"Oh look, it's the girl of Many Floods!"
"Then where's her brother?"
Linh walked with her head down as her classmates jeered at her. (Fitz, Biana, Marella, Jensi and keefe weren't around then.)
"Linh!" Tam came running down the hall from Shade class. "C'mon, Linh. School's dismissed." Right on cue, the bell rung.
Tam pulled out a pathfinder, Linh clinging tightly to his arm as they leapt away from Foxfire. The twins weren't allowed to use the Leapmaster because the other elves were concerned that Linh would go out of control and demolish it.
They appeared in Atlantis. "Tam, why are we here?" Linh asked, but was almost completely overwhelmed by the amount of water surrounding them, begging her to pay attention to them. Linh gulped down her longing to olay with the water and looked down, trying to forget that it was there. "I... lost my Elvin History textbook," Tam answered sheepishly, Linh rolling her eyes at him. "Okay then, Sir Forgetfullness, let's go buy that textbook of yours." Linh resumed her quiet personality as they walked down Atlantis's streets. Elves of all ages stopped and gawked at the twins. Their beauty was truly undeniable. Sometimes even the Vackers were questioned by the twins. Some flirty teenage boys stalked up to Linh, but Tam used his shadows to scare them away. "Tam," Linh whispered, putting a hand on Tam's shoulder. Tam immediately calmed down. This was the Tam that Linh loved; the Tam that showed his love for the world, the Tam without his armor. The true Tam.
The twins stopped in front of a shop called; "GET YOUR TEXTBOOKS!" Tam climbed up the fromt steps, then turned back to Linh. "I'll be right back. You take care of yourself for a few minutes, okay?" Linh nodded, and Tam went into the store.
"Look! It's the Girl of Many Floods! What's she doing here? Where's her shady brother?" Linh tried to block out all the comments. The last thing she needed was the elves of Atlantis to trigger her anger to unleash a tsunami. Don't look up. Don't look up. Linh repeated the steps to herself. Don't look up.
"HEY YOU!" A voice shouted. Linh lifted her head to look at he person who had shouted to her. "HEY YOU!" He asked again. "WHERE'S YOUR SNOBBY BRITHER, EH?!"
Calm down. Calm down. "My brother's not snobby," Linh replied quietly.
"Ronald," his girlfriend warned, putting a hand on his shoulder. Robald just laughed and shook her off. "This girl's harmless, May." He turned back to Linh.
"IS HE NOW?!" He continued to jeer. "HE'S JUST A BIG SHADY DUDE WHO THINKS HE'S SO TOUGH!" That was the last straw. In her anger, Linh created a tidal wave that washed out half of Atlantis. She screamed in agony, trying to pull it back together. Tam rushed out, calming her with his prescense only. She was able to evaporate the water, but the damage was done. Houses lay ruined, children ran screaming to their mothers. The boy who had jeered at her lay injured in a pile of rubbish, May caught up in a tree. A light flashed, and the Councillors plus Quan appeared. Most of the Councillors looked at Linh in hatred, but Councillor Oralie, Councillor Kenric, Councillor Terik and Councillor Bronte only had pity in their faces. Quan cleared his throat. "Tam, take your little sister home. Your mother is wating for you there."
"We're twins," Tam growled, pulling out his pathfinder.
"Stop lying, you ungrateful child," Quan sneered, then turned to Emery, whispered something that sounded suspiciously like; "Public Punishment", and leapt away before Tam could reply. "C'mon, Linh," Tam light leaped them both back to Choralmere. After hours of anxious waiting, Emery and the Council leapt to Choralmere. Emery eyed the twins wearily, then commanded; "Follow me." Linh glanced at her brother before standing up, Tam hesitating much longer to do so. The twins were forced onto a stage, and Linh shuddered at the crowd. Public punishment. Of course. Councillor Noland screamed, and the crowd covered their ears at the sound of the Voiciferator. "Linh Angel Song," Emery commanded. Linh nervously stepped up, Tam squinting at the Council, ready to attack whenever necessary.
"You are condemned of many, many crimes. We have no choice but to banish you to Exillium." Linh fought back tears as the crowd cheered, and when she noticed her parents among the cheering elves.
Tam couldn't stand it any longer. "STOP!" He yelled in a voice worthy of a voiceferater.
Emery turned towards Tam, surprised. "If you banish Linh, you banish me!" Tam continued. He had heard how Linh defended him in front of the boy, but over that, he loved Linh. He loved her too much to let her suffer alone in Exillium. Emery cleared his throat. "That can be arranged." The Councillors regally left the stage, leaving Tam fuming. A goblin pulled Tam off, and Linh hugged him as tight as she could. "You didn't have to do that," she whispered. Tam hugged her back. "Yes I did," he whispered too. "Yes I did."
Exillium Life
Linh and Tam arrived at Exillium, Linh shuddering at the cold, Tam looking around for the initiates.
"Ah!" Linh was pulled up by the ankle by a rope, and freaked out. "LINH!" Tam ran towards her, but his ankle caught on a rope too. He was pulled up, and heard the jeering of elves. He realized that the entire Exillium was watching them. Linh calmed down and cut the rope with water. She cushioned her fall with a soft wave, and was about to do the samewith Tam, when the purple coach stopped her. "He has to do it on his own," the coach told her. Tam reached up with a shard if glass that had broken from a mirror he had broken once; a souvenir. He cut the rope and landed with a bone-breaking thud on the ground.
"TAM!" Linh ran over to Tam, who didn't reply. A guy rushed over to Tam, picked him up and ran with him to a tent. Linh followed, but bumped into a Wayward. "Hi," Linh told her. The wayward shook her head, signaling that they weren't allowed to talk. Then hurried away. Linh continued ti catch up to the boobrie dude who had took Tam. The boobrie dude gave Tam a bunch of elixirs, and Tam spurred to life. "Agh! What is that taste!?" Was his first words when he woke up. Linh rushed over and hugged him.
The boobrie dude whistled. "Twins, I reckon?"
"Yeah." Linh replied. The boobrie dude didn't stare at then like they were a dangerous animal, unlike most elves. He just nodded thoughtfully. "Very well. Off you go, then."
Their first day of Exillium was horrible. They skipped lunch to do hunger suppresion, and then they had to hold their breaths underwater. But things went better than they should have. In hunger suppresion, the girl Linh had bumped into calmed her down. She must be an empath. The girl did the same in holding their breaths. Tam noticed the Empath crest, so didn't stop the girl. When they finished, Linh practically sighed with relief. Before the twins could leap back to Choralmere, though, the Empath girl who Linh had bumped into pulled Linh aside. "My name's Amber," she whispered. "Don't tell me you don't need my help. You do. And I will do everything I can to help you."
"Why are you being nice to us?" Tam asked suspiciously. Amber looked him right in the eye. "Because you won't survive out here by yourself. Ever." With that, she leapt away. The rest of their lives went the same; Amber helping to calm LInh down whenever she needed it, Tam protecting them both, and Linh improving every day. Life went the same, until they met a girl with gold-speckled eyes, who changed their life forever.