I immediately stop rubbing my legs and turn to see Kyra sitting beside me. Her cheeks are dirty, streaked with grime and tears. Torn between confusion and pity, I don't answer her instantly, instead staring at her tear-stained face incredulously. "Kyra?"
She nods quietly, managing half a smile. "You were right, Onyx."
I furrow my brows in confusion, but remain at a loss for words.
"I shouldn't have trusted Ian." Now somewhat shocked, I let her continue uninterrupted. "I saw him leaving, even though we'd been told not to, and I followed him. We ended up running, following some footprints we found, but we didn't make it very far. Ian wanted me to go back, but I told him I loved him too much to leave him on his own. He told me I was being stupid to love him, so he ran off without me." I can't help but cock my eyebrow, amused at Kyra's story. "I was so blind and foolish, Onyx. You were right the whole time. Now I'm stuck here because I was chasing something that didn't exist." She looks up from her lap sheepishly, her irrelevant and altogether boring story complete. "I'm sorry, Onyx. Can you forgive me for not listening to you?"
A strange feeling overwhelms me at her words: pity. I feel sorry for this poor girl, so caught up in the irrelevancies of life, wrapped up in her selfish little bubble. Yet, she goes so far as to ask my forgiveness. Maybe there is hope for her. Maybe she is beginning to understand that there are more important things in life than her own fulfillment. I nod in acknowledgement of her request, but remain reserved.
Kyra smiles, relieved. "Where are we?"
I decide not to lie to her. "We are in the hold of a slave ship, bound to be sold for labor in a few days' time." Kyra looks back at me, horrified. Apparently, I lack gentleness in conveying bad news. I clench my jaw and try to think of something to say. I can't tell her that everything is going to be all right, because it won't. I suppose Kyra could use a good dose of reality, and decide not to say anything else.
I resume massaging my legs, which seem to have returned to somewhat normal blood flow, when Kyra takes me by the arm. I turn to face her. "You're an Aqua, right?" I nod. "Couldn't you cause a storm or something? You could help us escape!" An excited light dances in her eyes.
"Who is us, exactly?" I ask.
"Well," she seems to ponder her answer, which is an improvement, since she usually says whatever comes to her mind first. Her answer is discouraging, however. "You and me, of course. And maybe Ian?"
I can't help pressing my palm against my forehead, irritated, but I have to give her credit for at least trying. "Listen, Kyra. You and I are two of more than a hundred Elementals bound for slavery. I am not going to selfishly rescue the two of us at the expense of everyone else." I decide that compassion is not the best way to deal with Kyra...yet.
"Couldn't you cause a storm or something?"
I raise my eyebrows at the complete and utter stupidity of the girl next to me, attributing her stupidity and rashness to her Pyro nature. "And wreck the ship? We're all chained together. We'd drown. And no"—I interrupt her—"I can't just make us all float to safety three days from port. We're going to be sold into slavery. It's better than being eaten by the undead."
"Can't you do anything?" Kyra asks incessantly.
"I am not a god, Kyra," I snap. "Stop asking for a miracle." I begin to wonder if I'll survive this trip, stuck next to Kyra.
Fortunately, the next three days pass uneventfully. Try as I might, however, I cannot access the power of the water around the ship. Always, it sits, swirling, just out of my reach. Twice, I skim the surface of it, but never as I could before. I begin to wonder if there is something that the Master Aqua did to me when I the ship passed through the Gateway. Maybe he removed my Element altogether. The thought makes me shudder. Can my identity be so easily taken?
