A Tale of Fire and Water

Traitors and Mechanics

         When Leon boarded the ship, he just followed Lourne, since the layout made absolutely no sense to him. West walked beside him for a while, chiming in with a quip now and then, and pretty much trying to make Leon feel less awkward, but he stopped at a place Leon thought resembled a cockpit. “Does West drive this thing?” Leon asked Lourne.

         “Yeah, he's a pretty bad pilot though, don't expect a smooth ride or anything, he's a much better mechanic than a driver. We mainly keep him on because he was Andy's friend since before she started journeying to Arden, so he's a friend of her family, not for his expertise with electricity.”

         Leon hit his head on a low hanging doorway, but after rubbing his bump for about a minute he asked. “Hey, does this thing fly?”

         Lourne rolled her eyes. “What did you think it does, shoot fireworks? Yes it flies, or it should, provided West fixed the engine.”

         “So, it broke?”

         “Oh yeah, West usually fixes it pretty well though. This thing's pretty old, we scavenged it, but it's a hell of a lot better than walking.”

         “It won't crash though, right?”

         “Oh... no, I hope not. If it does, I swear I'll kill that one lining lazy bastard of a mechanic.” She responded. “Don't worry, he wouldn't let it happen.”

         The passageway now became much wider, resembling the area in which Leon awoke. “I was here when you first met me?”

         Lourne threw open a door. Inside were the splinters of the chair Leon had broken in his short-lived escape attempt. Lourne just stepped over them, turning back to Leon, and cocked her eyebrow. He just grinned and shrugged. Lourne began to talk.
         
         “Yeah, this is it, here's where you'll stay until we get to Arden. Don't think you'll get a free ride or anything though. It'll take about a month to get there, so you'll start helping around, somehow. We'll figure that out after we try to get your memory back.”
         
         Leon looked at her. “What do you mean?”

         Lourne once again rolled her eyes, cocking another eyebrow at him. “You said you were near  Match, so Andy thinks she burned you out. It would explain why you keep going on about New Zealand, and the Old World, but who knows? Maybe you're just nuts. I really don't know. Andy's the expert on that stuff.”

         “What do you mean, burned out? And who's this Match you keep talking about?”

         “We might as well start now, seeing as he's already asking questions.”

         Andy entered the room, now adorned in startling white robes, emblazoned with what looked to be a tree leaf on the front. Leon squinted his eyes. “Ow. Are those things giving off light?”

         Lourne's face turned to stone.  She lightly pushed Leon down to sit on the bed. “Just shut up and do what she says.”

         Leon shrugged, and nodded to Andy. Andy grinned. “Just relax, I'll see if there's something out of place in your mind.”

         Andy sat down on the bed next to Leon. He closed his eyes, she hadn't asked him to, but it seemed right.  His mind wandered to other things, like how he had wound up on the plane to New Zealand, his injured shoulder, his sister. Sis.

         He thought about what she had told him when she gave him her necklace. What did she say? She didn't need it, she needed him to do something, this'll be a reward. When he began to approach his original black out, he heard Andy groan with frustration. “There is something burned in there, but the weird thing is, the rest of his memory doesn't make sense. It's distorted, but rational. He was in the New Zealand area before someone burned a gap into his memory, and a pretty large one too. There's going to be no hints there.”

         Leon opened his eyes, Andy was looking off into space. “What do you mean? I was in New Zealand recently. Maybe a day or two ago.”

         Andy, and he could feel Lourne look at him. “Leon, look in the mirror.”

         There was a wall mirror on the wall opposite the door. Leon had noticed it on his way in, but thought nothing of it. When he examined himself in the mirror, however, he didn't recognize himself.

         His hair was shaggy, closing on his shoulder's. It's color was lighter, his old shade of dark brown had dissipated into very light blond, almost white, and he had some bad five o'clock shadow, that was dark brown. More important, his face was weathered, there were bags under his eyes. The face he saw in the mirror was into his mid 20's, and had a light scar over his right eye, but below his still brown eyebrow. Really, he looked like hell, and like the last 5 years of his life had passed by. “What the fuck?”

         Lourne looked confused. “Why is he so obsessed with his own reflection? It's like he-”

         Andy had her back turned, taking off her robe, underneath she wore the same shirt she was wearing when he had woken up, that curious button down. “Someone burned away 6 years of his life from his memory, Lourne. I'm not surprised that he doesn't.”

         “Six years!”

         “Yes. That's unheard of. I don't know the repercussions of such an act, but it is possible that the  memories of the rest of his life were corrupted by that searing flame, and he really doesn't know who he is anymore.” Andy's face was solemn. Lourne's mouth hung open, and she was now looking upon Leon with something akin to respect. She looked like he had impressed her. Andy continued. “Leave him be for the moment, I think it's safe to say that I can't return his memories, but he will regain them, on his own.”

         And so they left, with Leon still absorbed the mirror, watching a pair of eyes tremble as they took in the unknown and strangely worn face of  a complete stranger staring back in surprise out of the mirror.


         Dustin patrolled the corridor outside of the girl's prison. How he had had the nerve to even think about trying to break off from Zaria, he didn't know. He had never questioned anything Z asked of him. Dustin had been  with him since the beginning, and sure, Zaria got a little pissed after Maya left, but frankly, Dustin was fine where he was, and he sure as hell wasn't about to sacrifice his precarious but safe position amidst Z's followers on a wild goose chase. Maya had stepped onto thin ice, by making him bring back the last Davidson like that, and frankly she was lucky Z hadn't had him burned to a crisp by now. Dustin spat, listening to his echo reverberating through the cold stone walls of the barren prison. And of course Z sent someone of his own after her, so when he tried to nab the one, he got Z's man instead. Now they have him guarding the little girl that had gotten in his way. The one Match had been “apprenticing”. What a load of crap, Dustin had seen through Match's ruse immediately, of course, but he hadn't said anything. Not that it mattered, since he's gone missing anyway. There was no way Z would have done anything to Match. While Zaria was an egotistical bastard, he had still once been his friend, and Dustin knew somehow he would make Z realize how screwed up their vision had become. And then there was this whole debacle with Azria... He heard movement from inside. Good, she must have woken up. Now he just had to watch the door, no need to pace back and forth. Dustin stopped his march. There was no way she could escape the enchanted room in her current condition, but he did what Z asked him to, or else he'd wind up like Match. He spat again. This really was demeaning, he was on fucking guard duty. Him. One of the Companion's. He leaned against the wall, tilting his head back against it.

This girl had to be important.

         “Ok, come on Emily. You can think of something...”

         Emily sat in the wooden chair, the only thing visible for what seemed to be miles. She head someone spit. It echoed through the chamber for about 10 seconds. That's really gross. Ugh. But it was a noise, and a noise meant something else was nearby. “Hello?” her voice echoed. “Can anyone hear me?”

         She heard some scuffles of boots on stone, echoing around her, but otherwise it was silent. “If you can hear me, please say something! Anything! Where am I?”

         Dustin lit a cigarette, staring at the match for a long while before putting it to the cigarette end with a weak grin. The chick had been moaning for about thirty minutes now. Sometimes she called out for a response, but most of the time she just made noise. Dustin inhaled, and leaned his head back, trying to hold the smoke in for as long as he could. He could understand her moans, he'd spent time in Z's Chamber of Reclusion. The desire for sound, for something concrete in that vast expanse of nothingness had enveloped many others before her, including himself, when Z needed to make a point to him. Normally, they used it on criminals, for this chick to get thrown in there must be a big deal.

         He held his cigarette in his hand, between his fingers, and stared at it's now lit embers, hypnotized by the glowing beauty of it. The girl was still moaning about something or other, he didn't really care, but sitting there, staring at his cigarette, got him to thinking about why Z terrified him so much. He could remember a time when they were just buddies, out to “fix the world”. He put the cigarette back in his mouth and grinned. Yeah, they really were just a bunch of stupid kids back then. It made him remember a saying of the Old Years. Everyone's a good leader until they have money and power. It's funny how little things had changed since then. Then the cold water hit him.

         Was he any different? Sure, Zaria was the “official” head of the Court, but if rumors were true, and he had extinguished all of the balancing elementals, who could stand up to them? Dustin was the last of the Water's, and all he was brave enough to do was criticize the egotistical bastard in his mind while guarding a little teenage girl.

         “Fuck it.”

          Dustin tapped the cigarette bud, resuming his study of its glowing end. He knew Zaria, which is why he couldn't understand why Zaria hadn't killed him yet. When Z had told him he was to put down any of the Flames who tried to overthrow their “perfect order”, Dustin had known he had been telling some grade A bullshit. Zaria could be bothered to dirty his hands taking out some rebel faction, no one strong enough to beat him in a duel had lived, or even been born, since he established his throne. Dustin knew he probably wouldn't live much longer, not with his being the only Water left in the world. He was too much of a liability. Why not “stick it to the man”, like he had done all those years ago, before he was taken out? He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth again, and stared at it for a long time. The girl was starting to scream now. This was it, what should he do? She hadn't done anything wrong, as far as he could see, and she had to be a threat to the power in order for Z to imprison her in there. Match had disappeared, Dustin was probably next. One of the last Companions, he had spent a long part of his life safe, secure, but had been forced to watch the world go to shit. Was that so bad? Could he keep on doing it?

         He tapped his cigarette.

         Emily lifted her head from her hands when she heard the bang. She thought it had come from her left, but she hadn't dared leave the chair, for fear she might be lost in the emptiness surrounding her. “Is someone there?” she croaked. Her voice had long since grown horse, time seemed to eke by in here, like molasses down a hill. She had long since given up expecting a reply, which is why she so surprised when she heard, “Shut up! Are you a complete idiot? Just get over here now!”

         The walls began to melt away, drooping to the ground before they began to smoke, fizzing sounds encompassed the room while Emily spun in the center, trying to look everywhere at once.

         Slowly, a figure stepped through the smoke, and whispered harshly. “Quit fucking around! Follow me, we don't have much time!”

         “Who are you?”, she choked.

         “Did you hear me? We don't have time for Twenty Questions, sweetheart. Let's go!”

         She stumbled forward through the smoke, and felt a hand grab her forearm and pull her forcibly out of the room.

         She fell to the floor, coughing, but when she looked up, she saw a short, cloaked, thin man, who looked to be 18 years old slamming a door shut, smoke billowing from it. He turned, and she saw he had covered the bottom half of his face with a piece of cloth. His robe was bright blue, and it took a moment for her to recognize him. She stood up. “You're the man who hit me!”

         He threw off the hood of his cloak, and pulled down the cloth that had covered his face. “Yup, that's me. Well, must be doing something right to make up for that little misunderstanding, eh?” He grinned the grin one gets while waiting for the reaction of a higher up to a juvenile crime. “Come on, let's get going before Z blows a vein and tries to kill us.”

         Emily's eyes widened. “Kill us?! But why?”

         “Because he can, girl! Now, I'll leave by myself if you want, but I'd rather not try to escape Gand on my own, it's much harder that way, you know.” With that, he grinned again, grabbed her forearm, spun around, and began sprinting down the corridor. Emily focused on moving her feet as quickly as she could, but still she could feel him pulling her along. He stopped before turning a corner, and motioned for her to keep silent.

         Naturally, she was gasping for air by this point in time, and tried her best to quiet her breathing. She peaked around the corner, and saw a man, his back to them, staring down an empty corridor. “What's... he... doing...?” She gasped.

         The man startled, and started to turn about, before suddenly began clutching at his throat, gurgling, before falling to the ground. Emily spun to ask her- whatever he was-, exactly what had just happened, but she found him clutching at his head. “Are you all right?!”, she exclaimed, worriedly. If anything happened to him, she was screwed. His raised arms dropped his cloaks sleeves to his elbows, and his hands were shaking with effort of clutching his head. He relaxed as soon as she spoke to him, his arms returning to his sides. “Fine... sorry, old... habit.” He grabbed her arm, “Keep up, Emily.”

         They ran down a few more gray, homogeneous corridors. Then, he stopped at a dead end. He was surprised, his long hair falling in front of his wide eyes. “Shit, he must have been expecting it...” He brushed his hair out of his eyes hurriedly, looking left and right like one gazing upon the captors that had surrounded him. Then, he lit up, the grin resurfacing from beneath his worried face. “Come on!”

         He clenched his eyes shut, and Emily saw the wall to their right split down the middle, and open outward like a door. Her friend pulled her through the opening, the wall closing tightly behind them. He stopped, and leaned against the wall of the dim passage, breathing heavily. Emily fell flat on the floor, about to pass out with exertion. After a minute or two, she propped herself up on her elbows, to try to get an idea of who exactly her rescuer was. She saw that she was not wearing jeans, as she thought. No, looking down her body, she saw a brownish red robe , similar to the bright blue one her friend was wearing except that his had an elaborate circle engraved on his back. She tried to stand, and fell against the wall, catching herself before she fell to the floor. Once she regained her balance, she saw her companion strike a match, and light a cigarette. He took one breath, held it in for about 30 seconds, and blow it out slowly. He then put out the cigarette, threw it into a corner, and faced her, grinning. Emily's eyes had, by now, adjusted to the dark passage, but it looked like he was glowing, especially his green eyes. “Well, now that we're in a passage Zaria was to lazy to get off his ass and find, while he had the chance, might as well explain some things, right?”

         Emily shook her head. “Who the hell are you?”

         Dustin raised his hood again, should he tell her? It might complicate things, especially once they got out into the refuge cities. Might complain. He could hear her now. You're a bad man. Yeah, whatever. Dustin had long since come to terms with the fact that he was, and occasionally still is, a bit of an ass at times. Or at least, the public opinion of him was as such.

         “Justin.” Wow, that was easy, close enough to his real name too. “Justin Theguard. I'm supposed to be watching your cell, but you put up such a riot in there I decided to break you out, out of the kindness of my heart.” Okay, that might be pushing it.

         “...Really?”

         “No.” Dustin laughed. “You must be important to Zaria, to be in Reclusion, so you'll bother him as long as you're free. And that's all I want in return.” Shit, he thought. She saw me in the Court, she knows my real name.

         Emily frowned. Damn. She had caught his lie.

         Dustin grinned. “Okay, you got me. I'm Dustin, but I'm not very popular around here, if you get my drift. Please don't call me that in public, I figured it would be better just to have you call me by a different name to begin with, so you don't have to get used to it later.” Yeah, that was pretty good. Damn, he thought, I'm good at this.

         “Later?”

         “Well, yeah, I need to get you as close to Arden as I can. Zaria's enemies are there, they'll have to know why he wants you so badly. Plus, if Big Z hates you, you're bound to be popular there.”

         “But you aren't?”

         Dustin rolled his eyes. “Wow, am I that easy to read?”

         Emily grinned.

         “Okay, I'm not very popular on either side right now. Leave it at that, okay? I rescued you, so you owe me at least that much, don't pry.” Dustin regretted throwing away his cigarettes. He'd have run out of them anyway, he just hadn't realized how addicted he was. “Z wiped your mind, huh?”

         Emily's face was hilarious, Dustin almost laughed.

         “What?”

         Dustin leaned up against the wall, and began tearing his robe into strips. “Standard procedure. Wipe important stuff, distort the rest, usually they turn out completely loony. Not you though. Strange, that they were so precise with you. You seem rational, I bet all they screwed with was your memory.”

         “What the hell are you talking about?”

         Dustin produced a stick about the length of his elbow to  his fingers from a bag on his back, and wrapped one of the strips around the end. “Fuck. They went deep.” Dustin sighed. Fuck, maybe this wasn't the brightest idea. Then again, since when had bravery made sense? “Do you remember the elements?”

         Emily's forehead creased. “Yeah. Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Electri-”

         Dustin cut her off. “Nope, the first three are the only important ones.” He lowered his head, so his eyes were looking up at her slumped body against the opposite wall of the narrow passage.  Damn, he wished he had a cigarette. “You ready for a crash course in history?”

         “After the world became rebalanced, about a thousand years ago, people returned to the surface, and cherished the basic elements of the world anew, having been so long without seeing them. But something had changed in the world, mana was usable now. Certain people developed affinities with specific kinds, the coastal region with water, the people in the mainland, with earth, and those near the equator, and near volcanoes, with fire. Their population's began to spread outward, and soon, the three met.”

         “The anarchy of the time required leadership, and Five Companion's arose. They were friends, and there were five, hence, the Five Companions. One of Earth, known as Maya Derethan. One of Fire, only called Match. One of Wind, named Theresa Deskin. One of Water, named... Vanguard.” He paused, Emily didn't react. He shrugged, and continued. “But there was one of the four who, strangely, began with only Water, but later began to exhibit both Fire and Water affinities. His name was Zaria. He was the leader we needed, and for a while, things were good. They re-established countries, each one governing an area, organized in such a way that none could over take the other. Except Zaria. When he began to develop a second affinity, many began to worry. For a while, things seemed alright, people began to think, he's a good person, he would never be corrupted.”

         Dustin shrugged. “The Descendants of Zaria took up a different name, and taught the world how to use and manipulate Water. They eventually became known as the Davidson house. There were similar schools for the others. The Grantwood and Wellton Houses served much the same purposes for Earth and Fire Elementals, respectively. Vanguard never started a school, seeing no need as Zaria had it handled, I suppose. I only draw emphasis upon the Davidson house because, approximately 400 years ago, they were all killed over the course of one night.” Dustin paused.

         “It was Zaria. By this point, he had begun to develop a secondary ability, and the last thing he wanted was to have the other two elements team up against him, and since Fire is weak on Water, and strong on Earth, he decided to take out the only elemental school that could have challenged him, and he did it quick. What little Water elementals that exist now are weak, as the strength of the elements are particular to the Houses in which they are taught. None of the Davidson line live today, so far as I know. Some say they're in hiding, I say that's bull, there's no way they would cower in fear of Zaria, they'd take him on. I know. That's what they're all like, overly emotional. Almost as bad as the Winds...” Dustin looked up at Emily, making eye contact for a brief moment, before continuing to wrap the strips around his stick.

         “Okay, crash course done, I've been overwhelming you I'm sure, here's what you need to know. Water is dead. No one knows where the hell Theresa or her hidden school is half the time, Zaria heads the Fire school, since Match disappeared, and Grantwood is based out of Arden, where we're going. Okay?”

         Emily shook her head. “What? Why is Zaria still alive? Wasn't he born a thousand years ago?”

         Dustin sighed, and lit his last match. “I'll explain it on the way... Come on, we've remained here too long, we have to get out of the city first.” He put the match to the last unwrapped strip of cloth, and quickly wrapped it around his makeshift torch before the fire reached his hand, and set off at a quick pace down the corridor.


         “So elementals are immortal?” Leon asked.

         “More or less...” Lourne shrugged, examining her knife on the table. She began to sharpen it. “Something to do with the mana of their element. I suppose some have aged if they are too long away from contact with water, earth, etc.  Any more questions?”

         Leon leaned back in his chair. “Where are the other Three Companions?”

         Andy leaned forward from the bed to answer this one. “Dustin and Match sided with Zaria when the time came to pick sides, although it took a while before Dustin actually began to do things for Zaria, after they destroyed the Davidson house.”

         Leon's forehead furrowed. “Dan said something about my necklace and Davidson before-”

         Lourne froze, and looked up. “You mean he gave it back to you!”

         Andy rolled her eyes. “Lourne, sit down. If he intended to use it he would have by now. Stop over-reacting.”

         Lourne looked surprised by Andy's outburst, and sat down silently. Andy nodded to Leon.

         “Dan said that the reason he thought I wasn't attacking was because I didn't have my necklace. Why did he think that?”

         Andy looked fascinated by him for a moment. “The Davidson symbol is useless now. The main reason we've kept it was so that Dustin couldn't get his hands on it.”

         Leon stared.

         Lourne resumed the conversation. “It helps Water's use their power, moron.”

         Leon's forehead creased. “What? This thing?”, he blurted, holding up the necklace. “Why did my sister give this to me, if I can't even use it?”

         Lourne shrugged. “Who knows? She is Match's apprentice, after all. She's a strong elemental, maybe she thought you would be too? Bit stupid really, she should have known affinities run in families. If you even are one, then you'd probably be fire, and only waters can use that. If the rumors are true, and Zaria has taken out the last of the water elementals, than Dustin is the only person in the entire world who can use that.”

         Leon was staring at the necklace on the table, the black polish contrasted the light gray of the metal table, and the inner symbol still seemed to be glowing. “Why does it do that?”

         “Do what?”

         “Glow like that.”

         “It's glowing?”

         “I think so, I know it did in that circle of stones, before I woke up here. So bright I could see, oh, I don't know, maybe 15 feet around me.”

         Lourne sheathed her knife in her boot, and leaned forward to look at the Davidson symbol closer. “It's mana. We're probably flying over water right now. That has to be it.” She shrugged, and kicked her foot back onto the table. Her hood was over her face again.

         “Why would Dustin follow Zaria if he killed his elemental types? And why would Zaria trust him?”

         Andy took control of the conversation again. “Because he doesn't want to kill a friend, he'd traveled with him, he wasn't just a number...”

         Leon perked up. “How? You just said they were immortal.”

         “To time, and common weapons, yes. To anything Re'alin based, they can die.”

         Leon leaned back. Zaria had Emily, his sister, right now, from what the others had told him. She had been sent to get him, but Leon certainly didn't seem to be exhibiting elemental potential so far. He just didn't get it. “Emily must have gotten me from New Zealand-”

         “Leon, we talked about that, there's no way you're from America, or New Zealand. Both of those places disappeare-”

         “Yeah, whatever. I know where I'm from, okay? There must be some place like it now, right? Where it used to be? I was there, just leave it be.”

         Andy shut her mouth, and leaned back, now angry.

         “Okay, when she got me, from wherever I'm from,” Leon drew emphasis on the end of the sentence. Lourne choked on a laugh. “Why would she? I mean, what could they possibly gain giving me something only they could use? And why get me in the first place?”

         Lourne mumbled under her breath. “...-less”

         Leon glared at her. “What did you just say?”

         “I said, they probably didn't know for sure that you were useless. Can we end the QA, please? He doesn't know squat, we'll explain things as we go. If he says anything weird in public we'll just tell people he's an idiot.”

         She stood up, and walked out of the room.

         Andy threw up her hands, and stood up. “I give up. She's probably right, no offense, but we really can't tell you everything about the world in fifteen minutes. We'll be in Arden soon, and there are people there a lot better at this than us. They'll decide what to do with you.”
         
         Leon stood up quickly and grabbed Andy's arm when she tried to leave. “Wait, what do you mean, what to do with me?”

         “Well, they'll see if you're an elemental or not. If you are, they'll teach you as much as they can, but eventually you'll have to sign on as a Guardian.”

         She pulled her arm free of his grip, and Leon sat down on the bed. Andy stopped at the door. What could she possibly say? Frankly, she felt awkward just being with him, he was the first person she had met that seemed to have no elemental connection at all, but she knew he was proud. He probably felt like a parasite right now, but every time she tried to explain things to him, Lourne burst in with her fucking knives or something and made things even worse. “You know,”, she said from the door. “Things could be a lot worse, Leon.”

         Leon looked up at her from the bed. “How exactly is that?”

         Andy grinned. “You could still be in the middle of the ocean.”

         Leon didn't react for a while, but quirked an eyebrow, and gave a little flourish with his hand. “Touche.”

         Andy grinned, and walked over to him, holding out a book. “Here, this has a more informative version of what we just told you. I read it when I started to exhibit Earth abilities, and it really helped me out. It also discusses the basics of mana, the elements, read up on it. Who knows? Maybe you'll turn out to be a Fire elemental. It's been a while since we had one on our side that wasn't a complete ass, like Lourne. It'd be a nice change.” With that, she left him to his thoughts.

         Leon sat on the bed for a long while, before lifting his legs, and pivoting to lay completely upon the hard mattress. He really wasn't coping as well as he appeared to. He tried to be polite to them all, they had saved him, but this was all getting ridiculous. His sister, a witch? He scoffed. Yeah, right. Sure, she was brainy enough, but socially, she was a very timid person. The idea that she could be so intimidating that people were scared of her was just beyond the spectrum of Leon's rational mind. Plus, if she really was that strong at whatever this mana shit was, why risk bringing in another player? He thought he had figured out some things, but every time he got an answer, it clashed with a previously established one.
         He lifted up his arms to put his hands behind his head, and felt his shoulder twinge again. At least that's stayed the same, he scoffed. He lifted his head to fit his interlaced hands behind it, and saw the mirror again. Six years, he thought. No way. He knew that something weird was up, the experiences of the last few days told him that much. He paused. He needed to see it again. He knew he had seen something before waking up on this damn ship, but he had forgotten it like a dream. He wondered if he was going bi-polar, his emotions and personality flickered often now, so much so that even he could tell the difference. “No one believes me.”, he said aloud. “About myself.”
         Leon shot up, flinging himself of the bed with his legs. Tossing the book Andy had given him on the table as he passed it, Leon tore off his shirt, and trotted to the mirror. Placing his hands on either side of it, he pressed his face to the glass, using his arms to prop himself up. His weathered face looked more like him now, still, he found it strange to gaze upon a face with five o'clock shadow, no matter how much it may have his appearance.
         His shoulder still hurt, when he used it. Not as sharp anymore, a dull throb of pain rather than a  sharp stab. His body had an awful lot of scars and nicks now, the cross of scar tissue on his shoulder still predominant amidst the pale surface of his skin, but it was now accompanied by a rather nasty circular concave scar in his side, a thick line over his right bicep, and the bit of his eyebrow that no longer had hair, thanks to the short mark running down the front of his face, straight for his right eye, before curving off toward his nose. His body was in as good a shape as it had been since he quit swimming, but he felt lighter. He could at least take comfort in those few select things that remained the same, even if they were as small as his eyes still being the same shade of dark hazel he had seen when he looked upon his old reflection, the small reminders of a previous life scattered amongst a cacophony of unfamiliar battle wounds and rough patches of beard hair. He stepped back, the mirror now displaying his entire body. He looked shorter, felt that way too. Couldn't exactly say why. He wasn't being towered over by Andy or Lourne, and Sid was smaller than Leon was. Psychological, probably. Just making it up to feel sorry for yourself, Leon thought. Get over it.
         He started to head back to the bed, but he remembered he had dropped that book on the table. His newfound attitude told him that the first step toward successfully reacting to this unfamiliar situation was to find out how this world worked, but his body pleaded exhaustion. He saw it's leather cover, on the table corner, and decided he might as well start now.
         The chair screeched when he pulled it out, and Leon cringed. Waiting for a complaint from one of the others, he sat down. None came. He picked the book up. “The Basics of Mana: It's Use and Origins.” Pause. “Catchy title.” He skimmed the first chapter, most of which was an overview of the history of this place, he didn't really care about it. All he wanted to know was how to be useful to the people that saved him. He owed them at least that much, but he didn't know how to do anything they needed him to  do, as it all had something to do with this mana crap. He saw something about specific types of mana, and started to actively read.

         The Four Schools:
          Each person has, within them, the ability to use any of the elemental schools, the limit being not with how the person came to be, or within their heritage, but the Potential's personality. The difference between Fire and Water lay not within, say, what kind of mana they use, but within how they handle it.

          An sturdy grip is the Earth's touch, quite possibly the most difficult to learn. Most of the Earth elementals today are Healers, as balance is needed within the healthy body, something most easily achieved through detachment and concentration. Naturally, Earth is not normally an element of battle, for it is difficult to remain detached from chaos and bloodshed occurring within eyesight, though some of the greatest masters, most notably Maya Derethan, of the Five Companions, have developed such skill with detachment that they can utilize their potential offensively, with very impressive results.

          Aggression is the way to handle Fire. Aggression, not emotion. It is important to note the difference, as fear does not give these elementals power, which is probably why they are typically only powerful while within  a group. Courage with numbers. Anger has also been used on occasion, though results were, and are, erratic, and unreliable. As a whole, it is very-Leon skipped this, he wasn't a Wellton, and knew it from the little segment he had read.

         Wind. Wind is an interesting subject. In this category, it really seems that it comes down to natural talent, all Wind elementals are either incredibly strong, or weak. It is driven by emotion, as the wielder must be as unpredictable as the wind, in order to tame it's unpredictable power. Some of these manipulants have become legendary healers, like Galahiel, Recond Dunmer, and Andrew Hert. Their skill has been, sadly, mislabeled among the vast majority of villages in the world.

         Finally we come to Water. The recent decline in their population means that those who exist, are inherently very weak. The usage is unclear, and having no access to one of these rare magicians whilst writing this book, I cannot explain exactly how they use it, other than to speculate upon the rare hints left behind in damaged writings. Dustin Vanguard, one of the 2 Water elementals of the Five Companions, was once quoted as saying that to try to force it's power was like trying to force a stormy ocean to do what you wish. It is impossible. What you can do is predict what kinds of waves will come, and position yourself in a place you can use them. Whether he was speaking of premonition, a skill of Water few have ever developed, most notably Zaria, or just knowing what your limits are, no one really knows.

         The crackdown on Water skills has been strictly enforced by Zaria's adepts, and the adepts numbers are rapidly growing. Whether the world will rebalance itself, as it did long ago, or simply compensate for the loss of one of the aspects of the Triumvate of Mana in another manner, or even remain unbalanced, it is impossible to guess, but frankly, the world survived one fall. It probably won't survive another.


         The ship listed badly to the right, and the book slid out of Leon's view and fell off the table with a clang. He almost fell out of his seat, but got his leg in position just in time. He stood up, keeping a hold on the wall for balance, and peeked out into the hall. Lourne was making her way down the corridor, past Leon's doorway, out for blood. She almost took off his head, but he got it back into his cabin before she reached him. He stuck it out again, following her march down the hall. “West! What the hell!- Are you drunk?!” He heard Andy giggling; she had begun to leave her cabin, no longer carrying around that heavy bag of herbs, and was trying to keep up with Lourne. Before she passed Leon's doorway, the ship listed again, and Leon fell back into his room, tripping over the doorstop, and sprawling in the middle of the floor. He heard Andy start laughing harder, and his ears burned in rage and embarrassment. He saw her speed by his room, her head turned to make sure he was getting up, which he was, and the laughing grew distant.
         Leon stumbled into the hall, and staggered his way to the cockpit. “West! Get ahold of yourself! Why the hell can't you fly str-”
         “I don't know what's wrong! Maybe if I'd had enough time on the grou-”
         “Oh no you don't! Don't even think of trying to blame this shit on me! Fix it!”
         Andy was giggling ferociously in the corner of the room, trying not to be noticed. Leon approached her, and she visibly tried to calm down, without success.
         “Why are you laughing?” Leon asked.
         Andy pointed to the arguing couple in front of the windshield.
         “What are you doing? Land now!”
         “I can't! You want me to drop down onto all these trees!”
         “Find a place the- Look out!”
         The ship turned, and narrowly missed a particularly tall tree. “Nice job, moron! West! Land right now!”
         “But, the locale-”
         Lourne swelled up. “Do it!” Leon cringed at the size of the shout, though Andy fell on him laughing at West's expression. He silently turned back, and started fiddling with the controls.