Tyrant in the Shadows

Part 20

Julie started training the next day. She quickly excelled, though she was not allowed to practice on people. She instead practiced with the shield, what she'd used on the battlefield that had annihilated the shadows on the spot. 

They sent word out to the other outposts, questioning about the elementals. 

The three elementals showed up not long after with their partners, the outposts they had been at glad to get rid of them. Apparently they had a tendency to cause chaos. Apparently they'd been lucky finding Miriam instead of the rest of them. It was hard to believe until they got to the outpost.

The water elemental flooded the place, the earth elemental put a mountain outside the outpost, and the air elemental almost choked Ivan to death. And, no, none of it was on purpose. And, no, that's not including anything after the first day they'd gotten there.

Miriam agreed that she would help with the elemental's training, knowing first hand how easily it was to not only overdo something, but to exhaust yourself in the process. 

And, oh, it was a process.

"Is this how you feel with me?" Miriam asked one afternoon after the elementals had gone to lunch.

Ivan and Delaney traded looks before the shadow weaver responded, "Miriam, I would prefer five of you to one of them. They're insane."

"They're not insane. They're just extremely powerful and have no control," Miriam argued. She felt like the three needed someone on their side. The whole outpost hated them.

"Funny how you went from complaining to defending."

"No. It makes perfect sense. Everyone here is too quick to judge them."

"To be fair, one almost killed me," Ivan chuckled.

"She wasn't trying to. And you're the one who insists Julie should train, even though she's dangerous. They're annoying because they're so... chaotic. It's not fair to judge them for it though," Miriam glared daggers at the two senior officers.

Ivan put his hands up in mock defeat, "Don't light the table on fire."

"I'm going to continue training them," Miriam muttered, then stalked off.

Miriam may not have been as destructive as the other elementals, but she still understood the base of their problems. They were feared by the rest of the potentials, and that's the reason they were respected. Though it wasn't quite respect. Respect by fear wasn't the same. Miriam's mind flashed to the terror most of her class had when she had nightmares and woke up to fire. She'd burned several of them, even after the sprinkling system was installed. Even though it was never bad, she understood why. 

And now people were looking at the other elementals like she had been looked at. 

She hated it.

How was it fair? Not that they were looked at like that, she knew why and knew it was fair. Her problem was that they were given the responsibility of these powers, then they were put in positions where they couldn't be trained to use them properly. And they had to suffer for that. That's what wasn't fair.

"Ok," she started, getting the attention of the elementals and their partners, "Let's start again. From the beginning."