"Not now, John," Mom cut him off as she gritted her teeth.

"What? Tell me, dad. Ever since what?" I urged, raising my voice.

Dad sighed heavily, running his fingers through his chestnut locks. "Tell you what, pumpkin pie. Why don't you go do some exploring on your own for a little bit? Just walk around and gather your thoughts, then meet us back here in fifteen minutes, alright? Your mom and I need to have a little talk."

I narrowed my eyes. "Fine, but you and mom better tell me what's happening by then."

He gave a slight chuckle before responding, "I promise. And remember to stick to stick to the sidewalk; it'll lead you right back here."

As I walked through the populous district, my frustration was momentarily dispersed when I heard the jubilant chatters from all around me. It was such a blissful moment, that I couldn't help but wonder if this is the world that I truly belonged in.

I suddenly felt a hotness on the nape of my neck, and after making contact with the perspiration embedded on my skin, I slowly took off the thick wooly jacket while moving my neck back and forth to get rid of the dull ache. It was devastatingly humid.

After closing my eyes for a split second, my body immediately collided with something, or someone.

I groaned loudly as I made contact with the hard ground, not realizing the slight action had exposed the mark I so desperately wanted to conceal.

"Bloody hell, are you alright there?" a voice called out from above, extending an outstretched hand.

"No, it's fi"- I started before the stranger's appearance stopped me dead in my tracks.

The boy looked around my age, with a well-built stature and steel eyes that seemed to illuminate in the burning sun. But that hair...there was something strangely familiar about that hair.

"Excuse me, but have we met before?" I inquired.

As the stranger's fingers glided through his platinum hair, he shook his head. "I don't believe so. Do you live in these parts?" he asked.

"Well...more or less. I guess I do technically live here."

"Good to know. I'm Luka. Luka Morlington."

Even his name sounded fancy. "It's nice to meet you...?"

He gave out a little laugh. "You don't sound sure. But then again, I did inadvertently caused you pain. Are you sure you're alright?"

I gave him a reassuring smile. "Yes, I'm sure. Are you always this friendly with strangers?"

"Only the pretty ones, of course," he said as he gave a little wink, "By the way, nice tattoo."

"What tattoo..?" I drifted off before the realization finally hit me. I quickly glanced down at my arm in horror and sure enough, the mark was as clear as day.

In a blink of a second, I covered it with the jacket and repeatedly shook my head. "Oh no, that's not a tattoo. It's more of like a..."

"...temporary tattoo?"

I decided to roll with it just he would stop asking questions. "That is exactly what I was about to say."

"If you say so. But just wondering, what school do you go to?"

Before I could reply, he quickly dragged me towards the side of the street, narrowly missing the bustling crowd by a mere inches.

"I do-don't think you'll know it; it's pretty unpopular. What about you?" I lied, hoping he wouldn't see through it.

"Me? I'm about to enter my last year at CEPS."

"I don't think I've ever heard of it."

Luka looked at me in surprise. "Seriously? You don't know what it stands for? It's one of the best Elucaen Preparatory schools in the world," he boasted.

"Is it located in America? I mean, Almeria?"

"Of course not, the school is based in Anglia."

I wonder if it was the same one that grandmother went to...no, that was definitely not an option. But there was something about this guy...something that seemed a bit off.

"So, what's your name?" he continued.

Before I had the chance to answer, I noticed a hand waving from behind his back, and ten feet away, stood my parents with arched eyebrows.

"I think I have to go now...it was nice meeting you," I rambled, dashing through the crowds.

"Who was that young man you were talking to, Erin?" Dad asked as soon as I was in range of hearing.

"Nobody, can we go now?" I quickly muttered.

"Alright then, follow us. If it's still standing today, then it would be the perfect place to talk."

A few minutes later, we stood in front of a silvery-colored ice cream parlor, its windows as glossy as satin. I cocked my head to the side. "This place is called 'The CONEction Creamery?' It looks very...plain."

"It's the perfect name. This may not look like it, but it was the best ice cream shop back when we were little kids, isn't that right, John?" my mom replied, nudging my dad.

"Of course I do, Kristi. We used to go on so many amazing dates here during the summer."

I coughed loudly. "Hello? Eldest kid still present? Once again?"

"Sorry, dear. The point is, don't judge a book by its cover."

My mother was right; the inside looked so much better than the outside. Exquisite pastel salmon color lined the wallpapers and its furniture was unexpectedly fairly vibrant, as opposed to my initial thoughts of its dreariness. Ladderback chairs and milky white tables were scattered along the black and white marble floor, leaving only a diminutive space for the waiting line. It was a bit more crowded than I thought, but as soon as the last customer paid for their dessert, I dashed toward the line.

To my utmost surprise, all of the ice cream was completely thawed. Literally melted to the core. What shocked me even more, was the fact that this auburn-haired worker just moved her fingers and the liquefied ice cream suddenly became solid, just like that.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me, but did you wave your hand and the ice cream's defrosted state suddenly become frozen again?"

"Why, yes I did, madamoiselle. If you couldn't tell, since I'm an aqua Elucaen, I have the power to freeze any object or solid; therefore, to make things more 'fresh' I guess you can say, this way is more convenient," she replied, smiling.

"So you can just freeze ice cream any time you want?"

"Oui, like this?" she said as she flicked her finger and in less than a second, the melted mint chocolate ice cream instantly transformed into a solid state of deliciousness.

She handed it to me. "Here, sweetheart; my treat. It's been quite a while since I last talked to a child. Oh, how refreshing!"

"Thank you?" I replied, grinning from ear to ear.

"This tastes heavenly," I mumbled through ice cream bites as my lips savored the delightful flavor of the refreshing mint and rich chocolate taste.

My parents chuckled lightly in response. "I told you so. Anyways, what do you think of all of this so far?"

I thought for a moment. "Honestly? I still can't believe all of this is happening to me. But after musing about it for a while, it actually kind of make sense, since a lot of strange things did happen to me over the course of my freshman year at high school. Strange things that was always linked to water."

I continued, "Are you going to tell me what you were talking about earlier?"

My dad cleared his throat. "Well...this is going to take quite a while, so sit tight. First, let me start from the beginning. You probably don't know this yet, but our world, the human world, is separated from the Elucae world through a very thin layer of portentia, the energy that every Elucaen possesses in order to utilize their elemental magic. However, one cannot use their powers outside of the elemental world; if attempted to do so, would most likely result in complete obliteration."

I interrupted. "Wait...so why did nothing happened to me then? When I accidentally froze water this morning?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I think you're going to be fine since you didn't know how to control it; the Elucaen government take things like that into account when they see that you've violated one of their­­­ laws. However, once you started learning how to use your powers, they won't spare you."

"Anyways, a few hundred years ago, there was a person-well woman-named Mortema who was the most powerful Elucaen in all the realms. She was so powerful, no one dared defy her for fear of the consequences. Don't get me wrong, she was just as gracious and beautiful as she was powerful. She loved everyone and everyone loved her. Unfortunately, as time passed by, she had let her ambition and thirst for even more power clouded her judgement and thus, was eventually tempted to the dark side by Malus, the king of Darkness himself. And that, sweetie, was when everything started falling apart."

"Wait hold up...first off, how is this Malus relevant to the story? And how did things fell apart?" I asked with a confused look. This is not making any sense at all...

Before my dad could respond, my mom cut him off. "As your father was saying, Malus was the king of darkness, essentially the wickedest spirit in the Elucaen world. As you can see, having the most powerful Elucaen on the same side as the most villainous person is probably not the best idea for world peace. And so, it was a very calamitous time period, filled with constant chaos and destruction. That is...until a young lady named Jenni Mesineux-one of your ancestors may I add- came along and defeated what we all thought was undefeatable. She was gifted with a very special ability, an ability that we believe you have as well, deep inside of you."

I looked at both of them like they just sprouted an extra head. "So...what exactly is this ability? And what happened between those two?"

"She had the ability to channel the most powerful level of portentia, something that Mortema also possessed; as a result, they were able to utilize not just one type of element, but all of them as well. The difference was that due to Jenni's prolonged illness, it had limited that power to some degree, giving Mortema the upper hand in their battle. Anyways, what happened was that Jenni, along with the virtuous and powerful Elucaen council, eventually banished Malus to the depths of the ocean for eternity, right where he belonged."

"As I was saying, the real problem was Mortema, who also had the ability to wield all types of elemental magic. Their fight took quite a while, but Jenni did ultimately defeat Mortema, though for a terrible price."

I gulped. I did not like where this was going. "So um...what's the terrible price that she had to pay?"

My dad resumed the story. "Well, before Mortema took her last breath, she had cursed Jenni using the last of her abilities, or more specially, the Mesineux clan. She had cursed that from now on, every daughter of pure Meniseux blood will, without a doubt, die on their 19th birthday."

As the wheels started spinning in my head, I gave out a little gasp. "Are you saying that I'm going to-"

My mom nodded solemnly.

"...but that's in seven months."