Phenomenon

iii

Lexia had shooed Marline, Vic and Enver out of her office, telling them to go touch some grass for once. So there, they sat, on the cool teal grass in front of the Care Centre, having nothing to do. 

"What are you doing out here?" A shrill voice suddenly asked.

"Hi Sadine," Enver mumbled.

Sadine was one of Enver and Nai's siblings. Marline immediately recognized her. She looked almost exactly like Nai, but with shorter black hair and her striking green eyes made her look meaner. 

Marline fidgeted with her sleeve, knowing that Sadine had never really liked her.

"Anyways, have you seen Blume anywhere? She seems to have run off again, and since she is my responsibility for some reason, Mother has asked me to find her and I assumed she was here," Sadine scoffed.

Blume was another one of Enver's siblings. Due to her Geokinesis (Type 1), her mind tends to wander, leaving her often lost or even with a loss of words. 

"She's not here, Sadine," Enver sighed, plucking bits of grass out of the dirt.

Sadine rolled her eyes and marched away.

•••

Cassidy was never a fast swimmer, but swimming down was easy.

Blade had spotted the chasm and now the two were swimming into the dark. The light level was low this far down, yet somehow, Cassidy's eyes had adjusted the the dark. 

The deeper they went, the more darkness surround them. Cassidy was beginning to get worried that they'd never find the city. Cassidy's legs had already began aching, but she kept pushing herself. There was no stopping now. 

Suddenly, the smallest spot of light appeared in the darkness.

"That's it," Blade shouted, his voice muffled through the water.

Swimming faster, Cassidy could now make out what seemed to be the city. Somehow, it managed to stay well lit, even after the many years of being underwater.

Once they had reached the bottom, Cassidy took a good look around. The city was lit up with small blue lanterns hanging on the buildings. The buildings were made of a weird yellow rock with stained glass windows.

A small glint in the sand caught Cassidy's eye. She swam over and dig into the light beige sand, pulling out a small gold circle with intricate ruins engraved on it. In the middle was a small aquamarine stone. She traced the golden ring and stopped when her finger collided with the crystal. Cassidy could feel the power surge through her. This was a talisman. Not just any talisman though, her talisman... 

•••

Jax was very proud of themselves. They had been locked in their room for the past couple weeks while Nai was in the Care Centre looking for the rest of Cassidy's family. They hadn't managed to find the relocated identities, but they had found the original names of each sibling. Unfortunately Jax couldn't find anything about Cassidy's parents...

Pulling a scrap piece of paper out of a drawer, Jax quickly scribbled down the names of each sibling, one copy for Cassidy, one for themselves. And goddamn Cassidy had a lot of siblings, Jax wasn't even sure if they had managed to find everyone.

Siya Chandler- 20

Eryl Chandler- 18

Ellis Chandler- 17

Emin Chandler- 16

Monika Chandler- 14 (Re: Cassidy Spires)

Noeline Chandler- 13

Inik Chandler- 12

Bryn Chandler- 10

Vin Chandler- 9

Enya Chandler- 9

Jax folded up the piece of paper and shut it in their drawer. They'd have to give Cassidy the good copy once she came back and explain to her why exactly she and her family were relocated. Her family had nothing to do with why Cassidy was relocated, it's just that their memories of her were too strong to properly erase and let them live a normal life, there would be spots of memories leftover, so the safest thing was to wipe the mind completely. Jax still didn't understand why Archaeits wanted to do this to people.