Chapter 1

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 the corners, to the left side of the door, there were floor to ceiling bookshelves, covering entirely the walls in that corner. Two couches were nested in front of the bookshelves, a one-seater sofa and a round table in-between. Her desk was at the other end of the room, in the opposite corner, next to more floor to ceiling bookshelves.

“I don’t understand. We get into trouble if we do anything they ask, and we get into trouble when we ignore them instead. Remember the last place, he kept saying he loved us for it, but other adults said it was wrong, that people can’t love us like that, that it’s not how it works. I really don’t know why we’re here this time, but you’re probably right,” said Coralis.

As soon as Coralis finished talking, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” yelled Ms. Wagner from behind her desk.

A man and a woman walked in, both of them holding a small leather briefcase. Ms. Wagner stood up and walked toward them, while the girls stared at the newcomers.

“Ah! You must be Vallia Bilard and Roberto Swanson. Come in!”

“Yes, I am Roberto Swanson, attorney representing the families of Ms. Coralis Golmar and Ms. Nadilla de Lima. This is Vallia Bilard, a social worker consulting for me in this case,” he said. He raised his free hand in the direction of the woman next to him. “May we speak alone with the girls, please.”

“Sure. Give me a minute, I need to grab some stuff and you can have the space for however long you need. The girls are already here,” Ms. Wagner answered them while raising an arm toward Coralis and Nadilla.

She walked back to her desk, grabbed the documents laying on it, checked the drawers to make sure they were locked and walked back to Vallia and Roberto.

“I’ll be at my secretary’s desk across the door. When you’re done, or if you need anything, just open the door and I’ll be right there.”

The girls were watching them silently. Beside each other, they didn’t have any family. Once in a while, they had been placed in foster homes, but never stayed there long and never were adopted, so they were both wondering what they meant by representing their families.

When the door closed behind Ms. Wagner, Vallia pulled a small ball out of her jacket, walked to the middle of the room, lifted the ball above her head and closed her eyes, while Roberto pulled what looked like a long pencil and placed it in the small gap under the door. Vallia said something in a language the girls never heard, and her eyes started glowing in a bright shade of blue. The ball she was holding started to float toward the ceiling, then dissipated before reaching it.

Nadilla couldn’t believe what she saw, she didn’t know if she should be afraid or not. Coralis, however, was fascinated. Remembering an incident at their former home, there was something that made sense to her in what she was seeing. She could feel her cousin nervous next to her, so she grabbed her hand to reassure her. She didn’t know who they actually were and what was going on, but she knew that they weren’t in danger.

When Vallia’s eyes stopped glowing, she went back to where she was to grab her suitcase and followed Roberto to the couch next to the girls. They gently dropped their suitcases on the table and sat.

“I’m sure that you must have a lot of questions after what you just saw, and we also have questions for you two,” said Roberto. “First, let us introduce ourselves properly and tell you why we are here.”

The girls nodded.

“Before we started talking to you two, we had to make sure that no one else could hear us,” said Vallia. “The ball you saw in my hand was a type of mute-ball. Not only it made this room soundproof, but it also deactivated any type of listening device or camera that was in this room. What we will tell you, no one else can know, not even your actual social workers. Understood?”

“So you’re not really a social worker or an attorney representing our families?” said Coralis.

“Yes and no. We are working for the Canadian Ministry of Mythical Affairs. More precisely for the department handling family matters and legalities. I am Roberto,” then pointing to the woman next to him, “and she is Vallia. We are here concerning matters regarding both of your families, but we are also here to investigate an incident that happened where you previously resided.”

Coralis knew exactly which incident he was talking about. She didn’t want to remember it. Roberto stretched his right hand to shake theirs. Coralis hesitantly shook it first, then Nadilla. Vallia did the same.

“You must be Coralis?” said Roberto while looking at her.

When he shook their hands, he also tried to get a read on their aura. Coralis had a strong one for a 9-year-old, while Nadilla’s was faint, as it should be. They weren’t supposed to meet with the girls until next April, but five weeks prior to that day, there has been an unknown elemental energy surge showing up on their map. Seeing that it was coming from a place for out-of-home human children, Vallia and Roberto were sent to investigate. When they got there, a week after the incident, the girls had already been moved to a different home.

“Hmm yes, I am,” said Coralis. She just wanted to leave the room. She didn’t want to talk about any of what happened at the previous home. She couldn’t talk much about it anyway, because of the pending trial. She didn’t even want to know about her birth family, and she knew Nadilla didn’t care about hers: their families abandoned them, that’s what they always thought.

“I thought so. You see, Vallia and I aren’t humans, and neither are you. We are what we call an elemental, or a mage, to be more precise.”

Coralis and Nadilla looked at him with wide eyes. Nadilla wondered what he meant by not human and elemental, while Coralis’ mind went to other weird stuff that happened and that she couldn’t explain.

“In classic human lore, we could be described as some kind of witch, although I assure you, there are a lot of differences between a witch and a mage,” added Roberto.

“Wait,” said Nadilla, coming to a realization. “Do you think Coralis is the one who broke the windows and lights where we used to live?”

“Yes,” said Vallia. “She probably doesn’t know how she did it, but we know that it was her. Your parents were also elemental. Nadilla, both of your parents were water mages. As for Coralis, we know that her mother was a water mage, but we’re unsure about her father, we think he’s of a mixed bloodline. When we went to your former group home, there was still energy residue lingering in the air and it didn’t have a water mage energy signature. That’s how we know it must have been Coralis. You were the only two elementals living there.”

“If the energy discharge would have come from someone else, other than from you two, Coralis’ aura would still have been faint and I would not have sensed that same energy signature on her. That simply confirmed that it came from Coralis,” said Roberto.

Coralis remembered the intense emotions: the anger, the rage, the fear, the deep desire to end it all. All mixed into one.

“If you already knew what happened, why come here to investigate?” said Coralis. “Even if we wanted to, which we don’t, we can’t talk about what happened at the other place, until the court says that we can, which I’m sure will be never.”

“It’s not the event itself that we are investigating,” said Vallia, “but how raw your aura is. For an elemental, our magic is deeply connected to our emotions. If your elemental energy is awakening, you need to be able to control your emotions, so you don’t release your magic by accident, especially if you are surrounded by humans. They can’t find out about us, or it will lead to pure chaos.” Vallia looked quickly at her colleague, before continuing. He gave her a small nod. “We also need to know if there have been more incidents… and if some humans saw something that could have revealed to them what you are.”

“If our parents were elementals, or mages, then why are we not with other people like us?” said Nadilla. She struggled to make sense of what she was hearing, but she knew they were telling the truth. “I don’t know if something else like that happened, but if someone saw something, they won’t talk. No one takes us seriously, so what would be the point? They would just get into more trouble because no one would believe them.”

Roberto and Vallia looked at each other, neither were sure how to answer that, so they decided to drop their line of questioning. They weren’t warriors and weren’t involved with the department that killed their parents, but they were the ones who had to explain it to two 9-year-old girls who grew up clueless about their world.

“Your parents were involved with bad people,” said Roberto. “We do not have the details of what happened exactly the night they died; we were not there. What we do know, is that it wasn’t safe to place you with a family member, because they were also under investigation. It was recommended that we hide the two of you within the human system until you were of age to start elemental school, for your protection, and the court agreed.”

Coralis looked at her hands on her laps, while Nadilla looked at her cousin.

“Which is also why we are here,” said Vallia. “We were scheduled to meet with you in April, but because of the amount of elemental energy Coralis released five weeks ago, we had to come to you sooner. It took us some time to find you, because the people in charge of your files wouldn’t tell us where you moved without proper documentation. Coralis, your aura is still very raw, there is a thickness to it, meaning your elemental powers really have awoken. Yours, Nadilla, is still faint, but I can feel some elemental energy buzzing from you. In light of what we discovered regarding your living environment, it became even more important to come meet you sooner, to explain to you what you are, before another incident happens.”

“Does that mean that you will teach us how to control our aura or energy?” said Coralis, looking back at them. “I don’t know how I done it and I think it wasn’t the only time something weird happened around me, but I can’t explain.”

“We are not the ones who will teach you that,” said Roberto. “You will go to an elemental school next year for that. Full blooded mages children, and most of the half-blood ones, usually start attending elemental school at the age of 10, and will attend it for at least 7 years. In order to blend in better with the human world, our school system follows similar calendar as human schools. Fays are usually there for at least 10 years, while elves will usually only stay 5 years.”

The girls’ eyes went wide again.

“Fays? Elves?” said Nadilla.

“Yes,” said Roberto, amused. “Fays and elves are also considered elemental beings. You will meet all kind of elemental beings at school. Coralis, when you were born, you parents registered you to the school your mother went to, so you will be going to Scotland Elemental School, located in the United Kingdom. Nadilla, although your parents also went there, they didn’t register you there, so you will be going to Winisk Elemental School, located in Northern Ontario. School year will start at the end of August, but we will meet with you again before that.”

“Hmm…” Coralis looked hesitantly at Nadilla, then continued, “we don’t have parents, obviously, and the administrator here can’t know what we are, so how are we supposed to get there and how are we going to pay for our school supplies? I suppose we will need to get some stuff and pay some fees?”

“In the upcoming months, you will be assigned an elemental guardian, which is the equivalent of a human godparent,” Vallia said. “While they will not have custody of either of you, they will guide you until you become an adult in the eyes of the elemental community. They will also meet with you before the school starts to explain how you will get there and they will help you conciliate your ward of the state status with your elemental mage reality. As far as your social workers and administrators here are concerned, you will be going to a boarding school, as per the will of your deceased parents.”

“Your parents did really have a will,” said Roberto, “and their assets belong to you. Unlike with humans, you do not have to meet some conditions to access your inheritance, and your guardian won’t decide for you how you will use it. Their assets are currently legally yours. Neither of you had any siblings. We will see you again when a guardian is appointed to you. At that meeting, we will explain to you how to access it, but know that you do not need to worry about the financial aspect.”

“All you need to be focusing on at the moment, is on controlling your emotions,” said Vallia. “Coralis, I will arrange for another meeting with you within the next month. I am not a teacher, but I can coach you and give you some tips to keep your aura in check until you start school. Same for you Nadilla, it’s a matter of time before yours becomes raw. Questions?”

Coralis and Nadilla looked at each other. Coralis read some confusion in Nadilla’s face, it was a lot to take in.

“I am sure that we will have a thousand questions popping in our head when you leave, but I cannot think of one right now. We need some times to think about everything you told us. It’s too much” said Coralis. “We were sure that our parents didn’t want us, just like no one else did. Plus, apparently, we are witches, or something like that. What you said to us changes everything. I don’t know who I am anymore, same for Nadilla. Can we make a list of the questions we have for the next time we see you?”

“Sure,” said Vallia. “Just make sure that no one else sees it.”

Roberto and Vallia stood up, shook the girls’ hands and walked to the door. Like she said she would be, Ms. Wagner was on the other side, sitting at her secretary’s desk.

“Until next time!” said Roberto to the cousins, and they were gone.