[Chapter 11]

I sat beside the bed, watching the unconscious girl. It was a full week. The nurses and medics had said that what I had done had practically saved her life, but too much smoke inhalation and the force in which had hit into her at the initial explosion had shut off her mind. They weren’t exactly sure how long the coma was going to last, but the only sure gauge was that –with regular treatment –she would wake up within a month.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be happy or saddened by that idea. Happy; because I knew that there was a limit to her ‘eternal sleep’. Sad; because she would lose one month to unconsciousness, unknowing to her surroundings, unknowing to me, her Guardian staying by her side.

“Are you ready?” My father asked, and I turned my head to look at him. I had gotten my blue eyes from him, the blonde crazy hair from Mum. But, for some strange reason, neither my brother nor I had inherited that stubble at our chins.

I nodded seriously, letting my gaze continue to my brother. He grinned at me encouragingly, giving me a thumb up as Dad pulled out the chalk from his bag, getting to the floor to start drawing the circle.

“Hey, Jac,” I called, watching as my brother give me a curious look, “sucks for you. I’ve got my other half now.”

Jacob grinned, flashing me the middle finger quickly before Dad looked up. Off the side, Madame Elvie chuckled at my brother’s amazingly childish behavior. My elder brother –older than me by two years –had made a challenge with me, to see who would get to meet their other half first. I had the advantage, because I knew for sure who my other half was, while Jacob had to go through the relationship cycles over and over again until he found his other half.

Jacob, though not a full Faen, was still engaged to working within the Council. Instead of being part of the Council itself or being part of discussions involving everything Faen, Jacob helped to deal with the human-side of the school and it’s Council. Jacob was something like our spokesperson; our representative. It was not all flowery for him either. Jacob studied about everything Faen despite being a human himself. And, to help out in dealing with the meddling human government officials, Jacob took up studying human laws. It came into good use, as it turned out that my elder brother was as capable as a lawyer as anything else.

One thing Jacob had the blessing to have is his high IQ as well as his remarkable ability to adapt. Jacob was good at everything he did –everything that wasn’t related to being a Faen. It seemed as if though I had taken his gift for holding an element, Jacob was still one with a bagful of tricks.

“Let’s see if she’s going to last you, Mr. I’ve-got-my-other-half.” Jacob retorted cleverly, crossing his arms across his chest, as if pretending to be pissed.

I laughed at him, following Madame Elvie’s chuckle, and turned to look at the motionless girl again. She hadn’t moved a single bit since that day. I hoped she would wake up soon. I was eager to get on with studies. I was eager to go on, to proceed to classes working alongside Ashe; with Ashe. I wasn’t sure how she would view the situation, how she would view me as her Guardian. But if we wanted to be strong, we had to work together. I was sure Ashe would understand.

“I’d wager she’s going to last. She IS my Faen.” I say in a manner that sounded all ‘Professor-Like’. Sometimes, just breathing the same air as my brother made me like a kid all over again. A nineteen-year-old kid, but a kid nonetheless.

“Well, if you say so…” Jacob shrugged, moving across the ward towards where Madame Elvie was sitting on her own in the couch that was placed for visitors to sleep in. Jacob took the seat beside Madame Elvie, slinging his arm over her shoulder like she was his grandmother, like it was natural.

“I’d wager Elvie here’s gonna stick by me. She IS an Alveron.” Jacob said, grinning. That got a snort from Dad, and light laughter from Madame Elvie.

“Well, Ashe IS an Alveron too.” I pointed out, but before we could bring the conversation any further, the door opened and Ms. Maxwell came in.

“Am I late?” She asked worriedly, looking around as Jacob withdrew his arm from around Madame Elvie’s shoulder quickly.

“Not at all, Jane. You’re just in time actually. Richard’s almost done with the circle.” Madame Elvie replied with a smile, beckoning our principal in.

Ms. Maxwell walked in with a smile, giving us a look each. Then her eyes stopped on Ashe and me beside her.

“Is she alright?”

I sighed. Everyone had been asking me about her, asking the same question. No, people didn’t ask Dru, Ashe’s roommate. No, people didn’t ask Sarah, who had visited Ashe between times. No, people didn’t ask Logan or Xaviel, who had followed Dru and Sarah in to visit Ashe when they were free.

No, everyone asked me. Because I had been here every day since she was like this. I was her Guardian, after all. That was why everyone was here; to confirm the connection between Ashe and me.

“Still unconscious, Ms. Maxwell. Otherwise, she’s faring well.” I replied duteously, but before anyone could say more, Dad straightened up, tucked his chalk back in his bag, drawing out a candle and placing it in the middle.

The idea of this experiment was simple. Like how scouters like Madame Elvie searched for new Faens and their elements, this experiment was used to determine a bond between two Faens. If I touched Ashe’s power, and then used both our powers to touch the candle, if it did snuff out, then it meant that there was a bond. If not, then well… it meant the opposite.

It was slightly different from what scouters like Madame Elvie would use when they searched for new Faens. They would draw a seeking circle close to the Faen, place four candles and ground each candle by their element. North was for air, South for earth, East for water and West for fire. When the Faen in question awoke their element, the candle would snuff out, giving Madame Elvie an exact idea of what element the Faen held.

It was a useful method to finding new Faens, and to situations like this.

Dad pulled his power to him, and clicked his fingers, lighting the wick with quick efficiency. Jacob had always found it funny how Dad’s element was fire, but my element was water. Jacob used to think that it was God’s deliberate joke for Dad and I to have extreme opposite elements, but over time the strangeness faded away.

Dad took a look at me, as if trying to ask me the question he asked before with his eyes. I nodded to his silent question, and he sighed quietly, backing away.

Jacob stayed close to the Council Members, leaving me and Ashe close to the circle.

“You may begin when you are ready, Noel Cypher.” Ms. Maxwell announced without much emotion –which meant she was getting down to business.

I nodded to show acknowledgement, and closed my eyes to still my internal turmoil. This would be the calling moment. Either my theory and guesses were correct, or I was taking everything the wrong way. Maybe I was just too desperate to look for a Faen I could connect with. Maybe I just wanted, unconsciously, Ashe to be my Faen.

I put aside all doubts and called my power to me. There was no time for hesitation. I needed to let the candle speak for itself.

I didn’t even need to reach far for Ashe before her power came flitting over to me, like an excited little girl bounding over to her brother for a day out at an amusement park. I felt her power, playing with mine, joining with mine, combining and mixing to become one. With the powers mixed together, I felt the strength of it. The three elements held by the two different powers mixed, water to fire and air.

I kept firm hold over the combined power, trusting myself to hold on despite the strength of the immense force of the power. I had gone through trainings like this. I could withstand it.

With determination, I sent the power over to the lighted candle in the middle of the room, feeling as the power was sucked into the spell of the circle. The power pranced around the candle like a carefree doe, dancing around it. It nudged the flame, little by little, causing it to flicker.

With anticipated breaths, everyone in the room watched the flame flicker, bit by bit.

It happened again and again, and it dragged on. The flame didn’t die. I felt something turn bitter within me. Maybe I had been wrong. Maybe I had been reading too much.

Five minutes passed, and it turned to ten in a blink of an eye. All of a sudden, Ms Maxwell shifted, breaking from her reverie and our gazes all snapped to her. I knew she could see the desperate disappointment in my eyes. I could not help it. I had been so sure. I had been so damned sure.

“Well... Noel…” Ms. Maxwell started, trailing off like she didn’t know what to say to me. There was nothing to say. The evidence was there before my eyes. It felt like my first tryout all over again. The disappointment crashing down on me.

No. I told myself. No. I shouldn’t be surrendering so soon. I could still feel our power, combined perfectly. But the power just didn’t snuff out the fire. It could, but it didn’t.

No. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I refused to be the same fifteen year old boy who went up to Madame Elvie with a black face full of disappointment of not having found his Faen through his first tryout. I refused to go through that again. It had taken me so long to get over it; to be numb from everything. I refused to go down without a fight.

Taking Ashe’s hand in mine, I stood up, glaring at the candle, at the floor, at the circle.

“No.” My firm voice was almost foreign in my ears.

“You have to accept it, Noel… She’s not your…” Ms. Maxwell tried to talk some sense in me, but I wouldn’t back down. This wasn’t supposed to be.

“No. No. I refuse to accept it. No.” I said firmly, with more determination than I actually felt.

“Noel, you have to learn to let go. We’re all regretful that Ashe is not your Faen…” Dad began to say softly, as if he understood what I was going through. But he didn’t. He never understood. He always said he did, but he never did really understand. He never really did understand how it was like for me, to wait for so many years for one miserable person. He never really did understand how I had to weep silently through the many nights, trying to come up with excuses for my inability to find a Faen.

“No! I said no! I am her Guardian! I’m not going to let some lousy candle dictate it!” I shouted, clenching my hand tightly. The burns on my arm were still throbbing, but my own anger at the power, my own anger at everything was chewing it away.

“Listen to me, Noel…” Jacob tried to start, but I wouldn’t take any more of it. Why couldn’t they understand the pain I was going through right now? Why force me to accept it? I needed time. Everyone needed time. I needed time to do this.

“NO!” I shouted, with more force than I meant to.

Then there was an explosion of power at the circle. At my anger, our combined force of the power exploded into an angry bomb detonation. Whatever protests Dad had ready at his lips died as we all stared at the carnage left by Ashe and my combined power. The candle was nothing but a pile of wax shavings. The wick was lying among it, blackened and holding on to a feeble flame.

This time, I glared at the flame. I forced our combined power to it, controlling it with my anger.

It snuffed out.

There was more than one surprise. There was a stir beside me, and a soft groan from a beautiful voice.

“Ashe! Are you okay?” I forgot everything about the candle, my Faen as I turned to her, holding her hand tight.

“Noel……. I heard you…” Ashe groaned quietly as she opened her eyes a little.

“Are you alright? Do you need some water?” I asked worriedly. We hadn’t expected for her to wake up so early.

“I’m fine, Noel… I just… I heard you… Your power and mine… it was speaking to me. The combined power… it told me to wake up… to help you… because you were alone… and you needed your Faen. Me.” She sounded confused, but I couldn’t be more happy at the moment.

“Ashe!” I went to my knee beside her bed, placing our clutched hand over my heart.

“I swear to you, that I’ll always be your loyal Guardian!”

******************************************

“Hold on to your partners, Guardians, and channel your power through them. Let your power combine as one. Look into your Faen’s eyes and see what they want. They have been given their individual tasks by Miss Arliden, and you are to find it out, and execute it without communication with your partner.” Mr. Arliden announced as our Faens walked back into the room, with their respective tasks in their hands.

It was almost hard to imagine that I was finally attending this lesson. After so many years of waiting… I was finally attending this lesson. It was a miracle. Everything was a miracle. Ashe… she was a miracle.

After she woke up from coma, she had gradually recovered. In less than a week, we found Ashe gone from her ward, already at her training hall.

Sometime after that, Madame Elvie had forced Ashe to stop her busy schedule. After dropping in on us, and getting feedback from Dru and Logan –who both had lots to put in about Ashe’s timetable –Ms. Maxwell saw perfectly that situation in which Ashe had to cope under. It didn’t take long for both Council Heads to force Ashe into taking her studies at a slower pace instead of the frantic rush to pick up everything.

Instead of juggling between her two elements now, Ashe was to master the use of air –since the Training Hall for fire students were shut down until further notice- before she could move on to her second element. At the same time, she would study the rudiments of working with a Guardian along with me.

Madame Elvie hadn’t been lying about her proposition for me either. A few days after Ashe woke up; Ms Maxwell called me to her office –where I met both her and Mr. Rax. They had asked me some serious questions; about my knowledge and power over my own element. My answer must have satisfied them beyond words, because I was made a junior Training Master instantly. The only lessons I still attended were the lessons with Ashe.

Of course, we had celebrations about that. My promotion had been beyond what I had initially thought. I was supposed to be a junior staff; just a guy who stood around, making sure everything went well. But now, I was a junior Training Master instead. My job wasn’t just standing around. I was supposed to teach. Mr. Rax reasoned that it was because of my age that made me connect better with the students. Ms. Maxwell reasoned that the students would heed my advice better than their actual Training Masters, since they knew me well.

The celebration went a little mad when it dragged on into the night, due to the factor that Logan was there, and he brought too much alcohol. Since we figured we didn’t want to waste it all, Logan, Xaviel and I got quite wasted in the end while the girls watched us make a fool of ourselves. Things of what happened that night were quite hazy, but I remembered clearly seeing Zane Krien watching us quietly from a corner of the room. I had tried to ask him over –in my drunken state, of course –but he had done nothing to join in. Instead, he stood up, gave me a glare that I didn’t understand, and walked away.

“Noel? You there?” Ashe asked as she waved a hand over my eyes, jolting me back to reality. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have spazzed out like that.

“Um… Yeah. You ready?” I asked, though there wasn’t any real need. With Ashe, she was always ready. Still, she nodded in reply to my question.

We weren’t very sure how to deal with each other. Most Faens and their Guardians got together in romantic relationships after they found their other half. Some remained faithful to their partners, but no one could deny the special relationship between a Faen and his/her Guardian. Of course, our teachers for this class were a pair themselves. Mr. and Miss Arliden were obviously tied by the same bond that tied Ashe and me, though everyone knew that they brought it into marriage. It seems even after giving birth to the meddlesome twin girls, Miss Arliden could still afford time to teach classes with her other half.

I took a deep breath, pulling my power in, feeling as Ashe did the same too. Slowly, I let my power run free from my grasp, towards Ashe’s power. Almost in an instant, like two different poles of magnets meeting each other, our powers attracted each other, mixing and combining. Ashe smiled softly at the reaction of our powers with each other, meeting my eyes.

I placed a hand on her shoulder, keeping physical contact with her, grounding me to reality. Then I closed my eyes and focused on the power sharing between us. I shuffled the many thoughts in my mind away, keeping them locked away as I searched in my mind for the one task to do.

Water… Use our powers and reach the water on the desk. Make an ice sculpture… of…… a rose.

The instruction brushed past my mind, like a whispering in me, trying to tell me to do something about it. I knew that tugging, that compelling urge to obey. It was our psychic bond; the bond that connected Ashe’s power to mine.

I returned back to reality quickly, opening my eyes with a nod to Ashe. I saw a glimpse of her relieved smile as I turned towards the bowl of water that Miss Arliden had placed on the table while we were concentrating. She was looking straight at Ashe and me. Of course; she knew what task she had given to Ashe and indirectly to me.

I reached out a hand towards the bowl from across the classroom, letting our combined power flow through me, connecting with the water. With our combined power, water came to me like an obedient pet, clinging on my side. It took a moment for me to place the perfect image of an ice-rose, and I let our power work its power into the water.

Ashe laughed slightly when Miss Arliden jumped in surprise at the force of my power. I had frozen the water up with so much power that it caused the bowl itself to crack with a loud sound. In the middle of it all, was a single rose made entirely out of ice.

I grinned at the result of our power as Miss Arliden clapped quickly, scooping the ice-rose out of the bowl; taking everyone’s attention.

“Is anyone else done?” She asked, looking around at our classmates. Believe it or not; Xaviel and Dru had discovered their affinity for each other a few days after Ashe’s and mine were confirmed, and we ended up in the same class; though the two were having more trouble trying to connect than Ashe and I.

 Mr. Arliden joined his wife and Faen at the table, taking the ice-rose from her hands.

“It seems like we have a winner then! A rose, out of everything! Are you trying to seduce my wife, Mr. Cypher?” Mr. Arliden joked, letting the class rise in amused laughter while I blushed.

“I was the one to request a rose, actually, Mr. Arliden.” Ashe spoke up for me, still not letting go of our combined power.

“You were?” Mr. Arliden sounded surprised as he began to step from behind the table, making towards us.

Ashe nodded. “I wanted something nice. Our task was just an ice sculpture. There weren’t any specifics, so I told Noel to make me an ice-rose. Since he’s not of the Earth and can’t give me an actual one, I guessed one made out of ice could work.” She confessed, receiving the ice-rose from Mr. Arliden as he passed it to her.

“It’s beautiful, Noel. Thank you.” She smiled as she turned it between her fingers, admiring my handiwork. The smile was brilliant; like a million diamonds shining. Oh, how I knew such a simple ice sculpture could make her smile so brightly.

“Don’t you think you deserve an actual rose, Ms. Alveron?” Mr. Arliden asked as he leaned in towards us.

“I would like one, but I’ll take the best I can get. You’re not trying to give me one, are you? You hold the element of fire.” Ashe answered, sounding so skeptical that the class had to laugh amusedly.

Mr. Arliden only smiled at her reply, nodding, straightening back away from us.

“That is correct. But you forget, my dear wife holds the element of the Earth.” He reminded.

“But I don’t want her giving me a rose. It looks… well, awkward.” The class laughed again while Ashe wrinkled her nose.

“Then let me give you one. Let’s have a little demonstration, shall we? Reena?” Mr. Arliden turned at his last question towards his wife with a questioning look.

Miss Reena Arliden only laughed and nodded. We all felt her pushing out her power towards her husband; her husband’s powers and her mixing perfectly in the air.

Mr. Arliden reached out into the air, and I expected Ashe to show some reaction as he called to his element of fire. Since I had no connection with the Earth or Fire, I felt nothing. But I saw a few earth-users amongst us gasp, their jaws dropping with confusion.

Mr. Arliden grinned wider, clicking his fingers. And then he was holding a perfect rose.

“For you, lovely Ms. Alveron.” He said with a chuckle and a courtly bow.

“Now, Jason, if you carry on that any longer, I have a good mind of ditching you.” Miss Arliden joked, but the awe wasn’t lost on anyone else in the room.

“Wow… that was amazing! You can control her element?” Ashe asked, taking the rose politely from Mr. Arliden.

“Yup.” He replied happily, like he had just scored a date with his crush. “With much more training and understanding between you and Noel, you can control his element too.”

With that, our mentor walked away, leaving us in our awed gazes. Ashe turned to look at me, finally withdrawing her power.

“That’s great, Noel. Imagine how we can use each other’s element in the future! You can use fire and air… I can use water…” Ashe commented dreamily, as we packed our bags, ready to get out of class.

Somewhere at the side, Dru gave her Guardian a withering look. “Why is your element water? Can’t you be of the fire or something? Then I’ll have something to fry Logan’s ass with!” She complained at Xaviel, earning amused laughter from our classmates as they laughed at her naivety and stroke of bad luck.

 For one point, Xaviel only kept a poker face, continuing to keep his stuff even as his Faen complained about his element –which they didn’t seem to have any problem with before this.

“Noel? How do you feel about it? Would you mind… letting me use your element in the future?” Ashe asked, sounding a little unsure and taking my attention back to my Faen.

I thought about her, using her power to blast air against the explosion to save Teddy at the last minute. I thought about my element.

“Of course, Ashe. I would be glad to share.”

She smiled, and that made the rest of my day.