Ice Cold

Chapter Two

After I left the courtyard with Professor Silva piercing me with her silver eyes. She wasn't happy that I'd taken down Zachariah so easily. It wasn't my fault that his technique was sloppy and he underestimated me just because I wasn't a full fae. It wasn't my fault that I'd taken it upon myself to do extra one on one training with Flora. Ever since I was little, from the day I met Zachariah, I knew I'd have to train harder, so I did.

With limbs aching, head aching, I wound my way to my next class.

Speciality.

For those who had a designated speciality already, they went to their respective buildings: Fire or Ice or Earth. For those, like me, who didn't have a speciality yet, which was only like four of us, we went to the home building, where everyone started. Though we weren't new, though we knew how to use the various elements, none of us could actually summon them ourselves.

So, we sat in the classroom. We each took a corner for ourselves.

I took the back left to ensure I could see the entirety of the room, no corners hidden from me. I'd also have a direct line of sight to the door in case I needed a fast exit.

A female fae, Dromi, sat in the back right corner. Every day she was coming closer to engaging with her speciality : Earth. The signs she was giving off weren't fully formed, though she was close. She'd raise her hands and smile as little buds of plants would appear along her inky blue skin. Her hair was a shade of magenta that matched her eyes. The tiny green bulbs that would pop up on her skin gave her the look of warts on a troll. Those were her words and not mine. She loved them though, she'd be the first Earth special in her family full of ice. They couldn't be more proud of her. I gave her another week before she went to the Earth building.

In front of me was a young male human-fae, sturdily built he seemed more fit for the Royal Army instead of one of the specialities. Xonnix's speciality was harder to determine. He showed strong signs of fire and earth. Some days one would come out stronger than the other. There were days he'd grow a plant out of thin air with a smile only to burn it down with flames when it didn't sprout the color he'd wanted. With his slate grey skin and bald head, it didn't take much to see the red of the fire burning through his veins on the days he was angry. It was a beautiful thing to see the green and brown of earth, course through him like a river on the days he was happy.

Then in front of Dromi was Sturgzi. Sturgzi was a full-fledged fae. However, he didn't show signs of anything no matter how hard he pushed his body to show something, anything. The teacher, Professor Zix, tried to use every trick up his sleeve to jerk some kind of speciality reaction from Sturgzi. Sturgzi's parents were of fire and ice, both in the top ranks of their respective specialities. He showed nothing though, not even wisps of ice and fire like I could. I wasn't sure how he got into Goldcrest Vale with his lack of signs. Apparently, if you were full-fledged fae, it didn't matter if you had shown signs of magic growing up or not, you were automatically accepted.

It was a faulty system.

And then there was me. A human-fae. I showed absolutely zero signs of Earth and that was kind of a bummer, I really wanted to grow my own lemons and oranges. Two of the things the school was always running out of which left me cranky when I couldn't have the breakfast I'd dreamt about the previous night. Instead, I showed small signs of Ice and Fire. I could send wisps of ice at people like I had done to Zachariah the day before. I could also bring out little plumes of smoke though no actual flames appeared, though there was significant warmth that made it so I was never too cold. I was perfectly neutral, I didn't have much of either.

Specialities appeared at different times for each person. Rarely some were born with it, others it took them until their first words, others their first day of school and for most was when they hit puberty. Going from a boy to a man or a girl to a woman, or a variation of the two always seemed to bring out the speciality of that person. When that day happened for me was when I had whipped up my first snowflake only to melt it with fire in my excitement.