A/N* This fanfic is something I'm doing with two other people so the chapters will come out as they are written. This is the first time I've done anything collaborative with other people so please have patience for us as we learn!

Thanks for reading!

Exilluim Location-=-=Sahara Desert

Leilah

Her feet sunk into the sand as she moved along the dunes, headed for the rag-tag tents that flapped around in the wind. The sun shone down onto her Exilluim cloak and she resided the urge to rub the flecks of sand out of her swirling blue eyes. Too soon the tents came up and she made her way to the Ambi tent, forgoing the meager breakfast of fruit the school offered. Leilah positioned herself in the last row of the area and breathed the sweltering air deeply, using it to center herself. The shadows cast by the rising sun danced along the tent walls as Leilah's fingers twitched. Vaguely, she became aware of footsteps coming towards the tent, and her shoulders stiffened, sweat starting to bead along her back. Leilah turned and observed as the Ambi coach stood at the front, her hawk-like eyes watching as the rest of the students filed in.

Coach Rohanna clapped her hands "Today we work on temperature regulation, follow me" She led the students out of the tent and into the blazing sun. Leilah suppressed a sigh as Coach Rohanna motioned for them to start running. "Four times around the camp, try to think cold."

Leilah heaved a breath as she flexed her legs, stretching from side to side once before taking off, each footstep sinking into the sand slightly more than the rest. By the third lap, Leilah's chest was heaving and she had to make an effort to breathe evenly.

"I'm not cold, I'm not cold" she started chanting and several minutes later she had almost convinced herself that a tingling coldness had started at the tips of her toes and was slowly traveling up her body. Although not fast enough, Leilah finished her last lap and came to a stop, bending over in her black clothing and panting, reaching under the mask to wipe the sweat off of her forehead.

"Shade! Why are you standing around" Coach barked at her.

"Finished my laps" Leilah turned to her, her hands on her hips. "You said four right?"

"I did but now it's six." The Coach snarked back "Now get going or you don't get your bead."

Leilah felt the anxiety behind the coach's words and opened her mouth but Coach gave her a look and her mouth closed.

"Yes Coach" she growled, her shadow stretching towards Rohanna.

"Now Shade! Last chance!" Her next two laps didn't take as long as she thought and by the end, Leilah could've swore that a light breeze was blowing. She came to a stop, fingers twitching as she caught her breath. She watched as another of the waywards approached Rohanna. The coach sneered at the girl's ability and Leilah's hearing picked it up.

"Pyrokinetic", she had said. The Pyro had been there a while, the information emerged from her hot, muddy mind and Leilah sidled closer, her shadows shrouding her slightly as she eavesdropped. The coach gave the girl her bead and Leilah's shadow stretched itself until it touched the girls, immediately her emotions mingled with hers but one emotion rose above the rest. Anger. It boiled and bubbled and Leilah sensed a prank coming to the surface., Leilah's brow rose as she approached the teacher, flicking her wrist and sending the shadows skittering away, her shoulders slumped in relief as the other girl's emotions left her.

Coach Rohanna eyed Leilah for a moment before sighing heavily and reaching into a pouch hanging from her side. The coach eyed the bead, twirling it around.

"You know, Shade-" she started, her voice louder than usual. "- You don't deserve this bead. Not with your attitude….maybe I should just…keep it for myself." At that moment a vial was thrown at the coach and it broke onto her cape, releasing a hair-rising smell. Coach dropped the bead on the ground, snapping around, an irritated look on her face. "You! Pyrokinetic! Come here right now!''. Leilah took the bead, tucking it away into a pocket in her boots before watching the girl come over, the one with the boiling anger. The brittle fuse in Leilah snapped and she stepped forward. "You say that to everyone Coach, too bad we all disappoint you….and yet we always get a bead." She grinned, her hands twitching.

"Which reminds me, where is that bead you had for me?" Leilah held her hand out, eyebrows raised, outright challenging the Coach and the diminishing hold she had on the students.

Coach Rohanna's face flashed a thousand things at once as she reached into her pouch and pulled out two beads, handing one to the girl and one to Leilah. She took the bead and tucked it into her pocket. She turned away and headed for the Ambi tent, her stomach grumbling as a wicked smile lit her face. Now she had a bead for a rainy day and one for tomorrow. Leilah settled herself down onto a mat, her hands resting on her knees.

As the girl walked away Leilah stretched her shadow to hers, letting their minds connect and shadow-whispering.

"It is better to survive than tempt fate like that" she whispered into the girl's mind. It had been a long time since Leilah had attempted to talk to another Wayward but something in her urged her to talk...she had to admit to herself that maybe she had become a little lonely.

"Somehow, I forgot Shades could do this" The girl whispered back. A wry grin lit itself on Leilah's face as she turned slightly, eyes finding the girl in the Right Hemisphere tent not too far from the Ambi one. "Many do, although most are more frantic when they think I'm reading their thoughts."

'Wait- I think lunch is starting, I'll talk to you after I get lunch.' the girl thought.

"We will see about that" With that Leilah's shadow retracted, she twirled her wrist, watching as the shadows condensed and flitted along the walls of the tent. The rest of the Ambi Waywards returned to the tent and Coach Rohanna looked them over, a stern look on her face.

"You may go have lunch" she finally relented but her eyes snapped to Leilah when she moved to stand.

"Except you Shade! You are going to work on your hunger suppression" Coach grinned, watching Leilah's shoulders slump slightly before she squared them again. Leilah turned her back to the coach, instead, watching the waywards as they retrieved the mushy, disgusting fruit from the bins. Part of Leilah didn't mind skipping lunch but she hadn't eaten anything since the night before and hunger gnawed at her stomach, growling for sustenance. Leilah frowned as a wayward took an extra fruit and headed towards her, the wayward sidled beside the tent and used levitation to send it to her.

Leilah wiggled her fingers, shrouding the fruit in shadows as she brought it the rest of the way to her lap. Silently she thanked the girl wayward, wishing she wasn't out of reach for shadow-whispering. She ate the fruit slowly, knowing it would be her only meal until much later. The day went by slowly, the waywards were forced to levitate for hours on end before the Coaches finally released them.

Leilah moved just outside of the camp, pulling the silver-studded mask off and letting her hair down from its bun beneath the hood. Its striking white color stood out against the yellow of the sand and her nostrils flared as she breathed clean non-sweaty smelling air. She watched the other waywards disappear before pulling her crystal necklace out from under her shirt. Leilah pushed the blue crystal aside, holding her light green one up to the light and letting it rush her away. Leilah waited until the warm tingly feeling left before stepping out and into her camp.

It was a clearing surrounded by jungle, a lean-too was against a large tree and a put-out campfire sat in the middle, various other things and buildings were littered around. It was only one of her several camps that were littered around the place, but after the heat of the desert, Leilah was ready for the rainforest and its constant dribble of water. She soon had a crackling fire started and took the fruits the gnomes had left her, mashing them and placing them in the pot with some other herbs that had been collected and dried previously.

Leilah changed into a black tunic embroidered with white thread to create patterns and black leggings. Although she was soon soaked through and let the fire go out, pulling the bubbling soup into the large lean-too. Leilah devoured several overly large bites before leaning against a tree trunk and wiggling her fingers, shadows gathered on the ground and swirled around. They twirled until she flicked her wrist, shaping them into a bird, it fluttered along the ground before dispersing and skittering away at the sound of a gnome entering the clearing.

"Good evening Leilah" The gnome gave her a green toothed smile as she settled beneath the lean-too.

"Hi Talia, thanks for the fruits" She held out a wooden bowl for the gnome and she took it, thanking Leilah.

"The trees were feeling thankful today and gave me extra, their song had a new tune to it.

"Tell me about it?" One of the few things she enjoyed was listening to Talia describe the trees and their songs, even now, with her back against one. Leilah felt its life beating rhythmically in her chest.

Ashlee

Another day in the sweltering hot desert. Ashlee found herself already sweating although she had barely stepped foot out of the meal tent. Not again, she mentally groaned. It was going to be another seemingly endless day among the endless years she lived going to Exillium. She waded through the sand, putting one foot in front of the other to get to the Ambi tent. She missed the days at Foxfire, where she had first begun to learn more about her exciting new power, hydrokinesis. No matter how hard she tried to control it, it just never seemed to be enough. And… that's how the Council banished her; banished her to a place where she knew no one would ever see her again, including her family. Anger and betrayal filled her chest. She'd rather replay that open betrayal of her family and so-called friends denouncing her over and over than to ever hear that they loved her again. She was to be forgotten, only really known to herself. Her family's crest represented neither unity nor family to her; it was but a mere piece of jewelry that held together her attire. And it's not like anyone would ever care to know me, she inwardly mourned. Finding that motivation enough to start and finish whatever cruel and exhausting things lay ahead of her, she trudged on.

After finally arriving, she sat down in her assigned area and listened to the Ambi coach, Coach Rohanna, lecture on this and that and the daily lecture of "why we do what we do". She found herself drifting off when all of a sudden, Coach Rihanna broke off her daydream.

"Today we work on temperature regulation; follow me."

"Oh, great," Ashlee muttered softly to herself as Coach explained and motioned to where everyone where to start and then ordered all the Waywards on.

"Four times around the camp! Try to think cold."

And then she was off, sprinting off of the most level part of the desert sand and then slowed to a jog. Ashlee's heels dug into the ground and it took all of her effort to keep her feet from sinking in the sand. This was sure one way to cool off. Her one mission was to focus on being cold, freezing cold. But that was seemingly impossible. Somehow elves were able to suppress the physical symptoms of heat exhaustion.

Think cold. Think cold. That mantra seemed to be her friend, propelling her on to complete the second lap. She tried to recall a time where she had endured extremely cold conditions. None really came to mind, so she thought harder. She had heard from her Elvin and multispecial history classes back when she was at Foxfire. In some places, it got down to -49 degrees Celsius! Never had there been a time where Ashlee had traveled to Antarctica, and The Lost Cities never had that cold of weather, so it was hard to imagine being cold in the sweltering heat!

She was in the middle of coming up with a possible solution when she heard a dreaded voice calling someone out.

"Shade! Why are you standing around?"

"Finished my laps." Ashlee noticed that the only female Shade turned and asked, "You said four, right?"

"I did, but now it's six." Coach Rohanna shot back. "Now get going or you don't get your bead."

The struggle and hustle that the Shade had was evident. Ashlee felt bad for her and hoped she found favor with her coach.

She started on the third lap and passed by the Blue coach, whom she overheard talking to another girl, this time. Slowing down, she allowed herself to go a consistent pace so she could eavesdrop on their conversation.

"You! Pyrokinetic! Come here right now!''

"Yes, Coach?" the prodigy responded.

"You did this? Didn't you?!'' Coach Bora motioned to his cape.

"Why would I ever have a reason to do that?" At this point, it was easy to see right through her attempt to sound innocent. She was lying; the sarcastic tone on the edge of her voice was a tell that proved her guilt. Of course, Ashlee wouldn't point that out. Besides, she needed to finish her laps and get her bead for today.

She sped up, easily finishing the fourth and fifth lap. When she was beginning her sixth lap, Coach Rohanna called her over.

"Hey Hydrokinetic!"

"Yes, Coach?"

"You've been showing a lot of improvement this week. But you are still not even close to today's goal. Pick up the pace!" She nodded at her mentor's words. "And," the coach added softly, "try to feel the inner pull."

For some reason, that was one of the most helpful and inspiring things the Ambi coach had ever said to her, maybe even anyone, for that matter. She couldn't recall the last time she ever said anything that kind to someone. Regardless, she felt honored, so she took her words into account and used them as inspiration.

Feel the pull. Maybe it was time that she focused on her own experiences. Ashlee's few memories of snow were good ones. She let the memory of snow dominate her mind, feeling all of the euphoria and glee that she felt as a little girl. One specific memory surfaced in her mind; a frigid winter day with over 2 feet of snow! Young Ashlee giggled at the sight of snowfall and stuck her tongue out to catch a snowflake. She scooped up a handful of fallen snow and for the first time, she felt that the snow was calling to her. She could imagine it melting into ice-cold drops of water that would quench her thirst and stop the sweat from trickling down her face and neck. She vaguely became aware of a prickly feeling throughout her body and she suddenly realized she wasn't sweating as much. She finished the 6th lap and stood off to the side to catch her breath for a moment.

"Hydrokinetic, you are improving substantially! Of course, there is room for improvement, but well done. Here is your bead."

Ashlee opened her mouth, then closed it. She didn't know what to say! All she could manage was a "thank you so much" and walked away, feeling motivated.
She did feel bad for the other two girls. The Shade seemed like a decent person but a bit sassy. Pyrokinetic kind of looked like a prankster, but probably was naturally outgoing.

When the coaches dismissed everyone to lunch, Ashlee noticed that Coach Rohanna forced Shade to practice appetite suppression. Pyrokinetic levitated a fruit to her using telekinesis and she looked thankful and relieved. She made eye contact with the Shade and gave her a sympathetic look.

Exhausted, she was thankful to sit alone and eat her weird, squishy fruit. The texture was similar to what humans would call porridge and tasted like half-expired banana and Greek yogurt on top of being slimy. Not an appealing texture, nor was the taste great, but it was enough to fill her up for the rest of the day when they continued with levitation for 3 hours. After they finished, she was thoroughly exhausted, so she left immediately and pulled out her leaping crystal.

Oleander

Oleander groaned as sand slipped into her tall boots, "Ugh, why do we have to do this in the desert!" she exclaimed as she tried shaking the sand out. Today's Exillium assignment was to run four laps around the area, and to practice regulating body temperature. Oleander finally stopped to take a breath after the third lap, "You, Pyrokinetic, continue running, or else you won't get your next bead." said one of the Coaches, Oleander could never tell between the three of them, even with their colored handprints on their sleeves, she bit back an insult-knowing she would suffer major consequences, adjusted her mask and looked up at the Coach.

"Sorry, Coach, I just can't get my body temperature lower. It's pretty difficult." Oleander said while panting, "Just imagine being in the snowy mountains, imagine how cold the air is, and you should be good." The Coach walked away, Oleander scoffed and continued running.

"I did, but now it's six." Oleander overheard a conversation, one of the Shades had finished her laps and told one of the Coaches. Oleander groaned and started to run the extra laps. Sweaty and out of breath, Oleander finally finished her six laps, her temperature regulation getting a little more effective as she ran faster. I'm about to burn that cape right off of that Coach right now. Oleander thought, walking towards one of the Coaches, "What do you need, Pyrokinetic." the Coach spat,

"I'm done with my six laps.'' Oleander said, biting back yet another insult, "Alright then, here's your bead.'' The Coach said as a bead was added to Oleander's string, Oleander stood and stared at the Coach for a second, thinking of all of the ways she could prank her, she turned around, walked a few steps away, hiding behind one of the tents' poles. Oleander opened her satchel and pulled out a small, black vial, aimed at the couch, and let it blow, the liquid that was inside of the vial turned out to be yeti pee, it splashed all over the Coach's cape, making her smell terrible. Oleander snickered as she watched the Coach looking for who had thrown the vial, you didn't have to see her face to know that they were mad.

"You! Pyrokinetic! Come here right now!'' the Coach shouted as she spotted Oleander,

"Yes, Coach?" Oleander said, trying not to gag from the smell, "You did this? Didn't you?!'' the Coach said, obviously talking about her vile-smelling cape,

"Why would I ever have any reason to do that?" Oleander smiled, smiling innocently,

"If you do this again, you won't get your next bead. I saw great potential when you first came here.'' The Coach said, pausing to look back at another Wayward, who caught Oleander's attention, Oleander looked at the girl, smiling. Oleander hadn't talked to any other Waywards since she got there, a year or two ago. She looked at Wayward's outstretched hand, and back at the Coach. She saw the Coach reach into her pouch and gave both the girl next to her and Oleander a bead,

"You're welcome.'' Oleander said, smiling at the girl as she turned to walk to the Right Hemisphere, she sat down, letting out a loud sigh.

"It is better to survive than tempt fate like that," a voice suddenly sounded,

"What the?" Oleander looked around, confused, she saw a long, unnatural shadow connecting to her own, her eyes followed the shadow to the Wayward she talked to earlier, 'Somehow, I forgot Shades could do this.' Oleander thought, still looking at the girl as she responded with"Many do, although most are more frantic when they think I'm reading their thoughts.". Oleander thought about what she said earlier and said ''Wait- I think lunch is starting, I'll talk to you after I get lunch.'' Oleander sighed, wishing she could use her Pyrokinetic abilities, she only had her Pyrokinetic pin, she hadn't yet told anybody she also had manifested as a Vanisher. Oleander quickly stood up and walked toward the bins, filled with what the Coaches called 'food', the mushy, fruit was the most horrid thing she's eaten in her life.

"Except you Shade! You are going to work on your hunger suppression." Oleander heard one of the Coaches shout, knowing she was talking about the Ambi girl from earlier, she grabbed an extra fruit and walked near the Ambi tent, using levitation to send the Shade a fruit, she smiled and winked as she continued walking to the Right Hemisphere. Maybe our lives will get better if we stick together. Oleander thought to herself as she took a bite out of the mushy fruit, replenishing her stamina. After hours of levitating and class was over, Oleander finally got to do whatever she wanted without the Coaches breathing down her neck. She quickly changed out of her uniform, and pulled out a home crystal, leaping to a treehouse near a cliff that overlooked the ocean, she sat on the edge of the platform, leaning back, smelling the salty air and listening to the sound of waves crashing against rocks in the background

"Time for some practice'' Oleander jumped down from the platform and walked down to the beach before climbing on top of a wet, slippery sea stack, a huge, deep red flame burst from her hands and she yelped, waving her hands around and putting out the fire, "I hate fire. . ." she grumbled as she sat down, inhaling a breath of the salty ocean air. Oleander spotted some odd-looking sea plants and pulled out her notebook, writing down a description and drawing a quick sketch, she put the notebook away, took a deep breath, and tried practicing her Vanisher ability, she slowly started to blink, blinking faster and faster until she had to stop, exhausted from all of her attempts.
Oleander stood up and pulled a different crystal out, one that took her to a little camp where a few gnomes lived, she jumped into the light and let it take her away.

"Hello, Oleander!" a gnome greeted her, "Thank you, Helianthus, I wanted to ask you something.'' Oleander looked at the gnome,

"Ask me anything."Helianthus smiled, her green teeth showing,

"Do you have any Reveriebells? I've been having some nightmares lately." Oleander said, still looking at the small gnome in front of her.

"Of course, how many do you require?" The gnome said as she grabbed a basket filled with Reveriebells,

"I'll take one bundle, please.'' Oleander said smiling, as she grabbed a small bundle of flowers, "Thank you, truly, Helianthus." Oleander said as she leaped to her treehouse. That night, Oleander had the sweetest of dreams.

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