Once upon a time, Sethbe, the son of a spirit god, had an affair with Mathilda, a Light Priestess, which resulted in a child. War was raging between the children of the gods: between those of darkness and those of light. Sethbe and his brothers, Liedte and Zienkhe, were overseers in the darkness. They could not have people know about the child. Mirrhia, a loyal servant of the brothers, took the child and disappeared before anyone realized birth happened. She made a quick stop to the family temple in the middle of the Egyptian desert, to present the child officially to Ghar, the brothers’ creator, protected by the watchful eyes of the temple guardians. With the baby tucked in her arms, she then left into the night, without a trace.August 8, 1980 Anita picked up Coralis in her arms and climbed up the stairs to take her to bed. In her eyes, Coralis was the best thing that ever happened to her, better than the night she accepted Donny as her husband and mate. She dropped her in her sma
October 1st, 1989 Coralis and Nadilla sat quietly in Ms. Wagner’s office. Head looking down, sometime shooting furtive glances at each other. They thought they were in trouble, once again. Coralis closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of what could have possibly led them to the administrator’s office this time. Maybe they were going to move them again, even if their social workers said that they would have to stay there until the trial was over, at minimum. They arrived to this group home about a month ago, along with some other children. She didn’t punch a kid nor instigated any sort of conflict. She kept to herself, barely talking to anyone. She couldn’t think of any reason that would explain why she and Nadilla had to sit at the administrator’s office, on a Sunday morning. “You think they want to punish us because we are not talking to the social workers here?” said Nadilla in a low voice, just loud enough for Coralis to hear it. Ms. Wagner’s office wasn’t small. In one of th
July 15, 1990 Coralis and Nadilla were excited. They were getting ready to go shopping for their school supplies. The previous month, they had received by mail the list of what they would need for school. The list wasn’t long, but there were so many books listed on it, that they were hoping that none of them were heavy: they had no one to help carry them to school or across the mall. As promised, Vallia met with them a few times during the year. Coralis wasn’t sure if that really helped, because she simply ignored the other kids to avoid getting into conflicts. The trial and the weeks prior to it were a little more challenging, but Roberto gave her something to suppress her emotions during that month: it wasn’t healthy, but they couldn’t risk any accident at the courthouse or with the authorities. He made sure that Vallia met with Coralis when the potion wore off. Ms. Wagner wasn’t too keen about letting a 10-year-old girl go shopping alone with a 9-year-old, but Roberto had filed
August 26, 1990 It was 5:00 when Coralis’ alarm went off, but she was already awake. She barely slept. She was as excited as she was anxious about where she would be ending the day. Nadilla had already left for her school. She hadn’t been able to call her, so she had no idea how she was doing, if she liked it. She was hoping that she would be able to write to her. They had realized that even if Nadilla was able to send her a letter as soon as she arrived, odds are that Coralis would already be gone by the time it gets to their group home, so they decided to check if it would be possible to send letters to someone in another school. They had been apart a few times in the past, but not for the last couple years, so it felt odd to be without her cousin. She missed her. Martha said that she would pick her up at 6:00. Coralis was ready and waiting at 5:40. All of her belongings were with her. She didn’t know if she was going to come back or stay on the school ground for Christmas holiday
October 3, 1990 It was 20 minutes past curfew. Coralis, Victoria and Maribel felt antsy and restless. They sat in class for the entire day, studying various theories and histories, but no practice of any kind. Moreover, Coralis and Maribel had to stay in detention for an hour after classes ended for the day: at lunch, they decided to race each other on their flying stick and lost track of time, arriving late for their elemental history class. Their roommates were doing their homework, but they were done with theirs, so they decided to sneak outside and go for a walk around the building, just to stretch out a little bit. They figured if they stayed within the shadows, they wouldn’t be seen by anyone, and they wanted to try out a night vision spell. It didn’t take them long to reach one of the backdoors. Coralis was about to pull a piece of paper to jam between the ledge and the lock, so that the door wouldn’t lock behind them and they could go back in using the same door, when she no
May 15, 1991 The school was hosting the European Elemental Tournament. The EET was a competition between twelve elemental schools located across Europe: Scotland, England, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Ukraine and Romania. There were more elemental schools located in Europe, but smaller or considered not prestigious enough, so they weren’t officially included in the EET. These other schools had the option to sign up eligible students to the EET, but would never be hosting it. To be eligible to participate, students had to be an elemental aged between 15 and 20-years-old. They could be living outside of Europe, but had to officially be attending full-time an elemental school located in Europe. The tournament lasted 10 days. Participants would compete in various events and disciplines, depending on their subspecies: potions, flying, combat, history, etc. The best 3 competitors of each discipline would then compete at the World Elemental Tournament
August 25, 1991Erik, Henry and Coralis were getting ready to head back to school. “Coralis,” said Kief, “I don’t know how I missed that detail when we were filing the paperwork for you, but was your birthday really on August 1st?” “Hmm yeah, it was, I am now 11,” said Coralis. “Why does it matter?” “Wait wait, DID WE REALLY MISS YOUR BIRTHDAY?” said Erik and Henry at the same time. “Had we known, we would have done something to celebrate it. Why didn’t you tell us?” said Kief. “Because I don’t think it matters. I never done anything for my birthday. Sometimes a social worker would give us a cupcake, but I never cared about it.” The Fullemons didn’t like that answer. They decided that if Coralis came to their house again the next summer, they would do something to celebrate her birthday. Meanwhile, they would try to see if she could come to their family for the End-of-Year holidays: the boys started to see her like a sister. Coralis was happy to see her friends again, but the u
February 6, 1993 Unable to sleep, Coralis and Victoria decided to go for a walk. It was cold outside, so they stayed inside the school building. The school had so many hallways and staircases, that they could easily walk for an hour without seeing the same wall painting twice. Moreover, less risk of getting into trouble if they weren’t caught outside past curfew. As they approached a staircase, they heard some whimpers coming from behind a wall. They stopped walking and tried to figure where the sounds were coming from. “You heard that, right?” said Coralis. “Yeah, I’m not sure is the person if crying or in pain, or both… but where is it coming from? Sounds like it’s coming from behind that wall.” The girls stood between an outside window to their left, and a wall to their right. They started to closely inspect the wall to their right, in case there was a secret lever or a hidden lock. Both of them were convinced that the whimpers were coming from right behind it. They patted the
October 30, 2003 – 20:56Frank, Stephanie, Victoria, Hector and Jennifer stood behind the stadium, waiting for the team members to come out. Frank was hoping he’d be able to see Coralis. She told him she’d talk to him after the game, but she could still get called on some case right after the game.“You didn’t give her your ring, did you forget it after all?” said Victoria.“I have it with me, but I forgot about it when we were in that room. I don’t think I would have been able to give it to her anyway, she had to leave right after it was over.”“Might be better to wait a day or two, to leave time for the branding to scar,” said Hector.“Nah, unless the ring contains silver, there is no need to wait. My mother put her engagement ring back on her finger right after she received her branding,” said Victoria.Stephanie heard a text message notification from her phone and pulled it out of her purse to look at it. She read it and passed her phone to Frank.‘We will meet you guys at The Woo
October 30, 2003 – 19:46Vectan closed and warded the room to prevent intruders. Vallia turned to the furnace behind her and opened its door. Flames could be seen inside. A small copper pot was in the middle of the flames and Vallia placed a ring-shaped branding iron in it.“Blue Thunder, you may not have been raised among us, but you are a full-blooded mage well-versed in our laws and traditions. You know why I am here with agent Vallia Bilard,” said Vectan, looking at Coralis before turning his attention to Frank.“Considering where we are and what M. Frank McNally had said, I did not need to ask if revelation had been done and we can reasonably conclude that he is here on his own free will. I did explain to him what was going to happen and he was aware of our laws and traditions about mating and marriage,” said Vallia.Coralis looked at everyone. She knew there was no going back. She and the three men behind her wore their flyball uniforms, but it didn’t matter.“M. Frank McNally,
October 30, 2003 – 19:06“Aww, that was quite the unexpected moment, ladies and gentlemen. We should apologize for the longer intermission, but we won’t. Tonight, history was written in front of your eyes, as…”Frank felt he was on cloud 9 while returning to the team’s box. She said Yes. That alone was a victory. He figured that realistically, she probably wouldn’t be going home with him that night, but she was still his. In the end, that was all he needed to hear.As far as he was concerned, he and Coralis were now engaged, that was what mattered to him at the moment. If that meant 24/7 bodyguards, so be it, he didn’t care. They would figure this out, together. He didn’t lose her.The stadium staff stopped by the team’s box entryway and he got in. The people in the box ignored the game and awaited their turn to hug and congratulate him.“I knew she wouldn’t tell you no!” said Victoria, as she passed her arms around him. “I’m the one here who’s known her the longest. Didn’t I tell you
October 30, 2003 – 18:36Frank got up his seat and followed them. He tried not to think about what he just heard and focused on what he needed to accomplish. He knew that they would have a lot of catching up to do when they would finally be able to talk.They took him to an entry point of the field and stopped there. As soon as the siren announced the end of the first period and both teams reached their field entry point, the announcer silenced the crowd.Both teams stopped where they were to figure out what was going on. The stadium staff standing next to Frank ushered him to go to the middle of the field. They weren’t at ground level, but he saw a gangway forming from where he stood, leading to the middle of the field. Everyone stared silently at him.Coralis was shocked and confused. She wasn’t expecting to see Frank standing in the middle of their field. She looked at Sebastian, wondering if he knew what he was doing there. Sebastian was sporting a wide grin on his face and she fr
October 30, 2003 – 17:00Frank pulled by the sidewalk in front of Victoria’s apartment. He was about to text her that he was there, but he saw her walking out of her door, so he closed his phone and dropped it in the glove box next to him.“Ready? Didn’t forget anything?” said Victoria when she climbed into the backseat and fastened her seatbelt.“As ready as I’ll ever be, and yes, I’ve got everything I need. I’m super nervous, I’m not gonna lie, but I need to do this. Thanks for getting me in.”“As if I would want to miss that. Plus, they’re playing The Imperialists, you couldn’t have picked a better game to do this. Her three musketeers will witness it.”“Her 3 musketeers?”“That’s what I used to call Coralis, Gus, Erik and Henry at school. Gus may not be there, but Sebastian makes a better one now.”Frank and Stephanie laughed.“I can see the analogy,” said Frank.“Sebastian convinced him that he wanted tonight’s game. Frank wanted to do it last Monday, but a game against Russia… l
October 24, 2003Frank returned home in the middle of the night from a concert, where he had been interviewing the band. He knew that Coralis had a game in Europe that day, but his sister told him that they would be playing at home on Saturday. Coralis and Sebastian usually head back right after their game when they played home next, so he was hoping she’d be home.But she wasn’t. He looked at the time. He wanted to call Stephanie to see if Sebastian was home, but at 3 in the morning, he figured that his sister was probably asleep and he didn’t want to wake her up. He looked at his empty glass of whiskey in the middle of their living room table and the half-empty bottle next to it. He sat in front of it and filled his glass, hoping that it’d help him get some sleep.He missed her. He needed to know if she was okay. He wanted to believe she didn’t leave him, but it was becoming more difficult to hold on to that idea. He needed to know that she was still with him, that he was still in h
October 16, 2003For the past few days, she spent most of her time in her London flat. Her flyball team played in Europe and the EBEE had sent her on some cases around the city. Twice, she met with Sonylla, Panjik and Emery in a Pixie-run inn located near Tremblant.She sat on the foot of her bed, listening to her voicemails, just like when she started seeing Frank. It was full when she got back from the flyball field in Bulgaria. Part of her wanted to disconnect it and throw it across the room. She didn’t like the tears coming down her eyes as she listened to them. She didn’t know how to handle them. She hated the situation more than he did.She missed him. She needed him.Another part of her, however, didn’t want to send him the wrong message. She loved him, even if she didn’t understand it. She didn’t want him to think she left him just like that. She hoped that when it was over and the danger had dissipated, he would forgive her and get back to her.She knew however that it probab
October 10, 2003 – 11:30“High Mage Rollio?” said Sonylla.“I almost got captured last night on my way back from the flyball field. I didn’t even sleep at home, to make sure that whoever came after me wouldn’t find out about my human boyfriend and use him as leverage against me.”They all looked at her.“You too?” said Emery.“Yes, High Mage Rollio,” said High Mage Finnas, briefly looking at Sonylla before turning his attention to Coralis. “Almost got captured? How did you escape? Agent Gaspart Yoz managed to escape those who came after him but lost consciousness in the back of an alley. He woke up earlier this morning, but will need to remain at our clinic for a few days.”“No offence Finnas, but the answer to that question is pretty obvious if they tried to catch her while she was flying home. Blue doesn’t use portals. They would have needed at least an entire team of professional flyball players better than ours to successfully capture her,” said Emery.“This is fortunate for us, b
October 10, 2003 – 1:30“How do you think he is going to react? He loves you, madly. You know he is going to be upset and worried sick about you. However, I honestly understand why you may not want him to know where you are. We can’t lie. I mean, we may manipulate some wordings, when necessary, but if he directly asks me where you are… best if I don’t know, you’re right… but I don’t like it.”“Neither do I. I’d much rather be in bed with Frank right now, but before I come back home to him, I need to find out who sent them. These guys weren’t amateur, but whoever paid them forgot that I’m a damn professional flyball player.”“One of the bests at that. That was a dumb move on their part to try to get you while you’re flying.”“Dumb or not, they still tried. When you talk to Frank, can you please remain vague in your answers? I know he will worry and be mad at me. Our apartment is heavily warded, but I don’t know what my enemies are capable of. I need to find out who came after me tonigh