"Last Time you were here." Loridas began "We ended with me telling you that The Nine Elders and myself had vanished." He was sitting in a large leather armchair and I was across from him in my own. His feet touched the ground but even being as tall as I was at twelve years old my feet still dangled about six inches off the ground.
"Where did you all go?" I ask.
Loridas takes his off mine like he couldn't bear to see my reaction. "We met inside the citadel, that night it was a quartermoon and I was going to execute them one by one. Something else happened inside of that room that changed the course of our history forever. You see my dear, it was Loralite from the beginning that had awakened the planets prosperity. Loric companies had begun to dig towards the center of the planet and they had brought back up with them chunks of the precious stone. There was lorelite stones in the citadel and as I grabbed a chunk to use as a tool of execution –a vision seared through me and the other Elders. Lorien would be blessed with many gifts, but a sacrifice would have to be made. The planet wanted the lives of either those of the innocent or of nine willing. There were ten of us so that meant only one would survive. One thing we all agreed upon was that the innocent would be spared. In the vision we were told of a special charm that had been placed upon us all. We could only be killed in order, that way it wouldn't be a blood battle. The spirit of the planet had looked into each of us and decided who was the most worthy. Unfourtunately, I wasn't the tenth Elder. I was the Ninth and marked for death. One by one they took their own lives. When it was my turn I reached for the sharp lorelite stone but the tenth Elder grabbed it before me. It was then I heard a confession so sinister that it changed my fate. I learned the real reason for my Son's death. As it turn out he had fallen in love with the Tenths daughter. The elder was prejudiced against Mogadorians and so he had my own flesh and blood killed rather than allow them to be together. Can you imagine my darling? A young boy murdered in cold blood for loving another living being. I was livid, I don't know how I did it, but I took that piece of Loralite and plunged it into his throat. As he bled out swiftly I felt something change. One by one a scar was burned into my ankle. The pain was unbearable I remembering thinking that I was dying, but then the pain subsided. Somehow I had taken the place of the tenth Elder. Also, I had taken the burden of each elder. "
Loridas takes a moment for a pause and then looks at me for the first time. "The pain wasn't over yet. It the same spot that I had pierced my foe's neck another scar was burned into place. My loric body was mutated into the monster you originally knew me as. It took several centuries to learn how to control my new form so that I could shape back into my original body. I was too ashamed to be seen until then so I went into hiding aswell. I regret leaving my family… and I never saw my wife again."
"When I finally did come back Mogadore's condition was worsening. A plague had washed over the planet, killing vegetation and making the Mogadorians sterile. I believe that was my fault, my beloved planet that I had fought so hard for was dying. Out of a cold and restless heart I helped rebuild Mogadore. I led Mogadorian researchers to discover a new way of keeping the Mogadorian race from extinction. In the end Mogadore was still dying while Lorien was thriving and unwilling to help out Mogadore. After decades of slow progress I decided that it was time enough for suffering and misery. Something had changed with in the generations I had spent as a leader of a hopeless planet. I knew that it was time for action. I knew that it was time to move. It was this time that I had decided on Earth as our new home. Of course, once the new elders of Lorien learned of my plans they too wanted to keep Mogadore from salvation. Pittacus Lore told me that he and the others refused to allow my forces to reach Earth. He said that he would stop me at all costs."
"What was he like?" I ask. My voice echoes weirdly around the room because I hadn't spoken in a long time.
"Pittacus Lore? He was just a boy really, maybe about a hundred years old-."
"A hundred?"I gasp. "That's not young."
Loridas shakes his head. "Elders are immortal, they die only when they have too. Pittacus had stopped aging, and so had the others, but he was hardly mature for one of the more powerful elders. He joked around and made it hard to negotiate. How that man was the leader I still have no idea…So, I knew that the new elders of Lorien would disagree as their past incarnations had.
"In the midst of my darkest moments I did find out some good news, as it turns out the Loric girl who had fallen in love with my son had my grandson. By the time I came back of course this boy was a grandfather himself and his daughter was a mother to Raylan, your father. I was flattered to learn that my legacy was taught to each generation. Raylan was very much obsessed with that legacy. Of course by this time the Elders had re formed. As you should know dear child is that in order for a new elder to be chosen the old must die. For this reason there was never more than Nine elders. Raylan believed in the original ten, unknowing that ten still lived. On the night of the Loric quatermoon festival I found out that the elders had received visions prior to my day of planned attack. The leader, Pittacus Lore had fled the galaxy. It wasn't until My troops had reached Earth a year late had I learned that he had arrived to set up a rescue party. And what was the rescue party for? The Nine children I had put on a ship with Nine other Cepans to ensure that these children, the future elder's selected by the heart of Lorien to save the planet, were to be executed by being sent into our galaxy's sun. Unfortunately for me, the pilots planned a mutiny and directed the ship towards Earth instead. I had no idea of this. I didn't even know that you were sent to Earth until I had seen your Cepan Crayton."
"Crayton?" I gasp.
"Yes, when I saw him with you and the other girls on a plane it was then that I realized that you, my granddaughter had made it from Lorien's demise."
"That was when we were trying to find Eight, another one of our Loric garde."
Loridas shakes his head. "You are not a Loric garde child. You are a decendant of a living Elder. You were never placed under a charm nor will you develop legacies the way they have. You must cease to put yourself in the same category as them. Despite his loyalty, even Number Five is below you. As you follow me I will bless you with legacies far more powerful than theirs. "
"How?"
"The Loric child Number Nine, He has the power to transfer legacies, but only for a limited amount of time. Well I have that same legacy, only I can give out legacies that I choose for aslong as I desire."
"Why is it that you have so many Legacies?" I ask. I remember all the things he was capable of back in New Mexico, plus a few more that I had seen over time.
"Because I was the chosen one of my group. I will have every legacy that my comrades had until I die. As it turns out the position is one that moves along because Pittacus Lore was the chosen of his group of Elders and he had the superior amount of legacies aswell."
"Do you know who will have all of those legacies now?"
Loridas shakes his head. "No, dear one. Although, whoever it is will be unable to receive the proper training as I, and Pittacus Lore had received as it took us both many centuries to become as powerful as we were able to be.
Marina
I'm sitting on a bleached white wooden pier and overlooking the vast expanse of ocean. If I look over the pier I can see the vibrant colored fish swim in and out of the piers legs. Slowly I move my legs out from under me so I can dip my feet in the water. I'm in no hurry to move, I have no pressing responsibilities or a desire to train with Six or Nine—Nope I'm just relaxing on the pier—near this obscure island—in the middle of an ocean. I'm not on Earth, I know that much not from some gut feeling or whatever—but because of the moon which is certainly not Earths. I don't care about any of that really. Something yellow catches my eye. It's a small fish with a long snout that it sticks up out of the water and its fin waves hello to me. I smile and wave back. It looks at me for a moment before doing a back flip and swimming a little bit before turning around and then it pokes its nose back out at me. It issuch a cute little trick. The fish goes above and under the water again and again. I get the feeling he wants me to follow. Happily I slide off the pier and into the warm water. My legacy kicks in but I don't even pay attention to it. I blow the rest of the air in my lungs at the fish when it gets close to me. It's pushed backwards by the force but he comes back anyway. It swims close to my cheek and pokes it's nose to my cheek like a little kiss. I smile as it pulls back but it's no longer a fish, it's a turtle. I laugh and sink down onto the sand at the bottom of the shallow tide pool and lean against the pier leg. The turtle swims down in a spiral and glides into a cluster of little underwater plants. It comes to me then with a tiny little stalk of seaweed and presents it to me as if it were a flower.
"Thank you." I say and I then close my eyes as I pretend to smell it.
When I open my eyes the turtle is gone. It was just in front of me a second ago and now it vanished. I feel sad now.
I open my eyes and the beautiful ocean is now a dusty hot basement illuminated by the glow of a laptop in the corner of the room. I breathe in really sharply as I wake up and then roll over again. My arms feel incredibly sore and so does the rest of me. I don't want to wake up so I roll over again. A little while later when I feel like I might just be able to sleep just a little bit longer I hear the sound of the basement door slamming open, and someone is stomping down the steps.
"Wake Up!" Nine yells. "Morning Jog let's go go go!"
Sam mutters something from his sleeping spot just a few feet away from me. I'm already up and I hit the stairs and slide past Nine.
"Morning!" He calls after me.
"Morning." I say back to him. Maybe a little grumpily, but he did kinda wake me up from yet another really good dream I had. Not that I haven't had plenty. I don't understand how, but I have yet to have another nightmare of any sorts. Despite stress and fears. I ofter wonder if it's another legacy of mine or if it's perhaps an extension of one of mine like healing perhaps? Like my legacy is healing my fears? I don't know.
-
"Looks like it's just you and me Marina." Nine says beside me. We are standing outside in the heat doing a few pre work out stretches. "Everyone else is helping out Malcolm and Mog boy."
"That's cool." I reply.
"You're doing pretty good you know." Nine informs me. "Y'know, for a newbie."
I roll my eyes. "Thanks, I'm not that new though." Granted I've only been training for about a year and a few months where as Nine and Six has had signifigantly much more time than the rest of us combined."
"Keep it up! Now enough stalling. Five miles isn't going to run itself."
Nine takes off at a moderate speed that is easy for me to follow, much much too easy. I think he forgets that we both have super speed for legacies. We run at the same pace for about two miles and then Nine kicks it into high gear. Soon everything is a blur except for Nine who is by my side.
"If you feel like stopping just run harder!" Nine yells over to me.
"I'm fine!" I say back to him.
"Are you sure? You're kinda slowing down there!"
I jump over a bush and then I really kick it. Soon Nine is caught in my dust. "Now who's slow?!" I call back to him.
"Oh yeah!" Nine is nearly at full speed and he is a few inches infront of me. I have to run even harder. Finally the end is insight, It's just an old well right infront of our little shack. We both pass it but at insane speeds. I try to stop too quickly and I'm nearly thrown heels overhead. I'm able to steady myself.
Nine slaps a hand on my shoulder good naturedly.
"Maybe next time."
I snort a little before shrugging his hand off. "There's no way of telling who got here first, dummy."
"Oh, I know these sorts of things." He winks.
"Psh, whatever." We were going so fast, and I bet the entire run lasted only about five minutes if not less.
"Any way, I've gotta lead the humans in a workout, they are still too slow even for norms."
"How much longer do you think we're going to be training?" I ask.
"Aslong as we can." Nine says solemnly. "We need to accept as much free time as we can, because once the real fight kicks in there probably won't be enough time. Just us and whatever abilities we have now."
"Right. In that case you know where I'll be."
"See ya." Nine goes back towards the shack while I go out to a pond Six helped me make so I could have a place to practice my icy abilities. Basically the rest of the day is just like any of the others. Workout. Train. Eat. Train. Workout. Eat. Bed.
I'm so ready for some action.