Maruca is mentioned for a second and so far I couldn't find a cannon last name for her, so because she's related to Wylie for the sake of this fanfiction and until she gets a last name given by shannon, I put Endal. 

there is a brief reference to something from legacy if you haven't read that yet, and that reference is going to become something bigger in this book. still, i stray away from going into the specifics of how this idea was used in legacy itself. 

pretty long one bc if i don't know what to write and get writers block i end up writing too much haha. Anyways happy reading!

*

I was convinced this was going to be the longest day of my life, because when I got home it wasn't only my parents waiting for me--although that was strange in itself. I was surprised to see Sophie and Keefe Foster sitting on the couch in my living room, Eamon standing more towards the corner of the room awkwardly shifting his balance between his feet as his sister stood beside him. 

"Oh good, you're home!" my mother cheered once she saw me, although I could see straight through the cheery exterior. She hated the Foster family, it was no secret to anyone. 

"Hey," I greeted lamely, moving towards my mother, who was sitting on the couch, and sending her a small wave of my hand. My dad, who was standing behind the couch, positioned so he was standing directly behind her, rested his hand gently onto my shoulder, applying enough pressure for me to realize he wanted me to sit down next to my mom. When I did, my mother wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "I thought I was supposed to have a meeting with some people from the council," I stated, confused. 

"You are," Sophie replied, flashing me with a comforting smile, "but so is my son. We were asked to take you somewhere your parents do not have a direct access to, so my daughter has asked me to take you with us."  

"Oh," I replied not know what else to say. I turned to my other beside me. "And you're okay with this?"

"Of course I am, sweetie," her forced smile and tone of voice made it seem the opposite. "Your father and I are going to going to the restaurant with Mr. Foster and see how the mural is going." She flashed a winning smile at Keefe, although I knew that she didn't like him and the only reason she wanted the mural was to create a dialogue with customers--and the only reason he was creating the mural, was because he was the best suited for the job. 

"Okay," I responded. She stood up, and I followed suit. I gave both my parents quick hugs, and my father gave one hard stare in Sophie's direction before smiling at Keefe and gesturing towards the direction of our Leapmaster. When they were gone, I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. 

"I'm sorry if they said anything," I immediately stated, worried. "They were upset you knew about my ability before them." What I said was the truth, but I also was not mentioning the fact they simply did not like her to begin with. 

"Your parents are kind," Sophie said, waving her arm. 

"Just intense," Eamon snorted, and she didn't hesitate to lightly whack him behind the head with her hand. "Ow, mom!" he immediately rubbed the back of his head, frowning at her. "That hurt."

"Good," she responded, and I let out a snort of my own. She pulled out a leaping crystal from her pocket, but I got confused upon the sight of it. 

"That's a blue crystal," I pointed out to her, wondering how many leaping crystals she had in her pocket and possibly if she grabbed the wrong one. "Isn't that for the forbidden cities?" I questioned further when she didn't put it away. 

She nodded her head, "Yes, that does seem to be where we're going." She flashed me a smile and held out her hand to me. "Don't be worried--and don't feel pressured. Those are the two most important pieces of advice I can give." 

I nodded along and moment later when we arrived at our destination, I saw we were in a large grassy field, trees surrounding the edges and benches lined up around. "Is this a park?" I questioned, almost having forgotten about the word. Blythe had showed me a human movie once when I was younger that had this sort of scenery inside it, and the characters had called the place a park. 

"Yes," Sophie responded. "Due to restrictions happening right now with humans, it's less likely they are outside and moving about. It is a matter the council is working on and making sure doesn't affect us as a species, so don't worry too hard about it, but it's made it so we are able to move more freely around humans. Not that it would matter, as I have this." She held up a small black orb, an Obscurer. 

"Oh," I replied, before noticing a small group of councilors sitting by one of the benches--they looked out of place with the few humans still walking around the park that I hadn't noticed earlier. "Why are we meeting here?" I asked. 

"It's the human location least traveled," Sophie explained, starting to walk towards the group. "It's already rare for elves to travel to the human cities--it's even more rare for them to travel to this specific place. From what I've been told, it's one of the most classified locations."

"I'm still not understanding why this meeting must be so classified," I added on in confusion, looking to Eamon who simply shrugged his shoulders. When we reached the group I realized immediately that there wasn't just councilors, there were other people as well. Other Foxfire students. I looked at their faces, trying to place their names. 

Firstly I noticed the group included Atlas Gryffon, who was currently in the elite levels training as a psionipath. I remember it was a big deal, as no one had previously manifested as one since Maruca Endal. Beside him was his girlfriend, Juno, who had manifested as a beguiler which was also, for some reason, a big deal. 

Next was Marcellus Rossby, a vociferator who didn't need his ability to makes sounds that caused people to get headaches. Simply speaking on his own was enough to drive a person crazy. He was the same level as Eamon and I. Beside him was his best friend, a vanisher named Briar Lennox. A girl I believe I've seen before, although a level below us, grinned in our direction from the other side of Briar. I didn't know her talent nor her ability, but considering the lineup I immediately believed her to be powerful. 

"Ah, Miss. Madigan and Mr. Foster, nice of you to join us," the councilor who spotted us first, Councilor Emery, greeted with a smile. "Welcome." 

"What are we doing here?" I asked, confused. 

"Well, you're here for a different reason than the rest," Councilor Terik told me, I was confused but his voice neither his expression held any malice. 

"Yes, I'd like to take you on a walk around here," Leulla stated, her eyes meeting those of her mother's quickly before darting back to me. "Then we can discuss how you may match up with this group further, after the thought." She motioned me to follow along, before she stepped into the direction back towards where I came from. 

I followed, a step behind her at all times, and looked around our scenery curiously. I grew anxious when I realized she was stepping outside of the park, and into the direction of a crosswalk on the street leading towards the city. "Where are we going?" I asked her. 

"I want you to see something," she told me, not explaining further. My brain came up with all sorts of ugly scenarios, down to them dumping me in the middle of the human cities and taking away all of possessions that would make me traceable, and all forms of transportation back home. We stopped in front of what looked to be a human convenience store, the door propped open so that we could enter and not cause a disturbance for making movement despite humans seeing nothing there as a result of the Obscurer I was sure she was handling. 

"Why are we here?" I asked, confused. 

"You are aware that humans die at a much more alarming and faster rate than us, yes?" I nodded in response--not sure where she was going. "Did you know one of the leading causes of death and this specific country we are standing in is something called smoking." 

"What's that?" I didn't know much about humans--only the minimum I was taught in school and shown in the movie I watched with Blythe when I was younger. I wasn't expected to know about humans because I never expected to be around them. Still, I figured it had something to do with fire. 

"Basically humans use this thing called a cigarette, a skinny tube shaped thin piece of paper wrapped around an addictive substance. The way they use it is by lighting it on one end with fire. The smoke that comes out as a result of this usually is inhaled into their lungs, and it can cause a disease which humans call cancer. You've heard of that disease, yes?" I nodded. 

"What does this have to do with me?" I asked, confused. 

"Why do you think they do it?" she asked, instead of answering me.  "Why would humans, knowing they already have a short life-span as it is, choose to do something harmful such as lighting fire to the end of a paper tube and inhale the smoke to hurt their lungs." 

We finally made the move to walk inside the store, and upon entrance I looked behind the man standing at the cash register and saw the product she was talking about. "I previously brought the young girl you saw earlier here, do you know her?" I shook my head. "She's a conjurer," Leulla explained. "Which means she was able to get me this." She held up one of the boxes of the brand I had specifically zoned in on. I wasn't very good with English, so I didn't bother reading the label. When Leulla asked me to do so, I informed her about my problem. 

"The front of this box states 'Smoking seriously harms you and others around you.' Why would humans want to use such a product?" 

I shrugged. "Does the harmful substance inside do anything for them?" 

"It depends the person--the biggest thing, is they put addictive substances so that even when humans want to quit, they'll feel like they need more." We walked outside and she tossed the package into the garbage, making a small statement about how it was "good riddance." 

"I still don't understand why you're talking about this to me?" 

"What are your fears about pyrokineticy?" Leulla questioned. "Public scorn?" 

"Well, yeah," I responded. "I don't want people to hate me for something I can't control. People don't like pyrokinetics, no matter if they're legal now or not." 

"It's not that people hate pyrokinetics--they're afraid of them. They believe that pyrokinetics cause serious harm to themselves as well as those around them. That by simply having a pyrokinetic near you, and giving them access to fire and letting them ablaze smoke by you, it will hurt you and you could die. They're afraid pyrokinetics will get addicted to fire, addicting to hurting those around them." She looked at me. "Much like how a cigarette works." 

"Wait, you're saying I am the cigarette?" I looked at her puzzled, but somewhat hurt. 

She laughed at my response. "I'm here to tell you that you're not one. And would you like to know why?" 

"Why?"

"Because you're not an object set for destruction, an addictive substance to only be used when people want to feel better. To surround others with smoke is not your only purpose in life. At least, I'd hope not." She nudged me lightly with her last sentence, laughing at her own joke. She stopped laughing and turned serious. "Nova, I don't want you to be afraid of your powers and what you can do. I believe you have a lot of power in there, potential, but I also believe you have something we adults like to call self-control. Have you hurt anyone around you?" 

"No, not yet," I told her, frowning. 

"Well, let's take out that not yet. Leave it at no. You have not hurt anyone around you, because you have control over yourself. You've spent all this time with my aunt Marella working to do so. We think that you could be a great asset to this world. Lord knows my brother, especially, believes in you, and being that he spends the most time with you I'm inclined to agree." 

I blushed slightly at the mention of Eamon, and she grinned. "I thought you guys were only going to talk to me about reevalutating whether I want to publicly say I'm a pyrokinetic or not," I stated, wondering if we could change the subject away from her talk of my fearing my own power and abilities. 

"Well, we do want to know that as a precursor to our next question. No judgement if you say no, we'll understand." She smiled gently. "Is that something you would be interested in?" 

I shrugged. "I've been thinking about it. My parents and all my friends know about my ability now, and they're the only people I care about anyways. I don't see how it could be a negative effect to just say it to everyone then."

"Is that a yes, then?" she questioned to be clear, and I thought it over for a moment. 

Is visibility truly what I want?  Then I looked at her and nodded. "Yeah, sure. I guess. Fine." I knew my response didn't sound to enthusiastic, but she paid no attention to my tone. "What's the next part then?" 

"You are aware of Team Valiant, yes? Every five or so years we pick a new group of prodigies and appoint them to work directly under the council as early-admission regents assigned to do tasks specifically directed towards things prodigies of their age are capable of achieving. It was first brought into mind with my mother, probably as a way of persuading her to work more for the council than for anyone else and prove she was loyal to them, but it's a program that has stuck and we believe is good for boosting up those special prodigies that show they're on the track to higher achievements early set-on."

I knew alright, Blythe labeled it the "gifted program" based on an idea from human schools that she had heard about previously. My mother believed it to be just another way talentless elves were excluded, as no one talentless had been invited before--despite them typically picking prodigies younger than the elite levels.

"We always pick anywhere from five to seven prodigies, and this year we originally picked six. This included the six you saw earlier, including my brother." The first thought that popped in my head was favoritism, but then I remembered that Eamon was crazy powerful--I just didn't get to see it all that often. I knew he was very shy about his ability, being compared to his mother so often took a toll, but he did deserve a spot. I could somewhat remember a conversation about it, where he said it was something he wanted and was looking forward to as Leulla and Ivan had been previously chosen. Actually, Ivan and Celeste were currently on it until just now I assumed. I wondered how Serena and Mika would feel, knowing they weren't chosen. They would be the first children of the original five members not picked to be on Team Valiant. 

"Okay," I said, drawing my response out. 

"The original plan for this year was those six prodigies, but after speaking with my aunt about your training, as well as my brother, I think it could be cause for reason to consider changing our quota to seven prodigies instead of six. While you haven't had the time for training alike the others, I believe you could be an asset for certain missions. It's also important to us that Team Valiant get along, and trust each other. Most of those members know each other, and while powerful, I realized my brother would be an odd man out. I think it would help him feel more secure in his place on the team if he had someone he trusts." 

"What about Mika or Serena?" I asked, puzzled. "I know for a fact Serena is very powerful." 

"That she is, but..." Leulla struggled to come up with a response. "Let's just say, this team is more than simply being powerful. The council has spent months trailing all the students of Foxfire, and Terik has done potential readings for specific ones we were unsure about." 

"Wait, like me?" I questioned, having had a reading with him weeks ago. 

"Like you." She smiled. "How would you like to meet the team? Initiation will not be until tomorrow, so you can have time to think it over." 

"Why was I told separately from everyone?" I asked. 

"I didn't want to overwhelm you, make you feel like you would have to say yes because everyone around you would," she explained. "Let's start heading back." I glanced at the convenience store one last time as we walked away, before looking back ahead and moving after her in the direction of the park. I noticed the group having a serious discussion before being interrupted by our re-entrance. "We talked it over, and I thought it would be nice for Nova to meet the team before committing to anything. She can think it over tonight before initiation tomorrow." 

"Really? What do you need to think over? It's Team Valiant." Marcellus rolled his eyes, folding his arms in annoyance. 

"Do you just open your mouth and make noise for fun?" the girl whose named I didn't know yet, the conjurer, snorted. "Don't listen to him." She grinned up at me. "What's your ability anyway? They wouldn't tell." She narrowed her eyes at Eamon specifically. 

"Not my secret to tell," he responded, shrugging. 

I gave him a look of gratitude, but took a deep breath. "I'm a pyrokinetic," I told them, releasing a breath after my words. I expected a bigger response, maybe some fear, but all I got was the girl shrugging and going, "Oh, that's cool then. How long have you been manifested?" 

Hearing her casual response to my ability somehow made me feel more comfortable, and I smiled. "A little bit now, a few months," I told her. "Like two? Three? I can't remember. The days have blended." 

"And she's great," Eamon added, smiling at me. 

"Well, I haven't really done anything on big scales or anything like that, I've mostly focused on control," I said, immediately denying his praise. 

"All in good time," Councilor Emery stated. "We believe you will reach that point, and hope that participation with this group with help get you there. It's important to remember you're only ever going to get better at working with your ability." 

"Now that we're back though, let's discuss your group's first task that will prove whether you belong on this team or not," Leulla took charge. "Think of it like a game of Base Quest. Somewhere in this city, we have hidden a cloth containing the Team Valiant symbol. Currently some of the councilors are guarding the area--the only hint we'll give is that it is away from humans completely. You must work as a team to retrieve the cloth and bring it back to me. Remember, you're working against Councilors, some of the strongest people you'll meet in your lifetime. If you refuse to work with your group, you are unlikely to succeed. Use your abilities, know your strengths." 

After that we made sure to line up, and I stood between Eamon and the girl. Realizing I should probably stop calling her "the girl" I turned to her in questioning. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite get your name," I told her, apologizing. 

"Oh, sorry I don't think I told you. Nice to meet you, I'm Ashla Keturah." 

We shook hands, and then the group took off. 

***

you're welcome, name twin. 

sorry this chapter took so long. the next chapter i'm SO EXCITED to write and get out to you guys, so as a birthday present to myself it should be out on my birthday on friday. (i'm turning 19 lol i'm so old)

chapter question: do you think all of the team members will make it completely? Will Nova choose to join?