They argue, often, about when the story began.

Claire, self-centered as she is, claims it began when she was ten, with the disappearance and supposed death of her older brother Keenan. And maybe that was what set her on her journey, what led her to this, but that wasn't really when the story—their story—began. And besides, that's three extra years worth of angst that no one wants to tell and frankly no one wants to hear about. So, for the sake of ease, we'll begin the story on the day their paths first crossed.

It was an absolutely ordinary day for everyone except thirteen-year-old Clarity Anika Sable. For her, it may very well have been the worst day of her life—and in her mind at the time, most certainly the last day of her life.

She stood center-stage in front of a panel of blue-eyed judges, in front of an auditorium of blue-eyed children, sweating and hissing and failing.

"Come on, come on!" She grit her teeth, her fingers shaking as she reached toward the little dish of water on the pedestal in front of her. In her mind she was screaming, begging the water to do as she commanded. This was her last chance to get into Avia, and she was going to fail.

If she was thinking clearly she would have paused, taken a breath, and tried again with gentler motions. Just like when she had practiced at home. The water listened then. 

But she wasn't thinking clearly. She was hardly thinking at all. She let her breath continue in ragged, hissing gasps of rage, let her body shake so bad that establishing a connection with the water was nearly impossible.

"Obey me!"

The water bubbled pathetically. A mocking laugh, at best.

And then one of the judges raised his hand. It was over.

Her arms fell limp at her sides. Claire maintains that she accepted her defeat with dignity, but it was only her stubborn pride that kept her from dropping to her knees, screaming and sobbing in front of the entire crowded auditorium.

"Clarity Sable of Bassa, third attempt at Admission. Failed." The judge spoke in a calm, disinterested voice. There had been hundreds of children standing in Claire's place that day. There would be hundreds after.

"A shame," a female judge noted with her overly glossed red lips curving into a frown. "Your eyes are quite bright."

"Like I don't know that," Claire seethed, still shaking. "I can do this. Give me another chance!"

Without waiting for the judges to respond, she raised her hands toward the glass again.

"Miss Sable-"

She ignored the judge and narrowed her eyes in concentration. They were bright. They had shined a brilliant deep blue since infancy. She was talented, she knew that. She would make them see that.

"Miss Sable!"

With a final cry she forced all the energy in her body into the tips of her fingers. The water in the glass rippled, boiled, then erupted in a violent burst of steam that shattered the glass.

There. That was something. That was power.

With a shout of pride, she turned to the judges. The six stuffy Avia Academy professors stared at her in silence. A few, like the man who'd pronounced her failure, looked annoyed. But as she looked closer at his eyes, she realized they were only a pale grey-blue. Clearly, he was jealous. The woman who'd commented on her eyes and the gray haired man at her side nodded and whispered between each other.

"Well?" Claire pressed.

"The test, Miss Sable, was to levitate a sphere of water at least six feet above the bowl for a minimum of sixty seconds," the jealous judge said.

Claire glared. "I did more than that! You don't teach students to boil water until their second term, but I-"

"When Avia students boil water, it is intentional. You had no control over anything that just happened. It was a childish display, nothing more than a tantrum, and you would be wise to watch your tone when speaking to a superior."

It was sound advice, and an accurate analysis of her performance. But in the moment, all Claire heard was an insult. She ground her teeth and turned on her heel. The stupid flouncy skirt she'd worn for the occasion swished around her knees as she stomped down the stairs and off the stage. With her head high, she walked down the aisle to the double doors at the back of the auditorium.

Claire fixed a venomous glare onto her face and shot it at anyone who dared snicker or, even worse, look at her with pity as she passed them. She shoved the doors open and stormed out into the pouring rain. The icy droplets soaked through her sweater in seconds, mocking her as well.

After the entrance exam, she was meant to meet her younger brother Nathan at the cafe across from the test building. But right now Claire was furious and her prickling eyes meant she was close to tears, so she chose instead to hide away in a different part of the exam building for a time. Nathan could never see her cry.

The exam building was a massive, rounded thing located in the center of Komore city. The best way to describe it would be a stadium cut into quadrants, each with its own auditorium. There was a central meeting room behind the stages, supposedly, where the teachers met to discuss the auditions they'd seen. No doubt Claire would be the topic of discussion this year.

Failure three years in a row. But her eyes were so bright!

Such a shame to her family— her grandmother was Professor Kishori, you know.

Well, surely you've heard the rumors about her older brother...

By the time Claire was standing outside the fire auditorium, she'd already forced down all her tears. She cracked the large door open just a touch and peered through the slit. As a water Elemei, she technically wasn't allowed to observe the admission trials of any other element. But so long as she wasn't spotted, there shouldn't be any trouble. Claire needed the distraction anyway, lest she dwell on—

Claire gasped. The spectacle on the fire Elemei stage captured her attention and burned away every other thought in her mind. She existed nowhere but this moment, watching with wide eyes as a girl her age performed a series of bends, cartwheels, and pirouettes atop a mat of flame.

She knew every admission test was different, determined by the panel of Avia professors who served as the judges, but this was so much more than levitating a silly bubble. The girl curved into an arc, her leg swiping through the air, a ribbon of white-hot flame trailing behind.

Claire gripped the door harder as she watched the graceful girl and swallowed a lump in her throat. Her stomach flipped in an unfamiliar manner as her face flushed and her heart hammered. This reaction would have surprised her if she hadn't immediately identified what she was feeling—

Jealousy. Extreme, infuriating, blood-boiling jealousy.

How could this girl, very likely only thirteen years old like her, have that kind of mastery over her element? It just wasn't fair.

The girl finished her audition routine with a flourished bow to the judges, who all applauded politely as if that wasn't the most beautiful thing any of them had ever witnessed.

"Hadyn Trousta of Helion City, first attempt at Admission. Passed."

First attempt! And from Helion, no less. This Hadyn Trousta wasn't even from a notable family, hadn't worked and sweated for three years trying to make herself shine, and yet she was going to Avia and Claire wasn't. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair! 

"Claire!" Nathan called, shocking his sister out of her jealous rage with a tug to her arm. "There you are, I've been lookin' everywhere."

Claire let the door fall shut. "Sorry, I got distracted."

He smiled up at her with big green eyes. "So? Did you do it this time? Did you?"

She chewed hard on the inside of her cheek to restrain herself from snapping at him. Anyone else, fine. But not Nathan. Claire didn't meet his eyes, and shook her head with the taste of blood in her mouth.

His expression dropped. He was trying to hide his disappointment, she knew he was. But when he made that face he looked so much like Keenan, and a new wave of anger crashed over her.

Claire's legs chilled as the rain soaking her skirt slowly turned to ice. And that's not a metaphor, she was literally freezing the water. And doing a damn good job of it, she noted pridefully.

Nathan glanced at the ice, then tugged her arm again. "C'mon, we should get home. Amma said she would make cake tonight."

"Right," Claire agreed. She let him pull her toward the skyship port, the whole way formulating an escape plan. Their mother had promised cake, yeah, under the impression that Claire would be getting into Avia. It was supposed to be a celebration. When she came home a failure for the third year in a row, her amma was going to murder her, plain and simple.

"I'm sure you did your best." Nathan squeezed her hand and glanced at her nervously as the pair navigated the crowded street. "Maybe I won't even try when I'm older. We can go work somewhere together."

Claire squeezed his hand back, but she was already lost in her own thoughts. She was far too prideful to kill herself, as was notorious among rejected Avia hopefuls. She would have to run away. Stay at one of the shelters in Komore, or Helion. Obviously Claire could find a place in society as a mortal, she could survive a nine to five job in a cubicle. But first she would have to survive her family.

"Reject the Gods! Reject Avia's teachings! Learn the truth! Wake up!"

Claire pulled her brother against her side as they passed the shouting man.

He held a soggy pamphlet toward the Sable siblings, continuing to spew propaganda. "You kids are both Elemei, aren't you? Do you have a moment to speak about the Awak-"

Claire, being the eloquent charmer she was, said something that would make her parents very disappointed if we repeated it here, and tore the pamphlet from the man's hand.

Nathan pressed closer to his sister.

"Keep walking," Claire said, "we're gonna be late."

The Awakening—not even a very original name for a heretical organization. They were laughable. Pathetic. A minor annoyance, really only noisy and active in the more populated cities. But still, they could be persuasive. They loved to hang around the exam building this time of year.

They preyed on the weak, the failures who couldn't get into Avia, the mortals born with no tie to the elements at all. When people like that joined up it made sense, but lately the Awakening had been growing in power, and gaining members from among the Academy's ranks. Talented, from well-known families. The last people you would expect to pack up and join a terrorist organization.

It made Claire nervous. 

Up ahead, the ship blew a warning whistle. Komore was one of the more populated cities on a normal day, but today was Testing. The streets were congested with families and skycycles, and some moron had the bright idea to land his private airship right outside the docks, funneling everyone to a bottleneck.

Claire didn't do well in crowds, and it didn't help that the events of the day had already set her on edge. So when her brother stopped in his tracks and turned around to talk to her, his eyes filled with that pity she hated (hated even more coming from the boy who had always looked up to her,) she reacted harshly.

"Don't. I don't care what you're gonna say, just don't," Claire snapped, shooing her brother off the main street and around the back of a clothing store. "We're already late, go the shortcut."

Nathan's lip quivered, but he did as Claire ordered.

They'd taken this route before, as Claire made a habit of misjudging how much time they had to get to the sky docks. Behind the line of shops was a narrow alley that lead to a narrower bridge. Though perhaps "bridge" was being too generous. In reality, it was flat metal plank that spanned Komore's thin canal and connected to the rear of the port. It was used for inventory deliveries to the shops, or for two children in a hurry.

They'd crossed it dozens of times without trouble, but Claire forgot to take into consideration that this was supposed to be the worst day of her life. Realization of how bad an idea this shortcut was hit her the second Nathan's sneakered feet connected with the slick, rain-soaked metal.

He'd run ahead of her, too far ahead for Claire to grab him as his shoes lost traction and he toppled into the cold rushing water of the canal.

Years later, she still feels guilty for her impatience, for the harsh way she'd shut him down when all Nathan wanted to do was comfort her. She still feels guilty for not considering the rain. If she'd only stopped to think, then maybe...

__________________

Hello hello my lovely friends and readers! We sure are starting this story off on a positive note, aren't we? 😂

I've been waiting to write this series for yeeeaaars, and 2019's Open Novella Competition provided the perfect inspiration to get started. The story of Avia will be told over a series of six novellas spanning six years of Claire and Hadyn's lives. This "omnibus" will contain the first three, but I'll only be writing book one for the ONC.

My goal will be a chapter a week. I hope you'll follow along ❤

- Dino