Elements of Earth: The Element Trials

Chapter 4a, 1959, Location Unknown, Kira: When a Girl gives you lemons

"Oh Salt," I'm certain he heard my smile in my tone through the door before he ever saw my face. "I need a favor." I recited the single line that was always the first step of solving all my problems. A significant perk of negotiating with Salt is that he has more than me with which to trade. Whenever I tell Salt that, 'I can't decide what I want from you for the combat medicine training,' or anything else I've had that he really wants from me, he grants me small favors.
'A token of friendship made in good faith that our negotiations will bear fruit.'
The truth is that he knows I'm extorting him and I know he's going along with it because he knows I have him 'over a barrel,' as he says. That's why it's so damn hard to peel the grin off my face the whole walk back to my compartment's open hatch.
That set off alarm bells. An open door was a show of strength among elements. It told outsiders our ten had nothing to fear. But even steps away from the doorway I saw no one obviously on watch. My heart and my pace quickened.
"Calm down 5," Silane said from somewhere in the room. "We're all fine," She said as she stepped into view of the doorway.
"How'd you know it was me?" I tried to tone down the pitch of my voice and pace of my breath, still too keyed up to do as Silane instructed.
"Silicon is on concealed watch. If you were from another ten, here for a turf war, you wouldn't have lived to get this far."
"I passed-" 'Dak,' I thought, "the commander?" I said. He must have seen me. And didn't want to talk. I can't expect much. It hasn't even been an hour since what happened. 3, from across the room, has her nose in a pictured encyclopedia from the library, doing a good job pretending I don't exist. That's okay, I brought bribes.
"Besides," A smug voice said from behind me. I whirled around to find 4. He sat, leaned against the wall to the right of the door. "Invaders don't bring fruit baskets." He gestured with his chin. "We could smell them from the hall."
"Then why is no one jumping up to get some fresh fruit?" I sneered.
"If they were fresh," 4 retorted, "we wouldn't have been able to smell them from the hall."
"Whatever. Here." I tossed him a too soft apple and an overly ripe orange. He caught both but the orange split in his hand on impact.
"Thanks?" 4 asked while inspecting the sticky juices on him and his uniform.
I passed out the rest of the fruit to everyone, receiving similar less than grateful replies. I set an equal ration at the foot of Dak's bed for when he returned.
"Hey." Everyone except for 3 and I tensed when I spoke to her. "Fruit."
3 continued to ignore me. For a while. She rolled her eyes. "Put it on the floor," 3 deigned to reply. I rolled my own eyes and threw a lemon at her. I lobbed it over the cover of her encyclopedia. At the last moment, she saw it, tried to drop her book and cover her face. The lemon bounced off harmlessly. The lack of injury didn't prevent her from moving to retaliate. 3 grabbed the fruit and reared back her arm but aborted the throw with a confused look on her face. She finally looked at the yellow fruit in her hand with wonder. "A lemon?" 3's eyes sparkled, then she resigned to resting bitch-face. She glared at me. "This isn't enough to make up for what you did."
"It's in addition to your rations." I made my movements plain, setting an apple and an orange beside her cot. "And I have two more." I held up the last two lemons in my hand.
"Oh wow," 2 said. "Three whole lemons. That will definitely buy her forgiveness." His sarcasm wasn't easy to miss. But he must have missed that 3 loves lemons because even I could see she looked tempted. Or maybe I saw that because that's what I wanted.
"That one," I pointed, "is to say I'm sorry. This one," I held up one of the remaining two, "for you to come with me. And this one," I held up the last lemon. "This is for you to hear me out." 3 looked up from her hands and evaluated me with a narrow gaze. While she watched me I watched her, but her hands evaluated something else. Her fingers subtly glazed across the rinds oily pores, making sure it wasn't dry and pressing softly in places to check for firmness. Her nostrils even flared as she tried to smell the fruit without bringing it to her face. A trickle of a smile that she struggled to squash rose at the corners of her mouth.
"Okay." 3 said. "I'll take them." She held out one open hand.
"I'm glad you're on board. Payment rendered upon delivery." I half turned, leaving the invitation open. 3 bit her lip, looked at the two lemons in my hand, then the one in hers. She rose from her cot, pocketing the lemon and wordlessly followed me out the door.
"Is this really a good idea?" I could hear 4 ask as we left.
Aside from 3 and my footsteps, it was silent until when I could just barely hear Silane say, "At least neither of them has a knife."


"I'm coming with you." 3 said. Maybe she thought that it was safe to talk since we were still in our territory but away from the others. "Give me the second lemon."
"Payment upon delivery." I said, still walking in and out of the noire spotlit halls and keeping my head on a swivel. Still being in our territory didn't make me feel safe.
"Then you should have delivered your apology with the first lemon," 3 said.
That did make me stop and turn. Making eye contact, I apologized the way my father taught me. "I'm sorry." I bent at the waist and bowed. A hitch of breath escaped her and her shadow that extended across the concrete stepped back. No element showed acknowledgment that way. Not when taking their eyes off an element, even one of their own ten, could be hazardous. "I claimed you so Aluminum couldn't. I don't understand why that made you mad, and, and," With my head still lowered I raised my voice over 3's ire. "That's none of my business. But then I goaded you into a fight and took things too far." I shook my head. "So I'm sorry. It's not much, but the rest will have to wait." I tossed 3 one of the remaining fruits. "For the third lemon."
I faced her just long enough to see she'd caught it before continuing on. Whether or not she followed was her decision. Whether or not she forgave was her decision. But if I kept walking much longer, I'd have to turn or wait. I didn't stop or look back, only listened for her footsteps. I heard none. Instead, a voice came out of the shadows in the corridor. If it was any other voice I would have moved, but instead, I let him wrap his arms around me.
"Happy to see your building bridges, instead of burning them, Kira."
My name. Something forbidden to us, something special. The way he said it this time was like a chime. His voice wasn't high-pitched, but it echoed through me. It reverberated the same way his eyes spoke when we first met. They said, 'You are not alone.' I needed him to say that now more than ever. Because I feel so very, very alone.
"The weight of it all... it's crushing me Dak." I hugged him back tight, and I wondered if teardrops would stain his shoulders a slightly darker black until the simple fabric of his uniform was dry. "It will chew me up and spit me out or it will swallow me whole."
"You are stronger than that." His hand curled around my cheek.
"But I'm not." My voice cracked, and I pulled back, shaking my head. "You or 4 or Silane keep needing to save me."
"Who saved who first?" His smile held so much gratitude that his eyes shined just a bit more in the low light.
"That was a long time ago." "If you cut off the root, a tree will bear no fruit. There is providence in everything, even the fall of a sparrow."
"Then I am that sparrow, falling because I never flew. I never will."
"Even spiders can float up to the heavens." He wrongly took my expression as skepticism. "It's true, a sailor told me. They stretch out their web, catch the wind and sail on its current."
"Are you saying I'm a spider?"
"No!" He waved his hands in the air. "No, I didn't-"
"You know," I pinched my forehead. "You know how much I like that I can be weak around you and that we can talk in metaphors. You do, but you always find a way to destroy the mood." I raised my hands into the air, turning away from him. "It's almost like it's intentional. Now, not only is 3 gone but-"
"Actually," A peel of laughter and gasps of air through the hands clasped over her mouth, 3 erupted in giggles as I whirled around. "I've been here the whole time!" She nearly keeled over from mirth. "So," she choked out, "do you two need to get a room or are you ready to go?" She wheezed between nearly every word.
"I want to die," I said squeezing my eyes shut. She'll never let me hear the end of this. I grabbed 3 by the wrist and dragged her away. She tripped a few times, unable to maintain her footing through her condition.
"Um," Dak said. "Don't go too far."
"You're right," 3 had given up on walking and I simply dragged her along by her uniform's sturdy collar. "You never know when you might need each other close!"
"No, I mean everyone's still on edge from the claiming." Dak, unaware of tact, called out after us with the only words that could curb 3's laughter, but I couldn't say I was grateful. It was a simple mistake, to forget amid 3's lighthearted nature, and bump into whatever open wound she hid. I let go, knowing she would want to walk on her own.


"Why are you taking me to Salt's place?" 3 asked when the silence had stretched too long.
"Why are you bringing her to my place?" Salt asked. He was at the next intersection up, under a flickering light. It was his territory and he could have had it fixed or replaced. It flickered because Salt liked it that way. When it finally went out, he'd need to find another half dead bulb.
"Just wanted some privacy. I thought you could spare some. I was going to your room to ask."
"It's... occupied." Salt replied. He laid a hand on each of our shoulders and walked us back the way we had come. I could hear not so faint noises from his not too distant room that made me blush.
"Who's in there?!" I blurted without thinking.
"Have some tact Sili. Customers and none of your business." Salt said. "Everyone's on edge and 'fully consenting,'" something in my expression made him emphasize that the trade he was conducting was only in terms of location, "elements need to blow off steam." He looked 3 up and down then to the side. "Are, uh... you two here for the same thing?" 3 shrugged and smiled, taking pleasure in my discomfort.
"She bribed me with fruit." Removing the lemons from her pockets as demonstration.
"Lemons huh?" Salt smiled. "Looks like she knows your weakness."
"They're both weak." A voice said from behind me. That was when I learned that embarrassment reduced my situational awareness. Aluminum, claws out in a show of strength, walked our way.
"You know my rules, Al." Salt emphasized the diminutive nickname that only he used. "No fighting and no posturing. Not in my house."
"Come on Salt." Aluminum, who didn't look like any Al I'd ever met, raised a clawed hand in front of his face and inspected it. "I just came from training. You know it takes time to put these away. The microbes have to break em down slow and such."
"If you wanted, you could just snap them off." I said coldly. "I might even help with that."
Salt spoke again, not giving Aluminum the chance to retort. "What do you want Al?" I could tell 'Al' didn't like the sound of that, but the sounds from Salt's room, those sounds Aluminum did enjoy.
"I want some of that. Who's in there?"
"Customers." Salt narrowed his eyes.
"Hey," Aluminum looked 3 and I up and down in a way that made me sick. "I can pay."
"I sell matchmaking services and rent rooms. You'd have to bring your own 'consenting companion.'" Salt put so much emphasis in the last two words that it seemed like he knew from experience that they would be necessary. "Besides, I'm with customers and you're taking up my time. Whatever business you have with me will have to wait. I'll send a messenger." Salt's tone made it damn certain to anyone not deaf that the conversation was over. Aluminum didn't like being brushed off though.
"Those messengers you send me cost." Aluminum growled.
"So does my time." Salt took a step forward to eye the much larger element. "Time has a value that you can never get back. All elements know that. Now you are taking away time with 'paying' customers. You should know that that will come up again when we negotiate whatever business you have for me." Aluminum clicked his tongue in distaste and turned his back to us.
"Fine Salt. Go and have your fun with those two, I know you don't like to share." I had to hold 3 back, not that I didn't want to kick his ass. Showing his back to me like I was nothing was a challenge.
"Come on, let's talk in my office." Salt sighed and opened the door he was leading us to before Aluminum had interrupted.
"Why do you even trade with people like him?" I asked through the doorway.
"I don't always have the pleasure of trading with elements whose company I enjoy." Salt said. He whispered briefly through the door to one of his little messengers I hadn't noticed outside. Some low ranking element on loan to him from a ten for something, no doubt. 3 entered and Salt closed the door behind her.
"So, 3, the usual?" 3 nodded and handed over her two lemons before looking at me expectantly. She rolled her eyes at my hesitation. "I'm going to hear you out, just give him the lemon."
I did, but only to find out what she was trading them for. Salt arranged my contact with the guard I traded for them with, so they couldn't be so valuable that Salt would give much in exchange. Salt lit a burner under a beaker filled with water. Then he crossed the former lab to a wall with curtains hanging halfway down from the ceiling. Before he pulled them back, I almost thought that somehow, knowing Salt, there would be windows with a view behind them. That sun would come streaming in, blinding my eyes. I knew that was just wishful thinking since we were underground. But somehow I was wrong again. Sunlight, though not much of it, shone down behind pains of glass onto small pots of soil. Some pots supported lush green plants. Salt reached out to one of the plants to pluck a bright red-
"These are strawberries." He said, presumably for my benefit.
"How?" I asked, stepping closer, trying to see where the light fell from. "I had a PB and J when I got taken. Had a strawberry seed stuck in my teeth for a week. Finally got it out and decided to keep it. Thought it'd just be a memory of home, but it ended up being useful."
"No, I meant the sun." I said, too caught up in the moment to chide him.
"Oh." Salt grinned. "This used to be a fume hood." He pointed to the chamber behind the glass. "Meant to pull away toxic fumes from chemical reactions. I pulled the fans and bribed a guard to remove the vent cover on the roof. Rain comes in with the sunlight." Salt shrugged," but that's better for the plants anyways."
"How did you bribe a guard?" I asked in wonder and a bit of skepticism.
"They..." Salt's tone became somber. "They bet on the trials. I tell them the survival odds of different elements based on what I know. Their traits, capabilities..." Silence fell. It was information I knew Salt had. He had intel on every element. But I took that as knowing your enemy, not... this.
"Come on." 3 whined impatiently. "Your wasting time!"
I let her change the subject. Curiosity and distraction are better than, well, anything else at the moment. Salt plucked more strawberries and smashed them in a mortar and pestle. He retrieved another instrument from the shelf. I looked closer and saw it was made of white quartz. Its marbled pattern was familiar to me. I wonder what Salt traded 4 for its commissioning. Salt cut the lemons in half, then turned and squeezed them against the ribbed half circle of the instrument, juicing the citrus. When he finished, he gave the peels back to 3 who pocketed them. He poured some juice into the mortar to rinse out the strawberry mush, poured the mixture and most of the remaining lemon juice into a large beaker. He returned to the beaker of water, which was now boiling, to which he added-
"This is tea." He explained.
"I know what tea is." I said coldly.
"Sorry. But have you ever had it iced?"
"Iced?" I asked. A knock on the door interrupted his answer. It opened and an element with blonde hair and deep blue eyes entered.
"Carbon." Salt greeted with a polite smile. "Thank you for coming on short notice."
"No thanks needed." Carbon handed Salt a pouch and an empty bottle. Salt set both on the counter and opened a metal cabinet. A cool mist escaped and sank to the floor. Salt pulled two fogged over bottles of clear liquid out. "What's this one made of?" Carbon asked.
"Rice." Salt replied. I raised an eyebrow.
"You made sake?" I asked.
"You're more worldly than I took you for Sili."
"Damn, that's colder than Hel." Carbon said after taking a sip.
"Hell isn't cold." 3 corrected. "It's where people burn."
"Where I'm from it's where people freeze." Carbon waved his new drink in the air and left.
"Where we're from now, it's where elements die..." I said morosely. "So you brewed some sake?" I asked Salt to change the subject. "Mind if I try it?" Salt smiled and handed me the other bottle. I took a sip and nearly spat it out. "That," I swallowed to keep my stomach down, "is by far the worst swill I've ever tasted."
Salt snatched back the bottle. "And what makes you such a connoisseur?"
"Conna- what? I don't even know what that is. But I know that that," I pointed at the bottle, "is distilled, not brewed. My father brewed sake."
"I will do my best not to be offended by your delicate palette."
"The tea is ready." 3, who had ignored the byplay since carbon left, tried to keep us on track. She gazed at the dark liquid in the beaker. Salt looked a question at 3 before tilting his head at me. 3 Nodded.
Salt retrieved three glass sized beakers, a bucket of ice and a funnel made of ice from the cold cabinet. He filtered the tea before mixing in white grainy powder from the pouch Carbon brought. I wondered what it was. He poured the tea into the three beakers through the ice funnel, a quarter full for two and a half full for the third. Clever way to chill the tea. He poured the lemon-strawberry juice into the beakers, filling two halfway and the third nearly to the top. He added ice to all three before going heavy on the distilled sake in two and light on the third.
"I call them Paulies. A puddle pirate I knew in Jersey drank something similar, minus the booze of course. He didn't drink, said it interfered with the game." Salt said. None of what he said made any sense to me except that the 'puddle pirate' didn't have to drink what Salt called sake. Lucky him. "Damn good golfer though. You don't know what golf is." He said after noticing my and 3's looks of confusion. "It's a game with a lot of history. But the gist is you hit a ball into a hole." He added ice to the drinks, stirred and handed the booze light version to 3 and one of the heavies to me.
"Why does she get the light one?" I whined, assuming that one had been for me.
"3 doesn't drink much. The only reason there's booze in hers at all is because I don't like to drink alone. I'd assumed as a brewers daughter you could handle your liquor." Salt grinned. "You should have told me before I mixed them." He said as if I'd known ahead of time. He took my beaker and mimed pouring out his own. "Two drinks is too much for me. What a waste." He sighed with mock sadness.
"No." 3 said in a small voice. I could see her mind racing from the expressions on her face. She wouldn't let her lemons go to waste. I knew she would drink it rather than let it get poured down the drain. And when she did, I would have to carry her back drunk through other elements territories.
"I didn't say I wouldn't drink it." I grumbled, snatching the glass he was pretending to be on the verge of pouring out.
"That's the spirit." Salt grinned. "Shall we sit?" Dak gestured to the two comfy chairs. He sat in one and I sat in the other before taking a sip. It was sweet, cool and the presence of alcohol barely burned my throat. "My room won't be available for you two to have your privacy for at least another twenty minutes."
I coughed into my drink. I had come here for privacy but not like that. Before I could correct him 3 sat on the armrest of my chair and leaned slightly into me. It was too small for her to do otherwise and there wasn't anywhere else to sit.
"That's not actually why we came." I drank faster, hoping this would be over soon.
"Then perhaps you came with your," he looked 3 up and down again, evaluating her differently than before, "Bodyguard, to continue our negotiations from earlier today?" 3 looked amused to called my bodyguard.
"What negotiations?" 3 asked. I drank faster. I'd been meaning to talk to her about that, before we encountered Salt, and ask her to play a role in it. If she forgave me. Right now, with how close she is, she might have already. I brought my already half empty drink away from my mouth and took a deep breath of real air.
"Salt," I hiccuped, "I am negotiating with Salt... the potential of training Salt's ten in combat medicine."
"Ooo, your lucky Salt, she's really good at that." Her hand unconsciously traced a line over a section of her leg I'd stitched up before she developed her healing trait. "What's the issue?" She asked neither one of us in particular.
"I can't think of anything he has that I want." I said.
"And I can't tell her everything I have without, well, giving her everything I have." Salt said. "A significant issue when much of my trade is information. It seems we are at an impasse."
"How about a favor? One that increases in value the longer it's left unfulfilled?"
"But what if..." Salt started hesitantly.
"One of us dies." I finished. I reached my hand to grip the armrest, forgetting that was where 3 sat. So instead, I found her hand in mine.
"Salt can leave you something of value in a will. Something he couldn't trade you when he was alive due to a conflict of interest. Even then, I'm sure you wouldn't hold it against him for dying. Besides, training his ten in combat medicine makes that a less likely outcome. If you die an ally can inherit the favor. Like Silicon."
I looked up at 3 in confusion. It took me a moment to realize she was talking about Dak. I had always separated those two relationships in my mind, my commander and my-
"Or perhaps yourself?" Salt interrupted my thoughts to elect 3 as my heir.
"That won't be necessary." I cleared my thoughts and bulled through before 3 could take offense. "Because you will be granting her a favor as well."
"Two favors for the price of one?" Salt asked. "Or will she be adding something to the pot?" His tone was less opposed, more curious.
"Two things. The first..." I took a quick sip to quench my drying throat. I would soon be negotiating with both 3 and Salt at the same time when I had planned to do so separately. "... she has already mediated these negotiations when, as you said, we were at an impasse. The second, if she agrees, is to assist me in providing training to your ten."
"I don't see how having two instructors is that much better than one." Salt said. 3 wasn't exactly known for her capability to heal others. 3 looked at me in understanding.
"I won't be an instructor. More like a living cadaver."
I nodded. "Those wouldn't have been the words I would have used, but yes. A significant issue with providing you with the training alone is that you will have the information, but not the experience. Without seeing the wounds, working on them before being in combat, you can't develop the mindset you will need for when you are in combat. Because of 3's unique healing trait, we can provide you with that experience."
Salt covered his mouth with his hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And you would agree to this 3?"
"If she does," I spoke first, " it will be for a favor plus one. A down payment. Something small in comparison with what is being offered. That goes for me too."
"I can agree to that, so long as we agree on the plus one." Salt looked to 3, and she nodded. "It's settled then." He sat back in amazement. "Do either of you have any idea what you want for the down payment?"
"It'd be nice to sleep in a real bed for once." 3 said whist-fully. Aside from the things that made her angry it didn't take much to make her happy.
"Speaking of, I think your bed is almost ready." Salt said to both of us. I sprung out of my chair, ran to the sink and wretched.
"I think she has someone else in mind." 3's voice barely sounded over my heaving.
"Her loss. Does that mean you're in the market? I run a very discreet matchmaking service. No charge for female participants."
"Thanks for the offer Salt, but I think we need to be going." 3 rubbed my back a few times before asking if I was ready to go. I nodded, and she handed me a towel to wipe my face.


"I forgot..." I mumbled into 3's ear in the dark halls.
"Did you leave something at Salt's place?"
"I forgot to tell you I'm sorry." I said, grateful for her helping me walk mostly straight.
"No, you didn't. You told me before we got to Salt's."
"No." I struggled with the words. "I forgot the part after. For the last lemon." I had kept meaning to tell her but by the time I found myself at the bottom of my drink, then in the sink... things just moved too fast. "I know you don't like being bonded to me, even though you can't beat me." She stopped walking, and the world started spinning. I gripped her a bit more tightly so I wouldn't fall. "You think that the reason I fought you was to prove that you're weak, that you should be bonded to me. But I don't care about that. I just don't want our ten to fall apart. So I'll let you claim me..." I droned off for a moment.
"5." I couldn't tell if it was a question or acknowledgment.
"But you have to earn it. If you can't beat me but you claim me that will make our ten look weak. So I'll train you. I'll protect you until you can beat me. Then you can claim me. I'm sure by then I'll need some protecting." Silence carried until we reached our own territory.
"You've been gone for hours! Did you get into a fight?"
"What?" It took me far too long to figure out 3 wasn't the one who had spoken.
"No Dak, we're fine." 3 said.
"Hey," I elongated the word, "you can't call him by his name! That's my thing."
"Kira, you're being loud." 3 admonished. "And he's all yours." A hand shoved me in the back and the world tilted.
"Are you drunk?" Dak asked.
"She is very drunk." 3 replied for me. "Good luck with that."
I gripped Dak tightly and closed my eyes, feeling like I was too high up. "I can't leave my watch until Silane comes back." Dak complained.
"I'm here." Silane said from somewhere. I honestly couldn't tell directions at this point.
"You were following us?" 3 asked, incredulous.
"I was chaperoning. I advised several elements that came too close that they should find another way back to their compartments. Per Silicon's orders."
"Thank you, Silane." Dak said. "Let's go home." I felt myself being jostled. I opened my eyes to find I was being carried in his arms.
"Best night ever." I said before I closed my eyes.