Elementalist

The Tour

"So I guess we should get going? Sienna will walk with us till her stop." we nodded soundlessly and followed Dale. The first stop was the fire grounds where Sienna wished us luck and walked away.
"She's probably off to the training grounds. Sienna is in charge of the fire Allegen. And as you have probably noticed their colour is red. We're not gonna pass the training grounds but I Can tell you that it's not safe to go there unless accompanied by a fire allagen. We'll walk to the Seasons grounds next"explained Dale. The fire ground was a regular looking place aside from the misty red glow from some places. I don't know what I expected, everything to be bright red? The people were dressed regularly and only those with fighting or training gear wore red outfits and carried weapons. The whole while I kept unconsciously glancing at Dale. How could he be so calm? Why didn't he tell me anything before? A dozen questions filled my head and i made up my mind to confront him later.
The seasons realm was the most busy one. "Most of our work centres are here and all the allagen have to work together here. The people wearing tan gear are heads of departments and the others wear their own colour. Autumn allagen wear orange. We're gonna be passing through the centre of the entire town of Allegra which you'll notice by the large fountain in front of the main work headquarters which is honestly bigger than the big house." the place was buzzing with people in all kinds of different coloured gear, suits, casual clothes. I noticed that Tracy seemed to be completely mesmerised and comfortable with everything. Maybe she did really belong here. But for some reason every molecule of my body felt that something was off. The architecture of the office hq was magnificent. It looked like a miniature version of the 'Santa Maria del Fiore' domed cathedral in Florence but not as ornate. There were families everywhere too. Tracy asked, "The families here, they're mixed? As in, how come they don't have the same elements? Does that mean they can't live together?" I hadn't even noticed. Dale explained, "Well every one of us is born with a specific inbuilt element. We live with our parents till the age of 17 or 18 when we're ready enough to move to our own houses. If an Allegen of an element marries or lives with a different element Allegen then the house will be under the name of the Allegen whose element ground the house is in. But otherwise there are a few open homes and apartments in the city center which you probably passed on your way in."
The rest of the tour was spent mostly in silence with occasional comments from Dale and questions from Tracy. We passed multiple cabins and training grounds specialised for each element. At the air grounds we saw the lady in the purple trench coat from before. Her name is Leia and she's in charge of the Air grounds.
At the water grounds Dale told us that he was in charge of the water allagen. Then he told us about the other people we had seen in the office. The elderly man wearing tan was Silas, in charge of autumn. Emma and Ezra were twins, but Emma was in charge of the animals allegen while Ezra was in charge of ice allagen. Hence, the pink and white outfits. Katherine was a lightning elementalist. And the buff guy with the buzz cut, Garrett, was in charge as a substitute for James Sanders. Who, had disappeared. The same guy from our case the previous day. I wondered what else Dale hadn't told me. It wasn't like we were best friends, but we were close enough for him to tell me if I was from a mystical land I'd never heard of before. We had been in tough situations before (since we worked for the police) so he was one of the few people I actually trusted. I glanced his way again.
Finally, we reached the last Ground. The lightning ground. "They're in charge of the North border beyond which is basically plain land. We're going to go to the elevatory tower which will get us back to the city centre just outside the big house. Get ready for a cable car ride." he grinned. That one grin immediately made me feel less uneasy. At least someone was familiar to me, besides Tracy of course. Who, was actually really tired at this point and was relieved that we wouldn't have to walk all the way back. The tower was really, really, really tall. We took the elevator to the top and could see the whole town from there. The whole place was very organised and sort of segregated, Dale explained that eventually they realised being divided served ko purpose so they built the common city centre and altered the rules a bit. "What brought that on? I asked,"um... A dispute of sorts"his tone sounded guarded.

It was almost sunset. On the cable car, Tracy whispered to me, "Hey Ali it's gonna be fine. I hear we're gonna get some memories back tomorrow. Maybe it'd be easier then. Also, why didn't you ever tell me that Dale was cute?" "Wha- what?" Way to destroy my train of thought Tracy. "See? I got you to stop over thinking as usual," she smiled, gave my hand a squeeze and went on to stare out the window, leaving me to my thoughts.

Dale led us all the way back to the Big house, the 4th floor, to our rooms which were all ready for us. Tracy announced that she was going to sleep and left. That left us alone to talk. "I know you have lots to say and so do I so let's go somewhere else." said Dale, leading me up a flight of stairs, to the terrace. The moon was already up and the sky was filled with stars. But, I couldn't focus on them, "Why didn't you tell me anything? How long have you known?"
"Well I had just been elected as the representative of water for two weeks, when Katherine called a meeting, the details of which I can't really tell you yet. But, when the topic of two girls who they suspected to be allagen came up, Sienna and I volunteered to keep an eye on you both. Sienna because she wanted a change of scene and me because I wanted to prove myself. We promised to give monthly updates. As you know, you and I have been working together for around six months. The first few month's report, Sienna and I didn't meet and gave It separately to the council. But this month, when I heard Sienna's report, I recognised your friend Tracy's name. And now that Ive seen her, her face seems familiar too." I felt a weird sinking feeling. " But you didn't recognize me. And neither did anyone else. Right?"
" Right and that's what we're trying to figure out tomorrow. What exactly happened and how and when."
"Oh, alright," I really didn't know what to say. I looked up at him. I don't think I had ever looked at his face properly before. Not well enough to be able to sketch it at least. A tense awkward moment passed. "Maybe you should get some rest. Hopefully it will all make sense tomorrow. Just tell me if you ever need anything okay? You can trust us." "Alright" I said as I turned away and headed to my room wondering if I would ever be able to truly trust the Allegen.