Knowledge

Cassie's POV

My element is quite an odd one. It's not usually counted as an element by those who don't know about us. It means I can do all sorts of things. For one, I'm the only one in the group apart from Clio that can fly, because there's a spell that makes me weightless, yet still able to control myself.

I can see the future, too, sometimes. It comes to me in snatches, I can't make it happen. It's quite rare, too. Sometimes I go as much as a year without it happening, but that's only happened once. I always get my visions at night, as well.

I had a vision last night.

I saw us, last night, when we were with the Ronin Warriors. Then it skipped to, if I'm any judge, in about two months time, when it begins to get cold at the start of winter. I saw us again, fighting the Ronins... killing them. When the last one of them, Ryo, fell, I saw the world change. It turned into a desert, barren, with no life. No life, apart from us. We looked shocked, unbelieving. Then, a few minutes later, when I'd had time to take stock of it all, I saw us die as well. It was Kaz first, swallowed up by a great huge chasm in the ground. Diana followed her, then the rest of us. Ryelle was the last to go, holding on till the last, not letting go. Then she fell, and it was over. I knew where we had gone. We'd gone to hell, the place where everyone goes if they don't fill the expectations of the gods. We'd failed them. We were punished, and the entire world was punished with us.

Then the vision blurred and changed.

I saw us with the Ronins, again, last night. An alternate reality, another path. I saw us in a house, with them, talking and laughing. I saw us fighting the Dynasty together, and winning. After this I get a sequence of different images. I saw Ryo and Ryelle, in love, going out, eventually getting married, having kids, etc... I saw Persephone and Sage, Gaia and Kento, Alyssa and Cye, Clio and Rowen. I saw myself, as an aunt to my friends' kids, not falling in love because I was too happy as we were. On a sadder note, I saw two of us leave, not without pain, but leave nonetheless. Diana went back to Australia, leaving us an invitation to come and see her whenever we wanted, and I saw Kaz go back to Russia, not leaving us with anything.

The vision ended. I woke up, hot and sweating. Of all the visions I've ever had, that one was definitely the scariest.

I'm going to have to tell Ryelle. If we fight the Ronins the entire world's doomed, but it's going to take a lot to convince her of that. Stubborn as a mule is Ryelle.

I go into our living room. We've got a huge apartment, it's got four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a balcony. I clear my throat loudly. Everyone looks at me. I take a deep breath.

"I've had a vision." Everyone's immediately on the alert.

"I can't really explain it, so I guess I'm going to have to show you." I concentrate, then send my memory of the vision along our mind link.

At the end, we're all silent. None of the others want to accept it. Instinctively, we all turn to Ryelle. She's our leader, she must decide.

"What are we going to do, Ryelle?" Clio asks in a small voice.

Ryelle looks up. "Isn't it obvious? We're going to have to make peace with the Ronins."

Kaz grins. "And you're actually going to demean yourself to say sorry to them? You surprise me, Ryelle. I thought your ego was much too big for that!"

Ryelle doesn't, thankfully, rise to this bait. "Of course I am. If the alternative is to condemn the entire world, then I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

I smile at her. She's hotheaded, but she always seems to make the right decisions.

Monday...

So, here we are. We go into school as usual. The Ronins avoid us till lunch-time, when they can't. We go over to them, Ryelle in the lead. She stops next to them. They all look up.

Sage's voice is icy. "Can we help you?"

Ryelle bites her lip. "We need to talk."

"Oh, really? So you've decided you'll stay off killing us for a couple of days, then?"

"Look, I know what I said was wrong, and stupid, and I'm ready to admit it. The fact is that we need to talk, and fast."

Ryo looks at her for a second, then obviously decides she's telling the truth. He nods.

Ryelle grins. "Can we meet you this evening round at your place? It's probably safer than here."

"Yeah, sure. We'll meet you here at the end of lessons."

"Ok."

We walk off, trying not to show how relieved we are.