Shout out to my wonderful friend Susie, who, with her extensive scientific knowledge, beta'd this chapter to make sure the scientific concepts I was modifying made sense and were properly used. Thanks so much! I don't know what I'd do without you!

Chapter 16

Marelda's POV

"You're really hard to find when you don't want to be found." I'd been running around since nine, after drills, trying to find Luca. The boy knew how to hide, I'll give him that.

I ended up locating him in town, at Random's Items, when the kid with the eyepatch and the wolf told me he saw Luca going towards the school gates, where the blue-black haired boy himself had been headed. The boy looked incredibly familiar, and I knew it wasn't because I'd seen him at school, it had been somewhere else, I just don't know where. But that was a problem for another time.

Luca jumped, then turned around. "You need a bell, bella, I swear."

"Sorry," I said. "And not just for the whole constantly-startling you, because that's actually funny, but for what I said last week. It was out of line and extreme and I'm sorry."

He smiled, just a little upturn of one side of his mouth. "It is I who should apologize, bella. You were right, I was being selfish. After you left, I thought about it, and realized just how stupidly dangerous my plan was. In all reality, the only one who'd probably make it out would be Selene, and that only because she's half-human."

"What?" Selene, his maybe half-cousin, is now suddenly half-human?

Luca seemed to realize the absurdity I was hearing. "Oh, yeah. We never got to that point of the conversation, did we? Skies above, this is going to be an interesting talk."

And just like that, Luca seemed more normal. Well, normal for Luca, anyhow. I guess all was forgiven between us.

Luca's POV

Random's Items was one of a kind. The store had very little in the way of organization, things very loosely grouped by type. Some of the things were new, some secondhand. It had baskets of rock, and random bags of yarn, and piles of different parchments. You could dig around and find what you needed or wanted, and then bargain for the price. It was always an adventure.

And a good way to avoid being found, usually. Marelda did manage to locate me, however, and we both ended up apologizing. Now, we were in the Featherly Flour Cafe, hidden in a corner so we could talk. I never got to tell her about the second half of my eavesdropped information, the part that concerned Selene specifically.

"You said no one knew if Selene was coming back, right?"

I nodded. "Have you tried the donuts here? They're divine, honestly. I recommend the ones with strawberry icing."

"Yes, I have, and the white chocolate with the chocolate drizzle is the best," she replied casually. "Now, what did you hear?"

We told the waitress our orders before continuing, keeping our voices low. I cast a mild white noise spell around us, so no one more than a few feet away would be able to understand what we were saying.

"Soon after Selene returned to Terra, after her brother's passing, she was kidnapped by the creature that caused the 'accident'."

"I'd ask if you're taking the mickey, but your expression says no." Marelda shook her head. "Kidnapped right after her brother's death? Cruel."

"Yeah. They killed him to lure her away from the safety of the school," I continued. "Klaus pursued her, with some help, didn't catch from who but one was a faery. She was held hostage by an elemental."

"Elemental?"

"You might have heard the term 'phoenix'. It's a bit of a misnomer, honestly. I did some research into them this week, but turned up very little."

"How much research did you put into this?" She looked a tad concerned. Couldn't blame her, I looked a mess. Haven't combed my hair in a few days, there are some faint circles under my eyes, but other than that I was fine.

"Not as much as you'd think," I said. "There were only a few books that talked about them. All I could find is that they are literal creatures of elemental magic. Earth, fire, water, wind, that sort of thing. They predate the fae, are apparently ancestors of them, and they dislike human far more than the fae do, as whole. I found a few references to them in legends and origin stories. They apparently have three forms—animal, humanoid, and element—that are determined by different factors. One legend said they created a new world to exist in separately from the humans, which made sense from what I overheard. There was a book that apparently had as good a description as there is on them, but it was checked out from the library."

"So why did an elemental want Selene?"

"She's half elemental. It honestly makes a lot of sense. I'd guess fire, maybe a little wind. She can't use ice or water magic, and her earth spells tend to be incredibly weak. Her fire magic, however, is insanely strong. She manipulates it like you do knives, only better."

We paused as the waitress came up and set down our donuts and drinks. Marelda had gotten some sort of tea, and I'd gotten hot chocolate. Something Selene had introduced me to. I took a sip, nearly burning my tongue. This was way too hot. I set it down and bit a donut instead.

"So why did the elemental want her? I mean, wouldn't their magic be stronger?"

"That's exactly it. But, from what the Emperor said, elementals can only use magic of their elements, nothing else. Selene, though? She can use most magics, and her human and elemental magics sort of bounce off each other and make the other stronger. You've heard of the crystal energy effect, right?"

"I have no idea what that is."

I pulled out my notebook, setting it on the table, sketching a rough diagram.

"Well, basically the theory for this is that when you've got a crystal ball, made of tons upon tons of surfaces, right? If it's the right material and you shine a light on it,"—I drew a beam of light—"and it makes the ball glow brighter than the initial light. The light energy is theoretically bouncing around on the inside of the ball, unable to escape due to the refraction of the light, leading to a buildup of light energy. The light is eventually released in one burst, consisting of all the light that has built up over time. Essentially, the crystal working with the light is causing energy to increase. I'm guessing Selene's magic is like that. Her two magics are like the light and the crystal, bouncing off each other and making them stronger as a whole than they would be separately. However, when the magic is released, due to the fact she's a human, it'll leave her exhausted.

"So her human magic makes her elemental magic stronger, and vice versa?"

"Exactly. It's like they're feeding off each other, growing stronger, but also balancing. I'm making an assumption here, but my guess is that the elemental magic was initially stronger than the human magic, which is why Selene, particularly when she first came, pulled off extremely powerful fire magic with ease, but at the same time, she struggled with other areas of magic. It started getting better by the time she left, but I don't know now how it's changed."

"Fae live off the magic in the nature of Myula, right? What about elementals?"

"Ah, my theory about that is the world they live in is specially tailored to sustain them. So if selene spends time there, her elemental magic feeds of the natural magic there, which would put her magic out of balance even further. In addition, Emperor said something about a seal being broken. This fits my theory of the magical imbalance. If Selene's elemental magic had a seal on it, it would limit its power, hopefully long enough for her human magic to grow strong enough to balance it."

"But, if the seal is broken, wouldn't that create a further imbalance, since the elemental magic would no longer be restricted?"

"Correct, by the assumptions of my theory. This would mean that her magic would be on the fritz, and, if she wasn't careful, her elemental magic could overwhelm her. However, there are probably other factors I don't know. If elementals do have three forms, like some legends say, I don't know how that would affect an elemental halfling. It could be different for each halfling, to boot, particularly depending upon how much human magic they have, as well as the kind of elemental magic they have—I don't know if how many or little elements their elemental half contains affects it, or if the elements themselves do. I can't say that earth would be easier than, say, wind."

"That seems like a problem."

"Which may be why Selene might stay on Terra. There is no natural magic there, so the elemental side wouldn't have as much to feed on. But, there's the possibility it would start feeding on her life force if she stays there for to long. And I can't be sure how climate affects it, either. It's currently winter, so it might mean her fire needs more to stay at the same place, or less energy because it goes into a power-saving mode or something. There's also a possibility that it might be safer for her to be in Myula. Not nearly as much energy for it to feed on as the world of elementals, but there's something. A balance. I could be entirely wrong, however, and unless I get more details, I can't be sure of any of this."

"I'm so confused. How do you even think of all these factors?"

I shrugged. "I have lots of time to think during lessons I'm otherwise not learning anything from."

"Well, I'll leave theorizing up to you. It's making my head spin." She took a large bite her donut, chewing a bit before swallowing, following it up with a sip of tea. "So is there anything else you thought of that might affect this?"

I stretched before putting my notebook away, and ate more of my donut. "Plenty of things, but I feel this is enough for now. It's not like I can do anything about it unless I make contact with Selene. I'm debating asking the Emperor, but then he'd be suspicious as to why I want to contact her, and he's better at seeing through my bullcrap than most. Best I can do is wait for her to come back. I'm pretty sure she will, if I know anything about her."

TheFallenHer0: Glad you didn't mind the long reply, because here's another one! Yeah, Magsie (this name was a result of random keyboard smashing) was made to be that way. I don't like him either. As for Joel, he'll exist but I'm not sure how big a part he's going to play, honestly. He, Dessa, and Helice will be Selene's new classmates, but at this point I don't have anything big planned for them. But we will see some more of the girls. I actually had them switched before I actually wrote them. Dessa was going to be a blind dancer and Helice a mute plant mage. And she wasn't Joel's older sister until I made a random decision mid-typing. And I hope you liked the make up between the two, as well as the almost three pages of magical theory that followed...haha...ha. No regrets! I'm glad you like what I'm doing with the main two of this story, though! I don't know if I'll ever have these two romantically involved, honestly. I currently imagine them as the two who are just always best friends who decide, without romantic attraction involved, to just get married because they both want kids. So yeah. Get married because why not and adopt some kids (girls, probably, so Luca can spoil them) kind of thing.