The Elementals: The Last Crimson (1st in the Elementals Series)

Chapter Nineteen: Short Circuit

November 28th, 2015

Dartanian sits beside Lyria on her bed, although she's utterly silent. "Lyria, I'm not going to tell anyone, I promise. But this isn't normal," he murmurs and she glances up at him before sniffling.

"I know it isn't. Councilwoman De Loughrey already told me. I had asked about it the morning after this happened," Lyria murmurs as she motions to her right thigh, "I didn't go into detail. But even in this world I'm a freak of nature," she whispers to him, her bloodshot blue eyes staring into his silver orbs.

Dartanian rests his hand on her shoulder before giving it a squeeze. "It'll be okay. We'll figure out why this happened," he assures her before smiling slightly, "this is why you were interested in the Lightning Element..."

"Yeah," she murmurs before looking up at him, "what's going to happen to me? What if I get another Mark? What if Delilah finds out?" She asks softly and he shakes his head before wrapping an arm around her. She sniffles before leaning into his chest and closing her eyes.

Dartanian takes a deep breath before shifting slightly in order to look at Lyria. "I'm your ally," he assured her, "I promise. We're going to figure out what's going on. The investigation with the Rogues will have to be set aside for now. Right now, we're going to figure out what this means, okay?" He asks softly and she nods before sniffling quietly.

"Thank you," she murmurs, "I'm sorry about how I reacted two nights ago...I was just afraid..."

Dartanian nods. "I understand, you don't have to explain anything," he assures her before grabbing some tissues for her, "Lyria...we're going to figure this out."

"We need to do it quickly. And we can't tell anyone else, please," she begs softly and he nods in understanding, "thank you. What can we do? How can we research this stuff? And what if there's nothing on it?"

"We don't know that yet. For now, we'll have to sneak books up here, read them in our spare time. Come on, I already brought some up so we can look through them," he tells her and she smiles slightly before looking up at him.

"Okay, where should we start?"

"Here, take this one. I'll start reading this," he tells her and she nods before opening the book and smiling towards Dartanian.

"I really appreciate this," she murmurs before sighing softly, her shoulders relaxing as she begins to scan the page in front of her, "Dartanian..."

"I'm not going to say anything," he assures her, "but I'm glad you told me about it. Or rather, showed me..."

Lyria's face begins to flush pink. "I didn't know how to tell you, how to even..."

Dartanian chuckles. "It's alright, I wasn't offended by you showing me your leg," he assures her and she smiles slightly before turning to the next page in her book, "it woke you?"

"Yeah. It was an electric shock running through my leg. It was painful," she murmurs and he nods in understanding before searching her face, "anyway, let's see if we can figure this out..." Dartanian smiles a bit before opening his book and getting to work on researching with Lyria.

Shaye walks past Lyria's room and smiles when she hears Dartanian's voice from inside it. She takes a soft breath in before heading downstairs to find Gwen and Ezra playing a game in the living room. When the doorbell goes off, she heads over to answer it.

"Mr. and Mrs. Wright, come in," she says, allowing the couple inside. The Wright's have been on a small trip and have just arrived back in town.

"Good morning Shaye, how have you been?" Cassidy asks the teen who offers a gentle smile to the woman.