Larissa and Bayla had found a list of the football team, but it was from the previous semester. The director of the university must have somehow filed it wrong. So, the whole thing had been for nothing, especially considering the risk Bayla had taken.
And here I was, back at square one, trying to come to terms with the fact that I would never know who Erik was and that it was okay. It should be okay. The distance between us shouldn’t endanger our friendship. Quite the opposite...
It was already Friday, and somehow it felt like my whole sense of time had changed. It felt like it was only yesterday that Grace, Vivi and I had been playing with dolls in the gardens behind Moenia, and today at lunchtime we had driven from the university to our temple service...
We were becoming adults and everything about it felt like an ever-worsening nightmare.
Grace and I both had our temple lessons three times a week. Every damn Friday was a nightmare for me and I had no one to talk to about it. No one would understand. Not even Vivienna, or the other Air Quatura, because the serum seemed to work on them.
While Amara always went into the forest to the Terra Temple with Grace, Amber and the younger Earth Quatura Discipulus, I spent my afternoons with Vivienna in the underground main temple of Moenia. And our teacher was the woman for whom every Council member and Circle sister had the greatest respect...or fear...or both.
Vivienna and I were the only two Discipulus Quatura with the gift of air, as this was somewhat rarer than the gifts of plants and minerals – all the other Air Quatura in town were Novices or already Servus. And Novices were not allowed to use their magic until they passed the elemental tests in New York or Blairville. A test that showed how far the magic in a Quatura had already developed.
Kelly was an Air Quatura too, but she hadn’t reached Discipulus status yet because her elemental magic was too weak.
And while Grace and Amber learned about the characteristics of certain plants and to control their powers for spells and potion mixtures, Vivienna and I either learned various defensive maneuvers from her mother Amara or, more recently, the highest form of this art with Gloria: Tempesta, the control of storm and wind.
Defensive maneuvers didn’t work for me at all. I hated Tempesta because of the person who taught us.
Gloria was an elegant Westcode woman who, like her daughter Amanda, and Amanda’s daughter Vivienna, had ice-blue eyes. She wore her straight white hair chin-length and her fifty-eight years didn’t show at all, which was due to the power this woman held within her.
She was the head of the Councils, the controlling opposition to the Domini, Amara Blair, and wherever she entered the room, all eyes were on her. Because she symbolized power, control and superiority. Without exception.
We were with her in the temple of Moenia, the mother of the element earth. According to legend, she had been the daughter of the goddess Celestia, who had distributed her gifts of fire, water, air, and earth equally to her four children in order to bring balance to the world.
After eighteen years, I still didn’t know whether to believe it or not. What did this legend even matter if we were all cursed anyway? What value did the gods have if they had imposed these burdens on us in the first place?
“You two are never on time!”
My whole body tensed, ready for a few torturous hours with this woman. Only this time it was different.
I hadn’t had any control over my gifts since my strange power outburst next to the aquarium, which must have been due to the crystal on my neck being shattered from the inside.
This fact had had me searching Moenia’s library and teaching floor for any information on the control stones a good five minutes ago, but time had simply been too short to find anything helpful.
“Amanda drove me,” Vivienna snorted, earning a reproving look from Gloria.
“All the bad manners in this family come from your grandfather!”
Then Gloria looked at me as if she was referring to me, even though I had nothing to do with this family.
Whenever she looked at me like that, I had to be careful not to suffer a tremor. Because every time she was down here, it felt much colder than when I was here alone, even though this woman definitely had no influence on the temperature.
Telekinesis worked independently of the temperature and also did not affect it.
“Next time, I’ll let you know differently that you’re late. You have duties to fulfill. Both of you!”
Again, she looked from Vivienna to me and I looked down at the floor, embarrassed.
She seemed to be in a good mood today, because no objects had flown toward us, at least not yet, and Vivienna hadn’t been disciplined yet. But that was probably coming soon.
“I hope that at least you’ve cemented the knowledge you’ve learned in the last few hours, even if one of you does like to cut herself off from her duties.”
She walked past us both, toward the altar, where she took the gray robes and tossed them to us. She herself was already wearing her floor-length white robe with silver embroidery, which made her look almost elven. Only she was the complete opposite of an elf.
“I had appointments,” Vivienna hissed and rolled her eyes in annoyance.
I remembered the last lesson with Gloria. We had been alone. It had felt like torture.
My hands suddenly began to shake...
Come on Julie... Come on. Just control yourself.
“I’m sorry if I can’t be like Miss Perfect over here.”
Vivienna squinted at me, her gaze disparaging.
I didn’t envy her living under the same roof as Gloria Westcode, but I did envy that she wasn’t currently any better with her magic than I was.
But I was far from perfect, especially now, with my broken crystal.
To be clear, Vivienna was miles ahead of me in combat, and even though I had used my powers for the first time when I was six, when I hadn’t been supposed to have any powers, they had only returned later and Vivienna had been miles ahead of me by then.
The only thing that got me Gloria’s attention was my ability to control myself and everything around me with my air powers. I always hit the exact speeds and made the maneuvers on the first try, which made me excellent at Tempesta. But none of the Quatura understood that this meant nothing. Vivienna would forever believe that I had it better than her, but she didn’t know the price I was paying for it.
Gloria ignored Vivienna’s last words.
“I don’t care if you have appointments, girl, as long as you’re here when I want you to be, and you have your magic under control.”
