The Stones of Time

Chapter Ten Luna

"Do you think that's our roommate?" Aria asked me.

"You don't need to assume everyone that we don't know could be our roommates."

"But she could be. Besides why is she talking to Asher, isn't she the girl who went up against him in the sword fight."

I scoffed, "yeah I bet Asher's real happy about losing. Too bad we could not warn her about his grumpy tendencies."

"They're not that bad. Unless he's got a good reason." The last time Asher got mad at Aria was when she accidentally destroyed his favorite sword. He didn't talk to her for weeks until their mom got him a sword turning bracelet.

"Hey! Are you Ava?" Aria asked.

The girl who was talking to Asher looked surprised at Aria's question. "Yeah, why?"

"Great! Come sit, you're our other roommate. I'm Aria, and that's my friend Luna. I've never seen you before, I'm assuming this is your first year here?"

She nodded. Her demeanor was guarded, tense. Whatever happened with Asher she wasn't happy about it.

"Do you want to sit?" I asked.

"Oh! Yes," she said, flustered. She slid into an opening in the circular bench around the marble table.

Most things here were made of marble, the sign of status, importance, and most important nobility. It made everything look dull, but at least compensated with character etched in the stone.

"So," Aria leaned into the palm of her hands, "what were you doing talking to my brother over there?
Surprise washed over her face, "brother?"

"Yeah, twin. Neither of you looked happy."

She gripped her arm, "yeah it was nothing really."

Aria raised her eyebrows.

Her expression crumbled, "fine, it was about the competition." She continued to explain what happened to us while Aria occasionally looked at her brother.

"He was such a aërai." She glanced at Aria, "no offense."

Aria shrugged, "yeah he can be that way sometimes. He's nice once you get to know him."

Ava nodded, "the worst of it is the fact I felt like I had no choice. I needed a way to prove myself to my parents, and the murders didn't help my case."

"Murders?" Aria asked, suddenly interested in the morbid topic.

Ava paused, "I wasn't supposed to say anything."

"Well now you must elaborate. You can't leave us hanging."

She glanced nervously back at a boy who was sitting with Asher. "In Foran yesterday I went shopping with my mom and we found out from Leo and his mom that six people were killed earlier that day. That's not even the weird part, Leo kept mentioning, what was it again? Oh yeah, silver fabric. It has something to do with the killings."

Aria was stunned for a second but it quickly wore off. "Six people?!? For what? The Council is probably on it, they wouldn't let something like that go unnoticed."

Ava shrugged, "yeah that's what I was thinking."

The sun was still at the apex but the Jade blaze glowed, overpowering the sun's shine. I glanced over next to me to see one of the statues of the original councilors towering above me. I looked closer to the statue on my right.

On the inscription it read Ivory Elrod - first councilor of water, but this wasn't important. She had a stone clasped around her neck on a choker. I've never heard of a councilor wearing such a simple piece of jewelry. None of the other councilors were wearing such a thing except the councilor of mind- Ramona Holt, and the councilor of light- Harlan Thornton. These are crazy thoughts, I told myself. They're necklaces, how in Kristella would they be important. But a voice inside of me still nagged, telling me I should walk up to them and look at them closely. That's ridiculous, again they're just necklaces. Wait. I froze and my face paled. They're chokers looked identical to the one I was wearing. I slowly lifted my hand up and touched the stone in my necklace. This is stupid.