scripted at this point—same greeting every morning, same interpretations from Lucy.

I don’t know why Dorian won’t just open their connection. It makes the nights much easier to manage. I can always feel your presence, even when we’re separated. Lucy sighed.

Didn’t you say he was still trying to protect her?

Yes, but it’s really pointless. She’s going to find out sooner or later. He might as well get it over with.

Dorian cradled Phoebe’s face as delicately as if she were a breakable object and kissed her forehead before linking his hand with hers and turning to the rest of them.

“Finally!” Evan cried. He had very little patience. “Let’s go!”

“Wait,” Jared interjected. “Do you know who we’re facing yet?”

The lists of brackets had not been posted. Under normal circumstances, people would have known long in advance who their first opponent would be, but after the battle by the lake, Cassius had decided surprise was the best method rather than giving them all time to think up the worst possible damage to inflict on one another beforehand. This rule only applied to First Order, but in fairness, the brackets for Second and Third Order had also been withheld.

Dorian shook his head. “The brackets were handed out this morning, but only to the instructors. I don’t know any details, and you won’t either until it’s time for the First Order competition.”

“Since when do you not know what’s going on?” Cynthia asked, eyeing Dorian like he was holding out on them.

“Since my friendship with all of you conflicts with my ability to be unbiased as an instructor,” Dorian explained.

Evan snorted. “Your friendship with us? Or your relationship with Phoebe?”

Phoebe stuck her tongue out at Evan. “Both,” Dorian replied. “Now are you ready to go, or do you plan to forfeit?”

Evan looked horrified by this idea and immediately quit smirking. Cynthia and Jared laughed at his abrupt change of behavior. Dorian turned and started down the hallway, and Sebastian, who had been watching this exchange silently, jumped and hurried off ahead of Dorian and Phoebe while Evan, Jared, and Cynthia fell into step behind them. Once they’d left, only Lucy and Ethan remained in the hallway.

“Are you going to go down or not?” Lucy asked as she turned to face him.

He grimaced. “I haven’t decided yet. I can’t be what they are expecting.”

Lucy locked her arms around his waist, and Ethan noted that she almost couldn’t reach all the way around anymore because she was so tiny. “Hey,” she said in protest to this thought.

It was rare for them to have a vocal conversation anymore. Lucy’s voice and thoughts sounded the same either way, yet he still found her voice to be amazing. He smiled down at her. “Tiny but terrifying,” he amended.

She nodded, satisfied. Then she frowned, “They are not expecting anything other than you.”

Ethan shook his head. “No, they’re expecting someone like Dorian.”

Lucy sighed in frustration, a rare occurrence. “If you don’t go, what will they think of you then?”

He knew Lucy couldn’t care less about what “they” thought. But she knew his own fear of being seen as a coward would outweigh his fear of failing altogether. She smirked when she knew she had won.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Let’s go.”

He took her hand, and they made their way down to the training arena. When they arrived at the door, they hesitated; it appeared to be absolute chaos inside. Everyone in the entire village was seated in the tiers surrounding the arena along with every animal and being that lived there. They all talked loudly and excitedly as they watched those on the training room floor stretch and prepare for their matches.

Lucy squeezed Ethan’s hand reassuringly, and they continued on to the spot occupied by the rest of their friends. First Order was the last to compete, but they stretched anyway, because it was going to be a long day of sitting. As groups cleared off the training room floor, they moved to an open spot in the tiers and watched as all of Third Order grouped around their instructors. Dorian had to leave to sit with Cassius and begin the tournament. The noise level in the arena was too loud to hear the announcement of the brackets, but Ethan didn’t have much experience with Third Order, so it didn’t really matter anyway.

“There are so many of them!” Phoebe exclaimed as she examined the group.

“Haven’t you noticed them before?” Jared asked.

Phoebe shrugged. “I’m always focused on training when we’re with them. I guess I didn’t.”

“There’s only seventy or so; that’s not a huge amount,” Evan said, taking in the group on the floor.

“Well, there are only sixteen in First Order. I didn’t realize there were so many others either,” Ethan interjected.

“Why are there so many elves down there?” Cynthia asked.

Pairs started spacing themselves out as others stood at the edge of the floor to wait their turn.

“They must be refereeing. Eight matches at once are hard to keep track of for just two or three of them,” Jared said as two elves took a stance on either side of each pair.

In their beginning formation, the pair fighting and the two elves refereeing would form a cross if one were to draw lines to connect them. Cassius stood from his chair, which was positioned at the far end of the floor, opposite the entrance doors, and raised his arms for silence. Dorian stood at his right side to survey the slowly quieting crowd.

Cassius smiled before he began speaking. “Thank you all for attending the annual Earth Tournament. We have a fine group of trainees this year and what will surely be some interesting matches. Third Order will begin the tournament. My best wishes to all of you! Piper, whenever you are ready, please begin.”

Cassius sat back down as did Dorian, and Piper stepped forward. “We will have a quick review of the rules before we begin. First, if either referee commands your pair to end the fight, you back off and still your powers. Second, if your opponent should lose consciousness or surrender, the fight is over immediately. Third, there are three ways to win a match: pin, submission, or cause your opponent to be unable to continue with the match.”

All the trainees around the room murmured their understanding and acceptance of those rules. Piper inserted a whistle into her mouth. As she did this, all eight pairs of competitors turned their attention to one another. Some slipped into defensive crouches and others tensed their arms, ready to unleash their powers. Within seconds, Piper blew the whistle and the matches began.

The crowd was no longer silent. They groaned and cheered and gasped as a single entity. Ethan’s attention slid in and out. Watching eight matches at once was a difficult feat, even for his perfect eyes. Time passed fairly quickly as the entire Third Order battled. They weren’t too bad. Most of them performed poorly because they were nervous more than anything. Ethan only knew it was nerves because Phoebe kept murmuring “Don’t be nervous” under her breath as she watched. Interestingly enough, both Kara and Beth were eliminated in the second round and looked thoroughly disgruntled about it. Cynthia found the look on Kali’s face to be highly entertaining when that had happened. The matches tended to last between two to five minutes. With all the flashes of light and Elements colliding, it was hard to see anything most of the time.

Finally, one pair remained to compete for the Earth Tournament Third Order Champion Trophy. Those who had been eliminated were now sitting in the stands to watch the rest of the tournament. One boy and one girl were left, and the strain of their many battles was beginning to show. They were brought out some Revitalizing Elixir to give them back some stamina for their final fight. The girl was named Alexa, and the boy was named Calvin.

The last fight was much easier to watch since there was only one battle to focus on. The crowd silenced as the two squared each other up and prepared to fight. They were quite good, considering they were only in Third Order, and after neither one was able to prevail over the other after a few minutes of using only their Elements, they engaged in furious hand-to-hand combat. After only a few seconds, it was clear that Alexa was superior in her combat skills, and within a minute or so, she had Calvin pinned. The crowd cheered as Dorn, the Third Order instructor, announced the winner.

There was a brief ceremony in which Cassius presented Alexa with her trophy. She gracefully accepted it and then sprinted off to show her mother, who was sitting in the stands. Next, Drake brought out the Second Order to compete. Ethan noticed that those who had studied only their Element and had not studied with the elves, or did not have a strong talent, were eliminated early while the others went on to later rounds. Drake, the Second Order instructor, separated the Second Order into pairs.

22. Wrong

Ethan stretched and groaned. He had been in the same position for hours. It was a little past noon by the time the Second Order got set up for their first bracket matches.

I’m sorry, was I making you uncomfortable? Lucy asked as he stretched.

She had been leaning against his side with his arm draped around her shoulders. She pushed away when he groaned, but as his arm came back down, he placed it back on her shoulders and pulled her close again. He kissed her forehead, breathing in her wonderful scent, and twisted a strand of her hair around his fingers. She smelled like a breeze flowing through a meadow of beautiful flowers as it caught the scent of each flower and mixed them together in pleasurable waves.

No, I was just stiff. I think this is the longest I’ve sat in one spot in a very long time, he replied. She chuckled.

Even though there were not as many in Second Order as in Third, multiple battles at once were still necessary to get through every one. Once again the arena filled with various flashes of light and Elements merging together. The effects were a lot more intense since Second Order was more powerful than Third, and more than once, spectators scrambled out of an area of the stands as a stray water ball, threatening vine, or small tornado headed at them. After the second elimination round, Cassius called a halt to the tournament to break for lunch, which was brought in by the gnomes and set up on tables spread across the floor. Everyone hopped down from the tiers to grab a plate of food.